Word for the Travel Wise (08/08/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Every time I go to the tourism site of Sri Lanka I am impressed. First off, the site is designed rather nicely and feels like a vacation within itself. Secondly, the country always has so much going on year-round. If it isn’t a huge spice festival of sorts you can bet you’ll get something just as cool to view. Right now the Randoli Festival is taking place, tomorrow the Grand Festival and the day after that will be the Day Festival. In November the country will host an international surfing competition. With all these things happening, you may wish to make plans early to make sure you’re well accommodated.

Today’s word is a Sinhala word used in Sri Lanka:

ida netu – no vacancies

English is spoken by ten percent of the population and Sinhala is the official and national language of the country. I’ve actually never tried to learn this one much, but judging from the alphabet it looks like a challenge. Omniglot has a great starter page on learning all the characters and use of this English to Sinhala dictionary could slowly help in distinguishing common travel words. Let’s Speak Sinhala offers lessons at a very small and reasonable fee. They appear to be one of the better Sinhala language learning websites.

Past Sinhala words: hari shook, a da, ga ma

Word for the Travel Wise (08/07/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Last time I tossed out a handy dandy piece of Croatian vernacular I was tossed this recommendation by a one of the Gadling readers: Go Sea-Kayaking in the Adriatic. Oh, how I wish I could. Thankfully, he also provided a fabulous link to help plan a sea-kayaking adventure in Croatia. His comment also suggests it’s the better way to beat the crowds and see the city walls of Dubrovnik in cool clear waters. Sounds incredible.

Today’s word is a Croatian word used in Croatia:

more – (maw-re) sea

Falling under the western group of south Slavic languages, the Croatian language is used primarily by the Croats and is written in the Croatian alphabet. Croatian is an official language of Croatia as well as Bosnia and Burgenland (Austria). Wiki is the perfect starting point to learn all the background notes on the language as well as an example of the language as found in The Lord’s Prayer. This Hrvatski jezik website has a few lists of useful words and phrases for the traveler looking to get by in the country. Things like days of the week, shopping, sightseeing, customs, and basic greetings are all covered. Learn-Croatian.com is another good tool for picking up enough to make due and offers a number of links to help those interested in learning further. As always two of my personal language learning fav’s include the BBC Quick Fix Guide to Croatian with audio for download and LP’s pocket sized Croatian phrasebook.

Past Croatian words: kolodvor

Word for the Travel Wise (08/06/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

As if traveling within the four time zones in the United States doesn’t get confusing enough telling the time in Swahili is something else. For starters Swahili time runs from dawn to dusk. Most of us operate on time from midnight to midday, but Swahili times makes both of these six o’clock. For example: 7 a.m. becomes hour one morning and so on. Just imagine the disorientation this could cause when traveling in countries like Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda.

Today’s word is a Swahili word used in Tanzania:

asubuhi – morning

Masai-Mara has a section devoted to useful Swahili and Kenya Travels has a similar list, but to catch the missing words between the two I suggest looking at them both. The Kamusi Project is the internet’s only living Swahili dictionary which has been suspended due to funding issues. Sad, seeing it seems like one of the best sources to learning the lang, but the if you’re willing to donate a few dollars you can help keep the website alive. To learn basic background facts about Swahili check out Wikipedia. Did you know the name Swahili comes from the plural of Arabic word sahel (singular) or its plural sawahil meaning “boundary” or “coast?” Just one cool fact I discovered during the first lesson I taught.

Past Swahili words: unasemaje, simu

Word for the Travel Wise (08/05/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Today I’m just taking the easy route. Relaxing and catching up on some of the things I never really got around to doing. Small reads and projects here and there, including populating some of the categories here on Gadling that are a little light. Then I noticed we don’t even have one for Greenland. Huh? How can this be? This shall be fixed soon I say. In the meantime I did a quick search on Greenland and found several fine blogs Erik had lovingly posted in the past. One of which was this Whale Hunters piece that makes you think about the art (or just plain killing) of the large mammal. If you haven’t read it before or let it sneak past you in the pass, use this time to check it out if you haven’t anything to do this Saturday.

Today’s word is a Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word used in Greenland:

mattak – whale blubber

Greenlandic also known as Kalaallisut language is spoken by 54,000 people and is closely related to Canadian Inukitut. In my own opinion I’d say most words are dizzying and longer than the length of the country itself, but that is just me. You can visit the Greenland Language Council online, but their site is in full Greendlandic so without any prior skill you won’t get too far. Wiki and Ethnologue report, both have great background info and lastly there is this Greendlandic for Travelers (silly Engleeshes) to check out. I didn’t get it, but maybe you will.

Word for the Travel Wise (08/04/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Last few times I’ve ventured to the land down under for a bit of lingo trivia and conversation I’ve clung to the likes of Aboriginal vocabulary and whether all Aboriginals are from the bush lands or not, I’m not certain. However, I saw this “bush term” and couldn’t pass on passing it onto the rest of the world. It has this rather whimsical ring to it and makes something as simple as stargazing seem out of this world. Which I suppose you could say it is…

Today’s word is a Bush word used in Australia:

bush telly – watching the stars (also noted as campfire in some places)

Hiroyuki Yokose does a great job outlining Aboriginal words used in Australian English like our vocab words from the past. For additional words you may wish to check out his findings. The Bangerang Cultural Centre is one of the first Aboriginal museums in the country and has a list of words online from this particular tribe. Wiki lists a large number of tribes and languages found in Australia which if you already haven’t set your mind on one in particular you can try picking one off their list. Try Lonely Planet’s Outback Australia guide for additional offline reading and trip planning.

Past Aboriginal/Australian words: cooee, yabber