Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Emergent con-scripts
A while ago I had an idea for trying to construct a script with symbols based on representations of natural phenomena – animals, birds, plants, features of the landscape, etc – which would be linked to the sounds via acrophony. Then to simplify the images a number of times until I have a set of letters, a bit like the Alphabet Synthesis Machine.
Most writing systems currently in use are derived ultimately from Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which developed from pictures of objects, people, animals, etc, and I thought would be interesting to try to simulate that process and see what emerged. I haven’t come up with anything very interesting yet, but am still working on it.
Have any of you tried something like this?
Bouder
I learnt a new word in French today: bouder, which means to sulk; to pout; to avoid; to turn one’s nose up at (sth); to refuse to have anything to do with (sb).
Related expressions include:
– boudant = sulking; pouting
– bouder son plaisir = to deny oneself a good thing; to sulk one’s pleasure (never heard this one before – have you?)
– ne pas bouder son plaisir = to enjoy fully; to enjoy without restraint
– se bouder = not to be on speaking terms
– on ne boudera pas = we shall not complain (about); we shall not avoid
It came up in my Breton course – the Breton equivalent is mouzhat – and appears in the sentence, Perak ‘ta, klañv eo pe o vouzhat emañ? (Why? Is she sick or is she sulking?).
The origins of the English words pout and sulk are unknown, according to the OED.
Are there any interesting expressions featuring the equivalents of these words in other languages?
Royal turkeys and other birds
Last night I discovered the Spanish word pavo real, which means peacock, or literally ‘royal turkey’, and which conjured up an image of a turkey in ermine robes wearing a crown.
It also reminds me of the Mandarin Chinese word for swan, 天鵝 [天鹅] (tiān’é), which could be translated as ‘heavenly/celestial goose’. The Mandarin word for peacock is 孔雀 (kǒngquè) or ‘great sparrow’. [source]
The word pavo comes from the Latin pāvō (peacock), from the Ancient Greek ταώς (taōs), and thought to be ultimately from Tamil தோகை (tōkai).
The words for peacock in many European languages come from the same root: Aromanian: pãun; Breton: paun; Catalan: paó; Cornish: payon; Dutch: pauw; French: paon; Friulian: pavon; Galician: pavo, pavón; German: Pfau; Italian: pavone; Occitan: pavon; Old English: pāwa; Portuguese: pavão; Romanian: păun; Romansch: pavun, pivun; Sardinian: paboni, paone; Serbian: paun; Welsh: paun [source]. However in Manx a peacock is a kellagh aalin (‘beautiful cock(rel)’) or a kellagh eairkagh (‘peaked cock(rel)’) [source].
Are there interesting words for peacocks, or other birds, in other languages?
The word pavo has quite a few other meanings in Spanish, including:
– silly thing, idiot; five peseta coin; sucker (in Spain)
– stowaway (in Chile)
– large kite; big shot; evil-looking person (in the Andes)
– youngster, kid
– cold turkey
– silly – e.g. ¡no seas pavo! = don’t be silly!
From: Reverso
Iban alphabet
I thought that almost all the world’s writing systems were on Omniglot, but today I discovered another one: the Iban alphabet, which was invented in 1947 by Dunging Anak Gunggu.
It’s a partly syllabic, partly alphabetic script that never really caught on, mainly because there was no tradition of writing among the Iban-speaking community. During the past few years there have been efforts to revive it mainly by Dr Bromeley Philip at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Sarawak, Malaysia – I’ve written to him to ask about the current situation.
Iban is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, but I’m sure you knew that.
For me it’s always exciting to discover a previously unknown (to me) writing system like this.
Language quiz
Pantoufler
Yesterday I discovered the interesting French word pantoufler /pɑ̃.tu.fle/, which, according to Reverso means to “switch from civil service to the private sector (French elite jargon, usually to make more money)”.
According to Wikpedia the related word pantouflage refers to high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the École Polytechnique or the École nationale d’administration, going to work in private enterprise. It also applies to politicians doing the same thing. Someone who engages in pantouflage at known as a pantouflard, which is also translated as stay-at-home.
The word pantoufler come from pantoufle (slipper), which combines pan (a piece of cloth) with the suffix -oufle, which denotes mbloated objects and muffled sounds. A pantoufle was originally a cloth shoe [source].
Apparently the term revolving door is used for this practice in the USA.
In Japan this practice is known as 天下り [amakudari] (“descent from paradise or the sky”).
Are there similar expressions and practices in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| la surabondance | superfluity | gormodedd | gourfaoter |
| superflu | superfluous | gormodol | didal; diouverus |
| le pari | a bet | bet; mentro arian | pariadenn |
| parier | to bet | betio; mentro; chwarae hap | pariañ |
| les futilités; les bagatelles | trivia | pethau dibwys/diwerth | raneoù |
| la dune de sable | sand dune | twyn tywod | tevenn (traezh) |
| le gage | pawn (in chess) | gwerinwr | gouestl |
| le paon [pɑ̃] | peacock | paun | paun |
| la paonne [pan] | peahen | peunes | paunez |
| la pantoufle | slipper | sliper; llopan; esgid nos | pañtoufl |
| pantoufler | to switch from civil servant to the private sector | luduenniñ | |
| pantouflard | stay-at-home | cartrefol; diantur; difenter | ludu |
| se relaxer | to chill out | ymlacio | dibrezañ; dizalc’hen |
| le soap; le feuilleton | soap opera | sioe sebon; opera sebon | heuliadenn |
| tour à tour | alternately | bob yn ail | a bep eil |
| l’échange | exchange | cyfnewid | eskemm |
| intermédiaire | go-between | canolwr | hanterour |
| le relais; l’auberge | hotel, inn | llety, gwesti | leti; ostaleri |
| le relais | (electronic) relay | relái | relae |
Warming up
It’s generally a good idea to do a bit of warming up before physical activity, especially sport. It also helps to do some warm up exercises before playing a musical instrument – I usually play a few scales before launching into other pieces on the guitar and piano, for example – and vocal and physical warms up are a good idea before singing.
I wonder if there are equivalent exercises you could do before using a language you’re learning. Speaking is a physical, as well as mental, activity, so some warming up might be useful. Maybe this could involve practising the sounds of the language at different pitches and speeds, putting them together in various combinations and just playing about with them a bit. You could focus on particular sounds or combinations that you find challenging. It could also involve going over very familiar phrases and having mini conversations with yourself. Maybe it could also involve playing with inflections, playing with verb tenses, noun cases and so.
When I was learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), I found it helped me to sing the different vowel sounds at different pitches. I haven’t tried this with particularly languages yet, but might give it a go.
Do you do anything like this? Do you think it is / would be helpful?
Language learner/speaker finder
Today a friend told me about an app he’s developing that shows you where other language learners are in your vicinity and enables you to contact them to suggest a language exchange. You enter your details, including your native language(s) and the language(s) you’re learning, and it shows you if there’s anybody around who speaks the language you’re learning and is learning the language you speak.
It sounds like a great idea to me, and I thought something similar might be useful for speakers and learners of minority languages to find others who speak the same language. My friend, who is based in Zurich, is planning to develop such an app for Romansh speakers, and we might develop one for other languages like Welsh as well.
Does anybody know if any such apps already exist?