Translation Poetry on the Tram

Another great language initiative in what must be one of the most linguistically diverse capitals of Europe. In Brussels we often see signs, notices and adverts in several languages and so can readily translate different meanings and learn new phrases. Of course a little knowledge can be dangerous, so when reading multilingual literature you have to know that poetic license may have been used. Despite this it can be a useful and enriching experience.

Take for example the Transpoesie project running on Brussels' trams at the moment. Poetry from around Europe is posted on trams in their original language as well as in French and in Dutch.

Enjoy the poetry and learn some new words and phrases in Dutch and French.

James Byrd Jnr by Jacob Sam-La Rose.

Elsewhere, a headline cries

a man was lynched yesterday,

Billie Holiday is cured for good now 

on the cover of Ebony, 1949.

The guitar drags like an anchor,

rope around its neck, and keeps on

singing, side to side, its strings alive

---------------------------------------------

Ergens anders, een krantenkop schreeuwt

een man werd gisteren gelyncht,

Billie Holiday is nu voorgoed genezen

op de cover van Ebony, 1949.

De gitaar sleept als een anker,

touw rond zijn nek, blijft hij

zingen, heen en weer, de snaren levend

Het openbaar vervoer in Brussel: Systeem werkt niet!

Interesting TV news article about the 'openbaar vervoer' (public transport) in Brussels. Mostly in Dutch it also dips into French and English and has French subtitles for those who need them.

It highlights the twitter account 'STIB Fail' @STIB_Fail which is an attempt by some to give customers a way of communicating their dissatisfaction with the service. In a country where customer service is really not a high priority this initiative is an excellent way to have our voices heard. In my opinion the public transport here in Brussels is pretty extensive, covering a large area and including buses, trams and the metro (voertuigen=vehicles) at what I think is a reasonable price. The problem which I and many others, including @STIB_Fail , perceive is the poor communication by the MIVB (Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel). Often when something goes wrong (which we accept can happen), we just need to be told.

Useful Dutch phrases
Geen metro tussen…. en…..: No metro between….and…..
Onbepaalde duur: Unspecified duration.
Pendelbussen ter plaatse: Replacement buses provided.
Het metroverkeer op lijnen 1 en 5 verloopt opnieuw normaal: Metros are running as normal again on lines 1 and 5.
Potverdekke!: Darn it!

Basic Dutch Phrases

By gum you could cut that Dutch accent with a knife, but it's a nice introduction video to some basic phrases used in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Nice way to visualise Dutch words

Check out this visual artist's blog who translates Dutch words into interesting visual scenes….

http://adutchwordaday.tumblr.com

To bowl a maiden over > Mijden?

Whilst playing cricket yesterday I spent some time scoring our first innings and chatting with one of the Flemish players. We mulled a little over the term 'Maiden' (a scoreless over) and I offered that the etymology is more to do with the older sense of being 'unproductive'. I quizzed him if there was a similar word in Dutch and he came up with the possibility of 'mijden' which means to avoid.

The etymology of maiden shows simply a root meaning of 'unmarried' but I can't link it to mijden whose etymology is more associated with the Anglo-Saxon 'mīðan', which also meant to avoid.

It seems my fancy research was all for nothing. It was unproductive: a maiden! I looked back into the etymology to find German, 'mädchen', Dutch 'meid/magd' and English 'maiden'  (ongehuwde, unmarried, unproductive…) to be most likely to have given the word to the cricket over.

The might of language

Having mused about the connection between Dutch -acht/-ocht endings and English -ought ending I was further interested to read David Crystal's comment on the word 'might'.

In Crystal's great book 'The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language' he makes a study on the Middle English variations of the word might (note: the -ght ending). In this little aside he shows that the written evidence for this particular word during the Middle English period was varied due to scribal error, context or dialectal variant.

He adds as an example that the North Eastern dialect form of 'might' was 'micht'. Furthermore as David Simpson states in his fantastically entertaining book 'Aal Aboot Geordie', Northern dialect was chiefly influenced by Saxon (a West Germanic language) and not, as is commonly thought, Viking (North Germanic) languages. So we see that the Saxon (or North Eastern English) equivalent of might was close to 'micht'. This further proves a link between the -ght of English today and its equivalent Germanic -cht.

Street lesson to help you remember

I learnt this….what does gedachtenis mean again? I seem to have forgotten...