#if you want to think about linguistic differences by building all the languages in your setting

[scribefindegil]

As much as I adore conlangs, I really like how the Imperial Radch books handle language. The book is entirely in English but you're constantly aware that you're reading a "translation," both of the Radchaai language Breq speaks as default, and also the various other languages she encounters. We don't hear the words but we hear her fretting about terms of address (the beloathed gendering on Nilt) and concepts that do or don't translate (Awn switching out of Radchaai when she needs a language where "citizen," "civilized," and "Radchaai person" aren't all the same word) and noting people's registers and accents. The snatches of lyrics we hear don't scan or rhyme--even, and this is what sells it to me, the real-world songs with English lyrics, which get the same "literal translation" style as everything else--because we aren't hearing the actual words, we're hearing Breq's understanding of what they mean. I think it's a cool way to acknowledge linguistic complexity and some of the difficulties of multilingual/multicultural communication, which of course becomes a larger theme when we get to the plot with the Presgar Translators.

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Day 20: written but never sent

Masterlist flufftober 🎃

Reblog if you liked it!

Spencer greatly enjoyed handwriting. Electronic devices irritated him to no end, as he felt that typing on them was so impersonal and trivial. Handwriting required careful thought, reflecting desires and passions in the shape of the letters, and capturing feelings in the prose... everything written by hand represented something intimate, at least to him.

That’s why, when he got a pen pal, it was inevitable that he would start developing feelings. He had contacted you as part of a school assignment, as both of you were studying the same Ph.D. in linguistics, and one of the tasks was to analyze how different people express themselves in writing.

All he had was your name and address, the strictly necessary information to send a letter. He was the first to send one, sharing some details about himself, why he was pursuing the degree, the work he did, and how he would apply the knowledge he was acquiring.

He patiently waited for your response, which arrived a week later in a small brown paper envelope with a maroon stamp. Your letter didn’t seem like just a required response to fulfill the assignment. You sounded genuinely interested in what he had shared, and you addressed every point he had mentioned.

What surprised him the most was that at the end, you talked about books he had mentioned and ended with a question:

Have you read The Resilience of Language? It's a great book that could help you a lot. I highly recommend it! Best regards, nice to meet you.

There was a question at the end. The answer was no, Spencer hadn’t read that book. He could have simply stopped there, taking your recommendation and using your letter to complete his assignment. But something inside him wasn’t content to just end the communication there; he thought it would be rude not to offer a reply. So, as soon as he received your letter, he took one of his notebooks to write back.

Spencer used one of his gel pens with a fine tip and deep pigmentation. If someone were observing him, they could say that all these actions reflected a sense of importance: selecting the paper, his best pen, carefully crafting his handwriting—all of this added weight to the act.

He sent the letter, still unsure, but hopeful nonetheless. He was amazed when he arrived at the building and found another letter in his mailbox, with the same characteristics as the previous week.

A year had passed since then.

Every week, without fail, you exchanged letters. By now, he knew you better than he had ever known anyone, as the semi-anonymity provided an extra layer of trust for sharing everything that had happened during your week. You started by exchanging generalities, talking about books, and discussing the Ph.D. classes. Slowly, you began to share less trivial things: how the place where you lived was, your job, elements of your identity.

In recent months, you were writing to each other as if you were close friends.

My migraines have improved, in case you’re wondering, and this week at work has been less demanding than usual. We only handled a fairly light case (if you can even call it that in my line of work), and I had time to analyze some of the works you recommended. How’s everything going with that guy at work?

When Spencer finished, he hesitated about how to sign the letter. At first, he would send you his regards, write some polite expression, or simply wish you a good day. But now, he felt the need to sign off differently.

Affectionately, Spencer.

He didn’t think you would notice, just a gesture of the growing trust between you. He patiently waited for the postman to deliver your reply, and after several days, he eagerly read your words on the paper.

I’m disappointed about the guy. Turns out he’s a jerk, you know? Sometimes I wish I could meet someone who can genuinely love me, without focusing solely on the physical. Maybe it’s bold of me to say that, but I think you understand. I want a connection that comes from appreciating who I am, with someone who shares my interests, someone respectful, intelligent... but I won’t bore you with my romantic nonsense. The point is, I’m not dating anyone at the moment. I’m focusing on our Ph.D., haha. I hope you’re doing well, and I look forward to your reply!

However, he was quite surprised when he read the signature that followed your name.

Yours sincerely…

Had you signed that way in response to the dedication in his letter? Something felt strange within him, and his chest warmed with an unfamiliar feeling.

For a moment, he wondered if there was any possibility that he could meet the expectations of the special person you described, and when he realized he was imagining himself with you in that kind of scenario, he felt embarrassed.

It was ridiculous to think about. You didn’t even know each other, and you lived miles away, you were just friends who had taken a school assignment too far.

Time passed, and the signatures grew more affectionate, more personal… just like the content of the letters. It got to the point where he couldn’t deny it anymore: he was in love.

Though after realizing it, he spent a long time wondering what he should do with that feeling. Weeks passed before he came to a decision.

Spencer was returning from Maine when he decided to finally write to you. He was sitting on the plane, with his notebook in front of him, and his mind as blank as the page.

“What are you struggling to write, Reid?” Emily asked, sitting beside him “You’ve been staring at that notebook for ten minutes without the pen touching the paper.”

“It’s nothing,” he murmured, trying to downplay it. He didn’t want to talk about it, not with Emily, not with anyone.

A couple of hours later, with a pile of crumpled-up drafts beside him, he finally managed to write something:

I can’t start this letter without first telling you how much I’ve come to value our correspondence. For over a year, our written conversations have become one of the most important constants in my life. Each week, I eagerly await your letters, and every one of them brings me a pause in the middle of my routine: a space of calm where our words connect in ways I never imagined possible. I’ve read and reread your letters so many times that, sometimes, I feel like I know them by heart. Even so, I always discover something new in your words: an idea that eluded me before, an emotion that makes more sense over time, or a reflection that sheds new light on my own experience. Although we’ve never met in person, I feel like I know you better than many people I speak to face-to-face. Is that strange? Maybe it is, but the truth is that there’s something about the depth of our conversations that transcends physical distance. All this time, I’ve tried to rationalize what you mean to me, but there are things that can’t be measured or analyzed logically, no matter how hard I try. What I want to tell you —and what has taken me so long to write—is that I’ve fallen in love with you. At first, I wasn’t sure what this feeling was. I thought it was just admiration or gratitude for the friendship we’ve cultivated, but with each letter, with each shared thought, I realized it was something deeper. I love you, not just for what you share with me, but for who you are. For the way you see the world, with such clarity and empathy. For your insatiable curiosity, for your unique way of finding beauty in the smallest details. I don’t want this confession to make you uncomfortable or push you away. I’ll understand if you don’t feel the same, and I’ll consider myself lucky just to have known you in this way. But I couldn’t go on without being honest with you. I hope that, whatever your response may be, we can remain the same two friends who have shared so much through these pages. With all my love, and praying to be able to be yours, Spencer.

He kept the written words as if they were a treasure, feeling his heart race every time he thought about that secret tucked away in an envelope on his desk. Unfortunately, that letter never saw the light of day, all because of his fear of losing who might have been the best friend he had ever had in his life.

[ayeforscotland]

What is Dataflow? Part 2: Diagrams

This is the second part of a couple of posts about Dataflow, particularly why it's important for the world going forward and relating to the Crowd Strike IT disaster.

Read the first part here.

Before I get into this one today, I wanted to address a couple of things.

Firstly, Dataflow is something that nearly every single person can understand. You do NOT:

Need to have a degree in Computing Science

Need to work in IT

Need to be a data analyst / Spreadsheet master

If any of you see the word 'Data' and feel your eyes glazing over, try and snap out of it because, if you're anything like me, Dataflow is much more approachable as a concept.

Secondly, what do I mean by IT?

Traditionally in most of our media the all-encompassing 'IT department' handles everything to do with technology. But every business works differently and there are many job titles with lots of crossover.

For example, you can be an infrastructure engineer where your focus is on building and maintaining the IT infrastructure that connects your organisation internally and externally. This is a completely different role from an Application Portfolio Manager who is tasked with looking after the Applications used in business processes.

Both are technical people and come under the banner of 'IT' - but their roles are focused in different areas. So just bear that in mind!

Now that's out of the way, let's begin! This one will be a little bit deeper, and questions welcome!

An Intro to Diagrams

You probably do not need a history of why pictures are important to the human race but to cover our bases, ever since we put traced our hands on a cave wall we have been using pictures to communicate.

Jump forward in time and you have engineers like Leonardo Da Vinci drafting engineering schematics.

You get the idea, humans have been creating diagrams (Pictures) for thousands of years. Centuries of refinement and we have much more modern variations.

And there's one main reason why diagrams are important: They are a Common Language.

In this context, a Common Language helps bridge a language gap between disciplines as well as a linguistic gap. A Spanish electrician and a German electrician should be able to refer to the same diagram and understand each other, even if they don't know each other's language.

The reason they can do this is because they're are international standards which govern how electrical diagrams are created.

A Common Language for Digital?

Here's an image I've shown to clients from governments and institutions to global organisations.

Everything around us, from the products we use to the bridges we drive over and the buildings we live, work, enjoy and shop in had diagrams backing them.

You would not build a skyscraper without a structural engineering diagram, you would not build an extension on your house if an architect couldn't produce a blueprint.

Why is there not an equivalent for the Digital World and for Dataflow?

Where is the Digital Common Language?

This is the bit where the lightbulb goes on in a lot of people's heads. Because, as I mentioned in Part 1, the flow of data is the flow of information and knowledge. And the common mistake is that people think of dataflow, and only ever think about the technology.

Dataflow is the flow of information between People, Business Processes *and* Technology Assets.

It is not reserved to Technology specialists. When you look at the flow of data, you need to understand the People (Stakeholders) at the top, the processes that they perform (and the processes which use the data) and the technology assets that support that data.

The reason why this is important is because it puts the entire organisation in context.

It is something that modern businesses fail to do. They might have flow charts and network diagrams, and these are 'alright' in specific contexts, but they fall to pieces when they lack the context of the full organisation.

For example, here is a Network Diagram. It is probably of *some* value to technical personnel who work in infrastructure. Worth bearing in mind, some organisations don't even have something like this.

To be absolutely clear, this diagram will hold some value for some people within the organisation. I'm not saying it's completely useless. But for almost everyone else, it is entirely out of context, especially for any non-technical people.

So it doesn't help non-technical people understand why all of these assets are important, and it doesn't help infrastructure teams articulate the importance of any of these assets.

What happens if one of those switches or routers fails? What's the impact on the organisation? Who is affected? The diagram above does not answer those questions.

On the other side of the business we have process diagrams (aka workflow diagrams) which look like this.

Again we run into the same problem - This is maybe useful for some people working up at the process layer, but even then it doesn't provide context for the stakeholders involved (Are there multiple people/departments involved throughout) and it doesn't provide any context for technical personnel who are responsible for maintaining the technology that supports this process.

In short, nobody has the big picture because there is not a common language between Business & IT.

Conclusion

So what do we do? Well we need to have a Common Language between Business & IT. While we need people with cross-functional knowledge, we also need a common language (or common framework) for both sides of the organisation to actually understand each other.

Otherwise you get massively siloed departments completely winging their disaster recovery strategies when things like Crowd Strike goes down.

Senior Management will be asked questions about what needs to be prioritised and they won't have answers because they aren't thinking in terms of Dataflow.

It's not just 'We need to turn on everything again' - It's a question of priorities.

Thing is, there's a relatively simple way to do it, in a way that looking at any engineering diagram feels simple but actually has had decades/centuries of thought behind it. It almost feels like complete common sense.

I'll save it for Part 3 if you're interested in me continuing and I'll make a diagram of my blog.

The important thing is mapping out all the connections and dependencies, and there's not some magic button you press that does it all.

But rigorous engineering work is exactly that, you can't fudge it with a half-arsed attempt. You need to be proactive, instead of reacting whenever disaster strikes.

[xx-j4nu5-c4t5-xx]

I've been thinking about PT9 and how he'd acclimate to Sim society, and what struggles everyone would face trying to incorporate him into everything, and I think the hardest thing would be communication. Sure, teaching terrestrial language to an alien species would be hard, but you're sure to find some kind of common ground somewhere in a verbal language. Eventually, using some sort of concept or comparison as a sort of key, you'd be able to start translating things.

But what if you didn't have a verbal language to work with?

Back on Sixam, everyone had antennae, and everyone was always sort of tuned into a huge cloud of thoughts and emotions, like a hivemind. There was this constant buzz of feeling, at all times of the day, ever present in everyone's lives. You could feel the boredom of the students in class a few buildings away, you could feel the grogginess of the morning as neighbors woke up and started to get on with their days, you could feel everything. The aliens had written language, for documentation and stuff, but it didn't have a verbal equivalent. It didn't need one. You could have someone read the words, and the concepts could be shared immediately to everyone else in the room, no need to even open your mouth.

PT#9, having heard of the diversity and beauty of Earth (or wherever the hell Sims live idk), decides to leave everything he knows behind and settle down there. His travel through space isn't quiet, either, as he's got communication devices and a whole host of things on the ship that keep him tied to the network even when he's out in space.

And then he gets shot out of the sky by a fucking missile or something and when he wakes up in the crater, it's silent. Deafeningly, crushingly, overwhelmingly so. He can hear the remains of the ship smoldering and sparking, and the garbled noises of radio transmissions from the huge metal towers, but nothing holds any meaning. He can't feel anyone near him; at first, he's worried that he's crashed in a completely deserted part of the globe.

It only gets worse after he meets Jenny. He's trying to communicate with her, trying to understand what she's feeling and what she wants, but there's nothing. He can't tune into her wavelength, and it seems as though she can't tune into his. Nobody can. They just keep ignoring him, whether they mean to or not, and instead they just keep chattering on in that strange melody that pours out of their mouths without end. He's blasting signals out into the world around him, trying to explain that he's lost and confused and injured and scared, and nothing is listening. Nobody's there to even hear it.

Eventually, he starts picking up on things. The noises are usually consistent; these creatures make the same noises to refer to the same objects. The "egg" noise always refers to the white oval things in the little carton in the fridge. But sometimes the noises are wildly unpredictable, used for things they shouldn't apply to or trying to mean something entirely different with the same sounds. It's mind-boggling to him, and progress is slow, but the two of them make progress together. His field was always biology, anatomy, studies of the body and how it works and forms. He has an easier time understanding the diagrams in Jenny's textbooks than he does Jenny herself. He's definitely no linguist, but he tries his hardest to bridge the gap, for both their sakes.

He gets the hang of it after a few years, enough to get by, and sometimes to even hold a decent conversation, but it's always slow and never instinctual. The concept of trying to crush so many ideas and feelings into such odd and unnatural vocalizations feels pointless. Exasperating. Why can't they just listen to him directly and cut out the middle man?

Improvement gets exponentially faster after Johnny is born, though. Having everything laid out simply, and seeing how people start to understand these things from the ground up, helps immensely. Pol and Johnny sort of learn to be normal Sims together, or at least as close as they can get.

Finding out that are other aliens and half-aliens with antennae gave him a little bit of hope, but he quickly found that none of them really used them. Most of them had been born into all of this "talking" stuff, and the ones that hadn't had already become fluent in it beforehand, leaving no use for the direct communication. Strangetown was still quiet, filled with chatter that only had meaning if you focused as hard as you could on the sounds. Pol was always in the dark, no matter what he did.

He left Sixam to be free of the noise and rigidness of it all, and boy, did he get it. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Nobody was guiding him or telling him what to do or updating him on the news or simply spilling out all their frustrations into the network. It was just silence, for as far as the antennae could feel.

An extra tidbit that occured to me: Pol would know exactly what happened the night Pascal got abducted; for the first time in two decades, someone got close enough that he could eavesdrop on an intelligible message.

[ashadowwanderedfar]

I watched Arrival (2016) last night and have some comments about the language

Spoilers under the read more. If you haven't seen the movie, I strongly recommend watching it, it's incredible. Basically some big ol' aliens come to Earth and this linguist is tasked with trying to communicate with them.

The aliens in the movie (named "heptapods" because of their 7 limbs) have a system of writing that is nondirectional, as in their "sentences" don't have beginnings or ends. They write in very organic-looking complex circles forming each greater concept, which have individual "words" to represent the smaller linked concept.

Above is a screencap from the movie of one of the circular logogram's translation. The logogram is built from 15 different concepts, conveying meaning without using sentence structure.

I really like this concept. Not being limited by sentence structure makes it much easier to insert nuance into your communication.

If it were me creating a similar language, I might give it a more webbed shape to communicate the particular links between certain smaller concepts within the greater concepts.

Sometimes I already simplify my spoken language like this. I often do it playfully (or even just do it "jokingly" but I'm actually doing it genuinely), such as "I go eat", cutting out all grammar and extra words. I can't speak for other Earth languages, but at least in english you might sound like a caveman if you speak like that, so I don't do it all the time. (Nothing against cavemen, it's just the wrong impression for an advanced alien race. English is clunky for such a form of speech.)

They briefly touch on it in the movie I think, but this style of language that the Heptapods use is kinda like telepathy in that you can convey a much more complex concept with greater purity than with the sentences we use on Earth. I don't know how well it would work with technical things; perhaps it would require a longer grouping of logograms than it would take to convey a singular concept. I imagine if you needed some kind of instruction manual to build furniture or something like that where there are concepts that are time/order dependant, you'd need more logograms, and each would likely be simpler than a logogram used to discuss interpersonal or philosophical concepts.

Another tidbit I just thought of, the Heptapods basically write the logograma all at once.

This makes a lot of sense given that the language is nonlinear. How would you know where to start otherwise? It also seems difficult to connect the concepts to form the logogram otherwise.

In the aforementioned web-like alternative style, this would be especially difficult. Say you have several concepts in a logogram that are connected to eachother. You would need all of the concepts one has a connection to to be written before you can connect them in writing. If you could write them all at the same time, however, you avoid that issue entirely.

Anyways, I kinda want to experiment with this regardless of the problems. I like this a lot, and I low-key suspect my species had a similar type of language.

[tanadrin]

Sogant Raha is gorgeous. Do you have any recommended resources for worldbuilders who might want to do something similar?

no, because i did sogant raha all wrong.

it started as a Generic (albeit extremely low-magic) Fantasyland setting for a conlang when I was a teenager, which gradually accreted details at the edges until it was a whole world. but i didn't know what i was doing when it came to conlanging or worldbuilding, and as i got older and read more about historical linguistics, and history in general, i became dissatisfied with it and rebuilt it from the ground up a few times.

sometimes when you build a setting from the bottom up like that you miss the consequences of major decisions. when i started trying to map the whole planet for the first time, years ago, i realized i had put the Lende Empire on the wrong coast--for it to have a big forest to the east rather than be a massive desert, it needed to be upwind of the mountains, i.e., on their eastern side. so i had to either flip all the maps, on paper and in my head, or make the rotation of the planet retrograde. i opted for the second one, because reorienting my mental map of the Lende Empire would have been terribly confusing.

another example: i didn't realize how dramatic the consequences for the climate for having a low axial tilt would be until roughly, uh, yesterday. i just wanted to rough out some climate details and maybe calculate day lengths at different latitudes and seasons, and it wasn't until i started googling around to find formulas for average daily and annual insolation at different points on Earth that i realized low axial tilt produces a markedly different polar environment than what we're used to. the result is certainly more interesting, but it means there's some notes i have that are now just, well, wrong.

if you are starting a project like this as a big worldbuilding project, and you know a little bit about climate and astronomy and stuff, i think working top-down can save you from a lot of errors like this. damon wayans' worlds on Planetocopia are like this: but then, he seems to typically start with one High-Concept Worldbuilding Idea, and then see what the results are. i just had stories i wanted to write, that turned out to be connected, and gradually built the world up from them.

in some respects, this means as a world, Sogant Raha is not particularly exotic. the stories i wanted to tell are stories about humans, in societies not too dissimilar from ours, so the world is not too dissimilar. if i had known at 15 or w/e everything i know now (and had access to similar resources), i might have intentionally complicated certain parameters more, so that i could play with the results. but the stories are what has kept me coming back to this world year after year--and while an ice planet of methane breathers would be more interesting from a high-level view, i don't know what being a methane-breathing being on an ice plant is like, and i don't think it would have had the same perennial narrative appeal that has kept me interested all these years.

i guess my actual advice would be some or all of the following: be omnivorous in your interests. the fun thing about conworlding is that literally every domain of human knowledge is relevant to it. be willing to make weird choices, and equally willing to force yourself to justify them. sometimes you make an artistic choice, and you come back to it a little while later and go "what the fuck was i thinking?" you're tempted to erase it. but figuring out how to make that choice work often produces a much more interesting result. pay attention to what projection you're drawing your map in. try not to think in standard fantasy archetypes. no matter how original your spin on the ISO Standard Fantasy Races, they're still ISO Standard Fantasy Races. full blown conlangs are optional, but constructing even simple naming languages can make worlds feel much richer. don't use apostrophes in the names of things unless that apostrophe actually has a phonetic effect on the pronunciation. read a lot of history. real-world history is bigger and weirder and more interesting than you can possibly imagine. it's good fodder for worldbuilding.

[languagestudymaterials]

Pre-translation text analysis and language learning

based on Katherina Reiss’ and Christine Nord’s translation theories

I had always regarded science as a universal and believed there are no differences in science at all between countries. But I was wrong. People with different cultures think in different ways, and therefore their science also may well be different. (Motokawa 1989, p. 489)

This quote resonates with me as it highlights the impact of culture on our use of language for expressing ideas and documenting them. Being aware of the variations in styles—whether in writing or speaking—and genres can significantly accelerate the learning journey, enabling us to acquire a more authentic command of English or any other language we're studying.

This post will guide you on how to compare two languages, including where to begin and what details to consider.

Pre-translation text analysis 

Pre-translation text analysis involves examining the source text before translating it to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency. This process helps identify potential issues such as ambiguous terms, cultural references, technical jargon, or complex sentence structures. Such analysis can help translators produce a more accurate and contextually appropriate translation. 

In simple words, you pinpoint characteristic features of a text. 

I already made such an analysis in this post - I analyzed the Japanese writing style and tried to determine how it differs from the English style. 

More on that here

How will that help me learn a language then? 

In short, it will help you:

Improve your understanding of the target language. By that, I mean identifying grammar points, difficult or unusual vocabulary, or complex sentence structures.

Identify challenges. Once you’re done analyzing the language layer, you can highlight challenging points, allowing yourself to focus on specific language challenges. 

Build cultural awareness. It helps recognize cultural nuances in the text, which improves the ability to use language in context.

How do I start such an analysis? 

According to Katherina Reiss and Christine Nord, German linguists and translators, you can start off with determining:

extralinguistic factors of a text. 

intralinguistic factors of a text.

Extra means that something “comes from the outside” and linguistic refers to language. You’re looking for features that aren’t related to the language itself (elements from outside the text). This means that you want to determine:

Function. What is the text trying to say/convey? Authors have intentions. Texts are written for a reason. What is the text’s function in its source culture? To inform, to evoke emotions, to educate, to entertain? 

The recipient. Who is the target reader/audience? Doctors, teenagers, politicians? Depending on the target audience, the language will differ as well. Different vocabulary, different syntax, register, and so on.

Time and place of reception/publication. It might seem unimportant, but if the text was published 30 years ago, it will give a rough idea about the language conventions and standards prevailing at that time.

Medium. Was it a book? Was it a magazine? Was it displayed on a screen? A medium can affect language too. What if there was not enough space and the text had to be shortened. We don’t think about it on a daily basis, but when we communicate in the online world, we use ungrammatical language, and we compose short messages (often omitting words because they are clear from the context).

Intra means “inside” so, we need to analyze the language itself. Try to answer these:

What is the text about? What is the subject matter of the text? Does it require any special terminology or background knowledge?

How is the text organized? Chapters, subchapters, paragraphs, layout, any characteristic features that seem off to you because in your culture you don’t do that. Any visual features.

How would you characterize the vocabulary? (technical, jargonistic or colloquial, are there collocations, idioms, keywords, words chosen for particular effects, lots of acronyms or abbreviations, neologisms, particular lexical fields, examples of regional or social variation)

What are the features of the sentence structure? (long or short sentences, simple or complex ones)

How would you characterize the style? (Journalistic, rambling, colloquial, smart, etc.)?

What about grammar? What tenses are used in the text? Any other grammar structures? What about punctuation?

Example

it’s a fake memo

Let’s start with extralinguistic factors first

Function ⇒ providing information. The memo's primary purpose is to provide important logistical information about the temporary unavailability of the parking lot. Employees are expected to adjust their parking arrangements based on the information, so the text is practical, prompting immediate action.

The recipient ⇒ Employees. The memo is directed at all workers in the organization who typically use the parking lot.

Time and place of reception ⇒ in this case, this information is unimportant because it’s a very fresh memo.

Medium ⇒ e-mail message. It could also be printed out and pinned on the notice board in the office.  

Intralinguistic factors up next: 

Clarity and simplicity: The language is straightforward, using simple vocabulary and short sentences to ensure that all employees, regardless of their role or education level, can easily understand the message.

Formal tone: The memo uses a professional tone, as it is an internal communication addressing all employees.

It avoids technical jargon, ensuring it applies to all employees, from administrative workers to maintenance staff.

It’s brief, focusing only on necessary details—dates, alternative parking, and an apology for the inconvenience (no necessary explanations, they don't need to know why the parking lot will be maintained).

Now you know how to write a short memo to all employees informing them about an important issue. 

You can go even deeper, and analyze grammar structures as well - is the memo written in passive voice or active voice? Are there any conjunctions? What about modal verbs or conditional sentences? Are there any words that can be substituted with simpler words (vehicles ⇒ cars).

If your language intuition is already sharp, then you won’t need to go that deep, you will take a look at the memo and intuitively know how to recreate it. However, if you struggle, you can look for examples online, perform the analysis, and then write your own memo. 

In this article, you can also find some tips on how to write business letters/memos.  

References:

Wytrębowicz, J. (2009). O poprawności językowej publikacji naukowo-technicznych. Zagadnienia Naukozanwstwa. Kemp, A. (2007, May). University of Central Florida. Retrieved January 22, 2020, from Electronic Theses and Dissertations: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/3223

Tabakowska, E. (1999). O przekładzie na przykładzie. Kraków: Znak.

http://www.tree-genie.co.uk/Translation/Analysing%20your%20Source%20Text.pdf

Reiss, K. (2000). “Type, Kind and Individuality of Text, Decision making in translation.” In L. Ventui, The Translation Studies Reader .Routledge.

Sawaki, T. (2016). Analyzing Structure in Academic Writing. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Motokawa, Tatsuo. “Sushi Science and Hamburger Science.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 32 no. 4, 1989, p. 489-504. Project MUSE, HYPERLINK “http://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.1989.0023” doi:10.1353/pbm.1989.0023 .

“High-Context Culture: Definition & Examples.” Study.com, 21 May 2015, study.com/academy/lesson/high-context-culture-definition-examples-quiz.html

[kafkaoftherubble]

MAURICE TEACHER LORE

Also Maurice has two younger sisters

Felipe

History

Foreign language/linguistics

Foreign cultures

Jasmin

Math

Science

Nadine

Biology

Natural history

Lysander

Art

Music

Felipe

He's from a nomadic culture so he's spent most of his life on the road, only recently deciding to settle down in Odeda. Because he's traveled a lot, he knows several languages and a lot about many different cultures, including the damages caused by Odeda when they colonized them.

Jasmin

Half Odedan and half former colony. She grew up in Odeda but was taught of her father's home country and can speak the language. She excelled in school from a young age and was accepted in a prestigious college. Has taught in private schools for most of her career, jumping at the change to teach the young prince and princesses.

Nadine

An immigrant who studied the dragons of the north western islands and the people living there in her early adulthood. After writing a well received paper on them, she moved to Odeda to continue her study on lizards and lizard-like animals. She worked at a college and received funding from them for her research prior to becoming a tutor for the royal family.

Lysander

Well respected artist in Odeda who painted several public buildings. Caught the eye of the royal family and was offered a position as a tutor. He's not an immigrant or mixed race, but has spoken a lot with immigrants and their beliefs have rubbed off on him.

Story

Felipe was the first to suggest teaching the prince and princesses about foreign cultures and politics. Nadine and Lysander jumped at the change to teach someone of such high status their beliefs and opinions, but Jasmin was more hesitant. She didn't want to jeopardize this amazing job opportunity but agreed to say nothing when the others went ahead with it.

After some years, Maurice started talking about "foreigner political ideas". Priscilla didn't say anything because she wasn't really against suggesting new ideas, but when she passed away Volker soon had the teachers fired for spreading their "harmful" ideas. They all died under mysterious circumstances over the next few years and were replaced by teachers handpicked by Volker. Jasmin was spared because she only taught math.

This caused a rift in Maurice's and Volker's relationship, but Maurice was old enough to understand that he shouldn't speak against Volker.

Oohhhh, hmm hmm!

So is the timeline thus?

Priscilla is the empress. Maurice gets his education.

Teachers were sought after to teach Maurice.

Teachers had leeways during Priscilla's rule.

Volker is ready to snatch that throne. Murders Priscilla and her husband (L-Lucario? Wait that can't be right).

Volker jails teachers and subsequently assassinate/execute them. Maurice is now old enough to know he should shut up to not provoke Volker too much.

Extra questions that pop up in my head!

How old was Maurice when Priscilla died?

What did Maurice learn from his teachers right before his teachers' deaths?

Is he old enough to really understand the thoughts and opinions of his teachers, or is he really just being a willing recipient? Is he being indoctrinated—even if it's "good" indoctrination? When he talks about his opinions back then, is he really just parroting what his teachers think?

What I like about this angle ^ is that you can then explore a bit about the role and philosophy of education.

Even if you're teaching good things, isn't it still indoctrination if you're trying to make a kid see things in your specific, opinionated way? Kids do take after the thoughts of the adults/society around them for a long time because... that's kinda what children (and even some adults) do. Social creatures and all. Usually we argue that it's not a problem if the worldview we are trying to impart on a kid is a beneficent one (like how some would argue that it's fine to teach children religion at a young age, because religion advocates for goodness), but it doesn't actually answer the question about the nature of education itself.

What form of education is not indoctrination?

And, given that we deliver knowledge through specific narratives (for example, the narrative of evolution; the narrative of string theory; the narrative of physicalism in neuroscience etc.), then education itself is basically a mass narrative-spreading system. Hence Volker's use of propaganda and indoctrination in Odedan universal education syllabus... and ironically, Maurice's private education via his tutors. The machinery is the same: shape the child(ren) into a specific way. The difference is: "what specific way?"

I think these two examples of education (Volker-led education vs. Maurice's private education) could make for a very good contrast! It could also eventually lead to the "education status quo" stance espoused by Ira vs. "education reform" advocacy espoused by Edith.

-----

Apropos to this "education and tutor" lore,

Has Edith considered the logistics of training teachers under the new, reformed syllabus + system while she advocated for her reform?

What I mean is this: no matter how great your education ideal is, you need qualified people to carry them out, yea? I know this all too well because Malaysian Education Department loves revamping our education policies in quick successions (it's beyond rewriting/updating textbooks) that neither the teachers nor the students ever reaped whatever "benefits" these dumbasses tout. Hence, you need to train the educators before the students get to enjoy this reform. But how long will you allocate that time of training? How much resources? What new qualifications will you be seeking in your new teachers?

And the more sweeping your reform (I assume Edith's idea is very sweeping and revolutionary!), the thornier the logistics!

I think this could become one of Ira's arguments! I basically imagine Ira's reform is just textbook rewrites and stripping away "overt" monarchist overtone at most. There is very little re-training of educators under this sort of change.

Edith's though would need a lot more work. Resources. Time.

We need Ira to have more supporters, right? Hahhaha dude is so isolated at the moment 😝 Well, maybe this could earn Ira some points and allies!

----

So after we talked about Volker needing a Benedict (but before she ended up being Lyndis 😏), I was wondering what sort of person would become Volker's advisor. Why would someone stand behind a shithead like that? Why offer their intellect to someone like that?

Love for the royal family?

Love for the ideal of the country/love for Odeda?

Love for a specific political ideal?

Love for Volker? (this is probably the most cliche reason, haha!)

Love for power and further ambitions?

Love for social experiments? (This one seems kinda chaotic. It's basically a Mad Scientist in a position of power.)

Or no love—pragmatic alliance because of how much this person's fortunes is tied to Volker?

I thought the last possibility is pretty intriguing to imagine, so I tried to come up with plausible backstory for this. And since we were also talking about Maurice's backstory including his tutor way back at Monday...

The scenario was this: Lyndis (in my head at the time the name was "Blanknedict" 😂) joined the royal family first as a governess/tutor. She was to teach either Maurice or his siblings (you filled in the blank for me in this ask, hehe! So it's "Maurice's sisters.") on magic??? Or science ???

But Lyndis wasn't being a teacher for teaching's sake, per se. Before becoming a governess/tutor, she had been engaging in Machiavellian proclivities back in her town. They range from good things all the way to assholery. Maybe it was to manipulate the town folk to treat a solitary old woman more nicely just because the granny was nice to her that one time. Maybe it was to screw with the local pastor because he criticized her harshly that one time. Or to cause an expulsion of a neighbor because she hated how inefficient they were at providing the village some produce. Maybe it was to cause another person to lose their livelihood because this person offended Lyn before.

The corrupt town mayor had a habit of employing urchins to do some of his petty crimes, which he then "solved," to bolster his reputation among them townfolks. Lyndis was one of his employees, which gave her the first environment to exercise her schemes and be praised + rewarded for it.

The idea isn't that she's a manipulative monster from the get-go. It's that she lacked people who could help her channel these gifts for good. And the environment she was raised in had limited her into becoming something better.

Anyway, as she grew up, the sort of things she found objectionable became less and less. She found people too easy to fool and manipulate—at this point, the mayor had become so reliant on her, she was the real mayor this whole time—that she became deeply suspicious of collective intellect. This, I thought, would explain why she was against the sort of ideals Brandi and the rest advocated, for democracy rests on one's faith in the people's collective ability to rule.

She was really a shadow dictator, and under her rule, the town did prosper. This, I thought, would help her develop this idea that the best way of governance is one very wise, very powerful person ruling them all.

Her ambitions grew. Seeing the failures of Odeda (the same ones that tormented Volker, for that matter) pissed her off, and soon she decided to aim for the royal court where she believed her talent could be exercised. She would remake Odeda in her vision from the shadow. To do that, she decided to join in through the cover of an employment. She chose teaching, but originally, she wasn't even the governess going for the royal family's interview. She killed the real one, assumed her identity, and steadily sabotaged other people's chances so she could get there.

Then once she became a tutor, she began to look for the medium she could latch on—the same way the old mayor was her medium for power. She found Volker's ideals and character to be the best for her after they met each other in some... event, whatever. I don't know what aristocrats and royals do. She bribed servants and children into becoming her spies, collect secrets to blackmail those she could not bribe, and basically tried to construct her own spy network. She even dabbled in some murder if she needed to advance her schemes.

On the outside, though, she played the role of an affable, intelligence, reasonable woman who was simply a bit pragmatic in her decisions. Cosmetics may be most people's way of dressing up, but Lyndis' cosmetics are her reputation and impression.

Volker got wind of it all, though! He had evidence of her schemes and shits—which could get her executed. Lyndis, not content to die before her ambitions came to fruition + not disliking Volker's own appetite for power, agreed to formally work for him. From then on, she amassed even more power and control over the country through her alliance with Volker, and she provided counsel and schemes for him. It was a win-win partnership of equal footing, and they looked out for each other. Lyndis supported Volker's megalomaniacal quest to become god because she found immortality a useful asset. But she was smart enough not to be the guinea pig of her own experiment, and so Volker was her "test trial." Ultimately, she wanted an eternal dictator of whom she could support from the shadow.

I thought it was pretty interesting a dynamic, so here you go! Something my daydream made up because Dear Emperor is just that fun.

----

What did you come up for Lyndis, though?

[amaiguri]

Yssaia

⚜️NaNoWriMo WIP 2024⚜️

"All promised heroes burn. Who are they now?"

In a world of fated heroes and abyssal machines -- born both of Kings and Philosophy --, a burned assassin girl must find new purpose when the War ends.

Untitled Yssaia Game will someday become a narrative-focused, hand-drawn adventure. Navigate an assassin through her delicate, brutal world after the War annexed her homeland. Delve deep into political dealings, your past trauma, and the Abyss beneath the world.

...but for today, it's still just a very large Reedsy document, some art, and a handful of songs.

🏆THE CHALLENGE'S OBJECTIVE🏆

This NaNoWriMo, I just want to write every day. I don't have the time or breakneck pace to do the traditional 50k words. I also want to log my progress cuz every year, I don't journal as much as I should and every year, I regret that. My memory and sense of time is better when I journal. So, we gotta get back into it, once again.

In terms of my current progress, there are about 245k words in this wip -- though it has multiple story arcs. We'll see what the market says to do with it, as we get closer to video game form... I have done a round or two of editing maybe? It doesn't feel like it but I also spent since February of last year editing. I thought it was going to take a month. It did not. 😭😭😭 Now, I am back to drafting -- thank God. Right now, I'm drafting a story arc about my protagonist struggling with her new relationships, falling into old toxic patterns, and discovering the enemies of her enemies -- the Gods.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒CHARACTERS🧑‍🧑‍🧒

Yssaia is multi-POV and has a lot of perspectives with unequal time. If I were a perfect creator, I'd give them increasingly equal time throughout the work -- and end the story with characters taking turns between paragraphs in the battle against the Gods. This is all part of a giant experiment in which I fight against Great Man History. We'll see if it works lol cuz it sounds insane but that's legitimately why I'm showing so many different perspectives.

Naturally, there are many more characters and POVs than the ones pictured here.

The characters all have a lot of anime influence -- not just in their visual language, but also in their characterization -- but they also take a lot of influence from those Literary Fiction short stories I had to read in college. They're all written in a retrospective first person and verb all their nouns and have some sort of linguistic quirk for their POV. I mean like "One POV has 2nd person" kind of quirk. I love playing with form. I don't WANT you to feel like my work is super easy to read -- I want you to THINK about it.

🌩THE GODS OF YSSAIA🌬

The currently fighting Gods of Yssaia are basically representing Connection, Conquest, and Despair. Something something thematic arguments for a modern age but ALSO "use the power of friendship to kill God." The Gods all have what I like to call "humansonas" (think like the Christian Jesus) whom are represented below:

🗺THE WORLDBUILDING🗺

I have been working on Yssaia since 2018, so the worldbuilding has only gotten deeper and deeper. While the shape of the world and the general cultures have remained the same, they've all gotten a lot more nuance and geographical fidelity and also, conlangs: I have conlangs for every culture in the language and I'm very proud because language and power is one of the themes I like to play with. Yes, that's an IB thing. If you're interested in worldbuilding or conlanging, I actually run a worldbuilding YouTube channel so come check it out.

But if I had to summarize it, my world building is "Fantasy 1880s-1910s with a melancholic but whimsical feel and cute eldritch horrors. All the cultures are a mixture between Asian and Western cultures" (like Chinese Vikings, Japanese French-Mafias, Communist Grecoromans, and Slavic Indians, etc.) I have endeavored to ensure there is something about each culture that is "my favorite" -- ama about my worldbuilding 🥺💜

Follow for Part 2, when I talk about the game design someday!

[childishzombiejellyfish]

do you think slutty ace can be defined - is there a criteria? or is it subjective?

and does it require a character is at least headcanoned as ace or has ace vibes, yet also has "slut" vibes in terms of what the perceived sexualized behaviours/actions/looks are?

sorry if this is confusing I'm trying to understand as an ace person myself.

hello there, interesting questions. I had a lot of thoughts, but in the end I think those can be distilled into more questions that I also have:

what does the "ace slut" (or the slutty ace) look like? how are we building a language within our community by reclaiming "slut" and "prude" within the paradoxical nature of what asexuality can be + look like to the outside by people who try to simplify our community into something either disgusting/degenerate/diseased and other (queer) or by dismissing us and our sense of selves as not-queer-in-the-right-way (which ironically also includes painting us a disgusting/degenerate/diseased at times)-- does the paradox of slut paired with ace inherently contain the very core of queer ideal?

do we have writing on this? ace erotica, ace slut philosophy 101, the history of the ace slut, etc. and should we be saving the conversations we have on tumblr that show an interesting development in ace philosophies so that we can build more lasting ideas? how do these philosophies relate to other reclamations of the word "slut," for example in allosexual texts like macho sluts and the ethical slut? how can ace texts build on these texts?

how do these semiotics (behavioural, aesthetic, linguistic, etc) play into a shorthand in how we read fictional characters -- especially when we read so-called "sex icons" as ace (whether or not they're also sluts)

I had a lot of thoughts and answers for these questions, but one thing that got me stuck over and over was: well, a lot of this is my opinion based on observing peers + myself and how we discuss certain fictional characters and how that relates to real world ideas about what asexuality can be -- and I don't feel so comfortable doing that without more concrete data

in order to answer your questions, ultimately I'd have to state my opinion as fact without having all the facts, so I might list some of the ways in which it both is and isn't subjective -- that is, here are some questions that I think do relate to how we (un)consciously build the fictional slutty ace, that have potentially subjective answers, now go play in the fictional sandbox:

is the character considered a sex symbol?

does the reality of how this character is written cohere with the character's status as sex symbol? (and does this cohesion continue throughout multiple different writers/directors/actors, etc. for example several iterations of an iconic character)

if no, then does this character's sex appeal (sluttiness, shall we say) lie within a projection of ideals held by society (whether that be mainstream society or counter-cultural societies, like certain queer spaces), rather than actual allosexual behaviours (does Seven of Nine actually want to have sex or enjoy the idea of being perceived at all or is she just hot -- both in the past as an apparent straight male sex symbol and today when rewritten as a canonically sapphic woman)?

if yes, how can asexual ideas be mapped onto the character to disrupt potential normative allosexual reads of what constitutes "the slut"? (for example, does a character who canonically has a lot of sex mostly do it for their job or out of boredom or mainly to be involved in kink or out of obligation or or or...)

how do our own lives relate to whether we want to read a character a certain way, and how can that speak to how we can potentially disrupt normative reads of "the slut" both as within the text (Hawkeye Pierce canonically has a lot of sex, but what if he was ace...) and via outside limited reads of what a character is actually doing (Irene Adler as "The Woman" not because she was unbearably sexy or he fell in love with her, but because she beat Sherlock Holmes -- but she did crossdress which in my books is wonderfully slutty behaviour)

perhaps we can create a "not bad, just drawn that way" scale for sluttiness but crucially within an ace spectrum, not as a gauge to find out "if ace" -- we're coming at aceness as if it's a given, we're just measuring slut-factor alongside aceness: - swag: 1-10 - flirtatious: 1-10 - sex symbol actor: 1-10 - kinky: 1-10 - sexy clothing: 1-10 - sexy behaviours gen: 1-10 - likes to be perceived: 1-10 - sexy projection by the viewer: 1-10 - other subjective slut ideals (whatever they may be): 1-10 crucially none of these include "has sex," that's not what determines a slutty ace in the end. whether or not they do is entirely irrelevant to the "not bad, just drawn that way" measurement, unless you feel it changes something

IN CONCLUSION: I would never argue for official criteria when talking queering, because that way lies exclusion and a lot less fun, but there are questions one can ask oneself. I'd say the only criteria really are

a. do you headcanon this character as ace? (or alternatively, and much more rarely: IS this character ace?)

b. does this character have slutty vibes to you? and how would you embody the idea of the slut that you're mapping onto characters?

[max1461]

You said that "some phonologists deny the utility of syllables at all"? That seems uh... manifestly absurd. While I understand that syllable boundaries are ambiguous sometimes, it seems crazy to simply discard the concept... like, I don't know whether to analyze "reason" as /ˈɹiː.zən/ or /ˈɹiːz.ən/, but I strongly feel that it has "two beats" even absent the idea of "syllables". What, then, is the argument to "deny the utility of syllables"?

I don't really know, it's not the mainstream position and I haven't really read up on it at all. The thing about syllables is that they're characterized by a bunch of different phonetic factors, often varying by language. In English, for instance, the rules for voicing and aspirations of stops are different in syllable coda and onset, and there's presumably voicing phenomena affecting other consonants as well, etc. There's no nothing inherently distinguishing one syllable from the next, syllables are just clusters of other phonetic features. And there's no way to easily define "syllable" in a language-independent way. However, it is a robust observation that in most (if not all) languages, phonetic features cluster together in such a way as to lead people to perceive speech as a series of beats, as you say. This is probably why the notion of a "syllable" has been invented over and over again across cultures.

But if you're a modern phonologist, you're trying to explain this observation. And you're probably interested in a least gesturing at cognition in your explanation. And there are roughly two ways to do this: one is to built a model where syllables are a primitive, and the various phonetic features that cluster around them are induced by phonological processes that reference syllable parsing. The other is to build a model where syllables aren't a primitive, where those various phonetic correlates are induced by other factors, and where the evident beat-like nature of language is just an emergent property. And most people will attempt to argue for their preferred model on the grounds that it accords better with cognition, but these arguments are often bad because people are not rigorous about what it means for a model to "accord with cognition". But you can in principle make an accurate model of the purely linguistic data under either paradigm, so that's why some phonologists do it.

As far as it goes, I think this is one of those questions that will just never be settled on linguistic data alone. I can't imagine a language ever being documented that truly can't be modeled with syllables, or that truly must be modeled with syllables. I'm sure it's always mathematically possible to do either. So the only way to resolve this will be with appeals to cognition. And we actually have a lot of data about cognition, and more is coming in constantly! The problem is that linguists are, as yet, not especially rigorous about how their theories interface with the cognitive data. As a rule, current (generative) theories are falsifiable by pure linguistic data but unfalsifiable by cognitive data. Which isn't a priori surprising—theories about genetics aren't falsifiable by astronomical data, etc., because they make no predictions about astronomy! But if linguists want to appeal to cognition to argue for their theories, then they need to augment their theories with a predictive apparatus about cognition. And right now that's, well, not being done especially well. But my impression is that we only very recently have good enough cognition data for it to matter, so hopefully it will get off the ground in the coming decades.

[baeddel]

oh yeah, since i like, if i'm talking about things, talking about how i'm learning things: (long and extremely boring if you don't care about me)

at the moment i've been trying out some new stuff. as you know i typically just read whatever interested me without very much discipline. then for the last year or so i tried kind of a flexible schedule that involved setting weekly goals for myself, mostly 1ch of my OE book every week. i also started doing 15m of anki every day. well 2022 was a fucking nightmare for me so i wasn't as good at it as i think i coulda been, but when i was 'on' it was pretty good. but i've been trying something new again, which is to work on small daily goals instead.

because i divide my days by meals (cuz my weird diabetes leaves me with an inflexible meal schedule, it's very reliable), i must eat 4 hours apart and must have a snack in the middle. so my day naturally comes in 2hr chunks. so my ideal schedule is something like this:

breakfast meditate 7m [心斋法 'heart purification method'] (building it up) LANGUAGES BLOCK do my daily language chores snack break TEXTBOOK BLOCK pick 2-4 books & study 15m of each lunch LITERATURES BLOCK just read something i picked snack CORRESPONDENCE BLOCK reply to emails & IMs i have to reply to dinner free time snack free time supper brush teeth meditate 7m [心斋法 again] sleep

currently the language chores are:

15m Chinese Assimil book/tapes 10m Old English reading 15m Anki (both OE and Chinese)

the textbooks i'm using are

the OE grammar book still Hock & Joseph Intro to Historical and Comparative Linguistics Hayes Phonology a Lacan essay i'm reading cuz a friend's reading it

the literature part is currently Dante's Divine Comedy

the reason i'm doing it this way is three reasons:

1. learning two languages means i have to do a certain amount of stuff every day no matter what. plus grinding OE every day for over a year really trained my discipline in that respect so it's a lot easier for me now than it used to be.

2. i'm at a point in my learning where i'm kind of starting all over again at something new, re: studying linguistics, so i need to get through a bunch of textbooks and stuff. i needed something more consistent for going through a ton of material.

3. going by chapters or page numbers has a disadvantage, which is that you don't feel like you can skip pages or else you're cheating, and you also don't want to 'read around the subject' and dig into things you find that are interesting because it doesn't help your page number goal. and that's the opposite of what you want, because you want to skip around and do different levels of reading, and you want to follow up on things you're curious about. so going by time rather than page numbers is much better.

the reason for the literatures & emails portions was that i felt so good about the scheduling that i realized i could use it to work on other stuff too. so i'm hoping it helps me reply to stuff on a better schedule and also actually get to read poetry & fiction and stuff more often.

the only one i actually have to do daily is the lanɡuaɡes one. everythinɡ else can be skipped or swapped around dependinɡ on my enerɡy level / interest.

the languages component i've been faithful to for about three weeks, except this weekend when i had a huge fatigue crash & skipped two days. the other stuff i've added later. i've only managed to meet this ideal schedule twice in the week or so i've had it in mind. my hope is that i can work up to being more consistent with it, but it's also not that important that i really do it all every day. it's just an orientation thing. i've still been doing way more, way better than i have done for a long time, so i think it's been helpful. but i'll check back in on it later.

the meditation is interesting. my only reason for it is curiosity. it's part of what i'm studying, so i wanted to try it for myself. 心斋法 is based on a passage of Zhuangzi. i'm following the explanation of it in Wu Jyh Cherng's 'Daoist Meditation.' i've done the best with it out of any technique i ever tried. my problem with meditation is the opposite of most beginners; it tends to produce in me extremely intense experiences extremely quickly. this was also true this time, but starting with a short timer (5m) and being able to focus on the sound of the breath, as is part of this method, was helpful in getting through it. once i got through the initial hurdle i would get very intense blissful feeling and a tingling sensation all over. it's crazy that it really works... but now after a about a week i'm not getting it, and i'm getting distracted by thoughts and fidgeting like a normal person! who knows where it's going...

anyway for linguistics i'm working through those textbooks (which i nabbed from a Harvard historical linguistics class, and constitute my 'intro to historical linguistics block'), then i'm going to do a Writing Systems workout: Rogers' Writing Systems, Page's Intro to English Runes, and Boltz' Chinese Writing System. when i finish my introductory OE grammar i have a kind of 'bridge' text called Old English Historical Linguistic Companion by Roger Lass which is supposed to take you from the introductory grammars to Campbell &c. then Campbell's Grammar > Mitchell's Syntax > Hogg's Grammar. i have a general morphosyntax workout to pair with them at various stages: Payne Morphosyntax, Akajemi & Heny Intro to Transformational Grammar, Haegaman Intro to Government & Binding. at that point i think i can be done with textbooks. obviously i'm not bound to stick to this plan exactly, it's just orientation.

the historical linguistics & phonology textbook are a ton of fucking fun btw. the phonetics chapter of the phonology textbook is amazing because you can make all the sounds yourself, & its like doing a bunch of little experiments on your own body. now i know what i'm doing when i'm making all those sounds. and i inflict this knowledge on my girlfriend who thankfully loves me.

sometime before 2024 i'll start on Latin and work it into the language dailies part. the plan is to ideally get to where i can drop the textbooks & anki vocab grinding & just get where i need w/ extensive reading (and, in the case of Chinese, listening). then i'll change my schedule to have something like: 40m OE reading, 40m ZH reading, 40m Lat reading. and once i work that up enough i can fill that time with the kind of stuff that i'm learning the languages to read, so that my language practice is also actually study/research, and i'm starting to consolidate the different branches a bit and actually freeinɡ up time for other areas. that's the lonɡ term ɡoal, like, 'up to when i'm 35' kind of timeframe. thanks for reading!

[cd-covington]

Linguistics worldbuilding question for you!

I'm planning a webcomic set in an embassy where various magical races meet up to do business. The races I've planned so far are humans, fae, dwarves, goblins, sea-people, dragon-people, and gryphons.

Do you have any thoughts on ways to distinguish the speech patterns of the different races so they don't all end up sounding alike, especially the non-humanoid ones like the gryphons? I think some of them have nonverbal elements to their languages as well, which the visual webcomic format will help with.

By the way, there's going to be a translation spell either on the building itself or on some sort of amulet that everyone carries with them, so they can communicate with reasonable ease (and yes, I know about some of the problems with the universal translator trope).

Hello enchantress-emily!

This sounds like a fun idea for a webcomic 🙂 Speech patterns can be interesting to play with, and I think you can utilize the magic universal translator to help you with that.

The first thing you can do is figure out what types of metaphors and proverbs and idioms each of these species would have. What’s important in their culture? What would common touch-points be for the sea-people – what would their equivalent proverb be for, say, “we have bigger fish to fry” (there are bigger problems)? (Because frying doesn’t work well under water, right??)

Another thing you can think about is sentence structure. For example, German sentence structure is different from English, and nearly half of German sentences don’t start with the verb. German also allows you to construct massively long nested sentences that REALLY don’t work in English unless you separate them into 2 or more sentences. So maybe one of the species will have more complex sentence structure (even translated) because that’s how their language works, and maybe one of them will be more like English. (Not all languages in the world allow you to have dependent clauses (your which or who ones)! You can’t say I saw the man who lives next door at the supermarket; you have to break it down into I saw the man at the supermarket. He lives next door to me. (Or just I saw my neighbor, of course.))

There’s also formality. Maybe the fae have Court Language that’s more formal, and this formality gets carried over in translation. (But how? You decide if you want them all to sound like Jane Austen characters or like Aragorn son of Arathorn or whatever 😉)

Since you’re using magical translation, you can have the sea-people’s idiom for “we have bigger problems” come out as a literal translation of whatever they actually say. Think about The Little Mermaid a second – Sebastian sings to Ariel, “The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake.” This is obviously a nod to “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” but grass doesn’t exist under the sea, and lawns and fences don’t either. So they use seaweed (like grass but in the sea) and lake.

You could do fun things like have the translation spell get hung up on a nested sentence (maybe the fae like to go on like the Germans), then everything comes screeching to a halt and the speaker has to start over but speak straightforwardly.

Speaking of straightforwardly… how does the spell handle lies, falsehoods, half-truths, white lies, and other forms of obfuscation? Is it impossible to lie because of some part of the magic that detects speaker’s intent? Are some species better at lying than others because they can say (for example) “I didn’t hate it” (a true statement, but omits “but I didn’t like it either”)? This would be a TON of fun to play around with, especially for people who like writing twisty political stories.

You mentioned body language and other nonverbal communication, so I want to touch on that briefly. Nonverbal communication varies around the real world, and you can have different species with different NVC (and maybe it gets mis-read! Maybe a normal gesture in one culture is offensive in another! Maybe the magic doesn’t cover NVC!) There are so many things you can play with here. Good luck with your project! It sounds fun.

If you think this is interesting, consider backing my Kickstarter, where I’ll be writing a book about how to use linguistics in your worldbuilding process. Or if tumblr ever sorts out tipping for my account, leave me a tip.

[unkillable-gays]

Mexican-American!Eddie Munson

Okay so I'm becoming less in denial about being in the Steddie fandom. (I don't think I have to cop to being in the ST fandom given that I haven't watched the show since whatever year it was that s2 came out.)

Anyway I wanted to ask why Latino!Eddie Munson hasn't gained more traction? Or have I just not been able to find the content? I found several posts from people expressing excitement at the idea, but then never mentioning it again.

Is it because people think they're not allowed to use that hc bc it'd be racist because he's poor and/or because he deals? I guess I can't exactly say from every possible perspective, but from mine (Mexican-American but grew up thoroughly middle class) it seems fine? Like, it seems like you could easily weave all those elements into his story in a way that's respectful.

Anyway, in the spirit of furthering that agenda, here's some Mexican-American!Eddie hcs that I've been rolling around in my hands like marbles:

I figure he is probably, like, second generation or so? And his dad is regular not-latino white. (Hence the last name.) I'm going with what is either canon or the most widely accepted hc, that his mother died when he was elementary school-aged. I think he knew his Mexican extended family, but only barely; like, saw them every four years or so, kind of deal. Within that family, there's a large variation of levels of assimilation, Spanish language fluency, political views, etc. They are, just about, all poor/working class, though. (It's not stereotypical to acknowledge the systemic structures put in place to keep our people disenfranchised 🙂) and maybe they all live really far from Indiana? I guess I'm putting them in Texas bc that's where I am. They are all excited to see Eddie whenever the occasion rises, and they love him, for as much as that is worth, given they have really no way of knowing him at all. (This leaves open the potential for cousin ocs, if desired.)

(alternately, his mother could have completely split from her family before or soon after his birth, and his ties to that side of his family are completely severed. If we wanna be lonely and angsty about it. Maybe she did it for a good reason, though?)

(also his dad doesn't HAVE to be white, of course. There are infinite ways to be Mexican-American, and one of those ways is an asshole with a white-sounding last name.)

I don't think Eddie speaks Spanish. Even if he knows it. I think he probably understands it at a basic level, and he probably has several handfuls of slang/cuss/diminutive-type words in his vocab. (idk quite how to explain this rn bc I'm tired, but in my tex-mex community, there are certain words that even exclusive English speakers will often sub out, like the words for underwear, hair ties, boogers.) Though I think even Spanish words that are very natural to him, he'd probably keep close to his chest, because:

Being Mexican is a big part of what makes him a Freak. White people LOVE to act like there's just ~something~ weird or off-putting about us while pretending like they don't notice we're a different race than them. If we're pale, they can even pretend they have plausible deniability. Even if Eddie is white-passing, (which he doesn't have to be; it's my hc and I can picture him how I want) the Hawkinsites are obviously gonna know, and be racist dicks about it. It's true that Eddie tends to own his differences and shove them in people's faces, but I don't think he'd do that with Spanish, because it's such a loaded topic for us, and he's been cut off from it. You're either getting shamed by your relatives for not being able to keep up, or by the rest of the world for having an accent or being worse at English. Especially in the 80's, bilingual people speaking Spanish around English speakers (including their own relatives) just wasn't done. Given that Eddie's not fluent and doesn't have anyone to practice with, I don't think the linguistic difference is one that he'd build his identity around. He'd feel the loss of not having community to share that with. I think he wouldn't have confidence in what Spanish he does have, and would avoid speaking it in front of others whenever possible.

I was gonna talk about how he probably has a connection to his culture through food, at least a couple favorite childhood dishes, but I honestly don't think he'd be able to get the necessary ingredients in rural Indiana in the eighties, and, like, I can't see him making tortillas by hand on his own in the trailer, so. Maybe scratch that lol. (I think my mom actually WAS in rural Indiana briefly in the eighties, I should ask her about that.)

I do think he got exposed to your usual roaring heterosexual Mexican machismo growing up, and he is consciously rebelling against that. If we're making his dad Mexican, that'd definitely be a source of friction between them.

Also, in my, admittedly biased and limited, experience, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are pretty into metal. It'd be cool if his connections to the metal scene outside of Hawkins extended to metalheads of color.

Okay, this one might be stereotypical. But he's loud, chaotic, goofy, and celebratory!! which is what we're like lol. 🇲🇽 Also musically inclined!!

He learned to play guitar from his family pretty young. Maybe not proficiently, but was encouraged to jam along with everyone else at parties. I do think he'd love pulling out mariachi tunes to annoy those he's closest to. Gritos are quicker and more general use than a whole song, but no less effective. (annoying) Like, I think he'd enjoy throwing in some "ay"s, tongue clicks, and rolled rs to embellish his already superfluous way of speaking. And when Gareth groans and tells him to cut it out, Eddie smugly asks him if he's gasp! Insulting his heritage? Gareth tries to tell him, "no, you're just fucking loud", but Eddie just tells him that's also part of his heritage. I think Eddie would be very willing to sing in Spanish to be funny or obnoxious, but rarely does it in other contexts. (I think he probably knows a lot of songs no one else ever hears, though.)

Actually, what if he could also play trumpet, (mariachi style) and would pull that out occasionally just to enjoy the sheer volume of it? Like, he doesn't even own one, he can just play a couple bars if one happens to be nearby. Logically I realize this doesn't make any sense, he'd have no way to maintain an embouchure, but imagine the comedic potential!?!???! Imagine the horror dawning on the faces of Steve and the Corroded Coffin boys when Robin smugly slides her horn over to Eddie, and they realize they're not backing down from the bit. Maybe once he and Robin start getting close, he can start practicing with her in secret? That could be fun. I know this boy's gotta have mad lung capacity. Aww, imagine him teaching Robin to play mariachi-style??!? 🥺

I like imagining his name is Eduardo, just cause I love Hispanic names in any context, and I like the idea of all his white friends getting confused by someone calling him Wardo or Lalo! But he could definitely still be Edward, or whatever Ed- variation y'all prefer. As I said before, there's an infinite number of ways to be Mexican-American! It's super common to give your kids anglicized names in an effort to assimilate. He might also choose to use Edward, even if it's not "actually" his name, for reason of navigating racism. Also, Spanish speakers may give him those nicknames even if his name doesn't quite correspond correctly. Really, everything is on the table here.

Okay, my stance on him speaking Spanish might be evolving, because I think it'd be funny if he cusses people or situations out under his breath when he's frustrated. Not to them; if he's talking shit to someone, he fully intends for them to understand it. But, like, when all his audio cables get tangled together, or when he gets told he has to go fight demons in a hell dimension, or when the cute rich white boy does something completely enticing without even realizing it. For example. 😶 But he still won't speak to people.

I don't think Wayne is Latino, just because he and Eddie already have this dynamic of coexisting on completely different wavelengths, and I think this would add to that.

Spanish lessons with Robin? There might be a non white-savior-y way to do that... Like, he teaches her more colloquial vocab and syntax, and she teaches him more formal stuff?

As he becomes more comfortable with Steve and the party, he does eventually start using Spanish around them more casually; mostly endearments and jokes. Calling Dustin, "pobrecito" when he's complaining, or "mijo" in a loving but condescending tone. (Not to be stereotypical but I LIVE for Mexican endearments; English speakers have nothing on us. And we already know Eddie is a verbally affectionate guy!)

ARGYLE. I saw a post hcing Argyle speaks fluent Spanish, which I can definitely get behind. I don't think he'd push Eddie to speak with him, but I think he'd notice when he understands things he mutters to himself, because Eddie's eyes will quickly flick over to him. So then Argyle will mutter knowing Eddie might understand him, and let Eddie respond however he chooses. That escalates to jokes just for Eddie, or digs at Eddie that the others won't risk overhearing. At first Eddie responds with huffs, chuckles, or eye rolls, but as he gets more comfortable it becomes common for him to snark back in English. Eventually, however, the teasing escalates enough that Eddie bursts out, "Oye! ¿de verdad, guey? Porque recuerdo specificamente una vez cuando tu--" Argyle just breaks down into hysterical giggles, and he never points out when Eddie has to switch back to English to continue their teasing. Sometimes he calls Eddie primo or hermano.

Eddie is delighted to be able to complain about white people and the Midwest to Argyle. Argyle is genuinely baffled as to how he's surviving. Eddie laughs and says, "only barely." Argyle's no instrumentalist, but he's thrilled to sing Mexican folk songs with Eddie, and refresh his memory of lyrics he's forgotten or gotten mixed up. (Alternately: Argyle kicks ass on the accordion, and has had one in his van this whole time.) Argyle starts bringing up whatever food that can make the drive whenever he visits, along with the good California weed.

(if anyone WANTS to talk about racial stereotypes, we can get into how Argyle is giving "token brown comedic relief character with no emotional depth whatsoever, but don't we get credit for not killing him off?!?! 😀" but...I don't wanna get angry about all that, so I usually just try not think about it, and just look at Argyle and say, "what a nice young man! 😊")

(*deep breaths* 😤 this is why we stopped watching the show...)

I do absolutely believe Nancy is the kind of white girl who would put her foot in her mouth and stumble all over her words if she tries to address matters of race/ethnicity. ("Oh, but don't you... Because, you're.... um.") But only, like, once, maybe twice. She catches on fast. Steve generally manages not to embarrass himself just by virtue of the kind of directness borne of not knowing you're supposed to be being delicate. Robin's normal and relatively cultured so she's not a problem. Jonathan knows better from hanging with Argyle, who was probably the only vato patient enough to put up with his white ass in CA.

Huge thanks if you read this, and sorry it's so rambling and inconsistent! 😅 I'd love to know what you think, if this prompted any hc's or ideas, or if I've managed to accidentally say something embarrassing lol. Sorry there wasn't really any Steddie in this; I'm not used to writing romance! And it feels like it'd be super easy to slip into Latin Lover bullshit in that context. Is that why I haven't seen more people embrace this concept? I guess that would make sense... 🤷🏻‍♀️

[jukebox-arts]

Something Something Trust the Process

More inane ramblings as I go over and add more notes for Free Runner, only this time mostly in regard to world building and language and how so many things we refer to in our world are directly related to constants we experience. I say that because when Azil came to be (a randomly vivid dream) it came with some very specific features (and lack there of) that make it counter intuitive in some key ways to what I experience here on earth and that's awesome and really really tedious to break down.

Because I want to move the Free Runners away from DCA a bit more, I felt one of the best ways to do that was to refer to them with different names, which was kind of necessary anyway after realizing the term "Sun" doesn't exist on Azil anyway. The rabbit hole opened up before me about linguistic context and now I'm staring at three pages of notes I have to annotate because simple principles I take for granted on earth simply do not work in this world setting. The layer I peeled back of terms used on earth to easily describe things like celestial bodies cease to function because this world doesn't have an equivalent.

Azil has no "sun", there are no visible celestial bodies in its sky, the relationship between planet (which is broken) and its only moon is very different and than earth and our moon, the day-night cycle does not exist. Remove these features, and suddenly I can't make parallels to earth cultures or words like "sol" or "equinox". Cultures with features built on weather patterns, heavenly bodies, star patterns, etc, all stop working because there is no sun to worship, no seasons to acknowledge.

Everything is different and the thought process of finding new parallels, thinking how some things don't make sense anymore, and having to redefine other terms ("eclipse" as a term exists due to its secondary meaning, "to block/black out", becoming its primary one over time) to fit the world has been wild and honestly?

I fucking love it.

Never be afraid to get fast and loose with ideas and to really explore the deviations even small things have on how cultures and people evolve. It makes you get creative and genuinely adds flavor to your projects.

[adamsvanrhijn]

do you have any advice for writing period dialogue? i always think your fics sound so much like the characters and idk how to do it. i'm fine with the prose part, but as soon as a character opens their mouth i feel like they sound like they've got a smart phone and a twitter account.

well thank you first of all!! i'm not sure how helpful i can be but i will say what works for me :'-)

i would say i think the thing to focus on first is not if you're creating dialogue that is true to the period, but that is true to the character

that is more important to me than linguistic historical accuracy, which is generally not actually attainable but can be fun to try for, and it is the starting point for diving into "hey how did they use this word or phrase or sentence structure in the 1920s (or whenever)" - does it sound like that guy? if yes, but you're not sure it sounds right to That Guy's era, proceed to etymology online or whatever and fuck around until you get something you like

getting acquainted with your character's voice comes from reading/watching and rereading/rewatching your source material. I also have spreadsheets for my shows with all of the dialogue so that i can easily go find something and double check if something feels right or doesn't feel right which is maybe autism behavior

but while the source material imo should always be Home, it can only get you so far - when you aim to replicate how a character speaks, it is helpful to understand how they Don't speak, which you get from exposure to other writing and developing an understanding of the language in question if not language in general

my linguistics background is helpful because i have a mental framework for parts and structure of language, so i can recognize things in a character's speech patterns, which makes me more aware of them, and i know What i am trying to replicate and the linguistic environment i expect it to be in, rather than just trying to get at it without actually knowing what it is. this also then helps me extrapolate to things the character never said but that i want them to say in my fanfiction.

example. there are like three minimum variants of english in play in any given episode of downton abbey. but there is no downton abbey character who exhibits every single feature associated with, say, northern [england] english, because that is a very broad group of language variants, and it is conspicuous to me when i see fanfic where a character is using language that is typical of northern english but Not of the character. so having that understanding of the building blocks of language helps me avoid, like, what i see as almost a shortcut of trying to get character voice correct but that can actually put you further from where you want to be

that said. obviously not everyone can get a linguistics degree lol so i don't think that's helpful. though i would encourage anyone who wants to find new ways to match up today language with past language to do a little bit of looking into functional grammar. but i think the general advice is to pay attention to how your characters talk and think about how/when they say what they do and where that might change in canon.

and of course, this is a really methodical approach because i am a very methodical writer, and it is an approach i have developed over many years of writing, and not everyone jives with that and the best method for you might be different - but i do think this is how i think about it !!

oh i also spend a LOT of time with a thesaurus... i try to make sure i'm considering words i don't tend to use because they might be more true to the character than the one my mind goes to for the meaning

and to add on to that, sometimes characters use words that mean things to mean something a word generally does not mean, or more commonly will use a variant of a common phrase that is not my preference and so i try to accept this with an open heart and not change it to what my brain wants it to be. see thomas "could care less" barrow. i usually instinctively write it the other way and then have to go back and change it!!