#non-langblr

[helenstudies]

I love being multilingual. I love reading books so much. and I know most of langblr and bookblr is about academia or classics but my heart is in children's literature. I grew up with my own language and my own country's literature. I get to have my childhood favorite books in my language. and then as I grow up and learn others I get to enjoy other people's childhood favorite books. sometimes I've progressed enough in my language to enjoy those foreign books in their own original language and be filled with joy as I realize how this would have shaped a generation of people. I get to go "what is this word" and look up and have a spark of joy as I memorize a BIG word in a new language. I get to gasp at reveals and twists and turns and fairy tales and romances and horrors of all your children's literature because my language level is still progressing and every new word fills me with wonder. I get to have my childhood and I get to have other people's childhood through my childlike language abilities. I love it. I love reading books!

[spanishskulduggery]

Baldur's Gate 3 - Non-binary Translation in Spanish

A while back I had mentioned that when I learned how to change language settings for Baldur's Gate 3, I was curious to learn how they would adapt the non-binary [no binario] option into Spanish since Spanish (like many Romance Languages) is very gendered

What I saw actually surprised me a bit

Usually in game translations with different genders, English tends to treat you as a "they" even though it's usually male or female; and in Spanish most of the lines are gendered, or phrased in a very ambiguous way in translation like speaking of your character as una persona "a person" rather than "he" or "she", or "they"

This is one of the first times I've seen the gender neutral -e endings used in an official setting

-

For the purposes of this, and any future posts on this, I decided I would try to play as a non-binary gnome cleric. I should also mention that when you start up the game in Spanish and you do the character customization, everything starts you with the base word (i.e. masculine by default, or possibly agender but looks masculine)... as in you can choose to be elfo "elf", semielfo "half-elf", humano "human", semiorco "half-orc"... choose between bárbaro "barbarian", mago "wizard", brujo "warlock" and so on

My default character creation screen read gnomo, clérigo for "gnome cleric"

But the way your character is addressed by others is what changes

The first NPC you interact with is "Us" a little brain thing you can choose to help. If you do it calls you "friend":

Nosotros: Somos libres. Tenemos nuestra libertad. amigue Us: We are free. We have our freedom. Friend [nb].

The word used is amigue

For the sake of understanding Spanish grammar, you probably know amigo/a "friend". The G here is a hard G. The gender neutral ending is E... but the combination of GE is pronounced like an H sound in Spanish [la gelatina "gelatin" for example is like "hel-a-ti-na"]. To preserve that hard G sound, you have to add a UE to it... so amigo/a becomes amigue for non-binary

[if you study Spanish this is the exact same grammar you'll see in turning -gar verbs into subjunctive forms; why pagar would turn to pague]

The next person you come across is Lae'zel:

Lae'zel: Tsk'va. No eres une sierve. ¡Vlaakith me bendijo en el día de hoy! Juntes, tal vez podamos sobrevivir. Lae'zel: Tsk'va. You are no thrall [nb]. Vlaakith blessed me today ["on this day of today"; emphatic]. Together [nb plural], we may (yet) survive.

Interestingly, there's first siervo/a meaning "servant" or "serf" or "thrall"

What I found very interesting was that you have une... un and una being "a" are used for indefinite articles; the non-binary form seems to be une

What threw me off though was seeing juntes... now junto/a is "together" [lit. "joined"] but juntes implies a non-binary plural.

I don't know if this is because in Spanish grammar it would imply that non-binary trumps feminine [the way amigos "friends" could be male+female or multiple male, as opposed to amigas "friends" being all female]... or if it's maybe an error or something else; the game treats Lae'zel as a woman in every other regard so I think it's the first one which is a situation I somehow hadn't considered. I had just assumed it would be juntos ...or juntas if you played female

Next I decided to rescue Gale first because he uses a lot of adjectives/professions and I wanted to see what they looked like:

Gale: No serás clérigue por casualidad, ¿verdad? ¿Médique? ¿Cirujane? ¿Increíblemente hábil con una aguja de tejer? Gale: You wouldn't happen to be a cleric, right? A doctor/medic? Surgeon? Unbelievably skilled with a knitting needle?

First is clérigo/a "cleric" being used in non-binary as clérigue. Similarly we have médique which is the non-binary médico/a for "medical doctor"

[just like above C turned to QUE to preserve a hard C/K sound; you'll see this with subjunctive and even preterites of -car verbs... why atacar "to attack" will turn to ataqué "I attacked" and ataque in subjunctive... because CE has a soft S sound in Latin America, and can be lisped in Spain]

And next is cirujane... the word cirujano/a is "surgeon"

Finally important note - hábil being "able" or "skilled" is a unisex adjective, so there is no change in any gender - masculine, feminine, or non-binary

*Note: I did miss it but at some point someone used the article le to describe my character. The el and la "the" are the masculine and feminine definite articles; le is non-binary "the" which still catches me by surprise because it looks French to me

-

I've been told since I made the original post that people have seen the non-binary E ending used in other things, but this was special for me to see. I'm curious how the other gendered languages available treated non-binary options

It was a fun surprise for me, especially for some modern day Spanish linguistics in a VERY big modern game, with non-binary word choices being heavily prominent. It's a bit of a learning experience for me

If I find any more fun examples of NB language being used I'll let y'all know as I go

[frenchiepal]

22.12.24 ☄️🌠 the bad news, i unexpectedly got a bunch of assignments over the holidays; the good news, there's a cat to provide mental support

[languagelvlup]

富山弁

I live in Hokuriku, and here are a few words or quirks of the Japanese in this area!

(There is overlap with other prefectures and regions so don’t come for me if you’ve seen these words on other lists. We are probably both right!)

キトキト = 新鮮, fresh (especially for seafood)

わちゃわちゃ = 忙しい・賑やか, lively or busy (in the sense of a lot of people talking in a restaurant or a lot of kids playing around)

きのどくな = ありがとう, thank you

そやちゃ = そうだね

〜かい？= かい？ for making casual questions

〜られ = 〜て for making casual commands (食べて-> 食べられ)

おる= いる ex. どこにおる？・食べとる

[maerossi]

teaching Japanese is bringing back flashbacks of how HARD it was to learn beginner japanese. I totally forgot how bewildering it was to me at first that there was no simple way of saying "and." Like the word for "and" changes in Japanese depending on (among other things) what part of speech you're combining ("cute and pretty" uses a different 'and' than "desk and chair" or "running and jumping").

Like this is a non-issue for me now. I don't have to stop and think "which 'and' do I use?" But 10 years ago I absolutely made a pact with myself to just never combine 2 or more words in a Japanese sentence because it seemed impossible

[unforth]

crossposting this from the cnovels community on Dreamwidth.

I was wondering, where do y'all buy physical books in Chinese? My preferred source recently disappeared, and I'm hoping to find something more affordable than sources I've used before. I'm in the US, but I figure that as long as people say where they are when they answer, a post like this could make a decent resource for those of us interested in purchasing physical volumes in Chinese. We can use whichever parts are relevant to our own purchasing needs/desires?

Places I've used (in no particular order):

Heartbeat Anime: this was my preferred source, but they've disappeared. I noticed they were gone right after the US tariffs were announced, though I don't know if that's why. Link is to their defunct website.

Koon Books: has been solid and reliable for me, but shipping costs are extremely high.

Books TW: Taiwanese bookstore. Shipping is high, and I'm not always sure how to tell what's in traditional vs. what's in simplified (and I'm not ready to really tackling learning traditional yet, though I've been starting a little as I'm in a group where people use both).

Shandian GO: a Canada-based group order that I've used a lot, but they're more merchandise focused. ( @shandian-go on Tumblr)

Taobao: not linking specific shops because I can't get it to work right on my computer without a VPN. Using Taobao from a US ISP has always been challenging and now it's even harder; when I've ordered from them, I had a friend in Beijing order the books and they were shipped to her, then I paid her back and she brought them to me next time she was in the US.

Kinokuniya: I've never ordered online from them; I shop at their physical store in New York City. Obviously they're Japanese-book focused, but they've been branching out; I was able to get the TGCF art book from them, and they carry the TGCF manhua in Chinese as well. I'm hoping they'll keep adding more. They have way more books in Chinese on their webpage than they do in store. Not sure how much is traditional vs. simplified; the text on their webpage is traditional Eastern Book Store NYC: again, I've never used their website; I go to their physical store when I'm in New York City. They definitely have things in-store that aren't on their webpage (like, I just checked priest - their website has Zhenhun but not Youfei, which I've seen while there.)

Via Lactea: sort of cheating, in that this is a Canada-based publisher who print books in Chinese, so the only books they have are the ones they publish. I've also gotten everything they've published in English.

Amiami: I've not ordered books from them, but they do carry at least a few books in Chinese I think? I've used them for merch as well.

From all of the above, my orders have always gone well and I've received virtually everything I've bought, except for one instance where Customs impounded a shipment that included some ShandianGO stuff (they weren't the target of the impound but were packaged in the same bulk shipment). Places tend to package really well, and shipping costs tend to range from "high" to "ludicrous." I'm happy to say more about my own experiences if anyone would like more info about any of the above.

Where have you ordered from, and how have things gone?

[neristudy]

I've found that writing Arabic with my left hand is much, much easier (at least in the way that the right-to-left movement feels almost native and doesn't require extra mental effort), but. There's a tiny problem.

I'm actually right-handed. And therefore my letters are very tentative and shaky.

But perhaps it's time to beat my brain into submission and learn to write Arabic with my left hand. What a flex that would be:

"oh my, are you ambidextrous?"

“no, I'm just left-handed when I write in Arabic (. ᵔ ‿‿ ᵔ .)”

[magistralucis]

2025 Translation Tuesday Entry - 05/52 Title: Прыгну со Скалы (I'll Leap Off a Cliff) Artist: Король и Шут (Korol' i Shut) Album: Акустический Альбом (Acoustic Album, 1999)

---------------

С головы сорвал ветер мой колпак, (The wind blew off the hood from my head,) Я хотел любви, но вышло всё не так. (I wanted to love, but everything went wrong.) Знаю я, ничего в жизни не вернуть. (Nothing in my life can be returned; this I know,) И теперь у меня один лишь только путь. (And now there is only one path left for me.)

Разбежавшись, прыгну со скалы. (I'll take off running and leap off a cliff.) Вот я был, и вот меня не стало. (Here I was, and here I am no more.) И когда об этом вдруг узнаешь ты, (And when, all of a sudden, you find that out,) Тогда поймёшь, кого ты потеряла. (Then you'll understand who you have lost.)

Быть таким как все с детства не умел. (I never knew how to be like everyone else,) Видимо такой в жизни мой удел. (Such a lot, it seems, was my destiny in life.) А она, да что она? Вечно мне лгала. (And her, what about her? Always lying to me.) И меня никогда понять бы не смогла. (She never could've understood me at all.)

Разбежавшись, прыгну со скалы. (I'll take off running and leap off a cliff.) Вот я был, и вот меня не стало. (Here I was, and here I am no more.) И когда об этом вдруг узнаешь ты, (And when, all of a sudden, you find that out,) Тогда поймёшь, кого ты потеряла. (Then you'll understand who you have lost.)

��ордо скину плащ, вдаль направлю взор. (Proudly casting off my cloak, I'll turn my gaze afar,) Может, она ждёт? Вряд ли, это вздор. (Could she be waiting? - Of course not, that's absurd.) И, издав дикий крик, камнем брошусь вниз. (And so, with a wild cry, I hurl myself down like a rock.) Это моей жизни заключительный каприз... (This is the ending of my life, my final caprice...)

Разбежавшись, прыгну со скалы. (I'll take off running and leap off a cliff.) Вот я был, и вот меня не стало. (Here I was, and here I am no more.) И то��да себя возненавидишь ты, (And then you will come to hate yourself:) Лишь осознав, кого ты потеряла. (When you realize who you have lost,) Кого ты потеряла, кого ты потеряла. (Who you have lost, who you have lost.)

--------------

It's the nineties and we're fucking depressed! 🤪😩🥶 This isn't the only mood expressed in the music of this era, but I daresay it was a dominating one. Soviet music was already crossing many political/critical/satirical lines in the final years of the Union, but looking over my Russian-language music collection, it seems to have been after the collapse that actual nihilism entered the mainstream. Rock is the dominant sound of the Russian 90s, and discontent and mockery tend to run deep in it.

But that's not to say it was all doom and gloom. Punk and grunge music exploded into popularity in the 90s, and today's band rose out of that very circumstance: Король и Шут (Korol' i Shut, 'The King and the Jester') were an incredibly popular horror-punk band from St. Petersburg, and befitting of their genre, made music largely inspired by horror stories and folk tales. Do you enjoy songs about evil woodsmen, cannibalism, voodoo mind control, murderous gardeners, necromancers, sausages, or punk rock served up Medieval Rus'-style? They've got you covered. 🤣

'Прыгну со Скалы' is one of the more 'normal' songs Король и Шут have done. It's a very famous song, so famous it doesn't really need my translation at all - but 'Прыгну со Скалы' was my entry point to the band, and it means a lot to me because of that, even though my actual favourites are listed up on the above paragraph. 😅 For 26 years this band delighted people with its horrorcore weirdness, and I'm only sad that I have to state that with the past tense, because the band was dissolved following the death of its frontman Mikhail 'Gorshok' Gorsheniov (1973-2013) a decade ago. The remaining members continue under the name Северный флот (Severny Flot, 'The Northern Fleet'), which is also the name of a Король и Шут song.

Gorshok was quite the character. A true icon and storyteller. You'll see more of him come the Halloween entries of this project. 🎃

[meichenxi]

:'))))))

cries in years

[german-enthusiast]

a couple backs of German books

🍐 Alte Sorten (Ewald Arenz)

Vocab: sich begegnen - to meet; auf der Flucht vor - on the run from; die Einzelgängerin - the loner; bewirtschaften - to manage and farm (Hof -> Bauernhof); die Verbundenheit - the connectedness, the bond; versorgen - to take care of; zaghaft - tentative(ly); ungewollt - without wanting to; entschleunigen - to decelerate; das Wesentliche - the essentials; lenken - to steer

0️⃣ ♾️ Zwilling der Unendlichkeit - Eine Biographie der Zahl Null

Vocab: sich etw. entziehen - to evade sth; schier - almost, nearly; jemanden um den Verstand bringen - to drive sb. insane; gelingen - to succeed; erschüttern - to rattle, to unsettle || mächtig - powerful; Zwilling der Unendlichkeit - twin of infinity; gleich (same) <=> gegensätzlich (opposite); beunruhigend - unsettling; das Unbegrenzte - the boundless; zugrunde liegen - to be at the core/bottom

🌠 Und dann steht einer auf und öffnet das Fenster (Suzann Pásztor)

Vocab: ehrenamtlich - as a volunteer; etw. aushalten - to bare/endure sth; alleinerziehend - single-parent (adj.); Angestellter - employee; seit Neuestem - newly; der Sterbebegleiter - end-of-life companion; der Einsatz - the deployment/assignment; reserviert - withdrawn (person), pre-booked (item, table,...); eigensinnig - headstrong; spannungsreich und spannend - rich with tension and gripping; entstehen - to develop/emerge

🇩🇪🇹🇷 Sprache und Sein (Kübra Gümüsay)

Vocab: die Gesellschaft - the society; der Hass der Rechten - the hate of the right (political); etw. nähren - to feed sth; wohlwollend - benevolent || leidenschaftlich - passionate; die Verteidigungsrede - the defense-speech; die Vielfältigkeit - the plurality || entschlüsseln - to decode; deutlich machen - to make clear || der Befreiungsschlag - the unleashing (lit. a hit that frees) || lesenswert - worth reading

[spanishskulduggery]

Dragon Age The Veilguard (language update)

Okay, so I've been compiling more gender neutral language in Dragon Age and so far what I've found is that the majority of the characters that are trans or non-binary will use non-binary E in all their dialogue

I keep finding it mostly for the governor but it has happened for others and I'm too slow to capture it, but people will say things like les guardas grises "the Grey Wardens" for non-binary, les Cuervos "the Crows" non-binary, etc.

As in, non-binary and trans characters in the game are seemingly more hyper aware of gendered language and specifically use a neutral term (for friends and enemies)... such as les magues "mages" in non-binary or les enemigues "enemies" non-binary

They're more likely to use things like juntes "together / all of us", nosotres and vosotres [because Spain] for "us" and "you all" to be inclusive of any possible gender differences

...

My best guess is that there are some characters that have a kind of setting or flag that marks it so the translators/script writers will use specific language for them... in other words, if a character were to have that sort of flag then the translation would refer to them a specific way [I've seen ciudadane "citizen" and aldeane "villager" in non-binary, when they don't specifically talk about gender - so the game must recognize them as non-binary or trans or something?]

The flag seems to indicate that if a person has some kind of gender flag that they are referred to with NB adjectives and that they often use NB gender inclusive language such as les amigues / les enemigues

Characters that are cis or otherwise not having any kind of gender flag tend towards the standard gendered rules... like they typically say los amigos / los enemigos

...I'm curious what it would be like to play a non-binary main character to see how much would be affected

What I've also learned is that the gender neutral or NB inclusive language for general terms like amigues or for the faction names [like saying les Cuervos "Crows"] tends to replace the traditional "masculine plural is inclusive" rule - I've also seen the non-binary term used for proper names which did throw me off at first

[as in one faction is los Dragones Sombr��os for "Shadow Dragons"; I've seen les Dragones and I believe I've seen les Dragones Sombríos but I might be wrong - I was looking to see if the plural adjective of proper nouns would also change i.e. whether it would become les Dragones Sombríes or something - if I can find it I'll let you know... the factions I've seen it with so far are gender neutral by themselves (les Señores de Fortuna "Lords of Fortune" and les Guardas Grises "Grey Wardens")... I keep waiting to see if I can find others but I think it might happen more if I had a non-binary character in a different faction]

The use of NB language taking over masculine plural was interesting to me though, linguistically, and as someone who learned Spanish in school. In other words, standard Spanish says los ciudadanos "citizens" which includes any mixed group, so it could be men and women (and non-binary), but as long as there was one man it was always implied that it had to be masculine plural...

The NB rule seems to be that if someone is non-binary in the group or if you're being as inclusive and gender-aware as possible, then NB plural takes the place of masculine plural

The governor character for example does this a lot and calls the Crows unes asesines a sueldo "(some) murderers for hire" [lit. "murderers for salary"], but in the non-binary - this kind of general inclusion implies that there might or might not be NB Crows [there are in the game, at least one and stated to be by others], but in general the other characters would call them asesinos in the general masculine plural

Same thing with some of the Shadow Dragons who some of them talk about les magues de sangre "blood mages" NB, while others use the term magos which is more standard

...

I'll discuss it more in my probably very big post with screenshots, but I'm not entirely sure if it's a limitation of the translation or a (possibly unintended) quirk

As in, are characters who are flagged as trans and/or non-binary getting NB translations? English is extremely gender neutral with adjectives so I can't say for sure; usually even when talking about groups we use "they" which is gender neutral, so it's hard to say if other people from other gendered languages would speak this way or not, or if it's a product of the game's programming

If it's a quirk, then it adds a subtle layer to these specific characters, that they are more aware of gendered language and specifically go out of their way to use NB language for all groups of people, friends and enemies

...and the other characters who aren't trans and/or non-binary don't consider gendered language as often; they refer to these people by their proper pronouns or by elle as non-binary, but they don't seem to use the NB plural because by standard rules that is inclusive

I think it's probably a mix of both; mostly a game mechanic or underlying game parameter, that also does fit with people who struggle with gender or use NB language are more aware of it than others

[also regarding trans characters; there are options to make your character trans and in the very beginning to discuss how they feel about their body/journey - I don't want to leave them out because that's also important, and some characters when starting a romance will mention it to potential partners and it's handled very respectfully, also all romance partners are available regardless of gender options so that probably helps but you're never excluded because of gender; there are just some plotlines regarding gender and finding oneself and that's probably what has certain people melting down online about "woke"... but minus a few slip ups in the writing (because not all the writers worked together and you can see it), it's clear that the people responsible for writing the gender stuff had experts]

[sayitaliano]

Sai di essere piemontese e che Natale si avvicina quando ti spari un cuneese al rhum dopo colazione... il caffé non fa lo stesso effetto, lo assicuro

Esempio di cuneesi al rhum:

(dark chocolate -occasionally with a light meringue layer- exterior; filling with dark chocolate cream with rhum/other types of alcohol and nowadays also other flavours that are not just alcohol based)

[languagelvlup]

How do we feel about 日本語上手 these days, team?

[crispyliza]

Fun fact: The guy who betrayed Leonidas and the 300 at the battle of Thermopylae was named Efialtes (Εφιάλτης) and up to this day his name is used as the greek word for "nightmare".

[nihongoseito]

How do you stay motivated in self-study?

メッセージありがとうございます！ thank you for asking!

this is an interesting question for me because i've been self-studying for so long...almost 12 years at this point(?!?!). i decided to learn japanese for fun and for no other reason than because i wanted to (i'm a big proponent of "if it sucks, hit da bricks" lol). i was just a kid, so i had no idea at all how much time and effort it would entail, and sometimes i think that back then, if i had known at the time how much studying and studying and more studying it would take for me to become conversationally proficient, i wouldn't have even started. and i'm really, really glad i don't live in that world, where i never decided to self-study because i thought too far into the future and tried to quantify my studying.

so i guess that's my biggest piece of advice, even though it sounds counterintuitive: try not to plan where you're going next or any specific long-term goals, because if you're anything like me, you'll scare yourself off. if you focus just on what's right in front of you—today's kanji, your current textbook, etc.—then you'll have a much easier time remembering why you like japanese (or whatever target language you're working on!). that kind of viewpoint on learning a language makes it really clear that you are building a beautiful structure out of many discrete pieces, not just out of thin air or sheer linguistic osmosis. not only has that attitude kept me motivated, since making decisions as i go always keeps things fresh, but i also genuinely think it's helped me learn better and remember what i've studied.

also, don't be afraid to give up on something, a book or a grammar point or even a whole routine/study plan, and try something else instead. you can always come back to it later, and in my opinion there's no point trying to quantify or quantitatively evaluate your learning in that way. there's absolutely no shame in admitting something is too hard right now. plus, letting yourself feel confident in what you do know is a great boost to motivation—every single little piece is an accomplishment!

does any of that make sense?? this is how i've handled it anyway! ofc, the nature of self-study is that it's different for everyone, but hopefully the things i've said here resonate with some people :) みんな、頑張ってね！！