#Disclaimer that I am in no way a linguist

[purrassicjet]

@spindlerat I was thinking about your "Sandra Lynn as the child of immigrants" headcanon and thought "what if 'Sandra Lynn' is a common-ization of a Sylvan word?"

So I propose:

Seinda'athien (Sen-dar-ah-th-e-in). Seinda meaning hope, and thien meaning fire, coming together to make her name translate literally to "Fire of hope", as she was her parent's hope for a better life in Solace.

Because Sylvan is kinda removed from Elvish in my mind (there are similar words, but when you actually dive in they're quite different type of thing), her parents gave her a similar common name for her to use so that people would actually be able to address her.

[naturally-naive]

As others have said, they mean it's raining a lot, a proper downpour, and that I love and cherish you respectively. However! Etymology is fun to poke at sometimes. Let's do the teensiest tiniest bit of word history research.

According to Wikipedia, "apple of my eye" is pretty simple, it's short for aperture, AKA pupil. In Shakespeare's "Midsummer's Night's Dream", a guy gets a love potion used on him when another guy puts flower juice in his pupil (the apple of his eye) so that's probably where the "I love you" meaning came from.

"Raining cats and dogs" is a little harder, there wasn't a single big piece of literature to influence language like Shakespeare's stuff, so we can only really guess at what happened. Maybe it's because that much rain is dangerous to small animals. Maybe it's something to do with the Greek or French words for "Waterfall". Maybe it's something to do with the Greek words for "contrary to popular belief". We aren't sure. Sorry I can't get a definite answer, more than 5 minutes of looking at Wikipedia is needed to unlock this mystery lol

As to why people don't just say what they mean? Well, why have people recently started saying "GRR BARK BARK GRRRR GNAWING AT THE BARS OF MY ENCLOSURE" instead of "Wow! This art is really cool and made me feel strong emotions, thank you for sharing!"? It's a meme, it's an idiom. It's common enough (for the meme example only in certain circles lol) that you can reasonably expect the other person to get the message, and speaking in metaphors and similes can be fun.

Of course, if the message of "I don't mean this literally, I'm just using a common metaphor for fun" doesn't make it across, or if you just get tired of it, then it can get frustrating yeah.

TL;DR: there's some history behind it, tho it's confusing. They're just metaphors/phrases that caught on. Ya it can be annoying sometimes.

Hope this helps a little, thanks for reading!

What the FUCK! Does it mean when someone says it's raining CATS and DOGS! no it ISN'T why are you SAYING THAT. You're the apple of my eye? WHAT DO YOU MEAN. TELL ME. SPEAK NORMAL!!!!!!!

[bisnes-socks]

i decided to actually monologue about finnish vowel harmony (while avoiding my real responsibilities) inspired by this post by @seokoilua so anyone wanting to learn the difference between "khaarija" and "käärijä", here goes!

disclaimer i am not a linguist or a voice teacher. just a nerd trying my best.

so that post is a great example bc you can see jere say the word "käärijä" in a very relaxed manner. the second clip is even better than the first, because he keeps his intonation very naturally finnish.

listen to his voice and look at the shape of his mouth. the Ä vowel is not a very "relaxed" vowel. that's because it is a front vowel.

finnish vowels are divided into front vowels, back vowels and neutral vowels. front vowels are: Ä, Ö and Y. back vowels are: A, O and U. neutral vowels are: E and I.

notice how front vowels kind of have like an equivalent in the back vowels. Ä and A, Ö and O, U and Y? it might feel natural to think they are similar sounds, different flavours! but no! they are not!

back vowels are called back vowels, because the sounds you produce should resonate further back in your head and even deep in your throat. they are very relaxed vowels: your jaw is relaxed and there is little to no tension. The A vowel is about as relaxed as you can get. U and O of course demand some tension in the lips and a bit in the jaw, so you can form the necessary shape with your mouth, but your jaw should still be preeeetty relaxed and your lips are forming round shapes more than anything.

now look at jere saying käärijä again. "käärijä" is not forming round shapes in the lips. front vowels bring more tension to the lips, the mouth opens to the sides much more.

front vowels are called front vowels because the voice should resonate much more to the front of your face and mouth. think almost nasal (but emphasis on the almost nasal. i'm saying this because it's a common way to understand making your voice resonate in the front of your face. you don't need to go fully nasal for front vowels.)

so, if we want to talk about what bojan does "wrong": you can't see his mouth shapes very well in the first clip, but i've noticed, in multiple videos, that he tries to say "käärijä" by opening his mouth bigger but taking his jaw down and forming round-ish lip shapes. he is mimicking an A vowel but trying to make it Ä by adding some sort of twang. he gets close when he mimics jere's voice and accent, but have you ever noticed that his jere imitation is more nasal than jere actually is? bojan seems to be trying to pull the vowels he knows naturally into a nasal placement, because i'm sure he can hear that jere's placement is different - he just hasn't grasped the nuance.

and this here is why generally speaking, in finnish, front vowels and back vowels don't go together. it's käärijä and not käärija, because it couldn't be käärija. käärija would be very difficult to say to a finnish person, because to jump from a long ÄÄ to a short A would mean having to adjust your vocal placement really quite radically. (the exceptions to the rule are compound words and loan words, for reasons. sorry to tell you this.)

so bojan's solution is some sort of a half way placement that he makes more nasal depending on how funny he wants to sound, i guess lmao. HOWEVER i think he has improved and sometimes gets very close, but in the Ruisrock clip a finnish person can definitely hear that his Ä vowels are just a tad off. that's because they are a bit too round and a bit too "in the mouth" - like an A with an accent, not a clean Ä. (btw "in the mouth" is a very neutral vowel placement, used for E and I in finnish.)

final thing: i know some of these things can be hard to hear and hard to see, because finnish is not a super expressive language vocally. it's quite... low key and monotone even. but if you want to learn the differences in vowels, i might suggest doing them exaggerated first to find the placement and then toning them down to make them flow easier.

and anyone with actual proper expertise on the matter, feel free to jump in!

[openphrase123]

hey hi hi i've read everything of curtain call (except, obviously, what hasn't been posted yet) and i HAVE to ask you to share your lost country/skywatcher language thoughts so i can devour them immediately please.

hiiiiiiii so like 90% of the language worldbuilding i did for curtain call was like. very simple sentences and words since i didn't want to make an entire conlang for this fanfiction. what i have written in-fic would fall apart in two seconds if i tried to expand it to any of the lines outside of what i wrote. HOWEVER i have a lot of thoughts about how it WOULD work if it had the capacity to expand outward

putting under a readmore both for curtain call spoilers and because this is going to get long and insufferable for anyone except ME

also if you're not reading curtain call. this is still a fun little analysis about how siffrin's native language influences their behavior. you might have fun with it wheeeee just know that the actual language i'm talking about is not canon. i made it up.

disclaimer: i speak a couple of languages but my knowledge of languages is VERY limited to what i know. so you're going to see a lot of instances of me calling back to japanese or other english dialects. other languages exist and also have these features but i'm just not gonna say anything if i'm not sure of what i'm saying. if you are interested in these concepts in a more academic setting i am NOT the place to find that

second disclaimer: in curtain call, the name for qilaksut comes from greenlandic/kalaalisut which is an endangered indigenous language. this is an open invitation to go learn who, historically, lived in and supported the land you're living on. consider supporting them whatever way you can.

number ONE. dude is it that serious??

nah.

again, i built this for like ten sentences out of a 100k+ fic. so like. there's some inconsistencies, there's some weird stuff. and i know i could have just written all of the curtain call qilaksut in english but italicized, there would have been nothing wrong with that. but i did not because i thought it would be a good exercise in character exploration

because the language you speak has some measure of how you act and carry yourself in the world. (sorry elizabeth if you're reading this. i'm not going full noam chomsky i swear i don't believe in linguistic determinism i'm using this as a literary device) and since siffrin is the only speaker of the forgotten language we see (loop never engages with that in-game as much) and i was a little bit like. okay. why is he like that. how much of that is siffrin and how much of that is the home they don't know

in odile's friendquest she remarks that she only finds similarity in herself within vaugarde because vaugarde is so welcoming to travelers. however odile never went to vaugarde until she was an adult - siffrin presumably lived on the island until he was a teenager, and your personality is fairly Formed by then (at least enough for people to put iterations on it in adulthood) so as much as i could have gone the route of "siffrin it's okay that you don't see yourself in your past" i thought for the themes of this fic it made more sense to go "oh THAT'S why siffrin is Like That"

so as you're reading through this: yes i'm worldbuilding language. but MOSTLY as a siffrin character study. okay! okay.

number TWO. situational meanings.

so ✦‧₊ is "you" and ✧‧₊ is "me/i". but "hello" is ❇✧ which - hang on, isn't that the word for universe and me? no, actually, there's no pronoun suffix (‧₊ denotes when a person is being talked about) so in this context ✧ means "inside". which means ✦ means "outside" in some contexts.

(but harrie, why does "hello" mean "inside universe"?? well i imagine it's the difference between older medieval greetings and the modern "hi". languages morph and drift. this kind of just suggests that without me having to write an Entire Language Family Background. probably a shortening of some corny shit like "within the universe i find you" or whatever. semantic drift.)

and part of the reason i did that was for unicode constraints - there are only unicode characters that look like stars. but the other half is because in japanese and i THINK also in chinese each character has a few different meanings. take 本, in japanese. it has a lot of meanings on its own but let's look at it in situational context. 本棚 is bookshelf. 本物 means real. 本土 is mainland.

so in qilaksut i think these kinds of multi-use words are common. ERGO. why siffrin has trouble thinking of very situational words in vaugardian. if your native language is built up of tangential mnemonic connections, of course you're going to have trouble remembering the word kiln!!

number THREE. reduplication and repetition

take the phrase "✦‧₊ »»⟢" from ch10. in my head, » means "fast" and doubling it gives you "really fast". this happens in AAVE (e.g. "he's RICH rich") and japanese (there is an entire kanji expressly used as a repetition mark so that you don't have to draw complicated kanji twice, it's 々(noma) and as an example, person is 人 but people is 人々)

reduplication is slightly different from this but i think it shows up for words like »», where you're not literally saying the word twice but the vowels double themselves. kind of in a trilling way. i actually say this in inutile and not curtain call but i think the Siffrin Accent wavers a lot and feels like a twinkling star. because i think it's cute

alsooo repetition. wish craft. do u see the vision

number FOUR. pronouns and clusivity

i don't get into the he/she/they or any other third person pronouns in the fic because. well i think the lost country would go so hard on pronouns. there are child pronouns. adult pronouns. pronouns denoting somebody's job or status. hell loop is SO casual about offering to use the "royal we" i genuinely think pronoun usage in the lost country is more tied to interpersonal relationships than gender. but of course that plays a role too

because i think there's a huge amount of gender concoction you could brew in there. i think it would be really fun if siffrin uses he/they because in qilaksut siffrin is mainly referred to as the neutral pronoun mashed together with the masculine one. i think that would be fun.

and then for funsies. clusivity. i definitely think there is a difference between "we" (me+one other person, excluding you) and "we" (me+others+you) in qilaksut. would be fun if this is why siffrin automatically assumes they're getting excluded from things. "where is the vaugardian inclusive we and why has nobody said it to me???"

number FIVE. structure

i don't have a lot of Full Sentences in qilaksut in the fic but in general it follows the pattern place - > noun - > adjective - > verb. and you might be going "harrie, you weeb, that's japanese again" well. i didn't want it to be like french or english. and that's the one i know. so. shut up!!!!

"well why can't it be the same syntax as vaugardian then?" i'm glad you asked. i wanted it to feed again more into the idea that siffrin is more susceptible to getting "lost" in a conversation. hard to focus when your normal syntax anchors are not there!!

but at the same time. i write siffrin as a polyglot in curtain call. they're pretty equipped to learn and absorb new languages. once you learn a second language, in general, your third/fourth/fifth gets easier

number SIX. things i can't do in the fic except for once or twice because of unicode restrictions

well i could do it ONCE. with two sentences that are coming up in tomorrow's chapter: but i think in qilaksut writing, changing the rotation/orientation of the word also changes the meaning. slight spoilers for tomorrow's chapter but siffrin has two ways of saying "love you" for two different people - for odile, it's ❥✦‧₊ and for isabeau it's ❤✦‧₊

this isn't for any particular reason, i just think it's neat in the context of how i do names and titles for the rest of the fic. getting called different names based on your relationship to somebody, using altered terms of endearment for someone. two extra rotations of the heart could exist in theory so one of them is probably "loving your kid" and the other issss i dunno. maybe a closer platonic love nearer to a qpr or something. or what you use for your parents/guardians or your betters. i didn't think that far!!

also word opposites. ✷ doesn't have another version with just the lines, but that means "yes" and i think a hollowed out version of that would mean "no." obviously the ✦/✧ shift goes here too. and i think the inverse of ✪ (little) would mean big. but i couldn't find those in unicode so they do not exist in this fic oops

if you made it this far into the post. hi. thank you for reading :) that was probably a lot more than you were asking for. i won't apologize. anyway this post doesn't even TOUCH how i do name stuff in the fic but that also feeds into this. (and the name stuff was something i took out of an old dnd campaign anyway) (of which i have a DIFFERENT altered version for my original fiction but shhhh)

[apopcornkernel]

since you're so interested in filipino language, does it follow the structure of [subject + verb + object + extension] like english or does it break that structure? in bangla, we have the [subject+ verb + object + extension] but we also break that structure so basically we can have [subject + object + verb]. for example, we can use both "ami take dekhte chaina" which roughly translated is "i her don't want to see" based on how the sentence is structured. this is why i have such a hard time trying to follow the english structure of subject-verb-object and sometimes end up mixing both structures

to use your same example, the tagalog equivalent would be "ayaw ko siyang makita" or "ayaw kong makita siya" = i don't want to see them.

ayaw ko siyang makita: don't want (modifier) - my (subject) - them (object) - see (verb)

ayaw kong makita siya: don't want (modifier) - my (subject) - see (verb) - them (object)

the -ng suffix, which basically means that it's modifying, is shifted around according to the sequence of words ^^ it's kinda hard to explain in text sorry and im already super offtrack 😭

honestly, I'm not very equipped to discuss tagalog conjugation, because 1) my first and best language is english, and 2) it's so complex 😭 once saw a white guy discussing it here actually, its all in english!! ↓

so back to your original question: does tagalog follow the structure of [subject + verb + object + extension] like in english?

my answer would be a yes, with caveat, because it's possible for a tagalog sentence to fall into this structure BUT there are many ways to structure a sentence in the first place

for your sample sentence of "i don't want to see her", i can't think of an un-nonsense way to fit it into that structure 😭 ayaw ko siyang makita/ayaw kong makita siya is the most natural way to say it imo. "ako ay (I am) ayaw (dont want) makita (see) siya (them)" sounds so weird

but hey, i could be wrong—disclaimer again, this is my 2nd language and not my 1st sgjdmfjf

i also struggle answering your question because it's kinda broad hsjdhdnd if you want a follow up maybe a more specific one would be easier 😓 unfortunately i wasnt able to pursue linguistics so i lack a lot of technical knowledge and terms which might have made this easier for us both huhu </3

[jellolegos]

you mentioned that palaeography in hotd can be considered your special interest, yet the only thing i know about it is that it studies writing in historical context

SO please tell me more?? was it high valyrian that sparked the interest? if it was, what moment did? and has grammar changed over the years? does it have an interrelation with cultural events? i will read literally anything you would like to ramble about

genuine curiosity of a linguistics major

and, cannot miss a chance to say, your art is absolutely utterly stunning :)

thank you in advance!

Oh of course! My apologies, I think I may have been misleading, I've mostly been interested in the type of script they are using in the show. Unfortunately I've always been a bit more numerate rather than literate (as I am certain you'll pick up on as you read my writing, it has never been my strong suit) so honestly I haven't a clue about linguistic aspects! But, I believe the creator of the languages in the HotD/GoT universe is actually on here, his blog is: @dedalvs :)

Mostly what I meant by 'Palaeography' is since we have such a lovely opportunity to see book pages in HOTD I've been very much interested in what script model the artist was attempting to imitate.

I, I think like a lot of other hobbyists of niche interests, am always interested to see what gets translated from real life to screen. Just as I'd imagine you're interested in the conlang aspects of HotD! So I've been really interested to see what they're trying to do with the books in HotD. Without futher ado...

Hotd, Palaeography, and a Needlessly Thorough Examination of a Manuscript Page

All manuscripts I talk about here have clickable digitised links, so if you want to take a peep beyond what I talk about, feel free. They are really lovely manuscripts!

Disclaimer before the yapping commences that I am a Pre-Conquest gal and most of what I'll be talking about is Post-Conquest, and also that my research at a graduate/post-graduate level has been more involved with manuscript materiality (which I am again, happy to talk about, just not on this already-overly-wordy ask), rather purely palaeographic pursuits.

I should also say that none of this analysis is significant for any reason relating to the plot; this is just an examination of the prop art!

Also I am definitely NOT an expert in any way, shape, or form, so there are absolutely things I am missing here, there, everywhere... you have been warned.

Onto the yap...

Explaining the Frame

Before I fully get into it I think it is a little bit important to establish why historians study scripts at all. In a modern world, where writing is ubiquitous and literacy rates are high, it can be sometimes hard to understand why scripts are historically consequential (and why Pre-Reaganite/Thatcherite austerity, there were such things as tenured Professors of Palaeography!).

I think the best way to frame this is to use an example:

Above are two paintings. They are depicting the military action and are created with the same tools and by artists living in the same century and a half and in broadly the same geographical location. Now, if I were to say something like 'These are both paintings of military actiom, therefore they are the same', technically I wouldn't be incorrect. But I would be missing a huge component of these pieces!

In other words, just like painting, the form is just as important as the content itself; a scribe does not simply choose to write differently one day to the next but rather scripts, like any other art form, are nuanced and just as worthy of study as the actual text itself. As vehicles of text, how that text is manipulated, displayed and otherwise portrayed, can often tell us (as historians - amateur or not) a great deal about the surrounding historical period.

So something that is important to remember as I describe what is essentially, font analysis, is that the value placed on said font in an academic context is the result of historical weight placed on script that is almost entirely alien to a world where I can easily swap between Arial and Papyrus.

So, what script do they use in the HotD manuscript??

I can tell you its most certainly attempting to imitate a form of textualis. As one of the most profuse (spatially and temporally) script models, I would say it's a great choice. I think it the popular conception of manuscripts (what a manuscript should look like), this is what people would probably choose precisely for that reason! Textualis is/was popular from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries across Europe.

MS545 -14thc.

It was developed as a documentary script (aka used for documents, such as charters) but came to be used more often in prestige non-documentary manuscripts (like liturgical volumes, or conceivably, like Nymeria's history).

A charter with the seal intact from Magdalen College, Ox

It comes in different forms called 'grades', what those 'grades' are really depends on which scholar you want to follow. From my teaching, they are precissa, quadrata, semi-quadrata, and rotunda (from highest grade to lowest grade). Without getting into too much detail, different grades of textualis are often determined by the shape of the minims (aka bottom of the letter).

(Clockwise from upper left: Precissa [all letters are terminated neatly at the baseline - MS233 -14thc], Quadrata [all letters have little diamonds at the bottom - MS545 -14thc.] Semi-Quadrata [minims with intermittent attempts at feet - MSStowe17 - 14thc] Rotunda [rounded out minims - MS Add. 2. 263]).

Part of the reason this distinction is made, both between different grades of textualis and also between scripts used for documentary text and those used for non-documentary text is because manuscripts were/are valuable objects. It will obviously take longer for a scribe to diamond off every. single. minim. than it would for them to have letters flow into each other.

Something that is often forgotten in our modern period of relative book ubiquity is that manuscripts were objects subject to market forces as much as they were art pieces or vehicles of text. All things 'manuscript', from the scribes writing it to the pigment and vellum, were subject to various degrees of scarcity and luxury (which is actually what my research is about!). Below is an example of a scribe advertising their different grades of script.

MS e.Mus 198* - 14thc.

A closer look...?

Beyond just going 'yea they kinda look similar!' (deceptively, a lot of what manuscript scholarship is, lol), I can pull out a few things point me in the textualis direction. Let's take a look at the shapes of 'O' 'N' and 'G'. Our 'o' here is distinctively six-sided, which is also present on the main body of the 'g'. The 'n' similarly has a pronounced parallel line shape, with tapering on the curves.

Generally textualis has a very compact look with attention to downstrokes and neat parallel lines creating almost a 'box' effect with the x-height (aka how tall the x's are). I'm not sure how best to explain this but there is a keen dynamism in different parts of the stroke, with drastic differences in width between various parts of the ascenders/descenders in a letterform. The thick and thin elements of a letterform (such as the short corners on the 'o' or the often hairline strokes that connect the upper loop on an 'a' to the bottom loop), are really exaggerated in these scripts in a way you don't see with other earlier or later scripts.

For reference (an oversimplification to be sure, but a helpful one! Note that some of these scripts are geographically restricted, used only in Insular or Continental scribal environs)

^ Here are some real life examples of those same letter forms (L to R - LPL MS209 13thc, LPL MS75 13th c , LPL MS545 14th/15thc,)

While textualis was one of the more popular script models, other scripts were also popular in England at this time (roughly, lol). Anglicana and then Secretary hands rose to prominence, as you can see they look quite a bit different from textualis.

(MS Ashmole 35-15thc.)

These were considered lower grade scripts, used more often for documents as they can be written more quickly (important when you have many things to write!). So if we were able to take a peek at some of those scrolls that are in the Dragonstone Library, maybe we'd be able to find HotD's equivalent.

There is some crossover between these scripts and some sticky stuff about regionality, I know very little beyond surface-level, so I'm just going to point you to the resources I linked at the end.

Am Dipl. Dan LX- 15thc. with some other ones

The broad point is that textualis is most certainly a major mediaeval script, one I believe served as reference for the HotD manuscript, but it was not the only one present during the high middle ages. Now... would this script have been used at all during the succession wars that served as HotD's inspiration...?

Inspiration and Historicity:

If we're going on what scripts would have looked like in the period of the Dance's inspiration (Empress Mathilda), I would say this particular script is a bit late. Textualis reaches its more formalised state beginning at the end of the twelfth century (really, the thirteenth but..), so a little early for Rhaenyra's/Mathilda's 1115. Instead, assuming that this is entirely like our own mediaeval period, we'd be looking at the script that precedes it, called protogothic. Here are some examples:

(MS Digby 83 - 12th c England)

(CC MS 95 -12th c England)

A vernacular hand (aka. non-Latin, here old English), may look a little different. Here's one example, in what I would call Anglo-caroline script. Again, just like our documentary/non-documentary, purpose, and cost factors weigh into the script model chosen for a piece of text, so does the language (although Anglo-caroline was not restricted to vernacular!):

(MS 180, 12th c England)

You can probably see how the more formal textualis is an evolution of protogothic, rendered more professionally as the high middle ages came to pass. There is definitely a lot of interesting discussion about how script models take hold as lay literacy rates increase, as scribal practice begins to move from monasteries and limited courtly settings to 'professional scribes', but I won't get into it here.

The Critique (that no one asked for):

If I had to give an artist who did the HOTD prop a few pointers (my opinion that they definitely didn't ask for + I think they did great overall + mandatory 'script is highly variable, some of these pointers may not apply'), I would say the following:

1. Textualis in the real world, generally but not always, tends to have a two compartment 'a', it retains this from protogothic which in turn stole it from Anglo-caroline. Scripts in England prior to Anglo-caroline (which was a combination Anglo [English/Insular] and caroline [Continental/Carolingian] - see timeline above) more often used single compartment 'a's, so the dual compartment is a bit of a bigger deal.

MS Douce 366- 13thc

2. 'S' letterforms in textualis tend to be very compact. They often come in two shapes, the 'long s' and our more familiar 's' shape. In both forms there is attention to maintaining a compact figure, so when you have an entire page the x-height is strictly adhered to. By having some extra little whirly lines, the page image in the HotD manuscript is less neat overall. One exception tends to be sentence-initial 'S' letterforms, which are exaggerated because they start the sentence.

MS Bodl476- 13thc

Above are three 's' letterforms, spelling 'zacharias. Susci-(tavit-cutoff). We finish 'zacharias' with a familiar s. The next sentence starts with an exaggerated word-initial 's' which is purposefully larger and with significant spurs to signal the start of the sentence. Finally, we also have a 'long' s which looks like an l with an overhang, or an 'f' without the cross. You'll notice that the first 's' does not exceed the height of anything else in the word. Similarly, the 'long' s generally fits with the aspect of the script model, made with a thick downstroke. Only the second 'S', which is the largest, is purposefully flared to start the sentence.

On rewatching, we do get something similar-ish to majuscule letters to start sentences on other pages

It may seem a little silly, but I think the HotD script lacks this same internal logic and the flairs, which aren't technically incorrect, work against the overall appearance of the page, rendering it messier.

3. Some addtl. silly ones: 'i's in textura are not frequently dotted, those marks above letters are abbreviation marks e.g. p(er), domin(us). 'T's are usually crossed at the top rather than the middle until the late mediaeval period (again, carry over from previous scripts). Plausibly, it could look like this one from the lower Rhineland, which is less attached to that compact look overall:

MSDouce 185- 14thc.

But you'll notice a few things. The 'i's are marked with hairline marks (Michelle Brown calls these 'a light serif'), not the big dots we get with the HotD manuscript, and those 't' bars are really pretty high with exception where one letter flows into the next ('noctis' and 'peste' in line 1, 'est' with a long 's' is one I also often see with a high t bar).

A lot of this criticism on the letterforms, which is most certainly very annoying (who really gives a fuck), again just comes down to the fact that all historical scripts had an internal logic to them, and so these tiny tweaks could make the page as a whole look a little better.

4. There appears to be a great deal of space (imo too much) between the lines of text. Vellum is expensive! Even when there is deliberate space left empty in manuscripts, its not generally between the lines of text; the goal is to be relatively economical with your space, keeping significant breaks in text for mostly 1) thematic changes (ends of chapters, verses, etc.) 2) poetry lineation 3) dramatic visual effect.

(MS 52 - 9thc, - notice how space is filled with punctuation and drawn out terminal strokes to keep the diamond shape [dramatic visual effect], MS218 - 10thc. [poetry lineation])

5. Very very annoying but: in my opinion would be very difficult to rip a manuscript the way that Rhaenyra is able to. There is a very good reason why we have so many manuscripts from 1400 years ago, and that is because those things are BEASTS. There's definitely a phenomenon of survivorship bias, but any royal manuscript would be made with a well prepared skin and would be very difficult to tear.

I am aware that the very clear message of the scene is Rhaenyra's disregard for history and norms (literally ripping apart the annals of history with her bare hands), I wonder if we could have the same effect but with Rhaenyra pulling out a pen-knife or the like. She would still be destroying the manuscript, just with the weapons of war rather than with her hands.

Example of embroidery to repair a manuscript (Morgan Library)- Again, absolute beasts compared to modern books.

On manuscript physics...We also see one of the manuscripts have this wild separation between the text block and the spine:

Unlike modern book manufacturing, manuscripts usually have a very solid connection between the text block and the spine. This might be harder to verbalise than it is to show, so...The House of Stopan has lovely videos of the process, which I will be stealing for example here. Pages are sewn together on "cords":

Those cords are then cut short and frayed, then pulled through the book boards (which were usually actual pieces of thin wood, here however he's using a thicker cardboard). They're then glued to the boards.

A piece of leather (or other material), is then draped over and glued to the spine + on the outside of the boards. Those points of elevation on the spine, which I've seen added for purely aesthetic reasons in modern books (such as collector's editions), in manuscripts are actually the leather being smoothed over and shaped to the cords underneath.

The leather/material is prepared specifically so it conforms to the text block beneath. Pieces of thin cardboard or supporting material may be added between the cords on the spine.

If we take a look at this intact 11th c. Greek binding (sorry, only one I could find available!) you can actually still see the cords. In other words, I believe that an entire separation of the text block from the spine wouldn't really be plausible with a high grade manuscript (such as a courtly copy). I am no expert on manuscript manufacture, but within my knowledge of bookmaking, it stood out to me a bit! Happy to be corrected on this one especially :]

MS1175- 11thc

6. If I had to make one final note, so much of the series emphasises the fact that this is 200 years before GoT. There are attempts to archaeise various aspects of the keep and the armour. I would personally choose a script model that is a little older. I think there was probably a choice made about how accessible they wanted the manuscript text to be (so that dweebs like myself could actually read what's on the page), and I think using a slightly older script model like uncial/half-uncial would still reach that benchmark while appearing 'older'.

The Rushworth Gospels- 9thc.

Quite strangely enough Merlin, for all its historical inaccuracy actually does a really good job of hitting most of those notes I mentioned above (two compartment a's, neatly written 's's, etc.). Whether this would've been the actual script model used in Merlin's actual period is a whole different thing... and actually closer to my research interests!

As I mentioned at the beginning, I am not an expert in any sense of the word. For further reading you can check out Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500, Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Series, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (although the plates kinda suck ass so beware.. the tragedies of photocopy technology), as really lovely books/series if you are interested! I find them to be very approachable reading for specialists/non-specialists alike and they are written by really the people who actually know about these things.

Scene.

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 5)

[pt 1] [pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4]

the home stretch!!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the fifth and last language in chants of sennaar and will contain spoilers for both the language and the endgame! it also assumes you know what the symbols mean already.

i.... to be completely honest with you, i did not enjoy this language 😂 i think the experience of deciphering it got lost in favor of the storyline, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for everyone, but hey, i am the one going through each of these languages like a linguistic bloodhound here lol. because of that, i'm not as familiar with these words as i am with the other languages.

before we get into anything else, and also because i imagine that this will be a shorter post because the game itself tells you what patterns to look for, i do want to say that this language strikes me as being incredibly artificial. which is a good thing! it emulates the digital apocalypse vibe that exile gives. but a language that leans so heavily into being constructed and recombined and modulated so easily really gives me the impression that it was created and not organically developed. the only other irl example that comes to mind at the moment is korean hangeul, which was purposefully created by king sejong and is an alphabet, not a logography. like, this is a language that i would make for fun in high school (which is to say, it gives a kind of overly grammatically strict, awkwardly too regular vibe?).

it's kind of funny that this language is where i'm starting to get reminded of conlangs, especially when, well, everything in this game is a conlang. but if we take each of the radicals in this language as affixes/morphemes when they're being combined into one character, then this actually reminds me of a specific conlang (ithkuil, i think?) where you can convey incredibly complex ideas through very few words.

the language of the anchorites isn't quite this complex, but hopefully the comparison gets my point across?

i’m curious if only certain elements can be combined with each other or if there’s a certain order to them, but it’s hard to tell when there’s such limited evidence in the game. interestingly, i believe the anchorites’ language is the only one in this game that makes a distinction between “die” and “death/dead” by combining the noun with the verb “go”. not sure why the developers suddenly made that decision haha.

this language, like most in the game, is an SVO language, which we can see below:

but i think also they (the developers) were trying to convey more complex sentence structures than their language was designed to communicate??? so then you end up w smth like below:

which, if you translated literally, would actually be “you man i wait”. again, super interesting bc i think an actual, more accurate anchorite sentence should be “i wait you man”. they have a more complex sentence here bc of the predicate (“you’re the one”) and the dative (“for”), but really the sense that they’re trying to go for is “i was awaiting the one [who is you]”. i guess it’s possible that different grammatical cases are treated differently in this language, or that, like english, word order is occasionally variable (even tho that option seems iffy bc we haven’t really seen evidence of it before), but tbh i suspect that really it’s that the developers wrote the dialogue and then brute forced it into the anchorite language haha. no shade! (and also impossible to confirm either way lol) just kinda amusing and also it makes sense when it’s p obvious their focus shifted from the language to the story.

this trend continues throughout all of the anchorite dialogue (imo) and makes it kinda slow and awkward to read if you don’t have all of the characters translated. in my opinion, the way that the language functions in the last part of this game makes it pretty clear that the developers meant for you to rely on the given translations during this potion of the game, especially when the translation mechanic is mostly through the matching terminals in exile, rather than speaking with people.

annoyingly, the anchorites’ language is also the only one in the game that doesn’t have words for the other people/cultures in the game (demonyms), which also doesn’t give much to work off of in terms of cultural context, relationships, etc.

again, i’ve decided not to get into an in-depth orthographic analysis of this particular language bc the game itself introduces you to them. one that i noticed that wasn’t specifically addressed in-game is the similarity between “open” and “key”, which is something that i actually also noted before in the devotees’ language. i’m sure there are others, but i’m also sure you can find them yourself!

all in all, a strange ending to this game. if you’ve made it this far in all of my posts—thanks for hanging around! hope you were able to learn smth new :)

[rggz]

majima's fake kansai dialect explained

got this video in my youtube recommended earlier and a lot of people in the comments seemed confused as to how exactly it is that majima's speaking differently in this scene and i love to ramble so. here we are. bit of linguistic meta under the cut :)

quick disclaimer though: i'm not a native japanese speaker nor am i an expert on kansai dialect so there'll likely be some oversights and nuances that i didn't pick up on here. so just remember that this is all for fun. ok?

1. だ (da) vs や (ya)

i'm going to try not to use too much linguistic jargon here so please bear with. in standard japanese the copula (essentially a verb that means "to be" when describing a quality possessed by the subject of the sentence, eg. the sky is blue) "だ" is used in casual speech, whereas in kansai dialect "や” is used instead. listen to the sentence translated as "if you want out, now is the time", and you'll hear the difference - instead of ending his sentence with や as he would when he speaks in kansai dialect, majima uses だ.

2. いる (iru) vs おる (oru)

listen to the sentence translated as "but you've got yasuko". he uses the verb いる (to be (in a location, doing an action, etc.) or to have, for animate objects) to say that saejima has yasuko, whereas in kansai dialect the verb おる is used instead.

3. いい (ii) vs ええ (ee)

see: "saejima, are you really sure you want to leave her behind?". literally, this would translate to "saejima, is it really okay to leave her behind?" (with the word いい translating to okay). in kansai dialect ええ is used in place of いい.

4. 本当 (hontou) vs ほんま (honma)

see the same sentence as no. 3, where instead of using the kansai "ほんま" to mean really (lit. truth), majima uses the standard "本当".

5. いる (iru) vs おる (oru): the squeakuel

adding an extra note on this one because interestingly, even after saejima calls him out on him slipping up, majima doesn't switch straight back to kansai dialect. see the line "i'm fucking serious here" - the actual dialogue translates literally to "[hey] you, when people are talking seriously-".

the japanese present continuous is formed by putting the verb into て (te) form and adding the verb いる to express continuity - to be doing something. "are talking" is translated from "喋ってる" (shabetteru - note that the い sound of いる is omitted in casual speech). however if you've noticed a pattern here, you might think that in kansai dialect the verb おる would be used instead, and you'd be correct.

this construction is used by saejima in the previous line, where he says "you're forgetting your kansai dialect" (though this is translated as "your kansai accent's slipping"). 忘れて (te form of wasureru, to forget) is added to おる (to be). note however that て＋おる becomes とる (toru).

-

it's worth mentioning, though, that none of these are absolute rules (especially not nowadays among younger people). rather these observations were largely based on what majima tends towards using himself in general throughout the series. even in the first half of the same cutscene, i think the difference is pretty stark.

that being said though i do think it's also easy to miss - it's not so much a difference in accent or the way the words themselves sound as it is a case of differences in grammar, words used, expressions, etc.

however, there are definitely differences in intonation between kansai and kanto dialects - in fact, because majima's va is from tokyo he had trouble getting the intonation right, and as such it's a liiiitle off in places, but everyone was sort of just like meh. it's majima so it's fine. therefore, i reckon it tracks that majima doesn't sound too different between dialects and is actually a cool bit of characterisation, albeit unintentional.

as for where he's actually from, it could really be anywhere, but given that regional dialects were a lot more prevalent and stronger even just in the 80s, i'd wager that he is indeed from somewhere in kanto.

this would all suggest too that majima fully mastered his use of kansai dialect in sotenbori, which would make sense. excluding his sequence as the lord of the night in which he uses keigo (specifically a combination of kenjougo - humble language which lowers the speaker - and sonkeigo - respectful language which puts the listener at a higher position), majima has no other instances of his dialect slipping that i've noticed despite how serious much of yakuza 0 is. note that this is not to say kansai dialect doesn't have honorific speech, just that majima is using standard honorific speech, and even this contains interjections of kansai dialect.

as a little related tidbit, something else i noticed is that the only other person majima uses keigo with is shimano (1) (2) (3). not nearly to the business level that he uses as the lord of the night, but it's there (as is his kansai dialect, as he still uses おる and other kansai language that i won't go into here for brevity's sake). instead of using や as an ending particle he uses です (desu, the keigo - specifically teinego or polite language - equivalent of だ), and uses verbs in their teineigo ます (masu) form. he doesn't use it with sagawa, and not even with terada as the 5th chairman in the majima saga.

anyway, that's all :) i was rambling about this to myself in my notes app anyway so i thought why not share it in case anyone else is interested too. ty for reading!

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

"Motto mo naka ga ii": The Language of Bonds in Japanese

So, we are all familiar with the fact that in Chapter 359, AFO/Shigaraki tells Katsuki, "君は緑谷出久と最も仲が良い。" (You are closer to Midoriya Izuku than anyone else.) There has been some discussion about the fan translations that interpret this as "Midoriya Izuku's best friend," which I disagree with. In the context of Izuku and Katsuki being osananajimi (childhood friends) but not tomodachi (friends), I want to talk about how personal relationships are thought of and talked about in Japanese.

Broad disclaimer: Japanese is a context-heavy language. This means that people use contextual clues and social norms to understand not just the literal meaning of what is being said, but the underlying intentions behind and the social implications of what is being said. All languages do this, but compared to English, this quality is much more pronounced in Japanese. There are millions of Japanese speakers who will all interpret scenes in media differently, just as English speakers have varied interpretations of English-language media. This is intended as a general discussion of social norms and language use, I am not suggesting everyone thinks or speaks this way.

So, naka ga ii means gets along with, on good terms, friendly with, close with. Literally, it means "relation is good." People use it in a lot of nuanced ways, because this phrase is referring to your emotional relationship with a person, not their role in your life.

Broadly speaking, people tend to describe relationships first by role. This is how you know them and who they are to you, senpai (your senior), sensei (your teacher), etc.. You are expected to treat them a certain way based on this role, and someone's first role in your life tends to define your bond for years. This is why many people continue to refer to their high school teachers as sensei even as adults, or retain a certain honorific for a senior colleague even after their employment has ended. But naming their role alone does not necessarily express your personal feelings about that person or how close you are, especially with a hierarchical role like senior or teacher. You might introduce someone as your senpai, but other people will pick up on the fact that you personally like your senpai and get along well with them by observing your interactions.

Izuku and Katsuki are referred to as 幼なじみ (osananajimi, childhood friends) by everyone who knows this about them. This carries a lot of social weight--you are expected to get along with your osananajimi. You know each other incredibly well, you are intimately familiar with one another's habits and behaviors. Generally, you would want this to be a relationship that uplifts you--someone who encourages and supports you, who helps you find your path in life--this is why it is so striking to people that Izuku and Katsuki do not get along. But that weight of familiarity is not erased by currently poor relations.

I want to use an example of a different set of childhood friends to illustrate a linguistic detail here. I am not particularly into Durarara!!, but I remembered a few interesting, relevant exchanges in the first anime. In the show, Masaomi and Mikado are childhood friends who were separated after elementary school, but kept in contact through the internet over the years. They have a very friendly relationship. In episode one, at time-stamp 3:50, Mikado calls Masaomi his 大の親友 (dai no shinyuu); this is literally "great best friend," shinyuu is used for your best friend or closest friends, dai no makes it clear he is a GREAT! best friend. Later, at time-stamp 7:02, Masaomi and Mikado run into some people Masaomi knows, and one of them asks who Mikado is, saying "友達？" (Tomodachi? A friend?)

Masaomi immediately responds that Mikado is his osananajimi. Even though they are currently good friends, he uses their life-long bond to properly explain who Mikado is. Later in episode three, at time-stamp 15:52, they run into Izaya, someone dangerous and unpredictable that Masaomi is visibly wary of. When Izaya is curious about Mikado, Masaomi downplays Mikado's role in his life. He says, "こいつは俺のただ友達です。" (Koitsu wa ore no tada tomodachi desu.) He is saying, "oh, this guy is just a friend of mine (don't mind him! pay no attention to him!)" This is clearly an attempt to conceal Mikado's importance and, by extension, Masaomi's emotional attachment to him, out of concern for his safety.

We even get clarification later that Masaomi does see Mikado as his best friend. In episode five, at time-stamp 5:18, Masaomi's inner monologue calls Mikado his 親友 (shinyuu, best friend). They engage in extremely playful antics and Anri, a classmate of theirs, kind of awkwardly asks them, "仲いいんですね" (naka iin desu ne, you are really close, aren't you?) Masaomi agrees, repeating the term, while Mikado jokingly calls their relationship 腐れ縁 (kusare'en, an undesirable but inescapable bond).

Now, if someone wanted to tease you about a guy you have a crush on but haven't started dating yet, they might say the same thing Anri says--"Ooh, aren't you two close! You sure get along like a house on fire!" There is also the idiom 喧嘩するほど仲がいい (kenka suru hodo naka ga ii, close enough to quarrel) meaning two people who are intimate enough with each other that they argue. This can be used for all kind of relationships, but it is often said about romantic partnerships. In Japan, people are generally socialized to avoid confrontation and direct disagreement, so along with the connotation of getting on each other's nerves or knowing each other "too well," this kind of closeness means that you will speak freely with the other person, even if it results in an argument.

Naka ga ii has a lot of uses like this, it does not explicitly mark someone as tomodachi.

If AFO/Shigaraki really wanted to say "best friend," he likely would have used shinyuu. And as far as I am aware, AFO/Shigaraki does not know that Izuku and Katsuki are osananajimi--but frankly, I don't think he cares what role Katsuki has in Izuku's life, because he can clearly observe Izuku's emotional bond with Katsuki. He can tell that they have the closest, most important bond because of Izuku's reactions to Katsuki specifically being harmed. Regardless of how they know each other, Izuku cares about Katsuki the most, and that's what matters here.

[sherlockisademigod]

Void language for the TWOMP community [Post 2 of 3]

(Disclaimer: I write conlangs for fun. I am in no way an actual linguist. Yet) Neographing and grammer for the Void language: Ngagbwa (/ŋaɡ͡bwa/) is a language I made up over my summer break for the 'The World of Mr. Plant' horror series on TikTok. All Void residents are able to speak it fluently, but they prefer English when communicating in public. In post 1 (here) I mentioned that The Void is mostly linked to the Human world, and that the writing system influenced the Old Irish writing system (Ogham). Traditionally Ngagbwa was written from the bottom up, however in recent years, it has followed the second-most spoken language in The Void (English), and now writes left to right.

Punctuation is written above the written word:

Grammar:

Ngagbwa grammar was heavily influenced by a large portion of Asian languages, which stems from the fact that in the Human World, the second-most spoken language in Mandarin Chinese. Which means that there are no tenses, in terms of something like continuous precision.

Stating the date and/or timeframe is always the most crucial, especially in parts of The Void that have more wibbly-wobbly time mechanics. For example, if you are going to complete the action in the future, you start the sentence with Wegb Ngatse /wɛɡ͡b/ /ŋat͡sɛ/, or 'After this day'. If you are completing the action but on the same day, you start the sentence with Wegb Atses /wɛɡ͡b/ /at͡sɛs/, or 'After this hour'. For a past action, it's either Veb Ngatse /vɛb/ /ŋat͡sɛ/ (Before this day), or Veb Atses /vɛb/ /at͡sɛs/ (Before this hour).

Actions in the past are accompanied by the particle Bale /balɛ/ at the end of the sentence, while actions in the future can use Bale /balɛ/ and We /wɛ/ interchangeably at the end.

For actions that you are currently completing, the words Begb Oo /bɛɡ͡b/ /ʊ/ (roughly translations to 'concurrently', or 'right now') are placed after the pronoun and before the object. > Loo Begb Oo he'nook /Lʊ/ /bɛɡ͡b/ /ʊ/ /ɦɛʔnʊk/ [He is eating] > he' Begb Oo Lagba he'nook /bɛɡ͡b/ /ʊ/ /laɡ͡ba/ /ɦɛʔnʊk/ [That plant is eating]

Like Japanese, Ngagbwa uses quantifiers instead of outright stating plurality. Normally, numbers are used, but in case of unknown quantities other identifiers are used. > Ooqoo na /ʊqʊ/ /na/ [Unknown quantity of many] > Sooka tse /sʊka/ /t͡sɛ/ [Unknown quantity of few] > Neng /nɛng/ [All/Objects or ideas] > Soobets /sʊbɛt͡s/ [All/Living and animate beings]

The only exclusion to the mainly Japanese-and-Mandarin influence is the word order, which has retained the same as English since the Human World hit the 1780s. [Post 1 of 3]

[ppeasants]

Hey so I ended up making a good amount of Headcanons for the Rito in Wind Waker, and I wanted to share them with y'all.

This came about while writing for my Wind fic focusing on the obscene amount of father figures he has (check it out here). This chapter was focused on Quill, and while I was developing their relationship, I ended up developing a decent amount of internal lore for the Rito, and I couldn't fit them all in the fic

So, I'm putting them so people can see it, and if people like em, they can hopefully use it for themselves, or expand on them, or just tell me what their own HCs are, or what they would change. I love the Rito, especially Wind Waker's, and I had so much fun doing this.

Just a quick disclaimer, I am not any sort of anthropologist, or linguist, or anything, so if I disrespect any real-world race or culture with this, I am really sorry. Please let me know if I misrepresent something so I can learn from it and change whatever is wrong.

HCs under the cut:

Tribe

It's all but confirmed that the Rito were evolved from the Zora, who were forced to evolve due to the unlivable water of the Great Flood. This colours a lot my headcanons about the Rio's values, traditions, and relations.

It is hard for the Rito to call any one place their home, since they lost theirs in the flood.

Their flight is important to them threefold: It's the gift theyr were given by Valoo in order to survive the flood, it gives them the freedom to explore around when they feel the loss of their home, and it's the closest thing they have to the freedom of swimming.

It's why the sky, their flight, and Valoo is all so important ot them.

Their connection to Valoo is why they call Dragon Roost home, although to them, it's more like a common hub, or home base. Most Rito don't actually have a set home, instead they travel around between place to place. It's why the Rito as delivery workers works so well for them.

Along with losing their home, the Rito also lost a lot of their culture. This causes them to be very protective of what they have now, rarely letting others take part in their actual traditions.

It's why Link (Wind) being a part of their family is such a big deal; hes one of the only Hylians to actually be accepted as a Rito¹ (the idea of Link being a Rito will come up later)

As a part of their culture and their worship of the sky as their new freedom, they revere Zephos and Cyclos, even more than sailor of the Great Sea do. A lot of their rituals focus on the Wind Gods.

They have always worshiped Zephos, but Cyclos was lost to time. When they were reminded of his existence, they were horrified that they might have lost more of their culture, but were quick to reinstate Cyclos as a deity, and they do celebrate him now.

Relations

To the Rito as a Tribe, relations to each other are everything. Everyone who is a Rito is connected on some way to the other Rito.

You are defined by your connections to the other Rito. Unless you're the ruler of the Rito, then you are your connections.

You are your mother's daughter - you are the fathger of your son - you are best friend, the partner, the beloved, and they are yours.

As relationships are the biggest way to define who you are as a Rito, it is possible for people who were not born as Rito to be a part of the tribe. There are very few non-species Rito, as they are protective of their identity, but it is possible.

¹This is why Link (Wind) is a Rito. He is defined by his relationships to the Rito: specifically Quill, Medli, and Komali. He is Quill's beloved, and Quill is Link's guardian. He is Medli's mentor, and she is his sage. He is Komali's chosen, and Komali is his partner (komalink truthers rise up).

Feathers are important in defining those relationships. If you are close enough to be defined by a relationship, then you given a feather from the other to keep those relationships.

Most Rito would weave those feathers into their wings, although they would be placed in a way that they could get removed easily. Most Rito only wear their feathers during formal events or festivals, although some wear them at all times.

In Link's case, he has 3 feathers, one from Quill, Medli, and Komali. Link has two feather sets - one which is a loose set of feathers he can braid into his hair, and one in a solid set of 3 which he can place behind his ear.

Language

I did not come up with a full language for the Rito. What I did develop was a base which to base the Rito language off of , and a way to buid off of it in the future as necessary.

One major thing is that the language isn't a full language, for every single word. Another thing they lost in the flood was their language, only bits and pieces of it remaining as they evolved.

What was left was a descriptive language; where words are used to describe larger concepts.

Speaking and Writing in Rito involves using Rito Language and Common/Hylian simultaneously, using words from both to describe full sentences.

The Rito Language itself is a Agglutinative Language. What that means, is that words are formed by merging syllaybles, where every syllable has a unique meaning, and the combinations of syllables make words which are defined by the syllables meanings.

Words tend not to have direct Common/Hylian translations; instead syllables have meanings, and their relationships to each other define concepts.

Concepts and words tend not to exist until invented; they are all based on the same syllables which all share meanings, or different combinations arte invented when needed, and understood when told.

As an example, I'll share the two invented words in my fic - Towaki and Towaveh - divided in syllables as: To, Wa, Ki, and Veh.

To: shortening of Rito

Wa: Love (non-superficial)

Ki: Mine (ownership)

Veh: Theirs (ownership)

Towaki: They are my beloved.

Towaveh: I am their beloved.

Festivals

The two biggest celebrations in Rito Culture are Ballad's Day and Requiems's Day, named after the Wind's Requiem and the Ballad of Gales. The two celebrations are six months apart, and each happen once a year.

Ballad's Day celebrates Cyclos, and Requiem's Day celebrates Zephos. Both festivals consist of three phases.

The first phase is meant for Valoo's attendant and the current Rito ruler. The two ascend Dragon Roost Island and request a scale from Valoo, to give to the Wind Gods in offering.

The second phase has Valoo's attendant, and the upcoming ruler (if one is not born, the current ruler) partaking in a ritual involving a performance of either the Wind's Requiem or the Ballad of Gales to offer the scale to the celebrated deity to ask for favourable winds n front of all of the gathered Rito² (There is nuance as to who is currently involved during Wind Waker's time, which I will explain later)

The third phase is a celebration: Every Rito who can make it for the festivals gather for a large feast. More than the second phase, this is Zephos and Cyclos' favourite part, as it makes them happy to see their worshippers happy.

These two days are some of the only days where almost every Rito comes back to Dragon Roost. These days are the best times to catch up with the various other Rito, as it's the only times all of the Rito see each other.

This aspect of the festival is just as important as the offering to the deities, since their relations to each other are so important, and their need to travel makes it so they can;t see each other often.

²In the Wind Waker's time, the people who participate in the ritual are Komali, Medli, and Link. Komali and Medli are a given, as they're the upcoming ruler and current attendant, but Medli is also the Wind Sage. Her music is powerful magically, and even more so when conducted by Link.

Link's inclusion on the ritual is threefold. He is partially a mentor for Medli, and will help her with her part in the ritual. He is Komali's chosen (komalink truthers rise up), so he is also connected to the upcoming ruler. He is the Hero of Winds, and they are the Wind Gods. Although he wasn't destined to be one from Hylia, he was chosen by Zephos and accepted by Cyclos.

His relations to the Rito involved and the gods make him an important part of the ritual. For Cyclos, he also just wants Link specifically to be there, as he is the one who brought the deity back into the Rito's ritual. Zephos is okay if Link misses the ritual, Cyclos basically requires it.

That's all I have for now! Lemme know what y'all think, if it's good, if this makes sense, or what other HCs y'all have! I love the Rito and would just love to talk more about them!

<3

(also check out my fic here hehe).

[voidartisan]

So I got to thinking about how British accents are typically interpreted as Coruscanti or Core accents, which are in turn associated with privilege and high standing. and like. there is so much worldbuilding in that concept alone, particularly when you think about different characters' accents.

I should note here that I'm considering this only as the characters' accents in Galactic Basic, not applying to any other languages. That probably doesn't make much sense, but I'm going with it anyway. Also, disclaimer: I am not a linguist and have never claimed to be.

I figure with Jedi, accents in Basic don't actually mean much. You just pick up the accent of whoever's teaching it to you (if it wasn't already your first language) as the accent of your homeworld fades away. Unless, of course, there are other Jedi who speak your native language and help you keep the language and the accent. (Which has interesting implications for, say, the difference in Shaak Ti and Ahsoka's accents.)

But then you look at characters like Padme and Palpatine. They're from the same planet, but Palpatine speaks with that Core/Coruscanti accent, while Padme does not. I think the most likely answer is that Palpatine faked it until it became natural, to help him mingle with the Galactic elite, while Padme only used the accent specific to the Queen, and only when necessary.

It gets really fascinating when you get to the Mandalorians. Korkie, Almec, Satine, Fenn Rau, and Satine's guard, Aramis, also have the Core/Coruscanti accent. Bo-Katan, Sabine, and Pre Vizsla do not. That lends itself to a whole slew of implications, but I think the most interesting one is that the New Mandalorians were either taught or deliberately cultivated that accent in order to fit in with Republic elite and appear cultured or civilized, combating the stereotype of the brutish, war-like Mandalorian, while Death Watch embraced a more Outer-Rim accent as a rejection of that diplomacy and to show loyalty to the old ways. Sabine and Korkie would have picked theirs up from the people who raised them. Mandalorian Protectors (Satine's bodyguards) may have also been taught Basic with that accent to help them maintain their image while interacting with the Republic's elite.

[satanandsoul]

♍︎ Jungkook Birth Chart Analysis ♍︎

With his birth time confirmed in his recent instagram live, we can finally take a look how his astrological placements and aspects come into play.

Disclaimer: All these are for entertainment purposes only. DO take my words with a grain of salt.

Astrological body that will be looked into in depth in this post is Black Moon Lilith (BML) as it shows up prominent in my research.

Sun conjuncts Retrograde Mercury in 2nd house: This man is INTELLIGENT! Not in the traditional will-score-high-in-exam type of way, but street-smart. Pluto squaring this conjunction adds a well of depth to his insight. He is observant. Let's be real here. Sun-Pluto and Mercury-Pluto natives are distrustful in nature. They don't take things at face value. Especially with Mercury-Pluto harsh aspects, they will linguistically pull apart your words to look for hidden meanings. At the same time, Mars sextiles this conjunction, fuelling this mental process. This man's mind must be very busy. The chart above also shows that this conjunction inconjuncts Uranus, but I won't take this into consideration here as the orb is 3 degree, a bit too large for inconjunction. But generally, this indicates a person with a thirst to rebel.

Moon in 1st house trines Saturn in 9th house: The reason I don't feel this man is as emotional as other Moon in 1st house natives is because of this aspect. Saturn calms things down. The education that Jungkook receives is likely to be highly traditional. To a point that he could have been told he shouldn't cry as he is a male. (Fxxk toxic masculinity btw!) It doesn't mean that Jungkook agrees with this sort of teaching, however this aspect shows Jungkook restrains himself showing emotions because of this to a certain degree. But that doesn't mean he is unfeeling, in fact, he has some very disturbing emotions. His Moon squares Pluto in 5th house: the Weeknd also comes to mind whenever I see Moon-Pluto aspects in a natal chart. His music (his creations) encapsulates the emotional struggles a Moon-Pluto native has very well, e.g. the emotional guard, distrust, the yearning for emotional closeness but at the same time being scared of it etc.. The above chart also shows that moon inconjuncts Neptune but again the orb is 3 degree, I consider it too large for inconjunction. But generally speaking, this aspect can make a person more sensitive to his or her surroundings and others' feeling.

Mercury parallels BML: He knows how to fxxk with your mind with his words. Instead of actions, he teases with words. He would like to see the muscles around your eyes twitch when he says something naughty. I will stop here as this is not a 18+ reading. But BML is what the patriarchy cannot control. It will not surprise me if Jungkook muses over some feminist ideas.

BML conjuncts AND parallels north node: He is destined to become the exact opposite of what the conservative Korean society is. Actually he is already showing signs of this, with his steadfast stance on tattoos, I am glad he is on the right path.

Venus in 3rd house opposite Saturn in 9th house: Venus in 3rd house indicates that Jungkook shows his love through bantering. This is honestly becoming a recurring theme of his. He is smart himself and would like someone to challenge his intellect in a fun way. This is not an aspect that he will sing you love songs or cuddle you. Saturn suppresses that. This love style is strengthened by the fact his Venus trines Jupiter in 7th house. Someone with an outstanding alma mater can attract Jungkook's attention. I can envision Jungkook trying to get his or her attention by starting the conversation with a controversial topic. And of course Venus-Saturn natives loves partners who are more mature than them. And when you throw Jupiter into the mix, this partner also has to be wise, at least knowledgable.

Mars in 4th house squaring Uranus in 6th house and Jupiter in 7th house: There must be a lot of actions within Jungkook's household. Not necessarily competition, but definitely things are always happening in his household. Impulsiveness is likely as both Mars-Jupiter and Mars-Uranus aspects both indicate that, but for different reasons. Jungkook can do things because he thinks it is fun (Jupiter), or because he wants to challenge the status-quo (Uranus). Again, not diving into the sexual interpretations as this is not a 18+ reading. Mars squaring Ascendant: This man's competitiveness can rub people in the wrong way. People can view him as brash especially when Jungkook's mars falls into Scorpio. I mean, Scorpio Mars has a reputation of being ruthless and vicious.

Descendant conjuncts Uranus: This aspect attracts erratic people into Jungkook's life. Like minds attract. Jungkook can be as erratic as the people he is attracted to. Luckily, Uranus is in the 6th house, not in the 7th house of partnership, or else Jungkook will have a difficult forming long term relationships with others. But now, I see that Jungkook has an unstable working environment. This aspect can indicate people come and go in one's life, in this case, work life.

[meapistrash]

Things Added in Translation - Brief thoughts on On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Foreword: This a very nerdy thing I thought about as I started reading this book, these are mostly my preliminary thoughts and opinions and is in not actually academic facts.

So this book has been in my to be read pile for approximately over 4 years ever since I found out about it and saw quotes floating around the internet. However, it took me until new years two years ago when I saw the Vietnamese translated hardcover edition at a book fair - which is still cheaper than the English version by the way - to actually get it. I had an idea to read this book in both versions, English (the original language it was written in), and in Vietnamese (the language that is Vuong’s heritage and his “mother’s tongue”). 

It’s mostly curiosity because I wanted to see how writings written by a Vietnamese American author could be translated, specifically one that is - from my current understanding - to be letters from poet/author son to his Vietnamese immigrant, illiterate mother, and the stories of a Vietnamese upbringing in a foreign country (disclaimer: i know there's A LOT more to this book but alas I haven't finished reading it).

The key reason for this intrigue is that there are nuances in the Vietnamese language that are so very difficult to translate into English (and vice versa). For example, Vietnamese pronouns are highly contextual based on age, familial relationships and relative relations via mutual connections. What choice of pronouns you use will set a different mood for the people in a conversation and third parties gazing into that conversation – this is a point I will delve into later. 

I think it’s safe to say that anyone who is at least bilingual knows you have a different identity for every language you speak. And while I don’t assume to know or understand how 2nd gen immigrant kids would feel towards their mother tongue and English in general, I thought it would be interesting to see Vuong's words as written in his voice might sound like if it were actually given to his mother in a language she understands.

FYI disclaimer, I am not a translator or a linguist expert. This is what I understand about both languages in general.

The focus of this analysis is the first two lines of Vuong’s novel. 

Let me begin again. Dear Ma,

In Vietnamese (translated by Khanh Nguyen), it is translated as: 

Để con bắt đầu lại. Mẹ ơi,

As mentioned, Vietnamese pronouns are highly contextual. Vuong uses “me” in the first line, translated to “con” (also meaning child), the Vietnamese equivalent of I/me but specifically used when you are speaking to people who you may consider parents, aunt/uncles, grandparents and teachers. If you want to be very very strict and technical, you might even be able to say that "con" is exclusive to parental-child relationships, because the pronouns are so highly contextual, it also carries a sense of ownership. I often joke with my coworkers, Tôi muốn làm con ba mẹ - I want to be my parents’ child. The punchline here is I want to be unemployed and be supported by my parents. But con ba mẹ literally means dad and mom’s child. To be someone’s con is exclusive to the father/mother noun. To use con means to give higher level of respect to the person you’re speaking to, and it’s even higher than level of respect you would owe your friends or siblings. It takes you two sentences in English, whereas it take you one sentence in Vietnamese to establish a definite power imbalance between the narrator and the person he is speaking to. The Vietnamese translation can already provide hints about his relationship with this person before we even know who he is talking to. 

Again, this is why I believe you have different identities in every language. Pronouns play a very role in any works translated into Vietnamese and it actually has on multiple occasions misconstrued my understanding of certain novels just because I read it in Vietnamese, and the work was subject to the constraints of Vietnamese language conventions, therefore added meaning where the original work doesn’t have it. But in this case, I think there’s an added cultural nuance about Vuong’s Vietnamese heritage that cannot be provided by the English language, which brings further depth into the narrator’s voice as a whole. 

In the second line, Vuong writes “Dear Ma.” It is translated to “Mẹ ơi” - “Mẹ” being mum. In the same way that the English language has mom and mum, we have regional words for mothers in Vietnamese. What is interesting here is that Vuong’s family are southern Vietnamese (as far as I’ve researched and understood). In southern Vienamese dialect, they use Má instead of Mẹ. Which was why when I saw the line in English, I didn’t think of it as just ma like mama, but má in the way that I thought Vuong would actually call his mother as per the southern dialect. I almost thought it might have been intentional on Vuong's part to use "Ma" instead of the conventional mom because it sounded very very similar to má. As to whether or not Vuong was consulted when the Vietnamese translation was done, I don't know, but I do think it’s a strange choice that the translator would choose the northern Vietnamese equivalent mẹ. It could also very well be that his family does use the northern dialect of the word because it was passed on like that - I do know some families who use different mixes of dialect - but I somewhat feel like the choice of dialect here might have fallen short in hinting Vuong’s background. 

This line in general is actually a little difficult to translate because of the nuances of affection and respect in it. “Dear” is a classic and common way to address someone in letters. The most accurate translation I think should be Thưa mẹ. Thưa, being a non-translatable word used to preface that you are beginning a conversation with someone with deep respect, in the same way Dear acts to preface the letter as being written to his mother. However, “dear” implies a sort of affection that thưa doesn’t always quite deliver. There are many other ways to say dear, such as thân mến/kính mến/yêu, but the choice in the translation is “ơi”, which though has been used for letters, is a word that is very colloquial. You use ơi to call someone regardless of their age, and it implies affection and closeness, which I guess was why it was preferred to thưa. “Ơi” has an added depth that “Dear” doesn’t carry as it is used both to call for and answer someone, like the start of a verbal conversation between two people who are in each other’s presence. So where “Dear Ma” is the beginning of a letter that is not necessarily involving the presence of both parties in a conversation, “Mẹ ơi” is Ma, I am talking to you almost seemingly with expectations to be answered. I also find it particularly poignant that this line wherein Vuong is addressing his mother is written out. I do not know if Vuong’s mother is Vietnamese literate, but regardless of the language in which the words are delivered, it is in the written medium, and as Vuong points out, “each word I put down is one word further from where you are.” It is the need to speak the words aloud with the yearning that “Mẹ ơi” evokes that it might be able to reach his mother's understanding. 

But anyhow, that's my take on the first two lines of this translation. I think it’s a privilege to be able to read this in both languages because I’ve heard great things about Ocean Vuong’s prose so I'm sure a lot of the good proses will be lost in translation later down the line. But the first two lines were very thought provoking for me, though slight disclaimer cuz I am struggling to literate in both languages lol. I'm sure the translator did their best with the translation because it is very difficult to translate into Vietnamese, and it is already incredible that I have something like this to read.

PS: Another thing also love how the Vietnamese translation is the title is Một Thoáng Ta Rực Rỡ Ở Nhân Gian, because it translates "Earth" not as the planet or the ground, but it to nhân gian (which comes from the Chinese word 人间), which means "the space of man", the space of our existence and livelihood. It's a smashing translation that captures the essence of the title in my opinion.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Could you give some examples of the misinformation in the English fandom? I speak almost no Japanese and even I've noticed times where the translation didn't quite seem to match up with what little I know but it seemed to me to just be adding a joke where there was none. I'd like to know lore I have wrong though.

[Referencing this post!]

A disclaimer before I properly respond to this ask; in sharing some examples and my thoughts, I am not faulting any fan translators or localizers that work on the TWST EN team. Translation and localization are very valued yet difficult tasks; there isn’t always an easy equivalent between languages, and it can be so challenging to capture linguistic nuances. I’m sure that everyone is just doing their best at what they are passionate about and/or being paid to do.

Again, I speak about this not with any malicious intent, but to elaborate on a point mentioned in my original post about differences between JP and EN fandoms (that being that misinformation readily spreads in EN compared to JP due to a significant language barrier).

It would be impossible to list off every single mistranslation or odd localization choice (both for fan translations and for the official TWST EN) 💦 They can also range in severity of mistranslation, from minor word choices which affect understanding of characters to generally confusing sentences to completely incorrect notes, lore, or story beats.

For a few detailed examples and explanations, please check out these posts:

Incorrect subject (Jade’s line on his character page on the official Twisted Wonderland EN website; all of the character lines on the website have been changed into something else now, so if you were to go check you wouldn’t find the initial error.)

Selected word does not fit the context (A phrase is used by a NPC to describe Sebek; this parricular fan translated equivalent does not quite suit the scenario/other words used.)

Misunderstanding of character’s intent (Jade explaining Floyd’s reason for the sea creature nicknames in episode 4 of the main story.)

This is a far more egregious example, but there was also this case in which an interview was translated in such a way that led to an extended period of unrest and conflict within the English-speaking part of the fandom.

Some more humorous mistranslations I’ve seen are:

“Jade drinks cannabis tea” (Jade Broom Bloom Birthday vignettes; he mentions that he uses some of the weeds (not cannabis) he picks up on his mountain hikes to brew tea. Japan still considers cannabis an illicit substance, and possession of it is illegal + punishable by a minimum sentence of 5 years in jail. Rough mistranslation aside, it’s unlikely Disney would allow for their highly marketable characters to be portrayed as using “weed”.)

“Team Puta” (main story, episode 6; the correct translation is “Team Hepta”, as Hepta is a Greek word meaning “seven”. Each of S.T.Y.X.’s teams is named similarly using other Greek words. “Puta” doesn’t make sense for S.T.Y.X.; it’s the Spanish word for a profanity. Why would one of their divisions be named that?)

“Jester Judge” (Glorious Masquerade; the title is used in reference to Frollo, the “Just Judge” of the City of Flowers. However, the adjective prior to judge has been mistranslated as “Jester”. Given Frollo’s personality and how his self-righteous actions are described, “just” makes much more sense than “jester”, which would imply that he is a fun-loving person.)

The disappearance of Cater’s sisters (main story, episode 1; when Cater introduces his unique magic to Yuu and co., he specifies that his clones aren’t his siblings. More specifically, Cater claims he “has no siblings”, which is incorrect. He canonically has two older sisters (which is even brought up in the localized version of Cater’s Labwear vignettes.) The vanishing sisters in the main story likely occurs due to a mistranslation of the Japanese phrase for siblings and relies on context to assign gender to said siblings. ***Note: the localization in general tends to add jokes that weren’t there in the original or it axes certain lines altogether.***

“The episode 6 plot twist is…?” (this is a personal anecdote; I once spoke to a fellow TWST fan who hadn’t yet read episode 6 (which was entirely out at the time) and they told me they had heard from other people that Idia’s unique magic was associated with his hair. They had also heard that he Overblots when the flames are put out and that this was what originally killed Ortho. I thought they were joking at first, but they genuinely believed it to be true 💦 when none of that is…)

I believe a lot of these mistranslations occurred due to the differences between Japanese and English. There are four separate alphabets for Japanese, whereas English only has one, and this can complicate translation. Furthermore, Japanese has certain nuances (such as omission of the subject and/or the same phrase meaning multiple different things depending on the context in which the phrase is used) which can lead to wonky translations.

Inputting certain phrases into Google translate or looking it up in a dictionary if you don’t know it may give only the most commonly used translation which doesn’t take the context of the rest of the sentence into consideration (which could entirely change the translation of the word). For example, やばい (yabai) is typically translated as “terrible” or “this is bad”; it has a generally negative connotation. However, it can actually have several meanings, with many of them actually being positive depending on the context.

Something that I’ve noticed is very popular in the English-speaking fandom are live reactions; they’re quick and snappy ways to get summaries of new TWST content as soon as it drops. These can sometimes be difficult for readers (who likely rely on the threads to understand what is going on) to discern what has legitimately happened in the story and what is just the fan translator having fun/saying something silly or exaggerating for effect (because they’re just as excited about new TWST content as we are to read about it!). It admittedly leads to some people taking the exaggerated parts/jokes/the fan translator goofing around as legitimate story beats. It’s understandable that the average fan would do this, as they do not understand Japanese to the point of being able to discern what is true vs what is false; of course they would put their trust in someone who does understand the language. In this case, it’s not a mistranslation so much as it is a misunderstanding. I believe this may be what Anon means when they say “the translation didn't quite seem to match up with what little [they] know but it seemed to [them] to just be adding a joke where there was none”.

A recent example of this occurred during Glorious Masquerade. In canon, Malleus outright declares that he is mad and wants to kill Rollo for deceiving him with a fake invitation. However, many excited Malleus fans added (in their initial personal reactions to the event) that it was cute that he was getting emotional because he was “mad at Rollo for trying to hurt Yuu” which… isn’t necessarily true. But since this was mixed in with legitimate summary/translations for the event, this led some readers to assume that this information was, indeed, not a joke but true while also completely overlooking the actual canon reason provided by Malleus himself for seeking devastating revenge against Rollo.

I hope that clarifies a few things!

[kathanglangit]

The Seventh Blade: Kalis - Bleeding Edge

And so- in the end- the wheel must turn, and a new day must usurp the old. Perhaps then, these long-fallen flowers will feed the soil, and nourish a new bloom. Perhaps the fire will find home in the bleeding rivers and cauterize the land, and the steam will rise into skies of the clearest blue. Perhaps our songs will be of triumphant yesterdays, hard-won and now bearing fruit. But we are Kadungganan- we do not sit idly to await the dawn. We claw at heaven to bring forth our own tomorrow! One more day until the launch of the Gubat Banwa Kickstarter! Fight for another day in the turbulent fires of the Sword Isles, carving out your own story by blade and sheer will in this tactical martial arts TTRPG, inspired by the thousand, thousand colors of Southeast Asia.

I've been posting weapons I've drawn for the game to count down the final week before the launch. This was supposed to be for Swordtember, but the deadline had to be pushed back. 7/7 blades, ending with the KALIS

This blade adorns the logo of Gubat Banwa, at once uniting and splitting in twain. Kalis refers to a number of uniquely Philippine variants of the more widely known collective of kris blades, which appears in several forms across Southeast Asia.

(Diagram by Lorenz Lasco) What separates Philippine kalis from kris seems to be an answer with multiple facets. Some say it's a linguistic matter, others say kalis refers specifically to certain blades from the Sulu archipelago.

(Photos from Raymundo Lucero)

(For comparison, an Indonesian kris) Admittedly, the kalis is a bit of a blindspot in my knowledge. I've done what research I can, and asked those who know better, but I exist a considerable distance away from where these blades belong- physically and culturally. This is, perhaps, where I will be most prone to making mistakes of fact with the information I present. If I make any mistakes, please do not hesitate correct me!

(Photo from Zambasulta Pakukus) On the heels of that disclaimer, let's take a look at the blade. This is definitely one of the most beautiful weapons I've ever had to draw. Philippine kris/kalis tend to be longer and more "sword-like" than those of our neighbors.

(Photos from Johnwick Cabrera) The hilts tend to differ depending on who makes them. Some sport what might be cockatoo/"kakatua" bird-head hilts, some have very ornate junggayan hilts, some feature okir carvings, some are more rudimentary.

(Photos from Dennis Andrew Golez) The blade is used by several peoples in the south Philippines, including the Maranao, the Tausug, and the peoples of Maguindanao. I am most definitely missing a few groups, this is not an exhaustive list. There are differences between the way they build hilts and assemble blades that I don't feel qualified to speak about. And yes, the blades are like that because they are an assembly near the handle.

(Photo from Sulu Utak Shop) Apart from hilt shape and assembly, variations occur in blade thickness, ornamentaion, presence and type of okir carvings, number of curves or seko (odd numbers), length (kalis sundang = "swords", kalis gunong = "daggers") Actually- you know what?

(Photo from Richard Hudson) Since this is the last one in the countdown, I'm going to do something different. I invite you to find the answers yourself. That is part of what Gubat Banwa is meant to be: an invitation to engage in a fantasy setting centered on our cultures, so you can tell stories built on our terms. The cultures in the Sword Isles are NOT the cultures in the real world from which they draw inspiration. It is very much still a fantasy setting. But part of engaging with the setting in good faith is doing your own learning, on things for which you are not owed an explanation. Curiosity rewards the adventurous. The kalis is well-researched. If you're curious about something, you'll find the answers. You don't need me to hold your hand.

Instead, I'm just going to show you some of the coolest kalis I've seen.

(Silver and ivory-hilted kalis from the NCAA) A (relatively) simple but gorgeous build by a modern smith.

(Blade by Zambasulta Pakukus) A pair of kalis from a smith in Zamboanga.

(Blade by Panday Onsboy Maktar) Silver-hilted kalis from Sulu.

(Photos from Arma Filipinas; Polished by the "Blade Barber") Kalis with some gorgeous carvings on it.

(Photos from Sulu Utak Shop) Kris inlaid with a brass naga.

(Photos from Ron Zambaranno) Kalis rehilted by a Lumad group- uncertain which group. Supposedly, the Lumad would take kris they captured from enemies, disassemble them, and rehilt the blade.

This one appears to have a blade that looks like most of the kalis we've seen, but with a hilt similar to Indonesian or Malaysian variants.

(Photos from Raymundo Lucero) Antique Moro kris sundang with a hilt made of fossilized mammoth tooth, ornamented with a silver coin from the 1700s. A personal favorite, as I used the hilt as a reference for one of my favorite designs.

(Photo from Richard Hudson)

(Art by yours truly) As with the panabas, the people who make and use the kalis are still around. There are bladesmiths, scholars, practitioners of Moro Fighting Arts, historians, and just people who live alongside these blades who can tell their own stories better than I ever could.

(Photo from Richard Hudson)

I hope this and all the other threads I made inculcated an interest in some of you- even those who just look at the pictures (I see you)- to look into these blades yourself. Do your due diligence, treat people with respect, and approach what you are unfamiliar with in good faith- and you should be well on your way to learning more than you thought there ever was to know.

The Gubat Banwa Kickstarter launches in 1 day! Check it out here:

A very special thanks to GB team-member onefloor who helped expand my knowledge on this blade. This legend scores the music for Gubat Banwa, check them out here! This will be the last blade post I do for the promotion. I'm going back into the hole I dug in the ground to work on the rest of the weapons I'm drawing for this game. If there's interest, I might do another series of 7 before the Kickstarter campaign ends. Anyway, help us get the word out, small team of creators from the global south, too broke to advertise, etc. etc. you know the drill by now if you've read the other posts. Until next time! Until glory!