Radio Omniglot Simon Ager

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

There are new language pages about:



* Central Teke (Tɛgɛ) – a Bantu language spoken in the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

* Catio (ẽberã) – a Chocoan language spoken mainly in northwestern Colombia.

* Pagibete (Apagibete) – a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

* Kukuya (Kikukuya) – a Bantu language spoken in the Plateaux Department in the Republic of the Congo



New constructed script: Pan-Caucasian alphabet, a unified writing system proposed by Vazgen R. Ghazaryan for the Northwest Caucasian and Northeast Caucasian languages.



New numbers pages:



* Central Teke (Tɛgɛ) – a Bantu language spoken in the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

* Babine-Witsuwitʼen, a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in parts of British Columbia in Canada.



New page about telling the time in: Swahili (Kiswahili).

On the Omniglot blog there’s a new post entitled Surfing the Mountains, about French words for snowboarding, and the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language is spoken in Poland.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was

Tongva, an Uto-Aztecan language which was spoken in Southern California and which is currently being revived.



In this week’s Celtic Pathways podcast we’re sweeping French floors with Celtic Brooms.



On the Celtiadur blog there are new posts about words for Barns, and I made improvements to the posts about words for Brushes and Broom and Grey.

For more Omniglot News, see:

https://www.omniglot.com/news/

https://twitter.com/Omniglossia

https://www.facebook.com/groups/omniglot/

https://www.facebook.com/Omniglot-100430558332117



You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or podtail.

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In this episode we’re sweeping French floors with Celtic shrubs.



The Proto-Celtic word *banatlo- means broom, as in the shrub Cytisus scoparius (a.k.a. common broom / Scotch broom) or similar plants. It comes from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenH-tlom (way, path) in the sense of “cleared path (in a wood)” [source].

Related words in the modern Celtic languages include:



* bealaidh [bɛl̪ˠɪ] = broom in Scottish Gaelic

* banadl [ˈbanadl] = broom in Welsh

* banadhel = broom in Cornish

* balan [ˈbɑːlãn] = broom in Breton



They all mean broom, as in the shrub, although the exact species of broom plant they refer to may vary from language to language.

According to An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language by Alexander MacBain (1982), there is a cognate in Irish: beally/i, however it doesn’t appear in any of the Irish dictionaries I’ve checked.

The French word balai (broom, broomstick, brush) ultimately comes from the same Proto-Celtic root, via Old French balain (bundle of broom), Middle Breton balain, balazn, Old Breton balan (broom) and Gaulish *balano- (broom, broom plant), as does bálago (straw, Spanish broom) in Spanish and balea (broom) in Galician, possibly via Celtiberian *bálago-, *bálaco- [source].

Words same PIE roots possibly include bana (course, path, trajectory) in Swedish, baan (road, path, track, job, orbit) in Dutch, and Bahn (route, trail, railway) in German [source].

More about words for Brushes and Broom and related things in Celtic languages.

Incidentally, the tune at the beginning of this episode is one of my own compositions called Apple Blossom / Blodau Afal. Here’s a longer recording of it:



Simon Ager · Apple Blossom / Blodau Afal

You can find more connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur blog. I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the Omniglot Blog.

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.



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Here’s the latest news from the world of Omniglot for the past three weeks – I was away on holiday in Scotland for a week, and didn’t have time to record newscasts during that time. (More on that later).

There are new language pages about:



* Niuatoputapu-Tafahi, an extinct Polynesian language or dialect cluster which was spoken on the islands Niuatoputapu and Tafahi in what is now Tonga.

* Isinai, a Central Cordilleran language spoken in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya in Luzon in the Philippines.

* Owa, a Southern Solomonic language spoken in Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Iands.

* Desano, Carapana (Mõxtã), Tuyuca (Docapúaraye), and Yurutí, which are all Eastern Tucanoan language spoken in Colombia and in Brazil.



New constructed script: Marubhasha, an alternative way to write Telugu invented by K. Kiran Kumar.



New constructed script: Erm, an alternative way to write English invented by Jeffy Huang and based mainly on the classical Mongolian script.





New constructed script: Ayxanər, which was created by Ayxan Eyvazov as an alternative way to write the Azerbaijani language.





New phrases and numbers pages: Dogri (डोगरी), a Western Pahari language spoken in northern India.

New numbers pages:



* Saurashtra (ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬꢵ), a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in Tamil Nadu in southern India.

* Chorti (Ch’orti’), a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

* Midland Mixe (Ayüük), a Mixe-Zoque language spoken in Oaxaca in southern Mexico.



New Tower of Babel translation: Midland Mixe (Ayüük)

On the Omniglot blog there are new posts about Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (the Scottish Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye where I spent most of my holiday), Turas Fada (Long Journey) (about my journey to Skye), Giving Up (a April’s fool post), and Mr(s) Rumbling, about the Japanese word ごろごろ様 (gorogoro sama – thunder). There’s also the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this language was spoken in California in the USA, and is currently being revived.

The mystery language in language quiz of 7th April was

Interslavic (Меджусловјански / Medžuslovjanski), an international auxiliary language designed to be used by speakers of different Slavic languages to communicate with one another.



The mystery languages in the language quiz of 14th April were

Assamese (অসমীয়া),

In this Adventure in Etymology we find out whether the words stable (a building for horses) and stable (steady, permanent) are related.



A stable is:



* a building for the lodging and feeding of horses, cattle, etc.

* a collection of animals housed in such a building. [other meanings are available]



It comes from Middle Englsh stable (a building for horses), from Anglo-Norman stable (a place for keeping animals), from Latin stablum (dwelling, stable, hut, tavern), from stō (to stand, stay, remain) and‎ -bulum (instrumental suffix) [source].

In Old English, a stable was a horsern [ˈhorˠzˌerˠn] (“horse place”) [source] or a steall [stæ͜ɑll], from which we get the word stall (a compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed) [source].

As an adjective stable means:



* Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed



It comes from Middle English stable, from Anglo-Norman stable / stabel (stable, firm), from Latin stabilis (firm, steadfast), from stō (to stand, stay, remain) and -abilis (able). It displaced the Old English word for stable, staþolfæst [ˈstɑ.ðolˌfæst] [source].

So it seems that these two words do come from the same roots. Other words from the same roots include stage, stand, state and stamina in English, stabbio (pen, fold, pigsty) in Italian, estar (to be) in Spanish, and ystafell (room, building, house) in Welsh [source].

I forget mention on the podcast, but the reason I chose the word stable for this adventure is because it’s related to the Scottish Gaelic sabhal [sa.əl̪ˠ] (barn), which comes from Middle Irish saball, from Latin stabulum [source], and I’ve just spent a week doing a course in Scottish Gaelic songs at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (“Ostag’s Big Barn”), the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye [more details].

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

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

There are new language pages about:



* Ambo-Pasco Quechua (Kichwa), a Central Quechua language spoken in central Peru.

* Matsés, a Panonan language spoken mainly in Brazil and Peru.

* Yine, a Southern Arawakan language spoken in eastern and southern Peru.



New constructed script: Skyling Script, which was invented by Kitsune Sobo for his fictional Rhodinoverse.



New constructed script: Japonesian, which created by Aiden Neuding as an alternative way to write Japanese and Indonesian.



New numbers pages:



* Chuj (Koti’), a Mayan language spoken in western Guatemala and southern Mexico.

* Tzotzil (Batsʼi kʼop), a Mayan language spoken mainly in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

* Tzeltal (Bats’i k’op), a Mayan language spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas.



On the Omniglot blog there’s a new post about Madrugadores (Early Risers), and there’s the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this is an International Auxiliary Language (IAL).

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was Khanty (Ханты), a Ob Ugric language spoken in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs in the west and north of the Russian Federation.



In this week’s Celtic Pathways podcast, entitled Fortified Dunes, we uncover Celtic fortresses among the sand dunes.



On the Celtiadur blog there’s a new post about words for Blessings and related things, and I made improvements to the post about words for Talkative.

I also made improvements to the Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Kubachi language pages.

For more Omniglot News, see:

https://www.omniglot.com/news/

https://twitter.com/Omniglossia

https://www.facebook.com/groups/omniglot/

https://www.facebook.com/Omniglot-100430558332117



You can also listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser, PlayerFM or a href="https://podtail.

In this episode we uncover Celtic fortresses among the sand dunes.



A dune is a ridge or hill of sand piled up by the wind. It comes from Proto-West Germanic *dūn(ā) (sand dune, hill), via French or Dutch, from Proto-Germanic *dūnaz (accumulation, pile, heap, mound), or from Gaulish dunum (hill), from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (stronghold, rampart), all of which come from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuHnom (enclosure) [source].

Related words in the modern Celtic languages include:



* dún [d̪ˠuːnˠ] (fort(ress), place of refuge, residence, house) in Irish

* dùn [duːn] (fortress, heap) in Scottish Gaelic

* doon [duːn] (fort, stronghold) in Manx

* din [dɪn] (city, fortress, stronghold), and dinas (city) in Welsh

* din [di:n] (fort) in Cornish

* din [ˈdĩːn] (fortress) in Breton



Apart from dinas in Welsh, these words are mostly found in placenames, such as Dún Dealgan (Dundalk) in Ireland, Dún Dè(agh) (Dundee) in Scotland, Dinbych (Denbigh) in Wales, Dinmeur (Dunmere) in Cornwall, and Dinan in Brittany.

Words from the same Celtic roots possibly include town and down (a [chalk] hill, rolling grassland) in English, tuin (garden, yard) in Dutch, tún (hayfield) in Icelandic, and тын [tɨn] (fence [especially one made of twigs]) in Russian [source].

Words same PIE roots include dusk, dust and fume in English, dagg (dew) and dy (mud, mire, sludge) in Swedish, and fem (dung, manure) in Catalan [source].

More about words for Castles & fortresses and related things in Celtic languages.

You can find more connections between Celtic languages on the Celtiadur blog. I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the Omniglot Blog.

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.



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