#Tiv

[small-sketch]

✨KICKSTARTER ALERT!!✨

THATS RIGHT I have begun my first ever kickstarter in order to make my silly mascots into stickers and possibly a charm if enough people are interested! I’m very excited and hope these little guys catch your interest!

Check them out HERE for more info 💗

[polyvinyls]

Platonica / Luminoustar (original characters) from Fluo

[sachi]

☆ Hatsune Miku // VOCALOID "NEO TOKYO Series: IDOL" ☆ TENITOL / FuRyu ☆ July 2024 ¥5,940 ☆ Sculpt Design COCO Paint k2b Art Director CHIGA Illustration Tiv

[flock-from-the-void]

Happy WBW! 💚 In honor of Aro Week: how does your world view anti-amanormative ideas or practices? In other words, how does the world at large view people or ideas that don't prioritize romance or romantic relationships?

OHOHO DO I HAVE A TREAT FOR YOU

Let's go with my dear And May the Moon Shine Over Your Ways. (((btw MC of it, Tiv, is aro)))

SO basically in all elvish cultures, friendships are seen as more stable and important than romantic relationships. It is an ancient tradition, woven into very core of elvishness. Elves' sexuality and libido tends to fluctuate quite a bit and typical family is parents raising a child and separating after the child enters adulthood – but friendships?? friendships are forever! Additionally among noverentos, dominating elvish culture, they're connected to a complicated system of inheritance and serve as a way of building a political power.

Also I want to mention some of my aro characters here! Tiv, mentioned above, is aroace, as well as David. Qana'el from Godly Spring Rolls (I promise I'll make an intro for it one day) is aroallo. In Mirage of Spring Xióng Yǒu is aroace and Yáng Niǎomáo is an allosexual aroflux person! Excluding David (who doesn't really have a story for now) their aro identity influences their arcs and characters, it isn't just a thing I'm throwing randomly here. Plus both And May the Moon Shine Over Your Ways and Mirage of Spring feature queerplatonic relationships!

I'm not aro myself but I have a lot of aro friends so featuring aro characters is really important for me

AMMSOYW taglist: @gummybugg , @jasperygrace , @sam-glade , @cruorons , @leytaylorjohnson

[hatsumishinogu]

Masamune-kun no Revenge Vol.13 -engagement- (end)

[javasquats]

Okay so, you may notice that a lot of the names have to to with god, directly or indirectly. Praising him, telling his goodness, receiving gifts from him. Tribal names are given very intentionally, and in a now vey Christianized context, very often have to do with god, in some way ascribing the blessing of the child to him. Sewuesedoo, it is good to thank god [for this child], Aondodoo, god is good [for giving us this child], etc.

Traditionally, names had more to do with the circumstances surrounding a child's birth rather than the child itself. An aunt on my mom's side is named "Nanier": "nan" = what, "i" = in this context being you plural (pronounced "ee"), "er" = to do/to be/to happen (pronounced "ay"). Altogether, it basically means "what did you (all) do?" or "what happened?" What happened was, back then, extended families lived in large compounds together with individual homes to a family/couple. But my grandfather pissed off one of his uncles (by flirting with said uncle's wife), and so he, my pregnant grandmother and my oldest aunt were kicked out of the compound. The family farm was quite far from the compound, so a small hut had been built out there for people to rest in if they got tired instead of going all the way home. My grandparents stayed there waiting for the uncle to calm down and let them come home, and it was there that my grandmother gave birth to my aunt. When her mom came by to see the baby, she was surprised to find them all the way out there, so she asked them "Nanier?" basically, "wtf are y'all doing out here???" and that's how my aunt got her name which is kind of hilarious.

A bunch of my aunts and uncles on my dad's side have names having to do with power struggle, because around the time my paternal grandfather was having a bunch of kids, he felt he was being cheated out of a position of power that was rightfully his. Mbadum: "mba" = they are (the m is basically silent so it's pronounced "ba"), "du" = to remove, "m" = again, to make it personal, so essentially "they are removing me (from the position I deserve)". Mlumun: "m" = to make it personal, "lumun" = to release, basically "I have left it", I guess when he gave up.

I can't remember all my maternal aunts' and uncles' tribal names off the top of my head, but by the time they got to kid number five (of eight!), they had more to do with god. Ngusonun: "ngu" = is (the n is basically silent, pronounced "gu"), sonun = looking after, "[god] is looking after".

Certain names used to be a lot more gendered, for example Doosuur is typically a girl's name but the cousin I have named that is a dude. A lot of names still are, like Dooshima, Adoo, etc. are still mostly girl's names. Ngutor, Tersoo, etc. are more masculine. It's not like taboo or anything, it's more like how you'd probably do a double take if you met a guy named Jane. Lots of other names are gender neutral though, Sughnen, Sesugh, etc.

The phonestics of Tiv aren't too complicated, although you may have noticed some silent letters. These are almost always at the beginning of words, and basically give the next letter some umph. Like the town of Gboko, the g is silent but it gives the b some extra umph to it that's hard to convey in text.

There are a BUNCH of homophones though which drives me INSANE. The words for yam, house/room, honey, and [one's own] body are all basically pronounced the exact same way and the only difference is stress and sometimes context. I grew up in America until I was ten, so my Tiv accent is abysmal, making it nearly impossible for me to say some of these things correctly, even thirteen years later (I will admit I kinda gave up after a couple of months because I was sick of my cousins teasing me about it, and only picked it up again when an older girl in boarding school found out we were the same tribe but I couldn't speak the language and then ONLY spoke to me in Tiv).

There are some words which basically mean the same thing but are used in different contexts. For example "zege" and "kehe" both basically mean "big", but "zege" conveys more size while "kehe" conveys more weight. Basically, you would describe a house as large (zege), but a dog as heavy (kehe".

Then there are words that don't have specifics. The word to describe food as being good is "nyoho", and although it's used more to describe sweet foods, there isn't really a distinction between sweet and savory. So you would describe the really good fried chicken you had for lunch and the really good cake you had for dessert with the same exact word.

One interesting little fact is what Tiv shares with Hausa. The word for church/worship is the same in both languages, "aduwa", and the words for school are very similar "makaranta" in Hausa and "manta" in Tiv. The words for for food are not the same, but are built the same way: "abinci" in Hausa, "abin" = something, ci = to eat, "something to eat", "kwayan" in Tiv, "kwa" = something, "yan" = to eat, "something to eat". Tiv people allegedly came from somewhere east before settling in the Benue River basin, and Hausa people are decidedly northerners, so this is likely to do with interactions in trade than a common ancestry, but I think it's interesting anyways.

Back in the day, Aondo was the name of the almighty, supreme god. There were a myriad of smaller dieties, spirits and powers under him. Basically, if you had a problem, you went to one of the little guys, offering prayers or sacrifices or whatever. If the problem wasn't fixed, you went to a bigger guy, all the way up to the big guy, Aondo. When the missionaries came, Aondo became the name for the like Yahweh, because the idea of being supreme over all is basically the same. Like I said, both in worship and in naming, "Ter" (meaning father) and Aondo are used fairly interchangeably, Aondo being more formal. "Ter Aondo" specifically refers to god the father. "Jijingi" just means spirit, but in a chrisitan context refers to the Holy Spirit, more formally "Jijingi u Civi", that is, "the spirit of purity/holiness". Jesus is just Yesu, or Yesu Kristu for Jesus Christ. "Tor" also a title that's used sometimes, although less often. It means "king", and heaven is called "Tar Tor", the land of the king. "Msen" means "prayer".

The Tiv people were traditionally a very decentralized people, having clan heads of families and groups of families rather than an overall king. My people are from Kwande, so there's the Ter-Kwande, "father of Kwande". When the British came they didn't like that very much though so they put someone in charge so they could just refer to one person instead of having to deal with a bunch of elders and chiefs and whatnot. He's called the "Tor Tiv", "king of Tiv" which is something of a misleading title. Although it's a very important position with power and wealth and all that, it's not a line of succession. When the Tor Tiv dies, rather than one of his sons becoming the next Tor Tiv, a new one is elected. There have been I think around Tor Tivs total, which shows you how recent the development is, only about some hundred plus years

This is all so cool holy moly. That’s so interesting that by that traditional naming convention, tribal names sort of mark family history!! I can’t get over the fact that your aunt got her name from her grandmother basically saying “Ayo wtf happened??” That’s incredible.

Also please note that after reading this last night, I went and spent an hour looking at articles on Tiv phonology (instead of washing dishes), because that’s the type of stuff that I fixate on I guess. I was curious about the sounds you were saying had more “umph” but couldn’t find a specific explanation. Maybe I’ll be able to find a video where I can pick up on the sounds, idk I’m just curious to hear them after reading your description. I did read that Tiv is a tonal language, which like. Yeah picking back up on learning that after 10 years in the US sounds Tough lol

Re: the word stuff, it’s always fun to see how different languages vary in the ways they divide meaning! Like two concepts that are grouped together in one language will have distinct words in another. Also, the Hausa overlap is really neat too! Hausa is a Chadic language, so it wouldn’t share ancestry with Tiv. The similarities would instead be from language contact as you said, like how English has borrowed from French, Latin, Spanish, etc. but is not a Romance language.

It’s also very interesting hearing about how the religious and political systems changed under colonialism. Leave it to the British imperialists to just group people together regardless of culturally determined distinctions.

Thank you so much for the mini language cultural history lesson!! I love learning things

[khromagraffik-ai]

in an effort to create something specifically for this blog / tumblr (instead of just relying on older baggage) i created this untitled sci-fi type vehicle literally minutes before this post. be on the lookout for unique "style" tags indicating results using specific prompt combinations i'll be revisiting on occasion.

[starcrossedviolets]

My Otome OCs!

Note: I'm just recently semi-reviving this blog & previously used one OC for all otome games, so at the moment this post is pretty bare.

Obey Me

Veronica aka Ronnie (MC/Human)

Titivillus aka Tiv (Demon)

Morgan (Human/Sorceress)

Kassia (Angel)

[french-train]

[tivs-stuff]

"Perhaps one day, after the City is safe... Osiris and I will return to a dream we thought we'd lost forever." - Saint-14

[collidew1thesky]

once your off your break.. i beg of you to draw the 4 sbg boys as this

they made a concept album and the concept was being losers

[small-sketch]

The brain gang looks at the stars

[tiverrr]

happy valentine's day !! <3

(john's on his tippy toes)

[artismeyou-12]

Doodle my oc Dreamcore

[flock-from-the-void]

Two Truths One Lie

I was tagged by @on-noon here! Thank you for the tag!

Rules: list two truths and a lie for one of your OCs. Let people vote for the lie.

Let's go with Tiv from And May the Moon

Please, reblog this poll with your thoughts and for a boost! Follow if you want to find out if you were right next week!

Tagging! @mitchell-nihil, @chuuyas-beloved, @yesireadbooks, @zestymimblo, @fire-but-ashes-too, @toribookworm22

And May the Moon taglist: @gummybugg​, @jasperygrace, @sam-glade

[hatsumishinogu]

Masamune-kun no Revenge Vol.7 (New Edition) (end)