Word of the day – lakh

By Simon

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.

Cuirrey kiaull eddyr-Gaelgagh

By Simon

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

By Simon

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

By Simon

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

By Simon

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

By Simon

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.

A different kind of classroom

By Simon

A language school in Montreal has come up with an interesting way to teach languages – the students get together in local restaurants where the language they’re studying is spoken. This enables the students to learn languages, and about cultures and cuisines, in a relaxed environment where they can actually use what they’re learning. They also get discount on their restaurant bills, and the restaurants get some free advertising, as well as extra business.

Sounds like a good idea.

Do you know of any similar initiatives?