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#BUT like an unhinged fic author who updates a chapter 10 years later
bonefall · 11 months
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howdy, super enjoying clanmew day! hope its not bothersome but I wanted to pop in and talk about two of my ocs' name translations-
thunderchase > krrakapaoha "thunder will-travel", better translated as "will seek out thunder", in reference to her bold daring attitude - it's supposed to evoke the image of running directly into a storm! her name could also be translated as stormchaser or thrillseeker. the boldness of her name is in contrast to her sister's name, which is...
pickerelstripe > kishkiseek (kishki is a claymew word shhh) "chain pickerel with thick stripes". could also be translated as.... uh, pickerelstripe. her name's supposed to be rather dull, especially next to her sister, which plays into some major self-worth issues - it doesn't help that their dad's the leader and christened them with these names.
theres some other fun names I have too but a lot of them involve my own words and i'd feel bad flooding your inbox with stuff from my dialect aha
No no feel free to go on, I love everyone who's submitted a dialect and it's good to see you around. Chop up snippets of your lore and send them in as like... "tidbits" and I'll shout out your sideblog every time, if you'd like. I need to fix up the masterpost tonight to bring more attention to the specific blogs that run their own, btw, thinking out loud.
GO LOOK AT THEIR DIALECT, Claymew, on their sideblog @pickerelstripe
But anyway! Onwards!
Pickerel isn't here in the UK, but there is a very similar sort of flower. Pickerel is a US waterplant, with a rising purple flower that pokes above the surface of the water, but in the UK, there is the very special,
THIS IS ITS ACTUAL NAME,
Smartweed.
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[ID: A picture of the real, actual, existing plant, smartweed. It is a clustered, corncob-like pink flower that rises on a stalk out of the water.]
It's also called amphibious bistort, which Clan cats agree with. It's from the same cultural "classification" of flowers as bistort, hyacinth, and loosestrife. At some point I would like to make a "clan culture" guide to how they sort flowers, but for now, the words to know are these;
Tower (Flower) = Swahr A generic term for a tall, compound flower or several flowers that grow around a central point, usually without thorns (which excludes teasel by definition). Typically purple or pink.
Smartweed (Polygonum amphibium) = Yarpow A semi-aquatic flower which can count as a "reed" in Clanmew. A welcome, beloved pop of pink at the waterside, though Clerics occasionally grapple with a recurring falsehood that burning it will make a cat smarter. It doesn't. It just causes smoke inhalation. Where does the falsehood come from? RiverClan perpetuates the rumor as a mean joke against other Clans. Word comes from Brain + Light Pink (the color 'blush', in Clanmew).
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