#linguistics community

[loooongfurby4444]

If you have multiple just pick the one that happened first in your life (I forgot to put multiple)

[luvelydelilah]

Struggling with emotional scenes? Here are some tips for writing emotion!

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1. While you’re writing, try to build an explanation for their feelings. What triggered their emotion? Is their reaction rational or are they overreacting? Do they fight, flight, fawn or freeze when provoked? Do they feel threatened? 

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2. Show, don’t tell. Describe what is happening instead of plainly stating the situation. Try not to use words like sad, happy, devastated, in pain, angry, nervous, scared, or worried. They cut back on the emotional integrity of the scene and make it hard for readers to connect with your characters. Here are some different behaviors for different emotions.

-Eager-

Bouncing up and down

Unable to sit still

Breathing deeply

Fidgeting

Pretending to do something

Trying to stay busy

Constantly looking at the clock

-Nervous-

Red and hot face

Sweaty palms

Voice cracks

Shaky hands

Biting nails

Biting lips/inside of cheek

Wide eyes

Shallow breathing

Heart racing

-Excited-

Wide smile

Squeal/scream

Bouncing up and down

Fidgeting

Playing with hands

Tapping foot

Talking fast

Tapping pencil

Pacing back and forth

-Scared-

Curling up/bringing knees to head

Closing eyes

Covering ears

Stop breathing or breathing quickly

Biting nails

Shaking

Gritting teeth

Hugging/squeezing something tight

-Frustrated-

Stomping

Grunting/mumbling/yelling

Deep breaths

Red and hot face

Hitting/kicking something

Pointing

Straining/veins become more visible

-Sobbing-

Eyes filling up with tears

Eyes burn/turn red

Red cheeks

Face becomes puffy

Pursed lips

Holding head down

Hyperventilating

Fast blinking

Trying not to blink/holding back tears

-Happy-

Smiling wide

Laughing loudly

Cheeks hurting

Talking loudly

Higher pitched voice

Animated/expressive

-Upset-

Walking slowly/shuffling feet

Head down/avoiding eye contact

Biting inside of cheek

Dissociation

Keeping quiet

Fidgeting

-Bored-

Pacing back and forth

Sighing loudly

Complaining

Fidgeting

Blank face

Looking for something to do

Making up stories

Talking about random topics

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3. Try and bring some trauma into your character’s emotions. For example, something might happen that reminds them of a suppressed/traumatic memory. This is an easy way to hook your reader and have them really feel like your character is a real person with real emotions. They might have some internal conflict they need to work through and a certain situation reminds them of that. They might become irritable at the thought of their traumatic experience and they might snap at whoever is nearby. 

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4. Most characters won’t dump their entire backstory or feelings in a conversation. Try and reserve your character’s emotions to make more interesting scenes later on. For example, your character may be triggered and someone may ask them what’s wrong. Will they give in, soften up and share? Or will they cut themself off and say they’re fine? Also take into account that your character might not know the other character very well and won’t be comfortable sharing personal information with them, like details regarding their trauma.

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5. Last but not least, you don’t need to have a major event happen to connect emotionally with your audience. You don’t have to kill off a character every time you need to spice up your story, even simple interactions can just help your readers understand your character better. Show how they react to certain topics or situations. Describe their feelings, their surroundings, their body language. Their defense mechanisms will help the audience to better understand what kind of person they are.

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[mindblowingscience]

Birds are famous for communicating vocally, but many have other options, too. Some communicate by dancing, for example, or by showing off their feathers. And according to a new study, at least one bird species does something more often associated with humans and great apes: symbolic gesturing. A songbird called the Japanese tit (Parus minor) uses fluttering wing movements to signal "after you," the study's authors report, similar to the way humans extend one open hand to let another person go first.

Continue Reading.

[kuroashims]

ֆօʍɛ ֆɨʍʟɨֆɦ քɦʀǟֆɛֆ ʏօʊ ʍɨɢɦȶ ʄɨռɖ ʊֆɛʄʊʟ ɨռ ʟɨʄɛ

hello : sul sul! / what's up : bloo bagoo? / how are you : cuh teekaloo? / i'm hungry : oh feebee lay / something in my way : choo waga choo choo! / you've got some nerve : firby nurbs / yes : yeibs / no : neib / oh my god : jamoo / woah this is fun : bum bum! / anyone home : nash na poof? / are you serious right now : ugh...groble! / you! yes you! go away : depwa spanewash depla blah! / excuse-me! get out of the way : blursh! meshaloob blursh! / i don't like you : boobasnot / no bullying : yabihorn! / i'm so bored : uhh shamoo ralla poo / happy birthday : humple borpnah! / this food is delicious : dis wompf es fredesche / thank you : vadish / nothing is impossible if you believe : benzi chibna looble bazebni gweb / cat : minicule / dog : woofum / baby is upset : aw crankus nooboo! / i'm pregnant : baba / i think you're hot : za woka genava / selfie : ongie! / i need a taxi : nicloske ga gloop / see you soon : geelfrob / i love you : por see gab lurv / live laugh love : leeb leefuh lurve / i'm on fire : wabadeebadoo! / goodbye : dag dag

[thesaintofpatience]

for all the excellent meta going around about the nine houses and linguistics and cultural homogeneity and so on, I am still desperate for more wildly divergent linguistics between the Houses

holding out for fourth house rhyming slang and seventh house ironic double-verlan and ninth house sign language (for communicating via mute skeleton constructs across snow fields) and third house fan language and handkerchief codes

what slang terms do criminals use in the Dominicus system and where have they bled into common parlance? Likewise what Cohort slang has become commonplace in Second and Fourth that’s totally incomprehensible to the Sixth? What Latin phrases (“fiat lux!”) are a commonplace part of the Sixth vernacular, archaic but comprehensible to Eighth, mystifying to Third? Did Dulcie’s letters to Cam and Pal include glossaries and marginalia explaining synonyms and divergent definitions? Did they develop their own shared vernacular, tempering Sixth House academic prose with Seventh poetic styles, their own shared slang and inside jokes?

What John-isms are retained in the Fifth and Second House (I don’t even mean memes here I mean idioms like “dime a dozen” and “burning the midnight oil” and “snug as a bug in a rug” and “the ball’s in your court”) but not the others? Conversely, what new idioms and aphorisms confuse the hell out of John with each new Cohort intake? Has “needle in a haystack” been replaced with “hyoid in an ossuary” where hydroponic farming is the typical means of agriculture? Instead of “every cloud has a silver lining” is it “even rusty blades have an edge” where weather is no longer as notable an influence on day to day life?

Do they still give each other peace signs? Flip the bird? Stick two fingers up? Is crossing one’s fingers still a hope for good luck or a threat (indicating crossing swords)? Which Houses are known to talk with their hands (🤌)?

I could think about this all day but the main image I have is of Gideon doing this (👌- Ninth House sign language, emulates a skeleton’s eye socket: “I see you/acknowledged”) to, say, Babs (from Third where the same gesture, “the pinch”, emulates gathering of fabric and/or skin to test quality and fragility and is typically deemed a derogatory gesture) and starts an inter house diplomatic fracas

[elliott-the-creature]

shoutout to all the neurodivergent people/critters whose verbal language alternates between:

eloquent and fully articulate speech, filled with emotion and detail. where every word is thoughtful and is strung together perfectly to prevent misunderstanding. at times, even using words that are almost unknown or wildly underused by normal people. where grammar and proper conjugation is ideal, and everything is in there for a reason. communication is fluent and flows smoothly between thoughts, and is not unlike a medieval herald recounting a message to their townsfolk

and:

short sentence. not much word used. broken grammar; no want to be proper. don’t want speak, but must speak, so little speak. sometime not even speak real word, sometimes garbled mismash of words. lots of umm and uhh and stutters. no tone, sound like computer even.

(I am that neurodivergent critter lol)

[amanufacturedheaven]

Rare Language Learning: Polari

If you have ever used the words:

- Naff

- Butch

- Camp

You have unknowingly been speaking the sociolect known as Polari, the language of queer people primarily used in the 30s to the 70s. Polari is now an endangered language, as labelled by the University of Cambridge

Something of note: Many resources out there imply (or state) that Polari was a language invented and used solely by white cis gay men, which is decidedly untrue. Many words of Polari come from drag culture, lesbians, and the Romani people and their language. The use of ‘the language of British gay men’ may be a more palatable title to the general public, but it is not to me. I did my best to curate a variety of resources, but unfortunately much of queer history has been lost many more decades than I’ve been alive, if you have any other resources for studying Polari I would love to read them, message me or leave a link in the replies.

Articles

Learn Polari, the Secret Language of the Gays ⚢ Out Magazine

Polari: The code language gay men used to survive ⚢ BBC

Polari and the Hidden History of Gay Seafarers ⚢ National Museums Liverpool

The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language ⚢ Fabulosa!

Polari People ⚢ Fabulosa!

Polari: a language born from prejudice ⚢ Englishpanish

The secretive gay language that gave LGBTQ people a voice ⚢ GAYTIMES

A brief history of Polari: the curious after-life of the dead language for gay men ⚢ The Conversation

Study Material

The Polari Bible ⚢ Internet Archive

Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang ⚢ Internet Archive

Sociolinguistics / Polari ⚢ StudySmarter

FlashCards ⚢ Quizlet

New Polari Translator ⚢ LingoJam

Polari: A sociohistorical study of the life and decline of a secret language. ⚢ Dissertation, University of Manchester

Polari: a language born from prejudice ⚢ Englishpanish

Simon Bowkett: a short blog in Polari for LGBT+ History Month ⚢ Civil Service LGBT+ Network

[nenelonomh]

languages study schedule

daily

write 1 or 2 sentences to sum up my day

learn 5 new words

listen to a song, watch a short video, conjugate a verb, read and attempt to say out loud a tongue twister, count from 1-100, sing the alphabet, read a page in a book, talk to my reflection, vocabulary flashcards (pick one)

weekly

watch a movie, episode, documentary or follow a cooking tutorial in the target language

grammar exercises

translate a short text

monthly

write an essay or report, on a chosen topic

[ukulelekatie]

one of the most fun things so far about living with a cat for the first time (and one of the most on-brand things for me as someone with a linguistics degree) has been getting to learn cat communication. it’s so cool and interesting to be able to notice the difference between certain meows and understand what they mean, like “hey! there’s a bug over there!” and “okay that’s enough snuggling please put me down now” and “scooch over so I can jump onto the bed”. and don’t even get me started on the body language! it’s just so funny, there’s a little guy who lives in my house and neither of us speak the same language but we’re trying!

[lovelesslittleloser]

Tbh this has been on my mind for MONTHS

Human codes… but they’re not actually codes??

A small group of humans is discovered by some curious aliens. Both sides can assume that the other is sentient. The aliens are trying to translate the humans’ language to their own, and the humans are trying to learn the aliens’ language. But since humans are tricky, they’ve decided that they don’t want the aliens to know their language, so they can have secret conversations.

So they go a little crazy. With written words, they randomly use lowercase and capital letters, even using numbers and symbols, and use a lot of slang, occasionally using words incorrectly on purpose. They’ll jumble the words a bit so that only human brains can guess their meaning (that thing where if you use all the letters and put the proper letters at the beginning and end it’ll be comprehensible), and even use additional or unofficial languages (commonly known words like ‘hola’, ‘si’, ‘oui’, etc, and piglatin, in which you typically take the first letter or syllable of a word, place it at the end, and add ‘ay’ to the end).

As for spoken words, they will do a bit of the above, mashing languages and slang, perhaps mispronouncing a few things, and quoting memes, vines, movies, and even singing parts of songs to throw off the aliens. Perhaps they will say something with a somber meaning in a joyful way to throw off the meaning, or even just naturally (‘I wanna die!’ ‘Mood’), or vice versa.

Additionally, there would have to be a TON of body language. Maybe even sign language, should they know any. Gestures and expressions, eyebrow wiggles and poorly-hidden grins. Ah, the beauties of communication.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Try Morse Core. Women Love Morse Code.

[First] Prev <--> Next

[loooongfurby4444]

I meant Langblr I am just illiterate

[luvelydelilah]

Struggling with descriptors? Here are some synonyms to make your scene more interesting!

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Afraid

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Apprehensive

Dread

Foreboding

Frightened

Mistrustful

Panicked

Petrified

Scared

Suspicious

Terrified

Wary

Worried

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Annoyed

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Aggravated

Dismayed

Disgruntled

Displeased

Exasperated

Frustrated

Impatient

Irritated

Irked

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Angry

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Enraged

Furious

Incensed

Indignant

Irate

Livid

Outraged

Resentful

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Aversion

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Animosity

Appalled

Contempt

Disgusted

Dislike

Hate

Horrified

Hostile

Repulsed

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Confused

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Ambivalent

Baffled

Bewildered

Dazed

Hesitant

Lost

Mystified

Perplexed

Puzzled

Torn

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Disconnected

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Alienated

Aloof

Apathetic

Bored

Cold

Detached

Distant

Distracted

Indifferent

Numb

Removed

Uninterested

Withdrawn

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Disquiet

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Agitated

Alarmed

Discombobulated

Disconcerted

Disturbed

Perturbed

Rattled

Restless

Shocked

Startled

Surprised

Troubled

Turbulent

Turmoil

Uncomfortable

Uneasy

Unnerved

Unsettled

Upset

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Embarrassed

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Ashamed

Chagrined

Flustered

Guilty

Mortified

Self-conscious

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Fatigue

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Beat

Burnt out

Depleted

Exhausted

Lethargic

Listless

Sleepy

Tired

Weary

Worn out

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Pain

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Agony

Anguished

Bereaved

Devastated

Grief

Heartbroken

Hurt

Lonely

Miserable

Regretful

Remorseful

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Sad

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Depressed

Dejected

Despair

Despondent

Disappointed

Discouraged

Disheartened

Forlorn

Gloomy

Heavy hearted

Hopeless

Melancholy

Unhappy

Wretched

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Tense

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Anxious

Cranky

Distressed

Distraught

Edgy

Fidgety

Frazzled

Irritable

Jittery

Nervous

Overwhelmed

Restless

Stressed out

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Vulnerable

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Fragile

Helpless

Insecure

Leery

Reserved

Sensitive

Shaky

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Yearning

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Envious

Jealous

Longing

Nostalgic

Pining

Wistful

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[lurkingteapot]

Every now and then I think about how subtitles (or dubs), and thus translation choices, shape our perception of the media we consume. It's so interesting. I'd wager anyone who speaks two (or more) languages knows the feeling of "yeah, that's what it literally translates to, but that's not what it means" or has answered a question like "how do you say _____ in (language)?" with "you don't, it's just … not a thing, we don't say that."

I've had my fair share of "[SHIP] are [married/soulmates/fated/FANCY TERM], it's text!" "[CHARACTER A] calls [CHARACTER B] [ENDEARMENT/NICKNAME], it's text!" and every time. Every time I'm just like. Do they though. Is it though. And a lot of the time, this means seeking out alternative translations, or translation meta from fluent or native speakers, or sometimes from language learners of the language the piece of media is originally in.

Why does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. To lots of people, it doesn't. People have different interests and priorities in fiction and the way they interact with it. It's great. It matters to me because back in the early 2000s, I had dial-up internet. Video or audio media that wasn't available through my local library very much wasn't available, but fanfiction was. So I started to read English language Gundam Wing fanfic before I ever had a chance to watch the show. When I did get around to watching Gundam Wing, it was the original Japanese dub. Some of the characters were almost unrecognisable to me, and first I doubted my Japanese language ability, then, after checking some bits with friends, I wondered why even my favourite writers, writers I knew to be consistent in other things, had made these characters seem so different … until I had the chance to watch the US-English dub a few years later. Going by that adaptation, the characterisation from all those stories suddenly made a lot more sense. And the thing is, that interpretation is also valid! They just took it a direction that was a larger leap for me to make.

Loose adaptations and very free translations have become less frequent since, or maybe my taste just hasn't led me their way, but the issue at the core is still a thing: Supernatural fandom got different nuances of endings for their show depending on the language they watched it in. CQL and MDZS fandom and the never-ending discussions about 知己 vs soulmate vs Other Options. A subset of VLD fans looking at a specific clip in all the different languages to see what was being said/implied in which dub, and how different translators interpreted the same English original line. The list is pretty much endless.

And that's … idk if it's fine, but it's what happens! A lot of the time, concepts -- expressed in language -- don't translate 1:1. The larger the cultural gap, the larger the gaps between the way concepts are expressed or understood also tend to be. Other times, there is a literal translation that works but isn't very idiomatic because there's a register mismatch or worse. And that's even before cultural assumptions come in. It's normal to have those. It's also important to remember that things like "thanks I hate it" as a sentiment of praise/affection, while the words translate literally quite easily, emphatically isn't easy to translate in the sense anglophone internet users the phrase.

Every translation is, at some level, a transformative work. Sometimes expressions or concepts or even single words simply don't have an exact equivalent in the target language and need to be interpreted at the translator's discretion, especially when going from a high-context/listener-responsible source language to a low-context/speaker-responsible target language (where high-context/listener responsible roughly means a large amount of contextual information can be omitted by the speaker because it's the listener's responsibility to infer it and ask for clarification if needed, and low-context/speaker-responsible roughly means a lot of information needs to be codified in speech, i.e. the speaker is responsible for providing sufficiently explicit context and will be blamed if it's lacking).

Is this a mouse or a rat? Guess based on context clues! High-context languages can and frequently do omit entire parts of speech that lower-context/speaker-responsible languages like English regard as essential, such as the grammatical subject of a sentence: the equivalent of "Go?" - "Go." does largely the same amount of heavy lifting as "is he/she/it/are you/they/we going?" - "yes, I am/he/she/it is/we/you/they are" in several listener-responsible languages, but tends to seem clumsy or incomplete in more speaker-responsible ones. This does NOT mean the listener-responsible language is clumsy. It's arguably more efficient! And reversely, saying "Are you going?" - "I am (going)" might seem unnecessarily convoluted and clumsy in a listener-responsible language. All depending on context.

This gets tricky both when the ambiguity of the missing subject of the sentence is clearly important (is speaker A asking "are you going" or "is she going"? wait until next chapter and find out!) AND when it's important that the translator assign an explicit subject in order for the sentence to make sense in the target language. For our example, depending on context, something like "are we all going?" - "yes" or "they going, too?" might work. Context!

As a consequence of this, sometimes, translation adds things – we gain things in translation, so to speak. Sometimes, it's because the target language needs the extra information (like the subject in the examples above), sometimes it's because the target language actually differentiates between mouse and rat even though the source language doesn't. However, because in most cases translators don't have access to the original authors, or even the original authors' agencies to ask for clarification (and in most cases wouldn't get paid for the time to put in this extra work even if they did), this kind of addition is almost always an interpretation. Sometimes made with a lot of certainty, sometimes it's more of a "fuck it, I've got to put something and hope it doesn't get proven wrong next episode/chapter/ten seasons down" (especially fun when you're working on a series that's in progress).

For the vast majority of cases, several translations are valid. Some may be more far-fetched than others, and there'll always be subjectivity to whether something was translated effectively, what "effectively" even means …

ANYWAY. I think my point is … how interesting, how cool is it that engaging with media in multiple languages will always yield multiple, often equally valid but just sliiiiightly different versions of that piece of media? And that I'd love more conversations about how, the second we (as folks who don't speak the material's original language) start picking the subtitle or dub wording apart for meta, we're basically working from a secondary source, and if we're doing due diligence, to which extent do we need to check there's nothing substantial being (literally) lost -- or added! -- in translation?

[lingthusiasm]

Bonus 92: Xenolinguistics 👽

Someday, we might make contact with intelligent life beyond our planet. In that case, linguists want to be PREPARED. Enter the excitingly named field of Xenolinguistics!

In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about how linguists might go about communicating with aliens. Drawing on highlights of the academic book "Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language", we talk about how we'd actually go about trying to communicate with aliens. First of all, how can we know that a species is trying to communicate, and how can we convey our intentions in return? Secondly, do we have a shared context: are they on our planet, are we on theirs, or are we trying to decipher some sort of radio waves from afar? Third, what sort of medium are they using: visual, audio, and touch are all used for human languages and have some obvious advantages, but what about smell, electromagnetism, or electric pulses? Fourth, what could we learn about interspecies communication here on Earth from the African Grey Parrot, the prairie dog, and the vervet monkey? And finally, what other practical and ethical considerations do we need to remember based on current linguistic documentation projects? (The aliens may have multiple languages, only some of which are appropriate for outsiders to learn. And there are no spare AA batteries available in orbit around Alpha Centauri.) Listen to this episode about how linguists might go about communicating with aliens, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.