Month: June 2012

Heb os nac oni bai

By Simon

Heb os nac oni bai is a Welsh expression I heard on the radio this morning that means ‘without (a) doubt’ or ‘definitely’, or literally ‘without an if or an unless’. From the context and the meanings of some of the individual words I was able to work out the meaning of the phrase, though I wasn’t sure about oni bai. Now I know it means ‘unless’ or ‘without’.

Here are a few examples:

Heb os nac oni bai , mae i ffermio le canolog mewn datblygu cynaliadwy.
Without doubt , farming has a central role to play in sustainable development.

Heb os nac onibai , mae gagendor iechyd amlwg wrth ystyried clefyd y galon.
Without a shadow of a doubt , the health divide is obvious when considering heart disease.

Dirwasgiad mewn gweithgynhyrchu yw hwnnw , heb os nac oni bai.
If that is not a recession in manufacturing , I do not know what is.

From: http://mymemory.translated.net

Another way to express this meaning in Welsh is: does dim dwywaith / nid oes dwywaith = there are no two ways about it, without question

A similar is English is ‘no ifs or buts’, though this means ‘no reservations, restrictions or excuses’ rather than ‘without doubt / definitely’. Welsh equivalents of ‘no ifs or buts’ include nid oes amheuaeth and nid oes unrhyw ‘os’ neu ‘oni bai’ [source].

According to dict.cc Wörterbuch, the German equivalent of ‘no ifs or buts’ is ohne Wenn und Aber (‘without if or but’), which is translated as ‘unconditionally; no ifs, no buts; no muss, no fuss; without fuss or quibble; no strings attached’. I haven’t heard of ‘no muss, no fuss’ or ‘without fuss or quibble’ before but like them a lot, especially quibble.

Are the similar phrases in other languages?

Parades

By Simon

Last weekend I saw a couple of parades – a small and rather damp one in Bangor on Saturday that was part of the Bangor Carnival – and a rather bigger and more elaborate one on Sunday in Manchester that was part of the Manchester Day celebrations. This got me wondering about the origins of the word parade.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary parade meant “a show of bravado” and “an assembly of troops for inspections” in the 1650s, and comes from the French word parade (a display, show, military parade). This comes either via Middle French, via the Italian parate (a warding or defending, a garish setting forth) or the Spanish parada (a staying or stopping), from the Vulgar Latin *parata, from the Latin parer (arrange, prepare, adorn). Parade came to be applied to non-military processions in the 1670s.

Parer comes from the Latin parare (to make ready), via the Old French parer (to arrange, prepare, trim), from the Proto-Indo-European root *per- (to bring forward/forth).

Panache, pegs and pinafores

By Simon

One thing we discussed last night at the French Conversation Group was whether panache means the same thing in French as it does in English.

According to the OED, panache [/pəˈnaʃ/ (UK) /pəˈnæʃ/ (USA)] comes from the Middle French pennache, which originally meant a tuft or plume of feathers, and by the late 19th century had come to mean “manly elegance or swagger, chivalrous or heroic courage, flamboyance, elegance, style”.

Pennache comes from the Italian pennacchio (plume), from the post-classical Latin pinnāculum, a dimmunitive of pinna (wing, feather, pointed peak), which comes from the Proto-Indo-European *bend- (something protruding). Other words that possibly come from the same root include pin, peg, pinafore, pinion and pinacle.

According to Le Dictionnaire, the French word panache means:

– ornement composé de plumes flottantes, placé sur une coiffure = an ornament of floating feathers worn on the head
– élément qui rappelle la forme de cet ornement = something resembling such an ornament
– surface triangulaire du pendentif d’une voûte en forme de sphère = a triangular area of a roof pendant in the shape of a sphere
– (au sens figuré) élégance et brio = (figuratively) elegance and panache

According to Reverso, panache can also mean:
– a plume (of smoke/water) = une panache (de fumée/d’eau)
– showiness

Some examples:
– avec panache = gallantly
– sans panache = unimpressive

A related word is panaché, which means:

– décoré de couleurs variées = decorated with various colours / varigated / colourful
– composé de différents éléments = made up of different parts / mixed
– boisson qui est composée de bière et de limonade = shandy (a mixture of beer/lager and lemonade)

Some examples:
– glace panachée = mixed ice cream
– salade panachée = mixed salad
– œillet panaché = variegated carnation

The verb panacher (to mix) also exists.

An alternative way to say ‘with great panache’ is avec maestria.

Queen’s English Society throws in the towel

By Simon

According to an article I found in The Guardian today, the Queen’s English Society (QES) has decided to close after 40 years of championing good English due to lack of interest.

The QES website states that:

The Society campaigns to encourage high standards of written and spoken English, which have been found to be lamentably low among school-leavers and even university graduates. One of its principal campaigns is for better and explicit English language education and regular constructive correction of errors in English language in schools. The Society arranges meetings, lectures and courses, promotes research, publishes members’ work and provides media comment.

One achievement of the QES was to help shape the spelling, punctuation and grammar elements of English in the national curriculum.

Are there similar organisations in other countries? I know that are language academies in some places, such as L’Académie française in French, but about in other countries?

Do any aspects of language usage bother you?