Eat rabbits?

Yenidə sualım var...

This is the second time that someone has said to me - Ay səni dovşan yesin!

OK - so this is definitely not advice to eat a rabbit!

This was a helpful comment:

If it is an idiom, then it is likely to express "mildly", with humor, approval or admiration towards the other party because of its some words, deeds and the like; and word by word translation doesn't mean advice to eat rabbits but a wish to be eaten by a rabbit.

Anyway, apart from the grammar of the thing, it is obviously an idiom. It was a popular song in 2014.

I get the "good" message of this idiom, but how to express it in English? Literally would it be "May a rabbit eat you!" That is, I think, you are so good, kind, etc. that a little rabbit would love to eat you?

Also other colleagues have said that the compliment is that a rabbit eats slowly - he will enjoy eating you for such a long time!

In English I think that the closest idiom we have is: "I could just eat you up!" It's the sort of thing you say to small kids because they are so sweet.

Am I getting closer?

I did some more research - OK, I just asked my taxi driver. He said that the response to this would be:

"Saxlasın axşam yesin! Əgər vaxtı olmasa, bişirsin indi yesin!"

"Let him keep you until the evening to have you have you for his supper! But if he doesn't have time, let him cook you now and eat you." 

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.

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...

Son sualım...

One final question about the see-saws. Vikipedia seems to suggest that songs are sung by Azerbaijani children on see-saws (yelləncək).
Örpəyi çəhrayı qız,
Adaxlının adın de.
Saçları xurmayı qız,
Adaxlının adın de.
Qaşları sürməli qız,
Adaxlının adın de.
Yaylığı yellənən qız,
Adaxlının adın de.
Bura qonaq gələn qız,
Adaxlının adın de.
Ha yellənə-yellənə
Adaxlının adın de.

Is this true?
In English we used to sing two songs that I can recall:

See-saw Marjory Daw,
Jenny shall have a new master.
She shall earn but a penny a day,
Because she can't work any faster.

Very Victorian that! The other was decidedly more American:
Teeter-totter,
Milk and water,
Wash your face
In dirty water.


Another variant has:
Brush your teeth
with peanut butter.

We also played a game where you would hold the person up in the air until they answered a question to your satisfaction. 

Yeni İliniz Mübarək! Sualım var...

It's New Year's Eve. Yeni İliniz Mübarək!

I'd like to start off the new year with a few odd questions for my Azerbaijani readers.

Apparently it's the Year of the Horse. Some sites online say the "green" horse, some say, even more strangely, the "wooden" horse. Maybe that can account for this image.







Here are a few more images. My first question is - why are Azerbaijanis so fond of Chinese astrology? (Or maybe they aren't, that my impression is wrong.) But an Azerbaijani friend came to have Christmas dinner and said it was auspicious that we had fruit in every course - since it was the Year of the Horse (and horses eat apples). Any other lore about the Zodiac or this particular year would be welcome.

 Other questions that have come up recently...



What do Azerbaijanis say for see-saw? Several dictionaries gave the word yelləncək. But this is a general term, as I understand it, that can be applied equally to swings and related playground equipment. A friend told me that a see-saw in particular is called a yer üstü yelləncək. But another person said that this was not a word in Azerbaijani, and would that make a swing a yeraltı yelləncək? OK, now things are getting rather complicated here. To make matters worse, I contacted a friend who grew up in the rayon. He says that they called it kil-miko oyunu. Huh???



I did a search on Google Translate and it said that it is taxta üzərində yırğalanma, which looks promising to me, since it refers to rocking rather than swinging. This more properly describes a see-saw, or as we also called them when I was a kid, a teeter-totter. (The first is a British usage, the second is North American). Both English language terms refer to the rocking motion of the device. Apparently see-saw is a direct Anglicization of the French term ci-ça - this-that, which again describes the motion. The term teeter-totter is derived from a Norfolk language word tittermatorte. Both terms are examples of "reduplication", where a syllable is repeated, but with a different vowel. It is commonly used for words that describe repeated activity. I wonder if this could be applied to the Azerbaijani way of repeating the same syllable as in - gəzə-gəzə or qaça-qaça.

As one travels through the USA, the names change to tilting-board, dandle-board, ridey-horse, and hickey-horse. Which leads me to my next question - what do Azerbaijanis call a rocking horse? Google Translate says it is sallanan at. Another question for the Year of the Horse!

On a totally different note, does anyone out there know the correct Azerbaijani for the opening part of Mahur Hindi - is it Bərdaşt? Also, is the later part spelled Qərai or Qərayi?


This is the official listing I found in Vikipedia:

1.    Bərdaşt

2.    Mayeyi – Mahur

3.    Üşşaq

4.    Hüseyni

5.    Vilayəti

6.    Şikəsteyi – fars

7.    Əraq

8.    Qərai

However, I am playing 10 parts with these names:

1.    Bərdaş

2.    Mayeyi – Mahur

3.    Üşşaq

4.    Hüseyni

5.    Vilayəti

6.    Şikəsteyi – fars

7.    Mübariqə

8.   Əraq

9.    Qərayi

10. Mahura ayaq

Happy New Year! I am off to play some music. I eagerly await responses!
Colleen

Arşın mal alan - Gülçöhrənin nəğməsi

This song frankly defeats me. What is this cida??? It can't mean "pike". That just doesn't make sense. And why are so many of these words not even in the dictionary? Someone please explain!

№ 14. Gülçöhrənin nəğməsi.

Bülbüli-zarəm gülü ruxsari alindən cida;
Tutiyi laləm şəkər nisbət məqalindən cida – 2
Der idim səbr eylərəm, olsam camalından cida, – 2
Bilmədim dişvar imiş olmaq vüsalindən cida, – 2
Ax!.. aman, aman, aman, aman, canım.
Aman, yarım aman;
Bilmədim dişvar imiş olmaq vüsalindən cida, – 2
Yar gəl, yar gəl, yar gəl, yar gəl!
Əqlimi tərk eylədim fəzli kəmalından cida.
Dönmüşəm mən müflisə cahi cəlalından cida – 2
Tirə oldu ruzigarım zülfü xalından cida.
Ax!.. aman, aman, aman, aman, canım aman, yarım aman;
Oldu səhra mənzilim vəhşi qəzalindən cida. – 2
Yar gəl, yar gəl, yar gəl, yar gəl.

Be a guest author!

I am writing to all those native Azerbaijani speakers who are so kind to post comments to the blog. Your help is really appreciated. If you would like to become a guest author on my blog, please drop me an email at colleen.macdonell at gmail. You will need a gmail account for this to work.

It would be very exciting to have people collaborating on this project!

Questions about həm-

Hello everyone, what few there may be... Back after a wonderful trip to the Qabala Music Festival. Extraordinary place, extraordinary event. And everyone was very friendly and helpful. They were especially patient speaking Azerbaijani to me. I'm really grateful.

However, now I'm back in Baku and have to buckle down to studying Azerbaijani again. So... I return to find a comment from my scholarly online friend Alef. He gave a detailed and very interesting explanation of different prefixes in Azerbaijani and which languages they come from. And YES - anyone! - I am still looking for an etymological dictionary of Azerbaijani...

Now to the topic at hand: the prefix həm-. Alef says that some are not correct or are archaic. However, they are all taken from my red dictionary (Editor-in-chief is Prof. O. I. Musayev). I thought that this was the gold standard for businesses in Azerbaijan. Perhaps there is a more recent dictionary that gives more common usages? Anyway, all advice appreciated.

I'll now move on to another posting. I wonder what my topic will be...

Reader Request - "Words Within Sentences ++"

More questions from a reader named Ross. I will double-check these with Azerbaijani colleagues on Monday. Changes are now noted below. I will leave my mistakes for instructional purposes!

Reader Request - "Most Needed Words"

I had a very nice email today from a fellow named Ross. He spent a month teaching English as a second language in Baku last year and had used my blog to prepare him for speaking Azerbaijani in the street. He has requested a list of “most needed” words. I must say, they are the ones that I found myself constantly in need of but constantly forgetting. Memorize these and your fluency should increase!

Thanks Ross for your request. Hope to meet you if you ever return to Baku!

To anyone else reading this post - make a request for new content and I'll try my best to answer.