Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
Jinnair Frangagh
Riyr hie mee dys y thie bee ‘The Old Boathouse‘ ayns Anglesey lesh y possan coloayrtys Frangagh er son oie Frangagh. Va jinnair mie ain, ren shin keishtaghan mychione baatyn as abbyrtys shiaulteyragh, as va taitnys vooar oc. Va yn emshir fliugh as geayeeagh agglagh, agh t’eh braew jiu.
Cinio Ffrengig
Neithiwr es i i dŷ bwyta ‘The Old Boathouse‘ yn Nhraeth Coch ar Ynys Môn efo’r grŵp sgwrs Ffrengig am nos Ffrengig. Roedd y cinio yn dda, mi wnaethon ni cwis am cychod a phethau morwol, ac mi fwynheuon ni ein hunain yn fawr. Roedd y tywydd yn ofnadwy o wlyb a gwyntog, ond mae’n braf heddiw.
Dinnéar Fraincise
Aréir chuaigh mé chuig an bialann ‘The Old Boathouse‘ i Anglesey leis an grúpa comhrá Fraincise ar oíche Fraincise. Bhí dinnéar maith againn, rinne muid ceistiúchán ar báid agus cúrsaí mhuirí, agus bhain muid an-sult as an oíche. Bhí gaoth agus báisteach mhór ann, ach tá lá breá ann inniu.
Word of the day – lakh
Today’s word, lakh, appears in the description of a online Gujarati dictionary. It means 100,000 and is used in the English of India and in other languages spoken in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma and Pakistan. Lakh comes from the Hindi लाख (lākh), which itself comes from the Sanskrit लक्ष (lakṣá).
A related word is crore (करोड़ in Hindi), which means 100 lakh, or 10 million, is often abbreviated to cr, and appears in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – Kaun Banega Crorepati? (Who will be a ten-millionaire?).
The Gujarati equivalents of lakh and crore are લાખ (lākh) and કરોડ (karoḍ).
The new dictionary looks really useful, by the way, with monolingual (Gujarati-Gujarati), and bilingual (Gujarati<>English) options, as well as a thesaurus (બંધિયાર સ્થળો), phrases (તાળો), idioms (ચુડેલનો વાંસો), proverbs (સુખનું મૂળ સંતોષ), a spellchecker and other tools and information.
Arabic dish
Name the language
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
Cuirrey kiaull eddyr-Gaelgagh
Riyr va cuirrey kiaull eddyr-Gaelgagh yindyssagh ayn ayns Purt ny h-Inshey lesh kiaulleyderyn voish Mannin, Nerin as Nalbin. V’eh fer vie clashtyn arraneyn as taggloo ayns Gaelg, Yernish as Gaelg Albinagh.
Cyngerdd Gaeleg
Neithiwr roedd cyngerdd ardderchog ym Mheel efo cantorion a cherddorion o Ynys Manaw, Iwerddon ac Yr Alban. Roedd hi’n wych clywed caneuon a sgwrs yn Fanaweg, Wyddeleg ac Aeleg.
Leaght y Ghaaue
Last night I went to a fascinating lecture in Manx about Venice which covered the city’s history, architecture, transport and much more. It was given by Bob Carswell, a Manx speaker, translator, poet and broadcaster who regularly talks with great enthusiasm about a wide range of topics on his radio programme, Claare ny Gael.
The type of language used and the information discussed was university level, and while I didn’t understand every word, and got a bit lost when he was explaining some of the technicalities of how the city was built, I was able to understand most of the lecture.
One thing he mentioned was the many different terms there are in Venice for streets, lanes, alleyways, etc, including via (street), calle (a walkway between two buildings), calleta (a narrower calle), salizada (a broader calle), ruga (a calle with lots of shops -from French, rue), rio (small canal), rio terrà / terà (filled-in canal), fondamenta (a walkway that runs along a rio or the lagoon), and sotoportego (a covered walkway through a building).
There are also quite a few terms used in street names in English – street, road, lane, alley, passage, close, drive, place, green, croft, way, grove, gardens, end, crescent, bank, and so on.
Is the same true in other languages?
Arrane son Mannin
Jea er y vaatey veih Heysham haink mee er caarey aym ta Gaelg eck, ren shin coloayrts as Gaelg, as hoig mee y chooid smoo.
Riyr hie mee dys cuirrey kiaull yindyssagh ayns Purt ny h-Inshey. Haghyr cohirrey ‘Arrane son Mannin’, as va ram kiaulleyderyn schleioil elley ayn.
Cân i Ynys Manaw
Ddoe ar y bad o Heysham mi gwrddes i â ffrind sy’n medru Manaweg, naethon ni sgwrsio yn y Fanaweg, a ddealles i y mwyarif.
Neithiwr es i i gyngerdd ardderchog ym Mheel. Roedd y gystadleuaeth ‘Cân i Ynys Manaw’ yn digwydd, a roedd llawer o gerddorion a chantorion yna.
Y Cooish
I’m currently in the Isle of Man for the Cooish, a festival of Manx language and traditional music from the Isle of Man, Ireland and Scotland. Last night I went to an excellent concert in Peel which included the Arrane son Mannin (Song for Man) competition, and there’s a lecture in Manx (Leaght y Ghaaue) this evening.
Yesterday I met a Manx-speaking friend on the boat coming over and we talked Manx throughout the crossing. Well actually she did most of the talking and I contributed to the conversation whenever I could. It was the longest conversation I’ve ever had in Manx and I was pleased to find that I could understand almost everything, and even got the jokes.
My Manx tends to get mixed up with Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and even Welsh sometimes, but my friend is fluent in Irish, and speaks some Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, so this didn’t matter so much. We did try to stick to Manx most of the time though.
One of the things we were discussing was false friends between the Gaelic languages. For example, daoine means people in Irish, while in Manx dooiney means men, and the word for people is sleih, mooinjer or pobble. In Scottish Gaelic people is poball or sluagh, and men is daoine.
We also tried to translate Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody into Manx, though couldn’t remember all the words in English and weren’t sure of the Manx equivalents of some of the words we could remember.
Y Cooish
Ta mee goll dys Mannin mairagh er son Y Cooish as ta mee jeeaghyn roym lesh.
Dw i’n mynd i Ynys Manaw yfory am Y Cooish, gŵyl yr iaith Fanaweg, a dw i’n edyrch ymlaen yn fawr ato.
Tá mé ag dhul go dtí an Oileán Mhanann amárach chun Y Cooish, féile an teanga Mhanannais, agus tá mé ag súil go mór lesh.