Yesterday I learnt that to Polish speakers Czech can sound cute, as quite a few Czech words sound like diminutives in Polish. For example cat is kot in Polish and kočka in Czech. Polish diminutives of kot are kotka and kociątko. A Czech diminutive of kočka is koťátko.
What do closely related languages or varieties of your language sound like to you?
Do any of them sound cute like Czech to Polish speakers?
How does Polish sound to Czech speakers?
An article on BBC News reports that according the the Chinese Ministry of Education, some 30% of the people in China don’t speak Mandarin, of the 70% who do speak it, “many do not do it well enough”. As a result the Chinese government has apparently “launched another push for linguistic unity in China”. They will be promoting Mandarin particularly in rural areas and among ethnic minorities. A move that might not be welcomed by all.
China’s current population is 1,359,830,000 [source], so there are some 407,949,000 people in China who do not speak Mandarin, and around 951,881,000 who do – a very large number of people, though not as many as is generally believed. The idea that over a billion people speak Chinese is true if you count all varieties of Chinese, but not for Mandarin.
Moghrey jea chouds va mee gobbyr, hug carrey yllagh çhellvane hym as chur ee feysht orrym dy row mee çheet dys y possan feddan millish ny nagh row. Yarrood mee dy bollagh dy row shin cloie y moghrey shen, as hie mee dys tie my charrey dy tappee lesh my feddanyn millish. Lurg kirbyl ren mee thooilliu obbyr, as chloie mee er y phianney as er y gitar.
Yesterday morning while I was working I got call from a friend asking me whether I was coming to the recorder group or not. I completely forgot that we were playing that morning, and hurried off to my friend’s house with my recorders After lunch I did some more work, and played the piano and guitar.
V’eh deayrtey fliaghey moghrey jea as ren mee beggan obbyr. ‘Syn ‘astyr haink yn grian magh as hooyl mee seose Dyffryn Cegin (glion kishteen), as er-ash trooid Maesgeirchen (magher corkey). V’eh feer sheeoil as aalin, as cha row ram sleih ayn. Ren mee shuilgey smeir chammah, agh cha row mooaran ayn. ‘Syn oie ren mee coloayrt lesh carrey Sheckagh er Skype.
It tipped it down yesterday morning and I did a bit of work. In the afternoon the sun came out and went for a walk along the Cegin valley, and back through Maesgeirchen. It was very peaceful and beautiful, and there weren’t many people about. I also picked some blackberries, but there weren’t very many. In the evening I chatted to a Czech friend on Skype.
Fastyr jea ren mee shuilgey tooilley smeir, as ren mee broit ad lesh ooylyn voish my villey ooyl. Ren mee sconnagyn lesh ooylyn as sultaanaghyn chammah. ‘Syn ‘astyr hie mee da giense y possan coloayrtys Frangish ec thie carrey. T’eh cummal ayns thie mooar faggys da’n ollooscoill ayns paart jeh Bangor nagh row mee oayllagh rish. Dee shin feill vart bourguignon lesh praaseyn broojit as poanreyn-glass, as va key riojey son puiddin. Va y lhongey feer blasstal. Ren shin coloayrts ny lei jinnair, as goaill mee arrane ny ghaa.
Yesterday afternoon I picked some more blackberries, and I stewed them with apples from my apple tree. I also made some apple and sultana scones. In the evening I went to a friend’s house for a French conversation group party. He lives in a large house close to the university in a part of Bangor I wasn’t familiar with. We had bœuf bourguignon with massed potatoes and green beans, and there was ice cream for pudding. It was a very tasty meal. We chatted after dinner, and I sang a few songs.
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Va fliaghey ayn bunnys feie’n laa jea, myr shen cha jagh mee magh. Ayns ynnyd jeh ren mee beggan da obbyr, chloie mee ymmodee greieyn-kiaull as lhaih mee lioar – laa sampleyragh v’ayn.
It rained most of yesterday, so I didn’t go out. Instead I did a bit of work, played various musical instruments and read a book – a typical day.
I discovered an interesting French expression yesterday while ferreting around in the dictionary – la gueule enfarinée, which literally means ‘the floured mouth’, but actually refers to someone who is ‘wet behind the ears’, i.e. new, untrained, inexperienced, immature, innocent, callow or naive (synonyms from The Chambers Thesaurus).
The word gueule usually refers to the mouth of an animal, and is also a slang word for the human mouth, which is normally bouche. Equivalent words in English include gob, mug, snout, cakehole, kisser, trap, etc – do you have any others? It comes from the Old French gole, from the Latin gula (gullet, throat, gluttony, palate), which is also the root of the English word gullet.
Why having a floury mouth is a sign of being inexperienced is a mystery to me. Does anyone know the origins of this expression?
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le campus; le cité universitaire | campus | campws | kampus |
| les vents | wind (flatulence) | gwynt | avel |
| le casse-croûte | snack | byrbryd; tamaid | torr-naon; adlein |
| casser la croûte / la graine | to have a bite/something to eat | cael tamaid | debriñ ur begad |
| grignoter | to snack | cael tamaid; cael pryd ysgafn | krignat |
| l’amuse-gueule (m) | appetizer; nibble | mymryn; briwsionyn | lipaj |
| le moucheron | midge | gwybedyn mân | c’hwibu |
| gardien(ne); concierge | caretaker | gofalwr | gourner; porzhier |
| la dialyse | dialysis | dialysis | dializ |
| la gravité; le pesanteur | gravity | disgyrchiant | graviter |
| en propriété libre | freehold | rhydd-ddaliadol; rhyddfreiniol | |
| loué/donné à bail | leasehold | prydles | |
| la douve | moat | ffos | douvez; tuv |
| le cambriolage | burglary | lladrad | laerezh en tiez |
| pratique | handy (object) | hwylus; hylaw | boazmant; pleustr |
Dobbree mee er m’ynnyd-eggey moghrey jea, as va sheshoon kiaullee mie ayns my hie fastyr jea. Chloie shin mastey cliaghtagh jeh carryn voish Nalbin, Nerin, yn Roosh as America.
I wokred on my website yesterday morning, there was a good music session in my place yesterday afternoon. We played the usual mixture of tunes from Scotland, Ireland, Russian and America