#linguistics nerds please help

[adhd-merlin]

0:43 "firsht" 😭😭😭

[watermelonbugs]

i just wanted to come up with headcanons and character designs wHY AM I INVENTING A LANGUAGE WITH A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ALPHABET. IT HAS 33 LETTERS AND UNIQUE PUNCTUATION. AND THE LINGUISTIC HISTORY IN A FICTIONAL WORLD I HAVENT EVEN MADE YET. ARGHHHHHH.

[gaijin-fujin-resonance]

Plosive G

Trying very hard to keep my autisms in check, and not get in any ~disk-horse~ or FITE!s on Tumblr, so I'm just going to leave thie here rather than reblog anything...

I've seen some people complaining about Imai's pronunciation of "Long" as "Lon-GUH" in Muyubyo Sleepwalk.

So being Captain Save-A-Hisashi, I'm going to explain: for once, I don't think this is extraneous Japanese vowel syndrome?

Imai has talked in recent interviews about wanting to create a "Madchester" or 90s UK feel. Exaggerating the plosive /ɡ/ sound for words ending in -g, -k or -ng is a distinctive feature of Mancunian English because the Northwest of England does not have NG Coalescence like most other variants of English (particularly American English) have.

Listen to the way Marty Willson-Piper (originally from Stockport by way of Derbyshire) pronounces King as "Kin-KUH" in the intro to Time Is Imaginary.

Imai's pronunciation of "All night lon-GUH" actually shows that he has done his research, and mastered a specific regional accent of UK English exceedingly well!

Finding the evidence for this accent sent me down a pleasant memory-hole of listening to New Order (All Day Lon-GUH) and The Fall and Happy Mondays - man, I used to love Wrote for Luh-KUH

[vampirejuno]

Ok I know this is probably a long shot but. Does anyone know of an etymological dictionary for Sumerian and/or Hittite lol. Or at least something that mentions the evolution of the words in some way?? If anyone has something like this or knows where to find it I will love you forever

[sachsoup]

I might die bcs of these

[hotvintagepoll]

This is a three-way poll. Only one of these men will continue to the third round of the bracket.

Propaganda

Turhan Bey (The Climax, Arabian Nights, Prisoners of the Casbah)—Turkish matinee idol who actually got to break out of the mold of "sinister racist villain parts" to play romantic leading men

Bela Lugosi (Dracula)—no propaganda submitted beyond this link to a Tumblr gifset and this link to a Tumblr photo

Michael Redgrave (The Lady Vanishes)—my beautiful bisexual hot linguist geek dandy nerd. I'm specifically nominating him for "The Lady Vanishes," but how can you not love him in this—it's a strikingly modern performance, not a whiff of old school macho masculinity; he starts the movie as a bit of a cad, thoughtless and self-absorbed, but the second our heroine's in trouble he's attentive, he's helpful, he's running around speaking languages and helping her with international spycraft shenanigans and just being so funny and warm and JOYOUS. (and again. he is SO bisexual. see the picture [attached below]). he's hot in the debate club twink kinda way and i've never wanted to smooch an idiot more

This is round 2 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

"BISEXUAL."

[lingthusiasm]

Lingthusiasm Episode 99: A politeness episode, if you please

If it wouldn't be too much trouble, if you have a spare half hour, could we possibly suggest that you might enjoy listening to this episode on politeness? Or, if you've prefer a less polite version, "Listen! Now!"

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about what politeness and rudeness are made up of at a linguistic level. We talk about existing cultural notions of "saving face" and "losing face", aka the push and pull between our desire for help vs our desire for independence, and how they've been formalized in a classic linguistics paper. We also talk about being less polite to show intimacy, addressing God in English and French, which forms of politeness are and aren't overtly taught, different uses of "please" in UK vs US English, levels of indirectness, email etiquette across generations and subcultures, rudeness and pointing, nodding norms in Japanese and English, smiling at strangers in the US vs Europe, and how a small number of politeness ingredients can combine in so many different ways that are culturally different.

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Announcements:

In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about science metaphors and learning everything with Tom Lum and Caroline Roper, cohosts of Let's Learn Everything! We talk about whether programming languages should count as a language credit, numbers and ritual stock phrases like seventeen and "once upon a time", as well as etymology and metaphor in ecology, chemistry, and linguistics. We also talk about turning the "constantly trying to figure things out" part of your brain off, attending the word of the year vote, and how linguists have a tendency to be curious about language all the time, which... sometimes gets us into trouble.

Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 90+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds. Looking for a last minute gift for the language nerd in your life? Or are you trying to get someone in your life to love linguistics as much as you do? Patreon have newly added a gift memberships feature! So if you'd be excited to receive a patreon membership to Lingthusiasm, forward this link to your friends and/or family with a little wink wink nudge nudge.

Here are the links mentioned in the episode:

'Politeness: Some universals in language use' by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson

Wikipedia entry for 'Politeness'

Lingthusiasm bonus episode 'The Most Esteemed Honorifics Episode'

'Routine politeness in American and British English requests: use and non-use of please' by M. Lynne Murphy and Rachele De Felice

@killersundy video about the Irish offering cake to the Irish on TikTok

Lingthusiasm episode 'If I were an irrealis'

Lingthusiasm episode 'Look, it’s deixis, an episode about pointing!'

'Nodding, aizuchi, and final particles in Japanese conversation: How conversation reflects the ideology of communication and social relationships' by Sotaro Kita and Sachiko Ide

'Why Americans Smile So Much' by Olga Khazan for The Atlantic

'Three-year-olds infer polite stance from intonation and facial cues' by Iris Hübscher, Laura Wagner, and Pilar Prieto

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.

Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Bluesky as @GretchenMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

[brightstarblogs]

RainCode Honorifics!

First let me preface this by saying I'm not Japanese so there may be a few mistakes in this post.

I haven't seen anyone else make a post on this so I figured I'd do it myself. I've always found honorifics interesting in Japanese media and often include them in my fics. RainCode is a little different however because all characters go by their first names instead of surnames which most Japanese media typically use (since most surnames are westernized/wacky). This interested me so I wanted to do a little research!

But yeah, if you want to use honorifics in your own fics or just find Japanese linguistics interesting, I hope you enjoy this post! It has taken me 3-4 months to compile this list.

Spoilers ahead!

Yuma: Typically Yuma uses -san when referring to other characters. However there are a few exceptions to this. Yuma uses -chan to refer to Shinigami (because she asked him too) and with Kurumi. He also changes to using -kun for Desuhiko after they arrive at Aetheria Academy in chapter 2/Gum shoe gab 2 to show they're friends (but this could be to reciprocate the fact Desuhiko changed from using Rookie to My man). He does not use any honorifics for the peacekeepers (Yomi, Martina, etc) to show he doesn't respect them and Makoto (Although he will use -san when talking to Makoto). He also doesn't use honorifics on Aiko, Karen, Waruna, Yoshiko and Kurane, although he does use -san when speaking to other students in the investigation.

Shinigami: She tends to not use any honorifics and instead uses nicknames. Most notably Akuma-chan for Halara (Hellara in the dub). When she does use a character's name it is with no honorific. I did notice she uses -dono in the gum shoe gabs when saying Yuma's bond with a character has deepened. -dono is often used in writing letters/emails, but also is used in a lot of fantasy media/JRPGs. Shinigami does reference Dragon Quest in the dub so perhaps this is just her being a nerd (Special thanks too @/rararazaquato for pointing this out). If you want to know more about the nicknames she gives the NDA in Japanese, please look at this post!

Halara: They use no honorifics for any character. The only time I heard them use one was in their DLC when they use -san for their client (They do not use Tetra's name though. They say Ojo-san).

Desuhiko: He also doesn't tend use honorifics. Unlike Halara though he uses nicknames. He refers to Fubuki as Ojou, which translates as Young lady/princess. He uses -chan for Shinigami and Kurumi but also when referring to female characters like Guillaume and NPCs where he'll say neko-chan. He also calls Yuma Rookie until they arrive at Aetheria Academy, where he changes to My man for the rest of the game.

Fubuki: Uses -san for every character.

Vivia: Uses -kun for most characters. He doesn't use honorifics for Yomi or Makoto, and uses -chan for Kurumi

Yakou: Like Halara and Desuhiko, Yakou tends not to use honorifics but there are a few exceptions. He uses -chan for Fubuki and Kurumi. He also calls Seth -sensei when he was trying to deescalate the situation in chapter 1. He uses -san for Tetra, so I think he uses honorifics with clients. I don't know for certain but that's my theory.

Kurumi: Now, Kurumi tends to use -san for most characters. She used -san with Yuma when they first meet, but switches to -chan when he is in disguise in the school to help blend in. She then uses -kun from chapter 3 onwards (and once in chapter 2 when she's held by a peacekeeper, but Yuma doesn't hear her). She doesn't use honorifics with Akio, Karen, Waruna, Yoshiko, Kurane and Shachi.

Makoto: He uses a variety of honorifics. He tends not to use any for Yuma, but also does say -kun. He also uses -kun for both Yomi and Martina/Suwaro. He also uses -chan for Kurumi.

Now onto minor characters where it gets a little difficult due to screen time.

Pucci: Uses -san for Zange so maybe uses -san for other cast members.

Melami: I didn't hear her use any honorifics as she doesn't refer to others by name and tends to use nicknames.

Zange: He didn't call any character by their name so I have no idea unfortunately.

Aphex: Used nicknames so again, I am not sure.

Zilch(?)/Hitman: In chapter 1 he uses -kun for both Yuma and Aphex. He did not address the rest of the cast by name so I have no idea if he'd use -san or -kun for Pucci or Melami. Even then I don't know if that was an act as he is an imposter. He uses -sama however for Yomi in chapter 5 when you find him as a zombie.

Martina: Fun fact, she is actually called Suwaro/Swallow in the Japanese sub! I don't know why her name is changed but this was a fun surprise. She uses -sama for both Yomi and Makoto. She doesn't use names for the NDA.

Swank: He didn't use any names, but I included him because like Martina, his name was changed. Originally he was called Spank in the Japanese sub.

Yomi: Only ever called Martina by her name with no honorific.

Seth: Like most peacekeepers he calls Yomi by -sama.

Guillaume: She tends to refer to Dominic by just his name, along with Shachi. She however does use -sama for Yomi like the other peacekeepers.

Priest: Uses -san for the clock-maker

Teacher: Although this is Desuhiko, in disguise he calls Kurumi by -san.

Yoshiko: No honorifics

Kurane: No honorifics

Waruna: No honorifics

Shachi: No honorifics

Iruka: Uses -san for Yuma but no honorifics for Shachi.

Servan: Doesn't use honorifics for other resistant members, but uses -kun for Yuma

Icardi: No honorifics

Margulaw: No honorifics

Ramen man: Uses -chan for Kurumi. Not sure what he'd use for other characters.

Enyne: Before she reveals her identity she uses -san for Desuhiko

[martinshep]

Intro post!!

󠁗󠁨󠁯󠀠󠁵󠁰󠀠󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁩󠁮󠁧󠀠󠁴󠁨󠁥󠁹󠀠󠁨󠁯󠁧󠁻󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁥󠀠󠁴󠁥󠁸󠁴󠀠󠁥󠁮󠁤󠁳󠀠󠁨󠁥󠁲󠁥󠁽Hi I go by Martin, Shep, or Riley (they/them, but it/its to friends) I'm 21 and from Australia.

Autistic with ADHD, huge nerd. Agender anthro dog therian!

I make art on @martinshepart

Make sure to check out my alterhuman dictionary project here!

All my posts or reblogs where I say something are tagged #martin originals

More details under the cut!

Martin Schäfer

★★★★☆ Reviews (4)

★★★☆☆ arrived with no issues but item is kinda mid

★☆☆☆☆ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ very good dog arrived in good condition

Item condition:

Slightly damaged, still working

I'm autistic and ADHD and still struggling with executive dysfunction. Still learning how to recover from being a former gifted kid and never learning how to socialise. If I'm being annoying or obnoxious please tell me!

Agender because I do not understand gender, although unsure if it's just the human concept of gender I don't understand. However I actively encourage gendering me for the bit!

Therian and transpecies! Specifically an anthro german shepherd mix border collie, possibly with some other herding dogs in there. I also identify a lot with becoming a virtual/uploaded consciousness? Not sure what to call that. Also I'm thesean. If you don't know what that is here's my post about it.

Demisexual and platoniromantic/flectic. Not exact labels but the closest I can get without using an encyclopaedia worth of text to describe myself.

I'm an artist and I'm open for commissions! Check out the pinned post on @martinshepart for details!

Tags

#martin originals - all my posts where I say/ask a thing #poked beast - asks answered by me #martinshep's art - my visual art #martinshep's music - my auditory art #martinshep's languages - my languages related art

Other blogs

@martinshepart - my art blog, I put all my art there @martin-schaefer - my alt nsfw blog that I'll probably rarely use

Current special interests and hobbies:

(Note my knowledge of any of these is not as exhaustive as most people's)

Illustrated art

Cartography

History (esp cultural and economic)

Linguistics (esp lexicography and orthography)

Semiotics

Cosmology

Quantum mechanics and general relativity

The most horrid music you can imagine (breakcore, mashcore, dariacore, dancecore)

3D modelling

Fursuit making

Kandi bracelets

Game design/dev (once I get my shit together and learn C#)

Music making

Furgonomics

4D games

Languages I know, am learning, or am planning to learn:

If you speak one of the languages I'm learning and are willing to help me out please let me know :D

English - I'm a native speaker and specifically speak australian english

Auslan - Taking classes on it and soon will be taking a tafe course on it.

Toki pona - mi kama sona, kepeken tenpo suli. mi pilin e ni: sona toki pona mi lon meso. (I'm learning, slowly. I think I'm at an intermediate level.)

Hindi/हिंदी - मैं बुनियादी हिंदी वाकयों बोला सका। मैं कोश में शब्द मिलना बहुत अक्सर। (I can say simple sentences. I have to look up words in the dictionary very often.)

German/Deutch - Ich kennen en bisschen deutch, aber jetzt ich lernen nicht. (I know some german, but I'm no longer learning it.)

Dutch/Nederlands - Ik spreek een beetje nederlands. Dezelfde als duits echter. (I speak some dutch. Same as german though.)

Spanish/Español - Estudiaba español. Sé mucho poco. (I'm learning spanish. I know very little.)

Croatian/Hrvatska - Still getting around to learning the basics.

I also want to learn arabic and mandarin at some point but I'm waiting until I'm learning fewer languages.

Me↓ (art by snowflake-sage)

Me↑ (art by snowflake-sage)

Feel free to message me if you want to hang out in vrchat, infodump to me, get help with art or 3d modelling, lust over my fursona, or just chat! I'm an attention whore so don't think you're bothering me!

I also have a discord server:

I like to listen to fucked up horrible awful music

Here's a google doc (currently under renovation) with a bunch of recommendations that's still a work in progress, I plan to add more to it as time goes on too

I'm like a year late to make this but whatever

[notsogoodangel]

WHO WANTS PROPAGANDA?! NO? WELL TOO BAD YOU ARE GETTING PROPAGANDA-ED BECAUSE I'M UNHEALTHY AND I'M FIGHTING AN ART BLOCK AND IF THEY ARE HELPING, YOU ALL SUFFER! Propaganda underneath!

Michael McChill (my stream) has been a streamer and in the Minecraft community for years. Michael is mostly known for a couple things. He has a charity called "Raising the Bar" which he does at least once a year. He has participated in A LOT of influential SMPs such as Dream SMP, SMPLive, SMPEarth, 2b2t, and more. He also participated in MCC, he won the first one, he was in the team when Quackity won, and the one where Techno and Dream were in the same thing. But most importantly for the cultural touchstone he is the guy behind "Mamma Mia FUCK Here I go again"

Tri is a Panamanian streamer who mostly does art but has being a fan of the QSMP since the beginning. She made a very funny presentation about why she should join the SMP and had me CHARMED. I saw that video and I was charmed by her immediately. I never watched her before that, but I already love her DEEPLY. TLDR of the video (since is in Spanish) these are the points she makes

She already is on the SMP because there's Fooligetta art that she made.

"There are only 6 people in Panamaland, me and my family, so I'm very important representation"

She knows so much and has brain rot over QSMP

She is a linguistics nerd

"Please"

Lastly, does Brunim "Cotoco" Neets need any introduction? Everyone knows about this relationship with Forever, and while that is a big reason why I want him to join, I'm not like other people and that is my only reason why I want him to join. I'm genuinely more interested in how he will react to Philza and Bad since he knows that Forever has/had a thing for them... plus, it will be very funny to see how 3 anarchists who have pasts in high positions of power are all CLEARLY supernatural, would be fun. PLUS! He also knows Pac and Mike through Stonkscraft, so it's very fun and interesting to see if he will interact with them and how because Tazercraft has a deep history with Cellbit, but also with Brunim (although not as traumatic).

[writteninlunarlight-years]

Hello! If you're still doing them, could I please get a Baldur's Gate 3 matchup? I'm bedridden right now from joint pain and need a pick-me-up, but if they're closed feel free to ignore this.

Gender: Genderfluid, but leans towards feminine

Pronouns: Any, but I tend to use she/her because it's honestly just more convenient

Sexuality: Any gender is fine. I might slightly prefer a man but if you think a girl would fit better don't let that stop you ☺️

Appearance: I am a 4’ 10” (147 cm) tall fem-aligned person with long wavy auburn hair, glasses and a fashion sense that varies widely from masc to fem. I'm almost never seen without my compression braces on because I have pretty terrible joint pain, so I've got compression socks, knee braces, shorts for hip pain, gloves for finger joint pain and am generally carrying quite a lot of medical equipment on me at all times lol. That being said, I try to work out when I can so I am getting pretty muscular and enjoy impressing people with my muscles because nobody really expects it.

MBTI: INFJ-T

Personality: I'm a very kind, friendly person but I still have a bit of fiery energy. I'm very passionate and will stand up and verbally smackdown anyone if I feel it's deserved, though generally I'm quite polite. I know tons of random trivia because I research and take notes obsessively. I have autism so the main way I communicate is by infodumping, and I can get easily thrown off in conversation when someone says something I don't expect. I love debating people respectfully, but I really do try to be very nice and as helpful as I possibly can be. I also kind of struggle to ask for help when I need it because I get embarrassed. Plus I am a very stubborn person in general. But most of all I'm very dedicated to self improvement and always strive to be a better version of myself.

Likes: Books and researching, Plants, Witchcraft and occultism, Mythology and religious studies, Linguistics, Exercising and working out and especially Science in general

Dislikes: My chronic illnesses, Heights, Being teased or made fun of (I make a point of not doing this to others either and even when debating I never go for personal jabs), People who are obviously misinformed but refuse to change, Rude and toxic people (If you're going to waste my time being a jerk you're not worth my time at all)

Extra Fun Fact: I currently work at a library and am hoping to become both a researcher and spirit medium

Race: Given my height, probably a halfling or dwarf of some kind

Class: Probably a Paladin or Cleric, maybe with a Wizard multiclass because I'm such a nerd lol

D&D Alignment: Neutral Good. I'm committed to doing good but not too strictly. Basically the “Yeah, but it would be funny” type of morality

Thanks so so much, I hope you have a fantastic day! Take care of yourself!

I hope this helps you feel better! I wish you nothing but a speedy healing process. You seem like a fantastic person. Thank you for letting me write to you!

~~~~~ MATCHUPS ~~~~~

BG3

Wyll Ravengaurd

~~~~~ HEADCANONS ~~~~~

Wyll is a gentleman with you, always seeking to get to know you and respect the newfound leader.

He was a lone wolf for so long that now, having a crew of friends and someone he holds near and dear is a fresh summer's breath for him.

He is afraid of Mizora, though. Not that she would hurt him; she wouldn't get anything out of that. He fears the restrictions, rules, and stipulations she would put on him if he sought you out.

Due to this, Wyll tried so hard to keep you at arm's length, only letting you know small fragments of him.

When Mizor made her debut, he felt better about his chances with you. He knew having someone as kind, understanding, and warm as you by his side was just what he needed.

Wyll courted you properly, asking if you would like to explore romance with him, go on small dates, and even take a dance lesson here and there.

No matter how badly he wanted to kiss you, though, he kept refraining until you asked him.

Once you two were past courting and officially together, he made it a point to get explicit permission from Mizora to tell you about Avernus and the Demons who inhabited the other planes.

He may have had to do a shady thing or two to earn this privilege, but it was worth seeing your eyes light up when sharing this limited knowledge.

When freed of the illithid, he would happily give up galivanting across the sword coast to settle down with you. He would only leave because Mizora asked him for assistance.

Wyll watched you flourish as a shopkeeper for books and magical resources, things only your humble shop could attain because of Wyll's Connections and adventures.

If you ever had a tough day or became bedridden, Wyll would drop everything to assist you. He would be your personal nurse. He'd even call Halsin or Shadowheart to help if he was worried about his lack of skill.

~~~~~ BLURB ~~~~~

It was a cold day in Faerun; snow had just coated the land and would soon fall again. You were seated in the foyer of your new home, watching the outdoors grow colder. You, however, were quite warm. A hand-knitted blanket was wrapped around you, and a warm fur pelt Mizora gifted you adorned your shoulders. Wyll was by the fire, tending to it. Today was tough for your body; everything was sore and hurting. Wyll did everything he could to help, even utilizing the books and notes Shadowheart and Halsin left for him.

As soon as the warmth was at its peak in the home, Wyll kissed you atop your head and made his way to the kitchen. He would prepare a meal for you two and ensure you had some sustenance. While still staring out at the beautiful white blanket of snow, the thought occurred to you that you were the fearless leader of the band that killed the neatherbrain. The illithid gave you an extraordinary gift of no more pain for the price of being turned. To think you almost took that risk but instead knew your humanity was far more a gift. Plus, you would have lost all the amazing friends you made.

Now, by your partner's side, you were even more confident in your choices because you wouldn't have him. Wyll returned some food and assisted you when you needed it. Once satisfied, you two decide some more rest would do you both well. Wyll had just returned a day or two ago from a grueling task from Mizora. Wyll gently picked you up and walked you back to your room. He knew just as well as you that you could take care of yourself, as you have done this time and time before, but his help was always so warm and appreciated. Once in bed, Wyll curled in behind you, holding you close. With one final kiss on your head, you both fell into a simple slumber. You might feel well enough to build a snowman when you wake.

~~~~~ EXTRA ~~~~~

(Just after the freedom of the shadow fell, your group was looking over the security tower at the beginnings of Baldur's Gate. Taking camp before continuing on to your final destination.)

Y/N: Wyll, look at this someone left an enchanted Rapier!

Astarion: ooooh, and quite the liquor selection.

Shadowheart: Please share that with the rest of us.

Wyll: Why don't you all head to the fire and celebrate our accomplishments? Heard Gale cooked quite the feast.

(You walked up to Wyll and leaned your head on his shoulder)

Y/N: What do you think will come of us?

Wyll: Whatever you desire, my love, whatever you desire.

[dbfandom]

Uh, seems I should give a crash course of Japanese needed to understand Dragon Ball 101... and some things you see in the fandom lol

Just out there: I'm a linguist / grammar nerd, my knowledge of Japanese as a whole is very limited. I just use the following tips to understand most of what's happening and how I deconstruct things, as well as why/how certain things are written!

So here, please check it out if you're interested in how I decipher most of it!

Today.. writing systems !

Japanese uses three writing systems (well, 4):

Hiragana: syllables; mostly used for prepositions and words. They're round and have few strokes.

Katakana: syllables; mostly used for foreign-loan words, emphasis, sounds, and machine-caused onomatopoeia. They're square and have few strokes too.

Kanji: ideograms; Kanji are (usually) words/concepts on their own and there's thousands of them. They come from Chinese. On their own, or coupled with each other, Kanji carry their own meaning. They're also combinatory (aka one kanji can contain many kanji within; check how tree 木, woods 林 and forest 森 are written for example; yup, it's just more trees squished together lol)

Romanji: latin alphabet letters (if I write "watashi", this is romanji). The transcription of japanese to the latin alphabet actually follows some rules, put a pin on it I'll explain that later.

Hiragana and Katakana are the same syllables, if it helps you out, think of them as lower and upper case letters (they don't have the same uses tho). Together, they're called kana.

In green: しかし (shi-ka-shi), means "however"); this is written in hiragana

In red: マシン (ma-shi-n ; machine) and ドクターゲロ (dokutoru—gero ; doctor gero)

in blue: 人造人間 has the kanji for man/person twice. It literally translates to "man-made human being" (and in English we've translated this to Artificial Human or Android, while some other languages translated it to Cyborg).

You can see that next to the blue square with 人造人間, there's tiny hiragana (じんぞうにんげん; ji-n-zo-u-ni-n-ge-n); those are called furigana and are present to tell the reader how the kanji is read (and what it means haha). Most shonen manga have them because they're aimed at kids who don't know all of the kanji yet! Furigana are also important because kanji can be read in two different ways (the kanji for mountain is either read as yama or san for instance; it's got to do with the Chinese pronunciation or the word as well as whether the kanji is on its own or combined with another).

Same here: everything is in hiragana except for Gohan's name (with the little furigana to tell you to read it as go-ha-n) and Gohan's age of 4 (they use the romanji /latin for numbers instead of the proper kanji).

If you remember Death Note, there's a moment in which Misa reads Light's full name above his head, but she reads his first name's kanji (月) as "tsuki" and then she's told it's actually read "light" (ライト; ra-i-to; aka the katakana transcription for the English word light)

Now, remember that pin about romanji? And if you remember some old (oooold) fanfics where Vegeta's name is written Bejïta? Well, this comes from that. Japanese syllables don't allow to transcribe everything, and phonology makes it so that Japanese speakers tend to pronounce loan words according to their syllables.

Dragon Ball's katakana name is ドラゴンボール (do-ra-n-go- bo—ru, or Doragon Bōru in the proper transcription system (the — means "longer vowel" which transcribes to an ō). This is why you sometimes see Goku's name written Gokū or, in old books, Gokuh or Gokou, and his furigana is go-ku-u). And there's a lot of loan-words used as names in Dragon Ball. Vegeta's name are the katakana for BE JI (+ longer vowel) TA.

Of course, when you know "all Saiyans are named after Vegetables", you can easily transcribe "back" to the origin-word that it was supposed to represent (you don't go around and write doragon boru, you write dragon ball, after all). Some are easier than others, and Toriyama (with his dad!boomer energy who loves bad puns) also switched some syllables around... Hell, even Saiya-jin (saiyans) (with jin as the kanji for people/population) is actually rearranged syllables for Yasai (vegetables). With that knowledge, Raditz could be transcribed as Radis or Radish (depending on your language) and Kakarot could be carot (or cacarot).. To go back to the original reference instead of playing translating back and forth forever lol.

Same for Bulma. Her katakana name is bu-ru-ma which is the transcription for "bloomers" (aka those gym shorts). This is why in old doujins, you'll see her name be written as Bluma or Bloomer or any other option around that. Bulma's name is written with latin letters very early on though, so there's consensus about her name, but there are others...

So let's talk about ブラ(bu-ra), the second kid of Vegeta and Bulma.

Until DBS came around, it was generally accepted that her name is Bra (like Trunks' name is Trunks and not Torankusu or Tolanks.. even if some people will write torankusu and I find that hilarious), because everyone in Bulma's family is named after undergarments (Bloomers, Panties (Panchy), Brief (Dr Briefs in English, professor Brief elsewhere), Trunks... and Bra for brassiere or plain old bra).

But in DBS, the anime gave her the Bulma treatment and showed her name in latin letters (Bulla).

Now.. why does it look so weird sometimes?

Because Katakana (and Hiragana) are syllable systems, and as such, no consonant (except for N) exists on its own. All consonants must have a vowel attached to them! And when a foreign word is transcribed to katakana, this is how they (generally) do it:

Base on the pronunciation, not on the actual spelling of the word.

If there's a consonant sound alone, add u (except T and D, those get an o)

If the sound doesn't exist as-is in the syllables available, pick the next best thing (fa will be fu + tiny a to let people know how to read it FA and not FUA). The L and R sounds are grouped together into the transcription with R, but they're more or less pronounced the same (in the middle). If you need a harder R, refer to the next point.

Use "longer vowel before this symbol" (ー) and "harder consonant after this symbol" (ッtiny version) symbols as needed to emphasize stress syllables or. (ベジータ (bejita) カカロット (kakarotto)

Profit.

This is why sometimes you'll see "Furiza" and you'll be "wait what" and then pronounce it and say "ooo.. Freezer". Why does English write it as Frieza? idk. French does Freeza and Spanish Freezer (the name is not the exact transcription for Freezer, since they removed a —; it's フリーザ instead of フリーザー)

Here's a fun example:

ファイナルフラッシュ

Fu-(tiny a)-i-na-ru- fur-a- (harder consonant)shu;

Fainaru Furasshu.

You know those "U" are usually there because of how the syllables work. Let's remove them.

Fainar Frassh.

You also know those R letters aren't hard strong R, so pronounce them a little softer, without rolling them. Pronounce this out loud now.

Did the piano start playing???

As my scanner now works, I'll show you how older fandom people used to transcribe the katakana names in latin letters before there was an official "decision" about such things!

Please feel free to share, correct, expand, etc!

And you can always buy me a doujin to support my work haha

[maryellencarter]

so i think i found the thing i'm irrationally pretentious about.

as we should all know by now, i am a massive tolkien nerd. i am not pretentious about tolkien as such. i will happily explain elrond's entire family tree in order to get to that one pun at the end of the akallabeth. i am still working my way through the andy serkis lotr and enjoying it greatly (when my auditory processing will allow), movie-cast voices and all.

(in the process, i have decided that -- okay, so i have several covers of the song "loch lomond" on my phone, because part of my family emigrated from there about 275 years ago and i'm like that. they are mostly in Generic Scottish Accent ^TM. one is bafflingly in Generic Irish Accent ^TM and came from a gas station mix cd of otherwise irish (and irish-american) songs. however! the first three chapters of rotk, which i have now reached, are in pippin pov. this means i have been listening to a *lot* of andy serkis's billy boyd impression. which means the concept has finally percolated through my brain that "loch lomond", being about a location very near glasgow, really ought properly to be covered in a glaswegian accent -- every vowel crimped off with pliers and tossed out through the roof of your mouth [affectionate].)

anyway! that is not actually the part i'm pretentious about. but in addition to imprinting on tolkien's love of linguistics in general and his opinions on localization (positive) in particular, ten-year-old jt imprinted very strongly on the fundamental concept of elvish word order that, when there are multiple possible ways to say something, you pick the one that sounds the prettiest, and/or looks the best written down.

in practice, this applies for me mainly to neologisms, because most older words have firmly enough established connotations that there's often a single best one for a specific use case.

so, descending from the general to the particular: i cannot stand the word "queerplatonic". it appears to be the word we have, and i don't actually have a better suggestion, but!

(1) it's not intuitive to people who aren't already familiar with the concept. they have to ask what it's even supposed to mean, and then "how does that differ from friendship", and then they get torn to pieces for not already being informed, and nobody is any the wiser.

(2) it only applies to asexual relationships. i'm, if not allosexual, closer to that than to asexual, and you *cannot* ask me with a straight face to try to wedge the concept of "sexual partner" into a word that explicitly evokes the current english connotations of "platonic". a word that is supposed to be The word for committed nonromantic relationships should cover the ones that are *just* nonromantic. (one could perhaps attempt the addition of "queerromantic" and "queersexual" but please god no *ahem* i mean, i hope the idea of those parallel constructions helps demonstrate why i feel like this is a Bad construction and does not communicate the concept it intends to. "queersexual" especially sounds like it belongs to an entirely different family of concepts, such as being queer in sexual orientation in addition to or rather than queer in gender identity.)

and (3) -- this is the part i feel i am probably being tolkienaically pretentious about -- it's hideous on the tongue. "rpl" is not a phoneme set anybody should have to apply to themselves. "kweerp" is a fine noise by itself, especially if you're a frog or a bird (excellent creatures all), but it feels like it wants to stop there.

[mysteriawrites]

Hello! If you do Baldur's Gate 3 matchups, could I please get one? I'm an autistic she/they enby, I'm fine with any gender, and while I currently work at a library I'm hoping to become a professor of celtic languages and a linguist someday, so I'm learning Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Welsh. I'm super short, only 4' 10" (147 cm), with long wavy auburn hair, glasses, pale freckled skin and a boyish fashion sense. I also have some chronic illnesses like scoliosis, joint pain and asthma. I'm really polite and very friendly with everyone I meet, but I'm also very protective over my loved ones and can be sassy when I feel it's deserved. While I'm generally an anxious person, I'm not afraid to make the first move because I basically tell myself that the moment could slip away, but I will be having heart palpitations while doing that lol. My special interests include linguistics, science, magic (I practice witchcraft irl), cooking, video games, plant identification and a bunch of other stuff, though honestly I'm down to learn about whatever is available (within reason). I've been described as "homely" and "wise beyond my years" since I give good advice and am very self aware. I really enjoy taking care of people but can get flustered if the sentiment is returned.

Thank you so so much, take care of yourself and Happy Holidays sweetie!

We Interupt your regularly scheduled program for.......A MATCHUP TRADE WITH: @tolkien-fantasy

An: i haven’t finished bg3 so bear with me please

Gale of Waterdeep!!!

I’m just gonna say it. You two are fuckin nerds, but that’s part of what makes your relationship work so well. Gale is overjoyed to have someone who is not only as passionate about things as he is, but also shares the same passions. You guys also have similar views and personalities in general.

I’m not gonna go into how yall met since the game p much does that for me so I’m just gonna ramble about your relationship until i run out of ideas lol.

So Gale takes every opportunity he can to visit the library you work at. It’s killing two birds with one stone really: he gets the books he’s looking for and he gets to see his darling girlfriend.

On the topic of books you guys absolutely have reading dates. Whether it’s in his tower, your house, or at the library during your break you two will just sit together and read. Sharing notes on whatever the subject the book is about.

You guys also do joint magic research together. Lots of books and papers scattered everywhere, potions bubbling and brewing in cauldrons, blackboards covered in chalk. It’s basically your mad scientist lair.

Although you know how to not take things too far and we all know Gale needs someone to restrain him sometimes.

Gale enjoys you teaching him about your type of magic. He finds it fascinating and gives you his full attention when you’re explaining it. He also asks a loooooooooot of questions.

Given your knowledge on practically every language in faerun, you make his research so much easier by decoding ancient text for him. What would take him months to do would take you at most a week, although he does force you to take breaks if you ever get too into it and forget to eat or sleep.

You guys absolutely have a garden together. Not only to grow magical plants for your spells and potions, but also just some for cooking and because it’s a calming hobby/past time.

On that more domestic note, you do most of the cooking. It’s not that he doesn’t know how to cook, but he’s the type who would live off instant food and microwave meals so more time could be devoted to his research.

He does try to help though and he finds it very enjoyable to cook with you. It makes him look up from his books and attaining knowledge for a moment and appreciate what’s right there in front of him: you.

I feel like you guys would have a cat. Although you adopt Scratch the dog and the Owlbear on your adventure, I feel like he would really like a cat.

Also imagining that cat causing havoc in your lab by knocking stuff over, sleeping on your notes, and trying to steal your attention away from your work is hilarious to me but shhhh

Part of why he does so much reading and researching, is to try and heal some of your aches and pains. Even if he can’t take your problems away completely (though he’ll never stop looking and trying) he does want to at least make your life a bit easier and the pain more bearable if not non existent.

I’d like to think of Gale as an ambivert. He doesn’t get tired out by socializing, but also appreciates his alone time. So if you guys are ever at a social event he’ll be able to take the initiative for once and make up an excuse for you guys to leave when your social battery is low or you’re getting overstimulated.

He thinks your height is the cutest thing ever. How you have to get stool or latter to reach the higher shelves in the tower. He doesn’t mind having to reach them for you, in fact he enjoys it. He also likes wrapping his big frame around you when you guys cuddle.

Speaking of cuddling, while he doesn’t mind being the little spoon (despite your small frame he feels very comforted in your arms) he’s usually the big spoon. He’s nice and warm and likes having his arms around you.

He wants you to feel the same love, care, and protection that you give to others.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Michael Redgrave (The Lady Vanishes)—my beautiful bisexual hot linguist geek dandy nerd. I'm specifically nominating him for "The Lady Vanishes," but how can you not love him in this—it's a strikingly modern performance, not a whiff of old school macho masculinity; he starts the movie as a bit of a cad, thoughtless and self-absorbed, but the second our heroine's in trouble he's attentive, he's helpful, he's running around speaking languages and helping her with international spycraft shenanigans and just being so funny and warm and JOYOUS. (and again. he is SO bisexual. see the picture [attached below]). he's hot in the debate club twink kinda way and i've never wanted to smooch an idiot more

Cary Grant (The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, Charade)—My Golden Age of Hollywood professor, who was very outwardly gay himself, put it this way: Even though Grant's sexuality was kind of an open secret in Hollywood, the public couldn't know in any real way. But anybody could see that there was a queerness about him, so he was casted for roles where he physically embodies his masculinity in a non-explicit but queer way. Bringing Up Baby is famous for the scene where Grant wears a frilly robe (pictured below, but what people don't always realise is that he plays kind of an awkward nerd in that movie. He's a hot awkward scientist in a grand robe!!! Hot!!! In The Philadelphia Story, one of my famous movies of all time, he plays C. K. Dexter Haven, a rich, sarcastic, supposedly abusive guy. And yet, what we see is this laid back, dandy-ish figure, who absolutely does not feel threatened when a woman he supposedly loves (Katharine Hepburn) starts having feelings for, and hooks up with another guy (James Stewart). He lets a drunk Stewart into his office and helps him get his job back! Obviously that is the script and not the actor, but the whole film, and that scene in particular, shows him having this very queer attitude of openness toward Hepburn and Stewart, which is only amplified by the casting of Grant and his portrayal of the character. Anyway, this is not an essay arguing for The Philadelphia Story to be considered a queer film, all I will say is: he's super hot in it.

This is round 3 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Michael Redgrave propaganda:

"BISEXUAL."

"It feels unjust to submit the entirety of The Lady Vanishes as propaganda, so I'd just like to very politely point everyone to 56:30 of this link, where we get a very nice view of Michael Redgrave's ass I MEAN his lilting, fine-tuned twinkish beauty"

Cary Grant propaganda:

The link to the above mentioned frilly robe scene from Bringing Up Baby: "I just went gay all of a sudden!"

last minute cary grant propaganda: the last few paragraphs of that new vanity fair article about him and randolph scott that just came out 2 days ago on cary's birthday where he calls it "gravity collapse" and "love at first sight" and says their souls touched and and and i'm actually sharing this mostly because it makes me emotional but also because a vote for archibald is a vote for love. this is my message. apologies for sounding mildly insane.

[murasaki-sama]

Join the Whimsy and Wonder Discord Server Now!

Are you queer, neurodivergent, and experience chronic pain, or some other form of chronic physical or mental illness? Are you a bit of a nerd? Do you enjoy discussing communication (studies), anthropology, sociology, history, mythology, perhaps specifically the place of stories in cultures over time, and stories in general? Do you like to read novels, webnovels, webcomics, webtoons, graphic novels, and other forms of literature both textural and illustrated from as many cultures and countries as you can find them? Do you like to discuss tarot, puzzles, tea, board games, poetry (older stuff, newer stuff, your stuff, its all good), philology, linguistics, etymology, the way words sound and are fun and interesting on their own, food and cooking, and more?

Do you want to be part of a community that is accepting, open minded and inclusive? That seeks to engage in deescalation and conflict resolution, to clarify miscommunications rather to cast blame or correct people, because it does not assume one side is right and the other is wrong?

Do you want to join a small but growing community and help shape how that community functions in the future?

Well, then join the Whimsy and Wonder Discord Server now!

Please reblog this so it breaks containment! Thanks.