#linguistic paradox

[epicstoriestime]

How Jesus Would Recognize His Name: The Evolution of a Sound

Spiritual Essence The name Jesus as we know it today is a product of centuries of linguistic evolution, yet it may be far removed from the name Jesus would have recognized during his lifetime. This thought-provoking question touches upon the interplay of language, culture, and history—and the profound idea that the name of one of the most pivotal figures in human history might not even have been…

[he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle]

They both have such cute names!

당 = Tang = Nickname for Sugar and used at the end of words to cute-ify them.

난감 = Nan Gam = Embarrassed. Impossible. Awkward. Because you're at a loss, in a sticky situation, or facing a conundrum, a paradox. His full name Jang Nan Gam means Toy, and can sometimes be slang for 'Are you playing with me?".

It's no wonder Detective Jang said he felt a kinship with Lee Tang because of their awkward names and that he became a cop so people would take him seriously.

These two are made for each other.

[butchshevik]

no but really the focus on pronouns Determining Actual Gender And Having Unique Social Roles in lgbt spaces is absolutely bizarre and beyond any form of basic material analysis of gender it exists in the real world. like speaking from experience you can literally be a stone butch lesbian who goes out of ur way to exclusively dress in traditionally masculine clothes, who uses a masculine name, who intentionally and explicitly plays a complex and deeply nonconforming gender role as both social performance art and for personal fulfilment, and then get lumped in by other lgbt people in the category of "she/her type" (and, more broadly, if you use she/her and are afab, you inevitably get labeled as 'cis' regardless of your actual gender performance as interpreted by the world writ large) just because you dont care enough about pronouns to determine and enforce the use of any others for yourself

[shiny-airplane]

ALL TCW BIRTHDAY ARTS ARE COMPLETE!!(⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

[officiallordvetinari]

Language and the Mind on Deva Loka

So we've reached the 5th Doctor in our watchthrough, and yesterday we finished Kinda. Lots of good stuff in this episode, but I was particularly interested in the Kinda's relationship to language. We first learn about the Kinda through the eyes of human colonists, who see them as "primitives" lacking a culture and incapable of communication (because of course they do). However, we soon find that they are an advanced culture of sapient beings, and that this went unnoticed by the humans because the Kinda communicate telepathically.

So far, pretty standard sci-fi material. It's the next thing we learn that piqued my interest: the Kinda are physically capable of speech, although only certain wise woman use it. We meet two, the Wise Woman Panna and her young apprentice Karuna. The obvious question - if the Kinda have language, why do most of them not use it? (it's said that men are mentally incapable of it, but that still leaves half the population who could be speaking but aren't.) The obvious answer is that they don't need to - they're telepathic, so language as a tool of communication has no use to them. But that opens up a second question - why do any of them use language? And why are those people given such high status?

On several occasions, Karuna telepathically "reads" other Kinda and reports the results to Panna. These communications take the form of emotions, basic concepts, and some simple sentences:

Fear. And hurting. And confusion. Where is my brother?

Darkness. Understanding nothing. Hurt. Heal me.

It's not just that most Kinda don't physically speak with the mouth - their mental communications are structured differently to Panna and Karuna's verbal communications. It's not "thought-speak", it's more impressionistic. It looks to me like the wise women's minds actually work differently to their fellows. I think this is the purpose of language in Kinda culture - not a tool for communication, but a tool for complex conceptualization.

Language serves this function on Earth too, of course. The psychologist Lev Vygotsky analyzed children's language acquisition in terms of tool use. Infants are born into a world full of tools they don't know how to use - physical tools like spoons, shoelaces, bicycles; and cultural tools like timekeeping, table manners, and language. Children learn to use these tools because their interactions with other people are mediated by them. In Vygotsky's view, children often narrate their actions out loud because they are practicing the skill of thought, and haven't mastered the tool of language well enough to use it internally yet.

For another, more sci-fi approach, consider the view of language as a memetic organism that engages in symbiosis with humans - we give it a place to live and a way to reproduce, and it gives us a new way of interacting with the world. (We could combine the two ideas to describe language as a parasitic tool - now that's pretty sci-fi.)

For humans, this process goes mostly unnoticed. By definition, it occurs before we're fully conscious. The conceptual world of language is just the water we swim in. For the Kinda, it would be strange and unusual! Their conceptual world would be alien to us, and the wise women's conceptual world is at least partly alien to them.

Back up for a second. We know that only a few Kinda use language. In humans, language is learned by immersion from birth. Young Kinda are born into a community with language users, and yet they don't learn to use it themselves. That's not something that happens with us! What's different for them? Maybe it's paucity of input - if there are only two language users, the baby won't interact with them enough. Maybe it's simply that telepathy is so useful, there's no pressure to use neurological resources on learning language. Or maybe - if you'll permit me to speculate wildly - a telepathic species would never evolve the capacity to learn by immersion. They lack the language instinct. Such a species would still be able to invent language, just like they can invent anything else, but they might require more intensive, formal instruction to learn it - more comparable to human mathematics or engineering than human language.

So how does your average Kinda think about language, then? It's a skill of wise women, much too complicated for a layman to understand. Sometimes a wise woman will select a young child as an apprentice and take her away for training. Nobody sees the child for a long time, maybe years, and when she reappears she's... different. When you reach out to her telepathically, her mind doesn't feel like your friends and neighbors. Still recognizably Kinda, but strange, full of concepts you don't understand and going in directions you can't follow. The skill/tool/memetic parasite has moved into her head and given her wisdom, and now she is a new kind of thing. A wise woman.

So at this point, I'm thinking that this is all a bit Faction Paradox. Memetic entities, conceptual realities, culture and technology are that series' bread and butter. The writers of Kinda may not have been thinking about it in those terms, but a FP reading of the episode would be very easy to do.

And then, in the last part of the episode, something else happens. Panna dies:

DOCTOR: Panna's dead. (Karuna takes Panna's staff.) KARUNA: Idiot. Don't you know anything? Of course I'm not dead. ... TODD: Ridiculous. I mean, if she is Panna, the wise woman, then where is Karuna? Answer me that. KARUNA: Well, Doctor? DOCTOR: Er, well, it's a good scientific question. Where are you? KARUNA: I am her. DOCTOR: Both of you. KARUNA: We are one. DOCTOR: So, when Panna died, her knowledge and experience were passed over to you. TODD: But how? KARUNA: It is our way.

So, did Panna literally transfer her consciousness into Karuna's brain? Maybe. They are psychic. This raises some questions - did Panna have two consciousnesses as well? Did her mentor's mind make the trip to Karuna's head, or did it die in Panna's? Is this a Bene Gesserit thing where Karuna has generations of wise women's consciousness now?

Or maybe it's not as literal as that. To me, "it is our way" sounds like it's describing a cultural practice. Put yourself in Karuna's shoes. You were raised by this woman for as long as you can remember. She taught you all her knowledge of history, medicine, etc., and more than that, she taught you her arcane methods of thinking about that knowledge. She is the only person you know whose mind works like yours. And she has always made it clear to you that you are her successor, and when she dies, you will become her. Isn't it possible that when she does die, you just sort of... do? Nothing physically or psionically passed between you, you simply start being her. To humans, identity isn't shareable or transferable - one person cannot be another person. But is that a fact of nature, or is it another cultural construct? Perhaps the Kinda constructed it differently.

And this, too, is Faction Paradox! The Remote in that series reproduce with remembrance tanks, in which a lump of raw biomass is bombarded by the thoughts of the entire society until it becomes a person. Using this method, dead Remote can be resurrected, but the more it happens the more the person will become a reflection of the way people saw the original. Still, there is continuity of a kind. Immortality not through physical, biological technology, but through cultural technology. Conceptual cloning.

I don't really have a conclusion here. Uhh... Kinda is a good episode, and social technologies are pretty cool. Thanksforreadingbyeee!

[andaniellight]

Currently gathering materials for a short edit but then caught this funny wordplay that i didn't catch on my first watch

Yong-jae you lil shit 😂 He's using Nan-gam's name as an apologetic pun by saying "난감하게 죄송함다" (nangamhage joesonghamda) and it's LITERALLY to express how awkward he feels even though he IS sorry... For embarrassing Nan-gam... In front of "the kid" (possible murder suspect).... lmao

Also high praise for the translator/interpreter to manipulate the pun into "Jang-ry" to get onboard with Yong-jae on making fun of this grumpy, awkward Jang Nan-gam sdkjsdfjhskdfhj 💀

[stardustintheabyss]

Me watching 1st ep of pardox LIVE: ew this op sucks.

Me on ep 5: ...WHO'S THS NO. 1 FIGHTER? (HEY) RISKING MY SOUL, SURVIOR (HEY) TO THE TOP, RISE UP. YEAH WE GONNA RISE UP. A WAY OF LIFE, RISE UP...

ALSO THERES A DADDY?!?!

[finalpam8000]

I adore the LuigixWaluigi fandom because it’s one of the few ships where it’s impossible to come up with a good ship name that isn’t just one of their names. Like… god bless you little weirdos, you keep making your untaggable little works.

[keithtse]

Mental Recovery

I read certain myths about physical exercise that sounded familiar to me. One major and common misunderstanding that we have about fitness and exercise is that we build muscles by doing exercise, when this article explains that it is quite the opposite: we do not build muscles during physical exercise; we actually do damage to our muscles during strenuous exercise when we put strain on our body,…

[aethon-recs]

This Week in Tomarrymort (12 – 19 September 2024)

Hi everyone, so sorry this is a couple of days late this week! Will be back on the normally scheduled time next week!

As with last week, please feel free to add a little overview/summary about your update to the notes! I so enjoyed reading all the notes last week 🤍

(And in case you missed, a recap of the extra notes from last week!)

Ills of Murder by @shadow-of-the-eclipse (E, 37k, WIP) [source] "Harry comes in swinging from a bleak version of sixth and seventh years, fully intending to kill Tom. Unfortunately it seems the only people Tom and Harry are incapable of killing is the other. Harry's on attempt 4 and counting and this time he gives up on spells and decides to punch Tom Riddle's nose off. Tom's still utterly enamoured with him." friend of the devil (a friend of mine) by @shyinsunlight (E, 11k, WIP) [source] "When after four long years Harry and Tom meet again, the world turns upside down. Or maybe it was upside down all along, and it’s now flipping back over." These Fragments We've Shored by @rowena-rain (M, 23k, WIP) [source] "Things have gone from bad to worse, and Harry is finally about ready to take matters into his own hands…even if it means defying the normal laws of Magic and actually doing something for himself for once. (Guess which one will be harder for him 😂) In this update, Harry and Voldemort unexpectedly come face to face for the first time since the Dark Lord's death…which leads to a disturbing realization for Harry." Anytime, Anywhere, Always by @moontearpensfic (E, 13k, WIP) [source] "A Harry-corrupts-Tom AU: Tom expects to feel victorious at his greatest enemy's confession. Instead, he develops a crush on him." the crushing weight of cancelling your fav by @cindle-writes (M, 4k, complete) [source] "Tom Riddle has made millions and built a cult following around his politics-themed online stream, much to his boyfriend Harry’s bemusement. However, bemusement quickly turns into concern when Harry meets one of Tom’s biggest, most fervent fanboys, Regulus Black."

Now onto the updates from this week!

*

Tomarrymort One Shots and Completed Fic

Chapter 22 (Completed) of A Shot in the Dark by Ragdolly

One Shot | The Dinner by moontear for @moontearpensfic

One Shot | There's Something About (The Way You Are) by Ragdolly

*

Tomarrymort Ongoing Fics

Chapter 12 of the stars, my destination by @milkandmoon-ao3

Chapter 1 of bad moon rising by sansaerys

Chapter 11 of Sits the wind in that quarter by @mosiva

Chapter 2 of a pound of flesh by @ictyn

Chapter 8 of Saint Harry by @alenablack @chaos-bear

Chapter 34 of Part One - The Solitude of Suffering by @iseliljathedreamer

Chapter 18 of Date Ideas for the Linguistically Inclined by Antique_Mango

Chapter 14 of Double-Aspect Paradox by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 6 of God is a Wizard by @onehitpleb

Chapters 121 through 123 of Liquida Tenebris (Remastered) by @dymis

Chapter 17 of Learning to love by @l-archiduchesse

Chapter 1 of The Cosmos In Your Eyes by @v33r00

Chapter 7 of Do It Over by @thefangirlibrarian

Chapter 6 of These Fragments We've Shored by @rowena-rain

Chapter 21 of Time Stumbler by Wintumn

Chapter 4 of Hole in the Wall by tomrddle

Chapters 1 through 3 of Fetters of the Damned by @sc0rpiflow3r

Chapter 16 of Outrunning the Villain in You by @zenyteehee

Chapter 5 of midnight train by @girl-with-goats

Chapter 43 of Of Monsters, Of Men by @ca-xan-dra

Chapter 2 of the body is a blade by @lovely-lotus

Chapter 2 of Dream a little dream (of me) by @cenedrariva

Chapter 12 of Just Business by @holaolla1

*

[pig3onmaster]

an accepted term for whales in german is Walfisch (lit. whale fish), also bats are winged mice and turtles are shield toads. conventional names for animals have lost all meaning for me years ago

what does "a starfish isn't a star or a fish" even mean. like no obviously it isn't an astronomical star but I didn't think that was under question, and it certainly is a star (shape). and "fish" is taxonomically a meaningless category anyway. what a nothing observation

[metamatar]

the concept of an ethnic democracy often brought up by the "well this isn't really fascism" gang is literally one invented by diluting and denying the violence of the israeli state lmao

SAMMY SMOOHA, WHO DEVELOPED THE THEORY of ethnic democracy, defines this political system on the basis of a broad set of criteria. Ethnic democracy is the product of ethnic nationalism—the ideology of a group that considers itself bound by racial, linguistic, religious, or other cultural characteristics and derives from these bonds a strong sense of belonging and often of superiority. Its sense of identity goes along with a rejection of the Other, generally perceived as a threat to the survival and integrity of the ethnic nation. [...] Smooha claims that many countries have gone down the road of ethnic democracy but that the archetype of this political system remains Israel, a state that endeavors to combine an ethnic (Jewish) identity and a parliamentary system drawing its inspiration from Western Europe. The two sides of this coin are the Jewish nature of the nation-state and the restriction it imposes on the rights of minorities, primarily the Palestinians, also known as Israeli Arabs. [...] Smooha adds, underscoring the scope of the problem, “Most Jews do not even perceive the above differential practices as discriminatory against Arabs, but consider them rather as preferences rightfully accorded to them as Jews in a Jewish state.” Paradoxically, Smooha concludes, “The Israeli case demonstrates the viability of an ethnic democracy as a distinct type of democracy in deeply divided societies.” He considers on the whole that, “as a mode of conflict regulation, it is superior to genocide, ethnic cleansing, involuntary population transfer and systems of non-democratic domination.” It certainly is, but ethnicizing democracy does not save minorities from violence either

we know that it is literally what a prelude to fascism and genocide look like. especially in the context of mass politics: which mobilised settlers have always represented in israel and the bajrang dal armies in india are also. what do you mean there are no involuntary population transfers in israel what is the settlement expansion what was the nakba. and now we can see the genocide in gaza which this book predates. putting the whole concept of ethnic democracy in the garbage bin.

quote from jaffrelot's modi's india.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

More Literary Vocabulary

Animism: the rhetorical figure whereby something inanimate or lifeless is given attributes of life or spirit, e.g. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights: ‘I believe at Wuthering Heights the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether into another quarter… the chairs, high- backed, primitive structures, painted green, one or two heavy black ones lurking in the shade…’; or the opening of Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind’: ‘O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being…’

Aporia: a rhetorical figure for doubt. Especially associated with deconstructive thinking, an aporia may arise when the reader encounters two or more contra­dictory codes, ‘messages’ or ‘meanings’ in a text. It involves an impasse or site of undecidability.

Bathos: artistic falling- away; a sense of disappointment or anticlimax, expressed by the writer or felt by the reader.

Catachresis: (Gk. ‘misuse’) rhetorical term for misuse or misapplication of language.

Catharsis: (Gk. ‘purgation’, ‘purification’) according to Aristotle, something that can happen to a spectator or reader at the end of a tragedy, due to a release of emotional tension arising from the experience of a paradoxical mixture of pity and terror.

Deixis: a term from linguistics, referring to the use of words concerning the place and time of utterance, e.g. ‘this’, ‘here’.

Denouement: (Fr. ‘unknotting’) either the events following the climax of a plot, or the resolution of this plot’s complications at the end of a short story, novel or play.

Differend: a term invented by Jean- François Lyotard to refer to a situation of con­flict in which resolution cannot be secured through negotiation, litigation or con­sensus, because the parties involved are deploying languages, discourses or logics that are fundamentally incompatible or incommensurable.

Epistemophilia: (Gk. ‘a love of knowledge’) the desire for knowledge that literary texts produce in readers – the desire for the ‘truth’ or ‘meaning’ of the text.

Equivocal: like ‘ambiguous’, this suggests that a word, phrase, etc., has more than one meaning but, while ‘ambiguous’ suggests that it may be possible to decide on one primary meaning, ‘equivocal’ suggests that the meaning cannot be resolved.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Word Lists

[that-student-that-has-homework]

The Rationality of Emotion

Al-Haitham / Reader Chapters: Chp 1 | Chp 2

Read the Full Story on Ao3 | Tumblr MasterList Here (Maybe even leave me a comment please? :3< )

Summary: Kaveh simply couldn't believe that Al-Haitham was going to marry before him! Not that ill-tempered, bullheaded, brutish excuse for a man! Not just that! The rational brute was marrying the Emotional Scholar, of all people! Rationality and Emotion? Marrying? How could this be possible?! --o-- A story in which: you just wanted help reading some runes, your parents wanted to you to marry, Al-Haitham wanted a cover story for when he went out into the desert, and Kaveh is...well...he's...he's there for you. Needless to say you're now all one big happy (?) family!

Chapter 1: Unexpected

The sun had long since set, the moon, or what of it could be seen anyway - it had phases and for all he knew it could be a new moon tonight, he’s been rather preoccupied with his latest design and hadn’t had the chance to admire the lovely glowing orb. 

Hmph. 

That annoying roommate (effectively a tyrannical landlord despite his grace in allowing him to stay with him-this man operates in paradoxes doesn’t he?) of his would argue that - actually most students would argue that the moon doesn’t in fact emit any light, rather it reflects the light of the sun and whatnot. Yes, he was very well aware, thank you very much, he’d studied elementary physics as well.

In fact he was likely more knowledgeable in physics than that linguist. He was an architect, an engineer.

Nevermind all that, what was important was that it was late and his roommate had yet to return, much to his pleasure really. It wasn’t uncommon that he’d be out late or even go for trips without warning, perhaps this was one of those blessed situations where he would be able to go for days without seeing him. Lovely.

Of course things could not always be so delightful, as the architectural genius (yes he truly was a marvel) had just about completed the application of his honey mask that he heard the door open. He’d rather not be seen with his face covered in honey, not that he really cared if that excessively confident junior of his saw him in such a state, he simply wasn’t in the mood to explain himself.

“Kaveh,” oh how unusual for him to approach him first.

“What is it? I’m busy,” the man in question said as he made sure that he had in fact covered the entirety of his face in honey.

“Is that so?” Came the unimpressed reply. “Suit yourself.”

Suit himself? What on Teyvat? Appearances be damned. Kaveh made his way out to the kitchen; he had to wash his hands and return the honey jar either way after all. Once that task was dealt with he approached his housemate who…

Where was he?

The sounds of running water from the restroom gave away the scribe’s location. Perhaps it really wasn’t all that important after all. For all he knew, Al-Haitham was probably about to inform of something truly infuriating and pointless to him.

-_-

The following week he found the parts to a new piece of furniture, a bed, in one corner of the salon. Oddly enough it was wider than the standard size, perhaps a queen sized bed? How peculiar, from what he’d witnessed of the prickly scholar he didn’t care for such extravagance. No matter, it wasn’t any of his business anyway.

The day after that the architect returned late at night to see a new pile of wood in the salon. Seems the scribe really was upgrading his furniture. Kaveh moved to inspect the craftsmanship on the wood. Al-Haitham had taste, as much as he hated to admit it. Though it was simple, it was tasteful, and would likely not go out of style any time soon.

The following night the reputable architect pulled an all-nighter at his atelier in the Akademiya, working diligently to complete a blueprint, and only managed to finally return to his shared accommodations the night after. Which coincidentally was when things truly became strange. The third room in the house, which was mostly used for storage, was now occupied with that large bed he’d seen before, a closet, and yet another pile of wood in a corner of the room.

Just what on Teyvat was going on?

No sooner had he thought that, then the door had opened, the owner of the house marching in. Excellent timing, truly, he needed an explanation for all of these changes.

“Just what is going on here?” He asked, gesturing to the former storage room.

The pleasant expression the scribe seemed to have before dropped, vanishing without a trace. Wait - pleasant expression? Unless he was reading a book, or things were going his way, that was rare. Was this all an elaborate plot to mess with him? Nevermind that!

“Isn’t it obvious?” The scribe returned.

Kaveh stared at him in silence. 

Obvious? Obvious he says? It was so deep into obscurity that there couldn’t be anything remotely obvious about it. It might as well be the Abyss!

“Had it been obvious I wouldn’t find the need to ask you, now would I?” He sighed.

“You have a tendency to ask about the obvious with little thought,” his junior shrugged, “have you given the situation any thought prior to asking?”

“I’ve given it plenty of thought,” much more than it deserved really, “I was under the impression you were changing your furniture.”

The unimpressed expression his housemate gave him was truly punchable. Clenching his fists to restrain himself from physically attacking his housemate, he continued, “however you’ve placed them in the unused room of all places, what are you planning?”

“You got that far and still didn’t find the answer?” Dear Lesser Lord Kusanali, it was taking every fibre of his being not to grab the nearest thing-a rather large volume that the irritating man had been reading recently coincidentally-and lob it straight into his head. 

The jerk had the audacity to sigh, like he was the one who was tired, “we’re going to have another person living here soon.”

“What?”

“Is it that much of a surprise?” He moved past him to the kitchen, the architect following. “I tried to inform you earlier, however you were busy.”

“When did you-” oh. That was why the scribe had uncharacteristically approached him back then.

Nevermind that though: there was a more pressing matter at hand.

“Who? ” He had to warn them, unless they absolutely, desperately needed lodging, no! Even then! It would be best if they stayed far away from someone so insufferable. Then again he was there, he’d make it all bearable-

“My wife.”

“Your what? ” The architect looked his roommate up and down as though the signs of matrimony would magically appear upon him. “You’re married?”

“Not yet,” came the calm reply.

“You’re engaged?! ” Unbelievable! “Who in Teyvat would agree to marry you?”

“To my understanding, I’m a rather attractive candidate,” the engaged scribe returned calm as ever, “I’m able-bodied, capable of providing due to my prestigious employment, and have a respectable lineage.”

“The poor girl, what sort of trickery did you resort to?” Kaveh would have to find her and ask what possessed her to make such a horrible decision.  

“Trickery? What nonsense are you babbling about?” The scribe folded his arms across his chest.

“What sane, rational lady would agree to wed you?” He marched up to him. “What kind of things did you say to her? I didn’t even think you were capable of such speech!”

The perplexed expression that usually brought him a semblance of joy only served to fan the flames of-of…uh…of confused irritation? 

Surprise? 

Goodness! 

He was a cocktail of bewildering emotions!

“If you’re insinuating I employed dishonest methods to impress my future spouse,” oh bother, he did not have the patience to deal with Al-Haitham’s temperament on a good day - let alone when he’s as deprived of sleep as he was right now, “I’ll have to advise you: choose your next words carefully.”

“You mean to tell me she was impressed by you, as you are?” The blonde scoffed, “there’s no way she knows about your temper.” He waved his hand dismissively, after all if a lady knew of…oh no. “Unless! It can’t be!”

His housemate returned his look of horror with a bored look of his own. 

“Has she been blinded by…by…by,” dear Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, he couldn’t even bring himself to say the word, “l-l-lo lo-loo-temporary affection,” he really couldn’t say it, “and is incapable of thinking rationally when it comes to you?”

He hated to admit it, but he has overheard ladies giggle and croon over Al-Haitham, on the rare occasion they would glimpse him. Well with how he dressed-nevermind that!

“She’s viewing you through a rose tinted lens?! She’s not in the right mindset to be making life decisions then,” oh he absolutely had to find her, “quickly tell me her name.”

To his greatest surprise, Al-Haitham had a rather smug, if small, smile upon his face, “well I can assure you that’s not the case,” he gestured in explanation, “my fiancee was not under the blinding influence of love, or as you put it ‘temporary affection,’” his expression only grew more smug, “we both came to the decision to marry after discussing it in depth and evaluating it rationally.”

Kaveh didn’t believe a word of that. Not for an instant. There was no way. Absolutely not. She had to be a convincing actress or something. 

“Impossible, you’re the only insufferable person who uses logic in these situations,” the architect denied, “she must be a very compelling actress.”

“In which case she would be the dishonest one,” his astute junior returned, “I hope you realize your response implies that she is so acutely infatuated with me she would actively seek to appeal to my personal preferences.”

Why this! 

“How did you arrive at that conclusion?” Disbelief contorted the architect’s pretty features into a scowl. 

The absurdity of such a notion. 

“You said she could be pretending to be rational in order to marry me. By acquiring me as a husband, she establishes an exclusive romantic claim to me and discourages most competition while maintaining leverage against the outliers. All of which would imply a very keen desire to monopolize me, hence: infatuation.”

“That’s not it at all! She could simply be in desperate need of a husband for any assortment of reasons!”

He’s been a fake lover to a lady scholar once or twice, helping them ward off unwanted attention for a while. He’d also heard some scholars complain about how their parents wishing for them to marry was getting in the way of their work. Not to mention the sheer number of scholars who married for the sake of a project or research (which was more often related to genealogy). 

There were the contract marriages of those wishing to be done with it all too. Oddly enough they were mostly successful, with feelings developing between them later.

Unfortunately this poor lady was to marry this bullheaded linguist so the chances of that were nothing short of zero, and he was being generous. On a particularly bad day Kaveh would be compelled to put that number in the negatives.

“So you mean to say you’re concerned I’m being taken advantage of?” The obstinate nuisance inquired. 

“How you arrive at these outlandish conclusions is beyond me,” Kaveh massaged his temples with one hand. 

“As is basic reasoning it would seem.”

“Excuse me?” The disrespect! 

Hmph! 

If he wants to be like that then: “you said your wife,” the poor foolish girl whom he had to rescue, “was coming to live with us.”

“Strictly speaking, given she will be mistress of this house as I am its master and she, my wife,” he spoke coolly, “you will be living with us,” 

The audacity. No matter if he was right! There were kinder ways to put it! 

Nevermind that though, “but you’re not married yet, meaning she’s your fiancée.”

“Yes.”

“Then you mean to say your fiancée is coming to live with us,” while he wasn’t usually one for semantics, he refused to yield.

“While she is currently my fiancée,” now this Haravatat scholar, definitely was a semanticist, “she won’t move in until we marry and hold the wedding ceremony. At which point she will be my wife not fiancée and as my wife she will be coming to live here, with me, as is customary of a married couple.”

“Goodness this poor girl,” well the marriage had yet to go through, “how did you manage this?”

“I proposed.”

“Clearly. No one’s going to propose to you,” Kaveh had so many questions, “But what drove you to propose?”

“Her openness to marriage, obviously” Al-Haitham’s tone revealed just how stupid he thought the inquiry was.

“That’s not-” the blonde sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose, goodness he was much too tired for this, “nevermind, who is she?”

“You’ll be meeting her soon enough.”

Ugh. As much as he wanted to save the girl, he was running at fumes and this stubborn ox of a man was not going to budge. Regrettably. 

“When is the wedding? I better be invited.”

“Yes of course,” he gestured noncommittally, “I wouldn’t dare think to exclude my own housemate.”

By the tone he was using it was clear he had considered not inviting him.

–

Kaveh felt he needed to air his grievances about this current dilemma to someone who would be able to fully understand the gravity of the situation. He was also in desperate need of inspiration, so he decided a trip to the Avidya Forest was necessary. He’d be able to kill two birds with one stone that way.

“Al-Haitham? You mean the scribe?” Tighnari’s puzzled expression brought the blonde a sense of calm.

“Yes!” Kaveh responded eagerly. “To think someone so insufferable would!” He paused in the middle of his tirade. “Who could possibly subject themselves to such misery?”

Collei, bless her, the sweet girl, came by with some fresh tea and some snacks at that moment. Her master was quick to take them off her hands, with only a small complaint from her.

“Is Al-Haitham really so bad?” She couldn’t help her curiosity.

She was fortunately spared the misery of having to meet the insufferable scholar. Kaveh couldn’t be any more thankful, truly.

“I’ve told you about what it’s been like living with him,” the architect accepted the little handleless tea cup with its plate that the forest ranger offered him, “and this is just a temporary arrangement caused by extreme circumstances. This girl is about to be permanently stuck in this situation!”

“I imagine her situation will be different from yours given she’ll be his wife,” the proficient botanist offered a cup to his pupil.

“Regardless!” Kaveh continued. “I just want to know who would be so tasteless? so blind? Who could despise themselves so much as to marry Al-Haitham?”

“Hmm, I think you’re asking the wrong question,” came the pensive response of the forest watcher. 

“What do you mean?”

“I’m more interested in why he decided to get married,” Tighnari gestured, as he returned to his seat, “he doesn’t seem like the type to particularly enjoy company.”

The blonde paused. 

Truthfully that was curious.

As Tighnari had said: Al-Haitham conducted himself in a manner to ward people off. He wasn’t the type to engage in conversations for the sake of fostering friendships.

“How did this happen?” The curious architect wondered aloud. “Then again he is a man. Perhaps this is just a means to that end?”

“There are alternate solutions that are less work than marriage,” the long-eared fellow rebutted.

“This is true, however,” Kaveh squinted at nothing, frowning, “if we assess this with the rationality he’s obsessed with.”

“Oh. Then I could see why he’d consider it.”

“Yes, rather than regularly exerting effort on varying conquests that could each bring about their own problems,” the blonde pinched the rim of his tea cup, lifting it to his lips, “in this case his conquest resides in his house, requiring little effort.”

“And there would be less complications should these ‘conquests’ result in children,” the ranger added, “though there are contraceptive methods and herbs according to the literature.”

“That is a horrifying thought,” the architect shook his head.

“What is?” One of Tighnari’s ears tilted slightly to one side as if in question, before a laugh emerged from him. “Oh you mean Al-Haitham having kids?”

Kaveh simply nodded.

“Well there’s no guarantee they’ll inherit his personality, they might get their mother’s,” the botanist mused.

“Assuming her personality is radically different,” the blonde leaned back, “according to Al-Haitham he and she decided to get married after assessing it logically.”

“No two people are exactly alike, you know.”

“True, true,” he sat up again in a pensive stance, “now that you’ve mentioned it: it is curious who could have managed to earn his approval.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough,” Tighnari refilled Kaveh’s tea cup.

“I’ll let you know when I do.”

-_-

The Light of Kshahrewar returned to Sumeru City shortly after, full of inspiration, and even more questions.

The reclusive bookworm of a scribe…yes…who could possibly…draw his attention? Who could possibly be deemed as compatible? Possibly a person of mild temperament? Who knew?

At his atelier, the architect was very pleased to be graced with the presence of a certain Vahumana scholar, to whom he could rant endlessly about every architectural style in history. Yes, this historian was a rapt listener who delighted in the knowledge he offered and often contributed some fascinating facts as well. Facts which sometimes inspired his imagination.

A dear acquaintance.

He’d been in the middle of talking about the architecture and the engineering employed by the ancient desert civilization prior to the destruction caused by the Archon War and whatnot, when the topic of a rumored tomb dedicated to the wife of some king or another came up. 

To his surprise, he did not receive the awe and adoration he’d expected. The response was tame, and mostly curious, bordering on suspicious as the tale seemed unfamiliar to this particular historian. Not that there was any doubting Kaveh’s little fun fact! Not at all! But kings that doted on their wives were few and far between usually.

“You must admit that the notion of a man loving his wife enough to dedicate a great architectural wonder to her is a romantic one though,” the architect insisted.

“It makes for a romantic tale no doubt,” the delightful scholar smiled in concession.

“I sense there is a ‘however’ in your statement,” Kaveh folded his arms across his chest and leaned back.

“Well,” that was a rather tentative tone, “I suppose I could be overly cynical, there is an extensive library of love poems dedicated by men to their lovers.”

The architect felt his previous joy return. Ah if only Al-Haitham were so easy to reason with!

“In all honesty, I am more interested as to how this temple and the theory of it being dedicated to a king’s beloved wife came about,” ah yes spoken like a true Vahumana scholar! “I wonder what analyses and artifacts they excavated to arrive at such a conclusion.”

He hadn’t looked into it much beyond the conjectured blueprints, which were stunning - make no mistake! So, he didn’t have an answer to that. 

Oh well.

At least his enthusiasm regarding how romantic the notion was reciprocated. While the initial response betrayed his expectations: he was delighted that his point of view was now as appreciated as it ought to be. 

After all, who wouldn’t enjoy such a romantic gesture.

Oh.

He knew who.

Al-Haitham.

Hmm…perhaps he could do with a feminine opinion.

“I’d like your opinion on something,” he asked after a short lull in the conversation.

“Yes?”

“My roommate recently mentioned he’s getting married,” he paused staring at some random tile as he gathered his thoughts, “he mentioned he and his fiancée had come to the agreement to marry logically.”

Well that was a strangely awkward look he was receiving, “do you actually believe that?”

“I think people should not neglect rationality when trying to choose a spouse,” he could not believe thi- “though some attraction is also necessary.”

“You mean to say,” Kaveh took a moment to better articulate his thoughts, “love is not necessary when marrying?”

“Which form of love are you talking about?” Goodness, where did the past agreeability go? 

Ah yes! He’d forgotten a critical fact: Vahumana scholars could be just as semantic as Haravatat scholars.

His attention was brought back to the current conversation with a sigh, “I apologize Kaveh, I don’t have the energy needed for this kind of discussion today.”

Oh? Well he could understand that, it was getting to be later in the day, he’d been considering either returning home or heading out to eat.

“A rational conclusion to marry is okay in the presence of subtle attraction,” was the verdict he received.

How astonishing. He’d have expected more weight to be attributed towards emotion. After all sat before him was none other than-ah no he knew better than to use that insulting moniker.

Still he’d expected this scholar to share in his opinion. To stress the importance of love in establishing a relationship. It was strange that the opinion presented was closer to that of Al-Haitham’s. He’d never have expected it.

The well dressed artist blinked himself back into reality when a fancy looking envelope appeared in his peripheral.

“I’d originally intended to give this to you and leave you in peace,” Kaveh found himself receiving a sheepish smile, “however your discussion about the recovered architectural techniques pre-dating the archon war was enthralling! I really enjoyed it! Thank you for telling me about it!” 

The Light of Kshahrewar himself, warmed up at the appreciation expressed. With a final farewell he was left to his own devices.

Naturally his first instinct was to open the envelope. Such fancy stock, was this perhaps a confession? While the feelings wouldn’t exactly be mutual…the architect wouldn’t deny him entertaining the thought of such a relationship following a confession. Besides he could never blame anyone who found him attractive, he- 

“You are Cordially Invited to Attend the Wedding of Al-Haitham and-”

He pushed the card back down, closing the flap of the envelope. Closing his eyes and shaking his head he pulled out the card yet again…

“You are Cordially Invited to Attend the Wedding of Al-Haitham and-”

He once again put the invite into its envelope and closed the flap.

It was a wonder his eyeballs didn’t fall out of their sockets.

The mystery lady, the poor pitiful girl, his target for rescue…

Of all people… 

Al-Haitham was marrying YOU?!

[alexanderwales]

A Pedant's Guide to Linguistic Mistakes

Language is a funny thing. It only works when everyone is on the same page, but it's so large that actually getting everyone in compliance would be an impossible task even if we all agreed to it. Loan words slip in, meanings change, euphemisms become canonized, words and phrases undergo reanalysis, reinterpretation, rebracketing, it's a big giant mess.

But people do make mistakes, deviations from the norm that are "wrong" because everyone agrees that they're wrong. If we didn't agree they were wrong, or they were used by a cluster of people, we would call them differences in vernacular or dialect.

No, what we're here to talk about is when people are wrong enough that you can correct them on it, and I'm taking the historical approach here, rather than the definitional one, though this will be in the form of a glossary.

catachresis - This is generally considered to be a catch-all term, with one definition being "the use of a word in a way that is not correct". The most common variant definitions are "use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech" and "mixed metaphor", either in error or for rhetorical effect. I think here we see some of what marks the language of language mistakes: over-broad definitions, lots of vibes, and no one agreeing quite what the specifics are. The word dates to the 1580s. One of the classic examples of the "mixed metaphor" sense is "blind mouths" from Milton's "Lycidas", another is "take arms against a sea of troubles" from Shakespeare's Hamlet, both presumably for poetic effect.

mondegreen - This is when you mishear something and repeat back the incorrect thing. It was coined in 1954 by Sylvia Wright, you can read her piece in Harper's here. She says in the essay, "The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original." Sadly, no one includes the "better than the original" part of this in their definition. Instead, they say that this is an error that comes from mishearing a song or poem, better or not. Some only say "especially" from a song or poem, allowing that a mondegreen might be any kind of error produced from mishearing. Extremely common with song lyrics.

malapropism - A malapropism is named after Mrs. Malaprop from the 1775 play The Rivals, you can read it here. This is a comedy of manners, and Mrs. Malaprop's joke is that she uses a bunch of words wrong while making an effort to appear educated and upper class, a very classic trope from before this play was written. The self-satisfied character of Dogberry in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing was the go-to before Mrs. Malaprop, and these kinds of errors were called "dogberries" or "dogberryisms" before that. In 1858 there was a play Our American Cousin, with the character of Dundreary, and for a time these were called "dundrearyisms", but this didn't stick. (An interesting thing about class in these plays is that sometimes it's an upper class person being a twit, which is funny, and other times it's a lower person with pretensions to a higher class they clearly don't belong to, which is funny.) One of the key features of a malapropism is that it's exaggerated, ridiculous, or foolish, especially if it makes the person saying it look like a pompous idiot. That said, the word has been around for about 250 years, and it's drifted into meaning "an error", depending on which dictionary you read. Some emphasize the ridiculousness, some the pomposity and pretense to education, some seem to think "an error" is enough. Before you use the word "malapropism", watch a performance of The Rivals and then think to yourself "is this something that Mrs. Malaprop would say?"

metathesis - This is when you mixed up two parts of a word. The most common one I know of is when a child says "pasghetti". This is generally a speech error, so not something you need to worry too much about in text. The one I think irritates people most is "nucular" instead of "nuclear", unless we're going to talk about racially charged ones, in which case the one that annoys people most is probably "aks" for "ask". The word metathesis dates to the 1570s, comes from Greek.

barbarism - This one has no currently accepted meaning in linguistics, but it used to mean the mixing of languages, and has meant a variety of things over the course of approximately 1700 years, and no one really uses it now. If you wanted to use it in the classic sense, you would say that someone using a Spanish loanword is engaging in barbarism. Which sounds pretty racist. Probably avoid this one.

solecism - A grammatical mistake, like using "between you and I" instead of "between you and me". Funny enough, the word traces back to Σόλοι (Sóloi), an Ancient Greek colony where they spoke a "corrupted" dialect of Attic Greek. Crazy how millennia old geographical prejudice gets invisibly woven into our language.

vulgarism - This is when you make an "error" that's really just lower class speech. It's different from vulgarity, but if you use this word outside an academic context, or maybe even within it, expect trouble. Best examples are probably "ain't" and "y'all". I cannot imagine correcting anyone on either of those, but it's not always so clear cut.

hypercorrection - This is an error made while attempting to avoid errors. Someone corrects you on "whom" instead of "who" so you start using "whom" everywhere without understanding the rule (it's that "who" is a subject pronoun and "whom" is an object pronoun). One that English speakers make with Spanish loan words is pronouncing "habanero" as "habañero" since they've been taught Spanish loan words have the "ñ" sound.

mumpsimus - An error that's clung to. The apocryphal story is that a poorly educated priest was giving Mass and said "mumpsimus" rather than "sumpsimus", then kept doing that even after being told he was wrong. This story was told to make a point about obstinate refusal, which is what marks this. Comes from 1510s, but the word itself is a nonsense word, probably meant to be a mishearing. (Note: I have also seen this used for any person who persists in an error after being corrected, but this seems less common.)

sumpsimus - Coined in opposition to mumpsimus, this is when you use a word correctly in defiance or replacement of a popular or traditional (but incorrect) word. The pedant will often cling to old definitions even as the language shifts, and defend this even though they're in the minority. That's sumpsimus. It's unclear to me whether this is meant to be laudatory.

folk etymology - Folk etymology is also called reanalysis, and happens when unfamiliar words are replaced with familiar ones. It's not supposed to mean "made up etymology" by analogy with "folk tale", but I've seen "folk etymology" used that way a lot, and linguists sure seem to have bungled this one. You'd think they would know better. My favorite example is "shamefaced", which comes from "shamefast", meaning "fixed firmly by shame". People "decided" that "shame on the face" made more sense, so the expression changed. Is this "an error"? Only if few enough people use it. If you used "shamefast", you'd get laughed at, ha ha.

eggcorn - This is an error made through mishearing or misapplication that alters meaning. This is the most recent term on this list. It's from 2003! You can read the post here, arguing that it's a distinct thing. I kind of disagree with the definitions there, and part of the argument put forward is that an eggcorn should involve homonyms, which in practice is not how the word "eggcorn" is now used. Some definitions mention that this needs to be a single person's mistake, otherwise it's just a folk etymology, so perhaps we could say that an eggcorn is failed or nascent folk etymology. Funny enough, the OED first definition of "eggcorn" is "acorn", citing 1844 as its date of origin, and actually, if you use Google's n-gram viewer, you can see that "eggcorn" shows up (presumably in error) pretty frequently.

spoonerism - An error, usually verbal, where you transpose the sounds. There was an Oxford don and priest, William Archibald Spooner, for whom these are named. He did it a lot, and everyone was very affectionate about it. Dates to 1900.

kniferism and forkerism - Alright, look, these aren't real, but they were made up by Douglas Hofstadter, so I'm including them. If a spoonerism is when you switch initial sounds (this is in contention), a kniferism is when you switch middle sounds, and a forkerism is when you switch ending sounds. He also coined "sporkerism" and "foonerism", which require recombination. These are nonce words, don't actually use them, Hofstadter was doing a bit.

nonce word - A word made up for an occasion or "for the nonce". Not actually an error, usually, just someone making a new word to express something and be promptly thrown away. Sometimes it's got some etymological suggestion to it, but sometimes it doesn't. A particularly famous example is from the play Our American Cousin, the second time it's shown up here, strangely enough. The line "you sockdologizing old man-trap" was the biggest laugh in the whole play, which is why John Wilkes Booth chose that moment to shoot Abraham Lincoln.

Alright, that was my fun little guide, sorry to end on an assassination joke.

[nattikay]

So apparently it's now been officially confirmed that the "Mangkwan" clan briefly mentioned at the end of The Next Shadow comics IS indeed the "ash clan" that will be featured in Fire and Ash (a lot of people speculated this before but it wasn't confirmed until now).

...which is all fine and dandy, except that kw is still not a valid consonant cluster, Karyu Pawl plz explain, the language nerds are crying 😭 Was this perhaps a typo of Mangkuan or Mangkawn? Or a new dialect that allows for more clusters? Or something else?

Right now my theory is that it's gonna be Mangkuan and the Mangkuan vs Mangkwan spelling difference will essentially be the same as Omatikaya vs Omaticaya (the first one being the technically "correct" one per Na'vi phonetics but the second still showing up in some canon material).

Part of the problem here, I think, comes down to what I'm gonna call the Cameron Paradox. James Cameron didn't create the Na'vi language; he created a small list of words, as well as all the character names (from the movies at least, idk about the comics and games), then hired linguist Paul Frommer (Karyu Pawl) to do the rest. Cameron's grammatical/phonetic/etc understanding of the language Frommer built, from what I can tell, seems to be pretty limited; those details are Frommer's realm. So it's very possible that Cameron chose the name Mangkwan because it sounded cool and simply had no idea that it's technically invalid within the sound system Frommer set up.

However...while Cameron himself isn't the one who created the Na'vi language, he does technically own it. It's a commissioned work and therefore Cameron, as the commissioner, has the power to override Frommer if he wishes. If Cameron has his heart set on "Mangkwan", Frommer doesn't really have a choice but to work around that. He might end up doing that by hand-waving it as a special spelling variation of "Mangkuan" (again like the explanation of c vs k in Omatikaya), or he might end up doing it by incorporating some sort of special new dialect rules for the Ash People. Or maybe some other solution that I haven't thought of. We just don't know yet.

...and Karyu Pawl might not actually be legally allowed to address it until after the movie's release date, so we might be waiting for a quite a while to find out ;w;