#whered the hell they see olives in england im being possessed by an angry roman soldier

[bonefall]

How difficult is it for outsiders to adapt to clammew when joining the clans?

It depends slightly on the outsider!

Clanmew/Townmew

For Iceheart, Brushburn, Snapstorm, Boulder, Russetfur, and Firestar, it was not too difficult. Clanmew and Townmew are sister languages, Clanmew being a mix of Old Tribemew and Parkmew, and Townmew being a mix of Middle Townmew and Clanmew.

So there are shared words, phrases, and the grammatical structure is very similar. Communicating the intention is pretty easy if you slow down and take the time to listen, though Townmew as a language is a lot slower, longer, and more "polite" than Clanmew.

When Tigerstar commanded that Scourge attack, Scourge understood it perfectly. Tigerstar also would have been able to understand him when he said, "My warriors are not yours to command."

So learning either language isn't difficult.

Clanmew/Tribemew

Mintflower, a cat from the Tribe, and Stormfur, a cat going TO the Tribe, have a much harder time. Medics of the Tribe learn Old Tribemew as a way of connecting to their ancestors, but speak Modern Tribemew in everyday conversation. It's sorrttaaa (but not entirely) like learning to speak Latin, only this is a world where a Latin-speaking ghost could tell you that your Latin sucks

And Modern Tribemew is HELL ON EARTH for a Clan cat to speak.

We're going to be putting tense into Clanmew 102, but Clanmew has THREE stems for past/present/future. A really easy way to illustrate this is the word for "pummel" or "strike rapidly;" "Pabrpabrpabr/Pabrpabr/Pabr." See how the word shrinks as it becomes future tense?

Another example is "Melted/melting/will melt" = "Bmubu/Bmub/Bmu"

Now THROW THAT OUT because Modern Tribemew has decided that only ONE stem will remain. Then, they modify the verb with a prefix. For example, you know how English says, "MELT-ING"? In Modern Tribemew, that's "ING-MELT"

But the fossilized stem is "random" to Clan cats. So a Tribe cat might say,

English: "The ice is melting"

Tribemew (grammatical equivalent): "Ice ing-melt you-can-see"

Clanmew: "Pi skyyffs bmubwang rarrgrryr" (I see the ice contains meltingness) [note: the use of rarr also warns for caution, this line could also be translated as "The ice is melting so be careful"]

Tribemew (Clan cat POV): "FREEZE (???)-WILL-MELT I-SEE-(???)"

But, thankfully, old Tribemew also follows OSV word order and has a lot more in common with Clanmew. So Mintflower, who was a Tribe medic, and Stormfur, who was joining to be with Brook, who was also a Tribe medic, had a much easier time adapting than someone just dead joining with no connections.

Modern Tribemew is a really common language in the area though, so it's not usually a problem for them.

Clanmew/Guardmew or Seamew

HARD.

Jessy, Stormcloud, Olivenose, and the cats that followed Tigerheart/Heartstar home from the Guardian cats have a language separated by massive distance, isolation, and generations over 100 years apart, that's like 1,000 in cat time. This is as distant as English, Gaelic, and Welsh.

And Seamew (The language of cats who live in the town west of the lake, by the sea) is a different language from Guardmew entirely. So Stormcloud, Olivenose, and Jessy (Seamew) can only understand a lick of what Blazefire, Antfur, or Cinnamontail are saying in their native tongue (Guardmew).