#it has an ñ and everything

[achillesmonochrome]

...Can someone please explain me, why Giacomo's name in Japanese, is literally PINEAPPLE IN SPANISH.

[mishkakagehishka]

hehe i love ask games~ red(/p), purple, gold <3

<33333 !!!!!!! Red and purple right back at you ♡♡ and cream we need to talk EVEN MORE.

[xsensitivebitch]

OK HEAR ME OUT.

Eren and his Hispanic gf; your are trying to show him some expressions in Spanish but he's so confuse bc everything has too many "r"s and there's this new letter "ñ".... And why are there so many different types of Spanish accents? Everyone talks different!

Eren tries his best but ends up giving up and cuddling with you while hears you talk in Spanish. He doesn't know what you are saying, but you look so fucking hot. Doesn't even know why it turns him on so bad.

"babe, you sound super filthy, wanna hear you dirty talk in spanish to me"

[bellafragolina]

You know i am a sucker for thiiis!!!ñ forgive meee!!! Warden Ingo with a bebe?! UnU cute father Bebe moments because you know i want this man to be a dad 😭💕💖✨️

I think we all love papa ingo, but your delightful au and the idea of Ingo parenting a child <3

But instead of just ONE child, why not three?

Reader is referred to as “Appa” here to stay gender neautral

🍓🍓🍓

It’s morning. Early, early morning, and you’re cold. Your personal heater has left the bed, so with a pout, you peek your eyes open in search of the man, ready to drag him back to bed.

Ingo is sat on the floor, illuminated by soft sunlight. His legs are crossed, he’s shirtless, bent forward as he coos and hushes the babe cradled in his hands. You can’t tell which of the three babies it is from your angle.

“Kudari,” Ingo hums, his low whisper answering your question, “Appa is still sleeping. Papa’s here, Papa will cuddle you.”

Kudari, as you now know, whines in protest. Ingo shushes his son some more, rocking him some more and bringing the baby closer. From the nearby cribs, you hear another cry, loud and echoing through the hut. Nobori is awake now too.

Ingo looks towards the crib, poised to go handle his loud son, but you’re already standing. He jolts as your hand brushes his warm shoulder, but doesn’t say anything, still rocking the whimpering Kudari in his arms.

Nobori blinks up at you with sad, silver eyes. He reaches with pudgy arms, knocking Keiko as he goes. She sleeps on, uncaring of her brothers agony to have woken up without parents nearby.

You carry Nobori over to where Ingo sits, and the babe calms once in the presence of his brother and father. Ingo looks at you with soft eyes, cradling Kudari in one arm, the other reaching for you. His fingers, rough and calloused from climbing mountains and handling Pokémon, brush so softly against Nobori’s furrowed brow, easily relaxing the baby.

“I love them.” Ingo murmurs. He pulls back, and lifts Kudari up, pressing a firm kiss to his head. Kudari makes a babble of noises, all seemingly curious instead of sad this time. “All of them.” He bows and kisses Nobori’s head next, making the baby furrow again. You both just chuckle. “Keiko, Nobori, Kudari, they’re all perfect.”

“Of course they are.” You tease, bringing Nobori up for your own kiss to his cheek. He pushes at your face, confused. “You made them.”

Ingo flushes brightly. “Not alone.” He leans forward, kissing your forehead before resting his head against yours. You both admire your squirming sons, listening to them and Keiko breathe in the soft morning. “You helped so much. I love you.”

“I love you too.” You whisper, with a kiss to his nose. “We all do.”

And with that, all three babies start to cry, hungry. Ingo jolts, carefully pressing Kudari into your free arm while he races to get his poor baby girl.

You just laugh, carrying your boys back to the bed while Ingo comforts Keiko and grabs the milk kept in the ice box.

It’s funny, watching him bounce around as he holds three bottles. He constantly has to give his daughter kisses else she wails, and her cries hurt him so, you know it. Still, he manages to return to the bed with all everything, Keiko included, not being dropped in his fatherly panic.

The five of you lie down, you and Ingo warming the bottles as your babies whine and cling to one another as they always have. Ingo kisses each of their heads, watching your coax them into eating with tired, dopey eyes.

Your stroke his hair. There’s time to sleep in a little today.

🍓🍓🍓

He’s a good boy! A wonderful father <3

Hope you enjoy!

~Renee

[kiragecko]

IPA and More Keyboard

When I first got into linguistics, I decided I needed a keyboard that could support IPA¹. But I was studying Sanskrit, and switching to a completely different keyboard every time I wanted to add a dot below a character (the common Sanskrit transcription convention) was really annoying! Also, I hate the IPA character for a palatal nasal (ɲ), so I wanted to be able to use 'ñ' instead. And ... a thousand other tiny things, all requiring different keyboard layouts. Why wasn't there a keyboard that just let me type EVERYTHING?

Eventually, I designed my own. And that was fun enough that I expanded it. Over the last 15 years, I've been adding characters and streamlining it's use.

The current iteration is a monster. For an idea of what it can do:

this keyboard can type over 50 diacritics (accent marks)

it can rotate and flip any character that has a rotated/flipped Unicode counterpart, as well as replace them with smallcaps, superscript, and subscript versions

it can type most medieval ligatures and characters (though my research hasn't always been good enough to provide the most natural ways to do so)

it covers the whole IPA, of course, as well as historical symbols, extIPA, and uppercase forms when available

it can type any modern or historical click character available in Unicode (still waiting for Doke orthography support >:( )

it allows you to type Greek and Cyrillic characters (though it prioritizes IPA variants and isn't really streamlined for writing the language)

it allows you to transliterate Sanskrit, Ancient Egyptian, Chinese dialects, etc. that use discipline-specific characters/diacritics

it lets you add bars, tildes, slashes and curls to any character that has a matching Unicode counterpart

it can type most proofing and punctuation marks, modifier characters, as well as

alchemical, astrological, and gender/orientation symbols

and much more

For more detailed documentation on what this keyboard supports, and how to use it, here's the guide (PDF or Word Doc).

Here's the keyboard: IPAKeyboard dot kmp

Because it's designed to work for a LOT of characters, this keyboard is rarely going to be the simplest way to type a specific one. There are definitely IPA-only keyboards that will be more efficient for typing just IPA. And this keyboard isn't a font. There will be characters that don't show up - I've yet to find one that supports the entire range of characters this keyboard allows. Doulos SIL is my suggested font, especially if you use a lot of diacritics, but you might want to look around to find the one that supports you best.

But it's a powerful tool if you want to be able to switch between multiple transliteration and transcription systems in the same document, explore characters to use for non-human sounds, discuss the history of transcribing language, or quickly type special characters without opening 'insert symbols' dialogue boxes.

-

This is a Keyman keyboard. You'll need to install Keyman before being able to use it. Keyman is a free program with some amazing keyboards, and a lot of supports for people designing them for underserved languages. I've been really happy with it for almost 20 years, now.

-

For ideas about what else I could add, or suggestions for better key combos for specific characters, please contact me here, or at kiragecko at gmail dot com.

Things I'd love ideas for:

medieval ligatures (need to match them to logical character strings (words), but these are frequently NOT what unicode suggests)

mathematical, geometric, and/or scientific symbols (huge numbers of symbols, need a logical way of organizing them without too many key strokes)

Teuthonista symbols (very little English documentation, so I don't know what all of them MEAN)

-

¹ The International Phonetic Alphabet, one of the main ways linguists indicate sounds.

[devinescribe]

Letters Never Sent

Ch. 5 of “My Sunshine” [TreechxReader)

Warnings: swearing

Dear (Y/N),

Even though I can't send letters to you, I've written you so many. It's your 18th birthday. Happy Birthday, Sunshine... 7 years. It's gone by painfully slow. I see traces of you in the woods when I go out. It's like we're still out there. Us as kids, I mean. Which makes sense because your 'father' killed any sense of me being a kid when he took you away from me. Even after seven years, it replays in my head. Your screams and sobs, your hand being pulled from mine. I hate it when you cry. I told you if anyone ever made you cry, I'd hurt them back, the same way they hurt you. I vowed to you I would. And I always keep my word. Hunger Games are coming up. It's my last year in the reaping. I wonder if you've forgotten about me? Has some Capitol prick taken my place? Do you make them sweets? Do they walk you home in the dark and daylight? Do they care? Never mind.... I don't think I want to know

Yours,

Treech

Signed, and put into the drawer he kept everything he wrote for you.

—

Dear Lumberjack,

7 years. 7 miserable years without you. I'm 18 today. But it means nothing now. I used to think that 18 was so far away. I know I can't send these, but when I go back home, I want to give these to you. And I will. But I can't help but wonder if you have found a new best friend. A new person to walk home, holding their hand? Have you brought them to our spot and hugged them like they are going to disappear ñ? Does your Ma love them like she loved me? Do you miss me? I miss you. Every day. I write you letters often. I'm going to beg father to let me send this. Maybe he'll feel bad. The games are coming up. You've already turned 18. Last year in the reaping. I'm a mentor this year. I don't want to be. Father keeps mentioning something that makes me want to throw up. He says, "this year as a mentor, maybe you will finally kill off any ties and feelings you have towards district seven." I have a feeling I know what this means. If I manage to get this to you, please please be careful. I miss you. It never goes away. You always take up space in my mind.

Missing you more than you could ever know,

Your Sunshine ☼

Your father scoffed at the mere request of you sending it. You sighed, putting the sealed envelope in the bottom drawer of your desk, filled with letters just like it.

—

The notebook he kept hidden was full of poetry and thoughts. Who knew he of all people would keep such a thing?

The sun doesn't go away. It simply hides behind the clouds, waiting to shine down on us to make the plants grow their roots and warm us all. Waiting to bring light down to the darkness. That's why I call you Sunshine. Your smile beamed down, warming up and chasing away any darkness that surrounds me. You brought me comfort, and you, being the sun, made things root into me. Feelings that coil tightly around my heart like a vine. The feelings don't go away. With every passing year it gets worse.

It feels like you’ve become this… ghost in the woods. Haunting me. I see these image of you with other guys and I hate it. I’m jealous. I saw you on the TV one of the few times we had it. It was down at the bar(no, don’t worry sunshine, I don’t drink. It’s just the only place in town with ice and air conditioning we common folk can get into) You look… gorgeous… the same… but different. You were smiling, but it wasn’t the same smile that warms me and drives the darkness away. It was empty. The sun shines in the Capitol, but the smog makes it dull and bleak. Is that what the Capitol has done to you, sunshine? On the TV there was a boy next to you. He looked… nice. The way he he smiled at you. He was holding your hand. He held your hand and hugged you. I wonder if he walked you home after. I can’t lie, I wished it would stop. I wished that it was me. God, I stayed waiting to see when he’d get his fucking hands off. I’m jealous, I admit. But a Capitol boy can’t make you smile, this I know. And I will never be jealous about who you send out that smile to. Because I am the one who’s seen the real one.

The notebook was hidden. Any thoughts he had he wrote and hid away. One day he’d give it to you.

—-

Dearest forest boy,

They call me the Capitol Sweetheart now. People accept me more than Sejanus and I wonder why. Is it because he’s outspoken about his thoughts while I only write them and speak them to him quite in the library? I don’t want to be the Capitol sweetheart. I want to be… your sweetheart. Back in seven. Back home. I figured now would be as good a time as any to write this feeling down. I love you. Not in the same way I said when we were young. Maybe it’s stupid. You could be a whole new person now, and I’m only in love with the idea of who I think you’ve become, or that you’ve stayed the same. I write this now because I shouldn’t feel this way. It’s not fair to you. But I do.

Love,

Your dearest Sunshine

Softly placing the sealed envelope in the drawer you sighed. Why me?

——

My dearest trouble maker,

I spend most of my days out in the forest. Working. At first I went with Pa, but eventually got old enough to go out on my own. I still go with him occasionally. He ain’t getting any younger but he’s so damn hard headed a rock would turn to rubble if it hit him. But I go off myself most times. Gives me a chance to get away from the pitying stares I get. The whispers. You’d think that after seven years I’d stop being the talk of the town, but unfortunately not much happens in seven, so I can’t ever escape it. I go out and write you letters or my thoughts, sometimes I write you poetry like a fool. Then it’s my secret. And no one will know. I hate not being able to send you anything. Maybe when you come back… no, when you come back, I will give you all of these.

Sincerely yours,

Your lumberjack

[heartfullofleeches]

hiii :3

i've been following you for a while and used to read everything you posted but got to busy to continue in december so i'm really left behind :((ñ

but i wanted to ask, out of all your new ocs, which are your favourites? so i can begin reading abt them first :3!

Umm, gosh that's a while. The milk farm tag has a plethora of fun characters. The fast food reader tag has some cryptids and a tired/overworked employee. A solo character I enjoy would be Devlin

[thedeal-if]

Can you give us some romantic facts about Josh, please?

I'm beginning to see a trend ( ´ ▽ ` )

Josh identifies as demiromantic/demisexual (sexuality reveal?)

Every RO has their own red flags, flaws, and imperfections (it might not seem that way cuz I'm always singing my praise, but I'm supposed to hype them up so the angst hits harder LOL) and Josh isn't an exception.

That being said, imo, he's the top 1 partner (disclaimer: not my top 1 cuz Aliyah exists and she's my sapphic dream). Josh does seem like he would be the kind of guy your parents would want you to date.

MC's parents did seem to think that way.

This man is patience incarnate.

Though Josh is into sex he doesn't really think it's that important and, he'd be more than happy to have a relationship that isn't physical.

His priorities are set: Josh needs a relationship based on intellectual attraction.

He wants to think of his partner and say "This is someone I want to talk to all the time, I want to know their opinions about everything". Everything else comes second.

Josh plans dates that he thinks his partner would like.

Sometimes he hits them up and it seems like a very sudden thing ("Hey do you wanna have a picnic at the park?") when in reality he's been thinking about that outing for days.

Unlike Dante, Josh does relate to English (it's his mother tongue after all) and 100% stands for it when he says I love you.

The thing is— he worries a lot and would only drop the L bomb when he's 100% sure he means it.

That's why Josh hasn't actually told any of his partners he loves them yet.

He does say he loves MC tho (even if it's platonic. Unless...)

Josh has one quote which will come much much later on in Spanish which I think is pretty cute: "Me duele el corazón de quererte tanto" (My heart aches from loving you so much).

He's not sappy at all though. Josh is very self-conscious and gets embarrassed either when it comes to opening up through his words. He prefers to let his actions speak for him.

Ñ

[fratboykate]

Whenever I see someone naming latinos in English and suddenly I see the names being properly accentuated AND words like Saldaña written with the ñ, I feel like everything is right in the world. 😌👌🏽

The way they don't put the ñ in Zoe's last name or even pronounce it as if we don't have keyboards that do that with one single extra keystroke now or...you know...can use our mouths drives me UP THE FUCKING WALL. They'll learn how to write and pronounce Emily Ratajkowski but can't write or say "Saldaña" correctly. That is just racism. One of my names has an ñ in it and I make it a point to correct people when they don't use it cuz...fuck you. You probably know how to spell Tchaikovsky. Write mine properly.

[virmillion]

rambling to self bc i have a pen but no paper

anyway so the thing where you say “ok now set x equal to twelve” and the kid starts typing the Words “set x…” and you have to correct them to type “x = 12”, whether that’s an artifact of language in general or just a missed translation of the literal phrase

like it might be to do with age, kids start to extrapolate what you mean better and understand alternate phrasings (set x equal to, update x’s value, change x to be, et al). versus when they’re younger, maybe they take it more literally?

or it might not be related to age at all, or at least not completely

- could be due to neurodivergence, if the kid takes everything literally bc of how their brain is wired

- could be that they’re thinking of coding languages as equivalent to spoken languages, sort of how a new learner from english to spanish translates things directly, eg confusion over las vacaciones just being vacation in general

- could be based on home situations, maybe their parents are the type to mean things very literally when they say it, so it’s what the kid is used to? (which would then extend to where the parent gets that from, depending how many layers back it goes)

anyway just generally whether the acquisition of languages is comparable with coding vs spoken languages, not to mention sign language? obviously if a kid starts learning coding younger then it’ll be easier if/when they do it in college, but is it the same advantage a kid would have learning a ‘standard’ second language young? i want to say i’ve seen it be that learning a new language is easier the younger you are, but would that apply to coding languages? even outside the matter of syntax and stuff, since of course you wouldn’t have the typing verbatim words “set x equal” problem when working in scratch. scratch might be comparable to kids using building letter blocks, grabbing each letter and placing it where it goes to form a word? it’s more complicated, since they’re also learning about logic (loops, if statements, broadcasting, movement), but it feels tangential to the unus annus spelling game video

then you might also have to worry about the fact that, similar to how there’s multiple Standard Languages, there’s multiple coding languages, where each of those has their own basic building blocks (usually)

standard languages typically have verbs, nouns, pronouns, infinitives, tenses, et al

coding languages typically have functions, variables, operations, im sure there’s more i’m forgetting, et al

and obviously there’s edge cases, like how that one languages doesn’t have any numbers, and how there’s no native string functionality in C (i think, it’s been a minute since i took that class)

but the same way a kid learning spanish is not the same as a kid learning german, a kid learning python is not the same as a kid learning java. obviously python and java use the same Standard Language, but their syntax and such is different. versus the standard languages, at least with spanish/german you’re still going to be working with the same set of alphabetical characters (plus ñ, ß, accents, …), but it’s the construction and order that differs

eg in standard languages, you might have to worry about if the adjective goes before or after the noun, which extends to the lovely little old green dragon issue in english. in coding languages, python lets you just say “x = 17” and then two lines later say “x = ‘bootypants’”, and it’s fine. in C++, you have to declare x as an int first, and then it’s an int forever

new tangent but it’s a lot harder to just casually learn coding in your down time. you typically need either a huge textbook or an interactive tech device, and usually it’s learned through practice (either specific instructions or general guiding along making whatever you want), at least in my experience. with standard languages, you can really just do that however you want - find books for basically any grade/age, listen to podcasts, watch shows and movies, …

the closest equivalent to that is watching/hearing people talk ABOUT coding, but that’s usually more about quirks and pros and cons of a given language or syntax, and less about actually learning the language itself.

then also the matter of how there’s usually at least three components to standard languages - listening, speaking, and reading. then additional necessities, eg expression and gestures (obviously more significant in sign language) and indirect phrases (sarcasm, metaphors) that are more nuanced

that’s all i’ve got for now i think, tbd if i rb this post or just make a new one every time i have a thought but im gonna give it an organizational tag just in case ✌️🫶

[the-firebird69]

There's a few things about what's going on here these people are terrible and they don't understand my son doesn't have a role he doesn't have this job that you think he does for some reason he's a regular person a human being you owe a lot of money is it asking for the money requesting it and demanding it and you won't provide him any of it it's not because of the right reasons is because you're stupid people owe him money and it's just like everything else if you don't pay someone money the owe money they're going to be in trouble and he's got people in court and most of them die will owe him money and he has people in collections all the time if you're using an invention of his as a business or you're making some money and you don't pay him you should know that we're going to pursue you and until you pay or you're out and will pay after you're dead and pretty soon we're going to get money from a lot of people because most of you who won't pay him a dime will be gone what a terrible thing to die over.. and they're women know exactly what he's saying you'll be money and you won't pay me a dime expect us to survive on nothing A lot of times the men just die and he is providing to Hera you guys don't do that and we are monitoring those who owe money and have been requested to him to pay him one of those people are here and are making horrible noises lots of you have lost the fortunes you gained from threatening him for for stuff he can come up with and we don't care you need to pay your debt to us and get him the money he deserves. Some of you have lost tons of people but that's surprise for not paying your bills. The attitude of this a****** fat so in the right I'm wgcu.org right now is it her son doesn't deserve anything and should not get paid what we say is that's not exactly what we're saying and your fat buffoon who's going to die and if you don't care it's even better but it's very true it was going to seek this person and get rid of him because he's in the way of her son getting stuff and he needs things to survive. And he is ridiculous. Now it does provide our son with cover people don't think that we have anything but he's a little bit close to it this way even though you keep losing by doing it we still demand you payment your own

+ these groups of idiots are headed north to Bunker complexes that are not theirs and in both hemispheres and did all locations in the northern countries of ñ continent and we are engaging them as our other huge groups and they are being destroyed it's not over peanuts in this case but mostly they are killed for their handling of our son here and yeah over peanuts it's nothing the pain wouldn't take any effort and you would be safer and you don't want to so we are getting rid of those groups very soon down to a small numbers and both sides of the coin I was a bunker system surrounding the huge areas of the max only 20% is pseudo military but 30% of it it's made up by miscellaneous and minority morlock so half the bunkers are more or less your people that you plan on attacking so in place all over the world are people who are working for them and their armies and Jason is involved too if you approach them and attack they will attack back and you have a war all over the world because of your idiotical mouth

We'll begin onmnur approach on striking you back prematurely and we're hitting all of you for what you're saying and people understand that those are there getting ready to hit you too all over the world you're going to be diminishing but rapidly after he hits ,,,,,? No but we're answering with her

Thor Freya more shortly on this

Olympus

[chatterjust]

Taco stands

Ricky’s Fish Tacos stands out as the number one spot for Mexican fare. Location: 3061 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles Expect to pair your meals at El Norteño with nachos, quesadillas, tortas, burritos, breakfast sandwiches, or chips with salsa. Their chorizo tacos don’t disappoint either-that is if you don’t fear getting a little messy. Offering arguably the best tacos in San Francisco, El Norteño features options such as carnitas, pastor, and veggie tacos that are heavenly. This is not your average food truck it is an authentic food experience you need to have ASAP. We wish we could have everything on El Norte ñ o Taco Truck ’s menu in one sitting. Location: 801 Bryant Street, San Francisco Anything you try at Tacos El Catrin, you’ll realize with every bite that the chef adds extra flavor to every dish to keep you hooked and coming back for more. The chicken tacos supreme and asada quesadilla supreme are tasty options you can’t go wrong with. Here, you’ll indulge in the most appetizing tacos in California that will treat your tastebuds to mouthwatering goodness. Just when you think you won’t find decent Mexican dishes outside San Diego, Tacos El Catrin surprises you with iconic food. And when tacos aren’t enough to satisfy, order their humongous burritos and you just might fall in love. But as delicious as they are, the lengua taco gets an honorable mention-it comes with just enough crisp, crunch, and spice. Beto’s most popular items are the carne asada tacos, chorizo tacos, and tacos de cabeza. This taco place always has a long line of customers waiting to get their order, so you’ll definitely find it easily. You’ll never know how mouthwatering Mexican food can be until you try Beto’s Taco Truck. Everything that El Azteca prepares is fresh, flavorful, and finger-licking good trust us when we say it’s worth your time and money. The salsa is fiery but we know you’ll pull through the stuffing is a little extra, just the way you like it. When accounting for the laser kerf, I offset the path by a little less than usual so that the pieces would more easily slide together-I didn’t want them to fit so tight that they might break when disassembling the stand.Location: 22043 Highway 33, Crows Landingĭon’t underestimate the deliciousness of El Azteca Taco Truck-people drive for hours to munch on their famous Azteca, asada, shrimp, and cheese tacos. I did learn from that prototype, and redesigned the cross-beams, making them twice as tall to better prevent the sides from wobbling or leaning askew. I was reasonably confident in the design, but wanted to make sure the angles weren’t too narrow or too wide for the shells, which would have inconsistent shapes. The first prototype was cut out of cardboard. Then I just drew the side design right on top, using those lines for reference. I used quick rectangular wireframes to identify the bottom and top width of a standard taco shell, and used align and distribute tools to evenly space the three tacos out across the flat portion of the plate. The design process was a little unorthodox because it was going to be such a simple piece, it was easier for me to design each sides by laying them out on a top-down layout of the plate I threw together in Illustrator. The cardboard prototype holding a still-packaged stack of shells. The worst part is, we’ve known about this problem for years and have known the solution for nearly as long and just never bothered to get it done. It requires a kind of digital dexterity to hold three hot shells in a vaguely upright position while filling them with hot ground turkey without hurting yourself. We use long rectangular plates, and typically prepare three shells. You’d think with that kind of frequency I’d have all of those steps streamlined already, but that last bit? It’s never been an easy task. Then, drop some of those piping hot shells on your plate and stuff ’em full! Douse the browned meat with Jennifer’s secret recipe taco seasoning. Pull together some shredded cheese, sour cream, and a selection of hot sauces. Brown the ground turkey, bake the shells, and chop up cilantro, onions, and black olives. Not quite weekly-Taco Tuesday be damned-but we have tacos at least once a month. Tacos are just easy enough to prepare, and give me just enough room to experiment with adding spice, that it’s a meal I put together pretty frequently. Cilantro, onions, black olives, sour cream, cheese, and some hot sauce.

[gemsofgreece]

I hope you don’t mind the ask, but I was wondering if there are cultural differences, habits and “quirks” between different Greek regions and if yes, what may those be (like in my country each regions are very unique and there is quite the divide between North and South)

There are certainly some differences, however I believe that in general Greeks are particularly homogeneous. Different regions have slightly different folk tunes, a little different accents, a slightly different way of carrying themselves but these differences are small enough that I believe they are not easily detectable by non-Greeks.

(I am sorry, I wrote everything in a very messy way. I hope you can make sense out of it.)

First, there is the difference between West and East. West Greece is extremely mountainous but also has some islands that have the most west European-like version of Greek culture. In that sense, West Greece has a diverse culture, both based on agriculture and harsh living in the mountains and yet also the most gentle and European-influenced Greek culture of the sunny and lush green Heptanese islands. On the other hand, East Greece is exclusively islands with a hotter and dryer climate, and while supposedly they should be the most Anatolian-like, I feel like North Greece is slightly more Anatolian than East Greece (can be explained through history). East Greece probably has the most distinct version of Greek culture, in the sense that it might be the one least influenced by anything else. That's just a generic impression, I am not sure it is true.

In general, all islanders speak in a more sing-song accent than mainland Greeks.

There are big differences in architecture mostly between island and mountainous Greece.

Crete island on its own also is a little more distinct culturally as they are far from everyone else. They speak the Cretan dialect.

There are also the Greek Cypriots, of Cyprus (duh), which is its own country and the state runs differently than Greece. They speak the Cypriot dialect and when they speak fast to each other, you can't get a bloody word. They speak in Standard Greek around us "Kalamarades", as they call the Greeks of Greece. However when I met Cypriots for the first time, honestly I didn't see any cultural differences save for the strong accents. In fact, I used to imagine them more different than they proved to be.

I am not going to go through all the indigenous Greek minorities in other countries but distinct cultural expression can be seen in the Pontic Greeks in Turkey and the Greeks of South Italy. Greeks of Italy speak the Griko dialect and they have a cheerful Italian-influenced culture which they try to preserve. Pontic Greeks have suffered greatly and their cultural expression is more grave and solemn. They speak the Pontic Greek dialect which has many archaic elements and it is tough to understand too.

The biggest divide in theory, however, is between North and South Greece. While this divide has profound historical foundations, nowadays it is a residual idea that creates antagonism for no solid reason rather than an actual difference that truly distinguishes the Northerners from the Southerners. I say that as someone coming from somewhere in the middle; neither here nor quite there. In my opinion, apart from some minor details, they seem the same to me.

Northern and Southern Greeks have a little different accents. Northerners make some thicker "l" and "n" sounds whereas Southerners make some pronounced "ll" and "ñ" sounds. There are a few local accents in the North which to me sound like they are from the South though. In any case, we often make fun of all these accents. (I am talking only about accents, not dialects.)

They fight over using different words for the same meanings. I have partaken in this multiple times.

Northerners have the reputation of being more relaxed, generous, warm and friendly. This might be true when it comes to urban centers but many islanders and Southerners of smaller towns are definitely equally chill and relaxed.

For many reasons, both historical and geographical, the North is more multicultural and has more Balkan and Anatolian influences i.e in music and cuisine, but such influences have in truth overtook most of Greece to various degrees. North and South Greece still fight over which is the best at being Greece though. Like, honestly, Greeks quarrel over who's Greek-er 😂

Nowadays, the antagonism is reflected mostly through sports teams. Boy, do they hate each other.

I don't know if any Northerner and Southerner reads this and disagrees with the concept of being similar - this is my experience from living somewhere in the middle. There are differences that are clear among us but nothing evident enough to be spotted by non-Greeks unless they come to Greece for ages and have developed a good understanding of it. I'd say Greeks overall have a pretty unified sense of identity and cultural expression.

[spanishskulduggery]

Do you have any tips about pronunciations/specific sounds to be aware of?

Before I mention things I HIGHLY recommend using https://forvo.com/languages/es/ because you can hear native speakers from all over pronouncing things in Spanish

You'll more clearly hear the differences

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It kind of depends on where you are and the accent you're talking about

In Spain you'd want to be more aware of la distinción with S/Z sounds and C sounds, but that's more of a special case; Spain generally pronounces Z and CI and CE differently compared to the rest of the Spanish-speaking world

https://forvo.com/word/buz%C3%B3n/#es

https://forvo.com/word/voz/#es

https://forvo.com/word/ictericia/#es

https://forvo.com/word/aceituna/#es

https://forvo.com/word/cinco/#es

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The most important sounds to be aware of as a non-native speaker are probably LL, the GE and GI sounds vs. GUE and GUI for example, the ü sound which can surprise people, and the B/V sounds

I feel like people are generally aware of H being silent and the general ñ sound so I wouldn't include them but they're also important. Also RR which again, not as big of a deal but some people go hard on the R's.

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LL in particular is regional because in some places the sound is pretty distinct, in others it can sound like a Y sound... I know in some places LL comes out sounding like a hard J sound for English, and in Argentina it comes out like a SH sound

https://forvo.com/word/llamar/#es

https://forvo.com/word/llorar/#es

...so depending on where you are lluvia "rain" can sound like "yuvia", "juvia", "shuvia" etc and that's always fun

https://forvo.com/word/lluvia/#es - you'll hear it more that Spain's speakers pronounce LL a little harder so it sounds like "lyuvia" a bit. Most of Latin America has it more like "yuvia" or "juvia", and Argentina is a clear SH sound

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B/V is one that native speakers know very well, but many times - with the exception of proper nouns and some linguistic cases - the sounds of B and V can sound very similar; to the extent that sometimes people misspell haber as "aver" or mistake it for a ver

https://forvo.com/word/haber/#es

B/V is kind of its own fun linguistics topic

https://forvo.com/word/abeja/#es

https://forvo.com/search/bebieron/

https://forvo.com/word/subir/#es

There's also a well-known tongue twister involving tuvo and tubo

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As for ü (and also many words with a "ue" sound) it tends to sound like a W sound. I typically see it with G, like averiguar in subjunctive is averigüe and it sort of sounds like "gway" rather than the harder G sound. Usually if you're seeing ü it means a weaker U sound that comes out like W

https://forvo.com/word/averig%C3%BCe/#es

https://forvo.com/word/g%C3%BCey/#es

As for what I said about other "ue" sounds, it's not everything but I know people who say bueno like weno.

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With the exception of maybe GE and GI [sounding like English H] vs GUE and GUI [which have the harder English G sound]

https://forvo.com/word/gelatina/#es

https://forvo.com/word/girasol/#es

https://forvo.com/word/guerra/#es

https://forvo.com/word/guitarra/#es

...most everything I mentioned is a matter of regional pronunciation or sounding more like a native speaker

As in, if you can't roll your RRs, it's not like no one can understand you and don't worry about it, but you can sort of hear it

Same thing with B/V, English speakers have a much clearer distinction in how we pronounce words with B vs. words with V, and it does come across. If anything we sound more formal because we're pronouncing everything more clearly than a native speaker would. That's true of any language though

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This is maybe more of a linguistics topic and I can recommend some things, but I feel like videos explain this better because you can hear it more (and because I could use IPA but some people don't understand it)

But definitely explore around Forvo at your leisure. It's really useful for hearing differences in accents for Spanish in particular because there are so many

(but it's also for other languages so use Forvo for all your language needs it's great)

[iricathel]

✿ - Irina

✎ - Zazu

✍ - Lina (?) 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

Headcanon meme - send me a symbol and I'll describe my muse's...

[Damn you Rox]

✿ - laugh

Irina is a very smiling woman, so it is very normal to be able to listen to her laugh most of the time. But it has different phases of laughter.

-> Hearty laugh. Classic low and short laugh that you do to not make someone feel bad for their bad joke that is not funny at all. Very fake.

-> Natural laugh. It is a fluid laugh, with a quite childish and playful style; sometimes it breaks for air and is quite noisy.

-> Wheezing. It is a laugh that doesn't vocalizes and is more like an expulsion of air; as if it was deflating or as if the water inside the kettle was already boiling and causing this hiss. Usually this laugh comes out in a fit of laughter because of something funny, ending up breathless, tired as if she had run a marathon and squirming, maybe clapping her hands or hitting a table. She could also cough from time to time because age already affects the poor woman 😔

✎ - taste in music/literature

As literature, this man likes only detective and suspense novels or classic literature (The Divine Comedy, La Celestina, Hamlet, Death on the Nile, etc.), his favorite writer is Aghata Christie. However, he also loves the philosophical writings of Séneca, Nietzsche, Maquiavelo, Epicuro, Escanor, Berserk, Schopenhauer and Kant.

He's not that much of a music fan though, but he does love listening to Thai and Japanese folk music while he works (also accepts modern melodies that use folk instruments and songs).

✍ - writing style

I don't like my writing style 👩‍🦯👩‍🦯👩‍🦯

I have two different styles when writing with the Latin alphabet (French, Spanish, English) and I don't like any of them.

-> General. In both styles the lines I make are not always straight because I have a very inconsistent pulse, and if I write fast it gets worse. Also, I need guides on the paper like little squares or lines so my letters don't fall off because my writing has the "sad" style. I don't usually put the dots on the 'i' and when I write a 'ñ' its curvature I make it like a straight stick. The spheres like the 'o' and 'a' I don't usually finish closing them either.

-> Capital letters. I write everything in capital letters, but the "true" capitals always make it noticeably larger so you can see the difference. My favorite if I have to choose between the two. I use this style frequently but during high school I had to change my style as one of my teachers didn't see it as correct (which is why I have two styles).

-> Default. Classic style that we are taught from a young age in primary school. I make the tails of 'p', 'q', 'j' and 'g' very long, same with the heads of 'l', 't' and 'f'. Sometimes the 'cu' is not very well differentiated from the 'w'.

Never ask me to write you anything if you want it to be pretty 👩‍🦯👩‍🦯

[cosmiccalliope]

Trying to make an International Auxiliary Language where no one has to learn any new consonant sounds is kind of an Actual Pain.

French removes H. German removes W, which is probably one of the more useful letters because Labializing consonants gives you just an extra couple sounds to not have everything sound the same. Ñ and Ng, what I'm going to call the Bonus Nasal, doesn't exist in Turkish or Hausa. Javanese doesn't have F, Japanese doesn't have L. Korean removes B, D, and G and neither does Tamil. Hausa doesn't have P.

Just removing these you get left with M, N, T, K, S, the Whatever Rhotic, and J.

Turkish and Hausa speakers would have to learn the Bonus Nasal, German speakers would have to learn W (I doubt learning it is that hard, but still going on the rules that no one should have to learn new sounds to be completely compatible), while Korean and Tamil speakers would have to learn to tell voicing distinction in stops (Korean voices them between voiced sounds, but I'm talking on their own as separate sounds, from what I can tell, B and P are treated as the same sound in general.)

General Bilingualism might not make this much of an issue, but it's still there.

With a Consonant inventory so small, you almost have to make a Toki Pona to make an IAL where no speaker has to learn any new consonant sounds.

(Information based on the wikipedia page "Lost of Languages By Total Number Of Speakers". Again, I think Multilingualism basically moots some of these, but still. When you say that general Bilingualism moots a few of those exclusions, you get a phonology that actually looks like it belongs to a language. It's not even fully compatible with Toki Pona if it doesn't have L[Japanese], W[German], or P[Hausa].)

Tl;dr, IALs almost have to be like Toki Pona if they're going to be compatible with as many languages as possible, and the general simplicity of Toki Pona lends itself well to be easy enough to adopt as an IAL. However, I feel like if an IAL were going to be built in the style of Toki Pona, I feel like it should have a few more base words for clarity's sake (and because the Navajo word for Tank terrifies me.)