#Lang belta

[folatefangirl]

It really is a super cool conlang though. If I'd known The Expanse had a goddamn creole made for it, I'd have hopped on the bandwagon much sooner, sasa ke?

[alas-poor-cesario]

Fandom: Pacific Rim

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb

Characters: Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler

Additional Tags: gratuitous use of conlangs, Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Mando'a Language (Star Wars), Mando'a Pet Names (Star Wars), Lang Belta, Belter Creole (The Expanse)

Summary: Hermann wakes after the events of Pacific Rim 1, looking for Newt. A small interlude between our favourite nerds.</p><p>Written as a Valentine's Day present for one of my favourite nerds.

[lucas2101]

The fact that Belter creole is only half done and not usable as an actual language yet is deeply upsetting to me.

[theexpansefcrged]

For those that might want a refresher course or need an intro in to Lang Belta, there's a Memrise guide HERE made by one of my dear friends Iro that's incredibly useful.

[butchboromir]

to xalte wit mi......

[talesfrommedinastation]

Perhaps that’s why he caught Tanke’s gaze, sitting in that hospital bed, months ago. 

A soldier from an alien empire, his ship caught in the crossfires of the Transport Union Border patrol. Tall, thin, broad shouldered. The man could have been Sjaelland’s brother, from his buzzed hair to his razor-thin face, the circle tattoo around his eye. He spoke with a raspy voice, with words that were selected with the precision of a sharp-shooter.

'The Missing and the Murdered, Part 5' To Guard Against Titans

---------------------

Latest chapter's up. The following happens:

Hunter wakes up on Mt Tantiss.

Crosshair's ('Kros-Heya' in Lang Belta) adopted mother pulls a Tywin Lannister.

AZI saves someone.

Juno Caheere (from @wrenkenstein) makes an appearance!

As mentioned earlier in the fic, Crosshair rocks MCRN armor, but decides, at the last minute, to keep his old Clone Force 99 helmet. As seen above.

This decision has some serious consequences....for the better.

[pitaenigma]

A quality of Marco Inaros's that I wish they'd kept for the show is how, when he does interstellar transmissions, he puts on an Earther accent in the books. He doesn't do that in the show, sticking with a Belter accent throughout. Other Belters do code switch - Miller shows he can do it when he needs to be friendly to a Belter but conspicuously refuses to do so most of the time, as part of how he aligns with Earthers, Naomi does so very often. There are also Belters who don't - Prax, being well educated and working with Inners, has a fairly standard American accent, and Drummer speaks English haltingly and with a thick Belter accent because her English is much worse than Lang Belta - but I feel like having Marco be someone who does would have made him a bit more interesting.

That said, maybe it's just that if Keon Alexander drew any more attention I'd probably still be single and the showrunners were doing me a favor

[talesfrommedinastation]

I use a LOT of Lang Belta in my work, so this is awesome to have on file.

“Kewe mi sensa ere da ting deting mi ando showxa?” Mood markers in Lang Belta

Oye, xunyamwala!

The title of this article means “How do I feel about what I am saying?” because we’re going to discuss grammatical mood in Lang Belta.

And that’s what mood does, it describes the speaker’s attitude regarding what they are saying. This includes describing sentiments like “must”, “should”, “ought to”, “would”, “possibly”, “counterfactually” and others.

Previously we’ve discussed tense and aspect in detail as part of Tense-Aspect-Mood Grammar, and how Lang Belta has markers for each.

To briefly recap using showxa:

Unmarked verbs are present tense. Mi showxa. “I speak.”

Ta is the past tense marker. Mi ta showxa. “I spoke.”

Gonya is the future tense marker. Mi gonya showxa. “I will speak.”

Ando is the continuous aspect marker. Mi ando showxa. “I am speaking.”

Tili is the habitual aspect marker. Mi tili showxa. “I regularly speak.”

Finyish is the perfective aspect marker. Mi finyish showxa. “I have spoken/I had spoken.” (contextual)

Grammar in Belter is strictly subject-verb-object, and there is no passive construction; one uses the indefinite 3rd person plural imim as subject instead. “They/It” (unspecified) did/said it.

ENGLISH: “Sins were comitted”.

BELTER: Imim ta du papeka. (“They committed sins.”)

ENGLISH: “Things happened.”

BELTER: Imim ta du ting. (“It did things”)

Sentences in Lang Belta can have 1 tense (place in time) and 1 aspect (relationship to the flow of time), but multiple moods.

So, mood markers.

English uses modal verbs for words like “can” and “should”. Unlike in English, Belter mood markers are not verbs themselves, but auxiliary modifiers to a verb, just like tense and aspect markers. There still needs to be a verb for the mood marker to modify, (even if it’s the silent copula.

As far as the way mood markers in Belter behave, Nick gave the following answer regarding the mood marker fosho to a question on his Patreon:

“fosho always denotes the speaker’s belief, and modifies a verb, but it can move to emphasise the word after fosho”.

This is, I believe, an important indicator how how mood markers work in general in LB. The balance of this article will assume that this is the case (unless/until corrected by Nick).

The mood markers that Nick has mentioned publicly are:

Fosho (belief): Mi fosho ta vedi im. “I saw it (and I believe that I am right).” Fosho mi ta vedi im. “I (and not someone else) saw it.”

Fosho fosho (confidently held belief): Mi fosho fosho ta vedi im. “I saw it (and I have no doubts whatsoever).” Fosho Fosho mi ta vedi im. = “I absolutely was the one who saw it.”

NOTE: Mi pensa is both “I think” as well as “I believe”. Mi ando pensa ere is “I am thinking about”, which is how Belter describes having thoughts, contemplation.

Mogut fo (should, ought to): Mi mogut fo showxa. “I should speak.” Mogut fo mi fo showxa. “I (rather than someone else) should speak.”

Mowsh (must, have to): To mowsh showxa. “You must speak (rather than keep silent).” Mowsh to showxa. “You (rather than somebody else) must speak.“

Deng fo (would): Mi deng fo showxa, amash mi nasunte. “I would speak, but I am unwell.”

Kang (capability): Mi kang showxa. “I can speak".

Mebi (subjunctive):

To quote Nick again:

“Let’s just say that if you ever studied a Romance language and the subjunctive tripped you up, mood in #LangBelta might be a challenge”

Nick goes on in that twitter thread to give several examples of using mebi in a sentence that seem a bit confusing. But if we understand what the subjunctive mood does, and combine that with understanding of how mood markers move around a sentence explained above, how the sentences work in Belter become much clearer.

The subjunctive is an “irrealis mood”; it describes that things that are, in some sense, “unreal”; things which have not happened, things which might yet happen, counterfactuals, conditionals, things other than which the speaker knows to be “real”.

NOTE: while mebi has an etymological root in the English word “maybe”, they are not the same and mebi is used differently.

Let’s look at the examples Nick gave. In each of the following sentences, mebi

A: modifies the verb showxa (“to say”) and

B: moves around so that the word(s) following mebi are “subjunctive”, i.e. “irrealis”.

Im showxa ‘ya’”. “He says ‘yes’”

Im kang showxa ‘ya’”. “He can say ‘yes’” (is capable of)

Im mebi showxa “ya”. “He might say ‘yes’ (it is possible)”

Im mebi kang showxa “ya”. “He might be capable of saying ‘yes’”

Im mebi mebi showxa ‘ya’”. It’s possible (though unlikely) that he says ‘yes’”.

Fairly straightforward, right? But it can be subtle.

Mi pensa im ta showxa “ya” = I think he said “yes”

Mi pensa im mebi ta showxa “ya” = I think he said “yes” (but I’m not certain)

Mi pensa im ta showxa mebi “ya” = I think he said yes (but maybe he said something else)

Mi pensa mebi im ta showxa “ya” = I think it was him who said yes (but maybe it was someone else)

One thing I’ve noted is that Nick has never tweeted a sentence with the word sili (“if”) without also using mebi. Which leads me to suspect that “if” statements in lang belta might necessarily be subjunctive:

Sili im mebi kom, deng showxa mi = If he comes, then tell me. (Here the if/when he’s coming is the “irrealis” as it may it may not come to pass.)

Mi du mowteng du walowda walowda fosh wowk sili mi mebi gonya du wang wit da OPA, “I must do a lot of practice if I am possibly going to join the OPA.”

Ere Sirish na desh zakong, bera zakomang. To na sasa natim sili imim mebi kom fo leta-go to fongi fode, “On Ceres there are no laws, only cops. You don’t never know if someone will possibly come to take you away.”

Mi Fosho Fosho du mowteng vedi S4! Mi mebi gonya decho sili mi mebi na vedi im ematim! Oso, mogut fo to du wang wit milowda ere da channel da Discord da Expanse.

(“I absolutely need to see s4! I might die if I don’t see it soon! Also, you should join us on the Expanse Discord Channel.”)

[doolallymagpie]

ashford singing chemical worker’s song in lang belta save me

ashford singing chemical worker’s song in lang belta

save me ashford singing chemical worker’s song in lang belta

[optionalcausality]

There's an excellent post about how societal 'defaults' are often highly political, and fictional worlds that acknowledge this in their worldbuilding will often feel more complete and more complex. The primary example given in the post I'm thinking of involves language -- because if a setting has a specific language as the default, then a lot had to happen in the setting's past to make it that way.

And I have really enjoyed settings/works that examined this. Some examples:

The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik starts at a magical school where English was the default language track for many years because London and New York were some of the biggest contributors to the project. Mandarin was added much later, and it's a major plot point that the main character doesn't start off knowing who all the powerhouses at the school are, because the primarily Spanish-speaking students and Hindi-speaking students and Mandarin-speaking students don't necessarily hang out together with the primarily English-speaking kids outside of class.

The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One (a fantastic podcast and actual play show) straight-up names a language Imperial. The Empire and its conflicts and how that shapes the setting are a major theme.

The Expanse (both novels and the live-action series) show how successive waves of immigration led to a creole language, lang Belta, and how it ties in with inter-planetary politics and identity and socioeconomic privilege.

It's just neat to see how language and societal expectations around it can make setting and characterization so much richer.

[jbk405]

It's straight-up a banger.

I just want to give a quick shout out to The Expanse tv show's worldbuilding, specifically the Belter Version of Deep Purple's "Highway Star"

The show has a well developed in-universe language, it's a believable evolution of future human speech and they went ahead and translated Highway Star, a song about driving fast, into a space travel equivalent and honestly I think I love it more than the original.

So I guess what I'm saying is that The Expanse is definitely worth watching or something idk

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

It's a shame canops gets all the credit wrt catgirl rep and people forget about the belters. - local belter catgirl who is totally not jealous.

I fully agree. While Canopus can produce quite convincing semi-hybrids of human and animal, only the medical technology of the Belters (brought along via several Belter SLDF medical officers) allowed the Clans to create myself and my fellow holovid stars, with our essentially seemless hybridization of animal and human. Also, Belter technology has allowed me to live as long as I have, and continue to fight as though I was in my prime. So I have a high opinion of your people.

I have even visited the Belter habitats in the Terran system. They are... interesting, to use a phrase. The final remnants of the ancient, pre-neofeudal, Terran nation-state ideal. Stepping from the vessel and being greeted by the flags of the old United States, Brazil, China, and France was quite the experience. And finding more people like myself, who were merely people, and had not been grown in an Iron Womb to star in a holovid drama, was enlightening and quite uplifting. And watching the Technicians sent along with us gawk and nearly lose control of themselves at seeing intact Star League technology was a treat. And they taught me some Lang Belta: Mi vedi imalowda asilik mi beratnas unte sésatas.

[carp-from-space]

You know what lang belta misses? Kurwa. Where is it? Its unlikely it did not made into the belt. If Avasarala can serve so hard with classics like "Try not to stick your dicks in it" and "You want a little ass-play, that's your business.", or "roll that up and fuck it" why aren't belters more in tune with good old working class kurwa?

Ok, now back to Avasarala business. I need her book of proverbs on my shelf.

[veganthranduil]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @fieryphrazes, whose answers I enjoyed reading so much!!

1. How many works do you have on A03?

102

2. What is your A03 word count?

1,017,012

Oops.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I have written Terror fics almost exclusively for like four years, with some MASH in between. Right now I'm back at a Pacific Rim fic I started in 2016.

4. What are your top 5 fics by Kudos?

i have called you by name (Good Omens)

never seek him, defiantly, at night (The Terror)

The Notion of Respectability (The Terror)

Gambling Man (Les Mis) (this one is so funny to me. happy eleven-year anniversary to my child)

flightless bird (dumb, wild, and free) (Good Omens)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes!! I am slow but I love responding to comments. If you tell me your thoughts on my fic, you unlock extra analysis rambling in response from me.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is so hard... I think it's a tie between Robofitz and the one where Francis cheats on his wife with James? But honestly my MASH sports medicine AU deserves a shoutout here too.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'm going to say it's the one where the entire Franklin expedition survives (because there was only one bed), for maximum happiness.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes I get comments where the intentions of the commenter are not quite clear to me. I just delete & move on!

9. Do you write smut? If so which kind?

Yes & all kinds?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest crossover you've ever written?

i have never!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have had people ask, but my policy is that any translation of my work should only be up on Ao3, and the people who were asking had been planning to put it up on other fic sites. So not to my knowledge.

I have translated a fic that I wrote from German into English though! It even tries to simulate the formal/informal pronoun switch.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I've always wanted to!

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

This is hard... I don't have favourites... but I will say Fitzier if you make me choose

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have so many of those in my folder. Let's not speak of those.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I really like worldbuilding, in the sense of giving characters a politically & socially coherent world to inhabit. I think I am very good at that by nature of my training & academic expertise.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle most with differentiating between internal monologue & external actions. Like, I am constantly reminding myself that not all characters are telepathic and understand each other's actions.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I have written both an Expanse AU that used Lang Belta with translations, as well as a Weimar Berlin AU for Fitzier that just straight-up used German without translations. Languages are fun! Put them in more things!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Transformers lol... or I guess Star Wars, but that was not published anywhere

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Past Sins, my James Fitzjames gets blackmailed fic.

I'm tagging @pianodoesterror and @laissezferre!

[butchboromir]

i think. miller speaking lang belta. like clearly he DOES speak it fluently (we see him speaking it to gia), but he's also WEIRD about speaking it. he often responds in plain english to other belters speaking lang belta to him. idk it's just so interesting like he even uses language as a shield/barrier. if i don't speak lang belta, i'm not one of them, and if i'm not one of them i don't feel the pain they feel. i'm not the ass, i'm the boot

[birdylion]

Music Tag Game Rules: shuffle your on repeat playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then tag 10 people.

I don't have an "on repeat" playlist, I don't have playlists at all, so I just shuffled all the music that's stored on my phone. Which is not all the music I listen to, but well.

Feros, from the Mass Effect Soundtrack

2. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) by Metallica, Cover by Apocalyptica

3. Perfection Or Vanity, by Dimmu Borgir

4. Princess Leia's Theme, Star Wars episode IV

5. Tinta, by Faun

6. Highway Star, by Deep Purple, in the cover version in Lang Belta from The Expanse

7. Asp Hole, by Rik Schaffer

8. Merseburger Zaubersprüche, by In Extremo

9. The End Run (Alternate), from the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack - the song is a mashup of "Hearts of Courage" by Two Steps from Hell and the rhythm of another song from the soundtrack

10. Protector Of The Common Folk, by Howard Shore

I feel the rules of this game where made for people more interactive than I am - I'm not sure I know 10 people, let alone who play these games. I'm tagging ... @caffeespresso, @shakespearerants, @asherlockstudy, @bumblebee-and-tea and @astronicht - I'd be curious what you're listening to, but as always, no pressure.

And if you're not listed here but would like to play the game, please do, and tag me (or not, as you like). I love getting to know new music through other people.