#...actually her name is a bit of a linguistic mess | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leahnardo-da-veggie · 12 days

Text

Linguistics post!!

I'm sure it'll come as a surprise to everyone, but just about all my fantasy short stories take place in the same universe (it was inexplicably named Triworld by my younger self, and I haven't seen fit to change it since) across different times! I've been cultivating the little universe since I was 6, and it's basically become a sprawling mess.

Nonetheless, I want to set the lore down in stone, once and for all. And where better to start than with the linguistics?

Now, in modern Triworld, there are 4 main languages. They're generally divided by species, though there is some geopolitical leakage.

Trade-tongue (occasionally known as humani, Lingua Franca of everywhere except the Cescere/Syvniko)

Spirit/Fae (more commonly known as Cescereli)

Angelic/Demonic/Sirenic (generally called Angelic)

Ghoulish (also used by the nearly extinct shifters)

Trade-tongue:

You can operate on the assumption that Trade-tongue will be considered the default. The Humans, and to a lesser extent, the elves, use it exclusively. It is a mish-mash of a variety of different languages, from the days when different tribes worshipped different gods, with a great deal of influence from the now-archaic Elvish tongue. To a non-native speaker it will have a rolling cadence, with rounded words than the a spirit or ghoul would be comfortable with.

Interestingly, it contains some Greek/Latin prefixes in it, as seen by the countries Luxatia and Nyctomachia. (As a writer, it's because younger me loved her fancy language and never saw what a pain it would be for older me. The lore reason is that a Wanderer found his/her way into Triworld and messed up human linguistics in the process)

Cescereli:

Oh dear. Where do I even begin? This is by far the most detailed of my languages, and I would go so far as to call it a conlang. It operates on a character based format, similar to Chinese, and any depictions of Cescereli in my writing will be limited to phonetic transcriptions until I work out how to input made-up symbols into my writing.

Sentence structure is fairly variable, given that it has dozens of dialects, and some linguists have (very hesitantly) suggested that the linguistic drift might be so great that they ought to be considered several languages. The spirits, being a very United people, cannot and will never accept that, and the Fae's pidgin of trade-tongue and Cescereli is remarkably faithful to what is known as the Imperial dialect.

Cescereli uses a great deal of compound words, with each character being seperated by a ' or a -, or nothing at all, depending on the type of character in use. Something that would incorporate all three might be Cescere'nari-ilra, which is what spirits use to refer to mountain elves.

Directly translated, it would mean Our (ces) Mountain (Cere) Long-eared (nari, also a term used to refer to donkeys and rabbits) Mortals (ilra, with ilre being the immortal version). As you can tell, it is my darling. I could write its own post about it, and about the spirits in general)

Now, the elves, being geographically close to the spirit Capital, share quite a bit of vocabulary with the spirits, so spirits often find themselves shocked to hear Cescereli within trade-tongue. Spirits are fiercely protective of their language and insist on speaking it amongst themselves. Any being that wishes to work amongst spirits, or to a lesser extent, Far, has to have at least some modicum of Cescereli proficiency.

To a non-native speaker, it sounds like a teakettle hissing. This has been the source of rage for many spirits.

Angelic:

A dot-based language, it has the greatest tonal variation of any tongue on Triworld. Angelic requires the speaker to transverse as far as three octaves across a single sentence, leading it to be known as song-tongue colloquially.

Few species have the vocal chords to actually pronounce the words, with sirens, angels, demons, and spirits (who refuse to speak it due to an ancient rivalry with the sirens) being the only ones truly able to speak it fluently. The remaining species, when trying to learn Angelic, use a variant known as Lesser Enochian (another remnant of a long-gone Wanderer), which has far less warbling.

It is known as the most beautiful language in existence, and sirens take great pleasure in reciting Angelic poetry to honoured guests. Demons, on the other hand, delight in their dialect, Infernal (which has its own set of sub-dialects), as a method of mocking those without sufficiently high ranges of hearing to catch their words. Angels prefer pretending they do not have to share their language with two other species, and insist their dialect is the only 'true' one.

Ghoulish:

As languages go, Ghoulish is a mess. It has a basis of shifter-speak, with a dash of Cescereli, some elven, a remarkable amount of Goddish, vampiric to taste, and what might actually be the original human tongue, or perhaps ancient ghoulish.

It came of the Lich-Queen of Ceredell (yes, you do note the Cescereli Cere being mixed with the trade-tongue Dell) wanting to cut her ties to humanity. As a tribute to the people who visited her coronation (I'm currently writing this story up now, so spoiler alert for the Lich-Queen!), she named her capital after the spirits, made shifter-tongue the national language, devoted a quarter of every mortal city to the Gods, industrialised the blood-substitute industry for the vampires, and offered free and safe immigration for all the above species.

The result was... This. Ghoulish growls and snaps and whistles and bounces of the walls like it's high on booze-berry. It technically uses the trade-tongue alphabet, but with each letter having indentations and inflections, it might as well be its own language.

Well, that's about it! I'm sorry to anyone who made it this far, that's 5 minutes of your life that you're not getting back. I could talk endlessly on my world building, but I try to obey the principle of Show, not Tell. Next up, Geography!!!

#wordbuilding #writeblr #my writing #writing #creative writing #writerscommunity #writing community #fantasy #spilled ink #writer stuff #conlang #fictional language #Me when I write articles about my writing instead of actually finishing my 50 wips #Triworld

12 notes · View notes

thistransient · 1 year

Text

- So I went to the Taiwanese trial class with my friend. It was taught by a little old lady who was nice enough but gave me some mild flashbacks to those harrowing weeks with the Mandarin teacher of a similar age. Most of the session was her explaining the history of 台語 in Taiwan, with a side of trying to force the 8 tones and counting from 1 to 10 upon us via rote memorization. I felt a bit frustrated and not entirely thrilled, my friend was miffed that the school hadn’t explained the price they quoted was for the trial class only. We’ve decided to give it a pass and try a different school, although our scheduled trial there is on hold on account of the teacher falling ill. In the meantime my friend has begun to contemplate taking group Japanese class instead (as his partner and her kid are Japanese), which is much more widely available. I am tempted. Do I need to start half-assedly learning yet another language? Probably not. Do I want to divert my energy from Mandarin to whole-assedly learn Japanese? Also not really. Is there a high chance of following through nonetheless? At least I’m self-aware about it...

- Job applications here largely require a photo, and I need a haircut but I’m afraid to go back to the place I went in August for the big chop. The guy started cutting it while wet, then broke out the blow-dryer and kept snipping til he was satisfied, but because my hair is curly and I do not own styling product more complicated than a comb, it reverted immediately to a vague dandelion shape and took several months to actually resemble the reference photo I’d provided. The thought keeps crossing my mind to simply shave my head entirely. I had it buzzed to a 3 some ten years ago after a dye-job gone wrong and did not enjoy my appearance. Of course I look different now, and hair grows back, but the struggle between wanting the catharsis and radical change (not to mention less mess in the shower drain strainer) of a head-shave, and fearing the hassle of growing it all back out if I do truly detest it is raging inside of me.

- After coming back from Korea I may have spent one whole day languishing in bed and eating spoonfuls of peanut butter as a meal before slowly reconvening daily activities. I have been meeting some friends and going out, but I end up needing one day of hermit-like recovery for every outdoor social endeavour. I have yet to implement any kind of proper schedule (beyond “try to eat three meals and go outside at least once”), leading my friends to recommend I start by contemplating my greater, overarching goals for life. Every few years I come round to the notion of attempting a STEM degree (which would require redoing undergrad, but, as they say, “the time will pass anyways”). I think it would be really engaging to do a program taught in Chinese, and possibly motivate me to overcome my deficiencies in the math department, which is what always puts me off the whole scheme. Scientific terms are so much simpler in Mandarin because they’re extremely 顧名思義 (just as the name implies); English really shot itself in the foot with all the Greek and Latin. I don’t even need to check the dictionary to figure out 光合 means ‘photosynthesis’... Will I actually follow through with this, and live out my days happily studying trees and avoiding small talk with humans, or will I continue to trundle through life intermittently trying to teach English between bouts of autistic burnout? When I put it that way, the answer seems obvious, but this is without factoring in all the bugs that live in trees... Also wasn’t I trying to convince myself to go to grad school for what, translation? linguistics? library science? something? just a few months ago? Maybe overarching life goals are a red herring at present, and I should just get a job first and then see what kind of things I’m interested in when I have consistent disposable income to pursue them at length.

- I am, at the ripe old age of my mid-30s (I’m rounding up since my birthday is next month- again, so soon??) being forced to reconsider what it means to like someone. Perhaps on account of being socially inept and spending all of my formative years in Catholic school, I took for granted that it was that painful, infatuated pining one feels for attractive strangers or casual acquaintances who generally don’t reciprocate. In the past couple years I began to experience the strange phenomenon of having great affection for friends I’d gotten to know slowly and who became increasingly physically appealing as time wore on, but I wrote this off as Mystery Emotion X because it lacked that frantic obsession I was accustomed to. Now I suspect this may simply be a healthy manifestation of romantic attraction. I’ve often struggled with exactly what identity label the intersection of my gender, attraction pattern, and neurodivergency might land me under. I think the plot is thickening... but I will put off pursuing further clarity by going to the BDSM bar instead.

#i should probably figure something out jobwise before my 90 days are up #i actually did buy an exit flight to show the inbound airline as i was leaving korea #which they checked in detail and i was sweating bullets BECAUSE #i actually bought the flight for the wrong day on accident and just manually edited the date before i printed the itinerary #it was one of those super cheap sale flights that probably does not allow amending #but who knows maybe as the date approaches i'll feel the urge to see what goes on in Manila at 4 AM

12 notes · View notes

quinloki · 1 year

Text

Family Ties

Fem Reader x Donquixote Doflamingo

CW: Language, violence, blood, moral ambiguity, murder, sexual themes and situations 18+ only

Chapter 1 - Table of Consent -

Chapter 5: Repayment

Everything in your home had been restored and cleaned. Nothing was put back, but things were organized and stacked neatly, and it wouldn't take you long to get it all back where you had it. Apparently Doflamingo and/or his people had come in and at least undone the damage that had been done, without getting too deep into your private life.

The intent was appreciated, but now you were doubly glad you'd agreed to let Ace and Sabo sleep over. They helped you get the odds and ends put away and it was nice to have people to talk to while you were still dealing with the physical parts of the home invasion. You didn't let them keep you up too late either, glad that you'd offered to work a shift for Zoro the next day.

Working a shift with Zoro gave you a chance to catch him up on all the details you hadn't wanted to throw at people over and over. When you mentioned your house getting tossed you could feel the anger rolling off him, even if his face was neutral.

"I can ask Usopp to give you a security system quote." He offers, knowing you would turn down any other requests he might have offered. "I know you know all the ins and outs of 'em, but Usopp's as good with that stuff as Eustass is with cars."

"I won't turn down a quote." You admit, loading up the van. "I can't promise I'll buy what he offers, but if he's as capable as you say, then it might surprise me."

You noticed Zoro had a flower on his clip board. "What's that?"

"Eh? Oh, Robin clipped it there when I delivered flowers to her this morning. Said it was a gift." He replies absentmindedly, filling out information on the clipboard.

You raise your eyebrows, licking your lips to suppress the massive grin threatening to spread across your face and pulled yourself back into a neutral expression before Zoro looks up at you.

"You know her flower language stuff, (Y/N), what's it mean?"

You shrug, turning away and putting the last few boxes in. "You'll have to actually go in and read the board yourself, Marimo." You weren't going to tell him it meant 'Affection', especially since Robin hadn't asked for your help in hooking them up.

Zoro grunts. Sanji had started calling him that ages ago, due to his perpetually green hair, and the name had stuck. Generally, you only used it when you were teasing him though.

The next day you were working at Sanji's. This was the only job where you had to dress up a little bit to do it. Robin didn't have any uniform requirements for her flower shop, and you usually took care of the backroom and inventory for her more than anything else. So it wasn't like you were dealing with customers like you did at the café.

You wore some light makeup, broke out the nice short-heeled shoes, and had your long hair pulled into a bun with some random wooden hair sticks you'd bought when Sanji requested you not use pencils for it. Here's where you'd refined your Customer Service Voice™ to professional levels.

Today you had a nice blouse on, and a loose-fitting skirt that went down just past your knees, along with a pair of saddle shoes. It was comfortable enough, and while you didn't wear skirts often, you had nothing against them. Dressing up was fun to do occasionally, but you didn't generally have the occasion anymore. You went all out for the seasonal formals at school, because you not only liked dressing up, but you enjoyed people's reactions when the usually scruffy you was suddenly elegant.

Messing with people was one of the reasons you had studied linguistics. Code switching was a useful skill, and while a lot of people did it regularly, linguistics helped you to really drive it deep when you wanted.

The usual rush of the café came and went and just as Sanji and you had gotten everything back in order, two impressively tall men in suits stepped into the small space. You recognized them as two of the people who'd gotten out of the SUVs when things finally concluded Sunday. They weren't as tall as Doflamingo, but they weren't small men either.

"Gentlemen, you seem a tad early." You say, letting Sanji know these men were associated with your impending meeting.

The sterner of the two looks down at you and gave a solid professional smile. "We needed to verify the café was secure prior to the meeting, Miss (Y/N)." He bows a little and then looks over at Sanji.

"Tch." Sanji sours. "I'm the owner," He replies with an edge to his voice. "I'm not leaving."

"I'm more comfortable with my boss around as well," You add. "He can stay in the back, I'm sure he won't do anything rude."

The man's smile falters just a little, but then he nods in agreement. You learned later that the man who spoke was named Diamante, and his silent partner was Vergo.

You and Sanji made some light foods to go with the tea, and the table was set just as Trouble walked in through the front door. Taking off your apron, you stepped to the side of his seat, and pull it out for him. You could hear a soft bemused chuckle slip through the café as Sanji heads into the back room.

He accepts the offered seat with an even, "Why, thank you." And remains silent until you sit across from him. He was in casual attire, or at least casual for him, you imagined. A pastel pink button up shirt, no tie, and khaki style slacks. His shoes were even a kind of brown cream color, that matched well with the rest of his outfit.

Of course, he still had those damnable shades on. Not only did he use them to full advantage to flash his eyes when he wanted, but it was difficult to read him without being able to see his eyes.

"Right on time for my break." You state with a sly grin. "Which should give us just enough time to discuss the business you wanted?"

"Indeed it does." He replies, taking a sip of the tea that was set before him. "I also appreciate your understanding that I would want to keep this short, Miss (Y/N)."

"Business should be concise." You agree. "Since treating me to afternoon tea isn't enough to appease your sense of debt, what did you have in mind?"

You could see the smile slip across his lips, and you wondered if he had dug into your past while looking for you. Did he know you had a Masters in Linguistics? Considering your first meeting you expected him to be more surprised about the change of words and tone comparatively, but he seemed to be taking it in stride.

"I had hoped to literally pay off my debt to you," He begins, but his pause was enough for you to interject.

"I have enough money, I decline."

"Fufufu," It was the same laugh that slipped through the air earlier. "As I expected. I could offer you the opportunity to work for the lighter side of my company. Even if you don't stay with us long, I assure it would look good on your resume for future endeavors."

"Assuming the darker side of your business doesn't come to light." You scoff taking a sip and missing his reaction to your statement. Setting down the teacup you look at him with your business smile. "I currently have four jobs because I enjoy being able to help my friends. It's worked out well for me so far, so I will have to politely decline."

You had expected by this point that you was either irritating him or running him out of options. However, you couldn't detect a hint of anything except polite neutrality in his features. Very frustrating polite neutrality.

You see him move to pull something from his shirt, and admittedly you were suddenly concerned you had honestly upset this bearest of bears, when he held out a business card.

Well, it was no longer possible for you to deny who he was. Donquixote Doflamingo CEO of Smile, Inc. International. The damnable card in your hand had a single number on it, and on the back in excessively neat handwriting were collection of letters and numbers. You tilted your head, you understood the business card itself, but not the code on the back.

The inquisitive tilt prompts him to speak. "Consider it a single I.O.U." He says, "You can call the number on the front at any time, give them the code, and make a request. I'll see it done."

An IOU from arguably the most well-connected man in the world. If you picked your request correctly, you could change the lives of everyone in the city.

No, no. Don't. This is too much. There's too much weight to this card, I cannot accept it.

You move to hand it back. "I can't-." You stop and a smile spreads across your face. "No, wait, I suppose I can. I can call it tomorrow and request a pizza delivery. There's a place I really like that's close to Q's that doesn't deliver to my house." You are slipping into your usual form of speech because right now you're intentionally being a brat and don't want to hide it.

No twitch, no sigh, no anger. Damn this man and his hidden eyes.

"I can accept that on a single condition." He speaks evenly, but his voice was giving away more than his face, and it was laced with similar mischief to your own.

"Hmm?" you prompt, taking another sip.

"I would like a day of your time." He offers. "I would like the opportunity to repay you in a way that meets my own standards. Nothing untoward, no more perhaps than a glorified date."

"So like, dinner and a movie?"

"Close enough to that, yes."

You look the business card over again and give a cheeky grin. "If Pops says it's okay, I suppose I could graciously accept your request." You turn the card over in your fingers lazily, Doflamingo sitting across from you still so frustratingly unreadable.

"Pops... Newgate?" He questions, there's a bemused chuckle when you nod. "I didn't realize you were one of his boys."

You snort at the implication.

"I'm not one of Pops', blood or otherwise." You admit. "Pops saved me when I was younger, and if I had to admit to having any kind of family, I guess it'd be him and his boys." You lean forward, still relaxed, tapping the business card on the table. "You're in the same line of work obviously, but I assume given the proximity, that Pops' work and your work don't wholly overlap. You didn't use a tone like you had when talking about your friend."

He sounded like he had been talking about someone below him, but you weren't going to vocalize that part.

A smile crosses his lips and you're not entirely sure what's behind it. It's not menacing, but there's an edge to it, one you think is your fault.

"Your intuition is surprisingly accurate, my dear." The tone in his voice is jovial, but there's a sudden sensation like this man has shifted gears. Earlier he was hellbent on repaying his debt to you, and it felt like business.

Now though, this felt like interest. Suddenly the whole give-no-shits attitude plan seemed like it was backfiring, and you're sure it really is your fault. Feeling caught in the crosshairs, you did your best to play it off, putting the business card in your skirt pocket and extending a hand.

"I'm afraid my break is coming to an end, it's been a pleasure Mr. Donquixote. Like I said, once I talk to Pops I'll contact you."

A chuckle rumbles in his chest, and you swear internally at how much you like the sound of it.

"Very well, Miss (Y/N), I look forward to your acquiescence." He shakes your hand in return, though you have a strong feeling that he wants to kiss the back of your hand instead. You feel a shiver of electricity run up your arm at the idea of it.

Watching as he left the café, his men abandoning their post at the entrance as well, you wondered what kind of trouble he would turn out to be. Sanji came from the back with a cigarette in his mouth and set a fresh cup of tea in front of you. You both stood in silence for a moment, taking the whole thing in.

Looking down at the table Sanji let out a sound between a whistle and a hum. "Well, he compensated me for the inconvenience well enough."

"Eh?" You look down and see several hundred-dollar bills tucked under the saucer of his drink. "When in the hells did he do that? I was keeping an eye on him the whole time; I never saw him do that!"

"You missed a slip," Sanji shrugs. "It's not like he lifted your wallet."

You grimace. "Sanji I haven't missed someone doing a slip OR a lift in years – and DON'T say 'well maybe you've lost your touch', cause that ain't it."

"Oooooh ho ho ho," His obviously bemused tone did not go unnoticed. You growl as he laughs. "Piquing your interest isn't easy, what a slick bastard."

"Yeah, yeah. C'mon boss, back to work." You say with an air of faked long-suffering. "And you're taking all of that money, I expressly told him I didn't need any, so I refuse to have that included in tips."

"Aye, aye Captain (Y/N)." Sanji replies letting you move him bodily back behind the counter after stuffing the money in his hand.

#Family Ties #donquixote doflamingo #doffy x reader #doffy one piece #one piece smut #one piece fanfiction #modern mafia au #reader insert #doflamingo x reader

10 notes · View notes

hedonistic-peacock · 9 months

Text

Family Ties

Fem Reader x Donquixote Doflamingo

CW: Language, violence, blood, moral ambiguity, murder, sexual themes and situations 18+ only