Jul. 16th, 2003 09:15 am
24-hour linguist
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muckefuckI've finally found what it takes to get me out of bed on time:
A blackout.
Early this morning, I was awakened by a sound like something large and metal being dragged almost frictionlessly a short distance. I couldn't imagine what it was, but I really didn't want to spend a lot of time musing about it. A while later, I awoke again and noticed something was wrong. At first, I couldn't say what it was. Then it occurred to me: My fans are off. And, further: The omnipresent sound of air conditioners exhausting into the breezeway is gone. I checked my clock and, sure enough, it was dead.
I lay there for a little while thinking, Here it is again, blackout season. Thank you ComEd! This is the only city I've been in where you can weather ferocious storms without any loss of power and then BAM! on a perfectly clear day, without a moment's warning, it's yanked. Since I couldn't depend on my alarm to catch me if I feel asleep, I pushed myself to my feet and started the day.
I don't know if I dreamed just before waking, but I had very clear memories of an earlier dream. I was telling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu about aadroma's encountre with a dickhead priest at his grandfather's funeral when we saw on the side of the road something that resembled an offertory procession, with two young kids in the lead. They turned out to be leaving a stand offering discounted baked goods holding their purchases before them. We moved in for a closer inspection and I said, "Look, monshu, they have some good stuff!" I was attracted to a single large snickerdoodle-like cookie that was labeled tyrfiau mwdd. "They have mead cookies!"
By this point, the stand had become a counter and I was waiting for the clerk to notice me. I tried to practice the pronunciation so I'd get it right, but the label had changed to tyrfiau mweied (impossible, even in Welsh!). I thought to myself, The singular of tyrfiau would be twrf, but where does the stress go on mweied? I tried my best, though, and the clerk said, "One 'thunder of my belly', right?" And I replied, "Shouldn't it be twrf mywyd then?" At that point, a man with a thick black beard who was sitting on the far side of the counter came forward and introduced himself in Welsh. I caught something that sounded like "Do you speak Welsh?" and tried to say "I speak a little Welsh" but it came out "Rwy'n siawn digon o Gymry." or "I siawn plenty of Welsh people." I tried correcting myself--saying bit for "little" because I couldn't remember tipyn--but I felt I was making a hash of it and quit. Lesson: Do not try to speak Welsh when you're asleep!
[Linguistic notes: twrf actually means "thunder(clap)"; the correct plural is tyrfau. "mead" is medd, not mwdd, which means "steeping". mweied is complete nonsense and doesn't resemble any word for "belly". bywyd means "life"; "my life" would be fy mywyd. (In colloquial speech, fy is shortened to 'y or dropped altogether, leaving only the nasal mutation to mark possession.) siawn is more nonsense--the usual word for "speak" is siarad.]
A blackout.
Early this morning, I was awakened by a sound like something large and metal being dragged almost frictionlessly a short distance. I couldn't imagine what it was, but I really didn't want to spend a lot of time musing about it. A while later, I awoke again and noticed something was wrong. At first, I couldn't say what it was. Then it occurred to me: My fans are off. And, further: The omnipresent sound of air conditioners exhausting into the breezeway is gone. I checked my clock and, sure enough, it was dead.
I lay there for a little while thinking, Here it is again, blackout season. Thank you ComEd! This is the only city I've been in where you can weather ferocious storms without any loss of power and then BAM! on a perfectly clear day, without a moment's warning, it's yanked. Since I couldn't depend on my alarm to catch me if I feel asleep, I pushed myself to my feet and started the day.
I don't know if I dreamed just before waking, but I had very clear memories of an earlier dream. I was telling
monshu about aadroma's encountre with a dickhead priest at his grandfather's funeral when we saw on the side of the road something that resembled an offertory procession, with two young kids in the lead. They turned out to be leaving a stand offering discounted baked goods holding their purchases before them. We moved in for a closer inspection and I said, "Look, monshu, they have some good stuff!" I was attracted to a single large snickerdoodle-like cookie that was labeled tyrfiau mwdd. "They have mead cookies!"By this point, the stand had become a counter and I was waiting for the clerk to notice me. I tried to practice the pronunciation so I'd get it right, but the label had changed to tyrfiau mweied (impossible, even in Welsh!). I thought to myself, The singular of tyrfiau would be twrf, but where does the stress go on mweied? I tried my best, though, and the clerk said, "One 'thunder of my belly', right?" And I replied, "Shouldn't it be twrf mywyd then?" At that point, a man with a thick black beard who was sitting on the far side of the counter came forward and introduced himself in Welsh. I caught something that sounded like "Do you speak Welsh?" and tried to say "I speak a little Welsh" but it came out "Rwy'n siawn digon o Gymry." or "I siawn plenty of Welsh people." I tried correcting myself--saying bit for "little" because I couldn't remember tipyn--but I felt I was making a hash of it and quit. Lesson: Do not try to speak Welsh when you're asleep!
[Linguistic notes: twrf actually means "thunder(clap)"; the correct plural is tyrfau. "mead" is medd, not mwdd, which means "steeping". mweied is complete nonsense and doesn't resemble any word for "belly". bywyd means "life"; "my life" would be fy mywyd. (In colloquial speech, fy is shortened to 'y or dropped altogether, leaving only the nasal mutation to mark possession.) siawn is more nonsense--the usual word for "speak" is siarad.]