Merry & Happy

By Simon

Do you wish someone a ‘Merry Christmas’ or a ‘Happy Christmas’?

This is a question I was asked recently, and my reply was that I use both – in Christmas cards I usually use merry, but in speech I use happy. How about you?

Would you ever with someone a Merry New Year? This doesn’t sounds quite right to me.

Do other languages make a distinction between merriment* and happiness**?

* participation in amusing and enjoyable activities; fun; exuberant enjoyment

** the state of pleasurable content of mind, which results from success or the attainment of what is considered good

Definitions from the OED.

Scintillas of tinsel

By Simon

Tinsel

As there’s a lot of it about at this time of year, at least there is in the UK, I thought I’d investigate the origins of the word tinsel today.

According to the OED, tinsel probably comes from the Old French estincelle, which is also the root of the modern French étincelle (a sparke or sparkle of fire, a flash), from the popular Latin *stincilla, which is related to scintilla (spark).

One definition of tinsel in the OED is “very thin plates or sheets, spangles, strips, or threads, originally of gold or silver, later of copper, brass, or some gold- or silver-coloured alloy, used chiefly for ornament; now esp. for cheap and showy ornamentation, gaudy stage costumes, anglers’ flies, and the like”

According to Wikipedia, tinsel was originally made of strands of silver, was invented in Nuremberg around 1610, and was used to adorn sculptures at first, then later to decorate Christmas trees, particularly to enhance the light of the candles on the trees. During the 20th century other materials were used to make tinsel, including copper, aluminiumised paper and lead foil. These days it’s usually made of PVC film coated with a metallic finish.

Is your house currently festooned with tinsel and other decorations?

Gala

By Simon

Last week I went to an event described as a ‘gala concert’ at Bangor University. A friend asked what gala actually means; I wasn’t sure, so decided to find out.

According to the OED, gala (/ˈgaːlə/, /ˈgeɪlə/) means “gala dress, festal attire”; “a festive occasion; a festival characterized by the display of finery and show” or “festive, gay” (chiefly North America). It comes from the French word gala (official reception).

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, gala comes from the French en gala, which perhaps comes from the Old French gale (merriment), from galer (rejoice, make merry).

Shaking paillasses

By Simon

In French une paillasse /pajas/ is a straw mattress, draining board or laboratory bench and un paillasse is a clown. The former is a combination of paille (straw) plus the suffix -asse. Paille comes from the Latin palea, from the Ancient Greek πάλλω (pallo = to shake) because you have to shake the straw to extract the grain. The latter comes from the Italian pagliaccio (clown).

The word paillasse /ˈpalɪas/, meaning a straw mattress, is also used in English and was used in Scots.

Paillasse also appears in des pommes (de terre) paillasses, a potato-based dish which came up in a quiz yesterday.

Sources: Wiktionnaire, OED, Reverso

Txtng n N’ko

By Simon

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times about how it is now possible to send text messages and emails in N’Ko, an alphabet invented in 1949 to write Mande languages of Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast. Thanks to various iPhone apps and other software use of this alphabet is increasing. It also helps that N’Ko is included in Unicode – here are some examples.

N’ko Unicode fonts are available here and here.

Audio illusions

By Simon

Last Sunday I took part in a carol concert, both singing in the Bangor Community Choir, and singing with everybody else as part of the audience / congregation. The chapel where this took place is a bilingual one where people are encouraged to sing in Welsh or English – words for both are projected on the front wall. I think roughly half of those there sang in Welsh and the other half in English. I sang mostly in Welsh, and found that when doing so, I could hear the other people singing in Welsh around me and could hardly hear those singing in English. The opposite was true when I sang in English – I could hear the other people singing in English, but couldn’t hear the Welsh singing nearly as clearly. Occasionally I stopped singing for a little while and could hear both languages, though if I concentrated on one, the other wasn’t as clear.

It was a bit like one of those pictures which look like one thing if you look at them in a certain way, and like something else if you look at them differently. With those it’s almost impossible to see both versions at the same time. When I was singing I could hear both languages being sung around me if I concentrated on doing so, but the one I was singing in was much more noticeable and easier to hear.

Have you had any similar experiences?