Month: April 2013

The importance of stress

By Simon

Last night at the Polyglot conversation group a friend who is learning Welsh told me about the difficulties he had when trying to buy a train ticket to Dolwyddelan, a small village in the Conwy valley in North Wales. None of the ways he tried to pronounce it were understood by the ticket seller, so he ended up spelling it out. I also wasn’t sure what place he was referring to until he spelled it for me, even though I’m used to hearing mispronounced versions of Welsh place names.

In Welsh word stress almost always falls on the penultimate (last but one) syllable, so in Dolwyddelan it’s on the ddel, i.e. /dɔlʊiˈðɛlan/. If you put the stress anywhere else words just sound wrong or incomprehensible.

In languages like Welsh where there stress is usually in the same place it’s not so hard to get it right, but in languages with irregular stress placement, like English and Russian, it’s more difficult. You can try to learn where it goes in each individual word, and/or try to develop an instinct for it through extensive listening. I think I’m beginning to do his for Russian.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
le poney (des îles Shetland) (Shetland) pony merlen; merlyn; poni (Shetland) pone (Shetland)
la mouette tridactyle kittiwake gwylan goesddu karaveg
l’ornithologue ornithologist adaregwr, adaregydd evnoniour
l’orinthologue amateur bird-watcher; twitcher gwyliwr adar; sbeciwr ar adar evnoniour amatour
la menuiserie woodwork (joinery) gwaith coed munuzerezh
sortir d’un peu partout to crawl out of the woodwork
la charpenterie carpentry gwaith coed/saer; saernïaeth frammerezh; kilvizerezh
l’ébénisterie (f) cabinetmaking gwaith saer ebenouriezh
le cil eyelash blewyn amrant; blewyn llygad (blev) malvenn
le sourcil eye brow ael abrant
pire worse gwaeth gwashoc’h
empirer to worsen gwaethygu; mynd yn waeth gwashañ
ne faire que empirer to get worse and worse mynd o ddrwg i waeth gwashoc’h-gwashañ
au pire if the worst comes to the worst os daw hi i’r pen; ar y gwaethaf ar gwashañ

Write

By Simon

Last night a friend asked me why the word write begins with a silent w, so I thought I’d investigate.

According to the OED, the word write comes from the Old English wrítan (to incise, engrave, write, draw; bestow by writing). It is related to the Old Frisian wrîta (to score, write) and the Old Saxon wrîtan (to cut, write), which all come from the from Proto-Germanic *writanan (to tear, scratch).

So it seems that the w goes back to Proto-Germanic, a reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages which is thought to have been spoken between about 500 BC and 500 AD.

Does anyone know if the w in write used to be pronounced?

Shoogle

By Simon

One interesting word I’ve heard people using in Shetland is shoogle [ʃogl; ʃugl; ʃʌgl; ʃʌugl], which means;

– to sway, move unsteadily, to rock, wobble, swing;
– to shake, joggle, to cause to totter or rock, to swing backwards and forwards;
– to jog along, move with little unsteady jerks; to shuffle in walking

It is also written shogle, schogle, shooggle, shougle, shuggle and shochle, and comes from the word shog (jolt, shake), from the Middle English shoggen, shaggen [source].

A related word is shoogly, which means wobbly.

Here are a few examples of usage (from the Dictionary of the Scots Language):

– It’s a bit rusty but it still works – you just have to give the key a bit of a shoogle in the lock.

– Gie the salad dressin a shoogle tae mix it right.

– It was gey shoggly and sometimes I fell off.

– Will I hae to shoogle hands wi’ a’ that crood?

I just like the sound of this word.

Staying, stopping and living

By Simon

I noticed recently that in Scottish English and Scots people use the word stay to mean that you live in a place, i.e. that you live there on a permanent or long-term basis.

When I hear this I usually know what is meant from the context, but it can be ambiguous at times, as to me a stay usually a short-term thing, such as holiday. I would use live to indicate a long-term stay – e.g. I live in Bangor, but am currently staying with a friend in Lerwick in Shetland.

According to the Online Scots Dictionary, stey [stəi] means “To stay, to remain, tarry. To dwell, reside permanently, to make one’s home.”

Related words include:
– bide [bəid] = to dwell, reside, wait, stay, await, stay for, remain
– stap [stap] = to live or stay at an address (among many other meanings)
– wone [wɔn, wɪn] = to dwell, live, stay habitually. To accustom oneself to, be reconciled to.

I can’t find an equivalent Scots words for a short-term stay, though I think bide is used in this context, particularly in Shetland.

In other varieties of English and in other languages is there a distinction between a short-term stay and a long-term one?

Partners, other halves and significant others

By Simon

There was some discussion last night at the polyglot conversation group about the words boyfriend and girlfriend and their equivalents in other languages, particularly in Dutch. In English the words boyfriend and girlfriend seem to indicate someone who is relatively young, so don’t seem quite appropriate for use by more mature couples when referring to each other. There are many alternatives, including partner, life partner, other half, better half, companion, gentleman/lady friend, soul mate, significant other, sweetheart, lover, paramour and so on. Do you use or do you know others?

In Dutch it’s much easier – a special male friend is referred to as mijn vriend (my (male) friend), and a special female friend is referred to as mijn vriendin (my (female) friend). A non-intimate friend is simply een vriend(in) (a friend) or een vriend(in) van mij (a friend of mine).

In Welsh it’s straightforward as well – cariad covers both boyfriend and girlfriend, and cyfaill or ffrind is used for ordinary friends.