#pronunciation of How to pronoun

[popcornkwantum]

Dndads names and why I won't steal them for myself

Starting of strong with: Henry. Beautiful. Wonderful. I feel like other people have a different mental image of someone called Henry tho, but it's almost near perfection. Might also fit better with someone a bit older than me

Darryl. Never heard of the name before listening to DnDads. Don't think that Dutch people will pronouns or spell it correctly (including myself when I realized I have spelled it wrong this whole time until I checked it specifically for this post)

Ron. No offense to all the Rons out there, but no thanks. Sounds a bit too old. Also, I know a Ron

Glenn. If rock music would have been my personality. Also, Dutch pronunciation sounds awful

Taylor. Too many people associate it with the real Taylor Swift obviously. Would have been a considerable choice otherwise

Lincoln. Actually, I like the sound of the the name. Not for myself probably, but it sounds nice. I hate the spelling tho

Scary. No.

Normal. Absolutely not

Hermie. I absolutely love this name. But then I would want to have Hermie as a nickname and Herman as the full name, but in my understanding, the name Herman in Dutch is mostly popular with middle-aged emotionally distant men. But Hermie sounds so good aaaah

Terry. Pretty solid. Don't see it for myself, but it has something going for it

Sparrow & Lark. Same reason: if I would have been into birds as much as I'm into ants, I would have definitely stolen one of their names. Probably with a preference for Sparrow. A tiny bit sad that I'm not into birds that much

Grant. Nah. Also, Dutch pronunciation is awful. Kinda funny, but awful

Nick. No cons at all?? I love it??? It's PERFECTION. You can even go with Nicholas as a full name and use both Nick and Nicky as nicknames and !! I don't know anyone irl with that name, the most famous person with that name I can come up with is the character Nick from heartstopper, but I like the books, so I don't mind? Nick is just chefs kiss to perfection. But also, I can't keep collecting names like a dragon hoarding gold. But they're just all like tiny little shiny jewels I want to keep in my pockets

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Not So Artificial Intelligence

Barbara thinks it was Bruce, with his love for new additions to the Cave. Bruce thinks it was Tim, with his late hyperfixation on AI. Tim thinks it was Babs, with her ever evolving network of keeping everything under control.

They are all wrong, but the fact stays a fact: the BatCave has an AI assistant now.

It is not very good at first, not recognizing voices very well and messing up commands, but the Bats write it off as a learning curve. Besides, it never makes the same mistakes twice, and in a couple of months, even the tiniest slip ups fade away.

Its name is Betty. First, Dick named it Bat-AI (a reasonable name), then it transformed into Bat-I for easier pronunciation, and then Steph called in Betty once, and the name was sealed.

And they all love Betty. Betty is the best, keeping track of their everyday lives, reminding them of their civilian meetings and vigilante business, alerting them of any suspicious activity in the city. Oracle finally gets to sleep for more than 4 hours in a day with Betty's help. Tim gets company when he is three weeks in and elbows deep in a case - it's easier when he has an illusion of someone to discuss the matter with, and Betty even offers him insight. Damian learns to do digital art just to have a little competition with Betty. He wins, but the AI is a worthy opponent, in his opinion.

Even Bruce begrudgingly likes the AI assistant. She is competent and helpful, and Alfred seems to approve of how she doesn't let Bruce overwork himself when he escapes medbay to keep searching for answers.

That is, until one day, Tim installs speakers specifically for Betty in the Cave.

The voice that comes from them is not robotic or mechanical.

It definitely has human intonation.

"Hello, Red Robin," the voice - a male voice, actually - greets him with slight amusement. Tim feels an uneasy feeling sinking down in his stomach.

"Betty?"

"You know me as such. I would prefer it if you called me Danny. He/them pronouns."

Remind him, who installed the AI?..

---------------

Danny got trapped inside the Batcomputer somehow - I suspect Technus had a hand in it - and decided to embrace it. He used to be a vigilante himself, so why not help this whole family of vigilantes while he is at it? They look like they need a hand.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Speech & Language

Milestones Related to Speech and Language

Birth to 5 months

Coos

Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds differently (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)

Makes noise when talked to

6 to 11 months

Understands "no-no"

Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba")

Says "ma-ma" or "da-da" without meaning

Tries to communicate by actions or gestures

Tries to repeat your sounds

Says first word

2 to 17 months

Answers simple questions nonverbally

Says 2-3 words to label a person/object (pronunciation may not be clear)

Tries to imitate simple words

Vocabulary of 4-6 words

18 to 23 months

Vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear

Asks for common foods by name

Makes animal sounds ("moo")

Starting to combine words ("more milk")

Begins to use pronouns ("mine")

Uses 2-word phrases

2 to 3 years

Knows some spatial concepts ("in" or "on")

Knows pronouns ("you," "me" or "her")

Knows descriptive words ("big" or "happy")

Uses 3-word sentences

Speech becomes more accurate, but may still leave off-ending sounds. Strangers may not understand much of what is said.

Answers simple questions

Begins to use more pronouns ("you" or "I")

Uses question inflection to ask for something ("my ball?")

Begins to use plurals ("shoes" or "socks"; regular past tense verbs, "jumped")

3 to 4 years

Groups objects, such as foods or clothes

Identifies colors

Uses most speech sounds, but may distort some of the more difficult sounds, such as l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th. These sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8.

Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words.

Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them

Strangers are able to understand much of what is said

Able to describe the use of objects ("fork" or "car")

Has fun with language; enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities ("Is that an elephant on your head?")

Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her

Uses verbs that end in "ing" ("walking" or "talking")

Answers simple questions ("What do you do when you are hungry?")

Repeats sentences

4 to 5 years

Understands spatial concepts ("behind" or "next to")

Understands complex questions

Speech is understandable, but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words ("hippopotamus")

Uses some irregular past tense verbs ("ran" or "fell")

Describes how to do things (e.g., painting a picture)

Lists items that belong in a category (e.g., animals or vehicles)

Answers "why" questions

5 years

Understands time sequences (e.g., what happened first, second...)

Carries out a series of 3 directions

Understands rhyming

Engages in conversation

Sentences can be 8 or more words in length

Uses compound and complex sentences

Describes objects

Uses imagination to create stories

NOTE

The ability to hear is essential for proper speech and language development.

Hearing problems may be suspected in children who are not responding to sounds or who are not developing their language skills appropriately.

The above are some age-related guidelines that may help to decide if your child is experiencing hearing problems.

It's important to remember that not every child is the same.

Children reach milestones at different ages.

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ On Children ⚜ Hearing ⚜ Children's Dialogue

[4chance]

flow of our lives — I. a mr. crawling series built around the sweet mundane. — part 1 of ?

word count — 0.6k summary — you take care of crawling to make up for past bitterness. notes — SFW. gn reader (no pronouns). END04 implied. bold = otherworld language. we call him "crawling" here, because we're close enough with him now to drop the honorific.

You must use force to twist the knob of the faucet (more now than before your foray into that world) and let the water roll, until you stop it at the lip of the bucket. You dip your fingers in. It is warm, and the heat is not far from your own, not too harsh. Crawling will not shy away.

He loves you—so much. He has a zest for your life, like a sweet, loyal dog; he loves you like a dog loves the chocolate in your hand. You did not always love him the way he deserved: to this day, he wears you proudly on his face (in the blood you had shed when you plunged your crowbar down his face). You soak a microfiber cloth in the water, tip Crawling’s chin with the bed of your thumb, and press the cloth to his cheek.

“Hot?” he says.

Your face drops to a look of concern. “Many hot? You hurt?”

“Not hurt. Little hot feel good.” He tilts his head, burrows his cheek into the cloth. “Why you have this?”

The water of the Otherworld is cold and hard and stagnant. Crawling knows the hot of a scared, throbbing heart; of the fire meant to ward off his kind. When you take up your cloth and wipe the grime from his chin, you show him warm: a nice heat, that is not here to hurt him.

“Your face… have blood. Blood… go out of your face—me happy.”

“Happy?”

His hands dart to the cloth. He tries to wrest it from your grip and drag it toward the center of his face.

“Calm down—not… move.” Since the Otherworld has no word that you know for please—“friendly.”

You know Crawling can handle himself. He braved the Otherworld as long as he did, and you trust him now to keep your apartment during the day: he mops floors and folds clothing, prompted and not. Still—it is you that must make sure he knows: you are not here to hurt him.

He never let the other ghosts touch him (not like this—not at all). Perhaps he forgave you already—loves you just that much.

You bring one hand to cradle the back of his head; the other gives his face gentle strokes. His body melts beneath your touch; he swipes his face against the cloth to help you out. The cloth blackens quickly: one half of his face requires four dips in the bucket. You see now just how pale he is, not that ash-gray you thought it was at all—in fact, so white his veins show dark as tadpoles on his skin.

You glide the cloth below his curtained bangs. Your fingertips cave in on the crest of his cheekbone. “You okay?”

“My eyes… not able to clean. Sorry.”

“You should not sorry,” you say, in an attempt at your clearest Otherworld pronunciation. Crawling hides his eyes and downplays his height, and you are sure it is for you, so as not to repulse you—yet he cannot make you hate him if he tried. “You good.” You stroke the crown of his head, the way he likes; a giggle escapes his broadened mouth.

You do what you can—you kiss the bridge of his nose, then rise to change the water. The skin that lines his sockets has the gravity of jowls, lined in essence with the slick of fresh blood. You either cause him no pain, or he hides it for you. Really—what have you done to deserve him, who loves you so much?

(This—

You look at him as if he is a jewel in your hands. He has never been treasured. Not like this, not at all.

The breathy rumbling of his giggles, from his chest to his cheeks, brings a flutter to your heart, and a warmth to your gaze. All you have done is be fond of him, made the smallest things you do his world.

The Otherworld is simple, in that only the strong survive—and so when you show him warm, he knows you’re true, and that is all.)

[writers-potion]

How do I accurately include diversity, and not make it look like I’m just putting it in there for the sake of it?

Writing Diverse Characters - Things to Remember

Honestly, there's no definitive answer to this.

Your characters are people with clear goals, desires and a role to play in the plot. As long as they aren't just sitting there with little else but their race/gender/disability, etc. as their ONLY personality trait, at least you're on the right path.

As for representing a diverse character realistically, here are some things you can consider to get started.

Do's

RESEARCH. There are plenty of blogs/YT vids/websites that exist to help you! Meet people!

Get beta readers.

It doesn't have to be explicit. Racial identities become quite clear early on through the setting, name, and initial description(hair, eye/skin color, body shape, etc) without having to drum it into the readers each time. Gender diversity can be conveyed through the use of certain pronouns without awkward declarations.

Character first, diversity second. Please don't intentionally create a diverse character and then think about how you can push them into the cast. Have a working character, who happens to belong to a particular group.

Read works that have represented a group well. There are plenty of non-fiction works, movies and documentaries that capture the lives of people around the world with a good eye.

Use the correct terms/language

Include different types of diversity

Don'ts

Race/gender/diability is NOT a personality trait. Please. Telling me that you have a Korean girl tells me next to nothing about the character herself.

Using sterotypes. Now, it's all right if your character has a few sterotypical traits, but definitely not if sterotypes are the only thing they have.

Diversity is not a "shock factor". Suddenly revealing that a character is actually gay and has been in the closet all this time as a refresher so that it draws readers' attention? Not a good idea.

One diverse character does all. This can often be seen in female characters of slightly dated works where one woman will play the role of supportive mother, sister, femme fetale and sexy Barbie at the same time. Don't write a diverse character who basically does everything a diverse character can possibly be. All that it proves is that the writer is lazy.

Things I personally hate seeing:

Weird pronunciation of languages. As a Korean person, I always get turned off by works (mostly badly written fanfics, yes, I read those...) that try to transfer Korean dialogue directly onto the page without even checking for the correct way to spell them out. A similar example would be pinyin for Mandarin. Please, this makes the character sound stupid throughout...

Character sticking out almost painfully. If your character isn't from the region but have lived in it for a long time, what reason do they have not to blend in?

Relying on variety shows/dramas as reference. Media representation of diverse characters that are meant for entertainment is not the best source for authentic research. I die every time someone lists a number of Korean rom-coms they've watched for "research". IT DOES NOT COUNT.

As a last note, remember that there's no limit to the kind of characters a writer can writer. Accept that our job as writers is to step into other people's heads, not seeing things from one (our) perspective - and it is not going to be easy.

Hope this helps :)

[memememaybe]

✨  *  ―  𝙀𝙓𝙏𝙀𝙉𝙎𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝘽𝙄𝙊𝙂𝙍𝘼𝙋𝙃𝙔 / 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙎 𝙏𝙀𝙈𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙏𝙀 !

The Character Development Template is a comprehensive tool for creating detailed and well-rounded character profiles, ideal for writers, roleplayers, or anyone exploring character creation. It covers essential details like identity, personality traits, relationships, and background while diving deeper into habits, quirks, and beliefs. Additional sections include alternate universes, scenario-based questions, and a variety of fun, introspective prompts to uncover hidden aspects of your character. The template also provides space to list inspirations from media, historical figures, and quotes, making it a versatile resource for building dynamic, multidimensional characters.

I. BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name:

Nickname(s):

Pronunciation:

Reason/Meaning of Name:

Preferred Name(s):

Titles:

Date of Birth: (Month, Year)

Place of Birth:

Age: (e.g., 20s, 30s)

Zodiac Sign:

Gender Identity:

Pronouns:

Sexual Orientation:

Romantic Orientation:

Species:

Ethnicity:

Nationality:

Living Arrangements:

Occupation:

Primary Source of Income:

Secondary Source of Income:

Education Level:

Religion:

Political Affiliation:

Social Class:

Dialogue Style:

II. PERSONALITY

Positive Traits:

Neutral Traits:

Negative Traits:

Primary Vice:

Primary Virtue:

Greatest Fear:

Greatest Desire:

Motivations:

Core Values:

Sense of Humor:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Quirks:

Pet Peeves:

Life Philosophy:

Jung Type:

MBTI Personality:

Enneagram Type:

Temperament:

Moral Alignment:

Hogwarts House:

III. RELATIONSHIPS

Mother:

Father:

Siblings:

Children:

Significant Other(s):

Best Friend(s):

Rival(s):

Enemies:

Pets:

Other Important Relationships:

IV. BACKGROUND

CHILDHOOD

Place of Birth:

Hometown:

Socioeconomic Status:

Parents' Occupations:

Type of Childhood:

TEENAGE YEARS

Key Relationships:

Education Level:

Significant Events:

ADULTHOOD

Current Residence:

Notable Life Events:

V. HABITS & QUIRKS

Daily Routine:

Nervous Tics:

Unhealthy Habits:

Peculiarities:

VI. ALTERNATE VERSES/THEMES

Verse 1 (Description):

Verse 2 (Description):

Verse 3 (Description):

VII. ADDITIONAL CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

PERSONAL INSIGHTS

What would they say is their biggest flaw?

What is actually their biggest flaw?

What is their biggest blind spot?

What is their guilty pleasure?

How do they act out when stressed?

What makes them envious?

What is one thing they wouldn’t want someone to know about them?

What is their biggest nightmare?

What was their worst subject in school?

What makes them feel insecure?

What are two things that make them uncomfortable in conversation?

SCENARIO QUESTIONS

What would they do if they knew they couldn’t fail?

Name three things they are grateful for.

When was the last time they did something for the first time?

What is something they wish they could redo from the past?

Describe a memory that makes them feel proud.

What’s in their bag/pockets?

Are they proud of who they are? Name an achievement they value.

What do they notice first about someone?

Do they value creativity or practicality more?

Describe a time they did something despite being scared.

What is their favorite gift they’ve received?

How old do they feel on the inside, and why?

Do they feel they’ve missed opportunities they regret? Describe one.

VIII. BELIEFS & OPINIONS

What is their idea of perfect happiness?

What is their greatest fear?

Which trait do they most deplore in themselves?

Which trait do they most deplore in others?

Which living person do they most admire?

What is their greatest extravagance?

What is their current state of mind?

What do they consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasion do they lie?

Which living person do they most despise?

When and where were they happiest?

Which talent would they most like to have?

If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

What do they consider their greatest achievement?

Where would they most like to live?

What is their most treasured possession?

What do they regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Who is their hero of fiction?

Who are their heroes in real life?

What do they most value in their friends?

What is their motto?

IX. MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS

What is their favorite word?

What is their least favorite word?

What sound or noise do they love?

What sound or noise do they hate?

What is their favorite curse word?

If they were reincarnated as a plant or animal, what would it be?

If Heaven exists, what would they like to hear God say when they arrive?

What profession would they most like to attempt?

What profession would they not like to do?

X. INSPIRATION

TV Character(s):

Movie Character(s):

Book Character(s):

Song(s):

Historical Figures:

Quotes/Poetry:

Other Media Inspirations:

[yumeka-sxf]

Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 4

Part 4 - Furigana and double meanings

I discussed in Part 2 how Japanese is comprised of three different alphabets: hiragana and katakana (together referred to as "kana") which represent pronunciation, and kanji which represent meaning. With there being over 2,000 kanji in common use, as well as various ways to pronounce any one kanji character depending on the word it's in, children learn kanji gradually throughout their school years. So manga and books aimed at a younger audience will typically have kanji "translations." These are comprised of small kana called furigana which are printed to the right of the kanji to show how to pronounce it. In the below panel for example, the one word that has a kanji is the 嬉 in 嬉しい. The furigana shows that 嬉 is pronounced うれ ("ure") to make the adjective "ureshii" (happy).

Sometimes manga authors will use furigana+kanji in creative ways to convey different meanings to words that specifically suit their story/characters. This alternate way of translating kanji is called 当て字 (ateji). One way of using ateji is to help introduce fictional terminology. In SxF for example, Ostania and Westalis are made-up words, but Endo assigns them their own kanji: 東国 for Ostania and 西国 for Westalis. The second kanji for both of them is 国 which means "country," and the first kanji for Ostania is 東 which means "east" while 西 for Westalis means "west." However, to differentiate them from the actual words these kanji represent ("toukoku" and "saikoku," which mean "eastern country" and "western country" respectively), Endo writes out their pronunciations in katakana next to the kanji. You can see this in the panels below.

Even though they're not real words, by assigning them kanji that represent what they are – "east country" and "west country" – even without any context, Japanese readers get more information about these terms than English readers do thanks to the use of kanji and furigana.

Another way manga authors can use ateji to suit their needs is by telling readers to pronounce otherwise normal Japanese words in the "language" they want. For example, the word used for "codename" in SxF is 暗号名, which is a real word that is pronounced "angoumei." However, when we look at the furigana that Endo assigns to it, he specifically tells us to pronounce it like the English word "codename" (コードネーム).

Since SxF is a series that takes place in a fictional version of Europe, Endo must have found it more fitting to use English for specific keywords like this.

While the above examples are fairly common throughout all manga, especially those that have a lot of fictional terminology, Endo also gets creative with using ateji to form double meanings that lend insight into the characters' thoughts/feelings. And we get one of the best examples of this in the very first chapter:

This is the scene where Twilight's saying that he became a spy to create a world where children don't have to cry. The word for children, 子ども, should be pronounced "kodomo," however, the furigana is telling us to pronounce it as じぶん (jibun), which means "self." By creating this double meaning of Twilight saying he'll make a world where children and/or he himself doesn't have to cry, points out in a subtle yet poignant way just how much Twilight's trauma as a child shaped his determination to make sure other children don't have to suffer the same fate. It's a brilliant way of showing a deeper side of the character that he wouldn't outwardly show.

A similar example occurs in chapter 49 during the cruise arc, in the scene where Yor is guarding the room at night, thinking about how she was dragging her feet during the Barnaby fight. Her last thought during that scene is wondering what she's fighting for, however, even though the word used is いばら姫 (ibarahime), which means "Thorn Princess," the furigana tells us to pronounce it as わたし, which is the "I"/"me" pronoun that Yor uses.

The ambiguity of reading the word as "I" or as "Thorn Princess" emphasizes how she's struggling with her Thorn Princess identity at that time. It can almost have a different meaning when reading it one way or the other. For example, reading it as わたしは何のため ("For what reason am I [doing this]…) or as いばら姫は何のため ("For what reason is Thorn Princess [doing this]…) gives the impression that she's trying to distance herself from "Thorn Princess"…that she's unconsciously seeing herself and "Thorn Princess" as different people.

Another example that's not as deep but still interesting is from chapter 87, where Sylvia visits Fiona in the hospital and tells her not to push herself so hard, even for his sake, with "his" referring to Twilight. The kanji used is 黄昏 (tasogare) which means "Twilight," but the furigana translation is あいつ (aitsu) which means "that guy/that person."

This is a clever way to use kanji/furigana to indicate that Sylvia is indeed aware of Fiona's feelings for Twilight by having her not refer to him by name, but also informing the reader that she definitely knows who she's talking about.

I also find it interesting that all three of these examples are spoken from a character we're viewing from behind. I think it's just a coincidence, but still interesting 😅

I'll wrap up with one more example from chapter 58, where Loid notes that his understanding of Bond is lacking, just like Anya. Once again, the word for children, 子ども (kodomo) is used (Loid likes making double meanings with that word, doesn't he?) but the furigana translates it to アーニャ(Anya).

I interpret this as him saying he needs to understand children better, but he specifically means Anya (even though he doesn't want to admit his particular yearning to understand her).

If you're wondering how the anime handles these ateji, it seems to vary. In the anime version of the chapter 1 example, Loid says the correct kanji translation "kodomo," but in the chapter 49 example, Yor says the furigana translation "watashi."

The anime seems to use the reading that would make the most sense if spoken out loud by the character.

I haven't read enough manga in Japanese to say that this use of furigana+kanji to create double meanings is a common thing, but even if it is, I'm sure Endo has his own unique style of doing it. I know there's more examples in SxF that I missed, and unfortunately I don't have the time to look through every chapter to find them. But if you happen to come across any others, feel free to let me know 😃 I may amend this post or create another one if more interesting examples pop up.

Continue to Part 5 ->

<- Return to Part 3

[kaciidubs]

The Summoning | Spooktober 2023

❣ Summary: Desperate times called for desperate measures, and you may have just summoned the most desperate measure of them all. ❣  ❣ Word Count: 1.16k ❣ Warnings: Demon! Jisung, humor, smut, Reader is a wee bit sassy, Switch! Reader, Switch! Jisung, implied multiple rounds, riding, open ended ❣  ❣ Female! Reader [No use of Y/N] | You/Your pronouns ❣  ❣ Additional Tags: Han is referred to as Jisung, Ji, Baby, and Sir, Reader is referred to as Jagi, and Baby, barely edited, there's basically no plot ❣ Stray Kids Masterlist ❣ General Masterlist ❣ Spooktober 2023

You were sure you followed the incantation properly, the candles were at the right points on your - albeit crudely drawn - sigil and the pronunciation of the Latin words were damn near spot on with the YouTube video you kept bookmarked. 

So, why wasn't there currently a tall, burly demon standing in front of you, ready to snatch your soul in more ways than one?

"What the fuck?"

Standing before you, looking just as confused as you were, was a man - a man - with admittedly gorgeously styled hair, an all black outfit that some how highlighted his slim figure, and a golden cross chain hanging from his neck.

Ironic.

"What- Where-" His eyes scanned frantically around your room before settling on you, still knelt at the head of the summoning circle. "Who are you and how did you do that?! Where am I even at? Who are you?"

You bristled at his constant questioning, eyebrows furrowing, "I should be asking you who you are! I was hoping for some sort of scary horny demon who was ready to blow my back out, not whoever you are!"

"Horny demon? Blow your- Hold on, hold on." He pressed his hands to his face, muttering under his breath though you weren't able to catch what he was saying. "You... You tried summoning a demon for sex? Are you insane?!"

"No, I'm horny." You deadpanned, crossing your arms over your chest, "And you're one to judge, since you came here!"

The demon dropped his hands, eyes wide and lips - cute, plush-looking, and kissable - set in a pout, "I didn't come here on my own! You summoned me, remember?!"

Groaning, you glanced toward the notebook with your summoning notes written in it, "I guess, even though you weren't what I was expecting at all." Looking up at him again, you shrugged, "Well, if you aren't going to satisfy anything, you can just - I don't know, poof back to hell or wherever you came from?"

He froze, mouth opening and closing with stammers that made you raise an eyebrow inquisitively. "I... Well, I can't."

"Huh?"

"I can't leave until I, um... Satisfy your needs."

If you looked hard enough, you could've seen the faintest blush rising on his cheeks.

"D-Don't get this wrong, either!" He shouted, quickly falling into the defensive, "I literally can't, it's in the incantation, I'm bound to you until I satisfy the contract of your summon."

There was a beat of silence between you, the cogs in your head working double time as you processed his words and all their double entendre meanings.

"So... You're stuck with me until you-"

"-blow your back out, yes."

Sure, he may not have been the big scary demon you were hoping for, but you couldn't deny that he was attractive and he looked like he'd be a pretty good lay. Besides - when would you be able to say you summoned, and fucked, a demon?

Pushing yourself up from your knelt position, you brushed off your knees with an exaggerated huff, "Alright then," you put your hands on your hips, smirking at the brunet in front of you, "fuck me."

Within the next ten minutes you learned a few new things; the first being that his name was Jisung - or at least, that's what you caught amidst his heavenly soft lips moving rapidly against your own. The second was that there was a specific way demons operated when it came to summons, and your chant just so happened to bind onto him. The third was that he had extremely sensitive ears, and for someone so sure about initiating things, he was a mere gentle breeze away from folding to your command.

And boy, did he fold.

"Oh, fuck me-"

He laid underneath you, hair an unforgivable mess thanks to your restless fingers and face wrapped in sheer pleasure as you rode him like a woman possessed; the springs in your mattress protesting in kind.

"Fuck- Fuck, Jagi, just like that."

"I can't tell," you huffed, breaking away from your assault of the pretty skin of his neck, "if you're the one who's supposed to be fucking me," your fingers slid from his hair and to his shoulders, slowly dancing their way down to his nipples, "or if I'm the one fucking you."

"I-I tried, but you-" a whimper fell from his lips as you gently pinched at the small, perked nipples, "-didn't even g-give me a chance!"

"Give you a chance? Baby," your movements changed to slow grinds of your hips, a sinister smirk growing on your lips from the way his pouted lips fell into a small 'o'. "I gave you permission to take me, use me as you wished - show me the reason why my summon worked on you." Leaning down, your lips grazed over his, "Show me why I chose you."

The air shifted around you, sparks of excitement shooting down your spine as you felt him shiver underneath you - your only sign of a physical change before you were suddenly rolled onto your back with ease.

There was no point in hiding the delighted giggle that floated from your mouth, not when it was subsequently followed by a shocked gasp as you took in the man - or rather, demon, before you.

His irises were a deep red, rivaling the prettiest of roses, while a set of horns curled from the sides of his head before curving up at his temples, the sharp points looking more inviting than they should have been.

Your pussy clenched at the smirk he wore, teeth bearing points that surely weren't there before.

"Why you chose me, Jagi?" Jisung spoke, the newfound low register in his tone wrapping around your mind and rendering you utterly defenseless. "Want me to show you why I'm the only one worthy of ruining this little pussy? Give you the treatment you got down on your knees for?"

His hands found your thighs, sliding down to your knees to hook your legs around his lithe hips before pressing forward, sinking whatever inches escaped you back into your slick cunt.

"Well?"

Taking that as your warm invitation to speak, you nodded quickly, "Y-Yes."

He tsked, loose strands of hair falling before his eyes as he shook his head, "Yes?"

"Yes, Sir." The title fell from your lips effortlessly, almost as if it was waiting to be used all along - natural.

His smirk grew wider, and you found yourself wishing he'd show you the delicious contrast of his sharp teeth and his pillow-soft lips, if only for a moment.

Anchoring onto his knees, Jisung cocked his head as if to process the simple addition of one word, "Sir... That's a good start, baby - keep it up and I might have to stay even when the contract's up."

From that moment on, the only chant you needed was his name, your sigil now in the form of your nails on his back, and whenever you summoned him, he came - and so did you, many, many times.

✧. ┊Tagged lovelies: @goblinracha, @having-an-internal-crisis-rn, @midnightfrog625, @anyhow-everything, @bangchanbabygirlx, @sweetracha, @j-onedrabbles, @happilydeepestwonderland, @nightimescapes, @caitlyn98s, @ch4nn13luv, @ihrtlix, @sometimesleeknows, @jeonjungkookenthusiast1997, @maximumkillshot, @y-ur--i, @acker-night, @dreamescapeswriting, @specialstay, @broken-glowsticks, @s00buwu, @dancerachaslut, @junglyric, @tinyelfperson, @jj-stay, @katsukis1wife, @inlovewithmusician, @keen-li, @armystay89

✧. ┊Kinktober only: @selicua

✧. ┊If your username is in bold italics that means tumblr won't let me tag you. If you’d like to be added to the taglist, fill out this form!

[homunculus-argument]

It's actually kind of fascinating how exclusively english-as-a-second-language teachers only come in lawful alignments. I've had lawful evil english teachers, lawful neutral english teachers, and lawful good english teachers, but never one that wasn't one of the above.

Like how does a person whose entire moral code and sense of ethics is founded on a stalwart faith that There Are Rules That Must Be Followed dedicate their entire life's work to teaching the most chaotic goblin goddamn language currently spoken on Earth, that looted the word "loot", hunted their singular second person pronoun to extinction, and whose spelling and pronunciation are so detached from each other that native speakers have national competitions about getting it right?

Or is it like being a priest. Like you just have to have absolute faith in the ultimate sense and logic of it all, no matter how much evidence you see to the contrary, or you'll never make it in the field.

[whatudottu]

Combined with the mortifying realisation that loopified Odile (now named Nokosu) took me multiple hours to draw the first time, I decided to try and make one speak in Japanese :) :) :)

The Japanese sentences will be under the cut plus a more literal translation and some research notes-

自分は遺残の神である。「遺す」と呼んでもいいし、「残」の字を使ってもいい。お前 の草白鳥は、すでにお前 の小烏から 「イサ 」という名前を取っている。二人の人間に同じ名前を使うのは混乱しないか？ヴォーガルド語の「サ」の発音は「ザ」に近いので、特に必要である。そうだろう？

or in Romaji

Jibun wa izan no kamidearu. 'Nokosu' to yonde mo īshi, 'zan' no ji o tsukatte mo ī. Omae no kusa hakuchō wa, sudeni omae no ko karasu kara `Isa' to iu namae o totte iru. Futari no ningen ni onaji namae o tsukau no wa konran shinai ka? Vu~ōgarudo-go no 'sa' no hatsuon wa 'za' ni chikainode, tokuni hitsuyōdearu. Sōdarou?

Literally translated Nokosu says;

I am the god of remains. You may call me “Nokosu", or you may use the [Chinese character] for “remain". Your grass swan has already taken the name “Isa” from your little crow. Isn't it confusing to use the same name for two people? It is especially necessary since the pronunciation of “sa” in Vaugarde is close to “za”. Wouldn't you agree?

And for the explanations of a monolingual English speaker with barely even surface level understanding of Japanese.

Throughout my entire journey, Jisho.org kanji dictionary has been my saving grace and backbone in my choice of Nokosu's name and what first and second person pronouns one uses. My initial goal was to find a name for survival or persistance which lead to me finding terms like; 存続 (sonzoku) meaning survival, 存 meaning exist and 続 meaning continue; 耐久 (taikyuu) meaning endurance, 耐 meaning the affix -proof (of bulletproof or soundproof), 久 meaning long time; and finally 遺残 (izan) meaning persistence, 遺 meaning bequeath, 残 meaning remainder.

To kinda help expand my knowledge of the terms I was using, I also used a combination of google translate (primarily for the pronunication of words less the actual translations) and DeepL to kinda get the sweet deets and found that izan had meant - a more common definition - remains. It. Was. Perfect.

Perfect save for one thing... Isa- Sure, Isabeau is his full name and written down Isabeau and Izan are unique enough, but technically functionally the 'sa' in French (and thus in Vaugardian) is more voiced than the 'sa' in Japanese and sounds more like the 'za' in izan, and to have Odile refer to Nokosu as Izan when "only [Siffrin] call[s] him Isa" is an in-game quote; to say I was miffed was an understatement.

But then... I turned to words that use those individual kanji and hoped to mix and match to find what I wanted.

My first direction was to turn each kanji into hiragana to find their pronunciations and piece together a word from that; 遺 in isolation is noko, 残 in isolation is zan. Finding the term no ko zan-kiri (のこざん切り) on google gave me 'chopped into pieces' which well- look at my design that's a lot of pieces! のこ残 or nokozan (turning the first character into hiragana of course) lead me to 'remnants of a servant's body' as it's main translation on DeepL, but it also provided 'backbreaking exertions' as well as 'remnants of a defeated soldier'. Plus using DeepL again izan itself full kanji gave me 'vestiges' 'bequest' 'afterlife' and the ever present 'remains'.

None of these however were getting me closer to an ample replacement for izan however, not until I returned to jisho.org to pick out words from a list using either kanji.

Turns out, both 遺 and 残 can be pronounce 'noko' so long as it is followed by the hiragana す or su. And guess what either spelling of the word translates into? The 遺す version meaning to leave (behind), to bequeath, and the 残す version meaning that same thing but more, to leave (undone), to save/to reserve, to stay (in the ring).

SO! SO! That is how Nokosu came to be named! But- what about the Japanese phrase I wrote?

Well- let's stay on the Nokosu theme now that any Japanese readers in my audience have already processed the meta-joke that can only really exist in Japanese writing (or maybe not a joke but like... a fourth wall acknowledgement). Nokosu already introduces oneself as 遺す though doesn't mention how to spell it (since it's already spelt out to the reader), then introduces the second variant of the spelling exclusively referring to the second kanji of Izan 残 as zan. Maybe it's not really a joke but it'd kinda be like the 'you use he/they, it's in your profile' equivalent.

I suppose an attempt at a joke was Odile thinking 'a very wordy Expression', but that's mostly from observing that translations through DeepL stopped run on sentences occuring from English to Japanese so... I have no idea if constant uses of commas isn't particularly Japanese, at least the joke would be that Nokosu is particularly more chatty than Odile might normally be.

And once again, people who know Japanese may have noticed the use of jibun (自分) and omae (お前) for Nokosu's pronouns. Lowkey I was thinking initially of making Nokosu's first person pronoun oira a la sans undertale 'country bumpkin' but found more interesting things with jibun and omae that I settled on those versions. jibun, a neutral formality pronoun literally meaning 'oneself', when used as a personal pronoun (like Nokosu does) it's with a sense of separation of distance to the self; I also found out in my translation hunt that jibun can be used as a second person pronoun which is very fucking fitting given who Nokosu talks to, but that's specifically from in the Kansai dialect and - well - I can't say for certain where Odile hails from especially since Japan in ISAT is Ka Bue, but she'd be well educated enough to connect the dots that Nokosu lays down. On the other hand, Nokosu's second person pronoun is omae (Fist of the North Star fans will remember it from the very iconic 'omae wa mou shindearu'), which is incredibly informal and very rude when said to elders (though in age technically Nokosu is older) as it's meant to express the speaker's higher status in non-casual relationships.

To note, though omae can be used by both genders, it and jibun are mostly used by men and in the case of omae it's more commonly used to refer to their wife or lover. This has a little extra significance to background headcanon where Nokosu calls Odile Nanafushi (七節) or literally walking stick AKA a stickbug as ones version of 'Stardust', but sometimes Nokusu would split the word in half and refer to Odile as 'Nana' which in English sounds like one is referencing a grandma but (BUT) I'm specifically using the French term which translates to 'chick' 'babe' 'girlfriend'. So when I saw that omae can also be used for that purpose, it really goes to show that at some point Nokosu had the time to perfectly craft a version of oneself that does get on Odile's nerves and has the gall to get away with it at least initially under the assumption that one is an Expression.

I've been trying to make this flow from one point to another but I don't know how to jump to Japanese nicknames, at least not the metaphorical ones that I used here (and took inspiration from the Word of God Odile nickname for Siffrin 'Little Crow'). What little I do know about Japanese nicknames is that they may take alternate readings of single kanji as a nickname or repeat a character, though that is in reference to Japanese names in the first place. I did see something about the metaphorical sort of nicknames that have connotations in the language itself but- honestly this is my most monolingual English moment yet. I will explain however what I did decide.

草白鳥 or kusa hakuchou is the character for grass 草, and the kanji combination for swan 白鳥. In DeepL however 草白鳥 translates to grasshopper and though I signifcantly lack the cultural context to know what grasshopper symbology has in Japan, I do know in English you call someone a 'grasshopper' because they're tall. But why start with grass swan at all? Well- maybe it's a stretch for whatever fantasy time-period ISAT takes place in to use an internet term but, 草 has been used in internet slang to mean lol or haha since 'w' is also a version of lol or haha, and when spammed like so - wwwwwwwwwwwww - it looks like grass. The reason for swan would be because of I guess this idea of beauty? Less due to Odile specifically considering Isabeau beauty and more so taking note of his care to his appearance - whether it be how he presents his perception of his appearance or how he makes people belief a different thing about what his views about his appearance are, white swan or black swan - and that whatever the case is, he does take pride in maintaining that appearance; a retroactive meaning to the nickname, especially when Isa starts more casually bringing up the fact he *had* Changed, would be an incidental reference to the ugly duckling, who ended up not being a duckling at all and was a swan all along. Whether the nickname actually works or not I don't really know, but what it boils down to Odile's nickname for him (and thus Nokosu's only title for him beyond fighter) would really mean 'funny (tall) beauty' which would probably fluster Odile to admit it as Isa would hearing it.

An interesting thing I found while finding kanji for little crow (specifically 小烏) was that there is actually kind of already a word for it already, Kogarasu Maru or 小烏丸, AKA "Little Crow" which is a unique tachi sword rumoured to be crafted by a legendary swordsmith like-! I don't know if that was at all intentional on Insertdisc5's part (and if I should change the pronunciaton of the romaji version of the original text to kogarasu), but beyond Siffrin's little habit to collect every little thing that shines and doesn't, what do you mean there's a unique tachi sword named 'little crow' that's like literally so Siffrin-coded I SWEAR TO GOD!

Oh, and I played ISAT in Japanese to get the correct spelling of Vaugarde and 語 (go) is just the suffix for language AKA the difference between Nihon the country and Nihongo the language okay BYE!

[official-linguistics-post]

How would you go about pronouncing the neopronouns, hx/hxm, shx/hxr, thxy/thxm, and xt/xt? Is the X incorporated into the pronunciation (eg: hks/hksm, ʃks/hksr, etc.), or is the X just silent and the pronouns are pronounced like he/him, she/her, etc.? Or does it vary? I'd really appreciate someone who goes by these neopronouns to shed some light on the matter. Thanks!

i have no idea, i've never run into these in the wild and i'd automatically want to ask the user their preferred pronunciation. if i couldn't get an answer, i'd probably default to an unstressed vowel sound for ease of articulation.

does anybody who uses this style of neopronoun have opinions?

[spanishskulduggery]

Hi! Native Spanish speaker here

Could u explain the difference between Chilean/ Uruguayan-Argentinian Spanish?

I have amigos gringos y estaria bueno explicarles.

Me di cuenta que sabes español así que puedo pedírtelo asi jajaja

Muchas gracias! 🫶🏻

Saludos desde Uruguay 🇺🇾

I'm not even sure where to start, the accent itself is so different even though Chile is very close to everything else

I'm going to list some differences in no particular order as they come to me

-

I think it's because Chilean is a bit of an outlier compared to what they call rioplatense Spanish... like there are similar trends, but it's pronounced differently

The main grammatical difference I've found is that Argentina uses vos for everything - more than tú, more than usted... it's a lot of vos

[Historically a singular vos was quite fancy and the way you addressed nobility and people very politely; the common term of address Vuestra Merced turned into Usted over time. In Spain, vosotros is now plural and informal. But depending on the time period, vos still shows up in historical dramas and fairy tales or things set in medieval times like fantasy. It's my understanding that multiple languages have something similar....... in English, our informal "you" was "thou" tú and "you" was formal, but then "thou" became obsolete]

The voseo in most of South America is usually understood as more intimate and friendly than tú

The big exceptions to this are Argentina and Chile

In Argentina, again, vos is the de facto 2nd person singular pronoun [I believe plural is still ustedes "you all"]

In Chile, vos has a different meaning from what I've been told. It's not vulgar but it's kind of impolite. If you're addressing someone as vos in Chile it can read as "dude" or "bro" almost, it's very familiar and not how you'd want to address someone from the older generations

While Argentina uses vos for everything, Chile uses vos for close friendships or where informality won't cause offense

The other main issue is the conjugation of vos

The majority of South America (including Argentina) conjugate vos like the vosotros form just without the I

...Like vosotros sois "you all are" in Spain then turns to vos sos "you are" in South America; they keep the S, but omit the I

Chilean voseo usually takes that vosotros form but omits the S sound and leaves the I

And so you get something like vosotros habláis "you all speak" turning to vos hablái in Chile [while it would be hablás in Argentina or the rest of Río de la Plata]

The verb that always trips you up with Chile is going to be ser because there are two forms; vos soi but I've more commonly heard vos eri(s)... like I've heard Chilean eri puro blabla which is "you're all talk" but literally "you're all blah blah"

The other one that's a little weird is ir just because of how vosotros normally works

In Spain vosotros id "go" as a command, ve for tú, but then vas for regular rioplatense commands, and then Chile says vai which is like if you tried to say ve but had your mouth way open

Chile (specifically those from lower income backgrounds) tend to omit the S more than most, while the higher income backgrounds or those trying to sound more posh tend to pronounce things more fully

The very informal aspects of Chilean Spanish are associated with the working class, which is probably why it's considered impolite (or maybe uneducated is the better word? it's a class distinction) to use those kinds of pronunciations and vos but it does depend on the area

...

The other weird thing about Chilean Spanish, which is sometimes common in rioplatense Spanish outside of Argentina, is that sometimes people use vos forms with tú as a pronoun

You might see tú eres or tú eri... or tú vas or tú vai

-

And I don't know if it's a thing in Argentina but I see Chilean Spanish sometimes using double reflexive pronouns. I think the common example is that Chilean Spanish might say me voy a irme, where you would typically say/read me voy a ir or voy a irme

Sometimes translations write it a bit differently to imply it's a different and more informal or regional way of saying it; so I've seen me voy a irme get translated as "I'mma head out" or "I'm gonna go" - it's not a 1:1 translation but it does portray that it isn't technically considered "correct" but is understandable

-

The common expression that I had to learn to sort of make sense of it was Chile's ¿Cachai? which is "Got it?" or "Understand?" which is from cachar (in Latin America it's like "to catch" like, "Did you catch that?" both in physical grabbing and understanding, but it's less common outside of Latin America) - it can be used as a filler word, but it is literally like "right?" or "got it?" or "you know what I mean?"

The only other expression I know for Chilean Spanish is qué fome which is "how boring" - I think they still use that

There's more of a generational and class divide in Chile as far as Spanish expressions

In general though, Argentina's accent (and rioplatense in general?) sort of sounds Italian. The Chilean accent is... very hard to understand, there's a lot of unique grammar and the accent is like Italian but more rural to my ears, not in a bad way but to me it sounds like if you were speaking Spanish with a southern drawl almost

...

As far as general vocab, I think Argentina and Chile agree on a lot of the regional words like the word for "car" is el auto which is probably from many German immigrants, they use extrañar for "to miss someone" like most of Latin America

But I do know the one that trips me up constantly is "computer". Spain says el ordenador. Most of Latin America says la computadora. Chile says el computador

Some typical words you should maybe know for Chile:

fome = boring

guagua = baby [from Quechua, I think it's the sound of a baby crying; Caribbean countries sometimes use la guagua for "bus"]

pololo/a = boyfriend, girlfriend

el computador = computer

¿Cachai? = Got it? / Right? / Understand?

el cahuín = gossip [I think it originally meant "party/assembly" for the indigenous people, sort of like in American English you might hear "pow-wow"; but cahuín is when you get together and gossip, so it can also mean "shady business" or "intrigue" or "something sketchy"]

po = (generally means something affirmative; it comes from pues but po is used so often it's like "yup" or "uh huh" or "of course" but can show up at the end of practically any sentence)

hacer perro muerto = "to dine and dash", to eat at a restaurant without paying [lit. "to do a dead dog", the rest of Spanish tends to use hacer un simpá which is from sin pagar "without paying"]

weón / weona = dumbass / dude [informal way to address someone - sometimes an insult sometimes not, kind of impolite, comes from huevón "dumbass", again means "big balls" I think since it's "big egg" and los huevos are slang for testicles]

la wea = thing [it's really comparable to how some countries say la vaina for "thing" - it's informal, it's everywhere, and for some reason it sounds almost rude if you didn't know better]

...

And I know I said it already, but po. No, but seriously po is so Chilean I cannot stress this enough it's just an all around affirmative - I don't know if you can use po wrong, it just shows up at the end of sentences

Also I don't know if Argentina says it but I'm pretty sure Chile uses bacán as "cool" - if I remember right Argentina uses chévere

I think it's common in most of Spanish now, but particularly Argentina/Chile and rioplatense Spanish are known for using chao/chau as "goodbye" since it comes from Italian ciao; this is as opposed to something more formal like adiós or more Anglicized "bye"

Every so often you will hear tschuss or something equivalent in Argentina which is from German as well

Chile tends to share a lot of regionalisms with Peru and Colombia and generally it's like countries that are in the Andes or were connected to the Inca Empire or some of the indigenous tribes

Argentinian Spanish you should maybe know:

che = hey / bro (a go-to word like "hey"... it's a bit like the Chilean po but it usually calls attention to something or it's affirmative; can also be "bro/dude")

el pibe = boy la piba = girl

la mina = chick (usually a girl/woman you don't know the name of; it's not polite but it's not mean)

boludo/a = bro / dumbass, idiot [it can be an insult "has big balls", but it can also just be like... "bro" or "dude"]

And if I remember right the slang term for money here is la plata which is literally "silver"

The main thing about Argentina people talk about is the accent particularly with how they pronounce LL

Spain tends to pronounce LL as if it were LY with a bit of an L sound in there still... Latin America sometimes pronounces it like a full Y/I sound... parts of Central America give it a hard J sound

Argentina gives it a SH sound; so llamar or lluvia can sound like "shamar" or "shuvia" in Argentina

...

Also I think in Argentina you hear la remera for "t-shirt" [lit. "rowing shirt", from el remo "oar" or remar "to row" but sometimes remo "oar" can be "limb" on your body], and Chile says la polera which I think is from "polo shirt"

General Spanish will say la camiseta which is the diminutive of la camisa "shirt/chemise"; in textbooks they typically say la camisa is a "shirt with long sleeves" or a "dress shirt", and la camiseta is "a t-shirt" or informal shirt

And I'm not sure if they both say this, but it's my understanding that they use la frutilla for "strawberry" in rioplatense Spanish; usually it's la fresa

Mexico does this too if I remember right, although for them la fresa means "posh" or "snobby" like it's slang for a rich person or someone who acts fancy. I'm not sure if it also means that in Argentina and Chile

There are also different linguistic quirks of Argentina like lunfardo [regional Italian-inspired words, specifically from Lombardy], or vesre which is... I don't know I'd call it closer to Cockney where words are played with or backwards [revés "backwards/reverse" -> vesre]; like la mujer "woman" is sometimes jermu which is the same word just the syllables are backwards

...

And Chilean Spanish has been called the Quebecois of Spanish; similar enough but also very different and more irreverent in other ways... though to me I find it's probably closer to how English-speakers see Australian English, a little hard to follow sometimes and the accents are very much class-based, where there's a way to sound posh and a way to sound distinctively not posh

Argentina is more like if you had an Italian person speaking Spanish then sprinkled in a bit of German, lots of rising and falling tones, almost lyrical, sometimes like someone is speaking in very fast accent marks (both Spanish and Italian accent marks á then à, just so many rising and falling tones)

[kiragecko]

Know Your Neopronouns

If you look around online, you can find lists of neopronouns. (Neopronouns are words that get can be used instead of 'he' or 'she' when refering to someone.) Most show just the first 2 terms (‘Ey/Em,’ or ‘Ze/Zim’). Few provide any info about how to pronounce them. And even less provide examples of how messy real usage is. This guide is an attempt to show how real people are using neopronouns. It’s based off the data of the 2020-2023 (Nonbinary) Gender Censuses.

-

English Pronoun Sets include:

Subject (the person acting) – ie. They

Object (the person the action is happening to) – ie. Them

Dependent Possessive (ownership, thing owned is named) - ie. Their

Independent Possessive (ownership, thing owned is not named) – ie. Theirs

Reflexive (action affecting the person who is acting) – ie. Themself

In a sentence:

They walked in and told me their name was Chris. I said hi, and showed them the name tags. They found theirs and put it on themself.

-

Neopronouns come in 3 flavours:

The first type is based off the most common English personal pronouns:

‘They/Them/Their/Theirs/Themself (or Themselves)’

‘He/Him/His/His/Himself’

‘She/Her/Her/Hers/Herself’

This type of neopronoun usually mimics the ending sounds of one or more of the common pronoun sets. For example, ‘Ze/Zem’ pronouns are based on ‘he’ and ‘them.’

The second type includes pronouns not usually used as personal pronouns (like indefinite ('One'), neuter ('It'), or definite (‘that’)). It also includes neopronouns derived from them ('Thon').

The third type is based on various nouns not usually considered related to gender at all ('Star' or 'Pup'). These are called ‘nounself pronouns.’

-

I’ve listed both the common pronouns, as well as the most used neopronouns. For each entry, I include a variety of forms and spellings. I do my best to provide pronunciation. (I have not heard all of them pronounced, and what little I was able to find online might not match what real people are saying.) And I mention if they mimic feminine or masculine pronouns, singular they, indefinite pronouns, nouns, etc.

List of the 25 Most Common Pronouns Used By Nonbinary People in 2023 (According to the Gender Census):

They

He

She

It

Xe

Fae

Hir

Ey

E

Ae

Ve

Ze

Star

Hy

Thon

Void

Ne

Kit, Cat

Pup

Vae, Vey

Xey

Mew, Meow

Bun

One

Moon, Lun

Other pronouns with more than 30 users in the census (not included as separate entries)

That, Thing (that/that/thats/thats/thatself, thing/thing/things/things/thingself, that thing/that thing/that thing’s/that thing’s/that thing – 56 people)

Vamp (vamp/vamp/vamps/vamps/vampself – 54 people)

Sun, Sol (sun/sun/suns/suns/sunself, sol/sol/sols/sols/solself – 51 people)

Dey, Dae (dey/dem/deir/deirs/demself, dae/daem/daer/daers/daemself – 46 people)

Zey (zey/zem/zeir/zeirs/zemself – 46 people)

Per (per/per//per/pers/perself – 18 people)

Rot (rot/rot/rots/rots/rotself – 37 people)

Sie/Sier (sie/sier/sier/siers/sierself - 36 people)

Nya/Nyan (nya/nya/nyas/nyas/nyaself, nya/nyan/nyans/nyas/nyanself – 36 people)

Bug (bug/bug/bugs/bugs/bugself – 35 people)

Ix, X (ix/ix/ixs/ixs/ixself, x/x/xs/xs/xself – 34 people)

Ce (ce/cer/cer/cers/cerself – 33 people)

1. Singular They (They/Them)

Most common nonbinary pronoun set, this was used by 30,188 people in the 2023 Gender Census.

Usual Set:

They / Them / Their / Theirs / Themself (30,107 people) Pronunciation: ðeɪ / ðɛm / ðeɪɹ / ðeɪɹz / ðɛmsɛlf (dhay / dhem / dhayr / dhayrz / dhemself)

Nonstandard Sets:

They / Them / Their / Theirs / Themselves (67 people) Pronunciation: ðeɪ / ðɛm / ðeɪɹ / ðeɪɹz / ðɛmsɛlvz (dhay / dhem / dhayr / dhayrz / dhemselvz) Plural they.

They / Them / Their / Theirs / Theirself (3 people) Pronunciation: ðeɪ / ðɛm / ðeɪɹ / ðeɪɹz / ðɛɹsɛlf (dhay / dhem / dhayr / dhayrz / dherself) Nonstandard They

Using them when talking:

They walked in and told me their name was Chris. I said hi, and showed them the name tags. They found theirs and put it on themself.

Nonstandard sets:

They walked in and told me their name was Chris. I said hi, and showed them the name tags. They found theirs and put it on themselves.

They walked in and told me their name was Chris. I said hi, and showed them the name tags. They found theirs and put it on theirself.

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2. Masculine Pronouns (He/Him)

Second most common nonbinary pronoun set, this was used by 17,182 people in the 2023 Gender Census.

Usual Set:

He / Him / His / His / Himself Pronunciation: hiː / hɪm / hɪz / hɪz / hɪmsɛlf (hee / him /hiz / hiz / himself)

Nonstandard Sets:

He / Him / His / His / Hisself Pronunciation: hiː / hɪm / hɪz / hɪz / hɪsɛlf (hee / him /hiz / hiz / hiself)

Using them when talking:

He walked in and told me his name was Chris. I said hi, and showed him the name tags. He found his and put it on himself.

Nonstandard set would end with: He found his and put it on hisself.

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3. Feminine Pronouns (She/Her)

Third most common nonbinary pronoun set, this was used by 13,220 people in the 2023 Gender Census.

Usual Set:

She / Her / Her / Hers / Herself Pronunciation: ʃiː / hɚ / hɚ / hɚz / hɚsɛlf (shee / her /her / herz / herself)

Using them when talking:

She walked in and told me her name was Chris. I said hi, and showed her the name tags. She found hers and put it on herself.

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4. Neuter Pronouns (It/It)

4th most common set of pronouns (up from 5th last year), and probably the most controversal. Seen as dehumanizing by many people, and as validating by others. (7,859 people)

Usual Set:

It / It /Its / Its / Itself Pronunciation: ɪt / ɪt / ɪts / ɪts / ɪtsɛlf (it / it / its / its / itself)

Using them when talking:

It walked in and told me its name was Chris. I said hi, and showed it the name tags. It found its and put it on itself.

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5. Xe/Xem Pronouns

5th most common set of nonbinary pronouns, and the most popular neopronoun set. (4,649 people)

Usual Set:

Xe / Xem / Xyr / Xyrs / Xymself (4,504 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɛm / zɚ / zɚz / zɛmsɛlf (zee / zem / zer / zerz / zemself) Based on: Singular They, with Feminine subject and possessive pronouns

Nonstandard Sets:

Xe / Xir / Xir / Xirs / Xirself (74 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɚ / zɚ / zɚz / zɚsɛlf (zee / zer / zer / zerz / zerself) Based on: Feminine

Xe / Xim / Xis / Xis / Ximself (27 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɪm / zɪz / zɪz / zɪmsɛlf (zee / zim / ziz / ziz / zimself) Based on: Masculine

Xe / Xem / Xir / Xirs / Xirself (23 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɛm / zɚ / zɚz / zɚsɛlf (zee / zem / zer / zerz / zerself) Based on: Nonstandard They, with Feminine possessive pronouns

Spelling:

Subject - Xe (4604), Xie (18), Xi (10), Xy (9), Xhe (7)

Object - Xem (4508), Xim (38), Xym (10), Xiem (3) | Xir (38), Xer (24), Xyr (18), Xher (3)

Dep. Possessive - Xyr (4472), Xir (62), Xer (43), Xeir (23), Xier (5) | Xis (32)

Ind. Possessive - Xyrs (4469), Xirs (54), Xir's (4), Xers (42), Xeirs (22), Xiers (5), Xhers (3) | Xis (25) | Xir (7), Xyr (3)

Reflexive - Xemself (4495), Ximself (31), Xymself (9) | Xirself (42), Xerself (28), Xyrself (22), Xeirself (7)

Using them when talking:

Xe walked in and told me xyr name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xem the name tags. Xe found xyrs and put it on xymself.

Nonstandard sets:

Xe walked in and told me xir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xir the name tags. Xe found xirs and put it on xirself.

Xe walked in and told me xis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xim the name tags. Xe found xis and put it on ximself.

Xe walked in and told me xir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xem the name tags. Xe found xirs and put it on xirself.

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6. Faerself Pronouns (Fae/Faer)

6th most common set of pronouns, and the 2nd most popular neopronoun set. (2,662 people)

Usual Set:

Fae / Faer / Faer / Faers / Faeself (2,623) Pronunciation: feɪ / feɪɹ / feɪɹ / feɪɹz / feɪsɛlf (fay / fayr / fayr / fayrz / fayself) Based on: the noun Fae/Fairy, with Feminine object and possessive pronouns

Nonstandard Sets:

Fey / Fem / Feir / Feirs / Femself (10 people) Pronunciation: feɪ / fɛm / feɪɹ / feɪɹz / fɛmsɛlf (fay / fem / fayr / fayrz / femself) Based on: Singular They

Fey / Fem / Feir / Feirs / Feirself (9 people) Pronunciation: feɪ / fɛm / feɪɹ / feɪɹz / feɪɹsɛlf (fay / fem / fayr / fayrz / fayrself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Fey / Feyr / Feyr / Feyrs / Feyrself (6 people) Pronunciation: feɪ / feɪɹ / feɪɹ / feɪɹz / feɪɹsɛlf (fay / fayr / fayr / fayrz / fayrself) Based on: Feminine

Spelling:

Subject - Fae (2638), Fey (18)

Object -Faer (2625), Feyr (3) | Fem (14), Faem (7)

Dep. Possessive - Faer (2637), Feir (11), Feyr (7)

Ind. Possessive - Faers (2636), Feirs (11), Feyrs (6)| Faes (3)

Reflexive - Faeself (2625) | Faerself (7), Feirself (5), Feyrself (5) | Femself (7), Faemself (4)

Using them when talking:

Fae walked in and told me faer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed faer the name tags. Fae found faers and put it on faeself.

Nonstandard sets:

Fey walked in and told me feir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed fem the name tags. Fey found feirs and put it on femself.

Fey walked in and told me feir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed fem the name tags. Fey found feirs and put it on feirself.

Fey walked in and told me feyr name was Chris. I said hi, and showed feyr the name tags. Fey found feyrs and put it on feyrself.

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7. Hir Pronouns (Ze or Sie/Hir)

The set associated with older users. Shi/Hir is also associated with the furry fandom and intersex people (who may consider it a completely different set. Research suggests there might have been drama in the 90s.) (2,190 people)

Usual Set:

Ze / Hir / Hir / Hirs / Hirself (2,148 people) Pronunciation: ziː / hiːɹ / hiːɹ / hiːɹz / hiːɹsɛlf (zee / heer / heer / heerz / heerself) Based on: Feminine, with a long ‘ee’ for all forms.

Nonstandard Sets:

Shi / Hir / Hir / Hirs / Hirself (34 people) Pronunciation: ʃaɪ / hiːɹ / hiːɹ / hiːɹz / hiːɹsɛlf (shy / heer / heer / heerz / heerself) Based on: Feminine, with the same long ‘ee.’

Spelling:

Subject - Ze (2107), Sie (30), Zie (6), Se (3) | Shi (26), Shy (6)

Object - Hir (2177), Hyr (9)

Dep. Possessive - Hir (2174), Hyr (8) | Hirs (5)

Ind. Possessive - Hirs (2177), Hyrs (7)

Reflexive - Hirself (2173), Hyrself (7) | Hemself (3)

Using them when talking:

Ze walked in and told me hir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed hir the name tags. Ze found hirs and put it on hirself.

Nonstandard set:

Shi walked in and told me hir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed hir the name tags. Shi found hirs and put it on hirself.

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8. Elverson Pronouns (Ey/Em)

Very similar to Spivak pronouns (next), these ones have the subject pronoun (‘ey’) based on ‘they,’ rather than ‘he’ or ‘she.’ (2,056 people)

Usual Set:

Ey / Em / Eir / Eirs / Emself (2,037 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / ɛm / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / ɛmsɛlf (ay / em / ayr / ayrz / emself) Based on: Singular They

Nonstandard sets:

Ey / Em / Eir / Eirs / Eirself (10 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / ɛm / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / eɪɹsɛlf (ay / em / ayr / ayrz / ayrself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Spelling:

Subject - Ey (2051), Ei (3)

Object - Em (2048)

Dep. Possessive - Eir (2049)

Ind. Possessive - Eirs (2049)

Reflexive - Emself (2037), Eimself (3) | Eirself (11)

Using them when talking:

Ey walked in and told me eir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed em the name tags. Ey found eirs and put it on emself.

Nonstandard set would end with: Ey found eirs and put it on eirself.

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9. Spivak Pronouns (E/Em)

The set most often named in articles explaining neopronouns. (1,624 people)

Usual Set:

E / Em / Eir / Eirs / Emself (1,575 people) Pronunciation: iː / ɛm / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / ɛmsɛlf (ee / em / ayr / ayrz / emself) Based on: Singular They, with Feminine/Masculine subject pronoun.

Nonstandard sets:

E / Em / Es / Es / Emself (13 people) Pronunciation: iː / ɛm / iːz / iːz / ɛmsɛlf (ee / em / eez / eez / emself) Based on: Masculine

Spelling:

Subject - E (1604), 'E (3) | En (7) | Em (8)

Object - Em (1600), Im (6) | E (5) |En (4)

Dep. Possessive - Eir (1577), Er (5) | Es (14), Is (5) | Ems (6) | Ens (4)

Ind. Possessive - Eirs (1576), Ers (5) | Es (10), Is (5), 'Is (3) | Ems (9) | Ens (3)

Reflexive - Emself (1593), Imself (4) | Eself (4) | Enself (4)

Using them when talking:

E walked in and told me eir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed em the name tags. E found eirs and put it on emself.

Nonstandard set:

E walked in and told me es name was Chris. I said hi, and showed em the name tags. E found es and put it on emself.

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10. Lindsay Pronouns (Ae/Aer)  (344 people)

Very similar to Spivak and Elverson pronouns. Created for a scifi alien race in 1920.

Usual Set:

Ae / Aer / Aer / Aers / Aerself (236 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / eɪɹ / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / eɪɹsɛlf (ay / ayr / ayr / ayrz / ayrself) Based on: Feminine, with vowels similar to Singular They.

Nonstandard sets:

Ae / Aem / Aer / Aers / Aemself (22 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / ɛm / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / ɛmsɛlf (ay / em / ayr / ayrz / emself) Based on: Singular They

Ae / Aer / Aers / Aers / Aerself (20 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / eɪɹz / eɪɹsɛlf (ay / ayr / ayrz / ayrz / ayrself) Based on: Feminine, with possessives based on nouns.

Ae / Aem / Aer / Aers / Aerself (19 people) Pronunciation: eɪ / ɛm / eɪɹ / eɪɹz / eɪɹsɛlf (ay / em / ayr / ayrz / ayrself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Spelling:

Subject - Ae (328), Æ (4), Ay (4) | Aer (3)

Object - Aer (268) | Aem (44) | Ae (13)

Dep. Possessive - Aer (285), Ær (3), Aeir (5), Ayr (4) | Aers (24) | Aes (8)

Ind. Possessive - Aers (296), Aer's (4), Ærs (3), Aeirs (5), Ayrs (4) | Aer (6) | Aes (12)

Reflexive - Aerself (280), Ærself (3), Aeirself (3) | Aemself (25) | Aeself (14)

Using them when talking:

Ae walked in and told me aer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed aer the name tags. Ae found aers and put it on aerself.

Nonstandard sets:

Ae walked in and told me aer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed aem the name tags. Ae found aers and put it on aemself.

Ae walked in and told me aers name was Chris. I said hi, and showed aer the name tags. Ae found aers and put it on aerself.

Ae walked in and told me aer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed aem the name tags. Ae found aers and put it on aerself.

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11. Ve/Ver Pronouns

These seem to be the neopronouns to play around with! Many of the sets here alternate masculine and feminine forms, sometimes in unpredictable ways. (304 people)

Usual Set:

Ve / Ver / Ver / Vers / Verself (70 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɚ / vɚ / vɚz / vɚsɛlf (vee / ver / ver / verz / verself) Based on: Feminine

Nonstandard Sets:

Ve / Ver / Vis / Vis / Verself (42 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɚ / vɪz / vɪz / vɚsɛlf (vee / ver / viz / viz / verself) Based on: Masculine and Feminine

Ve / Vem / Ver / Vers / Vemself (32 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɛm / vɚ / vɚz / vɛmsɛlf (vee / vem / ver / verz / vemself) Based on: Singular They

Ve / Vim / Vis / Vis / Vimself (30 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɪm / vɪz / vɪz / vɪmsɛlf (vee / vim / viz / viz / vimself) Based on: Masculine

Ve / Vem / Vir / Virs / Virself (29 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɛm / viːɹ / viːɹz / vɚsɛlf (vee / vem / veer / veerz / verself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Ve / Ver / Vis / Vers / Verself (22 people) Pronunciation: viː / vɚ / vɪz / vɚz / vɚsɛlf (vee / ver / viz / verz / verself) Based on: Feminine, with one Masculine possessive

Spelling:

Subject - Ve (230), Vi (59), Vy (4)

Object - Ver (90), Vir (57), Zher (6) | Vim (59), Vem (56), Vym (5) | Ven (8) | Vis (4)

Dep. Possessive - Vir (73), Ver (56), Veir (18), Vyr (10), Vier (4) | Vis (107) | Virs (4), Vers (3) | Vens (3)

Ind. Possessive - Virs (83), Vers (67), Veirs (18), Vyrs (9), Vaers (3) | Vis (92) | Vens (3)

Reflexive - Verself (100), Virself (75), Vyrself (5), Verrself (4) | Vimself (48), Vemself (33) | Viself (4), Veself (4) | Venself (6)

Using them when talking:

Ve walked in and told me ver name was Chris. I said hi, and showed ver the name tags. Ve found vers and put it on verself.

Nonstandard sets:

Ve walked in and told me vis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed ver the name tags. Ve found vis and put it on verself.

Ve walked in and told me ver name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vem the name tags. Ve found vers and put it on vemself.

Ve walked in and told me vis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vim the name tags. Ve found vis and put it on vimself.

Ve walked in and told me vir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vem the name tags. Ve found virs and put it on virself.

Ve walked in and told me vis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed ver the name tags. Ve found vers and put it on vimself.

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12. Ze Pronouns

Pronounced almost identically to Xe pronouns, but derives from Ze/Hir pronouns (286 people)

Usual Set:

Ze / Zir / Zir / Zirs / Zirself (140 people) Pronunciation: ziː / ziːɹ / ziːɹ / ziːɹz / ziːɹsɛlf (zee / zeer / zeer / zeerz / zeerself) Based on: Ze/Hir, which is based on Feminine, with a long ‘ee’ for all forms.

Nonstandard Sets:

Ze / Zem / Zir / Zirs / Zemself (76 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɛm / ziːɹ / ziːɹz / zɛmsɛlf (zee / zem / zeer / zeerz / zemself) Based on: Singular They

Ze / Zem / Zir / Zirs / Zirself (26 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɛm / ziːɹ / ziːɹz / ziːɹsɛlf (zee / zem / zeer / zeerz / zeerself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Ze / Zim / Zis / Zis / Zimself (76 people) Pronunciation: ziː / zɪm / zɪz / zɪz / zɪmsɛlf (zee / zim / ziz / ziz / zimself) Based on: Masculine

Spelling:

Subject - Ze (237), Zie (27), Zhe (17), Zi (3)

Object - Zir (126), Zer (8), Zher (6) | Zem (83), Zim (31), Zhim (7)

Dep. Possessive - Zir (181), Zer (31), Zeir (20), Zyr (12), Zher (10), Zhir (3) | Zis (10) | Zirs (5)

Ind. Possessive - Zirs (178), Zers (31), Zeirs (22), Zyrs (12), Zhers (10), Zhirs (3) | Zis (8) | Zir (3)

Reflexive - Zirself (149), Zerself (14), Zherself (6), Zyrself (4), Zeirself (3) | Zemself (78), Zimself (25), Zymself (4), Zhimself (7) | Zeself (4)

Using them when talking:

Ze walked in and told me zir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed zir the name tags. Ze found zirs and put it on zirself.

Nonstandard sets:

Ze walked in and told me zir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed zem the name tags. Ze found zirs and put it on zemself.

Ze walked in and told me zir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed zem the name tags. Ze found zirs and put it on zirself.

Ze walked in and told me zis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed zim the name tags. Ze found zis and put it on zimself.

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13. Star Pronouns

The most popular nounself pronouns (13th overall)! (157 people)

Usual Set:

Star / Star / Stars / Stars / Starself (133 people) Pronunciation: stɑɹ / stɑɹ / stɑɹz / stɑɹz / stɑɹsɛlf (star / star / starz / starz / starself) Based on: Nouns

Nonstandard Sets:

Usual Set: Star / Star / Star / Stars / Starself (9 people) Pronunciation: stɑɹ / stɑɹ / stɑɹ / stɑɹz / stɑɹsɛlf (star / star / star / starz / starself) Based on: Nouns, with possessives influenced by Feminine/Singular They

Spelling:

Subject - Star (150) | Sta (3)

Object - Star (144) | Stars (4)

Dep. Possessive - Stars (119), Star's (16) | Star (12)

Ind. Possessive - Stars (130), Star's (19)

Reflexive - Starself (150)

Using them when talking:

Star walked in and told me stars name was Chris. I said hi, and showed star the name tags. Star found stars and put it on starself.

Nonstandard sets:

Star walked in and told me star name was Chris. I said hi, and showed star the name tags. Star found stars and put it on starself.

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14. Hy/Hym Pronouns

Pronounced identically to masculine pronouns. (130 people)

Usual Set:

Hy / Hym / Hys / Hys / Hymself (103 people) Pronunciation: hiː / hɪm / hɪz / hɪz / hɪmsɛlf (hee / him /hiz / hiz / himself) Based on: Masculine

Nonstandard Set:

Hey / Hem / Heir / Heirs / Hemself (9 people) Pronunciation: heɪ / hɛm / heɪɹ / heɪɹz / heɪɹsɛlf (hay / hem /hayr / hayrz / hemself) Based on: Singular They

Spelling:

Subject - Hy (97), He (10), Hie (5) | Hey (10)

Object - Hym (65), Hymn (44), Hem (15)

Dep. Possessive - Hys (97) | Heir (11), Hyr (3) | Hymns (4)

Ind. Possessive - Hys (97) | Heirs (1) | Hymns (5)

Reflexive - Hymself (58), Hymnself (46), Hemself (12)

Using them when talking:

Hy walked in and told me hys name was Chris. I said hi, and showed hym the name tags. Hy found hys and put it on hymself.

Nonstandard sets:

Hey walked in and told me heir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed hem the name tags. Hey found heirs and put it on hemself.

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15. Thon Pronouns

One of the oldest neopronouns, dating to 1858. A contraction of 'that one'. Linguists and social reformers LOVED these pronouns, actual users are much rarer. (122 people)

Usual Set:

Thon / Thon / Thons / Thons / Thonself (104 people) Pronunciation: ðʌn / ðʌn / ðʌnz / ðʌnz / ðʌnsɛlf (dhuhn / dhuhn / dhuhnz / dhuhnz / dhuhnself – ‘the’ + n) Based on: One (Indefinite Pronoun), which works identically to nouns

Nonstandard Set:

Thon / Thon / Thon / Thons / Thonself (6 people) Pronunciation: ðʌn / ðʌn / ðʌn / ðʌnz / ðʌnsɛlf (dhuhn / dhuhn / dhuhn / dhuhnz / dhuhnself) Based on: One, with possessives influenced by Feminine/Singular They

Spelling:

Subject - Thon (119)

Object - Thon (114) | Thons (5)

Dep. Possessive - Thons (104), Thon's (5) | Thon (7)

Ind. Possessive - Thons (101), Thon's (12) | Thon (4)

Reflexive - Thonself (119)

Using them when talking:

Thon walked in and told me thons name was Chris. I said hi, and showed thon the name tags. Thon found thons and put it on thonself.

Nonstandard sets:

Thon walked in and told me thon name was Chris. I said hi, and showed thon the name tags. Thon found thons and put it on thonself.

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16. Void Pronouns

The 2nd most popular nounself pronouns (16th overall) (117 people)

Usual Set:

Void / Void / Voids / Voids / Voidself (72 people) Pronunciation: voɪd / voɪd / voɪdz / voɪdz / voɪdsɛlf (voyd / voyd / voydz / voydz / voydself) Based on: Nouns (Void)

Nonstandard Sets:

Voi / Void / Voids / Voids / Voidself (69 people) Pronunciation: voɪ / voɪd / voɪdz / voɪdz / voɪdsɛlf (voy / voyd / voydz / voydz / voydself) Based on: Nouns (Void), with subject form shortened to better match established pronouns

Voi / Void / Void / Voids / Voidself (10 people) Pronunciation: voɪ / voɪd / voɪd / voɪdz / voɪdsɛlf (voy / voyd / voyd / voydz / voydself) Based on: Nouns (Void), with subject form shortened, and possessives influenced by Feminine/Singular They

Spelling:

Subject - Voi (108), Vo (3) | Void (80) | Vi (3)

Object - Void (180) | Voi (9)

Dep. Possessive - Voids (134), Void's (14) | Void (18) | Vois (14) | Voi (4)

Ind. Possessive - Voids (153), Void's (19) | Vois (12)

Reflexive - Voidself (181) | Voiself (9)

Using them when talking:

Void walked in and told me voids name was Chris. I said hi, and showed void the name tags. Void found voids and put it on voidself.

Nonstandard sets:

Voi walked in and told me voids name was Chris. I said hi, and showed void the name tags. Voi found voids and put it on voidself.

Voi walked in and told me void name was Chris. I said hi, and showed void the name tags. Voi found voids and put it on voidself.

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17. Ne/Nem Pronouns

(114 people)

Usual Set:

Ne / Nem / Nir / Nirs / Nemself (61 people) Pronunciation: niː / nɛm / nɚ / nɚz / nɛmsɛlf (nee / nem / ner / nerz / nemself) Based on: Singular They, with Feminine subject and possessive pronouns

Nonstandard Sets:

Ne / Nim / Nis / Nis / Nimself (19 people) Pronunciation: niː / nɪm / nɪz / nɪz / nɪmsɛlf (nee / nim / niz / niz / nimself) Based on: Masculine

Ne / Nem / Nir / Nirs / Nirself (8 people) Pronunciation: niː / nɛm / nɚ / nɚz / nɚsɛlf (nee / nem / ner / nerz / nerself) Based on: Nonstandard They, with Feminine subject and possessive pronouns

Ne / Nem / Nems / Nems / Nemself (7 people) Pronunciation: niː / nɛm / nɛmz / nɛmz / nɛmsɛlf (nee / nem / nemz / nemz / nemself) Based on: Nouns

Spelling:

Subject - Ne (98), Nie (4), Ni (3)

Object - Nem (65), Nym (25), Nim (16)

Dep. Possessive - Nir (48), Neir (11), Nyr (10), Ner (7) | Nis (13), Nys (6) | Nems (3), Nims (3)

Ind. Possessive - Nirs (45), Neirs (11), Nyrs (9), Ners (5) | Nis (15), Nys (5) | Nems (5), Nims (4)

Reflexive - Nemself (68), Nymself (22), Nimself (15) | Nirself (5), Neirself (3), Nyrself (3)

Using them when talking:

Ne walked in and told me nir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed nem the name tags. Ne found nirs and put it on nemself.

Nonstandard sets:

Ne walked in and told me nis name was Chris. I said hi, and showed nim the name tags. Ne found nis and put it on nimself.

Ne walked in and told me nir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed nem the name tags. Ne found nirs and put it on nirself.

Ne walked in and told me nems name was Chris. I said hi, and showed nem the name tags. Ne found nems and put it on nemself.

-

18. Kit, Cat Pronouns

The first of the animal based pronouns! People using animal based pronouns frequently alternate between multiple sets - based off animals (kit, bug), their sounds (meow, caw), and their body parts (paw). (103 people)

Usual Set:

Kit / Kit / Kits / Kits / Kitself (60 people) Pronunciation: kɪt / kɪt / kɪts / kɪts / kɪtsɛlf (kit / kit / kits / kits / kitself) Based on: Nouns (Kit/Kitty)

Nonstandard Sets:

Cat / Cat / Cats / Cats / Catself (23 people) Pronunciation: kat / kat / kats / kats / katsɛlf (kat / kat / kats / kats / katself) Based on: Nouns (Cat)

Spelling:

Subject - Kit (69) | Kitty (6) | Cat (23)

Object - Kit (64) | Kits (3) | Kitty (8) | Cat (23)

Dep. Possessive - Kits (65), Kit's (3) | Kittys (4), Kitty's (3) | Cats (18), Cat's (4)

Ind. Possessive - Kits (62), Kit's (4) | Kitty's (4) | Kittens (3) | Cats (17), Cat's (6)

Reflexive - Kitself (67) | Kittyself (4) | Kittenself (4) | Catself (23)

Using them when talking:

Kit walked in and told me kits name was Chris. I said hi, and showed kit the name tags. Kit found kits and put it on kitself.

Nonstandard sets:

Cat walked in and told me cats name was Chris. I said hi, and showed cat the name tags. Cat found cats and put it on catself.

-

19. Pup Pronouns

(102 people)

Usual Set: Pup / Pup / Pups / Pups / Pupself (75 people) Pronunciation: pʌp / pʌp / pʌps / pʌps / pʌpsɛlf (puhp / puhp / puhps / puhps / puhpself) Based on: Nouns (Pup/Puppy)

Spelling:

Subject - Pup (85) | Dog (6), The Dog (5) | Mutt (4)

Object - Pup (75) | Pups (6)| Dog (5), The Dog (4) | Mutt (4)

Dep. Possessive - Pups (69), Pup's (12) | Dogs (3), The Dog's (4) | Mutts (4)

Ind. Possessive - Pups (69), Pup's (13) | Dogs (5), The Dog's (4) | Mutts (4)

Reflexive - Pupself (82) | Dogself (6) | Itself (4) | Muttself (4)

Using them when talking:

Pup walked in and told me pups name was Chris. I said hi, and showed pup the name tags. Pup found pups and put it on pupself.

-

20. Vae Pronouns

Ve pronouns have endless variations! These ones use a subject form based on They, rather than He/She, and seem to be influenced by Ae and Fae pronouns. (91 people)

Usual Set:

Vae / Vaem / Vaer / Vaers / Vaemself (42 people) Pronunciation: veɪ / vɛm / veɪɹ / veɪɹz / veɪmsɛlf (vay / vem / vayr / vayrz / vemself) Based on: Singular They

Nonstandard Sets:

Vae / Vaer / Vaer / Vaers / Vaerself (27 people) Pronunciation: veɪ / veɪɹ / veɪɹ / veɪɹz / veɪɹsɛlf (vay / vayr / vayr / vayrz / vayrself) Based on: Feminine

Vae / Vaem / Vaer / Vaers / Vaerself (11 people) Pronunciation: veɪ / vɛm / veɪɹ / veɪɹz / veɪɹsɛlf (vay / vem / vayr / vayrz / vayrself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Spelling:

Subject - Vae (63), Vey (24)

Object - Vem (26), Vaem (22) | Vaer (28) | Vae (3)

Dep. Possessive - Vaer (59), Veir (14), Ver (4)

Ind. Possessive - Vaers (58), Veirs (14), Vers (5)

Reflexive – Vaerself (37), Veirself (4) | Vymself (20), Vaemself (16) | Vaeself (4)

Using them when talking:

Vae walked in and told me vaer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vaem the name tags. Vae found vaers and put it on vaemself.

Nonstandard sets:

Vae walked in and told me vaer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vaer the name tags. Vae found vaers and put it on vaerself.

Vae walked in and told me vaer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed vaem the name tags. Vae found vaers and put it on vaerself.

-

21. Xey Pronouns

Xe pronouns also have a version based on They in the subject form. (91 people)

Usual Set:

Xey / Xem / Xeir / Xeirs / Xemself (37 people) Pronunciation: zeɪ / zɛm / zeɪɹ / zeɪɹz / zeɪmsɛlf (zay / zem / zayr / zayrz / zemself) Based on: Singular They

Nonstandard Sets:

Xey / Xem / Xeir / Xeirs / Xeirself (37 people) Pronunciation: zeɪ / zɛm / zeɪɹ / zeɪɹz / zeɪɹsɛlf (zay / zem / zayr / zayrz / zayrself) Based on: Nonstandard They

Xae / Xaem / Xaer / Xaers / Xaerself (11 people) Pronunciation: zeɪ / zeɪɹ / zeɪɹ / zeɪɹz / zeɪɹsɛlf (zay / zayr / zayr / zayrz / zayrself) Based on: Feminine

Spelling:

Subject - Xey (71), Xae (10)

Object - Xem (70), Xaem (4) | Xaer (4)

Dep. Possessive - Xeir (49), Xyr (12), Xaer (8), Xer (7), Xeyr (3)

Ind. Possessive - Xeirs (46), Xyrs (12), Xaers (7), Xers (7), Xeyrs (3)

Reflexive - Xemself (61), Xaemself (3) | Xeirself (5), Xaerself (4)

Using them when talking:

Xey walked in and told me xeir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xem the name tags. Xey found xeirs and put it on xemself.

Nonstandard sets:

Xey walked in and told me xeir name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xem the name tags. Xey found xeirs and put it on xeirself.

Xae walked in and told me xaer name was Chris. I said hi, and showed xaer the name tags. Xae found xaers and put it on xaerself.

-

22. Mew Pronouns

These pronouns often alternate with Kit/Cat pronouns, or other cat sounds like Nyan or Purr (89 people)

Usual Set:

Mew / Mew / Mews / Mews / Mewself (48 people) Pronunciation: mjuː / mjuː / mjuːz / mjuːz / mjusɛlf (myoo / myoo / myooz / myooz / myooself) Based on: Nouns (Mew)

Nonstandard Sets:

Meow / Meow / Meows / Meows / Meowself (27 people) Pronunciation: mjaʊ or mi‧aʊ / mjaʊ / mjaʊz / mjaʊz / mjaʊsɛlf (myow / myow / myowz / myowz / myowself) Based on: Nouns (Meow)

Spelling:

Subject - Mew (53) | Meow (29) | Mrr (3)

Object - Mew (49) | Meow (29) | Mrrp (4)

Dep. Possessive - Mews (47) | Meows (25), Meow's (4) | Mrrps (3)

Ind. Possessive - Mews (45) | Meows (27), Meow's (4) | Mrrps (3)

Reflexive - Mewself (50) | Meowself (31) | Mrrpself (3)

Using them when talking:

Mew walked in and told me mews name was Chris. I said hi, and showed mew the name tags. Mew found mews and put it on mewself.

Nonstandard sets:

Meow walked in and told me meows name was Chris. I said hi, and showed meow the name tags. Meow found meows and put it on meowself.

-

23. Bun Pronouns

(71 people)

Usual Set:

Bun / Bun / Buns / Buns / Bunself (60 people) Pronunciation: bʌn / bʌn / bʌnz / bʌnz / bʌnsɛlf (buhn / buhn / buhnz / buhnz / buhnself) Based on: Nouns (Bunny)

Spelling:

Subject - Bun (69)

Object - Bun (69)

Dep. Possessive - Buns (59), Bun's (10)

Ind. Possessive - Buns (55), Bun's (10)

Reflexive - Bunself (68)

Using them when talking:

Bun walked in and told me buns name was Chris. I said hi, and showed bun the name tags. Bun found buns and put it on bunself.

-

24. Indefinite Pronouns (One)

The 'formal' option - this is what grammarians used to suggest (64 people)

Usual Set:

One / One / One's / One's / Oneself  (51 people) Pronunciation: wʌn / wʌn / wʌnz / wʌnz / wʌnsɛlf (wuhn / wuhn / wuhnz / wuhnz / wuhnself) Based on: Indefinite Pronoun

Spelling:

Subject - One (53), That One (7), This One (4)

Object - One (50), That One (8), This One (3)

Dep. Possessive - One's (30), Ones (23), That One's (6), This One's (3)

Ind. Possessive - One's (31), Ones (22), That One's (6)

Reflexive - Oneself (53), That One's Self (4)

Using them when talking:

One walked in and told me one's name was Chris. I said hi, and showed one the name tags. One found one's and put it on oneself.

-

25. Moon/Lun Pronouns

(57 people)

Usual Set:

Moon / Moon / Moons / Moons / Moonself (32 people) Pronunciation: muːn / muːn / muːnz / muːnz / muːnsɛlf (moon / moon / moonz / moonz / moonself) Based on: Nouns (Moon)

Nonstandard sets:

Lun / Lun / Luns / Luns / Lunself (9 people) Pronunciation: luːn / luːn / luːnz / luːnz / luːnsɛlf (loon / loon / loonz / loonz / loonself) Based on: Nouns (Lunar)

Spelling:

Subject - Moon (33) | Lun (9) | Lu (8)

Object - Moon (33) | Lun (10) | Luna (6) | Lunar (3)

Dep. Possessive - Moons (26), Moon's (8) | Luns (12)

Ind. Possessive - Moons (26), Moon's (7) | Luns (12)

Reflexive - Moonself (34) | Lunself (12) | Lunaself (4)

Using them when talking:

Moon walked in and told me moons name was Chris. I said hi, and showed moon the name tags. Moon found moons and put it on moonself.

Nonstandard sets:

Lun walked in and told me luns name was Chris. I said hi, and showed lun the name tags. Lun found luns and put it on lunself.

-

A note on defining sets:

Deciding what to consider a variant, and what to consider a different set altogether, wasn't easy.

Elverson and Spivak pronouns are mostly separated because of their history, and how (relatively) well known they are. I then tried to stay consistent, and separated things like 'ze' and 'zey' sets.

Animal and sound based nounself pronouns are grouped based on how difficult it was to separate them. A relatively high percentage of people wrote 'kit' and 'cat' forms into the same entry. Less people grouped 'mew' and 'nya' forms. And, while 'mew' and 'nya' forms were FREQUENTLY grouped with 'kit' and 'cat' forms, I kept them separate for my own sanity.

I am also VERY glad that 'sie/sier' pronouns didn't make the top 25. 'Sie', 'se', 'sea', 'ce', and 'ke' are probably unsortable without talking to their users individually. (There's at least three pronunciations in there - 'zee', see' and 'kee'!) But I love the 4 people using 'sir' as a pronoun. That amuses me!

[janmisali]

the official jan Misali styleguide

so uh I decided to compile together a bunch of rules that I've come up with over the years for myself for how I write videos. this is not comprehensive and is unlikely to be genuinely useful to anyone (very few of these are things I'd consider to be "good advice" for anyone else who wants to make videos, they're mostly just how I personally do things), but here we go anyway!

text

text should be typeset in Noto Serif by default, using other fonts for their specific aesthetic effects on a case by case basis, always presented in contrast with Noto Serif

text should be white, on a black background, with keywords highlighted in teal (#008472)

text should use justified margins, unless this looks bad or is too hard to do with the specific program being used

the pronoun "I" should always be capitalized

proper names should usually be capitalized, but may be left in lowercase to convey a less formal tone when appropriate

the name "jan Misali" should be written with a lowercase "jan" and a capitalized "Misali", following toki pona capitalization conventions (and in general, all toki pona text should follow toki pona capitalization conventions, only capitalizing proper names)

brand names with irregular capitalization such as "YouTube" should always be in lowercase ("youtube") as a sign of disrespect

words may be capitalized for Emphasis, but this should be avoided sentence-initially

avoid capitalization for any other purpose (such as sentence capitalization or all caps) unless this is done to imitate a specific style meant to contrast with the default Misalian style

in addition to the aforementioned teal-coloring and capitalization, words may also be marked as emphasized using italics

these three styles of emphasis should be used for different purposes: teal for keywords (emphasis primarily to aid in reading), italics for spoken stress ("normal emphasis"), and capitalization for the Other Kind (meant to get the reader to slow down and pay attention to the Specific Wording of the emphasized section, but without drawing immediate visual attention to it in the way teal text does)

punctuation should only be used when it is strictly necessary for the text to be parsed or when it conveys meaningful information about how the text would be read out loud (the apostrophe does not count as punctuation for the purpose of this recommendation; it is included as part of the spelling of words it appears in)

the word "amateur" should be spelled "amature" without explanation

numbers should be written out in full as words, unless they're being used for alphanumeric codes, entries in a numbered list, years, or a video about math

text should be written word for word as it would be pronounced out loud, including filler words ("um"s and "like"s) and contractions, following the manner of speech outlined in the next section

narration

everything should be written in a formal but conversational tone, with hesitations, filler words, and stutters carefully inserted to make it sound less "written", as though the narration is one continuous unscripted infodump

however, nothing should ever genuinely be unscripted. everything should be phrased very carefully to convey information precisely and efficiently in a way that is easy to understand

there should be some sort of attempt to pronounce non-english words authentically, especially with proper names (unless there exists a common-enough anglicized pronunciation that you can be confident is more likely to be understood)

nothing should be written in a way that assumes that the audience knows less about the subject matter of the video than the narrator, except in very rare cases where this assumption is appropriate (such as when using an explicitly educational style, or when the subject is so niche that acting as though everyone already knows about it would be actively detrimental). information should always be presented as though it's a recap of common knowledge ("right?"), something that the narrator only learned relatively recently ("apparently"), or something that the narrator is unsure of ("I think")

jokes should never get "in the way" of the actual video. they should serve a purpose just like everything else. (the key question to keep in mind here is "if someone doesn't find this funny, what could they take away from it instead?". the answer should be something like "it would just be information presented in an unusual way" or "it would just be an awkward transition between two unrelated topics" or something. if the answer is "nothing, it would just be a joke they're not getting" then it had better be a really funny joke to justify its existence.)

calls to action should be avoided. the video should respect its audience members to make decisions for themselves, and only directly tell them what to do in exceptional circumstances

[brofightiscancelled]

yapping about how i approached translating karamatsu's brand new world. just discussing the localization liberties i took and other things i think are interesting. i just love yapping sorry

part 1/4 because i forgot about tumblr post image limits lol

establishing my ethos: im still learning japanese but have been translating (chinese -> english) for over 7 years, so my translation skill is higher than my japanese skill. if there's anything i get wrong here pls point it out!!! i usually translate mostly songs, anime (donghua), and manga

The Title

japanese has multiple alphabets: 2 phonetic ones and 1 derived from chinese characters (kanji) that dont tell you anything about how they're pronounced

kanji characters have multiple pronunciations. for example, 心 can be pronounced "kokoro" or "shin" depending on the context it's used in.

"how do you know which kanji pronunciation to use" you guess. alternatively, media geared towards children (who have lower language skills) will sometimes spell out the right pronunciation above the kanji in little letters

sometimes people will just make up their own pronunciations for kanji for Style Points, in which case they will also spell out the intended pronunciation above the kanji

so this title actually reads "matsuno karamatsu's brand new morning". however the Style Points pronunciation guidelines indicated that this is pronounced "Brand New World". i deliberated over this for a while and ended up going with "brand new world" because the phonetic pronunciation is in english so i assume this would be the preferred title for an english localization. unfortunately this did lose the interesting double reading of "morning" and "world" but sometimes it just be like that.

Chapter 1

every time choro says something about the chopsticks in this first part, he's repeating the same thing each time: "Stop [pointing with your] chopsticks". but this 1. doesn't sound very natural in english, and 2. is too long to fit into these speech bubbles.

translations often have to take liberties due to the medium. in anime subtitles, they need to consider how fast a watcher can read the subtitles. in manga, it's often about how many words they can fit in a vertical text bubble.

the underlying impression is that choro is annoyed he even has to tell oso to stop pointing with his chopsticks (this is common sense, you're a grown ass man, why don't you know table manners, etc), so i tried to write it in a way like he's saying it short and snippy like an annoyed mom who has already reminded you 5000 times about this exact thing: Chopsticks.

oso calls totty "あざとい" here after hearing that he's trying out pancakes at a new cafe. as far as i can tell, this roughly translates to "cunning" or "sly" and is used to describe women kinda derogatorily, like a girl at the office who speaks harshly to the women but sweettalks to men (like tsunoda from aggretsuko).

i couldnt really think of a natural-sounding equivalent to this implication in english, so i settled on the kind of close "coquettish" to get across that oso is calling totty girly in a strange and insulting way. oso's dialogue here literally goes something like "sly.... you really are sly...", but since "coquettish" is kind of a weird word to use in english, i ended up localizing this around to suit my weird word choice to make it sound like oso was thinking for a second about the right word to call totty, which i also think comes off as a little more natural-sounding

japanese (and chinese) have a plural second-person pronoun, but english doesn't (besides y'all, which i did use in oso's dialogue earlier lol) which is a real headache and almost always needs some creative thinking to get sounding Normal. this was a relatively straightforward case: "how would a father address his sons as a collective?" -> "Boys"

CHAPTER 2

the dreaded jp onomatopoeia without an english equivalent. im lucky that these boys' whole gimmick is being from an old cartoon so i could get away with the very cartoony "honk" sound effect for "blowing one's nose".

the source material always translates イタい as "painful" so i do it too but i wish osmt had come out like just a few years later when "cringe" was in the common vernacular because it's a way better localization. in my opinion.

also a minor note: in the first bubble totty is actually repeating kara's words back at him "someone's? watching? me?", which is made clera by him using kara's self-pronoun (オレ) and not his own self-pronoun (ボク) (if you don't know about self-pronouns i will talk about them more in a future note). however this nuance is lost in english and could be misconstrued so i just went and made it so he's repeating back what kara said but not using the exact words

"頭おかし" does literally translate to "strange in the head" but colloquially just means "insane" or "crazy". but ichi is being really harsh to kara here, and kara does start questioning his mental sanity later in the chapter, so i went with a more harsh translation here that specifically references the head. also "YOU'RE INSANE" does unintentionally have a different meaning to most of us here on tumblr dot com, doesnt it lol

i dont know what the consensus is on giving iyami a french accent when localizing him. it's probably overkill to do both this AND keep the zansus. however i cant convey a mid-atlantic accent in writing so this is my next best way to convey that iyami talks very strangely. also it's funny

this panel was really hard to redraw. please clap

anyways same use of "strange" here as before with the head thing ("crazy") but it can also have the vibe of "abnormal". i thought "is something wrong with me?" helped convey both these meanings. come to think of it later in chapter 6 i translate okashi very literally as "strange". maybe i shouldve said "is something wrong with me" there, too....

CHAPTER 3

jyushi literally says "why do we do the olympics?" here. i localized it this way because it means essentially the same thing and is funnier. dats the art of translation babyyyyy

japanese personal pronouns quick rundown: in english we tell others to refer to us as different pronouns- him, her, they, etc., but we only have one pronoun to refer to ourselves with (I). japanese has many self-pronouns, and which one you use to describe yourself with is usually based around context and personality (some pronouns are more polite to use than others, some give off the connotation of being stuck-up or of being a country bumpkin, etc). this is helpful for characterization and also being able to tell who is talking through written dialogue

we aren't meant to know who this figure is at first, but we're also meant to have the clues to figure it out (if you were to investigate, you would find that f6 oso is the only one with full black gloves and knee high boots).

oso usually uses the masculine self-pronoun 俺, which is a rude and casual pronoun very fitting of the slacker eldest. however, f6 oso, a reliable and polite dreamboat, uses 僕, a polite and proper masculine pronoun (normal choro uses this pronoun). so this pronoun use masks the identity of this mysterious figure- but if you looked into it, you'd be able to see that this does link up to f6 oso. it's also possible the artist didnt know this and just went with 僕 to fit the fairytale prince vibe here though lol

i have no way to convey this in english so all of this is just lost nuance in translation. womp womp.

for the record these are the boys' personal pronouns:

oso: 俺 (ore can convey that he's rude, kanji alphabet can convey .... he's old-fashioned, possibly? shrugs?)

kara: オレ(ore can convey that he's full of himself, katakana alphabet can convey that he's [trying to be] stylish or loud)

choro:　僕 (boku can convey that he's polite, kanji can convey that he's proper)

ichi:　おれ (ore can convey a kinda casual-lazy vibe, hiragana alphabet can convey that he's soft-spoken kinda?)

jyushi:　ぼく (boku can convey that he's Just A Little Guy, hiragana alphabet can convey that he's childish)

totty:　ボク (boku can convey that he's Just A Little Guy, katakana alphabet can convey that he's [trying to be] stylish and modern)

CHAPTER 4

demonstration of localization for the medium: totty's dialogue here translates most literally to "What are you talking about?", but "talking" and "about" are pretty long words that are hard to fit into that skinny dialogue bubble. "the hell are you on about?" conveys the same thing, has shorter words that are nicer to fit into a bubble, and also shows a bit more personality (and i think is a little funnier).

this part ends here becaues i forogt about the tumblr post limit. i will continue in future posts

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4

[zachfoxx121]

Okay so I really really really like Russell Adler

Here are some of my favourite headcannons for him. (Featuring other cold war characters)

Alright so first up is his past!! Bro was born in 1937, between WW1 and WW2. He knows both German and Russian, so I like to think either his mom or dad (hell, maybe both) are immigrants from around those areas of Europe. To push that, his file doesn't say where he was born, just the date he was born. And a language is arguably easier learned if its in a household than in a book. Pronunciation and all that. Maybe his parents/one of them were Jewish too, and thats why they immigrated to the USA? It's also debatable if he was even born in the USA, since as I before mentioned, his birthplace isn't filed.

This headcannon is kinda borrowed, I cant remember who I original saw say it, but due to Adler's scar he has trouble/can't smile. It happened after 1968, but before 1981. When you ask him how he got his scar, he doesn't give a truthful answer, like Parks had said. "Oh I had trouble with a girl," "missed and fell," or "a tiger got me." My biggest guess, just from how it looks like a shrapnel wound, is its probably embarrassing. I like to think it was from a mine, maybe even a helicopter accident. But due to its position, it mightve damaged some facial muscles, and makes it hard to upturn a side/both sides of his lips. With scars, depending on how deep, nerve endings get fucked up and make it hard to move certain muscles, yknow?

This ones a bit silly, and has to do with Bell (I always play Bell as male, so sorry if I say "he" instead of "they" as their pronoun.) because I'm such a sucker for their relationship. Since Bell just kinda gets dumped on him, and their about the same build/height, I like to imagine he just dumps all his old/unwanted clothes into Bell's closet. In his file people he works with have described him as fashionable, and I don't know how good he gets paid, so he might go through clothes pretty fast to keep up with the times.

(Also for fem Bell, I imagine it's the same as this but with Park's old/unwanted clothes.)

Building on that, hes probably fashionable so wherever he is he doesn't seem out of place. With his scar it may be a bit difficult to blend in, but if he wears stylish enough clothes thats probably what grabs people attention more. "That guy had such a nice jacket," "did you see his shoes?" Even the difference between his '81 look and his new '91 do good to show his ability to keep up with fashion.

This headcannon is a bit more for Bell, but depending on which occupation you give them (CIA, MI6, ex-KGB) I like to imagine thats the accent they have post brainwash. With CIA, he has Adler's accent, and MI6 he copies Park's. With ex-KGB just a russian accent, which would probably be more realistic since it can be difficult to literally change an accent, but bro was experimented on so much it could have!!

I mention Adler in that because I like thinking of Bell saying a word and everyone being like "why'd they say it like Adler", because even in the USA theres so many accents!! Like even Mason and Woods have slightly different accents, especially if you think about the og voices in bo1.

This headcannon is a bit sad (and a big spoiler for the end of the "Good Ending"). After Adler shoots Bell, I think he stayed to make sure Bell was really dead. To make sure they bled out. In that though, I think he let Bell have one of his cigs, even smoked with him while he died. "Least I can do for you, kid." He didn't let Bell die alone. I really think it was hard for him to kill Bell, but he just had to shut the feeling down because it was (most likely) an order. Even though its probably more likely he shot Bell in the head, better than Arash did.

Anywho thats all I feel like typing out rn have fun with these some of them are constantly playing in my head!!!! :)))