Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language it is?
Clue: this is an indigenous language of Central America.
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language it is?
Clue: this is an indigenous language of Central America.
The other day I heard about an interesting video on YouTube that shows the ancient forms of 36 Chinese characters via an animated cartoon in which the characters come to life. The commentary is all in Mandarin, but there are some English explanations in the information about the video.
A regular visitor to Omniglot has asked me to request your help with a project on Librivox. The aim of the project is to collect recordings of the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 30 different languages. A similar project last year resulted in recordings of the UDHR in 21 languages from Arabic to Walloon.
If you can help, there are details of the project on the Librivox website.
Ddydd Mawrth yr wythnos ddiwethaf, des i â thŷ newydd ym Mangor. Es i yno ddydd Llun, ac ddydd Mawrth ymwelais bron bob asiantaeth ystâd yn y dre. Dywedodd y mwyafrif ohonyn nhw nac roedd gynnyn nhw fflat neu dai i osod ym Mangor. Yn ffodus roedd cryn dipyn o leoedd i renti efo’r asiantaeth diwethaf. Es i i weld rhai ohonyn nhw ac mewn rhyw oriau, penderfynais cymryd tŷ bychan efo dwy ystafell wely yn ardal Hirael ar Stryd y Pistyll.
Ddoe des i’n ôl i Fangor i lofnodi’r contract, cael yr agoriadau, ac i ddechrau trefnu rhyw dodrefn – mae’r tŷ yn ddiddodrefn ar hyn bryd. Pan cyrhaeddais yn y tŷ, cwrddais â fy arglwyddes dir newydd. Mae hi’n neis iawn a esboniodd hi sut i ddefnyddio pethau fel y gwres canolog. Dywedodd hi bod hi wedi edrych at fy ngwefan, ac ar ôl i ei merch 12 oed wedi darganfod mod i’n jyglo a gallu gwneud pethau syrcas eraill, dywedodd hi fydda i’n denant gwych hyd yn oed os oes gen i camel neu grocodeil!
Neithiwr cysgais ar y llawr yn fy sach gysgu – un o’r noson mwyaf anesmwyth mod i wedi cael erioed! Cyrhaeddodd gwely newydd y bore ‘ma, diolch byth, a bydda i’n symud fy holl stwff i Fangor ddydd Mercher nesa.
Dé Mairt an seachtain seo cáite, fuair mé teach nua i mBangor. Chuaigh mé ansin Dé Luan, agus Dé Mairt thug mé cuairt i beagnach gach gníomhaire eastáit sa baile. Dúirt an chuid is mó acu ní raibh árasán nó teach ar cíos i mBangor acu. Go hádhúil raibh áiteanna ar cíos ag an gníomhaire deireanach. Chuaigh mé an chuid acu a fheiceal agus chinn mé teach bheag le dó seomra codlata a fháil.
Inné tháinig mé ar ais go Bangor an conradh a shínigh, eochair a fháil agus troscán a shocrú – ní throscánaithe atá an teach ar faoi láthair. Nuair a shroich mé an teach, bhuail mé le mó bhean lóistín nua. Is daoine an-dheas í agus dúirt sí liom conas a bhaint úsáid as rudaí mar an téamh lárnach. Dúirt sí liom go raibh sí ag féachaint ar mó shuíomh idirlín, agus i ndiaidh a hiníon 12 bliain d’aois a fhuar amach go bhím ag déanamh lámh cleasaigh, dúirt sí go mbeidh mé tionónta iontach, fiú ma bhiodh camall nó crogall agam!
Aréir chodail mé ar an urlár i mó mhála codlata – aon de na hoíche is míchompordach a chaith mé riamh! Tháinig leaba nua maidin inniu, buíochas le dia, agus beidh mé ag teacht ar ais go Bangor le mó chuid rudaí Dé Céadaoin seo caite.
上個禮拜二我在班哥找到了新的房子。禮拜一我去那邊,而且禮拜二去城市裏差不多每家不動產所。他們大部分都說目前都沒有在班哥出租的房子或公寓。有幸運的,最後的不動產所有一些出租的地方。我去看其中一些,而且幾個鐘頭的時間之間,我就決定了要住在小的,有兩個臥室的,靠近海邊的房子。
昨天我回到班哥爲了簽名同義,取鑰匙,開始舉辦家具-目前房子沒有家具。到達房子的時候,我跟新的房東見面。她很可親及友善的,而且告訴我什麽用中央暖氣系統及一些其他在房子的東西。在看我的網站的時候,她的女兒看了我在做雜技及其他馬遊戲團的東西,就說那個人應該很有趣的,一定要他來租房子,即使有駱駝或鱷魚!
昨天晚上我在地板上在睡袋睡覺了-就是我從來過過最不舒服的晚上!今天早上新的床子到達了,所以今天晚上就會舒服地睡覺。下個禮拜三我會辦所有我的東西來班哥。
eduFire, a language learning site I heard about recently. It’s designed to bring together language learners and tutors via the web using what they call ‘live video language learning’. Tutors can set their own fees, a small proportion of which is retained by the eduFire people as service charge, and students can try sample video lessons and talk to other students before deciding on a tutor. The most popular languages are Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
eduFire are giving away free one-hour tutoring sessions for readers of this blog. The first ten people to email freetutoring@edufire.com will receive a coupon code that allows their session to be complimentary.
Don’t forget the My favourite kanji competition, by the way. I said that the closing date for entries is today, but as I’ve only received two entries so far, I’ll extend that to the end of July.
Apologies for the lack of language quiz yesterday. This was due to server problems. As I know you enjoy these quizzes … here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you guess or do you know which language it is?
Yesterday I was talking to a former colleague who grew up in the UK speaking Cantonese and English and whose family comes from Hong Kong. He told me that when he meets Mandarin-speaking Chinese people, they tend to assume from his appearance he will understand them when they speak to him in Mandarin. He doesn’t. Sometimes Japanese people assume he’s Japanese as well.
I’ve seen similar situations in Taiwan and China involving Overseas Chinese who don’t speak Mandarin, or only speak it a little bit, being talked at in Mandarin by people who find it hard to accept that people who look Chinese don’t understand or speak Mandarin. At the same time, it can sometimes be difficult for Chinese people to accept that a Westerner such as myself can speak Mandarin.
Have you had experiences like this with Mandarin or other languages?
A professor at Michigan State University has created a free online role-playing game that teaches you Mandarin Chinese, as well as introducing you to Chinese culture, according to this report.
Within the game you inhabit a virtual version of China where you can visit markets, read newspapers, watch television, chat and trade with other players and even get a job, and there are plenty of help with the language the culture. Players start out as tourists and can become residents or even citizens of the virtual China.
This sounds like a good idea that might appeal to quite a lot of people.
Do you know of games that teach other languages? Have you tried any of them?
I’m currently in Bangor, Gwynedd in search of a new place to live – I plan to move here soon and will be starting an MA in Linguistics at Bangor University in September.
Bangor is one of the smallest cities in the UK and is an attractive place with views across the Menai Strait to Anglesey (Ynys Môn) and along the North Wales coast. Students make up a significant proportion of the population, at least during term time, and at least half of the permanent population speak Welsh as their first language, which is one of the reasons why I chose the course in Bangor.
Welsh has now ousted Mandarin as the dominant language (apart from English) in my head. Mandarin dominated for many years, even after I left Taiwan. Now when I try to say things in languages other than Welsh, they come out partly in Welsh, or with Welsh word order, which tends to confuse people. There aren’t many people around, as far as I know who can follow a Mandarin/Welsh mixed conversation. Well, I do know one person who could.
On the train on the way here today I heard some people talking in an unfamiliar language. As I usually do, I tried to work out which language it was. At first I assumed it was Spanish or Portuguese as I saw Iberia Airlines tags on their bags and they looked Hispanic. When I listened more closely, I realised it wasn’t either of those languages, though there did seem to be a few Spanish loanwords, which made me suspect it was maybe Quechua or one of the other indigenous languages of Latin America. Unfortunately I didn’t have a recording device to hand, otherwise I could have posted a recording here to see if any of you recognised the language. I suppose I could have asked the people what language it was, but where’s the challenge in that?!
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language it is?
Clue: this is a Native American language.
By the way, I’m trying to find a solution to the problems on the forum, but have yet to find anything that works. Suggestions are welcome.
The other day I heard about on interesting site called Worldle, which creates word clouds out of any text you enter into it. After creating your word cloud, you can tweak the layout, colour and font settings. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to handle text in alphabets other than Latin, Greek and Cyrillic. It isn’t really language or writing-related, but is quite fun to play with and you could use it to see which words are most frequently used in a text.
Here are a couple of word clouds I made with text from Omniglot:


This word cloud is made from text in Welsh and Irish from my other blog:
