Hobnobbing

By Simon

Chocolate hobnobs

Do you hobnob? Have you ever hobnobbed? Would you hobnob?

To hobnob means “to spend time being friendly with someone who is important or famous”, according to the Cambridge Dictionary.

According to Meriam-Webster, to hobnob means “to drink sociably” (archaic), or “to associate familiarly”.

The words hob and nob first appeared together in print Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and meant “hit or miss”, and probably come from habnab (in one way or another). The phrase “to drink hobnob” (to drink alternately to each other) became popular, and as drinking was a shared activity, hobnob came to refer to a friendly social interaction.

Wikitionary defines to verb to hobnob as follows:

  1. To drink together
  2. To have or have not; to give or take (obsolete, rare)
  3. To toast one another by touching glasses (obsolete)

The noun hobnob is defined as:

  1. A toast made while touching glasses together (obsolete)
  2. A drinking together
  3. An informal chat

Apparently it comes from hob and nob, a toasting phrase possibly meaning “give and take”, from dialectal hab nab (“to have or have not”, in the sense of an invitation to have a drink), from Old English habban (to have, possess).

Hobbnobby hobnobbers hobnob snobs nibbling hobnobs. Say that quickly a few times. It might be more difficult if you’ve just eaten a hobnob (a kind of biscuit, pictured above) and are suffering from hobnob gob.

This word came up at the French conversation group last night, and we discovered that the French equvialent is frayer avec qn or fréquenter qn.

For example “On n’a rien perdu, à part la possibilité de frayer avec un tas de snobs malheureux.” (We haven’t lost a thing except the chance to hobnob with a bunch of unhappy snobs.) [source].

Frayer means to open up, clear or spawn, and frayer avec means to associate/mix with [source]. It is used in such expressions as:

  • se frayer un passage dans = to clear o.s. a path through; to force one’s way through
  • frayer une voie = to blaze a trail, to pave the way
  • se frayer un chemin = to pick one’s way; to shove in

Are there words meaning similar things in other languages?

Pronunciation is fun

By Simon

The other day I realised that one reason I like languages is because I enjoy just saying foreign words and phrases, especially ones that contain sounds and combinations of sounds not used in English. I imitate native speakers as best I can – not just the sounds of the words, but the intonation, and even pitch of their voices as well.

At the moment I’m learning Swedish, Danish, Russian and Slovenian. I started learning Swedish out of interest in the language, and because I like the sound of it, and have fun pronouncing it. I started learning Danish and Slovenian in preparation for trips to Denmark and Slovenia, but also enjoy pronouncing them. I’ve been learning Russian on and off for years for various reasons, and enjoy pronouncing it.

Maybe I’ll learn some other languages just to have fun pronouncing them. Languages with clicks, like Zulu and Xhosa, or with ejectives, like Georgian. I already know some songs in these languages, so it would be quite useful to know a bit more about them. It would also be interesting to visit places where they’re spoken, and to use them, but that would not be a priority.

If I do this, I would search for the most interesting-sounding words and phrases, and also tongue twisters, rather than focusing on the most common words and grammatical patterns. I probably wouldn’t learn to speak and understand the languages, but would have fun anyway.

Here are some tongue twisters to play with:

And here’s a tongue twister in Xhosa:

Have you learnt, or are you learning, any languages because you like the sound of them and enjoy pronouncing them?

There’s posh!

By Simon

There's posh!

The word posh seems to be used mainly in the UK. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it can mean:

  • elegant or stylishly luxurious, as in “a posh hotel”
  • typical of or belonging to the upper class, as in “a posh accent”
  • in an upper-class way, as in “She talks posh”
  • the quality of being elegant, stylish, or upper class, as in “We bought a colour TV, which seemed the height of posh”

To posh(en) up means “to smarten someone or something up”, as in “we’ll be getting all poshed up for the summer ball”.

If you use posh(en) up, how do you use it in the past? Poshed up or poshened up?

Posh first appeared in writing in 1914, and maybe comes from the slang word posh (a dandy). The folk etymology is that posh come from the initials of port out starboard home, which refers to the cabins on ships between England and India that were out of the hot sun. There is no evidence for this, but it makes a good story [source].

According to the Urban Dictionary, posh can mean:

  • very classy or sophisticated
  • rich, aristocratic, wealthy, loaded, fancy, toff, toffee nosed, upper crust, well off, or well to do
  • snobby, snooty, nose in the air

Apparently posh derives from an old Romany slang word for pennies – if you have a lot of pennies, then you are well to do, rich, etc. and the word is often used in light hearted derision.

For someone like me who grew up in northern England, talking posh means talking with a southern English accent, particularly using RP (Received Pronunciation). For example, pronouncing bath as /bɑːθ/ rather than /baθ/. Calling someone a posh southerner or saying that they talk posh can be used as an insult by northerners.

Posh (Spice) is also the nickname of Victoria Beckham, former member of the Spice Girls.

In Welsh English “there’s posh!” is an exclamation often used in a sarcastic, mocking way. For example, “We had salmon for dinner last night – There’s posh!” It comes from the Welsh phrase “dyna grand!”.

Are there similar words in other varieties of English, and in other languages?

Speech recognition & pronunciation

By Simon

Screen shot of Google Translate

Memrise language lessons sometimes test your pronunciation. You hear a phrase, then repeat it and record it. If your recording is close enough to the original, you move on to the next phrase. It’s actually a very useful exercise, and it’s interesting to compare you pronunication to that of native speakers.

It’s based on Google Translate’s voice function, and I thought I’d try that for other languages. Google Translate doesn’t record your voice, but you have to speak clearly for it to recognise the words. It doesn’t always recognise what I say to it in English, so getting it to recognise things I say in other languages is even more of a challenge.

I’ve tried it for all the languages I know that have the voice function. For most I can get it to recognise individual words and short phrases, though I find it easier for some languages than others. For French, Swedish, Russsian and German, for example, it’s usually fine. For Danish, however, it may recognise only a few words I say to it, even when I speak as clearly as I can. This suggests to me that my Danish pronunciation needs improving.

Have you used Google Translate or a simliar app in this way?

Did you find it useful?

Mr Gospod

By Simon

The Slovenian gospod [ɡɔˈspóːt] came up in my Slovenian lesson today. It means mister, sir, gentleman or lord. It comes from the Proto-Slavic *gospodь (lord, master).

Some examples of how it’s used include:

  • gospod župnik = Reverend
  • spoštovani gospod = Dear Sir
  • grajski gospod = Lord of the castle
  • biti sam svoj gospod = to be one’s own master
  • Gospod Bog = the Lord God

The last example appears in a song we sing in the Bangor Community Choir, Vsy Tya Hori (Вси Тя хори) (All your choirs), which is in Church Slavonic, I think.

You can see and hear us sing it in Penrhyn castle, near Bangor, here:

Related words include:

  • gospoda = lords, gentlemen
  • gospodar = landowner, master
  • gospodar posestva = lord of the manor
  • gospodarica = mistress
  • gospodična = miss
  • gaspa = mrs, lady
  • gospe in gospodje = ladies and gentlemen

Other Slavic languages have a similar words:

  • Russian & Ukrainian: господь = the Lord, God
  • Bulgarian, Macedonian & Serbian: господ = Lord, Jesus
  • Croatian: gospod = Mr, Lord, Jesus

Source: PONS, Wiktionary

Buying and Selling

By Simon

買賣 - Buy and sell in Chinese

The words for to buy and to sell are very similar in Mandarin: 買 [买] (mǎi) [maɪ˦˩˧] = buy and 賣 [卖] (mài) [maɪ˥˩] = to sell. In Cantonese the characters are the same, but are pronounced maai5 [maːi˩˧] (buy) and maai6 [maːi˨] (sell) [source]. The only difference between them is in the tones, and they are easily confused by learners. Do native speakers ever mix them up?

The character 買 combines 网 (wǎng – net) and 貝 (bèi – shell, cowrie) [source], and 賣 combines those elements plus 出 (chū – go out), which became reduced to 士 (shì – soldier) over time [source].

If you put these two characters together: 買賣 [买卖] (mǎimài) it means business, shop, store or deal [source].

Do any other languages have words for buy and sell that are so similar?

Buying and selling both involve an exchange of goods or services. The only difference is in the direction of the exchange. I might sell something to you, or buy something from you, while you might sell something to me, or buy something from me.

The same is true of other pairs of words such as borrow and lend. The one you use depends on the direction of the exchange: I borrow from you, and you lend to me. Teach and learn are also similar: You teach me, and I learn from you, or I teach you, and you learn from me. Although in some varieties of English learn is used to mean learn and teach.

In Welsh the word dysgu means to learn and to teach, and benthyca means to borrow and to lend. The word addysgu, means to teach, but it isn’t used much in colloquial Welsh [source].

Are there any other languages that don’t make a distinctions like this?

Is there a linguistic term for word pairs like this?

Not seeing the wood for the trees

By Simon

Recently a friend asked if there is an idiom in English like I cannot see the wood for the trees, which refers to hearing. We couldn’t think of any, but maybe you can.

This expression means that you “cannot see, understand, or focus on a situation in its entirety due to being preoccupied with minor details” [source]. Apparently in North America the equivalent is “I cannot see the forest for the trees”. The wood refers to a small forest, rather than the material that comes from trees.

Here be trees!

There is an equivalent idiom in Esperanto: Li en arbaro sidas kaj arbojn ne vidas (He sits in the forest and doesn’t see trees).

The equvalent in Italian is avere gli occhi foderati di prociutto (to have one’s eyes lined with ham).

Are there similar idioms in other languages?

In Russian the word for tree is дерево (derevo), which came up in my Russian lessons today. It is comes from the Proto-Slavic *dervo (tree), from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (tree), which is also the root of the English word tree, and of the Welsh derw and the Cornish derow (oak trees) [source].

The photo is one I took of Ashley Jones Field in Bangor.