Do women really talk more than men?

By Simon

According to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, the commonly-held believe that women talk a lot more than men is a myth. An article I came across today gives details of the research, which discovered that both men and women use around 16,000 words per day on average.

Between 1998 and 2004, the researchers analysed the daily interactions of 400 university students from the USA and Mexico using unobtrusive digital recorders. The subjects were not aware when they were being recorded – the recorders were set to automatically record for 30 seconds every 12.5 minutes – and had no control over the recorders.

The exact averages were 16,215 words for women and 15,669 for men, so women do talk more, on average, than men, but the difference isn’t huge. The researchers also noticed significant individual variations with differences of up to 45,000 words a day between the most and least talkative people.

How many word do you think you use per day?

I wonder if any studies have been done to discover how many distinct words we use each day and how often we repeat ourselves.

How old is English?

By Simon

The other day I came across an interesting site about the history of the English language. It argues that English has been spoken in Britain for a lot longer than is conventionally assumed, and that there wasn’t sufficient time for the native population to adopt English after the Anglo-Saxons starting settling in the 5th century. The site cites examples for various parts of the world of how long it takes for one language to completely replace another, and concludes that it’s unlikely that the relatively small numbers of Anglo-Saxons could have imposed their language in a few centuries.

The conventional story is that before the Roman invasion the Britons all spoke Celtic languages, and that the Anglo-Saxons brought the languages that would develop into English to Britain during the 5th century when they started settling in the eastern parts of the country. They eventually took over most of what is now England and parts of southern Scotland and the existing population adopted Anglo-Saxon customs and language, abandoning their Celtic languages. At the same time, part of the population fled westward to Wales, Cornwall, Strathclyde and Cumbria, where they continued to speak their Celtic languages.

An alternative history proposed by this site is that Germanic languages of some form or another have been spoken in eastern parts of Britain for around 10,000 years, and that Celtic languages have been spoken in western parts of Britain for a similar length of time. Evidence from place names in eastern Britain suggests, according to the site, that most places have had Germanic names for a long time, and that the conventional Celtic-based etymologies are mistaken.

I find speculations like this that challenge conventional wisdom interesting. I don’t know whether to take them seriously though. What do you think?

Haul / Grian

By Simon

Oedd hi’n braf y penwythnos diwetha, oedd yr haul yn disgleirio, oedd yr awyr yn las, ac oedd hi’n bron twym mewn lleoedd lloches o’r gwynt.

Brynhawn Sul es i i farbiciw yn nhŷ nghyfaill. Oedd llawer o fwyd blasus a sgwrs ddiddorol a fe wnes i fwynhau fy hun yn dda. Hefyd cwrddais i â ferch o Hwngari sy’n gweithio yn yr un cwmni a fi. Adeilad gyda pump llawr yw ein swyddfa, ac mae tua cant a hanner o bobl yn gweithio yno. Mae’r rhan fwya o bobl yn nabod dim ond y rheiny sy’n gweithio ar y un llawr. Felly ges i ddim fy synnu mod i ddim yn nabod nghydweithwraig.

Bhí sé go breá an deireadh seachtaine seo caite, bhí an ghrian ag soilsigh, bhí spéir ghorm ann, agus bhí beagnach te as an ghaoth.

Tráthnóna Dé Domhnaigh, chuaigh mé chuig barbaiciú sa teach mo chara. Bhí a lán bia blasta agus comhrá suimiúla ann, agus bhain mé an sult as. Bhuail mé le cailín as an Ungáir atá ag obair san oifig céanna agus mise. Foirgneamh le cuig urlár atá ár oifig, agus tá céad caoga daoine ag obair ansin. Níl aithne ag a chuid is mó againne ach ar na daoine eile atá ag obair ar an urlár céanna. Dá bhrí sin, ní raibh iontais orm nach raibh aithne agam ar mo chomhoibrí.

Alphabets and email

By Simon

One of the things I do in my job is to prepare html emails in many different languages, which are sent out by our web marketing bods. We’ve discovered that the text of emails in non-Latin writing systems often gets mangled in transmission, so to make sure the recipients can read the text, we send the emails in English with links to web pages containing text in the relevant languages.

Maybe one day you’ll be able to send emails in any language/writing system and be sure the text will display correctly at the other end. This doesn’t seem to be the case just yet.

I’ve also noticed that Latin transliterations are used by quite a few people who speak languages written with non-Latin writing systems in instant messages and other online chat and discussions. This may be because the systems don’t support of writing systems, or because they don’t always have the necessary input software and/or hardware to hand. Then again, some people might just find it easier to type quickly in the Latin alphabet.

Idiom of the day

By Simon

In English when you give up on something or admit that you’re defeated, you might say that you’re throwing in the towel or the sponge, a phrase that comes from boxing. In Welsh you put the fiddle on the roof: rhoi’r ffidil ar y tô. I like the image this conjures up.

Other Welsh idioms I like include siarad fel melin bupur = to talk like a pepper mill, i.e. to talk non-stop, mae hi’n bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc = it’s raining knives and forks, i.e. it’s raining heavily, and mae’r olwyn wedi troi = the wheel has turned, i.e. times have changed.

Where were the Etruscans from?

By Simon

The origins of the Etruscans, whose civilisation flourished 3,000 years ago – c.1200 BC to c.100 BC – in Etruria (modern Tuscany), have long been subject to debate among archaeologists, linguists and historians. There are three main theories: Herodotus, the Greek historian, believed that they came from Anatolia (southern Turkey); others believe they came from northern Europe; while the third theory is that they were an indigenous to the region and descendants of the Iron Age Villanovan people.

According to an article I came across today, the Etruscan most likely were settlers from Anatolia (southern Turkey). This conclusion is based on genetic evidence collected and analysed by researchers at the University of Turin who compared samples of DNA from males in Tuscany, others parts of Italy, Greece, parts of the Balkans. The Tuscan DNA was found to be closest to DNA from Turkey and the Greek island of Lemnos, where an inscription in a language with many similarities to Etruscan was found in 1885.

So it looks like Herodotus, was right. He believed that due to a long-running famine, half of the population of Etruscans in Lydia (on the south coast of Turkey) were sent by their king to seek a better live elsewhere, and that they settled in the region that became known as Etruria in Italy.

Shwmae / Dia daoibh

By Simon

Croeso i fy mlog newydd. Bydda i ceisio ysgrifennu popeth yn y Gymraeg ac yn y Wyddeleg.

Tá fáilte romhaibh chuig mo bhlog nua. Beidh mé ag trial as gach rud a scriobh as Gaeilge agus as Breatnais.

Welcome to my new blog, which I’ll use to practise the languages I’m learning. At the moment I’m focusing particularly on Welsh and Irish, and I’ll try to write everything in both those languages. I may write in other languages from time to time as well.

Balingua

By Simon

Recently I was offered a free trial of a new online language course called Balingua, the author of which promises that you can learn a language quickly and well using the techniques he has developed. Apparently you can acquire basic oral proficiency in a new language in 30 hours, and the course “relies on the specific cognitive processes used in language learning and not on the grammatical or lexical traits of a language.”

The languages currently available with Balingua are English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Japanese, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The only languages on this list I haven’t studied yet are Dutch and Lithuanian, and I was thinking of learning some Dutch.

At the moment, however, I’m trying to improve/maintain my knowledge of ten languages, and am focusing particularly on Welsh and Irish. Perhaps it’s not the best time for me to start learning yet another language, much as I’d like to. So I’ve decided not to take up the free trial.

Would any of you like to have a go at this revolutionary new language learning method?

If you would, please send me an email to the usual address and let me know which language you’d like to study by Friday of this week. If I receive more than one email, I’ll put your names into a hat then draw one out.

The lucky winner will get a free trial course in their chosen language. All they need to do is blog about the course, and give any feedback they have to Balingua.