| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le caramel | toffee | cyflaith; taffi; toffi |
| il n’est pas fichu de faire qch | he can’t do sth for toffee | nid yw’n medru gwneud rhywbeth am ffortiwn |
| la pomme d’amour | toffee apple | afal taffi |
| bêcheur | toffee-nosed | ffroenuchel; trwynsur |
| la cigogne | stork | storc; ciconia |
| de suite; d’affilié | on the trot; in a row | yn olynol; ar ôl ei gilydd |
| l’ankylostome | hookworm | llynghyren fachog; bachlyngyr |
| le ver | worm; maggot | pryf |
| (en)levé | upbeat (music) | curiad i fyny |
Category: Welsh (Cymraeg)
Da mad math
In Welsh and Cornish the usual word for good is da [daː], while in the other Celtic languages words for good are: Breton – mat [maːt˺], Irish – maith [mˠa(ɪ)(h)], Manx – mie [maɪ], and Scottish Gaelic – math [ma]. I’ve wondered for a while whether there were cognates in Welsh and Cornish for these words.
Last week I found that there are: mad in Welsh and mas in Cornish. The Welsh word, which means good, seemly, lucky, appears in the phrase: a wnêl mad, mad a ddyly (one good turn deserves another), but isn’t otherwise used, as far as I can discover. The Cornish word doesn’t appear in the Cornish dictionaries I’ve checked so I think it is probably not used any more.
These words all come from the Proto-Celtic *matis (measure), possibly from the Indo-European mē (measure, consider) [source], which is also the root of the Irish word meas (judgement, opinion, respect) [source], and possibly of the Welsh meddwl (to think), and the English mete (measure).
Maeldy
I came across an interesting word in my Welsh dictionary – maeldy [ˈmaːɨldɨ̬ / ˈmaildɪ] – which is an old word for shop. The normal Welsh word for shop is siop, which sounds like shop. I had wondered if there was a another word for shop other than the one borrowed from English, now I know.
Maeldy comes from mael (gain, profit) and tŷ (house). Other old words for shop are maelfa, which combines mael and ma (place, spot, plain), and masnachdy – masnach = trade, commerce.
Related words include:
– maeler = trader [masnachwr]
– maelera; maeliera; maelio = to trade; to profit [masnachu]
– maeleriaeth = trade; commerce [masnach]
– maelged = tribute; tax [rhodd; treth]
– maeliant = gain [lles; elw]
– maelier = merchant [marsiandïwr]
– maelwr = shop-keeper; trader [siopwr; masnachwr]
These are all archaic and I don’t think they’re used any more. The words currently used in their places are shown in [brackets].
Language matters
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| se débrouiller | to manage (get by) | dod trwyddi; ymdaro; dod i ben; ymdopi |
| gérer | to manage (a business) | rheoli; llywio |
| l’émeute (f) | riot | terfysg |
| le service | good turn | cymwynas; tro da |
| un service rendu en appelle un autre | one good turn deserves another | a wnêl mad, mad a ddyly |
| la donation, le don | donation | rhodd; anrheg |
All mouth and no trousers
The idiom all mouth and no trousers came up last night at the French conversation group. We were actually looking for a French equivalent of all fur coat and no knickers and couldn’t find one, but did find an equivalent of all mouth and no trousers, which has a somewhat similar meaning.
According to the Oxford Dictionaries, to be all mouth and no trousers is to “tend to talk boastfully without any intention of acting on one’s words, while all fur coat and no knickers means to “have an impressive or sophisticated appearance which belies the fact that there is nothing to substantiate it” [source].
According to Wiktionary all mouth and no trousers comes from northern England, was originally all mouth and trousers, and refers to someone who is “superficial, engaging in empty, boastful talk, but not of real substance.” Apparently a US equivalent is all hat and no cattle, and there are many other idioms with the same meaning:
- all bark and no bite
- all bluff and bluster
- all crown, no filling
- all foam, no beer
- all hammer, no nail
- all icing, no cake
- all shot, no powder
- all sizzle and no steak
- all talk
- all talk and no action
- all wax and no wick
- all show, no go
An equivalent in Welsh is pen punt a chynffon dima (“pound head and halfpenny tail”). Are there similar idioms in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| bouffer | to scoff (food) | llowcio; claddu |
| se moquer de qn/qch | to scoff at sb/sth | gwawdio / cael hwl am ben rhywbeth/rhywun |
| mouchard | grass (informer) | prep(iwr); clepgi |
| cafteur | snitch | llechgi; llechiad; snechgi |
| malchanceux | unlucky (person) | anffodus; anlwcus |
| malheureux | unlucky (defeat, conicidence, choice) | anffodus |
| de malchance | unlucky (day, moment) | anffodus |
| porter malheur | to be unlucky | bod yn anlwcus / anffafriol |
| se distinguer | to excel | rhagori |
| chou frisé | kale | bresych deiliog; cêl |
| les bettes (fpl); les blettes (fpl) |
chard | ysgallddeilen; gorfetysen |
| aliment bourratif | stodge | stwnsh; sgrwtsh |
| bourratif; lourd | stodgy (food) | sgrwtshlyd; stwnshlyd; toeslyd |
| indigeste | stodgy (book) | trymaidd; trwm; diflas |
| barbant | stodgy (person) | diflas |
| tir à l’arc | archery | saethyddiaeth; saethu â bwa |
| la cible | target | saethnod; nod |
| il a que da la guele | he’s all mouth and no trousers | pen punt a chynffon dima |
Mochi
Yesterday I came across an interesting Welsh word in one of my Welsh dictionaries (Y Geiriadur Mawr) – mochi [‘mɔxɪ] – which means “ymdrybaeddu fel moch / to wallow as swine”. It comes from moch (pigs), the singular of which is mochyn, from the Proto-Celtic *mokkus (pig), which probably comes from a non-Indo-European root [source].
In English the equivalent of mochi is to pig, which means “(of a sow) to give birth; to live in squalor (also ‘to pig it’); or to devour (food) greedily (also ‘to pig out, to pig oneself, to make a pig of oneself’)” [source]. None of these has quite the meaning of the Welsh word though.
Are there words or phrases in other languages similar to mochi?
The English word pig comes from the Middle English pigge (pig, pigling), which referred a young pig / piglet – adult pigs were known as swine [source], which comes from the Old English swīn (pig, hog, wild boar), from the Proto-Germanic *swīną (swine, pig), from the Proto-Indo-European *sū- (pig), which is also the root of sow (female pig) [source].
Another pig-related word in English is pork (pig meat), which comes from the Middle English pork/porc, via Anglo-Norman from the Old French porc (swine, hog, pig, pork), from the Latin porcus (domestic hog, pig), from Proto-Indo-European *porḱ- (young swine, young pig), which is cognate with the Old English fearh (young pig, hog), and the root of farrow. [source].
Comparing someone to a pig is generally an insult in English – e.g. You eat like a pig! Dirty pig! etc. Also ‘the pigs’ is a slang term for the police. What about in other languages?
Byd bach (Small world)
Yesterday I met some Russians who are in Bangor for Celtic-Slavic language conference. They both speak Welsh and one of them teaches Welsh in Moscow. We got chatting, mainly in Welsh, and it turned out that they know friends of mine who are studying or doing research in Aberystwyth, and they also know Russians I met while studying Irish in Donegal in Ireland. The world of Celtic studies is quite small, and the world of Slavo-Celtic studies is even smaller, so these connections weren’t a great surprise.
One advantage of learning lesser-studied languages like Welsh and Irish is that you can become part of relatively small communities of learners, and can possibly become part of small native speaker communities as well. People who learn such languages come from many different countries, so while the languages themselves may only be spoken in particular parts of particular countries, by learning them you can become part of a world-wide community of learners. So if you meet other learners or native speakers on your travels, it’s quite likely that they will know some of the same people you know. At the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin, for example, I met a Swedish guy who has studied Irish in Donegal, and found we had friends and acquaintances in common.
There are also links between different minority and endangered language communities. For example, Manx-speaking musicians, singers and dancers regularly take part in inter-Celtic festivals, such as the annual one in Lorient in Brittany, and have contacts with Sámi-speaking communities in Norway, and with Jèrriais speakers in Jersey.
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le rouage d’horloge | clock work | perfedd cloc; clocwaith; peirianwaith cloc; treuliau cloc |
| marcher comme sur des roulettes | to go like clockwork | mynd fel cloc; troi fel deiol |
| réglé comme du papier à musique | as regular as clockwork | mor rheolaidd â chloc/deial; fel y cloc |
| le rouage | cog; gearwheel; part | dant; cocsyn; cledren ddanheddog/gocos; olwyn ddanheddog |
| les rouage | machinery | perianwaith; peiriannau |
| être un rouage de la machine | to be a cog in the machine/wheel | bod neb o bwys yn y drefn |
| la manie; l’engouement (m); la mode | craze | chwilen; mympwy; ffasiwn; chwim |
| un engouement passager | a passing fad | mympwy/ffasiwn dros dro / byrhoedlog |
| métier (à tisser) | (weaving) loom | gwŷdd; ffrâm wau |
| épuisé; vendu | sold out | wedi i gyd ei werthu |
| le gibet | gibbet; gallows | crocbren |
| match nul | draw (sports) | gêm gyfartal |
| le crépuscule | dusk | tywyll; cyfnos; tywyllwch; llwydwyll |
| au crépuscule; à la tombée de la nuit | at dusk | gyda’r nos/cyfnos; rhwng dau liw/olau; ar awr y teiliwr |
| du matin au soir | from dawn til/to dusk | o fore gwyn tan nos; o wawr hyd fachlud; rhwng gwawl a gwyl |
Churches and Cells
Today I discovered that the Welsh word llan (church, parish), which is used mainly in place names, such as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, has cognates in the other Celtic languages: lann in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish and Manx, and lan in Breton. These words all come from the Proto-Indo-European root *lendʰ- (land, heath) [source].
Another word church-related word that is used mainly in Irish and Scottish place names is kil(l), as in Kildare (Cill Dara), Kilkenny (Cill Chainnigh) and Kilmarnock (Cill Mheàrnaig). It means church or graveyard and comes from the Irish cill (cell (of a hermit), church, burial place), from the Old Irish cell (church), from the Latin cella [source] (a small room, a hut, barn, granary; altar, sanctuary, shrine, pantry), which comes from the Proto-Indo-European *ḱelnā, which is made up of *ḱel- (to cover) and a suffix -nā.
The Welsh word cell (cell); the Scottish Gaelic cill (chapel, church yard, hermit’s cell); the Manx keeill (church, cell); and the Breton kell (cell) all come from the same root.
The more commonly-used words for church in the Celtic languages are: eglwys (Welsh), eaglais (Irish and Scottish Gaelic), eglos (Cornish), iliz (Breton) and agglish (Manx). These all come from the Latin ecclēsia (church), from the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía – church).