#im czech/slavic in my head

[isacksteban]

Wait you're American?!

i live in america yeah 😭😭

[rootlessinterloper]

A particularly schizoid piece, thought up in the manic headspace brought on by 30+ degree weather and inspired by two Walter Benjamin essays: 'The Task of the Translator', and 'On Language as Such and the Language of Man'.

I have previously written that there is a liminal sublimity in imperception, wherein I argued that it represents a profound multifaceted seeing rather than some kind of epistemological mistranslation. What is mistranslation? Is language, in all its many forms, not the very fabric of im/perception?

Translation is not a secondary operation to something’s ontological formation; it is an inherent part of a Thing’s – a text, a face – Object-Existence. Traditional views of translation argue that meaning is lost when texts are grafted between written languages. But what is found? It is a nonlinear process performed on behalf of the original Object itself, not its recipients. To receive, and in doing so translate, the gaze of another, for example, is an action performed not for the sake not of the gaze’s beholder or beneficiary but of its very patron. What is found, then, in translation, is a mode of Potentiality emanating from the Object itself. Translation arrives from the future, both binding in fixed time and space and granting an incredible Object-Permanence.

Object-Potential refers to a reflexive self-subsistence inherent to every Thing. The Thing demands of itself to convey its own latent capacity for translation, paraphrasis, dissemination, construction, and deconstruction; a most brilliant affirmation of self-existence. Yes, translation is a real material task performed by silent interlopers, agents of an epistemological process that exists at a scale beyond human-time, but it fundamentally emanates from the Object itself. It is a deliberate act of self-preservation. 

In Walter Benjamin’s native German, the verbs ‘to translate’ and ‘to survive’ are closely related: überleben, übersetzen. In Russian, ‘to translate’ is «переводить or перевести»; perevodit’ or perevesti. The prefix «пере» or pere- denotes a crossing or re-doing action. In the imperfective verb form, the «водить» or vodit’ means ‘to drive’ or ‘to guide’; in the perfective aspect, the «вести» or vesti can mean ‘to lead’, or ‘to conduct’. Translation, as expressed in the Russian language, is the re-conducting of negotiations, re-leading, re-driving – a directional verb of motion and action. The verb is functionally the same in Serbo-Croatian – prevoditi/prevesti – and, to my knowledge, other Slavic languages (off the top of my head I recall that the Slovene word is prevesti also, but I cannot attest to the West-Slavic Czech, Slovak, or Polish, nor others with Proto-Slavic heritage). 

English does not have a consistent grammatical capacity to express reflexivity – people can wash or pleasure or harm themselves, and one can enjoy oneself, but the grammar is awkward. The aforementioned Slavic languages are different. In Russian, the process of translating, as with countless other verbs, is a reflexive and autonomous one; it is not performed by one actor upon a passive Object but rather by the Object itself. Take the phrase  “I like this weather” (ironically prescient as I write this in the midst of a feverish heatwave). I, the Subject, the grammatical focus of the sentence, like, the verb, which moves unidirectionally from myself, Subject, to a docile and dormant Object, this weather. The weather is an unmoving and flat entity, completely decontextualized and irrelevant without I, myself. What epistemological arrogance! I, I, I, me, me, me, my opinion, what I like, myself, my own. 

In Russian the phrase could be «Мне нравится эта погода», ‘mne nravitsya eta pagoda’. Although the word order remains the same (pronoun, verb, Object), the meaning is drastically different. Eta pagoda, ‘this weather’, is in the nominative grammatical case and, as both subject and object, it is performing a reflexive process. The suffix «ся» at the end of a verb means an action performed by a grammatical item’s self, for itself. The ‘I’ in the sentence does not take the nominative form of «я» or ya but rather the dative grammatical case «мне», mne, which is used for the indirect grammatical object. So a more complete and accurate translation would really be ‘this weather pleases itself to me’, or ‘this weather makes itself appealing for me’, or ‘this weather makes itself likeable to me, me, the mere indirect object, recipient of its autonomous process of likeability’. 

To end the semantics and rambling and bring this back to down to earth, I will note that the same principle of reflexive verb format applies to translation. «Этот текст переводится» (Etot tekst perevoditsya) would usually be ‘This text is being translated’ but a more accurate version might be ‘This text is translating itself’, or ‘this text is re-leading itself’, or ‘re-negotiating itself’ or ‘re-self-conveying’. Reflexive verb; autonomous, self-initiated and self-fulfilled process. As writes Benjamin, the act of translation emanates from the Object itself. The same is true in Serbo-Croatian where sebe or simply se functions the same as «ся» or sya. ‘Prevode se knjige Ive Andrića’ – ‘Ivo Andrić’s books are translating themselves’, or, to render literally the Yoda-esque verb-first construction that is common in that language, ‘re-self-conducting are the works of Ivo Andrić’. 

What is this all to say then? The English language lacks the grammatical toolkit to express the act of translation’s true ontology. It self-continues its own lifespan, expands its own Object-Permanence, and immortalizes itself, creating a self-realized trajectory of transcendence. To translate between written languages is to help convey a Thing’s Object-Potential; to be a servant to a text. Of course, language is more than the written word. Faces, eyes, touches, sounds and sights, music and energy, can all too be translated, but the principle is the same: we are simply aiding along an Object’s re-self-preservation, re-self-transcendence. Translation is not a conveying or a copying like using a stencil or grafting skin but rather a most incredible epistemological transformation, one which expresses the fundamentally reciprocal relationship between Language-Being and all Things. 

Language families have taxonomic groupings (as demonstrated by my above tangent) but all languages, from written English to the sound of waves, have suprahistorical harmonies which are expressed only in the reflexive translating act, which takes as its target not one Object but rather the universal entirety of Language-Being itself. The attainment of Object-Permanence through translation is not simply for the Object itself but rather part of a broader, holistic process of Language-Being’s autonomous reproduction; we are grooming a great linguistic super-organism, not through some linear historical march of direct, word-to-word translation but through a fragmented teleology in which we tend to an intricate web of reciprocal de/construction and knowledge dissemination. 

In fact, such word-by-word translations are supremely unfaithful because they inhibit transformation; they obscure intent and make themselves seen rather than the Object. Perhaps an example will accentuate this rather unorthodox point; let me use a previously-stated one. Take the works of Ivo Andrić. His seminal 1945 novel The Bridge on the Drina is about political memory and identity in Ottoman and Habsburg Bosnia across centuries; the historical perspective comes from a silent narrator, the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in the town of Višegrad. The novel has only been translated into English once, and poorly. The Serbo-Croatian title is Na Drini ćuprija, which can indeed be translated as The Bridge on the Drina; such a translation, however, misses a crucial context. The Serbo-Croatian word for bridge is most – it is a pan-Slavic root word instantly recognizable to any reader from Bohemia to beyond the Urals – but Andrić does not use it, opting instead for the Turkish loan word ćuprija, to represent the region’s multilingual and cosmopolitan cultural landscape, as well as the historical antagonism from the region’s Ottoman occupation. The original text is actually filled with such ‘Turkisms’, and yet all are lost in the simple, one-to-one translation into English (perhaps a better title would be Ćuprija on the Drina or something of the sort; I cannot say). 

Mistranslation, therefore, is a misnomer. There is no such thing as mistranslation. Poor translation – yes, if it fails to capture the intent of Object from which it emanates; de-translation – perhaps; non-translation, anti-translation – yes, when the translating agent makes itself seen rather than its muse. But mistranslation? No, as the transformative process can only produce and create and synthesize, not retract. Meaning and intent can be changed, and the resulting product will become alien indeed, but they cannot be eliminated. A good translator knows this. The translator is a stranger, and translation is his liminal domain. It is in such a space itself that we find the most answers, in the transformative state, the realm between Objects, the place upon the walls where the shadows dance. Of course, rootless interlopers such as I are already here. 

EMF

[mitchiegonewild]

aot character's nationalities 

okay, so from what I've found (taking things like name origins and canonical story building), im going to try and make a complete list of aot characters and their nationalities.

Eren Jaeger/Jäger: as a surprise to no one, Eren is three fourths German, one fourth Turkish.

Carla Jaeger/Jäger: Half Turkish, half German. ("Carla" comes from Germanic roots.)

Grisha Jäger/Jaeger: German. Duh.

Zeke Jaeger/Jäger: Three fourths German, one fourth English.

Mikasa Ackerman: Half Japanese, half Ashkenazi Jewish. (Duh X2. Ackerman is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname, usually hailing from Germany or Scandinavia. While I don't know which one of the two the Ackermans we see would fall under, as none of them slap me in the face as German except for perhaps Kuchel [and even she strikes me as more Italian or Dutch than anything], Ashkenazi is widely regarded as an ethnic group of their own.)

Levi Ackerman: Half Russian, half Ashkenazi Jewish. (As a half Russian Ashkenazi Jew, pretty spot on.) Levi and Russian men have similar facial structures, in which their heads are sort of heart shaped, or rounded and then pointed at the end.

Kenny Ackerman: Ashkenazi Jewish.

Kuchel Ackerman: Ashkenazi Jewish.

Armin Arlert: Okay, so (slightly?) hot take (lukewarm at best), but Armin's half German, half Finnish. He has a similar rounded face structure to most Finnish people, not to mention the hair and the eyes. (Seriously, the hair texture looks so similar.) Plus Arlert is an OLD Germanic surname, which often coincided with people of Scandinavian descent. Half German because Armin is a German name. Plus, if you look at pictures of his parents, his father resembles men of Finnish descent and his mother of women of German descent. So, tl;dr: Armin's half German, half Finnish.

Sasha Braus: I can take this one out quick as a bitch; Austrian with some Czech sprinkled in. ('Braus' is an Austrian surname. So, woo-hoo for my home country, LOL! And before people say something about how her name is a play on a German language saying...what language do you think us Austrians speak?) While not definitively Czech to the point where she can say specific family members have that descent, it's made its way into her gene pool with the hair color and texture, cheekbones/shape, and nose. (I would not say she's Russian even though 'Sasha' is definitely Russian, mostly because the other indicators point to Austrian and Czech being more likely.)

Conny Springer: Alright, hear me out AGAIN. Conny's half Slavic, and more specifically, he's half Serbian. Springer (or Špringer) is an Irish/Slavic surname often found in Serbia. Your average Serbian man and Conny share deep-set eyes, nice brows, a face that curves in that particular Conny shape, and a similar hair texture. Conny, and also John Constantine (which is what I believe is his canonical full name, someone correct me if I'm wrong), but specifically Constantine, has origins in both Old English and in Slavic language. Which brings me to his other half: German. Because when in doubt, in AOT, they're part German.

Erwin Smith: ENGLISH. next.

Hangë Zoe: Half Greek, half German. They're half Greek because the name Zoe is of greek origin. Hangë also shares qualities similar to Greek features; a Greek nose, tan skin, and dark hair. Plus with Greece still overcoming an emigration crisis as of 2019/2020, in the future, its quite plausible that many Greeks (including Hangë's possible ancestors) wound up in Germany. Hangë is a loose translation of the name "Hans", which is a VERY stereotypical German name. I mean, you literally cannot get more German than Hans unless you pull out Gretel. That being said, I do also believe that Hangë has some Indian heritage, and this is because the surname "Hange" without the umlaut gives us that of an Indian descent. Seeing has "Hangë" is, as stated before, a loose form of "Hans", the addition of an umlaut could also be just another loose form of "Hange". Although that last part might be a reach, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that one or two of their ancestors were Indian.

Ymir: So, with Ymir, it is a COMPLETE toss up because her name was given to her by the cult as a namesake and not as a geographically given name. What we know about her is that she is; most likely fully caucasian; she has dark hair and freckles; she's taller than most of her other women comrades at 5'8"; her eyes are darker in shade and droopy. So, using that information to our advantage, I would say that she is some mixture of Dutch, and most of all, Romanian and Hungarian. While she has the sort of long face that the Dutch do, she has the complexion and facial structure of Hungarian people. Even her skin tone, which looks to be slightly more tan than everyone else's, matches that of the Hungarians and Romanians.

Historia Reiss: Half German, half Swedish. Reiss is a German surname, and Historia just fits the whole BILL (minus the height) for the average Swedish woman. I also think Historia has some Jewish in her, because Reiss is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname. (Plus, and this might be personal bias, but I'm a blonde & blue eyed Ashkenazi Jew, LOL.)

Jean Kirstein: Hear me out! Jean is not German at all; but instead, he's half Danish, half Icelandic. The first records of the name "Kirstein" were in Denmark and Prussia (a state of Germany), but was more common in Denmark and then Prussia as time went on. A quick google search of "Danish men" will show you men with Jean's striking eyes and brows that are thick at the beginning and thin out towards the end. The Icelandic is even more clear, with the two sharing very similar facial structures, with high, prominent cheekbones and a strong nose; that good ol' fashioned "Horse-Face" clear as day.

Marco Bodt: Whew. Okay, so obviously when I first heard the name 'Marco', everyone thinks; oh, he's Italian! But 'Bodt' is actually a Dutch surname, and I believe that Marco is purely Dutch. The typical Dutch man and Marco share similar face shapes (Angular and somewhat blocky), noses that have a strong base but upturn a little at the end, and slightly bigger ears that stand out a little bit.

Moblit Berner: Okay, this one's also very easy. Moblit is German and English. "Berner" is an Old Germanic name, and from what little I could scrounge up on "Moblit", it's an Irish/English name given to those with red hair. So while not a ginger, he's a English/German, probably more German than English.

Onyankopon: This one's rather easy for me as well. A very quick google search will tell you that Onyankopon is typically a Ghanian name. Given that it's a religious name, too, and Onyankopon seems to be a religious man, I think it checks out. Also, he's easily one of the coolest new characters we've seen. Give him more edits!!

Reiner Braun: Do I even have to do this one? Really? Reiner is as German as they come.

Bertholdt Hoover: Now at first, I was inclined to say that he's just German as well. But he's also Swiss! He shares LOTS of Swiss facial structures and hairlines, and "Hoover" is an anglicized version of the Swiss-German "Hubar". While I cannot account for that boy's freakishly insane height, I guess he just got the luck of the gene pool draw. So more Swiss than German, but German all the same. I'd give it a good 2/3s Swiss, 1/3rd German.

Annie Leonhardt: Okay, so fairly easy, like her other buddies; half Russian, half German! Annie is a Russian name, and she shares many characteristics of Russian women. "Leonhardt" is a German surname.

Falco & Colt Grice: Half French, half Swedish. "Grice" as a surname occurs in both old French and Scandinavian languages, and Falco (plus Colt) both look similar to Swedish men. Although we can't say for sure what Falco will look like fully grown, as we've only seen him in a few manga panels, we can look to Colt to see what he will look like. And hot damn, the resemblance is there! He's got that nose that widens a bit towards the end and eyebrows that rest sort of heavy on his eyelids. For the French aspect, we get the long, smooth facial structure and sort of pillowy-thin lips. So, safe to say that Falco and Colt are French-Swedish.

Pieck Finger: Okay, so Pieck is 3/4ths Ashkenazi Jewish and 1/4th German. "Finger" is originally derived from the Ashkenazi surname "Fingar", and can be traced back to old North Germanic origins. "Pieck" is often primarily found in North Germany, so she might actually also have some ancestors from Denmark, as they share similar jawlines and drooped eyes.

Yelena: Yelena might be the easiest one on this list besides Erwin. RUSSIAN!

If there's any I left out, lmk, I would love to do them! Thanks for reading, and remember that this is just my person head canons. You can all believe whatever you want. <3 Have a nice day!

[nobiscum2-blog]

OOC MEME!

A . age : 18 B . birthplace : Czechland C . current time :  9am D . drink you had last : breakfast tea E . easiest person to talk to : this girl i know who’s like 16 or 17 and . . . i can be completely weird with her but then also completely real and she’s the literal opposite of me and i love it F . favorite song : ooo damn man. a hard one. memento mori? simply because i loved it for the longest time and crywank is to this day one of my favourite people?? yes G . grossest memory : when a boy fancied me and would not leave me alone. disgusting. H . horror yes or horror no : yes and no. depends which kind of horror. stories & pictures rather than movies though. movies are b a d  I . in love ? : possibly  J . jealous of people : try not to be K . killed someone : i couldn’t even kill a mosquito that haunted my room for three nights L . love at first sight or should i walk by again ? : emotional numbness M . middle name : an old slavic pagan name. yes. N . number of siblings : two elder sisters O . one wish : to have a functional human brain in my head P . person you called last : my parents, to let them know i was safe and waiting for a train that would be arriving in an hour. lowkey hoping they would offer to come get me. (they didn’t) Q . question you’re always asked : "are you ok?” the answer being “yES IM FINE” while panicking and trying to settle into myself again and be o k a y R . reason to smile : the fact that i can’t sit on my windowsill because it is entirely taken over by succulents and cacti. the fact that my friend is a nerd that does reenactment and spams me with photos. emmanuel’s existence. the sky at sunset looking different every day. people being passionate about nerdy things. art and artists producing things. sunflowers. james clayton’s instagram feed. androgynous people. lgbt couples, happy together. taking pictures. S . song you sang last : i genuinely don’t remember. something czech probably. T . top 3 fictional characters : emmanuel (when will this get cheesy), dustfinger & amy dyer U . underwear color: black V . vacation : take me anywhere. i’ve never been anywhere. just. get me and let’s go. W . when’s your birthday : january X . x-rays : i don’t remember Y . your favorite food : pasta never failed me Z . zodiac sign : capricorn i suppose

Tagged by @tragiicc

Tagging anyone who wants to do the thing <3