Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Afalau a chaneuon
Fel arfer, mi wnes i gweithio ar fy wefan y bore ‘ma – heddiw mi wnes i rhoi tudalen newydd efo manylion am fath o Aramaeg arno (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic). Ar ôl cinio mi wnes i stiwio afalau o fy afallen efo syltanaiaid a thipyn bach o fêl, ac yn y grŵp sgrwsio amlieithog, mi wnaethon ni siarad am y Wyddeleg, a chaneuon yn y Wyddeleg yn arbennig.
As usual, I worked on my website this morning – today I added a new page with details of a type of Aramaic (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic). After lunch I stewed some apples from my apple tree with sultanas and a bit of honey, and in the polyglot conversation group we talked about Irish, and particularly about Irish songs.
Digonedd o gorau
Y bore ‘ma mi wnes i tipyn bach o waith, ac yn y prynhawn mi wnes i canu yn y côr MS. Gyda’r nos mi wnes i canu yn côr gwirion, ac roedd aelod newydd yna – ffrind i mi o’r grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg. Mi wnaeth o dysgu ni cân yn yr Almaeneg, ac mi wnaethon ni mwynhau ein hunain yn fawr.
This morning I did a bit of work, and in the afternoon I sang in the MS choir. In the evening I sang in the crazy choir, and there was a new member there – a friend of mine from the French conversation group. He taught us a German song, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Attitudes of minority languages speakers to learners
A friend of mine posted an interesting question on Regional, Minority & Indigenous Languages group on Facebook:
“Has anyone ever experienced rejection or hostility from a minority group for learning their language?”
This generated a lot of discussion.
Sometimes when I speak Welsh to people in shops in Bangor they will reply in English. I don’t know why they do this, but it is a but frustrating. That is the only negative experiences I’ve had with speakers of the minority languages I speak or am learning (Welsh, Breton, Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic and Manx).
I have only met a few young Breton speakers, and they were happy to talk to me in Breton, but I understand that many older native speakers of Breton are not willing to talk to learners, partly because they find them difficult to understand as they speak a standardised form of Breton with lots of neologisms.
If you are studying or have learnt any minority/endangered languages, have you had any problems with being accepted by their speech communities?
Ffrangeg a Iwcailis
Ro’n i’n ar fin mynd i’r grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg heno pan ges i neges testun o’r hogyn sy’n rhedeg y grŵp iwcalili yn gofyn i mi i helpu efo gwers iwcalili yn y prifysgol. Felly es i yno ac mi wnes i helpu tipyn bach. Roedd y gwers yn Siamber Cyngor y prifysgol – ystafell grand iawn. Ar ôl hynny mi aethon ni i’r tafarn Groegeg lle mi wnaethon ni parhau i ganu a sgwrsio. Dydy’r grŵp mewn trefn da ar hyn o bryd, ond mi wnaethon ni mwynhau beth bynnag.
I was about to go to the French conversation group tonight when I got a text from the lad who runs the ukulele group asking for help with a ukulele lesson in the university. So I went there and helped a bit. The lesson was in the university’s Council Chamber – a rather fine room. After that we went to the Greek and continued to play, sing and chat. The group isn’t very well organized at the moment, but we enjoyed it anyway.
Sesiynau
Roedd sesiwn da yn fy nhŷ y prynhawn ‘ma efo tri ohonon ni yn canu’r cymysgedd arferol o gerddoriaeth o Ynys Manaw, o’r Alban ac o Iwerddon. Ar ôl canu yn y côr cymuned yn yr hwyr, mi es i adref, ac ro’n i’n meddwl am fynd i sesiwn cerddoriaeth yn y Skerries, tafarn fach rownd y gornel o fan hyn, ond mi wnaeth hi’n dechrau bwrw glaw trwm a mi wnes i penderfynu aros gatref.
There was a good session in my house this afternoon with three of us playing the usual mixture of tunes from the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland. After singing in the community choir in the evening, I went home and was thinking about going to a music session in the Skerries, a small pub round the corner from here, but it started to rain heavily and I decided to stay at home.
Twitterizing
Today I finally got round to signing up for Twitter, something I’d considered for a long time, but didn’t do anything about – this is often how I do things, or rather don’t do them. I’ll be tweeting as @Omniglossia as someone else is using @Omniglot. I plan to use to as a place to post sentences that I’ve put together in languages I’m learning. I try to make them memorable by adding unusual, silly and funny elements along with the ordinary words I want to remember. Your corrections, comments and suggestions are always welcome. I’ll also use it promote stuff going on elsewhere in the Omniglot realm.
Do you use Twitter as a tool for learning languages and/or for practising languages?
Rwseg
Mi wnaethon ni siarad yn ac am Rwseg, ac yn y Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg, yn y grŵp sgwrsio amlieithog neithiwr. Ac ar ôl hynny mi es i i Global Café, a mi wnes i cwrdd â phobl o’r Eidal, o Wlad Belg ac o’r Ffindir, ac mi wnaethon ni siarad yn Saesneg yn bennaf, efo tipyn bach o Eidaleg a Ffrangeg.
We talked in and about Russian, and in Welsh and English, in the polyglot conversation group yesterday evening. After that I went to Global Café and met people from Italy, Belgium and Finland, and we talked mainly in English, with a little Italian and French.
Dydd diog
Mi wnes tipyn bach o waith y bore ‘ma, ac ar ôl cinio mi wnes i dysgu mwy o Lydaweg, mi wnes ymarfer fy medrau sircas, ac mi wnes i canu’r gitâr, y piano a rhyw offer eraill. Mi wnes i dechrau sgwennu cân newydd hefyd – cân y fydd yn cymysgu diarhebion, ymadroddion a llafarddulliau efo’n gilydd mewn moddion diddorol a doniol. Does dim tôn eto, ond mae gen i rhyw llinellau o eiriau. Enw y gân ydy ‘How many roads?’ a dyma’r llinell gyntaf: ‘How many roads must a chicken cross, before it grows any teeth?’.
I did some work this morning, and after lunch I learnt a bit more Breton, practised my circus skills, and played the guitar, piano and a few other instruments. I also started to write a new song, which will mix proverbs, sayings, idioms in interesting and amusing ways. I don’t have a tune yet, but I have a few lines of words. The name of the song is ‘How many roads?’ and here’s the first line: ‘How many roads must a chicken cross, before it grows any teeth?’.
Learning vocabulary
There are some interesting tips on how to learn vocabulary (including my own little contribution) on SmartLanguageLearner.com. Do you use any of these methods? Or do you have your own ones?
Since I wrote my contribution to that blog, I’ve been thinking about this and realised that constructing sentences using words I’m learning might help them to stick in my memory, especially if the sentences include unusual, silly and/or funny words and create interesting images and associations. For example, if I want to learn words for furniture I might picture each piece of furniture with an animal in, on, under, behind or in front of it – there’s a camel on the chair, a tiger under the table and a fox in the fridge. These should be a bit more memorable than ‘the cat sat on the mat’ and will help me learn animal names, and prepositions, or the equivalents. I could also expand the sentences to add verbs and adjectives I want to remember. Maybe Dr Seus books in languages I’m learning would help as well.