Word of the day – 闋 (què)

By Simon

闋 (què) – to close or shut the door after finishing something; to be at rest; to end; the expiry of a period of mourning; a numerical adjunct for songs; empty, blank

In addition to all the above meanings, this character is also used as a measure word (量詞 [量词] liàngcí) for words (詞 [词] cí) and indeed measure words themselves. Measure words or classifiers are used when counting things in Chinese, and also in Japanese, Thai and a number of other languages of East Asia. In English we have a few measure words, such as a box of matches, a sheet of paper, a pint of milk, a can of worms, etc. In Chinese there are about 150 such words and they have to be used when you add a number to a noun.

You can’t just say, for example, two tables, or three letters, instead you have to add a measure word between the number and the noun – for tables the measure word is 張 [张] (zhāng), which means sheet and is used for flat objects (paper, tables, etc.), faces, bows, paintings, tickets and constellations, e.g. 兩張桌子 (liǎng zhāng zhuòzi) – two tables. For letters the measure word is 封 (fēng), e.g. 三封信 (sān fēng xìn) – three letters (the kind you put in an envelope).

Fortunately there is a default measure word 個 [个] (ge) which you can use if you can’t remember the correct one.

Learning Russian and Manx

By Simon

I’ve been learning Russian with Rosetta Stone for just over six months now and don’t feel like I’m making much progress. The Rosetta Stone Russian course is a fairly effective way of learning vocabulary and some sentence patterns, but not particularly useful if you want to learn how to converse in Russian. So I’m considering trying a different course. Any suggestions? As far as I can tell, the Teach Yourself Russian courses seem to be pretty good.

Why am I learning Russian? Well, a knowledge of that language would be quite useful to me when editing websites in Russian, and I am quite interested in Russian literature. I’ve read and enjoyed some Russian novels and short stories in English and French translation, and would quite like to be able to read them and others in the original – it will be quite a while before I can do that though, I think.

Ec y traa cheddin, ta mee gynsaghey Gaelg myrgeddin. Shegin dou jannoo ymmyd mennick jeh fockleyr, agh ta fys ennagh aym er y Ghaelg nish. Ta mee goaill gynsaghey çhengaghyn, ny çhengaghyn Celtiagh er lheh, as ta treisht orrym bee Gaelg flaaoil aym dy leah.

At the same time, I’ve also been learning Manx, and can now understand, speak, read and write it, at least to some extent, with frequent reference to a dictionary. The Manx courses I’ve been using are more focused on everyday language, and I’m more motivated to learn Manx.

Traditional v Simplified Characters (繁體或简体)

By Simon

This morning not long after I switched on my computer two people were wanting to chat to me on MSN messenger, one from China and one from Taiwan. I had to keep on changing from writing in simplified to traditional characters but occasionally forgot, much to their confusion. At the same time I was also writing email in English – multitaskingtastic! (now that’s a bit of a tonguetwister) I use pinyin input for both types of characters, so it’s easy for me switch between them.

This got me thinking about whether those familiar with simplified characters and read traditional characters, and vice versa. My impression is that it’s easier for traditional character users to read simplified characters than the other way round, but I may be wrong.

Which do you prefer, traditional of simplified characters? I can read and write both kinds and prefer the traditional ones. The traditional characters just look more elegant to me and preserve the semantic and phonetic clues that have been lost in many of the simplified characters.

如果你是用简体字的，你会不会看得懂繁体字？你觉得哪一种字比较好看？

如果你使用繁體子的，你會不會看得懂簡體字？你覺得哪一種字比較好看？

tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh’a’

By Simon

The title of today’s post means “Do you speak Klingon?”. Apparently the New Theatre in Cardiff is looking for anybody who speaks Klingon to perform in a play they’re planning to stage soon. I heard this on Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio station) this morning.

Dw i’n di clywed ar Radio Cymru y bore ma bod y Theatr Newydd Caerdydd yn chwilio am bobol sy’n siarad Klingon i berfformio mewn drama bydd nhw yn llwyfannu cyn bo hir.

So do any of you speak Klingon?

Felly, dych unrhywun ohonoch chi yn siarad Klingon?

Word of the day – smooinaghtagh

By Simon

smooinaghtagh (SMUUN-yakhtakh) = thoughtful, imaginable, pensive, notional, serious, thinking

Related words:
smooinagh – to think
smooinaght – sentiment, notion, impression, opinion, concept, thought
ard-smooinaghtagh – inspired (lit. “high thinking”)
far-smooinaghtagh – imaginary, chimerical (lit. “mock/fake thinking”)
shagh-smooinaghtagh – absent-minded (lit. “past thinking”)
trome-smooinaghtagh – deep-thinking (lit. “heavy thinking”)

Here’s a nice Manx word that I spotted on a CD by the Manx group skeeal that arrived today. It appears as part of a desciption of the band:

ta ‘skeeal’ ny phossan manninagh goaill stiagh queig fir. t’ad jannoo ymmyd jeh stoo tradishoonagh as bunneydagh, t’ad cummey yn kiaull er aght gientynagh as smooinaghtagh as gleashaghey eddyr ny chengaghyn gealgagh.

‘skeeal’ is a five-piece band from the isle of man. drawing on traditional and original material, they shape imaginative and thoughtful arrangements, moving between the gaelic languages.

I heard skeeal playing as part of the féile cholmcille in Gleann Cholm Cille when I was there last month and was impressed by them. At that time I didn’t know who they were, but knew they were from the Isle of Man and that they sang in Manx. Some detective work eventually lead me to their website, which is in Manx and English, and where I bought the CD.

The Irish equivalent of smooinaghtagh is smaointeach, in Scottish Gaelic it’s smaointeachail, and in Welsh it’s meddylgar.

It’s all Greek to me

By Simon

When you can’t understand something, whether it’s an unfamiliar subject in your own language, or something a foreign language, you might say “it’s all Greek to me”. At least you would in English. According to World Wide Words, this phrase comes a Medieval Latin proverb Graecum est; non potest legi (It is Greek; it cannot be read). I understand that Medieval scribes, who weren’t familiar with Greek, wrote this phrase next to any text they came across in that language.

The equivalent phrase in French is C’est du chinois (It’s Chinese). In German the phrase is Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I understand only railway station). In Czech incomprehsion is compared to a Spanish village – Je to pro mne španělská vesnice (It’s a Spanish village to me). Does anybody know why?

What about in other languages – are there any similiar idioms indicating incomprehension?

Competitive language learning

By Simon

When learning a language, it’s natural to compare your own progress and abilities with that of others. There’ll usually be other learners who know more than you, at least about some aspects of a language, or who speak and/or write with more fluency and confidence than you. You might also meet people who have been studying a language for a shorter time than you but who have achieved a higher level. This can be discouraging and frustrating, however we learn things at different rates, so such comparisons are not particularly helpful, unless you’re doing some research into second language acquisition (SLA).

Whenever I meet someone who is studying or has studied any of the foreign languages I know, I usually compare their level with my own. If they have a lower level, I feel that I’m doing ok, but if they have a higher level, I feel a bit jealous and resolve to study more. I also wonder whether I’ll ever achieve their level of fluency.

If you’re studying with someone else, some degree of competition can be a good thing, as you can encourage one another to keep going and to achieve more. Too much pressure is probably doesn’t help though.

Word of the day – papelear

By Simon

papelear, verb = to rumage through papers; to make a splash, draw attention to oneself

This word caught my eye while I was looking through my Spanish dictionary today. Though I try to keep the amount paper I use in my home ‘office’ to a minimum, there always seems to be plenty of bits of papers to rumage through.

Related words
papel = paper
papelada = farce, pretence, charade
papelamen = papers, masses of papers
papeleo = paperwork, red tape
papelera = litter bin, wastepaper basket, desk, paper mill
papelería = stationery, stationer (shop), mass/sheaf/heap of papers
papelero = paper, stationer, paper manufacuturer, paper-boy, ridiculous person
papelonero = ridiculous

Cran-morphing

By Simon

Today’s word-tastic topic is cran-morphing, the practice of dismantling words and glueing parts of them on to other words. Word-tastic is an example of this that I just made up – it combines the word word with -tastic from fantastic. Another popular cran-moph is -gate, as in Irangate, Dianagate and Whitewatergate. This comes from the Watergate Scandal, named after a hotel in Washington D.C.

Cran-morphs or cranberry morphs usually only mean something in relation to the words from which they have been detached. All those whatever-gates usually have nothing to do with gates, though you could construct a folk etymology along these lines – this cran-morph is associated with scandals and cover-ups which involve the revealing of secrets. The opening of a gate could be linked to the discovery of those secrets.

Other cran-morphs include:

  • -tabulous, from fantastic and fabulous, as in fantabulous and blog-tabulous
  • -holic, from alcoholic, as in shopaholic, chocoholic and biblioholic
  • -thon, from marathon, as in telethon, shopathon and eatathon
  • -licious, from delicious, as in magalicious
  • -nomics, from economics, as in ergonomics, Clintonomics, cybernomics and Enronomics

Details of the origin of the term cran-morphing can be found on Language log.

For more whatever-gates, see Wikipedia.

Here and there

By Simon

Today we’re looking at words for here and there is various languages. In standard English there are just two such words: here (close to the speaker), and there (away from the speaker). In some dialects of English, and in other languages, there are three or possibly more: here, there and yonder/over there.

Here are the words for here and there is various languages:

here there over there
French ici là là-bas
Spanish aquí, acá allí allá
Italian qui, qua là, lì
Portuguese aqui aí, ali, lá ali, lá
German hier dort, da dort drüben
Irish anseo ansin ansiùd, thall ansin
Manx ayns shoh ayns shen ayns shid
Scottish Gaelic an seo an sin an siud
Welsh yma yno acw
Mandarin 這兒［这儿] (zhèr)
這裡 [这里] (zhèli)
這邊 [这边]
(zhèbiān)		 那兒 [哪儿] (nàr)
那裡 [那里] (nàli)
那邊 [那边]
(nàbiān)
Cantonese 呢喥 (nīdouh)
呢處 (nīsyu)		 嗰喥 (gódouh)
嗰處 (gósyu)
Taiwanese chia hia
Japanese ここ [此処] (koko) そこ [其処] (soko) あそこ (asoko)