Television and stinky badgers

By Simon

What does television and stinky badgers have in common?

Well, there’s a kind of stink badger (Mydaus javanensis) that lives in Java, Sumatra, Borneo and the North Natuna Islands of Indonesia and which called teledu /teledu/ in Malay; sigung in Indonesian. The word teledu /tɛ’lɛdɨ/ just happens to be the Welsh word for television.

This is the stink badger:

Teledu - the Javanese Stink Badger

Found via this blog.

The word television of course comes from the Greek word τῆλε (tele), ‘far off / at a distance’, and the Latin visionem, ‘act of seeing, sight, thing seen’. Most languages call the television something similar. There a few exceptions though, including the German Fernsehen, ‘Far-see’, the Norwegian Fjernsyn, which means the same as the German; the Icelandic Sjónvarp, ‘vision’ + ‘throw’; and the Chinese 電視 [电视] (di

Literary translation

By Simon

Have you ever wondered what kind of challenges you might encounter when translating Asterix? It’s not just about translating the dialogues – there are also numerous names, verbal and visual puns, songs and accents to deal with, and you have to fit the translated text into the speech bubbles. An interesting site – Literary Translation – goes into more detail of some of the difficulties of translating various literary works, including Asterix.

I’ve only read Asterix in English, plus a few of the books in German, so am not familiar with the original French text. Most of the names of the characters in French are different to the ones I’m used to in English. For example, the Gaulish bard, who is Cacofonix in English, is known as Assurancetourix = assurance tous risques, ‘comprehensive insurance’ in French. Many of the other names are made up of French words like this, and don’t sound like names if translated literally. Another example is the Gaulish chieftain, Abraracourcix, whose name comes from the phrase

Ymgartrefu ym Mangor

By Simon

Dw i wedi bod ym Mangor ers wythnos a hanner bellach a dw i’n setlo i mewn yn dda. Yn ystod y dydd dw i’n arfer ateb yr e-bostiau sy’n dod o Omniglot, ac yn gwneud pethau eraill arno. Ateb yr e-bostiau ydy’r peth dw i’n treulio y mwyafrif fy amser amdano wrth i mi gweithio ar y wefan. Hefyd, dw i’n ysgrifennu erthyglau am ieithoedd ar gyfer asiantaeth iaith/teithio ym Mrighton, ac yn ymarfer y gitâr a’r chwiban, ac yn dysgu mwy o Wyddeleg a Gaeleg. Dw i’n mwynhau yn fawr ysgrifennu’r erthyglau.

Dw i’n wedi gwario gormod o bres yn ddiweddar yn prynu dodrefn a phethau eraill ar gyfer y tŷ. Nid peth rhad ydy symud tŷ! Yn ffodus mae’r costau yn llai ym Mangor nac ym Mrighton, a fan hyn dw i’n prynu bwyd mewn archfarchnadoedd rhad fel Aldi ac Iceland; yn Mrighton o’n i’n prynu bwyd yn Waitrose, archfarchnad costus iawn, ond roedd hi’n yr archfarchnad ymylaf i fy nhŷ. Un ddiog iawn ydw i weithiau.

Dw i’n mynd am dro bob dydd, heblaw pan mae’n bwrw glaw trwm, a dw i’n ceisio mynd i ddilyn llwybr gwahanol bob tro. Felly dw i’n mynd yn fwy cyfarwydd efo’r dref, ond dw i ddim wedi dod i nabod neb yma eto.

Ddydd Sul diwethaf es i i Landudno am y tro cyntaf. Mae’r lle yn hyfryd, yn enwedig y traeth, y bae, a’r Gogarth, ac roedd llawer o bobl yn mwynhau’r tywydd braf. Y tro nesaf, bydda i’n mynd â fy sgidiau sglefrolio ac yn manteisio ar y promenâd hir. Mi ges i synnu nac roedd neb arall yn gwneud yr un peth.

Ddoe es i i Gaernarfon yn y prynhawn. Dyna’r ail dro dw i wedi mynd yno a gweles i mwy o’r dref y tro hwn.

Socraigh isteach i mBangor

Tá mé i mBangor le seachtaine go leith anois agus tá mé ag socraigh isteach go maith. I rith an lae bím ag freagair ríomhphostanna atá ag teacht ó Omniglot, agus ag déanamh rudaí eile air. Ag freagair ríomhphostanna atá an rud bím ag caith an chuid is mó de m’am air agus mé ag obair ar an suíomh. Bím ag scríobh altanna faoi teangacha do ghníomhaireacht teangacha/taistil i mBrighton, ag cleachtadh an giotár agus an fheadóg stáin, agus ag foghlaim níos mó Gaeilge agus Gàidhlig freisin. Bainim an-sult as na haltanna ag scríobh.

Tá mé ag caitheamh barraíocht airgid le déanaí ag ceannaigh troscán agus rudaí eile don teach. Níl rud saor atá aistrigh i dteach nua! Go hádhúil bíonn an costas maireachtála níos lú i mBangor ná i mBrigthon, agus anseo bím ag ceannaigh bia in ollmhargaí saoire mar Aldi agus Iceland; i mBrighton bhí mé ag ceannaigh bia i Waitrose, ollmhargadh an daor, ach bhí sé an t-ollmhargadh is cóngaraí do m’árasán. An leisciúil atá mé amanna.

Bím ag dul ag siúil gach lá, ach nuair atá báisteach trom ann, agus bím ag triail as slí éagsúla a lean gach uair. Mar sin de, tá mé ag éirigh níos eolacha leis an áit, ach níl aithne agam ag aon duine anseo go fóill.

De Domhnaigh seo caite, chuaigh mé go Llandudno ar an chead uair. Is áit álainn í, go hairithe an trá, an bá agus an Great Orme agus Little Orme (cinn tíre móra ag gach ceann an trá), agus bhain a lán duine sult as an aimsir deas. An uair seo caite, tabharfaidh mé mo scataí agus scátálfaidh mé i rith an promanád.

Inné chuaigh mé go Caernarfon sa tráthnóna. Bhí sin an dara uair a bhí ag dol ansin agus chonaic mé níos mó an uair seo.

Mystery songs

By Simon

Today we have two questions from visitors to Omniglot.

The first question comes from someone who cares for a women in the end stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She doesn’t communicate much, but when she does she usually sings a song that seems to be in Ukrainian or possibly Slovak (she is an American woman who speaks English). Below is a phonetic rendering of what she sings:

Hietsa kietsa kulo pietsa
Talo mene pabolo
Mama mene swala wala
Him no mene pabolo

Do any of you recognise this song or the language?

The second question comes from someone in Canada who remembers her Scottish grandparents singing a goodbye song. Below is her phonetic rendering of the first line of the song, which is all she remembers, is “A daw a wha-a-tay bide ee wha-a-a”. Is this familiar to anyone?

Bangor

By Simon

Dw i’n newydd cael cynnig diamodol o Brifysgol Bangor, o’r diwedd. Felly dw i’n bwriadu mynd i Fangor yr wythnos nesaf i chwilio am le i fyw ynddo.

Bangor

Tá mé i ndiaidh tairiscint neamhchoinníollach a fháil ón Ollscoil Bangor, faoi deireadh. Mar sin de, tá rún agam dul go Bangor an seachtain seo caite lóistín a lorg.

班哥

我終于收到了班哥大學無條件的錄取。 所以下個禮拜我回去棒格找住的地方。

Language teaching in primary schools

By Simon

Over the past six years the number of children in primary schools learning foreign languages has doubled, according to a report in The Times. So it appears that the UK government might just achieve its aim that all primary school pupils are learning a language by 2010.

The most popular language by far is French, which is taught by 89% of primary schools. German is taught by just 9% of schools, and Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Urdu are by fewer than 3%. Over 4,000 primary school teachers with a language specialism have been trained, and thousands more will be trained by 2010, at least that’s what the government hopes.

A review of languages in schools carried out last year by Lord Dearing recommended that languages be made compulsory at primary level. This hasn’t been implemented yet.

Do you think the study of foreign languages should be compulsory in schools? Is it compulsory in your country? If not, do plenty of people study languages anyway?

Word of the day – Crychydd

By Simon

Picture of a grey heron / Llun crychydd glas

Today’s word, crychydd (‘krəx.ɨð) is one of the Welsh words for heron. Other words for heron include crëyr, crehyr and crŷr, which appear to be immitations of the sounds herons make. The Irish word for heron is similar – corr.

Whenever I go for a walk by the sea here in Bangor, I often see a heron or two, as well as various other kinds of birds. They are usually grey herons (crëyr glas), but I did see a white one the other day, or it might have been a white egret. I’d like to learn a bit about these birds and their names in Welsh (and English, if I don’t already know them). I’ll see if the Welsh language bookshop in town has a book on local birds the next time I’m there.

One of my Welsh dictionaries, Y Geiriadur Mawr, has a section on birds with their names in Welsh and English. Many of the names are translations of their English equivalents, e.g. aderyn du – blackbird, asgell goch – redwing, and gwylan benddu – black-headed gull. Other names are based on the sounds the birds make, their appearance, or their habits or habitats, e.g. wid-wid – rock pipit, gwidihŵ – owl, bronfraith (speckled breast) – song thrush, Harri-gwylch-dy-big (Harry wash your beak) – little grebe, aderyn yr eira (snow bird) – starling.

Moving home

By Simon

I’ll be leaving Brighton tomorrow and moving to Bangor. I’ve spent the past few days packing, and getting rid of things I no longer need, and still have far too much stuff, especially books.

The plan is to set off tomorrow morning at around 7am, and to stop at an IKEA on the way to buy some furniture for the new house. So I should arrive in Bangor sometime tomorrow afternoon (it’s just over 300 miles from Brighton).

Unfortunately my broadband connection probably won’t be working for a week or three – not sure why it takes so long to set up – and I’ll have to rely on dial-up until then. So posts on this blog may become somewhat sporadic for a while.

Medical dictionaries

By Simon

A useful site I heard about recently is Practicing Spanish, which focuses on medical Spanish for healthcare providers. It includes daily dialogues, with audio, useful phrases for different medical situations, anatomical terminology, basic vocabulary, notes on culture and information about Spanish-speaking countries, as well as a number of folk songs. The author of the site is a Spanish teacher in the USA with training in medical interpreting.

A similar site I found today contains a glossary of medical terms in nine European languages (Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish).

There’s another mutilingual medical dictionary at: http://www.super55.com.