#and just not pronouncing the tilde

[morethanwonderful]

I genuinely missed all of these puns the first time I read Homestuck as a teenager, so I have to stop now and applaud for ^CAKE (carrot cake), ~ATH ('til death), and DIS* (disaster risk).

Given I'm pretty sure it only shows up in this one Act 1 John scene, d'you think DIS* is blatant enough to go on my apocalypse joke tally?

[sirberus-studios]

Who are we? Meet sirber-us!

🥝 Presenting Big Sirko, one of our main artists! they’re terminally offline biting people so when they’re not drawing they're learning new social media terms against their will (recently just learned “nachos”) fun fact: they’re in charge of drawing dogs because we can’t draw them lol ��� a big shoutout to them for always reheating our sirberus nachos 🔥

🫐 B², (pronounced b squared) is our other main artist of the group! their interests include running (often into corners) and collecting “little freaks” (quoted by artist themselves) fun fact: they don’t know how to draw dogs (sirko has to work overtime because of this)

🍎 Rus is our in-house graphic designer and (rookie) social media manager! They’re a serial trinket collector and love phone time in bed (very advanced skill for a dog). fun fact: they don’t know what a dog is. (sirko wants to resign)

🍌 and lastly our honorary sirber-son Tilde ! his backstory is a mystery, but he makes a great companion (and extra storage)

some words from the owners:

🥝: idk we just found him like that

🫐: he looks like a banana lol

🍎: he ate our tv :(

[terry-perry]

Can I request either a Dad!Miguel O’Hara or Dad!Moon Knight where they’re singing luna de xelajú with their partner (the reader) and/or their daughter? thank you and I love your writing ❤️

Love this song!

Italicized lyrics - Marcy singing

Bold lyrics - Jake singing

Bold and italicized lyrics - Both singing

You woke up later than intended. It had been a long night as you had done plenty of online work until 2 in the morning. You wanted to spend a good chunk of hours not looking at a screen. Now that some of those hours were spent sleeping, it was time for food. Before that, however, you reached over to your husband's side of the bed. Unfortunately, it was empty.

"Aww," you whined softly. You must've slept longer than intended.

You slowly lifted your head off the pillow to listen for an idea of where he could be. The sound you were met with was unexpected as you heard two guitars strumming in melody.

They were at it again, you realized with a smile.

You slipped out of bed and made your way out of the bedroom. The music grew louder as you walked down the hall. You could hear Marcy's soft singing, almost like she was whispering. She had such a lovely voice. You and your husband wished she showed it off more.

You hoped these little sessions would do just the thing to help her come out of her shell, at least a little.

You entered the kitchen and, sure enough, your husband and daughter were seated at the table, continuing to play and sing together.

"Luna de Xelajú que supistes alumbrar,"

Marcy was getting better with her Spanish. You had Jake to thank for mastering the language. He was the side of your husband who spoke it, and he found the best way to teach her. He fueled his lessons with her love for music and taught her about songs he thought she'd enjoy.

The song they were currently playing together came with a sad love story involving a romance forced to end. The singer could only plead to the moon and wish for their love to return somehow. It was beautiful and tragic. Marcy loved it right away.

"En mis noches de pena por una morena de dulce mirar,"

"Luna de Xelajú me diste inspiración,"

"La canción que hoy te canto regada con llanto de mi corazón,"

Through Jake, she was able to discover a wide variety of music by Latin artists. He also showed her how to properly perform their songs by pronouncing them in a proper accent. He told her about the importance of rolling her rs and the tilde, among other things that made her sound almost like a native Spanish speaker.

"En mi vida no habrá, más cariño que tu mi amor,"

He never had doubts about her picking up the language. Not only was it in her blood but he knew once she put her mind to something, nothing could stop her from achieving her goals. He saw that in the way she mastered the guitar in only a few months and then added singing to the mix. It was just the confidence she needed a little more work on.

"Luna que me alumbro en mis noches de amor,"

You leaned against the archway and enjoyed the last few moments of the song with a soft smile. No matter what side of your husband was interacting with your daughter, they were always such a great source of strength and comfort to you as you were to them. Each special bond was hard to replicate. You were just happy Marcy could have one with each of them.

"Hoy consuelas la pena,"

"Por una morena que me abandono."

You gave a little applause for their performance. They, at last, acknowledged your presence by grinning at you in appreciation before Marcy turned back to Jake.

"¿Cómo estaba ese papi?" She casually asked her father how she did after the song was finished.

Jake chuckled warmly and leaned over to kiss the top of her head.

"Mucho mejor mi luna. ¡Bien hecho!"

[spanishskulduggery]

Hey Profe 🍓:

Can you guide me through esdrújulas and how commands become them? They require the tílde, right?

When words are esdrújula, yes they require the tilde... not all commands are esdrújula but we'll get into it this is going to be a long one; but just know, it's not something you fully get at first, it's a pattern you recognize and keep recognizing as you go

I just want to quickly state that the entire topic is related to whether words are aguda, grave/llana, or esdrújula which is a very large topic that is a bit confusing - but it basically describes where you put your vocal emphasis on a word depending on if it ends in a noun, a consonant, N or S...

Again, not something you "learn" exactly but a pattern you realize you've been recognizing and how you know how to pronounce a word based on a pattern you've probably noticed without even trying, but then trying to understand it academically which is the weird part

Very big topic linguistically; I recommend looking it up on youtube but it's related to how to predict where to put a vocal emphasis on a word and if it should have an accent mark depending on syllables and what the word ends with

-

For your purpose though you're talking about esdrújula which means that a word has its vocal emphasis on the third to last syllable [antepenultimate]

A common example is la brújula which is a "compass"

The syllables in that are brú-ju-la

...That la is the last [ultimate] syllable, the ju is the second to last [penultimate], and brú is the third to last [antepenultimate]

Without an accent mark you would be inclined to put the emphasis on ju but because its emphasis is on brú it gets the accent mark to tell people that so they don't pronounce it wrong

-

With verb conjugations you're looking at more of a.... I don't know what the right word for it is but let's just say "imposed esdrújula"

By that I mean you're adding syllables to a word and that will change how it's pronounced

This is the basis being un making algún, ningún, or a counting word like veintiún "21 (of something)" have accent marks

By adding extra syllables you moved where the vocal emphasis would typically be. To make sure you understand we're talking about a root of un "one", that now takes an accent mark because if you didn't people would be pronouncing it wrong

[I said I wouldn't really go into it but most nouns ending in N have their vocal stresses on the second to last syllable like dicen, tienen, viven, hablan etc. because you want people to recognize un is from uno and related to "one" you're putting emphasis on that syllable which is unusual - hence an accent mark to keep people from messing it up]

This is the same idea behind seis as 6 turning to dieciséis 16 because people want you to know that it's related to the number 6, but most words ending in S have their vocal stress on the second to last syllable like tienes, caramelos, dulces, manzanas

Words like el compás "rhythm", además "furthermore" have the same vocal stress on the last syllable and end in S so they need the accent mark to not confuse people

-

Verbs also do this with commands, as well as some that use the infinitives or gerund forms + indirect objects, direct objects, and reflexive pronouns

With a verb in a command + objects, you're also adding syllables while also trying to keep the vocal stress originally where it was:

Habla. = Speak. Háblame. = Speak to me.

You turn a two syllable word into a three syllable word; but by keeping the stress on the same syllable you then need to add that accent mark to make sure people don't emphasize "bla"

This is the same for hábleme, or háblenme for usted and plural commands rather than simple hable, hablen.

...

This is somewhat different for a monosyllabic verb [often dar] or a verb with an irregular monosyllabic conjugation:

Da. = Give. Dame. = Give me. Dámelo. = Give it to me.

esdrújula by its nature needs at least three syllables, so immediately dame as a command only has two and works like normal so no accent mark, suddenly by adding a third syllable but still saying da has the stress means you need the accent mark

A somewhat unique thing then happens in usted it's that as an usted command it's dé "give", to differentiate it from de "of" it has that mark. But deme has no accent mark because it looks like a normal word with no accent mark needed - again better explained in a discussion of words that are either aguda or grave/llana - but then démelo "give it to me"

Another common one is poner to pon as a command but with reflexives and a direct object:

Pon. = Put. Ponte la ropa. = Put on your clothes. Póntela. = Put them on. [la ropa, collective noun] Ponte el vestido. = Put on the dress. Póntelo. = Put it on. Ponte los guantes. = Put on the gloves. Póntelos. = Put them on. Ponte las botas. = Put the boots on. Póntelas. = Put them on.

...Again compared to ponga in usted which already has two syllables, póngase "put on" or póngaselo-la-los-las can work like that too

This is also going to be why you see some verbs that have roots with poner, tener, venir etc conjugate a bit weird... like mantén is because ten is the command of tener for tú, now you have another syllable as mantén from mantener and it's a whole thing

...

Now I mentioned infinitives and gerund, and again this is easier to spot but it has to do with syllables again

Infinitives all have their tonic stress on the last syllable, so when you add things you're moving back that syllable from ultimate to penultimate to antepenultimate...

Necesito decir... = I need to say... Necesito decirte... = I need to tell you... Necesito decírtelo. = I need to tell it to you. / I need to tell you. Debo dar... = I should give... Debo darte... = I should give you... Debo dártelo. = I should give it to you.

This is why you might see something like ahora tendrás que vértelas conmigo as it's "you'll have to deal with me" but literally verse las caras "to deal with" kind of like "to see face face to face", so it became "see them with me" in a way as vértelas

Another common one is apañarse las coas "to handle things", and then sometimes as a command apáñatelas "deal with it / figure it out" or necesito apañármelas "I need to deal with it (myself)"

With gerund you're talking -ando or -iendo or -yendo. They're already multiple syllables so they always have an accent mark [on the -ándo, -iéndo, -yéndo] if you add to that word with a direct object, indirect object, and/or relflexive:

Me estás mintiendo. = You're lying to me. Estás mintiéndome. = You're lying to me. Se está volviendo loco/a. = They're going crazy. Está volviéndose loco/a. = They're going crazy. Les estoy diciendo la verdad. = I'm telling them [or "you all"] the truth. Estoy diciéndoles la verdad. = I'm telling them / you the truth.

-

What (thankfully?) makes this easier is that you can hear it and produce it pretty intuitively

It's just that the accent marks with esdrújula and especially with verbs is there so other people don't read the words wrong

It becomes a confusing topic because it's describing a thing a lot of people do naturally, but you can tell when someone gets the emphasis on the wrong syllable because it will sound off

[xxxprogamer69xxx]

conlang where the only vowel is schwa and the only consonants are (forgive me for this but idk the IPA yet so i gotta just say [blank sound] as in [blank word]) t as in time, m as in mice, and g as in game. since there's only one vowel the language writing system is an abjad. if one wants to write just the schwa sound they use the tilde symbol ~. every consonant has schwa pronounced after it. language is not tonal but words/sounds are counted as different sounds depending on the volume they're spoken at (eg.

gt

could mean stomach,

gt

could mean throat

and

gt

could mean mouth, with the size of the text signifying the volume.

language name in the language is mgtgg

in english is mugutaguga

[dragoninahumancostume]

I love reading in languages I don't speak because I'm messing it up so badly and I know I am but I can't be bothered to go to Google translate or wtv to know how it's pronounce so if it's shit like Vietnamese or Chinese writing in Latin alphabet then I'm sorry I can't produce that much tones so I'll just let my brain figure out in which part of the word a tilde should go and then call it a day. For Russian is even more fun because most of the letters are things I can even imagine how to pronounce and I also don't know what their accent is meant to sound like so I'll just go "a yto epekt" and I'll let you guys figure out what the actual words are

[sizzleissues]

chia?

chia ⇢ what’s an inside joke you have with someone else?

I had to sit and think about this one for a long time so I offer you two

One where my friend and I will turn to each other and take whatever word we just heard and say ‘I want to name my child that’. Examples have been ‘~’ pronounced tilde (hers), ‘Cholera’ (mine) and ‘sporangium’ (both).

Another is that one meeting my friend I’ll ask “is Ned dead?” And they’ll reply ‘Ned’s dead’ or ‘Ned not dead’. I will not explain what that means

Get to know me ask game

[bigdippersubsys]

intro post!

helloooo we are a subsystem of @rqcrusaders! this blog is mostly ran by me, −, but others are free to chime in! refer to us as you would refer to any other group of people, no you& or anything. nearly all of us use our names as our only pronouns by the way!

member list under cut

mapping is the mathematical term that things like −, + and = belong to, we use it as a xenospecies/xenorace identity! − (Minus), transworshipped mapping note that minus − is not hyphen -, if you are on phone feel free to use en dash – which looks nearly identical + (Plus), −'s equally transworshipped counterpart/sibling/partner/(con)abuser ~ (Tilde, Twiddle, Not), aroace transstalker fallen angel who is so deeply intertwined with me and plus it'd just be wrong to not count ~ as part of our relationship Confoederatio helvetica (Swiss, 🇨🇭), countryhuman transdoctor who can change how our system works somehow μ (Mu (pronounced like mew), Micro), our freaky xenobiological mother § (Paragraph, Pilcrow (even though it's a silcrow not a ¶)), our mysterious xenobiological father who never fronts

[imperfectlibrarian]

You can find both pronunciations on Forvo (a great source for pronunciation in general) Pão: https://pt.forvo.com/word/p%C3%A3o/#pt Pau: https://pt.forvo.com/word/pau/#pt

The reason it's tricky for English speakers is not just the tilde accent, but the vowels too.

First, you practice pronouncing "o" as a single vowel and not as the diphthong "ow", which is the common pronunciation in English, as in "go", that is actually transcribed as /ɡoʊ/ in the IPA.

Then, you practice the diphthong "ao" a few times and later go to the nazalization, which is just speaking through your nose. One way to know if you're doing it right is to hold your nose and feel whether it vibrates or not. It's the same vibration you feel with the letter "n" in the word "hand."

If you can't hear the difference between normal vowels and nasalized ones at all (which is absolutely normal when learning a language as an adult), I recommend the minimal pairs technique with words like manha/manhã e mau/mão.

Anyway, funny thing is that, apart from the nasal diphthongs, the "o" at the end of words is pronounced as "u" so even when speakers of other languages ​​say "pao" instead of the English "paow" we still hear "pau".

Once the friend of a friend of my mom's was visiting Rio and she saw Sugarloaf Mountain and she wanted to impress her taxi driver with her knowledge of Portuguese, so she said in Portuguese "Look, Sugarloaf [Mountain]! It's very big!".

Unfortunately, English native speakers have a hard time making the "ão" sound correctly since the sound doesn't exist in English, so instead of saying "pão de açúcar" (literally, bread of sugar), she said "pau de açúcar." Now, "pau" technically just means "wood," but it's also, unfortunately for her, slang for "penis."

So to the driver what he heard was "Look at the sugar dick! it's so big!" and he almost crashed the car from laughing so hard.

[yttz-boss]

bp012

28/12/23

why aren't ipa keyboards in keyboard layout lists in phones and whatnot

what if I want to specify my yaaahhhhs are in creaky voice

you know well that is occasionally necessary in text conversation

not only that but spelling phonetically is incredibly useful in so many situations

also, you may think "why do you want a beer keyboard"

if you ponder this I'd like you to search the keywords "international phonetic alphabet"

in another foolish line of questioning, if you think "why do you want to spell in IPA only language nerds and graphophyles like yourself know how to read it to any extent"

and I say to that IPA should be taught at school

it's as important to learn as a foreign language because it aids in learning them and pronouncing their words even if you don't know the language so much

it is incredibly useful in international speech and I would use it and force my friends to have a basic understanding of it as soon as I could possibly get my grubby little language nerd hands on it

believe me I will not take no for an answer when it comes to IPA teaching

I mean I will if it's well argued but it's damn hard to get me out of that thought

I am a stubborn fuck and I sorely believe I am right upon this issue

anyway

IPA is awesome and I don't want to have 3 different language keyboards on my phone just because ε is Greek and ə is Azerbaijani

+ how am I supposed to get all the diacritics

not the usual acute and retroflex or whatever I mean the wacky lines they use for extra specific stuff and voices

like where do I get a ◌̰

that's a tilde below the letter for you non-unicode hipsters

stupid pieces of shit, those people are

"oh we believe we don't need more than ASCII for basic communication"

yea maybe in your backasswards world where your primary method of communication is mutt

[puerto-rico-culture]

Verbal Messages

The official language in Puerto Rico is Spanish, due to the country once being a territory owned by the Spanish. The Spanish left a lot of influence in Puerto Rico but once the territory was taken over by the Americans they learned to adopt English (The World Factbook, 2023). Lingua franca is a language spoken when two native speakers don't share the same common language. In the case of Puerto Rico since it is  US territory and their first primary language is Spanish, they use English as a Lingua Franca. 

Hello = Hola (ow-laa)

Yes = Sí (See)

No = No

Please = Por Favor (Por Fa-Vor)

Thank you = Gracias (graa-see-uhs)

Can you help me? = ¿Me puedes ayudar? (Meh pweh-des ayoo-dar)

I don’t understand =  no entiendo (en-ti-en-doe)

I don't speak Spanish = No hablo Español (Ob-lo eh-spuhn-yowl)

My name is Quinn Denker = Me llamo Quinn Denker (Meh yah-moe)

I think that the word that was hardest to pronounce was Español. This is because the word has an accent mark over the n called a tilde. There are two types of accent marks in the Spanish language and it is the accento and the tilde. By adding the tilde to the n it changes how you pronounce the word. With just the letter n you pronounce (en) but when you add the tilde you pronounce it (enye). The word espanol which does have the tilde would be pronounced (eh-span-ol) but with the tilde the word is pronounced (eh-spuhn-yowl). Along the same line as these words in Spanish can actually mean different things if you do not pronounce them right or spell them right when writing. A small example of this would be the word Sí. This word has an accento over the I and this word in English means “yes”. However, if you did not use the accent mark and spelled it si then you would be saying the english word “if”. Pronunciation of the word is important as well. For this word, if you put emphasis on the i then you would be saying Sí which means “yes” , but if you put emphasis on the S then you would be saying Si which means “if”. 

Puerto Rico es un archipiélago con más de 143 islas, cayos e isletas. Las islas pequeñas más reconocidas en Puerto Rico son Isla de Mona, Vieques y Culebra. Isla de los monos, también conocida como Cayo Santiago, está habitada por 1,000 monos macaca mulatta. Puerto Rico es territorio de los Estados Unidos.

Puerto Rico is an archipelago with more than 143 islands, cays, and islets. The most recognized small islands in Puerto Rico are Isla de Mona, Vieques and Culebra. Monkey Island, also known as Cayo Santiago, is inhabited by 1,000 macaca mulatta monkeys. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.

In this paragraph I noticed that the google translate did not correctly translate over everything. This can be an issue for Spanish speakers to understand what people are trying to say. This is a mild example because the only issues were “cays” should be keys, and “islets” should be safety islands. 

Language influences our view of reality. This statement means that language affects our perception, how we think, and the experiences that we live through. Language is not just a way for people to communicate. It shapes the way we interpret society and every single thing that we go through in our lifetimes.

The World Factbook 2023. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2023.

Personal Interview. 

[hot-chocolate-is-my-lover]

My boss gifted me a scraper. The brand is German and called dick. So now I have to shout DAVE HAND ME MY DICK SCRAPER everytime I leave it somewhere

[luckycaricature]

A few bonus doodles I posted to Twitter while waiting for the speedpaint to finally finish processing lmao

cirava is,,,,,,,,,, precious childe, happy birthdaye you silly beans rlahlfkhsklfhslk

[fabricated-misslieness]

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: miles morales x hispanic male reader (featuring my accent)

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: you're speaking spanish and he can hardly understand.

ʀᴇ𝐐: no ~ ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 635 ~ established relationship

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: swearing, kissing, miles sitting on your lap

ᴍᴀʏʙ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇ: if i miss any tildes just know im not a man who paid attention to his tilde classes and also the difference between por que and porque and when they have tildes (dont think too hard about the wingdings)

☾⋆☆⋆☽

Was it wrong to admire him? Maybe it was, you didn't know; staring at strangers was wrong, but this was your boyfriend.

Miles had an effect on you. You couldn't quite name it, especially not when he asked. You just knew it had you staring, staring at his wide smiles or his expressive eyebrows or how he looks like when he's focused on drawing. You often stared when he wasn't looking, but when he was, when he returned your gaze, offered you an automatic smile, raised a teasing brow, you couldn't help but to kiss him.

But, for now, you were just looking, admiring. You could only imagine how dopey you looked right now. It's probably hilarious.

"E'te man me tiene loco." (This man drives me crazy.)

"What?"

You shake yourself out of your stupor, "Nothin'. Keep drawin'."

"No, no, dijistes algo." ((you) said something.)

"Ahahaa, no." You try to laugh it off, but Miles can see in the way that you tense up that he's right.

"Mira yo se que me mientes." He lifts himself off his seat, pointing a finger at you. (Look, I know you're lying to me.)

You cringe internally at the fact he didn't pronounce his r correctly but continue on. You raise your hands in feigned surrender, "No sé de que me 'tas hablando." (I don't know what you're talking to me about.)

"Me 'tas? Metas?" The confusion was visible on his face, which was frankly adorable, "Like goals?"

"No, mi amor," Miles sits himself down on your lap–so casually–and you take the opportunity to wrap your arms around him. The normality of it makes you relax again. "I mean to say, "me estas", but because of my accent, I cut out the "es"."

"So just say "me estas"." He replied, like it was that simple.

You roll your eyes, "I don't think about the way I say things all the time, you know. Just like how you forgot to roll your r's."

"I did not!" He shouts, pretending like he's offended.

"Oh, but you did."

"Ok, mira, carrro," He exaggerates it for you, "carrrrrro." (Ok, look, carrr. carrrrrr.)

"Okay, okay, now remember it."

"Whatever." He scoffs, "You've been deflecting."

"Have I?" You bring a hand up to fiddle with the unshaven hair at the back of his neck in the hope of distracting him.

"Yes." He digs his accusatory finger into your chest, turning the tables on you and your criticism of his shit Spanish. "Ey, stop trying to distract me."

You don't drop the hand but you stop playing with his hair, "Lo siento." (I'm sorry.)

"Dime lo que dijistes." (Tell me what you said.)

"Dijiste." You correct.

With a groan, he says it correctly. "Dijiste."

"Dijequemetienesloco." You say fast. It was a bit embarrassing to admit it, even with the many times that he's caught you staring.

Combined with his bad Spanish and how fast you said it, Miles did not understand a single word. "Dijek met ien lowcou." (👎︎♓︎🙰♏︎❑︎◆︎♏︎❍︎♏︎⧫︎♓︎♏︎■︎♏︎⬧︎●︎□︎♍︎□︎)

"What language are you speaking?"

"That's what you said." He laughs. "But seriously the curiosity is killing me!"

"Fine..."

He fiddles in your lap excitedly as he anticipates your words.

"Me tienes loco." (You drive me crazy.)

They were simple words but he didn't understand them. "I have you crazy? Do I drive you mad? Do you think I'm that annoying?"

Stuck in your own embarrassment, you ignore his rambling and begin your own, "I mean I actually said "Este man me tiene loco" but you know it's practically the same thing and you'd complain about me calling you man porque it's so impersonal and–" (This man drives me crazy.)

Meanwhile he's over here still trying to figure it out, until, "Wait it's "You make me crazy!". Ohhh."

You prepare yourself for teasing but are instead met with a soft little kiss.

"I drive you crazy, huh?" Miles smiles one of those smiles you always adore.

"Yes." There would be teasing later, you were sure of it, but for now you relished in kissing him. You couldn't have enough of him.

[kiragecko]

So, want to know why Voodoo is sometimes called Vodun these days?

It's because of Nasal Vowels!

But first - technically, Voodoo and Vodun (and Vodou and Vudú) are different things. Vodun is a West African religion, while Voodoo is a Louisiana descendant (with a lot of other influences, from West Africa, the Americas, and Europe). The other descendant religions throughout North and South America have slight variations in spelling, pronunciation, and differences of belief.

Now that we've got that out of the way, back to spelling!

Nasal vowels are a really common thing in languages. French has them. Sanskrit had them. A lot of West African languages have them. A lot of languages of the Americas have them. Basically, you say a word like you're going to say an 'n' after the vowel, and then ... don't. Your nose lets air move through it, and the vowel sounds different than a non-nasal vowel.

They're a pretty simple thing. But the Latin alphabet SUCKS at showing them.

So it's an 'every language for itself' situation. Every language has a different way of showing you if a vowel is nasal.

Turtle Island (North American Indigenous) languages often use an ogonek (ą, ę, į, ǫ, ų). Sanskrit and its descendants tend to use an anusvara (अं) or candrabindu (अँ), both usually written in Latin as 'ṃ.' The IPA and some languages use a tilde (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ). French and West African languages tend to use an 'n.'

You can distinguish this 'n' from the normal 'n' that's a consonant because it doesn't have a vowel after it (but does have one in front of it). It's either word ending, or followed by a consonant.

'Vodun' is pronounced 'voh-dõõ' ('vo-dṹ,' with a high tone on the 'dũ' that we aren't dealing with here).

English speakers have no way to indicate a nasal vowel at all. Usually they're ignored when we're absorbing other people's words. So 'vodun' was spelled 'vodoo' or 'vodou' and the variant form 'vudun' was spelled 'voudou' or 'voodoo.'

-

You can also remember about nasal vowels when reading about Orisha (Òrìṣà) - Yoruba dieties that show up on Tumblr reasonably often.

'Ọlọrun' is pronounced 'aw-law-rõõ' (ɔ‧lɔ‧rũ)

'Ọ̀rúnmìlà' is pronounced 'aw-rõõ-mee-lah' (ɔ̀‧rṹ‧mì‧là)

'Ṣàngó' is pronounced 'shãh-goh' (ʃã̀‧gó)

etc.

-

I am sharing this because nasal vowels are cool, and because I remember being confused when I first saw the word 'Vodun.'

"How badly did we mangle that word to get 'Voodoo'?" I thought.

But in this case we didn't! English just doesn't have a way to show nasal vowels, and we aren't likely to guess that an 'n' is part of a vowel sound.

[thforgottcn]

eggsy wanted to tell her all the things he held in instead of quietly playing them from the sidelines , but he never could bring himself too . what if she didn't like him back more than the friendship that they held ? what if she shut him out after him admitting it and she thought it was a threat to their friendship , and would rather no longer have further contact ? what if ... it was them finding a relationship with one another , or their jobs ? he knew where roxy's heart lay with her position at kingsman and he wouldn't do anything to ruin it for her , of course . what if kingsman approved of their kindled partnership , and they could actually ... try ? he's always trying to think of what to say to even start out a conversation like that with roxy without getting shut down immediately .

his marriage to tilde had never sated his wants in a partner . she was good in bed , let him do nearly anything he wanted , but she wasn't roxy . roxy let him be his true self at any given time of the day without question . maybe a weird face - or even disapproving - at what he was doing , but it never seemed to be judgemental . they had solidly taken care of one another from day one of their training days and it extended when they were both pronounced a position for their organization . when he'd lost her for so many months it had taken a beating on him in spirit and will to do his work , honestly . how was he expected to continue going on when he'd watched multiple people he loved and cared about just die behind the lenses of his glasses while trying to have dinner ? after poppy , he'd taken some time to sort his thoughts , his emotions ... he could be happy with tilde under the right conditions . but then she scrambled it all up and he called off their marriage faster than he really had realised . roxy made him .. a mess .

his eyes scan his phone when she appears on his screen again and he smiles a bit . it wasn't the first time they'd been on video call with one another while falling asleep . and he knew it would be harder once he was sent off for his mission with the statesman . his eyes caught the open button , a soft breath releasing before they're back up at his face . he's seen her in various outfits while working together but she still caught his eyes handsomely in a button up shirt . ' goodmorning , sunshine , ' he mumbles with a laugh and presses his face back into the pillow a bit to yawn before on it's side to watch her . ' i do have some things to do throughout the day but nothing majorly tasking . considering you're already up and dressed , i assume you do ? '

There were so many what ifs that seemed to grace Roxy and Eggsy's timeline. What if they liked each other. What if something was actually said, instead of letting it sizzle into just a friendship. What if they would have worked out, and Kingsman would turn a blind eye if they ever found them out. Truth be told, she chose to prioritise career first, but the little what ifs graced the back of her mind once in a while, and sometimes when Eggsy complimented her when it didn't seem so necessary. Was she turning lonely? Was she just charmed by his antics? Does she just find it pleasant enough, sweet enough to feel good about it? But whatever the case, she chose to keep quiet of those things, finding them somehow out of place.

It didn't help their case that she felt just a little more relaxed to let her amusements with his sweet words be visible after his divorce. Was she flirting subtly? Was she showing interest? Surely it'd be allowed, he was divorced after all; never mind the fact that Kingsman may still frown at the prospect. But how long of a period did she need to back off? What was proper, what was appropriate? She was sad for them somehow, and she didn't want to keep opening the subject.

Roxy finally slipped out of bed that morning, mind filled with thoughts. The time difference they'd end up having once he'd be assigned to the Americas seem to be a bit of a challenge. Why? It wasn't something they hadn't dealt with before. It was work. But why did she feel some sort of longing, some want to be closer? Whatever, she thought quietly, brushing off her musing; she had a day to prepare for, and the sight of Eggsy still fast asleep brought another smile on her face. Maybe there's something else this time, something she was still slightly worried to admit. She thought perhaps she could wrap up Berlin's concern sooner, so she could reach Eggsy in time before he was deployed. But she went about her day, moving in quiet steps, showering, dressing up, ensuring she was out of the frame the whole time, not meaning to flash him unexpectedly once he wakes.

The soft call of her name had Roxy looking back at the phone, though, quickly donning her shirt before slipping back into bed, her hair still a slight mess. The top button undid itself unnoticed as she propped herself up, eyes looking at the screen softly. "Good morning, sleepyhead," she greeted quietly, pleasantly, a bit of a smile on her lips. "Busy day today?"