Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 2hScots Gaelic geansaidh. But both borrowed from English guernsey (from the Channel Island) 1150
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The shade/shadow doublet from different cases of the same OE word is cool as well 030
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Great explanation! The occasional Czech choir does tackle Good King Wenceslas; I remember practising it in a school choir in Liberec in 1995. As we sang, the first snows of the winter fell and did not melt for five months, but correlation is not causation... 020
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 17/09/2026To add to the confusion, Wales is "Little Britain" in Irish... 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 17/09/2026If the ex-British refugees who became Bretons had just accepted they were Armoricans now there would have been no need for any of the “Great Britain” nonsense… 220
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I seem to struggle with snails and thistles but am relatively good on hedgehogs. Probably helped by singing some Ježek when working in Czechia.. 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 12/09/202610/10 (where achieved) puts me in 99th percentile for Greek and only 84th for French, which tells us something not unexpected about other test-takers so far: but the same percentile (86th) for UA and DE, which is less obvious.. 100
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 12/09/2026This was interesting; got 136/150, errors only in HU, RU, RO, FI (8, 8, 6, 4/10 respectively). Interesting how little help Western Romance is for Romanian; my Czech carried the other Slavic, and I do have some Greek (though needed some lateral thinking) and Hungarian. 110
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I think we need to see a breakdown by region/country. Presumably the Anglo-Saxon invasion is less popular in Celtic areas. (Must brush up my Welsh to pass as local when they get round to expelling the descendants of Hengist and Horsa... or perhaps I should try to be a Romano-Briton) 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Also very much enjoyed reading it yesterday. No magpies yet, but in view of such effects, should I avoid castles for a while? 020
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Was it to get Bardella on board for his promise to take back migrants? (Which hasn't gone down well in France) 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 01/09/2026And where bilingual signage is mandated as in Wales, the translations are often equally bookish (even if technically _correct_, which is not always guaranteed) 0100
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Once dental time travel is fully available, they will able to go back and do preventative work to avoid current appointments, causing all sorts of billing paradoxes. 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 01/09/2026(though apparently OE used middægsang for the service, perhaps they didn't borrow sext?) 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 01/09/2026So noon is a doublet of _nones_ (the monastic service) which is still at something closer to the original time? Raises the question of what was wrong with _sext_ to identify mid-day... 130
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Yes; no question that people could have been literate in both (many of course _spoke_ both languages) but using one language to produce learning materials to learn another wasn’t so common. 121
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Lots of people _could_ have written a guide to hieroglyphs in Greek; but an even more obvious text, a beginner grammar of Greek in Latin (which medieval Western Europe would have loved to have) doesn't seem to have existed. To learn a new language, you hire or _buy_ a native speaker... 120
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Via a hypothetical *accaptare, as several sources have it, as otherwise the Norman hard c and Francien ch don’t work? (I realise you were simplifying) 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 12/08/2026You can't exactly blame unforeseen circumstances: I take it that backup waterclocks are ruled out by the drought? 1100
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Probably way too impersonal/ungrammatical/unidioamatic, but perhaps 'Ex alumnis' (on the analogy of 'Ex libris') as the ablative plural _is_ gender-neutral. 170
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Really hope this is reversed. Enjoyed so many visits there in childhood (and more recently) 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 27/07/2026A few cases of chilomètre and chiliometre can be found in use but the original French law (gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...) used the kilo- spelling; I wonder if anyone raised the spelling issue at draft stage. I want to know what happened to the myriamètre (10 km)...gallica.bnf.frBulletin des lois de la République françaiseBulletin des lois de la République française -- 1795-03-01 -- fascicules 1112
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 27/07/2026The only reform he got into his printed plays was the abolition of some apostrophes; which actually potentially adds to confusion (e.g. she'll/shell, he'll/hell, can't/cant) 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 27/07/2026which is fair in the joke context (as in this thread) but was unfair of Shaw in a more serious one since both the 'gh' = f and the 'ti' = sh are constrained by position in the word. (I'll give him 'o' = i as totally irregular 100
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 27/07/2026I can get it to "faux-ta-to" with a little bit of generosity ('gh' is not 'f' initially afaik). But not quite all the way to potato. Perhaps from the 'Free from' (or Phreigh Phromme) food aisle? 200
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 24/07/2026I'd allow _proper_ Greek drama (all the characters played by men in masks). 0130
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Not an issue since it's not a British title. But some questions as to how he acquired his eligibility to stand for election if he comes from another planet... 001
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 18/07/2026𐀃𐀉𐀮𐀂𐀊 𐀹𐀈 ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑΝ ϜΙΔΟΝ - Saw the Odyssey; magnificent visuals and some interesting takes (liked the idea of neglect of sacred hospitality leading to civilisational collapse). Of course not quite as Homer would have seen it, but that's what the original is for. Re-read beckons: 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 17/07/2026And the album is out today! orcd.co/hertsparryel... for link to purchase options and to play on streaming servicesorcd.coHertfordshire Chorus - De Profundis: Parry and ElgarChoose your preferred music service 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 16/07/2026𐀃𐀉𐀮𐀀 ? But possibly 𐀊 ja for the last one? Of course the root name has lots of variants in classical times, with d/l etc, so who knows what was the Mycenean form. Though perhaps O. would have avoided writing it down where just anyone could read it. (Were Cyclopes literate?) 190
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 16/07/2026And at least in The Weathermonger there was a perfectly reasonable magical explanation. We don't have that excuse... 110
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Since I posted this picture in a reply elsewhere thought I might put on main timeline; over a decade ago... 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 08/07/2026This is me at a choir party where I claimed to be the 'highest singer' - in elevation, not pitch - as I performed the Manx milkmaid's song, Arrane Ben-vlieaun www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dD... 020
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 08/07/2026To clarify, the Olympics is a wish not a fact.... though wouldn't be the worst possible addition. 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 08/07/2026I had a Pashley at one point (not the best saddle really, though there are worse ones) before moving to Semcycle. I own a 5-ft "giraffe" and have ridden a 6-ft. Surprisingly good option to combine with transit where full-size bikes are banned. 210
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 08/07/2026As a unicyclist I wouldn't want people to think I'd been sentenced to do it for bad biking; but it would certainly be a great challenge, and I think most people _could_ learn (having taught several). Unicycle hockey for the next Olympics! (My problem with that was no hockey skills...) 210
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 26/06/2026In Russian the inhabitants of Germany are Nemtsy who speak po-nemetski, but the country itself is Germaniya. (Other Slavs tend to use the nem- root for all the derivatives), 110
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Mostly it's endonym used by locals (or locals + neighbours) versus one exonym in the rest of the world, and most affected countries don't object. For Türkiye, the irony is that no version of Turkey was official as the name of the country until very modern times. But we can't use Ottoman any more... 010
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Německo in Czech, similar for other Slavs, Saksa in Finnish... it's an odd case, but Deutschland was coined after other people already needed to talk about Germans (often by using the name of a subgroup or calling them mute (because incomprehensible) in the Slav case). 110
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 22/06/2026Learnt today through work (long story); one Italian name for the roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, is Mimì maggiore. Time for a Puccini/Warner Bros crossover to the tune of "Mi chiamano Mimì"? (The cartoon character is actually Beep Beep in Italy). 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Bulgarian citation forms are often fairly similar to other Slav languages, but the loss of the case system means that these also appear in sentences where one expects other case-endings… 180
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 19/06/2026I sang on the Parry tracks (missed the Elgar, but have sung it with Herts Chorus in concert). The official release is on 17 July but a couple of tracks have already dropped on streaming services. Thet will also be featured in forthcoming concerts hertfordshirechorus.org.uk/recordings/ 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Just listening to the latest CD from Hertfordshire Chorus; It contains Parry’s psalm settings De Profundis (first official recording, though Vaughan Williams considered it Parry’s “finest work “) and God is our Hope and Strength; followed by Elgar’s Snow and songs From the Bavarian Highlands. 100
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 19/06/2026I think the 'e' vowel of 'east' is the most obvious giveaway that it can't be from most types of Low German, where forms with 'o' would be expected. (Though what does Frisian do?) 150
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 16/06/2026But if you thought your neighbour was _too_ healthy or happy, you could always resort to a _cursing_ well such as Ffynnon Eilian/Elian (Llanelian-yn-Rhos). Fortunately it was out of business before I went to boarding school near there... 020
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Familiar Latin words for two pieces; Psalms in Hebrew, a rare opportunity for me to sing the language… though Bernstein’s ideas of stresses and when to pronounce shwa are a little unconventional… 000
Andrew Woode @andrewwoode.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Enjoyed a long weekend in Bath finishing up with singing with Herts Chorus in Bath Abbey. Contrasting pieces; Rutter Gloria, Bernstein Chichester Psalms and less familiar (on its second performance) Judge Smith’s prog-rock Requiem Mass with rock band plus brass 120
