A few weeks ago, Hungary elected a new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar. Perhaps that is an instance of nominative determinism—his surname Magyar means ‘Hungarian’. The Hungarian word for ‘Hungary’ is Magyarország. English speakers sometimes use Magyar as semi-jocular synonym for Hungarian, but I have the impression that this has become less common in recent decades.…… Continue reading How do you say Magyar?
Tag: Voicing
Irish spelling and pronunciation
I’ve set myself a challenge of working through textbooks on Welsh (Colloquial Welsh) and Irish (Teach Yourself Irish). I’ll work through the 2 books in parallel. Spotting similarities and differences will help me learn both these Celtic languages more thoroughly and more quickly. I’ve already covered Welsh spelling and pronunciation. Learning Welsh and Irish – Language…… Continue reading Irish spelling and pronunciation
Learning Welsh and Irish
I’ve set myself a challenge of working through textbooks on Welsh (Colloquial Welsh) and Irish (Teach Yourself Irish). I’ll work through the 2 books in parallel. Spotting similarities and differences will help me learn both these Celtic languages more thoroughly and more quickly. I’ve had a copy of Teach Yourself Welsh for about 50…… Continue reading Learning Welsh and Irish
Odds and ends: English
This post deals with some small aspects of English, grouped under the following headings: Spelling pronunciation meanings mass noun or count noun? word or phrase word histories 1. Spelling 1a. Bookkeeper Bookkeeper (and related bookkeeping) is one of the few English words with 3 double letters in a row: oo-kk-ee. https://whenyouwrite.com/ points out: an English…… Continue reading Odds and ends: English
How modern Greek spells some English consonants
Modern Greek uses digraphs to spell some voiced consonants that do not appear in modern native Greek words. Greek spellingTransliterationSoundμπmp[b]ντnt[d]γκgk[g]γγgg[g]τζtz[dz] Notes These combinations are pronounced as stops [b, d, g] at the start of words or after a consonant, but often as nasal followed by stop [mb, nd, ng] in the middle of words. Before…… Continue reading How modern Greek spells some English consonants
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
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
Phonemes and allophones
Phonologists and phoneticians typically distinguish phonemes from allophones. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another word. For example, the English word mat is distinct from pat because mat starts with the phoneme /m/ whereas pat starts with the phoneme /p/. A phoneme is not always pronounced in the…… Continue reading Phonemes and allophones
Another way to classify English consonants
I have discussed before how many consonants there are in English. In this post, I consider whether it is possible to classify English consonants in a more economical way. Previous post In an earlier post, I discussed how many consonants there are in English. The variety of English I looked at was standard southern British…… Continue reading Another way to classify English consonants
Language sketch: Maori (1)—sounds
Maori is the language of the Māori people of New Zealand. It is known in Maori as te reo Māori (‘the language Maori’) or simply te reo (‘the language’) for short. Te reo Māori was made an official language in New Zealand in 1987, along with New Zealand Sign Language. There is a useful short…… Continue reading Language sketch: Maori (1)—sounds