Le trac

By Simon

An interesting French word I discovered the other day is trac /tʁak/, which means nerves, stage fright or performance anxiety. Some expressions incoporating this word include:

– avoir le trac = to feel nervous; to get an attack of nerves; to have stage fright
– j’ai le trac = I’m nervous; I have butterflies in my stomach*; I have the jitters
– tout à trac = out of the blue

*If people have butterflies in their stomachs when feeling nervous, what do butterflies have?

This word first appeared in writing in 1830 and it’s origins are uncertain. It perhaps comes from the word tracas (anxiety).

Sources: Reverso, Linternaute, CNRTL.

What expressions do you use to describe being nervous or anxious?

Do you suffer from stage-fright / performance anxiety?

I used to be get very nervous when I had to speak or sing in front of others, but now only get nervous before and afterwards – while I’m speaking, singing or playing an instrument I feel calm and enjoy it.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– la scène = stage (in theatre) = llwyfan
– le trac = stage fright = ofn llwyfan
– l’indication scénique = stage direction = cyfarwyddyd llwyfan
– l’entrée des artistes = stage door = drws actorion
– régisseur (-euse) = stage manager = goruchwyliwr llwyfan
– le nom de scène = stage name = enw llwyfan
– patient(e) / malade = patient = claf
– patient hospitalisé = in-patient = claf mewnol/preswyl
– malade en consultation externe = out-patient = claf allanol
– le fichier joint = attachment (email) = ymgysylltiad
– l’aveugle = blind (person) = (person) dall
– les aveugles = the blind = y deillion
– le drainage, l’assèchement (m) = drainage = draeniad
– le piéton = pedestrian = cerddwr, pedestriad
– le passage pour piétons = pedestrian crossing = croesfan gerddwyr

Wiradjuri

By Simon

I came across an interesting article today about the Wiradjuri language and how it is being revived. In 1981 only three people spoke Wiradjuri and by 2009 no native speakers remained, however since 1988 the language has been revived, thanks particularly to the efforts of Stan Grant Senior, a Wiradjuri elder, who worked with a linguist called Dr John Rudder to produce a Waridjuri dictionary, which was published in 2005.

Currently 10% of the people in the towns of Parkes and Forbes in New South Wales speak Wiradjuri, and increasing numbers are learning it. It is taught in schools and colleges in these town at all levels to children and young people from all backgrounds.

Attitudes to the Waridjuri people, culture and language have been transformed not just among the children, but also among their parents and others in these towns. No longer do the Aboringial children sit at the back of classes being ignored and/or taunted by the other children, no longer are they ashamed of their language. Instead they have developed a strong sense of identity and self-respect, and are doing well in school. Non-Aboriginal children are also learning and enthusiastic about the Waridjuri language and culture.

It’s great to hear about successful language revival like this that has community support and which is helping to bring a community together.

Obrigados / Obrigadas

By Simon

According to someone who wrote to me today, the words obrigados/obrigadas are only used in Portuguese to mean ‘obligated’, and are not used to thank more than one person. However, according to João Rosa, who wrote the article Obrigado – how to express your gratitude in Portuguese, these words are used to mean ‘thank you’ when talking to groups of people.

Can anybody throw any light on this?

In the Gaelic languages there are different versions of thank you for singular and plural:

Irish: go raibh maith agat (sg), go raibh maith agaibh (pl)
Manx: gura mie ayd (sg), gura mie eu (pl)
Scottish Gaelic: tapadh leat (sg), tapadh leibh (pl)

The plural forms in Manx and Scottish Gaelic are also used when thank one stranger.

Zulu, Swahili and related languages have different forms of thank you for singular and plural, e.g. Ngiyabonga kakhulu (sg) Siyabonga (pl) – Zulu.

Do other languages have different forms of thank you that change depending on who you’re thanking?

The future is behind you

By Simon

According to an interesting article I came across today, in Tuvan (Тыва дыл), a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia, the future is behind you and the past is in front of you. Which makes sense as you can ‘see’ the past, or at least remember it, but you can’t see the future.

In Chinese languages time is described as flowing vertically in some contexts, so the past is above you and the future below you. In Mandarin, for example, last week is 上個月 [上个月] (shàng gè yuè) and next month is 下個月 [下个月] (xià gè yuè), or ‘up/above month’ and ‘down/below month’.

Do any other languages describe the past as being in front of or above you and the future as being behind or below you? Or are there other was to describe the flow of time?

Zulu songs

By Simon

In the Bangor Comunity Choir we often sing songs from southern Africa in languages like Xhosa and Zulu. I don’t speak these languages, yet, and neither does anybody in the choir, so we’re never entirely sure how to pronounce the words. We usually have a rough translation of the words, so we at least know what they mean.

At the moment we’re learning a Zulu song called “Sesizo Hamba Kancane” which apparently means ‘Walk Gracefully (you people of modern days)’. Here are the words we’re singing:

Sesizo hamba kancane nje nge si manje
Sizo hamba kancane nge hoshimamma

This isn’t the whole song, but these are words are repeated in various combinations throughout.

I thought it would be interesting to find out what they all mean and how to pronounce them.

– sesizo – not sure what this means
– hamba [ˈhaːmba] = to go, walk, ride, travel – often appears in Zulu songs
– kancane [ɠaˈn͡ǀaːne] = a bit; a little; slightly; softly; slowly; gradually; tenderly; barely; scarcely – not an easy word to pronounce what with the implosive g and the dental click.
– nje [nʤe] = (suffix) merely; only; just
– nge [ŋge] = (prefix) not
– si [si] = we
– manje [ˈmaːnʤe] = now; at present

I’m not sure about the rest of it. We were told that it’s something about driving our mother’s car carefully. Does anyone know the song, or speak Zulu?

Source: http://isizulu.net/

This is one of the songs we’ll be singing with lots of other choirs in London on Sunday 9th September this year at Sing for Water London. If you happen to be in London at that time, please come along a listen.

I’m going Llandudno

By Simon

The other day in the supermarket I heard a bloke say to his friend something like, “Tomorrow I’m going Llandudno” – the lack of to after going struck me as slightly strange, though the utterance was perfectly understandable. I’ve heard a few other people talking about going to places without the to and wondered if anyone else has noticed this, or any similar expressions.

When you think about it, go is rarely used without a preposition such as to, up, down, out, in, over, under, etc. Other verbs of motion, such as come and move, behave in similar ways and rarely appear without an accompanying preposition.

When you talk about travelling in your country do you say “I’m going up to X”, or the equivalent, if you’re going north, and “I’m going down to X” if you’re travelling south. What about east and west?

When I lived in Brighton I said that I was going up to London, which is north of Brighton, but from Bangor I go down to London, which is south (and east) of Bangor.