#and then using dialectal/regional words as would be natural

[culmaer]

I've been looking for various references to the Cape "snoek horn" (fishmonger's bugle) and came across a story/blog post written phonetically in Kaaps-Afrikaans dialect with English code mixing. certainly worth looking at for anyone interested in Afrikaans and Dutch, to get a sense of what the Cape Town dialect can look like. (the full post is on Jeremy Vearey's blogspot)

but my main reason for sharing, and with my sincere apologies @geschiedenis-en-talen, is the phonetic rendering of the final words of this paragraph :

As djy vannie Tiervlei se lane is en djy kennie vir Boetie Stinkvet tie dan is djy vaak gebore en het annieslaap grootgeword. As djy innie 80's van Tiekie-stage byrie hoek van Balvenie en Connaught verby Bataan se winkel straight orrie sandveld galoeppit dan kô kry djy die begin van dertiendelaan. Nou nerra oppai hoek, daa was Boetie Stinkvet se rooisink disco, smokkie, bioscope, restirant eksekera eksekera.

I stand by what I said, that Afr. "ensovoorts" / Eng. "and so forth" are more commonly said here, but I guess this is proof that this pronunciation does in fact exist at the Cape

with standardised spelling, but maintaining the dialect and code-mixing, the above paragraph would read :

As jy van die Tiervlei se lane is, en jy ken nie vir Boetie Stinkvet nie, dan is jy vaak gebore en het aan-die-slaap grootgeword. As jy in die 80's van Tiekie Stage by die hoek van Balvenie en Connaught verby Bataan se winkel straight oor die sandveld geloop het, dan kom kry jy die begin van Dertiendelaan. Nou net daar op daai hoek, daar was Boetie Stinkvet se rooi sink disco, smokkie [smokkelhuis], bioskoop, restaurant et cetera, et cetera.

English translation :

If you're from the streets of Tiervlei, and you don't know Boetie Stinkvet, then you were born tired and grew up asleep. Back in the 80's, if you walked from Tiekie Stage on the corner of Balvenie Avenue and Connaught Road past Bataan's shop, straight across the sand field, then you'd find yourself at the start of Thirteenth Avenue. Now, right there on that corner was Boetie Stinkvet's red sheetmetal disco, shebeen [speakeasy ?], movie hall, restaurant, et cetera, et cetera.

[leefail]

This is just a mini info dump from an Arab batfamily fan because I find Damian calling his siblings Akhi... adorable (for me as a native speaker watching a writer use Arab words) and, not painful, just... itchy, it URGES me to make a pptx with 300 slides and just? Talk about Arabic?

So... أخي, Akhi, Brother.

It's not incorrect. The word is used in the right place and delivers its intended meaning. Other Arab speakers might not find a problem with it. They'd feel odd like I did but will likely go "eh" and carry on. But I'm an Arabic enthusiast, so...

Like with every language with geographically widespread users, the Arabic tongue kind of- deviated from its roots. The language has naturally branched out into so many dialects I myself can't keep track of.

Arabs from different regions can understand each other. They use the same words but for different purposes and with different pronunciations.

The original root language that holds them all (Quranic Arabic) was simplified into an easier, standard version that is used for formal speeches and as a communication bridge (seeing that you can't, say, translate something to Arabic and say it's for all Arabs if you use a certain dialect. Because an Arabic dialect is an identity at this point, tell me somebody is Syrian, and I know them already)

Now, with the fun part.

See, no Arab calls any sibling of theirs Akhi, I myself would burst laughing if mine did.

Yakhoi يَخوي (nonstandard, everyday Arabic for o, brother) , maybe, if I'm calling a stranger from the streets or an offender I'm going to give a piece of my mind.

Or, hold your breaths, my brother is crying, and the lights are out and I NEED to use the tenderest, most loving, most adoring, most revering tone I could muster so he just knows he is loved and family. Y'know? This specific situation.

And other Arabs might just say, no, I use it when, I use it when, I don't use it, etc.

The point is, nobody will mention Akhi. Because it's a Standard Arabic word, a formal word, and a word used in translated texts and stories when a foreign character we don't consider part of us call their brother. It's weird, it's devoid of emotions, and it's like watching a robot trying to be emotional, but it's a translated text. That's what translated texts use, and it's fine.

It is fine, Standard Arabic has been used for stories so much that nobody questions its influence on a character's characterisation.

I'm not saying Standard Arabic shouldn't be used for story writing, quite the opposite, in fact. I'm just saying that if Arabic is used to represent an Arab, its usage should also consider an everyday Arab experience and manners.

Now to Damian.

Akhi is robotic. Damian's personality does allow him to fall under that category. If for his well refined manners and polite, formal speech.

But even the King wouldn't call his brother Akhi.

He'd call him by his name. For my community (and most, I'm sure) siblings are called by their names, and if we look up historic Quranic (Root) Arabic speakers, they, too, call their siblings by their name. Yes, even the Sultan.

If not by actual name, then either endearing or demeaning names.

Arabs LOVE endearing names, but they're dipped in a pool of honey I don't think Damian would like to dive in.

Talia, on the other hand, would most certainly call Damian Mama. Arab parents call their kids by their own titles. It's the ultimate expression of parental love of all times, in my opinion.

(Don't make Batman call him Papa, though. Pretty sure Damian would malfunction)

-

Well, I said all that, but watching writers include Arabic words in his vocabulary is still sweet. Tt is not even a word, but it's such an Arab thing it's my favourite.

If only I could make subtitles of everyday Arab talk and show you, their speech is heavy with, excuse my English, word softeners, it's like they're talking in a TV drama and not the real world.

Watching Damian adopting it would be interesting :D

[serpentface]

Come On Man.

(Extensive linguistic notes for this 'balls in my mouth' comic under the cut)

The extensive linguistic notes for this "balls in my mouth" comic:

Brakul's first language is the West Rivers dialect of the broader Highlands language, which is part of the Finnic language family. It first split from the Proto-Finnic spoken north of the Viper about a millennia ago with migrants traveling south overseas, and further split into what are now the two native Finnic language groups in Wardin (the Highlands and North Wardi tongues). The Highlands language is a dialect continuum- most neighboring dialects are mutually intelligible, but people from opposite ends of the language's home region would have troubles communicating clearly (though the continuum is not wide enough for any to be fully incomprehensible).

Brakul knew some very, very basic Wardi from occasional contact with Ephenni traders as a teenager, and would later become fluent in the South Wardi dialect as a second language. Wardi is from a wholly separate language family than the Finnic languages with EXTREMELY distant common ancestry, and very different in form and function. Wardi is in many ways less specified and direct, having a smaller variety of individual words to communicate emotional/sensory states and instead imparting many layers of meaning to the same words in different contexts, which Brakul sometimes finds difficult and irritating to navigate. This is one of a number of reasons he often expresses himself more fully in his mother tongue.

Janeys is a native Wardi speaker (South Wardi dialect), fluent in 'Seaway Burri' (which is a lingua franca of the Mouth sea powers, many people along the coastal cities know it as a second language), and semi-fluent in 'High Burri' (state language of the Burri Republic), and in the present day has a modest comprehension of the West Rivers Highlands dialect. This takes place 4.5 years after he and Brakul met, and he mostly just knows basic utilitarian conversational terms and parts of speech, and has a decent understanding of the grammar and how to conjugate verbs. After 13 years of exposure to Brakul talking at him and occasionally deigning to explain what he's saying, Janeys can Sort Of hold a conversation.

---

NOTES ON THE POST ITSELF:

I = Sí

My= Sig

You= Mí (casual) Mís (formal)

---

Mí vírim is “I love you”.

The unconjugated form of the verb is vírir. The dead literal translation is “to need”, but "mí vírim" translates more accurately as "I love you" than "I need you". It DOES have connotations of need, it expresses love as a sense of wholeness and natural dependency- you say it to express affection towards someone to whom you owe your existence, to a line of ancestors, to your descendants, to the people you create or provide for your descendants with. It says "you are part of my sense of place in this world, you connect me to something greater than myself that sustains me". It will mostly be spoken between immediate kin (parents, children, siblings), husbands and wives, and in practice of venerating your ancestors. This is a gay as fuck thing to say to an unrelated man.

There's at least three other ways to directly say "I love ___" one of which is an affectionate expression of camaraderie, one of which communicates strong aesthetic appreciation, and one that is used in practice specifically to express affection/gratitude towards livestock (though can be used more broadly).

Janeys comprehends the phrase "Mí vírim" as “(I) [UNKNOWN VERB] you” and he's able to discern from Subtle Context Clues that it's something like 'I love you'.

He guesses the unconjugated verb inaccurately as (v)írer, as -Er and -Ur verb endings are more common than -Ir endings, and -Er/-Ir verbs share all the same conjugated forms.

Wardi languages have no ‘v’ sound to begin with, and the ‘v’ here is very soft, between a ‘vuh’ and ‘fuh’. This doesn’t come naturally to Janeys (or most Wardi speakers in general) and comes out as a 'wuh' on first impulse and a hard ‘fuh’ when he tries to replicate it.

This is something he never gets good at and Brakul is grateful that it’s his brother who was named ‘Vrailedh’ (Vrai-lehd-hh)) and not him so he doesn’t have to hear ‘Wrai-lehd’ or ‘Frai-lehd’ all the damn time by his Wardi compatriots. (Many of them don't even get his actual name right, but it's a lesser sin of not rolling the R and under-emphasizing the -ul)

---

"Sí brūlmim fágh filshíbe" is “I am very gullible”. The use here is not particularly cruel and is more just that his first impulse upon realizing Janeys will repeat anything he says right now is to make a "someone wrote gullible on the ceiling" level joke at his expense.

Fágh is a word used to emphasize an adjective and some nouns, functionally close to 'very' but used specifically for non-physical/non-sensory qualities (emotion, personality, etc). You could use fágh in the sentence “I’m so sorry” "he's such an asshole".

Brūlmim is "I am" in present tense. The unconjugated form is brūlmur, meaning 'to be' in a permanent sense, as a matter of nature. Other verbs are used for ‘to be’ in a purely transitory sense (“I am tired”) or describing a prolonged but impermanent state, usually past tense (“I was a stupid teenager”).

Filshíbe straightforwardly means 'gullible'.

The 'h' at the end of fágh is vocalized as an exhale, sounds a little like 'fog-uh' with a VERY soft and breathy 'uh'. The '-e' at the end filshíbe is also exhaled, coming out as a quick, soft 'eh'. Neither of these sounds are natural to a Wardi speaker (especially the breathy 'eh', most -e ending words are pronounced with a strong '-ey').

Janeys is comprehending “I’m (very/so) [UNKNOWN WORD]” here, and his face is being touched so softly so [UNKNOWN WORD] is very compelling and he's learning new things and is kind of in the zone so might as well say it back.

---

"Mísig uns drótes vísti sig bahrég, s'vaige do mi?" means "Your balls in my mouth, please?". What makes the sentence Particularly funny to Brakul here is that it's Excessively polite (using a formal and deferential 'your' and very gracious 'please') and jarringly accompanied with lowbrow slang for testicles. A more tonally accurate english translation would be "Sir, may I please perchance take your fat fucking sack in my mouth?"

Mísig means 'your', but specifically implies deference- it's a word you would use to address an elder or authority figure, or to use while being very, very polite. (Mís is the equivalent deferential 'you').

Uns drótes is one of several slang terms for testicles. This one uses the word 'boulders', and is thus Specifically implying 'big balls'. It's lowbrow and a very mild expletive (in the same degree 'ass' is in English).

Vísti means 'in' or 'inside', as a physical state of something being inside of another thing- you would use it for 'there's a bird in that cage' but not 'there's fear in my heart'.

Bahrég means 'mouth', which is almost always used in the purely anatomical sense. The other word for 'mouth' in the language more commonly refers to the mouths of animals (might be better translated as 'maw') and also gets applied to non-anatomical objects (ie 'the mouth of the cave').

S'vaige do mi means 'thank you' (dead literally 'my gratitude to you', the S in S'vaige is a contracted sig/'my') but is translated here as 'please' for clarity. There isn't actually a word that directly correlates to 'please' in the Highlands language, a polite request is accompanied with a 'thank you' instead (IE: "Could you pass the salt, thank you?"). This is one of two direct ways to say 'thank you' and this is the more intensely polite of the two.

Janeys will have understood this sentence as "(polite 'Your') [UNKNOWN WORD] (in? inside? within?) my [UNKNOWN WORD], please." This one throws him off, but he's pretty sure he's about to be kissed on the mouth for the first time in his life so he's willing to go with it.

[pompadourpink]

hi! in one of your asks you said that you spoke picard, can i ask how you learned it? i know there are a lot of regional languages in france, but that there was a push to only teach french in schools, so would you say most young people who speak a regional language learned it from family/ self taught?

Hello,

I indeed was raised in the North by a family who has been living in the same handful of cities forever (I recently dicovered I had an ancestor in the 1100s called Estiennenon the 1st, Knight of Bersées, a village ten kilometres from my hometown growing up).

Here are the dialects of Metropolitan France (and at the bottom of this page the ones from the former colonies, overseas):

It is true that the government has been trying to unify the language (and the accent) for a long time, claiming their insistance comes from a desire to strengthen the republic instead of accepting what they call communitarianism, which would according to them divide people. It has been a difficult topic for several centuries and as far as I see, most people have integrated the fact that you can speak your dialect at home with your family and your school friends, but it (nor your regional accent) has no place in school (from high school I would say) nor work, and especially not in formal situations.

We are also very attached to etiquette and not afraid of confrontation and what is considered good social behaviour includes good communication so if you speak like your grandparents, it will most likely be unfortunately side-eyed and sarcasmed out of you during your youth.

I was born in the early 90s and can fully understand Picard. I will use the occasional word or have a shadow of an accent coming out when I am really tired (it was stronger when I was younger), but I do not and have never used it because it was and is still mocked, not only because it is a dialect but it is one from the North, which has a pretty bad reputation overall (think Alabama). I have no intention to teach it to any future children as my knowledge has been rusting since I moved out after high school and there would be no benefit to it outside of being able to understand a few songs, although I still use some of the daily vocabulary.

As for the second part of your question, I have to take a first stop at your mention of "young people" since, outside of certain regions and families that make it a point to share the language with their children, the practice of speaking it at home is getting lost. My parents are mid boomer and early gen X and they naturally adopted my stance growing up to avoid mockery at work, especially while living in other places and it seems to be the case for most people, therefore young children would not be exposed to their regional dialects at home through grandparents anymore, and our current teens are way more interested in learning English anyway.

There are however places that are very proud of their dialects (ones that are essentially some form of bilingualism as they were born of the proximity with another country) and will teach it in a bilingual school French/dialect (such as Alsacien, Breton - which has no direct borders but is Celtic - or Occitan).

However, I would not add Flemish to this list despite its location since Belgium has a French side and a Flamand side who hate each other culturally and linguistically. I was raised near the Belgian border and did not hear or see Flemish until after I started travelling.

Let's look at a few dialects:

And since you specifically asked about the North, here is my shoutout to Jacques Landrecies, the only Picard specialist of the country and a beloved professor when I was a lit student, interviewed towards the end of this video.

Hope this helps! x

Fanmail - masterlist (2016-) - archives - hire me - reviews (2020-) - Drive

[sky-kiss]

Okay I had a thought and you can do with it whatever you want... but Raphael speaking infernal is so underrated. Even in game when he casts spells during battle, he doesn't really verbally say anything which is a shame (but is kinda cool if certain beings are powerful enough to cast nonverbally. Either that or my game is hella bugged). When you had that moment in your latest chapter of him speaking infernal to transform that made me 😳Like the way it'd described of being this harsh language and Raphael speaking it just snapped some part of my brain and I'd imagine it'd do something for Joi/Tav too. Like would Raphael still somehow make it sound beautiful (to quote Mamzelle, "a voice that could make the foulest blasphemy seem the sweetest hymn" or it would he still sound harsh but it's still hot because it's flying out of THAT mouth?

__________

A/N: There’s an actor I used to adore who was German, but often spoke a lot of french. So his German would come out with that gentle French lilt. Gonna channel that.

__________

He comes to her in the evening, this devil she loves, and the scent of cherries, sulfur, and musk hangs about him like a shroud. Raphael prowls about her suite like some great cat, his dark head held high. In the hells, his hellfire eyes will light with their inner fire. On the prime material, he’s softer. Warm brown, a touch of honey, almost sweet enough to make her forget. 

“You’re late,” she says. 

He hums lowly. The natural theatricality of the noise does not rob it of its power; Tav shivers. The devil sees; he knows. He always knows. “Ah, but there is such beauty in anticipation, wouldn’t you agree? Desire honed to a knife’s point.” A turn of his right hand, long-fingered and elegant. “Before one tips over the edge.” 

It’s a fine enough point in principle, but less appealing in reality. Their time is short, limited to stolen moments when their schedules align. She has a city to rebuild. He has the lower planes to conquer. 

Her devil smiles, patronizing. “If you feel neglected, mouse, I have already proposed a solution. You’ve only to accept the offered hand.” 

“Join you in Hell?” He nods, eyes wide and lovely. It strikes her that he has cultivated every aspect of this human skin: the smile is so wide, so open, and so nakedly suffused with guile that it wraps back around to innocence. 

Raphael steps close. The scent again: cherries, sweet and delicate. Her devil, wearing sweetness and silk to hide his uglier underbelly. He brushes the fringe of her hair back from her cheek, touch lingering. “Deny me all you like, pet. It shall make the eventual fall all the sweeter.”

Anticipation. Tav shivers. 

Some nights, they fuck in front of the fireplace or on the chaise. Never in the bed. It’s her stipulation. Raphael crinkles his nose at the coarse language and indelicacy of the location. She deserves better, he says. The phrase always comes with an accompanying hand gesture, as if he's framing her for a portrait. Something pretty he can lock away from the world, point at when he wants to feel superior. Admire his wealth, this wild adventurer he’s collared. 

Most nights, they work. Tav shuffles through requisition orders. Raphael amends his contracts. She watches him work, more often than not, gaze flicking across the elegant script. It burns, and there’s an undeniable elegance to the infernal ruins. Tav reaches out to race a line, mouthing the words. She’s out of practice. Infernal is not a pretty language; it fits particularly poorly in her untrained tongue. Raphael rests his chin in his palm, amused by her attempt. 

“Allow me.” 

The devil repeats the phrase. It may as well be a different language. The words drip off his tongue, the harshness erased in favor of a lilting cadence. Tav chews the inside of her cheek, brow furrowed. “Is that…is it a regional dialect? Something distinct to Cania?” 

“In all likelihood, you’ve only heard the lower dialects. The least baatezu are harsh and guttural. The higher speech has a grace to it, provided one is willing to learn. It is a melody, dark and heady as any wine.” Raphael places his hand, palm up, on the table. “Allow me.” Tav sets her hand in his. “Close your eyes, pet.” 

She does. 

Raphael traces lines across her palm, humming to himself. “There are four tongues, sweetling. Lower, lowest, high, highest. For the sake of your sanity, we shall avoid the dialect of the archdevils. But the language of the courts might please you.” 

“And is there a reason my eyes must remain closed?” 

He chuckles, thumb pressing against the veins of her wrist. There is an awful note of potential in the touch; he could break the fragile bones with half a thought. “Feeling, Tav. Like the steps of the dance, it should fill you, move you.” 

She shivers as his fingers ghost up her forearm, featherlight nerve strokes. Raphael repeats the lines of infernal, his fingers drifting up on the mouth melodic stretches, dipping down when the words adopt a guttural edge. It is never grating, never clipped; some of that is exclusively him, years of experience and language marrying in a distinctive vocal pattern. Tav chews her lower lip. She’s too aware of his heat, pinpricks of warmth dancing across her skin as he plays his game.

It is beautiful and dark, and she feels the words on her skin. Raphael traces the runes. Her mind struggles to translate the higher dialect, flowing until it isn’t, succinct until double-meaning creeps into the terminology. Tav feels drunk in the darkness. 

“And now,” his voice is closer, spoken against the shell of his ear. The devil gathers her into his lap. He smiles into the curve of her throat. “The student demonstrates what she’s learned. Come, pet, impress me.” 

He traces the runes on her thighs. Over the skin of her belly. Between her breasts. And if she loses the thread, if her voice gives way, her devil stops. He’ll suck a bruise into her throat, press teeth until they threaten to breast skin, tease, tease, tease…

Anticipation, she thinks, that earlier word flitting across her awareness. 

And her devil is ever patient.

[haru-dipthong]

I'm learning more about "localisation discourse" in the anime fan community and my god it is so stupid. The arguments are so incestuous, like people in these discussions (both sides!) haven't ever considered what translation or localisation is outside of the context of anime and manga. Like lots of anime fans say they "hate localisation and want accurate translation" - and then the translators are like "localisation is accurate translation". Both sides are just talking past each other.

I believe that the translators are doing nothing wrong - if a translation reads naturally and conveys essentially the same meaning as the original, that’s a good and accurate translation. The “anti-localisation” crowd are abusive and awful. But both sides of the discourse are terrible at communicating.

First of all, the word “localisation”, as it is understood outside the weeb community, means “adapting a work or product for use by a different population than the original (usually a population of a different geographical region)”. As a programmer, I deal with localised text in our product - for example we have different localisations for Australian english text (en-AU) vs British english text (en-GB) vs US english text (en-US). Yet, many anime/manga/etc translators call themselves localisers - what variety of english are they supposedly localising the content into? Probably US english, but it’s certainly not specifically americanised a lot of the time (e.g. Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t being americanised in any translations I’m aware of), and the days of jelly donuts are far, far behind us. Erasing japanese cultural references is no longer "more marketable", and hasn't been for a long time. Most anime translations (including the ones that the “anti-localisation” crowd complain about) are simply translations into an international variety of english, and decidedly NOT localisations.

So if the “anti-localisation” crowd aren’t complaining about localisation, what are they complaining about? They often say they want “accurate translations”, but this isn’t true either. An “accurate translation” is a translation that simply conveys all the information from the original. おはよ！→ “Sup bro” can be an accurate translation, but I’m sure the anti-localisers wouldn’t agree (おはよ and sup bro are both just phatic greetings, we don’t need to specify morning unless it’s not obvious from the visuals that it’s morning). What they actually want is a translation that “sounds right”. This may seem impossible to deliver since it is so unspecific, but I think it’s actually quite simple - in short, overly-weeby translations have become their own variety of english, which I’ll call en-WB. Often fan translations are in this specific dialect because the fan translators haven’t studied actual translation and simply know what “sounds right” in en-WB.

For example, these anti-localisers often say they are annoyed that honorifics are removed. To a regular old translator with no knowledge of the anime discourse, this is very silly because -chan and -kun are not present in any common variety of english, so why would they appear in the translation? To divorce this discussion from anime briefly, a very good translator who is translating a full length Japanese novel would adapt the relationship/hierarchy dynamic via speech patterns and phrasing, rather than using the honorifics directly. But the anti-localisers don’t want a brilliant translation into international english, they want a passable translation into en-WB.

Both sides of the discourse are misunderstanding each other, using dumb arguments that completely miss the point. Anti-localisers are saying shit like ”fan translations are better!!” which really means “fan translations sound like how I expect the translation to sound, and pro translations do not sound like that” which means “fan translations are translating into the english dialect I expect and pro translations do not”.

Meanwhile pro translators are saying “pro translators are fans too!! And how could an amateur be better? We studied to do this professionally!”. But this is flawed logic - the lack of formal training in translation is ironically what enables fan translators to translate into en-WB correctly. Pro translators of course could translate into en-WB if they wanted to/were told to, but they don’t - they want to make the translation as accessible as possible to all viewers, meaning that making the language natural and internationalised is the correct course of action.

To me as a half-japanese person who has grown up with smatterings of anime from an early age, anime is just cartoons to me. It's just another tv show, there's nothing special about it. So when I talked about translation as I have in previous posts, I was basically unaware of this stupid discourse and was simply discussing translation as it exists outside of the anime/manga industry - rewriting a work as if it were originally written in the target language. In principle I don't believe anime should be treated any different to other tv shows when being translated, and I personally hate en-WB, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. But that's what a bunch of anime fans want, and that's fine. They can have their (in my eyes) terrible translations, and I can have my (in their eyes) terrible translations.

If we were talking about translating literature or live action tv or news articles instead of anime we wouldn't be getting any of this discussion. I think it's almost entirely the fault of anime's history with fan translations and heavy handed cultural erasure by 4kids etc that's led to the current state of things. And unfortunately those things still influence how people think about anime translations now. I just want to approach anime translations like I would any other translation - but the existence of this discourse adds an annoying layer over it all.

[gothhabiba]

One thing that scares me about learning Arabic is that you have to choose a region that 'you're most interested in' and then learn the Arabic of that region. I feel like I can't, and don't want to, choose a region. I haven't ever travelled to the Arabic world, how am I supposed to choose whether I want to be able to understand the people of Morocco, Sudan or Jordan the most? It's really such a hard choice to make, especially because you have to make it relatively early on in your process of learning Arabic, if I understand right. Would you agree (as all the websites recommend) that it is best then to learn Egyptian Arabic so “everybody understands you“? I don't like this line of thinking so much because I'm coming to learn Arabic less to be understood and more to understand. It's just a hard thing for me and one that has put me off of starting to learn Arabic for a while now.

first of all phrases like "Arab world" aren't really beloved appellations, as many people in these regions are not Arabs and do not speak Arabic. many Moroccans came to speak an Arabic-derived dialect/language at home through a process of cultural conquest and may or may not consider themselves Arabs; others speak one of 3 groups of indigenous African languages. and there are also Kurds and stuff.

I can't speak for all Arabic speakers, but Egyptian Arabic is readily understood by most Moroccan Arabic speakers in part due to the fact that Egyptian teledramas and other programming is widely broadcast. a lot of Arabs (like, West Asian Arabs) make a big deal out of how incomprehensible they find Moroccan Arabic, but the thing is, part of that is probably genuine differences in the language and part of it is probably just racism (since Moroccan Arabic has been dirtied through its nature as an 'African' language yada yada)

I can tell you that I don't have much difficulty understanding Levantine, Egyptian, and Gulf speakers provided the Moroccan word I know for what they're saying is actually Arabic-derived (and not French or Tamazight or Spanish &c.). you just have to take all the vowels and half the syllables out of what they're saying and then you'll usually get it 😭

one thing that a lot of people recommend is learning Standard Arabic, and then learning a dialect from there. this approach is why you'll get people everywhere saying that Moroccan Arabic is the "hardest" dialect (that's nonsense, there's no reason for that to be true; what they mean is that it's the hardest to learn starting from a base of Standard Arabic, since it's allegedly the most different). however it's probably a good idea in general. Standard Arabic would allow you to read; to be broadly understood even if people think you sound like a newscaster; and understand most dialects once you get used to the pronunciation a little.

tl;dr: just pick something and start learning, I think you'll find that different dialects are more mutually intelligible than you might think

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

tbh it's not just insinuation of you doing some class discrimination that is gross, other things listed by them as accusations towards you are at least equaly as disgusting, if not more. "ableism, classism, racism" i'm sorry, i didn't know swift is disabled, poor or non-white, oh wait, she is neither of these. yes, grammar policing can be used to discriminate, but when it's used to punch down people, who actually belong to these categories.

also there are literal college courses focused solely on swift's writing, but you as someone with english lit degree can't do some grammar analysis on your private blog? is other anon as offended about these courses and sending them emails about how discriminatory it is to pick apart someone's writing? of course not, because the only people, who would spend money an that type of a course are rich ts fandom cultists, who wouldn't say anything, that might be actually critical about swift. also anon doesn't actually care about picking apart someone's writing, they only care about swift's writing being put under some criticism, because otherwise they would be sending offended emails to every school or critic for the crime of literary analysis.

it's almost as if swift trained these people with her never ending victimhood and copying, to look in her name for any struggle to steal whenever she is being criticized. not an ounce of critical thinking or just common sense to look at it for a second and realize that these don't apply to swift. "so yeah not a good look" yeah, but not on crumblinggothicarchitecture

Sorry, this took a minute for me to get to <3. I appreciate this perspective. I didn't even mention that in the ask, but it's so weird to accuse someone of being racist, ableist, classicist just because I analyzed Taylor Swift’s poor grammar. Swift is the one who calls herself a writer and claims she one of the best writers on the planet right now. So, it stands to reason that I would use my English Degree to analyze her grammar if, for any reason, I felt she actually wasn't a good writer.

If I say that someone isn't a good writer. I'm not going to just state that and leave it there. Obviously, it's on me to effectively argue my point. I do, however, have ways to argue my point. So, naturally, I will get into some linguistic or literary criticism of Swift.

I'm not sure that Grammar-Anon really understands what I am trying to do here. Besides, I think you're right about them not knowing that linguistics is an actual academic discipline. Are the people who dedicate their whole lives to studying and teaching grammar also being racist, ableist, and classicist? LOL.

The English language is such a beautiful medium for expression. It's one of my favorite languages, among many, to read poetry in because it has such an amazing breadth of vocabulary words with which to express emotion. In most linguistic study, it is the mechanism of language itself that scholars pull into study. Fascinating stuff- and people study it all. There are scholars whose life's work revolves around understanding AAVE dialects, or understanding Louisiana Cajun dialects, or understanding mid-Atlantic dialects, or Jewish-New York regionalisms. This is just a short list of regionalist dialects I've personally read about in the last few months- however, the list is expansive and covers much more than just the American continent. For instance, there is a whole subset of academic study centered on the post-colonialist use of English Language in India. Scholarship in this field often takes into account feminist theory, Marxist theory, or Post Colonialist theory. (Again, I just listed my favorites, but there are many more theoretical lenses through which people study the impact of grammatical praxis).

This is something people make into their whole life's work- it's not somehow offensive to participate in low-stakes grammatical analysis of Taylor Swift.

You're right, some people just can't handle the idea of putting her work under the microscope because it would impact their narrow-world view if someone said actually Swift is a bad, unoriginal writer. Imagine the meltdown if twitter Swifties found me :O

I've been giving Swift a pass for years, mostly because I would dismiss her music as simple pop-music. It's meant to be fun. I would listen to it, because it was an easy break from the dense, challenging stuff I would read for classes. However, now I'm going to tear apart Swifts work. It's the principle of the matter now because she seems to think she's the greatest American poet to ever live. I am both bored, as summer approaches and I have nothing else to work on, and frustrated that she's pretending to be a poet.

She's not a tortured genius. She's a trust fund baby who got as far as she did on mediocrity because of her parents' money. We "wouldn't last an hour in the asylum" where they raised her- Ha. She wouldn't last a second working a part-time job after school to pay rent. I get upset when people accuse me of some type of classist's attitude purely because I use my education when they know nothing about my story. I got a lucky break.

Education is my road out of abject poverty. Nothing else was going to save me. I did it all on my own, with the help of a bunch of scholarships, lucky breaks, and really wonderful teachers. Now, in my real life, I am the teacher now. I want to root for people. I critique for the sake of wanting people to improve their skills.

Taylor Swift's arrogant attitude and unwillingness to face criticism just gets under my skin. So, what do I do? I'm not fond of ad hominem attacks. Instead, I will make some good arguments about her bad writing and have some fun in the process. :)

So yeah- I guess it's not a good look.

[alatabouleau]

German terms of endearments for your fic

.Now, it's been two years since I've fallen into the X-Men/Cherik-fandom and one thing that I have seen continuously is people trying to find terms of endearment in German for Erik to use for Charles (or his mother for him). (I've lost count of how many times I've seen the word "Liebling" spelled wrong) And honestly, no offense. I know it's hard writing a character who speaks a language you don't. And obviously, you're gonna make mistakes. So I thought I'd share my knowledge as a mother tongue in German and let you know some of the most common ways we described our loved ones. ;) DISCLAIMER: I am but one single person, grown up south-east from Berlin, I DO NOT speak for the whole of Germany, nor do I ever intent to, especially since we are anything but a cultural monolith. Just keep that in mind while reading. ;)

Exclusively romantic terms: - Liebste (fem.)/ Liebster (masc.) : literally means "most loved". Closest English equivalent is probably "love" or "beloved". Bit old-fashioned. Makes you sound like a 20th-century-gentleman. ;) Make sure to write it "I-E" NOT the other way around! It would make the opposite sound. - Geliebte (fem.) / Geliebter (masc.): literally "beloved". Makes you sound even older, like Jane-Eyre-19th-century-old. Again, I before E. - Süße (fem.) / Süßer (masc.): literally "sweetie" (I KNOW this is probably now confusing, but trust me.) This is where we get into the... sappy side of German. Like, there are some mid-forty/fifty-couples who use that, but the rest makes it probably just cringe. (I know I am right now really helpful by starting with those that are not really modern, but I've seen this used because people translating English terms so I just wanted to say it here.)

Terms for both romantic and parental love: - Liebling: literally "darling". Classic, neutral, always the safe option for every situation. (I before E ;) ) - Schatz: literally "treasure". Again, safe option, though this leans rather to the romantic side, but can be used for children either way. And then of course, some animal pet names may be used for either children or romantic partners, but honestly, I don't know any couples who do that. So, those will go into the parental category, I'm afraid.

Terms for children: -Spatz: "sparrow". That's what we basically use as "sweetie". You can also use the diminutive "Spätzchen" for either toddlers or said by grandmothers. -Maus: "mouse". same thing. Diminutive is "Mäuschen". Tendency in usage for girls, but can work for either gender. (This is what my Mom still calls me sometimes even though I'm already 22! XD) -Motte: "moth". This is now really rather for girls, and rather those whose names start with M. -Krümel: "crumb". Not used by many, rather comes from the North, also rather used for unborn children in the womb. -Fussel: "fluff". Also not that common but can be cute in my PoV. :) -Hase: "rabbit". Diminutive is "Häschen". This one's rather for boys in my experience.

And then again, at the end of the day, expressions of affection are personal and as we get more personal in German, we tend to use our respective dialects. Yes, there are actually quite a many dialects for our relative "small" country. Around 30, to be concrete. Though they are all decreasing in being used, sadly, as we get more and more globalized and mobilized. However, here are some examples that I know, my knowledge being utterly limited as I am only one single person from the region south of Berlin:

-Kleene (fem.) / Kleener (masc.): "little one". If you ever have a character originating from Berlin or south of Berlin, this can be used for children. -Meechen: "girl" in the dialect of the region called "Lausitz" around the border of Brandenburg and Saxonia. Also for kids. -Schätzelein: diminutive of "treasure" in Colognian dialect. Romantic in nature, though it can also be used in a way like hairdressers in American movies sometimes call their customers "sweetie". (please, if there's a person from Cologne here, correct me on that!) -Liebchen: "darling" or "beloved" in Saxonian dialect, I believe. Rather used by old couples. -Min Dern (fem.)/ Min Jung (masc): "my girl/boy". Northern dialect. In the region around Hamburg, if I remember correctly. Used for kids.

That's it for the moment. I will probably add to this list whenever I learn some new, but I hope this is already helpful for some people. Have a great day! :) Also, if to other German mother-speakers, feel free to share your perspective, correct me if I did put something in the wrong region or enlighten me with other words.

[lieutenantselnia]

One of my favourite 2D Doof scenes just because I like listening to him (or actually both Doofs) rambling over stuff, here in the German version! <3

A few words on this; when I imagine scenarios with him in my head I'm actually never quite sure if I imagine him talking in German or English, in my mind it just kind of all blurs together since I'm so used to using both languages in my everyday life at this point. However, I think for the most part I imagine him with the sound of his German voice and his pronunciation, probably also because I'm more used to it (for PnF I always kinda preferred the German dub, I don't know why exactly, it really can't be nostalgia since I didn't watch it as a kid, but maybe just for the childhood show vibes). I like the original as well though (and sometimes kind of mix them up in my mind), I feel like Dan voiced the two Doofs with a bit more nuance, making 2D Doof speak a bit slower and maybe a tiny little bit deeper, to give him a bit more of an intimidating aura.

Another detail about his accent that might be interesting especially for non German speakers: In the original, Heinz' home country Drusselstein is a parody mostly on Germany/German-speaking countries, and on a few occasions, characters are heard speaking some German words. Doofenshmirtz himself is supposed to have a sort-of German accent as well. In the German dub, this was mostly replaced with Russian, for example that once scene where little Heinz is dressed as a lawn gnome and his father yells at him "Bewegen Sie nicht!", which is a grammatically incorrect way of saying "Don't move!" (correct ways would for example be "Beweg dich nicht!" or "Nicht bewegen!"), while in the German dub he yells in Russian "Не шевелиться!" - in latin letters something like "Nje shevelitsja!" - (which I believe is also grammatically incorrect lol).

Doof's accent seems also inspired by what the (stereo-)typical Russian (or generally Slavic) accent sounds to German people. However it doesn't lean very strongly into it, the most notable thing is that he rolls his Rs quite a bit stronger than it's common for German speakers, otherwise he speaks pretty much standard German. For example his pronunciation of the "ch" sound isn't really emphasised at all, which often tends to be associated with a Russian accent.

Also another small note about accents in general, I don't know how common it still is nowadays for people to think that German speakers all speak with a strongly rolled R, but we actually don't. Of course it may depend on the region or specific dialects, some people also just happen to naturally speak with a more rolled R due to their individual mouth/throat anatomy, but in the standard way of speaking in both Germany and Austria at least, it's not really a thing. We roll our R differently than English speakers, but it's also not that very "full" rolled R that you may hear in languages like Spanish. I myself, despite being Austrian and growing up speaking the Austrian variant of German, am physically struggling to roll my Rs because my tongue frenulum is literally too short to do it properly. The R pronunciation was always my biggest challenge in my Spanish and Russian classes (luckily my teachers weren't strict with it as long as you tried). But yeah, I just wanted to clarify that Doofenshmirtz' way of speaking isn't what the average German speaker would sound like, also I just find languages a fascinating topic to ramble about :D

[indigostudies]

feeling enthusiastic tonight so i wanted to talk about my favourite things about the languages i speak/am studying!

mandarin chinese:

singular character words are fairly rare! unlike english, due to the high number of homophones in the spoken language, most words are comprised of two or more characters for clarity's sake. for example, while 孩 does by itself mean child, usually it's combined with another character (ie 孩子，小孩儿，etc.) due to it sounding similar to other words (还，骸).

in spoken language, you often need the entire context to understand the meaning. due to homophones, if you're missing the surrounding context, then it can be easy to misunderstand what someone's saying.

homophones generally! i've been known to love a good tongue-twister, and being a native chinese speaker is definitely part of that—there's just so many good ones! this also crops up in social media/memes, where a homophone is substituted for the original character(s).

the written language! i'm definitely more biased towards simplified chinese, but i can still read traditional chinese, and i think chinese is one of the most beautifully-written languages. it's just so logical! the strokes follow a certain order, and everything is contained in "boxed" that are very pleasing.

german:

poetry! german is known for literature, and i love reading poetry in german, even if not having studied it in a while means i have to look things up pretty frequenty ^^°��

the pronunciation! while i'm definitely at an advantage since i have an ear for languages and can nail german pronunciation at a natural level, i love speaking german—especially the longer words! i love the way the letters sound together (i'm definitely biased towards the eu/äu combination haha).

the ß!

gothic script—this appears a lot in historical german print, and i love it, even if it does make it a bit of a challenge to read anything haha.

kurmanji:

the various possessiveness contructions—there is no verb corresponding to the english to have, so instead you have to use the verb hebûn, to exist, so for example, two brothers of me exist (du birayên min hene, using the izafe construction) or for me two brothers exist (min du bira hene, without izafe, possessor is in the oblique case at the start of the clause) would be used instead of "i have two brothers".

the xw dipthong—i'm probably biased because i love "uncommon" sounds and letter combinations, but not only does the x in kurmanji sound nice (it's sort of like the ch in bach, or the ch in loch), when combined with the w it makes a sort of hissing sound which i'm very partially to.

mongolian:

sounds absolutely gorgeous!! central asian languages generally sound very pleasing to me, but i especially love the guttural sounds in mongolian.

the traditional script is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. i have yet to learn how to write in it (at least without a lot of tears on my part), but there's a user on xhs that writes in traditional script, and it's just. stunning. it's fluid, and curling, and just! aaaa!!! i love it. also it's written vertically, which is a fairly uncommon thing as far as languages go.

it's got a ton of different dialects! i'm a known enjoyer of dialects and regional language variations, so of course this is like a goldmine to me.

korean:

i know i said that the mongolian script is gorgeous, but look, i love writing systems in general, and korean is just. so orderly! so perfect for my pattern-obsessed little mind! also, it only takes, like, half an hour to memorise. 12/10 i love it.

a very specific point, but the various ways to say goodbye! you specify whether the person you're speaking to are staying or leaving.

turkish:

probably the most agglutinative language i'm aware of—a lot of words, especially more "modern" (ie new) words are formed by taking a base word and then adding on "meaning" or semantics to it, for example the word for a shoe cabinet is literally "that which stores the covers for the feet".

neutral pronouns! spoken mandarin is also neutral in pronouns, but in turkish both the written and spoken form of the third person pronoun is neutral. while it does make it a little bit frustrating if you're trying to, say, discuss feminist theory, it does mean that no gendered assumptions are made about, for example, a job position.

that's all i can think of right now! if anyone else wants to ramble excitedly about the languages they're studying/speak, please feel free to add on!

[kitchenlittle]

Okay so I've noticed people critiquing the Spanish in Miguel O'hara fanfics and the British Black sling for Hobie. I'm not sure what to do for the British sling for the fanfic I want to post about because I'm black/native and live in the South and have only met 2 British people in my life and they are both white. I've tried to find British sling generators and they suck so I what imma do is just study some black British. YouTubers and see if I can get get down the lingo enough to make it sound natural.

Now for Miguel I actually might have an ace in the hole since my familie's business recently got large Spanish speaking clientele due to me changing our menu to Spanish. And I have spanish speaking friends and family. Irish on the other hand I have an abundance of friends and teachers of Irish descent to can get info from since oddly most of my white friends are of Irish descent.

For the record: I know very little Spanish and can understand and read it way more than I can speak it....But I've learned some things and I want to see if I'm right.

1. Every country has a different dialect. For example Venezuelan and Spain Spanish sounds different from for example Domincan and Mexican Spanish.

2. Spain Spanish is considered 'proper' Spanish and if not favored amongst other Spanish speaking communities. Spaniards are like the British of Spanish essentially. (My black people out there already know since it's like Proper or British English vs the different varieties of Aave)

3. If you have to use a translator DO NOT USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE. Google translate is apparently painfully proper and sometimes does not make since when translated from proper/aave English. Find a different translator as Spanish speaking readers can tell immediately.

4. Miguel is Irish/ Mexican. Irish people actually have their own different dialects that differs in every region. They have different languages spoken in Ireland as well.

5. I'm assuming mixed people of Irish/Mexican descent would appreciate them both featured in fanfics. Maybe?

6. I think for my black people out there that live in America at least if we struggle with black British sling we could lean on black aave in different states that sound similar to it. I feel like Baltimore aave might work. I grew up in Detriot and in the current southern state I'm in and it sounds similar depending on the pronunciation of words. (Btw white people out there who don't have many black friends or people that's live around you, aave or african amercan vernacular English sounds different in every state. For example look up Louisiana aave and New York aave and you will understand) I feel like for black writers our normal aave but just stronger could work as well for Hobie.

So as a takeaway, if you want your fics to read a bit easier for your black, British, and Spanish speaking readers, ya might want to do a bit of research. Or maybe make your own universe version of that charecter. I thought about making a Southern Hobie Brown since I have a friend I want to base him off as he reminds me of Hobie so freaking much. From the dark liner and choker to the constantly critiquing the government and authoritarian figures and not like consistency in certain areas on his life. So yeah that's what I got.

If anyone wants to add on and give some more tips to make my fics better, let me know. I'll be posting soon. Also tell me if I'm wrong.

[reijnders]

MEGA POSTING MEGA POSTING

these funny guys are the sapient species ive developed the most (and i'll be using jeyo-centric terms for ease of reading and continuity with my other posts)

Generally, yotavuș have some differences easier to pick out across them that directly correlate(more or less) with where they are originally on the planet. those closest to the equator tend to have tan/light brown fur, splotchy stripe patterns, and longer/larger+more saturated matti and frill, while those further from the equator tend to have paler fur tending towards a blue-gray, and more solid stripes.

Additionally, they have two main places where fur can be longer than the rest on the body: the "mane", extended from just between the ears along the length of the tail, and at the junction between the underside of the tail and the back of the legs.

individual in-depth info under the cut!

images of individuals are 1-6, left to right and top to bottom

Image One: Nûzkalrw

/nu˥ʒ.kal.ɹɨ/

Found at the very bottom of the continent, and speak the isolate language of Mw̌ku, which has some influence on the modern standard dialect of its neighboring language, Chà Lo. This is the south pole of the planet, and as such these guys have fur that's longer than average for their species, and, rather uniquely, has a bit of a curl to it. They have smaller ears due to the cold as well. Culture-wise I haven't developed a lot for speakers of this language, but the word nûzkalrw in their language also refers to the species as a whole.

Image Two: H̊lanueli

/xla.n:we.li/

One of the five major ethnicities found in areas where the language Twac̊in̊ /tʷa.t͡ʃiŋ/ is dominant, on the majority of the northern peninsula of the continent, as well as along the southwest coast of the H̊iya /xi.ja/ sea. This land is home to a rang of biomes, from temperate forest to grasslands to tropical forest. Despite the warmer overall weather compared to the nûzkalrw people, there is a tendency to cover up due cultural and religious norms spanning a large amount of the region. The character pictured in the example lives at the northernmost edge of this region, and is bundled up for winter, hence the face mask.

Image Three: Càhetmǐje

/t͡ʃa˥.χɛt.mi˧˥.d͡ʒɛ/

North-ish of the central regions on the continent, and curled up along the coast of the Mǎvnivadjeco /ma˧˥v.ɲi˧.va˧d.d͡ʒɛ˧.t͡ʃɒ˧/ sea, this place is just a little below the equator and almost smack dab in this worlds "cradle of life", where it's theorized that their species first evolved. Most cultures in this area use large head coverings to protect themselves from the sun. They have shorter arms and tails than what would be expected for their heights, along with long, wide ears to help release heat. They speak several different dialects of the most widespread language on the planet(and second-most in space!), with the main one being the standard dialect.

Image Four: Uutas

/u:.tas/

The eastern neighbors of the H̊lanueli, but not as closely related as some think, due to mostly being on Ranihikk and only coming other Sotuŧahtěnu in the last thousand or so years. Big fans of bright colors, and their language has retained a logographic writing system, which is super fun. I have worldbuilt basically Nothing on the continent of Ranihikk beyond the east and west coasts so uh. yeah :)

Image Five: Neohùanshīadhàr

Standard: /neo˥.hwa˥˩n.ʃja˩.da˥˩ɹ/ Sāng-Hòn Dialect: /neo.hwa˥˩n.ʃja.ta˥˩ɹ/

This particular branch of Chà Lo speakers have a bit of a rocky past with those under the Twac̊in̊ umbrella, but in the modern(2374 and a good hundred of so years before then) era things are more of less resolved. This is a Big Desert area, so naturally you'll find a lot of these lil fuckers all around. mimicking the colors of nature is fun, and sand is hot so sandals are preferred during the dry season. tail brushes are flashy and cute, and many folks will wear those little fabric ties on their tails as well with patterning or writing that represent their family. Narrower ears than their central Katteșuvi cousins, probably to avoid catching as much sand in there. Also very, very good at running fast and for a while.

Image Six: Śjixutwu

/ʃji.ʔut.wu/

On the southern coast of Vǒtiyǎcke /vɒ˧˥.ti˧.ja˧˥.t͡ʃkɛ/, and speak one of the oldest indigenous languages on the continent, along with a few others. Defined by straits and seas(Metom Strait/mɛ˧.tɒ˧m/, Mireurǎ Sea /mi˧.rɛ˧.ə˧.ra˧˥/, Eșyǎmemě Strait /ɛ˧ɬ.ja˧˥.mɛ˧.mɛ˧˥/, Șamac Strait /ɬa˧.ma˧t͡ʃ/, Mǎvnivadjeco Sea) , there's a lot of storms here, and has led to communities relying on being water-proofed as much as possible. Tall wooden shoes are also used to stay above floodwaters. Their cultures are highly matrilineal.

[whitegoldtower]

Redoing this. My meow meow. My baby. My precious. My favourite skyrim OC; Severin Nervayne - an explanation. (Below the Break. If anyone actually reads this, I commend you, and also thank you for putting up with my shit)

You can also use this layout for your own OC posts, if you like!

Appearance

How does he look?

Severin’s a middle-aged dunmer (would be in his 50s in human years), with deep dusky grey skin; curly, black salt and pepper hair (Texture 3A/3B); a well-groomed beard, and reddish-grey eyes. He’s quite short (5’4”), and there’s evidence in his build of someone who used to be extremely physically fit. He has stretch marks on his lower abdomen from where he carried his daughter, Llevana, and almost the entirety of the left side of his body is covered with scarring from third degree burns. He is naturally flat chested, with a prominent adams apple, and the tattoos on his body (that weren’t destroyed by his burns) are an amalgamation of hand-poked pieces, including traditional Dunmeri motifs making up sleeves, and a crudely done ‘treasure map’ on his right hand.

What does he sound like?

His voice suffered some damage from the ash, and he’s a smoker, so his voice is pretty deep, raspy and heavy on the vocal fry (which is common of British accents anyway). If we’re giving him a regional British accent, considering how most of the Dunmer sound, he sounds like he’s from the North of England, most likely Yorkshire (think Sean Bean, just a little deeper). He speaks well and smoothly, though tends to compress his words (again, regional dialect). He has a great ‘bedtime story’ voice, and tends to speak at a gentle, soft volume. He is incapable of shouting/screaming.

What does he smell like?

At arm’s length, he smells warm and comforting, like old tomes and canis root tea. He tends to wear resinous oils, which would smell like a mixture of labdanum, frankincense and ylang ylang, with hints of tobacco and warm vanilla. In close proximity, the smell of sweet and smoky herbs linger on his fingers and on his lips, and the scent of his skin is electric, like the earth just before lightning strikes.

How does he feel?

Fully clothed, you’d embrace him to feel some well-loved robes, and the firmness of muscle with just a bit of squish. He’s warm. Very warm. Nude, the heat of his skin hits you before you even touch him. His body is a map of scars, each with a different story, though quite a few mysterious ones too. His body hair is quite soft, albeit quite thick, and he takes pride in his appearance. His blood runs hot, his lips are soft, and his hands are rough yet gentle.

His general demeanour?

The impression he gives off is one of a caring father. Perhaps the first noticeable personality trait is his gentleness, paired with a stern yet kind educational streak. He’s the teaching sort… although, he also just has that vibe when you look at him that you know he was a wild-child back in his day, and a demon in the sheets. And whilst those days may be past him, if you were to think of him in an intimate aspect, you’d be likely to imagine a sensual and romantic, smouldering slow-burn with buckets of stamina.

What does he usually do?

He’s the Professor of the History of Necromancy and the Undead at the College of Winterhold, and his course is important because he teaches his students very thoroughly about the dangers and risks involved in dealing with necromancy, undead and daedra - he, himself, being a walking example. He can often be found either in the Arcaneum, teaching in the Hall of the Elements, sparring with his daughter in the Midden or counselling students in his assigned office quarters. He has unintentionally become the ‘school therapist’ (or rather, the ‘dad’), because his students find him easy to talk to. (If you like Buffy, he’s a bit of a Rupert Giles)

Personality?

A very caring INTJ. A good listener, a logical mind, and tends to offer more practical advice than purely emotional support; he’s caring enough to try to help you solve your problems, instead of just patting you on the back and telling you that you’ll be ok. He can be quite socially anxious, but it’s not obvious at first glance; during lectures, he commands the room, speaks very well, cracks jokes and engages everyone (all in all, a beloved and popular teacher), however one look at his hands can tell you that he’s not as calm as he appears - it’s subtle, but they tremble. He’s docile and friendly, but genuinely frightening when pushed too far; he’s got an extremely long fuse, but when set off, he blows up VERY suddenly. 0 to 100 at lightning speed, speaking gently one minute then pinning someone against the wall by their throat the next. The only sure-fire way to piss him off is to threaten his daughter. He’s a very patient man, otherwise. But that’s not to say he won’t warn you first; if he rolls his shoulders, squares up, and asks you something politely along the lines of ‘would you like to clarify?’… back off. He’s also got a fun (if somewhat reckless) rebellious streak that doesn’t show itself often. The easiest way to get a glimpse of Severin’s naughty streak is to take notice of the antics his daughter, Llevana, gets up to.

Backstory

Part 1 (Somewhere Near Necrom, Morrowind)

Severin was introduced to pit fighting as a child in order to survive and earn his keep (he was paid in food and smokes), which he brought home to his sickly mother. At first, he was put up against skeevers. As he got bigger and smarter, so did his opponents. Eventually, the pit-fighting lead into grave-robbing and tomb-raiding, anything he could do to get his hands on gold, quickly, to look after himself and his mother. When his mother died suddenly, he found himself completely alone, and so began his obsessions with disease and death. He started fucking around with necromancy, trying to find a way to end disease and ultimately bring his mother back from the dead, wanting to bring her back so that she was completely impervious to sickness. He discovered he had a real knack for it when he found himself effortlessly raising ash spawn and fallen bandits, and over the span of his late teenage years, he was a fully fledged necromancer, and a pretty powerful one, too. His problems really started when he began experimenting; it came from a good place at first - experimenting with different strains of disease on the undead in order to attempt to create a vaccine-potion of sorts, but when he started mixing diseases, he got too far in over his head, ending up mutating his undead thralls into monstrous, violent, plagued abominations, barrelling his way down the rabbit hole of altering their very makeup, taking certain elements of the diseases to make his thralls faster, stronger, feel less pain and experience more bloodlust, and ‘live’ longer. In a way, he was making his own organic and genetically enhanced vampire. The end to his necromancy career came when he accidentally gave his creation sentience. The abomination he had created was in a staggering amount of both physical and mental agony, consistently screaming and begging for death. In a desperate bid to not destroy his research, Severin bargained with the Ideal Masters to take away the creature’s sentience again, but as soon as it was so, his creation simply devolved into complete violence and chaos, turned on him and almost murdered him, forcing him to kill it. Severin barely survived the encounter.

Part 2 (Vvardenfell, Morrowind)

After ditching necromancy and conjuration, Severin began down the path of learning restoration, alchemy and history, under the wing of the Telvanni mages who took him on after obscene amounts of begging. It was with the Telvanni that he met his late-wife, Llunela (They’re a T4T couple), with whom he often found himself after getting injured doing spellwork and alchemy. Eventually, Severin and Llunela moved in together and began building their lives on Vvardenfell, and soon enough, along came Llevana. When Llevana was two, however, the Red Mountain erupted. Hearing the rumble in the distance, Severin and Llunela fled their home, Severin with his daughter in his arms. As they were fleeing, Llunela fell, lost to the ash-flow pretty much instantly. With no time to react, Severin kept running, shielding Llevana from the ash and the heat with his body, holding up his magical ward for as long as he could, despite his skin beginning to blister and burn. He ran as far as he could, as fast as he could, and when he ran out of land, he started to swim, holding Llevana above the water. Sooner or later, though, he became exhausted and floated on his back, keeping her on his chest, so that if he died, she would not drown. He managed to stay awake, though, channelling his magic in alternation into keeping himself afloat and healing both himself and Llevana (whose arms had suffered some burning), and soon washed up on the coast, somewhere near Blacklight.

Part 3 (Somewhere Near Blacklight, Morrowind)

The first thing Severin did after washing up on the coast with his daughter was getting rid of their clothes, to prevent the fabric from sticking to their wounds. Still fuelled purely by adrenaline and the will to keep Llevana safe, Severin walked along the volcanic beach, naked, burnt and glassy-eyed, until he was found by a random civilian, who mistook him, at first, for an ash-spawn, until seeing the child he carried in his arms. They were taken in and tended to, healed and sheltered as much as possible, before they were well enough to move on.

Part 4 (Windhelm, Skyrim)

Severin moved into the Grey Quarter with Llevana as a refugee, where he took up pit-fighting again to provide for her, too unfamiliar with the region and afraid. For Llevana, he fought all sorts, from Orcs in their Strongholds to lowlifes in Riften’s Ratway, to corsairs on Smuggler Ships, only this time his skirmishes were made more interesting by his abilities with magic - this excited those who came to watch, resulting in him being paid more handsomely. Pit fighting in Skyrim had the same rules as pit fighting in Morrowind: none. Just survival. Bloody, brutal survival. Soon, however, he faced his most impressive fight - surrounded by blazing bonfires, scared out of his wits, he faced off against a giant. And despite his now traumatic fear of fire, he used the fire to his advantage, goading the Giant into chasing him around the pit, using his magic to augment the flames each time the Giant passed them, before finishing his opponent off by climbing onto the giant’s back and forcing its head into the fire. An altmer mage had been watching the fight, and recommended that Severin join the College of Winterhold, since his magic and intellect was ‘wasted’ in the pits.

Part 5 (Winterhold, Skyrim)

It would be many years (seventeen, to be precise), working with Nurelion in Windhelm, before Severin mustered up the courage to apply for a position at the College of Winterhold, afraid of not being good enough to teach and turned down, and also afraid of what the mages would think of him to look at him if he was accepted. Savos Aren, however, took a keen interest; whilst Severin didn’t quite have enough academic experience, he did have hell of a lot of field experience, and after a long interview, Severin was granted his position of Professor at the College.

Additional Info

What is he currently working on?

Alongside his teaching, Severin’s current research includes alchemical experimentation with blood compounds, so that he can help the more reasonable vampires who wish to be helped with their afflictions; he’s trying to create an artificial blood alternative.

What is Llevana like?

Llevana, now aged 19, looks a lot like her father, and she has her mother’s eyes and cheeky smile. She’s got her mum’s quick wit and academic prowess, and her father’s adventurous and experimental streak alongside his resilience. Her fascination is with the Dwemer, and she spends most of her time as Arniel Gane’s pupil, although the other portions of her time are spent either with Enthir, going dungeons crawling in Dwemer ruins, or trying to convince poor Severin that she’s perfectly safe. Her current pet project involves her dismantling dwarven centurions, spheres and spiders with intent to re-create a sort of dwemer pod-racer (which she intends to drag Enthir into in order to race around Blackreach faster, and to more efficiently avoid having to deal with the Falmer during her research).

Does Severin have PTSD?

Absolutely. No questioning it. He also has a permanent tremor in his hands and has absent PTSD triggered seizures (that look a lot like dissociation).

Will he find love again?

There is a certain closeted and repressed Thalmor mage who could learn a lot from him (and whom he could also learn a lot from)…

Did Necromancy have an effect on him?

Other than the trauma, yes. Dealing with the Ideal Masters corrupted quite a hefty chunk of his soul. Falion in Morthal might be able to help, if they research together.

What are his main proficiencies?

His very best skills are in Conjuration (Necromancy), Restoration (from his studies) and Alchemy (from his experiments), followed by One-Handed (from Pit-Fighting), Sneak (From Tomb-Raiding), Speech (From Teaching), Lockpicking (From Graverobbing) and Pickpocketing (Also from Graverobbing).

Does he have any special interests?

Vampires are a strong favourite of his; even though he’s not in his prime anymore, he’s definitely akin to a sort of Van-Helsing type figure. He may yet join the Dawnguard if his curiosity takes him there. With his daughter all grown up, a mer’s gotta have a hobby… but Isran would probably detest him, as Severin’s less excited about killing vampires and more excited about talking to and studying them to see if he can help them.

Have any of his other experiments gone wrong?

Many, but research is what it is. Trial and error. He’s accidentally paralysed himself a few times, contracted Sanguinare Vampiris by stupidly sampling a vampire heart, cured it, and blown up his alchemy table. He’s also been bitten by vampires SO many times.

Who are his friends?

He’s good friends with Tolfdir, Colette Marence and Urag Gro-Shub. Further back, he’s friendly with Nurelion and his old neighbours in the Grey Quarter, however there is one person he goes wayyyy back with: Teldryn Sero. He and Teldryn used to go Tomb-Raiding on the regular before the disaster. They met up in Solstheim when Severin was pit-fighting and raiding again to provide for Llevana and teamed up. Llevana calls him ‘Uncle Tel’.

As always, feel free to ask questions if there’s anything else you want to know about Severin ☺️

[olderthannetfic]

Online spread/borrowing of regional/culturally specific words and phrases is fascinating. I assume it happens particularly much for various dialects of English in part because non natives either pick up words they see without knowing any of the cultural context, or know of it but only on a very distant basis.

For example, i've cheerfully adopted "y'all" into my English lexicon, largely because my native language has separate single and plural "you" and it feels natural to use a separate plural you in English as well. I know it's a southern US word, but i also don't really know how it's pronounced by people with that dialect/accent, or if it technically would have more specific grammatical rules to its use. This information has been irrelevant to me - so much of my encounters with English is just over text, online and thus largely removed of specific geographic-cultural context.

--

[insertpoetryhere]

My autistic historical Sebastian Michaelis "Where's Waldo?" Post.

If you do not already know that I make content for me and me alone, then IDK what to tell you.

Anyways, this post comes to you all in the aftermath of me finding out that in 2010, Yana said that she was probably never going to reveal Sebastian's age or his true nature. Which I am taking as written permission for me to take whatever crazy idea I have and run with it until my legs give out.

Now, we're all familiar with the theory that Sebastian himself used to be human. And going into the evidence for that and how i have deluded myself into thinking its true by tearing apart every word that comes out of Mr. Michaels' mouth is a different post entirely. And while the theory is cool as all hell, it does create a question. When and where is Sebastian originally from?

Lucky for no one, I am a history student with a love for answering questions nobody asked me. And my answer is... definitely younger than you think. But also still old as shit.

So with me, Mr. Michaelis, and the entirety of human history plus nearly an entire globe of habitable land, let's narrow it down.

(Note: since I am going off of the canon of the manga, I will not be including evidence from most of season 1 and 2 of the anime since those two sources are not canon. Which sadly makes this task harder bc I can't use the mummy quote he made in season 2.)

Section 1: Location.

We will start here, since it's the less daunting of the two tasks and Sebastian actually makes this part super easy. All of Sebastian's historical references (which are few, but still very suspicious and said in front of humans) reference history taking place in Europe. He shares his name with a French inquisitor from the 17th century. Obviously, as implied by the last point, his chosen surname is French. He speaks fluent French and East Franconian German.

That last point is going to be the most helpful in narrowing this down, but as I'm sure you've already picked up what I'm putting down; I'm diagnosing him with French.

Let's go back to the East Franconian Dialect. Here, we have a map showing the places where this specific dialect is spoken.

(Please pardon that it is in German, it was just the best map that showed everything up close.)

Now, here is an image showing the location of the French-German border,

I'm sure you see where I am going with this.

Now, since we are dealing with history, there does need to be wiggle room for the migration of languages as time has gone and the way borders move around due to history generally happening. So to illustrate this , I have made my own crude map of two possible regions that Sebastian could be from and overlayed them to find the one most likely to have birthed him or whatever.

So yeah. We are looking at the French-German border, with France being the most likely culprit since he has a pretty heavy bias towards it.

Section 2: Time

Alright, now its just the matter of narrowing down when in the 300,000 years that humans have been a thing.

Easy stuff.

Luckily for us, Sebastian is a talker and thanks to getting punked by a 10 year old, he can't lie. Unlucky for us is that he's not very specific.

He makes several references to the 15th century and beyond, which most would consider to be modern history. But his comment about a human lifetime (which I would assign to roughly 75 years as that has been a pretty consistently attainable old age for at least the last few centuries) implies that he has to be more than just 400 years old, seeing as that would make a human lifetime a solid 19% of his current age if he really was that young.

So I went through all of the historical reference points I could find in the manga that came out of Sebastian's mouth and tracked down the earliest. Which got me... nowhere.

The earliest traceable historical reference that I could find was when Sebastian was loudly discussing his experiences with religious wars (in front of humans). And while I was originally pumping my fist in the air, I immediately started going through the stages of grief plus a secret sixth stage just for fun when I realized that bitch didn't specify which religious wars he had seen.

"Poetry, how many could there be?" A lot. Spanning from 312 CE to the modern day. And all he said was that he has "[...] witnessed this, first hand, on countless occasions" in reference to all the religious wars he has apparently seen but won't specify which one (I'm going to put his head on a stick).

Since Sebastian's vague accounts of all the religious wars did not give me the definitive lower limit I was hoping for, I had to put a pin in that and look elsewhere for evidence.

Weirdly enough, that line of thought took me right back to languages. On top of the two listed languages from the previous section, Sebastian also speaks fluent Latin. I originally wrote this off as him just being a demon who does demon things until I remembered that both Germany and France (specifically all of France and a chunk of eastern Germany, as highlighted above in section 1) were at one point part of the Roman Empire under the unified name of Gaul.

Map for proof.

Gaul was fully conquered by Rome in 181 CE, who did not lose control of the area until the 6th century CE. Meaning we have narrowed this down from 300,00 years to just a little over 4 centuries.

While Sebastian does speak the modern version of both French and German, this could probably just be because he's lived for so long and saw the area transition from the Gaulish language to the modern dialects he speaks now. And with the Roman Empire universally speaking Latin, he would obviously be familiar with that as well.

To go back to Sebastian's infuriating comment about the religious wars he has witnessed, I mentioned that the oldest official religious war took place in the year 312 CE. This lands it directly in the middle of Rome's control over Gaul. Funnily enough, this "first holy war" is the Battle of Milvian Bridge, which took place October 28th, 312 and was a Roman civil war which (through a collection of events that I refuse to get into) established Rome as a Christian empire via Constantine.

Because all of this is lining up way too perfectly, I'm going to assume that when Sebastian says "countless" religious wars, he's starting with the first one. Plus I'm mad at him so if I tack on an extra century or so to his age then so be it.

Seeing as Sebastian can speak Latin fluently and doesn't seem to have any strong anti-Roman sentiments, we can assume that he's not from the early days of Roman-controlled Gaul. We will put a general pin in that as about half way through the third century, around 250 CE.

Now, we are trying to to narrow down Sebastian's birth year. So clearly 312 CE won't do if we are operating under the assumptions that Sebastian A.) was a human person who followed general human development and B.) actually remembers this civil war with any clarity. He can't remember the war at all if he was any younger than about 4, and he wouldn't understand the permanence of death if he was any younger than about 8. This means that at his very youngest, Sebastian would have had to be born in 304 CE.

Our range is now from ~250 CE- 304 CE, which is about as low of a range as I think we will be willing to get. So where does this put Sebastian's age in Black butler.

When he meets Ciel in the year 1896, he would have been 1,646 at the oldest and 1,592 at the youngest. And as of the current arc, He is in the age range of 1,595-1,649.

Conclusion

Based on the evidence gathered and going off of the popular fan theory that Sebastian was in fact at one point a human person, he was most likely born in Roman-controlled Gaul from 250-304 CE, making him either midway through or swiftly approaching his sweet 16th-century of life.

Now it goes without saying that I am by no means trying to say that this is canon. I can't even claim with 100% certainty that every word of this is perfectly sound since my sources are mostly just the class I'm currently taking on European history pre-1500 and the Britannica website. It's all in good fun and if I fucked up, I beg of you to tell me so that I may throw myself down this rabbit hole again.