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)
Tag: Copula
Irish challenge (7)
This post is the 7th instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 6 of Teach Yourself Irish. For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/ It covers: past, present and future of tá time expressions adjectives weather nouns other words and phrases Mutation is indicated below using bold type. Past, present,…… Continue reading Irish challenge (7)
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)
Welsh challenge (3)
This post is the 3rd instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapters 2a and 2b of Colloquial Welsh. For earlier instalments, please see Welsh Archives – Language Miscellany Present tense of bod Table 1 shows the present tense of the verb bod (‘be’), giving the forms used in positive,…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (3)
Irish challenge (2)
This post is the 2nd instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers parts of chapters 1 and 2 of Teach Yourself Irish (and part of appendix 2) . I will cover the rest of chapters 1 and 2 in the next post. The 1st instalment covered Irish spelling and pronunciation.…… Continue reading Irish challenge (2)
Possessives in Maori
The Maori language (te reo Māori) of New Zealand (Aotearoa) has 2 entire series of possessive particles. In this post, I: summarise the form of the 2 series of possessive particles summarise when each series is used; and point out that other Central Pacific languages also have more than one series of possessive particles, giving…… Continue reading Possessives in Maori
Notes on English inflection
In this post I discuss some features of English inflection: English identifies 6 combinations of person (eg 1st person singular, 3rd person plural) but mostly distinguishes only 2 categories: (a) 3rd person singular versus (b) all others. the most prominent inflectional ending in English is -s, which serves as both:- the 3rd person singular ending…… Continue reading Notes on English inflection
Shaetlan—the language of Shetland
Shaetlan, the language of Shetland, has now been awarded an ISO 3-letter code: scz https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/scz For more on ISO language codes, please see Russian: an official language at the ISO – Language Miscellany Shaetlan has sometimes been regarded as ‘just a dialect’ of English or as a ‘just a dialect’ of Scots, but the awarding…… Continue reading Shaetlan—the language of Shetland
Some similarities between Russian and German
I was 15 when I started learning Russian at school, after 4 years of learning German. Although there are many differences between German and Russian, my confidence grew early from discovering some similarities between those 2 languages. I discuss some of the similarities briefly below. 1. Cases Both languages have retained complex systems of case…… Continue reading Some similarities between Russian and German