polposting

[polposting]

Ever wanted to know how to pronounce the name of our favorite Ur copper merchant, Ea-nāṣir? If you haven't looked it up, I can almost guarantee that you are saying it wrong, but fret not. I will share the secret with you (or at least the buest guess modern experts have).

The reconstruction of how to pronounce his name currently looks like this in the IPA:

[e.a.naː.t͡sʼiʁ]

If that looks daunting, keep reading.

While Ea-nāṣir may be remembered to us as a Sumerian, he did not speak Sumerian. The Sumerian language was all but extinct in his day, and Sumerians now spoke an unrelated language called Akkadian.

The infamous complaint tablets are written in Akkadian Cuneiform, which is a complicated writing system that it is difficult to figure out the pronunciation of after the fact. Pronunciations have shifted considerably during the time that modern people have studied it. All the same, we have a "buest guess" at pronunciation.

The first thing to note is that Akkadian has phonemic vowel quantity, which is a fancy way if saying that the length of a vowel is really important. Ea-nāṣir's name has four vowels, and three are short and one is long. The long one is the A with a bar on top (called a macron, pronounced MACK-ron or MAKE-ron). If you see that symbol in other languages it is probably also a long vowel (you'll see this in Arabic, Latin, and many other languages).

This also tells us where to stress the word. While Akkadian has somewhat complicated rules for stress, Ea-nāṣir's case is simple: stress the syllable with the long vowel.

The vowels themselves are the vowels you would find in Spanish, Japanese or Swahili: the E is closest to the English vowel in dress, the As are between trap and palm, just like Spanish gato, and the I is somewhere around sheep or fear.

So far, intuitively, you're probably pronouncing it something like "e-a-NAW-sir", which is getting closer to the accurate idea, but we haven't looked at the consonants yet, and unfortunately they are the hardest parts (for an English speaker).

The N is just a regular N. This isn't too surprising since N is one of the single most common sounds across all spoken languages (perhaps only beaten by M).

The R, while contested among scholars, seems to be leaning towards a "back R" or "guttural R", the way French people and some Germans do it.

That leaves the ṣ. Oh boy. It is, first of all, an affricate, like the Z in pizza. "e-a-NAAT-sir" would as such be a good try. It is, however, also something called an ejective, which is a notoriously tricky type of consonant where you block the airflow while saying it, only to release it immediately after.

You know the T-dropping that some brits do, or the way you rapidly close off air flow at the back of your throat when saying ah-ah-ah (and perhaps wagging your finger)? Try putting an air release like that right after the ts sound. If the closest you get is "e-a-NAT-suh-ir" then you are already doing a good job.

If you are a perfectionist, here is an old youtube video of a person making the noise, with decent audio.

And that's it, really. That is a complete breakdown of the best guess we have at how Ea-nāṣir's name would have been pronounced.

[polposting]

I think I'm gonna start using he/him for the moon on purpose now.

[polposting]

Oh yeah, I can imagine dildos in Rossmann it makes sense (+ i don't think I have ever seen that shampoo anywhere else than Rossmann but it could also been in Carrefour ig)

(plus I checked on their website and while they didn't have one like on the photo, the cheapest they had cost 78 pln which really cheap?? Wow. I wonder what's their quality tho)

I would be very surprised if I saw one in Carrefour though (I think I'd be the least surprised to find one in Lidl they have so many weird stuff there) (and then of course Biedronka would have their own and they would be cheaper and longer, like their receipts)

...

Ok sorry I stand corrected in Polish ones you can buy a vibrator and in French carrefours (according to the website), even the same model (costs 60€) and more

So 1) we are missing out apparently and 2) why the hell are Polish named products in foreign carrefours, what makes Polish spinach appear somewhere else??

[polposting]

...ok I'm confused why would there be products with Polish names in American carrefour? And like, almost all of them. Is this a thing? Ik sometimes in Europe I randomly see some Piątnica products but these are carrefour brand...

If it does take place in Poland then I guess the whole thing could cost 195 zł/PLN depending on how much the cock costs (but without it I'd estimate it at max 80-100pln, so like 25$ and now I'm terrified about how much groceries can cost in USA because we have the same minimal wage?? (7$≈28zł) is it really that bad?)

Sorry, I got jumpscared by the "szpinak" in the front and then saw "klopsiki z łososia" and got fixated on the fact that I don't know where the funny thing is going on

[polposting]

What the fuck

Literally a few days ago I was like "yay now when trans person is suing their parents they can sit next to them"

But? Apparently? When Ziobro was still a minister of justice he made a proposal (motion? Inquiry?) about whether trans people perhaps should also sue their (soon to be ex) spouses and children

Like, it's impossible to take it back so the Supreme Court now needs to decide one way or the other (in 2019 they said that you only need to sue your parents but it's not like there is any law about it so they could change their mind. And since they were mostly chosen by Ziobro...)

And like. There are people whose cases are adjourned because the judge decided to wait to see if the trans person needs to sue their spouse

There is a trans woman who is waiting to see if she will have to sue her five year old son

(and wife but I wasn't expecting that they would have to sue their minor children. How does it even work, suing a toddler?)

Once again: What the fuck

Source: https://www.pozwymalzenskie.pl/sad-najwyzszy-zdecyduje-czy-osoby-transplciowe-musza-pozywac-rowniez-malzonkow-i-dzieci

(on Wednesday there will be the hearing about and I don't think they'll have to sue spouses/children but still. The fact that it's even an option...)

[polposting]

Equality wins!

Trans people now are allowed to sit next to their parents in the court while they are sueing them so that they can change their sex marker ❤️

(source: Dz. U. 2024 poz. 1444; it's from 01.10.2024)

When I was searching for it I found brilliant headlines from 2019:

"Trans people no longer have to sue their spouses and children, only parents — court says"

So, you know. It's getting better...?

[polposting]

I need to say Beskidzkie sticks after seeing how well they treated their workers when most of their buildings burned down (plus they do taste better than Lajkonik's) + sticks shape is literally the best one, there is a lot of them, they are thin so there is optimal crunch and also nostalgia

(if someone says that the ones with cheese and onion are better I'm going to fight you)

Also, it's the pretzels that are a type of paluszki, not the other way

what's your favorite shape of snack pretzels? (the small crunchy ones you can get in bags)

regular pretzel shape

sticks

the square grid ones

regular pretzel shape, but big

other shape (enlighten me in the notes!)

I don't care, I just eat em

I don't eat those

results

[polposting]

Słowacki and Mickiewicz, chillin' in their graves 30 cm apart because they are not gay

[polposting]

Alright finding out that you can make alcohol out of amber was not on my bingo list.

Is it common knowledge? I mean, I knew that amber is not a rock and it's a plant thing so there shouldn't be any difference but still.

(...though perhaps inundating normal rocks in vodka would still work? Or maybe crystals? Is there something like kwardzówka? Probably not)

(ok short research implies that you can't because in bursztynówka the amber dissolves and also we probably shouldn't eat rocks. Not sure tho)

[polposting]

Tfw Russian lies are so out-there that even the Russian puppet Grzegorz Braun says that they are bullshit XDDD

Like come on. I get it that all the propaganda efforts are going towards American elections but this bait is too big

Anyway, context, translation under the cut:

Grzegorz Braun:

"Stupidity or provocation? 👇 Probably both at the same time — propagandist show of an authentic, pathetic self-imposed ignorance combined with manifestation of haughty disregard of truth. Even late Józef Mackiewicz would have a problem with differentiating Russians and Soviets here. Too bad."

Russian embassy PL:

"📆On 17.09.1939 a Red Army's military operation has launched in the Eastern regions of Poland.

📍Actions of Soviet forces have temporarily saved people living in the then Eastern regions of Poland from genocide.

❗Neither London nor Paris have considered USSR's intervention to be "agression" "

[polposting]

So, last week in Warsaw we had an all-time low water level in Wisła, the main river of Poland — in some places it was only 20 cm deep

(usually it's between 2-7 m, depending on a time. Again, normally when the water levels are low they are still 10 times higher)

So! Warsaw has a drought, the summer was hot and now we have a big flood at the south of the country. Nothing weird about that, what do you mean there is a climate change? /s

(We also had ~7 tornados this weekend but I genuinely don't know if that's a lot, internet says that apparently we usually get like 15 a year)

I heard that the this flood is comparable or will be even worse than the Millennium Flood, but hopefully the water won't get too far because of the new Racibórz Dolny reservoir. Let's hope it lasts and reduces the further demages... Otherwise Wrocław and Opole are fucked

(Not that that would help Stronie Śląskie where the dam has already burst and made the town impossible to get to. The videos from there are awful)

And, yknow, I think I prefer droughts+floods over wildfires in terms of climate change side effects but still it would be great if all those things just. Didn't happen. Every year we hear about droughts and record-breaking low levels of rivers and heatwaves and other anomalies—

And sure we do make steps forwards but it's like pulling out teeth. I wonder if it will influence the conversation around climate change in the following months or if the first snow this winter will make people forget (if we will get snow of course)

[polposting]

I love her interviews, she is sooo cool in them. The fact that she tried to paint her nails to match the color of the track (unfortunately they are more purple and the track is more blue)? And is in make-up?

She is so confident and she could easily be painted badly by misogynists if her scores weren't so impressive (well I still did see some disgusting comments but there seem to be so few of them)

She slays 💅 and congrats to her!!

ewa swoboda after coming first in the 100m run qualifications coming through the interview zone: „we'll talk tomorrow, i got my period." and after a moment she shouted: "but write that im fucking happy!"

this icon is love her

[polposting]

It's probably a "Poland only" thing, but two? Days ago when there was women judo competition and Prisca Awiti Alcaraz (she won the silver in the end) won against Angelika Szyma��ska there was So Much disgusting transphobic and racist hate from Polish right-wing politicians. Because obviously if a woman doesn't fit into European standards of beauty (and God forbid has short hair) she must obviously be a man who brutally and unfairly beaten our own dear white Polish athlete

(to be clear Angelika had absolutely no hate towards her opponent and congratulated her)

But yk. They can always tell, right?

[polposting]

Yeah I'm planning on just roaming the city I think and see where I end up (apparently an old tram from "W" line will be going around? I think I'm going to look for it, those are always cool. Well, maybe not cool since it's 30°C and i don't think they have AC...).

I'm also like 70% sure the march are Nationalists but I can be wrong (tho there was that whole thing last year with Trzaskowski not allowing Nationalists' march to be an officially annual event so that they need to write a petition every year) so I think I'll pass on that plus that'd be too many people anyway

But yeah I'm really looking forward to people and cars stopping in place

It's actually funny that it will be my first time seeing that; it's just that as far as I remember I have always been out of town at this day xd

Besides that I think I'm going to see if you can listen to Taylor Swift from across the Wisła (I find it hilarious that her concert is today. Who came up with that idea??)

Have a good day as well!

Multiple times during the last couple of weeks I had a "well I want to post something here but it's not a good Real First Post" thing. But well.

Tomorrow is the first time I'll spend 01.08 in Warsaw so I'll see W-hour (+ bonus points that it's an 80th anniversary so probably the city will be an even bigger mess? I don't really go out during patriotic celebrations but maybe this time...)

[polposting]

Ok so it gets better. I knew that there will be a Taylor Swift concert in Warsaw soon... But I thought it will be this weekend? But it's today? The same day that there will be 80th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising?

Oooh Warsaw is going to be such a mess. Big events always mess up public transport but this? There will be so many people there

Also, I've seen memes about Swifties fighting with nationalists

(no but really, I hope fans from aboard won't be scared when it happens. It'd slightly funny (or rather ironic) if any German fans were; but ultimately with the war next door if you don't know why the syrens are screaming... Apparently it's written on the tickets but still. Even when I know they will happen I still get anxious)

[polposting]

Okay WHAT THE FUCK

I've just found out that?? In other cities on 01.08 they also put the syrens on?? And then they all apparently just. Look in the direction of Warsaw.

Ok so I often have problems with figuring out which stuff are for the whole Poland and which ones are Warsaw-specific but. I was sure this one is not an nationwide event? I wonder if it's the same with Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (tho I suppose in Warsaw we only listen to the sirens then, instead of also stopping all the traffic etc so the scale is already smaller ig)

Multiple times during the last couple of weeks I had a "well I want to post something here but it's not a good Real First Post" thing. But well.

Tomorrow is the first time I'll spend 01.08 in Warsaw so I'll see W-hour (+ bonus points that it's an 80th anniversary so probably the city will be an even bigger mess? I don't really go out during patriotic celebrations but maybe this time...)

[polposting]

Multiple times during the last couple of weeks I had a "well I want to post something here but it's not a good Real First Post" thing. But well.

Tomorrow is the first time I'll spend 01.08 in Warsaw so I'll see W-hour (+ bonus points that it's an 80th anniversary so probably the city will be an even bigger mess? I don't really go out during patriotic celebrations but maybe this time...)