17 Caligraffydd o Sweden

Utst”llarna, 17 Svenska kalligrafer.

Un o’r pethau gorau am weflogio yw dy fod di’n ffeindio pob math o bethau wrth ymchwilio am un peth penodol (sef, “beth yw enwau y wynebau teip mae Ingmar Bergman yn eu defnyddio?”). Mae’n eitha tebyg na fydda i ffeindio’r ateb i’r cwestiwn hwnna, ond beth yw’r ots?

Denglish, ‘to

Cwpl o erthyglau ar (or-)ddefnydd Saesneg yn Yr Almaen. I ddechrau, pam mae hysbysebwyr yn troi yn ôl i’r Almaeneg:

Indeed the recent representative study concluded that 59 percent of those surveyed couldn’t correctly translate McDonald’s Every time a good time into German. The same went for Mitsubishi’s slogan Drive Alive. Just 18 percent understood it as “lively driving” in German, the rest interpreted it as “survive the drive in our car” — a potentially damaging promo for the carmaker.

Ac wedyn, erthygl o’r llynedd ar broblem sy’n gyfarwydd iawn i ni yng Nghymru, gormod o ganeuon Saesneg ar y radio:

The amount of German music on German radio is miniscule. On pop music stations, only 1.2 percent of the songs played are in German, or about one in a hundred. Among public broadcasters, who are seen in Germany as having a cultural duty to fulfil, the numbers are slightly better, but not by much. German-language pop and rock makes up just six percent of their playlists.

Rhaid dweud bod hyn yn sioc i mi.

Rashomon

RashŤmon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950). Gan fod ’na sôn am hyn yn nodiadau ar dvd The Virgin Spring, a chan fy mod i wedi prynu copi trwy eBay ond heb ei gwylio, heno oedd yr amser perffaith.

Wnaeth y ffilm hon dorri tir newydd gyda ei wahanol fersiynau o’r un digwyddiadau, rhywbeth sy’n ddigon cyfarwydd erbyn hyn. Ar y pryd doedd pobl ddim yn gallu handlo fe, mae’n debyg.

Un o’r sawl cawr y byd delweddau symudol sy wedi cael ei ddylanwadu gan y ffilm hon yw’r anfarwol Homer Simpson:

Marge: “C’mon Homer, Japan will be fun! You liked ‘Rashomon’…”
Homer: “That’s not how I remember it…”

(Mae’r lein ’ma yn cael ei ddyddynu yn llyfr anferth ar bartneriaeth Kurosawa a Toshiro Mifune, The Emporor and the Wolf gan Stuart Galbraith IV. Chwarae teg iddo.)

Postiwyd yn Heb gategori | Tagiwyd

Kyrgyz a Rwsieg

Gweriniaeth arall yn defnyddio’r cyfraith i gryfhau’r iaith frodorol. Mwy o fêl ar fysedd Llew Smith?

“However, there is another trend in the republic: the Kyrgyz try to get their children into Russian classes. Under such circumstances the majority ethnic group in the country – the Kyrgyz – to a certain extent turns into minority. Although, I’m sure that every Kyrgyz believes it is vital for their children to know the native language, as without it they will feel deprived,” said Rolf Ekeus. “Nonetheless, Chingiz Aitmatov is right in stating that Russian is an energy carrier and there is a special attitude towards it in the country. It has long been established in the republic where to speak which language – and there is no language barrier between the nations.”