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.
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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:
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.
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Here’s the latest news from the world of Omniglot.
This week there are new language pages about:
There are new numbers pages in:
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:
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
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.
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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
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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:
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/
Bear With Me / Aros am yr Arth
Echoes on the Tongue / Atseiniau ar y Tafod
If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation, or contribute to Omniglot in other ways.
