Month: May 2009

Studies

By Simon

I handed in my last essay today, so that’s pretty much the end of the taught part of my course and I can now concentrate on my dissertation. It’s a great relief to get all the assignments out of the way after spending what seems like ages on them. Fortunately I don’t have any exams this semester. The course seems to have gone really quickly and I’ve learned a lot of interesting and useful things. The areas I’ve found most interesting have been phonetics, bilingualism and speech and language disorders.

I plan to spend the last two weeks of June on the Isle of Man gathering information for my dissertation, learning some more Manx, and having a bit of a holiday. The last time I was on the island was about 30 years ago when I went there on a day trip from primary school, and I’m looking forward to going back. I’ve started making contact with a number of Manx speakers and hope to meet as many of them as possible when I’m on the island.

Are there any Manx speakers or learners who read this blog?

Vel Gaelgeyryn erbee lhaih yn blog shoh?

Language quiz

By Simon

In which language might greet people in the morning by saying “ṣbah lkhīr” or in the afternoon or evening with “mselkhīr“?

In this language common ways of saying goodbye include “lla yhennīk“, “lla y’uwn” and “thella fārṣek“.

Another useful phrase in this language is: “bghiṭ nteferrezh walakīm mabghītsh ndekhul feha” (I’d like to watch but I don’t want to join in).

New Klingon dictionary

By Simon

I heard today that a new Klingon dictionary is available for the iPhone and iPod, and will soon be available for Windows and Mac. It is an electronic version of the Klingon Dictionary and Conversational Klingon. There is also a phrase book for use by “Terrans” (Earthlings) planning a visit to the fictional world of Kronos, where Klingons live and vice versa.

Are any of you learning Klingon, or would like to learn?

Accents

By Simon

I went down to Cornwall for my sister’s wedding a few days ago and heard some interesting English accents on the way. While waiting on Bristol station, for example, I heard some people talking in unfamiliar accents that might have been Bristolian. At first I wasn’t sure what language they were speaking – it certainly didn’t sound like English. After listening to it a bit more I realised that it was English after all, but I had to listen for carefully to make out what they were saying. It sounded very fast with a lot of elision.

Have you ever heard someone talking in what sounds like a foreign language only to realise later that it’s actually a language you know?

The announcements on railway stations in the UK are usually in RP English which has been pre-recorded and is then spliced together as necessary. So the way the Cornish place names were pronounced by the station announcements sounded quite different to the way they were pronounced by the Cornish conductor on the train. I really like Cornish accents and acquired bits of one myself while I was there, even though I only stayed for a long weekend.

BBC Voices has examples of Cornish and Bristol accents, though none of the recordings sound like the accents I heard on Bristol station, so maybe the people were from somewhere else.

Yesterday I went the dentist, and while I was chatting to the dental hygienist she detected a Welsh accent in my English and switched to Welsh. So we continued talking in Welsh and she was surprised when I told her that I’m not a native speaker as she’d assumed. Apparently I have a mid-Wales accent in Welsh.

Priodas

By Simon

Dw i’n newydd dod yn ôl o Gernyw lle briododd fy chwaer Ddydd Sadwrn mewn clwb cefn gwlad ger Saltash. Roedd y seremoni briodas yn syml efo darlleniadau gan gyfeillion fy chwaer ac ein mam, ac ar ôl ffotograffiaeth bron diddiwedd, roedd derbyniad wych. Roedd yr areithiau yn ddiddorol, y bwyd yn flasus, a’r cwmni yn neis, ac roedd twmpath gwych efo band byw ar ôl y pryd.

Mi nes i aros efo fy nheulu a fy mherthnasau mewn pentref gwyliau ger Saltash, ac mi nes i weld fy mrawd am y tro cyntaf ymhen tair flyneddoedd (mae o wedi bod yn hwylio o gwmpas y byd). Mi nes i gwrdd â merch fy nghefnder am y tro cyntaf erioed hefyd – mae hi’n tair blwydd a hanner, yn giwt iawn ac yn lawn o egni.

Mae’n ryfedd bod fy chwaer yn ddynes briod efo dau gyfenwau, ac mae gen i frawd a chwaer-yng-nghyfraith erbyn hyn.

Lowlands-L Anniversary Celebration

By Simon

Lowlands-L Anniversary Celebration is an interesting website I discovered recently which features translations of a Low Saxon / Low German folktale, De Tunkrüper (The Wren), in numerous languages. There are also details of the languages and recordings of some of the translations. The author of the site, Reinhard F. Hahn, is keen to collect translations and recordings of the story in as many languages and dialects as possible – perhaps you can help.

The Lowlands-L website contains information about the West Germanic languages of the lowlands along the North and Baltic seas, including many varieties of Dutch, Frisian, Low Saxon and English. The Anniversary Celebration section concentrates particularly on those languages, but also includes languages from many other parts of the world, as well as constructed languages, and extinct languages such as Gothic and Coptic.