Thumbs and inches

By Simon

I discovered today that the French word for thumb, pouce, also means inch, which makes sense as the length of the inch is apparently based on the width of a man’s thumb.

Related expressions include:

– se tourner les pouces, se rouler les pouces = to twiddle one’s thumbs
– manger sur le pouce = to grab a quick bite to eat (“to eat on the thumb”)
– déjeuner/dîner sur le pouce = to have a quick lunch/dinner (“to lunch/dine on the thumb”)
– donner un coup de pouce à quelqu’un = to help someone out (“to give a blow of the thumb to sb”)
– mettre les pouces = to throw in the towel; to give in; to give up (“to put the thumbs”)

The word inch comes from the Latin word uncia (a twelfth; ouce; inch), as does the word ounce, which is a twelfth of a troy pound [source]

The word for inch is the same as the word for thumb in Italian (pollice), Dutch and Afrikaans (duim), and Czech and Slovak (palec). How about in other languages?

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
la pastille pour la toux cough lozenge/sweet losin at y frest; losin peswch; da-da annwyd pastilh an paz (?)
le pastille pour le mal de gorge throat lozenge/sweet losin gwddwg; da-da dolur gwddw pastilh an lo(v)rniet ma goûg (?)
la puce flea chwannen c’hwenn
le pouce thumb bawd meud
le gros orteil big toe bawd troed meud an troad
le deuil mourning galarus kañv
pleurer to mourn galaru gouelañ; garmat; leñvañ
prendre le deuill to go into mourning dechrau/cychwyn galaru ober e gañvoù; (g)ober begin
bruyant; chahuteur rowdy; noisy swnllyd; stwrllyd; terfysglyd; tyrfus trouzus
les nuisances sonores (fpl) noise pollution llygredd sŵn noazadurioù e-keñver trouz
délier la langue à qn to loosen sb’s tongue llacio tafod rhywun distagellañ
diversifier to diversify amrywio; amrywiaethu liesaat; dizunvaniñ
la forge smithy gefail gof govel
le forgeron blacksmith gof gov
ériger/dresser des barricades to set up a barricade codi baricêd savelladenniñ stoc’hoù
tenir des barricades to man the barricades gweithio baricadau
le feuilleton (TV/radio) serial cyfres romant -kazetenn

Schwa Fire

By Simon

Today I heard from Michael Erard, the author of Babel No More, who is planing to start a magazine called Schwa Fire. It will be a “digital publication about language and life” that will “look at life through a linguistic lens, and look at lives and circumstances in the language world. He is using Kickstarter to raise money to launch this publication, and I thought you might be interested.

Here’s the introductory video:

Brezhoneg

By Simon

This month I will focusing mainly on Breton (Brezhoneg). I’ve been learning it, on and off, for a year now and can make some sense of written and spoken Breton, though my speaking and writing lag behind quite a bit. I have been using Le Breton sans Peine, which I’ve nearly finished, though I can’t say that I’ve internalised everything. This month I am working through Colloquial Breton. I want to try to improve my productive knowledge of the language, and will try to write something every day on my other blog, Multilingual Musings – I haven’t quite managed this yet as when writing Breton I have to look up most of the words and check the grammar. With practise my writing will become more fluent, I hope, and this will help with speaking, as I see this kind of writing as a way to practise using the language I would use in conversations. I would also like to learn a few Breton songs, and am open to suggestions.

Are any of you studying Breton? Are there any Breton speakers reading this blog?

Droug gouzoug

By Simon

Droug gouzoug am eus, ha ne c’hallan ket kanañ evit c’hoazh, met gallout a gomz c’hoazh. N’am eus ket kanañ d’ar kor skleroz strewek (SKLES) dec’h. Gwelet am eus ur film, Tasmant d’an Opera, e skol-veur dec’h da nos.

I have a sore throat, and can’t sing at the moment, but can still speak. I didn’t go to the MS choir yesterday. Last night I saw the film Phantom of the Opera at the university.

Èig

By Simon

In the book I’ve just read, The Old Ways – A Journey on Foot, by Robert MacFarlane, there are quite a few words that are unfamiliar to me. The author has provided definitions of some of them within the text, or in the glossary at the back of the book, and one word that really caught my attention was the Scottish Gaelic word èig, which is defined as

‘the quarz crystals on the beds of moorland stream-pools that catch and reflect moonlight, and therefore draw migrating salmon to them in the late summer and autumn’.

Very poetic, but it seems a awful lot of meaning to be carried by a single word, so I searched my Gaelic dictionaries, but have been unable to find this word, or anything quite like it. It might be a local word used only in the island of Lewis, or maybe the person who told the author about it was using a touch of poetic licence.

Have you ever come across this word or anything like it?

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
(porter) déguisement (to wear) fancy dress (gwisgo) gwisg ffansi (gwiskañ) abilhamant
déguisé(e) in fancy dress mewn gwisg ffansi e dic’hize
se déguiser to go in fancy dress gwisgo gwisg ffansi dic’hizañ; abilhañ; livañ
la fête costumé fancy dress party parti gwisg ffansi fest gwisket
le bal masqué/costumé fancy dress ball dawns gwisg ffansi bal masklet
sépulchre sepulchre beddrod
une farce ou une gâterie
bonbons ou bâton		 trick or treat cast ynteu ceiniog
la réunion des étudiants anciens alumni reunion aduniad cynfyfyrwyr
nul; vraiment trash; tocarde trashy (film, book) diwerth; sothachlyd; da i ddim neb; tamm
renvoyer qn; metter qn à la porte to give sb the sack rhoi’r hwi; rhoi ei droed; rhoi gardiau diskouviañ; kas en e roud; war e giz
être mis à la porte; être renvoyer to get the sack cael yr hwu / y sac / y droed

Argraffydd newydd

By Simon

Ddoe roedd dim ond dau ohonon ni yn y sesiwn yma, ac mi wnaethon ni canu alawon o Ynys Manaw yn bennaf. Doedd dim ymarfer y côr cymuned oherwydd hanner tymor ydy’r wythnos ‘ma. Gyda’r nos mi wnes aros gartref ynhytrach na mynd i’r sesiwn yn y Skerries.

Heddiw mi ddaeth yr argraffydd newydd mi wnes i archebu Ddydd Mawrth. Rhyw wythnos yn ôl mi wnaeth fy hen argraffydd aros i weithio, ac ar ôl chwilio am ffordd i ei atgyweirio, mi wnes i sylweddoli bydd atgyweiriadau yn costio mwy na argraffydd newydd, felly mi wnes prynu un newydd. Mi wnes i prynu silffoedd newydd hefyd i roi’r ffeiliau sy’n gwasgu at ei gilydd ger fy nesg ar hyn o bryd. Dw i’n ymbalfalu i adeiladu nhw.

Yesterday there were only two of us at the session here, and we mainly played tunes from the Isle of Man. There wasn’t a community choir practise because this week is half-term. In the evening I stayed at home rather than going to the session in the Skerries.

Today the new printer I ordered on Tuesday arrived. A few weeks ago my old printer stopped working, and after searching for ways to fix it, I realised that it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new printer, so I bought a new one. I also bought some new shelves for the files that currently huddle together by my desk. I’m struggling to put them together.

Sgwrs amlieithog

By Simon

Mi wnaeth aelod newydd yn dod i’r grŵp sgwrsio amlieithog ddoe – Almaenes sy’n astudio ecoleg amaethyddol ym Mhrifysgol Bangor. Cyn dod i Fangor mi wnaeth hi’n cysylltu â fi yn gofyn am le i aros dros dro wrth iddi hi chwilio am ystafell i rentu. Roedd gen cyfaill o’r grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg ystafell rydd, felly mi wnes i rhoi nhw mewn cysylltiad efo’n gilydd, ac mae’r Almaenes yn aros efo’r cyfaill ‘na bellach. Beth bynnag, mi wnaethon ni siarad yn Almaeneg a Saesneg, ac yn y Wyddeleg hefyd. Mae fy Almaeneg i wedi rhydu, ond dw i’n dal i fedru ei siarad yn eitha’ da. Ar ôl hyn mi wnes i i Global Café, ac mi wnes i siarad yn Mandarineg efo myfyrwyr o Tsieina, ac yn Saesneg efo myfyrwyr o Loegr a Singapore.

Mae tipyn o ddolur gwddw arna i ar hyn o bryd, felly bydda i ddim yn recordio’r testun ‘ma heddiw.

A new member came to the polyglot conversation group yesteray – a German lass who is studying agro-ecology in Bangor Uni. Before coming to Bangor she contacted me asking for a temporary place to stay while she looked for a room to rent. A friend of mine from the French conversation group had a spare room, so I put them in touch with each other, and the German lass is now staying with that friend. Anyway, we talked in German and English, and in Irish as well. My German is a bit rusty, but I can still speak it fairly well. After that I went to Global Café, and I talked in Mandarin with some students from China, and in English with students from England and Singapore.

I have a bit of a sort throat, so won’t be recording this text today.