Category: Welsh (Cymraeg)

Tykki Duw

By Simon

Last week I learnt that a butterfly in Cornish is a tykki Duw [tɪkˑi’dyˑʊ / tɪkˑi’diˑʊ], or literally “God’s pretty thing”. A moth is a tykki Duw nos or “God’s pretty thing of the night”).

The word tykki comes from teg (pretty, attractive), and Duw comes from the Proto-Celtic *dēwos (god), from the Proto-Indo-European *deywós (god), from *dyew- (sky, heaven).

Butterfly

Names for butterflies are interesting in other languages as well:

  • Welsh: glöyn byw (glowing ember); iâr fach yr haf (little hen of the summer); pili-pala; plufyn bach yr haf (little feather of the summer), colomen fyw (lively pigeon); glöyn Duw (god’s ember/coal); eilir (spring).
  • Scottish Gaelic: féileagan; dealan-dé (god’s lightning); sglapaid; teine-dé (god’s fire); teillean-dé (god’s bee); tormachan-dé (god’s ptarmigan); dealman-dé; strainnsear (stranger); gogag
  • Manx: foillycan, follican
  • Irish: féileacán; guagóg; uallán
  • Breton: balafenn; barbellig; bobelan; aelig
  • Swedish: fjäril
  • Danish: sommerfugl (summer bird)
  • Spanish: mariposa
  • German: Schmetterling
  • French: papillon
  • Italian: farfalla
  • Russian: бабочка (babochka)

What about in other languages?

Sources: Gerlyver Kernewek, Wiktionary, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, Geiriadur yr Academi, Am Faclair Beag On-line Manx Dictionary, Dictionnaire Favereau, bab.la

Celtiadur

By Simon

As you may or may not be aware, I have another blog called Multilingual Musings, which was where I practised using languages I’m learning, and posted interesting words that come up in the French conversation group I go to.

Recently I transfered all the content from there to this blog, and renamed that blog Celtiadur. I am now building an etymological dictionary of Celtic languages there.

It will contain information about the six modern Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton, as well as their historical versions and ancestors.

The name Celtiadur is one I coined which combines the word celt and the Welsh suffix -adur, which appears in such words as geiriadur (dictionary), dyddiadur (diary), gwyddoniadur (encyclopedia) and ieithiadur (grammar, dictionary, vocabulary). It is also used in Breton.

There isn’t much there yet, but I will be transferring all the words in my Celtic Cognates section, and adding many more.

There’s posh!

By Simon

There's posh!

The word posh seems to be used mainly in the UK. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it can mean:

  • elegant or stylishly luxurious, as in “a posh hotel”
  • typical of or belonging to the upper class, as in “a posh accent”
  • in an upper-class way, as in “She talks posh”
  • the quality of being elegant, stylish, or upper class, as in “We bought a colour TV, which seemed the height of posh”

To posh(en) up means “to smarten someone or something up”, as in “we’ll be getting all poshed up for the summer ball”.

If you use posh(en) up, how do you use it in the past? Poshed up or poshened up?

Posh first appeared in writing in 1914, and maybe comes from the slang word posh (a dandy). The folk etymology is that posh come from the initials of port out starboard home, which refers to the cabins on ships between England and India that were out of the hot sun. There is no evidence for this, but it makes a good story [source].

According to the Urban Dictionary, posh can mean:

  • very classy or sophisticated
  • rich, aristocratic, wealthy, loaded, fancy, toff, toffee nosed, upper crust, well off, or well to do
  • snobby, snooty, nose in the air

Apparently posh derives from an old Romany slang word for pennies – if you have a lot of pennies, then you are well to do, rich, etc. and the word is often used in light hearted derision.

For someone like me who grew up in northern England, talking posh means talking with a southern English accent, particularly using RP (Received Pronunciation). For example, pronouncing bath as /bɑːθ/ rather than /baθ/. Calling someone a posh southerner or saying that they talk posh can be used as an insult by northerners.

Posh (Spice) is also the nickname of Victoria Beckham, former member of the Spice Girls.

In Welsh English “there’s posh!” is an exclamation often used in a sarcastic, mocking way. For example, “We had salmon for dinner last night – There’s posh!” It comes from the Welsh phrase “dyna grand!”.

Are there similar words in other varieties of English, and in other languages?

Buying and Selling

By Simon

買賣 - Buy and sell in Chinese

The words for to buy and to sell are very similar in Mandarin: 買 [买] (mǎi) [maɪ˦˩˧] = buy and 賣 [卖] (mài) [maɪ˥˩] = to sell. In Cantonese the characters are the same, but are pronounced maai5 [maːi˩˧] (buy) and maai6 [maːi˨] (sell) [source]. The only difference between them is in the tones, and they are easily confused by learners. Do native speakers ever mix them up?

The character 買 combines 网 (wǎng – net) and 貝 (bèi – shell, cowrie) [source], and 賣 combines those elements plus 出 (chū – go out), which became reduced to 士 (shì – soldier) over time [source].

If you put these two characters together: 買賣 [买卖] (mǎimài) it means business, shop, store or deal [source].

Do any other languages have words for buy and sell that are so similar?

Buying and selling both involve an exchange of goods or services. The only difference is in the direction of the exchange. I might sell something to you, or buy something from you, while you might sell something to me, or buy something from me.

The same is true of other pairs of words such as borrow and lend. The one you use depends on the direction of the exchange: I borrow from you, and you lend to me. Teach and learn are also similar: You teach me, and I learn from you, or I teach you, and you learn from me. Although in some varieties of English learn is used to mean learn and teach.

In Welsh the word dysgu means to learn and to teach, and benthyca means to borrow and to lend. The word addysgu, means to teach, but it isn’t used much in colloquial Welsh [source].

Are there any other languages that don’t make a distinctions like this?

Is there a linguistic term for word pairs like this?

Not seeing the wood for the trees

By Simon

Recently a friend asked if there is an idiom in English like I cannot see the wood for the trees, which refers to hearing. We couldn’t think of any, but maybe you can.

This expression means that you “cannot see, understand, or focus on a situation in its entirety due to being preoccupied with minor details” [source]. Apparently in North America the equivalent is “I cannot see the forest for the trees”. The wood refers to a small forest, rather than the material that comes from trees.

Here be trees!

There is an equivalent idiom in Esperanto: Li en arbaro sidas kaj arbojn ne vidas (He sits in the forest and doesn’t see trees).

The equvalent in Italian is avere gli occhi foderati di prociutto (to have one’s eyes lined with ham).

Are there similar idioms in other languages?

In Russian the word for tree is дерево (derevo), which came up in my Russian lessons today. It is comes from the Proto-Slavic *dervo (tree), from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (tree), which is also the root of the English word tree, and of the Welsh derw and the Cornish derow (oak trees) [source].

The photo is one I took of Ashley Jones Field in Bangor.

Famous outside words

By Simon

beseda (word in Slovenian)

In Slovenian beseda [bɛˈséːda] is the word for word or term.

Some expressions featuring beseda include:

– besedna igra = wordplay, pun, play on words
– brez besed = speechless (with shock etc.)
– častna beseda = word of honour
– dati častno besedo = to give one’s word
– držal te bom za besedo = I am going to take you at your word
– mož beseda = man of hono(u)r
– z besedo na dan! = spit it out! let the cat out (of the bag)!

This comes from the Proto-Slavic *besěda, which originally meant sitting outdoors (at night), then an outdoor gathering, or a conversation or speech at such a gathering.

*besěda comes from *bez (outside) and *sěděti (to sit).

In other Slavic languages the same root became:

– Belarusian: бяседа (bjasjeda) = banquet
– Russian: беседа (beséda) = conversation, talk, discussion
– Ukrainian: бесіда (besida) = talk, conversation, discussion
– Bulgarian: беседа (beséda) = talk, conversation
– Macedonian: беседа (beseda) = speech, oration, sermon
– Serbo-Croatian: бесједа / besjeda = speech, word (archaic)
– Czech: beseda = discussion
– Slovak: beseda = discussion
– Polish: biesiada = feast, banquet

Words for word in other Slavic languages include:

– Belarusian: слова (slova)
– Russian: слово (slovo)
– Ukrainian: слово (slovo)
– Bulgarian: дума (duma); слово (slovo)
– Macedonian: збор (zbor)
– Serbian: реч (reč)
– Croatian: rije
– Czech: slovo
– Slovak: slovo
– Polish: słowo

Slovo, and variations, comes from the Proto-Slavic *slovo (word), from the Proto-Indo-European *ḱléwos (fame), which is also the root of the Welsh clyw (hearing), the Irish clú (honour, praise, fame), the Latvian slava (rumor, reputation, fame), and the Greek κλέος (kléos – renown, fame, honour).

Sources: Wiktionary, PONS, dict.com

When is a moose not a moose?

By Simon

Moose

In North America a moose is a large member of the deer family, also known by its Latin name alces alces. The word moose comes from Algonquian languages, such as the Naragansett moos or the Eastern Abenaki mos. These words are thought to come from moosu (“it strips”), from the Proto-Alonquian mo.swa.

The same animal is known as an elk in British English, and is called something similar in quite a few other European languages: elc in Welsh, Elch in German, elg in Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian, älg in Swedish, alce in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, and alnis in Latvian [source].

Elk

The word elk refers to a different species of deer in North America, however, which is also known as the wapiti or cervus canadensis in Latin [source]. The name wapiti comes from the Cree or Shawnee waapiti (elk; white rump) [source].

In French a moose or elk is élan [eɪˈlɑːn], wapiti [wa.pi.ti] or orignal [ɔ.ʁi.ɲal]. Élan probably comes from Lativan [source]. Orignal refers to the Canadian moose and comes from the Basque word oreinak, plural of orein (deer) [source].

Moose is also a way to write mouse in Scots – it’s pronouned [mus], and features in the famous saying “there’s a moose loose aboot this hoose”, which comes from the song Hoots Mon by Harry Robinson [source].

So a moose is a moose, except when it’s an elk or a mouse.

Here’s a tune I wrote called The Loose Moose / Yr Elc Rhydd:

Photos by Faris Algosaibi and Andrew E. Russell. Found on Flickr.

Time flies when you’re learning Irish

By Simon

The Irish language and singing courses I’ve been doing this week finished today. Tonight there is a concert with a singer from Belfast, followed by a céilí. The week seems to have gone by quickly when I look back at it, but as I was experiencing it, it seemed to last longer.

Gleann Cholm Cille

I learnt some interesting things in the Irish language class, including proverbs, idioms, bits of grammar, and a few songs. In the sean-nós class I learned some new songs, and re-learned some old ones. Our teacher also told us about the background to the songs and the people who wrote them, which was fasciniating.

As well as speaking plenty of Irish this week, I’ve also spoke some Russian, French, Breton, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic. I can understand most of the Irish I hear, though find songs in Irish more difficult to follow. I can sing them, but don’t necessarily know all the words. This is partly because songs, especially the sean-nós ones, often include obscure words and dialect variations.

Spot the sheep

Caora. Sheep. Dafad

Tomorrow I’m off to Dublin, then I’ll return to Bangor on Sunday.

Angelic voices

By Simon

Yesterday morning I studied some more Swedish, Danish and Russian, did a bit of work, and went for a walk around the misty glen.

Glenn Cholm Cille

In the afternoon we saw an interesting film in Irish – Ag Lorg Annie (Searching for Annie), which was made for the BBC by Kevin Magee, who is studying Irish here this week. The film is about a painting of a local girl, Annie McGinley, that was painted in the 1920s by the American artist, Rockwell Kent, who spent quite a bit of time in this area. Kevin wanted to find out more about the painting and where the original is now. He found the painting in a private collection in New York, and other paintings by Rockwell Kent in St Petersburg.

In the evening the local chapel was packed for a concert by Anúna, an Irish choir who sing beautiful arrangements of songs in Irish, English, Latin, Spanish. They specialize in old songs, and the oldest they sang last night was written in the 9th century, and sounded angelic.

Anúna

There was another concert after that in Oideas Gael featuring Sean Mac Corraidh from Belfast, his daughter, and a singer from Tory island. They sang traditional Irish songs, and told some interesting stories.

In the Irish language class we talked about verbs and other things this morning, and in the sean-nós class this afternoon we learnt four songs, three of which were already familiar to me. This evening there is a talk about Féiniúlacht agus Teanga (Identity and Language) by a lecturer in psychology from Dublin.

The Misty Glen

By Simon

After quite a long journey, I arrived on Glenn Cholm Cille last night. I met some people I know on the way and spent much the journey chatting with them, so it didn’t seem so long. We talked in a mixture of Irish and English, with odd bits of German and Spanish. Last night I also spoke quite a bit of French. I found at first that Scottish Gaelic kept interfering with the other languages, especially Irish. Now I’m in Irish mode though.

As the bus went further north and west into Donegal the mist and rain came down, and by the time we arrived in Gleann Cholm Cille, the mountains had disappeared. Hence the title of this post.

Here are some photos of Gleann Cholm Cille from previous visits. The ones I took today of the misty geln are not online yet, but will appear soon.

Gleann Cholm Cille

I’m here for the Irish Language and Culture Summer School (Scoil Samhraidh Teanga agus Cultúir) at Oideas Gael, the Irish language and culture centre I’ve been to for a week or two every summer since 2005.

There will be Irish language classes in the mornings, a choice of cultural workshops in the afternoons, and various events in the evenings – concerts, talks, music sessions, and so on.

One new worksop this year is an introduction to Welsh. Quite a few of my friends here have said they’re interested.

There are also a couple of film crews here who will be interviewing people during the week.

I plan to interview a few people about their Irish learning adventures for the next episode of my podcast.