Sunday, October 19, 2014

Yanıltmac - Tongue-twisters!

Thanks to an email from one of my regular and knowledgeable blog followers, I can share the following information:

Who knew? There is a word in Azerbaijani for tongue twister - yanıltmac. If you type the first part in Google Translate is translates as "misleading". Add the mac and it's tongue-twister.


1.     Aşpaz Abbas aş asmış, asmışsa da az asmış. (Abbas the cook has cooked plov but he has not cooked enough of it.)

2.     Mollanı əmmamələməlimi, əmmamələməməlimi? (Should we have the cleric wear a turban or should we have him not wear a turban?). Just a note, əmmamə is a noun from which you can make a verb əmmamə+lə+mək (to have someone wear a turban).

I am asking friends for their favorite yanıltmac. Watch this space!

FYI, it seems the top tongue-twister in English is still this old favorite:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

My personal favorite is from the Calvin and Hobbes author, Bill Waterson:

How many boards
Could the Mongols hoard
If the Mongol hordes got bored?

Sunday, October 5, 2014

How to use -dikcə

A colleague recently introduced me to -dikcə, but I'm not sure I fully grasp how to use it. Advice would be welcome!

Her example was: yedikcə yemək zamanı, which means something like time to eat and eat (or even - time to stuff our faces?)

Also she said you could do:

Qaçdıqca qaçmaq = run around? run and run?

Danışdıqca danışmaq = talk and talk?

The problem is, these words don't appear in the dictionary. Although, just by chance I found gəldikcə was listed = gradually, little by little, day by day.

Could you say...

Güldükcə gülmək

or

Çaldıqca çalmaq

Looking forward to some help on this one.


New resource

I just happened upon a new online resource. It seems quite good.

obastan 

It has an Azərbaycan Dilinin İzahlı Lüğəti.