This mysterious writing was found by a visitor to Omniglot on a large pumpkin in a pumpkin patch in Michigan.
Can anyone make any sense of the writing?
(It’s the same writing in each image, just different ways up)
Month: October 2009
Fillym aitt
Yn laa chaie hooar mee fillym giare fer aitt ass Yernish, Fíorghael (Gael firrinagh). T’eh skeeal politig çhengey ayns Nerin, as cre’n aght greinnaghey sleih elley ynsee dty hengey.
Scannán greannmhar
An lá faoi dheireadh fuair mé gearrscannán iontach greannmhar as Gaeilge, Fíorghael. Polaitíocht na teanga i Éirinn atá i gcéist, agus cad é daoine a spreag do theanga a fhoghlaim.
Ffilm doniol
Yn ddiwedar mi ddes i â ffilm byr doniol iawn yn y Wyddeleg, Fíorghael (Gwyddel go iawn). Stori gwleidyddiaeth iaith yn Iwerddon, ac sut i annog pobl i ddysgu dy iaith.
Mysterious metal plate
Word of the day – highpointing
I came across the word highpointing the other day in a list of a blogger’s hobbies. It’s not a word I’m familiar with so I looked it up.
According to Wikipedia highpointing is “is the sport of visiting (and finding) the point with the highest elevation within some area (the “highpoint”), for example the highest points in each county within a state. It can be considered a form of peak bagging.”
Peak bagging (a.k.a. hill bagging, mountain bagging, Munro bagging, or just bagging) involves climbing a collection of mountains or hills – often those above a certain height or with a particular feature. Munro bagging, for example, involves climbing as many Scottish hills over 3000 ft (914.4m) as possible. Such peaks are known as Munros and named after Sir Hugh Munro (1856–1919), who was the first to catalogue them.
Another example of peak bagging is the Three Peaks Challenge, which involves climbing the three highest peaks in England (Scafell Pike), Wales (Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa) and Scotland (Ben Nevis / Beinn Nibheis) within 24 hours.
Are you a highpointer or peak bagger? Is this sport practised in your country? If so, what’s it called?
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
Word of the day – ectomorph
The word ectomorph is used to describe one of the characters in a novel I read last week. It’s not a word I’ve come across before so it caught my attention.
According to The Free Dictionary, an ectomorph is “an individual having a lean, slightly muscular body build in which tissues derived from the embryonic ectoderm predominate.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines the word ectomorph as “a human physical type (somatotype) tending toward linearity, as determined by the physique classification system developed by the American psychologist W.H. Sheldon.”
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines an ectomorph as “a person with a lean and delicate build of body”, and related words include endomorph, “a person with a soft round build of body and a high proportion of fat tissue”, and mesomorph, “a person with a compact and muscular body”.
According to these definitions, I think I am an ectomorph. What about you?