Category: Welsh (Cymraeg)

Jumpers and sea pigs

By Simon

Llamhidydd / Porpoise / Mereswine

Llamhidydd, (n/m) [pl. llamhidyddion] – porpoise, dancer, acrobat, jumper

Today’s word appears in a book I’m reading at the moment and is a new one to me. I’m not sure about the etymology of the hid part, but llam means jump, and the suffix -ydd indicates a person or agent.

As well as jump, llam also means fate, leap, bound, stride, step, and is found in such words as llamddelw – puppet (jump + image/idol); llamu and llamsach – to jump; llawsachus – capering, prancing, and llamwr – leaper. Llam most likely comes from the same root as the Irish léim, Scottish Gaelic leum, Manx lheim, Cornish lamma and Breton lam. More common Welsh words for jump and to jump are naid and neidio.

Other Welsh words for porpoise include môr-fochyn (sea pig) and morhwch (sea sow), which is also applied to dolphins. The Irish for porpose is muc mhara (sea pig).

The English word porpoise comes from the French pourpois, which is from Medieval Latin porcopiscus, which is a compound of porcus (pig) and piscus (fish).

Another English word for porpoise is apparently mereswine, the roots of which can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic *mariswīnaz (dolphin, porpoise), from *mari/*mariz (sea) and *swīnaz/*swīnan (swine, pig), via the Middle English mereswin and the Old English mereswīn.

Dadsothachu

By Simon

This morning I heard an interesting Welsh word on Radio Cymru that I hadn’t come across before – dadsothachu [dadsɔ’θaxɨ̬]. It means “to declutter” and combines a verbed form of the word sothach (bilge, garbage, junk, trash, trumpery) with the prefix dad-, which is the equivalent of the English prefixes de- and un-, and also serves as an intensifier. Another word they used for the same action was dadclytero (I think that’s how to spell it). Neither of these words appear in dictionaries I’ve checked.

I’ve been trying to declutter since I moved, and indeed before that. So far I’ve taken quite a lot books to local charity shops, but there’s plenty more filling my bookcases. At the same time I’ve acquired quite a lot more stuff. I also have more space in my new house, so the temptation is to fill it with even more stuff.

Tŷ newydd

By Simon

Dw i wedi bod yn fy nhŷ newydd ers tair wythnos, a dw i’n teimlo yn gartrefol erbyn hyn. Mae llawer o waith wedi i wneud ar y tŷ, yn gynnwys ailweirio; gosod carpedi, ffenestri ac ystafell ymolchi newydd; clirio’r ardd; amnewid y sied ardd; a pheintio.

Mae pobl eraill wedi gwneud y gwaith, ac yr unig pethau sy angen i mi gwneud oedd dod â phobl i wneud y gwaith, arolygu a threfnu’r gwaith, a thalu’r biliau, wrth gwrs. A dw i wedi gwario llawer iawn o pres hyd hynny – nid yn unig ar a gwaith, ac hefyd ar pethau ar gyfer y tŷ a’r ardd.

Mae’r gwaith ar y tŷ bron ar ben, heblaw rhyw beintio, a dw i’n meddwl am beth i wneud efo’r ardd. Mae’r lawnt yn llawn chwyn (dant y llew yn bennaf), ac mae’r coeden afal yn llawn afalau hefyd – bob dydd dw i’n casglu afalau cwympo ac mae gen i bocs mawr llawn ohonyn nhw. Dw i’n bwriadu gwneud jam a jeli efo’r afalau, ac hoffwn i plannu blodau, llysiau a llysiau blas yn yr ardd.

Gogs a Hwntws

By Simon

The other day I was talking to a native Welsh speaker from South Wales who has lived in North Wales for many years. I mentioned that people in shops here sometimes switch to English when I talk to them in Welsh, and she told me that the same thing happens to her sometimes.

Apparently the South Wales accent is associated with Welsh learners, and this applies not just to actual learners, but also to native Welsh speakers from South Wales like my friend, who speaks North Walian dialect with a South Walian accent and therefore sounds a bit like a learner. She also told me that she tries to speak North Walian dialect because people round here find South Walian dialects difficult to understand.

In colloquial spoken Welsh and informal written Welsh there are plenty of differences between northern and southern varieties. Some examples of grammatical differences include:

North Walian South Walian Formal Welsh English
Mae gen/gin i … Mae … ‘da fi Mae gynnyf … I have …
Sgin i … Sdim … ‘da fi Does gynnyf … I don’t have …
Mi (w)nes i dweud Mi/Fe ddwedes i Dwedais I said…
Ti isio …? Ti moyn …? Yr wyt ti eisiau …? Would you like …?

The auxiliary verb gwneud (to do) plus the main verb (in this example, dweud – to say) are used to form the past tense in North Wales. In South Wales and in formal Welsh the past tense endings are applied to the main verb, and the personal pronouns are not used in formal Welsh.

Differences in vocabulary include:

  • llefrith (NW) llaeth (SW) = milk
  • pres (NW) arian (SW) = money – [pres = brass & arian = silver]
  • agoriad (NW) allwedd (SW) = key
  • cenllysg (NW) cesair (SW) = hail
  • dodrefn (NW) celfi (SW) = furniture
  • crio / wylo (NW) llefain (SW) = to cry

Wire twists

By Simon

The electricians have been rewiring my new house this week and finished today, so I thought it would be interesting to looking the etymology of the word wire.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, wire comes from the Old English word wir (metal drawn out into a thread), which is related to the Old Norse word viravirka (filigree work), the Swedish word vira (to twist), and the Old High German word wiara (fine gold work).

Going further back we find that the Proto-Indo-European root of wire and wir is *wei- (to turn, twist, plait). This is also the root of the Old Irish word fiar (bent, crooked – cam in Modern Irish); the Welsh word gwyr (bent, crooked); and the Latin viere (to bend, twist).

The Proto-Indo-European Etymology dictionary gives the PIE root of wire as *chislom.

There are quite a few idiomatic expressions involving wire, including:

  • the wire – another for the telephone, and the name of a TV series
  • down the wire – right up to the last moment
  • get in under the wire – to accomplish something with little time to spare
  • get one’s wires crossed – to misunderstand
  • pull wires – to exert influence behind the scenes using personal connections, etc – also ‘pull strings’
  • wire in – to set about (something, especially food) with enthusiasm (not one I’ve come across before)

Does wire feature in equivalents of these expressions in other languages, or in other idioms?

Linguistics and languages

By Simon

When I mention to people that I’m a linguist or have studied linguistics, they often ask something like “Oh, which language(s)?” The popular idea of a linguist seems to be someone who studies / speaks quite a few languages, and linguistics is thought of as studying languages, rather than the study of language in general. As I have studied both linguistics and quite a few languages, I could call myself a linguist in both the scientific and popular senses, and to avoid explaining linguistics every time I often go along with the popular definition.

Most of the people I met in Ireland were interested in languages, and some of them were interested in linguistics, including an American lass who is keen to study linguistics and document some of the native languages of North America, particularly of Alaska. There was also someone else who is studying Irish Sign Language (ISL – Teanga Chomharthaíochta na hÉireann) and was keen to find out about British Sign Language (BSL). Very few ISL signs were familiar to me, and it seems to have more in common with French and American Sign Languages than with BSL.

When people discovered that I speak Welsh, quite a few of them asked me it was hard to learn, as they think it looks very difficult to pronounce. My Welsh-speaking friends make similar comments about Irish. I find Welsh spelling easier as most letters only have one sound and all letters are pronounced, whereas most letters have at least two sounds in Irish and quite a few of them are not pronounced.

Wellgylchu

By Simon

This morning I heard them discussing wellgylchu on Radio Cymru in reference to making jewellery from buttons and other things that would be normally thrown away.

The usual Welsh word of recycling is ailgylchu, which is made up of the words ail (second, re-) and cylchu (to circle), while wellgylchu begins with gwell (enhanced, better, preferable), so could be translated as something like “bettercycling”.

Have you come across a similar word in other languages?

Épouvantail

By Simon

épouvantail (nf)

  1. objet, mannequin disposé dans les champs, dans les arbres, pour effrayer les oiseaux et les faire fuir (scarecrow)
  2. familièrement personne présentant un aspect extérieur repoussant (bogey, bugbear)
  3. quelqu’un ou quelque chose qui effraie sans raison (fright)
    [source]

For some reason we were talking about scarecrows or épouvantails at the French conversation group last night. It’s not a word that comes up in conversation very often, but I like the sound of it.

Related words include:

  • épouvantable = terrible, appalling, dreadful
  • épouvantablement = terribly, appallingly, dreadfully
  • épouvante = terror, fear
    – saisi d’épouvante = terror-stricken
    – roman/film d’épouvante = horror story/film

Words for scarecrow in other languages include:

  • Chinese – 稻草人 (dào​cǎo​rén​) = “straw man”
  • German – Vogelscheuche (bird shooer); Strohmann (straw man); Strohpuppe (straw doll/puppet)
  • Irish – babhdán – also means bogey man
  • Italian – spaventapasseri = “scare sparrows”
  • Japanese – かかし [鹿驚] (kakashi) = “deer surpriser”
  • Spanish – espantapájaros = “bird scarer”
  • Welsh – bwgan brain = “crows bogey/spook”

Hung parliament

By Simon

Here are few more election-related words:

Hung parliament – a parliament in which no political party has an absolute majority of seats, as is the case with the UK parliament after yesterday’s election. This term was first used in Britain in 1974, but hang or hung has been used to indicate a situation that’s indecisive since at least the 14th century, when it was became linked to the idea of suspense. The phrase ‘hung jury’, i.e. one that cannot agree, has been used in the USA since 1848 [source].

Coalition – was first used in a political sense in 1715 and comes from the Latin Latin coalitus (fellowship) via the French coalition. Coalitus was originally the past participle of Latin coalescere, which is a combination of com- (together) plus alescere (to grow up).

The Welsh equivalents of these words are:

Senedd grog = hung parliament: senedd = parliament, senate; crog = hanging, pendant, suspended, pendent, pendulous, pensile

Clymblaid = clique, coterie, coalition: clym- probably comes from clymu = to tie; plaid = party, faction.

Plaid is also the root of pleidlais = vote (llais = voice); pleidleisio = to vote; pleidleisiwr = voter.

Babysiteáil

By Simon

Listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta today I heard the word babysiteáil, in a sentence something like “Tá sé ag Babysiteáil dúinne.” (He babysits for us). This caught my attention because I don’t seem to hear as many English words made into verbs like this in Irish as I do in Welsh. The Welsh equivalent is babysitio, or gwarchod.

There are ways of saying baby-sit in Irish: páistí a fheighil (to care for children) and aire a thabhairt do pháistí (to give care to children).

If you put baby-sit into Google Translate, the Irish comes out as leanbh-suí – a literal translation. The Welsh version, baban-sefyll, is also a literal translation. For other languages the translations are perhaps better: e.g. garder les enfants (French) and cuidar niños (Spanish).