Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Les bonnets à pompon
An nice French expression I discovered yesterday is bonnet à pompon, which is apparently the French equivalent of bobble hat, which some might call a beanie.
What do you call hats like this? Does the kind with a bobble have a different name?
For me the kind of hat with a bobble is a bobble hat, and the kind without is a woolly hat.
Les mots de la semaine
– un ruisseau = stream = nant = gwazh-dour
– une boîte (de conserve) = tin = tun = boestad
– un boîte de soupe = tin of soup = tun cawl = boestad soubenn
– un pot de peinture = tin of paint = tun paent = boestad livadur
– un moule à gateau = cake/baking tin = tun teisen/cacen = moull-gwestell
– un bocal = jar = jar = pod gwer
– un bonnet à pompon = bobble hat = boned-toupenn (?)
– réellement, vraiment, en fait, en réalité = actually = mewn gwirionedd = evit gwir
– une fuite = leak = diferiad, gollyngiad = fuiñ
– un poireau = leek = cenhinen = pour
– un ouvrier du bâtiment = builder (labourer) = adeiladydd = micherour
– un maçon = builder (bricklayer) = briciwr = mañsoner
– un entrepreneur (en bâtiment) = builder (owner of firm) = tisaver
English – a Scandinavian language?
According to an article I came across today, researchers at the University of Oslo believe that English is descended from Old Norse and not from Old English as it is closer in terms of grammar to the modern Scandinavian languages than to the West Germanic languages such as Dutch and German. They say that Old English or Anglo-Saxon is very different from modern English, and believe that Old English died out while Old Norse developed into modern English, with influence from Old English, which is the opposite to the standard model. English grammar and word order certainly has changed a lot over time.
I’m not sure how they came to these conclusions, but I am sceptical. There certainly was Old Norse influence on the dialects spoken in areas of Norse settlement, such as the north of England, and I’ve heard that north eastern varieties of English, such as Geordie, are phonologically similar to Danish.
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Downies, duvets and slumberdowns
While listening to a programme on Radio Scotland today I heard mention of downies, which seems to be a Scottish word for duvet. These days I usually call these things duvets, but when I was a child I had a slumberdown, which I think might be a trade name. I’ve also heard them called quilts or continental quilts, and think they’re called comforters in the USA.
The definition of duvet in the OED is “A quilt stuffed with eider-down or swan’s-down”, and it comes from the French word duvet (down), from dumet, a diminutive of Old French dum (down).
What do you call these things?
Les mots de la semaine
– la déviation = diversion (of route) = dargyfeiriad = diroudennañ
– la diversion = diversion (distraction) = gwrthdyniad = distroadenn
– faire diversion = to create a diversion = creu gwrthdyniad = distroiñ an nen
– le meeting / rassemblement = rally = rali = bodadeg
– un meeting de prostestation = a protest rally = rali protest / gwrthdystiad = manifestadeg
– un rassemblement pour la paix = a peace rally = rali heddwch
– la ceinture de sauvetage = liftbelt = gwregys achub
– sauter à cloche-pied = to hop = hercian / hopian
– le trisaïeul = great-great-grandfather = hen hen daid/dad-cu
– la trisaïeule = great-great-grandmother = hen hen nain/mamgu
– la boulette de viande = meatball = pellen gig (?)
Tête en l’air
Penn-skañv ac’hanout? Es-tu tête en l’air? Is your head in the clouds?
Recently I came across the French expression (être) tête en l’air (‘(to be) head in the air’) which is given as the French equivalent of the Breton expression penn-skañv (‘light head’). I hadn’t seen it before and wasn’t quite sure from it meant. From the context I thought it meant something like forgetful. According to Reverso it means scatterbrained, and according to this discussion, it also means absent-minded or distracted.
An equivalent English idiom is to have one’s head in the clouds, which is also used in French – avoir la tête dans les nuages. Do you know any similar idioms in English, French or other languages?
The Welsh expression pen-ysgafn, which is a literal translation of the Breton expression, but has a related different meaning – ‘light headed’. Forgetful is anghofus in Welsh.
Spontus
Spontus is a Breton word I learnt recently that means scary or terrible, as in spontus eo an amzer hiziv (the weather is terrible today). It doesn’t sound like it comes from a Welsh or Cornish root, and I wondered where it came from.
According to the Wikeriadur spontus comes from the word spont (to faint/wake with terror) plus the suffix -us. Unfortuantely it doesn’t say where spont comes from. Does any one have any ideas?
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?