#especially cornish and irish

[wolverinesorcery]

UNBLENDING CELTIC POLYTHEISTIC PRACTICES

Celtic Umbrella

This lesson is largely focusing on the insular Celtic nations & Brittany (Ireland/Eire, Scotland/Alba, Wales/Cymru, Cornwall/Kernow, Isle of Man/Mannin, & Brittany/Breizh) - traditionally regarded as 6 out of the 7 Celtic nations. Galicia/Galizia is the 7th, but because of a mix of the below + my own lack of knowledge, I won't be covering them.

The vast swath of Continental Celtic cultures are a different but equally complex topic thanks to extinction, revival, varying archaeological artefacts and the work of modern practioners to piece unknown parts back together.

This will serve as a quick 'n' dirty guide to the insular Celtic nations, Celtic as a label, blood percentages and ancestry, the whats and whys of "Celtic soup", and how to unblend practice.

The insular Celtic groups are split into two language groups: Brythonic languages and Gaelic languages.

Brythonic languages are Cymraeg/Welsh, Kernewek/Cornish, & Breton

Gaelic languages are Gàidhlig/Scottish, Gaeilge/Irish, & Gaelg/Manx.

The language split leads to certain folkloric and religious figures & elements being more common within the language group than without. All of these nations had historic cultural exchange and trade routes via the Celtic sea (and beyond). Despite this, it is still important to respect each as a home to distinct mythologies.

Pros/Cons of a broad Celtic umbrella

Pros

- Used within celtic nations to build solidarity - Relates to a set of cultures that have historic cultural exchange & broad shared experiences - A historic group category - Celtic nations’ culture is often protected under broad legislation that explicitly highlights its ‘Celtic-ness’.

Cons

- Can be used reductively (in academia & layman uses) - Often gives in to the dual threat of romanticisation/fetishisation & erasure - Conflates a lot of disparate practices under one banner - Can lead to centring ‘celtic american’ experiences. - Celtic as a broad ancestral category (along with associated symbols) has also been co-opted by white supremacist organisations.

In this I’m using ‘Celtic’ as a broad umbrella for the multiple pantheons! This isn’t ideal for specifics, but it is the fastest way to refer to the various pantheons of deities that’ll be referenced within this Q&A (& something that I use as a self identifier alongside Cornish).

What about blood % or ancestry?

A blood percentage or claimed Celtic ancestry is NOT a requirement to be a follower of any of the Celtic pantheons. The assumption that it does or is needed to disclose can feed easily into white supremacist narratives and rhetoric, along side the insidious implications that a white person in the USA with (perceived or real) Celtic ancestry is 'more celtic' than a person of colour living in a Celtic region (along with other romanticised notions of homogenously white cultures).

Along side this, a blood percentage or distant ancestry does not impart the culture and values of the Celtic region or it's recorded pagan practices by itself. Folk traditions are often passed down within families, but blood percentage is not a primary factor within this.

Connecting with ancestry is fine, good, and can be a fulfilling experience. It stops being beneficial when it leads to speaking over people with lived experiences & centres the USA-based published and authors - which can lead to blending/souping for reasons further on.

What is 'soup'?

Celtic soup is a semi-playful term coined by several polytheists (primarily aigeannagusacair on wordpress) to describe the phenomenon of conflating & combining all the separate pantheons and practices from the (mainly) insular Celtic nations into one singular practice - removing a lot of the regionalised folklore, associated mythos, & varying nuances of the nations that make up the soup.

Why does it happen?

The quick version of this is book trends and publishing meeting romanticisation and exotification of Celtic cultures (especially when mixed with pre-lapsarian views of the Nations). It's miles easier to sell a very generally titled book with a lot of Ireland and a little of everywhere else than it is to write, source and publish a separate book on each.

This is where centering American publishers and authors becomes an issue - the popular trend of USA-based pagan publications to conflate all celtic nations makes it hard to find information on, for example, Mannin practices because of the USA’s tendency to dominate media. Think of Llewellyn’s “Celtic Wisdom” series of books.

It has also been furthered by 'quick research guides'/TL;DR style posts based on the above (which have gained particular momentum on tumblr).

The things that have hindered the process in unblending/"de souping" is the difficulty in preserving independently published pamphlets/books from various nations (often more regionalised and immediately local than large, sweeping books generalising multiple practices) along with the difficulty of accessing historic resources via academic gatekeeping.

All of this has lead to a lack of awareness of the fact there is no, one, singular Celtic religion, practice or pantheon.

Why should I de-soup or unblend my practice?

Respecting the deities

It is, by and large, considered the bare minimum to understand and research a deity's origin and roots. The conflation of all insular Celtic deities under one singular unified pantheon can divorce them from their original cultures and contexts - the direct opposite to understanding and researching.

Folklore and myth surrounding various Celtic deities can be highly regionalised both in grounded reality and geomythically - these aren't interchangeable locations and are often highly symbolic within each nation.

Brú na Bóinne, an ancient burial mound in Ireland, as an entrance to the otherworld of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Carn Kenidjack & the Gump as a central site of Cornish folk entities feasts and parties, including Christianised elements of Bucca’s mythology.

The Mabinogion includes specific locations in Wales as well as broad Kingdoms - it’s implied that Annwn is somewhere within the historic kingdom of Dyfed, & two otherworldly feasts take place in Harlech & Ynys Gwales.

Conflating all celtic pantheons under one banner often leads to the prioritisation of the Irish pantheon, meaning all of the less ‘popular’ or recorded deities are sidelined and often left unresearched (which can lead to sources & resources falling into obscurity and becoming difficult to access).

Respecting the deities

Deities, spirits, entities, myth & folklore are often culturally significant both historically and to modern day people (just average folks along with practitoners/pagans/polytheists and organisations) located in the various Nations

A primary example is the initiatory Bardic orders of Wales and Cornwall.

Desouping/Unblending makes folklorist's lives easier as well as casual research less difficult to parse. The general books are a helpful jumping off point but when they constitute the bulk of writing on various Celtic polytheisms, they become a hinderance and a harm in the research process.

A lot of mythology outside of deities & polytheisms is also a victim of ‘souping' and is equally as culturally significant - Arthurian mythology is a feature of both Welsh and Cornish culture but is often applied liberally as an English mythology & and English figure.

Celtic nations being blended into one homogenous group is an easy way to erase cultural differences and remove agency from the people living in celtic nations. Cornwall is already considered by a large majority of people to be just an English county, and many areas of Wales are being renamed in English for the ease of English tourists.

How can I de-soup?

Chase down your sources' sources, and look for even more sources

Check your sources critically. Do they conflate all pantheons as one? Do they apply a collective label (the celts/celts/celt/celtic people) to modern day Celtic nations? How far back in history do they claim to reach?

Research the author, are they dubious in more ways than one? Have they written blog articles you can access to understand more of their viewpoints? Where are they located?

Find the people the author cites within their work - it can be time consuming but incredibly rewarding and can also give a good hint at the author's biases and research depth. You may even find useful further reading!

Find primary sources (or as close too), or translations of the originating folklore, e.g The Mabinogion. Going to the source of a pantheon’s mythos and folklore can be helpful in discerning where soup begins in more recent books as well as gaining insight into deities' actions and relationships.

Ask lots of questions

Question every source! Question every person telling you things that don't define what pantheon or region they’re talking about! Write all your questions down and search for answers! Talk to other polytheists that follow specific Celtic pantheons, find where your practices naturally overlap and where they have been forced into one practice by authors!

Be honest with yourself

There’s no foul in spreading your worship over several pantheons that fall under the celtic umbrella! A lot of polytheists worship multiple pantheons! But be aware of the potential for soup, and make sure you’re not exclusively reading and working from/with sources that conflate all practices as one.

If you approach any Celtic polytheistic path with the attitude of blood percentage or 'ancestral right', stop and think critically about why you want to follow a Celtic polytheistic path. Is it because it's the most obviously 'open' path to follow? Is it a desire to experience what other folks experience? Being critical, turning inward, and really looking at yourself is important. Originally posted in the Raven's Keep discord server

[pinkacademic]

Studying Language

Sorry I've been rather inactive, I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing of things!

This is something I’m actually qualified to talk about! I speak three languages fluently, albeit in need of a little practise, and I’m learning one more currently, with one on pause due to time constraints. Nevertheless, I feel pretty confident in my information lol. I’m also a qualified TEFL teacher and have worked abroad teaching English!

Full immersion is the best option. The best thing you can do is spend your time in a country that speaks your target language and force yourself to learn, once you have the “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Where is the bathroom?” all mastered. In Ireland, there are places called Gaeltachtanna where you go for different lengths of time depending on the course and live in a town speaking exclusively Irish, usually staying with an Irish-speaking family, and going to classes for the language and for games and dances. Of course, that’s not an accesible option for everyone, so you could try going to places like your nearest Asian market, Eastern European market etc, and any areas in your city with a lot of immigrants that might speak your target language. If you have friends who speak that language, natively or just to a better level than you, ask to meet them for coffee and chat as much as you can in your language.

Immersion Part Two: Culture. The people who speak your target language natively do so not just becaus that’s the place in which they exist, but because that’s the place that they live- they get their groceries there, they go to school there, and their language developed because of the day-to-day, as well as unique aspects of their culture such as dances, music, and especially food. Learn about the culture of the country or countries that speak your target language. Eg, fold a paper crane or eat sushi if your language of choice is Japanese, watch an telenovela or go to a salsa class if your goal is to learn Spanish.

Watch TV shows in your Target Language. If you can’t access the locations, and even if you can, watching TV or movies is great because it’ll help you understand the cadences of natural speech that you can’t get from a textbook or formal class situation. Start with movies you might be familiar with like Disney movies (I will die on the hill of “Mother knows Best” from Tangled is better in Spanish). You can also combine your subtitles and audio, using subtitles in your own language at first, and challenge yourself to changing the subtitle.

Similar to the above points, use YouTube or Twitch to your advantage too. That’s probably a lot easier if your target language is English, but there are creators that speak in their non-English native language too. My friend watches a Mexican Minecraft YouTuber called Quackity who has a Minecraft server modded to feature a live translator between Spanish and English, which is very cool.

Read books in your Target Language. We don’t love The Chronicles of the Boy Wizard in this house, but the books are available in 85 languages. The Hobbit also has a tonne including Cornish, Thai, and Ukranian, and Twilight has about 37 translations, just to list a few well-known examples. Learn especially about books written originally in your target language.

Consume Media Originally from the Country or Countries that Speak that Language. Read the Witcher, watch Física o Química, join the dubbed vs subbed anime bloodbath. It can be so beneficial to your understanding of a language to see how those who speak it write it themselves, not just for localisation purposes. It can especially be useful for slang and dialects.

Duolingo and other apps. I’m swiftly approaching my 365 day duolingo streak,* and I fully intend to celebrate with pierogis and a green cake. But there are other options out there, and all of them are great for beginners. I can only speak about Duolingo as its the one I use, but I’m having a lot of fun with the layout of it. However, I do need real practice if I’m going to become actually fluent.

That’s it! I hope this has been helpful!

*I've surpassed it since writing this!! I'm at 400+!!

[languageswithhomer]

❀𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒚𝒃𝒍𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐❀

Hi there! My name is Phi, I’m from the UK and I’m currently studying a Linguistics and Languages degree. My dream is to become a Speech Therapist (also an author, translator and language teacher on the side - I have a lot of dreams, and most of them are about words!) ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

why have I made this blog?

Since I am a distance-learning student, it can sometimes be difficult to find the motivation to study so I really hope this blog will hold me accountable and keep me productive.

I also really admire the studyblr & langblr communities and hope to make some friends who are similarly passionate about all things languages! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

what languages will I post about?

Languages I speak/ am currently learning:

♡ English (Native/ C2)

Posts will be tagged #english and/or #english resources

♡ Castilian Spanish (intermediate to advanced/ B2 -> C1)

Posts will be tagged #castellano and/or #recursos castellano

Please note: I refer to the language as Castilian/ castellano instead of Spanish/ español out of respect for the co-official languages of Spain and also to recognise the language’s divergence from its Latin American variants

♡ German (Beginner/ A2)

Posts will be tagged #deutsch and/or #deutsche Ressourcen

⭒ I will make posts expanding on my background with each language soon ⭒

Languages I hope to start studying soon:

♡ Scottish Gaelic

I intend to begin independent study of Gàidhlig in September - October 2024 and I’m so excited!

♡ Russian

My friend and I are going to begin buddy learning Russian in March 2025 and I can’t wait!

♡ Catalan

I’m so excited to learn Catalan but, given its similarities with Spanish, I don’t want to confuse myself. So I intend to start learning it when I have finished my degree in May 2027!

⭒ If you have any questions or advice for me based on these languages, please don’t hesitate to drop me an ask or a message ⭒

Other languages I’m interested in (warning: there’s a lot):

♡ Irish, Welsh, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Greek, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Italian (especially Sicilian), Cherokee, Navajo, Guarani, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Korean, Yiddish, Hebrew, Bengali, Basque, French, Monegasque, Portuguese, Arabic, Ladino, Old/ Middle English, Hawaiian, Cantonese

What are my other passions?

♡ Books and poetry (I have a book blog @phireads if you’re interested)

♡ Writing

♡ Fibre arts (mainly knitting, crochet and sewing - though I really want to try embroidery and beading)

♡ Baking

♡ Reading

♡ Language conservation

♡ Wildlife (especially British, especially birds)

♡ Period Dramas

♡ History (with a focus on fashion history)

♡ Classics (as in Greco-Roman, my study buddy is a marble bust of the Greek poet, Homer, who is the namesake of this blog)

⭒ That’s all for now, I’ll be regularly posting study content at the end of September with the start of the academic year. So excited to meet you all! ⭒

[lucawrites11]

all this discussion about british accents is truly sending me because as an aussie i genuinely do not understand how such a small country can have so many different distinct accents. also i definitely struggled with mancunian and scouse accents when i first moved to england but i lowkey miss them now that i am back in australia, something about them just gives the same vibes as the area i grew up in and its heartwarming.

i know why i know why i know why

you just asked an autistic human with a special interest in history that they have had since the age of two and i will now tell you why we have so many different accents

this is a vaguely accurate map of accents but it's definitely missing some really distinct accents - the northern welsh accent is very different to the south and there is the detail that london deserves especially with the diversity of accents there and no mention of an essex accent is criminal but this gives you some idea of the accents in the uk but like probably the minimum amount. there's so many missing, i can't find something better

okay so why does britain have so many accents? because english developed as a language we know today around 1200 but as with all languages there is no precise date. it came from french, german, dutch, anglo-saxon languages with also influences from cymru, cornish and the gaelic languages. it's why this language is a fucking grammatical mess

historically england had a very small population that spoke the gaelic languages. they were first invaded by latin speaking romans in the first century. by this point you had distinct local celtic tribes in england and wales and picts in the north all speaking different languages. the romans killed a lot of people, made it to scotland, saw them thought fuck no and built a couple of quite low walls to keep them out. the scottish and english/welsh where already distinct because of natural borders

on the left is a map of the geology in the UK. in black are where the romans built the two walls and in blue in the current scottish border. the right is major UK rivers. most of our history follows these natural boundaries because they were too much effort to cross and the different rocks and access to freshwater forced the creation of different cultural practices

so the romans brought latin in 43 AD and also catholicism and england started to move away from celtic tribes and had a few different kingdoms within it all operating feudal systems. in the 5th century, the vikings came along and started settling. they spoke a variety of germanic languages.

this is a kind of map of the distinct areas formed from this settlement. the angles all spoke one german dialect and the saxons another. the irish tribes in wales spoke a completely different irish gaelic and the picts in scotland spoke scottish gaelic they are two different languages with the same name confusingly. the jutes spoke another German dialect. the brytons were mostly living here prior to this settlement. this is what gave us Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, Midlands, Southeastern and West Country accents.

then william the conqueror invaded from normandy in 1066 and united England and made french the spoken language which influenced again the english language development. then the welsh (who had their own language of cymru) and the cornish (again own language) were forced into England and then 1600s, queen Elizabeth the first left no heirs so the throne went to king James the sixth of Scotland aka king James the first of England and the country became great britain and lived together in harmony (we all hate each other and it's a defining part of politics and sports culture)

[quotesfrommyreading]

It is difficult to answer the question ‘what happened to the Celts?’ because they never really went anywhere. The people – and their art, culture and DNA – were absorbed into other empires, kingdoms and societies. Some areas of Britain, such as what is now Wales, Scotland and Cornwall, remained largely free of Roman influence, while Ireland was never part of the Roman empire. All later helped to reintroduce Celtic art and tradition back into what was once the province of Britannia. Elsewhere, Celtic culture fused with English, Danish and Norman influences to create a distinctive style all of its own.

It is only really within the last few centuries that the term ‘Celtic’ has taken on a more political dimension, being linked with concepts of Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish, Gallician or Breton independence in the face of perceived English, Spanish or French political domination.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Celtic art, culture, language and tradition have been resuscitated and used, not only as symbols of resistance, but also of identity and common ancestry, especially among those descended from emigrant groups in the USA, Canada, South America and Australia.

Although this new form of Celtic identity is far removed from its prehistoric origins, it is surely testament to the powerful nature of this most distinctive and magnificent of ancient civilisations.

  —  The Celts: Who Were They, Where Did They Live, & What Happened After The Romans Left Britain?

[guillemelgat]

Language Goals 2023

In the spirit of last year’s very reasonable and achievable goals, here are more reasonable and achievable goals for 2023!

Catalan - I’d like to get the C2 this coming year. I’d also like to read more; specifically Ausiàs March and Vicent Andrés Estellés, and possibly El Canigó and/or El comte Arnau. And if I can, I’d like to write one creative piece in Catalan that I can feel proud of!

Welsh - I’d like to listen to more of Pigion, watch more Hansh videos, and also to find more spaces to use the language in. I really want Welsh to start feeling like a language that I can do things in, because I’m at a level where I can.

Basque - I want to watch at least one or two things in Basque, and, the same as Welsh, for it to be a language that I can use for things, not just a language I’m learning.

Malayalam - I would like to get to a really basic home heritage speaker level of Malayalam by the end of the year—understanding conversations when I visit family, and being able to answer when spoken to. My goal is to watch one Elikutty video per week, and to try to integrate the language into my thoughts and routine more.

Spanish, Galician, Aragonese, Asturian - I’d like to brush up on Spanish for academic purposes, and also to learn a bit about the grammar of the other three. I’d like to start remembering to actually watch A escampar la boira, and to start listening to more music in Aragonese and Asturian. As for Galician, I’d like to go into breaking down lyrics for the many songs I already listen to in it, and maybe watch more videos in it as well. In general, I’m aiming to go into the sphere of Iberian studies, especially Iberian minoritized languages, and so I want to be more familiar with the larger panorama.

Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Manx, Breton - Same as for the others above, I want to have somewhat of a functional understanding of more Celtic languages so that I can interact with speakers and media production without needing a translation. I also just listen to a lot of music in at least Irish, and it drives me crazy not to be able to at least superficially understand it. I think the Celtic cultural sphere is really interesting, and so I’d like to be able to learn more about it and talk to more people within it without needing to make them translate to English.

Russian - I really want to be able to understand what people are saying at my friend’s house, and I think that if I put in enough Russian listening practice and vocabulary study I’d be able to piece it together, at least partially; I can already figure it out sometimes with just a few words and context. So I’d like to actually put in some time on that, in the hopes that maybe afterwards, if I spend a few days at her house, I’ll come out understanding Russian sdfhksdhf

Amharic - I’d like to be able to speak some basic Amharic, so my goal is to learn a few basic sentence patterns and some vocabulary, and maybe be able to say one or two things by the end of the year. Nothing big, but just a bit.

I have no idea if I’ll even get close with any of these languages to the goals that I’ve set out here, but I think that if I do, it’ll pay off! And if I don’t, then at minimum, my goal is to learn one thing for each that I can feel good about in a year’s time, and I hope that at least I can do that.

[margridarnauds]

I was tagged by @lesbianelinordashwood (Thank you!)

5 foods: 4 you love, 1 you hate

I am a NOTORIOUSLY picky eater (combination of autism + picky eater gene), which makes me a pain in any food environment I’m not used to (though I’ve been working on broadening my palate and, I want this emphasize, will always be polite when I’m staying at someone’s place. Guest hospitality trumps the picky eating gene every time.)

4 I love:

    1. Rice, my beloved. Especially in teriyaki chicken recipes. Cheap, easy to make, filling. Who’s doing it like Her? 

    2. Pork belly -- I developed a taste for it when I was in Ireland. There’s a restaurant chain there called “The Spitjack” that serves pork belly, and it’s in most of the major cities which makes it an ideal stop for me at the end of a long conference (I’ll probably actually find an excuse to go when I’m in Ireland this week, actually). I’ll also eat pork belly in ramen; there’s a nice ramen place where I live that sells a relatively cheap pork belly dish for $8 with rice and quail egg that I love. (Paired, because I’m a Classy, Refined Bitch, with strawberry Ramune soda.) Something of a luxury food, given...well. Grad student. But so, so worth it. 

   3. Hot Dog Lattice -- My beloved. Speaking of foods I’m very likely to get while I’m in Ireland this week, no trip to Ireland’s complete without Her. (I actually found out the reason why most of my Irish friends look at me like I grew two heads when I bring up hot dog lattices -- they are actually Dutch. Hence why you can get ahold of them mostly at places like the Dutch brand Spar, even though you can sometimes find them in, say, Dunne’s, but not Tesco. God bless the Dutch for that one, honestly) 

   4. Ziti with meat balls -- When I was a child, my mother worked in a town about 45 minutes away. We were financially secure, we were happy, and sometimes, she would bring back ziti for me from an Italian place that was about an hour away. For me, ziti always tastes a little bit like love, as I still associate it with my mom coming home and those early days when it didn’t feel like we had any problems. My ziti uses a different sauce than the one they used at that restaurant, I don’t think I could replicate it if I tried, but baked ziti became one of my favorite dishes to make when I was in Ireland, since the noodles were cheap and it was easy to stick the pot in the oven, put on the cheese, and stick it back in again.  (Yes, I’m aware that most of these are things I had in Ireland, but consider: They have happy memories attached to them.) 

1 I hate:

    1. Pickles -- I have hated them ever since I was a child. Hated, hated, hated. “Just remove the pickle from the cheeseburger!” “But you don’t UNDERSTAND, I can *still taste it.*” 

Honorable mention to:

Easy mac, pulled pork (especially with Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce), lemon sugar crepes, garlic bread, chicken rice casserole, Cadbury creme egg ice cream (’tis the season), Sesame chicken, toast with a light scraping of grape jelly or orange marmalade, the fried chicken from the restaurant near where I grew up, Wendy’s chicken nuggets with fries and fruit punch, bacon (also, for once, I’m specifying American bacon here), mashed potatoes that still have a little bit of the chunks in them with butter, pork chops, garlic naan bread (sometimes with meat inside), mango mousse cake, potato pancakes, fried oysters, European chocolate (Cadbury is one of my all-time favorites, especially the popping Cadbury bars, but I’m not THAT precious about it...so long as it tastes like chocolate), s’mores, Cornish game hen, Kerry Gold butter, challah bread from the bakery near my old apartment

Tagging: @fallenidol-453 @mossadspydolphin @nastasyafilippovnas @claradwor @violetcancerian

[kayotic-idiot]

How the uk could send non-english entries

So I feel like there's a couple ways that this could happen. The uk is incredibly diverse and contains so many cultures it would be awesome to see that represented on the eurovision stage.

The first way this could happen is sending in a song in cymreag (welsh), gàidhlig (scottish gaelic), Erse (irish gaelic) or Kernewek (the cornish language). It would be awesome to see these old celtic languages be represented at eurovision and may encourage brits to learn those languages. I know that cymraeg was tested at junior esc and didnt do too well but thats junior esc. I think it would do far better at regular esc, especially in the current shift towards native language songs. Might even place left side.

Second way I can see this happening is a bit dumber, theres nothing forcing any country to sing in any language. I mean, just look at the time belgium sent in a song in a made up language, TWICE. Imo I think it would be funny if the bbc rolled a dice or threw a dart at a map to decide what language to enter in. There is literally nothing stopping us from entering in Polish or Italian or really any european language.

Third way is a more serious suggestion. The uk as mentioned is hugely diverse. Where I live theres a lot of ugandan-indians and ghanaians and north-indians and a surprisingly high number of polish people. Point is that the uk has a huge variety of languages and cultures to send entrans from. Imagine a eurovision entry in hindi or gujarati etc. It would be so cool to see that part of the Uk represented on such a huge stage.

I know that there are issues with all of these ideas but the UK has been sending songs in english for so long it would be nice to see something a bit different, and it might encourage other countries to send songs in their own languages instead of defaulting to english.

[psychotrenny]

Sorry I’m stupid but I want to understand more. Is an Anglo an English European-decent(?) speaker with no Spanish heritage (aka not Hispanic) and if yes is that often relevant in discussions abt the fictional concept of race and ethnicity? I feel like in America whiteness usually is treated as a monolith so even if u speak Spanish as long as it’s Spain Spanish no one cares but I might be wrong and completely unknowlagable abt the sub-divisions of white in America (or ur not even American and so it’s just relevant to where u live so u put it in ur bio)

Oh I put Anglo in my bio because I spend a lot of time on the internet talking to people from outside Anglophone nations so it felt relevant to note that I'm culturally and linguistically English/English-Adjacent. Anglo is a loose term with a specific meaning that can vary depending on context but I'd normally use to mean someone whose cultural/ethnic background is of a majority English-Speaking nation (as opposed to say a nation that uses English as an official language but most people still retain indigenous first languages for use at home), especially if they themselves speak English as their first language. For me specifically I'm an Australian entirely descended from North West Europeans; mostly Cornish (a traditionally celtic speaking people who had been assimilated into speaking English by the end of the 18th century) and Lowland Scottish (a people who by the 14th century spoke Scots, an Anglic Language related to but distinct from English) with some English, Welsh, Irish and Breton if you look far back enough. Still, even if I had non-British heritage I'd probably still consider myself Anglo if I lacked any sort of real cultural connection to it. The fact that I'm neither geographically or lineally *English* English is why I use a broad term like "Anglo" rather than "English" more specifically

[breninarthur]

Thanks so much for the tag on the WIP meme, hopefully I'll get to play later!

For now, I'd love to hear about When Darkness Comes from your DA list, and Shadows from your original work list.

Thank you!

Of course! No pressure if you don't, but please tag me if you do 🥰

Ahh when darkness comes is my Dragon Age: Origins novelisation! I really loved the idea of writing a mostly canon-compliant fic and writing all the decisions I made in-game. I try to write it in a way that people who've never played it would be able to enjoy as well, and get some context for Origins if they're not planning on playing. But I don't know how many people like that would actually read it 😂

The main character is Kallian Tabris, and I've become so attached to her! She's a city elf who starts off a little scared, a little snippy; but grows and develops into a fearsome leader (who romances Alistair and has the best dog in the world 🥰). She's a warrior who eventually becomes a champion and berserker! Her main themes are self-sacrifice and martyrdom, anger and revenge and whether or not she'll let it consume her, homesickness and longing (hiraeth in Welsh), and of course, found family. And really, when darkness comes has become much more her story than anything else.

Shadows is my original work that I first started writing when I was nine-years-old! It's obviously changed so much since then, but the barest of bones have remained the same. Namely, that the three main characters each have elemental magic, and they're on a quest to find a group of people thought to be dead so they can defeat the Big Bad. At least, that's the first book. It's a fantasy set in a more Iron Age type of setting than a medieval one, and borrows a lot from Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Cornish, Breton, and Manx mythologies and folklore.

The main character, Teifi, is... extremely similar to Kallian 😂 In ways I didn't even realise! She also has themes of hiraeth and found family, as well as anger and revenge. But the latter is dialed up to a hundred, and is her absolute driving force, especially as the story goes on. There are differences too, of course. They both long for their old lives and families, but where Kallian can't return because her responsibilities won't let her, Teifi can't return because her village was destroyed and her family is missing. They both have a found family, but for Teifi it becomes her only family. Kallian wants revenge on Loghain for everything he did, but Teifi experiences a lot more loss because of the antagonist in her story, so there's much more grief, and she takes it all more personally. Really, by the end, I think she'll be wild with it.

Here's an unedited little excerpt from Shadows :)

The creature led her into ever-narrowing gaps between the trees, until it stopped without warning, and she nearly stumbled straight into it.

“Wyddgi…” she panted, barely intelligible to her own ears, her breath ripping its way out of her. “Give it back.”

It just looked at her, its eyes dancing with mirth, teeth clamped around the worn leather parcel.

“Ah, Teifi er Nant, how you’ve grown,” it chuckled, voice barely stifled by its steal. “But we are barely a quarter of a league out from your front door. My pace was not that punishing, was it?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said through gritted teeth, pulling her sling off her shoulder; a clear threat.

With a swish of its sleek tail, Wyddgi laughed. “It’s getting dark, don’t you think?”

It wasn’t wrong. Winter light faded fast, and the woods she’d chased it into were dense and hid the sun as best they could. A shiver ran through her. The last time Wyddgi bothered her family, it had taken hours for it to get bored. 

“You’re horrible, you know that?” she said, unbuttoning the rock in her sling. The pwca didn’t seem at all bothered when she started to swing it around over her head. Probably because it knew she wouldn’t ever let the rock fly.

“Come now, Teifi. The night won’t hurt you,” Wyddgi mocked. Without breaking eye contact, it placed the parcel gently on the ground. “Not yet.”

Teifi blinked, furrowing her brow. “What?”

But Wyddgi had already darted off into the shadows.

Thank you so much for asking!! 💖

[wip title ask game]

[nerdlearnslanguages]

Finally making a new pinned post lol

Hi! I’m Em and am a huge history and linguistics nerd from the NW United States. Most of my posting here will be rambles, history, and language related reblogs.

If you’re into warrior cats, I’ve got a blog for that @skyscratch-wc, but this is my “main/personal” blog. So, if you’re into history and linguistics, you’re in the right place.

My main topics are:

1) evolution of religion and mythology (for the record, I’m agnostic, so that’s where my pov is coming from)

2) Northern European history from 1st - 14th centuries (late antiquity - the plague). Especially textiles and other archaeological finds type stuff

3) Archaeology. I think that’s all that needs to be said there.

4) linguistics! All of it. Most of my knowledge is European languages (especially the Celtic Languages) and North American languages. I am conversational in Spanish and Irish and I have dabbled in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, and German. I also grew up being taught little Tlingit lessons in school, so I know some bits and pieces there.

5) i’m also an engineer by day so i might post engineery type stuff here too lol

Hopefully you find something interesting here and thanks for stopping by!

[toomanybrowsertabs]

Since we got that person do do their self-care I'm going to repost the mini infodump I did in the reblogs, so that I can tag it. (I didn't tag it because I didn't want to put a very long post in the tags since my relevant part was so far down it).

The Hobbit has been translated into a good number of languages: This Wikipedia Page has a list of all or most of them and there is an incredible breadth of languages on that list. I pointed out some the first time I wrote this but going through the list alphabetically here are some things that personally stand out to me: Basque, Breton (two translations), Cornish, Esperanto (two translations), Hawai'ian, Irish, and Yiddish (two translations), among many many more (of which I'm sure some have less speakers than the languages that stood out to me personally).

There is no Welsh translation, though. Which seems strange? It was certainly strange to me the first time I learned this early this year. There are some other notable gaps (no indigenous north american languages, Hawai'ian is the only pacific islander language I saw, there don't seem to be many if any African languages either), but Welsh feels like a language one would expect someone to have translated Tolkien into by now especially since three other celtic languages already have translations. Yet, no Hobbit yn Cymraeg.

[hoopyfrood]

its very nice having aziraphale with that received pronunciation fancy accent and crowley with a something that was once a posh accent that is now more drawling but i wouldve loved something more than just. southern british accents. like aziraphale with a kindly welsh accent. essex lad crowley. gently south west aziraphale. mancunian crowley. cumbrian aziraphale. crowley but more newcastle and aziraphale but more south shields. glaswegian crowley and aberdonian aziraphale. id go wild for cockney crowley like some sort of demonic russell brand. 

[innocent-until-proven-geeky]

.

[legend-collection]

Bucca

Bucca is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore, a merman, that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish, the Pwca from Welsh folklore, and the female mari-morgans, a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology.

Folklore records votive food offerings made on the beach similar to those made to the subterranean Knockers and may represent some form of continuity with early or pre-Christian Brittonic belief practices.

In 1890, the Cornish folklorist William Bottrell stated that:It is uncertain whether Bucka can be regarded as one of the fairy tribe; old people, within my remembrance, spoke of a Bucka Gwidden and a Bucka Dhu - by the former they meant good spirit, and by the latter an evil one, now known as Bucka boo. I have been told, by persons of credit, that within the last forty years it was a usual practice with Newlyn and Mousehole fishermen to leave on the sand at night a portion of their catch for Bucka. Probably from this observance the common nickname of Newlyn Buckas was derived. An old rhyme says: 'Penzance boys up in a tree, Looking as wisht(i.e. haunted) as wisht can be; Newlyn buckas as strong as oak, Knocking them down at every poke.'

In keeping with Bottrell's findings, various folkloric investigations around the same time[citation needed] that Bucca seems to have featured in two forms, Bucca Widn (White Bucca) and Bucca Dhu (Black Bucca). Bucca also seems to associated with the wind, in Penzance it was customary to refer to storms that emanated from a southwesterly direction as "Bucca calling"; sailors and fishermen also believe that Bucca's voice carried on the wind. Bucca was also sometimes described as a tin-mining spirit, which may indicate a wider fertility origin than that of the sea.

Also in the 19th century, there were reports of fishermen venerating Bucca with offerings. These included food offerings, particularly of fish, given to Bucca on beaches.[3] One such beach used for this purpose was the area of Newlyn known formerly as Park an Grouse (in Cornish meaning 'the field of the cross') where a stone cross was allegedly once situated. Similar offerings were recorded on the beaches of Mousehole and Newlyn "Town" (the area now known as Newlyn Cliff).

The Tale of the Sea Bucca describes the Bucca inhabiting Lamorna Cove with the dark brown skin of a conger eel and a tangle of seaweed for hair and given to swimming in the waves, lying in the sea caverns or sitting among the rocks with the birds. He was a very lonely creature who had once been a human prince cursed by a witch, but was very fond of children. He assisted the Lamorna fishermen by driving fish into their nets and crabs into their pots, yet was capable of terrible vengeance and so they avoided him leaving a share of their catch on the beach to placate him.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, folklorists generally interpreted the popular beliefs and practices they found as survivals from or relics of Catholicism, equating such 'survivals' with Paganism. Some also saw the continuation of practices from pre-Christian times. This idea has been discredited in recent years by academic folklorists.[6] although this notion persists in the popular imagination. There is little surprise that the Reverend W. S. Lach-Szyrma should have interpreted Bucca as the "storm god of the old Cornish", equating this figure with the Devil.

As a bucca-boo this spirit was also invoked by parents as a bogeyman figure to frighten children into proper behaviour, especially those who wouldn't stop crying.

Boucca was known to the Basque witches as 'Basa-Juan', the equivalent of the French 'Homme de Bouc', 'Goat man'

In the 19th century a new road was built between Penzance and Land's End and the Tolcarne River (main stream at the outskirts of Newlyn) was bridged; this area was called Bucca's pass.