#otherwise you only need one conjugation- the subjective one

[ubese-language-databank]

Introduction to the Ubese Language

Welcome to the Ubese Language Databank! We will be posting one Ubese word of the day each day. Ubese consists entirely of verbs, so all you need to know is how to conjugate them. In this introductory post, we will cover the alphabet and various aspects of grammar. Each word of the day will showcase the definition and conjugation of each verb. Ia-to! Tages! (Let's begin!)

Alphabet and Punctuation

The Ubese alphabet is simple, consisting only of fourteen letters and three punctuation marks. Stress in vital in Ubese for distinguishing between different words, such as "ya-tei," meaning "I concur," vs "yatei," meaning "dismember me." Stress falls in an alternating pattern— for example, "ya-teiset-ga," meaning "they are not agreeable," is stressed on the even-numbered syllables, while "yateis-etga," meaning "they are not separated," is stressed on the odd-numbered syllables.

Topic Markers

Topics in Ubese indicate the the subject or object of the sentence, depending on whether the verb that follows is active or passive. For example, "o, ta-chei" means "I hear you," while "ei, tasho" means "you are heard by me." The topic marker is often voiced as a comma in spoken Ubese and is transliterated in Basic accordingly. Not every Ubese construction requires a topic— for example, "ta-chei" means "my ears work perfectly." Third person verbs are inflected with either animate or inanimate pronouns. Sentient beings, droids, animals, and plants are considered animate; all other objects are considered inanimate.

Suffixes

Negative suffixes in Ubese negate a given verb. For example, "a, ta-cheitga" means "I didn't hear that," and "edchat-ga" means "that is not edible."

Optative suffixes in Ubese express a desire for something to occur or be true; for example, "os, yo-teish" means "I want to show you something," and "udis-esh" means "may they learn."

Polite suffixes soften an otherwise direct verb form. For example, "a, yuh-to" means "give me that," while "a, yuh-tocha" means "please pass the bloodworms."

Adjectival suffixes turn verbs into descriptions, which generally serve the role of nouns in Ubese. For example, "a, eg-teis" means "we eat," while "eg-taza" means "food," or literally, "it is for eating."

Mathematics

Ubese is a highly contextual language with no actual root nouns. Thus, they do not have base cardinals. Instead, numbers are expressed in terms of arithmetic. For example, to say "I would like to buy four jogans for one credit," one would say "a, de-go. Ei, ze-gei," or, "add four jogans to my cart, I will add one credit to your pocket." Inverse operations are expressed in negatives; for example, to say "I will only give you half that much," one would say, "O, gyuh-tatga," or, "divide the amount of jogans by two."

You now understand the complete workings of Basic Ubese grammar! With these construction principles, you can conjugate any verb in the Ubese lexicon. Yu-gyosesh-cha! (I hope this lesson was satisfactory!)

[studykorean101]

What is the difference between -게 하다 and -게 되다?

Great question! First, we need to understand that 하다 is active whereas 되다 is passive! Your next question might be, “but omg, SK101, I’m not good at English grammar, too; what the hell is passive and active?”

Another great question! 

The active voice is when the speaker/subject performs the action or is described directly–they did it, caused it, performed it; you’re gonna see people commonly use these ways to explain the active voice. In English, the active voice can look something like this:

I studied Korean; (저는) 한국어를 공부했어요 

As you can see, I (the subject) am the one that studied Korean of my own volition. I caused the “Korean studying.” 

The passive voice is when the speaker/subject does not perform/cause/do the action. Instead, the subject is affected by the action/performance. I understand this may be difficult to understand, so I’ll spend more time on this. 

When can you use the passive voice?

When we have more interest in the object that experiences the action

When we don’t know (or don’t want to express) who performed the action (this is an academic loophole when we didn't do the proper research to support a claim)

When we want to emphasize the action!

The passive voice is not grammatically incorrect (take it from a linguist and someone who minored in creative writing). You will hear people say that the passive voice is not good or is ungrammatical (some bs like that). Even in Korean, the passive voice is entirely natural and used in everyday contexts. 

The passive voice in Korean may look like this:

한국어가 (저에게) 공부됐어요; Korean was studied (by me)

The prepositional phrase “by me; 저에게” shows that we know who studied Korean. This may still be confusing, so let me give you another example:

부엌을 청소했어요; I cleaned the kitchen.

부엌이 청소됐어요; The kitchen has been cleaned.

Let’s add more context to the sentence to understand the situation better. 

집에 도착했��� 때 부엌을 청소했어요; When I got home, I cleaned the kitchen (meaning, I saw the dirty kitchen and cleaned it)

집에 도착했을 때 부엌이 청소됐어요; When I got home, the kitchen was cleaned (meaning, someone (unknown or otherwise) cleaned the kitchen when I was out)

*gasp!* Yes, by now, you've noticed that 이/가 goes with passive!

Now, onto your question: what's the difference between -게 하다 and -게 되다?

-게 하다: causative

The causative aspect shows that A causes B to happen. Pretend you have a younger sibling–here are some examples:

동생은 저를 늦게 했어요; My sibling made me late

저는 동생이 문제를 이해하게 했어요; I made them understand the problem

저를 귀찮게 했어요; You (the sibling) bothered me! 

(저는) 동생을 화장품으로 예쁘게 했어요; I made my sibling pretty with makeup

A (동생/저) causes B to happen. B does not mean the recipient (저/동생) of the action – B represents the action. 

-게 되다; to become (passive)

This grammar point shows that B changes A! Let’s use the examples from above. 

동생이 화장품으로 예쁘게 됐어요; my sibling became pretty with makeup

동생 때문에 제가 귀찮게 되었어요; my sibling has been bothering me

문제가 동생에게 이해하게 되었어요; my sibling came to understand the problem [more literally; the problem was understood by my sibling]

동생 때문에 제가 늦게 되었어요; I became late because of my sibling

Now, I'm sure you've noticed that there are two spellings of a conjugated '되다'. The only difference between '되었어요' and '됐어요' is that '됐어요' is a contraction of '되었어요'. You may have other Korean learners attempt to tell you that you write one [되었어요] and speak the other [됐어요]. This isn't not true; it's just not a rule written in stone. You are very much able to write the contracted '됐어요' instead of the regular '되었어요'. In fact, native Korean speakers do this all the time. It would be like saying we shouldn't write any English contractions because it's not grammatically correct--it's just wrong. The rules of '되다' are more complex than just written and spoken, but that's a blog for another day.

I hope this helped answer your question! If you're still confused, don't hesitate to send me another ask or pm me! I'm always open to clearing up any confusion or directing you to a source that may help!

Happy Learning :)

~ SK101

[gendercensus]

I'm one of the participants who has requested the inclusion of a "plural they" option. For me at least, you assessment that this is a matter of conjugation/form is incorrect. It's not a matter of "they/themself" being one option and "they/themselves" being another option--it's that the "they" option in the survey is explicitly labeled as "they (singular)" when it could easily just be "they" without further specification. Regardless of what somebody's preference is for the reflexive form, the fact that the ONLY "they" option in the survey is explicitly listed as "they (singular)" alienates people who view their usage of "they" to be separate from the whole "singular they is grammatical" argument, whether that's because of multiplicity or multigenderedness or because they view their usage as explicitly being a plural form or because they find solace in the numerical ambiguity of "they" as a pronoun set. If the question is simply "do you use any form of 'they' as a pronouns set (regardless of motive)," then there's no reason to list it as "they (singular)" because that unnecessarily ascribes a kind of intent to the usage that isn't actually present for all participants. If the question is specifically about people who perceive their usage of "they" pronouns as fitting into the historical pattern of "they" being used to describe singular individuals, then there should logically be an alternate option which reflects "they (non-singular)."

A couple of people have sent me asks about singular they vs. plural they since the results of the supplementary survey were posted, so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to clarify a few things.

What you’re describing sounds like changing the they/them checkbox option from Singular they - they/them/their/theirs/themself to something more inclusive like They - they/them/their/theirs/(themself or themselves). This would allow plural and non-plural people to choose the same option, and ensure that plural people do not feel alienated by the name “singular they”.

While I do combine some of the typed-in pronoun sets by subject/object to get a better idea of popularity, due to slight natural spelling variation among lesser-documented/-recognised neopronoun sets, I don’t apply this to they/them. I combine in this way for typed-in sets to see if anything is being entered over 1% of the time, but they/them is the most popular option every year by quite a long way. I want to be very specific with popular checkbox options so that people know exactly how to refer to us, and I ran the supplementary survey to make sure I am providing the right reflexive for singular they. (I am!)

If, as you say, singular they and plural they were identical in spelling and the only difference was the name of the set, I would still want to record them separately. People are naming them differently for a reason, and feel that the difference is important, and I want to keep tabs on that for the most popular pronoun set in the survey.

However, singular they and what people seem to be calling plural they do appear to be different beyond just name. Singular they can have the reflexive themself or themselves, whereas plural they pretty much only has the reflexive themselves. This difference seems to be tied to the number of people the speaker is referring to: singular they is used to refer to one person only, so themself is more common, whereas plural they is used to refer to two or more people (as in a group of people or a plural system), so themselves is used almost exclusively.

As the sets are different in name and reflexive and usage, it would be inappropriate to make that checkbox more inclusive in the way that you describe.

If the question is specifically about people who perceive their usage of "they" pronouns as fitting into the historical pattern of "they" being used to describe singular individuals, then there should logically be an alternate option which reflects "they (non-singular)."

In the supplementary survey report I wrote about how people are confusing Spivak (e/em) and Elverson (ey/em). I will be adding the Elverson set in the next survey because people may think e/em and ey/em are the same set, but when asked and presented with both e/em and ey/em people are several times more likely to choose Elverson, which has not previously been a checkbox option.

For me to do the same thing here and add plural they in the next survey I would need to see an indication that plural they (they/them/their/theirs/themselves and referring to two or more people) was being used at least as often as singular they (they/them/their/theirs/themself and referring to one person). The supplementary survey results didn’t suggest to me that this was the case; 8% of participants were plural, and of those plural participants most still preferred the reflexive themself - the reflexive that is typically only seen in singular they, referring to only one person.

So the same rule has to apply here as to any other pronoun variation. If you feel strongly that you don’t want to be referred to as themself or using a pronoun set called “singular they”, or if you otherwise want your pronoun set to be counted separately, don’t check that checkbox. If you want to be referred to as themselves or with a pronoun set called “plural they”, you need to choose “a pronoun set not listed here” and then type your pronoun set into the boxes. If that set is entered by over 1% of participants it will be added to the checkbox list next year.

I do acknowledge that not seeing one’s preferred pronoun set on the checkbox list can feel alienating. Anyone, including people who are not plural, may feel alienated in that situation, and in 2021 1.1% of participants chose only “a pronoun set not listed here” in the checkbox options, meaning in order to be represented in the results they would have needed to type their pronoun set. This included but was not limited to people who prefer a non-singular version of they/them.

I have said this in other blog posts, and it bears repeating. A term or pronoun doesn’t become "recognised” as real/valid when it’s added to a checkbox list. It can feel validating to see yourself in that checkbox list, but when the survey closes and everything is counted, anything that is typed in is also counted and included on lists with percentages. Anyone can download the spreadsheet and find out how many other people typed in the same identity or the same pronoun set.

[languagehealing]

Greek Verbs: Simple Past Tense

Part 2 | This is not an exhaustive guide, as I may have left things out, either accidentally or intentionally to save space. This post is made with the assumption you are already familiar with the content from Part 1. If not, navigate to my grammar page!

Key Notes: The Greek simple past tense is the second most important verb tense in Greek. While the Present Tense and other verb tenses are formed with the Present Stem, this tense has its own stem, and this second stem is the basis for other tenses as well.

Usage of the Αόριστος

The Aorist is only for the simple past. This means it can be used for sentences like "I played" but not "I was playing." The latter is another tense that will be covered in a future post. Put simply, it is a one-time event that happened in the past.

Forming the Αόριστος

The regular Aorist subject endings are:

(εγώ) -α | (εμείς) -αμε

(εσύ) -ες | (εσείς) -ατε

(αυτός) -ε | (αυτοί) -αν

Unlike the present tense, which has 7 conjugation groups, these are the only endings for this tense, excluding 1 fully irregular verb.

The tricky part is forming the stem, which has multiple steps and many irregularities. Unfortunately, a lot of these irregularities must be memorized as you encounter them, as I cannot fully list out every single one. There are also some stylistic versions of conjugating that I also can't fully list out either. Practice makes perfect!

Like the present tense, our only fully irregular verb is είμαι.

Εγώ ήμουν | Εμείς ήμαστε

Εσύ ήσουν | Εσείς ήσαστε

Αυτός ήταν | Αυτοί ήταν

Regular A1 Verbs

We will use Μαγειρεύω (To Cook, A1) as our example. First, find the unaccented Present stem by dropping the -ω, making Μαγειρευ-.

Change the last letter/grouping of the Present stem according to the following guidelines, memorizing irregularities as you use them, to create the Aorist stem. Still leave it unaccented for now.

-τ, -θ, or -ν become -σ

-ζ becomes -σ or -ξ (Memorization)

-π, -β, -φ, -πτ, or -φτ become -ψ

-αυ or -ευ become -αψ or -εψ, some stylistically use -αυσ or -ευσ

-κ, -γ, -γγ, -χ, -χν, -σσ, or -ττ become -ξ

Other non-specified letters will likely change into a -σ or will just be otherwise irregular without any clear rule, and require memorization.

With this, we change our present stem into Μαγειρεψ-, which is the Aorist stem. Since this is a fully regular example of the Aorist, we can go ahead and add our endings already. However, one thing about the Aorist is that when we add our accents, they will always be on the 3rd to last syllable, so notice how it moves around a bit.

Εγώ μαγείρεψα | Εμείς μαγειρέψαμε

Εσύ μαγείρεψες | Εσείς μαγειρέψατε

Αυτός μαγείρεψε | Αυτοί μαγείρεψαν

Regular A2/3 Verbs

Again, we will start by finding our unaccented Present stem. However, for the purpose of forming the Aorist, you will assimilate the A2 -άω into -ώ, which will be dropped. Our example for this one is Αγαπάω (To Love, A2), which becomes Αγαπ-.

For these verbs, to make the Aorist stem, you do not change any letters, but instead just add to the stem. The most common stem extension is -ησ. However, you may also see -ασ, -εσ, -υσ, -ηξ, -εξ, or -αξ. This is another matter of memorization. Our example verb does use this most common extension, so our Aorist stem is Αγαπησ-. Since we are still using Regular examples, we are good to add our endings now, moving the accent as needed to remain on the 3rd to last syllable.

Εγώ αγάπησα | Εμείς αγαπήσαμε

Εσύ αγάπησες | Εσείς αγαπήσατε

Αυτός αγάπησε | Αυτοί αγάπησαν

Regular B1 Verbs

We will use Επισκέπτομαι (To Visit, B1) as our example. To find the Present stem, we drop not only the -μαι but also the supplemental letter that distinguishes each B grouping, -ομαι in this case, leaving our unaccented Present stem as Επισκεπτ-.

For this one, there is a three step change that must happen. First, follow the stem changes outlined in "Regular A1 Verbs". With this, our stem becomes Επισκεψ-.

Second, once you have that ending, change it again, using these guidelines, which further turns our verb into Επισκεφτ-.

-σ becomes -θ or -στ (Memorization)

-ξ becomes -χτ

-ψ becomes -φτ or -φθ (Memorization, partially stylistic)

-αψ or -εψ become -αυτ or -ευτ

Other irregularities may become -νθ as well (memorization)

Third, then take whatever newly formed stem you have, and add on -ηκ, regardless of what changes from the above lists you did.

With this, our fully formed Aorist stem is Επισκεφτηκ-. Now we add our endings, still keeping the accent on the 3rd to last syllable.

Εγώ επισκέφτηκα | Εμείς επισκεφτήκαμε

Εσύ επισκέφτηκες | Εσείς επισκεφτήκατε

Αυτός επισκέφτηκε | Αυτοί επισκέφτηκαν

Regular Β2/3/4 Verbs

You can guess what we do first. Drop not only the -μαι but also the supplemental letter(s) that distinguishes each B grouping. For this example I'll use Κοιμάμαι (To Sleep, B2), and my unaccented Present stem is Κοιμ-.

Like the A2/3 Aorist verbs, we just have a stem extension with no changes, but our extension now is two parts. The most common first stem extension is -ηθ. However, you may also see -εθ, -εστ, -αστ, -αχτ, or -ηχτ, which again, must be memorized. Our example does use the most common one, becoming Κοιμηθ-.

Then the second stem extension, regardless of what your first one was, is going to be -ηκ again, like with the Aorist B1. With our full stem as Κοιμηθηκ- we add the endings, moving the accent as needed to remain on the 3rd to last syllable.

Εγώ κοιμήθηκα | Εμείς κοιμηθήκαμε

Εσύ κοιμήθηκες | Εσείς κοιμηθήκατε

Αυτός κοιμήθηκε | Αυτοί κοιμήθηκαν

Augmented Έ-

This is a side rule that pretty much only affects A-Type verbs. Throughout this whole post, I have noted repeatedly that the accent goes on the 3rd to last syllable. Well, let's consider the verb Ζω (To Live/Be Alive, A3) and go through the regular process:

Isolate Present stem: Ζ-

Add stem extension: Ζησ-

Add regular endings: Ζησα, Ζησες, Ζησε, Ζησαμε, Ζησατε, Ζησαν

Accent each conjugation on the third to last syllable: Ζησα, Ζησες, Ζησε, Ζήσαμε, Ζήσατε, Ζησαν

We've hit a problem. Only the 1st and 2nd person plural forms have a 3rd to last syllable that can be accented, all the others are only two syllables long. This does not mean that the 3rd to last syllable accent rule is discarded - it means that a 3rd to last syllable will be created. This is done by adding on an έ-. The full, correct, conjugation is below demonstrating this.

Εγώ έζησα | Εμείς ζήσαμε

Εσύ έζησες | Εσείς ζήσατε

Αυτός έζησε | Αυτοί έζησαν

However, if a verb already starts with an ε-, and this letter will be accented in the Aorist, you will change it from an έ- to an ή-. This does not apply to verbs where you added the augmented έ-, only if the verb originally had that letter. Example: Ελπίζω (To Hope, A1).

Isolate Present stem: Ελπιζ

Change stem ending: Ελπισ

Add regular endings: Ελπισα, Ελπισες, Ελπισε, Ελπισαμε, Ελπισατε, Ελπισαν

Accent each conjugation on the third to last syllable: Έλπισα, Έλπισες, Έλπισε, Ελπίσαμε, Ελπίσατε, Έλπισαν

To fix our wrong conjugations in red, just follow the side rule to change them to an ή-.

Εγώ ήλπισα | Εμείς ελπίσαμε

Εσύ ήλπισες | Εσείς ελπίσατε

Αυτός ήλπισε | Αυτοί ήλπισαν

Common Irregular Stems

Finally, there are a good handful of verbs who have stems that are so irregular, there is no point trying to come up with rules to explain them. While not an exhaustive list, here are some of those common irregular Aorist verbal stems. While the stems are fully irregular, they do use the regular Aorist endings, and are listed with the εγώ ending.

είχα - I had (έχω)

ήπια - I drank (πίνω)

ήρθα - I came (έρχομαι)

έφαγα - I ate (τρώω)

έκανα - I did (κάνω)

θέλησα - I wanted (θέλω)

είπα - I said (λέω)

είδα - I saw (βλέπω)

πήγα - I went (πηγαίνω)

And that concludes our lesson on the Aorist! This is the most difficult tense for most learners, so take your time with it and don't be afraid to look things up and double check yourself!

[bestworstcase]

How'd you learn so much about languages, if you don't mind me asking? I've always wanted to try my hand at building a language of my own, but never had even the faintest clue of where to start and how to do it correctly

i never mind questions!!

anyway, i don’t know a lot about languages, really. i know enough to leverage a very powerful conlang-building tool to get a result that feels Real Enough For Fantasy, which is very different from having true expertise in linguistics, which are very complicated and very confusing. i have wikipedia-level knowledge, but as a writer that’s really all you need, though of course genuine expertise or experience is always helpful.

some tips for expanding your general knowledge:

familiarize yourself with IPA notation, phonemes, and basic phonological concepts — vulgarlang actually has a decent basic rundown of this here and an IPA chart with audio here. this is important because the first thing you need to know about a language is what phonemes it uses.

pick a language. look it up on wikipedia. read the whole article, and look up any terms you don’t understand. pay attention not just to the discussions of syntax, morphology, spelling, phonology, but also to any information about the historical and cultural context of the language itself. culture is intrinsically linked to language, and this is something to keep in the back of your mind when you’re building a conlang. repeat this step frequently, with many different languages.

study the grammar of any languages you speak. this is especially important if you are a native english speaker who grew up in the united states in the last couple decades, because that means you probably weren’t taught english grammar in school beyond the absolute basics. a good way to strengthen your understanding of grammar in that case is actually to go looking for ESL resources, like this.

the goal here isn’t to become An Expert but rather to just get yourself a basic grasp of the fundamental building blocks that make up a language, so you can take them apart and put them back together in a naturalistic way.

now as for the actual process of conlanging, that goes basically like this:

#1: decide on phonemes and orthography, ie what the sounds are and how they are spelled. for example, here’s the consonants saporian uses (phonetic IPA on top, spelling on bottom)

k | χ | d | ð | ʝ | x | l | m | n | p | ɾ | s | ɕ | ʃ | t | θ | z | ʑ | ʒ c | ch| d | dh| gh| h | l | m | n | p | r | s | ś | sh| t | th| z | ź | zh

and there’s the broad vowels (same deal): 

a | ɑ | ʏ | ɪ | ɔ a | ā | ē | ī | o

and the slender vowels: 

æ| ɛ | i | eɪ̯ a | e | i | ae/ay

(*saporian has something called vowel harmony, which is where you have two classes of vowels that must match within a word. so in saporian every word is either broad, with broad vowels, or slender, and all prefixes/suffixes have a broad and slender version, there’s rules for compounding mismatched words etc. etc.)

(**eɪ̯ is a diphthong and it makes the sound “ay” as in “day.” you can find every other character here on an IPA chart if you’re interested in the pronunciation.) 

at this stage you also want to decide what, if any, illegal combinations there are: are there sounds that are never allowed to go together in a word? for example, in saporian, you can’t have two fricatives in a row [fricatives being ch, dh, gh, h, s, ś, sh, th, z, ź, zh]. 

and finally, what kind of sound changes are there? for example in saporian, the phoneme “k” changes into a “χ” (c→ch) at the end of a word and when it occurs in front of a broad vowel other than ɔ (o) or the slender vowels ɛ and i. or as another example, in english the letter “c” turns from a k into an s if it’s before the letter e or i. [i think in general with a conlang, you should apply sound change rules with an eye towards making things easier to pronounce]

this all gives you the basic “sound” of a language. again using saporian as an example—notice how many of the consonants here are fricatives? that makes saporian a very sibilant, somewhat phlegmy language. 

#2: decide on word structure. what sounds and combinations of sounds tend to occur at the beginning of words? in the middle? at the end? does your language have a consistent stress pattern and if so what is it (and if not, does stress encode lexical meaning—are there words that are otherwise identical but have different meanings based on where they’re stressed? eg in saporian—cathay (cathAY) is the god of the dead, but cáthay (CATHay) is the number five.) 

#3: based on all this, start creating words. [or pop these settings into vulgarlang and let it generate words for you.] if you’re creating words by hand, think about things like shared etymological roots and how a given word can be morphed into other, related words, like this: 

Turn a Verb into an Adjective resulting from the Verb to torture → tortured Remove the infinitive ending. Shift the vowels (broad ↔ slender). Turn a Verb into an Adjective causing the Verb to torture → torturous Remove the infinitive ending. Shift the vowels. Append the appropriate suffix (-ɪʃ or -iʃ). Turn a Verb into a Noun that is the act of the Verb to torture → torture Remove the infinitive ending. Turn a Verb into a Noun that is the product of the Verb to torture → trauma Remove the infinitive ending. Append the appropriate suffix (-ɑn or -æn). Turn a Verb into a Noun that is doing the Verb to torture → torturer Remove the infinitive ending. Append the appropriate suffix (-aɾ or -eɪ̯ɾ).

this part is important because it produces a language that feels cohesive and like something that could have developed naturally over time. words that are related to each other should sound similar to each other. if you’re using vulgarlang you can do this part automatically by setting up affixes, which are pretty impressively robust in terms of what you can do with a bit of regex and basic understanding of how if/then/else statements:

VERB.TO.PRODUCT.NOUN = IF (ɪʝ)# THEN (ɪʝ) > ɑn IF (iɾ)# THEN (iɾ) > æn IF (æm)# THEN (æm) > æn IF (eɪ̯)# THEN eɪ̯ >> æn IF (i|ɛ|æ)# THEN V >> æn IF (i|ɛ|æ) THEN -æn IF (a|ɔ|ɪ|ʏ|ɑ)# THEN V >> ɑn IF (a|ɔ|ɪ|ʏ|ɑ) THEN -ɑn "to torture → torture Remove the infinitive ending. Append the appropriate suffix (-ɑn or -æn).

#4: at this stage you also want to start thinking about grammar. what is the basic word order—subject-verb-object, like in english? VSO? OSV? SOV?—and what about other parts of speech? do adjectives come before or after the nouns they modify? what about adverbs? 

how does your language do adpositions—are they prepositions (like in english) or postpositions, or is that meaning conveyed in other ways (eg through verb conjugation, noun case, or affixes?) 

how do you create questions? how do you negate a phrase? how does counting work? how do you encode temporal or spatial meaning? 

how does noun declension work in your language, and how many different noun cases are there? what about verb conjugation—do you have just one conjugation for your basic tenses, or does additional information get encoded in a conjugated verb (ie english i ran, you ran, he ran, we ran, you all ran, they ran, vs german ich lief, du liefst, er lief, wir liefen, ihr lieft, sie/Sie liefen). how are plurals created? 

does your language have an informal and formal you? and what other pronouns are there? (for example, saporian has four gendered third person pronouns: za (she), śa (he), źa (neuter), and ān (it)—but only one “you,” sā (singular) and dhām (plural), because formality/respect is encoded through different means.) 

#5: finally, what are some exceptions to the rules? all real languages have them. are there irregular verbs, and if so how are they conjugated? are there situations in which morphological or phonological rules don’t apply? i would keep this part pretty simple, but do try to work in a small handful of exceptions because it does make a conlang feel a lot more real.

for example: 

in saporian, most adverbs begin with the prefix ɕʏ- (śē-) or ɕɛ- (śe-), but a handful [those beginning with any vowel or x (h), unless they are derived from an adjective] do not. so āram (now) and hagh (maybe/perhaps) are adverbs that lack the prefix.

and with most affixes, the prefix or suffix replaces the vowel at the beginning or end of the word being affixed, but the two honorific prefixes [ʒa- (zha-) or ʒæ- (zha-), kɾʏ- (crē-) or kɾɛ- (cre-)] instead lose their vowels if they’re being affixed to a word that begins with a vowel. 

and i’ve been kicking around ideas for a handful of irregular verbs that don’t end with the three standard infinitive endings [-ɪʝ (-īgh), iɾ (-ir), or -æm (-am)] and are conjugated differently but i haven’t settled on precisely how yet so For Now those irregular verbs still take the standard conjugation suffixes. 

[thequirkdetective]

Investigation 2 (15/05/2020): All for One – All for One

Spoilers: season 3

Note: Throughout this investigation, ‘All for One’ will refer to the person, and ‘AfO’ will refer to the quirk

 For the next investigation, I decided to look at a villain quirk. At first, I wanted to investigate Decay – Tomura Shigaraki’s quirk – but realised too late that the research would involve exposure to many, many manga plot points not yet covered by the anime. Since I have not yet read the manga, I will instead look into the next best big bad in the series so far – All for One – whilst trying desperately to forget all of the spoilers I saw. Since All for One is now dead (in both the anime[1] and manga as far as I know), spoilers should not be an issue. His quirk also allows me to talk about the causation and mechanic of (almost) every quirk in the series – genetics.

(Please note I am not a geneticist. My knowledge of genetics is very sparse, as you may have guessed from the fact that I am not using it not for the good of humanity but instead for a Tumblr post about My Hero Academia. If you are a geneticist, I am incredibly sorry for butchering your subject of study. If you are a supervillain trying to steal people’s genes, this is not how that really works. And also, that’s bad. Don’t do that.)

AfO allows the user to take the quirk of others from contact with them, as well as give any quirk that the user has onto someone else in the same manner[2]. Quirks are not fully explained in the anime, simply stated as “the next stage in human evolution”, and it is even explicitly stated “no-one knew what was causing these quirks”[3]. However, due to the link with evolution, it is highly probable that the quirks are caused by genetic mutation. There could be a number of causes for this mutation, such as a virus, high levels of pollution, increased UV levels, or any other mutagen. If this is the case and quirks are genetic mutations, then AfO allows the alteration of a person’s DNA. The reading and writing of DNA withing cells is still not fully understood, but it is known that DNA encodes amino acid sequences that are synthesised into proteins. This is the sole function of DNA, but the number and complexity of proteins it can encode, as well as additional features that allow it to carry out its function more effectively are what make it so essential for life.

DNA is much more complicated than this incredibly brief explanation shows, but essentially AfO can do two things: 1) Find out which gene(s) cause the quirk to be exhibited, 2) replicate those genes in every cell of his own body / the body of chosen recipient, and 3)  remove the genes from the victim’s body without causing any damage to the surrounding genetic material. Whether All for One is giving or receiving the quirk (it is, naturally, arbitrary), I will usually assume he is receiving it for the sake of consistency.

The first is relatively easy, since the quirk gene would have certain defining traits, including rarity (AfO could check the DNA against a database of other victims), and lack of inhibition. If a sample of skin were taken for a victim, the DNA could be accessed by AfO, examined, and the gene identified.

Now for figuring out how AfO takes the gene from the victim, and how the gene is given to the recipient. The latter is the easiest to theorize about, so we’ll tackle it first. It is possible that the quirk genes are not entirely removed from the victim, but are instead inhibited. Genes are inhibited all the time during the normal functioning of DNA, but this is usually by another gene. It is possible another gene is inserted into the person, but the feasibility inserting genes into others will be explored when tackling how All for One gains the quirk. Instead, it could be that a molecule is bonded to the gene. Genetic inhibition this way is categoric of some poisonous mushrooms, notably the Destroying Angel, Amanita bisporigera, which contains amatoxin. This inhibits cells’ ability to read DNA, but it works by binding to the protein that reads the DNA (RNA polymerase II), not the DNA that is being read. Instead, a protein that binds to the gene is needed, otherwise the victim will simply have the symptoms of amatoxin poison, and die. A possible contender is one that mimics the RNA copy of the gene that is created whenever the gene is ‘used’, which would bind permanently to the bases. Two are needed, each having the opposite bases of the other in order to bind to both strands of the double helix. However, this only works when the DNA is opened. For that to happen, the DNA must be being read. If three proteins are used, one to open the gene, and the other two to bind to the strands, then the gene could be rendered unusable.  However, advances in genetic engineering have given rise to CRISPR-cas9, a programmable protein that can selectively remove strands of DNA, and allows only 1 protein to be used. The molecule can remove DNA sections, and cause a cell’s repair proteins to mend the DNA, whilst also adding sections of DNA. The ability of CRISPR to add sections is useful for All for One gaining the quirk, whilst the victim can have the relevant section of DNA removed by a different CRISPR molecule.

CRISPR-cas9 is ‘programmed’ by changing its nucleotide bases, causing it to bind to different sections of DNA. Therefore. AfO needs to create a custom CRISPR molecule for every use of the quirk. This can be done if a section of the victim’s DNA is acquired, and it may be possible for CRISPR to be created in cells in a similar way to protein synthesis, where a complementary RNA copy of the gene is made, before being passed to a ribosome, where complementary codons are attracted to the RNA. If the RNA copy is passed to a CRISPR molecule, that molecule will then bind to any complementary gene, and since the RNA was created due to it being complementary to the quirk gene, the CRISPR molecule will bind to the victim’s quirk gene.

This also allows easy reproduction of the quirk gene since a copy of it has been acquired and reproduced already. AfO just needs to spread the gene throughout All for One’s cells and add it to the nucleic DNA. This is seen most commonly in bacteria, and they achieve it any one of three ways: transformation, where a bacterium picks up a loose section of DNA from its environment, transduction, where a virus randomly moves a plasmid from one bacteria to another, and conjugation is where two bacteria use pili to replicate and share DNA.

Conjugation seems promising. Once any one cell in All for One’s body contains the new gene, it could be spread quickly throughout the whole body. However, it does need to exist at least for a short while as an isolated strand, to be picked up and replicated by a cell’s pilus.

The next option is transformation, where specialised cells in All for One’s body pick up the gene and begin to replicate it, releasing copies into the bloodstream to be transformed into all other cells. This is relatively easy for each individual cell, and only needs All for One to have lymph node-like structures for gene replication.

However, all of these have the drawback of not allowing quirks to be passed from All for One to others. This can be solved by transduction. Suppose AfO creates two viruses, one that strips the quirk gene from the victim’s cells, and the other that adds the gene to All for One’s cells. The first can simply be a carrier of a specialised CRISPR molecule that can remove the quirk gene. The virus also needs to replicate itself, and that can be done by every infectious virus, so is not really an issue. Another virus is then needed that is a carrier of a different CRISPR molecule, and the quirk gene, so that the gene can be inserted into All for One’s DNA. This virus also needs to reproduce, in the same fashion as other viruses.

This method gives the added benefit of side effects. In the anime, the side effects of AfO, as seen in his victims, are drowsiness and nausea. These symptoms could be caused by two different causes (or both in tandem). The first is the immune response the viral infection that removes their quirk gene. The second the removal of the gene itself, since serendipitously, similar symptoms are shown in the first stages of amatoxin poisoning via Destroying Angel mushrooms. The later symptoms are caused by the removal of cells’ ability to divide, so they would not be caused by AfO.

However, the removal of genes in general has a few drawbacks, namely any quirk that causes a change in the body’s cells. In the same way that inhibiting the gene for hair colour won’t change someone’s hair colour immediately, people with altered bodies would only slowly feel the effects of AfO. The side-effects would hit as fast as anyone else’s, but their bodily changes would only set in over time, as their cells divided. This unfortunately has a high chance of bodily disfigurement, since at any one point some fraction of a person’s cells would be ‘normal’, and the other half quirk-exhibiting, which could lead to a change in bodly structure as the body regrows.

To conclude, AfO contains a few separate systems. All for One begins to use his quirk by in some way acquiring the DNA of the victim, probably via touch. The DNA in the sample is examined against a database of other victims’ genetic material, and the quirk-causing gene is found. A CRISPR molecule removes the gene, (we’ll call it CRISPR 1), and the victim is infected with viruses containing copies of CRISPR 1, which divide rapidly and strip the cells of the quirk gene. Next, a CRISPR molecule that can alter All for One’s DNA (CRISPR 2) is contained within another virus containing the gene. This spreads through his body, inserting the gene into his cell’s DNA. At this point, the victim begins to feel the effects of both the viral infection and the genetic tampering, and becomes faint and nauseous, whilst All for One gains mild symptoms from the viral infection. As the viruses spread through the two bodies, the victim’s quirk is stripped from their DNA to become waste protein, which is then disposed of by the body, whilst All for One’s cell’s gain the quirk as the nucleic DNA is cut, the new gene inserted, and the whole strand mended together.

[1] Season 3 episode 49: ‘One for All’

[2] Season 2 episode 33: ‘Listen Up!! A Tale from the Past’

[3] Season 1 episode 1: ‘Izuku Midoriya: Origin’

If you liked this investigation and want to have a say in the next one, then make sure to send a recommendation for which quirk should be investigated next!

[angst-fairygodmother]

Sing Once Again With Me: Madame Giry’s Tale (The Witcher; A Phantom of the Opera AU)

A/N: Alternate title: Yennefer explains. This was a hard chapter for me, and a turning point in the story, because I had to decide if we were dealing with a man or a monster. Word Count: 1370 Content Warning: None; Exposition heavy Taglist: @ficsandcatsandficsandcats​ @joz-stankovich​ @sennextheassasinkingoflight​ Previous Chapter: Masquerade/Why So Silent Cross-posted to AO3: here

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Yennefer stared the guard down with a look somewhere between wry and the kind of bored where people start disappearing without a trace. He appeared to be reading the papers she brought with her for the fourth time.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” she snapped. “Are you going to let me see the prisoner or not?”

“You know, we don’t allow…conjugal visits until the person has been condemned.”

“You know,” she mocked his tone near perfectly. “I could make your death incredibly painful.”

The guard swallowed nervously and rushed to stand and lead her back into the heart of the prison. Geralt sat, head bowed over his knees, on the rough straw pallet in the darkest, dankest cell in the building. He was still in his party clothes, though the doublet was unbuttoned, his hair unbraided, and in general he looked worse for wear. In fact, as she inspected the witcher, Yennefer guessed that he had been subjected to torture, or at least a harsh beating, more than once in the days since his arrest.

“There is to be a trial,” she told him without preamble. “Jaskier’s spent a year’s worth of earnings to find you a defense.”

Geralt looked up, startled by her voice as it echoed against the stone, briefly considering that she was just an illusion. Only the nonsense she spoke told him she might, might be real.

“Whose earnings?” he asked, voice cracking with disuse. “I know well enough that he doesn’t save money.”

“He took an advance. He indebted himself to the music hall for you. So you had better not screw it up.”

Shame made Geralt drop his head once more, staring at the hands he saw stained with blood even if no one else did, before turning back to the sorceress.

“Tell me what’s going on here Yennefer.”

“There haven’t been any new sightings or events since the masquerade…everyone is rehearsing the Phantom’s show because they’re too frightened not to. Most people don’t believe that you’re him, but there’s still enough people pushing the narrative that they won’t just release you.”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it. The creature, spirit, whatever. Tell me about it.”

“What makes you think…” she was cut off by Geralt’s snarl.

“Your wife implied that you know more than you’re letting on Yennefer. And when she wasn’t busy vaguely threatening me with piscine nicknames, she also told me how much you’ve come to care about Jaskier. I can’t protect him, or Y/N, or anyone else, if I don’t have answers. Please Yen?”

She sighed. “Very well. I hate it when you’re right.” She rubbed one hand against her temple in frustration. “I don’t know Valdo Marx, though I spent enough time in courts to be familiar with him by reputation. And of course, from listening to Jaskier’s stories.”

Geralt raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“He used to perform at the music hall; he was their lead for years. Until a few years ago when the city was sacked…”

“Nilfgaard,” Geralt growled, unsurprised that the empire was the root of yet another problem in his life.

“By Cintra.” Yennefer corrected pointedly. “And the music hall was all but destroyed. Valdo Marx was listed dead after everything was over, but they never actually found his body.”

“So you think that the thing beneath the music hall could actually be Valdo Marx?”

“Well no. Not just him…”

Geralt sighed in frustration. Even after all this time, with everything at stake, she was still holding out on him.

“I think, and I could be wrong, I haven’t been able to find proof, that Valdo Marx merged with something much eviler, or was taken over by it. I might even know the creature that is…inhabiting him.” She turned away from Geralt’s piercing gaze, wrapping one arm across her chest to grip the folded elbow of the other. “I brought it here when I was younger and…stupider.”

Geralt sighed, knowing that she was referring to the years of her desperate, reckless quest to undo her sterilization by Aretuza.

“I came here chasing a rumor, and because it wasn’t a city considered important enough for the Brotherhood to bother with. There was supposedly a creature here, a spirit older than the city, maybe even older than humanity. It was said to be made of pure chaos, to be dark and powerful, to hold sway over the fabric of reality, to play with life and death like one might light matches just to let them burn out. I thought…if I could bind the creature to a single place for a while, I could bargain with it.”

“Yennefer…” the tone of Geralt’s voice bored a little too close to pity for her taste and she shot him a glare.

“It worked. I was able to bind the spirit, to a point in the catacombs that is now long buried under the basement of the music hall. When I left, I didn’t bother to consider the spirit; I had no more use for it, and didn’t care what happened. That is part of why I took the position here, to make up for that. But when I went down, it was gone, and it left behind no violent sign of escape. I thought it must have been freed. So I waited. And now all of this happening, I can’t buy as a coincidence.”

She began to pace, the swishing of her skirt highlighting her agitation.

“I didn’t bind the spirit alone though. I had help. It would have been too powerful otherwise, overwhelmed me. And after the djinn…well I did learn. There were three other mages who helped me do it, but I don’t think we can turn to any of them to help undo it. Sabrina is dealing with something of her own; Istredd’s lost behind Nilfgaardian lines. And Triss …is soft. I think she would view the creature as a something to save instead of destroy. We have to do this ourselves.”

She stopped, facing Geralt head on and meeting his gilded eyes in all their anger.

“I don’t know how or why it merged with Valdo Marx. He may have been trying to escape or survive the attack and accidentally released or he may have done it intentionally. But it is some shadow of his memories that is why the creature has fixated as it has. Having human vessel is making it more dangerous and unpredictable than it would have been alone.”

“If something happens to Jaskier…” the threat did not need to be finished, his tone said enough.

She laughed, harsh and mirthless. “I am less afraid of your wrath than I am of my own self-hatred, should anyone else come to harm from this.” She met his sharp gaze with one of her own, burning equal parts rage and fear. “I’ve no love or loyalty left to the spirit Geralt. And if you seek to destroy it, I’ll help you. But if at any point it comes to a choice between you or her, I will not lose Y/N.”

“I understand Yennefer. I would never ask…” his shoulders slumped, knowing that he was probably lying even as he spoke.

She reached through the bars to give his hand a gentle squeeze before turning sharply on her heel and returning to the prison office.

“You have a single piece of easily planted evidence,” she accused the guard captain before she was even through the door completely. “The rest of your case is based on conjecture and prejudice.”

“Excuse me?” the guard captain snapped, standing from his desk and blustering, fat walrus-like mustache wobbling. “How dare you barge in here?!”

She looked him up and down and narrowed her eyes. “Do you really want it getting around that you arrested and held a man for murder based on a single word from the lyrics of a ballad?”

“The trial hasn’t taken place yet. What would you have me do, Mistress…?” he waved his hand as if waiting for her name.

“Yennefer of Vengerberg.” She smiled somewhat smugly as he paled. “Release the witcher…into my watchful custody. I’ll ensure he shows up for the trial, and we can put him to use in the meantime.”

[alixofagnia]

OpheThorn II: A Slightly Less Rambling Analysis

The Missing of Clairdelune is a superb second installment in The Mirror Visitor quartet. We get more of what we loved about the first book, more pieces to the larger existential puzzle, yet it smartly stops short of resolving too much so that we stay invested for the third episode. Christelle Dabos allows herself slightly more exposition. But the novel really succeeds by continuing to follow the less-is-more mantra and the showing vs. telling style.

As you may or may not recall, after I finished A Winter’s Promise, I spent an embarrassing amount of time copy/pasting excerpts from this book into Google Translate with the result that I really did spoil a lot of the OpheThorn parts for myself—which I don’t exactly regret. But, essentially, it left me with a bit less to say. I had a good response to my first OpheThorn analysis (it’s here and thank you for all the kind words), so I did think that I’d like to put something out about Clairdelune as well, I just wasn’t sure what. After some consideration (and a re-read), I do have some more thoughts about OpheThorn.

So, here we go.

[Spoilers included this time]

[All fanart images credited to @patricialyfoung]

Intro

Since Clairdelune begins right where Promise concluded, Ophelia is still pissed at Thorn, while Thorn is still pining for Ophelia albeit in his uniquely aloof way. The only real thing that’s made me scratch my head with them is the severity of Ophelia’s anger/resentment over Thorn having withheld his true ambitions from her and her finding out about them from someone else. I just think it’s a little bit of a weak conflict for them given how pragmatic they are. I get that it’s the culmination of a frustrating situation. But I still think it’s weak.

So, once again the two begin on shaky ground, a space they occupy for the bulk of the novel. They are, at least, together a bit more than before and there’s all sorts of lovely tension, mostly caused by Thorn’s inelegant method of wooing compounded by Ophelia’s stubborn refusal to give him an inch. Thorn’s growing feelings for Ophelia were subtly hinted at in Promise and they become more apparent here, particularly when juxtaposed against Ophelia’s stubborn denial of hers for him.

And I just adore the cover art! Don’t you?

Thorn and Autism Spectrum Disorder

This is what I want to discuss. I may be alone in this, but it seems like Thorn could be coded as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It occurred to me while I was reading Promise and this time around, I feel comfortable in taking that perspective on Thorn. I like the notion of applying an ASD reading to his character because it explains a few descriptive quirks and makes him more than a “weirdo” or “freak”, which is reductive labeling. When considering his interactions with other characters and their reactions to him, this reading lends an added layer to his actions and overall development.

But let me make something clear.

This book isn’t about ASD, so I’m not suggesting that Dabos intended to write Thorn as having ASD or is trying to make a statement in any way on the disorder, and I’m cautious about how I use this idea to understand the character. This is purely my own speculation/take on the character.

I also want to be clear that I don’t have any personal experience with the disorder. I’ve met people with autism and ASD and they were all very different from each other and had very different needs. So, I’m largely making connections with textbook examples of ASD and they’re maybe a little bit broad because as I said it isn’t explicitly made clear that Thorn has ASD. I may very likely err in my understanding of this disorder. If that’s the case, I apologize in advance and please do correct me or give me your own opinion on this idea.

Here’s an overview from the webpage of the national institute of mental health:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior. Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is said to be a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a guide created by the American Psychiatric Association used to diagnose mental disorders, people with ASD have:

Difficulty with communication and interaction with other people

Restricted interests and repetitive behaviors

Symptoms that hurt the person’s ability to function properly in school, work, and other areas of life

Autism is known as a ��spectrum” disorder because there is wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms people experience. Although ASD can be a lifelong disorder, treatments and services can improve a person’s symptoms and ability to function.

It’s been shown repeatedly that it’s very difficult for Thorn to be an inviting and easy-going person, even with people he cares about. Thorn struggles with  communication, is emotionally suppressed, is both uncaring and at times completely unaware of how he presents himself socially, and obsessively consults his pocket watch, particularly when he’s at a loss for words or bored, or otherwise ready to get the hell out of any situation that causes him anxiety. He’s highly intelligent, fixated on order and organization, and has a history (as we know from Promise and learn more about in Clairdelune) of meeting intense emotion with impulsive violence.

Here’s a list (also from the NIMH website) of common symptoms:

Making little or inconsistent eye contact

Tending not to look at or listen to people

Rarely sharing enjoyment of objects or activities by pointing or showing things to others

Failing to, or being slow to, respond to someone calling their name or to other verbal attempts to gain attention

Having difficulties with the back and forth of conversation

Often talking at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not interested or without giving others a chance to respond

Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is being said

Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound sing-song or flat and robot-like

Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to predict or understand other people’s actions

Repeating certain behaviors or having unusual behaviors. For example, repeating words or phrases, a behavior called echolalia

Having a lasting intense interest in certain topics, such as numbers, details, or facts

Having overly focused interests, such as with moving objects or parts of objects

Getting upset by slight changes in a routine

Being more or less sensitive than other people to sensory input, such as light, noise, clothing, or temperature

People with ASD may also experience sleep problems and irritability. Although people with ASD experience many challenges, they may also have many strengths including:

Being able to learn things in detail and remember information for long periods of time

Being strong visual and auditory learners

Excelling in math, science, music, or art

One can’t help but notice that we can check several of these points off for Thorn. Not all, certainly, but I’m sure you can call to mind some of your own examples of him exhibiting many of these behaviors repeatedly.

Where Does Ophelia Fit In?

Thorn has always treated his relationship with Ophelia in a very business-like manner, almost like a negotiation, which makes sense within the context of an arranged marriage. At the novel’s start, Thorn wishes to make amends, but Ophelia makes it very clear that she will not forgive him for his lies and neglect. His response to her is rather clinical.

“We simply can’t allow ourselves to be enemies,” cut in Thorn. “You’re making my life difficult with your resentment; it’s imperative that we become reconciled. […] Meet me at the Treasury, insult me, slap me, smash a plate over my head if you feel like it, and then let’s never speak of it again. Name your day. This Thursday would suit me.” [65]

I suppose this is a rather annoying response, especially if one is really just looking for a simple and genuine apology. But if we read Thorn as having ASD, then this feels a little different. He’s simplifying a conflict that he maybe doesn’t quite understand; he’s been given a different perspective on his actions and it’s perhaps beyond his capability to comprehend. To compensate, he turns this into a matter of business, which is something he can understand quite well, even going so far as to try and pencil Ophelia into his calendar. But he’s woefully unaware of the frustrating effect his language and tone have on her. Of course, what’s key here is what he isn’t saying: that she’s making his life difficult because he loves her; he wants to be on good terms, but doesn’t know how to fix this. Note that he again suggests violence as a means to deal with her emotion.

When they do meet up, Thorn says, 

“I have many enemies. I no longer want to count you among them, so tell me what I must do. That is why you came here, isn’t it? You have a deal to offer me, I’m listening to you.” [152]

He’s desperate. It’s also worth noting that he’s fairly vulnerable in this chapter; he exhibits jealousy and some hurt—Ophelia missed their original appointment because she was with Archibald and forgot about him. 

Modest as always, Ophelia asks only for a job, money to pay Fox, her new assistant, and to see the real outdoors again. She lastly requests that he always be honest with her, especially in matters that directly concern her. In exchange, she will teach him how to Read objects after the ceremony of the Gift and he will teach her how to use the claws that he’ll pass to her. She also reiterates, for good measure, that this will be their only conjugal duty. He grants the first three readily enough, but the fourth one trips him up. He does agree to it, but it’s obvious that it will cost him in more ways than one.

While I imagine that he’s receptive on some level to sexual intimacy with Ophelia, I think he’s more afraid of intimacy in general. Sharing things and being honest with a partner means opening oneself up to vulnerability, to weakness. The undertaking he’s set for himself—a mission he’s already devoted 15 years of his life to—doesn’t allow for that kind of intimacy; rather, it requires utmost resiliency, secrecy, and focus. Furthermore, if he were to be seen forming loving attachments (with Berenilde, Ophelia, or anyone else), then that could be turned against him over the course of fulfilling his risky endeavor. It’s that very fear, in fact, which has made him exclude his aunt (and attempt to exclude Ophelia) entirely from his investigation. His pursuit of a noble title and legitimacy is a front, an easy excuse he thought up to satisfy Berenilde’s and the court’s curiosity about why he suddenly wanted to get married and Read Farouk’s Book.

Like Thorn, it scares Ophelia to feel herself falling in love. Perhaps the womanly pride she carries with her makes it difficult for her to open up. After all, love and marriage were never apparently high on her list of things to accomplish either. Ophelia and Thorn are separately dealing with the same conundrum, which is that to love means to fear, and that’s messy. It could get in the way of a life that is humble (Ophelia) and a life that is ambitious (Thorn). Simply put, neither one had accounted for even the possibility of love in their marriage.

Perhaps because Ophelia is a Reader, I think that deep down she likes the enigma and challenge that is Thorn. Yes, he’s frustrating, but she never truly loses interest in him. Indeed, if anything, she becomes increasingly intrigued and is entirely won over when she at last learns all about what he’s doing. Ophelia is very likely the first person to make Thorn both confront and attempt to correct his inadequacy in areas of intimacy. As I touched on in my previous analysis, Ophelia calling Thorn out on his behavior and habits is surely a novelty for him.

“I believe neither in luck nor in destiny,” he declared. “I trust only the science of probabilities. I have studied mathematical statistics, combinatorial analysis, mass function, and random variables, and they have never held any surprises for me. You don’t seem fully to grasp the destabilizing effect that someone like you can have on someone like me.” [377]

Ohhhhkay. 

It turns out, she’s a bit of an enigma and definitely a challenge to him in kind. This is Thorn’s way of trying to tell Ophelia that he loves her. 

Thorn and Ophelia seek control and wield it differently. Thorn can be arrogant and overconfident with it, and he wants to be its sole retainer. Ophelia also wants to retain it but as it pertains to her decisions for herself, and she rebels against it when she feels like that’s being taken away from her. It’s important to them that they are in control of their own actions and destinies. But what neither one of them understands is that those we end up loving is often (or maybe always) outside of our control. Love has no explanation, and doesn’t require one. You can’t predict it. You can’t dictate it. You can’t calculate it or quantify it.

Ophelia seriously turns Thorn’s life, and everything he thought he could predict or control about it, upside down. Initially unwittingly, then actively, she encourages him to develop.

ASD Made Sexy

As inelegant as he is, Thorn does have his own way of being shocking:

“You wanted me to be honest with you. You will thus learn that you are not just a pair of hands for me. And I don’t give a damn whether people find me suspect, as long as I am not so in your eyes. You will return this to me when I have kept all my promises,” he grumbled, holding his watch out to Ophelia without noticing her stunned expression. “And if you still doubt me in the future, just read it.” [156].

You guys, this is kind of romantic, right? He’s so direct and it really flusters Ophelia, who is steadfastly resisting the decidedly non-business-like turn their relationship has taken. Skip to novel’s end, however, and she has totally changed her tune about Thorn. Right before they believe they will be parted forever, Thorn finally gives a straightforward confirmation of his feelings.

“Don’t go falling down any more stairs, avoid sharp objects, and above all, above all, keep away from disreputable people, alright? […] Oh, and by the way, I love you.” [486]

Swoon. 

The fact of the matter is this: despite his unconventional looks and mannerisms, Thorn hits a certain level of sexy. Which begs the question: Can ASD be sexy? Sure, one could say that his sex appeal comes naturally with his role as the male lead, which is directly connected to his chemistry with the female lead. But I think there’s actually an important distinction to be made; it’s not whether ASD itself is sexy, it’s whether a character with ASD is sexy and I think that’s important because you don’t want ASD to be treated as a gimmick in fiction. It matters how that kind of character is presented. 

Thorn’s ASD traits make him eccentric at best and a “freak” at worst, by Ophelia’s own description. Some of Thorn’s less offensive eccentricities are portrayed in an endearing light: his brusqueness with silly persons (i.e. Archibald, Baron Melchior) and their silly behavior; wearing his heavy uniform in a tropical illusion when there’s no evident dress policy for officials; preoccupied with tending to the order of his office over the tending of his wounds; launching a dangerous existential investigation all because of an illegal and unjust disruption in odds and probabilities, an utter crime in Thorn’s eyes.

But it’s also important to look at how other characters view him. Those at the Pole may look down on him, but there is no doubt that he commands a considerable level of their respect. He’s at the center of Citaceleste’s political and economical arenas, and has some judicial power as well. In short, he’s the one that everyone seemingly runs to in a crisis. Ophelia begrudgingly admires his self-control, coolness under pressure, and appreciates that he is not corrupt, like the other officials and aristocrats. Naturally, Berenilde regards him the highest. She, more than any other, gives us a glimpse of the true Thorn, putting forward the image of a protector, provider, and all-around genius.

So, the answer is yes. Thorn is sexy.

Ophelia and Asexuality

OK, I realize I’m going off on a tangent here, but since asexuality is a common reading of Ophelia that I see in reviews, I wanted to address that as well. 

There are many instances of Ophelia fulfilling, for lack of a better way to put it, the butterfly trope:

Perhaps it was due to the nervousness Thorn brought out in her, or the lace veil obscuring her vision, or the scarf coiled around her foot, or her pathological clumsiness, but the fact is, Ophelia tripped on the final step of the stairs. [28]

Hearing Thorn reawakened such nervousness in Ophelia that she seriously considered hanging up on him. [63]

She did, however, have to admit that Berenilde had got it right: it was indeed out of cowardice, more even than anger, that she’d spent recent weeks avoiding him. [100]

Somewhat embarrassed, Ophelia wondered whether he felt as nervous in her company as she felt in his. [160]

Ophelia felt her blood throbbing against her eardrums, but couldn’t have said whether it was due to sudden relief or, on the contrary, heightened tension. [323]

Ophelia gets butterflies whenever her love interest is near. It’s important to note that she’s not afraid for her safety when she’s with him, although there is one incident, where she thinks he’s going to strike her, which is quickly dispelled by his sincere assurance that he’d never harm her. He gives her butterflies often by doing totally mundane things such as standing in front of her or looking at her, and that bothers her. But why? 

Like Thorn, she’s convinced herself that intimacy and love aren’t for her. Some reviewers have praised Ophelia for being a representation of asexuality and, while I think there’s a strong case for her being somewhere on the asexual spectrum, I stop short at positing that she’s totally uninterested in sex or doesn’t experience sexual attraction. She’s noted, on several occasions, both in Clairdelune and Promise, Archibald’s handsomeness. In this novel, she also notes Fox’s.

With his gold braiding and red mane, he was as dazzling as Thorn was dark. Ophelia sensed herself coloring just looking at him. [165]

So, she does experience sexual attraction and, furthermore, she physically reacts to Fox’s appearance (though never to Archibald’s), which suggests that she’s not wholly disinterested in sex. In Promise, she commented that “no man had ever quickened her pulse” and lamented about whether she’d ever feel that way about someone, and I think this is probably the point at which most readers took away that she might be asexual.

But, like...

Thorn is the only man who produces intense and consistent physical reactions in her.

Also, if you look at the [323] quote above, he did in fact get her pulse up. Just saying.

Rather than label her as purely asexual or even being on the spectrum, we could instead speculate that, as a Reader, she’s experienced to some degree love in all its forms through countless objects and perhaps she can’t help having this reaction to love and intimacy. I’m not trying to be cynical or pessimistic, but love can be treacherous and people are driven to do all kinds of terrible things for it or because of it. As wonderful as love is despite that, it seems likely that Ophelia has simply decided it’s not something she wants to navigate. Or she just hadn’t met someone yet who was worth all that trouble.

I’ll Close With This:

“You’re free,” whispered Ophelia. “Free to go, free to stay. I won’t make you leave one cage for another one, although, as you’ve seen, I really don’t live in great security. I decided your fate without taking time to think, or to speak to you. I was selfish…and I still am. […] I still am because, deep down, I would like you to choose to remain by my side. I know that apologizing can no longer change anything, but anyway: forgive me.” [135]

Ophelia says this to Fox after rescuing him from the dungeons of Clairdelune and taking him on as an assistant. Now, when I read this, I couldn’t help but think that it’s precisely the apology Ophelia wants to hear from Thorn. Yet, here she is, guilty of doing to someone the very thing she holds against him. Isn’t it funny how hypocrisy and love are such good friends? As we know, articulation and eloquence are not Thorn’s strengths and some of Ophelia’s aversion to him is based around her inability to accept this part of him. 

Eventually, Thorn does make, more or less, the same apology.

“I should never have involved you in my affairs. I knew it would be dangerous. I convinced myself that I had the situation under control, and that mistake almost cost you your life. […] There is one thing that I have tried to tell you several times. I’m no good at these formalities, so let’s get on with it and speak no more of it. […] Please forgive me.” [444-45]

Strangely, she barely acknowledges this; she’s too busy having an epiphany.

At that second, she finally knew with absolute certainty where her place was. It wasn’t in the Pole, it wasn’t on Anima. It was precisely where she was now. At Thorn’s side. [445]

Well, perhaps this isn’t so strange since the novel starts off posing the question to this answer.

Deep down, Ophelia wondered where exactly her first home might be. Since she’d arrived at the Pole, she’d already visited Berenilde’s manor, the Clairdelune embassy, and her fiancés Treasury, and she hadn’t felt at home in any of them. [24]

The theme of home and belonging permeates this novel in a more central way than its predecessor. Ophelia is repeatedly confronted by it, but it’s also echoed in Farouk’s obsession with the Reading of his Book and finding out where he comes from and what happened in his past. When her family arrives from Anima, she sees the Pole and Thorn through their eyes. She ends up defending both from their disapproving remarks and in doing so, she realizes that she has ceased thinking of Anima as her home.

Life in the Pole was like that: wherever one went, whatever one did, danger was part of daily life. And yet, Ophelia reflected, she didn’t hate it that much, that life. [280]

Thorn’s apology seals the deal: she understands now that she was mistaken. Home is not a place. People, those who love you and who you love in return, give a home meaning. Belonging, likewise, is only made possible by the people who accept you and give you a place among them. It’s been hard-won, but she’s found both in the Pole, in Thorn and Berenilde. Her lack of a direct response to Thorn’s words suggests that she’s already forgiven him, that it matters less to her that he struggles with communication, that she’s finally accepted him for who he is and, better still, found him lovable despite that.

If we read Thorn as having ASD, then this intense dynamic between them is a positive treatment of mental/social disorders in fiction, which is really the only point I had to make with this entire thing.

Where Does Ophelia End?

I asked this question in my last analysis. Based off of the fact that, when we left her in Promise, she was experiencing some serious discomfort in body and soul directly connected to Thorn, I predicted/semi-already-knew that she would evolve toward him.

At one point, Ophelia loses the ability to pass through mirrors. We understand that it’s because she’s been lying to herself; after all, her great-uncle made it very clear that mirror-traveling is impossible under such a circumstance. It’s ironic because, by her own admission, she’s a “bad actress” [161] and, according to her mother, “was never any good at lying” [157].

She’s just so stubborn, isn’t she? It’s gratifying then to read when Ophelia overcomes it. Thorn makes a public announcement, cancelling his marriage, refusing to Read Farouk’s Book, and handing in his resignation as Treasurer. He does this to protect Ophelia and her family from imminent danger but at risk to his own welfare and position. He’s basically committing suicide, which very nearly turns literal at novel’s end. Ophelia can only think to go to him by the quickest means possible.

She looked straight at her determined face, beyond its scratches and bruises, finally ready to face that truth that she hadn’t wanted to see. It wasn’t Thorn who needed her. It was she who needed Thorn. Ophelia plunged, body and soul, into the mirror. [416]

I don’t think I need to spell that out.

Thorn and His Watch

To go on a little bit of a tangent, I also wanted to touch on the watch.

I believe it was mentioned in Promise that the watch had been a gift from Berenilde, which is so precious. Berenilde is the only true parental figure Thorn has known. She used her status and wealth to protect and care for him, and seems to understand him as only a mother--one with a child the rest of the world refuses to accept--can. I thought her reaction to Thorn’s suicidal announcement was especially devastating.

She had begun to shake so hard that Agatha rushed to take the baby from her arms. Bent double in her chair, as though punched in the stomach, Berenilde looked imploringly at Ophelia. “I beg you. Don’t abandon my boy.” [412]

Keep in mind that Berenilde has outlived her three biological children, none of whom survived past childhood. Thorn is such a lonely figure that it’s easy to forget he comes from somewhere. But Berenilde’s reminder to us is clear: he’s not the child of his Dragon father nor of his Chronicler mother. Thorn is her child, and she’s terrified of losing him like the others.

While there can be no doubt of her sentiment toward Thorn, it’s entirely likely that Berenilde foisted much of her maternal grief, trauma, and longing onto him without his express permission; he never seems to regard her with any particular filial warmth. Then again, he once attacked Archibald in defense of Berenilde’s honor, after he seduced her away from Farouk, and Ophelia later notes that he “suspended an investigation and jumped into an airship” to be near to Berenilde when she went into labor with her daughter [373]. Thorn is clearly defined rather more by his actions than his words. But the point is Berenilde is the one who gave Thorn his sense of belonging, and I just adore that.

Metaphorically speaking, the watch represents Thorn’s heart, which was given to him by his mother figure and which he gives to Ophelia as a token of his love and trustworthiness. Indeed, it’s even called a “mechanical heart” [156]. Ophelia has Read one of Thorn’s possessions before (dice) and was overwhelmed by the fury and breadth of his emotions. If she were to Read his watch, she’d probably die. Every time he digs it out of his pocket to look at it, to hold it, to fiddle with it, he’s engraving some emotional signature or trace onto it. Ophelia ultimately decides not to Read it.

“Before you go, I would like to return this to you. You need it more than me, and, in any case, I won’t read it. I’ve chosen to trust you—you, not your watch.” [285]

Her words have a profound effect on Thorn, rendering him totally speechless and maybe more confused than ever. At any rate, he misreads the situation and catches Ophelia off guard with an awkward kiss. It’s kind of a heartbreaking scene, because Ophelia simply reacts (by slapping him) and is genuinely baffled that he took her words for encouragement. I don’t necessarily take this to be evidence of her asexuality. I don’t discredit it by any means, but it just feels more like she was taken by surprise.

The thing is, for perhaps the first time ever in his life, he actively desired for someone to know his true heart and to trust in his sincerity, which is why he gave the watch to her in the first place. In his defense, this was quite a pretty and irresistible thing for Ophelia to tell him and I don’t think she’s as put off as she wants to be.

With ears burning and glasses crimson, Ophelia stared at the faded letters on the old wooden panel—“STAFF ONLY”—as if Thorn might, at any moment, retrace his steps, take back his kiss, and leave his fob watch with her, as she’d suggested in the first place. [286]

It’s funny. She wants to erase the uncomfortable physical side of the incident, but she also wants to retain his metaphorical heart. I mean, yes, it’s broken because of some careless action on her part and she asked for it back so her great-uncle could try to fix it. But still. It’s hard to ignore the metaphor there as well: if the heart watch has changed from beating to broken and she wants to hold onto the broken heart watch to try to mend it…

Well, good Lord, it’s just so obvious, isn’t it?

End

Well, that’s about it. As I said, I really only had the one main thought and then a bunch of smaller ones. 

I just learned—and am seriously devastated—that The Memory of Babel won’t be released in the U.S. until May 2020. I’m hoping this is a tentative date and that it will be available sooner.

In the meantime, if someone could upload a PDF that I could then spend days plugging in to Google Translate (again), that’d be super greeeeaaaat…

For part III, head here.

[skinnylittleredwrites]

My best friend, my lover.

TITLE OF STORY: My best friend, my lover. CHAPTER NUMBER/TITLE/ONE SHOT: 2/? AUTHOR: skinnylittlered. WHICH TOM/CHARACTER: Actor!Tom. GENRE: Romance. FIC SUMMARY: Andrea and Tom have been friends since the beginning of time. Until a confession of love is made. This story follows the events of their subsequent relationship (sequel to You Wanna Play that Game? ) RATING: Explicit (language, references to sexual activity). WARNINGS/TRIGGERS/AUTHORS NOTES: - FEEDBACK/COMMENTS: -

Chapter 2.

I don’t see how I could ever tire of this.

Surely, this feeling might be greatly influenced by the fact that, due to his absolutely hellish schedule his job all but demands, and the very static nature of my own job – I am, more often than not, essentially tied to my desk and the seemingly never ending piles of papers that consume most of my time at work and sometimes my free time as well, so more time than I’d ever care to admit to myself or any who may inquire – we have probably spent somewhere in the vicinity of maybe a fortnight in each other’s presence in the last three months and, while I would have been completely content with the situation should things have transpired in that way, there’s more to a relationship, I’m being told, than fucking each other’s brains for the whole of the time we’re together. Thusly, precious time which could have been dedicated to mindless penetration was regrettably wasted on romantic niceties and such other nonsense which I could have really done without, regardless of how cute they may be.  

This is precisely why, as I find myself kneeling against the headrest of his bed – well, technically, our bed now – and being pounded into with the fervour that I thought was only reserved for pubescent boys furiously masturbating against any surface even remotely resembling the softness that is specific to the female kind, I am relishing maybe more so than I generally would during copulation. Not to cause any misunderstanding, Tom has proved himself to be quite the competent lover, effectively obliterating the sparse doubts I may have amassed in regards to that topic. Doubts, I should add, that were compiled during the not infrequent locker talk that I either overheard or was a present participant to over the years of our friendship. Honestly, men have such a way of perorating about their sexual conquests that it renders a female of the even coarser sensibilities (or maybe especially her) to regard their grandiose claims as at least dubious if not entirely unbelievable. But, fortunately for all the parties involved, that is both myself and him, those claims are, irrefutably if not quite as monumentally, backed up by facts - he is a man of a certain degree of mastery, not to be overlooked, when it comes to gratifying the beautiful sex.

And here I am, being thoroughly gratified – thoroughly being the operative word – as I am taken from behind, with great enthusiasm. He’s got me by a fistful of hair and a fistful of hip, grunting as he thrusts into me, and it is music to my ears, accompanied by the sounds of his pelvis slamming into my ass – a symphony of absolute debauchery if I’ve ever heard one. I, naturally, being the refined erotic artist that I fancy myself to be, am holding my own to this most exquisite harmony of sounds, positive that my moans and screams of pleasure can be heard from across the street, but I indulge in expressing my satisfaction shamelessly, completely neglecting any sense of the basest form of propriety or moral value instilled in me since infanthood. I revel in the delights of the flesh to the uttermost extent, I am unabashed and completely incorrigible and I am -

Oh, god, I’m -

I cry out my climax, bending backwards toward him in a way that I am certain might be highly uncomfortable if not impossible were it not for the adrenaline shooting through me. He reaches to my ear and whispers rough words that would otherwise be insulting, that he would not be caught dead addressing a woman in a different scenario, but right now only intensify my pleasure, coaxing it out of me. I whimper and I come, as I am commanded, and it doesn’t register in my brain that I am no longer at my apex even minutes later, when he stiffens to his own release.

Panting and sweating, we both let ourselves fall on the crumpled sheets of our lovemaking. Tom is, soon enough, fast asleep, but I am, although physically spent, nowhere near enough to drowsy. I am somehow full of energy but unable to manifest it, and, to save myself from the eventual frustration that will overcome me in this paradoxal state and because of it, I raise from the bed and head for the shower, pondering almost disinterestedly at the domestic tasks that I have to accomplish for the day and other such things.

It’s been three months. Three very convoluted, intense, consuming months. So much so, that, except for the occasional talks we have confronting the subject during our very infrequent times together, we did not really have the time others may have to slide into conjugality, it’s still quite foreign territory, although broadly discussed. Between travelling to every and all corners of the world, filming and catering to his fanbase and, winning awards, we tried to fit in our newly developed liaison. We went on dates and held hands and our interactions slowly metamorphosised, without losing the friendly quality of the ones prior to our respective confessions, into something entirely new, but still very familiar. Our romance, we learned, is in the small things. Not much of our demeanour towards the other has changed, but the subtleties which make all the difference in the world are ever present, and those lay in our knowledge. He doesn’t look at me any differently, nor does he speak to me differently, nor does he hug me longer nor tighter, but his love, professed and recognised, gives other meaning to what was before. There are, of course, the intimacies that are entirely strange to the realm of platonic, but those are hardly ever on display – I am the part of him that the world shall merely know of, but never know – and to the couple of us, they seem but a natural extension to something that was present all along. But that does not domesticity make. This we shall learn as we go, one morning waking up together at a time.  

Or one homemade meal at a time? I speak the question rhetorically, as there is no one in the room to answer, and giggle at myself a bit as I’m chopping various vegetables for supper.  

Cooking was not an activity that I have ever particularly enjoyed or was any good at. Obviously, nobody is particularly proficient at anything from the onset, lest for an inherent propensity that might as well be divinely gifted, as the general consensus seems to be with the average folk, but I appeared to be, from early times, especially unskilled at any culinary endeavours. My attitude towards the matter was the insurmountable obstacle toward my progression in the field – I would never, for the life of me, be caught in the kitchen, either by myself or others, when the convenience of the ready-to-eat, brought-to-your-own-door meal was an available commodity, even in college, when money was less than it is now. With an upper middle class family to support me and a part time job as a barista, money was hardly the issue – it would be highly hypocritical of me to not acknowledge the very fact that beauty pays for itself; I am an example of the basic caucasian standard of classic beauty: honey blonde hair, blue eyes and a slim oval face, the body that I religiously keep fit to serve my vanity more than my health or any other purpose, and a sweet disposition that I nearly cunningly employ to my advantage, I would never dare say that life wasn’t made easier by those cumulus of facts.  

But cooking, or any other traditionally womanly activities, I discovered as I was growing up, became more tolerant, even pleasant when their result has a recipient. I may not enjoy preparing my own food, I am still as guilty of succumbing to pre-prepared commodities as I was in my youth when mine is the only mouth that needs feeding, but I certainly do enjoy putting a meal together for my partners, and Tom is no exception. If anything, he’s the instance reinforcing the rule. In the little time we’ve had together, I’ve made it my mission to bring him a home he can take refuge in anywhere we may be.

“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”

Ah, speak of the devil, there he is, all six feet and two inches of freshly roused glory, donning just boxers and a tee, and a self-satisfied smirk on his face, for somewhat reason.

“I did not buy it then; I don’t buy it now.”

“First of all, you said you did-”

“I lied.”

“And second, mean.”

“Am I?”

“You hurt my achey breakey heart.”

“I think your heart is just fine, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he chuckles against my neck as he hugs me from behind, sending a shiver down my spine. “My heart is mighty fine, although I do wonder about my stomach. It is very sanitary to be cooking in your underwear?”

"I am wearing a t-shirt!”

“...and no pants.”

“Well, I was going for sexy, not sanitary.”

“You’re always sexy.”

I huff.

“There’s no point to flattery, Hiddleston, with me, you can already get anything you want.”

“I’m not flattering. I do think you’re sexy. Always have.”

“Always?”

“Yeah. I never really wanted to admit it to myself, because that would have been... problematic, but I did. You’re a very beautiful woman.”

Although I am very much aware of that, his declaration still puts a knot in my throat and, like the sap that I am, my eyes become moist with overdramatic tears. I turn and rest my forehead on his chest, holding his body closer to mine. “I know.”

He laughs at my muffled reply, but is quick to chastise my illogical crying.

“Oh, dear, none of that. I can make a list of all of the things that are absolutely awful about you, then you can hate me and stop the waterworks.”

Sentiment promptly forgotten, I take a step back and glare at him.

“There’s nothing awful about me, I’m perfect!”

“Like hell you are,” his laugh is mirthful and unforgiving.  

“Fine. Tell me three things which are awful about me.”

His reply is matter-of-fact and not at all hesitant.

“You’re self-centred, vain, and not only slightly superficial. And, while we’re at it, your cooking’s not fantastic, either. I think you take after your mother.”

“That last one was mean and uncalled-for! But, fuck, I sound terrible. Am I so terrible?”  

The fact that I pulled out the puppy eyes on him on that last bit surely only emphasises some of my shortages in good character, because I’m doing it just to torment him. I know he doesn’t and I know he’ll feel especially bad for being so blunt in his criticism, and he’ll pull his very own variation of the puppy-eyes on me to be granted forgiveness later, which I will of course provide after making him repent.  

Orally.

“Why are you smirking all of a sudden?”

“Huh?”

“What’s with the face?”

“Ah, nothing. Up for takeout pizza?”

“Fuck, yeah.”

Yeah, we’re going to be just fine, Tom Hiddleston and I. Maybe not one homemade meal at a time, though.

________________________________________________________________

Author’s notes: It’s been about four years since I last wrote pretty much anything in any way literary (maybe some poetry here and there), and I decided that I miss it (and was pestered by some folks very dear to me to get my ass in gear and just do it again) so, yeah. Decided that, since I was so comfortable with the medium of fanfic, this would be a good place to give my writing bones a good crackin’, and so far things have been surprisingly nice. I honestly thought the fandom was dead, but it seems that you guys are still alive and very much kicking. 

Aaaaanywaaayyy.

I wanted to send out a huge, huge thanks to those of you who stuck for so long. It makes a girl shed a tiny but highly valuable tear. Also huge thanks for those of you who have stumbled upon my work while I was gone, those who sent messages and likes and kudos and reblogs and all that fun stuff. I came back to quite a number of those and, well, let’s just add another tiny tear to that previous one. Also thanks to those of you who are new to the my tiny blog of stories, another tiny tear and I will be full on tiny crying.

Thank you! 

[tanadrin]

Realistic phoneme inventories 1: Vowels

All of the old webpages that I used to rely on for at-a-glance information about vowel systems when designing new phoneme inventories for my conlangs seem to have succumbed to various forms of link rot; and I’ve never found a good overview of how to build consonant inventories in a systematic way. So I want to set out, for my own reference and for others, an overview of both vowel and consonant systems as they tend to exist in natural languages, with an eye to creating conlangs with natural-feeling distributions of sounds.

A phoneme inventory is, of course, only one of the most basic elements of a conlang. I won’t be dealing with phonotactics, with suprasegmental features like tones, and certainly not with grammar or syntax or anything like that. A good starting point for lots of those topics is the LCK, either online or in print.

Also, phonology is not my strong suit; I’m more of a morphology person by inclination, and all my knowledge of linguistics comes essentially from years spent conlanging as a hobby. So apologies in advance if I get any terminology messed up. My primary references for this post specifically are this paper on vowel systems, this paper on consonant systems, the relevant chapters from the WALS, and conlanging resources like the LCK.

For length reasons, I’ve broken this post into multiple parts. Part 1 will deal with vowels; part 2 will deal with consonants.

1. Background information

You could, when creating a conlang, select sound arbitrarily based on what sounds pleasing to your ear, what you can easily pronounce, your favorite natural language, or your favorite IPA symbols. For conlanging as a purely artistic enterprise, those are all perfectly fine criteria; but if you want your conlang to reflect trends in natural languages--perhaps as for conlangs which are the putative natural languages of science fiction and fantasy settings--it’s helpful to understand why humans make the noises they do with their faces, and how.

The human vocal tract is a resonant column of air, stretching from the vocal cords to the lips (and nostrils, for nasal sounds), not unlike the pipe of a pipe organ, or the body of a flute. Air expelled from the lungs moves through the vocal tract and, thanks to our well-developed throat, mouth, and facial muscles, and the elaborate control over them provided by a region of the brain called Broca’s Area, we can rapidly reshape our vocal tract and manipulate the resonances of the air passing through it, producing speech.

In principle, we could make an almost infinite number of subtly different motions with our various speech-producing organs to produce an equally limitless quantity of different sounds. In practice, however, speech has to be an effective way of encoding information, or it’s useless as a communication tool. Therefore, we want sounds to be as different from one another as possible, as distinct to the ear as they can be, so they can be clearly distinguished from one another, and clearly heard over noises like wind and crackling fires and loud music. And because we talk constantly, we want speech to be as easy as possible; we are going to tend to restrict ourselves to the easiest sounds for the human vocal tract to produce.

So the IPA, the system for transcribing human speech sounds, only has about 107 basic symbols for consonants and vowels.

The IPA consonant chart. Shaded areas are “articulations judged impossible.” White areas with no symbol are sounds that aren’t impossible, but which aren’t widely attested in the world’s languages to need a specific transcription.

Of all the sounds covered by the IPA which actually show up in natural languages, only a small subset are truly common. Some, like the plosives /p t k/, are nearly universal. In general, the easier to produce (and more acoustically distinct) a sound, the more common it is; and languages will tend to make use of commoner sounds first (like plain plosives) as their phoneme inventory grows, before they have recourse to less common sounds (like pharyngealized plosives).[1]

The other important thing to note about phonemes is that they’re not atomic. The human brain is an extremely powerful pattern-recognition machine, and whether we’re learning our L1 as babies or learning our sixth L2 as an adult, we break languages down into many different patterns and systems as we learn them. It’s easier to learn, for instance, the general pattern that “third-person present verbs in English end in -s” than to learn, as separate pieces of information, “okay, after ‘he, she, it’ the verb ‘put’ is ‘puts’ and the verb ‘see’ is ‘sees’ and the verb ‘run’ is ‘runs’...” etc.[2] But we usually do not learn these patterns explicitly, and even when sitting down in a classroom to learn a language, there’s only so much use you can get out of memorizing a table of conjugations or declensions--it’s hard to speak fluently if you have to pause in a conversation to go, “hmm, okay, but what’s the dative femine form of the article?” Most language learning requires acquiring an intuitive grasp of the patterns of language; and you only acquire that intuition through lots of speaking and listening.

A consequence of our dependence on intuitive understanding is that two people’s intuition can differ. For instance, many people learn the rule in English that “I” is nominative, and “me” is objective; and so, unless the first person pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition, you must use “I”: “Gowron is better at Klingon politics than I.” Sometimes, this is analyzed as having an implied verb: “Gowron is better at Klingon politics than I [am].” But over the centuries of people speaking English, many people internalized a different rule. Because pronouns crop up as the objects of verbs or prepositions more than as the subjects of verbs, the objective forms came to be reanalyzed as the default forms. The nominative form became a special, marked form--one that only occured in certain cases, which was, over time, simplified into “only when the subject of a verb.” Therefore, for these speakers of English (me included), the rule became: “when appearing to the left of a verb, use ‘I’; otherwise, use ‘me.’”

Out of the steady accumulation of such petty reanalyses, great changes in grammar are born.

The same process is at work in the sounds of a language. Just like grammar, sound is heavily systematized, and encapsulated by the brain as a set of patterns. Only instead of cases or persons or numbers, the component features of sounds on which patterns are based are called their “features.” And, as with any good Saussurian principle of sign-distinction,[3] we only care about a minimal set of features which, as a community of language-speakers, we all agree are the relevant ones for distinguishing sounds. For instance, if our language has the consonant sounds /p t k b d g m n/ (the unvoiced and voiced plosives, and some unvoiced fricatives), we might need only the feature [voiced] and [nasal] to distinguish the sounds of our language. But, because we learn these rules implicitly, and we don’t have to give our youngsters a background in up-do-date phonetics research before they can say “papa”, maybe later generations of speakers, or the next village over, notices a different set of features. After all, we have to physically produce these sounds with our mouth; they don’t exist in a perfectly idealized acoustic realm. Some speakers of our language may come to see the defining feature of the voiced stops as only [+voiced], and since there are no fricatives which they can be confused with, start pronouncing them with a less constricted airflow to make them sound even more distinct from the unvoiced stops. So gradually /b d g/ become /v ð ɣ/, the voiced fricatives produced at the same place in the mouth. As far as the speakers of the language are concerned, the sounds haven’t changed--[+fricative] is not a phonemic feature of their language! The pattern isn’t changed, at least not yet. But more sound changes will accrete over time, and they may affect the new series of fricatives differently than they do the stops; and with a few more changes like this, soon you may have a version of the language that sounds completely different and is entirely mutually unintelligible.

Sound changes are 1) regular, and 2) have no memory. While sound changes can be triggered only by certain phonetic environments (say, the voicing of /p/ to /b/ between two vowels), if the conditions for a sound change are met, it will be triggered everywhere it applies.[4] And later speakers of the language won’t remember that /v ð ɣ/ used to exist in opposition to /p t k/ (unless they take a class in historical linguistics); they’ll treat these sounds on their own terms.

When the exact production of a sound varies within a language, usually altered by context due to the physiological considerations surrounding making that particular face-noise, this phenomenon is called allophony. Different versions of the same underlying sound are allophones. The sound as a unit of the formalized pattern stored in your brain is a phoneme. A phonemic transcription (between slashes /like this/) is a transcription of a sound or sounds as these abstract phonemes. A phonetic transcription (between brackets [like this]) is a transcription of a sound or sounds as something like their actual acoustic realization.

2. The vowel space and vowel planes

Consonants involve obstructing or redirecting the flow of air through the vocal tract, often entirely (as with plosives), or turbulently (as with fricatives). Combined with the large number of distinct places of articulation, involving the teeth and tongue and palate, consonants can all sound very distinct from one another. As a consequence, small consonant inventories can restrict themselves to a small subset of the full space of possible consonants, and still be fairly distinct from one another. In fact, in languages like Hawaiian or Rotokas, with very small consonant inventories ( /m n p t~k ʔ h w~v l~ɾ/ for Hawaiian and only /p t k b~β d~ɾ g~ɣ/ for Central Rotokas; the ~ symbol indicates allophonic variation between two sounds, depending on speaker or context), it’s very unlikely there’s going to be any sound that’s really difficult for a speaker of a language with a more complicated consonant inventory like English to pronounce.[5]

Vowels, though, don’t involve specific points of contact between different parts of the vocal tract in the same way as consonants; vowels are produced by the relative position of the tongue in the mouth, with an unimpeded air flow and the vocal cords engaged. This means that vowels can vary subtly--and, as a consequence, that languages tend to spread the vowels they have out, throughout the entire articulatory and acoustic space available to them, in a way they don’t have to do with consonants.

Here’s the IPA vowel chart:

The reason it’s longer at the top and on the left side is because there is more acoustic differentiation possible when the mouth is more closed versus more open, and when the tongue is more front than back. Languages will especially tend to have more close (or “high”) vowels than open (“low”) vowels. That’s not the only property that affects how vowels tend to be distributed though. Here’s a schematized diagram of the vowel space based on the actual acoustic components of the vowels: 

Speech sounds are composed of different-frequency elements called “formants;” the lowest-pitch formant is F1, the next-lowest F2, and so forth. For most vowels most of the time, F1 and F2 are the really important formants. Open vowels have higher first formants, and close vowels lower first formants; front vowels have higher second formants, and back vowels have higher low formants. Here’s a similar chart, showing actual values, from the Hitch paper: 

But we don’t recognize vowels just using their pitch. If it did, we could in theory have languages with hundreds of vowels: the ear and brain together can detect extremely subtle gradations of tone. Rather, what matters more is the relative value of vowels, the distinctive features like [+front] or [-high]. 

Most languages have small vowel inventories; in terms of the psychological perception of vowels, the vowel space is quite small. WALS classified any language with 4 or fewer values as “small,” languages with 5-7 vowels as “average,” and any language with more than 7 as having a “large” vowel inventory. Germanic languages like English, which have anywhere from 10 to 17 (!) vowels, are monstrously bloated by global standards. Usually for larger vowel inventories, additional features will be added besides the spatial features so that vowels don’t have to compete for space: Latin doubles its vowel inventory (/a e i o u a: e: i: o: u:/) by adding a length feature, and Turkish (/i y ɯ u ɛ œ a o/) accomplishes something similar with rounding.

Additional sets of distinctions like these, which are not spatial distinctions, create different vowel planes, where vowels do not have to compete for space with one another directly. Vowel planes may be parallel (as in Latin or Turkish), or not. There may be phonological or grammatical processes that trigger vowels moving from one vowel plane to another, as languages with vowel harmony, where vowels in a word must share a particular feature like frontness or roundedness, or vowel planes may simply exist to provide additional acoustic contrast within a language’s vowel inventory.

Traditionally, languages with large vowel inventories have been analyzed as having many degrees of front/back or height distinction: four, in languages like Danish, or even sometimes five, as in the case of one Bavarian dialect Hitch cites in his paper. However, Hitch argues that the psychological space available for the vowel plane is really divided by reference to a perceived “neutral” vowel, one that may not be phonemic in a language, but will still crop up in paralinguistic utterances (like English “ugh” or “uh-huh”). It is by comparison to this vowel that vowels acquire distinctive spatial features, and as such, there are really only nine ways, at most, to divy up the vowel plane:

No language, in Hitch’s analysis, really has more than three distinctions of height or backness. When you think you have more, as in Danish, it’s time to take a look at the possibility that some apparently spatial feature really reflects an underlying contrast that isn’t spatial. Remember, it’s only the phonemic features of a sound that are fixed: the non-phonemic features can vary, sometimes by quite a lot.[6] Anything higher and fronter than the neutral vowel will count as a “high front” vowel, and its exact spatial realization may not be the same in each vowel plane.

Danish, for instance, has the vowel inventory /i e ɛ a y ø oe u o ɔ/ and is analyzed as Hitch as having the primary vowel plane

The three front rounded vowels /y ø oe/ form a distinct plane, one in which the only distinctive feature is height: high round, mid round, low round. The “frontness” of these vowels is a phonetic feature, but not an important phonemic feature. They don’t contrast directly with the rounded back vowels, because back vowels are usually rounded--it makes them more acoustically distinct from mid vowels, and round back vowels show up in tons of languages, like Latin, that don’t make a phonemic contrast for rounding. And rounding has a side effect on front vowels, making them sound a more central: thus, the “front round plane” is, perceptually speaking, more of a mid round plane distinguished by the [+round] feature. Languages can have multiple secondary planes. According to Hitch, Jalapa Mazatec “may have six parallel planes.” 

Vowel harmony doesn’t have to operate across planes: Hitch provides the example of the three-vowel language Jingulu, which as /a i u/. A suffix in /u/ or /i/ will raise the preceding vowel unless a high vowel intervenes: bardarda, “younger brother” + -rni > birdirdirni, “younger sister.” But if often does, with apparent height distinctions being better understood as plane distinctions: “In these languages, the vowels in a particular word will all be from one plane or the other. It seems that the choice of plane is determined at the lexical level. In the lexicon, the words contain archiphonemes spanning both planes, and each word is marked with a feature indicating plane membership.”[8]  Even if a language doesn’t have clearly non-spatial articulatory features distinguishing its planes like nasalization or length, it can still have two vowel planes that exist side by side. For Ogbia, a language of Nigeria, Hitch gives two vowel planes corresponding to one with the advance tongue root feature (+ATR) /i e u o ɐ/ and one without (-ATR) /ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ a/. For Nez Perce, five surface vowels /i u o æ ɑ/ correspond to two planes /i u æ/ and /i o ɑ/; a word can have vowels from one plane in it, but not both. /i/ happens to exist in both planes (possibly due to a merger of two distinct underlying vowels).

3. Vowel systems

So for any vowel system on a single plane, we’re going to have a maximum of nine vowels. Secondary systems may be the same size as the primary vowel plane; or they may be smaller. Either way, our vowel systems will tend to have one of two shapes, triangular or rectangular. In a triangular vowel system, acoustic considerations are dominant. We will have fewer open vowels, and more close vowels. In a rectangular vowel system, the psychological considerations are instead dominant, and vowels will be distributed in the nine-vowel grid in a more symmetric fashion.

These nine potential positions or “archiphonemes” don’t always reflect the same division of the vowel space given on the IPA. 7 and 9, for instance, might be open-mid vowels rather than true open vowels. 2 might be a rounded front close vowel. 5 may or may not be a schwa. 8, the bottom of the IPA trapezoid or the idealized acoustic triangle, is usually [a], despite [a] being, tecnically, a front vowel! I will simply quote Hitch at length here: 

With those caveats, we can then look at the possible arrangements of vowel systems, from zero vowels to nine. 

Zero vowels. “A zero-vowel language would insert vowels according to rules of epenthesis, then colour the vowels according to phonetic context. It sounds theoretically possible, but no completely convincing cases have yet been identified.”

One vowel. “There would seem to be no indisputable examples of one-vowel systems on a primary plane.” But there are languages with one-vowel secondary planes. If a language has one long vowel, for instance, it will be /a:/. But if a language has one nasalized vowel, it can be just about anything. 

Two vowels. This includes languages with a two-vowel front round plane; also, languages with a primary plane that has just a height distinction. All Northwest Caucasian languages have /ə a/ (but feature lots of allophones). Most examples Hitch cites for two-vowel systems have some kind of central vowel (/ə/ or /ɨ/) plus /a/; but Witchita has /i a/. “But this type reveals something fundamental about vowels: that [low] is the most basic of the four spatial features.”

Three Vowels. The triangular system /i u a/ is a very common system among the world’s languages, with /i/ and /u/ having lots of vertical freedom.

Hitch is very down on the idea of a three-vowel on the primary plane; of the potential examples he cites, none are undisputed. But “Parisian French has a vertical three-vowel configuration /y ø oe/ on a front-rounded plane (primary /i u e ə o ɛ a ɔ/). While vertical three-vowel systems may not exist, primary plane triangular three-vowel systems are exceedingly common.”

Four vowels. The triangular 4-vowel systems (4a and 4b) add a neutral vowel to the classic 3-vowel system. A straightforward rectangular system is possible (4c); as well as a slightly more complicated variation with more room for allophony (4d).

He also gives the unusual example of the Lummi dialect of North Straits Salish, which “appears to have no low vowels” /i e ə o/, though this is clearly an outlier.

Five vowels. The Latin vowel system (5a) is an extremely common triangular system; a rectangular 5-vowel system is also pretty common (5b). Three other five-vowel systems are given that are “relatively rare,” being a triangular system that combines 4a and 4b (5c), a 4c-like rectangular system with a mid front vowel added (5d), which is “asymmetrical, because the acoustic space is dominant,” and a different variation on 4c that instead adds a high central vowel. As an unusual exception, Hitch notes that Tohono O’odham “appears not to fit the pattern of any other language, and to violate a universal by having more back than front vowels with /i ɨ u o a/.”

Six vowels. Adding a central mid or central high vowel to 5a gives two common triangular six-vowel systems (6a and 6b). A rectangular six-vowel system, with no central vowels, is also possible.

Seven vowels. There is one possible triangular configuration, 7a, with one low vowel. Otherwise, 7-vowel systems are rectangular systems that differ only on where they place the central vowel.

Eight vowels. Similarly restricted: there are only three possible configurations of eight vowel systems, depending on which central vowel is omitted. None appear to be very common, however.

Nine vowels. Nine is the maximum number of vowels on a single plane, and therefore there is only one nine-vowel configuration possible. All analyses of more than nine “basic” vowels means you should start examining the possibility of multiple vowel planes.

In the next post, we’ll take a look at consonant systems.

Footnotes:

[1] https://wals.info/chapter/1 (ctrl+f “size principle”) 

[2] Languages do have irregularities, where historic patterns have been obscured by sound change or other processes. But there’s a reason irregularities or fossilized forms tend to occur in commonly-used words and phrases rather than rarely used ones: it is harder to remember variant patterns for rarely used words, and so they tend to become regular by analogy.

[3] Cf. Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics. This is one of those texts that was mind-blowing to me when we read it in our Critical Theory course in undergrad, but now seems so obvious as to not be worth discussing. The key insight can be summed up very succinctly, though: human brains care about differences between symbols, not their absolute values. When it comes to the kind of meaningful differentiation required for communication, it’s the relative differences between signs that matter--so any sign-system can be simplified to the minimum required number of distinctions, without the loss of information or without impeding communication. This insight is relevant to everything from linguistics to information theory.

[4] Apparently irregular sound changes--why does the Early Modern English sound spelled <gh> get pronounced as /f/ in “enough,” but is silent in “through”?--are usually the result of patterns being obscured by analogy or borrowing. In this case, it’s because the prestige dialect of English that coalesced around London in the Early Modern period, and was influenced by speakers of English from all over England, sometimes borrowed words from other dialects that had undergone different sound changes. In some of those dialects, the <gh>-sound was lost. In others, it changed to /f/.

[5] The only sounds in either Rotokas or Hawaiian given above that don’t crop up as a phoneme or allophone in English are probably [β ɣ]. The former is just [v] pronounced with only the lips; the latter, the voiced equivalent of German or Scottish [x].

[6] For instance, the Middle English long vowels /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/, had as their distinctive feature their length, not the exact contour of their sound. That meant that these long vowels could “break,” becoming diphthongs, but as long as they remained mostly distinct from one another, no confusion resulted. That breaking, plus the general reorganization of the vowel system that changed the pitch of the pure long vowels (the high ones, which could not acquire a high offglide because there was no space above them acoustically) later yielded the corresponding modern long vowels /aɪ i: i: eɪ aʊ u: oʊ/

[thelanguagecommunity]

I’ve developed this “language maintenance” challenge for languages I’ve neglected in my own studies but still wish to practice. It consists of a variety of activities, designed to not be intrusive in daily life but keep you thinking about your TL. It’s also designed to broad and fit a wide variety of situations including heritage languages, intermediate-level languages, languages that you’ve finished a course and don’t know what’s next, or languages that you’ve otherwise put on the back-burner. Hopefully, someone out there will find it useful! If you need help finding a resource to complete one of these activities, let me know! If you make any posts relating to this, please use #upkeepchallenge so I can see it :D 

Write down all of the reasons why you want to learn your target language, or why you want to make sure you maintain it. Think about them, then stick this list into your notebook.

Write out an introduction. If you met a native speaker right now, what would you say? Your name, your interests, where you’re from?

Listen to a video. Try to follow what’s going on, but mostly let it wash over you, listen to the sounds. You can go through my sample playlists for a starting point.

Go into wherever you keep your resources, whether a folder on your computer, a tag on Tumblr or a physical textbook. Open to a random page and try to translate the first sentence you see in your target language. Try to do it on your own without resources, before checking with a dictionary or grammar book. How did you do?

Pick a random verb and write out by hand all of the conjugations you know of for that verb. In other words, write the same sentence over and over again but with different conjugations. Ex: eu sou Americana, tu és Americano, ele é americano, nós somos Americanos… etc. I have some mini-printables for this!

Watch a show/youtube video meant for children in your target language.

Make a vocabulary list for your major/favorite subject/job.

Create a set of flashcards that you can carry around with you. This can be done either digitally (tinycards or quizlet apps on your phone) or physically (cut down index cards to size.) Include vocab from a variety of sources if you can.

Put together a playlist of ONLY 20 songs. Evaluate them and rank them. It might take several listens (that’s the point!)

Look for magazines in your target language. Read (or skim) at least one.

Learn some filler words or sounds and practice speaking with them in a natural cadence/rhythm.

Go back to your playlist (Day 9) and learn the entire lyrics to one of your favorite songs. Practice until you can sing it acapella. 

Whip out your set of flashcards (Day 8) and set a goal for the number of cards memorized by the end of the day. For example, “I’m going to have at least 3/4ths of my cards in the ‘know’ pile by 10pm tonight.”

Have a full conversation with yourself in the mirror today. Imagine you just met yourself in a cafe or a class and just make small talk. Use your introduction from earlier (Day 2)!  

Listen to radio in your target language as you do some chores.

Look for a discord group, forum, or other community of people who are learning/speaking your target language. Post at least one thing. Even if you’re shy, ask a question or just introduce yourself then bounce!

Watch a movie in your target language. 

Do a little research about into the folklore of the culture of your language. Pick one creature/location/story and try to see if you can find any info about it in your target language. An easy way to do this is to find the wikipedia page in your native language and then click on the equivalent article in your target language (it’s on the left side).

Find a passage in your target language that interests you, then record yourself saying it. Evaluate it yourself or post it on langblr or /r/JudgeMyAccent for feedback. What are the elements you got down? What can you improve on?

Use IPA to sharpen your pronunciation. If necessary, record yourself speaking first to pinpoint what sounds off. Focus on sounds that aren’t found in your native language. Practice in front of a mirror and exaggerate them. 

What is your favorite aspect of the culture of your target language (ex: food, dance, traditions, festivals)? Find a youtube video or mini-documentary about it. And try to find it in your target language!

Pick something in your room and talk about it. Be as specific as possible in describing it and how you feel about it. Use a dictionary without shame.

Find a poem you like and copy it into your notebook.

Write up a quiz complete with answer key. Think carefully about the things you think are important for you to know from your target language. Use your textbook or online resources as a guide, but try to make up your own questions too. These can range from conjugating verbs to translating sentences to matching vocab to short answer questions.

Translate the poem (Day 23) and try to keep as much of the poetic language as possible. 

What do you have strong opinions about? Politics? Media? Relationship drama? Outline an essay about this topic, complete with thesis and supporting points. Use a dictionary without shame. The goal here is to think deeply in your target language, not criticize your grammar!

Watch one Oscar-nominated or otherwise critically acclaimed movie in your target language. You can go through my letterboxd lists for a place to start.

Take the quiz that you wrote (Day 24). Grade yourself with brutal honesty to identify the areas you are weak in.

What did you find is your biggest difficulty so far? Today is the day to work on that! Pull up your textbook, look back on your notes, or ask some native speakers online. There’s no shame in asking questions! Act as if you are studying for a test and you just have to understand this one particular point. No more putting it off!

Make a post with everything you’ve learn this month (include all your new vocabulary and grammar points). Reflect on and celebrate your progress! What media did you consume? What resources did you use? What was the most helpful? What were your challenges?

Take a break!

[experiencespanishlanguage-blog]

twelve Top Tips For Properly Learning to speak spanish Quickly

expanish.com If a person are considering learning to speak spanish or maybe have just started out and about, subsequently these10 tips tend to be designed tailored for you! The idea would be great with regard to an individual if you might use all of these people in case not, pick available those that you need to use along with implement them.

expanish.com

- Mind Preparation:

Too many individuals believe they will become able to just seize the first Spanish study course off of a shelf in addition to in a few weeks end up being able to hold along a full blown chat within Spanish... nothing can be farther from the real truth! Learning Spanish is challenging and anyone who affirms distinct is either increasing upon the fact a very little or, a qualified linguist, which does make these individuals an experienced in their discipline I guess! Being ready in your mind for the challenge ahead of time will always be the key ingredient in the good results.

Do not set your self unreachable targets, like having the capacity to speak Spanish fluently inside 6 weeks! There is usually nothing that is certainly more very likely to make you present up your own personal quest when compared with consistently not being able to obtain your goals so anyone should regularly be realistic.

only two. Physical Prep:

There are usually hundreds of different The spanish language courses out there a lot of of that happen to be expensive, however when it comes in order to becoming fluent in spanish, cost does not necessarily always equal quality.

Accomplish not be deceived by simply top branding and training materials that are involving a high quality finish, confident they look as well as really feel nice, heck, they can possibly smell nice, but you may be asking yourself what genuinely matters is the top quality of information contained in the training course, or far more to the point, typically the methods connected with teaching.

Appearance for courses in which enable you try them away first, go online and also find message boards or chat-rooms to see the other folks are using and similar to and make your judgement based on exactly what senses right for you... definitely not the cost. The best program isn't necessarily by far the most costly!

3. Choosing the APPROPRIATE Romance language Course:

If you actually have done a number of study on different lessons along with have a shortlist... it is advisable to cut lose all individuals which are not aimed at instructing you audio Spanish while a priority.

This is simply not to be able to say that learning sentence structure isn't important, but lots of people get weighed down learning and memorize grammar regulations that they lose look associated with why they wished to understand Spanish throughout the first place; often the satisfaction that being ready to speak in addition to know Spanish can bring.

You may enjoy learning Spanish very much better and turn into much considerably more successful at the idea in the event that you are able for you to put some sentences jointly within a 7 days instead than being able to help successfully remember the everlasting article, issue pronouns as well as whatever else an few days of grammar analysis carries out at you.

Once a person are installed and operating and conversing Spanish with assurance, grammar can become much easier in order to discover and it will probably just be a event regarding tweaking what an individual already know.

some. Posting Notes on EVERYTHING!

Appears funny I know, yet get yourself a wedge of post-its and remain them everywhere in your personal home with the Spanish language expression for that thing written in it (with the actual exception within your spouse, young children and house animals, although tortoises are fine! ).

A person will be amazed with how fast you will decide on up the vocabulary regarding everyday objects... 'Everyday' becoming the important word below. Therefore i'm never surprised just about any longer with the vocabulary this Spanish training ask starters to learn... Come on, man, precisely how many of us are generally going to utilize terms bullfighting or clod with everyday conversation!

your five. Beat in to Spanish TELEVISION and Radio:

Watching Speaking spanish speaking TV or enjoying Spanish radio stations will certainly help you obtain a sense for spoken The spanish language seeing that well as keeping anyone updated with subjects which Romance language speaking people could possibly be discussing.

Television would likely be better currently much easier to understand what is definitely being explained if you actually have accompanying pictures.

For anyone who is busy around the property you could often choose a method of studying I love to call 'subliminal Spanish'. Switch the TV as well as radio upon a Spanish language speaking networking, turn upwards the volume, and in that case connect with your chores. Right now there is no need to have any attention to just what is getting said.

Around time you will commence to pick out certain words and phrases without concentrating as nicely as becoming employed to reading how Spanish is actually spoke.

It is a fine idea first of all news variety programs initial as the particular pronunciation is usually any great deal clearer and simple to comprehend. Nonetheless sport is not really a good choice for the reason that commentators do tend to be able to get yourself a little excited and also chat very quickly, though it is satisfying for you to listen to!

6. Help make Your Individual Flashcards:

My spouse and i would suggest that a person generate flashcards to support you learn language, somewhat than buying them. I would recommend this for three motives:

Precisely why spend unnecessarily any time it's simple cheaper to help make them oneself! An individual are able to make cards applying words that will are most useful for your requirements The process of truly making them will assist you to recall them, in fact a lot of the cards you make may well be well not required ahead of you even use all of them!

8. Become Involved within your Local Speaking spanish Group:

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[plaintesjustifies]

Ex-VoxMakers VS Thomas Cyrix : next / Ex-VoxMakers VS Thomas Cyrix : suite

Thomas Cyrix published his answer on the night of May 24-25. They put forward arguments against VoxMakers ex-members accusing them of creating false evidence and inciting hatred, posing as a victim. Some of his remarks are defensible and verifiable, but others have no valid evidence, which is problematic. After losing more than 20k subscribers, he decided to file a complaint against former VoxMakers members. Having no knowledge of entrepreneurship, computer law and accounting, I let those who know the most verified his words. My knowledge of his subjects is too bad for me to give my opinion. I can still say that I think he insists a lot on the financial side. Indeed, he speaks about more than half of the video while it’s only a quarter of the video of former members of VoxMakers. Nevertheless, on a human level, I can say that there is no evidence that VoxMakers' claims and their evidence are false. Be careful, I'm not saying that he's lying, just that it's difficult to verify. It should take the testimony of many people in the entourage of the said victims as well as that of their doctor (for those who had a depression at this time). He also says he is being harassed, which is highly possible. He accuses VoxMakers of having conducted a campaign of hate, to have even encouraged suicide (The soapy board ???), but they have not clearly expressed at the end of their video, in their claims: (Translation)

"Tai - Today, we need to finally express to the world what has happened and we want justice done. Our demands, because it's all well and good to make this video but what do we hope for in this video? We told you, it’s to be listened to. Modern Hermit - We don’t want his excuses. It's over, that. Tai - Anyway, we don’t believe them. Ermite Moderne - We don’t believe them. We can’t believe it. He has already apologized to us many times and every time he rolled us, so it's over. MJ - And then, to apologize it didn’t work for ??? Tai - What we want is for everyone to know how he behaves, that he doesn’t fall into his trap anymore. That everyone knows that we didn’t stop for management issues but because it was really a bully, someone horrible, as we have just described in this video. That's why we left. Modern Hermit - We want everyone to know the true nature of their actions and that there are no other people who, in a professional relationship, rot themselves. Tai - We want support because we want to make up for the disastrous communication and how we had to leave VoxMakers as s**t, because we had no choice. We should have been able to flee VoxMakers without being able to communicate. Today, we know that there are many people who aren’t aware that we have continued the videos for more than two years and that we have done a lot of things since then. We would like you to help all of us know, well, what happened in VoxMakers and now, if you want to keep up, we have our own channels and we needs support, that we need you to help us out there, that you subscribe to all the creators you've enjoyed in VoxMakers' time, so we can continue what we do. We would like the VoxMakers channel to finally be fully demonetized. It includes his own videos, which is at least a justice somewhere. We can not ask him to pay back the 100 000 € he stole from us during his 6 years, although we are entitled. On the other hand, we can ask him not to win any more on our backs. MJ - More delirium with ??? or that kind of thing ... Tai - And to verify that, we want Ermite to regain access to the channel to be able to verify that the videos have been demonetized. Ermite Moderne - This is non-negotiable. I must have access to the channel otherwise it doesn’t mean anything. Tai - Note that he’s able to completely remove the string since he did it with Facebook. Ermite Moderne - There were all the memories, the pictures of conventions, the articles, everything was there. He deleted them. Chain… Sasha - There are also the things he said ... Ermite Moderne - Of course. There were also private Facebook, discussions, he has them ... Tai - We must suppress the evidence. Ermite Moderne - You must remove all evidence. Tai - And if I don‘t have them, no one will have them. It has always been that. And precisely, the fact is, we doubt that he will respond to this video. We doubt that there will be an answer. So we can not convince you more than in this video that he that, in any case, his excuses are false, that they manipulate you, that he is lying. Here we are, we know it amply with all that we have just said. Sasha - All we said here is stuff with evidence, with several witnesses ... Tai - All we can say is that here we are more than fifteen VoxMakers and members revolving around to corroborate its facts, to validate independently of each other, without consulting each other at the base ... Ermite Moderne - To have the same experience. Tai - And have the same experience with Thomas Cyrix and I'm sure there are plenty of others. We invite them to testify as soon as possible on the #Voxmentor on Facebook or in the comments to help us spread this message and validate what we say is true. Ermite Moderne - We can also expect that soon there is a group of ??? with other members next door, who will add more their version of the story, on what they lived. We will group a maximum. Because we speak on our behalf with us four of them Lunatic, Antoine, Seia and Mad Dog but we also want them to express themselves from their own point of view, which tells their personal version of the facts as well as that Voxplumes and that sort of thing. Maybe we'll do that and we're off to ... " P.S : I wanted to rewrite the words of the ex-members of VoxMakers, which I apologize for spelling, grammar and conjugation mistakes, as well as the absence of certain words that I could not transcribe. I searched for a legal definition of incitement to hate but I didn’t find (or looked for) a definition. I will therefore base myself on the legal definition of incitement to racial hatred, which is very close. It would have been pushing a third party to show hatred, violence or discrimination against certain people. For the term defamation, I had fewer difficulties. Defamation is an allegation or imputation of an act that offends the honor and consideration of a person. The word "honor" seems vague to me so I inquired. Honor is a moral principle of action that leads a person to behave in accordance with a social norm (as to probity, virtue, courage) and to enjoy the esteem of others. to keep the right to his moral dignity. I don’t know you but I never see them asking to hate or harass Thomas Cyrix. The hatred suffered by Thomas Cyrix is ​​only due to the hatred of the viewers who want to protect their favorite Youtubeurs. Without wanting to make a reductive metaphor (so don’t feel insulted, it's just an image), it's as if you're accusing a dog of protecting his master, while the latter never orders him to make. I admit that one thing irritated me a little. His ironic and mocking tone didn’t help me take it seriously, just like the multiple appearance of messages between two paragraphs argumentative to convince us of the horror he seems to live (Call for Mercy ?? ?). Nevertheless, since it seems to have initiated a legal procedure, I will wait for the conclusion of justice to give me a final opinion. I hope that this story goes quickly and well to end.

Finally, my friends, one last message for you. Faced with incredible information, strange, sulphurous, don’t forget to remain skeptical because there are things we can’t doubt in our world. We can’t doubt that people are lying to us. There can be no doubt that people are trying to attract attention to get noticed. We can’t doubt that some people can create fake news just to hurt, to take revenge …

Thomas Cyrix a publié sa réponse dans la nuit du 24 au 25 mai. Ils posent ses arguments pour contrer les propos des ex-membres de VoxMakers en les accusant d’avoir créé de fausses preuves et d’incitation à la haine, se posant en victime. Certains de ses propos sont défendables et vérifiables mais d’autres n’ont aucunes preuves valident, ce qui posent problème. Après qu’il est perdu plus de 20k d’abonnés, il a donc décidé de porter plainte contre les ex-membres de VoxMakers. N’ayant aucune connaissance en manière d’entreprenariat, de droit informatique et de comptabilité, je laisse ceux qui en savent le plus vérifié ses propos. Mes connaissances sur ses sujets sont trop mauvaises pour que je donne mon avis. Je peux tout de même dire que je trouve qu’il insiste beaucoup sur la partie financière. En effet, il en parle sur plus de la moitié de la vidéo alors que ce n’est qu’un quart de la vidéo des ex-membres de VoxMakers. Néanmoins, sur le plan humain, je peux dire qu’il n’y a aucune preuve que les propos de VoxMakers ainsi que leurs preuves soient fausses. Attention, je ne dis pas qu’il ment, juste que c’est difficilement vérifiable. Il faudrait prendre les témoignages de nombreuses personnes dans l’entourage des dites victimes ainsi que celle de leur médecin (en ce qui concerne ceux qui ont eut une dépression à cette période). Il dit aussi subir du harcèlement, ce qui est fortement possible. Il accuse VoxMakers d’avoir mené une campagne de haine, de l’avoir même incité au suicide (La planche savonneuse???), mais ils n’ont pas clairement exprimé à la fin de leur vidéo, dans leurs revendications :

« Tai - Aujourd’hui, on a besoin d’exprimer enfin, au monde, ce qui s’est passé et on veut que justice soit fait. Nos revendications, parce que c’est bien beau de faire cette vidéo mais qu’est-ce qu’on espère dans cette vidéo ? On vous l’a dit, c’est d’être écouté. Ermite Moderne – On veut pas ses excuses. C’est finit, ça. Tai – De toutes façons, on ne les croit pas. Ermite Moderne – On les croit pas. On ne peut pas y croire. Il nous a déjà fait des excuses plein de fois et à chaque fois, il nous a roulé, donc c’est finit, ça. MJ – Et puis, demander des excuses ça a pas marché pour ???… Tai – Ce qu’on veut, c’est que tout le monde sache comment il se comporte, qu’on ne tombe plus dans son piège. Que tout le monde sache qu’on n'a pas arrêté pour des questions de gestion mais parce que c’était vraiment un tyran, quelqu’un d’horrible, comme on vient de vous le décrire dans cette vidéo. C’est pour ça qu’on est parti. Ermite Moderne – On veut que tout le monde sache la véritable nature de ses agissements et que y’est pas d’autres personnes qui, à titre professionnel, relationnel, se fassent pourrir à leur tour. Tai – On veut du soutien parce qu’on souhaite rattraper la communication désastreuse et comment on a dû partir de VoxMakers comme des m****es, parce qu’on n'avait pas le choix. On aurait dû pouvoir fuir VoxMakers sans pouvoir faire de communications. Aujourd’hui, on sait qu'y’a beaucoup de gens qui ne sont pas au courant qu’on a continué les vidéos depuis plus de deux ans et qu’on a fait plein de choses depuis. On aimerait que vous nous aidiez à que toutes ses personnes sache, enfin, qu’est-ce qui s’est passé dans VoxMakers et que, désormais, si vous voulez continuez de nous suivre, nous avons nos chaînes perso’ et qu’on a besoin de soutien, qu’on a besoin que vous nous aidiez sur ce coup là, que vous vous abonniez à tous les créateurs que vous avez appréciez du temps de VoxMakers, pour qu’on puisse continuer ce qu’on fait. On aimerait que la chaîne VoxMakers soit enfin démonétisée totalement. Ca comprend ses propres vidéos, qui est au moins une justice quelque part. On ne peut pas lui demander de rembourser les 100 000 euros qu’il nous a volé pendant ses 6 ans, bien qu’on soit en droit. Par contre, on peut lui demander de ne plus en gagner sur notre dos. MJ – Plus de délire avec ??? ou ce genre de choses… Tai – Et pour vérifier ça, on veut qu’Ermite retrouve l’accès à la chaîne pour pouvoir vérifier que les vidéos ont bien été démonétisées.

Ermite Moderne – C’est non négociable. Je dois avoir l’accès à la chaîne sinon ça ne veut plus rien dire. Tai – Notez qu’il est capable de supprimer totalement la chaîne puisqu’il l’a fait avec le Facebook. Ermite Moderne – Il y avait tous les souvenirs, les photos de conventions, les articles, y avait tout. Il les a supprimés. La chaîne… Sasha – Il y a aussi les trucs qu’il a dits… Ermite Moderne – Bien sûr. Y avait aussi les Facebook privés, les discussions, il les a… Tai – Il faut supprimer les preuves. Ermite Moderne – Il faut supprimer toutes les preuves. Tai – Et si je ne les ai pas, personne ne les aura. Ca a toujours été ça. Et justement, le fait est que, on se doute qu’il va répondre à cette vidéo. On se doute qu’il va y avoir une réponse. Alors nous, on ne peut pas vous convaincre plus que dans cette vidéo qu’il ment, que, de toutes façons, ses excuses, c’est faux, qu’ils vous manipulent, qu’il ment. Voilà, nous on le sait amplement avec tout ce que l’on vient de dire. Sasha – Tout ce qu’on a dit là, c’est des trucs avec des preuves, avec plusieurs témoins… Tai – Tout ce qu’on peut vous dire, c’est que voilà, on est plus de quinze VoxMakers et membres gravitant autour à corroborer ses faits, à valider indépendamment des uns des autres, sans se consulter à la base… Ermite Moderne – À avoir le même vécu. Tai – Et avoir le même vécu envers Thomas Cyrix et je suis sûr que y en a plein d’autres. On les invite à témoigner dés que possible sur le #Voxmenteur sur Facebook ou dans les commentaires pour nous aider à répandre ce message et à valider ce qu’on dit est vrai. Ermite Moderne – On peut s’attendre aussi que, bientôt, il y est un groupe de ??? avec d’autres membres en à côté, qui viendront rajouter en plus leur version de l’histoire, sur ce qu’ils ont vécu. On va regrouper un maximum. Parce que l’a, on parle en notre nom à nous quatre et eux de Lunatic, Antoine, Seia et Mad Dog mais on voudrait aussi qu’ils s’expriment de leur propre point de vu, qui dise leur version personnelle des faits ainsi que les Voxplumes et ce genre de choses là. On fera peut-être ça et on est parti pour… » P.S : J’ai voulu réécrire au plus proche des paroles des ex-membres de VoxMakers dont veillez m’excuser des fautes orthographiques, grammaticales et de conjugaison ainsi que l’absence de certains mots que je n’ai pus retranscrire.

J’ai cherché une définition légale de l’incitation à la haine mais je n’ai pas trouvé (ou j’ai mal cherché) une définition. Je vais donc me baser sur la définition légale de l’incitation à la haine raciale qui est très proche. Se serait le fait de pousser un tiers à manifester de la haine, de la violence ou de la discrimination à l’encontre de certaines personnes. Pour le terme de diffamation, j’ai eu moins de difficultés. La diffamation est une allégation ou l'imputation d'un fait qui porte atteinte à l'honneur et à la considération d'une personne. Le mot « honneur » me paraît vague donc je me suis renseigné. L’honneur est un principe moral d'action qui porte une personne à avoir une conduite conforme (quant à la probité, à la vertu, au courage) à une norme sociale et qui lui permette de jouir de l'estime d'autrui et de garder le droit à sa dignité morale. Je ne sais pas vous mais jamais je ne les vois demander de haïr ou de harceler Thomas Cyrix. La haine que subit Thomas Cyrix n’est dû qu’à la haine des viewers qui veulent protéger leurs Youtubeurs favoris. Sans vouloir faire de métaphore réductrice (donc ne vous sentez pas insulter, ce n’est qu’une image), c’est comme si vous accusiez un chien d’avoir protéger son maître alors que ce dernier ne lui à jamais ordonner de le faire. J’avoue qu’une chose m’a un peu énervé. Son ton ironique et moqueur ne m’a pas aidé à le prendre au sérieux, tout comme l’apparition de multiples fois de messages entre deux paragraphes argumentatif pour nous convaincre de l’horreur qu’il semble vivre (Appel à la pitié???). Néanmoins, vu qu’il semble avoir lancé une procédure légale, je vais attendre la conclusion de la justice pour me faire un avis définitif. J’espère tout de même que cette histoire va vite et bien se finir.

Enfin, mes amis, un dernier message pour vous. Face à une information incroyable, étrange, sulfureuse, n’oubliez pas de rester sceptique car il y a des choses dont on ne peut pas douter dans notre monde. On ne peut pas douter sur le fait que des gens nous mentent. On ne peut pas douter sur le fait que des personnes essayent d’attirer l’attention pour se faire remarquer. On ne peut pas douter sur le fait que certaines personnes peuvent créer des fake news juste pour causer du tort, pour se venger…

Source :

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzxzFWRwVug&feature=share

- https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/N31126

- https://www.cnrtl.fr/lexicographie/honneur

News of the day (video edited on May 24, afternoon) / Nouvelles du jour (vidéo monté le 24 mai, l’après-midi)

Mad Dog, a former member of VoxMakers, made a video of less than an hour to testify in turn individually, as we have already done two of his comrades live. He began positively by asking not to lynch against Thomas Cyrix, whom he named as manager, and said he enjoyed his years in this group. He also talks about the financial hardships they suffered and the sadness he felt that he was forced to leave the group. He explains that the pressure put on them by this "manager" seemed normal to them because it’s like that in many companies. He said that they felt put away from people and looked to everything to have at least a minimum wage to live. He said that they thought the money was going into all the equipment and services that were needed. He also said he received positive but negative testimonials from their former manager. He calls for mistrust but not for total cut or lynching. He explains that their manager took the big head a few months before he was fired. It was the beginning of the end of Mad Dog's participation in VoxMakers. He explains that the group was not taken seriously because of the lack of work in the shows in which the manager participated. There is also the project Putaclic, a kind of parody of the many tops that can be found on the net. The texts of presentations he had then made for their manager were given by him to Lunatic because he was the one who presented the best. Finally, the project was canceled by the manager but Mad Dog and Lunatic managed to convince him to continue, even if he could feel a bit of bitterness at his manager. Then there was also the story of Lunatic's relationship with a girl Mad Dog knew. The couple kept the secret of their bond for fear of reflections. Mad Dog advises them to reveal the truth, their love life being private and not to influence the work of Lunatic. Later, he learns that the couple is being disputed by the rest of the group following the revelation of their secret. He got upset with the VoxMakers, coming out of things that were not happening at times. The Modern Hermit says that the VoxMakers didn’t think badly and apologize. Mad Dog accepts their excuse for attachment to the group and apologizes in turn publicly. He’s then dismissed from the group. He talks about it to the modern Hermit who has totally changed his mind. He was totally isolated from the rest of the group. We feel that his memories are hard for the Youtubeur who gives the impression of being about to cry. He explains that he was disconnected from the net, disgusted by Youtube and monitoring on Facebook. He also accuses of being dismissed from the group in the wrong way because he explains that it isn’t by a vote that one can send a person back to an SAS company. This marks me against the old VoxMakers and Thomas Cyrix. He explains the situation as neutral as possible with only a few points to explain his sadness and his distress and the difficulties he has suffered. He never refers to Thomas Cyrix's person directly, only his role in VoxMakers. He doesn’t treat him as manipulators, liars, crooks ... He explains the facts and where that led him. I didn’t notice an attempt at manipulation in his words, whether on the emotional level or logic. I add here a remark that I made myself in the video of Thomas Cyrix. Indeed, I observed that he used the same arguments as his accusers when it concerned the human aspect. In the video of Mad Dog, I find very few of his arguments. I also want to remind one thing : the #Voxmenteur is used for testimonials. If you want to encourage former VoxMaker members, just leave a message, no need for a hashtag. Neither do you need to insult the accuser, you only complicate things.

Mad Dog, ancien membre de VoxMakers, a fait une vidéo de moins d’une heure pour témoigner à son tour individuellement, comme l’on déjà fait deux de ses camarades en live. Il commence positivement en demandant de ne pas faire de lynchage contre Thomas Cyrix, qu’il nomme sous le nom de gérant, et dit avoir beaucoup apprécié ses années dans ce groupe. Il parle aussi des galères financières qu’ils ont subi et de la tristesse qu’il a ressentit d’avoir été obligé de quitter le groupe. Il explique que la pression que leur poser ce « gérant » leur paraissait normal car c’est comme ça dans beaucoup d’entreprises. Il dit qu’ils se sont sentis mis à l’écart des gens et chercher à tout prit à avoir au moins un SMIC pour vivre. Il dit qu’ils pensaient que l’argent passait dans tout ce qui concerne le matériel et les services nécessaires. Il dit aussi avoir reçu des témoignages positifs mais aussi négatifs de leur ancien gérant. Il appelle à la méfiance mais pas à la coupure totale ou au lynchage. Il explique que leur gérant a pris la grosse tête quelques mois avant qu’il ne soit viré. C’était le début de la fin de la participation de Mad Dog à VoxMakers. Il explique que le groupe n’était pas pris au sérieux à cause du manque de travail dans les spectacles auxquels le gérant participait. Il y a aussi le projet Putaclic, une sorte de parodie des nombreux tops à l’arrache que l’on trouve sur le net. Les textes de présentations qu’il avait alors faits pour leur gérant ont été donnés, par lui, à Lunatic car il était celui qui présentait le mieux. Finalement, le projet fut annulé par le gérant mais Mad Dog et Lunatic ont réussit à le convaincre de continuer, même s’il pouvait sentir une pointe d’amertume chez son gérant. Puis, il y avait aussi l’histoire de couple entre Lunatic et une fille que Mad Dog connaissait. Le couple gardait le secret de leur lien par peur des réflexions. Mad Dog les conseille à révéler la vérité, leur vie amoureuse étant privée et ne devant pas influencer le travail de Lunatic. Plus tard, il apprend que le couple se fait disputer par le reste du groupe suite à la révélation de leur secret. Il s’est énervé contre les VoxMakers, ressortant ce qui n’était pas passer à certains moments. L’Ermite Moderne dit que les VoxMakers ne pensaient pas à mal et s’excuse. Mad Dog accepte leur excuse par attachement au groupe et s’excuse à son tour publiquement. Il est alors renvoyé du groupe. Il en parle à l’Ermite Moderne qui a totalement changé d’appréciation. Il a été totalement isolé du reste du groupe. On sent que ses souvenirs sont durs pour le Youtubeur qui donne l’impression d’être sur le point de pleurer. Il explique avoir était déconnecté du net, dégoûté par Youtube et en surveillance sur Facebook. Il accuse aussi d’avoir était renvoyé du groupe de la mauvaise manière car il explique que ce n’est pas par un vote que l’on peut renvoyer une personne dans une entreprise SAS. Ce qui me marque par rapport aux anciens VoxMakers et à Thomas Cyrix. Il explique la situation de la plus neutre possible avec seulement quelques points pour expliquer sa tristesse et son désarroi ainsi que les difficultés qu’il a subi. Il désigne jamais la personne de Thomas Cyrix directement, seulement son rôle dans VoxMakers. Il ne le traite pas de manipulateurs, de menteurs, d’escrocs… Il explique les faits et où cela l’a conduit. Je n’ai pas repéré de tentative de manipulation dans ses dires, que se soit au niveau émotionnel ou de la logique. J’ajoute ici une remarque que je m’étais faite dans la vidéo de Thomas Cyrix. En effet, j’avais observé qu’il utilisait les mêmes arguments que ses accusateurs quand cela concernait l’aspect humain. Dans la vidéo de Mad Dog, je retrouve très peu ses arguments. Je tiens aussi à rappeler une chose : le #Voxmenteur sert aux témoignages. Si vous voulez encourager les anciens membres de VoxMaker, laisser juste un message, pas besoin de hashtag. Pas besoin non plus d'insulte envers l'accusateur, vous ne faites que compliquer les choses.

Source :

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG8pdMFtFrk&feature=share

[purkinje-effect]

The Anatomy of Melancholy, 19

Table of Contents Go to first. Go to previous. Go to next.

Drugs, decomp, insects/parasitism, myiaisis, emeto, myso, copro TW’s. I’m pretty sure this is the grossest thing I’ve ever written. Enjoy

Skin tight hypoxia gripped Melancholy’s scalp. He wheezed for breath, jerking upright in a coughing fit of salt and rancor. Face still coated in a thick grime, his eyes and nose burned almost as bad as his lungs, and he pulled off his glasses to claw the muck off his face. A rasping coughing fit seized him, only for his stomach to lay out its objections to his activities right into his lap. Everything crawled inside-out with haptic echoes of a phantom myiasis. His diaphragm continued to spasm, adding hiccups to the mix of torture.

The second time he vomited, blood spotted the rejection.

“Fuck, it took you long enough.” Jared snatched him up by the back of his collar and threw him into an office chair. He jammed a shop rag into his hand with bitter, mocking pity. “Does the chemist need some water?”

“--’Zhemoy,” ‘Choly choked out, breathing still unsteady. “I could have-- I could have died.”

“But you didn’t.”

A jar of water found the chemist’s hands, and he immediately without hesitation squinted his eyes and mouth taut and poured some of it down his face. He then poured out a bit into the other side of the rag and did his best to work the ordure loose. Unable to smell anything but the penetrating musk of brahmin dung, he distrusted his ability to gauge the safeness of the water he’d been handed, and did not use it to try to drown the hiccups. Once he got his eyes rid of enough rheum-muck, he opened them, and used the remaining water to wash off his glasses. He dared not look to Jared, to confirm his appearance.

“Look, chemist. You’re going to retain your value to me. I’ve invested too much in you. What’s a more potent dose than the raw source itself? I watched you just now, writhing like the insect you are. That had to be the most intense flight I’ve seen in my life. --Look at me when I’m talking to you.”

‘Choly trembled and shook his head, wringing his hands in his lap and feeling very small. Attentive flies crawled all over him, and diligent maggots did their best to rid his clothing of grime. He squinted his eyes shut and tried his best not to fall into hyperventilating.

“Please, no. No--”

“Do you at least know where you are, you little fuck? You’re sitting in my office. At my terminal. And you’re not going anywhere until you write down everything that you just experienced.”

He slowly picked up his head in the direction of the desk, and stared hollowly at the computer screen. Loathing overwhelmed him in the moment and he shrank from the terminal with a low whine, only to force himself to square up to it, and shrink away, several times. At last he put his glasses back on his face, and recognized at least his hiccups had resolved.

Jared glared at the back of his head until he was goodly confident ‘Choly was committed to the journal entry.

Flies. Flies on everything. Cleaning everything. Righting it all. Devoted. Diligent. I don’t know where they’re coming from. Are they coming from Jared? Jared’s face... He became the largest bloatfly I’ve ever seen. Drooling, adamant mouthparts. Piercing compound eyes. His bloated body teemed with lichinka. Ready for my supplication. Everything was so tight. Flesh sluicing from my belly as they wriggled out to crown my pudenda like a coronation of sex. Appetent. Purifying. Perpetual. Purulent. I was so purulent. But I wouldn’t be for long.

They took me with them when they transfigured into mature bloatflies. A piece of my consciousness arose in each of them, a cloud of rapture. I was present in everything, humble to debride the world of its entropy. Multiplying in a golden mean forever. Everything could be clean.

Sweat drenched him in hard loathing, and he heaved as he saved his draft. He couldn’t get more explicit than that. It hurt his head too much to try to put to words what he had seen. Every time he took Jet, it seemed the conjugating theme was maggot therapy. This was the first time it had brought him a genuine state of entheogeny, and he rubbed at his upper arms in displeasure of coming down from it. Everything felt so... lifeless as the halo of activity faded away. His head hurt. His everything hurt.

In the time it had taken for him to compose the journal requested of him, he found that Jared had excused himself. The wheelchair was still out on the assembly line floor, and divorced of it ‘Choly couldn’t muster the faculty or energy to get himself to it. And he was a combination of too tired and too filthy to simply doze off. So, to keep himself entertained, he turned again to the terminal, only to realize that Jared had left it logged on as the administrator.

He’d never read Jared’s journals before, and he wondered if anyone in the outfit had. Absently biting his lip refreshed the rancid tang that stained his face, and he flinched. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Jared wasn’t even out on the foreman’s mezzanine that overlooked the assembly floor, then went into his journals. He jumped around basing his choices on the titles of each file, and began with one called ‘Setting Up Shop.’

Gunfire’s finally quieted down. Suppose that means either Lonnie or Gristle wiped up the last of the feral ghouls or they’re currently serving as someone’s meal.

But Lexington is secure, I can finally get to work.

Well, ‘Choly thought, somebody sure became the ferals’ meal in the Super Duper Mart. They didn’t look at all the part to belong to Jared’s outfit, though. He opened ‘Subjects.’

It’s not the chems.

They’re just a trigger for the sight. It’s me. I’m the problem. Wish I’d realized before my arms looked like pin-cushions, but at least it’s a new lead.

I need subjects.

The chemist squinted. Jared really did believe that psychedelic drugs could make people legitimately psychic. But injections? 'Choly thought all this nonsense revolved around Jet, an inhalant. ‘Walden’ came next.

The pharmacy across the way lit up like Christmas last week. No clue how that fucker got in my town without anybody noticing, but color me impressed that he managed to restore electricity to that place. I had Jerry case the building, top to bottom, and every way in requires either a key or a password. We’ll have to arrange a little rooftop meeting next time our little showman comes up on the roof to dole out chems with his--rifle? That still slays me.

The part that really gets me is, my outfit tells me he’s in a wheelchair. I’ve only ever seen one other person in the Commonwealth use one. It can’t be a coincidence. I have to talk to him.

Skimming a few more entries, he got a few laughs out of confirmation that Jared didn’t genuinely hate him. At least, not before today. Most mentions of him in Jared’s journals involved wanting desperately to flip ‘Choly’s ‘vision’ the ‘right direction.’ Then there was ‘Experiments Continue,’ and his face slacked.

Still no successes but the rumor of free chems has brought plenty of new recruits. Ranks are nearly back up to where they were before we cleaned out Lexington. Lonnie thinks entertaining the chemist is a waste of time, says we need to spend our time building up our defenses.

But Lonnie doesn’t make the decisions. I do.

She does seem to be enjoying her new position, though. Maybe another dose of Psycho will get her visions firing.

‘Choly’s hand went to his mouth at the mention of cyclomorphine, and he sank back in his seat. Jared had access to Psycho, and was trying to jog hallucinations with it as he’d done of the Jet. The raider leader had told the chemist he’d had no interest in branching out into other drugs until they’d done comprehensive work with Jet first. Knowing what Jared had told him before this most recent trip, had the raider simply gotten impatient without any results yet, or was something more sinister taking place here? Holy God how did he get his hands on that stuff... He hadn’t wanted to find anything compelling, incriminating or otherwise, and he pressed on, haunted, with the most recent entry: ‘Stumped.’

Nothing is working. The old woman, she used to just huff some Jet, pop some pills, then she’d start babbling, spouting vision after vision. And they all turned out true. The Raiders burning the town, killing the parents, stealing the kids. Stealing me. I remember the look in her eyes when she saw my fate. “Kid, you’re gonna be a monster.” All true.

If I could get that sort of power, that sight, the Commonwealth, the other gangs. No one would have a prayer.

But nothing’s working. Maybe I need to try upping the dosages. I’ll have to talk with the chemist and see how potent we can get.

“You’re gonna be a monster,” he mouthed, his soul flying from his body.

There was no other explanation in ‘Choly’s haunted grey matter, than that this soothsaying junkie had seen ‘Choly’s hallucinations of Jared becoming a bloatfly. Of course Jared’s interested in developing psychic abilities for power alone. Of course he is.

'Choly backed out to the main screen, and returned to the ‘Melancholy 8′ entry from the holotape in the disc deck, so the terminal would be open to it. The more rational explanation was that this woman had indicated a monstrosity of character, but ‘Choly just couldn’t quit the thought as he reread what he’d written. Context meant everything. Over... and over... and...

“Hey, chemist, you’re still at it? Fuck, you’re taking forever.”

‘Choly jerked in his seat, snapped out of his lucid horror by Jared’s return.

“I, yeah. Yeah, I’m done.” He looked to Jared, to find him still entirely human, and he sighed out his relief a little too readily. The raider had brought the wheelchair, folded up. Pushing away from the desk in the rolling chair, ‘Choly began, “I very much hope this stuff doesn’t come true, and very much hope it’s ridiculous that it ever could.”

Jared leaned down to skim what ‘Choly had written, and his features alternated from hardened to ridiculous. He barked a laugh and slapped ‘Choly in the head, only to continue laughing, almost in tears.

“You are a horny little fuck...”

“I haven’t gotten any in over two centuries.” He let out a small laugh, realizing he’d inadvertently referenced facts which had precipitated Jared’s prior behavior. “I suppose that has a lot to do with it.”

With a delirious sigh, Jared smiled at him and gesticulated emphatically as he spoke next.

“I’ve been thinking, and I have to ask. In some of your other journals, you’ve talked about using some pistol in the same way you use your rifle. A... Nagant? I know it’s total bollocks that you’d have these... bloatfly maggots or whatever you hallucinate every time. Those things are like a dick joke. Having ‘em in the gun’s like, a metaphor for fucking everything under the sun or something. And you getting intimate, up close and personal, with that thing. Real raunchy. ...Is that a real gun you’re talking about? Or is it a vapor just like everything else in that fucked up little head of yours?”

The chemist straightened, and thought how to reply as he slowly wrung his hands in his lap.

“I... yes, and no. The gun is real, but the ammunition and its ability to fire them aren’t.” He stopped making eye contact. “It’s a Russian revolver I found, some vet’s war prize I guess. Takes 7.62′s, but fuck if you’ll ever likely put your hands on any. I can’t think of any regular issue American guns that use it, and the military only let vets have the weapon itself as a trophy--the ammo itself was considered contraband. I only really know the basics when it comes to actually breaking down and futzing with the mechanics of a firearm, but I suppose it’s... entirely plausible to make it work like my syringer rifle.”

Jared squinted at him, unsure whether ‘Choly was being an idiot.

“You can’t put darts in a pistol, revolver or not. Just the combustion in the chamber will destroy it.”

“The Nagant... is different. It’s a gas-seal revolver. It fires the ammo through air pressure, and relies only partly on combustion. I would imagine there’s a way to rig it to rely completely on a pneumatic mechanism. 7.62mm isn’t too far off from the ammo a syringer rifle uses, either.”

“Where is this... Nagant.”

‘Choly made a funny face and shook his head in a vague confusion. Suddenly, it didn’t feel like Jared was trying to confirm facts about a Jet journal.

“I have it stored someplace safe. What, why?”

“I’m very good with metalworking equipment, and very good with firearms. Been playing around with the assembly plant amenities for close to a year, and I grew up in Quincy. You’ve seen how good I am, from how we cooperated putting together the Jet rig. I could take a look at it. And I could probably make it happen. Give it ammo it can use. Make it proud again.”

‘Choly stiffened, recalling that Jared’s journals indicated he had access to Psycho--at least at one point--and he couldn’t imagine a worse outcome. But gradually, his judgment got the better of him and he nodded, then nodded eagerly.

“I’ll bring it tomorrow. So you can look at it.”

The moment the words came from him, he regretted it. And yet, Jared seemed more pleased with him than he’d ever been. With his help ‘Choly transferred over to the now unfolded wheelchair, and Jared escorted him down the mezzanine ramp to meet Angel.

“My stars you’ve gotten most filthy, Mister Carey!” Its tendrils flailed about in utmost concern before taking up the handles and motoring him along. “Shall I help you bathe upon arriving home? I scarce would think you could scrub all that away on your own.”

As they exited, Jared called out after him, “Melancholy! Don’t you forget your promise.”

He shot Jared an o-kay with one tired hand, not looking back.

“Angel, I... I think this warrants a dip in the river. We’ll stop at the pharmacy for the toiletries, I guess.”

“But Sir, you’ll be soaking wet all the way home. You haven’t come across a change of clothes. I should know. You deserve a freshening up.”

“I... have a change of clothes,” he began, almost reluctantly. “Don’t worry about that much. It’s in your storage compartment, actually.”

They fell silent the rest of the way back to the Lexington Walden, to limit any likelihood of stirring unwanted ghoul attention. On the way to their pit stop, all ‘Choly could wonder was whether Jared were more pleased with the journal entry, or with the promise of a new toy for his inhumane scheming... and he couldn’t help but wonder why he was so attentive to gain the favor of this abomination.

He’d given Melancholy everything he could have wanted. But at what price?

Go to Next »»»

[46ten]

“Reflections on Courtship and Marriage,” part 2

(Part 1 here) One of the best things about this pamphlet is that it shows romantic ideals about conjugal love and companionship, commonly associated with the 19th century, being presented in 1746 in Colonial America. There are a handful of Hamilton biographies and papers that make the assumption that the marriage of AH and ES must have been a sort of business/political contract, as the authors believe was common in that society/period. 

Reading this pamphlet (and other newspaper columns that I will post in the future) shows that AH was familiar with the standards of the day when it came to marriage. It was something he seemed to have thought carefully about - the qualities he wanted in a life partner, how his marriage would operate - and he may have framed his own thoughts about marriage through guides that were likely similar to this one, in addition to personal experience. One thing that stands out in AH’s letters to ES, even compared to this pamphlet, is his repeated emphasis on, and needing assurance of, her affection and tenderness for him, as though her qualities and their relationship could satisfy several common criteria, but she also needed to really really love him.  

To the pamphlet: 

Do not marry for money: 

The real felicity of marriage does undoubtedly consist in a union of minds, and a sympathy of affections; in a mutual esteem and friendship for each other in the highest degree possible. But in that alliance, where interest and fortune only is considered, those refined and tender sentiments are neither felt nor known. ...And what are the consequences to the parties themselves? Why, at best, a cold, flat, and insipid intercourse; void of the exquisite relish of a sincere esteem, and the divine pleasures of a reasonable and honourable friendship. [8-9]

Be clear with your partner about your financial situation and needs:

How much, or how little a fortune will content us, depends chiefly on our own way of thinking. Be this as it will, it should seem very proper before all marriages, for both parties to know truly and fairly what they have to expect on this head; and seriously to consider with themselves whether it will be sufficient so far to answer their desires, as to prevent future murmurings and anxieties, and prudently allow them to enjoy life as they intend. All deceit herein should be carefully avoided; we may otherwise impose on ourselves, and ruin all our future felicity. [11]  This sounds a lot like the Aug1780 letter from AH to ES.

Do not marry solely for passion: 

What has been observed, seems to point out, that a blind, a sudden and intoxicating passion, has a natural tendency, under its own direction, to ocasion unhappy marriages, and produce scenes of grief and repentance. Let us, on the contrary, proceed with deliberation and circumspection. Let reason and thought be summoned before we engage in the courtship of a lady; endeavour as much as possible to stifle all those passionate and amorous emotions that would cloud and bribe our judgments. Let us seriously reflect, that engagements of this kind are of the greatest moment to our future happiness in life; that courtship brings on marriage, and that makes all the peace and welfare of our lives dependent on the behavior and dispositions of another; a matter of the utmost consequence, and of which we cannot well think too long or too much. Let not therefore our eyes or passions previal with us, to barter away all that is truly valuable in our existence for their gratification. Some women have infinite art, being early bred to disguise and dissemble; yet by a skilful attention calmness, and impartiality, we may form a judgment of their characters in the main: Which we should endeavour to do, and compare them fairly with our own; see how they will correspond; be rationally convinced of a similitude in our ways of thinking, a harmony in our minds and tempers, before we venture to change the name of mistress into that of wife. [13-14] 

Having now driven the mercenary herd to their native mines, and made evident their unfitness for breathing the pure and generous air of matrimonial felicity; left the inamoratoes to float in their fool's paradise with novels and romances; let us endeavour to fix ourselves on the true basis of conjugal happiness, and see if we can hit upon the path wherein an agreeable companion, a steady friend, and a good wife, may be found. [14] 

Do not hide who you really are: 

[During courtship] In our addresses, let our conduct be sincere, our tempers undisguised; let us use no artifices to cover or conceal our natural frailties and imperfections, but be outwardly what we really are within, and appear such as we design steadfastly to continue. ...Love and friendship are of so nice and delicate a texture that disingenuity in the smallest matters should be avoided.  [15-16]

[Don't conceal your appearance!] It is really amazing how people can be so preposteriously wicked, in a correspondence of the most sacred and tender kind, in the consequences of which all the future happiness of their lives may depend. How stupid thus to study our own ruin, by the infamous deception of one we choose for the partner of our joys and our cares, the companion of our days and our nights! How shocking to set out with fraud, and proceed with deceit, in such solemn engagements! How shallow is the cunning of such inconsiderate minds! Must not all the pleasures of marriage be unanimous and inseparable? Do they not flow from real and unaffected loveliness? Can we think the cheat will lie long concealed in a society so intimate! When time and experience unmasks our assumed appearances, throws us in our native colours, and exposes that reality we have so industriously laboured to cover; we can expect love and esteem from any one whom we have so shamefully over-reached and insnared? Surely no. On the contrary, we shall entail on ourselves certain indignation, and lasting contempt. [17]

Do not flatter too much: 

It was an objection, you may remember, made against matrimony, That the education of young ladies gave such a trifling turn to their tempers, and manner of thinking, as rendered them unfit for the rational pleasures of society and conversation. Allowing this to be true, and in general but too true it really is, how prejudicial and fatal must flattery be to such? And how completely must that foppish rant called Gallantry poison their understandings, and tend to destroy the possibility of inspiring them with sentiments or reason and good sense? [18]

[Endeavour, by every probable method, to inspire her with the sentiments of a rational esteem, a generous and steadfast friendship for us.] By reasonably introducing into conversation useful subjects on human life and characters, by making solid and practical reflections thereon, and engaging the attention by a polite, an easy, and lively manner; we shall correct and strengthen the judgment, enlarge the faculties of the mind, and raise the soul to a free and generous way of thinking; drive out and extirpate that childish, that little narrow spirited way of thinking, that mean and injudicious distrust, those low and pitiful artifices, and that lurking fort of cunning, which is too much the characteristics of many women, is the detestation of every great mind, and the abhorrence of all ingenuous spirits. There is no friendship or confidence to be had with such dirty, tricking, low minds. They are an uttter privation to all social happiness; and when carried into a married life, and insuperable obstacles to its welfare. Many opportunities may likewise be found for recommending the perusal of elegant and improving books; which, by a good choice, and a judicious taste, will have a beneficial effect on the mind and understanding. [20-21]

What fermentations and heats often arise from breaking of china, disordering a room, dinner not being ready at a precise hour, and a thousand other such impertinent bagatelles? ...The reproving each other before company, and sparing as it were together, is mighty wrong, and very unpolite. It irritates themselves, and makes their company very uneasy. ..follow Mr. Pope's advise on another subject: "At every trifle scorn to take offense; It always shows great price, or little sense ("Essay on Criticism") [34-35]

Other odds and ends from this pamphlet: 

A section on "housewifery" (managing the household) starts on page 45.

A letter to a very young letter on her marriage by Dr. Swift [pg 55] “I must therefore desire you, in the first place, to be very slow in changing the modest behaviour of a virgin. It is usual in young wives, before they have been many weeks married, to assume a bold forward look, and manner of talking; as if they intended to signify in all companies, that they were no longer girls; and consequently that their whole demeanor before they got a husband, was all but a countenance and constraint upon their nature....“