Tag: Verb

Julotta or to Awake Early in the Morning

In Swedish language there is the specific work for the Church worship held early in the Christmas day’s morning. The word is julotta.

The word julotta consists etymologically of two words:

  • jul Christmas
  • otta archaic word for the earliest time of the day, the hours before dawn that are related to activities such as work or other. More generally it refers to early morning.

So the word otta has nothing to do with number 8 ‘åtta’, but because the meaning of the word otta is not known commonly, people have thought that julotta is the Christmas Day’s worship at 8 o’clock. And yes, the word is commonly misspelled julåtta.

On the contrary the etymology of otta goes back to the ancient Sanskrit word aktú, which means darkness or ray.

And finally some Swedish speaking finns have adopted the word as a verb meaning ‘to wake up early in the Christmas day’s morning  (to clean up the living room)’.

Links:

  • Conjugate the Swedish verb julotta.
  • Wikipedia article about julotta.
  • Swedish (Finland) definition of julotta, including the verb julotta as used in Åboland, Finland.

 

Sardinian x 4

Sardinian is a Romance language spoken on the island of Sardinia, Italy.

What makes it interesting is that there are actually 4 different Sardinian languages spoken there on an island of 24,000 km2 (9,300 sq mi).

The reason must be that the areas have been isolated by the nature in such way that their common ancestor language could evolve to different languages.

More (check out the sample verbs and compare the differences):

Translations, Synonyms, Antonyms…

The new version of Verbix for Windows is under planning.

In this new version additional verb information will be built up from scratch.

This means that all existing verb information — aside from verb conjugations — is under inventory. As Verbix has been developed by several volunteers under 20 years, the additional information is in multitude of formats of different quality.

Now the aim of the upcoming release is to go through all verb information, such as translations, synonyms and antonyms. And the information will be presented in a consistent way.

This is one of the design goals of something that is called “Verbix 10” now.

Spanish Verbs on Windows Phone

You soy, tú eres, él es, … now on the Windows Phone!

Yes, Verbix is now available for Windows Phone. This totally new version of Verbix is able to conjugate any Spanish verb on a Windows Phone (7 or 8).

Spanish verbs can now be conjugated on Windows Phone: you sou, tú eres, él es...
The Spanish verb “ser” on Windows Phone.

This Spanish verb conjugator is redesigned to meet the needs of the mobile user:

  • It’s faster, it’s even faster than on my PC.
  • Store favorite verbs. So instead of typing over and over the same verb, simply tap it and your done.
  • As you type, the verb list of 11,000+ verbs scrolls. You seldom need to type the whole verb.
  • The verb tables were designed to fit as well as possible on the screen. So instead of using Verbix in the web, you no more need to zoom/zoom-out.

More information:

The Udmurt Verb to Sing

The final of the Eurovision Song Contest takes place today in Baku.

This year Russia participates with a song that is sung in Udmurt and English.

Well, most of the songs are sung in English. But what is Udmurt?

Udmurt is a Finnic language spoken deep in Russia apart from other Finnic languages. Rather than being related to Russian, it’s related to languages, such as Finnish and Estonian.

Check this page to see how the verb ‘to sing’ is conjugated in Udmurt: Sing conjugated in Udmurt.

Gothic Language

A bishop called Wulfila (Ulfilas) is the man that translated the Bible to the Gothic language. Although the Gothic tribes were assimilated to other peoples and the language is no more spoken, the work of Wulfila is still very important.

The Gothic bible is the far most important written source of an East-Germanic language that got extinct more than a 1000 years ago.

More info:

 

Äänestää and Other Finnish Verbs

Last Sunday there was president elections in Finland.

The Finnish verb for vote is äänestää. This verb wasn’t in the Verbix database, so it was added yesterday along with a number of other verbs. Although the verb wasn’t included in the Verbix database, the on-line conjugator conjugated the verb correctly. Just the warning was a bit annoying for this common verb.

Another verb that wasn’t there in the database until yesterday was ystävystyä ‘to become a friend’. This verb will probably remind about itself on 14.2. that is called ystävänpäivä ‘Valentine’s Day’ in Finland.

Links to Follow:

The Finnish Verb Nauttia

The Finnish verb nauttia ‘to enjoy’ doesn’t have any equivalent among the closest language relatives.

The stem of this verb is an old Germanic loan, with a reconstructed word stem *nautijan- ‘to possess, to enjoy’. This stem is represented in today’s Swedish verb nöta ‘to spend’, with an older meaning ‘to enjoy’.

In written language the verb nauttia has been since the XVI century.

More:

Swedish in Finland

Finland, areas with predominantly Swedish speaking population
Swedish speaking areas in Finland

Swedish language is a Germanic language that is spoken in Sweden and in Finland. In Finland, the Swedish language is the second official language. Swedish is spoken on coastal areas in Finland.

There are four main variants of the Swedish in Finland as shown on the map. The spoken variations differ quite a lot from each other, but as a written language they are all the same. The written language is the same in Finland and in Sweden.

Links to go: