Puzzle

By Simon

A visitor to Omniglot would like your help deciphering the writing below. It comes from an old silk painting which appears Chinese, or maybe Japanese.

Writing from old painting

The bit on the left appears to be a signature which I think is 三抆向 (San Wenxiang) and perhaps the name of a town 圓山？ (Yuanshan ?) – a small town in Taiwan.

The other bit of writing might be a poem, though I can’t make out all of the characters (reading vertically from right to left): 昚中斑 (shèn zhōng​ bān) 一面二有​ (yī​ miàn èr yǒu​). The characters in the third row from the right might be Chinese hanzi: 力夕？石 (lì xī​ ? shí), or Japanese katakana: カタノ石 (ka ta no shiki), and in the next line 二而？ (èr ér ?). I’m not sure about the characters in the last line.

Mice, muscles and mussels

By Simon

Larry, the official mouser at 10 Downing Street

Today I came across the German word Mäusefänger (mouse catcher) in an article, sent to me by a friend, about the cat that recently took up the position of chief mouse catcher at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron. Number 10 apparently has a bit of a problem with mice, and there’s a long tradition of keeping cats at the prime minister’s residence and the treasury.

Mäusefänger is made up of two words: mäuse, the plural of maus (mouse), and fänger (catcher, fielder, interceptor, trap). Maus, which is of course related to the English word mouse, comes from the Proto-Germanic. *mus (a small rodent), from PIE *muHs- (mouse) [source]. The word muscle comes from the same root, via the Latin musculus (muscle, lit. “little mouse”), as does mussel, via the Old English muscle/musscel, and the Late Latin muscula [source].

While looking up some of the words in the article, I came across a useful German dictionary, canoonet, which not only gives information about German words (in German), and links to dictionaries for other languages, but also has grammatical information, such as noun and verb conjugations. There is also a Morphologie-Browser, which shows the words derived from a particular word – here’s an example with the word sehen (to see).

Spolubydlící

By Simon

I came across the Czech word spolubydlící [ˈspɔlʊbidliːtsiː] on a blog I read today and was pleased to realise that I could work out what it meant from its constituent parts. Spolu means together, byd is related to bydlet (to live), I didn’t know what lící signified, but correctly guessed that the word meant “house mate / roommate”.

I learnt spolu (together, along with, jointly, in company with) yesterday in the Czech lesson I was working my way through. It appears in the context, Musíme si někdy spolu zahrát (We must have a game together sometime). I’d come across bydlet before in such expressions as Bydlím v Praze (I live in Prague) and Bydlíte tu někde blízko? (Do you live somewhere near here?).

Other words containing spolu include:

  • spoluautor – co-author
  • spolucestující – travel companion, fellow traveller, passenger
  • spoluhráč – playmate, team mate
  • spolumajitel – co-owner, joint owner
  • spoluobčan – fellow-citizen
  • spolupráce – cooperation

By the way, what do you call someone you live with or share a house, flat, apartment, room or other dwelling with?

I would say house mate for someone you share a house with, flat mate for someone you share a flat with, and room mate for someone you share a room with.

Remembering words

By Simon

When learning a language one challenge is to memorise the vocabulary, and to be able to use it when you need it. I’ve tried a number methods to do this: repetition, flash cards, SRS, associations and so on. A method for learning individual words that works quite well for me involves making associations between the sounds of the new words and familiar words, especially if I build mental pictures to illustrate the words and their meanings. For example, a Welsh word for field is maes, which sounds like mice, so I picture a field full of mice.

Another way to remember things that I came across the other day involves giving inanimate objects character and life. The example I found discusses using this method to remember where your keys are:

[…] imbue your keys with character and life: this is my preferred gambit. Think of your keys as a living, breathing creature, and you’ll automatically know where they are.

Our brains like living things, it seems, they have more time for them.

Specifically, I deliberately experience my keys as a needy brood of motherless koala-bears on a hoop. When I drop them somewhere, my mind quickly wonders if they’re warm and comfortable, away from predators, in need of some amusing noises from their owner.

The location they’re in thus immediately gains my interest and attention, so I remember it automatically.

After reading this I started wondering whether you could do the same for words – endowing words for inanimate objects and abstract concepts with life and character might make them more memorable. You could also give masculine or feminine characteristics to nouns as appropriate. For verbs maybe you could picture conjugations as accessories – hats, scarves, gloves, bags, etc.

Snídanĕ - Czech word for breakfast

I haven’t actually tried this yet, but will give it a go and let you know if it helps.

The image on the right is a possible way to remember the Czech word for breakfast (snídanĕ) with the breve over the e filled with breakfast cereal and milk.

Have you tried this memory trick, or similar ones?

Ceathairéad téadach

By Simon

Oíche Shathairn chuaigh mé chuig cheolchoirm san ollscoil leis Ceathairéad Benyounes, ceathairéad téadach de chailíní óga bunaíodh i 2007 nuair a bhí na comhaltaí ag déanamh staidéir ar an Coláiste Ríoga Ceoil an Thuaisceart (Royal Northern College of Music) i Manchain.

Sheinn siad píosaí leis Hayden, Webern agus Beethoven, agus bhí siad go hiontach ar fad. Bhí sé cinn de na píosaí leis Webern an-ghearr, neamhthonúil agus beagán aisteach, ach dá ainneoin sin bhí siad suimiúil.

Pedwarawd llinynnol

Nos Sadwrn mi es i i gyngerdd yn y prifysgol gan Pedwarawd Benyounes, pedwarawd llinynnol merched ifanc y sefydlwyd yn 2007 pan roedd y aelodau yn astudio yng Ngholeg Brenhinol Cerdd y Gogledd (Royal Northern College of Music) yn Manceinion.

Mi ganon nhw alawon gan Hayden, Webern a Beethoven, a roedden nhw yn wych dros ben. Roedd chwech o’r alawon gan Webern yn fyr iawn, yn ddigywair ac yn ryfedd, ond er hynny roedden nhw yn ddiddorol.

Skiving

By Simon

When you spend your time not doing what you should be doing, you could be said to be skiving [‘skaɪvɪŋ]. This applies especially to taking unofficial time off school, or at least it was the expression used when I was at (secondary) school in the 1980s, not that I ever indulged in it. It is also used to describe the avoiding work and others things you should be doing.

Other ways of describing this practice include playing truant, doing a bunk and bunking off. I’ve also heard some people using mitching or mitching off for this, and I think you can ‘dog’ school in Scotland. In the USA do you skip or cut class/school or play hooky?

The etymology of skive, as in to play truant / avoid work, is uncertain, but skive has another meaning: to split or cut into strips, which comes from the Old Norse skifa [source].

Here’s a good example of attempted skiving:

A mother repeatedly called upstairs for her son to get up, get dressed and get ready for school. It was a familiar routine, especially at exam time.

“I feel sick,” said the voice from the bedroom.

“You are not sick. Get up and get ready,” called the mother, walking up the stairs and hovering outside the bedroom door.

“I hate school and I’m not going,” said the voice from the bedroom, “I’m always getting things wrong, making mistakes and getting told off. Nobody likes me, and I’ve got no friends. And we have too many tests and they are too confusing. It’s all just pointless, and I’m not going to school ever, ever again.”

“I’m sorry, but you are going to school,” said the mother through the door. She decided to try a bit of encouragement, “Really, mistakes are how we learn and develop. And please try not to take criticism so personally. I can’t believe that nobody likes you – you have lots of friends at school. And yes, all those tests can be confusing, but we are all tested in many ways throughout our lives, so all of this experience at school is useful for life in general. Besides, you have to go, you are the headmaster.” [Source]

Are there other words for this practice in English or other languages?

Telyn a Gaita

By Simon

Heno mi es i i gyngerdd wych yn y prifysgol gan Siân James, cantores a thelynores o Ganolbarth Cymru a Anxo Lorenzo, pibydd o Alisia. Roedd yn ardderchog dros ben.

Mae llais hyfryd iawn ‘da Siân, ac mae hi’n canu’r delyn a’r piano yn wych hefyd. Roedd dau ddyn yn cyfeilio hi – roedd un yn canu’r allweddellau a’r piano, ac yn canu, a roedd un arall yn canu chwibanau, y ffidil a’r accordion. Cerddorion dawnus iawn oedden nhw. A dweud y gwir, yr albwm Cymraeg cyntaf y brynes i oedd Distaw gan Siân James, ac wrth gwrando ar ei chaneuon, mi syrthies i mewn cariad gyda’r iaith Gymraeg, ac ar ôl hynny ro’n i’n awyddus i ddysgu’r iaith.

Mae Anxo Lorenzo yn dod o Alisia yng ngogledd-orllewin Sbaen. Mae e’n canu’r facpib Galisieg, neu gaita (de foles) yn yr Alisieg, a’r chwibanau. Yn cyfeilio e oedd dyn arall o Alisia sy’n canu’r bouzouki (boswcî?), a dyn o Iwerddon sy’n canu’r ffidil. Roedden nhw’n canu alawon o Alisia ac o Iwerddon yn angredadwy o dda ac yn gyflym dros ben. Mi glywes i’r facpib Galisieg o’r blaen – roedd dyn o Wcráin yn canu nhw un waith pan ro’n i’n yn Iwerddon – ond dw i erioed wedi clywed rhywun yn canu nhw mor gyflym a mor dda, ac roedd rhai o’r synau oedd yn dod oddi wrthynt yn hollol syfrdanol.

Benefits of being bilingual

By Simon

According to a study at the University of Haifa in Israel, children who grow up bilingually are able to learn a third language more easily than monolingual children.

The study compared children who speak Russian and Hebrew with those who speak only Hebrew, and who are all learning English at school. It found that the bilingual children not only find it easy to learn English, but also that doing so raises their IQs, and that they speak Hebrew better than the Hebrew monolinguals.

The researchers believe that learning several languages at a young age bolsters one’s language skills, and as skill in language is an important cognitive function, this makes learning easier in general.

When researching the phenomenon of language decline and death for my dissertation, I found that one common reason why languages decline is because many people believe that it’s better for their children to speak a mainstream language rather than a minority language, and that trying to speak both languages is likely to overwhelm their poor little brains and result in them speaking neither language very well. This research suggests that such beliefs are mistaken.