Category Archives: languages

Focus on culture: Święconka in Poland

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Author: Błażej Benisz via Wikipedia Commons Deacon blessing the Easter food (Święconka), Ołtarzew, Poland 2007

Today’s blog post is taking up the topic of my last blog post, and is keeping us in Poland and in Eastern Europe for a little while longer.

Easter is an important holiday in Poland and a popular Polish Easter tradition is the ‘blessing of the Easter baskets’,  or Święconka [ɕvʲɛnˈtsɔnka], on Easter or Holy Saturday. Baskets lined with a white linen or a lace or embroidered napkin are decorated with evergreen twigs of bukszpan (boxwood) and ribbons, and filled with a selection of Easter foods and are then taken to church to be blessed.

The foods in the basket all have a special symbolic meaning:

  • chleb (bread), symbolizing Jesus
  • jaja (eggs) [jaja na twardo barwione w łupinkach cebuli = hard-boiled eggs dyed in onion skins] , symbolizing Christ’s resurrection
  • kiełbasę (sausage) or ham, symbolizing abundance
  • sól i pieprz (salt and pepper), symbolizing purification
  • owieczka (a lamb), either as a figurine or as a cake or bread in lamb-shape, symbolizing Christ
  • chrzan (horseradish), symbolizing the bitter sacrifice of Christ

Depending on the parish, the baskets are either lined up on tables or taken to the front of the altar in a procession of the parishioners. The priest or deacon then sprinkles the baskets with holy water, using either a straw brush or a metal aspergillum (i.e. a liturgical sprinkling wand). Special prayers addressing the various contents of the baskets, i.e. the eggs, cakes, meat, etc., are said. Traditionally, the blessed food remains untouched either until Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.

The Christian custom of Easter eggs has a long history, reaching as far back as ancient Mesopotamia, where early Christians stained eggs red in memory of the blood shed by Christ at his crucifixion. The Church officially adopted this custom, and eggs came to symbolize the resurrection of Christ: The hard egg shell symbolizes the sealed Tomb of Christ, which, when cracked open, symbolizes Christ’s resurrection from the dead and the empty tomb left behind. Another interpretation sees the egg as being dormant, while containing seed for new life and renewal.

The custom of Easter baskets is also observed in some other Slavic countries, like Croatia.

Is there a similar custom in your country or region? Tell us about it in the comments! 🙂

 

Vocabulary: The bedroom in Catalan and Basque

Today we continue our series of comparing vocabulary of a geographic region. We are going to Spain again, and to be more exact, to the minority languages spoken there, Catalan (Català) and Basque (Euskara). Both Catalan and Basque are also spoken in the South of France in the areas bordering Spain. Basque is an isolate language that is unrelated to any other language and it is believed to be one of the few surviving pre-Indoeuropean languages of Europe. Catalan is a Romance language and is basically a mix of both Iberian-Romance and Gallo-Romance influences, since it shares vocabulary and grammatical features with both Spanish and French.basque bedroomcatal bedroom

Focus on culture: Martenitsa and Baba Marta (Bulgaria)

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Author: Gustav @ Flickr, via Wikipedia Commons

Today’s blog post continues our culture series about interesting customs from all over the world and takes us to Bulgaria again and to Baba Marta Day with its Martenitsi which is celebrated on 1 March.

According to Bulgarian folklore Баба Марта, Baba Marta or ‘Grandma March’, is a grumpy old lady who is grudging at her two brothers and whose mood is said to determine the weather, so the sun only shines when she is smiling. There are different versions of the Baba Marta tale. One of them relates that Baba Marta is doing her spring cleaning on this day: While she is shaking her feather-filled blanket, all the feathers come out of it and fall down to Earth as the last snow of the year. This version of the tale has parallels to the German folktale of Mother Hulda (‘Frau Holle‘).

Bulgarians celebrate 1 March by observing the centuries-old custom of exchanging Мартеници Martenitsi in order to ask Baba Marta for mercy, in the hope that winter will pass faster and spring come sooner.

A Martenitsa (Bulgarian: мартеница, Macedonian: мартинка) is a small woollen ornament, made of red and white interwoven yarn, which usually takes the shape of two dolls, a male and a female. These are called Пижо и Пенда (Pizho and Penda): The male Pizho is predominantly white, while the female Penda is predominantly red and wears a skirt. Sometimes, the Martenitsi just take the shape of a red-and-white interwoven ribbon. The Martenitsi are good luck charms symbolizing health and happiness for the year and are said to protect against evil spirits. They are also a reminder that spring is near.

Martenitsa

Author: Petko Yotov, via Wikipedia Commons Pizho and Penda

Traditionally, they are given away as gifts to friends and family, i.e. not bought for oneself, and are worn around the wrist or attached to one’s clothes for a certain period of time, usually until the first signs of spring appear, e.g. the sightings of a swallow, a stork or a crane, or blossoming trees. Then the Мартеници (Martenitsi) are removed. In the small mountain villages, people also decorate their homes and domestic animals with the Martenitsi. There are different rituals associated with the removal of the Martenitsi, which are different in every region. Some people tie their Martenitsi on a branch of a fruit tree, thereby also giving the tree the good luck that comes from the charm.Other people lay their Martenitsi under a rock, in the belief that the insect that will be closest to the charm the next morning will determine the owner’s health and luck for the rest of the year: If the insect is a worm червей or a larva ларви, the coming year will be full of success and health; if it is an ant мравка, the person will have to work hard to be successful; however, if the insect is a spider паяк, the person may not enjoy success or good health in the year to come.

The red and white colours of the charms are also associated with a colour symbolism: white бял symbolizes purity and red червен life and passion. At its origin, the custom therefore symbolized the cycles of life and death, good and evil, and of sorrow and happiness in human existence. White originally also stood for Man and the power of the sun, and under Christian influence came to stand for virginity and integrity and was the colour of Christ. Red stood for Woman and health, being a symbol of blood, conception and birth. The colours of the Martenitsi also symbolize Mother Nature: white symbolizes the purity associated with melting snow, while red stands for the colour of the setting sun.

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Author: Danielgrad via Wikipedia Commons Magnolia full of tied Martenitsa, in Veliko Tarnovo (Велико Търново)

 The custom of exchanging Martenitsi is thought to have been inspired by an incident in the life of Bulgaria’s first Khan Аспарух (Asparuh), who sent a white string to his wife to let her know that he survived a battle. 

A similar tradition also exists in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as in Albania, Northern Greece, Romania and Moldova. Its origin derives from ancient pagan agricultural cults of nature common to the Balkan Peninsula. The specific ritual of tying red-and-white woolen strings suggests Thracian, Hellenic or even Roman origins of the tradition.

Is there a similar tradition associated with spring in your country or region? Tell us about it in the comments! 🙂

 

 

Focus on architecture: Trulli

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Author: Marcok via Wikipedia Commons Trulli along Via Pertica in Alberobello, Bari, Italy

Today’s blog post is taking us to Apulia (Puglia), a region in Southern Italy, and to a type of architecture that is specific to the Valle d’Itria in the Murge area of this region: the so-called Trulli. Districts made up of trulli can be found especially in the town of Alberobello in the province of Bari.

Trulli had their origin as temporary field shelters or storehouses and as permanent dwellings of agricultural labourers. The italianized term ‘trullo‘ derives from the dialect word truddu, referring to a dry stone hut, which in turn comes from the Greek word τρούλος, cupola. Trulli are basically round or square dwellings whose internal space is covered by a dry stone corbelled or keystone vault. A trullisto or trullaro in Italian is a stonemason specializing in the construction of these trulli.  Trulli were formerly known under the local term casedda (pl. casedde) (Italian casella, pl. caselle).

Trulli were built singly or in groups of up to five, sometimes also as a cluster of a dozen as farmyard buildings, but for a single rural family. The houses were made from local materials, which were either hard limestone or calcareous tufa, using the technique of dry stone masonry, i.e. without any mortar or cement. Dry-stone walls are also used in the surrounding area to separate fields. Trulli are on average 0.80 m to 2.70 m wide and between 1.60 m to 2 m high (from ground level to the beginning of the vault). Each conical roof covers one room, but sometimes there are arched alcoves which provide additional space and were often used as bedrooms, with a curtain hung in front of them.

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Author: Marcok via Wikipedia Commons Spaccato di un trullo in Alberobello (modello in scala)

The region were the trulli are located, the Murgia, is a karst plateau. This had implications for the construction: As winter rains immediately drain through the soil into fissures in the strata of limestone bedrock, there is no permanent surface water, and any water needed for living must therefore be caught and collected in catchment basins and cisterns.Trulli were started by digging a cistern (cisterna), and the excavated stones were then used to build the dwelling itself; the cistern was topped with a lime-mortared barrel vault or dome, above which was often the floor of the dwelling.

The roofs consist of two parts: an inner layer of limestone voussoirs, crowned by a keystone, and an exterior layer of limestone slabs which are slightly tilted outward, to make sure that rain can drain off and that the house is watertight. At the top of the conical roof, there is usually a pinnacolo, or pinnacle, made from sandstone, which takes various shapes, e.g. a cone, sphere, disk, bowl, or polyhedron, etc. which is the signature of the stonemason who built the trullo.

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Author: Luuuceee via Wikipedia Commons Cime dei Trulli in Alberobello

Both the exterior wall, and often also the interior of the trullo, were rendered with lime plaster and whitewashed for protection against drafts. Heating came from an open fireplace, whose flue was concealed in the masonry and the high chimneys were made from stone. However, trulli are difficult to heat because of their design, since warm air will rise up into the interior cone and so the houses will become unpleasantly cold during the winter, as well as condensing moisture. The thick walls will keep the dwellings pleasantly cool in the summer months though.

Some of the conical roofs have a symbol painted on it, e.g. Christian symbols such as a simple cross, a cross on a heart pierced by an arrow (representing Santa Maria Addolorata, or Our Lady of Sorrows), or a circle divided into four quarters with the letters S-C-S-D in them (for Sanctus Christus and Sanctus Dominus or the initials of Santo Cosma and Santo Damiano, two local saints), a dove symbolising the Holy Spirit, etc. These symbols are not ancient, but date from the late 20th century, when they were added when the roofs were repaired.

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Author: Niels Elgaard Larsen via Wikipedia Commons Trulli in Alberobello

The trulli‘s archaic form is related to the Sardinian nuraghe, the Balearic talayots and the sesi of Pantelleria.

Vocabulary: Some animals in Romanian

Today’s blog post continues our visual vocabulary series and is taking us to Romania and the Romanian language. Here are the words for some ‘exotic’ zoo animals 🙂 :

 

Arabic survival phrases

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Today’s blog post is taking us to the Middle East and Africa, namely to the Arabic-speaking world. If you live in Europe, chances are high that you will sooner or later come across some refugees from Syria, Iraq or other Arabic-speaking countries in the next few months with whom you might want to exchange some pleasantries. 🙂

Here are some basic phrases to get your conversation started:

Hello! = أهلا  Ahlan!

Thank you = شكرا shukran

Goodbye! = ma’a s-salaamah مع السلامة

Good morning! = sabah alkhair صباح الخير

Good afternoon/evening = masa-a alkhair مساء الخير

How are you? = Kayf halik (said to a man)/kayf halich (said to a woman)كيف حالك؟

I’m fine = Alhamdullilah (lit. ‘thanks to God’) الحمد لله

And you? = wa inta (said to a man)/ wa inti (said to a woman)  و أنت

Where are you from? = Inta min wain (said to a man)/ inti min wain  (said to a woman)  أنت من أين؟
I am from….. = ana min….. انا من

What’s your name? = ma ismak (said to a man)/ ma ismich (said to a woman) ما اسمك
My name is…. = Ismih…. اسمي

 

 
 
 

 

 

How to achieve native-like pronunciation

Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Tower_of_Babel_(Vienna)_-_Google_Art_Project_-_edited

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563

Today’s blog post will be about how you can achieve native-like pronunciation when learning and speaking a foreign language.

1. The first step to achieve native-like pronunciation in your target language is to get a feel for the ‘rhythm’ of your target language, i.e. for the intonation of the words in a sentence, which words are stressed and where (stress), and for the sounds of the language in general. For this, listening attentively to your target language regularly and frequently, especially when you are starting a new language, is essential. Try to imitate the pattern of the rhythm of the language as closely as possible.
2. Another very important part of developing a native-like pronunciation has to do with phonetics, namely where exactly the vowels and consonants are formed in the mouth and which position your tongue is in when you pronounce a given sound in your target language. So how can you find out how to pronounce a given sound? Listen to a word, which contains a sound you have difficulty with, several times. Try to imitate the correct pronunciation of the vowel or consonant by trying to pronounce the sound with different positions of your tongue or in different areas of your mouth until you get it exactly right. Once you know the correct position of your tongue to form the sound in question, practice it until you really master the correct pronunciation of the vowel, consonant or syllable.
3. Apart from the correct pronunciation of the sounds themselves, how long the vowels and consonants are spoken also matters a lot (= vowel length and consonant length). For example, languages like Finnish or Polish have very short vowels, and when consonants or vowels are doubled, they have to be spoken much longer; likewise, Czech and Slovak have very short vowels and long vowels and these have to be clearly articulated and differentiated. By contrast, languages like English, French or German have medium-length vowels, and if you pronounced them very short, it would sound strange (to a native speaker).

So basically, native-like pronunciation can be achieved by paying attention to and practising the combination of the particular rhythm of the target language, its word stress, its phonetics and the length and ‘quality’ (e.g. aspirated or non-aspirated) of its vowels and consonants. The best way to achieve this aim is to listen to your target language(s) as often as possible, in every possible way (audio recordings, music, movies, radio, conversation) and trying to imitate what you hear. 🙂

Chinese: the meaning of some place names

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Author: Laitr Keiows via Wikipedia Commons Osmanthus fragrans tree, also called sweet or fragrant olive

Today’s blog post is taking us to China (中国  Zhōngguó, land of the middle), and to the meaning of some place names when their characters are translated literally.

北京 Beijing = northern capital

南京 Nánjīng = southern capital, having served as capital in the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as of the Republic of China founded in 1912

上海 Shànghǎi = (city) at the sea

重庆 Chóngqìng = double celebration

福建 Fújiàn = the blessed establishment, the foundation of good fortune

青海 Qīnghǎi = the blue-green sea, named for Lake Qinghai 

河北 Héběi = north of the river, referring to its location north of the Yellow River or 黄河 Huáng Hé

湖南 Húnán = south of the lake, referring to its location south of Lake Dongting or 洞庭湖 Dòngtíng Hú

湖北 Húběi = north of the lake, referring to Lake Dongting or 洞庭湖 Dòngtíng Hú

河南 Hénán = south of the river, referring to its location south of the Yellow River or 黄河 Huáng Hé

桂林 Guìlín = forest of fragrant olive (Osmanthus fragrans)

杭州 Hángzhōu = capital of the Hang province

苏州 Sūzhōu = “the province that is awake”; the character for Su 苏 in its name is a contraction that actually refers to nearby Mount Gusu 姑蘇山 Gūsūshān; the su refers to the mint Perilla frutescens, also known as shiso

四川 Sichuan = four rivers; the name of the province is an abbreviation of Sì Chuānlù (四川路), or “Four circuits of rivers”, which is itself abbreviated from Chuānxiá Sìlù (川峡四路), or “Four circuits of rivers and gorges”

贵州 Guìzhōu = the precious or noble province

山西 Shānxī = west of the mountains, refering to its location west of the Taihang Mountains or 太行山 Tàiháng Shān

安徽 Ānhuī = the quiet or safe emblem, actually named for two cities in southern Anhui, Anqing and Huizhou

云南 Yúnnán = “the region south of the clouds”, is actually named for the 云岭  Yúnlǐng or “Cloudy Peaks” mountains, which run north and south of Yunnan

香港 Xiānggǎng or Hong Kong = Fragrant Harbour

九龍 Kowloon/Gau2 Lung 4 in Cantonese= Nine dragons

澳门 Àomén, better known as Macao = the Bay Gate

广东 Guǎngdōng / Gwong2 Dung1 in Cantonese; Canton province = the wide East

台北 Táiběi = North of Taiwan

 

Focus on culture: Jól in Iceland

 

800px-GrassodenhäuserToday’s blog post will take us to Iceland and to some special Icelandic Jól (or Christmas) customs. Jól is based on the Old Norse religious festival called Yule.

Jól is celebrated on 24 December, but the Jól season includes events over several weeks: Aðventa (advent, the four Sundays preceding jól), aðfangadagskvöld (Yule eve), jóladagur (Yule day), annar í jólum (Boxing day), gamlársdagur (old years day), nýársdagur (New Year’s Day) and þrettándinn (the thirteenth, and final day of the season).

The main event is Aðfangadagskvöld or Christmas Eve, when people meet for a Yule meal and exchange gifts. However, on the 13 days before December 24 the Yule lads or jólasveinar come into the towns from the mountains to give children that have behaved well small gifts. These they leave in shoes that have been placed near the window or on the window sill during the thirteen nights before Christmas Eve. Every night, a different Yule lad comes to visit, leaving either small gifts for well-behaved children, or a rotten potato if the child was naughty.

The Yule Lads, jólasveinarnir or jólasveinar, are figures from Icelandic folkore who in modern times have taken on the role of an Icelandic version of Santa Claus. There are thirteen jólasveinar. Originally, they were portrayed as mischievous pranksters who would steal from or harass the rural population, but in modern times they have been taking on a more benevolent role comparable to that of Santa Claus. They either wear late medieval Icelandic clothing or Santa Claus costumes. The jólasveinar are traditionally said to be the sons of the mountain-dwelling trolls Grýla and Leppalúði, and are often depicted with the Jólakötturinn or Yule cat.

The jólasveinar have descriptive names conveying their mode of operation and each day, a new lad arrives:

December 12  Stekkjarstaur (‘Sheep-Cote Clod’), harasses sheep but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs; leaves Dec.25

December 13 Giljagaur (‘Gully Gawk’), hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal some milk; leaves Dec. 26

December 14 Stúfur (‘Stubby’), unusually short, steals pans to eat the crust left on them; leaves Dec. 27

December 15 Þvörusleikir (‘Spoon-licker’), steals Þvörur (a type of wooden spoon – þvara- with a long handle) to lick them, is extremely thin due to malnutrition; leaves Dec. 28

December 16 Pottaskefill (‘Pot-scraper’), steals leftovers from pots; leaves Dec. 29

December 17 Askasleikir (‘Bowl-licker’), hides under beds waiting for someone to put down their ‘askur‘ (a wooden bowl with a lid), which he then steals; leaves Dec. 30

December 18 Hurðaskellir (‘door-slammer’), likes to slam doors, especially at night; leaves Dec. 31

December 19 Skyrgámur (‘Skyr-gobbler’), loves skyr (an Icelandic cultured dairy product which has the consistency of strained yoghurt, but a much milder taste); leaves Jan. 1

December 20 Bjúgnakrækir (‘sausage-swiper’), hides in the rafters and snatches sausages that were being smoked; leaves Jan. 2

December 21 Gluggagægir (‘window-peeper’), a voyeur who would look through windows in search of things to steal; leaves Jan. 3

December 22 Gáttaþefur (‘doorway-sniffer’), has an abnormally large nose and an acute sense of smell which he uses to locate laufabrauð (leaf-bread, an Icelandic specialty); leaves Jan. 4

December 23 Ketkrókur (‘meat-hook’), uses a meat hook to steal meat; leaves Jan. 5

December 24 Kertasníkir (‘candle-stealer’), follows children in order to steal their candles (which in olden days were made of tallow and thus edible); leaves Jan. 6

The Yule lads are often associated with the  Jólakötturinn or Jólaköttur, or Yule Cat, a monster from Icelandic folklore, which is a huge and vicious cat said to lurk about the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eat people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.  The Yule Cat is the pet of the giantess Grýla and her sons, the Yule Lads. In former times, the threat of being eaten by the Yule Cat was used by farmers as an incentive for their workers to finish processing the autumn wool before Christmas. Those who participated in the work would get new clothes as a reward, but those who did not would get nothing and would therefore be preyed upon by the cat. The cat has alternatively been interpreted as merely eating away the food of those without new clothes during Christmas feasts. The tradition has its origin in the 19th century.

On January 6, Icelanders celebrate Þrettándinn (the thirteenth of jól), the last day of Christmas. It is celebrated with elf bonfires and elf dances. Families come together to have dinner and light fireworks. People also go into a corner of their houses and shout out the following folklore poem to drive out evil spirits and invite good spirits and elves:

Komi þeir sem koma vilja (those come who want)
Fari þeir sem fara vilja (those go who want)
Mér og mínum að meinalausu (neither hurting myself nor my family)

Another Icelandic jól custom is the preparation of laufabrauð or ‘Leaf-bread’, which a kind of very thin pancake with a diameter of about 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 inches), which is decorated with leaf-like, geometric patterns and fried briefly in hot fat or oil. Here is a  video showing how it is made: https://youtu.be/OCeUnjax-7w

Here is a recipe for Laufabrauð (‘leaf bread’): http://jol.ismennt.is/english/laufabraud-joe.htm