Category: Words and phrases

Elephants are not permitted

By Simon

Here’s an interesting and useful site for you that I came across the other day: SmartPhrase. It contains phrasebooks for Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, though unfortunately there are no audio recordings.

There is also a random phrase generator which gives you either serious or humerous phrases in a variety of languages.

Here are a few examples of the humorous phrases:

Discúlpame ¿te importa si te miro un rato? Quiero recordar tu cara en mis sueños.
Excuse me, do you mind if I stare at you for a minute? I want to remember your face for my dreams.

Da-me los cables puente de batería, los pollos se han escapados.
Hand me the jump leads, the chickens have escaped.

Für so einen kleinen Mann hast Du aber sehr grosse Nasenlöcher!
You have very large nostrils for such a small gentleman.

Keine Elephanten in der Bar nach 8 Uhr!
Elephants are not permitted in the bar after eight o’clock.

Se devi tagliarti le unghie dei piedi, vai via dalla cucina, per favore.
If you must clip your toenails now, kindly leave the kitchen.

Ο δρακος επιμενει να θγσιασογμε μια κοπελα αλλιως θα καψει το χωριο.
The dragon insists we sacrifice a maiden otherwise he will burn the village to the ground.

Dat is de derde keer deze week dat één van de patienten spontaan is gaan uitbarsten.
That is the third time this week that one of the patients has spontaneously combusted.

A cama do meu marido está cheia de areia preta. Porquê?
My husband’s bed is full of black sand. Why?

Word of the day – Hypocorism

By Simon

A hypocorism is a pet name or diminutive. For example, Bob, Rob, Bobby, Robbie (from Robert). I came across this word for the first time the other day and had to look it up because I didn’t know what it meant.

Hypocorisms or diminutives seem to be more widely used in some languages than in others. The Slavic languages use them a lot, and not just for people’s names – just about any noun has a hypocoristic form. At least that’s what my Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian-speaking friends tell me.

Hypocoristic affixes in English include

-ey/y/ie, as in doggie (dog), horsey (horse), barbie (barbeque), postie (postman/woman), tinnie (tin [of beer]), cozzie (swimming costume), mozzie (mosquito), footie/footy (football). This affix is particularly popular in Australia and Scotland.

-ling, as in duckling, gosling

-ette, as in kitchenette, cigarette, towellette

-let, as in piglet

Can you think of any others?

There are more examples of hypocorisms/diminutives in a variety of languages here.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

By Simon

This week I started putting together a page of translations of the phrase “Stop the world, I want to get off”. I was looking through my page of ‘useful’ phrases and noticed that I have a Spanish version of this phrase. I wondered if I could find translations into other language, and so far have found a few. Could you supply versions of this phrase in any other languages?

I’ve also added a new section to my site – Can o’ Songs – a collection of songs that I’ve learnt in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, with English translations, background info (where available), links to other versions of the songs and lists of albums which include the songs. I plan to add recordings of me singing the songs and/or playing them on the tin whistle, and I’ll be adding quite a few other songs to this section when I have a spare moment or two. If any of you feel inspired to send in recordings you’ve made of any of the songs already there, or would like to suggest any other songs I could have a go at, please let me know.

Word of the day – Moien

By Simon

Today’s word, Moien, is the Luxembourgish for hello. A related phrase is Gudden Moien, Good morning – Moien also means morning.

Here are some more ‘useful’ phrases in Luxembourgish:

Nee, ech hunn keng Zait fir dengem Monni seng Teppechfabrik.
No, we don’t have time to visit your uncle’s carpet factory.

Ech mengen ar Geessen setzt op menger Plaatz.
I think your goats are in my seat.

These phrases come from The Day12 Phrase Book, which contains phrases in a variety of other languages. I think the same template, which includes the above phrases, is used for all languages.

According to this site, most Luxembourgers speak at least three languages – Luxembourgish, French and German, and use them in their daily lives. Luxembourgish is the national language, French is used for legislative matters, all three languages are used in education, and French and German are the main written languages.

By the way, I’ve just put together a page of useful phrases in Luxembourgish.

Does any one know how to say “My hovercraft is full of eels” or “one language is never enough” in Luxembourgish?

Word of the day – puke wehewehe ʻōlelo

By Simon

Today’s word, puke wehewehe ‘ōlelo, is the Hawai‘ian for dictionary. It means literally ‘book [that] explains words’. I found a good Hawai‘ian-English dictionary today, and also some online Hawai‘ian lessons.

According to this article, the Hawai‘an language is in a slightly more secure position today than it was 20 years, when the most of those who spoke were adults, and there weren’t many of them either. Nowadays about 2,000 children are educated through the medium of Hawai‘ian each year, and Hawai‘ian medium education is available from kindergarten to college. Few of the students in the Hawai‘ian medium schools speak the language when they start, and most of them speak English outside school, so there is a long way to go to revive Hawai‘ian.

Sushi-go-round

By Simon

Today I came across the term sushi-go-round for the first time. I’d been discussing Japanese restaurants with a Japanese friend and mentioned that I didn’t know what to call those sushi places where you sit a the counter and the dishes come round on a conveyor belt. He found the term sushi-go-round in a Japanese-English dictionary. The Japanese name for such restaurants is 回転ずし (kaiten zushi) – lit. ‘rotating/revolving sushi’.

Have you heard of the term sushi-go-round before?

In some Chinese restaurants the tables have a bit in the middle that rotates so that you can a reach dishes without stretching across the table. Sort of similar to the sushi-go-round, but on a smaller scale. I think this is called a lazy susan in English. Does anybody know what it’s called in Chinese? Or do you have any other names for it in English?

Word of the day – toponymy

By Simon

Toponymy is the study of the origins and meanings of place names (toponyms). It comes from the Greek τόπος (topos) – place, and oνομα (ōnoma) – name. It is a branch onomastics, the study of all kinds of names.

The other day I came across an interesting site containing information about the Welsh, Gaelic, Scandinavian and Scots roots of some British places names. Here are a few Scandinavian elements that appear in some British places names, especially in Orkney and Shetland, parts of mainland Scotland, the north west of England and parts of Wales. Do you know of can you guess their meanings?

Beck, fell, fors, garth, gill, holm, noup, ramna, scord and ting.

The place where I grew up, Silverdale, Lancashire in the north west of England, has a name of Scandinavian origin – the dale part comes from the Norse dalr (valley), but nobody is quite sure of the origin of the Silver part. One theory is that it was named after a Viking chief called something like Silr or Selr. Another theory is that the name comes from the large number of silver birch trees that grow in the area.

Only joking!

By Simon

Yesterday I stumbled upon a page containing jokes in Irish and was pleased to find that I could understand them and that I ‘got’ the jokes. Understanding humour in other languages can be quite difficult, especially when puns and plays on words are involved. When you can ‘get’ jokes in a foreign language, you know that you’ve reached quite a high level.

Here are some humour-related Irish words:

scéal grinn (funny story), cúis gháire (cause for laughter) = joke
cleas = dodge, fiddle, hoax, lark, ploy, practical joke, prank, stunt, trick
bob = hoax, practical joke, prank, trick
cleas a imirt ar, bob a bhualadh ar = to play a joke on
cleas suarach = dirty trick
ag magadh atá tú! = you’re joking!
gáire a bhaint as duine = to make somebody laugh

Do you know any sites with jokes in other languages?

Word of the day – pendramwnwgl

By Simon

Today’s word, pendramwnwgl [pɛndram’ʊnʊgl], is the Welsh word for headlong, topsy-turvy or pell-mell. This word is made up of three parts: pen (head), dra – a mutated form of tra (beyond) and mwnwgl (instep/neck). I came across it the other day and just liked the sound of it. Related words include pendraphen (head beyond head) and wynebwaered (face descent).