Cerddoriaeth a glaw

Mi wnes i gweithio bore ddoe, ac ar ôl cinio mi wnes canu rhyw alawon ar offer gwahanol. Mi wnes i parhau sgwenu fy nghân newydd hefyd, ac mae gen i pedwar pennill, mwy neu lai, erbyn hyn, ond dw i ddim yn siŵr am alaw eto. Mi wnaeth hi’n bwrw glaw trwn yn y prynhawn, ac gyda’r nos mi es i i’r tafarn Groegeg i ganu’r iwcwlili. Roedd dim mond dau ohonon ni yna, ac mi wnaethon ni penderfynu na fyddan ni’n cyfarfod ar nos Iau yr wythnos nesaf yn unig, heblaw mae pobl sy’n methu dod nos Iau a sy’n eisiau cyfarfod ar nos Lun.

I did some work yesterday morning, and after lunch I played some tunes on various instruments. I also continued writing my new song, and I now have four verses, more or less, though I’m not sure of a tune yet. It rained heavily in the afternoon, and in the evening I went to the Greek taverna to play the ukulele. There were only two of us there this week, and we decided that we’ll only meet on Thursday night next week, unless anybody can’t come on Thursday nights and want to meet on Monday nights.

1,000 Words Challenge

According to an article I found today in The Independent, “Everyone in Britain should learn 1,000 words of another language, a new campaign is urging, amid concerns that people lose out on jobs abroad because of poor language skills.” The 1,000 Words Challenge is apparently designed to do something about the UK’s reputation for being poor at foreign languages, and to try to ensure that British tourists “appear less arrogant and better able to put forward our ideas on the international stage”.

Apparently if you learn 1,000 words in a foreign language you will be able to conduct a basic conversation. There is no mention, I can find, of how you go about learning the words, or how just learning that many words will enable you to speak a language – what about grammar? If it was 1,000, or however many, phrases, then you could have a conversation, but words on their own would not be enough. Or maybe they would, if you used them creatively. What do you think?

Sgwrs a barddoniaeth

Mi ddaeth ffrind o’r côr cymuned i’r grŵp sgwrsio ddoe, ac ro’n ni’n siarad am ac yn yr Almaeneg yn bennaf. Dw i ‘di anghofio llawer o fy Almaeneg, ond mae’n dod yn ôl erbyn hyn. Ar ôl hyn mi es i adref am dipyn o fwyd, ac yna mi es i Caffi Blue Sky am noswaith o farddoniaeth a cherddoriaeth – rhan o wŷl barddoniaeth rhyngwladol. Mi wnaeth tri band lleol yn canu, ac mi wnaeth bardd o Wlad Pwyl yn adrodd ei gerddi yn y Bwyleg efo cyfeiliant un o’r bandiau. Roedd y band cyntaf yn uchel dros ben llestri efo gitâr trydan yn sgrechian, ond roedd y bandiau eraill yn well.

A friend from the community choir came to the conversation group yesterday, and we talked mainly about and in German. I’ve forgotten a lot of my German, but it’s starting to come back. After that I went home for a bit to eat, then went to the Blue Sky Café for an evening of music and poetry – part of an international festival of poetry. Three bands played, and a poetry from Poland recited with poetry in Polish with accompaniment from one of the bands. The first band were way too loud with an electric guitar screeching away, but the other bands were better.

Recordyddion

Bore ddoe mi es i i’r grŵp recordyddion, ond roedd dim ond dau ohonon ni yna – mi wnaeth un o’r aelodau angofio bod y grŵp yn cyfarfod ddoe – felly mi wnaethon ni penderfynu gohirio’r sesiwn hyd yr wythnos nesaf. Mi wnes i canu yn y côr MS yn y prynhawn, ac mi wnes i aros gatref gyda’r nos.

Yesterday morning I went to the recorder group, but there were only two of us there – one member of the group forget that we were meeting yesterday – so we decided to postpone the session until next week. I sang in the MS choir in the afternoon, and had a night in.

Do you cahoot?

When looking through one of my dictionaries today I came across the word cahoot, which I’ve only seen before in the form cahoots, as in the expression ‘in cahoots with’, i.e. to be in partnership or in league with. The dictionary entry has the s in bracketts – cahoot(s) – so it seems this words can be used in the singular as well. Have you heard it used like that, or do you use it like that?

According to the OED, cahoot can also be used as a verb meaning ‘to act in partnership’. The following example is given, ‘They all agree to cahoot with their claims against Nicaragua and Costa Rica.’, which dates from 1857, so I suspect this might not be a contemporary use of the word, though I may be wrong.

The OED also states that cahoot is ‘Used in the South and West [of the USA] to denote a company, or partnership’, usually in the plural.

Cahoot either comes from the French cahute (cabin; poor hut), or from cohorte, from the Latin cohort (court, enclosure, company of soldiers).

Les mots de la semaine

français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
la boîte à gants; vide-poche glove box bocs/blwch maneg (?) lak-pep-tra
le visage impassible poker face wyneb difnegiant
le courroux; la colère wrath dig; dicter; digofaint buanegezh; droug
les raisins de la colère the grapes of wrath grawnwin digofaint
rayé(e); à rayures striped rhesog; streipiog rezennet
le pull-over jumper siwmper stamm
le directeur intérim acting manager rheolwr gweithredol rener etreadegourien
les ordures (household) rubbish (y)sbwriel stronkoù
les déchets (garden) rubbish cribinion lostajoù; stronkajoù
la camelote rubbish (junk) hen drugareddau; sothach brizhvarc’hadourezh
le orgue organ (instrument) organ orglez

Ffrangeg a iwcwlilis

Roedd dim ond tri ohonon ni yn y grŵp sgwrsio Ffrangeg heno – wel tri a hanner, a dweud y gwir – roedd un arall sy’n medru deall Ffrangeg ac sy’n methu ei siarad. Ar ôl awr o Ffrangeg mi es i i’r clwb iwcwlili yn y tafarn Groegeg. Roedd llai ohonon ni yna na’r wythnos diwetha’ – tua deg, dw i’n meddwl, ond mae hyn yn lot mwy na’r tymor diwetha’. Heblaw’r caneuon arferol, mi wnes i canu rhyw ganeuon fy hunan hefyd, caneuon dw i ‘di sgwenu.

There were only three of us in the French conversation group tonight – well, three and a half actually – there was one who can understand French but doesn’t speak it. After an hour of French I went to the ukulele club in the Greek. There were fewer of us there than last week – about 10, I think, but that’s a lot more than last term. Apart from the usual songs, I also sang a few of my own songs, songs that I’ve written.

Szia

The other day I discovered that the Hungarian word szia [sijɑ], which is used as a informal hello and goodbye, like ciao in Italian and ahoj in Czech and Slovak, possibly comes from the English expression ‘see you’ / ‘see ya’, at least that’s what a Hungarian friend believes. I hadn’t noticed the similarity between the two phrases before, and if I had, I would have assumed that it was a coincidence.

Another possible origin for this word is the Austria greeting/parting word servus, which is written szervusz in Hungarian, and which somehow became szia. This is the etymology given by Zaicz Gábor in the Etimológiai szótár (Etymology Dictionary) according to this discussion.

Does anybody know more about the origins of this word?