#z American English

[aleimlaq-liltaqnia]

افضل تطبيق لتعلم اللغة الانجليزية

في عصرنا الحالي ومع التواصل المستمر بين الثقافات، أصبحت اللغة الإنجليزية هي اللغة السائدة على مستوى العالم. فهي اللغة الرسمية للعديد من المنظمات الدولية، مثل الأمم المتحدة كما أنها اللغة المستخدمة في العديد من المجالات، مثل الأعمال والعلوم والتعليم والسفر، بالاضافة الى انه تعد اللغة الإنجليزية هي اللغة السائدة في التواصل بين الشركات والموظفين والعملاء. ولذلك، فإن العثور على افضل تطبيق لتعلم اللغة…

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

"Brownies" by Z.Z. Packer is available to read here

[ayaisokay]

Not Beating the Self-Centred Stereotype

Like deadass...

English exists beyond America. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are, for better or worse, more connected with international peers than past generations.

Factor that in with the fact that the internet facilitates sharing culture and language...

How is it any surprise that a group of English speakers share slang with other groups of English speakers? It's practically the language of the internet

[awetistic-things]

who wanna bet 75% of the “gen z slang” they’re gonna list is literally just aave

[minglana]

at one point of the speaking exam i was literally babbling away without actually saying anything coherent literally help meeeeee

[ineffablemossy]

Saw some clickbait article about the phrase 'out of pocket' and how it's the new Gen Z vs Millennial/Boomer war (lol)

Except neither of the definitions are the correct one??? Like what?? Out of pocket is a term about money. Like when you pay for something for work (maybe that you shouldn't have to) you've been left Out of Pocket, because the money has left your pocket not someone else's.

What is this nonsense about it meaning 'away for part of the day' or 'behaving chaotically'

Is this just a British definition of the term OR is it our AI overlords churning out more trash for us to consume in a doublespeak fashion?

[whimsicalcotton]

i will personally throttle the gdocs autocorrect. mark my words

[pollenallergie]

it’s so hard not to buy prince harry’s audiobook… like i just want a good laugh but also i don’t want to financially encourage him to continue writing. in fact, i think if he so much as opens a blank google doc again in his life, he should be shot with a tranquilizer dart and hauled off to an emergency therapy session.

[transitofmercury]

HH Movie Magazine

A while back I got my hands on pictures of the issue of the Horrible Histories magazine that talked about the movie. I’m still trying to get my own copy, but I’d been looking for the magazine for a while and had like no details on it because it’s only proof of existence (as far as I was aware) was a super zoomed in image on Sebastian Croft’s Instagram, so getting pictures was a big deal. I know very few people will care about this but I thought I’d post the pictures here so people have access to them. They’re kinda blurry and hard to read, I’ve managed to figure out what most of them say and will type up what I think it says so people can read it. (Anything in square brackets is a section I’m not sure on, if you can figure out what it says please let me know.) I’ve focused on getting the interviews down but if anyone wants me to try and do the stuff written around the pages and on the other pages, I’ll do my best. I've also included any thoughts I wanted to add in red, but there hopefully wont be too much of that.

Interview with the Dazzling Director!

From the small screen to the big, Dominic Brigstocke chats to us about his time directing Horrible Histories!

How have you enjoyed your experience working within the Horrible Histories world?

It’s been amazing! When we first started the TV series ten years ago, I think we imagined that we would have to make things up to make history funnier. The more we looked into it, the more we realised that there’s nothing as absurd as what really happened in the past! Together with our amazing cast, who are inherently funny and who actually struggle to not be funny, it was a joy to make the film.

If you had to be a character from the movie, who would you pick?

The trouble with Romans is that they weren't a very nice bunch! Most of the good characters in our film are women - Boudicca is a strong, determined woman and so is Orla. Atti is a sixteen-year-old Roman whose got heart. He's probably the nicest boy in the film so I'd probably have to pick him.

Did you pick up any weird historical facts while filming?

I had always believed that Emperor Claudius was poisoned with a dish of mushrooms, but it turns out that, apparently, he was sick but then he felt much better. Nero and Agrippina finished him off with a poisoned feather, which is how Derek Jacobi plays it in the film. This is obviously an absolutely ridiculous way of killing someone! But Nero is a character that goes to ridiculous lengths.

What is your favourite scene in the film?

That's an easy question! There's a scene where Atti and Orla have to rescue Orla's grandmother who's trapped in a cage. They have to combine their resources - everything that Atti knows about science and technology from living in Rome and all of Orla's native Celtic wit. It's full of [a word that starts with "s", potentially stunts] and adventure!

If you could live in any era from history, which era would you pick?

The more i learn about history, the less I want to live in the past! The Romans were amazingly sophisticated with their legal system, medicine, [society] and the way they built straight roads but you all died horribly! We've never had it so good as we have it now.

If you had to pick a side, would you be a rotten Roman or a cut-throat Celt?

I'm British, aren't I? So I think I'd have to be a cut-throat Celt. My loyalties are divided here because I think the Romans were an amazing civilisation, but I don't think they should have gone around conquering people. My instinct is that I've been a Briton all my life and if someone invaded, I think I'd object.

This features the most interesting thing in this whole magazine (to me), Atti's age. Supposedly, he's sixteen. I guess this makes sense considering that Sebastian Croft and Emilia Jones were both 16 while this movie was being filmed, but I was so sure they weren't sixteen that I initially struggled to figure out what that said. In my head they've always both been 17 during the events of the movie. Anyway, I choose to ignore this, they're still 17 to me. That part about the catapult scene is interesting because, honestly, I've always wished Orla and her (different to Atti's but still there) intelligence featured more in that scene. I suppose we do get to see her quick thinking, ability to boss people around and how much she cares about the people around her (both in her dedication to saving her gran and not leaving Atti to be killed by the Brigantes, which would be a very easy way to deal with the fact that she told her dad she'd kill him and then didn't do that).

Interview with Awesome Atti!

Sebastian Croft talks to us about playing Roman teenager Atti…

What’s the best thing about being involved in Horrible Histories: The Movie?

The whole experience was genuinely amazing. From firing someone out if a catapult, to being in a [not sure of this word at all] battle and sword-fighting [my way out] - we did a lot of very cool stuff! If I had to pick one thing it would probably have to be getting to work all the other incredibly talented people involved in the movie. We really became a family over the course of the shoot and I’ve made good friends for life.

Are there any similarities between Atti and yourself?

Well, while I haven’t been captured by a Celtic tribe or sold someone horse wee in order to to get the latest trainers, I definitely see lots of myself in Atti. I was very adventurous when I was younger and I climbed a lot of trees (and fell out of a fair few, too).

What was your favourite scene to shoot?

I really enjoyed filming the songs. When we filmed the Battle of Watling Street song we had hundreds of people all dressed as Celts and Romans. Kate Nash, who plays Boudicca, started getting everyone pumped up before we shot the battle scene! It was an amazing thing to watch and [3 words]. It felt [electric] to be a part of it in the scene. Although I did pity us Romans who were facing the Celts led by Boudicca.

Did you get to do any cool stunts or action moments?

Yes, I did! We have a chase scene where Emilia is driving a cart which is pulled by a horse and then I fall off and have to sprint to jump back on. Now, while it wasn’t quite a Tom Cruise level stunt, it was very exhilarating and I’m glad we had to film it from so many angles because I got a lot of goes at doing it!

If you could be anyone from history, who would you pick?

Well, I love spy films and used to pretend to be a spy when I was little, so I guess I’d like to have been some kind of international secret agent on the side of good. But then they don’t really get documented by history, do they, because they were so secret!

If you had to pick a side, would you be a rotten Roman or a cut-throat Celt?

Of course I have to say a rotten Roman. Sorry Celts! They were more civilised, had better battle tactics, stronger armour and the best swords! But [let’s] not talk about taking sides. In the end, we all just need to be accepting of others and respectful of our [strengths and differences], right?

I don’t have much to say on this page. Fun fact though, the other stunt in that scene (where Atti and Orla fall out of a tree) used stunt doubles.

Interview with Original Orla!

Emilia Jones talks to us about playing cut-throat Celt, Orla...

What did you enjoy most about being involved in Horrible Histories: The Movie?

Everything! The cast, crew and creative team are really lovely people and it was such a fun shoot. I think we laughed until our stomachs hurt every single day. Nick Frost, who plays my dad in the film, has to be one of the funniest people on the planet. He had us all in stitches constantly!

Are there any similarities between Orla and yourself?

Yes, I think there are quite a few! I’d say that we are both determined, spirited and [word]. Orla is probably more [word] than I am and much [word] which made her a really fun character to play.

Do you have a favourite song from the movie?

I love all the songs! Whenever we filmed a [word, it could be routine but it’s definitely not song cause it’s too long for that], the whole cast and crew would be singing it all day. The music is really cleverly composed and sticks in your head for ages. If I had to pick favourites, I’d probably choose the Boudicca song and the Atti and Orla duet. Although, the finale song was super fun to film as well… see, I just can’t choose!

What is the weirdest thing you learned through doing this movie?

That the Romans ate sows udders and jellyfish omelettes!

Did you have a favourite behind-the-scenes moment?

When I slipped down the hill during one of my [dances] I [word] accidentally hit Sebastian with my sword. My sword skills improved as time went on! [potentially the grammar in that middle part is different to what I think and it’s “…one of my dances! I also…”]

If you had to pick a side, would you be a rotten Roman or a cut-throat Celt?

Well, I’m half Welsh so definitely a Celt�� but maybe not a cut-throat one!

I love Orla so much and Emilia Jones always says such insightful things about her so I am so, so sad that this page is the hardest one to read. If you can figure out my gaps in the “are there any similarities between you and Orla?” response, please let me know. I am aware of the fact that I overanalyse this children’s movie, but Emilia Jones plays Orla really well in my opinion and I think it’s clear that she and Jessica Swale (who I presume wrote the story component of the movie, that then got Horrible Histories-ified by the other writers) both mean for Orla to have vunderabilities and be more complex than just a warrior woman trope. Also, when drunk, I once referred to them casting a half-Welsh person as a Ancient British character as being “half-accurate casting”. Orla is almost definitely a Brittonic Celt in my opinion, which makes her Irish (which comes from ancient Goidelic) name pretty wrong. It's also about 1000 years too early for her to be called Orla. Still, all the best characters are called Orla so I don’t care. Atti's name has issues too (where's his praenomen? why do he and his dad have different nomina?) but I'm not even starting with that.

Here’s the rest of the pages

I’m not gonna type them up cause I feel like they’re mostly easier to see but if anyone wants me to type them up I can. The image quality of these pictures when they’re posted will probably be way worse than it is on my phone so if anyone needs me to tell them what something says, I should be able to.

This has been crossposted to Dreamwidth.

[applebottomjeans2345]

AAVE and misogynoir

an ongoing reflection of my class and my final project

I've been taking a really cool linguistics class abt the history and grammar of AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and I noticed this interesting detail abt past academic analyses of AAVE-- when researchers first started analyzing AAVE, the demographic that they initially studied were young Black people in urban spaces, especially Black, working class men. This focus had the unintentional consequences of making it seem to the general public that Black men were primarily the ones using AAVE, although this is clearly not true.

Now obviously, Black women also use AAVE in their daily lives; hell, there are several papers that have focused on the linguistic habits of Black women. However, I think that when many people talk about AAVE in regular conversations, the image that comes to the mind of many is of young Black men; particularly, young and DANGEROUS Black men. With this being said, it really made me think hard about how we always see people on Twitter misusing AAVE (or how "gen z slang" is often just AAVE, once again being taken out of context). I also really think that much of the AAVE being misused online has primarily come from the language of Black women, as opposed to that of Black men, so it's something I've really been thinking about recently-- I feel like there's definitely some misogynoir tied to this phenomenon but idrk how to articulate it. If anyone sees this, tell me what you think, for my final project I typed this post up to see what having a discussion like this outside of class might be like!

[tooies]

nope. it's in realize

that alphabet completionist blog has activated something in me so now i think i'm just gonna start making posts where it seems like a quirky little joke at first except underneath i subtly try to include all the letters. already made one but it didn't catch on so now i have to make more. i realize this might be a bit silly and pointless of me but i don't care. i wanna win the alphabet

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[mechaffeine]

Lessons from having a doc set to British English, number 1:

British English is allergic to the letter Z

[gaast]

Beginning to wonder whether orks' use of the letter Z is meant to indicate even further how weird and stupid they are as a whole

[minglana]

i was about to put my name in the description as z(eta) but maybe perhaps not the best idea......

[rebellum]

No yeah you're totally right, Americanisation isn't real and it's perfectly fine that all over the world regional accents and dialects are losing speakers because of it. (In America too! You guys are losing your own accents and are instead speaking in varieties considered to be more "standard American").

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanization

when a british actor does an american accent everyone’s like “i didn’t even know they were british until they were on colbert.” but when americans do a british accent everyone’s like “they’re supposed to be from east cocksford but their glottal e’s are north dicksford. shameful.”