#just language nerd things

[rosetta-j-stone]

The French word for "staff" is something that can be so personnel

[starssoblue]

"the reason adrien is just instantly good at everything he tries is because he is programmed to be that way as a senti" aside from the fact that i don't think that's how it works (and also while he was decent at everything he tried with marinette he wasn't instantly good at all of them, and what marinette actually said to him was that he could improve in anything with practice but it was a great first attempt) did we all collectively forget about how adrien actually canonically isn't the best singer?

[satsuha]

i've been thinking about nahyuta's title as the "last rites prosecutor" because i think it's an interesting part of his character that's immediately apparent from his first appearance... in japanese it's written as トムライの検事 (tomurai no kenji) with tomurai meaning funeral/burial. this is pretty self-explanatory considering his tendency to pray for the victim but i actually think it's really interesting that the localization opted for the term "last rites" instead

last rites are a specifically christian practice of praying for the dying to absolve them of their sins before they die - in other words, prayers given to the deceased wouldn't be considered last rites (x)

this is a pretty blatant contradiction of the original's meaning and what nahyuta actually does in the game but i think it's interesting to consider that the person he might be praying for is the defendant (and under khura'in's DC act, the defense as well), not the victim... even outside of khura'in we see that those who are proven guilty in murder trials are executed, and we know that nahyuta has been acting as a prosecutor under ga'ran, almost definitely sending several rebels and defense attorneys to their deaths in the process.

it would just be really tragic if his habit of praying came out of desperation at being forced to send innocents or even former comrades/friends to their deaths... whether it being interpreted as a funeral rite for the victim arose from the people around him or as another act of desperation from nahyuta to cover his actual intentions doesn't matter as much since i think one would have led to the other anyway...

[insertsomthinawesome]

OKAY SO. ANON WHO SENT ME THAT ASK ASKING HOW I DRAW FACES I THINK TUMBLR ATE UR ASK 😭😭I TRIED TO PUT IT INTO MY DRAFTS AND IT GOT YEETED INTO THE VOID. SO IMMA ANSWER IT HERE. IF IT SHOWS BACK UP I WILL LINK U TO THIS POST AND RESPOND TO IT. FIRST OF ALL thank u very very kindly for ur compliments 🥺🥺 i was very happy for your enthusiasm and it was a big mood boost. SECOND OF ALL: I'M SO SORRY TO HEAR YOU'RE HAVING TROUBLE LEARNING HOW TO DRAW SIDE PROFILES 😭😭😭 I remember being at that point, trying to draw them was a NIGHTMARE. I'm pretty awful at teaching things??? BUt Imma give this a good ole college try:

I recorded myself drawing the First image in case that's more helpful than my attempts to explain xD

As for what you were saying about The nose and Mouth being on the same line: I'm imagining what you're talking about is the line starts at the tip of their nose and goes down to their chin? Kinda like some anime styles? My recommendation would be to do what I show above: Draw an egg-ish shape. And the make sure to draw the nose as a Spike/Orb/Whatever shape is your dream desire, popping out of it. Kinda think of it like a mountain in the middle of a flat Plane. Sticking out like a sore thumb. Besides that!!! References are your best friend!! Reference other artists!!! Reference IRL people!! And keep on keeping at it!! Like I said, I used to be TERRIBLE at drawing them, and here I am now :D I'm not always happy with them, and sometimes I still hate how I draw faces (working on that tho) but I'm miles better than when I was a kid. And if I can do it you can do it too :) Best of luck Anon! U got this!!

[rosetta-j-stone]

I'd say I actually speak three (English is my mother tongue, have been using French since I was 8, studied that and Italian at university).

I also translate/revise translations from Polish and Romanian (both of which I learned through classes organised by my work), but I consider those to be more passive than active languages (that said I can manage fixed conversations in Romanian).

We'll see what ends up happening for Slovenian (which I'm also learning through classes organised by my work)...

Considering Bojan (and Kris!) is a language master:

Edit: But then tell me which languages 😭 It's fun reading about it

[robiberon]

hi hello i just saw one too many bad meme making fun of the french language so here is a PSA in the form of angry texts i sent my gc at 3am <3

(for context, this is abt the tumblr post that said that the word "oiseaux" (pronounced "wazo") makes no sense)

like ik it's a lot, and idk if all of it makes sense, but i'm kind of a nerd for linguistics so i felt the need to defend my language lol

[shewhoeatssand]

Which -if any- books do you think Ken wouldn't read even if he was offered money to do so?

nonfiction books about something he doesn’t have a huge interest in, that also has no Japanese translation

maybe one of the Colleen Hoover books (not his thing) or books with a similar style and premise

one piece (way too long)

smut books on the condition that they they have no plot or decent characters (too 😳) or if he’s in a shit mental state and the characters are well written but extremely in love (a little jealous)

something in Arabic or another difficult language (can’t understand it and will not learn for 1 book)

anything really long about something he has 0 interest in (he is not reading 800 pages about basket weaving for $16)

something with the main focus being a loving and healthy bond between mother and son

bad fanfiction

[rosetta-j-stone]

How my first Slovenian class went:

we all (me, the other student, the teacher) got locked out of the Zoom for the first 20 mins, superb

teacher: "so how much Slovenian do you guys already know"...me, hiding Joker Out's back catalogue behind my back: "oh, a few words"

number of times I recognised a word or way of pronouncing something from a Joker Out song: MANY

number of times the other student and I could figure out a word's meaning from already knowing Polish (he's a native speaker; I learned it through work): ALSO MANY

Second class is on Wednesday and I CAN'T WAIT

[rosetta-j-stone]

Ooh is this the Venetian equivalent of "a dark horse"?

....he had to choose this moment of the reel didn't he

[lemonduckisnowawake]

Rating (the translated, not actually OG) titles of manhwa/manga because I was bored

Monstrous Duke's Adopted Daughter/The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess - not egregiously long but boring when the story is actually interesting. 6/10. Rename it with something more snappish like the Adopted Shadow or whatever. idk. Have I mentioned I've been banned from naming things?

My In-Laws Are Obsessed with Me - 4/10. Also not horrible but it's clearly a clickbaity title and I roll my eyes. Better to rename it to like ..... something to do with blood maybe? Or if you want to keep it family-themed. Blood Ties? Also boring and you can tell I'm speaking from a western YA-genre reader perspective?

Beware the Villainess - 8/10. This needs no change

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine - .... it's exactly what the title says, ngl. 7/10. But it could be better and less of a summary. Don't know what, though

The Noble Girl Who Finds a Nerdy and Plain Guy Moe Thinks That the Arrogant Prince Is in the Way - 0/10. I just. Why? The official English title is something like The Lady Likes a Nerd over Princes, which I found weird but the summary was interesting (turns out it was a good manga. But the author just has zero respect for the agency of women. Like. Comically so that it's not even funny as it gets a tad bit narratively frustrating as it's used as a device to drag on the plot) Anyway. Just why?

An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride - 2/10. Not as unforgivable as the previous but horrible all the same. And while the concept was interesting and I gave it a try because it was a rec, it turned out to not be for me at all. The title is dramatic, I'll give you that. It reads like it's a self help book for demon kings who want to learn how to Love and that's basically the manga

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End/Frieren at the Funeral/Frieren the Slayer - 10/10. Look. Any of those titles are good. It doesn't pop out but neither does it force you to hide the title out of fear of being misunderstood

The Savior's Book Cafe Story in Another World - 5/10. Inoffensive but another summary title. You could have literally just called it the Savior's Otherworld Cafe instead. Or something

I Listened to My Husband and Brought in a Lover - 1/10. Encourages cheating with consent. Actually, the manhwa kinda did too (the husband cheated first and was like you should cheat too). At least people know what they're in for? Don't want to retitle it. It deserves it for starting with decent potential for that premise and kinda failing to deliver.

I Stole the Number One Ranker's Soul - 6/10. Again, it's pretty catchy and not terrible but I still don't like these summary titles. Manhwa is amazing, however.

Can't Stop Cursing You - 8/10. Dying laughing because it reads as someone going "man, I just... can't stop cursing you. Really can't help myself you know? Sorry not sorry" while zapping you repeatedly with curses. Still pretty stupid when the actual manga was REALLY shiny with all that horror and bloody gore and interesting plot

Gingerly in Love - 10/10. Trust me. Once I saw what it was about, I died laughing. Not the most memorable manhwa but the wordplay of the title....

The Tyrant Wants to Be Good - 6/10. Again. Inoffensive but there's something annoying to me personally. The manhwa is great, though. Love me a woman who makes her trauma everyone else's problem, regrets it, and then internalizes the guilt in her do-over at life so bad that she ends up getting aggressively adopted into a found family

I Got a New Skill Every Time I Was Exiled, and After 100 Different Worlds, I Was Unmatched - 0/10. Why are isekai titles actually the worst sometimes. Manga itself is meh, in my opinion. It has potential ruined by the usual commodification of women, so I dropped it despite my interest

Bonus:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - 3/10. Twain really was isekai titling when he probably didn't know that Japan was even a thing, huh. Not terrible, but it has that isekai style of summarizing the premise.

Bonus again:

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Years a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her brother) Twelve Years a Thief, Eight Years a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest and died a Penitent - -10/10. It was an okay book but you shouldn't have had this power over your book titles, Daniel Defoe. Seriously. My edition just says "Moll Flanders". Never have I wanted to shame a dead author more. It's not even an isekai but it's worse than an isekai title. It's a whole anime opening credits.

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Wanna know what sounds great?

A fanfic where the Greybeards find a baby Dragonborn on their doors, and just take her (using your Leara DB as an example) in, and raising her.

They eventually find out she’s Dragonborn because of her ability to use the Way of The Voice so easily, or something. Paarthurnax takes an interest in this child, and so she stays at the Throat of the World, until Alduin returned.

Wait that's so soft.

Just imagine how much trauma Leara would avoid if she was raised by the Greybeards? It'd be so beautiful. Dragon Dad could be her actual dad.

[ava-is-up-to-something]

Egyptian pharaoh names but I’ve turned them into ancient cat names

1. Tutankhbastet (Tutankhamun)

This is the most obvious name on this list because literally all I’ve done is change out the name of one god for another god. I’m not doing that for any of the others I promise.

King Tutankhamun is the one pharaoh everybody knows about, which is ironic since his birth name literally means “the living (ankh) image (tut) of the Hidden One (Amun).” (“Tut” can also be translated as “likeness” or “statue.”)

Amun was the Egyptian god of, uh… stuff (he’s hidden. His whole deal is that he’s hidden). Bastet was the Egyptian cat goddess. Sometimes she was portrayed as a lady with a cat head, but sometimes she was just a cat. If you switch Amun’s name out for Bastet’s, it becomes “the living (ankh) image (tut) of the Cat Goddess (Bastet).” Truly, a name that only the most dignified and elegant cats deserve.

Transliteration: twt-anx-bAstt

You could also say it “Tutankhbast” if you prefer.

2. Hatmiushepsyu (Hatshepsut)

Hatshepsut’s name means “the foremost (hat) of noblewomen (shepsut),” and it turned out to be really good name for her, since she became pharaoh and all. If you want to change it to “foremost of noble cats” it becomes Hat-miu-shepsyu, “miu” meaning “cats” and shepsyu meaning “noble.”

Transliteration: HAt-miww-Spsyw

3. Nedjestiti (Nefertiti)

I am aware that calling Nefertiti a pharaoh is controversial since there’s a chance that Neferneferuaten might have been her daughter and not her. But finding names of pharaohs that you can do this to and are also popular enough to be recognized is hard so shush.

Nefertiti was supposedly the most beautiful woman in the ancient world (although we can’t confirm that because Nefertiti and all the other ancient women are now dead). Her name fits this, because it means “the beautiful one (nefert) has come (iti).”

“Nedjes” is a word meaning “small,” so changing the name to Nedjest-iti makes it mean “the small one has come.”

This is a good name, because if your cat is bad then you can use it in a derogatory sense to call them a penniless little beggar. Unfortunately, it only really works for girl cats, because the masculine version is “Nedjesiu,” which loses the pun quite a bit.

Transliteration: nDst-ii.ti

4. Miumer (Narmer)

Narmer was the first pharaoh to rule over all of Egypt, and like other early pharaohs the only name used for himself was his Horus name instead of his throne name or birth name. (You know that TS Elliot poem about how cats have a bunch of different types of names? Pharaohs are like that too). Because Narmer was his Horus name, it was written inside an enclosure called a serekh instead of a cartouche.

The name itself means something like “striking (mer) catfish (nar)” or “fierce (mer) catfish (nar).” To change it to “striking cat” or “fierce cat,” you need to change nar to miu: Miu-mer. (Yeah the English translations of this one are stronger wordplay than the Egyptian versions, sorry.)

If your cat is a girl then the name should be Miutmer instead.

Transliteration: miw-mr

5. Bitokris (Netiqerti/“Nitokris”)

Queen Nitokris was either a cunning murderess, whose name lurks in the shadows of history… or she was a 3,000 year old transcription error. The only potential record we have of her name in hieroglyphs is the name of a pharaoh called “Netiqerti” on the Turin kings list. This could be Nitokris, or it could be a mistake made by a scribe while trying to copy the name of the name of another, completely different pharaoh.

If Netiqerti is Nitokris, then her name means “Neith (Net, a goddess) is excellent (iqerti).” Bit-iqerti/Bitokris would mean “honey (bit) is excellent (iqerti).”

Transliteration: bit-iqr.ti

[gay-artificer]

Okay I might not have anyone here whos able to contribute to this question but, in the past, I have used 'Hermaphrodite" as a purely scientific word, with heavy stressing that it is not to be confused with the definition of intersex or used to describe actual human beings under any circumstances. This is in part because I've never actually found a good term to replace it, as a lot of suggested terms are... unfitting or somewhat mismatched in a strictly scientific/biological sense. A lot of the suggested terms from more worldbuilding-focused individuals are used more (or strictly) for plants, or at least in 99% of contexts tend to be used for plants or describe slightly more specific things than just "Animal with both sexual systems at once." Plants as a whole have like... god, like ten different terms for various sexual setups because they can be stupidly complicated in a way that you just aren't likely to see with most animals, which tend to be more simplistic (at least slightly, lmao). There's also the slightly more niche issue that a lot of suggested alternatives address the topic from the strict goal of 'replace the word' and thus haven't yet spread to cover some of the specific forms that can apply too, although this would probably be a pretty easy fix if everyone can agree on a term, but at least as it is I still seems like everyone is split 5 different ways on which to use. In terms of fiction/casual use I've generally been defaulting to duel-sexed, which isn't an actual used term as far as I know, just because its pretty self descriptive and also wouldn't have some fringe specific scientific use- which is an issue I'd think you'd only really be bothered by if you were dipped in a lot of discussions about fringe animal biology- which is where I think a lot of suggestions from individuals more on the intersex activism side tend to fall when the terms they raise clash against niche situational biology things. Ive also used non-gonochoristic which is both clunkier and less easily picked up by less familiar individuals, but is also basically strictly 'animal' in use. Recently I've seen cosexual, which admittedly I seemed to have missed because yet again its a term where 99% of its use is isolated to plants, although it seems like there is a handful of uses cases that applied it specifically to animals (But still ultimately fall back on the other term in order to clarify the specifics). At least in terms of recent suggestions its probably the one I think would be most likely to pick up traction as a replacement, but its definitely still mired in the problematic terminology (In that basically everything I've seen use it only commits to using it alongside the other term, rather than attempt to replace it) and also still heavily plant related. Although not to the degrees of some of the popular suggestions like 'monoecious' which is a fairly common and well known word- but its specific relationship with other plant terminology makes it feel ill-fitted for the role when its not going to mixed with plant bullshit. Seriously look at this:

I've also seen bigenital suggested recently, which I frankly think is a much worse/weaker word both in terms of just, terminology and also its finer application. And then a handful of terms that just very blatantly have too much crossover with other things. Also a dozen other words that I've seen floating around over the years, but they definitely exist as mostly peoples personal suggestions/solutions and not ones with any real traction. It's a problem I've seen repeatedly brought up, but have yet to actually see any sort of formal correction take hold. And I think part of that is almost certainly a bit of a clash between nerds trying to maintain the specific definitions of things in an area where theres already a lot of confusing overlap, Activists who rightfully want get things changed but aren't clued in as hard to more niche scientific terminology concerns like "This is specifically for plants who have a specific type of reproduction system organization with their flowers, and thus doesn't quiet work for something that doesn't have multiple sets of genitals in different arrangements as most animals do" and well meaning scientists who want to avoid the word and try using alternatives but ultimately fall back on the one people know and that they know scientifically describes the thing they want to describe even if it also carries a historically negative connotation with it. Which is where I'm realizing I've kinda been sitting, because things really haven't shifted once you sit down and read the stuff that gets put out, and unlike some... other words its specific use case is a bit less easily swapped out with synonyms. So you just fall back in on the less ideal but accepted within the bubble youre working in term. So I guess the question is, has anyone here actually seen something make some ground past just sort of 'this would be a nice replacement'? I'd frankly love if I've just somehow missed a big shift in language in the scientific community, but so often I just see people claim that one term is the new standard when its like... standard in that its used heavily in botany, and there generally is a split between botany and zoology in terms of terminology that people would want to maintain. (God don't let anyone tell you 'male and female' are the only options or bring up that stupid 'its 1st grade biology' bullshit. The world is so stupidly complicated and this would not be an issue if it was so simple but unfortunately we need terminology for all the weird shit exclusively found in three species of cactus) Anyway, I typed this whole thing up kinda just to see if anyone else had yet more terms they've seen around or even used actually properly in a scientific paper, and its a whole mess thats been bothering me with specbio for years and at the end of typing this I'm honestly just hoping more that cosexed/cosexual catches on. I think it forms a nice trifecta with perisexed/intersexed/cosexed. And hey, maybe it has caught on more in the sex and gender side of things (let me know if so, if you happen to be more familiar with that) cause I certainly am more clued in to the non-human biology stuff which is where you get weird things one single species of rose has decided to do we now have to name. On a lighter note. God I hate plants. They give me headaches.

[wolverinedoctorwho]

[translation: Bloodweave]

Did a test run of embroidering in Thorass (the script/alphabet used in Faerûn). Still some handwriting kinks to work out but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

(If I'd known it was gonna look this decent I wouldn't have used such a strange fabric lol I just grabbed the first scrap I found)

In a perfect world I would embroider some sort of symbol at the bottom, like a drop of blood and the Netherese Orb, but I'm terrible at drawing/stitching teardrops and I don't think I can pull off all of the Orb's wispy tendrils.

Below the cut: my sketches of the lettering/design

[translations: Gale Dekarios, Astarion Ancunin, and then Bloodweave over and over again.]

I couldn't decide what to letter initially, but I decided "bloodweave" had an even number of letters and I could do the dual colors thing.

[rosetta-j-stone]

Technically English has this too ("truth" vs "untruth". Not that we use "untruth" that often, but it is an option...)!

I don't know about other languages though?

FR seems to have "contrevérité" (which I'm guessing is used far less than "mensonge"!) but I can't find an equivalent in IT for example (I've come across "bugia" but that doesn't seem to be doing the same thing as неправда/untruth/contrevérité).

Scanning other languages with Slavic influences...

PL: prawda/nieprawda

RO: adevăr/neadevăr

SL: resnica/neresnica

Russian can be so funny sometimes.

You say правда for truth and неправда for false/lie which is so funny to be because it means "not true"

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 079]

Renji????? Excuse me, but respectfully, what. Aizen-san? Aizen-SAN? What is this?

I cannot conjure a single reason or reasonable circumstance where anyone in the Gotei--vice-captain and below--would not refer to a captain with the honorific -taichou. Maybe this read-through will prove me wrong, but I don't... I don't think so? Especially Renji, because I have always felt that if any VC were going to win a speedrun of "list all the captains," it would be Renji. (Nanao also knows this info well; Renji can just shout faster.) I should probably revise this headcanon based on the fact that he doesn't remember that Hitsugaya exists and he's out here Aizen-san'ing his former captain, but I shall not be.

Renji just seems like the kind of person who would study all the captains, and kinda have them all clocked. I feel like if Renji and Rukia had spent more time in school together, they would have ended up making Captain trading cards. Renji would supply all the info, and Rukia the illustrations. They'd be study guides, technically, but Rukia figures, I am not drawing all these dumb captains unless we can monetize this, and they start a whole trading card micro-empire. (Renji does propose this to Kira and Hinamori, but Kira thinks its gauche and Hinamori doesn't think anyone would need captain trading cards because there's only 13 of them to memorize. Just keep writing your share of the kidou flashcards, Renji, there are over 9000. Well, maybe one captain flashcard.)

Punk vibes he may have, but Renji's also well aware of how rank works and he will walk the walk; he's a company man. (Yes, he challenges his own captain in open combat in the middle of an active invasion. He does do that. But he knew that's what he was doing, and the contrast is the point--)

Renji does later call him Aizen-taichou, so there's that:

What momentary madness took him over. Was it the squiggly dialogue that threw him off? Was it the stress of dropping Rukia off at her execution tower? Who has he been hanging out with who'd call Aizen 'Aizen-san' and poison his BRAIN like that. Though lol, Ichimaru does refer to Byakuya as "Kuchiki-taichou-san" when he and Zaraki go pop in at the 6th, so maybe it was thinking about Ichimaru that addled him.

Because we also have Renji and Ichimaru, who at least in his internal narrative Renji doesn't seem to respect all that much. He says "Ichimaru no yarou," which is a masculine, crude way of referring to someone. To a superior officer (or honestly any co-worker), it's rude as hell. Though, granted, Renji is only being as rude about Ichimaru internally as Hitsugaya is rude about Renji out loud, so. XD Take that as you will.

But it does make me wonder about what their VC-subordinate relationship was like, what the circumstances of Renji's leaving the 5th were, and whether Kira's devotion to Ichimaru came out of his time in the 5th or whether it was cultivated only afterward, in the 3rd. And if it was in the 5th, how did this impact Renji and Kira's relationship? I'm in love with all of these potentials. Honestly I'm kind of into the idea that the Nerd Squad were all kind of mid about Ichimaru as a VC, and that when Kira eventually ends up becoming VC of 3rd he's resigned about it--only for the relationship to change. And at some point Renji realizes he can't joke about Ichimaru with Kira any more, like they used to.