Month: August 2018

Wonky Strawberries

By Simon

Wonky strawberries

Yesterday I bought some ‘naturally wonky strawberries‘ at the supermarket. They were cheaper than the non-wonky strawberries, and do not meet the same aesthetic standards, but taste just as good. Normally such imperfect fruit would be thrown away, so selling them reduces food waste. Also I like the word wonky, and thought I’d find out more about where it comes from.

Wonky means lopsided, misaligned, off-centre; feeble, shaky, rickety; generally incorrect. It can also refer to “A subgenre of electronic music employing unstable rhythms, complex time signatures, and mid-range synths”.

It comes from the Middle English wankel (unstable, shaky), from the Old English wancol (unstable), from the Proto-Germanic *wankulaz (swaying, shaky, unstable), from the Proto-Germanic *wankōną (to sway, be unsteady), from Proto-Indo-European *wa(n)k-, *wek-, *wag-, *weg- (to swing, be unsteady, slant, be crooked) [source].

Wonky is also the nickname of the main character in Jasper Fforde’s new novel, Early Riser, which I just finished reading, and really enjoyed. It includes made-up words and word play, so is linguistically interesting, and I’d thoroughly recommend it.

Bread, loaves and circles

By Simon

Language quiz image

In most Slavic languages the word for bread is chleb or something similar: Czech & Polish: chleb, Slovak: chlieb, Russian & Belarusian: хлеб, Ukrainian: хліб, Bulgarian: хляб, Macedonian: леб.

These words all comes from the Proto-Slavic *xlěbъ (bread), from the Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz (bread). [source]. *hlaibaz is also the root of the English word loaf, the German Laib (loaf), and words for loaf in other Germanic languages [source].

However, in Slovenian the word for bread is kruh, which means circle or ring in Czech, although the Czech word probably comes from a different root [source]. It comes from the Proto-Slavic *kruxъ (chunk, bread), which comes from *krews (crush, break) [source].

The bread in the photo is a type of Slovenian potato bread known as krompirjev kruh. You can find recipes here (in Slovenian) and here (in English).

Učenje slovenščine (Learning Slovenian)

By Simon

Slovenia

Yesterday I started learning Slovenian (slovenščina) in preparation for the Polyglot Conference in Ljubljana in Slovenia in October. I always try to learn at least a little of any languages I’m likely to encounter on my travels – it’s only polite.

I’m using a Memrise course, and may use other resources – if you have any suggestions, do let me know.

A few years ago I went to a polyglot conference in Novi Sad in Serbia, and learnt some Serbian before going there. Slovenian seems to have a lot in common with Serbian, so far.

There was a lass from Ljubljana learning Irish in Ireland last week, and she taught me a few useful Slovenian phrases.