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

New language pages:

• Aghem (Aghɨ̀m), a Grassfields language spoken in the North West Region of Cameroon.
• Kogi (Kággaba), a Chibchan language spoken in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia..
• Daai, a Southern Kuki-Chin-Naga language spoken in Chin State in western Myanmar.

New numbers pages:

• Zigula (Chizigua), a Bantu language spoken mainly in Tanzania, and also Somalia.
• Zenaga (Tuẓẓungiyya), a Berber language spoken Mauritania and Senegal.
• Zaiwa (Zaiwa mying), a Northern Burmish language spoken in southwestern China and northeastern Myanmar.

New constructed script: Velikirillitsa (Великириллица), an alternative way to write English, Russian and Hungarian created by Murray Callahan,

On the Omniglot blog this week there’s a new post entitled One Another about the Chinese word 彼此 (bǐcǐ) and related words in Japanese, and there’s a new language quiz. See if you guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken in Mexico and the USA.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Mnong (Bu Nong / ឞូន៝ង), a Southern Bahnaric language spoken in Vietnam & Cambodia.

There’s a new Adventure in Etymology entitled Perilous Experiences, in which we find out what the word experience has to do with fear, peril and pirates.

There’s a new post on the Celtiadur blog this week entitled Glowing Stars about words for star, coal and other glowing things in Celtic languages.

In other news, I’ll be leaving Zhaoqing tomorrow (12th Janaury) and headed to Hong Kong. I’ll spend a week there, then fly back to UK. It’s been nearly 30 years since I was last in Hong Kong, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Here are a few more photos of Zhaoqing showing parts of the city tourists might not necessarily visit.

Bamboo is widely used as scaffolding, and this is one of the guys who delivers it on his high-tech cart

A building site next to the housing complex where I’m staying. Someone has made part of it into a little garden to grow vegetables – there’s no point in letting a bit of land sit idle after all.

A fairly typical backstreet in Zhaoqing.

A backstreet, still under construction, like many places here

Zhaoqing city wall (肇庆古城墙), which was constructed in 1053 AD/CE during the Northern Song Dynasty. It was originally built of rammed earth, and looks like it’s changed a bit since then.

Me in front of Zhaoqing city wall

Piyun Tower on Zhaoqing city wall / 披云楼肇庆古城墙

A view from the city wall

By the way, this happens to be the 5,000th post I’ve published on my blogs, and the 223rd episode of the Omniglot News. The majority of posts (3,942) are on the Omniglot blog (started in March 2006), and there are 546 on this blog (started in June 2018), and another 512 on the Celtiadur blog (started in September 2018). I think I’m starting to get the hang of this blogging lark.

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

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Podchaser.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

New language pages:

• Minica Huitoto (Mɨnɨka), a Bora-Witoto language spoken mainly in southern Colombia, and also in northern Peru (the 2,300^th language page!)
• Mfumte, an Eastern Grassfields language spoken mainly in the Northwest Region of Cameroon.
• Abon (Abɔn), a Southern Bantoid language spoken in Taraba State in Nigeria.
• Vaiphei, a Northern Zo-Mizo language spoken mainly in Manipur in the northeast of India.
• Mara (Mara Reih), a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in the northwest of Guizhou Province in southern China
• Caijia (Menni), a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in the northwest of Guizhou Province in southern China.

New numbers pages:

• Minica Huitoto (Mɨnɨka), a Bora-Witoto language spoken mainly in southern Colombia
• Avestan (𐬛𐬍𐬥 𐬛𐬀𐬠𐬌𐬫𐬭𐬵), an extinct Eastern Iranian language and the sacred language of Zoroastrianism.
• Sidama (Sidaamu Afoo), a Cushitic language spoken in the Sidama Region in southern Ethiopia.

On the Omniglot blog this week there’s a new post entitled Quick Brown Foxes about pangrams, sentences that contain all the letters of a particular language, and there’s a new language quiz. See if you guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Usually I find recordings for language quizzes on YouTube, but since coming to China at the end of November last year, I haven’t been able to access YouTube due to the Great Firewall of China, and haven’t found any good alternative sources of recordings. So, I haven’t been posting any quizzes. However, during the past week or so, YouTube has been accessible some of the time, and I managed to find a suitable recording for this week’s quiz.

There’s a new Adventure in Etymology entitled Code Trees, in which we find out what the word code has to do with books and trees.

There’s a new post on the Celtiadur blog this week entitled Pressing Squeezes about words for press, squeeze and related things in Celtic languages.

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

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Podchaser.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

New language pages:

• Neo-Brittonic (Brettica), a reconstructed version of Common Brittonic, a Celtic language once spoken in southern England.
• Ngomba (cú mbɔ́ndaa), a Bamileke language spoken mainly in the Bamboutos Department in the West Region of Cameroon.
• Ngombale (Ngeombale), a Bamileke language spoken in the Bamboutos Department in the West Region of Cameroon.
• Hachijō (島言葉 / shima-kotoba), a Japonic language spoken mainly in the Izu Islands, part of Tokyo Prefecture in Japan.
• Tày (Tiểng Tày), a Central Tai language spoken mainly in northeastern Vietnam, and also in northern Laos.

New constructed script: Hedhgadē, a script for Proto-Indo-Euopean created by Hebrejinia.

New phrases page: Föhr North Frisian, a West Germanic language spoken in North Frisia in northern Germany.

New numbers page: Jamaican (Jimiekn / Patwah), an English-based creole spoken mainly in Jamaica.

On the Omniglot blog this week there’s a new post entitled Oceanic Lutes about some words for Chinese and Western instruments, and related things.

There’s a new post entitled Shady Shadows on the Celtiadur blog about words for shadow, shade and related things in Celtic languages.

The gateway to the road up Jiangjun Mountain

In other news, this week I explored part of Jiangjun Mountain (将军山 – jiāngjūnshān) and got some great views of Zhaoqing from up high. There is a temple on the mountain that is lit up at night, and since coming here, we’ve been planning to visit it. We found a way up yesterday. The electric scooters had a hard time climbing up the steeper parts of the road, but we got there eventually, and it was well worth the effort. The temple itself is impressive, and the views from it are spectacular. Unfortunately, it was rather wet, cold and windy up there, so we didn’t stay long.

The temple on Jiangjun Mountain

A view of Zhaoqing from Jiangjun Mountain

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

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Podchaser.

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.

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

New language pages:

• Ndemli, a Grassfields language spoken in the Littoral Region in the southwest of Cameroon.
• Johor Malay, a Malayic language spoken in the state of Johor in the south of the Malay Peninsula.

New constructed script: Avo, an alternative way to write English invented by Toonmaker.

New constructed script: Faciagram, an alternative script for English invented by Toonmaker and based on facial expressions.

This week is travelled to China to visit friends. I’m staying in Zhaoqing (肇庆) in Guangdong Province in the south of the country, and plan to stay here until January next year. You can find out more about my experiences in China Adventures on the Omniglot blog. This is why there isn’t as much new material as usual due to the Great Firewall of China.

There’s no language quiz this week as it seems difficult to find suitable recordings here due to internet restrictions. The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Tuparí, a Tupian language spoken mainly in the state of Rondônia in the North Region of Brazil.

Improved page: Shanghainese phrases page

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

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Podchaser.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

New language pages:

• Kwaʼ (Bakwa’), a Bamileke language spoken in the southwest of Cameroon.
• Ndau (ChiNdau), a Bantu language spoken mainly in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
• Ndonga (OshiNdonga), a Bantu language spoken mainly in the north of Namibia, and also in southern Angola.
• Arammba (Aramba), a Tonda language spoken in the Morehead area in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

New numbers pages:

• Ndonga (OshiNdonga), a Bantu language spoken in northern Namibia and southern Angola.
• Arammba (Aramba), a Tonda language spoken in the Morehead area in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

New Tower of Babel translation: Ndau (ChiNdau)

New constructed script: Enjay, an alternative way to write English invented by Toonmaker.

New adapted script: Thaana-Wayuu (ތާނަ ޥަޔޫ), was devised by Pablo Villa Uhia as a way to write Wayuu, an Arawakan language spoken in Venezuela and Colombia, with the Thaana script, as used for the Maldivian language.

On the Omniglot blog this week there’s a new post entitled A Complete Canard!, which looks at the various meanings of the word canard in French and English, and there’s the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken in the northwest of Brazil.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Goral (Górolski), a West Slavic language (or dialect) spoken in southern Poland, northern Slovakia and northeastern Czechia.

In this week’s Adventure in Etymology, Burning Focus, we focus on what links the words focus, fuel, focaccia and curfew.

It’s also available on Instagram and TikTok.

On the Celtiadur blog there’s a new post entitled Nettles about words for nettle and related things in Celtic languages.

In other news, I’m going to China in a few days after recording this news. I’ll be staying with friends in Zhaoqing / Shiuhing (肇庆), a city in Guangdong Province in the south of China for nearly two months. In preparation for this trip, I’ve been brushing up my Mandarin and Cantonese, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to use both languages while I’m there. I may visit other parts of China, and maybe nearby countries. I haven’t been to Zhaoqing before, but did spend a few months travelling in southern China back in 1991. It’s probably changed a little since then. I’ll try to keep Omniglot ticking over while I’m away, but may not have as much time as usual for that.

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

You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Podchaser.

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.