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queenie-blackthorn · 8 months

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tips for writing arab characters

writer here!! im a middle eastern writer whos noticed that theres a VERY significant lack of info on how to write arabs, so im here to help !! (however, keep in mind that im specifically gulf arab and may not be able to provide as much info on levant arabs or north african arabs. if there are any on here, feel free to reblog w more info !! )

dont get arabs mixed up w muslims. yes, a large portion of the arab population are muslim, but youd be surprised at the number of non-muslim arabs that exist. if you wanna write abt a muslim character, a post i made that might help is here

list of arab countries, with the adjective:

algeria — algerian

bahrain — bahraini

the comoros islands — comorans

djibouti — djiboutian

egypt — egyptian

iraq — iraqi

jordan — jordanian

kuwait — kuwaiti

lebanon — lebanese

libya — libyan

morocco — moroccan

mauritania — mauritanian

oman — omani

palestine — palestinian

qatar — qatari

kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa) — saudi

somalia — somali

sudan — sudanese

syria — syrian

tunisia — tunisian

united arab emirates (uae) — emirati

yemen — yemeni

dialects/language:

dialects greatly differ—the egyptian dialect is the most common, followed closely by the levantine dialect

classic arabic is called fusha (fuss-ha), used in things like official documents, media, education. every arab knows it but its not used in day to day language except in media (all dialects basically come from fusha, but with slight changes)

'p' and 'g' (as in 'gurgle' or 'goal') dont exist in the arabic alphabet, theyre replaced with 'b' and 'j'

depending on where theyre from, they may also learn a third language besides arabic and english (e.g. moroccans know french, a berber arab may know berber)

appearance:

arabs look different based on where theyre from. if theyre from the arabian peninsula, they have thick curly dark hair, tanned skin, and dark eyes. levant arabs are lighter skinned, and green/blue eyes are more common with them

adding on to previous point, arabs have a variety of skin tones, even if theyre siblings. using a real example, me and my older brother respectively look white passing and afro hispanic

dark irises are considered better looking than lighter colored eyes. eyes are usually thick-lashed, with big round slightly upturned eyes

big noses are common, along with full lips (and hereditary dark circles for those with more tanned skin)

high cheekbones and well structured faces are also prevalent

culture:

varies depending on location

influenced by indian culture, IS NOT INTERCHANGEABLE WITH INDIAN CULTURE. that was aladdins mistake

poetry is so common, especially with romantic themes

songs also have romantic themes

youd be surprised at how romantic arabs are

dances vary extremely, from dabke (palestinean dance done in groups, consisting largely of leg/foot movements) to yola (emirati dance with battle origins, done using canes or fake guns) i recommend watching videos (tiktok has a lot of videos esp of dabke)

women also dance but you wont find a lot of videos of it bc its inappropriate

etiquette:

things such as giving someone your back, or facing the bottom of your feet towards someone are considered rude

pda is also taboo (even with straight couples or even sometimes married couples)

cheek kisses are a common way of greeting, but not between genders

in some gulf countries, men greet each other with a nose kiss (not in an intimate way) just stubbing their noses against each other

genders do not mix at all. schools tend to divide girls and boys into two sections starting at a certain age (around age 10/11), and mosques are split into the mens side (usually larger than womens bc men use the mosque more)

having an extramarital relationship is very very taboo (even w hetero relationships) but it still happens. a lot.

family dynamics (note that this is obviously a spectrum. this is the general dynamic, but obv it ranges from family to family):

NOT ALL OF US HAVE ABUSIVE PARENTS. sure theyll spank you if you skip school, but thats not necessarily abusive. its more strict, and youd be surprised at the amount of freedom some parents give their kids

yes, arranged marriages do happen. no, they arent necessarily forced, it just means that your parents had a hand in deciding who youll marry. yes, marrying cousins is a thing, but its much less prevalent now (also, ew)

fathers care. a lot. they dont show it, but they do. they also tend to joke around a lot

mothers tend to be the rule enforcers, and by far our moms are our best friends. we tell them EVERYTHING i swear

aunties gossip a lot

uncles are a safety hazard

its not uncommon to have a large number of cousins (mainly bc arabs tend to have a lot of kids)

the average number of children 3 per woman, but from personal experience the older the generation the more kids (e.g. my great-grandmother had a whopping thirteen kids, my grandmother had seven, my mom has six, but a couple of my aunts only have one or two)

social class/work environment/school environment:

schools tend to be either arab curriculums but there is a high density of american/british curriculum schools

boys and girls tend to be separated in school around age nine/ten but some schools will be mixed genders up till graduation

yes, women work, tho admittedly some of them tend to have careers more than jobs (e.g. photographer, writer, etc while the men handle engineering, economics, etc)

no, not all of us are rich. in fact, countries like jordan, egypt, tunisia, morocco, and yemen (and infamously palestine) are acc struggling w poverty. its mainly just gulf arabs who are rich

furthermore, gulf arabs may be generally rich but a large chunk of them have the same lifestyle as an upper-middle class family in the usa. rich but not too rich. dont be fooled by the videos of guys wearing kandoras and driving lambos

speaking of kandoras...

outfits (keep in mind that spelling may vary since its all transliteration, and pronunciation may vary depending on region) (also keep in mind that even if we still live in the middle east, WE CAN WEAR JEANS AND HOODIES AND BAND SHIRTS. just, usually cover up more in public):

abaya: loose overgarment worn by women

jilbab/chandoor: also worn by women, type of long dress or tunic

the white robe all of yall know is known as a thobe, dishdasha, or kandora

the colored headscarf worn by men is known as a ghuthrain in the gulf, kevfiah in the levant. its kept in place with a black cord called a aghal, and under it they wear a skullcap called a thagiyah

those are the most common ones, however if youd like to get a lil more specific on clothong, the ultimate guide to arab clothing is here (it also has specified clothing for individual countries)

hope this helps, feel free to reblog w more info if you have any !!

#writing tips #writing arabs #arab #writer sources #writing help #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing advice

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sifu-kisu · 4 months

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History of Tan Tui

Tan T'ui or Spring Leg 譚腿 / 潭腿 / 彈腿- This style could be one of the oldest styles that is still widely practiced today. In the past, it was required that all high schools have physical education and that Tan T'ui be part of its curriculum. Every student had to learn Tan T'ui before they could graduate in China. During the Sung Dynasty, Tan T'ui was regarded as a complete style. The techniques within the set were all practical and easily used. There are many versions on the origin of the style.

The first theory is recorded in the text, Liu Ho Style by an unknown author. It states that Liu Ho Style uses Tan T'ui as one of their basic foundation sets because it contains only a few moves and is easy to learn. There is a section on the origins of Tan T'ui. It states "There was a monk out preaching and traveling. On the road he saw two roosters fighting. The red rooster was larger than the white skinny rooster. After a while, the white rooster was losing and tried running away. The red rooster gave chase. The white rooster ran to the base of a hill which was a dead end and could not run any further. The red rooster caught up. Having no choice, the white rooster sprang up and struck the red rooster with both its talons. The red rooster fell down dead with its belly cut open. Seeing this, the monk thought, `If a man could practice so his legs were strong, it would be the same as a weak person overcoming the strong'. After a few years of study, he developed the ten (10) rows of Tan T'ui.

Second Theory: The Chinese Moslems or the Hui give credit to a Hui native of Xinjiang, Chamir (Cha Shang Yir) (1568 A.D - 1644 A.D.) as the creator of Tan T'ui Style. During the prime of his life on the coast of Fukein, Japanese pirates were raiding the coast. The government of the Ming Dynasty ordered their troops to the coast to battle against the Japanese pirates. Chamir joined the army and was assigned to go south. As the soldiers were marching down the coast under harsh conditions, Chamir was taken ill in a mountain village, Liaocheng, in Guanxian County, in Shangtung Province and was left behind to recuperate. The local peasants treated him until he was well. Chamir repaid their kindness by teaching the Twenty-eight (28) Rows of Tan T'ui (Spring Legs) which he devised and performed for many years. The boxing style consisted of 28 routines, which were put in alphabetical order, according to the Arabic language commonly used by the Hui. The monks at the nearby Shandong Long Tan Temple learned of the Tan Tui system from the locals and later incorporated it into their fighting routines that they practiced. Later the Twenty-eight (28) Rows were condensed into Ten (10) Rows of Tan T'ui (Spring Legs).

This is indeed an interesting information except the fact that there was no Hui Muslims (Chinese Muslims) in Xinjiang During Ming Dynasty, they came to Xinjiang after the Qing Dynasty invasion of Xinjiang in 19th century. The name "Xinjiang itself was introduced by Chinese invaders in 1884. Secondly, his Chinese name was Cha Shang Yir, which to me does not sound like a real Chinese name but rather a Chinese translation of his name. His Muslim name was Chamir but I don't see how the Chinese would get Cha Shang Yir from that... I think Cha Mu Er would seem more likely. So now I am wondering two things. First do the Hui take Muslim names or just use their Chinese name? Second if Chamir was his Muslim name and Cha Shang Yir was his Chinese name did he have a third name that was his birth name?

Besides, the article mentioned that he used Arabic scripture which was used by Uighurs at that time and still being used today. From this analysis, he might be a Uighur, or by a remote chance an Uzbek or Tatar. If the name "Chamir" is correctly translated into English, he cannot be a Hui moslem. Well then that pretty much proves that he could not be Hui and therefore he did not exist and the Muslim did not create Tan Tui as many current people believe is true.

Third Theory: Many people assumed the first character in Tan T'ui was the surname 譚 of the creator of the style. This would translate into Tan's Legs Style. As the story goes, Tan was very good fighter from Henan and had developed these set of techniques. his skill was deep and abundant, he defeated all challengers. His students who taught his method therefore used “Tan” in the name. He is credited as the individual who brought the style to the Shao lin Monastery. Others say he is credited as the first one who brought the style out from the Shao lin Monastery. The Shaolin version mentioned earlier uses a different “tan” altogether (彈), meaning “springy”, “snapping”, or “to shoot”, describing a quality of the kicking rather than a source of the system.

Fourth Theory: Shaolin's Tan Tui is given credit to Monk Xian Ji who while in residence at the temple in Ling Qing Tan Temple in Shandong Province during the Ming Dynasty. It is said that he traded Shaolin's famous Lohan Fist routine for their Tan Tui routine. Also, Xian Ji is said to have also added an additional 2 roads to the original 10 Road Tan Tui Routine.

Fifth Theory: Tang Dynasty. The city of Ling Qing is situated between the warring factions of the Song, Liao and Jin Courts. An infantry solider named Kun Lung Dai Shi took refuge in the Lung Tan Temple located within Ling Qing City. Becoming a Monk at this temple Kun Lung formulated the routine Tan Tui (Pond Legs) with 10 Roads. It is said that this set was created in order to counter the Liao & Jin's superior upper body grappling skills. Ling Qing City became a major trading center due to the Canals built during the Yuan Dynasty. For this reason, it is believed that Tan Tui was able to spread throughout China.

The Sixth and last theory states that the word, Tan(潭} is the abbreviation for a monastery in Shangtung Province called Lung T'an Ssu (山東龍潭寺). The founder of Tan T'ui has been attributed to a monk named Hsuan Kung. He was known to have travelled widely in the northern part of China. He was searching for simple movements in exercises to form an elementary base. After much time, he returned to Lung T'an Monastery and reflected on his observations. Hsuan Kung later developed ten (10) rows of techniques for both left and right sides and it contained approximately one hundred and fifty (150) movements.

Although scholars have argued that the last theory is probably the correct origin for Tan T'ui Style, there exist two (2) problems in their argument and can only be solved by indirect proof. First, there was no monastery found or recorded in the Shantung Province and secondly the Lung T'an Monastery is located in the Honan Province. It is common knowledge that the geography does change over a period of time. Almost one thousand years has passed since the origin of Tan T'ui and unfortunately much of the physical and man-made surrounding in Shantung Province have changed and or no longer in existence. Because of this, there is little or no physical evidence to show that there once stood a Lung T'an Monastery. Also, with the rise and fall of different dynasties, the burning of books was a common ritual. Any recorded history of a Lung T'an Monastery in Shantung Province could have been destroyed. The most logical theory on the origin of Tan T'ui is that the Shao lin Monastery in Honan Province is located near a lake called Lung and on the other side of the lake is a monastery called Lung T'an. Tan T'ui could have originated in this monastery and very easily have crossed the lake to the Shao lin Monastery.

In recent history, Chin Woo Association was the first Public Gymnasium founded (in 1910) for the purpose of making Martial Arts training available to anyone (who could pay). The recognized founder was Huo Yun Jia, an exponent of the Mizong System. Part of this system was a version of the 10 Road Tan Tui that Huo Yun Jia demonstrated often. Due to his sudden death not many of his students had the opportunity to learn this version. Chao Lien Ho was hired to head up the organization and as part of his task he formulated a specific curriculum. While an exponent of Mizong he also had studied various Shaolin based systems as well. The first form required to be studied by beginner students is a 12 Road Tan Tui. While it is not sure where this version comes from, it has become the most popular version taught throughout the Chinese Martial Arts due to the fame of the Chin Woo. It is thought Chao Lien Ho took the 10 Road Mizong Tan Tui and evolved it into the current12 Road Chin Woo Version.

To add to the confusion, the school of Honan Shaolin states their oral history says Tan Tui came from a student named Ji Xiang Tan (济相潭) and he brought Tan Tui to Shaolin during the Ming Dynasty. Their Tan Tui set was named Xiang Ji Tan Tui 相济潭腿.

Two-person Tan Tui was created by Chao Lien Ho in the Jing Mo Association and became part of their curriculum in 1915. Rare chart of 12 row is shown here:

Summary

In general, there are styles that practice different versions of Tan Tui. Historically, 10 row is believed to be the first set (originated in the Longtan Temple in Shandong Province and was created by Master Kun Lun.). This Tan Tui is called Linging Tan Tui. Generally, BSL teaches 10 rows, Mi Jong teaches 10 rows, Northern styles such as Eagle Claw who are connected to Jing Mo teach 12 rows. Huo Yuen Chia brought his 10-row version from Mi Jong and added with the help of other Northern masters such as BSL, Eagle Claw, Cha, Mi Jong, etc.) two rows to the 10-row version. Seven Star Praying Mantis teaches 14 rows (credit to Master Lo Kwan Yu), A Wu Tang School in Taiwan teaches a 16 row, and Ch'a style teaches a 28 row. There are also a Shaolin Tan Tui developed by Ji Xiang Tan (济相潭) in the Ming Dynasty who brought Tan Tui to Shaolin. By combining Kun Lun's version with Lohan and added two more rows, the 12-row set was named Xiang Ji Tan Tui 相济潭腿. And there is another version known as Jiaomen Tan Tui as practiced by the Hui people. Jiao means Hui Sect This one is a 10-row set. Last Tongbei Tan Tui has their own version which is a combination of different sections of their techniques from Tongbei. It consists of 12 rows.

Source of Information:

1. Oral Transmission from Sifu Wong Jackman

2. Charts of Tan Tui from Sifu Wong Jackman

3. Chinese Martial Arts and the Hui, Kung Fu Magazine Form by Gene Ching 1990 to 2005.

4. Mkma.net (web site)

5. Moslem Kung fu: The Fist of the Bodyguards by Ted Mancuso 1999, Inside Kung fu Magazine

6. Northern Shaolin Twelve Row Tan Tui by Chao Lin Ho Ching Wu, Shanghai 1920

7. Tam Tui, Northern Shaolin Snapping Leg by Alexander I. Co, Inside Kung Fu December 1984-1989.

8. Tan Tui by Chang, Wu Lum #7 1983 (Chinese)Tan Ti the 17 Form Method by Robert Le, Ancient Sets of Kung Fu, Volume 1, #2, #3, #4, #5,

9. Ten Fundamental Chinwoo Routines, Tantui and Gongliquan by Lam Wing-Ki and Ying Fun-fong, IBSN 962-85291-5-3 2000.

10. Tom Toy: Springing Legs, Their History and Relation to Shaolin, by Shaolin Instiute.com, November, 2003.

Chinese Books

1. 10 Row Tan Tui by Wong,1983

2. 12 Rows Tan Tui Methods by Wong, Taiwan, 1966, Reprint

3. 12 Row Tan Tui by Wong, Uk, reprint

4. Northern Fist China Best, by Yang, HK, 1970

5. Northern Fist, by Chu, HK, 1969, reprint

6. South, North Fist Best Chinese Fist Arts by Li, HK, Reprint

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soon-palestine · 3 months

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Workers said Project Nimbus is the kind of lucrative contract that neglects ethical guardrails that outspoken members of Google’s workforce have demanded in recent years. “I am very worried that Google has no scruples if they’re going to work with the Israeli government,” said Joshua Marxen, a Google Cloud software engineer who helped to organize the protest. “Google has given us no reason to trust them.” The Tuesday protest represents continuing tension between Google’s workforce and its senior management over how the company’s technology is used. In recent years Google workers have objected to military contracts, challenging Google’s work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its role in a defense program building artificial intelligence tools used to refine drone strikes. Workers have alleged that the company has cracked down on information-sharing, siloed controversial projects and enforced a workplace culture that increasingly punishes them for speaking out.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Tuesday protest and workers’ concerns over Project Nimbus. The Israeli Finance Ministry announced its contract with Google and Amazon in April 2021 as a project “intended to provide the government, the defense establishment and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.” Google has largely refused to release details of the contract, the specific capabilities Israel will receive, or how they will be used. In July 2022, the Intercept reported that training documents for Israeli government personnel indicate Google is providing software that the company claims can recognize people, gauge emotional states from facial expressions and track objects in video footage. Google Cloud spokesperson Atle Erlingsson told Wired in September 2022 that the company proudly supports Israel’s government and said critics had misrepresented Project Nimbus. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads,” he told Wired. Erlingsson, however, acknowledged that the contract will provide Israel’s military access to Google technology. Former Google worker Ariel Koren, who has long been publicly critical of Project Nimbus, said “it adds insult to injury for Palestinian activists and Palestinians generally” that Google Cloud’s profitability milestone coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Nakba — which refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians following creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

In March 2022, The Times reported allegations by Koren — at the time a product marketing manager at Google for Education — that Google had retaliated against her for criticizing the contract, issuing a directive that she move to São Paulo, Brazil, within 17 business days or lose her job. Google told The Times that it investigated the incident and found no evidence of retaliation. When Koren resigned from Google in August 2022 she published a memo explaining reasons for her departure, writing that “Google systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab and Muslim voices concerned about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights.” Koren said Google’s apathy makes her and others believe more vigorous protest actions are justified. “This is a concrete disruption that is sending a clear message to Google: We won’t allow for business as usual, so long as you continue to profit off of a nefarious contract that expands Israeli apartheid.” Mohammad Khatami, a YouTube software engineer based in New York, participated in a small protest of Project Nimbus at a July Amazon Web Services conference in Manhattan. Khatami said major layoffs at Google announced in January pushed him to get more involved in the Alphabet Workers Union, which provides resources to Khatami and other union members in an anti-military working group — though the union has not taken a formal stance on Project Nimbus. “Greed and corporate interests were being put ahead of workers and I think the layoffs just illustrated that for me very clearly,” Khatami said.

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #nimbus #google

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bottombaron · 8 months

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for some reason every time I tried to add this to the tags of my last post about the Vampiric Transmogrification Ceremony, BUMblr had a fit and wouldn’t show my post in the official tags and I had to delete and re-post it, like, 5 times

most of this stuff I have been sitting on since the finale aired (like the alchemical symbols, thank you FMA), but here's some additional thoughts on my research journey for The Transmogrification Ceremony (part one):

startingggg with...

how Nandor knows how to read and write Ancient Persian Cuneiform…which would have been out of use roughly a THOUSAND YEARS before he was born 👀 👀

(not for the first time I have a very small suspicion of Nandor being older than he says he is…)

and he definitely knows what the basic alchemical symbols are b/c there’s no way he put the accurate corresponding cuneiform letters spelling english words for those elements on top of the symbols by accident!

the fact that the banners are all properly labeled, with the possible exception of one, is quite frankly both Doylistly and Watsonianly amazing

Nandor knowing at least the basics of alchemy isn’t actually that surprising. The Middle East, specifically Bagdad (which is located on the Tigris btw), was the foremost center of cultural and scientific knowledge (including big developments in alchemy) before the Mongols sacked Bagdad 4 years before Nandor would have been born.

Even after the sack, that knowledge and cultural need for learning didn’t just immediately dissipate and it would have still been an important city. Nandor, probably being born into a noble or middle class family, would have been educated in the sciences which would have included Alchemy. and if he wasn’t, as a ruler he would have had access to teachers and books to learn from. Nandor has always been curious, studious, and likes to read.

transmogrification is an actual alchemical term (webster's dictionary quote: transmute implies transforming into a higher element or thing. convert implies a change fitting something for a new or different use or function. transmogrify suggests a strange or preposterous metamorphosis) there's significance that can be read into this as the chosen title of Nandor’s made up ceremony if you’d like (other than it just sounds funny)

I was really impressed that the crew used actual Old Persian Cuneiform instead of the more popular Sumerian or Akkadian Cuneiform. technically Old Persian is just written with cuneiform-style symbols (much like modern Persian using Arabic-style symbols for their alphabet) and isn't cuneiform proper since it has it's own independently developed alphabet

a little disappointed that the cuneiform translated, not into Persian words, but to a rough spelling of English words for the elements already represented by the alchemical symbols (Earth, for example, would be būmiš = 𐏏, and instead here is just the symbols for 'I-A-R-T/th'. there is no 'E' in Old Persian cuneiform so 'I' substitutes)

tho I was delighted by the discovery that the cuneiform on the 'WATER' banner is close enough to اتر or ‘etir’, Persian for ‘ether’, that I don’t care if it’s a coincidence, i’m taking it

and you may be asking yourself if all the other banners just have rough phonic spellings of the elements the banner represents, why can’t ‘A-T-I-R’ (𐎠𐎫𐎡𐎽) just be a funky 'WATER' without the ‘W’? To that I say: yeah, maybe. There isn’t a corresponding cuneiform symbol for ‘W’ in Old Persian and the substitute of ‘I’ for ‘E’ is also used in ‘Earth’, so that isn’t a huge stretch. However, why not then use a ‘V’ 𐎺 or 𐎻, for 'W' instead of leaving the sound out completely?

Personally, I find the fact that the cuneiform translates more cleanly to an actual Persian word, and one that has huge significance to alchemy and the basic elements, too delicious to ignore. Unless wwdits crew clarifies that (which I would go feral for the opportunity to interview for all the little beautiful details and great work that they do), I’m going with the 'WATER' banner having ‘ETHER’ in cuneiform instead

(and yes i’m aware that ‘A-T/th-I-R’ could just be ‘E-T-H-E-R’ on it’s on and have nothing to do with the Persian word ‘e-t-e-r’ but why ruin the fun?)

I'm using a very loose interpretation for Ether = The Soul which also describes it as the 'Fifth Element' (insert Multi-Pass joke here), or quintessence, and kind of develops into a 'heavenly spirit' kind of essence later. Strictly speaking Ether describes a 'void or nothing, is the material that fills the region of the universe beyond the terrestrial space' but describing it as The Force isn't as significant in the wwdits universe than representing Guillermo's soul

in mythology Aether is the 'pure, fresh air that the god's breathed', different from the air mortals breathed. In Greek mythology he is the son of Darkness and Night and is the primordial personification of the bright upper sky. In Orphic cosmogony he was the son of Time and the brother of Chaos, and he was basically pregnant with the Great Cosmic Egg, of which Phanes the 'First Born God of light and goodness' came from

so there's...that

the use of the cuneiform symbol for ‘new word’ ( 𐏐 ) in front of ‘A-T-I-R’ is interesting and i’m not sure of the significance of it. In cuneiform there is no space between words, so each new word is signified by this symbol, but obviously there is no use of the symbol when each banner only has one word each. and there isn’t any other cuneiform symbol that looks like it either (which makes sense since it’s used for clarification not create typos). it’s an interesting little bit that i’m fascinated with

i did check to see if the (𐏐 ) symbol has a phonic sound to it that might have represented the ‘w’ in Water, but found nothing.

my reading is that it’s being used in the spirit of the meaning and is signifying that the following cuneiform is not related to alchemical symbol of water, like the other ones are. which would track if the cuneiform is translated as ‘ether’ instead

Old Persian cuneiform is read left to right like english, unlike modern Persian, that is read right to left. so that originally confused me, especially since I started with 'AIR' which is backwards to begin with lol

the banner for 'AIR' being backwards is literally only noticeable by the cuneiform symbol for A being inverted 𐎠 (it's the last symbol on the right and has the triangle head starting from the right instead of the left). The same symbol is seen in the 'EARTH' banner turned right. There is no symbol in Old Persian cuneiform that would look like that and sure enough, when flipped, the translation only makes sense as 'AIR'.

that was either a mistake by Nandor, the crew. or on purpose by Nandor, the crew. or some combination thereof. (alchemy having significance with things being backwards does not make that choice easy tbh, but what that significance would be if on purpose ??? idk)

if you’re wondering, I did check to see if anyone else had their bondage-rope-capes-things tied into a bow around their necks like Guillermo. from what I can tell only Nadja and Derek do? Nadja has a big lovely bow which would have been tied by her husband and I’m assuming the awkward limp bow Derek wears is tied by himself. everyone else does not have the Shibari rope completely tied around them. i’m assuming there is wire around the collar holding the shape of them. again, looking into that little detail, if we are taking the Suspiria bondage costume more literally, tracks as Nadja has her loving husband Laszlo to tie her in a beautiful piece, and Derek with his s&m collar, is the picture of a sad sub tying himself up because he has no one else to do it for him

Most importantly however, is that Nandor does not have a tied knot, which confirms to me that he dressed himself without any help from Guillermo and that makes me sad. but then also adds significance to Guillermo being tied in so lovingly:

Nandor makes every last detail here about Guillermo and not himself. it’s almost too much, with how selfish Nandor is in the previous seasons. season 4 especially, what with that ‘you have to make everything in my life about you’ line from Guillermo. but here Guillermo is the special one and Nandor makes sure that every single bit of theater is for, and about, him.

the symbols that I think Nandor is referring to when he says he doesn't know what they mean, are the top symbols, which I will be getting to in my part 2 👍

#wwdits #what we do in the shadows #nandor the relentless #nandermo #nandor #have you started to see how i've spent my month post-finale now???

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gothhabiba · 1 year

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Tamazight, the other prevalent first language in Morocco, is spoken by roughly 40-50% of the Moroccan population. Varieties of Tamazight in Morocco are generally considered lacking in social, cultural and economic capital and arguably comprise the most devalued language in Morocco (Ennaji 2005; Sadiqi 2007). They are associated with folklore, poverty, rurality and women (Hoffman 2006). In response to a long history of discrimination against Tamazight, the Moroccan King Mohammed VI created the Moroccan Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture charged with directing Tamazight language policy and cultural affairs. He also publicly recognized the Tamazight language as a valuable part of the cultural heritage of all Moroccans and adopted the Tifinagh writing system, an alphabetic system based on a 5,000 year old script, with which to teach and to write a standardized variety of Tamazight (Errihani 2006). According to the new constitution voted for on July 1, 2011, Tamazight is now also an official language alongside Standard Arabic. Moroccan Arabic, by contrast, was not recognized in the constitution.

Errihani (2006) argues that the new Tamazight language policy in Morocco is seen by many Moroccan intellectuals as merely a symbolic and political maneuver by the Monarchy to appear responsive to Western, pluralist, identity politics and discourses of minority rights. He warns it will be ineffective in either teaching Tamazight to Moroccan Arabic speaking children or raising the cultural and economic value of Tamazight language varieties more generally. Furthermore, he notes that Tamazight, while a mandatory school subject, is never the medium of education and that by taking effect only in public schools it targets the poor and disadvantaged disproportionately, since children of the elite tend to enroll in private French or English medium schools where State education policies have limited reach. My experiences visiting public schools in the central region of Morocco support this view. I repeatedly heard teachers complaining that they did not have the training necessary to teach Tamazight and Tifinagh and that the amount of time, when spent on the subject at all, would have been better put towards French or English. One school I visited in the region of Beni Mellal had placed all the Tamazight educational materials received by the government directly into storage, and years later had yet to utilize them because according to the director, the children’s parents were against the teaching of a standardized Tamazight to native Tamazight speaking children. They viewed the Tamazight standard developed by the Moroccan government as a fake and inauthentic language imposed upon them for political purposes.

— Jennifer Lee Hall, Debating Darija: Language Ideology and the Written Representation of Moroccan Arabic in Morocco (PhD dissertation), 2015, pp. 18-19.

Ennaji, Moha 2005 Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco. New York: Springer.

Errihani, Mohammed 2006 Language Policy in Morocco: Problems and Prospects of Teaching Tamazight. The Journal of North African Studies.

Hoffman, Katherine 2006 Berber Language Ideologies, Maintenance, and Contraction: Gendered Variation in the Indigenous Margins of Morocco. Language and Communication 26(2):144-167.

Sadiqi, F. 2007 The Role of Moroccan Women in Preserving Amazigh Language and Culture. Museum International 59(4):26.

#sociolinguistics #linguistics #Morocco #Tamazight #Jennifer Lee Hall #quote

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aerbendr · 6 months

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˖𓍢ִ✩˚. intro to aerbendr!

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ˖𓍢ִ✧˚. hello everyone! i'm arin (she/her), a self-taught artist and writer based in jakarta, indonesia. the content i post here mostly focuses on things surrounding original characters and storylines, yumejoshi content and personas (self-shipping), and other fanmade content. overall, this blog is very much just for fun and isn't meant to be all that deep despite the visual ocean theme for the blog :) ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ˖𓍢ִ✧˚. this introductory post will provide many specific and detailed information, but if you're just looking for a general overview feel free to check out my carrd at https://theoceanghost.carrd.co

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ˖𓍢ִ✧˚. about me! name: arin, also responds to irina or nita age: 18 (as of 2023, annually updated on bio) dni: basic dni criteria & refer to carrd for more information pronouns & gender: she/her/hers, cis female orientation: demisexual & biromantic nationality: indonesian (born & raised in jakarta) languages spoken: indonesian (native), english (fluent), currently self-learning mandarin chinese, japanese, and arabic. can read & type in hangeul (korean alphabet) with understanding of basic phrases miscellaneous information: currently a semi-gap year undergraduate college student making a transit in law, looking to switch majors to psychology. diagnosed with inattentive adhd at 16. ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ˖𓍢ִ✧˚. fandom list! most active (is not permanent in any way, can and will change): honkai star rail, genshin impact, dai gyakuten saiban (the great ace attorney: chronicles) other fandoms: kimetsu no yaiba (demon slayer), kuroshitsuji (black butler), castlevania (netflix), obey me!, ikémen vampire other interests: horror, cryptozoology, foreign languages, mystery, urban thriller, classical literature, history & historical fiction, mythology from various cultures (and tbh cultural stuff in general), dark academia ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ˖𓍢ִ✧˚. currently looking for! fellow oc creators (both original storylines and fandom-based oc universes are welcome!), fellow self-shippers to form a welcoming, warm & accepting community with, and cool people with an affinity surrounding the dark academia life. i'd love to have some more friends who i can ask about classic and/or gothic literature, as well as horror/mystery/thriller book recommendations to! talks and discussions are more than welcome + kindly speak up and educate me at any time if i've done something wrong!

nice to meet you, and thank you for your attention *ੈ✩‧₊˚

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designerripon · 1 year

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আলিফ বা তা ছা | Arbi Bornomala | Arabic Alphabet Car | আরবি বর্ণমালা | A...

#youtube #Alif ba ta for kids #arbi bornomala #Arabic alphabet #Arabic alphabet for kids #Arabic alphabet song cartoon #Arabic alphabet education #Arabic alphabet kids song #Arabic alphabet cartoon #arbi alphabet song #Arabic alphabet learn with labiba #arbi shikka #আলিফ #আরবি বর্ণমালা #আরবি হরফ শিক্ষা #আরবি বর্ণমালা শিখি #আরবী হরফ উচ্চারণ #আরবি হরফ শুদ্ধ উচ্চারণ

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mchiti · 10 months

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hi hala!! I’m curious, what do you study at uni? and what’s your thesis about? (sorry if you’ve talked about this before, feel free to just point me in the right direction haha) also good luck with the thesis writing!!🫶🏻

Hi Mary!! aw you're so sweet for asking! I'm doing my postgraduate in linguistics so I did a lot of exams related to linguistics. My main interest is sociolinguistics which is what I decided to do my thesis in. Sociolinguistics is basically a branch of linguistics studies: if general linguistics studies how any language is structured (from phonetics to morphology to lexicon etc), sociolinguistics focus on linguistics variation. It's a field of study that was born in the 1960s; before that there was a very normative approach to the study of languages (linguistics focused on what was considered normative, not taking variation into accounts, a more traditional approach that didn't take diversity into accounts), then from the 60s lots of studies started to focus on linguistic variation, starting mainly in the US which obviously had, at that time already, a very multicultural society, with mix of languages, sub-cultures etc. I guess it started when the west realised, especially within the whole post-colonialism process, that "their world" wasn't as it used to be, and so languages. So basically you study how a language can vary across multiple factors - the social group you belong, your social class, education, sense of identity etc, ethnicity etc.

My thesis is specifically in language crossing between moroccan darija, french, italian, dutch. Because I have family in france & the netherlands, I asked them to go around and record moroccans born there pronouncing the same single sentence. I did the same with everyone i know here in italy. I'm comparing how this same sentence change phonetically especially in the articulation of wovels, diving people into groups based on the geographical origins of their parents (I chose 3 different moroccan areas), and how italian, french and dutch influence the way moroccans born into diaspora pronounce sounds differently, and how they transliterate arabic differently in latin alphabet. I basically use phonetics softwares where you can see how different wovels and consonants are pronounced and have different patterns etc. [literally how the tongue positions in a certain way in articulating sounds, or lips etc]. Also taking social backgrounds into accounts, too. I don't know if I'm making any sense 😭 But yes that's pretty much it!! SORRY for nerding about it, And THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️

#asks #mary🌹

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rabbitcruiser · 6 months

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World Arabic Language Day

With an estimated 390 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations, as well as the liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims. Being one of the only modern languages to be written and read in a right-to-left form, Arabic is a fascinating language with a long history. For all of these reasons and many more, we can all agree that Arabic is more than deserving of its very own day.

History of World Arabic Language Day

Although the Arabic language is the language of Islam, it dates back over one hundred years further than the religion. The earliest Arabic inscriptions were created in the early 6th century AD. Arabic was originally based mainly on the Aramaic alphabet that was then modified and adapted over many years to finally become its very own, distinct lanuguage. In 632, the year that Muslims believe the Quran was revealed to Muhammed, Muhammed’s language became the language of his new religion. The holy book of Islam, the Quran, was written in Classical Arabic and it is still used in religious ceremonies and sermons till this day.

By the 8thcentury, many poems and other works had been written in Arabic as well. Arabic has had an enormous influence on people all over the world, as the majority of countires in the world today officially use the Arabic numerical system. Furthermore, because of the countless wars waged in the Middle Ages especially, the Arabic language is an important source of vocabulary for many European languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, English, French and Sicilian, as well as non-European languages such as Swahili and Uzbek. Many of the words that English-speakers use regularly come from Arabic, including cotton, coffee and guitar.

World Arabic Language Day was established in 2010 by UNESCO to promote cultural understanding and to highlight Arabic as one of the most important languages in the world. Today, there are three different types of Arabic: Classical; Modern Standard Arabic, the last of which is used in publishing, education and the media across the Arab world. Colloquial Arabic, an everyday dialect, is also used in different regions and has numerous variations. Due to its elegant, flowing lines, thousands of people the world over have also chose to get tattoos in Arabic, singer Christina Perri and actors Colin Farrell and Zoe Saldana, to name but a few.

How to celebrate World Arabic Language Day

The best way to celebrate this day would be to increase your knowledge of this language. Many people living in parts of North America or Europe may not even really know how it sounds. Of course, it is nearly impossible to learn to read even small fragments of this complex language during the course of just one day, but that shouldn’t stop you from discovering it. The Arabic language is especially beautiful when sung.

If you like opera, you could check out one of Sarah Brightman’s most acclaimed albums titled, “Harem”. The songs on it are a truly original mix of Arabian pop and opera, and are sung in several different languages, including Arabic. Listening to this album will not only allow you to become acquainted with what the language sounds like, but also introduce you to various instruments and sounds typical for Middle Eastern music that you may well fall in love with.

Source

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ankulometes · 4 months

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The Travellers, Vol 12, Pt 3: The Civilization

Non-variants would soon enter the picture. The team members would have natural born offspring. They would encounter the pre-existing inhabitants of the British Isles. More newcomers might arrive from the continent. It was vitally important therefore that their culture and civilisation had a coherent and complete form. They needed concepts that were expressed in language, technology, art, music, myth, and philosophy to tell their own people, and those they met, who they were. Naturally, they all had their stories straight on this score. They had been thinking about it and trying stuff out for long enough. Their ideas would inevitably be subject to change over time as non-variants became increasingly significant players in the cultural, political, economic, and intellectual development of their society, and this was a desirable phenomenon from their perspective. Nevertheless, the starting position was critical.

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On top of the increasing presence of non-variants, there were the criteria by which the team would ultimately judge the success or otherwise of their mission. Although they possessed more latitude than before in the means through which they might be realised, these were little different to the goals they had consistently pursued through all of their interventions.

The crew wanted the civilisation they built to be as equitable and meritocratic as possible without imposing oppressive homogeneity that impinged upon vital creativity, liberty, and difference. They aimed for it to value peace and be open and welcoming to others while being sufficiently strong and coherent to resist aggression and threats to its integrity when necessary. It was important that it would value and reward knowledge, skill, inventiveness, and human achievement yet possess a sufficient level of wisdom and humility to maintain a critical attitude towards itself and remain appreciative of its relationship to, and dependence upon, other cultures and the natural world. The people should be both capable of and willing to educate and nurture their young and care for their sick, elderly, and disabled. Also, it should be fun loving, not take itself too seriously, and have a sense of humour and an enjoyment of entertainment that did not revolve around cruelty and humiliation.

At the heart of many cultures, one can find a concept of truth, even if it is only tacit. Indeed, cultural identity as such might be described as a set of humans defined by the presence of a sufficient degree of correlation in their beliefs concerning what is or is not true. For everyday purposes, this concept of truth needs to be simple and intuitive enough for most people to be able to apply it instinctively most of the time.

The variants would deploy a concept of truth that drew on correspondence, coherence, and pragmatic theories. In broad outline, this held that something was true if it could be demonstrated in practice to correspond to an actual state of affairs and did not contradict other known truths (in which event one must be false). This formulation, which probably appears rather simple and obvious to someone from MOT raised in the Western philosophical tradition, has far reaching and significant implications.

Clearly, it demands a language grammar and vocabulary for expressing truth statements. However, it further suggests the concept of the “experiment” which necessitates shared systems of quantification and measurement. These amplify the importance of literacy and numeracy, which in turn transform one’s relationship to a host of phenomena, including time and memory. Although they would start slowly, the culture of “Albion” that the variants were developing would start at the outset with an alphabet based on Latin, a base-12 floating point numeric system with a zero concept derived from Indo-Arabic numerals, and units of measurement for length, angles, area, mass, volume, time (a lunisolar calendar, sundials, and sand or water timers), and even temperature (using bi-metallic strips).

They would benefit from a whole matrix of technologies that are either necessarily associated with, or can be easily inferred from, the existence of some of these ideas that would form the basis of their civilization. Some of these I have already mentioned: blades, bows, saws, shovels, picks, planes, hoes, wheels, sails, pulleys, levers, screws and the like. Others such as pens, ink, and paper were also in the mix. Indeed, there were so many that it is probably more illustrative to provide some examples of things that were most definitely not going to be given in this context.

Things like heat engines, electricity, the wave character of light and sound, the atomic nature of matter, the functioning of planetary and stellar rotations and orbits: all of these are non-obvious ideas that can be modelled in different ways for practical purposes and the accurate elaboration of which typically depends on a whole series of complex intellectual and technical developments. The new society the team was building would know nothing of these things at the outset. So long as you could potentially measure the angle of the sun, the speed of something or other, or the temperature of an oven, that was a sufficient starting point.

It should be self-explanatory by now that any society capable of developing this kind of intellectual and technical base within a fairly short period of time could not be theocratic. They had to have been people who valued knowledge and believed that it could be obtained through human action and thought, rather than simply being conferred upon them from above. Nevertheless, plenty of unknowns remained and they would require an ethical framework of higher order concepts to prevent them doing harm to themselves, others, or the world in general. Moreover, such matters would necessitate narratives to facilitate the effective communication of abstract ideas in addition to providing an explanatory structure for the origin of things and the nature of certain unknowns. Last, but by no means least, it would be convenient for the variants if these made it easier for them to do some of the more magical things they needed to do, such as substitution of their own children.

Despite their modernist aims and conceptions of truth, the variants were not naive positivists. They had no desire to peddle scientism and were well aware of the fact that people often need a belief system that provides meaning, purpose, and the possibility of redemption, even if it is essentially untrue. Shared systems of faith also provide a valuable tool for developing and sustaining social coherence. However, since they would almost certainly evolve into an organised religion over time that fed into myriad political and economic aspects of the civilisation, the choice concerning what to believe was vital.

Therefore, beyond simple binary notions of true and false, their frameworks of thought, language, and grammar would support ternary or even quaternary truth concepts, the additional positions within which might be summarised as “not true” and “not false”. These named the unknowable, the unnameable, or that which was in the process of being disclosed or concealed. Consequently, falsehood was not an absolute negation of truth per se but an independent idea of “untruth” that existed on a scale between it and the verified truth along which belief might be held as true or false in particular ways or pending certain facts.

At its root, the variants had developed a collection of mythological narratives over the years that told the story of the creation of the universe from the nothingness of the Big Bang and the ensuing collisions of matter in space, but in a highly simplified and anthropomorphised form. This creation myth ultimately ended with the births of numerous constellations of stars, the sun (“Haul”), the moon (“Lun”), and earth (“Naear”). Ultimately, there were also figures in this pantheon for all the major features of their immediate landscape, such as the British Isles as a whole (the giant “Albion”), the islands of Britain (“Pryddana”) and Ireland (“Eriu”), right down to important hills and rivers (such as “Tamesis” and “Hafren”).

At the outset at least, and on the part of the variants, there would be little pretence that these were anything other than stories which helped explain certain aspects of the world which they had left unexplained, guide ethical action, and aid a few more practical concerns, such as navigation.

The ternary concepts of nothingness and somethingness along with the disclosive space in between would be fundamental to their myths in other ways too. Aside from providing an illustration of numeric concepts, they established a context for the “otherworld” (which they called “Annwn”) of things like birth, death, dreams, and intuition. The emergence of life from nothingness and its subsumption into death was elaborated as a symbiotic cycle in which all the elements of the visible waking world were balanced by counterparts in the otherworld of Annwn.

Annwn provided a valuable spirit world which opened the way to the notion of communication with, traversal between, or even return from it. In addition to facilitating substitution, it enhanced the sacrality of the natural world in a manner that could be leveraged to promote care for it. It also riffed on ideas such as ying/yang and karma: a death and departure from the waking world was a birth or arrival in Annwn and vice-versa. The spirit of those thought to have been good in life might return in a new form to help overcome evil in this or those who had committed wicked acts might win redemption in the world of the spirits if they learned the error of their ways and atoned.

Over the long term, the maintenance and telling of these stories would be the province of a technocratic class of learned men and women known as the “derwid”. These people would be less a “priesthood” than an intellectual caste who, aside from telling didactic stories which made abstract concepts more tangible, would serve as philosophers, scientists, engineers, doctors, surgeons, architects, lawyers, historians, and artists. Their numbers would be heavily skewed toward variants, and their exclusive hold over advanced knowledge throughout the early years of their culture (before they began to write books) would help to obfuscate their origins in the mists of time.

Alongside these myths was another tranche of stories which we might call legends or folktales that, while still used by the derwid, were not their exclusive domain. These legends provided origin stories and role models through narratives that were centred around definitively human action. They involved figures such as the prototypal derwids, Orin and Aeron, the valiant leaders, Lugh and Lleua, and the nurturing leaders, Ceri and Carys, the smith, Gofannon, and the farmer, Amaethon among many others.

The myth and legend cycles also lent explanatory power to other phenomena and social structures, especially the calendar. As had been the case whenever possible on prior missions, the variants were going to be using their preferred perennial lunisolar system. However, they had made a few modifications to its structure.

The year would be split into 52 weeks (with 1 to 2 intercalary days) that provided a rhythmic structure with regular breaks from work every 7th day (known as the “setath”). These sat within a larger structure consisting of four seasons, each around 12 weeks long, that were divided by the week-long festivals of Ostara, Litha, Mabon, and Gheol that were set around the solstices and equinoxes. These seasons were further subdivided into two halves by the lesser festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain. The precise points in the tropical year at which these occurred would move over the coming millennia as the inclination of the earth’s axis changed, so their calculation was inevitably the province of the derwid. The variants fully intended to introduce thematic ceremonies as a focal point of these festivals. However, they would mainly be an opportunity for people to let off steam and have a good time.

The cycles of the seasons were loosely reflected in a series of tripartite divisions for the path of life. The period from birth until 6 years of age was considered to be a period of infancy during which there were few social expectations other than to survive, grow, and learn the basics of movement and speech. Upon reaching one’s 6th summer, one would be initiated into the community during the festival of Litha. From then until the age of 12, one became properly a “child” and expected to learn the fundamentals of knowledge, including reading, writing, and maths that would lay the foundations for your participation in society. Another rite followed in your 12th summer when you officially became a “youth”. At this point, while still not a fully-fledged member of one’s tribe qualified to do things like swear oaths or bear witness, you would gain the right to do things like carry a knife (which you would be given) and would be held accountable for your actions. During one’s youth, between the ages of 12 and 18, you would continue to learn but also start to contribute by taking apprenticeships or being packed off to study with the derwid. At the age of 18, you became a fully-fledged adult with all the responsibilities that came with that status. In addition to being gifted symbolic artefacts during each of these rites of passage, one was tattooed as a permanent mark of attainment and belonging. However, your life was hopefully far from over.

The three stages of development (infancy, childhood, and youth) were followed by three further stages of adulthood, each again lasting 6 years, during which one was expected to gain first knowledge, then experience, and finally wisdom. If one reached the age of 36, one gained elevated status as an elder. Nevertheless, once again, one’s development was hopefully not finished yet. The third meta-phase of life was similarly divided into three stages of “evaluation” or “consideration”, “compassion” or “insight”, and “judgement” or “transcendence”. However, this time each period lasted 18 years. Frankly, if you lived much beyond 90 years in the absence of modern medicine, vaccines, and antibiotics it was a miracle. But it wouldn’t be unheard of in their society.

All these beliefs and rites naturally informed the political and economic structure that their civilisation would adopt, at least at the outset. It should come as no surprise that it would probably best be described as a technocratic gerontocracy.

Although their members would often be embedded within settlements, the derwid would ultimately form a tribe apart consisting of experts and specialists who were frequently itinerant. It was regarded as a vocation, rather than a job. While it would be taboo to refuse hospitality to one of their number, and unadvisable to shun their aid or advice, they would receive no remuneration for their work and would not constitute any formal part of political administration as such. Similarly, while everyone was required to learn a variety of combat skills from the age of twelve, train regularly, and do their duty when called upon to do so, derwid were not required or even expected to fight, although many would.

On a day-to-day basis, tribal affairs at a local level would be governed by a council or assembly of the elders (i.e. those of 36 years of age and above) known as the “laenoriad” who would elect a leader. This leader, who gained the honorific title “Ben”, did not necessarily need to come from among their number: it could be any nominated adult (i.e. at least 18 years of age). This chief would also serve as a judge with the laenoriad functioning as a jury. Thus, they would collectively form the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Beyond these outline constraints, how they arranged their affairs internally was entirely up to them to decide, but the principle that power came with responsibility which could only exercised effectively by those in possession of wisdom and that power was conferred (or revoked) through an act of consensus were both key. Eventually, as the number and size of settlements increased, a hierarchical series of supra-tribal councils would emerge consisting of all the leaders from a particular region and from across the British Isles as a whole.

Another important problem that it was vital to nail early on were the systems of distribution and exchange. Even when they only had the one settlement, people would not be able to do everything for themselves and stuff would need to be shared around. There were several basic options.

Barter is commonly regarded as a kind of default solution to the problem of exchange. In the absence of any other formal mechanism, this is correct insofar as people will arbitrarily exchange things in their possession or power to obtain others that are not which they need or desire, on an ad hoc basis. As a fallback, it is something that is liable to occur in any context. However, as a systemic approach it is deeply flawed. Barter encourages the appropriation and hoarding of resources, often through the violent exercise of power. It rapidly degenerates into a social order based on brute force that exhibits extreme forms of oppression and inequality. This is why it is typically regarded as an inverse index of civilization. Its very presence is indicative of barbarism.

A widespread early alternative was the so-called “palace economy”, or command economy, in which all resources are pooled with a central authority that is subsequently responsible for their distribution based on whatever criteria are deemed to be appropriate. While this method can in theory be egalitarian, it is deeply susceptible to corruption and tyranny. Moreover, by building in a single point of failure it becomes prone to political instability since, whenever failure occurs, there is typically no fallback other than a return to barter.

Another solution that was often developed in the ancient world was that of the gift economy. These often demonstrated beneficial side effects in terms of things like social coherence and trust. They operate through the extension of a form of loan in which goods or services are advanced by one party in return for social credit and the expectation of a return on this investment at a later date. Such things are all well and good but, as an exclusive system, it rather limits the ability of people or groups to proactively secure the resources they need right now. Consequently, it often tends to exist in conjunction with other forms of exchange, such as barter.

Then of course there are market economies. Obviously, that is a big and complex topic. I use the plural “market economies” deliberately because there are many different types of market, only one of which is the ideologically charged concept of a “capitalist free market” economy. For my purposes here, I am going to define a market economy as a set of one or more governed forums that exist within the context of the same coherent legal framework in which individuals or groups exchange goods and services via an intermediate form that consists of a representation of value.

Markets are an excellent structure for exchange. Their capacity to adopt a distributed, cellular form gives them the potential to be flexible and resilient. However, from the standpoint of the above definition, they are merely the bread in an economic sandwich that one loads up with the desired ideological fillings. These fillings are typically embodied in the legal frameworks of governance and the intermediary form utilised to represent value as an exchange medium.

The variants had never lost their agreement with certain fundamental aspects of a Marxist analysis of capitalism. Indeed, they had developed their position to an unparalleled degree of refinement over the years. One of Marx’s arguments with which they agreed was that, within the context of a capitalist market economy, the exchange value of commodities is ultimately regulated by socially necessary labour time. However, unlike Marx, they did not support a commodity theory of money. In their view, things like the gold specie standard merely served to obfuscate the more accurate description of money as an expression of purchasing power that ultimately reflected social status and class. Money in this context was always an abstract relative value, even if one rather foolishly chose to base one’s currency system on a scarce commodity. On past missions, the team had adopted metallic currencies for reasons of expediency and inherited context. Now that they were freed from such constraints, they were going to go down a different path.

The unit of currency in their new civilization would be based on labour time. In principle, this can be used to determine both wages and prices. For example, let’s say that 1 currency unit is equal to 1 hour (as defined at the point of the summer solstice, since they were using sundials, and winter and summer time divisions were of differing absolute duration).

Now let’s say for the sake of an example that, on average, a baker can produce 10 loaves of bread per hour, a potter can make 1 pot per hour, and a blacksmith can make 1 blade in 10 hours. In theory, the baker’s “wage” production costs would be 0.1 currency units per hour while the potter would earn 1 unit and the blacksmith 10 units; i.e. assuming that all the commodities they produce have an equal use value, we can posit their wage rate as 1 hour divided by the average number of these commodities that are produced per hour. The sale price would then be the wage cost plus the price of the materials required to produce it. Thus, ignoring the cost of materials and other capital expenditure, they each earn 10 currency units from the sale of the produce from 10 hours of labour time.

However, this can penalise time intensive functions or promote redundant production on the false assumption that all commodities are of equal value. In reality, practically no one was a wage labourer in their society anyway. Certainly not yet. When that phenomenon did rear its ugly head, wage levels would be set in the usual “capitalist” way as a function of supply and demand combined with political pressure and negotiation. In the variants’ civilization, at least at the outset while the economy remained very small and simple, prices would be determined firstly by the derwid as a function of a determination of socially necessary labour time such that everyone possessed a more or less equal purchasing power that would enable them to obtain an equitable share of the total available produce, and secondly by the laenoriad as a means of promoting socially necessary production.

The critical point about using time hours as an index of currency value was that debts would be redeemable at the last resort through the one resource to which everyone had free access: time. Moreover, it provided a tangible baseline for assessments of value with easily understood judicial ramifications. Nevertheless, once again, it wouldn’t work in practice that if you lent your mate Bob a tenner and he failed to pay it back you could literally make him work as your own indentured slave for a period of time. Like any debt in our world, you would have to lodge your claim in court. If the loan agreement was deemed to be legal, and Bob was found to have defaulted, then the “state” would simply issue the money to pay you what was owed and a certain amount of either Bob’s time or income would revert to the state for use in the public interest. Or their own personal enrichment, depending on how your tribe was running itself at the time.

This legal procedure also indicates how money would come into existence: the state would simply create it and spend it into circulation. Once again, time-based monetary units help to provide an indication of how much money should be created since the total value of all currency in circulation should be sufficient to pay everyone for all their time. In the case of our crude baker, potter, and blacksmith example, if these were the only three people in your economy, then you would need to issue the equivalent of 11.1 units per hour of work to be completed.

One of the other major questions that needed to be addressed was the physical form that the currency would take. Part of the appeal of metallic currencies was that, even in the event of the collapse of the issuing authority, people still had faith in the idea that the base metal itself would be accepted widely enough as a barter exchange medium. Moreover, making coins from expensive scarce materials over which it was comparatively easy to exert monopoly control discouraged counterfeiting. Paper money, as one alternative, lacks both qualities. Matters such as theft and durability are also pertinent issues. For the variants, the answer to these questions lay in the comparative simplicity of their society and economy and the control it would exercise over markets through its legal framework.

They intended to largely resolve the questions of theft, counterfeiting, and durability by simply not issuing the currency in a physical form at all. Or, rather, by inventing a form of banking and operating this as an exclusive state monopoly.

On market days, or at any other time one wished to go shopping or do business, one would visit the bank and make a withdrawal from one’s balance. In return, one would receive some suitably authorised paper scrip (or a quantity thereof in various values) which named you as the owner of this money and detailed the date on which it was issued and the date when it would expire (usually no more than 1 day). When you purchased something, you would name the recipient and add your own signature in the relevant space. The recipient would then return it to the bank at the end of the day’s trading at which point a balance transfer would be completed.

If you wished to shop at another, more distant, market you could still use the same scrip, so long as it had not expired. It would eventually be reconciled and, if you ran up a line of credit this way by racing back home and withdrawing more, you would soon be caught and punished. You would owe money or labour time in accordance with the court’s estimation of the rate at which this should apply.

Alternatively, you could carry a simple dated balance statement which would be added to your account at the destination following which you would be able to withdraw scrip in the usual manner. However, you would not be able to withdraw any more scrips from your “home” bank until you returned the updated balance document which would have been given to you when you banked the scrip at the distant market.

For foreign trade, you would need to withdraw scrip to purchase gold, silver, or some other commodity for use in a barter exchange. That’s what international trade is at heart. Especially in the days before globalisation. Certainly, it barely even existed at the time the variants were currently living in, and it would be a very long time before it was regulated at all.

Thus their “bank” was more of a “tally shop”. Money was simply a temporary localised physical representation of part of this balance; a series of chits and tokens produced on cheap, plentiful, ephemeral material for the purpose of value exchange and transfer. It did not bear interest and, although it could potentially be loaned, the charging of interest on such would be specifically prohibited. Courts would be under no obligation to bail you out for irresponsible loans. The creation of the money in the first instance would be entirely the province of the state who would simply spend it into existence via an act of accounting.

Of course, in the early days of their settlement, hardly any money was used, and no one really needed to worry if they had none. The essentials of life were shared freely and, since the population consisted overwhelmingly of variants, there was practically no conflict or contention over this.

Indeed, one might wonder why they didn’t simply operate a much simpler palace economy. Such a system would have satisfied their needs at the beginning. However, for the reasons noted above, it wouldn’t scale effectively. Moreover, a well-governed market economy utilising a sensible currency system can be liberating.

In a command economy, one is effectively an employee of a single monolithic state bound to follow their instructions concerning what to produce. You are subsequently given very little choice about what one consumes and when. Selling into and buying from a market allows one to choose what one produces or consumes, how much, and when. If you want to blow all your credits on ale, then go for it. Alternatively, if you have a yen to try making something radically different, you can have a pop.

The idea that someone might try and fail brings us conveniently on to the topic of welfare and other forms of social care and the structures that surround them. On the whole, this was a non-problem for them. The way in which their currency worked meant that, so long as they didn’t issue so much credit that there was inflation, it was positively beneficial to the economy for them to run social programmes and infrastructural development projects.

The derwid would be nominally responsible for healthcare and education. However, they wouldn’t be able to do it alone. Special buildings would need to be constructed. Nurses, assistant teachers, and other supporting staff would be required. Raw materials would be a regular input. Associated with primary medical care, there would almost certainly need to be some provision for palliative and old age care which came with similar requirements.

There will always be a few people who simply don’t want to be a part of your society and wish to have little to do with your carefully organised institutions. They should not be unduly punished for this. Contrariwise, one of the fundamental goals of the variants’ economy was that no one should suffer from want due to misfortune in life or by birth. Nevertheless, it was not intended to be a free-for-all. A lot of work needed to be done. From everyone according to their ability would be a basic tenet. Thus, their general welfare provision would mainly consist of the creation of currency for the purposes of direct employment by the state where necessary. This would be supplemented by ad hoc debt jubilees and regular citizen dividends.

Beyond the political, economic, and judicial concerns of the state lay many diverse cultural questions that ranged from matters such as childrearing all the way to seemingly trivial matters like fashion. The variants considered all of them to be of vital importance, even those that might appear frivolous. I will deal with only the two mentioned above at this point.

At a fundamental level, the civilisation of Albion would eschew many notions concerning both the nuclear family and private property. Individuals of any gender would be at liberty to commit themselves exclusively to each other for sexual or other purposes, and there would be ceremonies associated with this process that enabled the oaths made to be recognised in official contexts. However, there would be absolutely no necessity to commit in such a manner. When it came to sex and reproduction, the free consent of all parties was assumed to be the primary imperative. Any offspring would inherit their primary identity in a matrilineal manner and, while a social and legal onus would be placed on both parents to ensure their children fulfilled their obligations, child rearing would predominantly be undertaken by the “clan” as a whole.

This collectivism fed through into property law. As a member of a clan, one would gain certain rights and protections, including matters such as having one’s basic needs for food and shelter met. One might occupy a house or a farm that could be considered “your property”, by virtue of fulfilling a particular role within a particular group, with which you were free to do as you wished. However, this did not confer the right to exchange it: it remained the property of the clan from whom it could not be alienated. The same applied to all land. Property was something one gained as a form of privilege through the fulfilment of a responsibility or obligation. This applies as much to the tribe, whose land belonged to the natural world of which they were to serve as guardians, as it did to the individual.

2 notes · View notes