WotD: dormouse

[muckefuck]

1. der Bilch, die Schlafmaus
2. de slaapmuis
3. el lirón
4. el liró
5. le loir
6. y pathew (N), y bathor (S & W)
7. an luch chodlamáin
8. popielica
9. 동면쥐 (冬眠쥐), 겨울잠쥐
10. 睡鼠 shuìshǔ

Notes: Where no general term exists, the name given is that applied the edible dormouse (Glis glis). 7. In modern scientific Welsh, pathew has been chosen to designate Glis glis and bathor for Muscardinus avellanarius even though in popular usage these are regional variants which each cover both species. 10. The "native" Korean name is a calque of the Sinitic version, lit. "winter sleep mouse".

I had a very definite idea what I wanted to give my nephews for Christmas this year. During my last visit, I came across ECI watching a video with Spanish audio and French captioning. (Or was it the other way around?) I was impressed with his curiosity and wondered what I might do to encourage it further. I decided to get them some picture books in foreign languages. Those should be rewarding to browse even if they couldn't read them themselves, and if I could find some in Spanish or French, my sister, who has studied both of those languages, should remember enough to read them to them.

I ended up gifting them two books in French and one in German. The latter was apparently designed to expand children's vocabulary since throughout the text certain words were replaced with images and there was a key on the endpapers giving the verbal equivalents. I sat down first with ECI, then with him and IMI, and read out an English version of the German text, pausing at each picture to let them guess it. All went well until I hit the chapter concerning the Siebenschläfer ("seven sleeper") and the Gartenschläfer ("garden sleeper"); I had no idea what either of these were. At first glance, I thought they might be lemurs. They are, respectively, the edible dormouse (G. glis) and the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus). Neither of these species is found in North America, so the boys wouldn't have recognised them even if I had known what to call them.