Human body - the long list

I am still going through the Azerbaijani courses on Memrise. Most recently I started a human body list. It is really extensive. If I have to go to the doctor - no time soon I hope, I am sick of doctors! - I will have a lot of medical vocabulary at the ready. Of course I already know the basic body words for eyes, ears, etc. And after breaking my wrist I am very familiar with bilək! However, there were many new words in this list for me. OK, who knows when you will ever have to use the word spleen. But imagine the surprise of people if do happen to throw that into a conversation. Ay daaa! Mənim mədəm agrır, yoxsa bəlkə mənim dalaqım? Great conversation starter, eh?

I would encourage people to go to the website to take this course. I didn't find any mems, so I tried making up a few of my own. Of course, I didn't need one for diş əti - whoa! that's pretty obvious. And nəfəs borusu (breath tube) for bronchus is obvious as well. But dalaq? I imagined venting my spleen at Dal U (my old alma mater). And oynaq (joints)? It's very close to oynamaq and my husband certainly uses his joints when he dances! See how easy this is? Once you start creating mems you just can't stop! Try some yourself with this list from Memrise.

Human body 

baş

head

 

burun

nose

qulaq

ear

alın

forehead

göz

eye

qaş

eyebrow

 

göz qapağı

eyelid

kirpik

eyelash

sima

face, image, personality

  

yanaq

cheek

ağız

mouth

dodaq

lip

diş

tooth

  

diş əti

gum, gingiva

  

damaq

palate, roof of mouth

  

çənə

jaw

  

sırğalıq

earlobe

  

boyun

neck

  

peysər

back of the neck

  

gicgah

temple

  

çiyin

shoulder

  

qol

arm

  

dirsək

elbow

  

bilək

wrist

  

ovuc

palm

  

barmaq

finger, toe

  

dırnaq

nail, hoof

  

dəri

skin, leather

  

sinə

chest

  

tük

body hair

  

qarın

belly, abdomen

  

kürək

back, shoulder-blade

  

bel

waist, shovel

  

qurşaq

waist-band, girdle

  

ayaq

leg

  

diz

knee

  

bud

hip, thigh

  

baldır

calf, shin

  

topuq

ankle

  

pəncə

foot, claw

  

daban

heel

  

sümük

bone

  

əzələ

muscle

  

vətər

tendon, sinew

  

oynaq

joint

  

tüpürcək

spit, saliva

  

damar

vein

  

zülal

protein

  

ürək

heart

  

qara ciyər

liver

  

ağ ciyər

lung

  

nəfəs borusu

bronchus

  

mədə

stomach

  

dalaq

spleen

  

böyrək

kidney

  

bağırsaq

intestine

  

onurğa

spine

  

qabırğa

rib

bağ

ligament, lace, garden

Vocabulary

Time to look at a few new and useful words. I went swimming with a friend today at the Kempinski. It was totally deserted. Maybe because the wind speed today was an incredible 16 mps! Very strange weather for a sunny day in June. The lifeguards told us to use the lower pool. It was too windy for the ground-level pool. But even the lower level pool had choppy water. The wind blew my friend's sandals into the water. The lifeguard fetched them. She said "Why didn't yours blow in." "They are heavier than yours," was my reply. Famous last words. They went in as well and had to be fetched out. Finally I went for a swim and then one of my towels blew in. OK, time to give up. We decided to go for lunch. I was impatient to go and was urging my friend to hurry. This is when she introduced a new word - yubanmaq. She translated it as "being late or behind schedule".

For example:
Tez gəl! Yubanma!
or
Taksi artıq gəlib. Biz hələ yubanırıq.

So Yubanıram = Gecikirəm

Have you ever eaten səbzi? It is delicious. Greens and lamb. Beh beh beh! Here's a very nice recipe in Azerbaijani with pictures. It has spinach, coriander, and green onions, plus something called kəvər. No one has been able to tell me what this is in English, but it is certainly tasty. We used to eat this in Lebanon as well in something - if I recall correctly - called muhiya. Strangely enough, we had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant today - Beyrut. I highly recommend the place. Authentic Lebanese cuisine and a good place to practice your Azerbaijani with the friendly waiters.

One last random vocab - özünü aparmaq - to behave. I will try to make some sentences for this soon...

Here they are:

Rafiq! Sənin artıq 15 yaşın var amma ozünü lap uşaq kimi aparırsan! 

Rafiq! You are already 15 years old but you behave like a child!

Sabah sən Arzu ilə görüşənda belə hardasa məktəbdə özünü elə aparmalısan ki, o heçnə anlamasın ki, sən onu heçdə xoşlamırsan.

Tomorrow if you meet Arzu at school, you must behave in such a way that she won't realize that you don't like her.

Özünü hər barədə düzgün aparan qadın - əsl xanımdır!

The woman  who knows how to behave in any kind of  situation is a real lady!

Ləhcə

OK, this is definitely my word of the week. For a long time now I have used the word tələffüz to refer to the way someone sounds. Strictly speaking it means pronunciation, but I don't think it means accent. A better word that I have just discovered is ləhcə, which is usually translated as dialect. However, I think this is the correct word to describe how a person pronounces words because of where they are from. I am from Canada, my husband is from Ireland, so our accents are different. Although I would say my husband's accent is clearer, many Azerbaijanis say they find my accent easier to understand.

So, on the subject of accents...

I was recently given a lovely muğam CD by a fellow Canadian who is studying music in Baku. His name is Qoçaq Əskərov. Anyway, he has a beautiful voice. I really love his rendition of Küçələrə su səpmişəm. However, I did notice something. He pronounces samovar like simovar. I asked my taxi driver about this and he said it was a regional accent thing - Bakuvians would say the former, people from Sumgayıt and other places the latter. For some reason I like the sound of simovar better in the song. It seems to me that Bülbül pronounces it this way as well. Strangely enough, I was asking him about srağagün (yes, this difficult-to-pronounce word is used) and then thought of its opposite - birisigün. This word as well has a Baku pronunciation and a regional one, though for the life of me I can't remember what that was now. I will ask again and update you.

  

An update on Memrise

For those who, like me, are new fans of Memrise...

Search both "Azerbaijani" and "Azeri" and you will find more online courses. I am doing one now that has some sound files. Next job: learn how to do this myself!

Sualım var...

I have completed all 18 levels of "Azerbaijani vocab" from Memrise. Well, "planted"at least. Now I have to "water" these seeds. It is definitely a good method of getting vocabulary into your long-term memory. There are a few typos you have to watch out for, but overall it is very accurate in its translation and spelling. However, a few questions arose...

1. The translation of wind is given as ruzgar. My red dictionary says this can also be ruzigar. Now, this is interesting because I have just moved to a new apartment near a Ruzi Market. I thought, Ruzi? - is this someone's name? No. My friend explained that it means something like "plentiful". She used the phrase "ruzi bərəkət", meaning a table that is provided with everything you need for a nice meal. My question is - does ruzi in the word ruzigar have this meaning somehow? It is interesting to note that ruzigar can also mean weather. Even more interesting - a metaphorical meaning for life or existence. The dictionary gives two examples of this usage: pis ruzigar keçirmək (to live badly) and ruzigarı bəd əsmək (to suffer a setback, to fail). But in terms of just referring to wind, I have never, ever heard this word. Would Azerbaijans use this word as an equivalent term for külək?

2. Two words are given that mean international: beynalxalq (which you see everywhere) and beynalmiləl (which I have never seen or heard before). My regular taxi driver says the terms have slightly different meanings, but he couldn't explain. Can anyone out there elucidate?

3. It introduced me to the very strange word srağagün for the day before yesterday. Whoa, can someone pronounce that for me? Is this word commonly used? I would have said iki gündən qabaq.

Hope to hear from someone soon...

I'm back... with a new learning resource

I know I owe everyone who is kind enough to post comments and follow this blog a big apology. So... where have I been all this time? Unfortunately I was very sick for many months, but - təşəkkür! - I am on the mend and ready to apply myself once again to improving my knowledge - and yours - of this wonderful language.

I've had many good intentions over the past couple of weeks to get back to posting. What has finally given me a good swift kick in the pants was a recent article on BBC about ways to improve your memory. Read the article if you are interested. This led me to investigate a company called Memrise, which has developed an app to help follow your learning of a subject (generally learning a new language) in such a way that it prompts you to review and test your knowledge as you yourself need to. Thus, it is a kind of dynamically customized learning tool. It's look and feel is a lot like BYKI, which I reviewed previously on this blog. But it is better for having more variety in the modules, so it really feels more like playing a game than studying something that is really just boring old rote learning.

I went to the site and discovered that you can sign up for free. Members of the "community"- boy, I dislike the way online developers use that term - anyway, anyone who signs up is then free to create their own interactive lesson. If memory serves me (; p), there were 154 lessons online and two were for Azerbaijani! Now, that was exciting to discover. I have been going through one and am quite enjoying it. Even though I know the vocabulary, I have already improved my spelling (and consequently am likely to improve my pronunciation). I am sure there is a lot more to discover on this site. I am curious to find out about inserting sound recordings... I'll post an update once I have explored more.

It would be great to see like-minded people develop more content for Azerbaijani. I certainly hope to get around to this myself soon, inshallah!

Go to www.memrise.com to find out for yourself!