Month: July 2009

eolotthowghrhoighuay and ghoti

By Simon

The word ‘eolotthowghrhoighuay’ was devised by Alexander Ellis in 1845 to demonstrate the eccentric nature of English spelling. It’s supposed to spell ‘orthography’, and uses the eo from George, the ol from Colonel, the tth from Matthew, the ow from knowledge, the gh from ghost, the rh from rheumatic, the oi from Beauvoir, the gh from laugh, and the uay from quay.

Ghoti is a better-known example which is apparently spells ‘fish’, with the gh from tough, the o from women and the ti from nation. According to Wikipedia, it first appeared in print in 1874 and is credited to Willian Ollier, who used it in a letter in 1855, though it’s usually attributed George Bernard Shaw. Ghoti is also the word for fish in Klingon.

The trouble with both these words is that the letters or combinations of letters are not pronounced in these particularly ways when you take them from their normal positions. gh, for example, rarely appears at the beginnings of words, except in words like ghost.

You could spell fish ‘phoche’ (photo women quiche), according to this site.

Hungarian runes

By Simon

Yesterday at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod I was quite surprised to see Hungarian Runes / Rovás (Székely Rovásírás) being used. They appear on the logo and publicity material of a Hungarian drumming group who perform Hungarian folk dances and songs that date back to the 11th century, a time when the Székler Magyars were writing with the rovás.

The group, called Feher Taltos Traditional Hungarian Drummers (Regélő Fehér Táltos), is very good, and well worth going to see.

Here are some examples:

Examples of Hungarian rovás

I think the bit of writing on the right, which comes from the group’s flyer, reads, “Regélő Fehér Táltos Hagyományőrző Egyesület Dobcsapata”, which I assume is the group’s name in Hungarian.

Eisteddfod Llangefni

By Simon

Neithiwr mi es i i Langefni efo Côr y Dysgwyr, ac mi gystadlon ni yn yr eisteddfod ‘na. Dim ond un côr arall yn roedd yn cystadlu – côr o Lanfairpwllgwyngyll – ac mi enillon ni! Mae’r un arweinydd efo’r dau chôr, ac yr un gyfeilydd, ferch yr arweinydd. Dyma’r tro cyntaf i mi mynd i eisteddfod ac roedd hi’n wych, ac roedd y pobl yna yn gyfeillgar iawn.

Yna ystod yr wythnos ‘ma, dw i wedi bod yn brysur efo trawsgrifiad y cyfweliadau dw i wedi recordio yn Ynys Manaw. Dw i wedi trawsgrifio tua dri awr o recordiadau yn barod – rhyw 26,000 o eiriau! – ac mae dau neu dri awr i wneud. Gobeithio bydda i’n gorffen yr wythnos nesaf, ac yna galla i parhau sgwennu fy nhraethawd hir.

Llangefni Eisteddfod

Last night I went the Llangefni with the Welsh Learners’ Choir, and we competed in the eisteddfod there. Only one other choir was competing – a choir from Llanfair PG – and we won! The two choirs have the same conductor, and the same accompanyist, the conductor’s daughter. This was the first time that I’ve been to an eisteddfod and it was good, and the people there were really friendly.

This week I’ve been mainly transcribing the interviews I recorded while in the Isle of Man. So far I’ve transcribed about three hours’ worth or recordings – some 26,000 words! – and there’s another two or three hours to do. I hoping I’ll finish this coming week, and then I can get on with writing the dissertation.

Word of the day – skeet

By Simon

Skeet, which apparently comes from Old Icelandic, is a word you’re likely to hear frequently in the Isle of Man. It’s means gossip, more or less. People will ask you, “Got any skeet (at you)?” and will try to find out all about who you’ve seen, where they were and what they were doing, who they were with, and so on. The holder of any juicy skeet will try and keep as much of it to themselves for as long as they can to build up the suspense.

You can also have a skeet (look) at something, for example if you’ve brought something new people will ask for a skeet at it, and having a skeet at the neighbours from behind your net curtains is a common practice.

In Manx the word skeet means sneak or news, and jollys-skeet is a voyeur.

Other meanings of skeet include:

– clay targets used in trapshooting – known as clay pigeons in the UK
– a poker hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9.
– loud, disruptive and poorly educated person of low social status (in Newfoundland slang)
– to squirt