Lang-8

By Simon

A useful-looking website I heard about today is Lang-8, which describes itself as a a social networking service site for language exchange and international communication. Users can write journal entries in a language they’re learning, and get them corrected by native speakers of that language. There are also groups for particular language combinations, e.g. Japanese / English or Chinese / English, and discussion forums.

Bilingualism and Emotion 2

By Simon

I just want to thank those of you who completed the questionnaire on bilingualism and emotion. There were 36 responses all together, and I’ll be giving a presentation about it tomorrow.

The information collected was very interesting, and wasn’t entirely what we expected. For example, the number of people who preferred to use their first language to express their deepest feelings and terms of endearment wasn’t as high as previous studies have found. What seemed to be more important was the context and how well people know each language.

I’m now collecting data for a study on colour vocabulary. This time I’m looking for bilingual speakers of any language, and monolingual English speakers. If you can help, please complete the questionnaire on this page.

[Update] – for various reasons I will only be collecting data about colour vocabulary from monolinguals online (the data from bilinguals will be collected offline). So if you consider yourself to be a monolingual speaker of English or another language, please complete the questionnaire.

Cyngerdd

By Simon

Neithiwr roedd cyngerdd gan gerddorfa a chôr y cymdeithas cerdd yn y prifysgol, ac mi ganais i yn y côr. Roedd y gerddorfa yn chwarae yn y hanner cyntaf, mi wrandon ni trwy seinyddion, ac roedd hi’n swnio yn wych. Canodd y côr yn yr ail hanner, ac mi wnaethon ni gân gan Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on Christmas Carols, efo adran tant y gerddorfa fel grand finale. Aeth y cyngerdd yn dda iawn, roedd y cynulleidfa yn lawn brwdfrydedd, ac mi godon ni mwy na £600. Roedd parti ar ôl y cyngerdd hefyd. Dyna fy unfed cyngerdd ar ddeg eleni!

Ceolchoirm

Areir bhí ceolchoirm ann san ollscoil le ceolfhoireann agus cór an cumann ceoil, agus chan mé sa cór. Sheinn an cheolfhoireann sa chéad leath, agus d’éist muid trí callairí. Chan an cór sa dara leath, agus rinne muid amhrán le Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on Christmas Carols, le roinn téide an cheolfhoireann mar grand finale. Bhí an cheolchoirm go h-iontach, bhí an lucht éisteachta/féachana lán díograis, agus chruinnigh muid níos mó na £600. Bhí coisir ann i ndiaidh an cheolchoirm freisin. Seo mó chéad cheolchoirm is déag i mbliana!

Concert

Last night the music orchestra and choir gave a concert in the university, and I was singing in the choir. The orchestra played in the first half, the rest of us listened on speakers in a nearby room, and it sounded great. The choir sang in the second half, and we did a joint piece, Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on Christmas Carols, with the string section of the orchestra as our grand finale. The concert went well, the audience was full of enthusiasm, and we raised over £600. These was also a good party after the concert. This was the 11th concert I’ve performed in this year!

Newyddion

By Simon

Dw i ddim wedi ysgrifennu unrhywbeth yma ers sbel – dw i wedi bod yn brysur efo fy astudiaethau. Bydd diwedd y semestr cyntaf yn cyrraedd cyn bo hir, ac mae gen i cryn dipyn o waith i wneud. Bydd arholiad seineg ar ôl Nadolig hefyd. Dw i wedi dysgu llawer o bethau diddorol a defynddiol y semestr hwn, ac yn edrych ymlaen at y semestr nesaf.

Nuacht

Is fad an lá ó scríobh mé rud ar bith anseo – tá mé an gnóthach le mo staidéar. Tiocfaidh deireadh an chéad sheimeastair roimh i bhfad, agus tá a lán obair agam a dhéanamh. Beidh scrúdú foghraíochta agam i ndiaidh an Nollaig chomh maith. Tá mé ag foghlaim go leor rudaí suimiúla agus úsáideach an seimeastair seo, agus ag tnúth leis an cheann seo chugainn.

News

It’s quite a while since I’ve written anything here – I’ve been busy with my studies. The end of the first semester is fast approaching and I have lots of stuff to do before then. I’ll have some phonetics exams after Christmas as well. I’ve learnt a lot of interesting and useful things this semester and am looking forward to the next semester.

Mysterious medallion inscription

By Simon

This medallion belonged to Kevin Silver’s father and was believed to be his grandfather’s originally. Kevin has been told is “probably” a protection device that his grandfather wore to protect himself from harm and evil spirits. His grandfather was an Orthodox Jew from Russia who was very religious.

Kevin has tried to match the letter to the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Ancient Greek, Russian, & Ancient Russian alphabets without success. Can you help?

Medallion with mysterious inscription

I’ve decided to put puzzles on this blog to make it possible for you leave comments rather than having to send them to me. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.

Solution from Aharon Shmuel

The language is Hebrew written in the Paleo-Hebrew/Phoenician alphabet (abjad). The script is taken from the style used on coins minted during the Jewish revolts against Rome; indeed, this seems to be a replica of a coin from that period.

The text reads שנת אחת לגאלת ישראל; SHNAT ACHAT LEGE’ULAT YISRAEL; year one of Israel’s redemption. This phrase was used on coins minted during the revolts. In fact, Israel has issued stamps featuring ancient coins with this exact phrase on them: here and here.

One interesting feature here is the backwards letter Gimmel (the 8th letter, reading from right to left). I’ve been scouring the internet looking for an example of coins from this period with a backward Gimmel, but each one I’ve found has been facing forward. This, along with the owners comments, leads me to believe that this replica was made by a reader/writer of the Cyrillic alphabet who mixed up the Gimmel with the corresponding letter Ge – after all, what is a Cyrillic Ge if not a backward Gimmel.

Also, the Alephs are inconsistent (4th, 9th & 15th letters), and the Nun (2nd letter) looks more like a Mem but that could just be the picture quality.

As a side note, the current 1 and 10 New Israeli Shekel coins make use of Paleo-Hebrew; the ₪10 has a similar phrase, לגאלת ציון; LEGE’ULAT TZION; for the redemption of Zion.

All in all, a very cool coin to have – I’m jealous. As far as protection from spirits etc., could well have been intended for that. I’d wear it if I had it. -Aharon

Word of the day – morglawdd

By Simon

In Welsh morglawdd is the word for a tidal barrage (lit. “sea bank, dyke, earthwork or hedgerow”). I heard this word during a discussion on Radio Cymru of plans to build such a barrage across the Severn Estuary and I just liked the sound of it.

The plans are opposed by many environmental groups who prefer an alternative proposal to build an artificial reef or greigres artiffisial, which would cost less, produce more power, and would have less environmental impact.

There are more details of the project on the BBC website in English and Welsh.

Word of the day – iff

By Simon

I came across today’s word, iff, in the syntax textbook I’m reading at the moment (Introduction to Government and Binding Theory). When I spotted it I thought at first that it was a typo, but have since discovered that it is used in logic to mean “if and only if”.

Iff can also be represented by the following symbols: ↔, ⇔ or ≡

Quite a few other symbols are used in logic, and to some extent in linguistics textbooks on semantics and syntax. They include:

⇒ / → / ⊃ = if … then
¬ / ˜ = not
⊕ / ⊻ = xor (exclusive or)
∀ = for all/any/each
∃ = there exists
⊢ = infers or is derived from

I vaguely remember learning some of these in maths classes many moons ago and still haven’t quite recovered! I tend to skip parts of books and articles that use them.

Source: Wikipedia