For 'irony'
-- Irish has ioroin (Tomas De Bhaldraithe)
-- Scots Gaelic has ioronas, sgeigeach, the latter from sgeig- to mock, deride, scorn (Stor-data Briathrachais)
-- French has ironie (Collins)
. . . and so on.
However, Welsh seems rather more inventive; a look through the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, Geiriadur Mawr, & Spurrell-Anwyl turned up the following. Most of them are formed from fairly common roots that you'd find in any Welsh dictionary:
With Welsh having so many words for various shades of 'irony', it'd be rather tempting to infer that the Welsh are quite fond of this acerbic form of humour, were it not for fear of attracting baseless accusations' of bigotry or worse.
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KS: selven an Furf Screfys Savonek? -- Ya, hep wow!
And the word for today is banallek, which is, of course, a broom-brake (or furze thicket) in English, and which has a delightfully geminated medial /-l-/, on the tongues of those who delight in this vegetable. Its etymology is a curious tale.
It seems that a Highland grouse, called Yar MacWyls, was visiting her long-lost Cornish cousins. But --govy!-- the visit was no great joy to her hosts, for she was an unmannerly bird and much given to the vices of boasting and braggadocio.
'What d'ye drink doon here fae fun and high jinks, hen?' she asked.
And, when told cider was a favoured tipple in Kernow, was she not just scathing in comparing it to the glories of the true Hieland uisge beatha. It was the same story with language, and with cattle, and bagpipes and so on and so forth.
Now, it is a fact known to grouse (and to ornithologists) that they like to have some special place to show off their dancing skills, and that they call this, in their own tongue, a 'lek' (with a short 'e'),
-- and which is not to be confused at all with the Cornish 'lek' (le:k) with a long 'e' meaning lay or non-clerical (to which is added 'unlearned', which is damnably elitist of the Cornish clergy!) -- nor yet with the Gŕidhlig leac which is a flat stone or ledge (and which, in turn, is cognate with both Cornish leghen and Welsh llechen for a slate).
So, young Yar MacWyls asked her cousins what manner of lek they had down here in these parts, and was told they used the furze thickets for their gwaryow dons.
'Och,' she said, 'that's naething compared to the bonnie blooming heather that we use for oor ceilidhs', and proceeded to sing a verse or two of the well known song of that name.
'The purple heather gives us,' she continued, 'the most noble of leks -- they are chust sublime! Re'm barf pluvak!', she exclaimed (for she had learned some Cornish in her travels), 'This common 'furze' you favour only gives you something unoriginal tae dance on, something so obvious and boring . . . ah'm afraid it's naething but a banal lek!'
And the name stuck, long after she had returned awa' hame tae the Hielands.
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KS: selven an Furf Screfys Savonek? -- Ya, hep wow!
Now that diplomatic relations between London and Moscow resemble those between the several 'Wormtongues' on this forum and the rest of the Cornish speaking world, we're beginning to hear various disinformative political rumours in circulation, which rival in flagrancy those we're used to hearing on C24 from those who might be termed CACA (Conspiracy-Against-Cornish Addicts),
Personally, I'm not persuaded that the Russian President's name really should be transcribed from the original cyrillic as 'Vladimir Putten', and still less that his official Moscow residence is known as 'An Puttendy'.
Equally untrue, I feel, are the stories in Pravda that our Prime Minister's name is spelt 'Djordj' in Britain, for his half-baked ideas, and that he's punningly known here as An Gellder, for his alleged habit of (metaphorically) castrating his political opponents.
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KS: selven an Furf Screfys Savonek? -- Ya, hep wow!
As Laghyades said a while back, if you accosiate a picture with the word you remember it easier.
There is a company who do this, but are very expensive, and only do it for Spanish,German and Welsh.... anyway,
I looked at it ovr 6 mounths ago, and i can still recall all the words from the trial.
For one, Nevra - To Snow (spanish) has a woman in the desert shouting "If i knew it was going to snow i would Nevra left my camel out" and the camel is on the floor shaking
Another, Penn - Head (welsh), it has a (Male, because they said the word is male) with a pen on top of his head
Last one, Frogg - Dress (Welsh), it has a frog in a dress with a woman (female) pojting at the frog.
Its VERY good, but i wan't intrested a) they don't do Cornish b) theyre very pricey
It is a little-known fact that Cornishwomen, in solidarity with their Mediterranean grape-treading cousins, make and knead bread dough with their feet.
Any communications suggesting that Cornishwomen's toes are particularly suitable due to an over-endowment of yeast will be ignored unless there is a free pasty coupon attached.
There is no joke, yn hwir, but, more a short poem which Pol Hodge and I came up with on the Pennseythun Gernewek.
Would Yn an be grammatically incorrect? Would I be hounded down by the grammarians?
Ah, I understand. I don't think "yn" is incorrect, but "hwir" probably is, as the mutation never occurs in the texts (it's a modern revival thing). I'd stick to "yn gwir" (then we wouldn't get that 'orrible Anglo-Saxon "hw").
Three rescued from capsized boat
A fishing boat crew rescues three people from the sea after their speedboat capsizes near Padstow in Cornwall.
Priorities to safeguard children
A board which monitors children's welfare groups sets out its priorities for the future.
Pedestrian hit in bypass accident
A pedestrian suffers serious injuries after being hit by a car on the A30 bypass near Camborne.
Food prices
Cornish farmers fear food bills could rocket if controversial plans get the go ahead from the European Parliament.
INTERNET - CAMPAIGN FOR NATIONAL DOMAIN SUFFIXES
The Celtic League has urged the Cornish Language Partnership to support the campaign to adopt national internet domain suffixes for the Celtic countries. So far just Ireland and Mannin have national domain suffixes (ie and im respectively).
CORNWALL COUNCIL MONEY CRISIS WITH ICELAND?
Cornwall Council is welcoming the news that the Local Government Association is meeting with the Government to discuss the position of local authorities who have money invested with the Icelandic bank Landsbanki.
CORNWALL COUNCIL IS TRYING TO CHANGE THE RULES OF THE GAME
In a further blow to Cornwall CouncilÂ’s plans to build a mass burn incinerator in St. Dennis, it has emerged that the County is seeking to alter the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West to get round conflicts between the incinerator proposal and new regional planning policy.
