As a teenager I was incredibly precocious at times, spouting big words to make myself feel older and more worldly in high school. Later on, as my vocabulary developed at University, I dropped these intellectual bombs into conversations to make myself feel better in the company of people more middle class and posh than I was.
Origin: 1650s. Cumulus " a heap, pile, mass, surplus " in Latin *keue "to swell" in Latin. Cirrocumulus are flocks of fleecy clouds that whisk past us on a glorious spring day. Often their appearance in the evening foretells of a stormy morning the following day. At least thats old shepherd’s wisdom. German Schäfchenwolken: Little…
If you ever go to Edinburgh and find yourself in one of its countless excellent pubs, you may want to strike up a conversation with one of the grave looking, old guys at the bar drinking pints. If so, you will want to be able to hold a conversation while also not making a fanny…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A Survival Guide to Edinburgh Slang and Scots Words
The following developments in AI have meant that we are on the verge of a very slippery slope indeed for fake news and the attendant chaos, disorder and conflict that this generates in the world.
You may have noticed that I'm on a bit of a Polish love-spree right now. If you're still here and reading about it, that means you haven't tired of my meanderings into everything to do with Polish culture, food and art. Because of the PB I've decided to learn the language. After all, the PB…
Continue reading ➞ Eight words in Polish that have no English equivalent
Rema (Shetland Scots) The mirror-calm surface of the sea on a calm day. A body of water with a surface as smooth as cream. Comes from the Scots word "reyme", meaning "cream"). Rjómalogn (Icelandic) Cream-calm, used to denote profoundly tranquil weather or sea. Arafin (Welsh) Calm or slow weather in Welsh. blikkstille./ blekkstille (Norwegian) A…
In Maori culture, people come to know you through where you are from, not what you have achieved in life. The first question a pakeha asks when they meet you is 'what do you do?', the first question a Maori asks is 'Where are you from?'. A pepeha is a form of introduction that establishes…
Continue reading ➞ What is a pepeha in Maori culture? How can I write one?
Locallingual is the brainchild of a programmer named David. It's a web-based app that allows visitors to contribute their voices and accents according to regions, towns, countries, languages, and gender. It's a fascinating online archive of people's voices and can allow you to hear nuances in accents in regions and it's also a valueable language…
Continue reading ➞ <3 The Internet: Localingual the global language encyclopedia
The world's mother tongues have blended and intermingled since humans first stood upright and emerged out of the primeval forests. Here's a really awesome family tree beautifully illustrated by Minna Sundberg. Minna is an immensely talented illustrator who has been creating a wonderful tales set in northern Europe for her online web comic Stand Still,…
Continue reading ➞ A history of the world’s languages as a gnarly willow tree
Polish food could be considered similar to many other central European traditional dishes. There's a sprinkling of a German, Czech, Slovakian, Ukrainian and Russian influences here. Although any Pole worthy of his or her passport will patiently explain to you that while there are similarities, Poland are the original creators of some of the most…
Continue reading ➞ Polski jedzenie/ Polish food: My om nom nom nominations
A new Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) aims to involve people are volunteer historians who are needed to decrypt and decode 1,500 pages of medieval manuscripts from the Cathedral of Burgos (Spain). Even better, there is a Massive Open Online Course that accompanies the process. Read more about it here. To Won's Father: An Ancient…
Continue reading ➞ Decode ancient manuscripts in this online course about Medieval Spanish Burgos
Although I thought that the cockatoo was an Aboriginal word, it's not! Its a relic of the first Europeans visiting the spice isles of Maluku (now Malaysia) in the 15th Century. They had birds there akin to cassowaries and cockatoos. Other well-known Aboriginal-sounding names are in fact from abroad as well. ‘Bandicoot’: an Indian name…
Continue reading ➞ The quirky origins of Australia’s native animal names
Accents give away so much about a person’s origins, and yet there seems to be a stumbling block here. Accents are viewed in much the same way as a person’s standard of dress and the way they hold themselves. And yet, the world is large and filled with people from all over the place. Surely…
Have a fumble around this funny list of dodgy sentence structure and grammar. Created in 1979 by New York Times columnist William Safire, he published them in his column 'On Language'. Remember to never split an infinitive. A preposition is something never to end a sentence with. The passive voice should never be used. Avoid…
