#suffix: roma

[honey-makes-mogai]

[No ID - Help Appreciated!]

Vuneroma -

[PT: Vuneroma -]

A nongender umbrella term to describe ones scent, wether this be ones perceived scent, the scent one associates with oneself, the scent one has in fantasies or headspace, what one wishes to smell like, and/or anything that associates with scent and one’s own scent!

Suffix: -roma

Example term:

[No ID - Help Appreciated!]

Sandalwoodroma -

[PT: Sandalwoodroma -]

A vuneroma term for when one is sandalwood scented, or one’s scent is that of sandalwood! This may be ones perceived scent, the scent one associates with oneself, the scent one has in fantasies or headspace, what one wishes to smell like, and/or anything that associates with scent and one’s own scent!

Tagging: @radiomogai @obscurian

[Banner ID: A pastel yellow banner with a sunflower on either side. In brown text with a white outline, it says "- Please let me know if this has been coined before! -" /End ID.]

[DNI transcript: "-DNI- Basic criteria, anti-mogai, proshippers, ableists, aphobes, racists, zoophiles, rpf shippers, fandom discourse, under 13, transid/transx". /End transcript.]

[shivadh]

Also also, how much of the language do you have figured out at this point? I keep on wishing it was something I could learn, because tavat as a concept has me in a chokehold. Do you only have what you've used, or is there a secret word document with a dictionary and grammar rules being put together?

I've got a little tiny bit of grammar and some vocabulary, but that's about it, and the vocab is basically split between "made it up because it sounds fun" and "nicked it off nearby countries". Like Naran Juice Box Company is a Shivadh company, and they primarily used to sell orange juice so they use the Shivadh word for orange, "Naran", which has an obvious relationship to the Spanish word "Naranja". The football team takes after the "giallorossi" (yellow-reds) of Roma and call themselves the "Levenaran" (blue-oranges) but Leve is just made up because it fit well -- and of course if you are a member of the team you don't just support the levenaran, you are considered "Levenaranh".

Tavat was likewise made up to sound dramatic. :D At least as far as I recall. I wrote most of Infinite Jes on my phone while traveling, across about three weeks, and usually after going to bed, so my memories of composing it are remarkably hazy.

I will eventually actually have a public webpage with all the Shivadh language stuff on it, though. I'm building a wiki for the books which is mostly just needed by me so I'm not constantly looking up shit, and one page will be what is canonical about the Shivadh language.

I know some things; the big one is that the language uses suffixes frequently, so you'd modify a word by appending a suffix rather than using an adjective. The -h on the end of Shivadh to indicate nationality isn't used super commonly but it's meant to indicate origin, like it's basically "of" but where "of" denotes being from somewhere ("I am of Shivadlakia" but not "It's full of stars"). I just recently included -ic in the last short story as a diminutive, so when Michaelis says "tavatic" he's calling his grandson a sweet little prince. He wouldn't use "tavatic" for Joan or Noah, they're too old; when he calls Joan "mio Ioannina" he's speaking Italian, and using a diminutive that's more appropriate to her age.

In the football novel, the protagonist Paolo is often called Paodet, which is a nickname Gerald made up for him when they were younger. Paolo didn't get a ton of Shivadh language because he left the country for football reasons fairly young, but he knows -det means "beautiful" so he's Beautiful Paul, basically. What he's not really cognizant of for a while is that -det has a specific connotation of a thing, so he's beautiful like a statue, not like a person, because he was always a little standoffish.

And of course "Dy" is boat, which gets the general intensifier -chev added to make sure it's the boatiest. Which is also how we get "Ejechev", the equivalent of the Italian "Daje" or the English "Go team!"

But yeah, most of it's just nouns, so I'll have a list up eventually. :D I'm about a third of the way done with the wiki -- all the notes have been taken and sorted into various files, but now I need to turn "a bunch of copypasta notes from the books" into cohesive profile pages on, say, Shivadh culture, or Gerald Dux Shivadlakia, or the RSBC, or Institut Alpin. It's not difficult, just time consuming.

[djuvlipen]

With the end of Pride Month and Romani Heritage Month approaching, I recommend every radical feminist to read Dzuvljarke

“Džuvljarke (*Ȝuvlӑrke) – is a term from the Roma language (Romani) and used among Roma living in Serbia. Together with its Serbian-influenced suffix, it is used to refer to a lesbian, a woman emotionally and sexually oriented towards women. This term usually implies a negative connotation, particularly within the heteronormative patriarchal Serbian and Romani social matrix.”

“The aim of this paper is to ensure that when lesbian existence is discussed, the conversation opens a path leading to the empowerment of these women, who are, at the moment nameless and invisible and remain objects of shame and victims of multiple forms of violence and discrimination.” (European Roma Rights Centre)

"Vera Kurtić is a radical feminist and a Romani woman. She is an activist and one of the coordinators of Women Space, an organization based in Niš, Serbia and one of is a founding member of the Romani Women Network of Serbia that gathers organizations and groups from across the country into a joint and unified force directed to enhance the position of Romani women. Also, she is a one of the founders of informal international Roma LGBT Network. She studied sociology and communications, the main fields of her interest are intersectionality of different discrimination based on gender, sex, race, class and sexual orientation, as well as representation of marginalized social group in media and public space. Vera is the founder of Campaign Month of Roma women activism, author of Džuvljarke- lesbian existence of Roma women, the first study on Roma women of different sexual orientation than heterosexual." (source)

It's available for free here: x

[whocalledhimannux]

Man, this is the kind of nerdy shit I live for. What an interesting breakdown!

But yeah, I also tend to assume it’s inconsistent in-universe sort of on purpose just the way that irl people are inconsistent with names? Especially as someone who has read a lot of classical history in English—it strikes me as similar to how people usually say Rome, Greek, Carthage, but sometimes for a little extra flair will use Roma, Grecian, or Carthago. Or like, the -a suffix is very clearly prevalent in the language of the Little Peninsula, so occasionally people tack it on because that’s a grammatical construction that’s natural to them, even if it doesn’t really need to go on a foreign name.

Similarly, in RotT we see different characters refer to the Little Peninsula, Hephestia’s Peninsula, and the Hephestian Peninsula.

every variation of "Mede" i could find in my QT ebooks

My attempt to be less confused about the inconsistent demonyms and adjectives used for the empire and its inhabitants.

(tl;dr I was reading a fanfic set during QoA and found myself confused by the author using the term "Medean," because I couldn't remember it being in the books. So I searched my ebooks and found that the word only appears in QoA and ACoK. The words "Medea" and "Medean" never appear in Thick as Thieves, the book I had been referencing the most for my own fanfic. I made a list of all the terms used to describe the Medes to see if I could find any patterns or if this just seemed like a retcon).

The Thief

The magus uses Medes as a plural demonym: "The Medes have been trying for a hundred years to expand their empire to span the middle sea."

He also uses Mede as a noun as if it were the name of a country, in the same context as he uses the names of the countries of the Little Peninsula. He could be using this term as way to talk about the whole empire, or to refer to a particular region or country that gives the empire its name: "There will be no Sounis, no Attolia, no Eddis, only Mede."

Gen also uses Medes as a plural demonym a couple of times, both in a conversation with the magus and in his narration.

The Queen of Attolia

Irene's POV

The narration refers to the place Nahuseresh is from as the Mede Empire: "Beside her the ambassador from the Mede Empire shifted his weight and caught her attention."

The narration uses Mede as a singular demonym: "'Long enough,' suggested the Mede, 'to insure her Thief a relatively easy death?'"

Medea is also used as the name of the place Nahuseresh is from. It's unclear whether this is meant to refer to the whole empire, or a specific part of it: "Attolia didn’t particularly care for the new ambassador from Medea."

We also find Mede used as an adjective in reference to Nahuseresh: "Not at all, Nahuseresh," Attolia assured her Mede ambassador. "Not at all."

At other points, Medean is used as an adjective, both to describe aspects of the culture ("Medean style of dressing his beard") and to describe Nahuseresh: "She was on the verge of summoning her officers for a council of war when the Medean ambassador was announced."

Irene's narration only ever uses Medes for the plural demonym: "She would go to the Medes and worry later how to extricate herself from their assistance and how to explain to Nahuseresh that there hadn’t been room for him to accompany her."

There are a few uses of Mede as a demonym in Irene's POV where it's a little unclear whether it's meant to be singular or plural, but they're all ambiguous enough that I'm not going to use them as examples.

Gen and Helen's POV

Helen uses Medes as a plural demonym in chapter four: "'Attolia has no business treating with the Medes,'" she said, her voice raised."

At other points, Helen uses Mede as a plural demonym instead: "If she takes help from the Mede, if they land on this coast, they will eat us alive: Attolia, Sounis, and Eddis." Helen and Gen both continue to use this word as a plural throughout chapter seven.

In chapter eight, Gen appears to switch from Medes to plural Mede in the same paragraph: "I don’t have any desire to be overrun by the Medes...and we can’t have a civil war in Sounis for the Mede to step in and resolve, can we?" It's a little more ambiguous whether Mede is supposed to be singular or plural here, but I don't think it makes much sense for him to be talking about Nahuseresh or any other individual Mede in this context.

Helen also switches between Mede and Medean as adjectives: "the Medean ambassador" and "the Mede emperor."

The Magus

The magus first uses Mede as a singular demonym. Here he seems to be talking about Irene's relationship with one specific Mede (Nahuseresh), based on the pronouns: "By then she will be deeply enmeshed with the Mede, trying to hold some power in her own country. Neither of them will have time to squabble over Eddis. If you secure Eddis quickly, you will be strong enough to outface the Mede when he tries to expand beyond Attolia."

Then he uses Medes as a plural demonym: "'There’s little chance the Medes would lose their grip on Attolia within your lifetime, Your Majesty,' the magus said stiffly."

But later in the same scene, the narration appears to use Mede as the plural: "[The magus] hoped to use the knowledge he acquired in the exercise to aid him in a more successful defense against the Mede."

Nahuseresh

In one of the handful of Nahuseresh POV scenes, the narration uses Mede as a singular demonym: "'It will be close to the chasm of the pass,' the Mede had muttered, running his index finger across the carefully inked lines."

When Nahuseresh talks later in the same scene, he uses Mede as a plural demonym: "Her titular heir is not fond of the Mede, but he would not hold the throne long."

Basically, the narration and dialogue throughout The Queen of Attolia use "Mede" and "Medean" as adjectives seemingly interchangeably, with no pattern that I could discern. "Mede" is always the singular demonym, but many characters use "Mede" and "Medes" interchangeably for the plural demonym.

The King of Attolia

Things get a lot simpler after QoA; searching "Medea" and "Medean" brings back no results in my ebook of The King of Attolia, though the empire and its people are mentioned frequently:

Gen and Costis study the language of the Medes, which is always called Mede: "Costis. The word for death in Mede, I can’t remember it." I couldn't find examples in any of the books of the Mede language being referred to as "Medean."

Mede is the only version of the word used as an adjective in this book: "The king had chosen a Mede style of dress with a long, open coat over his shirt and tunic."

There is also no use of "Medes" as a plural demonym in KoA. The people of the empire are only ever referred to as the Mede: "She had driven the Mede off once, embarrassing their ambassador."

A Conspiracy of Kings

ACoK has one use of Medean as an adjective, the final appearance of this word in the series: "The Attolian furniture was pushed into the corners, and several replacement pieces of Medean design, small enough to have been shipped with the ambassador, had been put in their place." In every other instance, Mede is used ("the Mede ambassador," "the Mede emperor," "the Mede court").

Mede is the only singular demonym, but we return to switching between Mede and Medes for the plural: "I would not stand by and let them be lost to the Mede or to Melenze" vs. "He cannot stand the idea that Melenze wants Haptia back and thinks that the Medes are a better ally." However, Medes is used more often.

Overall, ACoK is less consistent than KoA but has less variation than QoA.

Thick as Thieves

Most of my Queen's Thief fanfics are set during Thick as Thieves and/or include Kamet as a major character, so this is the book I've revisited the most when double-checking canon details. For the purposes of my own fics, I decided to prioritize the terms used in TaT where they differ from other books. Luckily, TaT is pretty consistent (though not completely consistent):

The name of the primary language spoken in the empire is Mede: "He spoke Mede, but with a heavy accent, so he hadn’t been trained as a child."

The singular demonym is Mede: "I didn’t think he could carry off an impersonation of a Mede for very long."

The plural demonym is usually Medes: "The Medes fear little in quite the way they fear their own slaves."

However, there are a few uses of Mede as the plural demonym: "I was taken from my home as a child by raiders and then sold to the Mede."

The adjective form is Mede: "He was the one who pestered me to tell them a Mede story in Attolian."

Like KoA, "Medea" and "Medean" are entirely absent. There are also no uses of "Mede" as the name of a country or region; the place where the Medes live is only ever referred to as the Mede empire.

The Return of the Thief is pretty much the same as Thick as Thieves: "Medes" is the most common plural demonym, but "Mede" is occasionally plural. There's no sign of "Medea" or "Medean."

For simplicity's sake, I think I'm going to stick to plural "Medes" instead of "Mede" and adjective "Mede" instead of "Medean" in my own fics, but based on the books themselves none of these terms are really incorrect. I'm still not sure what I want to do with "Medea" as a place name - I don't think it makes a ton of sense to use it interchangeably with "Mede Empire," but we don't really have another name for the central region of the empire around the capital? I haven't made up my mind yet but I'm thinking about it.

What, ultimately, is the point of this post? I'm honestly not sure, but I did enjoy writing it, even though the subject matter isn't particularly exciting. I do feel more confident about the vocab choices I've made for my stories, which is nice.

[interretialia]

hi there! i really liked your explanation of the -ensis suffix. would you be able to explain a little the differences between the genitive romae vs romanus vs romanensis? when is it appropriate to use each, when they all kinda mean “belonging to rome”? thank you!

Salve!

Gratias. I am glad you like that essay.

In general, the genitive form of a noun and a “genitival” adjective deriving from that noun are similar in that they both can have the meaning “...of x” (where x denotes to what the base noun refers), and they also can be attributive modifiers or predicative complements. Moreover, Latin occasionally permits a “genitival” adjective in a context that might be expected to call for a genitive (e.g., Aeneia nutrix, “Aeneas’ nurse”). The genitive and the “genitival” adjective are, however, not entirely commutable. The differences are:

The genitive is a case form of a lexeme (or vocabulary item) while the “genitival” adjective is its own distinct lexeme.  

The genitive is the typical way of saying “...of x” in Latin, and one must be ready to use this form first whenever that meaning is needed because it turns out that some “genitival” adjectives do not exist together with their base nouns, and when such adjectives do not exist, one must use the genitive.  

Only the genitive expresses a genuine individual relationship of possession, and the “genitival” adjective tends to indicate more generally the origin, type, manner, or naming. So, the genitive emphasizes possession, and the “genitival” adjective emphasizes characterization.

In many cases, Romae corresponds to our “of Rome,” and Romanus corresponds to our “Roman.” The Thermae Romae, then, are the Baths of Rome, and this phrase indicates (by the case form Romae itself) the baths’ relation to the city and also indicates (by the typical genitive meaning of that case form) that the baths belong to the city or at least are in sections of the city. Thermae Romanae, though, are Roman baths, and the difference between this phrase and the previous phrase can be shown by contrasting Thermae Romanae with baths from some other city, baths built in a particular style, or baths falling into some naming scheme. I could talk about the Thermae Romanae on the one hand and onsen in Matsuyama in Japan, or Thermae Matuiamanae, on the other! There is a place called Komi Sushi in modern Rome not far from the Gardens of Sallust (Horti Sallustiani), and it is both a taberna Iaponica and a taberna Romae, a Japanese restaurant and a restaurant of Rome.

The distinction between Romanus and Romanensis (and even the longer form Romaniensis) mainly has to do with frequency in usage. Romanus is the typical adjective from Roma. If you want to say, “of Rome” or “from Rome” or “having to do with Rome” or just “Roman,” you would almost always use Romanus. It is the word that you would typically learn in elementary Latin courses. The adjectives in -(i)ensis, however, are much rarer. Cato the Elder in De Agri Cultura talks about sal Romaniensis, or Roman salt. It is hard to find other instances of these words in Roman literature. Another distinction is the fact that the words in -(i)ensis can refer only to a place, and so at least the Romanensis form has a specific meaning, which seems to be found only in epigraphic sources: “Belonging to a locality having the epithet Romanus” (OLD s.v. Romanensis).

Utinam hoc tibi prosit! I hope this is helpful!

Vale.

[page-2-ids]

[ID: A flag with eleven vertical stripes, all the same size. The colors are darker at the edges and lighter in the middle. They are, from left to right, black, very dark red-violet, dark red-violet, pink-violet, dusty red-orange, very light gray, gold-peach, yellow-gold, orange, red-orange, and dark faded red. END ID]

Bulletsalbumic/Bulletlovic/Bulletlovealbumic: A gender related to the My Chemical Romance album I Brought You My Bullets, You Broght Me Your Love

The names are shuffles of the words bullets and love, as well as the suffix albumic.

The colors are inspired by and meant to mirror the album cover. Purples and dark colors are for darker themed songs and Vampires Will Never Hurt You and Our Lady of Sorrows especially Grey is primarily a transition color The lighter oranges are meant to represent specifically the title of Headfirst for Halos, because halos, glowing, light... you get the point Red is for the title of Demolition Lovers, since I associate both Dynamite (commonly depicted as red) and red in general with the word and concept of Demolition

Suggested Pronouns Under the Cut

Bes/Best/Best/Bests/Bestself Bes/Best/Bests/Bests/Bestself Best/Best/Bests/Bests/Bestself Bul/Bullet/Bullets/Bullets/Bulletself Bull/Bullet/Bullets/Bullets/Bulletself Bulle/Bullet/Bullets/Bullets/Bulletself Bullet/Bullet/Bullets/Bullets/Bulletself Ha/Halo/Halo/Halos/Haloself Ha/Halo/Halos/Halos/Haloself Halo/Halo/Halos/Halos/Haloself Hur/Hurt/Hurts/Hurts/Hurtself Hurt/Hurt/Hurts/Hurts/Hurtself La/Lady/Ladies/Ladies/Ladyself La/Lady/Lady/Ladies/Ladyself La/Lady/Ladys/Ladys/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Ladies/Ladies/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Lady/Ladies/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Lady/Ladys/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Ladys/Ladys/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Ladies/Ladies/Ladyself Lad/Lady/Ladys/Ladys/Ladyself Les/Lesson/Lessons/Lessons/Lessonself Less/Lesson/Lessons/Lessons/Lessonself Lesso/Lesson/Lessons/Lessons/Lessonself Lesson/Lessons/Lessons/Lessons/Lessonself

Lo/Love/Love/Loves/Loveself Lo/Love/Loves/Loves/Loveself Lo/Lover/Lover/Lovers/Loverself Lov/Love/Love/Loves/Loveself Lov/Love/Loves/Loves/Loveself Lov/Lover/Lover/Lovers/Loverself Love/Love/Loves/Loves/Loveself Love/Lover/Lover/Lovers/Loverself Lover/Lover/Lover/Lovers/Loverself Lover/Lover/Lovers/Lovers/Loverself Mir/Mirror/Mirror/Mirrors/Mirrorself Mirr/Mirror/Mirror/Mirrors/Mirrorself Mirro/Mirror/Mirror/Mirrors/Mirrorself Mirror/Mirror/Mirror/Mirrors/Mirrorself Mirror/Mirror/Mirrors/Mirrors/Mirrorself

Ne/Never/Never/Nevers/Neverself Nev/Never/Never/Nevers/Neverself Neve/Never/Never/Nevers/Neverself Never/Never/Never/Nevers/Neverself Never/Never/Nevers/Nevers/Neverself Ro/Romance/Romance/Romances/Romanceself Ro/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Rom/Romance/Romance/Romances/Romanceself Ro/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Roma/Romance/Romance/Romances/Romanceself Roma/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Roman/Romance/Romance/Romances/Romanceself Roman/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Romance/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Rome/Romance/Romance/Romances/Romanceself Rome/Romance/Romances/Romances/Romanceself Sky/Line/Skies/Lines/Lineself Sky/Line/Skys/Lines/Lineself Sky/Line/Skies/Lines/Skylineself Sky/Line/Skys/Lines/Skylineself Sky/Line/Skies/Lines/Skyself Sky/Line/Skys/Lines/Skyself Sky/Skyline/Skyline/Skylines/Skylineself Sky/Skyline/Skylines/Skylines/Skylineself

So/Sorrow/Sorrows/Sorrows/Sorrowself Sor/Sorrow/Sorrows/Sorrows/Sorrowself Sorr/Sorrow/Sorrows/Sorrows/Sorrowself Sorro/Sorrow/Sorrows/Sorrows/Sorrowself Sorrow/Sorrow/Sorrows/Sorrows/Sorrowself Sun/Sunset/Sunsets/Sunsets/Sunsetself Suns/Sunset/Sunsets/Sunsets/Sunsetself Sunset/Sunset/Sunsets/Sunsets/Sunsetself Vam/Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampireself Vam/Vampire/Vampires/Vampires/Vampireself Vamp/Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampireself Vamp/Vampire/Vampires/Vampires/Vampireself Vamp/Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampireself Vampi/Vampire/Vampires/Vampires/Vampireself Vampir/Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampireself Vampir/Vampire/Vampires/Vampires/Vampireself Vampire/Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampireself Vampire/Vampire/Vampires/Vampires/Vampireself

Any pronouns for genders related to song on this album that I've done also go for this. I just decided to trim this one down to ones related to the titles of the songs or the album for brevity and such.

[gwendolynlerman]

Languages of the world

Romani (rromani)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 3.5 million

Recognized minority language: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden

Language of diaspora: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Greece, Iran, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Script: Latin, 32/35/40/36 letters/Cyrillic, 36/32 letters

Grammatical cases: 9

Linguistic typology: agglutinative, SVO/VSO

Language family: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Western

Number of dialects: 4 main groups

History

1542 - first attestation of Romani

20th century - vernacular writing arose

Writing system and pronunciation

Although Romani is used mainly as an oral language, some Roma do write in Romani. Some orthographic conventions emerged over the centuries since then, but there is no completely standard spelling system.

These are the letters that make up the Pan-Vlax alphabet: a b c č čh d dž e f g h i j k kh l m n o p ph r s š t th u v w x z ž.

The International Standard alphabet replaces -č-, -š- and -ž- with -ć-, -ś- and -ź- and includes three morpho-graphs, -ç-, -q- and -θ-, used to represent the initial phonemes of a number of case suffixes.

The anglicized alphabet replaces -c-, -č-, -š- and -ž- with -ts-, -ch-, -sh- and -zh-.

Romani in Macedonia uses both -č- and -ć-, adds -gj-, -lj-, -nj- and -y-, and eliminates -ž-. Romani in Serbia use this alphabet: a ä b c č kj (ć) d gj (ǵ) dž e f g h x i j k l lj m n nj o p q r s š t u v z ž.

The Kalderash dialect is written using the following Cyrillic alphabet: а б в г ғ д е ё ж з и й к кх л м н о п пх р рр с т тх у ф х ц ч ш ы ь э ю я, while the Rushka Roma’s alphabet is the following one: а б в г ґ д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш ы ь э ю я.

Grammar

Romani has two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural) and nine cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, locative, ablative, instrumental, genitive, and indirect). There are two classes of nominals, based on the historic origin of the word, that have a completely different morphology.

Adjectives and the definite article show agreement with the noun they modify.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood (conditional, imperative, indicative, and subjunctive), aspect, person, and number. They belong to several classes, but unlike nominals, these are not based on historical origin, and can be perfective or non-perfective.

Dialects

The dialects of Romani are mainly differentiated by their vocabulary. A long-standing common categorization was a division between the Vlax and non-Vlax dialects. Vlax are those Roma people who lived many centuries in the territory of Romania in slavery. The main distinction between the two groups is the degree to which their vocabulary is borrowed from Romanian.

Nowadays, dialects can be split into four major groups: Northern Romani in western and northern Europe, southern Italy and the Iberian peninsula; Central Romani from southern Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Carpathian Ruthenia and southeastern Austria; Balkan Romani, including the Black Sea coast, and Vlax Romani, associated with the historical Wallachian and Transylvanian regions.

Northern Romani comprises Baltic Romani (Estonian Romani, Latvian/Lettish Romani, North Russian Romani, Polish Romani and White Russian Romani), Finnish Kalo Romani, Sinte Romani (Abbruzzesi, Serbian Romani and Slovenian-Croatian Romani), and Welsh Romani.

Central Romani includes East Slovak Romani, Moravian Romani, and West Slovak Romani.

Balkan Romani is made up by Arlija, Dzambazi and Tinners Romani.

Vlax Romani comprises Churari (churarícko), Eastern Vlax Romani (bisa), Ghagar, Grekurja (greco), Kalderash (kelderashícko), Lovari (lovarícko). Machvano (machvanmcko), North Albanian Romani, Sedentary Bulgaria Romani, Sedentary Romania Romani, Serbo-Bosnian Romani, South Albanian Romani, Ukraine-Moldavia Romani, and Zagundzi.

[kmclaude]

This may sound dumb, but I am neither an native English speaker or French speaker, so perhaps I am just being silly, but; is ‘Emilein’ a real name? I tried to google the prononciation and I only ever saw “Emilien” come out? Is there a reason for that, ?

Not silly at all!

It is not a real name, no, haha! Sorry about that. It’s a pun: it’s basically the given name Émile (Anglicised Emile, give or take the final e) with the diminutive suffix -lein meaning small/little. It also sounds, effectively, like the female name Emmeline.

The real name, Emilien, and other names like it derive from Aemilianus which is effectively a diminutive of Aemilius (it means “of Aemilius” just as Romanus means “of Roma”) which is where we get names like Emil, Emily, etc. but Aemilianus/Emilien/Emilian and other names in that family are pronounced with a much different sound and as such loses the girl name pun.

[nphofrph]

Hi Neil! I'm not the anon who asked, but I know that a lot of people don't know that g*psy is a slur - I didn't until a few years ago. I wasn't trying to be cruel. I genuinely didn't know that it was even referring to a different ethnicity. I thought it was synonymous with being a nomad or a traveling salesperson or traveling performer. So to help out for future anons, I was wondering if you could please put together some resources on the Romani people and their culture/history? Thank you.

Sure thing! Hopefully these links here could help:

History

Romani People: Culture & History

On the road: Centuries of Roma history

Timeline of Romani History

Romani Populations in Central and Eastern Europe

Roma of Kosovo: the Forgotten Victims  

Roma in Norway

Roma in Denmark

Roma in Sweden

Roma in Finland

Roma in the United Kingdom

Roma in Brazil

Roma in Slovakia

Roma in Hungary

Lutheran Roma in Transylvania

A History of the Roma of Bulgaria

The Health of Roma in Europe 

Romani People in Nazi-Occupied Europe

The Forgotten History of Romani Resistance

Terminology

Romani Terminology

Romanichal Word List

Language Words in Lovari

Religious & mythological terms in [Vlax] Romani

Words for People in Romanes

Romanichal Families and Terminology

Romani Suffixes Simplified

Customs and Tradition

Roma Culture: An Introduction

Birth Customs 

Marriage Customs 

Living (and Dying) According to Custom

Death Rituals and Customs 

Roma Occupations 

Roma Beliefs 

Romanipe: sans mystery

Roma Law 

Romani Holidays

The Romani Language

Romani Language Resources

Cultural Identity

The Struggle for Self-Identification

Present but Unaccounted for

Prejudice in Education

In a Time of Turmoil, a Path to Roma Self-Determination

Research and the Many Representations of Romani Identity

Arts

Romani Music and Musicians

Romani Poetry

Rromani in Art

Roma in the Theater

Romani Cookbook

Stereotypes, Slurs, and Stuff to Avoid

Moving Beyond Gypsy Stereotypes

The Roma: Myth and Reality

Myths About the Roma 

Myths About the Romani Language 

Romani Tropes 101

Cultural Appropriation and the Gypsy Industry

Analysis: Why it's time to lay the “Gypsy” trope to rest

Useful Notes: Romani

'Gypsy' stereotype and the sexualization of Romani women

Roma: myth, suspicion and prejudice

Gypsy Appropriations

Books

The Romani Movement

Romani Books - The Rromani Connection website

Romani Writing: Literacy, Literature and Identity Politics

Websites

Romani Project 

Dom Research Center

Roma National Congress

Voice of Roma

Romedia Foundation

Roma Rights Watch

International Romani Union 

[smartphone-science]

“Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei. Et ecce audio vocem de vicina domo cum cantu dicentis et crebro repententis, quasi pueri an puellae, nescio: tolle lege, tolle lege.” -Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, ch.8

Had Augustine declined the call and refused to read, Catholic theology would have been a great deal wanting. For it was because of books, and reading books, that Augustine was able to turn his life around and contribute a great body of knowledge and scholarship to early Catholic thought.

There are books lying about in many corners that are eager to be read. Like Augustine before us, the invitation is already there, but with so many books, where do we start?

That’s where I enter. Carrying books.

Imagine me as the pesky neighbour and you are Augustine. Let me annoy you with insistent nags, let me shout “tolle lege, tolle lege” outside your windows. And if that imaginary window be opened, allow me to hurl these recommendations so that you’ll know where to begin with your readings. 

Tolle lege!

First book is

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆

Frankly speaking, there’s just too many books on Rome’s history that a new one only elicits a refusal of repetition. Not again! Like an extra litre of olive oil to your morning sunny-side up, courtesy of some passing Italian chef – it has promise, it has eggs, but eating it only returns a sigh instead of a smile. But Mary Beard cooks up something interesting in her new history of Rome. Her focus is different. It’s not really the history of the city, nor of the empire. Go read Mommsen for that (he’s really great).

What Beard focuses on is what made Rome powerful in the first place: its people, the Romans. That’s why SPQR is great. It acquaints us with the Romans in ways more intimate than has been done before, helping us to understand them in their idiosyncratic bests and worsts. In doing so, SPQR forces us to rephrase Monty Python’s eternal question “what have the Romans ever done for us?” into “what have we ever done to the Romans?” Because, really, aside from being a great Italian football team that finds zero success in Europe (sorry Roma fans, but the black and blue of Milan is the best), how do we look at Rome and the Romans today?

Click here to buy (free delivery worldwide)

Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes

Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆

The good people on the internet are always ready to lend their unsolicited assistance in all things “inaccurate”. Bored online editors prowl the catalogues of youtube in search of historical errata, and once they latch onto a perfect prey, they insist upon corrections. One persistent advice is found in many Istanbul videos, it goes something like “it’s Constantinople, not Istanbul”. What this simply shows is that helping is not always good. Some can be terrible. Is denying centuries of dynamic changes just to keep a western wet dream from spoiling helpful? Istanbul is a city of transformation and endurance, and this is chronicled well in Bettany Hughes’ biography of the city, Istanbul.

How on earth do you even write a biography of a city? Ask Hughes. She does a great job in this book. Istanbul glows and grows with personality in Istanbul, and every page documents that development with the support of expansive research and scholarship. Online zealots will continue to deny Mehmed II his achievement, but like the Crusades they fantasise about, they will always end up failing. Hughes’ Istanbul is a testament to the enduring legacy of 1453, the year Constantinople turned into Istanbul. It was a sad change for the fading Byzantine empire, but it was a change that came at the right time. As Dickens would have it, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Click here to buy (free delivery worldwide)

Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon

Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆

It is said that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. That’s quite heavy metal and Judas Priest would probably approve. But there’s no truth in this, as this was later revealed to be nothing but slander. Disappointing, to say the least. Royal Roman intrigues came aplenty, and Nero was just an easy target for libellous tongues. His mother Agrippina was another favourite target. Recipient of many crude suffixes and prefixes, Agrippina the minor, the slut, the incestuous princess, what have you, had to thread her way through the treacherous paths of Roman politics for her and her son’s survival. She did so with verve and success, which angered many men, hence the nasty titles.

And many men are still angry today, so the names survive. But Emma Southon fights back for the much maligned royal. In Agrippina, Southon paints a lively picture of the gutsy figure in colourful language. Southon spares no false formality to bear the strength of her defence, and it works extremely well. The thrill, drama, and suspense of political intrigue are vividly captured in Southon’s informal style and there is no other way this could’ve been achieved. Southon’s spirited defence of Agrippina is full of well-researched arguments and confident energy. Many disapprove of her style, but Southon, like Nero, just plays the fiddle as her critics burn in their contempt.

Click here to buy (free delivery worldwide)

Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium by Lucy Inglis

Goodreads rating: ★★★☆☆

The wisdom of the dairy industry has given us milk, many kinds of cheese, and butter. Needless to say, it is one of our greatest accomplishments as a species. But with all good things, the force of opposition always comes uninvited for dinner. The intolerance of the digestive system towards dairy has led some people to look down and expel its wonders in unflattering ways. Dairy, the sweat of gods, the sacrosanct sodium, is forcefully exiled by the body’s bigotry. The power of the downward discharge pulls the mood down as well. To succour our dairy deprivation, many have looked to plants to mimic mammary glands. There is a considerable degree of success in this department. Soy, almonds, coconuts, and other plants have produced milk. But Lucy Inglis says in her book that there’s another plant-based milk, not so much dairy, that instead of pulling us down, pushes us up, sending us to variable levels of high that traditional and alternative dairy can’t.

The name of the juice? Opium. In Milk of Paradise, Inglis traces the history of opium use in human societies. Don’t worry, it’s highly readable. I suspect no opium was consumed during the time of writing. Consider it a highstory. Anyhow, the book is very well written and highly accessible to poppy readers of history. It’s a well-researched romp across time that has the effect of leaving the reader in a rewarding high by the end of the book. Dairy consumption while reading may or may not be helpful.

Click here to buy (free delivery worldwide)

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney

Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆

The animated feline drama Lion King centres on the growth of a young cub into a worthy king. The newborn lion royalty, Simba, has been prepped up for kingship even before he first voiced a meow. The mandrill Rafiki, who served as the kingdom’s prophet of some sorts, lifted the young cub for all animals to see who the heir was. There was no backing out of it now. But it doesn’t seem like young Simba has any plans to abdicate – in fact, in a rather morbid behest, he gladly sings I just can’t wait to be king. Be mindful of what you wish for, kids.

Thing is, Simba was the unanimous choice because not only was he the only son, but he was a son. That is to say, the throne of Pride Rock was exclusive to male heirs. Had Simba been a female cub, things would’ve been very different. Would she have echoed the same impatience to be a queen? But, what if female Simba wanted to be a king instead? That’s a story Disney would reluctantly tell. But it’s a story history has already told. Kara Cooney is here to retell that tale in her biography of the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut. And she was a woman. She was a king. She. In The Woman Who Would Be King, Cooney salvages what scant data of the female pharaoh are available to her as she summons Hatshepsut back to life in her pages, exuding the fierceness and cunning of lions. What we read is almost a novel— a very good one — peppered with generous citations here and there to remind us that we are actually reading a real historical account. Cooney’s magic allows Hatshepsut to roar in her book but from a safe mortal distance. Don’t worry, books don’t bite. 

Click here to buy (free delivery worldwide)

The post 5 Ancient History Books for the Modern Mind appeared first on SCALPEN.

via Science Blogs

[interretialia]

Usus “-ensis” Suffixi Linguae Latinae / The Use of Latin’s “-ensis” Suffix

Latin’s -ensis suffix is not a suffix which simply marks the name of a place, behaving similarly to the -ia in names like Britannia. It is actually an adjective-forming suffix which indicates some sort of connection to a place.

In this essay I explain the use of Latin’s -ensis suffix, give examples of that use, and even show how the use differs from the uses of two other suffixes.

Contents

Use of the -ensis Suffix

Use of the -ia Suffix

Use of the -anus Suffix

Differences among These Suffixes

Apparent Exceptions

Conclusion

Sources

1. Use of the -ensis Suffix

We add the -ensis suffix, or its compounded form -iensis, to names of, and words for, places or localities to create adjectives which mean “of/belonging to” said places or localities. Here is a very short list of ancient and modern examples of adjectives which came about by the use of the -ensis suffix:

forum + -ensis → forensis “of/belonging to the forum”

hortus + -ensis → hortensis “of/belonging to a garden”

Athenae + -iensis → Atheniensis “of/belonging to Athens”

Chicago + -iensis → Chicaginiensis “of/belonging to Chicago”

Milvauchia + -ensis → Milvauchiensis “of/belonging to Milwaukee”

Let us examine the Latin suffix in action. Universitas Albert[a]ensis is the Latin name of the University of Alberta, and we break that down into Universitas, meaning “University,” and Albert[a]ensis, meaning “of Alberta.” In this case, we are dealing with the name of a place containing a word which derives from the name of a place. It would be very easy but very wrong to assume that the -ensis suffix simply marks the University as a place. The suffix really indicates the University’s relationship to the province.

2. Use of the -ia Suffix

If we wanted to use a Latin suffix that actually does mark the name of a place, we would use -ia, which typically appears at the end of the name of a country. Britannia, for example, came about by adding -ia to the name of the people associated with that area, the Britanni. Plautus came up with the comic place names Peredia (“Goobleland”), Perbibesia (“Chugland”), and Unomammia (“Oneboobland”) by adding the suffix to, respectively, the verb peredere, the verb perbibere, and a nominal compound of unus and mamma. In more recent times Latinists produced Iaponia, the name for Japan, from Iapo, which refers to a person from that country. Naturally, we could add the -ensis suffix to any of these place names if we wanted to create an adjective which means “of/belonging to...,” and so: Britanniensis, Perediensis, Perbibesiensis, Unomammiensis, and Iaponiensis.

3. Use of the -anus Suffix

The -ensis suffix has something in common with the very productive -anus suffix in Latin: they both indicate some sort of relationship or connection to something. We can add this -anus suffix, or its compounded form -ianus, to all sorts of nouns to create adjectives which mean “of/belonging to” said nouns. Many adjectives ending in -anus, both ancient and modern, derive from the names of people. Some examples of these adjectives are:

Brutus + -ianus = Brutianus “of/belonging to Brutus”

Cicero + -ianus = Ciceronianus “of/belonging to Cicero”

Nero + -ianus = Neronianus “of/belonging to Nero”

Clusius + -anus = Clusianus “of/belonging to Charles de l'Écluse”

Lamarck + -ianus = Lamarckianus “of/belonging to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck”

Hassler + -[i]anus = Hassler[i]anus “of/belonging to Emil Hassler”

While we can use both -ensis and -anus with the names of places and localities (e.g., Romanus, Romanensis, both from Roma), we do not have the freedom of using these two suffixes interchangeably. The most crucial difference between these two suffixes is the fact that the -ensis suffix is not simply used with names of people and other non-places or non-localities.

4. Differences among These Suffixes

Hypothetical locations might better illustrate the differences among these suffixes. If I had a country named after me, it might be Milleria in Latin. But if I had a building named after me, the Miller Building, the building would be Aedificium Millerianum, not “Aedificium Milleriensis” because while the building is a place, I myself am not a place! Aedificium Milleriensis would indicate that the building is named after a place named Miller. The building itself, however, could serve as the origin of the adjective Milleriensis, in which case the word would indicate an individual’s relationship to the building and not to me. Thus, the phrase conclave Milleriense, for instance, would refer to a room which is within the building. Please note that the Milleriense here has the same relationship to the conclave as the Albert[a]ensis in Universitas Albert[a]ensis has to the Universitas: an adjective which points to a place and agrees with a noun referring to a place.

The diagram below shows how the base word Miller relates to the derivative words which I created and introduced in the previous paragraph:

Miller- (person) → Milleria (place named after person)

Miller- (person) → Millerianus (adjective) → Aedificium Millerianum (place connected with a person)

Miller- (place named after person) → Milleriensis (adjective) → conclave Milleriense (place connected with a place)

5. Apparent Exceptions

I can explain the apparent exceptions to the “not simply used with names of people and other non-places or non-localities” statement that I made above. First, Iuliensis was not formed from the names of Julius Caesar or Augustus directly, but rather from places named after the two men. The suffix can even point to a figurative place or locality rather than to a literal one. So, Antiochensis and Hopkinsiensis derive neither from the names of the Hellenistic king and the American entrepreneur directly, nor from the names of literal places named after the two men, but from the personal treasuries belonging to these men who were financial benefactors. Even the strange word amanuensis (from a manu and -ensis) points to a figurative place where a clerical slave is meant to be doing his task: “within hand reach.”

The diagram below shows how the base words which I mentioned or implied in the previous paragraph relate to these adjectives ending in -ensis:

Iuli- (place named after person) → Iuliensis (adjective) → Iulienses (people connected with a place)

Antioch- (place named after person) → Antiochensis (adjective) → pecunia Antiochensis (thing connected with a place)

Hopkins- (place named after person) → Hopkinsiensis (adjective) → Universitas Hopkinsiensis (place connected with a place)

a manu (phrase implying place) → amanuensis (adjective) → amanuensis (person connected with a place)

6. Conclusion

All of this ultimately shows that Latin makes a distinction between place names which derive from the names of people and words which establish some connection between things and the names of people. The -ensis suffix produces words of the latter category and not words of the former.

7. Sources

Dan H. Nicolson, “Orthography of Names and Epithets: Latinization of Personal Names”;

John Tahourdin White, Latin Suffixes;

Oxford Latin Dictionary;

William T. Stearn, Botanical Latin.

     - Ian Andreas “Diaphanus” Miller