tulliolamonster

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Ah

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The thing about the fall of the Roman Empire is that nobody fully agrees on when it fell so I choose to take the most hilarious position which is that it never fell actually and we’re all still living in it.

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My newest plant children, Ultra Magnus and Starscream. Star was supposed to be Bluestreak, but he’s frustratingly star-shaped, so the name stuck

If Magnus has an offset/pup, I’ll name her Arcee :D

Apparently I’ll do anything except draw on my drawing account

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Nearly fainted at the toy store today

I also managed to get a G1-era Grimlock for my brother! I am trying very hard to win the unofficial Best Gift-Giver award at the next family function

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ugh the Ancient Roman who joined our birdwatching club won't shut up about "bad omens" or "signs of impending war" 😒

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[Telepathy voice] People who are weird about robots! Individuals who think endlessly about your favorite robotic and mechanical characters! You! Yes, you! The noble field of robot philosophy and ethics calls for you!

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Really coming to terms with the fact that the beautiful tomato plants I’ve been growing for the past few years died last winter… At least I’ll be able to apply all I’ve learned to growing new tomatoes ;-;

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@ravennevermore12 , this is everything I could’ve hoped for and more! I really have no notes, I think you’ve perfectly explained everything. This is so exciting! Reading this all was an absolute treat.

Ever since I posted my thoughts on Old Cybertronian, I’ve felt that my analysis was missing something key. Your note on the lack of punctuation marks when characters speak Old Cybertronian and the following analysis (bringing in “ka” from traditional Japanese is brilliant, I’ll have to look into that more) is really intriguing.

I was totally missing the International Phonetic Alphabet in my analysis, and I’m so glad you brought it to my attention! You’ve put into words some of the mismanaged half-thoughts that have been rolling around in my head, and I couldn’t be happier. I agree with you on how the language might sound, especially if it’s a language that uses everything except vowel sounds. Maybe your earlier comment about how some Cybertronians don’t have what we’d consider mouths fits into this? Old Cybertronian could be a language that incorporates the sounds made when the bot speaking uses more mechanical aspects of their body to make sounds instead of solely relying on the mouth and voice box. This would allow Cybertronians without mouths or lips to be able to speak Old Cybertronian more easily, and would also allow the speaker to make some of the more difficult sounds in close conjunction without overstressing their mouth, tongue, or voice box.

I’d love to hear more of your thoughts! This was honestly such a delight to see :)

I had some free time and tried to figure out a bit more about Old Cybertronian.

First, the alphabet is just a cypher for the English alphabet. Very fun for finding cute hidden messages, but not useful for finding the sounds each letter makes (unless you assume they’re pronounced like their English alphabet counterparts, which I do not).

Most of the examples of spoken Old Cybertronian in the comics is spoken by fluent speakers (like Vos and Cyclonus). As a result, their dialogue isn’t much help for phonetics either. However, we do get a bit of an insight when Cyclonus attempts to teach Tailgate a song. Mispronunciations in the dialogue of new speakers can give an understanding of which sounds a new speaker familiar with the descendant language might not be able to distinguish. These mistakes might mean the sounds of those letters are similar.

The song fragment we see Cyclonus teach can be deciphered as “I’VE GOT MY OWN” (Old Cybertronian doesn’t seem to have an upper and lower case). Tailgate’s first attempt is deciphered as “I’VE GOQMY RWN” (spacing is true to speech bubble). From this, we can see two things: 1) the “T” and “Q” sounds are easily conflated by new speakers, and 2) the “O” and “R” sounds are as well.

The “T” and “Q” conflation doesn’t seem to be that odd to me. In English, they’re both unvoiced aspirates made by blocking the flow of air through the mouth; the main difference is the location of that block (front of the mouth/teeth for “T,” back of the mouth/soft palate for “Q” and “K”). Though we don’t know what it would sound like, from this we can assume Old Cybertronian has at minimum one, likely more, distinct unvoiced aspirates.

“O” and “R” is different. It seems a little unusual for a vowel to be understood as a consonant… UNLESS that vowel is actually the result of a language that places greater emphasis on the voicing (movement of the vocal chords during pronunciation) of the consonant instead of viewing the consonant and vowel as distinct sounds. Perhaps, then, what readers might understand as an “oh” sound (like in “own”) is actually an “rrh” sound with voicing before it.

I think this focus on consonant sounds, their placement in the mouth/throat, and their voiced/unvoiced qualities makes sense for Old Cybertronian. Other examples of the language in the comics that don’t use the Old Cybertronian alphabet are almost always a string of consonants. On top of that, these sounds might be more easily replicated across Cybertronians with significantly different facial structures (lacking lips, animal heads, hollow cheeks, etc) by replacing them with more metallic sounds. Unvoiced, unaspirated stops could be made by tapping parts of the faceplate together. Aspirates are the same with a short burst of ventilation. Certain kinds of voicing could be made by rumbling engines, etc. We know there’s some kind of screeching and groaning involved, we just don’t know where or by what means

I couldn’t easily find more examples of characters learning Old Cybertronian, but if there are more, I’d love to see them! I’d like a larger sample pool to more accurately guess what it might sound like in real life.

Please feel free to share your thoughts!

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Mtmte panel redraw that I REALLY ENJOYED Im obsessed with how green it is !!

Kind of on topic, I want to draw more sci fi screens and cables and stuff… very satisfying to my doodle brain :>

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A little weird ask but

Which books would you recommend for Roman military and Roman history? Esp beginners?

(For “research” purposes XD)

This isn’t weird at all! I love getting to talk about my field, especially if it means someone else is interested in one of my favorite topics as well!

Anything written by Mary Beard is highly recommended. She focuses more on the people of Rome than just the historical events, making it much more approachable for beginners. Her work has a wide range of subjects, so you will almost certainly find a topic you’re interested in. She has a well-regarded book, SPQR, but she’s also hosted many documentaries and docuseries, several of which are up on YouTube for free!

The “History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan is quite good for a broader look at Rome, though it does focus on some of the more influential characters and events. It is extremely general (it covers hundreds of years in a total runtime of about 74 hours), but it’s still a good resource if you’re new to the subject.

For Roman military history, Adrian Goldsworthy’s The Complete Roman Army and The Making of the Roman Army by Lawrence Keppie are quite good! One of my professors has Goldsworthy’s book up on his shelf, which is a high honor for a book owned by this professor, lol.

Robert Garland has a great many books on Ancient Greece and Rome, but they may be more difficult to get. His focus is also more centered on Ancient Greece, so while I’ll still recommend him, I don’t think he’s a good starting place.

Finally, a lot of original Roman texts and their translations (mostly in English, but the more popular works have been translated into many languages) are completely free online. Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Gallic Wars) and Commentarii de Bello Civili (Roman Civil War) are probably the most popular examples that touch on military history. Do be careful, as a lot of these works are either partially or entirely Roman political propaganda. A lot of the guides to these works are still under copyright and probably aren’t free, but there probably are some out there that can be accessed

Less official, but here’s some more casual sources you might like!

It’s not Rome-specific, but several of my friends and coworkers love “Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics,” which mixes Classical Studies (Greece and Rome) with comedy. I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’ve heard very good things :)

The Vindolanda archeological site has a website that covers their site (a Roman military fort south of Hadrian’s Wall) pretty well! It won’t be as full of information as a book or documentary, but they have fantastic visual documentation of their artifacts (including an astonishing amount of beautifully preserved leather shoes!)

I’m so glad you’re interested in Rome! Feel free to reach out if you need some help finding anything I’ve listed here or if you have any more questions :D

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World’s oldest doodle (/j) made by me two-ish years ago

Done during a class reading of Sappho’s “Ode to Aphrodite”

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Some random sketchbook stuff because I like experimenting and I've got no idea what it's called :p

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Cutting up fruit as a gift for my neighbor, hooray! :D

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I will find a way to adequately place Chicago style citations into AO3 without making the page two leagues deep. I do not want to explore the Challenger Deep just to see Haselswerdt et al. (2023).

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"... I left." 😽

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Modern magical girl transformation sequences mirror the arming scenes in Homer’s works

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Found out I got one of my old supervisors into The Summer Hikaru Died by getting an absolutely horrified (but intrigued) text message. Good luck on your journey, Supervisor!