I feel like anyone who's about to embark on attempting to type out a character's accent phoentically (at least as well as one can with English) should probably stop for a moment before they get going and ask themselves, "How would I, myself, feel about a fic where the one character who sounds like me had their speech written out like this and every other character just got their dialogue left in standard spelling?" I feel like a lot of people would tone it down a bit, at least, if they'd done that thought experiment first.
(Anyone who answered "but I don't have an accent!" isn't allowed to write out anyone else's accent, ever. This rule may seem harsh but you need it. Really, you do. Because you've never had anyone treat your accent as abnormal or comical or wrong, so you really don't know what you're inflicting on others here.)
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Okay, accent/pronunciation post.
In Hereward the Wake, Tim pronounces “duty” with a /j/ (yod) which creates a pronunciation something like /ˈdjuː.ti/ in the IPA or “dyoo-tee” in English phonetic spelling. From what I can tell, this is one of two common pronunciations in English accents, the other being /ˈdʒuː.ti/ in the IPA or “djoo-tee” in English phonetic spelling. This second pronunciation features coalescence of the d and yod to create a dj sound. This can be contrasted by Rachel’s pronunciation of “duty” in Alice, which features yod dropping, and can be written as /ˈduː.ti/ in the IPA or “doo-tee” in English phonetic spelling. Although Tim is doing a very odd accent in Hereward, it doesn’t really matter in this case. In Riddle of the Sphinx he pronounces “introduced” with a coalescence of the d and yod (/ˌɪn. trə ˈdʒuːst/ or “in-truh-djoost”) and regardless of whether it is coalesced or not, as long as it’s not *dropped* it works for our purposes.
Okay, now we get into why this is funny to me. The yod-close back rounded vowel pair (/ju/ or “yoo”) comes to English from French. The French close front rounded vowel sound (/y/, I have no idea how I’d write this in English phonetic spelling, but make the inside of your mouth like you’re gonna say “ee” and your lips like your gonna say “oo” and that’s how you make it) came into English and was separated into /i/ and /u/ (or “ee” and “oo”) but then the /i/ was replaced with yod. This was not only applied to words that came from French, but also some pre-existing English words as well (and is now applied to foreign words once they’ve been in English long enough, like “Cuba”).
Now, when did the yod-close back rounded vowel pair enter English? Well, when was English heavily influenced by French? That’s right, when the Normans took over. And who fought the Normans? Hereward!
This lead me to the idea of an Anglish translation of Hereward the Wake. Has anyone done that yet?
[Note: information on the yod-close back rounded vowel pair came from this video by Dr. Geoff Lindsey; IPA representations were taken from the online Cambridge Dictionary and Wikictionary and adjusted where necessary (such as making “introduce” into “introduced”). Also I’m not actually positive that Tim doesn’t coalesce the d and yod in “duty”, it sounds kinda like both to me, but either way it comes from the French which is the important part for this post.]
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@feralreason ❤’d!
[For a while now, Nanashi had doubted the accuracy of Cassidy's fuzzy memories. Purple men weren't exactly...common. As far as Nanashi knew, they didn't exist. He'd suggested that maybe her killer had just been wearing purple -- a suggestion he regretted when Cassidy then wanted to assault anyone wearing that color. The only way to calm her then was to remind her that they weren't British, nor did their voices remind her of her killer in the slightest. He'd been making progress with her, but curbing her violent impulses had always been near-impossible.]
[So today, when Nanashi actually SAW a man matching Cassidy's description of "a guy with purple skin," he felt Cassidy tug his limbs forward; he fought against it, but he stepped forcefully in the aubergine man's direction. A fire that didn't belong to him burned in his eyes. She insisted that this man HAD to be him, and frankly, Nanashi found little reason to disagree. Until today, he'd been sure that she was imagining the hue of his skin...weird.]
[Still, Nanashi painstakingly wrested control of himself from her. His violent glare dissipated, his limbs no longer tense, his stance no longer battle-ready.]
❝ Calm down, kid. We don't know that for sure. ❞ [She spat at this idea -- again, Nanashi couldn't blame her -- but he insisted on double-checking.] ❝ Let's just talk to him. You said his voice stood out. If this is your guy, then we'll... ❞ [Do something unsavory that he couldn't whisper to himself about. Not in public, anyway.] ❝ Y'know. ❞
[This finally pacified her. Nanashi got closer to the stranger, only to realize that he bore some painfully familiar scars. He felt at the ones on his neck; there was no way that they were both killed and brought back like that, right? There had to be a rational explanation, one that he'd only figure out if he actually worked up the nerve to speak. Just don't think about it.]
❝ Uh...hi.❞ [Okay, so maybe in all of the chaos, he'd forgotten that he needed to make conversation. He cleared his throat, reaching for a viable topic.] ❝ So...the whole "purple" thing. What's up with that? ❞
[Okay, this was the worst subject he could have ever come up with. Hopefully it wouldn't matter -- he just needed this guy to talk.]
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now that I'm done imagining a jar of peanut butter, can I just say that I love that Shane and Ryan have shifted away from traditional true crime to just shootin' the shit about weird-ass mysteries?
I always liked the "let's talk about weird mysteries" aspect of buzzfeed unsolved, but being real with you, I'm uncomfortable with true crime and the culture surrounding it. like... as someone who lost a loved one to a violent (and temporarily unsolved) crime, I've seen firsthand how internet theorizing can make a traumatizing time even harder and like. it's fucking rough, man.
I get that it makes money and all (which... is a whole other can of worms) but when you view human suffering as entertainment, it's so easy to forget about the real people who will actually be affected by what's put out there on the internet.
so I'm happy that Shane and Ryan seem to be leaning a lot more into "wow, some unhinged shit happened! how fucked up is that?" on mystery files. more of this, please!!
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Oooooh do you think gnomes would have their own language/dialect??
Short answer: Yes. Technically.
Long answer: I have. Feelings. About how language is treated in fantasy. Like “this race has their Own language” despite living in vastly different areas of the same world. Like. Humans having their Own language. Elves having their Own language. Elves, orcs, etc etc. Its not Bad but its definitely like A Thing that pokes at my sides a little lol.
Humans have hundreds of spoken and visual languages! Id like to imagine that in a world with other races, they would have their own variety of spoken language 😊 So yes; Gus does speak in his own native tongue. And he has absolutely badmouthed someone who got on his nerves without them realizing it lol
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1-2-3 kid: bret is always afraid people will be bothered by him talking
1-2-3 kid: like, personally, i love spending time with him because he spouts nothing but nonsense
1-2-3 kid: i have no idea what he's talking about 99% of the time but i'm cheering him on anyway
1-2-3 kid: because that's what friends do
1-2-3 kid: and also i find his accent hot
1-2-3 kid: but mainly the friends thing
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Most out there AU snippet. GIVE.
-guess
Fucking hell I've made so many, idk which would be the most out there. I think the Kingsman/Statesman one I half stole from jump the other day. Simply because I can't for the life of me picture Darian going anywhere near anything Southern. Mark? Yes, he has the hair for it, personality wise I think so. Alir? Absolutely, they'd slay in a country secret service environment, they'd look great in a cowboy hat. Dani? She's American. But Darian? D a r i a n? I just couldn't do another au where it's basically just him in suits with weapons, so had to do the country one
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