#i think it has something to do with english merging vowels more so english is more dependant on clear consonants

[agp]

this is giving me high school hockey flashbacks to having to explain to my new teammates who didnt speak french every year (it was an english-operating league) that i do generally prefer english, but that its significantly easier to enunciate in french with a mouthguard. this information/framing could have been useful lol

[alto-tenure]

azran diphthongs + some other phonotactics notes

I said I wasn’t going to try this, but the semester’s over, so I have to have some project besides my fic to focus on :P You can block the tag “river conlangs azran” if you don’t want to see this.

Part 1: Consonant + Vowel Inventory

Some things I want to add before I get into the post:

/ə/ has to exist in the Azran language for Aurora’s name to be, like, pronounceable. I also put /f/ on the chart, and I decided to make my Google doc with both charts public. Here it is.

Some definitions:

Diphthongs are what you say when two vowels are merged. This doesn’t just happen in words that have two vowels next to each other; it also shows up in other words but is harder to detect.

Phonotactics are the rules of which sounds can go next to each other.

With that out of the way, let’s go.

The reason I’ve decided to put these together is because I honestly do think they go together -- which vowels can be put together goes with which syllables can be put together.

So. Let’s talk about diphthongs.

Other diphthongs that are canon (based on Aurora’s chant): /ei/ and /ai/.

I covered in my last post that the diphthong /oʊ/ is canon to the Azran language.

I scrolled through Wikipedia’s page on diphthongs, and from the languages listed, languages can have a lot or very little. I think three in the base language is good, but there would probably be more in dialects -- and considering the Azran are a worldwide empire, there would almost certainly be dialects. I’m not going to talk about any of those, because I really don’t want to build dialects of a language that I’m building.

Onto the phonotactics!

Something I noticed listening to Aurora’s chant -- there aren’t that many consonant clusters. Here are the ones I noted: /rn/ and /nt/. The city of Ambrosia does have another cluster in it, so there are the canon ones.

I would consider saying “screw phonotactics, let’s go wild with this”, except that it creates too many possible syllables, and I think the written language is probably a syllabary, for reasons I’ve covered in other posts. Also blah blah blah phonotactics are important to understand a language blah blah blah

The thing that makes this really hard is that rules were meant to be broken. And thus every bit of phonotactics must have an exception 🙃

So here’s a few of the guidelines I came up with:

the only vowels words can start with are /a/ and /ɜ/, but words can start with diphthongs that include /a/

the only allowed consonant clusters either have a nasal (/m/ and /n/) or the rhotic

/r/ is pronounced as an approximant after /ɜ/ and as a trill after /a/

every word has to end with a vowel (though not every syllable does)

Actually, I want to talk about that last part a little more before I keep going. I went back and listened to the voice line in Japanese (which does have /f/ in it as far as I can hear, so I feel validated for my decision to add it to the inventory). Now, I’m adding an additional disclaimer here that I am not fluent in Japanese in any way, but from what I do know about the language, all the words in Japanese also end in vowels. The transliteration of “Azran” in Japanese iirc is “asuranto”, which works with both the phonotactics rules I’ve set above, the inventory I’ve assigned the language, and it definitely makes sense for it to be translated into English the same way. Though I still think there’s a distinction between /s/ and /z/ in the Azran language that does not exist in Japanese, so that distinction would be used in the name of their people.

Consider all my posts on the subject living documents; nothing about this is final, and things may change in the future as I develop the language more. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that they will, since languages are flexible by nature -- even constructed ones should have the ability to change.

[maneskin-my-belovedd]

Måneskin Fan Infodumps About Cool Linguistic Feature Apparent in Italian Rock Band’s Songs

Because I really like Måneskin and I really like linguistics AND I like talking about both of them, I will now teach you a cool thing I learned about them okay here we go

So the first time I listened to “I Wanna Be Your Slave”, the way Damiano pronounced one of the lines stuck out to me:

I know you're scared of me You say that I'm too eccentric

The phrase “too eccentric” sounded instead like the word “eccentric” with a /t/ in front of it (”teccentric”), which made it a bit hard to understand at first. If you pay attention to that part of the song, you may be able to hear why I found his pronunciation strange: he is singing two syllables-- “too” and “ec-” (from “eccentric”)-- on the same note. In other words, it sounds like he is smushing the two syllables together.

Now, from an English-speaking perspective, this may seem like poor lyric setting. Why try to fit this eight-syllable lyric into a seven-note melody? Why not rewrite the line so it fits-- “You say I’m too eccentric” or “You say that I’m eccentric” would both work better. The thing is, Måneskin's native language is Italian, and from an Italian-speaking perspective the phrase “You say that I'm too eccentric” could definitely work in a seven-note melody, despite seemingly having an extra syllable.

In Italian, along with some other Romance languages like Portuguese and Spanish, there is a phenomenon called synalepha. Synalepha occurs when one word ends in a vowel and another word begins with a vowel, and results in the vowels being merged into one syllable. It is easiest to hear in poetry or music, which depends greatly on syllable count.

For example, take this line from “Vent’anni”, with the number of syllables in each individual word written in parentheses

E (1) andare (3) un (1) passo (2) più (1) avanti (3)

Simply adding the number of syllables will give us a total of 11, but in reality it is sung as eight syllables because synalepha occurs three times. The syllable breakdown is shown below: ties (‿) represent synalepha , hypens (-) represent syllable boundaries within a word, and spaces represent syllable boundaries between words.

E‿an-da-re‿un pa-sso  più‿a-van-ti 

In fact, if you listen to any Italian Måneskin song, you will almost certainly find cases of synalepha. Lowering the playback speed can help you hear how the vowels are merged into one syllable.

Looking back at “I Wanna Be Your Slave”, we can now see why Damiano might be pronouncing the phrase “too eccentric” as three syllables rather than four; he is applying synalepha, a foundational part of his native language, to English, where it doesn’t occur. We can hear synalepha applied again in other lines in the song:

I wanna be a good boy‿I wanna be a gangster

and

I wanna be your sex toy‿I wanna be your teacher

I want to make it clear, though, that this post is not to say that Damiano is speaking English “wrong” or "improperly”. I, along with most linguists, strongly believe that we should discuss linguistics in a descriptive way, objectively describing how language is used by its speakers, rather than in a prescriptive way, determining what is “correct” and “proper”. 

Additionally, I doubt that English’s lack of synalepha is something taught to Italian speakers. As a native English speaker who has studied Spanish for around seven years, I was never formally taught that synalepha occurs in Spanish; the closest thing I can remember was one of my professors telling me that Spanish “flows” more than English. I only noticed synalepha after listening to songs in Spanish and noticing how vowels in separate syllables combined into one syllable.

In conclusion, I think looking at the “mistakes” made by non-native speakers of a language is so interesting. It reveals a lot about their native language and how people acquire new languages. Are they applying a grammatical rule in their language that doesn’t exist in the second language? Or maybe they are over-applying a rule that only exists in the second language? Maybe, like synalepha, it’s a rule that’s never taught but is implicitly understood by native speakers. 

I just think that non-standard features of a language, especially those used by non-native speakers, shouldn’t be looked down upon as impure forms of the language, but instead should pique curiosity (”why do they say it like this?”) and serve as a reminder of our diversity (”it’s so cool that there are different ways to say this!”).

[marvelyhp]

Still you | chapter II

Chapter II: The comeback

Synopsis: Y/n decides to help the Avengers despite their betrayal two years prior and her life makes a big shift once again.

Pairing: Y/n x Bucky Barnes and some Y/n x Sam Wilson

Word count: 5,997

warnings: cussing, some fluff

note: I know I took so long but I had writer's block. then, I got covid and I felt too awful to write. But I'm okay now so this is what I could come up with. Not my greatest stuff. the tag list is open :)

Side note: I would really appreciate hearing from you and your thoughts!

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

We managed to lower two floors without raising suspicion or making too much noise. At least, James and I were pretty silent, whispering if needed. But of course, Stark always had to open his damn mouth. He had been talking all the way —pretty loudly too— and he just did it again.

“Where’s the grandpa with the bad luck of having you as a tenant?” The man didn’t know the meaning of whispering. Or maybe he did. He just wanted to make my life more complex than it was. I looked frantically behind me, praying he had not seen me sneaking out. At the sight of no one, a breath of relief exploded out of me. But it didn’t last long, irritation quickly dampening my already poor mood.

“Shut the hell up!” I hissed. My patience with the insufferable man wearing thin.

“Oh, relax. If he sees us, we’ll knock him out and blame you.” He mocked, a chuckle erupting throughout the hall and following the stairlike a draft of wind. My blood started to boil inside my veins and I felt the heat spread from head to toes. I was afraid to be reaching my tipping point already because this was nothing. Two years out of practice left me hypersensitive to his shit. I wondered how long I would be able to stand the insufferable mortal and regret hit me like a ton of bricks.

“He is a good man, Stark. We will not knock him out.” I whispered as I pressed myself against the wall. Twisting my head around the corner at the end of the hall, I sneaked a glance at the stairs and the visible space from the top. “Watch your step here. His room is right underneath the stairs. We don’t want to wake him up.

I walked forward, pressing my foot in the first step, praying the creak of the old wood would keep quiet today as it did some nights. At least that’s what I hoped but it wasn’t what happened. A groan broke the silence in the room and I knew that if he was awake, he definitely heard it. I waited a couple of seconds, alert to any noise. When nothing came, I advanced four more steps. I focused on the one shadow dancing in the wall and relief swept through me. He wasn’t awake.

I turned, thinking the guys were still up. However, I let out a gasp when Bucky’s face came into view, mere inches away from mine. Thanks to the startle, the foot I had dangerously close to the edge slipped.

My heart stopped as I thought about the fall and the inevitable bone-crushing pain that would come after it. The stairs were pretty high and even though they were wood, it was quite sharp. Splinters roamed everywhere. I waited for the pain and the strenuous sound. It was phenomenal, the first time I saw the team in two years and I would meet them in a body bag with a broken neck.

However, it never came.

When I opened my eyes, blue electric eyes stared back at me. Our faces were inches away from each other. A hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me flush against him to hold me from falling. I was hyper-aware of our breaths clashing against each other, making the most sinful of sounds. Our lips were separated by a small space, too close for my brain to catch up quickly. I noticed how his lips roamed my face, stopping at my lips slightly parted by the surprise. His eyes held a fervent fire and my breath quickened once I felt the inevitable rush of warmth roaring my body.

Coughing slightly, I took a step backward, stepping out of his grasp. I forgot all about the landlord as I scolded myself. The man looked at me and there I was getting flushed like a raging hormonal teenager. I looked at everything but Bucky’s face, why I knew still had his eyes on me except now his jaw was firmly set. I wanted to ask him what was going on inside his head but a hovering shadow at the top of the stairs captured my attention.

“What are you still doing up there?'' The man looked utterly confused standing at the top of the stairs surrounded by darkness. I wondered if it had to do with what he just witnessed.

“You care about that grandpa, don’t you?” His expression was one of disbelief. His body wasn’t moving as if in shock or trying to process the information he thought was correct. And it was, but he didn’t have to know.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, unaffected.

“Of course you do. You care about the landlord.”

I whirled around as fast as I could with the incident earlier present in my head as a gruff voice filled the room. A short, stubby old man stood at the foot of the stair dressed in a white t-shirt and some basketball shorts. The ends of his hair stood up as if held by a string and maneuvered by a child. His narrowed black eyes stared back at us. His lips pressed in a thin line.

“Of course, she does, kid. Why shouldn't she?” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. I followed the movement of the milk dancing in the glass on his right hand. I felt proud of the English I had taught him and how-- as much as I didn't want this to happen-- useful it would be. I looked back at Stark to find him gaping like a fish. Little croaks came from his throat but no coherent words came from him. It was the first time I had seen Stark speechless. “I’m an incredible landlord if I say so myself.”

He was.

I cursed inwardly. There were things I didn't want everyone to know. To a certain extent, I wasn’t ready for the team, for Stark, to find out that I wasn’t the monster he expected me to be. I wasn’t ready for him to look at me differently. Andrei had the power to change our whole dynamic.

It wasn’t that Andrei and I shared anything about life. Or at least I didn’t. Andrei liked to talk, to share his life with me, and try to make me talk. He said I was too reserved. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

It had been a warm evening. I could see the sun filtering through the windows. Shining onto the top of the show top and illuminating the cottage-like bakery. The dough in my hands stuck to my skin, lumps of a uniformed cream mass suffocating the fingers. The powdered white dust sat beside me and I felt irritated. I hadn’t thought about pouring it on the mixture before I touched it. ‘I was out of my element here’ I thought as I reached for the flour.

Andrei’s baker had abruptly called five minutes before work notifying him he couldn’t work his shift. His grandmother had fallen down the stairs and fractured her hip, hence his lack of concern for Andrei. He was the only living relative she had so it fell upon him to look after her. One missed shift would turn into dozens. The bakery was small and hidden in a remote part of Romania. The clientèle was not much besides those living in the small town from years ago, or even since they were born.

Everyone in town knew each other. When I arrived I had my doubts about staying in this place because of that same reason. I would be the talk for weeks and I couldn’t risk so many people questioning my presence. Except, I was lucky.

One evening, I sat in a small and dark corner of a bar near the outskirts of the town where it was most probable to see an outsider. Two men sat a couple of feet away from me, talking fairly loudly. Out of boredom and desire to know the people I might have been seeing every day, I heard and studied their moments. Taking notes about their behaviors and storing them far into the file I had on humanity. Their voices were cheery as they ate pastries that I was sure to not be from the small bar.

“This is so good! I can’t believe I haven't tasted a pastry this good since I left,” he moaned loudly in reaction to the puff on his hand. The crumbly dessert spilling powdered sugar all over his dark gray pants. “Andrei hasn’t lost his touch.”

“Who is this Andrei you talk so highly of?” The older male asked the seemingly young partner. The man wore an expensive suit, not one that could be found here and from what I gathered from their conversation, he had not grown up here. But his friend did. What he said next grabbed my attention the most.

“His bakery is pretty hidden in the town. Someone that didn’t know the road would not find him. He used to be a criminal, on the run and all that. But since he got out of prison he became a baker. the man sure has a gift. I don’t even know why he went to jail, because the man is a sweetheart. I think he was just dealt a bad hand.” The man kept munching on his pastry as he talked. The vowels all merging to create a soundless blob. I swore he said more but that was all I could understand and by the face of his friend, he understood less.

“It’s such a small town. Why was it never known?”

“I don’t know. Rumor has it that he was born here but left, something to do with his family. He came back years later, on the run from some people. People we assumed to be the police. Of course, the police followed his trail and eventually found him here. Two years later. He hid pretty well if, you asked me. He treats people with respect but he never talks about himself. He has always been reserved when it comes to his life, only telling small details that lead to nothing. You know, not enough to form a life picture…”

Before he finished talking, I was out of my seat, walking towards the pair. I plastered an innocent look on my face, one I had studied and perfected many times since coming to earth. I relaxed my posture, knowing I had been tense and tucked since I entered this town. I still can’t believe I was social before. Nobody would believe that if I told them now.

“Hey, those pastries look marvelous!” I said in a cheery voice when I reached the pair. Both of their heads whipped towards my direction, curiosity written in their faces. I could hear the questions in their head about me and where I came from and what I looked for in town. Typical gossiping mortals. I wanted to cut the tie between our heads, feeling bad about corrupting the men’s thoughts. But I couldn’t, not until I had what I wanted. “Do you know where could I find them?”

“Sure thing. What’s your name, sweet thing?” Sweet thing, that’s funny. If he had been into the American news he would not say that.

“Calypso. Do you know where the place is? Can you explain it to me?” I said, trying to hide the hurry in my voice. His thoughts were front seat in my mind, not wanting to miss a thing.

“So eager.” He chuckled. Instead of the route, I was expecting, he thought about my naked form and countless sexual images began replaying. I resisted the urge to impale his backside, taking a deep breath and counting to ten. I played his game. I battered my eyelashes and looked at him from hooded eyes. I bit my lip gently and walked closer. Sneaking a glance at his friend, I noticed he was no longer looking at us. He seemed uncomfortable and had turned to his coffee and pastries. I wish I had a coffee to turn to.

“Maybe you could take me there. If you remember the way, of course.” He smirked and grabbed the jacket slung over the wooden chair he sat on. His friend looked at us, startled as if he wasn’t expecting my response. However, the joy of his friend would be short-lived. Images of the way to the small bakery filled my head and I smirked. Before he could take my hand to guide me to his car I asked for the restroom.

As soon as I came in, my eyes searched for some window I could use to leave unnoticed. And I found it in the corner of the bathroom beside one of the huge black and white mirrors. I locked the door and hurried to open the window, sliding through the door. The darkness of the night didn’t face me but my alert was high. Everybody could hide in the dark. My heart rocked against my chest as I saw the same guy from early waiting beside his car. I hurried along the alleyway, pulling my hood up and hiding my hair, disappearing into the dark.

“Calypso, boy for you.” I was brought from my memories by the rough voice of Andrei. Whoever didn’t spend much time with him would think he was mad all the time thanks to his voice and forever furrowed white bushy eyebrows. I matched the furrowing of his eyebrows when he mentioned a boy. I had been careful enough to not get attached or get anyone attached to myself so the mention of another human being besides Andrei spooked me.

Suddenly, the thought of agents looking for me or the usual threats I had filled me with panic. I heard the thunderous beat of my heart. The tremble of my hands disrupted the beautiful form of the pastry in my hands. quickly cleaning and taking away the apron full of white dust, I walked to the front of the door.

A dark-haired man in his early twenties stood next to the door with a blue box in his hands. A white shimmering ribbon adorned the delicate box, wrapping silkily around it to form a well-done bow. The chiseled bone structure of his profile caught my breath as he looked to the small, underpopulated plaza in the corner of the rondure. The curvature of his roman nose and the thin shape of his lips sticking in his profile.

I saw him regularly at the small bakery. His usual was a Papanaşia with a black strong coffee. He left three dollars on the tip jar three times a week and I noticed if he was overly happy, he would leave a fiver regardless of the day or how many days he had tipped. I had seen him mad twice in the store. Seemingly, he was one of those guys that harbored every trouble inside in a chaotic turmoil. I knew because I had invaded his mind one of those times. Curiosity had gotten the best of me, knowing he was always the type of guy that carried the sun on his shoulder. Every time he caught my attention, I tried to remind myself that he could’ve been an agent sent by Hydra to kill me or worse, kidnap me.

“Hello. What can I help you with?” I said, confidence laced in my voice. The confidence I did not expect to have. His head whipped towards me. A smile broke on his face at the sight of me. I saw the fidgeting of the box in his hands and the sudden bobbing of his knee. He didn’t appear to be harboring any secrets, or at least not deadly ones.

“Hey. I know this will probably look very weird to you but I’ve been watch- I mean not watching but I just- I,” His stammering caused a giggle to leave my lips involuntarily. My hand immediately flew to my lips, hiding the smile corrupting my face. He lowered his face but not before giving me one of those smiles that could light up a world. God, I felt sappy. He looked at me once again. “I don’t know how to do this. I definitely didn’t think it through.” He chuckled. One of his hands came up to brush his face while shaking it, side to side. I could tell he was nervous, maybe more that I initially had been.

Seeing him stammer was the cutest thing I had seen since the little green and purple flowers that grew back home and surrounded our palace. So, I decided to help him a bit. “You could start with your name,” I said, trying to not smile too much. Agent, agent, agent…

“God, you probably should’ve done that first. Nice one.” He said, more to himself than for me to hear it. “I’m Razvan. It's lovely to finally meet you.” I shook his hand. It was rough yet soft with elongated fingers caressing my own small and thin one.

“Calypso.”

“What I meant to say, you know, before I shot myself in the foot was that you caught my eye since I first saw you. Now, I swear I'm not stalking you because it could be easy to think after the horrible introduction I just did. But, yeah, I would like to get to know you, if that’s okay with you.”

I did think about it. I swear I did. I thought about how he could be linked to Hydra and if you searched on the deepest paranoid corner, the Avengers. I thought he could’ve been just a random murderer whose floor I had shaken. My voice of reason said no. and with the saddest feeling settling my stomach, I told him what I thought. Or tried to.

“I’m sorry, I-I can’t. You seem like the loveliest person b-but I…” For some reason, I couldn’t just say no. “Can I think about this?” That was the only thing that came out of my mouth while I tried to get the words ‘go away and ‘don’t speak to me’ out of my mouth. His smile faded a bit, but even then he tried to keep his positivity and bright personality on. I could feel the waves of disappointment once I started speaking but hope soon came flooding back.

“Sure. I'm a complete stranger coming here every day just to see you. I can see how that’s alarming. take your time.” He shook his head as if realizing what he had just said. He chuckled and I tried to give him a small smile. Before I could turn away and leave, I felt him touch my elbow. I jumped back.

His brows furrowed quickly. “Forgive me. This is for you. And please accept it.” I thought about refusing but this would only prolong this meeting, pushing me to accept a company I wasn't ready for. I took the small box, my hand already trying to open the shimmering blue box. “No, please. Open it later, more calmly and everything and you can tell me whenever you’re ready if you like it.” I gave him a smile, which he returned brightly before diving back inside the back of the store.

Once inside, I undid the delicate ribbon, watching it dissolve like seafoam by the lovely blue water. The glistening gold chain with a tiny, colorful Koi fish rested in the center of the box. My heart swelled and I felt a way I hadn’t felt since Bucky. He remembered what I had told him that first, and the only time we had talked before today.

The voice of Andrei brought me out of my stupor with a jump. A hand traveled to grasp my heart while the other held the box tightly.

“Razvan is nice guy.” His voice was gruff and deep like it had been since I had met him. He walked behind me and grabbed a pack of flour to dump beside me. I looked towards the other and realized I was running out of it.

“Do you know him?”

“Yes. Comes every day for two years. Great boy.”

When I didn’t say anything, he stopped cutting open the pack of flour and turned to look at me. “You too reserved. Not want to end like Andrei alone. Give guy chance.” That was all he said before he left. A tall wrinkly woman with short red hair calling out for him.

The last thing I thought that day after he left drove me to the same road he had set me on. I didn’t want to end alone or die alone for that matter. But what was I to do if everyone thought I was a selfish monster who just wanted to kill and bring chaos? The only person who didn’t feel that particular way was the same man I was leaving without saying goodbye.

Stark seemed to have gathered his words together because he suddenly began spewing some shit on Andrei. shit, he didn’t like it.

“The girl is no selfish girl. Only a fool like yourself would think so. Only a blind man would propose such a thing.” His brows were furrowed but Otherwise, he was calmly standing at the bottom of the stairs sipping his milk. He seemed like he would continue but I made sure to stop him

“Andrei, no.”

“I see. She holds you hostage and controls you, doesn’t she?” Stark countered, a smirk settling in his features. I pinched my nose, sighing loudly.

“You have to leave with this buffoon?” I walked down to his side, muttering an annoyed yes. “I’m sadder for you than him.” A chuckle escaped him as he hugged my shoulders with one arm. I tried to push him away but found no will to do so. I would miss Andrei. He felt like the father I never had. Worry settled in my stomach knowing I had been here and I would no longer be if anything happened to him. I hugged him back, despite my better judgment and the four pairs of eyes staring back at me.

“Don’t forget about me, violet. Nor dear Razvan.’ He told me after letting me go. I nodded before calling back to my two companions. Stark came down, slowly walked to the front door. Bucky at his heels. They both turned. Bucky’s face had some sort of emotion I couldn't decipher. I thought I could, but I doubt he would feel happy about finding someone genuine to spend my days with.

Stark, on the other hand, looked at Andrei as if he had grown an extra head.

“I’m confused. Aren’t you supposed to be dying at her touch or something? Are you sure she didn’t threaten you to act this way?” The funny thing was, he sounded genuinely confused. The skepticism in his voice hurt my feelings but the mere fact it was stark made me forget quickly. He was an insensitive prick with a personal vendetta.

“Take this fool away before I turn him into a human pastry,” Andrei commented. I walked towards them, chuckling. “Ai grijă, violet aprins.” Take care, fiery violet. The elder said before we shut the door behind us. my heart swelled at his words. I knew I would long for those quiet evenings where it would rain and we would sit down in the living room with a book, quietly enjoying our presence. We laughed and made new and invented pastries in the kitchen for days, always looking for new and innovative flavors. I would miss the man that had treated me like his daughter.

“Take care, Pop.” I whispered to myself. Not thinking a long-haired blue-eyed soldier would hear.

And just like that, we disappeared quietly into the night and I said goodbye to one of the most important people in my life.

James let me know they came in the Quinjet, that enormous thing I had refused to sit on two years ago. the walk was not far from where we were and we found it in a while.

The Quinjet was hidden behind one of the buildings next to the bakery. the gigantic thing sleeping while we arrived to climb up. clint stood outside, his arms crossed. that man always looked like he was in a power pose.

“Romania? What is it with chased people and Romania?” Confusion and genuine interest were written all over his face.

Barton had always been a friend before I knew the truth. Nat told me she had told him in a drunken stupor. he tried to talk to her about telling me but she didn’t listen. I didn’t hold it against him because I knew he wasn’t actively participating but he didn’t do anything either.

I shrugged. “It’s a good hiding place. too many criminals organizations for you to matter. nobody cares who the hell you are as long as you keep quiet.”

“Good shadow place.” Bucky added as he tried to help me get in the Quinjet. I ignored his hand, focusing on Clint’s face.

“Exactly.” My response was clipped. if he was fishing for a normal conversation he was in for a treat.

After a while, we took off. My legs became restless as I sat in front of Stark and Bucky while Clint piloted the flying thing. boredom pushed me to get up from my seat and walk towards the front of the Quinjet. that, and Straks glare along with the awkwardness of Bucky’s movements.

Clint’s focused face came into view as I sat beside him. silence engulfed the both of us before he broke the silence with some words I didn’t expect.

“We missed you.” it was a quiet remark but full of shocking force. I just sat there, wide-eyed looking towards the already clearing sky. I looked towards him and forced myself to respond. a scoff came out of me, causing Clint to look rapidly towards me.

“You have no reason to believe me, but it’s the truth. Nat was pretty shaken up when you left. we looked for you everywhere and decided you didn’t want to be found. that you needed some time. it took you longer than we thought.”

“You didn’t find me because you didn’t look. You don’t have to lie to me, Barton.” I said, masking the hurt I felt with anger. why keep lying to me? I knew they didn’t care sop they didn’t need to act as they did.

“What? we did loo-” He never finished his sentence since Stark’s voice boomed around the small space. he came to let us know where would land soon as if we didn’t know already. Clint was the pilot, it was impossible for us to not know. suspicion arose in my chest but I soon forgot it when I saw the massive compound below us.

✹✹✹ I would be lying if I said my stomach wasn’t fluttering and my hands trembled slightly. I subtly rubbed my hands in my jeans, hoping to get some moisture away. But, there was something else bothering me. It had been there for a little while. The emptiness in my chest divided in two, as though… I don’t even know. The doors slid with a swift sound and my heart rate hit new floors.

I tried to avoid showing any emotion I felt. Seeing them surrounding the long table, all in their daily clothing made it hard to remember. I couldn’t show the happiness of seeing them all right after two years. Nor could I show the excitement deep in my bones seeing Wanda’s face. I couldn’t forget the damage (situation) those high-held beings made to my heart.

I looked at them with a mask of indifference firmly placed.

Wanda was the first to step forwards, as I knew she would. I didn’t expect her to but a part of me screamed how she had been the only real friend through the year I spent in this cage. I resisted the urge to hug her, touch her, and receive the reassurance I so deeply wanted.

“I thought- we thought you were dead.” The revelation shocked me. It felt as though they couldn’t believe I was alive. But I was. The question was… why did they think so?

“Nop. Still kicking.” I replied.

“Unfortunately.” I heard Stark mutter under his breath. I rolled my eyes and resisted the urge to kick him. I could make him feel a true kick in his brain. And his ass, too.

“Y/n!” A high-pitched voice came from the corner next to me. The smiley face of Pepper Potts came rushing towards me, engulfing me in a hug. My nerve endings shot and I prayed my instinctive responses wouldn’t go through. Fortunately for me, they didn’t. Before I could even think to hold her back—which I wouldn’t have done anyway— she stepped back. Smile intact and a gleam in her eyes capable of illuminating the whole room.

“Jesus. You’ve changed so much!” Her hands settled on my shoulder, holding softly and slightly shaking my shocked frame. “I missed you.” Her vice took a sweet edge and her head lolled to the side. Her eyes scrutinized me with the look of a mother who had just seen her child after a hard year abroad. I resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably out of her grasp. I wasn’t used to this.

“Honey, leave the feral alien alone.” Tony’s voice reached my ears. “We have important matters to discuss.”

“God, Tony. Give us a break. We haven’t seen the kid in two years.” Natasha’s ______ filled the room as I saw her taking steps towards me. I noticed there were no relaxed steps but tense and wary. Her eyes held a sort of apology mixed with caution.

I just stared. Deep inside I didn’t know how to react to someone I hadn’t seen in a long time, someone who betrayed me gets closer. Her body language told me she was sorry but still cautious of my reaction but I didn’t know if I should forgive her. Her right hand stretched towards my frame. I shifted uncomfortably in place, moving slightly away from her.

I saw her eyes roam my body, noticing the discomfort. She came to a halt three feet away from me. Her lips were pursed as she let her head drop for a second. She recovered quickly, extending her same hand towards me, this time to shake my hand.

“It’s good to have you back, Y/n.”

I took her hand in mine, shaking firmly. I nodded my head towards her. My lips pursed. The movement of Wanda’s body caught my eye. She stepped closer to me, her hands nervously trembling beside her big, red jumper.

“Can I hug you?” Hearing those words coming out of her froze the ongoing flow of blood through my veins. I was shocked, to say the least. I bet I looked like a gaping fish as an incomprehensible string of detached words escaped my lips. Everyone else seemed as surprised as I was. For completely different reasons I would bet. As Stark had said, they thought I was a free being.

She waited patiently, probably aware of the shock and ongoing battle I had inside me. She was the only one aware of my thoughts about showing anything besides contempt. And she knew why. But I sent it all to hell and for once, I did what I wanted to do. I nodded.

Her smile was worth enough as she moved quickly towards me, as though worried I would change my opinion. Her thin arms wrapped around my neck, my lack of height apparent as my 5’1 ass reached her shoulders. I resisted the urge to cry as I wrapped my arms around her back, relishing in a familiar face that didn’t hate my only existence.

“I missed you.” It was a whisper, only for me to hear. A small smile escaped my lips as hope blossomed in my chest. Hope that maybe I wasn’t a lost cause. Hope that maybe someday I could have a family.

“I did too, Red.” I murmured back. Careful to not raise my voice as I didn’t want anyone to know anything. I felt oddly vulnerable to be hugging someone let alone hugging someone in front of seven people. I noticed Vision staring and I gave him a subtle nod, a small smile creeping upon my lips. He nodded back with that usual blank expression not in compass with the feelings he harbored. After some time, I let her go before Stark had another remark to make.

I noticed Steve leaning against a far-away table, maybe ten feet away from where I was. His head lowered, eyes on the ground. His arms surrounded his build, hugging himself with a heavy frown on his face. He didn’t want to look towards me and I thought I knew why. He was ashamed of what he did. He was guilty anyway you looked at it. He was guided by Bucky to do everything. He followed the man despite knowing it was wrong. Not because your friend tells you to throw yourself out the window means you’ll do it. He knew full well what was wrong and right. He knew Barnes' proposal was as low as a man could get.

If he didn’t apologize and acknowledge what he did, he was dead to me. I mean, he had tried to apologize that day, but I was devastated and no words came through my anger.

There were a few handshakes and subtle nods here and there before I noticed a presence missing. I looked around for the usual big man with an overinflated sense of heroism but didn’t find him. He was big enough for anyone to spot him. I felt a pang in my chest and a tingle at the back of my head and I knew something was wrong. The air shifted and my hands started trembling slightly.

“Where’s my brother?” I asked, my voice slightly shaky. I tried to compose myself, knowing he had to be alright or I would’ve felt something.

“We don’t know. We couldn’t get a hold of him.” Natasha replied. I noticed the subtle worry etched in her face lines.

Suddenly, I understood that emptiness inside me. That swirling emotion unlatched to an earthy body. One of the connectors inside of me, besides bucky’s, was empty. It didn’t have any energy to connect to.

No.

No.

No.

I didn’t realize I began hyperventilating while the word repeated itself over and over in my head. My chest rose and fell quickly while the air got caught in my throat. My hand shot out to grasp anything in reach I could hold myself up with.

“Y/n?! What’s wrong?” Wanda was the first to step forward and grab my elbow. Her soft touch didn't completely register in my sensory sense. The only thing in my mind was the heavy colorless fog swirling around in my insides.

The worst part was, I didn’t know which of my brothers it belonged to. I thought about them and how long it had been since I had seen them. Since I had been with them.

“Can you all excuse me?” I pulled myself together and without waiting for a response, I hurried across the room. I thought about the me that they just saw but somewhere deep down, I didn’t care.

I hurried, passing Steve's body. This time, he looked intently at me. I didn’t expect him to stand up and grab my shoulders. By this point, my vision was blurry and I tried hard to reconnect with the missing life essence.

“Y/n, I-”

“Can we do this later, Rogers?” I spat, cutting him off before getting my elbow out of his grasp. I left, shuddering and feeling a wave of anger rising in my chest.

What a good way to make a comeback.

TAG LIST:

@jessyballet

@ginger-swag-rapunzel

@paryl

@sltwins

@greenlibra10

[final-servamp-banter]

White Day: Iori

I really like his route but at the same time I find it kinda sad. Enjoy :3

Iori: Hello, is this [Your name]-san? It’s your Tsukimitsu Iori. Are you free to talk right now?

Iori: I apologize for getting straight to the point, but would you mind spending some time with me tomorrow?

Iori: Because tomorrow is White Day, of course. …… Huh? I thought you were excitedly waiting for my call, but…?

You: (Tomorrow…)

Player Choices:

1. I was hoping for it

2. I forgot

Option 1:

Iori: I thought so~ That’s good, that’s good. That means it was worth preparing a gift.

Option 2:

Iori: Eh~? That wounds me. Ahaha. I’ve prepared a thank-you gift just in case, you know?

[Rest is the same]

Iori: It will be a little late, but please come to the meeting place at around 10 PM.

Iori: Well then, see you tomorrow.

(He hangs up)

You: (… I wonder if it’ll get late because he has to give gifts to a lot of people)

~ 3/14 ~

Iori: [Your name]-san, sorry to keep you waiting. Please, get in.

You: (Eh, he came by car?)

Player Choices:

1. Is this your car?

2. You can drive?

Option 1:

Iori: No, this is the company’s. I’m sorry, I ended up coming after work just the way I was. It’s pretty embarrassing to come with such an uncool car.

Option 2:

Iori: Huh? Did I say I couldn’t? Or do I look like someone who can’t drive?

[Rest is the same]

Iori: I’ll drive safely. Ah, please put on your seatbelt properly.

Iori: Well then, today is White Day, isn’t it? Yes, of course I prepared a thank you gift. … Here you go.

You: (This box is from a famous high-end store…)

Player Choices:

1. A tart?

2. Millefeuille?

Option 1:

Iori: Yes. I can guarantee for the taste, so please take your time to eat it at home.

Option 2:

Iori: Yes, I really like millefeuille, too. I can guarantee for the taste, so please take your time to eat it at home.

[Rest is the same]

Iori: There are two in this box, so you can either enjoy it to your heart’s content alone, or eat it together with a friend.

You: (Two…?)

Player Choices:

1. I’m glad I get to eat a lot

2. I can’t eat that much

3. … Would you like to eat with me? [Note: Gives you another choice before the branch merge]

Option 1:

Iori: Ahaha, that’s good, I like people who can eat a lot.

Iori: Shall I take you to afternoon tea next time? There’s a restaurant I’m interested in, but their afternoon tea is for two or more people…………

Option 2:

Iori: Oh, you’re a light eater? Or do you dislike sweets?

Iori: In that case, please give it to someone else. Next time, I’ll prepare something else to make up for it. What would you like………

Option 3:

Iori: Ahaha, what a passionate invitation. I’m happy, but I’ll decline for today.

You: (… He refused…)

Player Choices:

1. …… I see

2. Why is that?

3. When would be good for you?

Option 3-1:

Iori: ……… Could it be that you perhaps don’t know much about me?

Iori: If you’re talking about me as a “human”, I’m proud of being reasonably above average, but if you’re talking about me as a “family man”, how should I say…

Iori: … I’m the lowest of the low who’s far beyond help. That’s how it is.

Iori: That’s why you, [Your name]-san, should definitely…………

Option 3-2:

Iori: Ahaha, why indeed? Hmm, should I answer it’s because I’m busy with work, or………

Option 3-3:

Iori: Ahaha, hmm, how about we eat together in the staff canteen next time? I do in fact go there occasionally, so I’ll treat you to desse…………

[Rest is the same]

Iori: ………………………………………… … Ahh, I’m sorry. It seems we got caught up in something troublesome.

Iori: Look back, they’re following us, aren’t they? Ahaha, that’s bad. Even though I thought I’d completely thrown them off my trail.

Iori: No, it’s no big deal. We’ll give him the slip quickly. Or, if we see a good alley, I’ll take care of them.

Iori: I’ll speed up a little, so please take care not to hit your head.

Iori: … Ahh, right. So…

Iori: Do you like ramen?

You: (Ramen?!)

Player Choices:

1. I like them

2. I don’t like them

Option 1:

Iori: I like them a lot, too, and there’s a good ramen place nearby. In the old days, I went to eat there with Toru and Toma after work. I miss those days.

Option 2:

Iori: Eh?! There are people in this world who don’t like Ramen? No no, there’s no way there are, it was a rhetorical question.

Iori: I like them a lot, too, and there’s a good ramen place nearby. In the old days, I went to eat there with Toru and Toma after work. I miss those days.

[Rest is the same]

Iori: So, I’ll get rid of the guys behind us quickly.

Iori: Once that’s done, how about we eat Ramen together? I’ll treat you, as an apology for getting you involved in this.

You: (… Ramen after work…)

Player Choices:

1. Do the three of you still go there?

2. Did the three of you get along well?

Option 1:

Iori: Ahaha, it’s great if you can ask such a thing in a situation like this. Very good.

Iori: I’ll always go if I’m invited. If I invite them, they refuse. That’s how it is.

Option 2:

Iori: Ahaha, it’s great if you can ask such a thing in a situation like this. Very good.

Iori: I did enjoy it. I think it’d be good if the other two felt the same. That’s all.

[Rest is the same]

Iori: Well then, please hold on tight. I’ll speed up some more.

[End]

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

T/N: Literally, what “you” say after Iori hangs up is “[...] because he walks around and gives thanks”, but what’s meant is probably handing out White Day Gifts to a lot of people.

Iori in general has the tendency to draw out some vowels (”Lua-saaaaan”, "White Day desu neeeee”, etc), but it looks... Weird in English to go “It’s White Daaaaaay”. The English term for that I think is drawl? *checks* Yeah, drawl. So uh. Just know he speaks with a slight drawl.

About the “That’s why you, [Your name]-san, should definitely...“ - In Japanese, he also says “motto” at the end, which means “more”. I’d assume he’s about to tell you that you should go date someone who’s more of a family person, or nicer, or younger, or something like this - basically, someone who has (more of) a quality that Iori thinks he lacks.

I’m not 100% sure about the “If I invite them, they refuse” line. Japanese line is “断られたって誘います“ (kotowararetatte sasoimase). Sasou means “invite”, “kotowaru” means refuse, and “tte” is often used to indicate you’re quoting someone, so to me it sounded like he’s inviting them and getting “nope” as a reply.

Middle of a car chase. Iori:”So, do you like Ramen?”. His response if you say no though lmao. That’s how I feel if someone tells me they don’t like Marzipan. Like I’m aware there’s people like that but also....... you’re wrong. Also, the quiet (kinda somber, kinda romantic) music cuts out when Iori notices your pursuers, and after the Ramen question, a goofier music starts up again lmao.

But. “I’m the lowest of the low who’s beyond help” there is a STORY behind this and I want to KNOW it dammit! And I just! Iori!!! That just?? Sounds less like “I don’t want a family” and more like “I’ve given up on it because I think I’d do a terrible job” and DAMMIT I want this man to be HAPPY, PLEASE!!! T_T

[lilietsblog]

I remember reading that which patronymic the person gets depends on what letter the father's name ends on, and I just wanted to ask if this was true or not? For example, a daughter who has a man named Nikola for a father would be Nikolaevna as opposed to Nikolaovna. And if this is true, then what if the name ends in a Y, like Anatoly?

(Also, if you could please say what these five letters are supposed to be and if they have English equivalents, that'd be great too: ж, ш, ч, щ, ц; what's frustrating is that I studied Russian years ago and have always been fascinated with the Slavic countries in general, but now I can't remember a lick of it in terms of the language ^^")

Alright!!!

So Anatoly actually has two sounds that get lumped into the "y". It's "Anatolij" / "Anatoliy" => "y" is like in "yet". And that's a consonant sound! Almost all male Russian names end in consonant sounds.

So there are two categorizations of consonants that are relevant here. First, you have the "hissing" ones and the "all the other ones that arent hissing". Hissing ones just so happen to be the ones you're asking about! "Ж" is the trickiest fucker because no it doesnt have an English equivalent. It's usually transliterated as "zh" bc that's how Polish (which both has the sound and uses the Latin alphabet) does it, but when you look for this sound in Western European languages, you usually get "J' - think "Jean" and "Jeanette" in French. "Ш" is just "sh", "ч" is just "ch". "Щ" is the sound of the two previous ones sort of mixed together, so it's usually transliterated as "shch"... or something more creative. You know borsht? Yeah it's "борщ" in Russian. Actually the word - and the dish - originates from Ukrainian, which is where I'll note that in Ukrainian the letter really does denote two distinct sounds "sh ch" coming one after another, not blending like in Russian. Another way to think of it is as a soft version of "sh" but that's a whole other kettle of fish. Anyway "Ц" is another one English doesnt have, though I thiiink Latin does? I never studied Latin, but all the Latin words starting with "C" - Cicero, Caesar, whatever - get transliterated as starting with "ц". Also, the famous word "czar" / "tsar" starts with this sound. It's formally transliterated from Russian as "ts" and is basically the blend of the two of these (it's one of common spelling mixups in Russian actually! and Ukrainian actually has a rule that when you have "t" and "s" colliding from grammatical conjugation they usually merge into "ц").

So these are the hissing ones, and among other features they're only ever one of the other division, soft or hard. "Щ" and "Ч" ("shch" and "ch") are and always soft, "Ш", "Ж", "Ц" ("sh", "zh", "ts") are always hard.

So the soft/hard division is its own kind of nightmare, because English doesn't have that, yall's consonants are a mix right in the middle. It's actually one of the ways to easily identify non-native speakers who are relatively new to the language, and one of the aspects that can make imitation of Russian speech by someone who doesn't know about this completely incomprehensible, because the division ABSOLUTELY affects the meaning of the words. (And conversely it's a way to identify Russian speakers doing their best with English, because we'll instinctively classify/hear English consonants in specific words as soft or hard too, and pronounce them like that. The middle version sounds to us like you're chewing something, clear Russian enunciation specifically requires training out of that, and reversing it takes conscious effort) Right, so in Russian spelling and phonetics, whether a consonant is hard or not, if it's not one of those that are always only ever one or the other, is determined by what comes after it. "На" - "na" - is hard, meanwhile "Ня" - usually transliterated as "nya" or "nia" - is soft, as denoted by the vowel letter. Funnily enough, the phoentic transcription I learned in school insisted that the "a" sound is actually the same and only the consonant is affected, but that's not true as best I can hear. Anyway, other than the vowels "я", "ю", "е", "ё", "и" (soft versions of "a", "u", "e", "o" and "i" is actually soft by itself), there's also the "soft sign" - "ь". For example, the name of my city - "Харьков" - has a soft sign right in the middle bc the "р" - "r" - is soft there.

The soft sign is what's relevant for the male name thing, as that's what gets put at the end of the word when the last consonant is soft. If the soft sign's there, the consonant is soft; if the soft sign's not there and the consonant is ч/щ/й, it's also soft; if it's not there and it's another consonant, the consonant is hard.

Now this is the point where I'd transcribe the rules for you, but here's the thing: I looked them up for reference, and there's THIRTEEN points. Thirteen. There's thirteen steps in the algorithm for determining how the patronymic gets formed.

http://zags.kurganobl.ru/obrazovanie_i_napisanie_otchestv.html

Basically you have -evich/-evna for hissing or soft, -ovich/-ovna for non-hissing hard, -ich/-ichna for a group of special historical exceptions, and then there's the exceptions for when the name ends in a vowel or "y"("j") bc its SPEEECIAL.

THIRTEEN

FUCKING

STEPS

[wardoftheedgeloaves]

*h₂edden cognates in IE and Uralic?

[Epistemic status: I am pretty confident in tying the IE prepositions together, theoretical Uralic connections are extremely speculative bordering on Edo Nyland-tier]

A lot of languages in Indo-European have preverbs or prepositions with a *d in them, though a bit perversely they tend not to show up in the most archaic languages--I don’t think there are any examples in Greek, Tocharian, Indo-Iranian or Anatolian, though I’ve probably overlooked something. Perhaps because this class of preposition mostly shows up in the ‘newer’, more youthfully attested branches, people seem to have missed that most of them seem to be connected as fossilized case forms of an original noun *h₂ed-/*h₂d- which must surely originally have meant ‘place’ or ‘location’ or something like that:

- As an endingless locative *h₂ed ‘at the location’, we have Latin ad and PGmc *at/English at, plus the Celtic preverb ad-. This is consistent with attested endingless locatives in Vedic and Hittite, which show an e-grade. 

- As an instrumental *h₂d-eh₁ or *h₂d-oh₁; the first form gives us OIr dí and Latin dē, and the second PGmc *tō. Only Matasović’s dictionary of Proto-Celtic seems to have caught that dí/dē are instrumentals of *h₂ed; de Vaan proposes an original ablauting (?) preposition *de/*do cognate to the Greek Wackernagel particles δέ/δή (???--note that de Vaan also connects Slavic do to the Greek Wackernagel particles, but what would motivate the needed shift here?). The ablaut is also consistent with the instrumental of root nouns, which had a zero-grade.

- As an allative *h₂d-o giving Slavic do (de Vaan’s dictionary doesn’t catch this, again chalking it up to *de/*do), Germanic *ta (merging with *tō in most of the descendents) and...I think that’s it? The ablaut, again, is correct. (Plus we have other prepositions deriving from old allatives, like Greek πρό = Lat. per.)

Have I missed any examples in IE? 

OK, onwards and upwards. This is where we move from basically orthodox to very, very speculative.

Guus Kroonen’s 2019 article The Proto-Indo-European Mediae, Proto-Uralic Nasals from a Glottalic Perspective proposes (or rather summarizes and expands on existing proposals) that the IE ‘plain voiced’/preglottalized stops are cognate to Uralic nasals, both deriving from Proto-Indo-Uralic glottalized (or otherwise ‘funny’) nasals; eksempleís bratiad we have PIE *(h₁)n̥gʷnis ‘fire’ = PU *äŋ- ‘to burn’, PIE *deḱ- ‘perceive’ = PU *näki- ‘to see’, PIE *ieǵ-/*ieg- ‘ice’ = PU *jäŋi ‘id’. Suppose we buy this at face value--a change of glottalized nasals to implosives is attested in a Kiranti language of Nepal, so it is not terribly far-fetched on its face. (Kroonen’s article, for what it’s worth, is only three pages long, so it doesn’t go into much detail).

Are there any examples of Uralic cognates to this pre-IE noun *h₂ed-? IF there are, AND IF Kroonen is correct that the IE mediae correspond to Uralic nasals, THEN we would expect an -n- in the Uralic reflex. I am being obnoxiously bold here because we are treading into pretty speculative territory.

At this point I am getting to be out of my depth, because I can’t read or even find a lot of the relevant literature on Uralic. And we must also deal with the IE laryngeal, and to my knowledge it’s not entirely clear how the Indo-Uralicists deal with potential laryngeal cognates. Wikipedia’s article on laryngeal theory, citing Jorma Koivulehto--who may or may not be considered serious, I don’t know--has a short section on proposed Uralic cognates whereby any of the three IE laryngeals may be cognate to PU *x, *š or *k, the last appearing only word-initially. The waters here are surely going to be considerably muddied by early and pervasive borrowing between IE and Uralic, and because I am not a Uralicist, I am left to eyeball possible cognates. But we know Proto-Uralic had a locative in *-nå/-nä. Čop (cited in Zhivlov’s chapter on the origins of IE ablaut, same volume) thinks some PU case endings, like the ablative in *-tå/*-tä (c.f. IE *-t?), deleted certain preceding vowels, but the locative was apparently not among them. Here I am out of my depth. Is it possible that a preceding laryngeal, as e.g. *-xnA, blocked syncope of a preceding vowel in Uralic? In the coda of an initial syllable, Proto-Uralic *x generally led to vowel shenanigans, but maybe not in a case ending where the preceding vowel would not be initial. We would maybe expect weird pronominal locatives. I don’t even know where I would begin to start looking to read about this, and I expect I wouldn’t be able to read half of what I dig up. 

This is probably bullshit entirely, but half-baked thoughts are what blogs are for. If there is a cognate then it might well be a regular noun, not morphological. I can’t find anything in the appendix of Sammallahti’s Uralic Historical Phonology that looks like it might fit the bill, however.

[svartikotturinn]

My speaker attitudes towards dialects

(Adapted from a Reddit comment of mine.)

People who think they know a thing or two about linguistics often tend to chastise others for their prescriptivism, especially others who know a thing or two about linguistics (and I should know—I got my BA in linguistics and East Asian studies). What they tend to ignore, however, is that a key part of linguistics is sociolinguistics, and a key part of that is speakers’ attitudes.

We are speakers. We live in a society where our language is spoken, and we know when and where certain features are used, and our attitude changes accordingly. It’s as inevitable as the change in language itself. Of course, sometimes it’s blatantly classist/racist/sexist, but that’s another issue. Oftentimes it’s purely æsthetic or something related to other issues.

So what about me as a speaker?

Generally I prefer conservative dialects of just about any language, as they maintain certain distinctions that others lose (which can lead to confusion or just less intuitive spelling and murkier etymology).

So, I’ll address the phonological level first.

In English, I like dialects that don’t mix up words like these:¹

Consonants:

Unstressed syllables:

ladder–latter

winner–winter

Syllable finally:

father–farther

Elsewhere:

wine–whine

Vowels:

Before ‹r›

marry–merry–Mary

higher–hire

coyer–coir

flower–flour

horse–hoarse

irk–erk, earn–urn, fur–fir²

Before ‹l›

vial–vile

real–reel

‹u…e›, ‹ew› after coronals

through–threw

you–yew

choose–chews

loot–lute

do–dew

toon–tune

Diphthongs:

wait–weight

Wales–wails

tow–toe

Unstressed syllables:

emission–a mission–omission

Pharaoh–farrow

shivaree–shivery

Otherwise:

cot–caught

meet–meat

The whole just makes so much more sense this way, especially if you’re teaching the language to learners, because that way there’s more of a 1:1 correspondence between orthography and spelling so there’s less memorizing involved (speaking as an English tutor and enthusiastic language learner).

It also helps when there’s a certain ‘symmetry’ in the vowel system, like when both ‹a…e› and ‹o…e› are pronounced as mid-high–high diphthongs (or just long mid-high vowels), one front and the other back; in the eastern half of the US and in the UK, that’s not really the case. Also the tense ‹a› vowel being pronounced the same in all environments makes it much less confusing to teach; in most American dialects, it tends to vary based on the sounds that follow it and whether it’s in a closed or open syllable, and in Australia (and I think certain places in the US) there’s an inconsistent split into two categories among the words. Shifts like those sometimes make more such distinctions (e.g. mad–Madd, and also put–putt for most dialects), but they can be a real headache to teach.

Similarly, I prefer to keep the vowel distinction of hurry–furry, as it makes morpheme boundaries clearer. The same for keeping the first vowel of sorry in words like corridor or horror, because it makes the orthography more consistent, following a clear rule:

A vowel letter before ‹rr› in an open syllable (within morpheme boundaries) is pronounced like a normal tense vowel.

In Hebrew, I have a special appreciation for ethnolects that maintain the distinction between:

uvular and pharyngeal voiceless fricatives, e.g. כָּךְ /käχ/ ‘thus’ vs. קַח /kä/ ‘take! masc. sing.’

glottal stops and voiced pharyngeal fricatives, e.g. אֵד /ʔe̞d/ ‘vapour’ vs. עֵד /ʕe̞d/ ‘witness’

velar and uvular plosives, e.g. כָּל /ko̞l/ ‘every’ vs. קוֹל /qo̞l/ ‘voice’³

plain and pharyngealized voiceless coronal plosives, e.g. תְּבִיעָה /tvi.ˈʕä/ ‘lawsuit’ vs. טְבִיעָה /tˤvi.ˈʕä/ ‘drowning’

plain vs. pharyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate, e.g. צָאר /t͡säʁ̞/ ‘tsar’ vs. צַר /t͡sˤäʁ̞/ ‘narrow masc. sing.’⁴

simple vs. geminate consonants, e.g. גָּמָל /gä.ˈmäl/ ‘camel’ vs. גַּמָּל /gäm.ˈmäl/ ‘(literary) camel driver’

There are other distinctions that I omitted here, mostly in terms of vowel length and quality: back in the times of the Mishna, Hebrew dialects had up to 7 or 8 different vowels and as many as 3 or even 4 different vowel lengths, but in Modern Israeli Hebrew, the vowels have coalesced into a system of five vowels with no length distinctions. However, those are pretty much obsolete except in liturgical uses, and I don’t care much for liturgical use except for academic interest because I have a very, very negative view of Orthodox Judaism. I somewhat lament the loss of such distinctions to that realm, especially since the loss of those distinctions means that a lot of Hebrew morphology and phonology no longer makes any immediate, intuitive sense (at least until you learn the logic behind it—then it makes a lot more sense but it’s still very mechanical), and is now basically the bane of every highschooler’s existence.

In Japanese, I like dialects which, unlike Standard Japanese (which is based on the Tokyo dialect and serves as the basis for transliteration and standard kana orthography), maintain the traditional distinction between:

Consonants:

plain vs. labialized velar plosives (both voiced and voiceless), e.g.

家事 /kaʑi/ ‘housework’ vs. 火事 /kʷaʑi/ ‘conflagration’

both normally transcribed kaji

雅歌 /gaka/ ‘elegant song’ vs. 画家 /gʷaka/ ‘painter’

both normally transcirbed gaka

voiced sibilant affricates vs. fricatives, e.g.:

alveolo-palatal ones: 地震 /d͡ʑiɕiɴ/ ‘earthquake’ vs. 自信 /ʑiɕiɴ/ ‘confidence’

both normally transcribed jishin

alveolar ones: 数 /käzɯᵝ/ ‘number’ vs. 下図 /käd͡zɯᵝ/ ‘the illustration below’

both normally transcribed jouzu or jōzu

/o/ vs. /wo/:

折る /oɾɯ/ ‘to fold’ vs. 居る /woɾɯ/ ‘to be’

both normally transcribed as oru

Vowels:

long mid-low and mid-high rounded vowels, e.g.:

～長 /–t͡ʃɔː/ ‘head or leader of’ vs. ～庁 /–t͡ʃoː/ ‘government office of’

both normally transcribed as chou or chō, pronounced /–t͡ʃo̞ː/ in Tokyo

In addition, I also like how the Kansai dialect allows for more varied pitch accent patterns than the Tokyo dialect. Distinctions like these, along with those mentioned above, could be immensely helpful in mitigating the preposterous amount of homophones it has (especially among Sino-Japanese loanwords) which make it so, so much harder for learners to master listening comprehension (and for native speakers to understand spoken academic or technical texts), but alas. It also makes the connection between less intuitive go-on & kan-on pairs, which generally remain a mystery to anyone who hasn’t researched them in depth or has any background in Chinese.

In other languages, I naturally prefer other such distinctions, e.g.:

Spanish dialects with lleísmo and distinción

French dialects that preserve all the vowels that Parisian French no longer does, and also between mid-high and mid-low vowels

Portuguese dialects that resist as many of the plethora of mergers other dialects have as possible

Italian dialects that distinguish between mid-high and mid-low vowels; examples of minimal pairs here

The North-central dialect of Vietnamese

Korean dialects that preserve vital distinctions in terms of vowel length and quality as well as pitch accent, and also initial /l/ in loanwords

Mandarin dialects that retain retroflex consonants, rather than merge them into alveolar sibilants (like in Taiwan and southern Mandarin dialects)

Cantonese dialects that retain the difference between

Tones

high and high-falling tones, e.g. 衫 /saːm⁵⁵/ ‘shirt’ vs. 三 /saːm⁵³/ ‘three’

Consonants

plain and labialized velar plosives, e.g. 各 /kɔk̚³/ ‘every, each’ vs. 國 /kwɔk̚³/ ‘country; national’

alveolar laterals and nasals, e.g. 里 /lei̯¹³/ ‘li’ vs. 你 /nei̯¹³/ ‘you sing.’

But at the same time, I’m not above political or regional biases, e.g.:

I like Arabic dialects that maintain the wide array of consonants of Modern Standard Arabic, but I feel very connected to my city of residence Haifa, so I prefer the dialects spoken in this region.

Also, I prefer Standard Taiwanese Mandarin (think Pearl in the Taiwanese dub of Steven Universe) over PRC Mandarin partially because, well, fuck Winnie the Pooh.

On a grammatical level, I love how dialects create subtler distinctions in terms of tense and aspect or pragmatic distinctions:

For example, while African–American English exhibits a wide array of phonological mergers (e.g. fin–thin, den–then), it also exhibits far subtler distinctions of tense and aspect that ‘Standard’ English lacks: compare the short AAE been knew vs. the much longer SE have known for a long time.

Another example is the modern ‘vocal fry’ (a.k.a. creaky voice) that some American girls have started using in the past few years, which marks parenthetical information in a sentence.

This is also why I like German dialects that have a wider use of the preterite (i.e. more northern ones), as opposed to those that have merged them entirely into the present perfect (e.g. in Bavaria). It’s also why I’m somewhat miffed by the merger of the 1st. sing. fut. conjugation of Hebrew verbs into the 3rd. masc. sing. fut. one, e.g. יַסְבִּיר /jäs.ˈbiʁ̞/ ‘[he] will explain’ vs. אַסְבִּיר /ʔäs.ˈbiʁ̞/ ‘[I] will explain’.

On the other hand, being non-binary, I have a special distaste for gendered morphology. This is why I came up with this system to do away with the last bit of gendering in English, and why although I find non-native speakers crude attempts at reinventing Hebrew morphology extremely distasteful (seriously, shit like that is why I say American Jews are, first and foremost, American),⁵ I do rejoice at any erosion I see of gender distinctions in Hebrew. It’s also why I like most sign languages so much—I say ‘most’, because Japanese SL, for example, has gendered pronouns (unlike ASL or Israeli SL, for example), and why I resent the Western influence that led to gendered pronouns becoming a thing in Japanese and Chinese, and why I often think about learning Finnish properly.⁶

On a lexical level, I have a particular affinity for archaisms, or more lexically conservative languages.

In the case of English:

I like dialects that preserve Old English archaisms, words from Old English that have been displaced by Latinate cognates, holding on like the Gaulish village of Astérix and Obelix. Words like gome and blee fascinate me and I wish they were in more common use, which is why I like the idea of Anglish so much.

I also like dialects that maintain mostly obsolete ‘irregular’ forms of verbs, for example clumb as the past participle of climb, as they provide a rare insight into the development of English.

And I most certainly like dialects that still use some variation of thou, like tha in Yorkshire or thee in Lancashire.

Hebrew, on the other hand, doesn’t really have any dialectical variations per se to speak of, or any ‘archaisms’ that they preserve, as it was pretty much dormant for nearly two millennia. Back when Jesus was still around, there was some regional variation among Hebrew speakers—this can be seen in the New Testament, for example, when people confront Simon Peter after Jesus is arrested and claim that his accent gives away the fact that he was one of Jesus’ men. For example, different accents of the time had notably different vowel systems, for example, which is why there were three different systems (roughly speaking) to indicate them at the time, and this is before we’ve even considered Samaritan Hebrew, which is about as comprehensible to a Modern Hebrew speaker as Doric (or even Frisian) is to an English speaker. Hebrew speakers borrow phrases extensively from their traditional literature, much like Chinese people with their four-character idioms, and often use more literary language in tongue-in-cheek, so it’s not really comparable. However, there is some amount of sociolinguistic variation as to doing so, but I would say it has more to do with religious and socio-economic status than ethnolect and certainly regional variation (which is far more limited in Hebrew than in English, mostly confined to rather small subsets of regionalisms), and I do like it when people do use these.

This is why I appreciate Québec French, for all its overzealously purist and prescriptivist faults. It’s often a wonderful museum of words of bygone days, from dialects that the efforts to standardize French have nearly if not completely exterminated. As an English speaker in particular, it’s interesting to see Norman remnants in the language.

On the other hand, it always fascinates me when languages borrow words for concepts they already have, and use the loanword for a more specific concept therein. Consider, for example, the English words kingly (Germanic), royal (Norman), and regal (Latin), or these fascinating examples.

The problem is that many of these features are fairly stigmatized.

In terms of phonology, I make a conscious effort to maintain most of the distinctions above when I speak English, but on the other hand I flap my ‹t›s and ‹d›s in rapid speech to avoid sounding like a stuck-up prick. Similarly, I don’t maintain the wine–whine distinction, for example, unless, say, I’m working with a student on a story that takes place in the Southern US, because I would sound like a dick who’s trying to sound like a Southern gentleman or something. I still teach the distinction, if only to explain why there is such a difference in the orthography to begin with even if I tell students not to observe it when actually speaking. When I speak Hebrew, I most certainly don’t make those traditional ethnolect distinctions—that would come across as being either unbelievably pedantic or outright mocking. When I speak Japanese or other languages, well, I generally don’t know them well enough to maintain all the distinctions as I would like to, even those that aren’t stigmatized, but I do make an effort to at least observe those distinctions when the orthography makes them clear enough (and stick to the standard in Japanese).

In terms of grammar, I don’t teach dialectical English irregular forms. At most, I gloss over them with a sentence or two, and leave it at that. I assume my average student would hardly read books or watch films or TV shows that take place in Appalachia or what-have-you, certainly not without subtitles anyway. If I ever got a particularly advanced student, however… I would still be reluctant, as I am hardly over-familiar with those dialects myself, and don’t want to mislead them. In Hebrew, on the other hand, my grammar and spelling do tend to be very conservative to the point of anachronism sometimes (like, I generally follow the BuMP rule when I speak; most Israelis don’t), but I balance it out with a decent amount of slang.

In terms of lexical items, I pretty much avoid teaching dialectical archaisms altogether. Those are almost entirely useless for students, and I don’t even speak the dialects that use them, so I can’t say for a fact which dialecticalisms are even in current use. In Hebrew, I might make some detours, but that’s because truly archaic words, that wouldn’t even be used in tongue-in-cheek, are a rarity, and oftentimes they share roots with more common words, so they can cement the understanding of those roots more readily.

If no socio-linguistic considerations (or my own fluency) were a complete non-issue?

In English:

I’d make an effort to maintain all of the distinctions mentioned above, including those that are observed today only by a handful of older people from rural areas.

I’d pronounce ‹gh› in words like right and weight to tell them apart from rite and wait.

I’d use thou and AAE grammar and any dialectical archaism or even Anglish coinage I could get away with.

And, of course, I’d use my gender-neutral pronoun system for everyone except trans people who might get dysphoric.

In Hebrew:

I’d speak Hebrew with extremely conservative pronunciation, like BCE-level ancient, making all of the distinctions mentioned above.

On top of those, I would distinguish between the voiceless alveolar sibilant and lateral fricatives (which was lost very early on), so I pronounce סוֹרֵר /soː.ˈreːr/ ‘unruly, recalcitrant’ and שׂוֹרֵר /ɬoː.ˈreːr/ ‘existing, prevailing’ (both in masc. sing.) differently (rather than pronounce both like the first).

I’d reintroduce syllable-final glottal stops so that the orthography and grammar finally make a lick of sense.

On the other hand, I would think of a system to do away with gendered language in Hebrew that still made internal sense.

In Japanese:

I’d speak Japanese with all of the distinctions mentioned above, the fact that they characterize two parts of Japan that are practically on oppsite ends of the country be damned.

I might maybe even bring back a few obsolete features, like nasal vowels or the syllable ye and palatalized consonants before e (when applicable), because they make go-on and kan-on relationships clearer, and also clear up their relationship to Mandarin and other languages with extensive Sinitic vocabulary. (Although I doubt there are modern dialects that do that today, certainly not in a discriminating way, so I might give up on that.)

And, of course, I would do it all with Kansai pitch accent, or at least  There are too many homophones, damnit, I gotta tell them apart SOMEHOW!

In Mandarin:

I’d speak Mandarin with Standard Taiwanese pronunciation.

Maybe I’d even use the Old National Pronunciation—what with my background in Japanese, it would save me a lot of memorizing, because I’d remember that all the characters that ended with a voiceless consonant in Japanese have the same tone in Mandarin.

Hell, I might even reintroduce the distinction between /e/, /ɔ/, and /a/.

In Cantonese:

I’d distinguish between the tones and the initial consonants, as mentioned above.

In addition, I might even bring back the distinction between alveolar and palato-alveolar sibilants that died in 1950—it’ll certainly make things easier for me, as I’ve learned some Mandarin in the past.

In Korean:

I’d speak a mix of dialects preserving all of the above distinctions and then some; I’d probably sound a lot like I were from North Korea, but in this scenario this wouldn’t matter.

In Vietnamese:

North-central dialect all the way.

In that scenario, the only thing that would stop me from talking like that would be comprehensibility. It would definitely be an issue—even today English speakers would probably be thrown off by pronouncing the ‹gh›, for one, and I’m sure my variety of Hebrew would be incomprehensible to most native speakers today.

But for now, I’ll make do with what I got, I guess.

—

Endnotes

¹ Most dialects that do mix them up generally pronounce them like the former in each pair.

² These distinction traditionally exists in Scotland; Ireland has a two-way split that works differently. On this note, I’d also count distinctions between e.g. wait and weight, but at this point it’s already Scots, not English. (Which is just another reason I love Scots so much, along with its lexical conservatism.)

³ This distinction, as well as the three that follow, are exceedingly rare.

⁴ The phranyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate was not preserved as such in any ethnolect: it either became a pharyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative (in Yemenite and Mizrahi Hebrew), or it simply lost its pharyngealization (in Sephardi and Ashkenazi Hebrew, and Modern Israeli Hebrew)—e.g. צַד /t͡sˤäd/ > /sˤäd/, /t͡säd/ ‘side’. Barring the exceedingly rare loanword, I could not think of a single minimal pair such as the one given above.

⁵ For the record: I was raised speaking English alongside Hebrew, albeit in a non-Anglophone country, and a lot of research went into my solution to ensure that it’s based on precedent rather than be a tasteless neologism.

⁶ There are other genderless languages as well, but they’re either super-niche or spoken by communities that aren’t as progressive, or both.

[grobleen]

I don’t have the determination to build an alien language from the ground up, but I wanted to expand a little on Cregan’s mother tongue so here we go!

TLDR; her name is usually pronounced  [ k ɺ ɛ: g �� n ],  [ k ɺ i: g ə n ]  or [ k ɺ ə: g ə n ] though sometimes [ g ə n ] becomes [ ɳ ]. She doesn’t care what vowel sounds you use so long as the consonants are there in proper order.

(online speech synthesizer! it’s very synthetic but to get an idea of what i’m going for just copy/paste /krə:gən/ /kri:gən/ /krɛ:gən/ and /kri:gn/ /krɛ:gn/ /krəgn/ . /gn/ is the best i can do for [ɳ]. note these should be /’krə:gən/ but the apostrophe messes things up when copy pasted just add it yourself)

here’s is how "Cregan” is written in her language;

-but hands are sloppy, it rarely comes out so tidy.

brace for a long breakdown below (and frog sounds)

I’m not going to go into the whole sentence structures thing because hoo boy grammar is a lot to do, but I did want to try to get the general sound/overview of their writing system as brief as I can make it because let me share with you the song of her people. Her big beefy frog people.

Starting with her Spoken Language;

There are frog sounds through her langauge (all kinds of frogs sounds because alien anatomy i do what i want). They are mostly used to convey an emotion like anger, sadness, fear, annoyed, excitement etc. On her homeworld there isn’t a way of expressing emotions in words, they are more like statements; “I am angry”. There are socially appropriate times to make these sounds- you can’t just walk into the street screaming about how you’re angry or you’ll get weird looks. Whatever the reason over time the frog-like alien aishas have come to view emotions as inappropriate to express most times, so they are a whole group of bottled up upset warriors. One of the harder parts of learning Neopian dialects for her was seeing the depth that feelings can be expressed in, and she’s still learning to express hers this way instead of just through body language and angry squeaking.

To try and make this a little more comprehensible here is an IPA chart, you can click the letters and it lets you hear the sounds! (the consonant sounds are preceded/flanked by an “ah” sounds so you can hear the sound more clearly- the glottal stop [ ʔ ] demos this well because it’s an absence of sound) it’s a standard way of writing sounds (in some places not all)- regardless of the language. when I’m talking about a sound like [k] I mean the k as it sounds on the IPA chart, not English “k” or whatever.

also heads up, vowel sounds are my weak point with linguistics so hopefully i don’t fudge that up too much. ALSO also i am Canadian so if i write a word and you’re like “hey that’s not how this word sounds?” it’s because of accents/linguistic variation! a simple example is “to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to” same word/meaning, diff sounds. look at this maybe it’ll help, or just listen to it.

”Cregan” is the best Neopian/English representation of her name. In her language vowels aren’t represented in written language by letters, just one dot for a short vowel, two dots for a long vowel and that’s put between consonants (I KNOW IPA DOES LONG VOWELS WITH A : BUT IT’S KINDA HARD HERE JUST LET ME ILLUSTRATE ME THING). Consonants are what they mentally build words with, and vowels are just in-between sounds that naturally come in to add flow to the word. When it comes to reading other written languages she had a hard time with all the vowels initially, constantly like “WHY DOES THE SOUND MATTER??? Consonants are the important part right, why do you ALSO have specific in-betweens?” but eventually she got a grasp on it. though she still might write vowels wrong on occasion. So when she thinks of her own name, it’s [k ɺ ** gn] where ** represents a long vowel. It could also be [k  ɺ ** g * n] but the second vowel is so short and usually sounds like [ə] (a schwa, where the vowel sound isn’t super distinct), but sometimes it’s completely omitted in casual speech, so the [g] just merges with the [n], something like [ɳ] (this sound is present in “gnaw” [ɳɑ:]  at the beginning if that helps illustrate what I mean).

SO this means “Cregan” can be pronounced a lot of ways, and she doesn’t care so long as all the consonant sounds [kɺ] [g] [n] (or [ɳ]). It took her a bit to understand nicknames because on her planet they don’t do that, once you start omitting consonants, like calling her “Creg���/”Crag”/”Creeg” or “Gan”/”Gen” for short, she didn’t think of as her name.

when pronouncing/writing her own name she does not think of the second vowel in  [k ɺ ** g  * n], on Neopia, based on her written name, it is usually pronounced [ k ɺ i: g ə n ]  [ k ɺ ɛ: g ə n ] or [ k ɺ ə: g ə n ], though sometimes [ g ə n ] becomes [ɳ] (if she’s speaking fast). over time she’s gotten into the habit of sticking with one vowel sound because changing the vowel every time makes strangers concerned (“are you having a stroke? are you trying to annoy me?”)  

Written Language; -welcome to hell. writing is so complex, there are rules and exceptions around all these symbols/sounds and how they come together, I don’t have the energy to create an entire fictional alien language today so I’ll just focus on her name. the gist is how they write reflects how they think so- there are no written symbols for vowels, just dots for long/short in-between sounds. written symbols represent consonant or a combo of consonant sounds. there are no uppercase/lowercase distinctions, there’s only one case. and if you’re curious there is no written equivalent to the frog sounds in their language. gotta use the word for it, so like “they screamed” in books rather than “AAAAHH!”.

consonants matter to her, [k ɺ] and [ ɳ ] are the two that she considers parts of her name, and each of these sound is represented with a single symbol in writing. [k] has its own symbol when it’s alone. the  [ ɺ ] has a symbol by itself, but when beside another consonant sound it acts as a “modifier” and alters the other consonant symbol instead of being written as two distinct consonants. here’s an illustration i hope this makes sense;

thanks you for reading this and caring about my alien oc stuff! i have to put those linguistic courses to use somehow right harhar

this concludes my rambling. 

please drive home safely.

[clonerightsagenda]

TLC DVD commentary: Vriska’s arc, pt 2

I'm back at it responding to a request to discuss Vriska's arc in TLC. Since this is commentary on her story overall I won't dive too deep into any single scene, although I'll skim through them. Part of the reason we tag updates is for people to see them, but mostly I use the character indexing so I can reference specific scenes as needed. It has saved so much time.

As some general notes, as I said before, I'm skeptical of "redemptions" where someone says "yeah I regret what I did". Post-retcon Vriska pays lip service to that, but she doubles down on her abusive behavior, so I'm not convinced. I wanted to make sure TLC Vriska actually demonstrated growth and change. However, she has a tendency to take over the story. Luckily, the dreambubbles are a pretty good quarantine. You'll notice that although she gets the most updates out of Team Dreaming Dead, she doesn't really impact the story in any direct way. Sure, she delays/distracts Lord English, but we could've left that out and just had him show up as needed, and people would've accepted that as part of the narrative. So Vriska doesn't get to be the super relevant hero of the story the way she wants to be, but what she does get to do is grow up a little, even if she physically can't.

After Meenah and Aranea die, Vriska ends up enlisting with the ghost 'army', for lack of a better word. While before she was in charge of a bunch of dreamers that she used as 88, now *she* is 88 protecting them. Her situation has flipped upside down, including in that while at one point she was bossing Tavros around, he is now in a position of command. I had been planning for Tavros to show up leading the ghosts, and when it happened in canon, I was like oh hey, look at that. Then, after showing up the person who's treated him so horribly, Tavros is promptly subordinated by her again. I was rather miffed by this. In TLC, Tavros is calling the shots. That makes sense to me. The dream bubbles sap people's wills, and Breath players seem to be the best antidote. Vriska livens up after being merged with Tavros, and the treasure hunt loses steam after John bails. Tavros is the perfect person to keep the ghosts energized and focused. As I've acknowledged before, part of Vriska's abusive behavior comes from her conditioning by Alternia and her situation with her lusus, although that is not an excuse. Tavros was abused by her in turn... and when he is in a position of power, he doesn't misuse it. The cycle of passing pain along ends here.

Ok, looking at some scenes in depth... When Vriska is upset, she uses 8s for way more vowels, and right after Meenah and Aranea's death, they're all over the place. Meanwhile, Aradia is making heavy use of the Socratic method here, not passing judgment but asking leading questions to try to get Vriska to realize some things about herself. Aradia has been doing this for a while. She’s gotten good at gently guiding spirits in the right direction. 

VRISKA: They were 8mp8rt8nt t8 VRISKA: T8 the missi8n.

I've posted about this before, but a tricky thing w/ writing Homestuck is that the characters' voices are established through online communication, and we talk very differently in person than online. Online, we have a lot more opportunities to choose our words and convey an artificial persona. However, especially if you're doing a fic w/ someone else's characters, you don't want to deviate too much, because then it sounds wrong. It's a tough balance to strike. One addition I made to spoken word logs was people cutting themselves off, talking over themselves, or leaving sentences dangling. You can add some extra meanings there, or just indicate distress and uncertainty.

VRISKA: Anything is better than n8thing. VRISKA: That's why I had t8 d8 something. VRISKA: It's this pl8ce. VRISKA: If you st8nd still for too long, you get stuck in the s8me stupid cycles of v8pid teen 8ullshit forever. VRISKA: T8lking and t8lking 8b8ut n8thing while the w8rld 8r8und y8u 8r8ks 8p8rt. VRISKA: I had to 8r8k out of that! VRISKA: I had to keep g8ing 8r VRISKA: Or I'd 8e really dead.

It's easy to forget with the existence of an afterlife and a life/death revolving door, but Vriska is a kid who died at thirteen, and recent events have driven that home for her. It's hard to think that your story is over, and life goes on without you, especially when you're young and tend to be more solipsistic. That's one of the drivers of her behavior. If she lets go and stops struggling, she has to admit she's dead, which is hard to bear.

Gill calls page 519 the 'put me in coach, I'm ready!' panel.

Anyway, Vriska joins up, primarily for vengeance. Most of that is offscreen, although we've got a bit in the Vriskagram flash. That flash exists entirely because we wanted at least some practice on getting something audiovisual up on mspfa, youtube, and tumblr before we did an actually important flash. It's near the top of my list for the Director's Cut to add in a lot more character dev for Team Dreaming Dead members (plus Sollux and Aradia who are team liminal or something.) Perhaps Gill will even put fewer OCs in the remake. (This shows me it's rather silly to act like her drawing everyone in Metal Gear outfits is some huge burden. She has always pulled this shit.) However, there is indication that Vriska has started taking her job a little more personally and is becoming invested in the safety of the dreamers. Progress.

Of course, Vriska is all about appearances and bravado, so she's not going to admit it. In her conversation with Eridan she claims to be one of the good guys but is rather dismissive about their ideals, and it's intentionally ambiguous how much she's sincere about. (As a writing sidenote, Vriska often refers to her fellow trolls by their last name, probably as a gesture of ironic distance. Later, I no longer have her do that. That could indicate character dev but is also a matter of practicality. If you're dealing with thousands of versions of one person, it's hard enough knowing who you mean when you use their first name, let alone their surname.)

We get more sincerity from her when she talks to John. That's usually who she's most likely to open up to, because John tends to be less judgmental, and Vriska gets defensive very quickly. With John, who sort of served as a morality guide earlier, she seeks absolution, eagerly saying she's changed her ways and it should all be fine now. Unfortunately, Vriska's attempts to push bad stuff under the rug crashes directly into John's attempts to push bad stuff under the rug and he has a mental breakdown. Afterward, although Vriska is taking some steps to improve herself, he suggests she clear the air with her former victims. Although she's reluctant, John has suggestion powers, probably linked to his aspect. Often, when he tells someone to do something, they end up doing it, especially if it's in line with their own inclinations or suppressed urges. (I think puppets aren't that cool. Why don't you fly away and never come back? Why can't space and time work the way I want it to?) At least he Breath-hexes Vriska in a constructive way.

VRISKA: I guess there's ONE person I'd like to clear the air with. VRISKA: I'll skip the 8r8kdown part though.

Me, lurking overhead with my .txt files open. No, Vriska, you are both going to scream and cry about it.

You'll notice that Vriska frequently adjusts her outfit and/or hairstyle. Again, this is part of her whole appearances routine. She's not quite sure what her new facade is going to be, so she keeps trying various ones out.

Sidenote for the bonus panel log

TAVROS: aND ARADIA SAID SOMEONE WAS ARRIVING SOON, wHO SHE WANTED TO TALK TO TAVROS: sO SHE’S WAITING FOR THEM VRISKA: Wonder who 8it the dust. VRISKA: Do you think it was someone we knew? TAVROS: iT COULD BE ANYONE,, fROM ANY TIME TAVROS: ,,yOU KNOW THERE’S A LAG, sOMETIMES

Aradia's lurking around to give Dave his peptalk. Gotta roll the carpet out for your fellow Time hero.

And we're up to the last Vriska, Terezi, and Kanaya conversation and her exit. I feel like that deserves its own separate post, which I will work on later.

[hebrewing]

Hebrew Basics #2: Pronouns, Sentence Structure

Hi Again!

Now that you’ve hopefully started to get Hebrew writing, it’s time to start with the language itself, beginning with the very base of the language - basic language structure.

First and foremost, here is a table of personal pronouns, since they’re pretty necessary for this lesson, and don’t require too much explaining behind them:

An easy way to remember them is:

1st person pronouns always start with אֲנ an-.

2nd person pronouns also always start with א alef, but always have a ת tav in them.

3rd person pronouns always start with ה he, and are monosyllabic.

Male plural pronouns always end in a מ mem, while female plural pronouns always end in a נ nun.

אֲנוּ ánu is pretty much only used in formal settings, speeches, documents etc., not even in Biblical texts (it rose later in history).

אָנֹכִי anokhí is archaic these days, used primarily in Biblical texts and in some set phrases (e.g. אֲנִי וָאָנֹכִי aní va’anokhí ‘me, myself and I’), as well as serving as an adjective meaning ‘selfish.’

Moreover, some speakers merge the 2nd and 3rd person masculine and feminine plural pronouns, using only the masculine form. I don’t like prescribing you a correct and an incorrect way to say something - but I’ll let myself do so here. This is a language changing as we speak, and as of now this in-distinction is still pretty much universally viewed as incorrect. You can, and probably will, see it online or in speech, but most speakers (at least those I speak to) still make the distinction, especially with verb conjugations (as explained further in the lesson), and some will correct you if you don’t make it yourself.

What you might have noticed as well is the lack of a neutral pronoun. Hebrew nouns are all either male or female, and to refer to an inanimate noun you would simply refer to it by its appropriate pronoun. שֻׁלְחַן shulchán (table) is of masculine gender, so one will refer to it as הוּא hu (he); קַעֲרָה ka’ará (bowl) is of feminine gender, so one will refer to it as הִיא hi (she).

Side note: as there are no gender neutral 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, this creates some problems in feminist and LGBT circles. It’s simply impossible to refer to a group of people by a gender-inclusive pronoun, neither is it possible to refer to someone without explicitly saying what binary gender your referring to them with.

Before I explain sentence types I need to set out word order. Since verbs are conjugated to encode tense, number, gender and person (1st, 2nd and 3rd persons) of the subject, Hebrew generally has pretty free word order. This is because it is usually clear who the subject is through conjugation and context. Another consequence of this is frequent dropping of subject pronouns, since it is already specified through the verb.

However, most sentences still fall under SVO word order - where the subject comes first in a sentence, then the verb, then any objects the subject acts upon. For example:

1. אָכַלְתִּי תַּפּוּחַ. akhálti tapúach. - I ate an apple. (literally: I-ate[S+V] apple[O].) 2. יוֹנָתָן לִטֵּף אֵת הַכֶּלֶב. Yonatán litéf et hakélev. - Yonatan pet the dog. (literally: Yonatan[S] pet[V] direct object preposition the dog[O].) 3. הַסַּפְרָן יִתֵּן לִי אֵת הַסֵּפֶר. hasafrán yitén li et haséfer. - The librarian (m) will give me the book. (literally: the-librarian[S] will-give[V] to-me[O] direct object preposition the-book[O].)

(Note: even if it doesn’t look like it, the period / full stop comes after the text - to the left. So do exclamation and question marks. Typing right-to-left text embedded in a left-to-right language is very annoying, so you should get used to punctuation, vowel points and generally everything to not fall where you actually put your cursor. It’s terrible. Also, vowel points don’t get bolded with the rest of the text?? w h y)

Occasionally, in more higher speech as well as in Biblical texts, Hebrew also shows VSO word order. Hence, all of these sentences could alternatively be said like so:

1. אָכַלְתִּי תַּפּוּחַ. akhálti tapúach. - I ate an apple. (literally: I-ate[S+V] apple[O].) 2. לִטֵּף יוֹנָתָן אֵת הַכֶּלֶב. litéf Yonatán et hakélev. - Yonatan pet the dog. (literally: pet[V] Yonatan[S] direct object preposition the-dog[O].) 3. יִתֵּן הַסַּפְרָן לִי אֵת הַסֵּפֶר. yitén hasafrán li et haséfer. - The librarian (m) will give me the book. (literally: will-give[V] the-librarian[S] to-me[O] direct object preposition the-book[O].)

In 1, the verb and the subject are conjoined, therefore flipping their order doesn’t make any sense and the sentence stays the same.

That being said, these days SVO word order is a lot more common that VSO, especially in speech, so don’t worry too much about it, just know it’s used. Personally, I tend to used VSO in some cases for school essays, but that’s about it - and even this is mostly my personal tendency. Again, don’t think about it too much.

Sentence Structure - Syntax!

Hebrew sentences are generally separated into two categories: verbal sentences and nominal sentences. A verbal sentence, מִשְׁפָּט פָּעֳלִי mishpát po’olí (more commonly pronounced po’alí), is a sentence that contains a subject (some type of noun or verb phrase) and an action verb, also called the predicate. This, you might recognize, is the basic sentence structure of English as well. In fact, the vast majority of languages only possess this type of sentence. Nominal sentences are where stuff gets interesting.

A nominal sentence, מִשְ��פָּט שְׁמָנִי mishpát shemaní, as you might have guessed, is a sentence where instead of a nominal subject and an action verb - there’s just another noun (or adjective) acting as the predicate. These are characteristic to Semitic languages and Russian (I’m not sure about other Slavic languages), among others. For example:

1. הַדֹּב הַזֶּה מְאֹד יָפֶה. hadóv haze me’ód yafé. - This bear is very pretty. (literally: bear this very pretty.) 2. אֲנִי רְעֵבָה. aní re’evá. - I am hungry. (literally: I hungry (female)) 3. הוּא כֶּלֶב. hu kélev. - He is a dog. (literally: he dog).

To negate the sentence, simply put לֹא

As you might have noticed, the key characteristic is where English would put the verb to be, Hebrew just doesn’t put anything, because there is no equivalent in Hebrew. The languages simply lacks a copula (the linguistic term for verbs like to be, whose purpose is linking the subject to a non-verb predicate).

Well… not quite.

You see, without a copula, there would be no way of indicating different tenses. When the sentence is word-for-word ‘I hungry’ or ‘he dog,’ where do you mark the tense? For this there’s a nice and clever solution - copulae! Yep, Hebrew didn’t wanna feel left out of the copula club so it made itself copulae of its own.

There are many types of copulae, to mark different types of relations, but for now I’ll introduce you to most common and most simple one. To mark present tense sentences use the 3rd person pronouns הוּא, הִיא, הֵם, הֵן, and for past and future tenses it uses conjugations of the verb הָיָה hayá*, ‘to be,’ as following:

*I refer to all verbs in this series with their 3rd person, masculine past tense form. This is because verb infinitives in Hebrew, as you will learn, are not a great way to represent the verb, and the 3rd person masc. form of a verb is considered the most basic form of the verb in all different conjugations.

If this seems like a lot to take in - it’s because it is. Hebrew verb conjugation is pretty complicated, and it doesn’t help that הָיָה hayá is quite an irregular verb. I don’t recommend you try and understand it fully, as I’ll be teaching everything you need to know about Hebrew verb conjugation pretty soon. For now, just take it at face value.

Notes:

If you have keen eyes, you might notice the /i/ after the /h/ in the transliteration of all future tense conjugations, that shouldn’t be there according to the vowel points. If not, notice it now. This is because it’s difficult to pronounce a /h/ without any consonant afterwards, so a dummy vowel was inserted after it. This is a common phenomenon in Hebrew with some consonants, but I won’t explain it now, as it’s quite complicated. (the different vowel points in the 1st person is just that I found two different vowel markings that seem to have no real difference between them)

For the present tense 1st and 2nd persons no copula is used. My guess is that this is because the subject can only ever be ‘I’ or ‘you’ when talking about 1st and 2nd person subjects, so repeating the same pronoun twice is useless. This is the case for 3rd person subjects as well: if the subject itself is ‘he,’ ‘she’ or ‘they,’ you don’t repeat the same pronoun as a copula.

This is getting a bit into verb conjugations, but the 2nd person plural past tense forms (now try saying that three times in a row) have two pronunciations: the top is the ‘correct’ one used formally, and the bottom is the one you’d actually hear pretty much everywhere, as it fits the conjugation pattern more regularly.

The 2nd and 3rd person feminine plural future tense conjugation, as marked on the table, is very rare nowadays, and shifting towards merging with the equivalent masculine conjugation. In fact, even the 2nd person plural past tense conjugations (marked with the 3), are starting to lose their distinction between masculine and feminine, just like the pronounced mentioned in the beginning of this lesson, but this is still widely considered a grammatical mistake and I do advise that you keep the distinction - people will just correct you otherwise.

The examples above in different tenses would be:

Past: 1. הַדֹּב הַזֶּה הָיָה מְאֹד יָפֶה. hadóv haze hayá me’ód yafé. - This bear was very pretty. (literally: bear this was very pretty.) 2. אֲנִי הָיִיתִי רְעֵבָה. aní hayíti re’evá. - I was hungry. (literally: I was hungry [female]) 3. הוּא הָיָה כֶּלֶב. hú hayá kélev. - He was a dog. (literally: he was dog).

Future: 1. הַדֹּב הַזֶּה יִהְיֶה מְאֹד יָפֶה. hadóv haze yihiyé me’ód yafé. - This bear will be very pretty. (literally: bear this will-be very pretty.) 2. אֲנִי אֶהֱיֶה רְעֵבָה. aní eheyé re’evá. - I will be hungry. (literally: I will-be hungry (female)) 3. הוּא יִהְיֶה כֶּלֶב. hú yihiyé kélev. - He will be a dog. (literally: he will-be dog).

Exercise

For the next 10 sentences, I’ll leave out the copula, and you should fill it in according to the tense and gender given in the brackets… if you even need the copula!!! muahahahaha

Don’t worry, they’re as simple as it gets.

1. הַכּוֹס ___ יְרֻקָּה. hakós ___ yeruqá. (fem. sing. past) 2. בְּנִי ___ חָכָם. bní ___ chakhám. (masc. sing. future) 3. מָסָךְ הַטֶּלֶוִיזְיָה שֶׁלִּי ___ לָבָן. masákh hatelevízya sheli ___ laván. (masc. sing. past) 4. הַלֵּב ___ הָאֵיבַר הֲכִי חָשׁוּב בַּגּוּף. halév ___ ha’evár hakhí chashúv bagúf. (masc. sing. present) 5. כְּרוּבִית ___ יֶרֶק. kruvít ___ yérek. (fem., sing., present) 6. מֶזֶג הָאֲוִיר מָחָר ___ קַר. mézeg ha’avír machar ___ kár. (masc. sing. future) 7. הֵן ___ בָּנוֹת נִפְלָאוֹת. hen __ banót nifla’ót. (fem. pl. present) 8. הַשֻּׁלְחַנוֹת שֶׁלָּהֶן ___ חֻמִּים. hashulchanót shelahen ___ chumím.(masc. pl. future) 9. הַהֲלִיכוֹן ___ מָהִיר מִדַּי. hahalichón ___ mahír miday. (masc. sing. past) 10. מִשְׁקָפַי ___ חֲזָקִים. mishkafái ___ chazaqím. (masc. pl. present)

Answer Key

1. הָיְתָה haytá (The cup was green.) 2. יִהְיֶה yihiyé (My son will be smart.) 3. הָיָה hayá (My TV screen was white.) 4. [הוּא] / - ; hu / - (The heart is the most important organ in the body.) 5. [הִיא] / - ; hi / - (Cauliflower is a vegetable.) 6. יִהְיֶה yihiyé (The weather tomorrow will be cold.) 7. - (They are wonderful girls.) 8. יִהְיוּ yihiyú (Their (f) tables will be brown.) 9. הָיָה hayá (The treadmill was too fast.) 10. הֵם / [-] ; hem / - (My glasses are strong.)

In the present tense examples I marked the option more likely to be heard with square brackets. I’m not sure why it is for each example, but the other option just sounds less natural.

Aaaaand that’s it for today!

Next time… Verbs??? probably

See you next week :)

לְהִתְרָאוֹת!

[zipgrowth]

From Trump to Tolstoy: What’s Bringing Computer Science and Literature Together

Calculating ratios for different types of pronouns in civil rights speeches. Counting the frequency and proximity of vowel sounds, consonant sounds and rhymes in rap music.

Those are just two examples of the projects students have taken on in teacher Peter Nilsson’s “Distant Reading” course at Deerfield Academy, an independent boarding school in western Massachusetts.

What is “distant reading”? It’s when a large body of literary texts are analyzed using some sort of algorithm (it can also involve data visualization). The name is in opposition to “close reading,” where generally, one text, or narrow passages of that text, are acutely pored over. But scholars can employ a bit of both in any given project, and can apply the tools of distant reading to one work of literature, says Mark Marino, the director of communication at the Electronic Literature Organization, a group that focus on the writing, reading and publishing of literature in the digital age.

Nilsson says that at its core, the course he created with three of his fellow teachers (another English teacher and two computer science teachers) is about using mathematical software (in this case, Wolfram Mathematica) to analyze texts, such as Donald Trump’s Wikipedia page and Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” and gain fresh insights.

“Software today enables you to analyze text mathematically very easily,” Nilsson says. “Once you have the ability to do that, then you have the ability to explore texts in really fascinating ways,” such as “text mining,” which includes analyzing the frequency that certain words pop up.

Zero Programming Experience

Keeping in mind that most of their students had zero programming experience, Nilsson and his fellow teachers structured the course around five different projects.

The first lasted about three days, and it got the students to start thinking quantitatively about words. They explored and played around with the Google Ngram Viewer, a search engine that can show the use of certain phrases and parts of speech in books. Then, the instructors introduced students to Wolfram Language, the programming language used in Wolfram Mathematica. Students started with two warm-up projects where they experienced writing in the programming language.

The first year of the course, all students analyzed Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and a few texts of their choice. For the second warm up assignment, they analyzed style and usage in their own high school writing (from papers they still had on their laptops), comparing it to literature writers. The second year of the course, both warm-up projects consisted of students comparing their own writing to literary selections they chose.

Nilsson says although Wolfram Language is intuitive, there is still some syntax that requires time to figure out. The educators thought of this part of the course as akin to “an immersion classroom for a foreign language,” where one learns a new language solely in that language.

“We just said, look here’s some things you can do," Nilsson says. "And then we said, now you do it. And they imitated mostly, but with their own data, so they had different results—results that were fueled by their own interests.”

Finally, the students had to complete two independently-designed projects. Students, now familiar with some of the capabilities of the software choose their own topics (such as social networks in the Bible and home-city newspapers’ coverage of their sports teams versus that of rival city newspapers), asked questions and used the tools to answer them.

Open Source Tools

Nilsson points out that he is not the first person to venture into this type of computational approach to literature. Take the Electronic Literature Organization, the group mentioned earlier.

There’s also the Stanford Literary Lab, where Mark Algee-Hewitt serves as director. An example of what the lab is working on? A project on Harry Potter fanfiction. Graduate students, as well as some undergraduate students, work in the lab alongside faculty. Among the majors the undergraduates working in the lab have are English and computer science.

At Stanford, undergraduates can also pick from several classes that merge computer science and the humanities.

Algee-Hewitt teaches one of those classes. Called “Literary Text Mining,” students learn how to use natural language processing, coding and statistics to find new information about literature and then interpret it, making literary arguments. Typically, Algee-Hewitt uses a corpus of short stories around a theme, such as detective stories and children’s stories. At certain times, he also has students analyze additional texts.

“Last year, when they learned topic modeling (and discussed what a topic was from either a computational or literary perspective) we used popular young adult fiction to illustrate that a topic could be anything from “growing up” to “horses,” depending on the scale of what we think a “topic” is,” Algee-Hewitt adds. “We used poetry to look at authorship attribution because poets tend to be more sparse in their language choices.”

For their homework assignments, students get to select a collection of texts they’d like to work on. “We work on the class corpus throughout the quarter, and then when they have homework assignments, they use their own corpus. So, they see how to do the method on something that everyone is familiar with in class—and then on their own, they do it again with texts that they are interested in.”

Like Nilsson’s class, students enrolled in Algee-Hewitt’s course don’t need to have computer-science backgrounds. In fact, he says the vast majority of them are humanities students who have no CS knowledge whatsoever. They just need the willingness to learn throughout the ten weeks of the class.

Sometimes, Algee-Hewitt teaches the class in the programming language R, other times, in python, and sometimes, in both. Either way, he says he always goes with an open source programming environment for this particular class, which is very methodology-focused. He explains that he wants students to understand “from the ground up” exactly what they’re doing. A danger of tools, he adds, is that they can make a lot of decisions for you.

“I want students to be very aware of all the decisions that go into every aspect,” Algee-Hewitt says.

Unstructured Play in Learning

Algee-Hewitt says using computer science to analyze literature can be “really liberating” for students, giving them a set of tools to help them interact with their mostly digital world. As an example, he points to a student who took his literary text mining class last year who did her project on apologies given by famous men who were caught up in the Me Too movement. Algee-Hewitt says she approached him after the class asking for help expanding her project and getting the research published.

“She feels like superwoman now, because she has the ability to do these really intense analyses of text in a way that she has never thought of before,” Algee-Hewitt says.

The class ran for two years at Deerfield, each time with two sections. The first year, each section was taught by a paired team of a computer science teacher and an English teacher. The second year, Nilsson taught one of the sections on his own. “Distant Reading” is currently on hiatus, as Nilsson is on sabbatical, but he plans to offer it again.

At the end of the day, Nilsson and the other teachers who built the elective didn’t want students to only learn the syntax of the programming language and some of the functions.

“We realized over the course of teaching this that we want them to learn question formulation, problem decomposition and argumentation,” Nilsson says. They also wanted students to experience unstructured play in learning, structured experimentation and persistence.

“One of the things that we’re going for is helping them understand,” he says, is “that they can mix disciplines—that they can think computationally about texts, that they can apply computer science skills and thinking to other areas of life than what they might think.”

From Trump to Tolstoy: What’s Bringing Computer Science and Literature Together published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[hebrewing]

Hebrew Basics #5: Verbs, pt. 3: Heavy Verb Stems

Hi everyone!

This lesson I’ll finally be finishing up Hebrew verb stems with the last group of stems: פֻּעַל, פִּעֵל and הִתְפַּעֵל - also called the heavy stems (בִּנְיַנְים כְּבֵדִים binyanim kfvedim) or the double stems (בִּנְיַנְים כְּפוּלִים binyanim kfulim).

The main feature distinguishing them from other stems is a dagesh on the 2nd radical letter, which also gives them their names (note that because ע is a guttural letter it cannot take a dagesh, so it doesn’t appear in the very name of the verb stems - but it’s there). Historically, this dagesh signified gemination, or doubling of a consonant, much like an Arabic shaddah. For instance: כָּתַב ‘(he) wrote’ would be pronounced katav, whereas כַּתָּב ‘reporter’ would be pronounced kattav. These days letters with a dagesh are not pronounced differently than the same letter without a dagesh, but its effect can still be seen - for example in בג״ד כפ״ת, that did not go under ‘softening’ when geminate, and therefore retain their hard pronunciation in verb and noun stems that contain a dagesh.

Now let’s leave the technicalities aside and dive into the verb stems’ individual meanings.

פִּעֵל is one of the most common verb stems in the language, and can take a wide variety of different meanings. From standard active verbs:

דִּבֶּר diber ‘to speak’ סִפַּר siper ‘to tell; to cut hair’ צִלֵּם tsilem ‘to photograph’

To more ‘powerful’ version of equivalent פָּעַל verbs:

שָׁבַר shavar ‘to break’ - שִׁבֵּר shiber ‘to break (purposefully)’ שָׁמַר shamar ‘to save’ - שִׁמֵּר shimer ‘to conserve’ חָשַׁב chashav ‘to think’ - חִשֵּׁב chishev ‘to calculate’

Or even causative verbs, like הפעיל:

גָּדַל gadal ‘to grow’ - גִּדֵּל gidel ‘to grow (e.g. a plant)’ קַר qar ‘cold’ - קֵרֵר qerer ‘to cool’ חַם cham ‘hot’ - חִמֵּם chimem ‘to heat’

In short, it’s a very versatile verb stem that carries a multitude of different, sometimes unrelated meanings.

פֻּעַל, much like הֻפְעַל, is the passive counterpart of פִּעֵל. No more, no less.

שִׁמֵּר shimer ‘to conserve’ - שֻׁמַּר shumar ‘to be conserved’ חִשֵּׁב chishev ‘to calculate’ - חֻשַּׁב chushav ‘to be calculates’ גִּדֵּל gidel ‘to grow’ - גֻּדַּל gudal ‘to be grown’ קֵרֵר kerer ‘to cool’ - קֹרַר qorar ‘to be cooled’

הִתְפַּעֵל is an interesting stem. It is the only third stem in a group, which poses the question: what meaning can it have? Both other groups have just an active stem (פָּעַל, הִפְעִיל, פִּעֵל) and a passive stem (נִפְעַל, הֻפְעַל, פֻעַל), so there’s no other ‘third stem’ you can compare it to and deduce its general meaning from.

That is, until you look at נִפְעַל again: As I said in lesson 3, many נִפְעַל verbs are passive counterparts to פָּעַל verbs, but many others are not: there are also stative verbs and verbs denoting processes. What I failed to say, however, is that some of these are reflexive verbs, where the subject acts upon themselves, in a way. The verb נֶעֱמַד ‘to stand up’ (which I deemed a verb describing the process of standing up) can also be seen as ‘to set oneself up’ - or the reflexive counterpart of הֶעֱמִיד ‘to set up,’ itself the causative form of עָמַד ‘to stand,’ or ‘to be standing’ (as in, to cause something/someone to stand up).

הִתְפַּעֵל’s main meaning is the reflexive form of many, but not all, פִּעֵל verbs:

סִפַּר siper ‘to tell; to cut hair’ - הִסְתַּפֵּר histaper ‘to have a haircut’ קֵרֵר qerer ‘to cool’ - הִתְקָרֵ�� hitqarer ‘to become cold (to make oneself cold)’ חִמֵּם chimem ‘to heat’ - הִתְחַמֵּם hitchamem ‘to become hot (to make oneself cold)’ צִלֵּם tsilem ‘to photograph’ - הִצְטַלֵּם hitstalem ‘to have one’s picture taken’

Another different, yet related meaning is reciprocity. Reciprocal verbs are verbs where the given action is performed mutually in-between a pair or group. This might seem like a difficult quality to grasp, but in reality in isn’t very complicated. For instance:

כָּתַב katav ‘to write’ - הִתְכַּתֵּב hitkatev ‘to correspond by text (to write to one another)’ לָחַשׁ lachash ‘to whisper’ - הִתְלַחְשֵׁשׁ hitlachshesh ‘to whisper to one another’* *Consonant reduplication helps emphasize the reciprocal meaning of the verb דִּבֶּר diber ‘to speak’ - הִדַּבֵּר hidaber ‘to communicate by speech (to talk to one another)’** **This is a very tricky verb to translate, since it is quite rare outside of mediation circles

Some of these verbs have difficult translations, mostly because such a concept doesn’t really exist in English. But a point you need to remember throughout your language studies is that translations aren’t language. To learn a language, you should not rely on translations to understand a given text. Every language has its unique grammatical constructions and ways of speech that might not be translatable to English. This is especially prevalent among languages distant to English (an example close to me is Korean, which I have been studying myself), and although Hebrew and English sentence structure is relatively similar, they still have vastly different grammar.

If you have a keen eye you might have noticed some strange pronunciations that seem to deviate from the regular הִתְפַּעֵל pattern:

הִסְתַּפֵּר histaper ‘to have a haircut’ הִצְטַלֵּם hitstalem ‘to have one’s picture taken’ הִדַּבֵּר hidaber ‘to communicate by speech (to talk to one another)’

One reason behind this is assimilation, where a consonant’s pronunciation changes because of the surrounding consonants. This is done by speakers in order to make pronunciation easier. For example, if you insert the root ד־ב־ר into the הִתְפַּעֵל stem you should get *הִתְדַּבֵּר hitdaber. However, the /td/ consonant cluster is hard on the tongue, so over time the /t/ assimilated into the /d/ to form a consonant cluster /dd/, or one geminate /d/ consonant (which eventually got to be pronounced only as one /d/): הִתְדַּבֵּר > הִדְדַּבֵּר > הִדַּבֵּר. 

Another reason is consonant metathesis, where two consonants change places in order to make pronunciation easier. This can be seen in הִסְתַּפֵּר histaper, where the /s/ and the /t/ switched places to make a /ts/ cluster into an easier /st/ cluster: הִתְסַפֵּר > הִסְתַּפֵּר.

Explaining the change for each consonant combination is cumbersome, so here’s a list of changes:

ט and צ, marked with an asterisk, are quite complicated. You probably noticed I wrote them as /t’/ and /s’/ instead of plain /t/ and /ts/. This is because they weren’t all pronounced as they are today. If you recall, in lesson 1 I recalled many “historical reasons” that there are so many homophones in Hebrew. This is because over its history in the diaspora, certain communities (namely Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews) merged many of those consonants, and in modern times, since the Sephardi reading of the Bible was adopted as the pronunciation of Hebrew after its revival - these mergers stuck. Among these, Sephardim and Ashkenazim merges ת and ט. Originally it was pronounced as an “emphatic” consonant, meaning it came more “from the throat” (If you are familiar with Arabic, it was pronounced like Arabic ط): hence I wrote it as /t’/.

צ was pronounced differently between communities, but originally it was pronounced similarly to ט, “from the throat” (like Arabic ص). However, the Ashkenazi pronunciation /ts/, as if it were a combination of ס and ת, stuck in Modern Hebrew.

The different consonant morphings happened centuries before the Jewish diaspora, so the consonants were still pronounced as they were originally. Back then it was easier to pronounce /s’t’/ than /s’t/ because both consonants were emphatic, so it morphed. These days it seems pointless, since ט and ת have the same phonetic value, but the correct spelling is nonetheless הִצְטַלֵּם. Many speakers make the mistake of writing הִצְתַּלֵּם, but it is just that - a spelling mistake.

Past Tense

Verbs marked with 2, as usual, undergo vowel reduction that turns a shva into a hataf /a/ (סֲ) under certain guttural letters, but you might have noticed something particularly strange in these verbs under the ��ֻּעַל stem - the characteristic /u/ (סֻ) changes to an /o/ (סֹ). This is because of a phenomenon in Hebrew called “dagesh compensation,” תַּשְׁלוּם דָּגֶשׁ tashlum dagesh, where the vowel before a guttural letter with a dagesh gets intensified to accommodate the reduction of the dagesh.

Dagesh compensation typically happens in the double stems, however it occurs in נִפְעַל as well, in future tense conjugations. It goes as follows:

I marked where compensation occurs in bold, because it does not occur before every guttural letter.

Take note that although the vowel point changes in the first column, םַ, the pronunciation actually stays the same.

Furthermore, each letter handles vowel reduction differently, as you can see. א always takes a hataf (םֱ, םֲ, םֳ) instead of a shva, ר never, and under ה, ע, ח whether the shva changes to a hataf changes on a case to case basis. Keep in mind that this also means the pronunciation is different: when the reduced vowel is rendered as a םְ it can be pronounced either as a /e/ or as no vowel, depending on the following consonant; when it is rendered as a hataf it can be pronounced either as /a/, /e/ or /o/, depending on the identity of the hataf.

If the guttural vowel has any vowel other than םְ, it is conserved and does not change in spite of the vowel intensification (a can seen in the last column, נִפְעַל).

I didn’t write the vowel forms in the tables according to the correct compensated forms (due to the 2nd radical of פ־ע־ל‎‎ being a guttural) because that would mean a very messy table. I expect you to think for yourselves and write for yourself what the correct forms of the verbs, taking dagesh compensation into account. It isn’t that hard actually, just knowing where /i/ becomes /e/ and when /u/ becomes /o/. (I did, however, include two forms when the vowel on the 2nd radical gets reduced, because that’s what I’ve been doing until now and I like consistency)

Future Tense

1st person conjugations have a different bowel of the prefix (א־) because the vowel on the א either changes to a hataf (אְ > אֲ) or it intensifies (אִ > אֶ).

Luckily that’s all There needs to be explained here. Everything peculiar here, you should already know the answer to from previous lessons

That’s it!

Next lessons I’ll be delving into the present tense and infinitives. Until then - keep your eyes peeled for more lessons!

See you next time :)