Oideas Gael

By Simon

I’m having a wonderful time in Gleann Cholm Cille learning to play the harp and speaking plenty of Irish. The course is going really well – we started with basic techniques, and have learnt a number of tunes, including some from the Bóroimhe / Brian Boru suite by Michael Rooney.

I’ve videoed our teacher, Oisín Morrison, playing all the pieces we’ve learnt so far, and he’s going to give us some more pieces to learn at home.

People come here from all over the world on holiday and to do courses at Oideas Gael – this week you can do Irish language classes, harp playing, or hill walking – so there are opportunities to speak quite a few languages, including French, German, Swedish, Mandarin, Dutch and Scottish Gaelic. I’ve even learnt a bit of Serbian from a Bosnian woman who is studying Irish here.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
l’onde / le vague de chaleur heatwave ton wres; poethdon
le marché bargin (deal) bargen
faire un marché to make a bargain taro bargen; dod i delerau
faire le (la) difficile to drive a hard bargain bargeinio’n galed; taro bargen galed
l’affaire (f) bargain (good buy) bargen
C’était une (bonne) affaire it was / they were a (good) bargain roedd yn fargen dda
marchander to bargain (haggle) bargeinio
négocier; traiter to bargain (negotiate) bargeinio
la rampe handrail (on stairs) canllaw
la balustrade rail (on bridge or balcony) canllaw
la tringle (curtain) rail ffon llen; ffon cyrten
l’armoire (f) wardrobe (cupboard) wardrob; cwpwrdd dillad; dilladfa
la garde-robe wardrobe (clothes) dilladau; gwisgoedd
l’assiette (f) anglaise cold meat/cuts cig mân
la gencive gum (part of mouth) deintgig
le bilan de santé (medical) check-up archwiliad (meddygol)
l’arête (f) ridge (of mountain; roof) trum; crib; cefn
le diplômé (d’université) (university) graduate gŵr gradd; merch radd; graddedig
le chouchas jackdaw jac-do; jac-y-do; cogfran
la cacahuète peanut pysgneuenl; cneuen ddaear/fwnci
le frein à main hand-brake brêc llaw
le roulement de tambour drum roll sŵn drwm; dadwrdd drwm; tabyrddiad

Gleann Cholm Cille

By Simon

My pedran bach harp

Tomorrow I’m off to Oideas Gael in Gleann Cholm Cille in Donegal in the north west of Ireland to do a course in harp playing. This will be the tenth time I’ve been there, though the first time I’ve done the harp course. Normally I go for a summer school in Irish language and culture where I do Irish language classes in the mornings and sean-nós singing in the afternoons.

The Irish language classes, at least the advanced level ones I do, tend to focus on using Irish to learn about and discuss things such as culture, politics, religion, and so on, which is interesting, though as my main interest is Irish music and songs, I’d prefer to concentrate on the singing, or singing and making music. Unfortunately they don’t offer sean-nós courses on their own, so I thought I’d do the harp course this year.

At the summer school last year a number of people mentioned the harp course and said how good it was, or that they were planning to take it, and this got me thinking about trying it myself. I’ve wanted to learn the harp for a long time, and earlier this year I bought myself a small harp from Pedran Harps (pictured top right), which I really enjoy playing.

Each time I go to Ireland my Irish (Gaelic) gets a bit better. I rarely get to speak it at other times, but keep it ticking over by listening to Irish language radio and reading Irish books and other material. I think the harp course will be taught in English, unless all the participants speak Irish, so I won’t use much Irish in class. Outside class I’ll speak Irish as much as possible. I’ll probably get to speak a few other languages as people from all over the world do the courses in Gleann Cholm Cille.

International Conference ICT for Language Learning

By Simon

Here is a conference that might be of interest to you: International Conference ICT for Language Learning.

It takes place in Florence in Italy from 13-14 November 2014, and will bring together teachers, researchers, practitioners and project managers from all over the world to share findings, expertise and experience about integrating innovative technologies and solutions into language teaching and learning.

The conference will also be an opportunity for sharing results achieved in language learning projects funded by the European Commission and by other sources.

Topic areas are intentionally broad to encourage a wide range of backgrounds, ideas, and discussions.

They are currently calling for papers, and the deadline for submission is the 4th August.

Ultracrepidarianism

By Simon

Are you an ultracrepidiarianist? Or maybe that should be ultracrepidiarian. Many of us are. An ultracrepidarianism is someone who makes a habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside their knowledge or competence. It’s a word I came across in Think Like a Freak, and interesting book by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

According to Wikipedia, ultracrepidarianism first appeared in a letter by William Hazlitt in 1819. It comes from a comment by an ancient Greek artist, Apelles, made to a cobbler who criticised one of his paintings. First the cobbler criticised one of the sandals in painting, then other parts of the painting. According to Pliny, Apelles said to the cobbler “Sutor, ne ultra crepidam” (‘Cobbler, not beyond the sandals’). Related sayings are found in English: “A cobbler should stick to his last*”; Dutch: “Schoenmaker, blijf bij je leest”; and German: “Schuster, bleib bei deinem/deinen Leisten”.

According to World Wide Words, crepidam derives from Greek krepis (shoe), and crepidarian is a very rare adjective meaning “pertaining to a shoemaker”.

* A last is “A shoemaker’s model for shaping or repairing a shoe or boot.” [source].

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
décoller to take off (plane) codi; esgyn
le client (hotel) guest gwestai
l’invité (house) guest gwestai
la combinaison de plongée wetsuit siwt gweithgareddau dwr
le coup de glotte glottal stop ffrwydrolyn/stop glotol
(pousser un) coup de guele (to have a) rant rhefru; arthio; brygowthan
la guele-de-loup snapdragon (Antirrhinum) trwyn llo; safn y llew

Les coups de glotte and other coups

By Simon

Coup de glotte / Glottal Stop

Yesterday I discovered that the French for glottal stop is coup de glotte (“blow of the glottis”).

The word coup (blow, shot, stroke, wave, kick, punch, move) appears in many other expressions, including:

– (donner un) coup de balai = (to) sweep; shake up
– coup de vent = blow of wind
– coup de tête = header; whim
– coup de tabac = squall; gale
– coup de pied = kick
– c’est le coup de barre ! = it’s daylight robbery!
– j’ai le coup de barre ! = all of a sudden I feel totally shattered!
– coup de bol = stroke of luck (bol = bowl)
– coup de boule = headbutt
– coup de brosse = brushstroke
– coup de théâtre = dramatic turn of events
– coup de cafard = fit of the blues (cafard = cockroach)
– coup de chapeau = pat on the back (fig)
– donner un coup de chapeau à qn/qch = to give sb/sth full marks; to praise sb/sth
– coup de chapeau à X ! = hats off to X!
– coup d’état = coup (d’État); putsch
– coup de grâce = coup de grace; deathblow
– (pousser un) coup de gueule = (to have a) rant

Gueule is another interesting word that came up in the French conversation group yesterday and which means the mouth/snout/muzzle of an animal, and is used as a slang word for a person’s mouth – the equivalent of mug, gob, cakehole, etc in English. Do you have any others?

One quite rude way to tell people to be quiet in French is “Ta gueule !”, and if you drink a lot of alcohol you might wake up the following morning with une gueule de bois (“a wooden gob”) or a hangover. A gueule-de-loup (“wolf’s snout”), on the other hand, is a snapdragon (Antirrhinum), which is a trwyn llo (“cow’s nose”) or a safn y llew (“lion’s mouth”) in Welsh. By the way, the botanical name for snapdragon, Antirrhinum, comes from Greek and means “like a nose”.

Changing accents

By Simon

I heard an interesting discussion on Radio Cymru recently about accents. They talked about Welsh, and English, regional accents that have negative associations for people from other regions, or that people find difficult to follow, and whether they would change their accent to make it easier for others to understand them, and/or to avoid the negative associations.

My accent has changed a bit over time – it is currently more or less RP, but used to be more northern, and it depends to some extent though on who I’m talking to. I haven’t tried to change it deliberately. The only thing I consciously pay attention to in formal situations is the pronunciation of th [θ/ð], particularly the unvoiced version, [θ], which tends to default to [f].

Are the negative associations with accents from particular parts of your country, or with accents of particular social groups within your country?

Have you deliberately changed your accent in your native language(s)? If so, what led you to do so?