Radio ga ga

By Simon

I find listening to radio programmes in the languages I’m studying is a good way to tune my ears to the languages, and to learn new vocabulary and grammar. With some languages I only have a vague idea what the radio people are talking about, if I really concentrate. With others, particularly Welsh, I’ve got to the stage where I can understand the majority of what I hear and actually learn new and interesting things from the programmes I listen to. It’s taken many years of regular listening to get to this stage. My Irish and Scottish Gaelic haven’t quite got there yet, but I haven’t been listening to them for as long.

If the language you’re studying isn’t spoken where you live, radio listening provides a sort of virtual immersion. It doesn’t give you opportunities to actually speak and interact with native speakers though, unless you join in radio phone-ins.

Word of the day – Hypocorism

By Simon

A hypocorism is a pet name or diminutive. For example, Bob, Rob, Bobby, Robbie (from Robert). I came across this word for the first time the other day and had to look it up because I didn’t know what it meant.

Hypocorisms or diminutives seem to be more widely used in some languages than in others. The Slavic languages use them a lot, and not just for people’s names – just about any noun has a hypocoristic form. At least that’s what my Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian-speaking friends tell me.

Hypocoristic affixes in English include

-ey/y/ie, as in doggie (dog), horsey (horse), barbie (barbeque), postie (postman/woman), tinnie (tin [of beer]), cozzie (swimming costume), mozzie (mosquito), footie/footy (football). This affix is particularly popular in Australia and Scotland.

-ling, as in duckling, gosling

-ette, as in kitchenette, cigarette, towellette

-let, as in piglet

Can you think of any others?

There are more examples of hypocorisms/diminutives in a variety of languages here.

Canu caneon yn y Gymraeg

By Simon

Heddiw fe ddes i o hyd i ddau wefanau diddorol iawn:

CanuDrosGymru.com
Pwrpas y wefan hon ydy dod â chaneuon Cymraeg at sylw y Cymry di-Gymraeg – ond os bydd yn atgoffa ambell Gymro neu Gymraes am ein hetifeddiaeth gerddorol, gorau’n y byd!

Codi Canu – Ystafell Ymarfer
Eich siop-un-stop i ddysgu caneuon newydd gyda’r corau, neu ail-ddysgu hen ganeuon i berfformio ar eich teithiau i gemau’r 6 gwlad! Mae darnau’r Soprano, Alto, Tenor a bas yma i chi, felly peidiwch oedi.

Today I came across a couple of interesting websites:

Sing4Wales.com
A website that includes the a number of well-known Welsh songs with their lyrics and videos of people singing them. It’s designed to encourage those unfamiliar with these songs, or who have forgotten them, to (re)learn them. Quite a few of the videos seem to be Siân James singing the songs and accompanying herself on the harp – hyfryd!

Codi Canu – Rehearsal Room
Includes a small selection of Welsh songs with recordings of their tunes, Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass parts with an online practice tool, and recordings of the words being spoken so that you can get to grips with the pronunciation.

Word doubling

By Simon

When you want to emphasis something, one way to do this in English, and in a number of other languages, is to repeat the word. Sometimes the repeated word is altered, often to make a better rhyme. Sometimes the second word is one with a similar meaning to the first one and which rhymes with it. There may be another linguistic term for this phenomenon, but for now I’m calling it word doubling.

Here are some examples:

English
easy peasy, really truly, holy moly
[additions] hurly-burly, helter-skelter, hob-nob, hodge-podge, flip-flop, riff-raff

Irish
i ndáiríre píre = really truly; cogar mogar = whispering

Japanese
人々 (hitobito) = everybody (人 = person) – the symbol 々 indicates the duplication of a character.

Mandarin
小小的 (xiǎoxiaode) = very small;
滿滿的 (mǎnmǎnde) = full to the brim (滿的 = full);
四四方方 (sìsìfāngfāng) = having the shape of a real square (四方 = square).

Can you think of other examples? Does this happen in your language?

Stop the world, I want to get off!

By Simon

This week I started putting together a page of translations of the phrase “Stop the world, I want to get off”. I was looking through my page of ‘useful’ phrases and noticed that I have a Spanish version of this phrase. I wondered if I could find translations into other language, and so far have found a few. Could you supply versions of this phrase in any other languages?

I’ve also added a new section to my site – Can o’ Songs – a collection of songs that I’ve learnt in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, with English translations, background info (where available), links to other versions of the songs and lists of albums which include the songs. I plan to add recordings of me singing the songs and/or playing them on the tin whistle, and I’ll be adding quite a few other songs to this section when I have a spare moment or two. If any of you feel inspired to send in recordings you’ve made of any of the songs already there, or would like to suggest any other songs I could have a go at, please let me know.

Le PM parle le français

By Simon

Yesterday I came across a video on YouTube of Tony Blair congratulating Nicolas Sarkozy, in French, for his victory in the recent French presidential election. I didn’t know that old Tony could speak any other language other than English, but he seems to speak French pretty fluently, with quite an English accent.

He starts the video with the following:

Bonjour à tous. J’ai décidé de me risquer à vous adresser ce message en français, ce qui est peut-être une bien mauvaise idée.

This suggests that he isn’t entirely confident about his French abilities, or maybe he’s just being modest.

I wonder if Tony actually speaks French when on official visits to France or other French-speaking countries. Or does he use interpreters.

Speaking foreign

By Simon

In fiction most characters seem able to communicate with each other without any problems, even if they speak different languages, though some authors use language difficulties or attempts to speak other languages for comic effect.

For example, in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad, which I’m currently re-reading for the umpteenth time, one of the witches comes up with requests like, “Openny vous, gunga din, chop-chop, pretty damn quick”, “Gooden day, big-feller mine host! Trois beers pour favour us, silver plate”, and “Garkon? Mucho vino aveck zei, grassy ass”, which nobody understands. One of the other witches just speaks more slowly and turns up the volume.

Just thought I’d share this with you.