This post is the 9h instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 8 of Teach Yourself Irish. For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/ It covers: adjectives forming adverbs from some adjectives lenition after masculine plural nouns preposition: le (‘with’) preposition de (‘of’, ‘from’) expressing quantity words and phrases Mutation…… Continue reading Irish challenge (9)
Tag: Negation
Welsh challenge (9)
This post is the 9th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 8 of Colloquial Welsh. This post covers: prepositions (personal forms, temporary states) compulsion telling the time possessive adjectives with verbal nouns some indefinite pronouns form of auxiliary bod (‘be’) after subject question word For earlier instalments, please…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (9)
Irish challenge (8)
This post is the 8th instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 7 of Teach Yourself Irish. For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/ It covers: asking and telling the time verbs: present tense questions go leor (‘enough, plenty, fairly’) nouns ending in -ín other words and phrases Mutation (lenition…… Continue reading Irish challenge (8)
Welsh challenge (8)
This post is the 8th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 7 of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany I’ve used bold type below to highlight words affected by mutations, SM after words that induce soft mutation and SM before words affected…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (8)
Language sketch: Esperanto
The artificial language artificial language Esperanto was created by a Polish Doctor Ludovic Zamenhof in 1887. He initially called the language simply la Lingvo Internacia (‘the international language’), but he wrote using the pseudonym Dr Esperanto and Esperanto quickly became the language’s accepted name. Alphabet Esperanto uses a Latin alphabet of 28 letters: 22 letters…… Continue reading Language sketch: Esperanto
Welsh challenge (6)
This post is the 6th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 5 of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany For a few words and phrases, there are differences between north (N) and south (S) Wales.I’ve used bold type below to highlight words…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (6)
The Italian Language Today
The Italian Language Today, by Anna Laura Lepschy and Giulio Lepschy (2nd edition, 1988) is a useful guide for anyone who has been through a basic to intermediate Italian course. The book has 2 parts: part one The Linguistic Situation in Italy has 4 sections: Italian today; a historical view; Italian dialects; varieties of…… Continue reading The Italian Language Today
A missing negative leads into a trap
A sports writer got into a tangle trying to describe Croatian football star Luka Modrić in a piece published in The Times on 16 June 2026. He described Modrić as the ‘first man in more than a decade—after leading Croatia to the 2018 World Cup Final—to take the Ballon d’Or from either Lionel Messi or…… Continue reading A missing negative leads into a trap
Irish challenge (5)
This post is the 5th instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 4 of Teach Yourself Irish. For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/ The demonstrative seo To introduce a person or present a thing, use seo (‘this’) without a verb:Seo Tomás (‘this is Thomas’). In Munster and Connacht, a…… Continue reading Irish challenge (5)
Irish challenge (3)
This post is the 3rd instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers those parts of chapters 1 and 2 of Teach Yourself Irish that I didn’t cover in the 2nd instalment. The 1st instalment covered Irish spelling and pronunciation. Questions and answers Yes and no Irish has no words for…… Continue reading Irish challenge (3)