Josquin's Classical Log - Graeca non leguntur

[Josquin]

MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2016

Things have got a little bit quiet around here and the reason for this is simple: I haven't really been actively studying languages for the last month or so, as my main interest has shifted back towards music in general and singing in particular.

Gaeilge

After finishing Learning Irish, I haven't started on native materials yet. I'm reading quite a bit of Irish on the Internet though (mainly tuairisc.ie and Facebook). Also, I have looked into my copy of Asterix na nGallach once or twice. My Irish text, which I posted above, unfortunately didn't get any corrections on Lang-8, so I don't really know how to practise my output at the moment.

Nevertheless, I placed an order on Litríocht some time ago and bought the following books:

• Seosamh MacGrianna: Mo Bhealach Féin
• Myles na gCopaleen: An Béal Bocht
• C. S. Lewis: An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh
• Peadar Ua Laoghaire: Séadna
• Eoghan Ó Tuairisc: Dé Luain
• Pádraig Ó Cíobháin: Desiderius a Dó

Personally, the most promising book seems to be Dé Luain, as it tells the story of the 1916 Easter Rising, in which I'm very much interested. All of these novels (except the Lewis one, which is the Irish translation of the first volume of The Cronicles of Narnia) are considered classics of 20th century Irish-language literature though, so I hope they will be worth their price. I'd also like to get hold of some things written by Liam Ó Flaithearta (I've read The Sniper in English and Famine in German), but most of it seems to be out of print except some short stories.

I should really get started on Irish native materials in the near future, at least I'm feeling motivated to do so.

فارسی

My Persian adventure came to a rather untimely end. I'm just not interested in systematic language studies right now. Perhaps I'll get back to it some time in the future, but not now.

Wanderlust (ไทย)

Due to the recent passing of Thailand's much revered king Bhumibol, I got a little bit interested in Thai language and culture. I have always wanted to dabble in Thai and at least learn the script, so this will be my next project. I can't promise it will turn into anything serious though, I'm just too busy with my music and life in general right now (in a positive way).

I found quite a lot of Thai resources, such as Teach Yourself, Colloquial, a grammar, and an introduction to the script, at my uni library, so I will have a close look at them shortly. I'm mostly aiming for a general overview of the language and some insight into the complicated writing system. I suck at tones though (which already kept me from studying Mandarin) and Thai has five of them...

[Josquin]

DOMHNACH, 23 DEIREADH FÓMHAIR 2016

This week, I had a better time studying languages than the weeks before. I started diving into native materials in Irish, dabbled a little bit in Thai, and even bought myself a new book in Russian.

Gaeilge

Beidh mé ag scríobh beagainín as Gaeilge inniu. Thosaigh mé leabhair Ghaeilge a léamh faoi dheireadh. Is é Asterix na nGallach atá léite agam cheana féin agus thosaigh mé An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh a léamh inniu. Ceapaim go bhfuil sé rud beag leadránach mar atá sé leabhar do pháistí, ach tá an Ghaeilge ann an-éasca. B'fhearr liom Cú na mBaskerville nó Dé Luain a léamh, ach tá siad ródheacair dom fós.

I'll write a little bit in Irish today. I finally started reading Irish books. I have already read Asterix the Gaul and I started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe today. I think it's a little bit boring, because it's a children's book, but the Irish in it is very easy. I'd rather read The Hound of Baskerville or Monday instead, but they're still too difficult for me.

Русский

Вчера я купил новую книгу, когда мы с другом были в Штутгарте. Она является Чайкой Антона Чехова. Я очень люблю его Даму с собачкой, поэтому я надеюсь, что эта книга мне тоже понравится. Я уже прочитал несколько страниц и думаю, что язык в ней не слишком сложный.

Yesterday, I bought a new book when I was in Stuttgart with a friend. It's The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. I loved The Lady with the Dog by him very much, so I hope I'll also like this book. I have already read some pages and I think the language isn't too difficult.

ไทย

Unfortunately, I can't write this post in Thai (yet), but I have already learnt a few things. First of all, the writing system is even more complicated than I thought. It will be best starting off with romanized Thai while learning the script step by step simultaneously. It would almost make no sense to learn the script in isolation, because it's so closely adjusted to the pecularities of Thai phonology.

You can't really understand the script without knowing some Thai already. It has a complicated system of indicating tones that only really makes sense if you already know the spoken language. Instead of memorizing all the rules, it might be best to observe how certain words are written, thus getting a feeling for how things work. However, the real problem is that there's no standardized romanization system and the ones used in textbooks are all different and weird in their own ways.

Unfortunately, the only German-language course for Thai (Lextra Thailändisch) has gone out of print and used copies are sold for more than € 100 on the Internet. It's a translation of Teach Yourself Thai, but as it was adjusted to German learners the transliteration system made a little bit more sense to me. At least that's what I saw on Amazon, where you can still preview the book.

Well, as I said, I hate learning tone languages, because I always think I'm screwing up the tones and no one will ever understand me. But maybe I simply shouldn't overthink it in the beginning. In any case, I already learnt some pleasentries, such as สวัสดี (sawàtdii) "hello", ขอโทษ (khǒrthôot) "excuse me", ขอบคุณ (khòrpkhun) "thank you", and the polite particles ครับ (khráp) for males and ค่ะ (khâ) for females. So far, I really like the language. It's beautiful!

[Josquin]

Вчера я купил новую книгу, когда мы с другом были в Штутгарте. Она является Чайкой Антона Чехова.

Question to any Russian native speaker who might be reading this:

Is the use of являться in the above sentence correct? It always trips me up and I've been wondering whether or not it should have been: Ею является Чайка Антона Чехова.

Of course, the easiest and less formal variant would have been: Это Чайка А. Чехова. But why make it simple when you can make it complicated?

[whatiftheblog]

Вчера я купил новую книгу, когда мы с другом были в Штутгарте. Она является Чайкой Антона Чехова.

Question to any Russian native speaker who might be reading this:

Is the use of являться in the above sentence correct? It always trips me up and I've been wondering whether or not it should have been: Ею является Чайка Антона Чехова.

Of course, the easiest and less formal variant would have been: Это Чайка А. Чехова. But why make it simple when you can make it complicated?

Simply put, no, although it was an elegant attempt Russian in particular draws a very fine line between just complicated enough and so complicated that it becomes nonsensical, with that line itself being somewhat nonsensical. I would say/write "Я вчера купила новую книгу, Чайку Чехова", dropping the verb altogether. In this type of phrase, with reference to an inanimate object, I can't really think of a way I'd use является. With people it's a bit easier, you could say something like "он являлся главным по отделу" for a slightly more formal construction.

[Josquin]

Спасибо большое! Это очень полезно.

[Josquin]

MÁIRT, 17 EANÁIR 2017

Áthbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh!

Happy New Year, everybody! This is less of a "What I’ve done with languages" post, it’s rather more of an "I’m actually still alive" post. I haven’t been very active on the forum for the last two months and the reason is very simple. I was sick – again!

This time, I had the worst mental crisis in years and I’m actually only slowly getting better, so please don’t expect too many posts or linguistic achievements from me in the near future. I won’t go into detail what condition I’m suffering from, it’s actually not that important. Suffice it to say that 2016 was the worst year as far as my health is concerned since I was in hospital seven years ago.

That much about why I haven’t posted for so long. Nevertheless, you probably still expect a word or two about my languages. I can’t really study at the moment, as I can’t concentrate very well, so my studying has gone overboard – again! Be that as it may, I still have goals for 2017.

This year, I’m definitely going to concentrate on Irish. As soon as I can study again, I will probably repeat a thing or two from the courses I’ve used (Irisch für Anfänger, Learning Irish, Gaeilge gan Stró), then I’m going to consolidate my grammar with Nancy Stenson’s Basic Irish and Intermediate Irish. After that – or simultaneously – I’m finally going to dive into native materials, such as Asterix as Gaeilge and one of the many Irish-language novels I have collected.

I don’t know if and what I’m going to do in other languages. I’ll probably go on wanderlusting as soon as I can study again. Maybe, I’ll take a second chance at Persian or Thai or even Welsh. Maybe, I’ll get back to studying Japanese. I don’t really have concrete plans here, I’m just going to play around a little bit.

Tá súil agam go bhfuil bliain alainn romhainn (chugainn?) agus go bhfoghlaimeoimid mórán in éindí.

Slán libh!

[Josquin]

I've ordered Cuairt na Cruinne in Ochtó Lá, which is the Irish translation of Around the World in 80 Days, today. Luckily, it was available on Amazon, so I didn't have to order it from Ireland. Thanks to jeff_lindqvist for the recommendation! The next book I'll get will be Oileán an Órchiste (Treasure Island).

Now, all I need is the ability to fully concentrate again, so I can finally get back to work.

[Josquin]

SUNDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2017

So, I'm slowly getting back into the saddle. My health has improved a lot since I last wrote and I'm finally able to concentrate on textbooks and the like again. Just as I promised, I used this fresh energy in order to study Irish and go wanderlusting again.

Gaeilge

Rinne mé rudaí éagsúla as Gaeilge an tseachtain seo caite. Thosaigh mé An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh a léamh agus d'éist mé le Raidió na Gaeltachta le cúpla uair a chlog. Is é an leabhar seo an leabhar Gaeilge is éasca atá agam, ach cheannaigh mé Tintin as Gaeilge inniú. Tá súil agam go mbeidh sé réasúnta éasca le tuiscint freisin.

Chomh maith leis sin, d'obair mé le Irisch für Anfänger arís. Tá mé ag foghlaim na gramadaí céanna arís a d'fhoghlaim mé cúpla mí ó shin. Mar sin féin, caithfidh mé a rá gur éigean dom an gramadach a fhoghlaim arís. Níl mórán Gaeilge agam, ach tá fonn orm sin a athrú.

Ní thuigim mórán nuair a chloisim le Raidió na Gaeltachta, ach is breá liom an Ghaeilge a chloisteál mar sin féin. Tá glór áirithe aici nach bhfuil ar teanga eile ar fud an domhain. Tá súil agam go gcuirfidh mé feabhas ar mo chuid Gaeilge mar gur mhaith liom níos mó a thuiscint.

Dála an scéil, éistim le ceol traidisiúnta Éireannach i rith an ama.

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I did various things in Irish last week. I started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I listened to Raidió na Gaeltachta for several hours. This book is the easiest book in Irish that I have, but I also bought Tintin in Irish today. I hope it will be reasonably easy to understand, too.

Also, I worked with Irisch für Anfänger again. I'm repeating the grammar I already studied several months ago. All the same, I have to say that I need to repeat the grammar. I don't speak much Irish, but I'd like to change that.

I don't understand a lot when I listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta, but I love hearing the Irish language nevertheless. It has a particular sound that no other language in the world has. I hope I'll improve my Irish, because I'd like to understand more.

By the way, I listen to traditional Irish music all the time.

עברית

Yes, I'm wanderlusting again and this time my victim is called Biblical Hebrew. I already have some experience with Modern Hebrew, but I guess this is a totally different ballgame given that Modern Hebrew is heavily influenced by Yiddish and other Indo-European languages. Biblical Hebrew, on the other hand, is a truly Semitic language with very interesting quirks and pecularities.

I'm not really studying though. I'm just skimming through some textbooks and reference grammars in order to get an idea of how the grammar works and what the vocabulary sounds like. Also, I'm slowly getting better at reading the awesome Hebrew alphabet! In Biblical Hebrew, much like in Ancient Greek, the orthography still makes sense, because every letter denotes a different phoneme. In Modern Hebrew, a lot of the sounds have merged and become indistinguishable, so there are several letters for one sound.

In any case, I'm still wrapping my head around root consonants and their different vocalizations. Reading Hebrew without vowel signs must be hell unless you're really familiar with the language! All the same, this is fun and I'll continue to shamelessly go wanderlusting.

ไทย

Unfortunately, my Thai has gone dormant and I'm not gonna wake it up now, but there will be a time to get back to it. Probably, when I've had enough of Hebrew. I still have to crack the ridiculously complicated alphabet with its low, middle, and high consonants!

Русский

Not doing any Russian at the moment. My focus will be on other languages this year.

日本語

If I had more time, I'd be brushing up my Japanese, but my day only has so many hours. どうもすみません！

فارسی

Arrrgghhh, another candidate for the pile of shame... I seriously need to stop wanderlusting at some point and get back to structured studying. Persian is such a beautiful language!

Português

Don't ask... Desculpa!

[galaxyrocker]

Welcome back Josquin! I'm glad to hear that you are getting better and getting back into the habits of studying. I think it's a good idea to go back over that Irish book, and I'm actually fixing to sit down and go over Learning Irish myself (for the first time all the way through) to pick up on things I don't know. The review is super nice, and motivating as it shows how far you've already come. Also, if you're looking for books, PM me. I've got some stuff you might find interesting.

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Welcome back, I'm so happy that you are back. I hope that 2017 will be better for you.