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serpentface · 11 months ago

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Do you conlang? I was wondering if you had naming languages (or possibly even more developed ones) for pulling the words you use. I tried to search your blog but didn't find anything, wouldn't be surprised if the feature is just busted tho. Your worldbuilding is wonderful and I particularly enjoy the anthropological and linguistic elements.

Ok the thing is I had kind of decided I was not going to do any conlanging because I don't feel like I'm equipped to do a good job of it, like was fully like "I'm just going to do JUST enough that it doesn't fail an immediate sniff test and is more thoughtful than just keysmashing and putting in vowels". And then have kinda been conlanging anyway (though not to a very deep and serious extent. I maybe have like....an above average comprehension of how language construction works via willingness to research, but that's not saying much, also I can never remember the meanings of most linguistic terms like 'frictives' or etc off the top of my head. I'm just kinda raw dogging it with a vague conceptualization of what these things mean)

I do at least have a naming language for Wardi (and more basic rules for other established languages) but the rudimentary forms of it were devised with methods much shakier and less linguistically viable than even the most basic naming language schemes, and I only went back over it LONG after I had already made a bunch of words so there's some inconsistencies with consonant presence and usage. (This can at least be justified because it IS a language that would have a lot of loanwords and would be heavily influenced by other language groups- Burri being by far the most significant, Highland-Finnic and Yuroma-Lowlands also being large contributors)

The 'method' I used was:

-Skip basic construction elements and fully move into devising necessary name words, with at least a Vibe of what consonants are going to be common and how pronunciation works -Identify some roots out of the established words and their meanings. Establish an ongoing glossary of known roots/words. -Construct new words based in root words, or as obvious extensions/variants of established words. -Get really involved in how the literal meanings of some words might not translate properly to english, mostly use this to produce a glossary of in-universe slang. -Realize that I probably should have at least some very basic internal consistency at this point. -Google search tutorials on writing a naming language. -Reverse engineer a naming language out of established words, and ascribe all remaining inconsistencies to being loanwords or just the mysteries of life or whatever.

I do at least have some strongly established pronunciation rules and a sense of broad regional dialect/accents.

-'ai' words are almost always pronounced with a long 'aye' sound.

-There is no 'Z' or 'X' sound, a Wardi speaker pronouncing 'zebra' would go for 'tsee-brah', and would attempt 'xylophone' as 'ssye-lohp-hon'

-'V' sounds are nearly absent and occur only in loanwords, and tend to be pronounced with a 'W' sound. 'Virsum' is a Highland word (pronounced 'veer-soom') denoting ancestry, a Wardi speaker would go 'weer-sum'.

-'Ch' spellings almost always imply a soft 'chuh' sound when appearing after an E, I, or O (pelatoche= pel-ah-toh-chey), but a hard 'kh' sound after an A or U (odomache= oh-doh-mah-khe). When at the start of a word, it's usually a soft 'ch' unless followed by an 'i' sound (chin (dog) is pronounced with a hard K 'khiin', cholem (salt) is pronounced with a soft Ch 'cho-lehm')

-Western Wardin has strong Burri cultural and linguistic influence, and a distinct accent- one of the most pronounced differences is use of the ñ sound in 'nn' words. The western city of Ephennos is pronounced 'ey-fey-nyos' by most residents, the southeastern city of Erubinnos is pronounced 'eh-roo-been-nos' by most residents. Palo's surname 'Apolynnon' is pronounced 'A-puh-lee-nyon' in the Burri and western Wardi dialects (which is the 'proper' pronunciation, given that it's a Kos name), but will generally be spoken as 'Ah-poh-leen-non' in the south and east.

-R's are rolled in Highland-Finnic words. Rolling R's is common in far northern rural Wardi dialects but no others. Most urban Wardi speakers consider rolling R's sort of a hick thing, and often think it sounds stupid or at least uneducated. (Brakul's name should be pronounced with a brief rolled 'r', short 'ah' and long 'uul', but is generally being pronounced by his south-southeastern compatriots with a long unrolled 'Brah' sound).

Anyway not really a sturdy construction that will hold up to the scrutiny of someone well equipped for linguistics but not pure bullshit either.

#I actually did just make a post about this on my sideblog LOL I think in spite of my deciding not to conlang this is going to go full #full conlanging at some point #The main issue is that the narrative/dialogue is being written as an english 'translation' (IE the characters are speaking in their actual #tongues and it's being translated to english with accurate meaning but non-literal treatment)#Which you might say like 'Uh Yeah No Shit' but I think approaching it with that mindset at the forefront does have a different effect than #just fully writing in english. Like there's some mindfulness to what they actually might be saying and what literal meanings should be #retained to form a better understanding of the culture and what should be 'translated' non-literally but with accurate meaning #(And what should be not translated at all)#But yeah there's very little motivation for conlanging besides Pure Fun because VERY few Wardi words beyond animal/people/place names #will make it into the actual text. Like the only things I leave 'untranslated' are very key or untranslatable concepts that will be #better understood through implication than attempts to convey the meaning in english #Like the epithet 'ganmachen' is used to compliment positive traits associated with the ox zodiac sign or affectionately tease #negative ones. This idea can be established pretty naturally without exposition dumps because the zodiac signs are of cultural #importance and will come up frequently. The meaning can get across to the reader pretty well if properly set up.#So like leaving it as 'ganmachen' you can get 'oh this is an affectionate reference to an auspicious zodiac sign' but translating #it as the actual meaning of 'ox-faced' is inevitably going to come across as 'you look like a cow' regardless of any zodiac angle #^(pretty much retyped tags from other post)#Another aspect is there's a few characters that have Wardi as a second language and some of whom don't have a solid grasp on it #And I want to convey this in dialogue (which is being written in english) but I don't want it to just be like. Random '''broken''' english #like I want there to be an internal consistency to what parts of the language they have difficulties with (which then has implications for #how each language's grammar/conjugation/etc works). Like Brakul is fairly fluent in Wardi at the time of the story but still struggles #with some of the conjugation (which is inflectional in Wardi) especially future/preterite tense. So he'll sometimes just use the #verb unconjugated or inappropriately in present tense. Though this doesn't come across as starkly in text because it's #written in english. Like his future tense Wardi is depicted as like 'I am to talk with him later' instead of 'I'll talk with him later'#Which sounds unnatural but not like fully incorrect #But it would sound much more Off in Wardi. Spanish might be a better example like it would be like him approaching it with #'Voy a hablar con él más tarde' or maybe 'Hablo con él más tarde' instead of 'Hablaré con él más tarde'#(I THINK. I'm not a fluent spanish speaker sorry if the latter has anything wrong with it too)

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oldguardleatherdog · 6 months ago

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"How now shall we live?"

First steps towards an effective resistance.

What was good and true and right the day before the election remains good and true and right today, and no mass delusion or wrong choice by a misguided and ill-informed majority changes that truth.

A revival of the Resistance movement is starting to stir online and in the real world; resolve is beginning to coalesce among people of goodwill. I would favor an approach designed to prevent the POS from taking office at all, but since Kamala's come out in favor of a boring old peaceful transition (dang it!), a different strategy is called for.

The best ideas I've seen are variations on finding ways to thwart the POS and his gang of idiots at every turn using every tool we have available to us, and I think that’s going to be our way forward.

But for us to have a chance at effective resistance at scale, resolve and energy and a united effort on the LGBTQ+ side and other parts of our “coalition of the good” will be required in abundance to sustain long-term resistance and disruption of the plans and actions of this Administration that are clearly designed to injure and harm us in a multitude of ways; many of us have been put on notice that we’re targets, and the level of fear and uncertainty of our safety is off the charts – something America has not had to contend with in hundreds of years.

What could an effective, robust, muscular resistance look like in our current moment? Well, I have thoughts. Stay with me here, I have specifics to lay out for you, but there are some words to climb - beautiful words, all the best words, strong men with tears in their eyes come to me and say - (continued after the jump)

It begins with individual resolve, and continues by engaging with others. This is not the time to isolate, to stay solo: we need to connect. No self-lockdowns or heads in the sand or hiding under the covers!

It's not important to have a fully fleshed-out game plan at this point. It's important that we view things as they are and discern the next right thing to do. We need to make sure that we walk in the light, that we stay aligned with what we know is right. If we allow darkness or corrupt motives into what we do, we will fail. (This is getting slightly on the woo-woo side of things, but I view it as fundamental to our success.)

Light is a funny thing: it dispels darkness, it provides safety, it guides us through rough waters and difficult pathways, but in concentrated form it can be a laser that slices someone's arm off, and it can give you skin cancer if you're outdoors without sunscreen.

Lucifer, after all, is the Angel of Light, as his name in Latin will tell you - and this activist and spiritual warrior of four decades will tell you that each step we take needs to be effective, morally justifiable, and targeted so that collateral damage is minimized. MAGAs bludgeon with indiscriminate blunderbusses and misshapen cudgels; we wield stilettos, trip wires, keenly aimed photon grenades into unprotected garbage vents.

I am convinced that we will endure, survive, even thrive, and in the end prevail.

This will be the most difficult effort of our lives to date, individually and collectively, and the stakes could not be higher.

We do not yet know the shape and form of the perils in store. What is already apparent, though, is the wanton cruelty and brazen sadism of our enemies now unfurled at full mast, as the vile stench of the devious, depraved methods they’re devising to inflict maximum misery wafts towards us.

They have not been shy or coy in communicating their plans and intentions, and they’ve been gleefully bragging about the methods, implements, tools, and techniques they intend to employ to bring their dark and nihilistic vision into reality.

They are, almost literally, and with the full-throated exhortations of their Christian Nationalist religious auxiliaries and avatars and “prophets,” bringing Armageddon from the fever dreams of St. John out of antiquity and into our real world. For the first time since September 11th, humanity will encounter pure unadulterated evil in ways we can see, hear, feel, taste, smell, made corporeal, physical, inescapable, and we will have to contend with it face to face.

Right now, I'm not advocating leaving the country, but our trans friends in particular will need to have resources and safe pathways to move to sanctuary cities and states. We need to throw our support behind organizations that can effectively and responsibly move people out of danger, and if those orgs don't exist, we need to create them.

I'd intended to retire from activism post-election, but I've changed my plans. I'm here for the long haul.

We are not fools. We know what we see. We know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, what destroys and what uplifts.

And when we behave accordingly, with smarts and courage and clarity of intent and spirit, we can from time to time do some real good in this world.

Of course, progress comes in fits and starts, and this is a scary time no matter how grown-up we are, but we've got to be brave enough to live and to fight for what’s right, even when all we can see is darkness.

Remember, you are not alone, and we are finding ways to support you when you reach out.

~~~

All these words, Animal, I hear you saying. All these lofty thoughts, all this cheerleading, and you haven’t given us one damn thing to do about this. Do you actually have a plan? Or even a concept of a plan?

Well…the first thing to do is engage.

Staying solo won't help. Human contact is key right now, for the cause, and for our own spirits. Do not isolate.

There are already gatherings and organizations ramping up and calls for zoom meetups and in-person actions. Monitor your socials, keep your eyes and ears open, and you will find a place or places where your help will be uniquely well fitted.

Look at your communities, the people and places that make up the fabric of your daily life and walk, and you will find many dynamic and determined people from all backgrounds and age groups who are ready to do something now.

You may want to consider starting something yourself, first as a mutual encouragement effort among friends, and then as the weeks go by and you see what's coming down the pike, develop counter-actions with the group you've got. Feel free to reach out to me for ideas and advice and encouragement and shoulder to cry on and everything and anything you can imagine. I'm not going anywhere.

~~~

I’ve been thinking about a time many years ago, when I was a young hotheaded activist in local politics here in San Francisco, and a friend said something that rewrote my world:

I was pissed off after our election for Mayor went the wrong way - the former police chief beat the progressive incumbent after running on an anti-gay platform during the height of AIDS.

I was riding with a friend of mine, older than me and definitely wiser, who was a longtime student at the San Francisco Zen Center (perhaps an aspirant or acolyte? He lived there and was more than a novice for sure).

As I growled and seethed in the passenger seat, my friend said to me, quietly and calmly,

“Ram Dass had an expression for moments like these: ‘How now shall we live?’”

I was dumbstruck. Just like that, the scales fell and I got it.

To answer the challenge of “How now shall we live?” is to open our eyes with maximum clarity, in the light of day, and see with truth and courage the reality we see around us in this moment, unvarnished, unobstructed, uncompromising, to take a comprehensive and authentic look at and accounting of our world as it is -

and based on the truth of what we see, do the next right thing – it could be a small act or a large task, affecting just one person or situation or many, to make contact with someone or to repair a broken hinge or to run for office, it will have a million variations but as you think on this and give it focus your next right task will present itself to you, unique to you.

And when that task is done, that thing accomplished, repeat the process and do the next right thing, and the next one, and the next right thing after that, until it becomes second nature, it becomes part of your daily walk through life.

I have seen the positive effects of this approach in my own life and in the lives of others, and I’m not here to lie to you. It’s simple, it’s clear, it’s grounded in our true nature, and it yields positive results that make a tangible difference soon enough that you can begin to trust the process and build on your results.

I intend to make this approach my primary tool for effective resistance and sustained activism against this rotten, misbegotten Administration, and I hope that others will take all or part of this approach and integrate it into their own work as individuals and in their group efforts as well. It’s effective, it’s not complicated, and it gets results.

In this way, we can begin to make things right, and I am convinced that by doing the next right thing, consistently, with focus and intention, with care and clear intent, with enough of us using this approach and taking it to heart, we will drive back, disrupt, thwart, spoil, deflect, defang and defeat the plans and intentions of The Liar Donald Trump and his pack of slavering billionaires, enablers, enforcers, worshippers, and followers.

This fight is worth fighting. They do not have the right to disrupt our lives and our families and our freedom to live as we see fit, and there is nothing about supporting a victorious politician that grants them that power or the license to come waltzing in, order us around, and haul us off to some internment camp built by their construction cronies for kickbacks. ~~~ How now shall we live?

We shall live in ways and acts that reflect our true nature, which rise from the best in each of us.

We shall live in ways and acts that bring positive effects to our lives and the lives of others, that protect the vulnerable, the sick and the disabled,

that rebuke and repel the presence and actions of those who want to injure us, imprison us, strip us of our rights and dignity and humanity,

that renew and restore the basic decency and goodness of heart that has been missing from too many of us for too long.

We shall live with our heads held high, with strength and purpose and focus, with clear intent and forward motion and love for ourselves and for each other and for our world,

We shall live with joy in the present and real hope for the future.

And here, and now, we shall not lose heart.

We are brave enough and strong enough to fight for what we treasure in this world.

We know what matters. We know what to do.

We will fight, and we will win.

Don’t forget to breathe!

#information gladly given #it's a fucking battle cry #animal j. smith #election 2024 #we are alive #effective resistance #wall o' text #long post

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