Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Lowender Peren
This weekend I’m in Newquay in Cornwall for the Lowender Peren festival of Celtic music and dance. This is the first time I’ve been to this particular festival, but I have been to pan-Celtic festivals in the Isle of Man before. There are performers and visitors here from all the Celtic lands – Cornwall, Brittany, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. I know quite a few of the people from the Isle of Man who are here, and a few from Scotland.
The name Lowender Peren means ‘Perran’s Mirth’ in Cornish. The word perran features in some Cornish places names, including Perranporth (Porthperan in Cornish), Perranzabuloe (Pyran yn Treth in Cornish) and Perranarworthal (Peran ar Wodhel in Cornish). It comes from Saint Piran (Peran in Cornish), a 5th century Cornish abbot who became the patron saint of tin miners, and is regarded as the patron saint of Cornwall.
The festival was offical opened last night with a speech in Cornish, and English, by a member of the Gorsedh Kernow, the Gorsedh of the Bards of Cornwall, possibly the Grand Bard herself. Gorsedh is ‘a meeting of bards’. She sounded fairly fluent, and I could actually understand some of the Cornish. I haven’t found anyone else here who speaks Cornish, apart from a few phrases.
Last night there was dancing to a local band, and then a trio of singers, members of the Lorho-Pasco family from Brittany, sang for us in Breton, and we improvised some dances. It was the first time I’d heard that style of Breton music. It works well for dancing, though I’m not sure if I’d want to listen to it for too long on its own.
I also spoke a bit of Manx with people I know from the Isle of Man, and some Scottish Gaelic with Joy Dunlop, a dancer and singer from Scotland who I know from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
This morning there was an interesting talk about the history of Newquay. Then I went for a wander around the town. This afternoon we went for a guided walk around Newquay seeing some of the things that were mentioned in the talk.
There will be a lot more music, singing and dancing over the next few days. There was even a music session going on in the hotel where the festival is taking place when I went past not long ago.
When is the sky not the sky?
In Danish, Norwegian and Swedish the word sky means cloud, as does ský in Icelandic. The word for sky in these languages is himmel (himinn in Icelandic), and in Swedish sky also means sky or gravy.
I learnt the Danish word sky the other day from the sentence: Enhjørningen flyver på en sky (The unicorn is flying on a cloud) – are very useful thing to be able to say.
Sky comes from the Old Norse ský (cloud), from Proto-Germanic *skiwją (cloud, cloud cover), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew- (to cover, conceal), which is also the root of the English word sky [source].
The English word cloud comes from the Old English clūd (mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill), from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz / *klutaz (lump, mass, conglomeration), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (to ball up, clench), which is also the root of the English words chill, cold, congeal, cool, gel, gelatin and jelly [source].
In Old English there were different words for sky and cloud:
- heofon was the sky or heaven [source], which survives in such modern English expressions as ‘the heavens opened’ (it started to rain heavily).
- wolcen was cloud, and the plural, wolcnu was the sky or the heavens [source]. This became welkin in modern English, an archaic and poetic word for the sky, the upper air; aether; the heavens.
Polyglot Conference – Day 2
The Polyglot Conference came to and end yesterday, and while it was only a few days, we managed to pack quite a lot into the time.
Yesterday I went to talks on the Pirahã language, Braille, personality-focused training in second language acquisition, and the character traits of polyglots.
I also gave my talk on the diversity of writing systems to a nearly full room. Quite a few people told me afterwards that they really enjoyed it and found it interesting. Which is encouraging.
At the end of the conference we were told where next year’s conference will be: Fukuoka (福岡市) in Japan from 18-20 October 2019. I haven’t decided whether to go yet.
I left a very wet Ljubljana this morning and flew to Manchester via Frankfurt. Apart from a bit of turbulence, everything went smoothly. I’m currently on the train from Manchester Airport to Crewe. Should be home in a few hours.
Language Quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Polyglot Conference – Day 1
The Polyglot Conference officially started today. There were talks and workshops all day on all sorts of interesting topics. I went to talks on Slovenian, linguistic relavtivity, Romani, the Cathars, and audiolinguistics. They were all interesting, especially the linguistic ones.
There was plenty of time between the talks to talk to other participants, and I managed to make some recordings in quite a variety of languages for the next episode of my podcast. I hope to make more recordings tomorrow.
I had conversations in English, Welsh, French, Irish, German, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, and tried to speak a few other languages.
They are preparing Ljubljana for the Ljubljana Marathon tomorrow, and quite a few streets are being lined with barriers. I hope I’ll be able to get to the conference venue tomorrow.
Polyglotting in Ljubljana
After arriving in Ljubljana yesterday I found a bus into the city centre, then walked to the AirBnB I’m staying in, which is more or less in the centre of the old town. It doesn’t look like much from outside – the door is covered in graffiti, and the outside of the building is rather plain, but inside the flat I’m in is very nicely decorated.
Last night I had dinner at a restaurant by the Ljubljanica, the river that flows through Ljubljana. I saw quite a few people I know from previous polyglot events going past, and met some of them afterwards in a tapas restaurant.
So far I’ve spoken a little Slovenian, quite a bit of German, French and Welsh, and odd bits of other languages.
We spent today talking about the best ways to learn languages. This was interesting and there was some useful advice that I might try.
I haven’t had a lot of time to explore the city yet. The centre is quite compact and mostly pedestranised, with lots of interesting and colourful buildings.
This evening there was a concert with songs in many languages, then I went for dinner with quite a few other polyglots.
Slovenian (slovenščina)
I’ve been learning Slovenian for nearly three months now, and will have chances to use it when I go to Slovenia in a few days. I’ll be there for the Polyglot Conference.
While I can’t say a lot in Slovenian yet, I have at least learnt the basics. I’ve been using a Memrise course based on Slovenian for Travelers, another version of which is available here.
As I’ve studied other Slavic languages to varying degrees – Russian, Czech, Slovak and Serbian – I can recognise quite a few words in Slovenian, and the grammar seems similar. I like the sound of Slovenian, and may continue learning it after the conference.
My favourite Slovenian words are currently: predvčerajšnjim (the day before yesterday) and pojutrišnjem (the day after tomorrow).
I plan to record an episode of the Radio Omniglot Podcast at the conference. It will be about the conference, and the people there, and will hopefully include recordings of participants speaking as many different languages as possible. Looking forward to it!
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Shlyap on a shapka
A Memrise Russian lesson I’ve been working on this week includes two different words for hat: шапка (shapka), which is translated as ‘hat (to keep you warm)’ and шляпа (shlyapa), which is defined as ‘a hat (for style)’.
Шапка comes ultimately from the Old French chape (cape) [source].
Шляпа comes from the Old East Slavic шляпа (šljapa – hat, milksop, difficult situation), from Bavarian German Schlappe (defeat, flop, slap) [source].
When you search for шапка in Google Images, you mainly get pictures of knitted woollen hats, like the bobble hat in the image, plus a few fur hats.
When you do the same for шляпа you get mainly men’s hats, like the fedora in the image.
Another word for hat in Russian is шляпка (shlyapka), which seems to refer to a variety of quite elaborate women’s hats, like in the image. It is a diminutive of шляпа.
I like these words because they’re fun to say.
Are there other words for hat in Russian?