Votes and elections

By Simon

With the UK general election coming up tomorrow, I thought I’d look at the origins of a few election-related words.

Vote comes from the Latin votum (a vow, wish, promise, dedication), which can be traced back to the PIE root *ewegwh- (to speak solemnly, vow). It first appeared in writing during the 15th century.

Election, which dates from the late 13th century, comes via the Anglo-Norman eleccioun (choice, between legal alternatives), from the Latin electionem, which is derived from eligere (to pick out, select).

Hustings comes from the Old Norse húsþing (council) from hus (house) plus þing (assembly). Hustings was first used to mean “a temporary platform for political speeches” during the early 18th century, and its meaning later expanded to include the whole election process.

The Alþingi or Althing is Iceland’s parliament and comes from the Old Norse al (all) plus þing. The name of the Isle of Man’s parliament, the Tynwald, comes from the Old Norse Þingvellir (assembly fields).

Parliament comes from the Old French parlement, which originally meant “speaking, talk,” from parler (to speak). The origins of parler can be traced back to the Late Latin parabolare (to speak (in parables)), from parabola (speech, discourse).

[update 06.05.10]

Candidate comes from the Latin candidatus (one aspiring to office), which originally meant “white-robed”, and is the past participle of candidare (to make white or bright). Office-seekers in ancient Rome traditionally wore white togas to symbolise their purity and worthiness for office. Every day togas were off-white or tan coloured.

The origins of candidare can be traced back to the PIE root *kand- (to glow, to shine) via the Latin candidum (white; pure; sincere, honest, upright) from candere (to shine). Other words that come from the same root include candle, candid, incandescent and incense.

Word of the day – dibble

By Simon

Dibble, verb = to drink like a duck, lifting up the head after each sip.

This is a definition of this word that I heard on the radio today. Officer Dibble in Top Cat was also mentioned.

However in my English dictionary a dibble is defined as:

  1. a small hand tool used to make holes in the ground for planing bulbs and seeds
  2. to make a hole with such a tool
  3. to plant with such a tool, which is also known as a dibber.

It first appeared in writing during the 15th century and is of obscure origin. There’s nothing about ducks there, but the drinking like a duck meaning does appear in lists of obscure words like this one.

More on videos

By Simon

I watched some more of the polyglot videos I mentioned yesterday, and a few others, and one thing I noticed is that in most cases they people in them are talking about things like their languages, and how and why they learned them. One exception is this one by Richard Simcott in which he mentions 50 interesting things about himself in a variety of languages and accents. I also found some videos of a multilingual singer and actor from Vancouver who speaks four languages and sings in eight, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, French and English.

Today I thought of a few other things you could try on videos and audio recordings in languages you’re learning: talk about a subject that really interests you, make a video/audio diary, read poetry or prose, tell stories or jokes, sing songs, or make lessons for languages or other subjects or skills that you’d like to share. They say that a good way to learn is to teach, and learning how to explain the intricacies a language or other subject in a foreign language is good way to improve your command of that language.

For example, I’ve been thinking about making some Irish lessons in Welsh, some Welsh lessons in French, or maybe even some tin whistle lessons in one or more of my languages. Don’t hold your breath though – I’m good at coming up with ideas, but it can take we awhile to do anything about them.

Videos by polyglots

By Simon

A number of people have posted videos on YouTube featuring them speaking various languages. In some cases they speak many different languages in the same video, in others they speak different languages in different videos. Some videos appear to be spontaneous, while others have a more scripted feel to them. There is also perhaps an element of showing off and one-upmanship involved.

Some examples include:

  • Burkhard Lee: speaks German, English, French, Mandarin, Thai, Japanese and Indonesian
  • Richard Simcott: speaks English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Macedonian, Swedish, Italian, Portuguese, Welsh, Catalan, Czech, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Romanian, Esperanto, Icelandic, Russian and has some knowledge of quite a few others
  • Steve Kaufmann: speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Swedish
  • Stuart Jay Raj: speaks over 15 languages, including Thai, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Indonesian and Vietnamese
  • Luca the Italian Polyglot: speaks Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Engilsh, French, German, Dutch and Russian
  • Benny the Irish Polyglot: speaks English, Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Esperanto

There are quite a few others and you can find more examples here.

Videos like this, and audio recordings, are one way to demonstrate that you can speak the languages you claim to speak, and your level in each language. They could also be used to demonstrate your progress to yourself and others. You could make one or more every so often and compare them to see improvements in your language abilities.

Old Irish joke

By Simon

Here’s an Old Irish joke I found today that’s been translated into many languages, including Classical Nahuatl, Sanskrit and Cherokee.

Old Irish joke

This is the Modern Irish version:

Triúr manach a thug diúltú don saol.
Téann siad ins an fhásach chun aithrí a dhéanamh ina gcuid peacaí roimh Dhia.
Bhí siad gan labhairt lena chéile go ceann bliana.
Ansin dúirt fear díobh le fear eile bliain amháin ina dhiaidh sin, “Táimid go maith,” ar seisean.
Mar sin go ceann bliana.
“Is maith go deimhin,” arsa an dara fear.
Bhí siad ann ina dhiaidh sin go ceann bliana.
“Dar m’aibíd,” arsa an treas fear, “mura ligeann sibh ciúnas dom fágfaidh mé an fásach uile daoibh!”

And the English version:

Three monks turned their back on the world.
They went into the wilderness to repent their sins before God.
They did not speak to one another for a year.
At the end of the year, one of them spoke up and said, “We’re doing okay.”
Another year passed in silence.
“Yes we are,” said the second man.
And so another year passed.
“I swear by my robe,” said the third man, “if you two don’t be quiet I’m out of here!”

There is also background information about the joke in English, Irish, French, Spanish and a number of other languages, and even a recording of it in Old Irish (mp3).

Arran as bannyn phrash

By Simon

Ren mee arran jea, as haink eh lane via y cheayrt shoh – dirree eh as ta blass mie er. Riyr hie mee dys cuirrey kiaull yindyssagh syn ollooscoill – va bannyn phrash voish Beaumaris, Menai Bridge as Deiniolen cloie ry-cheilley as ry-shaghey.

Arán agus bannaí práis

Rinne mé arán inné, agus tá sé réasúnta maith – d’ardaigh sé an uair seo agus tá blas maith air. Aréir chuaigh mé chuig ceolchoirm iontach san ollscoil – bhí bannaí práis ó Beaumaris, Menai Bridge agus Deiniolen ag seinm le chéile agus ina n-aonar.

Bara a bandiau pres

Mi nes i bara ddoe, ac roedd o’n ddim yn ddrwg – mi gododd o y tro hwn ac mae genno fo blas da. Neithiwr es i i gyngerdd wych yn y brifysgol – roedd bandiau pres o Fiwmares, Porthaethway a Deiniolen yn chwarae gyda’i gilydd ac ar eu pennau eu hunain.

Babysiteáil

By Simon

Listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta today I heard the word babysiteáil, in a sentence something like “Tá sé ag Babysiteáil dúinne.” (He babysits for us). This caught my attention because I don’t seem to hear as many English words made into verbs like this in Irish as I do in Welsh. The Welsh equivalent is babysitio, or gwarchod.

There are ways of saying baby-sit in Irish: páistí a fheighil (to care for children) and aire a thabhairt do pháistí (to give care to children).

If you put baby-sit into Google Translate, the Irish comes out as leanbh-suí – a literal translation. The Welsh version, baban-sefyll, is also a literal translation. For other languages the translations are perhaps better: e.g. garder les enfants (French) and cuidar niños (Spanish).

Perils of machine translation

By Simon

Today we have a guest post by David Ackermann of Romo Translations

When it comes to translating web copy, most people agree that sophisticated translation tools will never be able to accurately translate an entire website or web page into a foreign language. There is however an ongoing debate about whether or not shorter snippets of text can be accurately translated by using translation software. This post takes a look at this scenario and puts Google Translate to the test.

Why free translation tools are not ideal for translating your adwords campaign

Web translation has long been a topic of discussion amongst industry enthusiasts. Most people agree that when it comes to entire web site translations, the use of tools such as Google translate and other full translation “machines” out there simply won’t suffice. A slightly grey area however, arises when it comes to shorter snippets of text such as those used for Google Adwords campaigns. Let’s take a look at an example of a Google Adwords Translation and test whether Google Translate will do a good job for us:

For this scenario, let’s assume that you run a car insurance company and wish to extend your business from the UK to a French audience. You need to translate your Adwords text ads into French so you decide to make use of Google Translate. Your primary keyword which is “Car Insurance” receives over 9 million searches a month from Google in the UK. “Car insurance” typed into Google Translate returns the phrase “L’assurance automobile” – very snazzy! You decide to simply change the relevant words in your Adwords campaign and start targeting French internet users. That was quick, painless and more importantly – FREE! Web language translation at its best!

Now, although “L’assurance automobile” is a technically correct translation, it is just not a commonly used term to refer to car insurance in France. A quick check in Adwords shows that “L’assurance automobile” returns a hit list of “not enough data”. Weird huh? Not really. I call my (imaginary) friend, “Jean Paul” and ask him what he would enter in French if he was looking for car insurance? He replies saying that he would use the phrase “assurance auto” which is commonly used; otherwise he’d use “assurance voiture” which is a popular phrase used in his small community. Upon checking these searches I can see that there are now significantly more hits in Google Adwords.

This was me simply translating two words: “car insurance”. Imagine the inaccuracies that would occur should I translate an entire ad using web translation software. The risks could be even worse so for legal translations! For business purposes, you’ll be better off using a professional translation services agency. You need to chat to them, explain your business, define your target audience and supply them with information on the tone you want your copy to express. Yes, it takes more time, and costs money, but it doesn’t cost as much as you think. A Web translator will charge you per hour, per word or per project. Costs per hour start at about 5–10 Euros. If you have 10 Adwords ads you wish to translate, this could easily be done in an hour or two. 10 Euros for web translation to ensure your company’s image is protected and, better yet, promoted to an international audience, is a small cost with massive benefits.