Here’s a photo of a mystery place sent in by David. Do you know or can you guess where it is? Which languages are spoken there?
Month: July 2007
Alphabets and email
One of the things I do in my job is to prepare html emails in many different languages, which are sent out by our web marketing bods. We’ve discovered that the text of emails in non-Latin writing systems often gets mangled in transmission, so to make sure the recipients can read the text, we send the emails in English with links to web pages containing text in the relevant languages.
Maybe one day you’ll be able to send emails in any language/writing system and be sure the text will display correctly at the other end. This doesn’t seem to be the case just yet.
I’ve also noticed that Latin transliterations are used by quite a few people who speak languages written with non-Latin writing systems in instant messages and other online chat and discussions. This may be because the systems don’t support of writing systems, or because they don’t always have the necessary input software and/or hardware to hand. Then again, some people might just find it easier to type quickly in the Latin alphabet.
Idiom of the day
In English when you give up on something or admit that you’re defeated, you might say that you’re throwing in the towel or the sponge, a phrase that comes from boxing. In Welsh you put the fiddle on the roof: rhoi’r ffidil ar y tô. I like the image this conjures up.
Other Welsh idioms I like include siarad fel melin bupur = to talk like a pepper mill, i.e. to talk non-stop, mae hi’n bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc = it’s raining knives and forks, i.e. it’s raining heavily, and mae’r olwyn wedi troi = the wheel has turned, i.e. times have changed.
Where were the Etruscans from?
The origins of the Etruscans, whose civilisation flourished 3,000 years ago – c.1200 BC to c.100 BC – in Etruria (modern Tuscany), have long been subject to debate among archaeologists, linguists and historians. There are three main theories: Herodotus, the Greek historian, believed that they came from Anatolia (southern Turkey); others believe they came from northern Europe; while the third theory is that they were an indigenous to the region and descendants of the Iron Age Villanovan people.
According to an article I came across today, the Etruscan most likely were settlers from Anatolia (southern Turkey). This conclusion is based on genetic evidence collected and analysed by researchers at the University of Turin who compared samples of DNA from males in Tuscany, others parts of Italy, Greece, parts of the Balkans. The Tuscan DNA was found to be closest to DNA from Turkey and the Greek island of Lemnos, where an inscription in a language with many similarities to Etruscan was found in 1885.
So it looks like Herodotus, was right. He believed that due to a long-running famine, half of the population of Etruscans in Lydia (on the south coast of Turkey) were sent by their king to seek a better live elsewhere, and that they settled in the region that became known as Etruria in Italy.
Shwmae / Dia daoibh
Croeso i fy mlog newydd. Bydda i ceisio ysgrifennu popeth yn y Gymraeg ac yn y Wyddeleg.
Tá fáilte romhaibh chuig mo bhlog nua. Beidh mé ag trial as gach rud a scriobh as Gaeilge agus as Breatnais.
Welcome to my new blog, which I’ll use to practise the languages I’m learning. At the moment I’m focusing particularly on Welsh and Irish, and I’ll try to write everything in both those languages. I may write in other languages from time to time as well.
Balingua
Recently I was offered a free trial of a new online language course called Balingua, the author of which promises that you can learn a language quickly and well using the techniques he has developed. Apparently you can acquire basic oral proficiency in a new language in 30 hours, and the course “relies on the specific cognitive processes used in language learning and not on the grammatical or lexical traits of a language.”
The languages currently available with Balingua are English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Japanese, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The only languages on this list I haven’t studied yet are Dutch and Lithuanian, and I was thinking of learning some Dutch.
At the moment, however, I’m trying to improve/maintain my knowledge of ten languages, and am focusing particularly on Welsh and Irish. Perhaps it’s not the best time for me to start learning yet another language, much as I’d like to. So I’ve decided not to take up the free trial.
Would any of you like to have a go at this revolutionary new language learning method?
If you would, please send me an email to the usual address and let me know which language you’d like to study by Friday of this week. If I receive more than one email, I’ll put your names into a hat then draw one out.
The lucky winner will get a free trial course in their chosen language. All they need to do is blog about the course, and give any feedback they have to Balingua.
Word of the day – 差不多 (chàbuduō)
The phrase 差不多 (chàbuduō) is one of my favourite phrases in Chinese. It literally means “lacking not much” and can be translated as “more or less”, “near enough”, “almost” or “about”. It’s used frequently in Taiwan, and also in China I think, and seems to embody quite a common philosophy, i.e. there’s no need to do everything perfectly, as long as things get finished, so don’t worry too much. That’s my impression anyway.
A longer version of this phrase is 差不多就可以 (chàbuduō jiù kěyǐ), which means “near enough, that’ll do”. Quite good English equivalents are “close enough for government work” and “near enough for jazz”.
You can see a good example of chabuduoism from Taiwan on Pinyin News.
I found an equivalent expression in my big book of Welsh idioms: yn rhywle o’i chwmpas hi (lit: “somewhere around it”).
Do similar phrases exist in other languages?
Language quiz
Here’s a recording of a number of phrases in a mystery language. Can you guess or do you know which language it is and what the phrases mean?