Category: Welsh (Cymraeg)

Polyglot Gathering

By Simon

I arrived in Berlin yesterday for the Polyglot Gathering, which starts today. I flew here on KLM via Amsterdam, and unfortunately my luggage stayed in Amsterdam. It should arrive today though, and I’ve coped without it so far. This is only the second time this has happened to me – the last time was when I went to Cuba via Madrid, and my luggage stayed in Madrid for a few days.

Last night I met some of the other polyglots, some of whom speak even more languages than I do. I spoke lots of Esperanto, French and English, and some German, Dutch, Mandarin, Italian, Welsh and Spanish.

The next few days are packed with talks, language lessons and other language-related activities, and lots of polyglottery. A few people I’ve met so far are even familiar with Omniglot, which is great as I rarely meet people who know the site.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
partial biased rhagfarnllyd; unochrog, gwyrdueddol; pleidiol
apporter to bring dod â
la brise breeze awel
nuageux cloudy cymylog
la tyrolienne zip wire gwifren sip (?)
décoloré faded (fabric, object) pŵl; wedi pylu; wedi colli ei liw
jauni faded (photograph) pŵl; wedi pylu; wedi colli ei liw
bancal wobbly sigledig; siglog; woblog
branler to wobble siglo; woblo
mal famé rough (area) garw
désorienté disorientated dryslyd; ffwndrus

Les mots de le semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
la jacinthe des bois;
jacinthe sauvage		 bluebell (hyacinthoides non-scripta) clychau’r gog;
bwtias y gog;
croeso haf, ayyb
le foyer socio-éducatif;
le centre socioculturel		 community centre canolfan cymdeithasol/cymuned(ol)
démarrer to start (a car; engine; machine) tanio; cychwyn
le contact ignition (of car) tanio
la clé de contact ignition key allwedd danio; agoriad tanio
un œuf à la coque soft-boiled egg ŵy wedi’i led-ferwi
un œuf dur hard-boiled egg ŵy caled; ŵy wedi ei ferwi yn galed
l’évier (m) (kitchen) sink sinc
il fait un temps maussade et frait the weather is miserable mae’r tywydd yn ddiflas
embué steamy (window) cynhyrflyd; cynhryfus
humide steamy (room, heat, air) agerog; agerddog; yn ager
torride steamy (thriller, scene, affair) angerddol; chwilboeth
l’arme secrète (f) secret weapon arf cyfrinachol

Cuckoo bells

By Simon

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

I discovered this week that in Welsh bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are known as Clychau’r Gog (“cuckoo bells”), which I really like the sound of. They are also known as Bwtias y Gog (“cuckoo’s boots”), Croeso Haf (“welcome summer”), Cennin y Brain (“crows’ leeks”), Clychau’r Eos (“nightingale’s bells”), Glas y Llwyn (“blue of the grove”), hosanau’r Gwcw (“cuckoo’s socks”).

In Breton bluebells are known as bokidi-koukou (“cuckoo flowers”) or pour-bran (“crows’ flowers/pears”).

In French they are known as jacinthe des bois (“wood hyacinths”) or jacinthe sauvage (“wild hyacinths”).

Other names for them in English include common bluebell, English bluebell, British bluebell, wild hyacinth, wood bell, fairy flower and bell bottle.

Do they have interesting names in other languages?

Knock Cnoc

By Simon

The element Knock is quite common in place names in Ireland, e.g. Ballyknock, Castleknock, Gortknock, Kilknock and Knockaderry [source]. There’s also quite a few places called simply Knock, the best known of which is the Knock in County Mayo in the west of Ireland , which is known as An Cnoc (the hill) or Cnoc Mhuire (Hill of (the Virgin) Mary) in Irish.

The Irish word cnoc (hill), from which Knock comes, is pronounced [kn̪ˠɔk] in Munster, [knˠɔk] in Aran, and [kɾˠɔk] in Galway, Mayo and Ulster. It comes from the Old Irish cnocc (hill, lump, swelling), from the Proto-Celtic *knokko(s) (hill), which is also the root of:

– Scottish Gaelic cnoc [krɔ̃xg] = hill, hillock, knoll
– Manx cronk [krɒnk] = mount, tor, hill
– Welsh cnwc [knʊk] = hillock, bump, lump, butte
– Cornish knegh [knɛx] / knogh [knɔx] = hillock

A similar, though unrelated, English word is knoll [nəʊl], a hillock or mound, which comes from the Old English cnoll (hill-top, cop, summit, hillock), which is cognate with the Dutch knol (clod, ball, turnip); the German Knolle (bulb, tuber); and the Swedish knöl (lump; bump; hump) [source].

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
le conflit d’intérêt conflict of interest gwrthdaro buddiannau
bâfrer; siffler (drink) to guzzle llowcio; claddu; awffio; lleibio
minable; crade grotty sâl; gwael; salw; tila; da i ddim
le vote; le scrutin ballot pleidlais (ddirgel)
le bulletin de vote ballot paper papur pleidleisio
l’urne (f) ballot box cist pleidleisio
la fraude électorale ballot rigging pleidlais anonest / wedi’i rigio
faire qch par la voie des urnes to do sth through the ballot box gwneud rhywbeth trwy’r cist pleidleisio
asticoter; agiter to wind up (annoy, provoke) herian
remonter to wind up (clock, car window) weindio; ceirsio
fermer to wind up (company) dirwyn (cwmni) i ben
remuer to stir troi; rhoi tro
attiser; provoquer to stir up (tension, trouble) codi (helynt); cynhyrfu

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
le rouget red snapper brathwr coch (?)
saler to cure (by salting); to salt halltu
fumer to cure (by smoking); to smoke cochi; sychu mewn mwg; sychu trwy fwg
sécher to cure (by drying) sychu
traiter to cure (leather) cyweirio; barcio; cwrio
guérir to cure (illness, problem, habit) gwella; iach’au; mendio
le terrain de football football pitch mas/cae pêl-droed; cae ffwtbol
l’invasion de terrain pitch invasion ymosodiad ar faes

Curing, cleaning and caring

By Simon

Yesterday I discovered that there are quite a few different French translations of the verb to cure, depending on what kind of cure you’re talking about.

If you’re curing food by salting, the French equivalent is saler (to salt); curing by smoking is fumer (to smoke), and curing by drying is sécher (to dry). Curing leather is traiter (to treat), and curing illnesses, problems or habits is guérir (to cure, heal, recover).

The equivalents of these words in Welsh are:

– halltu = to cure (by salting)
– cochi (“to redden”); sychu mewn mwg; sychu trwy fwg = to cure (by smoking)
– sychu = to cure (by drying)
– cyweirio; barcio; cwrio = to cure (leather)
– gwella; iach’au; mendio = to cure (illness, problem, habit)

Do other languages have separate words for these?

The English word cure comes from the French curer, which means ‘to clean out’ in Modern French, and meant ‘to take care of, to clean’ in Old French, and comes from the Latin cūrāre (to care for, take care of, cure), from cūra (care, concern, trouble), from the Old Latin coira-, from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷeis- (to heed).

Sources: Reverso, OED, Online Etymology Dictionary, Wiktionary

Les mots de le semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
fin thin (layer, cable, wire, fingers, paper) tenau; main
maigre thin (person, animal, smile) tenau; main
mince thin (face, argument, evidence) main
léger thin (fabric, coat) tenau
peu épais thin (soup, sauce) tenau; dyfrllyd
clairsemé thin (hair) tenau; moel
désépaissir to thin (hair) teneuo; moeli
éclaircir to thin (trees) teneuo; mynd yn denau
délayer to thin (sauce, paint) teneuo
fluidifier to thin (blood) teneuo
susceptible thin-skinned croendenau
épais thick trwchus; tew
épaisser thicken tewhau; tewychu
insensible thick-skinned croendew
bête thick (person) twp; hurt; gwirion
au beau milieu de qch;
en plain cœur de qch		 in the thick of sth yng nghanol rhywbeth
être au cœur de l’action to be in the thick of it bod yn ei chanol hi
contre vents et marées through thick and thin drwy’r tew a’r tenau; doed a ddelo
la brochure (gen); le tract (pol) pamphlet llyfryn; pamffledyn; pamffled

Voices and calls

By Simon

After writing yesterday’s post I was thinking about the Czech word hlas [ɦɫas] (voice, vote) and realised that it is quite similar to the Welsh word for voice, llais [ɬais]. I wondered it they share the same root.

Hlas comes from the Proto-Slavic *golsъ (voice), from the Proto-Balto-Slavic *galsas (voice), from the Proto-Indo-European *golHsos, from *gels- (to call)

The words for voice in other Slavic languages come from the same root: Old East Slavic: голосъ (golosŭ); Belarusian: голас (hólas); Russian: голос (gólos) and глас (glas – archaic/poetic); Ukrainian: голос (hólos); Old Church Slavonic: гласъ (glasŭ); Bulgarian: глас (glas); Macedonian: глас (glas); Serbo-Croatian: гла̑с; Slovene: glas; Kashubian: głos; Polish: głos; Slovak: hlas; Lower Sorbian: głos; Upper Sorban: hłós.

Also from the same root are the Latin gallas (cockrel); Romani glaso (voice); Romanian glas (voice, vote); Old Norse kalla (to call); English call, Dutch kallen (to chat, talk); German kallen (to scream, talk loudly, talk too much); Lithuanian galsas (sound, echo); Welsh galw (to call) and llais (voice); and possibly the Irish and Scottish Gaelic glaodh (to cry, shout).

Sources: Wiktionary