#Inuits words for snow

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/a-passage-to-america/

A Passage To America

In my mid-forties, one of my duties as the head of a local teachers union was to attend a national convention in Florida.   My mother, in her sixties at the time, and, always eager to travel, suggested we take this opportunity to make a cross-country motor trip together. Though different in many ways, the pair of us were amiable traveling companions, preferring by-ways to highways, so I agreed. The journey had its challenges. Our rental car suffered a flat tire along a seldom traveled country road;  a sudden storm forced us to take lodgings in a place that might have passed for the Bates Motel; and one afternoon, we found our road-weary selves seated in a  restaurant that served cold biscuits and omelets crisp enough to break apart with our fingers.   The time was somewhere in the 1970s, a period when an AAA trip tik served as automotive navigation. Not only did the thick pamphlet contain maps of our route but it provided information about lodging and places to eat along the way.  Having served us well on the outward-bound leg of our journey, we were confident when the time came for the return trip. Even so, somewhere in Florida, I took a wrong turn and found myself in an area where billboard messages were written in Spanish. My mother could read them, being born in Costa Rica, but I could not. Afraid I’d speak English with an accent if I were bi-lingual, my father refused to allow me to learn my mother’s native language.  So, on the day she and I were lost, I relied upon her translations to find my way.  Unfortunately, these directions always came after the fact, making them useless. “You should have turned right two blocks ago.”  Eventually, I pulled the car to the side of the road in front of an eatery that was ablaze with light. Perhaps a waiter could guide me.       Trip tik in hand, I entered the premises to the sound of a bell jangling above the transom. Though not much larger than a thimble, it made a piercing sound, like a kettle on the boil, so I was not surprised when the restaurant’s patrons looked up from their plates with startled expressions.  Not wanting to remain the center of attention, I hurried toward the cashier standing behind a counter. A man somewhere in his early fifties with a crown of black hair and a girth to suggest he never said no to a tamale stared at me with the same expression as his customers. When I pointed to my map and asked for the way to the road north, his eyes became more vacant.  Repeating my question failed to garner a response other than to cause him to scratch his head.  Either he was deaf or did not speak English. Rather than guess, I turned to two men seated at a nearby table.  Did they know how to reach the northbound freeway? Like the cashier, they answered me with silence, their expressions suggesting that if I wanted conversation, I should try the morgue. “Wake up and come with me,” I said as I rapped on the car window behind which my mother was snoozing.  “No one inside speaks English.” A cat-like grin stretched across her face which I found annoying but she was quick to follow my steps to the restaurant.  The bell overhead rang a second time, and as if a spotlight had flared on center stage, my mother came to life.  I don’t know what she said to her audience, but after some well-chosen words, the diner filled with laughter. The young men I’d spoken to earlier scrapped back their chairs in response and came toward us.  Their heads almost touched as they studied my trip tik, joined by the cashier who seemed eager to add to their consultation. They murmured to one another for some time, though I was unable to understand their conversation. Eventually, the cashier lifted his head to address me and then used his pen to trace a route on my map for me to follow. “The freeway’s not far.  Maybe five minutes. You can’t miss it,” he said. His English was flawless.  After a cursory, “Thank you,” I stormed from the restaurant. “What was that about?” I snapped to my mother as if she were to blame for what had occurred.“Why did they treat me like I was foreign?” I turned the key to the car’s engine hard enough to make a grinding noise which seemed to amuse my mother. “Pay no attention, Petunia. They’re Cubans. Not like the rest of us Latins.”  I tell this story because if the goal of our county is to embrace inclusion, people of all social and ethnic cultures have to make an effort. That steamy day in Florida, when I was made to feel like a stranger opened a wound. Particularly when the prejudice came from a segment of society that I least expected.  The child of an immigrant, I understand why ethnic enclaves exist. People build barriers when they fear rejection or want to feel safe. But,  Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling and walling out.* Solid fences can become prisons where the landscape offers a dreary sameness. Take food for example. Who wants a steady diet of biscuits and gravy when they could add pizzas? Or curries?  Or Gveltifisch? Well, maybe not Gveltifisch. But Baklava, yes!  As a writer, I appreciate the foreign terms that enrich our language.  Hopefully, English may one day become as varied as that of the  Inuits. They have dozens of words for snow. Why should English struggle with less? Ezra Pound peppered his poetry with foreign terms. English, he decided, was too spare.  I agree. Sometimes I’m tempted to invent onomatopoeic words to express my meaning the way Lewis Carroll did in Jabberwocky. A blend of different cultures also helps expand our horizons. Getting Lost to Find Home cites several East […]

[aurpiment]

Whenever the gajillion words for snow thing comes up, even if people are making fun of it, I have a compulsion to butt in and say IT’S NOT TRUE there are only like seven words and in addition to being NOT TRUE, it reinforces a stereotype of a whole ethnicity being practically minded but not theoretically minded which is also NOT TRUE and moreover racist

[thicc-astronaut]

Seeing people online get mad about “why are there over 100 genders now!!??” makes me think about how people say “The Eskimos have over fifty words for snow” but actually there’s only one word for “snow” but they add descriptors to it in a way that made a European linguist think they were using different vocabulary words

[nimblermortal]

Nimbler: Boy am I learning some vocabulary tonight! Murder, incest, sodomy, another word for murder, a third word for murder...

Hyacinth: Do vikings have words for murder then like Eskimos have words for snow?

Nimbler, ignoring these inaccuracies: More like English speakers have words for murder? We have murder and killing and bane, and all of those translate pretty directly. Oh, and slaying. And manslaughter.

[men-iss-vess-ull]

"did you know the Inuit have 1000 words for snow" yeah and english invents a new synonym for faggot every week, what's your point

[ao3feed-zukka]

a sun in your exhale (the water in your hands)

Read now on Ao3 at https://ift.tt/McgnTBK by Mook_aron “Think, child, of this— Tui and La are the eternal circle. They are the push and the pull, the back and the forth— in all things, they keep balance. The tides and the faces of the moon are guided by their endless dance. But Sokka—“ Her face is something ethereal— her eyes are white, moon-bright and they are identical. Sokka has never seen someone with no soul pair, and it makes the girl seem so endlessly beautiful. “The thing about balance is that Tui and La are not identical— they do not dance in shades of white like the snow. They are black and they are white, each a sum of each other. Look at them—“ she gestures to the spirits, their eternal spinning dance. “Tui contains darkness, and La contains light. You cannot have balance with two identical souls, there must be difference.” --- Sokka is born with an eye lit gold like the sun at the last light of summer, like dragon fire- fire hot enough to burn bone and blubber and tent walls. Words: 1708, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Kanna (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Kya (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar), Ursa (Avatar) Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar) Additional Tags: Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Platonic Soulmates, Bad Parent Ozai (Avatar), Good Parent Ursa (Avatar), Soulmates have matching eyes, Eyes, References to Indigenous Inuit Religion & Lore, Actually more cultural notes, but that isn't a tag :( Read it on Ao3 at https://ift.tt/McgnTBK

[sonicjustbecause]

Lost in translation (general). Unavoidable.

"What girl witch cute". Yes. This is the plain translation. I'll come there later.

I'm not a native English speaker. I can say I know one language and half. Written/spoken Italian (native), written English.

I like to watch shows in Italian and Japanese usually. Seldom I watch them in English. In general i dislike the translation and the voices they choose for characters from foreign shows.

Like, I would watch easily The Simpson in English because is their native show and the voice they choose are good. In the Italian show they went as far as finding VA who have very similar voices to the original VA.

Sonic Prime worked fine with English voice (because they choose canadian VA and not the american ones. Both RCS and Kirk Thorton are... uhmmm... I loved Deven Mack and Ian Hanlin). Is maybe one of the few shows I watched happily in English. And I could somewhat understand what they say because of a clearer pronunciation.

For other shows I often watch them either in Japanese with English sub, or translated in Italian. For Dragon Ball I watched the whole DB and DBZ in Italian, DBS in Japanese with English subs.

I watched my favourites episodes of Dragon Ball Z in Italian, Japanese and English, to see how they differ and how voices work.

Italian in general stay true to the Japanese dialogues (few exception here and there, I'll come later). English? Oh God. The scene with Vegeta being possessed by Babidy made me laugh in English. Something like: 'He is in my head! I'm attacked! I can't! Oh no, I'm not innocent" Talkative Vegeta. The context was the same, the message was about the same (more ambiguous and open to interpretation in Italian and Japanese, more one sided in English) but a dramatic scene like that became a comical scene in English. And the voices... oh no!.

English dubbing! NO! My ears!

Language, context...

Monolingual people think all language are the same. Not the case, languages are influenced by enviroment. Inuit have many ways to say 'snow' with a single word, referring to the different quality of it.

Coming to the language we are referring to, English is known to be a low context language. It has a word for everything and a very rich vocaboulary.

Italian is a mid context language. It has not a so large vocaboulary,

Some words are the same but with different meaning.

Example

Salutare: it does means either 'to greet and' 'healthy' Sale: it does means either "going up" and "salt"

Batteria: 'set' 'drums' and 'battery' Piano: "plan", 'floor' (of a building), 'flat' (like the surface of a table), 'piano'

Those words can be easily translates in English though.

The problem come with figuratve language. Every language has one. I don't speak Japanese so i can make examples using italian and English.

When someone is lucky, we say, vulgarly: "che culo!" But, translated in EWnglish it turns in a "What an ass!". The phrase is the same, litera, the meaning change completely. For this you can't always stay true to the original material.

Another example, still involving luck in Italian might be:

"Avere un culo così".

In English it turns something like

"Having a big ass"

From having luck to being fat. And there it turns even funnier because in Italian you can use the very same phrase to tell that either someone is fat or that a woman looks curvy in the butt area in particular. Though all of them are not nice and can be used only among close freinds. Otherwise there are three distinct phrase for the different things like: "avere fortuna" "essere grassi" "avere un sedere formoso". Context.

Japanese is abnormally high context.

Let's talk about the above monstruosity that make us laugh hard.

Among people who like Japamese stuffs, there are some who are so passionate that they would sacrifice grammar in order to have a product that is true to the original. In Italy we have many translators. Some are better, some are worse. We got cursed by this man in particular:

Gualtiero Cannarsi.

To be honest, is unfortunate. He talks the finest Italian you can hear. But his translations from Japanese to Italian suck. he is one who think the product must be true to itself, so he just change Japanese words into italian words, leaving the Japanese rules, grammars etc. Yes, nothing got lost in traslation. But the result is incomprehensible so to say the truth, everything got lost.

If transtated in Cannarsi style, Versailles no Bara turns into Versailles di Rosa (The correct translation is 'La rosa di Versailles). For a better understanding of what I'm saying, in English, if I just switch the words, I get 'Versailles of Rose'.

His translation get some... uh, funny results:

Porco Rosso is supposed to be settled in Italy. Then why do they talk like barbarians?

"To stay to have fun to those places you'll end to be kidnappen in company" Is bad I know. I tried to stay true to his awful translations. This is terrible, considering that Gibli tried to write in Italian, as best as they could to create a better atmosphere:

"Non si fa credito" "Le rosse ali si sono spezzate (correct but arcaic) "Vivo o morto?(sounds better) "Di nuovo il canto di trionfo del Porcellino Rosso (perfect)" "Le bambine sane e salve" Still the atmosphere is there, is true!

You have to be fluent in Italian to understand this. Then you can either laugh or facepalm or be disgusted.

We also have good example of translation from Japanese. Luckily we have many good products from Japan that are treated correctly. One that I can think off is from Dragon Ball Super - Broly.

In DBS - Broly, I can feel the Japanese aura/culture/mentality from every phrase, every word they speak. They all sound solemn without sounding the same. But at the same time it is translated in a fine Italian, we all understand what they say just fine. The actor were great at acting and... do you know that the one who dubs Goku is the same VA who dubs Shadow? And the voice sounds different, very silly when he dubs Goku, more serious and mature when he dubs Shadow.

We of course also had some bad translation because there was a period we relied on 4kids. Luckily we still had manga, they came directly from Japan and got translated in italian. Some of them unfortunately went translated by Gualtiero Cannarsi. Dark days for anime. It seems things are getting better right now.

Same VA, different personalities.

[calabria-mediterranea]

The view from Mount Scafi - Condofuri, Calabria, Italy

The importance of the goat in the Greek Calabrian mountains of Aspromonte

Overlooking the sunrise and the charms of the Southern Ionian coast of Calabria, the vast area of Bovesìa represents an ethno-cultural basin of ancient origins.

The presence of the Greek-Oriental communities that arrived on these shores was able to survive the Latinisation ordered by the Normans from the 11th century onwards, rigorously preserving the language of its origins, today known as the Greek dialect of Calabria, its traditions, music and food, establishing a true koinè.

Walking into the town of Gallicianò is like landing out-of-the-blue on a parched Aegean hillside. The road signs are in Greek; kids shriek and tease each other in Greek; the church is Greek Orthodox; even the flags are Greek.

Calabrians of the Greek area have about as many words for goat as the Inuit—according to that popular urban legend, on Baffin Island, say, or in northern Siberia—have for snow. There’s a poster in the museum in Bova, the capital of Calabria’s Aspromonte Grecanica region, listing dozens of goaty Greco-Calabrian terms, and to the untrained ear of a foreigner they could sound like invocations: O tragopuddho (a young billy goat); to rifi ozzopodi (a young goat that gets separated from the flock); asti tripimeno (a goat with a hole in its ear). A goat bell can be either a cambana, cuduni, cudhuneddho or cudunaci; not to be confused with enan ximerinaci (a bell worn by a small goat) or, god forbid, enan mpecurinaci—a bell worn by a lamb.

The goat is among the most agile and graceful animals of the Greek Aspromonte. Present since prehistoric times, it is perfectly adapted to its meager pastures and the steep walls of its mountains, thanks to its ability to balance which allows it to climb anywhere, even trees. The food requirement of a goat is in fact equal to a tenth of that of a cattle, despite its milk production being higher.

These animals were raised not only for their milk (gala) but also for their meat and skins, from which they made clothes and wineskins, drums and wind instruments such as bagpipes.

The Arab chronicler 'Abu al-Fida (1273-1331) later mentions the abundance of goats in the Ionian Aspromonte, when he refers to the large number of animals slaughtered on the slopes of the castle of San Niceto, during a Saracen incursion.

Since the Middle Ages, goat farming has played a considerable role in the local economy, to the point that the pastures were strictly regulated.

During the sixteenth century, goat farming was, together with silkworm farming, the major source of income.

Among the most important dairy products, a mention should be reserved for a traditional table cheese, consumed exclusively during the Easter period, called musulupu, "bite of the wolf". Similar to tuma, this fresh cheese is still prepared with artisanal methods and tools, packaged in particular anthropomorphic molds called musulupare. It goes well with seasonal vegetables, pasta and on Easter Eve it becomes the basis for a typical omelette from Bovesìa.

Even breeding follows ancient practices, the same as the Greek and Byzantine shepherds who for centuries led their flocks through transhumances from the coasts to the most inaccessible mountains of Aspromonte. Flocks of goats can be seen everywhere traveling the length and breadth of the Grecanica area.

Photo by Quelli che Reggio Calabria

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[wanderingmind867]

I've remade my Justice League of Canada idea for the hopefully last time. I added two new characters and got rid of an old one. But I think I am finally okay with what I've got written. And I'm glad about that.

Justice League Canada: Originally conceived around 1988 or 1989 when the Justice League Detroit gets a mission in Canada. The mission goes well, and the Justice League gets some contacts in Canada. A year or two after this, the Justice League loses a fight in disastrous fashion and their public reputation sinks even lower. Knowing that the United States has turned on them, the Justice League use their connections in canada to keep the team running. Only one requirement: the team will have some oversight by the canadian government. Nothing too severe. But there will be some oversight and guidelines.

They serve as a Justice League branch solely isolated to Canada and (occasionally) the US states on the Canadian border. In those cases, they closely work alongside the revived Justice Society of America.

Justice League of Canada Founding Members:

1. Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz): When the Justice League Detroit moves from Detroit to Ottawa, only two members of the Detroit team come to Canada: Martian Manhunter and Gypsy. Martian Manhunter acts as the team's leader again, the same way he did back in Detroit. He moves his private detective practice as "John Jones" from Michigan up to Ottawa, giving him a convenient excuse to be in Canada.

He's with the team for their first year or two. If this were an actual comic, he'd be on the team for the 10-15 issues. But after a year or two with the team, J'onn leaves to head back to the states. He's gotten an offer from Harley Quinn and Captain Cold to supervise their team of reformed (or semi-reformed) supervillians, and he couldn't say no to the offer. Especially since his brother was on that team.

2. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord): Ted Kord is known as the Canadian Bruce Wayne. Well, maybe not explicitly by that nickname, but that is the type of character he shall be. I wrote so much for his origin that it needed it's own seperate post/note. Which I did make. He's also just going to be a better character than Bruce Wayne, no ifs ands or buts.

3. Aqsarniit: That's supposedly the Inuit word for the Northern Lights. So that'll be my placeholder name (if not permanent name) for this character. They're some Norse and/or Inuit demigoddess or nature spirit with ties to the northern lights. I want something to match Wonder Woman, except with more of the beautiful mystique of the snow and aurora, as well as with more respect paid to the indigenous communities of Canada. I have a well formed image of this character because this is a character type already beaten to death (honestly), but I think we could find a way to make it unique.

Oh, one thing that makes them different: they're either gender-fluid or two-spirit or something. Being a nature spirit who looks like the personification of the northern lights, they don't really have any traditional gender.

Aqsarniit is a founding member of the team, but they aren't actually there very often (in those early issues, at least). Being a spirit of the aurora, Aqsarniit is often far busier with their own affairs then to help the league. Kind of like a combo of Thor and The Hulk. Like Thor, she's tied to mythology. But like the Hulk, they leave the team by Issue #2 or #3.

4. The Red Bee (Richard "Rick" Raleigh): Richard "Rick" Raleigh is a crown attorney in Victoria, British Columbia. Known for his brilliant legal mind and steadfast devotion to justice, the mob desperately wished to dispose of this man. They hired a mad scientist to help them kill Rick. This scientist decided to play upon Rick Raleigh's hobby of amateur beekeeping to kill him, in a bit of dramatic irony. He'd spray him with a shrinking gas and trap him inside his beekeeping equipment.

Locked inside the box where he kept his bees, Rick has to think fast and save himself from the attacks of his bees. And he does this in a most ingenious way. Rick tricks his bees into trying to attack him, and manages to get them to accidentally tip his beekeeping box over. Now that him and all his bees are free, Rick baits the bees into attacking the mad scientist and his goons. From here, Rick manages to find the antidote to the shrinking gas in the scientists pockets, and he becomes normal sized again.

But knowing that the gangsters who tried to attack him are still at large, rick begins working on a way to combat them. And he finds his way to do so. He manages to duplicate the growing and shrinking serums used by the mad scientist. He studies the communication methods of bees and learns to speak with them on at least a rudimentary level. He also builds himself a jetpack and a stinger gun (basically just a taser) to help him fight crime (both of these items shrink with him). Using all these skills, he manages to catch the gangsters by sneaking into their hideout in a costume! And just like that, The Red Bee was born!

I'd like to think that Blue Beetle and the Red Bee have a rivalry going on. They're both named after insects, and they both are founding members of the Justice League Canada. I think it'd be funny if there's some resentment between the two.

5. Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson): I saw someone say Captain Marvel was from Minnesota. I don't know if that's true, but I'm rolling with it. Mostly because I've seen jokes online before that Minnesota is the US state most like Canada (or at least I swear I heard that somewhere), and now I need to roll with it.

Captain Marvel/Shazam aids the team, but he's not actually living in Canada (like the other team members). Nobody knows why Captain Marvel isn't in Canada, let alone a Canadian citizen. Nobody even knows why he asks strangely naive questions or never stays around too long after missions. Well, maybe Martian Manhunter knows. But the secret is safe with him..

6. Gypsy (Cynthia Reynolds): I know that there's a good chance Gypsy was DC's ripoff of Scarlet Witch, so let's take it one step further. Let's embrace the mild plagiarism. Her and Red Tornado will have a brief romance (although theirs crashes and burns a lot faster than Vision and Scarlet Witch's relationship).

When the Justice League Detroit disbands, only three members agree to head up to join the Canadian branch. Martian Manhunter, Gypsy and Captain Marvel/Shazam. The rest of that team stayed back in the states or were otherwise too busy to agree to join the new team.

Additional Members:

7. The Angel of Dawn/Ange de L'aube (Samantha Guizzon): Samantha Guizzon is a highly skilled CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) Agent. She's one of their best agents, known for her skill with research, espionage and for her very detailed knowledge of non-lethal combat.

Oh, and she's also got metahuman abilities. She can generate and manipulate light. She got her nickname (Angel of Dawn) because she can use her light powers to form shining hard light wings upon which she can glide through the air. She can also emit blinding light from her body, not unlike a miniature solar flare.

Samantha was assigned to the team to represent Quebec and Canada's francophone community. The people of Quebec were deeply upset that the team had no francophone founding members, so the canadian government had to assign Samantha to the team to quell criticism. Originally from Montreal, Samantha is proud to represent Quebec on the team.

8. Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter): Michael Jon Carter is from Edmonton. But I get really bogged down in backstory. So much so that I had to give him his own seperate post/note. Because I wrote like 7 to 9 paragraphs, too many to share here (especially when I'm trying to write about a whole roster of team members here, not just one).

9. Red Tornado: Although not really Canadian (being an android created in the United States), the Red Tornado is asked to join the team as a personal favour by the Martian Manhunter. Moving to Ottawa and taking on a human identity as university professor "John Smith", the Red Tornado becomes the team's heart and soul.

10. The Geomancer: This is a placeholder name for now, but I have a backstory. Daughter of a PEI farmer, young Emily Harrison is a metahuman with the power to control earth (and more specifically, dirt and soil are her specialities). Emily took over running the farm when her father had to retire, and she now runs it with her dad's best friend, an old, burly acadian man named Jean.

Emily never intended to be a superhero. She was content to just till her fields using her powers, and never have to worry about anyone judging her for them. But then one day the Justice League Canada came to PEI. Because the villian the Justice League was chasing also kidnapped her father, Emily and Jean help the Justice League stop him. This brings her to the notice of the Justice League.

This later, when Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel and the Angel of Dawn all take absences from the team, they ask Emily and Jean to join the team. Emily was pretty reluctant to join, until she managed to get a promise the league would send her someone to help with the farm when she's doing super hero work.

11. Jean Boudreau: Jean is an acadian man from New Brunswick. A while ago, he moved to PEI to get a job as a farm hand. There he met Emily's dad, and began working on his farm. When Emily inherited the farm, Jean has already been working there for 10 years. He knows Emily the same way he knew her dad, and he wants to help protect her from the judgement of the world

When the Justice League comes to PEI to stop the villian who kidnapped Emily's dad, Jean is outraged. That's his old friend they kidnapped, and Jean will go to the ends of the earth to save him. Similarly, Jean follows Emily onto the Justice League when she joins them to help protect her.

Jean has no superpowers. He's just a strong, older man with all the physical abilities that entails. He does take martial arts training while he's on the league, though. He's also one of (if not) the only member of the team with no secret identity. He's just Jean.

12. Green Lantern III (Guy Gardner): I actually like what I skimmed of Guy Gardner's backstory off of wikipedia. That being said, I'm still going to make a reinterpretation post. Because there's a few extra details I'd add to get him on this Canadian team. I'm not changing the core components, but I will mess around with his early life to get an explanation for him going from Baltimore in the comics to Vancouver (where I'll have him be raised in my reinterpretation).

13. Captain Newfoundland: There used to be a superhero called Captain Newfoundland in some old comic strips. I know little about him, but he looks super cool. And I want to take him, add some cool new details, and bring him to a wider audience. I'd add elements of Captain Universe and of The Phantom Stranger.

The last relic of an old alien race which came to earth eons ago, Captain Newfoundland and his kin were the original settlers of Newfoundland. Except back then, it wasn't Newfoundland. Back then, it was called Atlantis. This ancient race of star beings settled on Atlantis. They made it a paradise on earth, lush and beautiful. But then Atlantis fell to a massive volcanic eruption, and all of Captain Newfoundland's people either died or fled back into space. But not him.

You see, Captain Newfoundland was an exile amongst his people. He was friendly to the humans and animals of earth. He took it upon himself to watch over them and care for them. Since his people felt this made him too tender-hearted for his own good, they exiled him to the farthest tip of Atlantis. Funnily enough, this tip was the only part of Atlantis that survived the explosions. It never fell to the seas, and became the place we now call Newfoundland.

Nowadays, Captain Newfoundland is the humble protector of "The Rock". There's just one catch: he needs a host body. Kind of like how the Spectre needs a host body to do his thing, Captain Newfoundland needs a human host body to serve as a conduit between him and humanity. His current host body is an old Newfie, Brian Wellford (name subject to change if I think of anything better).

Captain Newfoundland is not a permanent member of the Justice League Canada. Kind of like the Phantom Stranger, he comes and goes wherever he's needed. Also, he doesn't often leave his stronghold on the east coast.

14. The Question (Vic Sage): Vic Sage was a popular television host in the montreal area. He had his own investigative journalism tv series, syndicated both in quebec and across canada (since he was bilingual and proficient in both english and french). Besides this new angle of him being French-Canadian, I think his backstory would remain much the same as it is in the comics (I skimmed his wikipedia page earlier, and it seems his backstory is fine as is).

15. William Nielsen: William Nielsen is the team's second android. I wrote my own note about him earlier To make him different from Red Tornado, William is both more lifelike and more anti-heroic.

William found out the truth of his identity after almost 2 years travelling the world searching for answers. He was built to be the ultimate soldier, one in a long line of mindless drones for his power mad creator's army. But his creator died while creating him, so William ended up a lost amnesiac in the woods. Or well, his creator almost died. But instead, he narrowly managed to transfer his essence into a computer. And now that William's stepped into his lab, his creator plans to steal his body and use the power to conquer the world.

William manages to narrowly escape from his creator, but only after his creator managed to move his essence into a duplicate of William's body. So William flees to the Justice League's headquarters in ottawa, where he runs into The Question and Willow. Together, these three defeat William's creator and earn their way onto the ranks of the justice league.

William's story arc is particularly interesting, and it all comes back to him, Willow and The Question. William started as an amnesiac android, but he slowly becomes more jaded and bitter towards humanity once he joins the team. It's only once a friend of his nearly dies in combat that William learns the art of humility. Willow trains him along this path, since she sees so much of her old self in him.

William probably ends up leaving the team to become a nomadic traveler. He can't let himself be violent and arrogant anymore, but he can't be around humans much either. He just wants to be alone. He's like a robotic, more humanoid version of The Hulk. Also, Willow may have shared her knowledge of the many universes with him. So William almost definitely is aware of the Marvel universe. May even travel there with Willow sometime. Hell, Willow may bring the whole team with her sometime. Who knows?

16. Willow: As we all know, Mantis was an Avenger in the 70s. She became the Celestial Madonna and then went off into space and wasn't seen again for a decade. We also know that Mantis showed up under the name of Willow in one 70s Justice League story. So let's play with that, and reinterpret it a bit.

Shortly after the Justice League Canada falls to their lowest possible point, Willow randomly breaks into their headquarters. This is when she meets The Question and William Nielsen. Initially seen as just some weird woman with martial arts prowess and an aura of deep mystery, she helps the team defeat some incredibly deadly foe and then ends up invited to join the team (alongside The Question and William, of course).

Also, Willow has met the team before. Her one adventure with the original Justice League of America did happen here, but nobody remembers it. The only JLA members she met then were Aquaman, Elongated Man and The Atom. None of them are on the team now, so nobody recognizes Willow.

And the fact that Willow would be working with Red Tornado and/or William Nielsen would give me (or anyone writing this) ample excuses to hint at her true identity. Red Tornado reminds her of The Vision and she would have ample opportunity to subtly draw comparisons. While William reminds her of herself years ago, back when she was a haughty, arrogant woman dating The Swordsman. So she takes William under her wing, and they form a deeply personal bond.

[neechees]

I literally don't know where the whole "snow eaters" thing comes from, the original word that was bastardized into the e slur for Inuit does not mean "snow eaters", it means "eaters of raw meat". Snow in Cree is "Kôna", raw meat is "aski-wîyas", which is the root, and add that plus "-mow" (meaning "to eat"), & you can see how it got changed from that into the English version for it. "Snow eaters" in Cree would be Môwakonêw (which afaik has no history of use as a slur & is not associated with Inuit), which sounds nothing like the e slur.

I wish the corrected version of this post with the above information went around & not this version

[psychologeek]

Hundred words

I heard that the Inuits

Who live in the cold,

Have hundred words for snow

I am Jewish

(We have a hundred words for death.)

[isekai-man]

What were the real Elves like?

Most people don't realize myths are based on fact. The word elf means white, as in white skin, white hair. It was a pale Northern tribe akin to fairies, as in fair skin, fair hair. Races are known by their physical traits, like the Orochi, Nezumi, and Kitsune were mythologized as animals because that's what their physical traits reminded people of. Well these Northerners developed pale skin, hair, and eyes because the northern hemisphere gets less sun, so they were called white people ("Elves"). Elves were known as short and fit because long thin limbs lead to frostbite in northern climes. The ears and earlobes were slightly larger and thicker, also to protect against frostbite, so they stuck out through the thin straight hair more than average, but they didn't stick straight out or in long thin points, they only looked long and pointy when viewed from a certain angle. They were a hunting tribe like the Inuit, but they migrated earlier and got less sun so they adaoted more. A hundred years ago, dreadlocks were called "elf locks", because when you lived in the snow you didn't wash your hair often unless you were lucky enough to have a geothermal hot spring (or into watersports). Elves also had a reputation for sexuality, because you get experience when sharing body heat is a matter of survival. Same for crafting clothes, as in the shoemaker story. Elves were basically Viking vampires, short stocky sexy smart meat-eating Vikings with bigger ears and sharper teeth and dreads, although modern Viking bloodlines were diluted after they became wealthy German merchants. Pure blood is a bigger myth than Elves.

[ao3feedzukka-blog]

a sun in your exhale (the water in your hands)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/55248583 by Mook_aron “Think, child, of this— Tui and La are the eternal circle. They are the push and the pull, the back and the forth— in all things, they keep balance. The tides and the faces of the moon are guided by their endless dance. But Sokka—“ Her face is something ethereal— her eyes are white, moon-bright and they are identical. Sokka has never seen someone with no soul pair, and it makes the girl seem so endlessly beautiful. “The thing about balance is that Tui and La are not identical— they do not dance in shades of white like the snow. They are black and they are white, each a sum of each other. Look at them—“ she gestures to the spirits, their eternal spinning dance. “Tui contains darkness, and La contains light. You cannot have balance with two identical souls, there must be difference.” --- Sokka is born with an eye lit gold like the sun at the last light of summer, like dragon fire- fire hot enough to burn bone and blubber and tent walls. Words: 1708, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Kanna (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Kya (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar), Ursa (Avatar) Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar) Additional Tags: Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Platonic Soulmates, Bad Parent Ozai (Avatar), Good Parent Ursa (Avatar), Soulmates have matching eyes, Eyes, References to Indigenous Inuit Religion & Lore, Actually more cultural notes, but that isn't a tag :( April 16, 2024 at 07:10AM

[snowbunnywatching]

Since your first language isn't English, I'm curious what the word/phrase for snowbunny would be in your country? Do different countries have different words for it?

It's said that the inuit have 100 different words for "snow". We don't have a single word or phrase for "snowbunny".

As I've been trying to tell you guys, we don't have a lot of Black people in my neck of the woods - one of the consequences of having kept our slaves on far-away plantations - and the phenomenon of white girls attracted to Black men isn't common enough to require its own word. Yet.

[uc1wa]

Ok, so, it's the middle of the night and I have some thoughts about the beauty of accents that I need to share, this is probably be ranty and unnecessarily long so bear with me (or don't it's your blog, right!)

I'm Canadian but i listen to this band from Japan and I have for 17ish years, the lead singer sometimes sings in English and I love his accent. Most of the time he sings clearly and I can understand what he is saying even if he pronounced something incorrectly and sometimes I can't because it's a metal band and I probably wouldn't fully understand without reading the lyrics even if he didn't have an accent.

So, while listening to them tonight it got me thinking about accents, like jjk happens in Japan so obviously they would speak Japanese, I watch in English because I don't know Japanese, but I was wondering what Geto, gojo, and the rest of them actually speaking English would sound like. Obviously they wouldn't sound like the English VAs.

Accents tell you so much about a person that most people don't even realize. More than just where they are from. Accents come from languages having different sounds and different cadence in speaking. For example, there is no "L" or "th" sound in most Asian languages. So those are difficult sounds to make when learning english. Like, the singer in the band I listen to sings a line in English "gasp for breath" but it sounds like "gasp for bress." If you pay attention to where your tongue is in your mouth when you make a "th" sound compared to a "ss" sound it's not very different but if you didn't grow up moving your tongue that way or haven't specifically been told where to put your tongue you're not going to make the sound like a native speaker. Same with the "L" sound coming out as an "R" sound, very minor differences in tongue position. And to be fair even if you know where to put your tongue and have a minimal accent, if you speak too quickly you'll naturally go back to moving your tongue the way your muscles are used to and your accent will come back. On the flip side Swedish uses almost the exact same set of sounds as English so while learning either language is still a difficult task, pronunciation isn't and when most Swedish people speak English they have very minor accents. (I'm one of your hockey anons and my team has had a LOT of Swedish players over the years so I looked into why they didn't sound like Swedish people you see in movies, it's because Swedish people don't actually talk like that at all 😂) So the language(s) you grew up speaking affect the way your muscles move.

Language also affects the way you perceive the world. For example, the Inuit have between 40 and 70 words for snow! Imagine knowing the difference between that many types of snow! Like I said, I'm Canadian and I can only think of snow with adjectives in front of it (packy snow, frozen snow, fluffy snow) but it's still all the word snow. But it goes deeper than that. There is a stereotype that Asian people are amazing at math so "they," I don't remember who at the moment, ( the moment being 1:38 am) did I study on it, and they found that students in Eastern Asia consistently could remember more numbers when given a list of numbers than north American students could. But Asian students in North America were a mixed bag. They realized the Asian students in North America whose numbers were comparable to the east Asian scores weren't native English speakers, their first language was an East Asian language. Whereas the Asian students whose first language was English had numbers comparable to the rest of the English speakers. Most east Asian languages have a very simple way of counting, like Japanese, from my minimal understanding, the number 84 would be spoken as eight ten four, whereas in English each set of ten has it's own name which causes a longer processing time in your mind. (84 in french is 4 20 4, you have to do math just to count! I assume that would make french speakers even slower at math than English speakers, insert that video of the new York cabby going off about french numbers) also the individual numbers tend to be a single short syllable and that also quickens processing time. This allows east Asian native speakers to remember more numbers than native English speakers. Being Asian doesn't make you better at math, being a native Asian language speaker does. It's not race, it's language.

If you think about it the laws of the universe are defined by physics, and what is physics but math in motion. So, your language literally affects the wiring in your brain and your perception of the world around you.

You can hear the way a brain is wired from the way someone's tongue moves, how cool is that? AND, it can change depending on where you grew up, even with the same language! I tongue from Scotland will move differently than a tongue in Oklahoma! And you can hear it and I love it! I love accents so much. 😩😩😩

Back to jjk, would Geto put in the effort to minimize his accent? I don't think so, honestly I don't think cult leader Geto would even attempt learning English since Jujutsu is mostly in Japan, why would he want to talk to monkeys? (Also, Naoya? Not learning English either, too proud of his family line and honestly not willing to be bad at something, like everyone is at the beginning) Gojo on the other hand, I think he would learn English (to annoy more people) and know lots of words but not necessarily speak clearly, he's the best at everything right? Why wouldn't he be the best at English? So he puts no effort into minimizing his accent, doesn't think he needs to, spoiler he does, haha. I think Yuuji might learn for fun or to understand Jennifer Lawrence interviews, I think he'd have a decent accent but speak clearly.

Anyways, do you have thoughts on this? This being accents in jjk (or any anime) Or am I deliriously tired and not making sense.

finally answering this now that i can give this the attention it deserves. beforehand note, this is such a coincidence bc i took an anthropological linguistic class last sem! also HELLO ONE OF MY HOCKEY ANONS!! MISSED U!

in terms of jjk! most (besides kyoto ppl) are from northern jp, miyagi i think!! i'm from the osaka-hyogo area so there is definitely a different dialect in comparison to miyagi! i do speak more similar to that of kyoto ofc since it is closer. but, just like any city, there are sayings that are foreign in one and the ssame in another.

Most east Asian languages have a very simple way of counting, like Japanese, from my minimal understanding, the number 84 would be spoken as eight ten four, whereas in English each set of ten has it's own name which causes a longer processing time in your mind.

this part was crazy^^ to me. honestly, as somebody who speaks japanese, i never thought of this on my own though it makes perfect sense. saying this as a data science major who grew up being trilingual HAHA

gojo... i honestly think he' grow up speaking english. coming from the most notorious clan in all of jujutsu, i feel like it would just come natural to him and his clan to speak both jp and english. yuuji w the jlaw interviews made me LOL btw.

so, something funny ab naoya (specifically naoya cuz he;s fucking crazy ofc) is he speaks the kansai dialect (this is what i speak as well so ab to clown myself in the process. yk how in english there is like a "valley girl" way of speaking? kansai is the jp version of that. so naoya the all and powerful speaks japanese like a socal valley girl would speak english.

anyways, i loved reading this! language and anthropology in general is so interesting to me. its so cool learned about different people and what makes them... them!! another silly to imagine, when i was little i would sometimes accidentally use an accent from one of my languages when speakig another. imagine a 5 year old xi speaking spanish in a japanese accent lol

[afactaday]

#aFactADay2023

#1051: a snowclone is a phrasal template for a cliché. for example, the cliché that in space no-one can hear noise leads to the snowclone "in space, no-one can hear you X". snowclones often also take the form of parodies of famous quotes and feature in memes a lot. i spose you could argue that all memes where you take a well-known comic and write over the text is a snowclone. the word "snowclone" refers to one of the most famous snowclones that Eskimos (Yupik and Inuit) have X words for snow (and therefore Y must have Z words for W, eg Germans and bureaucracy, or car manufacturers and beige).