#and like. okay it’s not that different than a general american dialect

[your-secondborn-child]

having extremely aimless thoughts about how people write subz, specifically dialect-wise

not really /neg or /pos i’m just thinking

[biglittleluobo]

萝卜's Beginner Guide to Sichuanese!

大家好！

Welcome to the first in an unofficial series of posts where I will share the (very large) amount of new vocab, cultural experiences, and topics that I was introduced to while spending ~5 weeks in China!

Today’s topic is: Sichuanese! 🌶️🌶️🌶️

I won’t pretend to be an expert in Sichuanese (yet, please chime in / add here if you are!), but I spent >50% of my time in the province while abroad which gave me lots of exposure. It certainly took me by surprise at the beginning! After about two weeks I started to get a better feel for it. Here’s some tips and vocab for getting started:

1. Get ready to hear 得 (“dei” pronunciation) just about everywhere, this is an essential character thrown around constantly. Most common are these three words:

要得 (yǎodei) – yes, good

没得 (módei) – no

晓得 (xiǎodei) – understand, aka 明白

Sometimes it also just randomly appears, for example 得行 (deixíng) has the exact same meaning as 行 (fine, okay)! You just gotta expect it.

2. The majority of Sichuanese people do not pronounce the “h” in sounds like “ch”, “sh”, “zh”. This makes it very tricky for a student (like me!) who still internally looks up lots of words, so any “s-” word could be a word that starts with “sh-” OR a word that just starts with “s-”. Some examples:

橙汁 (chéngzhī) as "cengzi"

这儿 (zhè’er) as “zer”

什么时候 (shénme shíhou) as “sazisihou”

是不是 (shìbùshì) as “sib’si” (with the u sound in “bu” typically omitted)

3. The “an” sound is pronounced as in the English word “can” (as opposed to the usual pronunciation which is a bit more like the “awn” sound in “yawn”). Combined with (2), this has the very cute effect of turning 吃饭 (chīfàn) into something more like “cifaan”, and is something you should expect to hear a lot in a province like Sichuan! Just be aware that this applies to every “an”-suffixed word and can sometimes totally change how you hear it. In many ways I feel like this feature makes it sound a bit reminiscent of American southern dialects.

4. There are a few other Sichuanese alternative pronunciations to be aware of:

“Hu” is often pronounced as “fu”, leading 护照 (hùzhào) to sound like “fuzao”, or 西湖 (Xīhú) as “xifu”

“R” sounds can sometimes be pronounced with a “y”, e.g. 容 (róng) as “yong”

Most tricky is that the flat 1st tone is very rare, and many characters simply have different tones than “Standard” Mandarin. As far as I can tell (and have read online), there isn’t really a systematic adjustment for this, it’s just how it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

5. Surprisingly, though Sichuan is a southern province, there are tons of erhua around! At least here, it seems like the 儿 ends up quite merged with the original word. Some examples I heard:

米粉 (mǐfěn) as “mifer” (extremely delicious breakfast option!)

老板 (lǎobǎn) as “laober”

没得 (módei) as “moder” (apparently extremely rarely heard though)

豆花 (dòuhuā) as “douhua’er” (quite common in northern Mandarin as well)

熊猫 (xióngmāo) as “xiongmer”

And finally, a few more Sichuanese specialties!

好(多)钱 - how much does it cost, aka 多少钱 (the 多 is sometimes omitted in quick speech)

啥子 (sázi) – what, based on the casual substitute word 啥 for 什么 (also often pronounced as sáza)

闹热 (nàorè) – lively, as opposed to the usual 热闹

可以 (kěyǐ), pronounced as as “kǒyǐ”

冒菜 (màocài) – a local variant of malatang (麻辣烫）

抄手 (chāoshǒu) – (v) to fold arms up the sleeves; (四川) wonton, dumpling

稀饭 (xīfàn) – congee, 粥, literally "thin rice"

干饭 (gānfàn) – regular rice, 米饭, "dry rice" to distinguish from 稀饭

嘛 (ma) - often heard at the end of sentences, just a local sound! Not (as I understand it) generally associated with some of its other meanings (like impatience, stating the obvious, etc)

See you next time. 下次见！

[atheostic]

I'm interested to hear how educated you are on the differences between judaism and christianity, especially how their value systems, i saw your conversation with rose and it was nice to see someone questioning theism without being condescending and acting like theists are bad people

Hey, sorry for taking a while to respond.

I'll readily admit that I'm way more familiar with how atheist Jews view the differences between the two religions than I am with how theist Jews view it. I consciously seek out atheist Jews' interpretations and views of Judaism and Judaism vs, Christianity partly because, as an atheist myself, I want to hear what other atheists have to say. The other part is that I find that atheists in general don’t have hangups about calling out the bad stuff in their past culture/religion so you get to actually hear about the problems (which every religion without exception has – just like they all have good parts too).

I know that Christianity started out as a denomination of Judaism (there were heated discussions in the early days of Christianity over whether one had to convert to Judaism before being considered a Christian). I know that if Bible!Jesus is an accurate portrayal of a real historical figure he didn’t intend to create a new religion but rather to reform Judaism. That being said, I also know that, much like how language dialects eventually become distinct enough to be separate languages, it has been a VERY long time since Christianity was part of Judaism. It has some aspects that are similar, but for the most part it’s now its own thing (kind of like how all Great Apes share similarities but are clearly different species).

I know (thanks to Karyn Glasser) that the main similarity between Christianity and Judaism is that the Old Testament and the Torah are mostly the same text when compared side by side, with the biggest difference being how some stuff is organized. That being said, in theology you’re supposed to treat each religion’s text as unique even if they’re literally word-for-word identical, which is why I always explicitly refer to the two texts as being separate.

I know that, while part of their holy texts are virtually identical, how Christianity vs Judaism approaches their holy texts is very very different. Traditionally in Judaism, the Torah is meant to be a living text, which means that things being open to interpretation was a feature, not a bug. As far as ancient Israelites were concerned, if there was no new meaning to be found in the text then the text was dead and useless. Christianity, on the other hand, likes to view their holy text as a lot more cemented (“my way or the highway” if you will)... though it doesn’t keep people from interpreting it six ways from Sunday anyway. The inflexibility in Christianity is likely part of why violence and animosity between denominations seems to be much higher than in Judaism.

I also know that how most Jews view God is very different from how most Christians view God; Jews aren’t typically afraid to be like “Yeah, that thing he did was an asshole move, God’s a dick sometimes” whereas most Christians consider God to be all-good and perfect and above reproach, so to say he did something bad breaks their brain. I remember seeing this post once where a Jewish person was basically like “whether good or bad, since everything happens according to God’s will I hold him responsible for what happens in my life”. Jews also don’t typically have a hangup about arguing with god (which makes for a much healthier dynamic in my opinion).

From my personal experience, it seems that Jews tend to be a lot more relaxed and have a more playful attitude toward religion that white North American* Christians. Jews, for example, will get into fun friendly debates over whether it’d be kosher for a vampire to drink pig’s blood if it was to avoid drinking from a human (if memory serves about that post someone asked their rabbi and they said yes) or whether it’d be okay for a dragon to light the shammash using their breath. North American Christians, on the other hand, tend to be way more serious when it comes to how they approach theology in general.

That being said, of course there are exceptions in both cases, as no group is monolithic and people are hella complicated. From what I’ve read and from what I’ve heard from Jews on Tumblr, Orthodox Jews tend to be more Christian-y in how they approach the Torah in that compared to other denominations they tend to take things a lot more literally. I remember reading an article once about how some bigwig in the Canadian Orthodox Jewish community had suggested not taking Genesis too literally and it was a big scandal.

And because no group is monolithic, it’s worth emphacizing that what I know about Jewish culture is primarily from a North American viewpoint (and mostly American at that), and therefore what I know isn’t applicable to all Jews as a whole (I recently got s book for the school library I work at all about how Passover is celebrated differently around the world, so it’d be silly for me to think that how Jews approach Judaism would be monolithic).

And all this is, of course, when talking about theist Jews. Because since Judaism is an ethnoreligion it’s possible to be both an atheist and a Jew at the same time. And how atheist Jews approach Judaism as a religion varies wildly (not surprising, since getting atheists of any kind to agree on anything beyond the nonbelief in any deities is like herding cats). Some, like the previously-mentioned Karyn Glasser, sometimes go to worship services as a way to connect with their culture and ancestors. One of my colleagues sometimes goes to the synagogue if there’s a party going on because “who doesn’t love a good party?”. Others, like an Israeli  caller to the Atheist Experience a while ago, think that atheist Jews should be referred to by a different word than theist Jews because their perspective regarding the religion is so different (his suggestion was for atheist Jews to be known as “Hebrews”). Others don’t care about the religion aspect at all but still celebrate the holidays as a tie to their culture. Yet others aren’t tied to their culture or religion at all. 

* No topic is taboo about being made fun of in Brazilian culture, so how Brazilian Christians approach religion is very different and much closer to how I’ve seen Jews approach religion.

[makethatelevenrings]

Do you have any list of endearments that are commonly used by brits? Cause I’m no British so sometimes I just assume those are common for them.

Not an attack I’m genuinely curious, I saw some who got too offended over something so small. It’s not cool.

Languages and dialects are a side quest interest of mine so haha I’d actually love to answer this. I’m not British either. I’m American. But Americans have dialectical endearments that are common in certain regions. If someone from the PNW or New England called me “sweetheart” or “darling” outside of romantic context, I’d be swinging. But if a Southern woman called me that? I’d beam.

Brits commonly use “love, hun, sweetheart, dearie” are used in platonic instances (like a waitress asking “what do you want, hun?” but sweetheart, love, or baby could be used in a romantic sense as well. pet is common for north England, but I just think Simon would have too much beef with the idea of “a pet” to comfortably use that word.

Scouse is different from Mancunian which is different from Brummie, Welsh, Cockney, Scots, Geordie, Yorkshire, Kentish, etc. etc.

Here’s the thing I want to expand on and (this is pretentious and I know but I think paid money for this degree lmao) I’m coming at this through the critical lens of less a fanfiction writer and more of a English literature focus:

1. Try and make endearment usage feel natural to the character. “Love” makes a lot more sense than “lovie” for Simon Riley. “Pet” makes more sense for Jamie Tartt. They’re both Mancunian, both same slang, but you have to consider their personalities. Simon doesn’t feel like he’d use endearments that much tbh. He’s more likely to slip up and call you soldier or cadet.

2. Cliches are okay (there’s a reason why they’re so commonly used) but there’s also a reason why people say to refrain from them. If every single fic in the tag uses the same exact endearment…it gets old. Give your story a more authentic and natural feel by building a lore behind a nickname. Literally act out dialogues to yourself to see if it feels normal.

3. Research! As someone who edits essays and stories, it is so obvious when you don’t fact check or you make generalizations when the resources are easily available to learn this info. I’m not saying you have to become an expert on a topic or a place, but doing research for writing strengthens the material and makes it more believable. It adds richness to the detail while simultaneously opening up your horizons within the world. I love dropping little fun facts and tidbits on people that I’ve acquired through the years.

4. Less trying to write out accents, more trying to use slang or patterns of speech. I’ve opened fics where the author tries to model accents in the speech and left it virtually unreadable. “Wot” has me DYING because it just…it’s unnecessary. Listen to videos or shows with people using the accent you want to emulate and try to model off their pattern of speech.

To end, here’s some fun Mancunian slang words I’ve found that everyone should look up!

Bobbins, buzzing, Chufty badge, dead/well, get done, leg it, let on, sorted, swear down, give your head a wobble, mingin’, snide.

OH, to add, shows with a good cast with accents that are more than just “British”: Peaky Blinders, Call the Midwife, Bake Off, QI, and really just look up accents on YouTube so you can hear the difference in cadence, slang, etc.

[uncloseted]

I recently sent a few chapters of my first draft for my novel to my coworker who is amazing and who has the same degree as me in English. she offered to be a beta reader and add her comments which was great, but after getting her comments I feel like some were a bit unnecessary.

My characters are from England (I'm American), and I've watched english shows my whole life and grew up with the accents, the dialect, etc. so I knew what I was saying when I included certain phrasing in my novel, plus I researched before including anything that relates to dialect and regional dialect. My coworker (American) made comments about things like I didn't know what I was talking about and pointing out things that I feel she just wasn't really thinking about.

The constructive comments were really good! But some of the other comments I felt were a bit... passive aggressive. At certain points she would just say things in the comments like: "No." or "WHY?!" or "Grumble grumble..." and it's like??? I love your helpful comments, but I feel like this doesn't help me at all. She doesn't usually read romance, she sticks to crime or sci-fi, so I know I shouldn't take it personally, but I really enjoy the idea for my novel and think it's strong. Of course, it's still early days, but I don't know. I think she's helpful but for most of her comments, I could explain why I did something in answer to her comments.

Should I not send her the rest of my novel? I feel like she's not really getting the whole picture at times...

Thank you!

I think any time you share a work in progress with someone who's not a professional in the publishing industry (like a beta reader or editor), you'll get some feedback that's helpful and some that's irrelevant. It's okay to look through their feedback and to say "these are the things I think are valuable and these are the things I'll be ignoring." If you've done your research on regional dialects and are sure you have it right, feel free to throw that commentary out. If she's saying something more along the lines of, "I know this is accurate, but it will make this part incomprehensible to readers who aren't from a particular area of England", then it might be worth at least considering whether to swap the dialogue out for something more generic, even if you ultimately decide to keep it as is. With the little comments like "no!" and "why?!", I think she's trying to give you a view into her emotional reactions throughout the story as well as her thoughts about what you could do differently, which I think may actually be really useful. If she's commented "WHY?!" on a part that's not supposed to elicit that reaction, maybe the story is creating a different emotional journey than you intended. It's also worth remembering that she only has a few chapters of a first draft- she doesn't have the full picture in her head the way you do, and so her interpretation of what she's reading is naturally going to be different from your idea of who these characters are and where the story is going.

Accepting criticism is hard, especially with work as personal as novels. I think when we share our work with others, we're secretly hoping that they'll love it as much as we do and have no criticism. So I think it's natural to want to push back and say, "no, I did that for a reason, you're just not understanding my vision." I think for a lot of people, criticism of their work feels like criticism of them as a person or of their innate talent as a writer.

But... that's not really what it is. Constructive criticism is just a lens into the feelings, opinions, and confusions a potential reader might have so that the writer can achieve their vision more effectively. It's also worth remembering that different readers will feel differently about the work. Just because one person isn't responding the way you expected doesn't mean that nobody will. But on the flip side, you can't expect that all readers will have your background and understanding, either. Unless you're trying to target a very specific demographic, it may be worth making some narrative concessions for the sake of readability. So for each piece of feedback, I think it's important to be able to take a step back and ask yourself if you're feeling defensive even though the advice is good, or whether the advice is something you disagree with from a narrative or artistic perspective.

At the end of the day, you're not obligated to accept every piece of feedback that you get. Take what feels right for your project and throw away the rest. You know what will work best for the novel that you're trying to write. As for whether or not to send her the rest of the novel, I think it depends on whether or not you feel like getting her feedback will ultimately lead to a better book. If you think it would, it's probably worth continuing to send her chapters. If not, maybe it's better to send it to someone else you know instead or to join a community of writers who provide criticism on each other's work.

[nofardayanismss]

A Collection of Yasmine Massoud Facts and Tidbits

Warning: There is talk of triggering material in this post. While I talk mainly about the good and neutral facts, later on I do have a written warning along with the triggers and they will be tagged. This is a warning beforehand.

The Good and The Neutral

Yasmine is secretly an excellent cook. It’s something that she loves genuinely and she knows an abundance of recipes. The kitchen at hers, Maggie’s, and Devi’s house is big and great for cooking in. Having been everywhere in the world, she has collected so many recipes. One of her favourites are Tibetan Momos.

One of the restaurants at Oasis is called Atlas, which consists of cuisines from around the world. Yas sometimes pops in to do some cooking, which is a much healthier option than her other means to clear her mind and forget everything. The restaurant is also open to the public, no need to be a guest at Oasis.

Yasmine isn’t a huge fan of pet and nicknames. She prefers to be called by her actual name, or at least Yas by a few select few. Sometimes they’re okay, but that depends mainly on the person.

She always smells like cinnamon, rose, vanilla, and saffron. It’s her signature scent.

Growing up, she hadn’t been very religious yet is respectful towards those who are. While she does have many different apps on her phone (the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc.), over the past fourteen years, she has been considering converting to Buddhism. She also holds a great interest in Hinduism.

She loves other cultures and learning more about them. They fascinate her greatly and her many travels have helped her to gain a great respect for them.

Growing up, she has spent her whole life believing that she was 100% Lebanese. It hadn’t been until her maternal grandparents emailed her when she discovered that she’s actually half Lebanese, half Mexican, on her father’s side. She’s considered doing one of those DNA tests to discover more about herself and has been trying to reconnect with both of her cultures, despite never wanting to go back to Lebanon. She is very proud of being Arab and Latina.

Along with Arabic (Lebanese dialect) and English, Yasmine is also fluent in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and American Sign Language. However, she has also learned the basics for a majority of languages: hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, please, thank you, yes, no, and etc.

Yasmine is really good at learning history and geography. If her life was different, it’s possible she might have become a history and geography teacher.

She has a lot of different tattoos, which will be dedicated in its own separate post.

Yasmine works out regularly, typically doing yoga, HIIT, cardio, running, surfing, swimming, hiking, biking, horseback riding, rock-climbing, and is just active in general. She is very sporty and prefers to being on her feet than staying still for too long. She’s a very fidgety person, use to being on the move constantly.

Along with having a California driver’s license, she has an international driving permit, a sailing license, a pilot license, and scuba and diving licenses. She owns an orange Volkswagen Thing.

The Bad and The Ugly

Trigger Warning: child abuse, child prostitution, statutory rape, molestation, murder, ptsd, nightmares, night terrors, alcoholism, addiction, substance abuse, homelessness

Yasmine’s life in Lebanon and then as a teenager on the road had been very difficult. Going from foster home to foster, there were times in which she was lucky enough to be with a loving family or at least one that tolerated her. But unfortunately, she also dealt with some extremely cruel people. Whether they were beating her, eventually covering her body in scars or burn marks from cigarettes, or molesting her all the while berating her, life had been torture with a good amount of them.

While traveling with the group of other orphan kids, they had been homeless. Sometimes, they got lucky enough to be able to pay for a room at a hostel for awhile. Most of the time, they had to make due with what they got. Money was always tight, Yasmine and the others doing everything they could to earn money while traveling. Sometimes, she did street performances, having a beautiful singing voice. Sometimes, she would steal from tourists who weren’t paying attention. Sometimes, she would sell her body to whomever would pay her a handsome penny, ignoring the fact that she was much too young to be doing so. But at the same time, Yasmine never got to be a child. So prostituting herself as a teenager hadn’t been a big deal to her, at the time.

On Halloween 2020, Yasmine killed five people. She had left town for a little bit to go to a festival. At first, all was well. Then things went south quickly and suddenly, it was life or death. She had been shot, the bullet hitting her stomach near her left hip. She has since gotten a tattoo to cover it up. She killed those people in self-defense and has been pardoned due to so.

Suffice to say, Yasmine suffers from PTSD and other mental illnesses. She has horrific nightmares/night terrors that has plagued her nights for years, all due to life prior to meeting Lucas and after meeting him. To be able to deal with this, she has turn to drinking, drugs, smoking, sex, and adrenaline rush to be able to forget and cope. She never told Lucas about her life as a kid and no one knows about the murders, the event having been covered up by the government.

[lixenn]

*gobbles up all the oc info*

That's quite sad, poor Mitsuru losing his mother early 😭😭 and then moving to entire new country, so new language and new culture and no friends... That must have been rough 😔

Oh the Berlin dialect... Honestly I'm not the biggest fan of it, one of my best friends lives in Berlin so I get confronted with it when I visit her and yeah... It takes some getting used to lmao

Hilarious that people assume that he speaks English as well 🤣🤣 ngl it's not that much of an unreasonable assumption to make there are lots of English words integrated in German language nowadays mostly with the younger generation and we do start learning English quite young at least I did. I'm pretty sure I started learning at least some vocab like colours, numbers, body parts in primary school. But yeah I'm pretty fluent in the language because I started reading English books in middle school, however one of my uni friends English is pretty shit so it does vary from person to person.

He misses German food 😭😭😭 I wanna give him a hug but I dunno if he will like it he looked pretty prickly...

As for German meals... Hmmmm...

Okay so I live in southern Germany which means there are probably differences in what food you eat here and what you eat up in Berlin but I can definitely share some of my favourites growing up 💪

Schnitzel with Spätzle or Schnitzel with fries - a good schnitzel can certainly brighten my day. I was an even more picky eater when I was a child than I am now so this meal was my go to when going to a German restaurant because at least in the south you can get this in every restaurant or Biergarten (that's basically a restaurant but it also has a big area where you can eat outside, very nice in the summer 👍) of your choice. When I say schnitzel I mean parniertes Wiener Schnitzel so technically that's probably a thing we yoinked from Austria but dude it's such a standard meal here it's German by default at this point.

Käsespätzle - Back to spätzle! Okay so I admittedly don't like the Käse part (Käse meaning cheese) but it's also something you can get in German restaurant easy. Spätzle are typically a side dish and I love them so much (my dad makes amazing spätzle from scratch) you can eat them with the aforementioned Schnitzel or with some kind of Braten (don't know the translation for this by heart sorry 😔) but dude just Spätzle with a good gravy are fucking solid 🫡 Käsespätzle on its own is also a meal that is very filling because Spätzle + Cheese + Röstzwiebeln (roasted onions? Fried onions?) can really pack a punch. Again personally not a fan of the combination but my family love that shit!

Maultaschensuppe - Maultaschen are basically the German dumplings and suppe means soup. Now when I was a kid I looooved that dish so much, give me a soup stock with Maultaschen and some Backspätzle (it's a thing we put in soup, making them from scratch you basically fry Spätzle dough but you can just buy them from the store) and I was as happy as a clam. Nowadays I don't like the big Maultaschen anymore I eat too much of them and got sick of it but I still eat smaller ones (they come in different sizes) it's good shit! You can also cut up some big Maultaschen and roast them in a pan, throw in some spätzle (which you can also buy ready made from the supermarket) and eggs over it and you have a nice quick meal 👍💪

Pfannkuchen - also known as Eierkuchen in some parts of Germany. Now Pfannkuchen is translated as pancakes but! Here is the language barrier biting us in the ass because when I talk Pfannkuchen it's not American pancakes. Size wise Pfannkuchen are as big as a pan think more crepe but they are not as thin as crepe. Actually lemme see if I can find a good picture...

Found one! Okay so these fuckers are Pfannkuchen you can eat them sweet (aka with jam or Nutella or cinnamon and sugar or hell even Apple sauce) or savory (my family sometimes eats them with Bolognese, my friends family puts a mushrooms sauce or hell even fucking salad in these you can really pick everything you want, think if them as a wrap like thingy). I personally prefer them sweet, I love pancakes with strawberry jam that's goated food my friend. Also do you have some pancakes leftover? Nor prob! Just roll them up like in the picture and cut them into slices and you have Flädle which you can put in your Maultaschensuppe, nothing wasted here 💪🫡 (you can also just eat them with soup no need for the maultaschen if you don't have them or like them but I like combining it).

Wow that got long real fucking quick... I can talk ages about food lmao this is certainly not every dish in my repertoire but I will stop myself here. If you want more info just hit me up! This doesn't just go for German food either anything else like language or culture I'm happy to talk about (though it might be limited to regional stuff).

I could make another massive paragraph about German swears but this is already getting pretty damn long so this might be a thing for later 😆

Anyways thank you for indulging my curiosity Mimi 💜✨

Mitsuru is half German?! Does he speak German? Has he been to Germany? I need deets Mimi, you can't drop a half japanase/half german oc on me like that without preperation 😭 I need to know everything.

& Then for Mitsuru ! I'm not overly familiar if at all, with European, German, specifically, Berlin Culture. So pardon the over all clumsiness, but here are some of my thoughts!

╰┈➤ German from his mother side, who raised him alone for quite sometime up until her unexpected death, he moved to Japan to live with his dad and his half-siblings then after. ⸻  so! He can speak Standard German and Berlin metrolect fluently ! ( he moved to Japan when he was 10 y.o! )

╰┈➤ His accent softened over the years but every now and again you can still really tell Japanese isn't his mother tongue, even in his adulthood! People also often assume he can speak English, he cannot . . . ( Yamantaka is the one that can fluently speak English. )

╰┈➤ He rarely visits Germany and I like to think he actually prefers German food as well . . . he misses his mom.

╰┈➤ When he's really, really angry with you, he reverts back to German . . . Yamantaka & Ikuo picked up what those meant over time and they are def. getting cussed out.

[oumaheroes]

Headcanon- On England and accents

Personally, I see England as a very proud little bastard. Language is the voice of a people, and the world speaking English is something I think he is very, very proud of. I've read a lot of things in the fandom (especially the older fandom of 2009-2013) of England hating America's butchering of his language and how he thinks his is the only one that is right, but I personally don't see this (although I do think he thinks that his accents and dialects are the nicest out of the lot).

What I see, is that England is very very excited by the diversifying and changing of English across the globe. As a young nation collected into the Roman empire and made to speak Latin, England knows what it feels like to have another's language in your throat, choking your own history away. But he also saw what happened to Latin, how it grew and morphed and changed into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian (British Latin, for a time) and many more to become so many new things. Shaped by new nations, yes, flavoured with their own individual history but born from Rome- an ever changing, constant reminder of his culture and impact on the world.

Maybe this isn't something England has consciously thought through, but I think he has always wanted to emulate that success, to prove himself as something more than the backwater country that he was seen as for so many centuries, falling to the shadow of the rest of Europe’s, and especially France’s, rise.

English spreading and morphing like Latin did, to England, feels like he's left his mark on the world and he's enjoying watching these Englishes change alongside his own. (American English, for example, has kept a lot of features, both phonetical and lexical, that British English has lost). He can walk the globe and hear himself and his people in far-flung markets and towns, hear how his language has infiltrated and slipped between the cracks of culture to become something new and I think this gives him great satisfaction.

His language, the one that was once considered so ugly, cumbersome and brutish that it developed registers of formality and academia with English origin words at the bottom, that was cast off and unspoken by his kings for centuries, that was scorned as so unintelligent and clunky that words were borrowed from other ‘better’ languages to explain a thing that already had an English equivalent, this language now stalks the globe, haunts and influences the internet, shouts across the skies as the voice of aviation, and whispers into the homes of millions through media made by English speaking nations- I think this really does please him no end.

I do think that what England doesn't like, regarding different accents of English, are his own accents now being affected and influenced by American English. This comes with a bite of reminder of Latin, of his own ways and history being subsumed by something bigger and more influential and this is what he gets grumpy about, more than anything else.

……….

Notes:

Obviously, this is a headcanon of a fiction character and his feelings, but the development of the English language is one that I find endlessly fascinating. A book I recommend in particular is ‘The History of the English Language’ by Baugh and Cable- I have the 6th edition- and which goes into a lot more detail about the points I mentioned above. For a bit more explanation though:

‘That was cast off and unspoken by his kings for centuries’:

After the Normal invasion in 1066, the rulers and nobility of England were, you guessed it, Norman French. These people took Norman French partners, had Norman French friends, and generally continued life in England as they did back home. Their servants were often the English-speaking populations, and thus resulted in a wonderful splitting of register in regards to English synonyms and speech.

The French nobility ate ‘beef’, and the English people looked after the ‘cows’, etc. Different words developed and stuck concerning who used them.

‘That words were borrowed from other ‘better’ languages to explain a thing that already had an English equivalent’

Think of all the wonderful synonyms that English has. Is something hard, or difficult? Are you sick, or are you diseased? Is someone smart, or intelligent? The more polite you go or the more academic you sound, the more likely it is that the words are French. Above this, the words are likely Latin, or Greek. English words that stuck around were for the unchanging things, the things that the everyday people used and knew. Ground, death, smell, water, child, etc. But again, we have ‘fancier’ equivalents to all of these things- terrain, mortality, odour, liquid, infant.

Etymology of words tells the history of where they come from and why they’re there, and the English language is like a library of stories all tucked away into the words we use.

(Okay I could literally talk about this all day so I will restrain myself and stop here before I bore you all to tears)

[gisellelx]

Consider this ask a general prompt for any nerding you would like to do for us re: linguistic thoughts about various Cullens. Also: any particular headcanons of how they've influenced each other's speech in general? (I was going to say re: Edward emulating Carlisle but that might not be the most interesting example)

Okay commence much belated nerding out. Relevant post.

Under a cut because sorry, I went to town here. tl;dr--the Cullens sound different to each other, and their backgrounds and relationships have affected the way they sound over time. But they all can sound exactly how they need to any time they need to.

Here are two useful things we know about why people do or do not change the way they talk.

Communities of practice: this is a concept which comes from education but which has gotten adopted in several adjacent fields, including sociology and linguistics. Basically, the idea is, the way you talk will reflect the kinds of relationships you want to have with people around you, and how you want to draw lines separating your group from other groups. My easiest-to-understand example of this is that my friends from college athletic bands had some terms and inside practices which arose because of our shared experience of playing in those bands. We were in band twenty years ago, but if you're having drinks with a few other bandos and leave the bar, someone will go "ohhhhh see ya!" like the cheer we yell when someone gets put in the penalty box at a hockey game.

Convergence and accommodation: Speakers often try to sound like people they want to connect with in more than just practices and inside jokes. The more you want to connect with someone (combined with your personality), the more likely you are to adopt their style of speaking. This is in the short term, which is accommodation (you start to speak more slowly because the person you're speaking with speaks more slowly) or dialect convergence (over time your whole way of sounding starts to shift toward other people's.) Some evidence that extroverts do this faster, but it also depends on how desirable the connection is.

Convergence is probably more influential for the Cullens than CoP, although I imagine there are some CoP kinds of things that happen to vampires more broadly and the Cullens specifically. In particular, I suspect (and write) that the Cullens have lots of euphemisms for things: they talk about "mistakes" to avoid talking about murder, about "Royce" and "Charles" to avoid uttering the word rape, Edward's rebellion is called The Time or Edward's Sojourn (that's Carlisle).

The bigger question is, how would they sound and how would they naturally converge (or not!) based on their personalities and relationship.

So. You have the Cullens. Kind of a rough-and-tumble rundown of their varieties:

Carlisle: I headcanon Boston Brahmin . In the 1700s, the London accent was /r/-full, so Carlisle would've arrived to the US sounding more like a current-day American speaker than we associate now with British English (received pronunciation usually being the exported one). He would've hobknobbed with the educated elite on the eastern seaboard and picked up what they sounded like at the time. He loves being American--this is where he found his purpose and his family. So shifting toward that accent makes sense for him.

Esme: Lower middle class US midlands. The central Ohio accent is often perceived to be extremely neutral. It's not--there are some truly funky features--but people think it is, so there's not much reason to move away from it. She might have tried her hand at a transatlantic accent, but she slides back into her middle Ohioan often, because it's easy and it's not usually considered "bad" anywhere. She makes fun of the way Carlisle says rather. He teases her about how bag and egg are the same sound for her.

Edward: Northern Cities Shifted Chicago. If you've ever heard a Chicagoan pronounce the word Chicago, well, there you go. I realize this probably fucks with the gentle, sexy attempt-at-American accent delivered by Robert Pattinson. Edward was born too late to have transatlantic imposed on him, and so his accent was probably left to be.

Rosalie: Another reason they hate each other--they sound alike. Rosalie is on the other side of the Great Lakes, was born not that much later, and Rochester is another major source of Northern Cities Shift. So she and Edward sound...pretty much the same. They're both upper middle class/upper class and are picking up the prestige version of the NCVS.

Emmett: Appalachian. Pretty much enough said. The post I linked at the outset lays out a few things from Appalachian speech.

Jasper: East Texan. Texas is not general southern--there are a handful of features which make it notably different than say, Louisiana.

Alice: Upper class Mississippian. Now, this is somewhat indistinguishable to a northern American or non-American ear--maaaaybe you notice sort of "high class southern" but it's subtle. She's got a bunch of features of southern English, though, but the more prestigious versions of them. Not quite To Kill a Mockingbird--that's Alabama-- but that's not a bad place to start to hear it.

So that's where they're starting. Where do they end up?

Carlisle: sticks with Brahmin. The moment he arrived in the US means a lot to him, and so he defaults back to that first major change, when he adopted an American identity.

Edward: Probably goes without saying, but he sounds exactly like Carlisle. He shifted his default as soon as he was able, and his intense adoration of Carlisle means he converged on Carlisle's variety. He also picks up Carlisle's idiolect--particular phrases and verbal tics--again, because he wants to be like Carlisle in any way he can. "Oh my God will you quit; you're not Carlisle" is a phrase that gets uttered in annoyance often.

Esme: Keeps her central Ohio accent. She loves Carlisle more than anything, but there's nothing particularly stigmatized about her variety. So she keeps it. She's happy to be her own person.

Rosalie: Does not wish to be a part of this family and regrets her change. She certainly does not converge toward Carlisle's style, but the pressure of sounding anything like Edward, even if his dialect has shifted, is also grating. She brings her NCVS a little more toward Esme's Ohio variety over time.

Emmett: This man killed a bear* with his bare hands in the Smoky Mountains. He's real proud of being a mountain man and he sounds like one. He also has a healthy disdain for the upper-crustness of Carlisle and Rosalie and Edward and is determined to bring them back down to earth. Over time the most obvious parts of his dialect do fade--he doesn't use "a huntin'" very often, for instance. But he can shift into full on Appalachian on a dime and often does. It's fun for him.

Jasper: Stays East Texas. He's very proud of his cowboy identity, and is the least connected to the Cullen family as a community of practice. He can sound like whatever his paperwork says he does, but in default, he's still got the same Houston variety he's had for two centuries. I don't love darlin' darlin' Jasper in fic but I chalk that more up to writers learning how to have a light hand with dialect rather than it being something he fundamentally wouldn't say--he absolutely does say it. Also says bless your heart.

Alice: Biloxi is not that far from Houston, and she and Jasper, who are wound around each other, pick up each other's verbal mannerisms and reinforce subtle aspects of each other's gulf of Mexico accents. She both mellows Jasper's Texas English while also moving her own English toward his.

So in "default" mode, the Cullens sound a little different to each other. But there's no way a Twipire would somehow be unable to move perfectly and seamlessly between multiple English accents as they needed to. There's no reason to think that any of them showed up at Forks High School sounding like anything but exactly what their paperwork said their dialectal background ought to be.

*by the way this would've been a black bear, not a grizzly. I'm sure he loves grizzlies, but he wasn't fighting a grizzly in the Smokies. He probably got tangled up with a really mad mama bear. This is a pet peeve of mine, I admit.

[lexosaurus]

Oh boy, more of an excuse to be nerdy! Thank you for being complicit in this moment 🙏

So first, I actually did what I should have done before and said "Fenton" in a bunch of different contexts, and there were several cases where I did drop the /t/—specifically when I was talking quickly and/or offhandedly—which is pretty neat. Whether or not I glottal stopped or elongated the /n/ like a goddamn heathen really depended. This will tie into my overall thesis here of "humans are lazy."

So when I say shit like "easier," the reason I put it in quotes like that is because I'm talking wayyyy more broadly, which I probs should have specified. Humans are inherently lazy when we talk and if, collectively, we find one phoneme "easier" to say than the other, then collectively we'll swap. We can see this with /s/ vs /z/ pronunciations at the ends of words. If there's a vowel right before the plural ending, like in "bees" or "ideas" we will collectively replace the /s/ with a /z/ because it's "easier" for us to keep our voice on for the end of the word, than it is for us to switch it off for only one phoneme that doesn't change the inherent meaning of the word (say "bees" and "boats" to hear the /s/ vs /z/). But since we're lazy talkers, we'll go one step further and will devoice the /z/ as we're saying it, because we've finished the word, so what's the point of following through to the end?

In the case where if we say the /n/ then that sets us up to pronounce the /t/ off the bat and there's no additional tongue movement we need to make to get to the alveolar ridge, phonologically, that's pretty damn "easy" for our lazy mouths to commit to. Maybe still a bit begrudgingly, as /t/ is definitely one of the first phonemes to get swapped with something else or dropped entirely because it's a "hard" phoneme to pronounce compared to the others, but it's "easy" enough that there's not an overwhelming pull for a collective action to switch or drop/swap it like we see in words like "atom" vs "atomic" (/t/ turns to a tap) or at the end of "cat" (/t/ turns to a glottal stop or an unreleased t). We think, okay, the /ɛ/ in "fenton" is a mid vowel pronounced at the front of our mouth, so we're really really close to that /n/ anyway so we might as well just pronounce it, and then oh look we're all set up for that /t/ at the start of the next syllable, so we'll go ahead and pronounce it too. Barely extra work. Of course, there are totally people who will drop the /t/, because as I said /t/ is annoying to pronounce even on a good day, but collectively it's maybe not as popular as other allophones.

So, I got a little curious about the origins of the southern accent in general and which language you guys came into contact with to kickstart it, and like any other civil human being I turned to Wikipedia. In short, much of the Southern American English drawl originates from Scots-Irish immigration to the Southern US in the 17th and 18th century. This also got influenced in the 19th century from some parts of upper class London and West Africa via African-American slavery. As it happens when two dialects interact, often they smush together to create a new dialect via children (yes, I mean actual human children who grow up and pass the new lingo down to their kids). The South was directly affected after the American Civil War when the southern economy had a giant upheaval, and many southern farmers with that blended accent moved to Texas to start a new life. Those people came into contact with south midland US communities and Hispanic communities to make a new dialect baby, which became the stereotypical Texas accent.

Okay, I have to go fold laundry, but I hope this was fun to read!

[g3nosarchive]

i've noticed a bunch of people are still trying to argue w me over the aave links and stuff i had in the beginning of that post, and in general still confused when i, or others say, don't use aave if you aren't black.

before i start here are some links for y'all who ignore these type of posts

a tumblr post i found that does a great job of explaining

another list of aave

powerpoint on understanding what aave is

regarding that post i linked of a twitter thread with black users calling some aave words slurs - i know it's sarcasm/ satire. no those words are not slurs (w the way tiktok and twitter ran them through the mud they might as well be) but they are aave words. if the post isn't serious enough for you, there's a good 3 links w a lot of information that could help you instead right above it. stop dming me / sending me asks on it and check the original post where i even added an explanation. the rest is going under a cut

1. if you're a foreigner (to america) i'm not expecting you to know not to use aave because you weren't born over here and you might think it's just slang or an informal way of speaking. it is not. aave is more than a dialect - it's actually considered a language and has been around for centuries. thinking of it as merely informal language is erasing the history behind it and adding to the stereotype that black people who speak differently are dumb and uneducated (and that black people who speak "white" or formally are not black enough).

grammatically, aave is correct (there's many studies and articles on this), and like any other language it has it's own rules to follow. regardless of whether you can use aave correctly or not though, now that you do know you have to make an effort to reduce/ stop your use of it. ask yourself, why do you use aave? in what situations do you use aave? what message are you trying to give by using aave? how are you trying to portray yourself by using these words?

if you are using aave to come off as aggressive, cool, hyper-masculine, to apply pressure, when you are angry or have lost control of your emotion, or when you want to scare someone, that in itself is a micro-aggression and prejudice (a step away from racism tbh).

what you are saying is that you have some deep-seated stereotype/prejudicial thought in you - black people only come off as that aggressive, threatening type of people. your anger can only be expressed as 'angry enough' when you say it like a black person does. when you speak, act, or present yourself in a way that black people do, you are taken either as a serious threat, a source of fear, or somebody who seems so cool and different and special.

do you see the problem with that train of thought? thoughts like this contribute to police brutality, medical ignorance towards the issues of black people/ doctors and doctors-to-be thinking black people can't feel pain, the belief that black women are either apathetic or angry with no in-between, the demonization of black culture, the hyper-masculinity forced onto both black men and women (especially including trans women) and a lot more.

2. the difference between using a southern-american way of speaking vs aave. many make the mistake of thinking being from the south means you are automatically using aave. that is wrong; while it seems hard to differentiate between the two, they are not the same thing and have a noticeable difference. the two do share some words between each other, like 'y'all' or 'ain't' but what you have to remember is not all aave is part of 'speaking south'.

southern accents typically draw out their words so if you're from the south, just speak like you normally do and avoid picking up terms you hear solely from black friends/ online (especially twitter or tiktok). I'm not the best on explaining this particular issue so here's this tumblr post.

in addition to this, before you start asking your black friends or your random token smart black blog, go to google. so many things could be fixed with a simple search on the internet. if you can say that you went on google, you checked articles, you checked twitter threads and hell even tumblr posts and still don't understand, that's the only time you should be asking questions (asking a minority group to educate u on issues specific to them is a micro-aggression and you shouldn't be asking anyone who has made it clear they don't like being your personal wikipedia; black people are not your reusable resource.)

3. you were born in the hood or around black people... and? you still need to make an effort to reduce your use of aave. because people think it's okay for them to talk like black people, you get this ridiculous number of non-black poc thinking they have some pass to start saying our slurs. you have people thinking aave wasn't even created by black people, that hispanic groups and nb drag queens and nb gay men created these words (when in reality, non-black gay men are notorious for putting on a blaccent or acting like black women to solidify their break from socially acceptive masculinity but otherwise to keep a sassy, harsh way of speaking. black* LGBT used their rightful terms and had it stolen, butchered, and the history behind it nearly rewritten by non-blacks. while hispanic ethnic groups and black people have been forced into the same run-down communities as each other, we do not have the same struggle, and yet some think they can be us and not actually be us, own what is ours and not even know where it came from and etc, leading to cultural appropriation from hairstyles to our words).

4. when somebody calls you out for using aave as a non-black person please don't throw in some excuse in there. just apologize, thank them for letting you know and subsequently educate yourself on any other words you might be using that's considered aave. saying it's hard to correct is unnecessary; nobody needs to know all that. just show that you understand and change your actions.

if you are non black and reading this thinking 'i don't do any of that' read it over. there is a high chance you do but you wanna pick and choose which post applies to you or not because nobody's called you out yet, or you're different.

ok to reblog, nonblack people stay silent

[diversemymedia]

I'm writing a detective and assistant "Sherlock Holmes-style" gay couple short story/book mystery series set in Chicago which means I have to write diversely and that's getting too much for me. I'm trying to look up and read things from Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Indian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, African-Americans, etc to make my stories more realistic. It's just so hard and making my head swirl to think about how many beta and sensitivity readers I'll need to make these stories turn out right and authentic to the point it'll cost too much to do. There are so many tropes to avoid and "don't do" lists that it feels exhausting reading on writing-with-color. Can I just not give characters races in my short stories and books or is that too much of a cop-out? Why is this so hard for a writer who is a poc?

firstly, I just wanna say that no one's perfect and all of our journeys are different. and honestly, I don't know if you want to hear this but i would probably recommend taking it easy a bit. if you're becoming too anxious about making mistakes that might offend people, it's probably just best to stick to your guns and stick with what you know.

i would ask the time period in which your story takes place because if it were set in earlier times, I could understand why you might be so inclined to look up things related to said groups, culturally. but at the same time, i just want to say that it's okay to write characters just like you would any other. I was told by a user once that "not all tropes are bad tropes" and ever since then, I started writing a lot more freely because I was just like you--terrified to make mistakes and i thought all tropes were inherently bad, but that's not always the case. For instance, most white women might hate the damsel in distress trope, but i've seen some black women sort of like the idea of having to be protected and rescued by characters who adore them because it's a refreshing take. but that being said, there's also nothing wrong with black women being badasses who know hand-to-hand combat. i have female characters (3 black, 1 east asian, 1 mena, all diff age groups) who I wanted to write them so perfectly to avoid them from coming off unlikeable but it's set in an apocalypse, and realistically, people will change, people will kill, people will get angry, people will be cowards, and bad things will happen to them. now, i do try to handle those types of things delicately and try not to go overboard (for instance i cannot kill off the only character of said race. something about that just seems wrong to me) but it's all about learning, and sometimes, it really is best to stick with what you know and follow your gut. if something feels wrong to you, redact it. im black so clearly, the majority of my characters are black. i also have some nonblack poc but there is also the option of just characters be "poc-coded" (dunno if that term is offensive, if it is, forgive me) such as physical traits and/or dialects. that tends to work for me because a lot people are standoffish and many of my characters are on the go and it doesn't involve a lot of getting familiar with people. so try using the "show, dont tell" method. maybe your characters can be overheard communicating a different language to someone else and that's literally good enough.

I think its also great that you're doing research, but im worried that relying on too much on information might make your characters lack three-dimensionality. For instance, lets say you're writing a character who was born in alabama and you're so afraid of making them come across as violent or poor (i.e. tropes that are often associated with black/brown people) that you avoid any sort of confrontation with this character so you build them up to be this perfect person. they attended an HBCU, were raised in an extremely wealthy family with two parents, they dress really dapper, speak extremely proper, and he's super nice to everyone...and that's it. i mean, there's nothing wrong with it--you avoided the negative tropes and they're a nice character, but there's not really much gradation to them and it makes them less interesting. again, that's just my personal take and some people are okay with that. everyone's different and you cant please everyone. im more than with characters being messy and not so perfect.

you can make mistakes and writing is essentially just writing what you think would make a good story. some things might work, some things might not and i that's okay. i understand that we're also in an extremely critical generation right now but don't let it stop you from making mistakes because it's how we learn. if there happens to be an issue with that you've written just take a mental note of it and avoid it.

not much of a tip, but just some advice. happy writing!

[justanotherghostwriter]

Hi Twin 💛 4, 7, 18, 28 for the ask thing? (:

Hello, darling Twin! =D Thank you for sending these asks in! <3 Hope you're having a good evening.

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

Thiiissss is so hard because I just love food in general and I don't even know where to start with our specific foods... And that's even excluding all the desserts... Okay, because it's cold and I'm craving carbs I'll go with amagwinya/vetkoek/fat cakes. They're basically fried dough balls that you can either put curried mince in (more traditional) or cheese and honey like a scone. As with bunny chows (white bread hollowed out and stuffed with curry) the absolute best curries in your vetkoek (or bunny) are done by a Cape Malay or Indian person. Takes it straight from good to kasjlajsajn. (I prefer Indian over Cape Malay myself, but I think that's because my bff's family has fed me most. Nothing, I maintain, beats Aunty M's biryani. Nothing.)

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

So my home language is definitely very English, but schools make you take a second language from the third grade, and (brag alert) I got pretty good at Afrikaans, to the point where I was taking it at home language level for a few years in high school. (I dropped down to second language level because I wanted more time to read English fiction books instead of doing homework. Yay, lazy teenagedom!) So I'll answer this with Afrikaans words, even though it's not technically a native language of mine, really.

As with many languages, there are just some words that work best in a certain language. They don't translate over with the same oomph. Here are three from Afrikaans I adore:

Nogal (that g is a voiceless velar fricative similar to the sound in 'loch')- I use this word all the time because it's great. It loosely translates to 'moreover/what is more'/even', but it also means so much more than 'moreover'. It's 'moreover', but with sarcasm dripping off it. You'd use nogal in a sentence like, "She insulted my art style and then asked me to do her a painting for her business. And for free, nogal." Or, "The shops were out of my favourite chocolate, only had expired milk and then nogal tried to charge me double for the apples."

Sommer - Translated to 'just' or 'simply', but also with more pizazz. You throw it into sentences that don't really need it, just for the extra padding of context to your mood. For example, instead of saying, "You were late, and so I just sat there," you'd say, "You were late, so I was sommer just sitting there." Or, to humble brag about your meal: "Oh, this dish? Nah, man, I sommer threw this together chop chop."

Ja nee/no - Every one of us says 'ja' like Americans use 'yeah'. Doesn't matter what your home language is, when you're saying yes informally, you use Afrikaans 'ja'. I don't know why; it just is. And we really love using this phrase that translates to "yes, no". Some people use the Afrikaans no (nee), some use the English no, but it's in everyday speech. "Do you feel like a movie tonight?" "Ja, no, that would be lekker." (Throwing that lekker in as a sneaky 3.5. Because it's a lot more than just 'nice'.)

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

Vocabulary wise, not really. The country has a pretty standard vocabulary that is used all over. There are niche vocabs in cultural/language groups that I'm not part of, and The Young People have the strangest slang sometimes (that is, more often than not, picked up from overseas. Thanks, TikTok, I guess for making me squint face at people calling me 'the plug' for a while until somebody explained that to me.) Pronunciation wise, yes. Despite never living anywhere else in my life, I apparently sound American to people. British to a few (simply because we do pronounce and spell things the way our Colonial Mother taught us, thanks very much). There are about nine different accents in this country and I have none of them. And nobody can figure out why. Since my sister has also been told she 'sounds foreign', I think it might have to do with our upbringing? Or we really did just... watch that much TV...

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

Not too many lakes (actually... do we have any? We have dams...), but a fair few rivers (only a handful or so of big ones, but there are little ones all over) and quite a lot of mountains. I don't think I have a favourite river, but the Drakensberg (lit 'dragon mountains'. We're dramatic) are my fave mountains, simply because they're stunning and let me see snow for the first time in my life a few years ago.

[raid3r-r4bbit]

Okay, I feel the need to point out that Gage's accent is not remotely Cajun.

TLDR: Cause this is RREEAAAly long:

I do love the idea of him being Cajun and I think it would suit a charcter like him, and I agree on him being mixed/not white. Not only does he have textured hair (when there are plenty of other hair styles they could have used made including two other mohawks for male player characters.) But he's also got some distincly non-white facial features. Personally, I dont think his accent is actually all that important to what race he is but ill bring that back up later. But I actually think Gage is arabic/middle eastern.

I also want to make it clear the majority of this rant is not to disprove his race or anything. Again, I dont think he's white, and I'm also very bothered when people give him whispy white boy hair, this is (mostly) not about his race it's about his accent and where he's from. He could be Cajun and have had grown up somewhere else.

Here'sNOw a few videos of different Cerole and Cajun accents:

New Orleans/ Creole examples.

Cajun accent example.

Now, my roommate is from LA (the state, im bad at spelling).

I was raised in WV, born in FL, and my mom and most of my family is from NC. I also have a lot of family in FL and SC. So I have a lot of familiarity of southern dialects. I'm not an expert, though, and im going off various examples and my own experience.

Now here's a few other examples of other southern accents and dialects that i think suit his speech pattern a little better:

Kentucky accent example.

I think this one is a little twangy (not that im one to talk I'm twangy as shit), but overall I like this one. The way he rounds his 'ar' in farm and the general speed and pattern of the way he talks matches well.

Alabama exapmle(s).

This one is a good example of a mix between the general american accent mixed with an alabama accent, but also a more intese/extreme version of the accent. In this one, if you slow him down a lot the pattern of his speech matches well, maybe not the dialect, also the way he says "could" in particular, also his "thats it!"

he turns the "it" into "eyuht" which if you just add an "sh" its... "Sheyut."

It could also be an appilachian accent but I dont want to project.

The main thing here is Gage speaks with an accent that is rhotic, elongates vowels, ever so slightly twangy, and still pronounces t's. He also cuts off the ends of words ending in "ing" which turn them in "runnin'". He doesnt use a lot of slang, and while he does say ain't once or twice, he's actually very articulate; Saying would not, instead of wouldn't. (He doesnt always do this, but again, people with heavy southern accents rarely do it unless we actually mean to. I think the only time I do it is when my cat tries to do something he's not supposed to and I tell him "DO NOT". other wise, I have actually noticed that he clearly seperates these in normal coversation multiple times.

Now: Let's take a look at Irl and in game maps for comparision:

Here I've highlighted the two individual states that I feel have an accent that most closely resembles his, Alabama and Kentucky. This is a general map that highlights common and noticebale accents in the US, today.

Here are those two highlights again, this time with the 13 commonweaths. I've also Highlighted where F04 takes place. Now, i will say, on a map, Nukaworld is more inland, and that distance and real time walking is a bit skewed from IRL, But considering where Boston is, I dont doubt that Nukaworld is still in Massachusetts.

If you're not in the US, you may not realize just how big the US is. Most states are around the same size as individual Countries from the UK/Europe and Pretty much the rest of the world other than India, China, Canada, and Russia; and even then Texas and Alaska are absolutley MASSIVE.

(to be fair, working cars are a thing that exsists in the fallout universe. while we see some in game examples of flying vehicles and boats we dont see any cars because Bethesda doesnt want to make them. They've said that, and thats the only reason we walk everywhere. But most of the Caravans we see in every game use Brhamins and travel by foot, so I'm going based off the knowleged that most caravans/companies travel this way. It's probably quiter and means you're less likely to attract attention, anyways.)

This means that walking and trading would be difficult accross large spans. We know he spent some time in a caravan and also doing mercenary work before becoming a raider at 16. While we dont have any information about the Gulf CW or and very very very little information about the SE CW we have a good bit of really early info about the ES CW and a lot about the Colombian CW.

Im not great at making maps or theoretica trading routes, but I can tell you that the LA (state) part of the gulf coast likely has trade routes leading west, into areas that are more landlocked, to trade fish and seafood for things like wheat. on the east side of the Gulf CW they're likely to trade north, for the same reason.

We know regardless that for him to have gotten to Nukaworld, he'd have to travel North East quite aways. Not only that, but raiders in the West are far less organized than in the East.

On the West coast they're less 'gang' like and more tribe like, and often resort to ambushing or stealing at night. On the East, because more people live in smaller pocket communities and farms, and because cities make good cover for hide outs we see more traps, baitings or full on detroying settlements and taking them over.

This also means that the raiding style he described expericing on his parents farm is inconsistant with what would have happened had he lived in a more west location.

Now, curball so I can acctually end this rant.

Here's a map of the Most commonly spoken non English or Sapanish languages in America by state, I bring this up because of immigration from other countries in the us. If you'll notice, Tennsee, which is in between Kentucky and Alabama, has Arabic as it's most commononly spoken non English or Spanish language. (So does wv but again, im trying not to project.)

It's also in the right general area for trade routes and mercenary groups to travel North East.

SO, in conclusion; based soley off of his accent and back story, I posit you: Gage is arabic (or partially) and is from the East Central Commonwealth, around the kentucky tennesee area.

Again, this is all just my speculation, and you're free to have whatever opinion or head cannons you want. World buildingis something I really love, and while Bethesda does a good job (IMO) most of the time, a good bit of the time they either dont talk about it (the fucking eyepatch) or they leave it intentionally really vauge. I'm not hating on anyone who likes to think he's cajun, thats fine. (I actually do like it a lot, my little autistic brain just dosen't let me enjoy things.)

this feels like such a super petty pet peeve but it bothers me that

so many people don't seem to notice Gage has textured hair? Like, not just a whispy hawk, he's using a hair style that's obviously curly/textured and idk it bothers me a lot when there are so many mods (and sometimes fan art) that kind of whitewashes him? I'm not sure if that's the right word but it's like... a thing

disclaimer is that i'm white as hell and I've spent a lot of time looking at Gage to reference and study for art stuff and when I went to look at fan art or mods for him it's like, one of the big things that always gets changed?

it just stuck out to me immediately and it's something i see a lot but I don't know how to really talk about it or if it's even worth talking about tbh

[writerthreads]

How to write POC characters, by a POC writer

by Writerthreads on Instagram

This post will be our second attempt at doing this topic. This time will be more of a discussion where I don't tell you what to do but allow you to think about how you can write about a POC character. I will be tackling these four questions: 

What makes someone their race/ethnicity?

How should writers mention their race/ethnicity?

How can you avoid whitewashing POC characters?

Should White authors write POC main characters?

It is important to note that I am a teenager who’s from Hong Kong (and lives there right now), so I don't experience racism towards myself as I'm not an ethnic minority where I live. My experiences as an East Asian will be different from other POC. My opinion is my personal opinion, which doesn't speak for everybody in my community, let alone the entire POC/BIPOC community.

What makes someone their race?

Race: "A grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society."

Ethnicity: "a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups such as a common set of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area." 

Someone of a particular ethnicity might have specific habits, eat or not eat particular kinds of foods, take part in unique customs or speak a certain language, amongst other characteristics that "makes someone a certain ethnicity". 

However, just because they don't do any of these things doesn't immediately make them not a part of that ethnicity. I know many friends who are from Hong Kong but can't speak or understand our native dialect or speak Mandarin fluently. This doesn't make them less of a Hongkonger. 

When you're writing a POC character, you can talk about ethnic-specific things the character does, for example, celebrate holidays like Diwali or Lunar New Year. It is essential to know the customs that come with these festivals and how they differ between regions or countries. 

Universal celebrations, such as birthdays, can also have different traditions. For example, my mum's region-specific culture in China dictates that people eat noodles on their birthdays because noodles are long and represent long lives.

How should writers mention their race/ethnicity?

To me, race is literally just the physical characteristics of a person. However, writers are often criticised for describing too little of a POC character's physical features or not mentioning that they're a particular race, making the character appear "too white". Some authors have also been criticised for failing to describe BIPOC characters adequately, for example calling darker-skinned BIPOC characters "tan". 

Commenters on our Instagram account have pointed out that skin tones shouldn't be described with edible words, such as "caramel", "chocolate" or "coffee". However, it is fine for hair colours. 

I think the author should explicitly point out a character's race or, at a bare minimum, describe them appropriately. The writer can also choose to use specific last names that help readers identify the particular character's ethnicity. There can also be variations of a surname that point out where the character is from. For example, "Li" is Mandarin Chinese, "Lee" is Cantonese, Lê is Vietnamese, and the surname is transliterated to Lai or Lye in Central and South China.

Sometimes, POC characters are portrayed with stereotypes. I guess stereotypes all start with an element of truth, but they don’t represent the entirety of the stereotyped group. For example, my year group’s further pure maths school is entirely asian people (with the exception of three biracial kids and one who dropped out). There is an issue of where a personality trait becomes a stereotype, and it up to the writer and the beta readers to decide. Personally, I would love to see characters who break stereotypes, but I understand if POC characters have a stereotypical trait as long as it is portrayed well.

How can you avoid whitewashing POC characters?

Sometimes when I read a story about a POC main character, they don’t seem to be of that race or ethnicity apart from their physical features. They act like every other person in their community, and that’s totally okay. But as a person of colour, I think it’ll be nice to have different kinds of POC characters, some who might switch between languages or some who don’t know how to speak their mother tongue. 

If there’s a character who is presented as “too white”, why are they “too white”? Justify their “whiteness” with external or internal factors, which could be the fact that they really want to fit in or they have just been brought up in an environment where their culture isn’t really represented. Explain to the readers how these factors have impacted their perception of their culture and their identity, and identify problems with oppression and the necessity of representation.

I really liked the portrayal of Asian-American/Canadian families in Fresh Off the Boat and Kim’s Convenience, if you’re interested, you can watch them on Netflix or another streaming service. I think TV shows are better as there are different stories within the storyline as opposed to one main fictional plot with subplots in books and movies.

Should White authors write POC main characters?

As far as I’m aware, there’re two different points of view: “poor representation is better than no representation”, and “poor representation is more harmful”.

People who think that poor representation is better seem to think that having representation ensures that non-POC readers are exposed to more diverse castings, even though they are inaccurately portrayed. If these books are turned into TV shows or movies, POC actors will be used, which benefits them. However, there are more people who think that poor representation is worse because the characters don’t really represent us POC people. 

In my opinion, as long as the portrayal of POC characters aren’t harmful but just not enough, I think it’s OK as long as nobody is misguided about us or any race/ethnicity in particular. If you’re a white author writing POC characters, also run your draft with POC beta readers to make sure what you’re writing is politically correct. Use multiple POC beta readers, because one might find something un-offensive when another might. 

I encourage White authors to write about POC characters but not stories about being a person of colour. This is because they don’t really understand what is is being a person of colour and have to rely on resources that might be inaccurate. They can only offer a limited perspective, and this argument can also be applied to straight people writing LGBTQ+ characters. (I’m straight, confirmed by bi friend)

Before I end this post, I would like to remind you once again that this is purely my opinion, and you are free to disagree with anything if you know what you’re saying. (and you’re not a White person deciding on what’s racist or not) 

[allscalliepsds]

RP GUIDE: TIPS FOR WRITING ITALIANS CHARACTERS!

So, from one Italian roleplayer, check this list for creating credible Italians fictional characters. I don’t know if you’re ever gonna read this post, but let’s try. Aaaand, if it works maybe one day I’ll do a list of italian faceclaims, or italian names and surnames. (Obviously, I’m not used to writing in english. Ignore my mistakes, lol)

• We have very different features. We’re not all tanned, with brown eyes and brown hair. My best friend is pale as hell and blonde like a freaking scandinavian. So we have lighter skin, darker skin, we’re tall, very short, redheads. And we have different cultures here! You can use asian faceclaims, black faceclaims, tunisian faceclaims... your character can have any kind of origin and still have the italian citienzship.

• Food is important. And by saying this I do not only mean that things like pineapple pizza or carbonara with pancetta are unacceptable! I mean that we EAT together. Most of Italians families have lunch together daily, same happens for dinner. Eating means spending time with family and friends. On sundays a lot of families reunite and have lunch with other relatives like grandparents or uncles, without even being on holiday time. We do not need Christmas or Easter to have lunch with relatives. Talking more about food: every place has its own speciliaties, so look for them when creating a character.

• Talking about food, WE DO NOT SHARE PIZZAAAA! Okay, maybe we do, sometimes, but it’s different. I’ve seen a lot of American tv shows or movies where they order just one pizza for four family members. Like, what?? Here in Italy most of the times we have one pizza per person. Because Italian pizza is obviously better and lighter, so you don’t get your belly full just by eating two slices unless you’re 5 y/o.

• We might be spending a lot of time complaining about our country and what doesn’t work, but in reality we are very proud and sometimes a lot patriotic. You know what really gets me super mad? Scrolling tik tok and seeing Americans that call themselves ITALIANS just because their grandma’s uncle was from Salento. No the hell no, that’s not how it works. You’re not Italian you cunt. 

• We’re a little bit a cliché, I gotta give you that. Sometimes more than a little bit. When quarantine/lockdown started here in Italy it was sooo hard finding flour and baking powder at the supermarket. And it’s not just a Super Mario thing: we do actually say mamma mia! But we’re not all the same. Please do not consider always the same kind of relatives: conservative religious parents with that grandma that always cooks a lot of stuff and blablabla. Think out of the box!

• Talking about grandmas: if you wanna follow that cliché of the Italian grandma that cooks and makes you eat until you pass out, it’s fine. You can do this. One of my grandma is like this and even though we have lunch in like four people she’s still gonna cook for an entire army. But if you don’t wanna do that, then don’t. My other grandma does not know how to cook and so she doesn’t that much. It’s fine, no one’s gonna revoke your character’s Italian citizenship if you don’t stick to those basic clichés we’re tired of.

• Please, look for a map. Not every Italian lives by the sea, it isn’t always sunny and hot and you don’t always feel in the right mood for a gelato. The northern part of Italy is colder and there aren’t as much bathing areas. Even if your characters lives or is from Sicily ( which is where I’m from ), it isn’t sure that he’s gonna have the beach next to his house. I’m a lucky person, in jenuary from my balcony I can see the sea on my right and the vulcano Etna covered by snow on my left. But it depends, so choose a city and look for it.

• We have dialects. So, let me try to be clear. Italy is a country divided into 20 regions, okay? Sicily is a region of Italy, Lazio ( where Rome is, to be clear ) is another Italian region. The official language is obviously Italian. So since I’m from Sicily, with a girl from Lazio/Rome I’m gonna speak Italian. But, inside the regions, there are dialects. Since I’m sicilian my dialect is called siciliano, and it’s influenced from all the past invasions. Sicily was conquered by arabs, and arabs also conquered Spain which is why some words in siciliano are similar to spanish words. Even though we have dialects we can understand each other pretty well. Southern dialects are all pretty similar, for example. But I gotta be honest, I don’t understand a single words in northern dialects. If you wanna stick to that grandma cliché I mentioned before, then add the dialect to it. Grandparents speak dialects. Generally speaking, old people speak dialects way more than the younger ones. Unfortunately it’s a culture that is starting to disappear.

• Please, dress properly. You’re never gonna see a true Italian walk out of his own house in his pajamas and with slippers, that only happens in nightmares. We’re classy. And by saying this I do not mean that we dress Dolce&Gabbana and Gucci. We don’t. I mean, rich people do, they’re lucky enough. So you do not need to mention important and expensive brands. We’re not all rich. Or at least I’m not as I wish. Last thing: it’s VersacE, not Versaci.

• Italy is (unfortunately) a pretty religious country. You know, we have the Vatican here. The most common religion here is Christianity. Not everyone practise it, and not everyone goes at the Church every sunday. 

• ROME AND MILAN AREN’T THE ONLY TWO ITALIAN CITIEESSS! I know, they’re the most known, Rome is beautiful and in Milan there’s the fashion week, I get that. But Italy is full of beautiful places. Maybe you don’t wanna choose unknown little towns with less then 3.000 habitants, but be original.

• There isn’t a large representation of Italy outside our country, so you might know very few of how we live here and what our habits are. Let me do just a small list of things:

- At 18 years old you are old enough to take your driving license, your car, and to drink. Obviously do not do everything together, lol. But you can buy alcool at 18 and go to the clubs.

- We kiss. If you’re my friend I’m gonna give you two kisses on the cheeks to say hi and to say goodbye. Even if you’re not my friend but you are with my friends, I’ll do that to be polite. And sometimes It can be pretty boring, but If I’m leaving a room with 12 people I (more or less) know I’m gonna kiss all of those 12 people.

- We have school from monday to saturday, mostly from 8 am to 13 pm. So we do not spend the afternoons at school like Americans do, and we do not have all those extracurricular activities and sports.

- We do not use snapchat anymore, while I know that it’s still a thing somewhere else. And for texting we mostly use Whatsapp and Telegram. Not iMessage because not everyone has an iPhone (they cost a little bit more, here), and neither we use Messanger that much.

- We do study a lot of art, history and literature. They’re not optional subjects. And we really praise our artistic patrimony. You can’t live here and study in Italy and then don’t know how to recognize a piece of art of DaVinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli or Caravaggio. If you’re Italian you know who Dante is and that he wrote The Divine Comedy.

- I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but when we go out (like, at night??) we have this thing of going downtown. So you can go to a restaurant with your friends for dinner or you can go out after dinner and just meet your friends at a square, grab a beer at the nearest bar and sit on a bench or on the stairs of something that faces that square and even stay there all night. It might sound strange, but that’s how it works and in towns where there are a lot of young people or university students those squares and those bars next to them are always full of people. Here’s an example.