Month: December 2009

Basa Jawa

By Simon

According to this report, people in Blora Regency in Central Java will be obliged to speak Javanese on Thursdays (Kemis) from January 2010. This applies to civil servants, officials in state-owned enterprises, teachers and students, and the students should use the kromo inggil (formal) forms with their teachers. The aim is to preserve the Javanese language in all its forms.

A related report mentions that no sanctions will be imposed on those who do not speak Javanese in Blora on Thursdays.

Earlier this year the Surabaya Education Department in East Java apparently made it compulsory for students and teachers to speak Javanese on Mondays and Tuesdays in city schools. Not all students were happy with this as they don’t speak Javanese.

Even though Javanese is spoken by about 80 million people (45% of the population of Indonesia), it seems that there are worries about the future of the language, and of Indonesian taking its place.

Falling in the apples

By Simon

Last night in the French conversation group the idiom “tomber dans les pommes” (to fall into the apples) came up. As it was in the context of somebody actually falling I took it literally at first and pictured the person falling into some apples or into an orchard. Then it was explained that it means “to faint / loose consciousness / pass out”. The origin of this idioms is uncertain.

Related idioms include “rester dans les pommes” – to remain unconscious”; “tomber dans l’eau” (lit. “to fall in the water”) – to fall through (projects, etc); “tomber bien/mal” – to come at the right/wrong moment.

Conlangers Anonymous

By Simon

Are you sometimes, or indeed frequently gripped by the urge to create languages?

Do your doodles often become new alphabets?

Do you feel compelled to create worlds in which your languages and alphabets might be used?

If so, help is at hand in the form of Conlangers Anonymous, an organisation founded by Francis Lodwick in 1694 and discussed in the Speculative Grammarian, the premier journal of satirical linguistics.

Conlangers Anonymous apparently helps “conlangers see the agonizing human cost—and professional cost—of their obsession. The hours spent constructing a language could be better spent in real human interaction with friends, family, and your World of Warcraft guild. The effort poured into creating fake language data for fun could be expended on falsifying data for papers in refereed journals, leading to tenure.”

Tibetan mobiles

By Simon

A mobile phone which can send and receive text messages in Tibetan has been developed in China, according to this report. Such phones have apparently existed for a few years, but the new phone is a bit different as it can recognise handwritten input in Tibetan.

A useful Tibetan-related site I came across today is a English-Tibetan dictionary, which displays the Tibetan words in Wylie transliteration and in the Tibetan script.

Are any of you learning Tibetan?

Woza Moya

By Simon

Oie Jesarn ghow mee arrane ayns daa chuirrey kiaull lesh yn Sheshaght Chiaullee Pobble Bangor dy throggal argid da Woza Moya, shalee chohellooderys ta cooney peiagh lesh AIDs as HIV ‘syn Affrick Yiass. Va yn chied chuirrey kiaull çheumooie jeh’n boayl shappal ayns laaragh Bangor, as va yn nah chuirrey kiaull ayns cabbal Penrallt. Va y daa chuirrey kiaull yindyssagh.

Oie ny vairagh beeym goaill arrane ayns cuirrey kiaull charval lesh Criw Bangor, sheshaght chiaullee ny ynseydaghyn Bretnish, ‘syn Ard-çhiamble Bangor.

Cyngerdd

Nos Sadwrn mi ganais mewn dwy gyngerdd efo’r Côr Cymunedol Bangor i godi pres ar gyfer Woza Moya, prosiect cefnogaeth cymunedol yn Ne Affrica sy’n helpu pobl efo HIV neu sy’n eu effeithio gan HIV ac AIDs. Roedd y ddwy gyngerdd yn ardderchog.

Nos yfory bydda i’n canu mewn cyngerdd carolau efo Criw Bangor, côr y dysgwyr Cymraeg, yn y Gadeirlan Bangor

Word of the day – cawl

By Simon

Today’s word, cawl /kaul/, is a Welsh word meaning soup, broth, gruel or a mess.

Cawl is also a traditional Welsh stew made with meat and vegetables. It’s the kind of dish that’s made from whatever is available so the exact ingredients vary, but it often includes lamb and leeks, and is often served with bread and cheese. There a recipe for cawl and more information here.

The word cawl probably comes from the Latin caulis, which means the stalk of a plant, a cabbage stalk or a cabbage. It is related to the Irish cál, the Scottish Gaelic càl, the Cornish caul, the Breton kaol, the German Kohl, the English cole, as in coleslaw, and the Scots kail, all of which mean cabbage. The Welsh word for cabbage is completely different – bresychen.

The Proto-Indo-European root of caulis is *kaw(ǝ)l, which means tubular bone or pipe.

It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht

By Simon

Full moon

I went for a walk with some friends last night and one of the things we were talking about was the moon, which was nearly full and very bright. One of my companions suggested that there should be an adjective similar to sunny to describe such a night. He came up with moony, and I couldn’t think of anything better – can you?

I’ve since discovered that full moons have different names in different months. A December full moon like the one tonight, for example, is known as the oak moon in the medieval English calendar, as the cold moon in the Celtic calendar, as the peach moon by the Choctaw, as the snow moon by the Cherokee, and as the bitter moon by the Chinese. More moon names.

By the way, the title of this post is the Scots for ‘It’s a beautiful moonlit night’ and comes from a song by Sir Harry Lauder called Wee Deoch an Doris, which you can hear here. Deoch an Doris comes from the Scottish Gaelic expression ‘deoch an dorais’ – lit. ‘drink of the door’, which means ‘one for the road’ or ‘the parting glass’.