#sotetsiraly

[dedalvs]

Just learned from another answer that you're involved with the languages in Shadow & Bone, so I'd like to ask you about something that's been eating away at my enjoyment of the show.

I realise that you're probably not involved in this particular linguistic aspect of the show, but maybe it came up while you worked on the languages: the fictional countries and their languages are clearly based on existing European (and neighbouring) regions. Why is everything pronounced like it's English, though? (For example, Genya doesn't get the g sound the name has in Slavic languages.)

Part of it is because the names are the way Leigh pronounces them. She wrote the books, she created the names, she gets to say how they're pronounced. But maybe I should back up. The show Shadow and Bone is based on a book series written by Leigh Bardugo. She created the stories and characters. This is why her pronunciations are important.

Now that is also filtered through the fact that on the show, there isn't anyone to ensure consistency. The same character's name is sometimes pronounced two different ways in the same scene. Either no one noticed, or no one cared. That's life. For what it's worth, we did produce a pronunciation guide at the very beginning, so that, at least, all the names would be pronounced consistently. I've been on a set, though. A single piece of paper can be important for like ten minutes, but then something happens, and pretty soon the whole world has shifted.

For authors and future authors on here, though, a great way to avoid this is to not base your names or languages on existing names or languages. It's a fantasy world. It should be original. Also, the way you spell things in the Roman alphabet should be consistent and obvious. Don't be cute. It doesn't matter how your name looks on the page if it's adapted for the screen. Your name with three x's and an apostrophe is neither cool nor original. You make think it looks cool, but if you actually spell it the way it's pronounced, your readers will end up thinking that looks cool, because it's not the look of the name that's important: it's the character.

For more on naming, I wrote up an essay called "Names Aren't Neutral" which you can read here.

[mcrmadness]

“hi, I’m not from the US” ask set: 4,5, 7, 10, 11, 15, 18

Kiitoksia 😊

Omg that is so many!!! Kiitos tosi paljon itsellesi! ^^

4. favourite dish specific for your country? Makaronilaatikko aka macaroni casserole maybe? At least afaik it's a very Finnish dish. It's just ground beef and macaronis (as in pasta), and then a mixture of milk and eggs, and it's made in the oven. And it's eaten with ketchup usually.

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5. favourite song in your native language? Okay this is extremely difficult to answer to. I listen to several Finnish bands, and I don't really have just one favorite, I don't even have any ultimate favorite song from any of these bands! I have several faves from all of them :D But right now I can't really think about any other band than Apulanta (which is my favourite Finnish band!), and how this song is one of the tracks I go back to so often, and it's definitely one of my favorite songs from them.

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7. three words from your native language that you like the most? This kind of questions are always so difficult because when asked for a list of something, I forget about all the words in the world. But I just found one that I like:

öttömönkiäinen. It's like, from the word "ötökkä", a bug, and the verb "mönkiä", to crawl. I just think it's a fun (colloguial) word to use when talking about a random bug lmao (There's also other versions: öttiäinen and öttömöttiäinen.)

And then two more words... hmm. Okay I'm gonna say tietokone - a computer - but simply because it's a fun compound word consisting of two words: tieto, and kone. And the literal meaning of that word is "knowledge machine"! I find that a fun example of Finnish compound words that can sometimes be quite descriptive when you sit down to think about them :D

As a third I think I'm going to answer something that already kinda answers also the last question of this ask, as it's a dialect thing! The standard Finnish word for "to go" is "mennä", but my dialect keeps changing that into "männä". Idk why it's so fun to me, but it is. And also all other features about my dialect that make the words look different from the standard written Finnish. So yeah, I really like this regional word "männä" :D To say "Minä menen." (I [will] go.) in Savo dialect, you say either "Mie meen." or even: "Mie mään." I find that fun :D

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10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language? Fun fact: I don't actually swear in Finnish at all :D I use the bit milder "swearwords" to replace the others. But I think my favorite one is "helekkari", that's the Savo version of the word "helkkari". It doesn't mean anything specific, but it's quite fun to say out loud :D

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11. favourite native writer/poet? I don't like poems at all, and I have read very few books from Finnish authors. I think I'm going to answer this with: Tove Jansson. She's the creator of Moomins, and she wrote several Moomin books as well. I read a few of them as a kid, and I really should reread those one day and also finish that whole project and read all of her Moomin books. Altho, her first language was Swedish and she didn't do the Finnish translations of her books, but I'm still going to count her in because she was from Finland after all.

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15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get? "Kyllä lähtee!" altho, also this will be understood only by a specific group of Finnish. (Those who have watched a Finnish sketch comedy Kummeli! :D)

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18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language? Yes I do! I speak a Savo dialect, or one version of it that is more like a combo of several dialects around this area, but falls under Savo dialects nevertheless. I don't know what else to say, I love dialects and talking about them but... idk what else should I say about it here :D

[l--o--u]

sotetsiraly replied to your post “I started watching Friends a couple of weeks ago and man I was missing...”

did you never catch an episode before? like on pro7 when it was airing daily?

nope, never.

[onenightintheatre-blog]

sotetsiraly asked: 46, 49, 50

46. oletko ollut tekemisissä lehmien kanssa: Äitini keräilee lehmäesineitä, joten niitä on vanhempieni luona kaikkialla, mutta eläviä lehmiä en ole usein kohdannut.

49. koetko ihmiset jotka eivät osaa sanoja laulusta Taivas lyö tulta epäisänmaallisiksi luusereiksi? En. Sitten on vähän outoa, jos ihminen ei edes tiedä koko laulua.

50. Den glider in: Nej, den glider inte in, och jag är glad därför att jag tycker inte om jääkiekko.

[staythatswhatimeanttosay]

sotetsiraly replied to your post: So my inbox ate your message, Secret S...

Why do you skip Where Are We Now?

I really like the song, but it's hella sad, to me. It really brings me way, way down. Not that sad is a bad thing, or that it's a bad song, but in the middle of this frantic album, it's kind of a bummer.

[apiroscsizmak]

sotetsiraly answered your question “So I did the OkCupid thing and I am really uncomfortable with the...”

On the bright side this is a great way of sorting through folks you wouldn't want to date anyway.

But I don't even want to KNOW these people exist. 

[wilwarien]

sotetsiraly replied to your photo:The end product. 10/10 would recommend.

Resepti?

the-impaler replied to your photo:Hot apple cider in the making. Smells pretty...

What Fayet said, recipe please!

Here you go. :)

[l--o--u]

sotetsiraly replied to your photoset “Tuesday breakfast. Can we just all appreciate how cosy our kitchen...”

Roommates? Plural?

  Roommate's boyfriend ist staying for the week to build us new furniture, so for the next couple of days it's roommateS.

[staythatswhatimeanttosay]

sotetsiraly replied to your post: anonymous said:i'm insanely good ...

You can put something like this on a resume? Under what section?

Special skills, after you list your languages spoken and computer skills and whatnot. It's a conversation starter, for sure. I used to have "exceptional whistler" on there, too, but I got tired of people asking me to whistle for them, so it fell off the list.

[running-into-mordor-blog]

sotetsiraly replied to your post“I’m bored and annoyed with myself I should go for a run but I can’t...”

Do you want me to send you cat pics?

yesyesyes

[constanzewebersisonbreak]

sotetsiraly hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet: Elisabeth! :)

Can you give any examples of evil cold robotic Sophies?

Sure :) Else Ludwig (Original Vienna Production, 2005 Revival), even if I like her, it's just because she's amazingly convincing

Betty Vermeulen (2011/2012 Tour), the only time we see her "breaking" is in Bellaria, in my opinion, that's too late. 

There are more examples but I will stick to two ;)

My favourite Sophie is Daniela Ziegler btw, she absolutely nails it :)