Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Sgimilearachd
Sgimilearachd [sgʲimɪlɛrəxg], noun = habit of visiting other people at mealtime; intrusion (from: Am Faclair Beag)
Alternative definition: Obtrusiveness, impudence, intrusion; Mean habit of popping in upon people at meals, living and doing nothing about, gentlemen’s kitchens. (from: Am Faclair Dwelly)
This is one of the interesting Scottish Gaelic words I learnt from this blog post. Others include:
– Allabhuadhach = someone who is victorious, but in disgrace.
– Claidean = an absurd hammering at anything.
– Nigead = those little sobs or sighs you make before or after weeping.
– Atamaich = to fondle an unreasonable person.
Do similar words exist in any other languages?
Adumbrations
I came across a new word yesterday – adumbrations – which I had to look up in a dictionary as I couldn’t work out its meaning from the context:
Framed in the archway formed by the far end of the vaulted roof were the fantastical forms of five great gasometers, the supporting superstructures of which seemed in their adumbrations to be tangled impossibly with each other, like the hoops of an illusionist’s conjuring trick.
From The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams.
According to the Reverso dictionary, adumbration means
1. delineation, draft, indication, outline, rough, silhouette, sketch, suggestion
2. augury, forecast, foreshadowing, foretelling, omen, portent, prediction, prefiguration, prefigurement, presage, prognostication, prophecy, sign
3. bedimming, cloud, darkening, darkness, eclipse, eclipsing, obfuscation, obscuring, overshadowing, shadow
A related word is adumbrate, which means “to outline; give a faint indication of; to foreshadow; to overshadow; obscure.
It comes from the Latin word adumbratus (represented only in outline), from adumbrare (to cast a shadow on), from umbra (shadow) – obvious really!
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le ragoût; | stew | stiw; lobsgóws |
| (faire) mijoter; cuire en ragoût | to stew | stiwio; mud-ferwi |
| le ragoût de mouton | Irish stew | lobsgóws; cawl; pwt y berw |
| le pot-au-feu | beef stew | stiw eidion |
| le navarin d’agneau | lamb stew | stiw oen |
| le civet de cheveuil | venison stew | stiw fenswn/feneiswn |
| le ragoût de légumes | vegetable stew | stiw llysiau |
| ça m’a rien donner | I have nothing to show for it | nid oedd gennyf ddim i’w ddangos er |
| ça a fait tilt | the penny dropped | syrthiodd y geiniog |
| épeler | to spell (aloud) | sillafu |
| écrire; orthographier | to spell (in writing) | sillafu |
| la zone humide la terre humide |
wetland | tir gwlyb; cors; corstir; tir corsiog |
| la tourbière | bog (wetland) | cors |
| la tourbière | peat bog | mawnog; mawndir |
| la tourbe | peat | mawn |
| trotter | to trot | tuthio; trotian; trotio |
| trotteur | trotter | tuthiwr; trotiwr |
Language learning lethargy
Are there times when you don’t feel like learning languages and can’t summon up much enthusiasm about them? When language learning lethargy strikes, in fact.
For me most of August this year was like that – I did use my languages when I had the chance, and spoke quite a bit of French and Welsh, and odd bits of Italian and Irish. I also listened to plenty of foreign language radio, as I often do. I didn’t go out of my way to find opportunities to practise my languages though, and didn’t study at all for almost the whole month. This is unusual for me.
Sometimes I think to myself, “You already speak five languages more or less fluently, and know quite a few others to varying degrees. Isn’t that enough?”, and my usual answer is “No, I want to learn more!”. Recently however, my motivation to learn more has been low and my answer was “Yes, that’s enough for now.”
This month I am re-starting my studies with Czech, and am planning to start dabbling with other languages as well. Yesterday my Teach Yourself Swedish course finally arrived – the one I got for free after attending the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin in May. So I will be learning more Swedish before long.
If you come down with language learning lethargy from time to time, how do you deal with it?
Frantastique
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Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Pass the funny dingdong
If someone asked you to “pass the funny dingdong”, would you know what they wanted?
With the context that you are watching TV, you might have a better idea what they wanted.
According to Fry’s English Delight, a programme about language on BBC Radio Four, funny dingdong is one of the many ways of referring to the TV remote control.
Others include blatter, zapper, blitter, kuhdumpfer, dimmer, mando, squirter, twanger, widget, pote-eator, splonker, tinky toot, wizz wizz, and plinky.
Do you have other names for the remote control?
Other interesting made-up words mentioned on the programme include gruglums – the bits left in the sink after you’ve done the washing up, and floordrobe – where teenagers file their clothes.
No holds barred
I came across the phrase no holds barred today and wondered where it came from. I probably have seen it written down before, but didn’t pay any particular attention to it and thought it was written no holes barred.
According The Phrase Finder, this phrase comes from wrestling and refers to wrestling matches in which the normal rules are suspended – that is any hold is allowed, and no holds are barred. It first appeared in print in around 1892. Before then wrestling matches were not subject to any rules and there was no need for such a phrase.
Related phrases include anything goes and carte blanche. Can you think of any others?
The phrase carte blanche comes from French, originally meant a military surrender, and was first written in 1707 [source].
Are there phrases with a similar meaning in other languages?
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?