Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Just speirin
Last night I saw FARA, a brilliant group from Orkney, in our local arts centre. One of the songs they sang, Speir Thoo The Wast Wind, was in Orcadian dialect and based on a poem by Christina Costie from Orkney.
Orcadian dialect is a type of Insular Scots that combines elements of the extinct Norn language and Scots. There isn’t a lot of information available about Orcadian, but I will try to put together a page about it on Omniglot.
Each verse of the song and the poem finishes with the line “Speir thoo the wast wind, bit speir no me”, which means “Ask the west wind, and don’t ask me”, I think.
The word speir [spiːr], which is also written speer, means to enquire or ask, according to The Orkney Dictionary. When I heard it in the song, I thought I might be related to words for to ask in North Germanic languages, and it turns out that it is.
It comes from the Old English spyrian (to track, inquire, investigate, examine), from the Proto-Germanic *spurjaną (to search; to examine; to ask) [source], which is also the root of the Danish word spørge (to ask, inquire), Norwegian word spørre (to ask, inquire), and the word spyrja (to ask) in Icelandic and Faroese [source].
A few other words from Orkney dialect: hoodjiekapiv, hoodjiekapiffle, hoodjiekaboogle, which are all Orcadian equivalents of whatsit, thingy, doobry, thingamajig, whatjumacallit, thingamebob, etc [source]. What do you call something when you can’t remember it’s normal name?
You can hear the song here:
Where? Whence? Whither?
In Russian, there are several different words meaning where. Each one means something slightly different, although in English they can all be translated as where.
где [ɡdʲe] means where, as in what location, and can also mean anywhere or somewhere. For example:
- Где Вы живёте? = Where do you live?
- Подумайте, не забыли ли где = Try and think whether you left it anywhere / somewhere
Related words include:
- где-нибудь = somewhere, anywhere
- где-то = somewhere
- негде = nowhere
- кое-где = here and there
где comes the from Old East Slavic къде (kŭde – where), from the Proto-Slavic kъde (where), from the Proto-Indo-European *kʷú-dʰe (where).
куда [kʊˈda] means where (to), and also what, why or much. It is the equivalent of whither in English, although that is rarely used these days. For example:
- Куда ты идёшь? = Where are you going?
- Куда мне столько денег? Why would I want so much money?
- Мой дом куда больше = My house is much bigger
- Он прекрасно знал, куда бежать = This kid knew exactly what he was doing
Related words include:
- кое-куда = this place and that
- куда-нибудь = anywhere, somewhere
- куда-то = somewhere
куда comes from the Proto-Slavic *kǫda ( where, whither), from the Proto-Indo-European *kʷom-dʰ- (where).
откуда [ɐtˈkudə] means where from, from where, from which or whence (another rarely-used word). For example:
- Откуда ты? = Where are you from?
- Откуда ты это знаешь? = How do you know about that?
- Откуда я знаю? = How do I know?
Related words include:
- откуда-нибудь = from somewhere (or other)
- откуда-то = from somewhere
откуда comes from the same root as куда.
Sources: Reverso, Wiktionary
Language Quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Just keep plugging away
To plug away at something means “to move or work doggedly and persistently” [source] or “to continue doing something even though it is difficult or boring” [source], as in “He kept plugging away at his Russian, even though he didn’t seem to be making much progress.”
I learnt this week that there is a similar expression in Swedish – att plugga – which means “to study, to bone up, to cram, to grind” [source], and also “to plug, to stop with a plug; to read up, to study intensively, as in preparing for a test; to promote”, as in to plug a book [source].
In my Swedish lessons, att plugga is defined as meaning “to study (anywhere, informal)”, while att studera means “to study (at university, formal)” [source].
According to the bab.la dictionary however, it seems that att plugga can also be used to refer to university studies.
For example:
- Du behöver inte plugga konsthistoria för att uppskatta konst = You don’t have to study Art History to appreciate art
- plugga till magister = to do a Master’s (degree)
att studera is defined as “to study, to do, to examine, to get up, to pore” [source]. It can also mean “to investigate” [source].
Is studera used in more formal language than plugga?
Is there a Swedish equivalent of ‘Keep plugging away’?
There are various ways to say you’re studying something in English as well. If you’re at a university in the UK, you might say “I’m studying Quantum Knitting”, or “I’m doing a degree in Basket Weaving”. Students Oxford or Cambridge Universities might say “I’m reading Toffology”. What about elsewhere?
Bibbling bibblers
I came across a wonderful word yesterday – bibble – which means to eat and/or drink noisily, or to tipple. Or in Yiddish it means to worry.
It comes from the Middle English bibben (to drink), from the Latin bibō (I drink), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (to drink) [source].
If you’re a bibbling bibbler, you may need a bib, which comes from the same root, and originally meant to drink heartily [source]. While bibbling, maybe you’ll engage in some bibble-babble (idle talk, babble), possibly in a bibbery (drinking house), which would be bibacious.
The words imbibe, potion and potable come from the same root, as do words for to drink in various languaages, including: ól (Irish), òl (Scottish Gaelic), yfed (Welsh), eva (Cornish), boire (French), and beber (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Asturian & Aragonese).
Words for beer Slavic languages come from the same root as well: pivo (Croatian, Czech, Slovak & Slovenian), piwo (Polish, Sorbian), and пиво (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Macedonian & Serbian).
Crotchets & Quavers
Yesterday I finally worked out how to create musical scores on my computer (using musescore). It’s something I’ve tried before, but couldn’t get the hang of. So now I’m going write out all the tunes I’ve composed. As I’m doing this, I thought I’d look into the names of some musical notes and their origins.
The commonly-used types of musical notes are shown in the image. Their names are different in British English and American English. The American English names are self-explanatory, and a bit boring. The British English ones are more interesting, so let’s look at where they come from:
- A semibreve is the longest note in common-use. The breve, or double whole note, does exist, but is quite rare. The word breve comes from the Old French brieve / breve (brief), from the Latin brevis (short) – in medieval music the brevis was one of the shortest notes. A semibreve is half the length of a breve.
- A minim is half the length of a semibreve, and comes from the French minime (minimal), from the Latin minimus (smallest, shortest, youngest), a superlative of minor (smaller) from the Proto-Indo-European *mey- (few, small).
- A crotchet is half the length of a minim, and comes from the Old French crochet (little hook), a diminutive of croc, from the Frankish *krōk (hook) or from Old Norse krókr (hook, bend, bight), from the Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (hook), from Proto-Indo-European *gerg- (tracery, basket, twist).
- A quaver is half the length of a crotchet, and comes from the Middle English quaveren, a form of quaven / cwavien (to tremble), from quave (a shaking, trembling)
A semiquaver is half the length of a quaver, and a demisemiquaver is half the length of a semiquaver. Shorter, and less commonly-used notes include:
- Hemidemisemiquaver or 64th note
- Semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver or 128th note
- Demisemihemidemisemiquaver or 256th note
Sources: Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Online Etymology Dictionary
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Can Hens Sing?
What is the connection between singing and hens?
Hens don’t sing, but the words for to sing / speak in Celtic languages come from the same root as the English words hen and chant.
The root is the Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (to sing) [source].
This became *kan- (to sing) in Proto-Celtic, which became canaid (to sing) in Old Irish, and can (to chant, sing, speak, talk) in modern Irish. In Scottish Gaelic it became can (to sing, rehearse, say, name or call), and in Manx it became caayn (to bray, whine; song).
In Proto-Brythonic it became *kėnɨd (to sing), which became canam (to sing) in Old Welsh, canu (to sing, intone, chant, state, say) in modern Welsh, kana (to sing) in Cornish, canaff (to sing) in Middle Breton and kanañ (to sing) in Breton [source].
In Proto-Germanic *keh₂n- became *hanô (rooster), *hanjō (hen) and *hōnaz (fowl). The English word hen developed from *hanjō, via the Old English hænn / henn (hen). In other Germanic languages these words became: Huhn (hen, chicken) and Henne (hen) in German; hen (hen) in Dutch [source]; and höna (hen) in Swedish [source].
*keh₂n- is also the root of the Latin canō (I sing), from which words for to sing in Romance language developed, such as chanter (to sing) in French and cantar (to sing) in Spanish [source], and the English word chant [source].
See also the Celtiadur
500 days of Duolingo
Today my streak on Duolingo reached 500 days. Before then I had a 96 day streak, but lost that one day when I didn’t quite get enough points. So for the past 596 days I have studied a bit of various languages every day. This is the longest continuous period of study I’ve managed, and I plan to maintain it for as long as possible.
Back in early 2017 I started studying Swedish and Russian on Duolingo. Later I added Romanian to the mix, and this year I added Danish and Esperanto. I’ve finished all the Swedish and Russian lessons, and am continuing to study them on Memrise. I decided to take a break from the Romanian last year, and am currently working on Danish and Esperanto. When I finish them I may add other languages I want to improve, such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and German.
I can’t say that I’ve become fluent in any of these languages, but my knowledge of them certainly has improved. I’ve made more progress with Swedish and Danish than with Russian or Romanian, which I find more challenging.
On Memrise I’m currently studying Swedish, Danish, Russian and Cornish, and have learnt bits of Icelandic, Slovak and Slovenian over the past year or so. I may start Slovak again in preparation for the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava next year.
What’s your longest streak on Duolingo, or other language learning apps?
What do you think of this aspect of such apps?