2023)

30th April 20231st May 2023 By Simon

Here’s the latest news from the world of Omniglot. This is in fact the news for the past two weeks as I was away at The Language Event in Edinburgh last weekend and didn’t have time to record a newscast. More on that later.

There are new language pages about:

Romanian Tatar (Tatarșa), a variety of Crimean Tatar spoken mainly in the Dobrogea region in eastern Romania.
Namakura (Namakir) a Southern Oceanic language spoken in the Shepherd Islands in Shefa Province of Vanuatu.
Tirax (Resan Tirax), a Southern Oceanic language spoken in the north east of Malakula Island in Vanuatu.
Lewo, a Southern Oceanic language spoken on Epi Island in Shefa Province of Vanuatu.
Tarama (たらまふとぅ), a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken on Tarama and Minna, two of Miyako islands in Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan

There are new numbers pages in: Romanian Tatar, Namakura, Tirax, Kaska and Lewo.

There’s a new page about How to write dates in Japanese.

On the Omniglot blog there are new posts about The Language Event I went to in Edinburgh, and about words for Cupboards, Cabinets and Closets, and the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken mainly in southern Iran.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Tumak (bə̀g ɗə təmàgə́ə̀n), an East Chadic language spoken in the southwest of Chad.

The mystery language in the previous week’s language quiz was: Norman (Normaund), a Romance language spoken in Normandy in northern France.

There’s a new Celtic Pathways podcast about words for donkey and related beasts in Celtic and other languages.

On the Celtiadur blog there are new posts about Top Peaks and Scratching Scrapes, and improved posts about words for To Write, Book and Donkeys. I also made improvements to the Celtic cognates index page.

In other news, last weekend I had a good time at The Language Event in Edinburgh. There were some interesting talks about all sorts of language-related topics, I met old friends and made some new ones, and got to speak a variety of languages, including Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Danish, Japanese, German and Spanish.

A reporter from BBC Alba (the Scottish Gaelic TV channel) was at the Event and filmed parts of it, including a short interview with me in Scottish Gaelic:

I forgot to mention in the recording, but I wrote a new song in Scottish Gaelic called Thoir An Aire! (Watch Out!), which was inpsired by my Gaelic lessons on Duolingo, and visits to Scotland. It goes something like this:

Simon Ager · Thoir An Aire (Watch Out)

For more Omniglot News see:
https://www.omniglot.com/news/
https://twitter.com/Omniglossia
https://www.facebook.com/groups/omniglot/
https://www.facebook.com/Omniglot-100430558332117

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or podtail.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Radio Omniglot podcasts are brought to you in association with Blubrry Podcast Hosting, a great place to host your podcasts. Get your first month free with the promo code omniglot.

Christmas

24th December 202224th December 2022 By Simon

I’m taking a break from making podcasts and videos over Christmas. Radio Omniglot will return soon.

Silverdale School, where my brother, sister and I all went

In the meantime, I’m spending Christmas with my mum, brother, sister and their families in the wilds of Lancashire in the north west of England. This is the first time I’ve seen them all for 3 years, and the first time I’ve been outside Wales.

A Multilingual Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it.

Adventures in Etymology – Fever

6th August 20226th August 2022 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Last weekend I went to Aberystwyth to see a friend, which was nice, and also why I didn’t manage to record a new Adventure in Etymology. Unfortunately one souvenir I brought back was a dose of Corona virus. I felt quite feverish earlier this week, so today we’re uncovering the origins of the word fever.

Promenâd Aberystwyth Promenade

A fever [ˈfiːvə / ˈfivɚ] is:

A higher than normal body temperature of a person (or, generally, a mammal), usually caused by disease.
Any of various diseases, such as scarlet fever
A state of excitement or anxiety.
A group of stingrays.

It comes from the Middle English fever(e) (fever), from the Old English fefer / fefor (fever), from the Latin febris (fever), from the Proto-Italic *feɣʷris (fever), from the Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰris from *dʰegʷʰ- (to burn, warm, hot) [source].

Words from the same PIE root include day in English, and words for day in other Germanic languages, daigh (flame, fire, pain, pang) in Irish, and possibly defio [ˈdəɨ̯vjɔ] (to scorch, singe, blast, blight) in Welsh [source].

In Old English the word for fever was hriþ [r̥iθ], which comes from the Proto-Germanic *hriþiz (trembling, the shakes, the shivers, fever) from the PIE *kret- (to shake, quiver, tremble) [source].

Words from the same PIE root possibly include cryd [krɨːd / kriːd] (shivering, trembling, fever) in Welsh, and crith (a/to shake, quiver, tremble) in Irish [source].

Here’s a video I made of this information:

Video made with Doodly [afflilate link].

I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the Omniglot Blog, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur.

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or podtail.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Omniglot News (31/07/22)

31st July 202231st July 2022 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here’s the latest news from the world of Omniglot.

This week there are new language pages about:

Hadza (Hadzane), a language isolate spoken around Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania
Hejazi Arabic (حجازي), a variety of Arabic spoken mainly in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia.

There are new numbers pages in:

Budukh (Будад мез), a North East Caucasian language spoken in the northeast of Azerbaijan.
Tindi (Идараб мицци), a Northeast Caucasian language spoken in the southwest of Dagestan in the Russian Republic.
Hejazi Arabic (حجازي), a variety of Arabic spoken mainly in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia.

On the Omniglot blog this week we have a post called Kenning, about the words ken and kenning, and related words in English and other languages, and the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken in the west of the Russian Federation.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Hlai, a group of Kam-Tai languages spoken in central Hainan Province in southern China.

There’s a new Celtiadur post are about words for Lamentation and related things in Celtic languages.

Here’s a song I released this week, though actually wrote back in April 2022:

Simon Ager · Lost in a Good Book

For more Omniglot News see:
https://www.omniglot.com/news/
https://twitter.com/Omniglossia
https://www.facebook.com/groups/omniglot/
https://www.facebook.com/Omniglot-100430558332117

The Polyglottals (Richard Simcott, Simon Ager and Chris Taylor)
Some friends who came to visit Bangor this week (Photo by Richard Simcott)

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or podtail.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Episode 40 – Spanish (español)

27th January 20211st March 2021 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode I talk about the Spanish language, looking at its history, grammar, current status, and how I learnt it.

Links
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/spanish.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Spanish_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_phonology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_Americas
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/spa
https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/11/29/inenglish/1511950198_079424.html

Music featured in this episode

Hedge Cats / Cathod y Gwyrch

See the score for this tune.

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM, podtail and or via this RSS feed.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Episode 39 – What a Year!

21st December 202021st December 2020 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode I look back at 2020 and talk about what I’ve been up to this year in terms of work, language learning and other stuff.

Music featured in this episode

Hedge Cats / Cathod y Gwyrch

See the score for this tune.

Goats / Geifr

Simon Ager · Goats / Geifr

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM, podtail and or via this RSS feed.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Episode 38 – Success and Failure

28th November 202028th November 2020 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode I discuss success and failure, particularly in relation to learning languages. Are they just different ways of look at the same thing? At what point can you say that you have succeeded to learn a language, or have failed? Does it matter?

I was inspired to make this episode by a video in which Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon shares his most epic failures.

Here’s an example of a ‘real’ polyglot – a friend of mine called Richard Simcott, who runs the Polyglot Conference and similar events.

Music featured in this episode

Hedge Cats / Cathod y Gwyrch

See the score for this tune.

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM, podtail and or via this RSS feed.

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Episode 21 – Benefits of learning small languages

6th August 201930th December 2019 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode I talk about some of the benefits and advantages of learning minority and lesser-studied languages, focusing particularly on the Irish and other Celtic languages. I talk about my own experiences with these languages, and the benefits they have brought me.

Gleann Cholm Cille

There’s no point in learning small languages, is there? They’re spoken by relatively few people and maybe only in one country or region. So why bother? It would be better to learn a language that has many millions of speakers and that is spoken in many countries, like Spanish or French, wouldn’t it? Perhaps, but whatever language you learn can bring benefits and opportunities, even small, lesser-studied and minority languages.

Tunes featured in this episode

Hedge Cats / Cathod y Gwyrch

See the score for this piece

The Elephant Song / Cân yr Eliffant

If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.

Episode 18 – Adventures in Polyglotland

10th June 201918th December 2019 By Simon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this episode I bring you news from the 2019 Polyglot Gathering, an annual get-together of polyglots and language lovers from all over the world. This year the Polyglot Gathering took place in Bratislava, Slovakia for the third time – it started in 2015 in Berlin, and was there for three years, then moved to Bratislava. The next Gathering will be in Teresin, near Warsaw in Poland from 26-30 May 2020.

I was planning to interview people at the Gathering, and to keep an audio diary, but was enjoying myself too much and decided to give you a flavour of the event after I got home. So this is the story of my Adventures in Polyglotland.

My badge from the Polyglot Gathering showing the languages I speak fluently, or at least fairly well:

My badge from the 2019 Polyglot Gathering

N = native language, C = advanced level, B = intermediate level, A = basic / elementary level, en = English, cy = Cymraeg (Welsh), zh = 中文 [zhōngwén] – (Mandarin Chinese), ga = Gaeilge (Irish), es = español (Spanish), de = Deutsch (German), eo = Esperanto, gd = Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic), ja = Japanese, gv = Gaelg Vanninagh (Manx Gaelic), ru = Русский [Russkij] (Russian), cs = český (Czech), sv = Svenska (Swedish), da = Dansk (Danish).

Information about polyglot events: http://www.omniglot.com/events/