| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| ADN (L’acide désoxyribonucléique) | DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) | DNA (asid deocsiriboniwcleig) |
| la salive | saliva | poer |
| roux; roquin | red-haired | pengoch |
| noisette | hazel (eye colour) | gwinau; brown golau |
| l’œil au beurre noir; l’œil poché | black eye | llygad du |
| aux yeux troubles | bleary-eyed | â llygaid molog/molglafaidd |
Closing out
In the Czech lessons I’ve been working my way through I’ve noticed that the Czech host says (in English) at the end of each lesson “To close out this lesson, we would like to practise what you have just learnt.”. I would say finish rather than close out, and thought close out was a non-native usage. However recently I heard American friends using the same expression, so it seems that it is used in American English.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to close out is defined as:
– exclude; preclude
So it does exist as an expression, but the meaning doesn’t quite fit with finishing a lesson.
Do you use or have you heard this expression?
Language quiz
Here’s a recording of part of a song in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Carrying coals to Newcastle
An idiomatic way to say a task is pointless is to say it’s like carrying coals to Newcastle – Newcastle, in the north east of England, used to be a major coal mining area.
In French the equivalent is porter de l’eau à la rivière (to carry water to the river).
In German they say Eulen nach Athen bringen/tragen (to take/bring owls to Athens).
In Welsh there are quite a few equivalent expressions:
– cario glo i Fflint = to carry coal to Flint (a former coal mining area)
– cario dŵr dros afon = to carry water across a river
– bwrw heli yn y môr = to throw salt in the sea
– iro blonegen = to grease fat
– iro hwch â bloneg = to grease a sow with fat
– gwerthu mêl i berchen gwenyn = to sell honey to a bee keeper
– mynd i ‘ngheg i chwilio am fy nhafod = to go to my mouth and look for my tongue
– gyrru halen i’r Heledd = to send salt to a salt pit
– golchi traed alarch = to wash a swan’s feet
– taflu ‘fale i’r berllan = to throw apples into an orchard
What about in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| la honte | shame | cywilydd; gwarth |
| avoir honte de qch | to be ashamed of sth | cywiliddio; teimlo cywilydd; bod â chywilydd |
| faire honte à qn | to make sb feel ashamed | codi cywilydd ar rywun; cywilyddio rhywun |
| honte à vous ! | shame on you! | rhag cywilydd ichi! |
| shameless | éhonté, effronté (without shame); impudique (immodest) | digywilydd; hy |
| le mineur | (coal) miner | cloddiwr; mwynwr; glöwr |
| porter de l’eau à la rivière | to carry coals to Newcastle | cario dŵr dros afon |
Living Languages – a special report on language learning
I came across an article about language learning in the Guardian today which discusses the findings of a report on language learning [PDF] based on a two-year study carried out by the Guardian and the British Academy.
The report makes interesting reading, and looks at many aspects of language learning, such as language education, young people’s attitudes to language learning, language and social change, as well as many personal stories about how people learn and use languages.
Llap y dwndwr – the drink of prattle
I discovered last night that an old Welsh expression for tea is llap y dwndwr [ɬap ə ˈdʊndʊr], which could be translated as meaning “the drink that makes one talkative” or “the drink of chatter”. It is also the name of a tune.
The word llap means soft and wet, and appears in the expression bwyd llap (soft and wet food), which can refer to soup (cawl) or rice pudding (bwdin reis).
The word dwndwr means noise; to make a noise; to bluster, prattle or babble; or to daunt, hector or bully. A related word is dwndrio = to babble or talk too much. It appears in the expressions cap y dwndwr = rattlepate (a frivolous, talkative person), and rhap y dwndwr = a gossip, or loud-mouthed person.
Other poetic/slang names for tea include dail y dwndwr (“the leaves of chatter”) and llysiau’r dwndwr (“the herbs of chatter”).
In colloquial Welsh tea is te [tɛ] and a cup of tea is panad or paned in North Wales – this comes from cwpaned o de (cup of tea), and it’s disgled (o de) in South Wales.
Does tea have any interesting names in other languages?
Source: Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Two wheels left here will be removed
If you’ve ever wonder how you would tell people not to park their bicycles in Latin and Ancient Greek, as I’m sure you have, the sign in the photo shows you.
The Latin, Duae rotae hic relictae perimentur, apparently means “two wheels [cycles] left/abandoned here will be removed”.
The Greek, Εηθαδε αηφθεητες δυοκυκλοι διαφθαρνσονται, apparently means “Two wheels taken here will be destroyed”, which isn’t quite what it’s supposed to mean.
As there were no bicycles in ancient Rome and Greece, there were no words in Latin of Ancient Greek for them, so the they are translated as “duae rotae / δυοκυκλοι” (two wheels/cycles). Are these good translations?
The sign was put up in Portugal Place in Cambridge, and some comments on it called it elitist. Not everybody in Cambridge knows Latin or Greek, it seems, as photos of the sign show a bike parked under it. Have you seen any modern signs like this in ‘dead’ languages?
Source: BBC News
Multilingual conversations
At the French conversation group I go to most weeks we usually stick to French most of the time, however when the leader of the group isn’t there or leaves early, as she did last week and the week before, we often switch to English and/or Welsh. Most members of the group speak Welsh, as well as English and French, so we quite often have trilingual conversations mixing all three languages in a wonderful way. I really enjoy such conversations, and it feels great being able to understand and use these languages in this way.
With other friends I may have one, two, or more languages in common, but it’s relatively unusual for a group people to have three or more languages in common, like in the French group.
Do you know groups of people with whom you can have multilingual conversations?
In how many different languages are your multilingual conversations?