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#also i didn't actually end up making a modern english version but whatever
asksythe · 10 months
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Ah? What do you mean mpreg is built into the setting of MDZS?
I mean exactly what I said. It's part of the setting. Mpreg is part of MDZS setting.
Or rather, mpreg is part of any and all xianxia or Chinese fantasy settings. Mpreg is not impossible... or even truly rare... in xianxia setting. There are at least three different regular ways for men to get pregnant in this kind of setting, even for low xianxia like MDZS.
Xianxia is Chinese fantasy. Cultivators cultivate until immortality. The upper level of cultivation, an immortal becomes a facet of reality and bends the world to their will. Some can even create an entirely new world wholesale. What's getting pregnant compared to that?
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Sure, the setting of MDZS is low xianxia. But we know at the very least a lot of MDZS cultivators are at the Jindan stage. Do you know which stage comes right after the Jindan stage?
元婴 Yuanying. The common English translation for this stage is Nascent Soul. But its real meaning is nascent / origin child/baby/infant.
How does yuanying come about? Well, a cultivator at the end of Jindan stage will go through tribulation. If they pass through tribulation successfully, the jindan (golden core) in their belly will collapse and out comes a baby. This baby then takes over the task of the jindan, circulating the cultivator's chi and feeding off of it. The baby will grow alongside the cultivator's progress, eventually maturing and potentially becoming a separate person should the parent allows it.
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(Game interface from a Chinese cultivation game)
This stage is very well documented in actual real-world ancient texts by Wu Liupai, dating back to the 16th century. It's not a modern concept made up for entertainment. It's part of actual real-world Daoist practices and beliefs.
...And xianxia is the brought up to eleventh fantasy version of real-world Daoism. Think about it.
So in truth, every single high-level Jindan stage cultivator in MDZS is just one stage and one successful tribulation away from getting preggo whether they want to or not. (Yes. Every single one of them. Not just Wei Ying or Lan Wangji, but also Jiang Cheng, Lan Qiren, Lan Xichen, Xiu Xingchen, Song Lan, Nie Mingjue... if he didn't die, etc... Not Jin Guangyao, though. He's too weak to get pregnant. Jin Zixuan, maybe)
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You don't even have to be a cultivator or in a xianxia setting to get pregnant (whether you are male or female or whatever). Artificially induced pregnancy has been a thing in Chinese folklore since the Summer and Autumn period (BCE). Several different classics mention a fruit called 孕果 yunguo (Lit. Pregnant Fruit). This fruit bestows the ability to get pregnant to anyone who eats it, regardless of gender. Sexual activity with a man is still required, though. Can't make something out of nothing.
And the most famous and widely known in Chinese folklore: water from the River of Mother and Child 子母河. Anyone who drinks this water becomes pregnant, regardless of gender (or even species, actually). You know the most famous person who drank it? The monk Tan Sanzang... and his disciple Zhu Bajie (a male pig), and Sha Wujing (a male fish). It's been made into several TV series and movies. In one of those movie adaptations, Tang Sanzang even carried the pregnancy to term as he wasn't willing to terminate a life and saw this as an opportunity to experience the female side of life.
In the same story, Journey to the West, a rock was pregnant with Son Wukong and gave birth to him.
You have to remember this. Ancient Chinese didn't really think of pregnancy as a biological process requiring sperm and eggs like we do today. They thought of it as a concentration and condensation of qi (breath of the world) until the 'mother body' was saturated with fetal qi and gave birth.
Real-world folklore texts are chockful of such instances where things got pregnant with the breath of the world and gave birth. And that's just regular folklore, not the brought-up-to-eleven version that is xianxia.
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paradoxcase · 1 month
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Chapter 18 of Nona the Ninth
After 18 chapters, something genuinely exciting is finally happening. You know, it's funny, I got pulled in by Gideon the Ninth because starting with Act 2 there were interesting and exciting things and weird mysteries happening like every chapter. Harrow the Ninth wasn't exactly action-packed, but there were like, interesting reveals and general world information coming out in most chapters, and it was also building towards something because there was the upcoming fight with Number Seven looming in the background at all times. This isn't a bad book or anything like that, but so far it's been: Nona goes to school and there are kid antics, everything sucks, it's hot, Nona refuses to eat food, it's dangerous to go anywhere because of the high concentration of people with guns, necromancy witch hunts, dead body burning, here's John monologuing about climate change and streaming necromancy on twitch. We get a little bit of Corona and brief glimpse of Judith, maybe we'll get to see Gideon/Gideon's body and Ianthe at some point, but so far it's just been the broadcast, and the most interesting stuff was all stuff that Nona didn't understand. I was ready for something to happen
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I was promised I would find out what animal Nona drew, but I still don't know what animal Nona drew. Her saying that it started out living in a river and then got "cold" so it had to get large must mean it's a reptile of some kind, but I can't think of any reptile that has visible ears and a mouth that you might not draw at all. What does she mean by "large" here? Did she draw a dinosaur? The Angel mentions archaeology talks, but archaeology is the wrong field for studying dinosaurs, or any animals at all, really, it's the study of physical evidence of humans. (I mean, unless the "animal" that Nona drew was a human and it's now being revealed that everyone is actually a strange-looking alien...) It's also really hard to study Earth via archaeology when you are not actually on Earth, if you can't actually go dig up and date real artifacts it's just regular anthropology at that point. Or are BOE secretly sending teams of archaeologists to Earth now? That doesn't seem like it would be a high priority for them, but who knows, they did immortalize Eminem lyrics in their commanders' names, and we know they've been to Earth on unauthorized missions before, namely to abduct all of the non-Lyctor survivors of the first book
Presumably "cradle creature" means that it lived on Earth before John's apocalypse
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Ok, so, I thought "Aim" must be like a nickname for Amy or some spelling thereof, but I see now that it's actually the first word of a BOE name. So, this bit requires that there is a word which means "Angel" in some language which sounds like "Aim" in (presumably) English, which also means something to the kids. But I guess we're meant to assume that "Angel" here is also in modern English, which again, doesn't make sense, since modern English should be long gone at this point. But maybe it's a translation convention thing
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I'm curious what the implant is, why Palamedes is in a big hurry to find out what it is, and why the Angel doesn't want Nona to hear about it? Of course, she doesn't know who Nona is yet at this point. I'm guessing it's some kind of anti-necromancy device, given that "my dead body is designed to deny you answers"
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It's true, he can't really swear on his own life, since that ended two books ago now
So I gather once the Angel accepted that Palamedes was not a Lyctor, she somehow gave whatever order to Merv Wing to kill Camilla and Nona, since she knows that regular necromancers can be killed like normal people? BOE's MO for necromancers is a sniper headshot per the last book. But I don't know how Palamedes survived this, I feel like we're about to find out that he and Camilla are a Lyctor now, or possibly some new and "improved" version of a Lyctor
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Was this something that happened on screen that I should remember?
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Is that what Nona's building is? I'm not sure exactly what that means, or if that tells me anything more about the building that I didn't already know. It didn't seem like it was specifically a BOE building, since there were cops and militia living there, too
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Well, there's something important about that implant
This seems like a counter-productive rule to have if they want Pash to be her bodyguard, though. At some later point there is a mention of "electrics" and implication that Merv Wing is not going to fire any guns as long as Aim/the Angel is in the room, so possibly some other types of weapons are involved here. Nona misses the entire battle, but there were gunfire sounds, so I guess someone disregarded whatever rules there are about not shooting guns around the Angel
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I guess Pash subscribes to the theory that Hot Sauce mentioned that necromancers have to be killed in a very particular way to stay dead?
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For the first part of this I was like, that sounds a lot like Pash, but hasn't Nona heard her voice before? But then I remembered that Nona has only heard her speak through the voice modulator
It's also hilarious how Nona thinks Pash is just so cool throughout this chapter
Are we then to understand that Pash was driving the car the previous day when the Angel rescued Nona and Hot Sauce?
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They again. Still unknown if this is a gender thing or a plural thing, because who knows what is going on with the implant
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This is honestly straining my suspension of disbelief here, that someone actually read Nona's lips from the top of a building a block away. If they thought it was a radio call, there are easy ways of intercepting those if you can guess what frequencies might be being used, you don't have to guess what someone is saying by reading their lips
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Pash gets all the best lines
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Oh, this is a fun one!
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There's a weird thing here where we first get this:
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But then in the next paragraph it says:
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So it's not actually clear exactly how munted Nona thinks the classroom is?
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Yeah, this was obviously going to happen at some point from the point where Hot Sauce was introduced in the first place. Honestly, I feel so bad for Hot Sauce, she's 14 and she's already been traumatized several times over before this book even began, I think, and then she saw Nona die in front of her and actually got successfully gaslighted into thinking she didn't for about five minutes and from her perspective Nona is definitely some kind of evil eldritch creature. But how many time does Nona have to get shot today? This would also be a lot more of a cliffhanger if Nona wasn't immortal
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jotadoul · 2 months
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🥰 anka and i are sharing a prion disease right now so we're rewatching the JJBA OVA. and okay. maybe it was the weed but i think it might be... i think it's my favourite thing ever made. that's ever existed. for all time. it's my favourite thing that exists. my favourite thing that Is. it really does makes me feel exactly like the ending of HEAT... LOL and i'm serious about this. it's like a stun gun or like being sandblasted where i'm shot outside of my body helpless to what's happening. horrible feeling and i love it very much.
and i feel soooooooo fucking VINDICATED because i dug deep into japanese forums + blogs and found people celebrating it ;__; there are discussions from this year (2024) even! people agree that it's gorgeous and that if you're going to watch (or even read) any version, it should be this one. that it rewards you on rewatches... which is true. every time i see it, i find something new, some extra bit of care that goes toward the structure of the mood. so many subtle movements in the acting, so much elegance to the balance of exposition in the dialogue. mainly in the japanese version, but it's not like it's lost in the english dub, just different. the voice actors did an amazing job with tone— notably there's this shaky tightness in Jotaro's voice during moments of fear/stress that enhances his expressions, actions.
i found people talking about the tension, acting, a wonderful review on the use of shifting, dynamic lighting throughout the OVA, the way the sound design— engineered by Skywalker Sound with score by a very young (~19) Marco D'Ambrosio— fills in SO MUCH for the animation with tasteful specificity in implying things like unique weight for footsteps, for Avdol's rings, or how the sound of Geb is like a strange layered scream. and fortunately found many people talking about being in awe of n'doul's humanity and how he has serious rizz lol and that he, in any version, is the only serious sobering moment of the glory gods... WAAAAH then i come on twitter or whatever and people are like "looks like shit, worst fight in the thing," and it's like jesus h. christ get a LIFE. i'm sorry you were tricked and lied to, but bad taste can be fixed if you just open your heart a little.
i do not feel moved whatsoever to watch the rest of the TV series (i made it up to the hunting episode of DIU.) something can be faithful and also a major downgrade, by intending to be as faithful as possible, misses the elements that make it what it is. besides, modern anime looks like real shit right now and i won't force myself through it solely because it exists. but i love this adaptation. i would rather see a beautiful interpretation that prioritises an effective, effecting mood, that tries to compromise with purpose and synthesise the source into what an animated version— the short film that this is— can do for it. what the form can heighten. there are little movements, upticks in speed or anxious stillness. the breathless timing and gravity of jotaro touching down and star platinum ripping right out of him like a major leaguer performing another major league hit. n'doul reacting to iggy, jumping slightly while kneeling. jotaro wiping off his fingers with a hanky and then rubbing them together. the entire scene with polnareff on the crates. oh GOD and the opening with the inverted sun... the cane... the cane scene cannot Not destroy you, be honest.
why did they include the red granite obelisk, notably from aswan, one of which was at one time commissioned by hadrian for his boyfriend antinous who drowned in the nile? that didn't have to be there, but isn't it beautiful? (and they put the eye hieroglyph right where we can see it... uuugh.) never mind the actual canonical content, with jotaro and n'doul mutually captivated, delighted, by each other's skill until the end. it's so painful knowing the inevitable outcome but it still somehow sneaks up on you with the way it's paced and i love to be rocked by it every time. the only guy ever to be spared on purpose— respecting him that much! and the respect is mutual! jesus, his monologue! he's the only one to be mourned. THE only one to be buried. by hand. alone. the fight begins under high noon sun and the burial completes at dusk. he's 17. fuck me.
i love when a story is never allowed to fully wrap up into the typical "and it was all worth it!" sort of vibe, which, in a way, is what happens, but it never rises to the point where... where that positivity matches the intensity of what was shown to you previously, or that those losses are meant to be forgotten in the wake of righteousness. and as far as i can recall, this is something araki has perfected over time. i'm thinking about the brutal bit in DIU with josuke carrying? dragging? okuyasu, and the particulars of kira's fate. but i'm REALLY thinking of VA, with giorno &co. in the office, and the epilogue. and then obviously SO. and then SBR. and JJL. this approach, the bittersweet heartache or outright mourning, has become a precise weapon and i can see the through-line from SDC. now that i've watched HEAT i can see why araki said that he cries every time he watches it. it's wrenching. and a big part of that is that you don't necessarily expect it because of genre or style flourishes, and that's really special. to be caught unawares, because you were already caught, you've been caught this whole time and now you have to take it.
i now know that yeah. yes. this is The definition of a special interest. because i have to, must, rotate this object in my head compulsively and purposefully so i can see every angle and crevice. i intuitively understand that i shouldn't be so bowled over and bitchy about it after so many years, sooo many years, but i can't help it! you like what you like and this is the benchmark. it pains me that it is so finite. that i've confusingly hung my heart on something that no one on earth could give one (1) solitary fuck about, and therefor there is an abrupt end to material. so i AM left rotating shapes in my head sussing out indentations in the form. kinda crazy. but fighting against it is maybe more punishing in a way.
this fight was chosen as the opening to the OVA because it's one where everyone is present. this fight was also going to be the entirety of the OVA, but araki liked it so much he requested more episodes 🥰💕
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sadlynotthevoid · 10 months
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Has anyone read "Becoming popular through the "All Villains" variety show" (link to english ttl here)? Because it's fcking hilarious.
Anyways, I love the concept of a show were all the participants are hated infamous people who got invitations to said show based only on how much they're disliked. I also love how the audience gets so inverted on them, despite how they were watching just to laugh at them at first.
And that made thought, what about a modern fantasy lcf au where ogCale gets selected to go to a show like that one without his knowledge?
The world would be more like lcf/pre-war tboah world, but with more technology and entertaiment culture on it. Like, magic just dance, arcades for all kind of races, various magical music related devices (not, it's not me wanting ogCale to dance, shut up), economic versions of record tools, etc.
And the audience of that program would be not only ordinary people, but higher beings too. I was thinking of gods, but you can put constellations if you want too (i know little to nothing about orv, so, it's up to you). I was thinking that the interaction with the audience would work kinda like that, floating messages and stuff.
The selection of the participants would be:
Half of them are chosen by voting of that world's habitants. That's how ogCale got selected. Some people (dirty nobles) thought it would be funny to watch him make a fool of himself, the rest (normal people) jumped on board because curiosity or for fun and giggles.
The other half are voted by higher beings and habitants from other worlds that have access to the show and system for whatever reason. Adin is one of them. In part because they want him to suffer, in part because they want people from there to TAKE A DAMN HINT.
Idk about the others participants, maybe some ocs, maybe other characters. Some of them actual bad guys, some of them not (that) bad.
Some shenanigans we could have
•The show requires their participants to live there until the end of the season. So, Cale draggs Hans to stay with him because he needs a babysitter for his cats. Cue, Hans, On, and Hong mocking Cale everytime they appear.
•At the presentation of the participants, Cale, face in blank, stares at the camera with the most dead gaze, and says "I was brought here against my will", takes a sip of a bottle, "basically abducted" completely calm. He's drinking tea, btw. He doesn't drink irresponsiblely infront of his kids.
•The host of the show trying to convince Cale to try whatever challenge they have to do. He goes from reasoning to pleading to bribing him, because Cale won't try it unless he thinks it's fun or he can get something out of it.
•In this AU, Bassen was already named official heir of the count title and Cale had taken care of his corrupted relatives some time before the start of the show. So, he doesn't need to act like trash anymore. He didn't say anything tho. He's just doing whatever he wants, but he's kind of a loner by habit. It's difficult for him to low his guard around people (besides the kids and maybe his siblings). However, as a result, whenever something is happening, he's just commenting the wildest or sassiest things from the side. Or the front. Doesn't matter what's happening, he states facts as makes observations as if he wasn't involved whe he pretty much is.
•*Wild poisonous lizard monster appears from nowhere*
The other participants: *panic, fight, fly response*
Cale: oh, look, it's prince Adin's cousin.
The host, from the safety: ooh, you seem to have quiet a problem there.
Cale: yeah, they have two poisonous reptiles now.
•Cale's bs detector went off from the very first moment he saw Adin. He doesn't know what's up with that guy but he doesn't like it. He tries to avoid him at all cost and pulls the petiest shit towards him at the same time.
•Adin: Nice to meet you. I'm—
Cale: —going back to the other side? Yes, please do that.
•Everyone noted that the trashy young master dislikes Prince Adin, but no one knows why. So they start making up theories and trying to reunite hints from their interactions. The most popular ones are A) the childhood friends-to enemies one, B) the one about them being love rivals for Prince Valetino's hand, and C) the one about them being rivals for Prince Alberu's love.
•When the host asked about the matter, Cale response was—
Cale: hm? Oh, he just buzzes my bs detector.
Host: I— what?
Cale: My bullshit detector. Have you ever met someone and just, immediately realized that everything that comes from their mouth is *beeep*? That you must not trust on them, no matter what? That's it.
Host:...I see. Out of curiosity, how precise is your, uhm, "bs detector"?
Cale: it has never been wrong. There was this time—
•The Soo's are part of the "habitants from other world" group. Choi Jung Soo is the most active one out of the three.
•Cjs outted himself as Choi Han's nephew by accident. Cale's instant remark— "Choi Han, come pick up your kid". He knew cjs was an adult.
•Venion ended up as one of the program's contestants due to some anonymous people spamming votes to mess with him. Just kidding. The culprits are the Henituse siblings + Hans. Bassen was mad at him, so Cale suggested it. Lily joined because "it's not fair that they have fun without her". Hans recorded everything for later.
•Alberu likes to watch the show to distress.
---------
That's all what I have for now. Feel free to add more or write it.
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sakuplumeria · 4 months
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Hello, I am using my main account since I can't ask questions with my sideblog. Thank you again for the questions choices, they were all awesome: 2), 4), 8), 17), 32), 38), 46), 52), 61), 67), 73)
Thank you for the ask!! Interesting choices~
2) A character in Saiyuki that grew on you
I always like Goku. I don't know why I liked him when I was little, but the more I know his story the more I like him. I'm quite sad when people see him like a child, he sees so much more than it seems. I'm thrilled to see how sensei developed his character, specially in Even a Worm arc, and how sensei drew him much more mature in Blast. Not only Sanzo, but he's like the sun to me too :3 There are many characters that grew on me as I spent more time with Saiyuki, Sanzo, Koumyo, Tenkai, Jikaku, Gat…
4) Favorite member of Kougaiji’s group
Is Zakuro part of his group? Yeah? No? Then Instructor Wang it is. I'm… oddly attracted to eccentric old men lmao.
8) Which character do you really dislike?
This is a hard question, I never really dislike a character as they all have their background stories… If I have to choose though, Li Touten, probably, for using Nataku like that :/
17) How long have you enjoyed Saiyuki?
I watched Reload and Reload Gunlock on TV when I was in elementary school, and you know they used sensei's art for the ending songs? I was so captivated that I searched for the manga. That's the first time I really worked myself to search for something. I just realized it's been around 20 years… omg
32) Do you enjoy writing/drawing/creating fan works for the Saiyuki fandom?
Absolutely! I write and draw and make covers, also translating the songs to English. I used many websites and you can see them here. I wish I have the energy to create more… at least to finish the ones I started..
38) Do you binge read the entire series or read selected chapters?
Sometimes I binge read, sometimes I read selected chapters. Mostly I read selected chapters when I'm in the mood!
46) If [character] died, what do you think they’d be reborn as?
Since you didn't give me the character, I'll go with Goku for the next two questions. By the way, I don't think Goku will die soon, I headcanon him aging very slowly… I wrote a fanfic about this, where Goku lives in the modern world lol. But anyway, I kinda imagine him reborn as a celestial being, much like Jeep, with powers and big responsibility for the world. A dragon maybe? I never thought about this before actually so I just type whatever pops up in my head lol
52) What are 3 tropes that describe [character]?
Amnesiac Hero :(
Innocent but Powerful
Bottomless Pit, as they always say
61) Do you seek out spoilers or avoid at all cost?
I don't mind spoilers, sometimes it helps me to get into the story better.
67) What’s something you think would improve the series?
Remake all the animated versions, with quality. Let's say, by Platinum Vision, the one who produces Reload Blast. Honestly, I like Saiyuki so much, but I don't rewatch it that much, besides Burial, because of the quality of the animes… It's also the reason why it's so hard to tell my friends about Saiyuki. People tend to watch rather than read, but I don't really want people to watch Saiyuki with the quality they have now. So yeah…
73) What character is still a mystery to you?
I wanna say Koumyo but well, I'm more interested in Tenkai and Taruchie. They're the ones with connection, connecting Ibun, which I see as the oldest story of Saiyuki on earth, and Blast, which will be the ending of it. Even though they're not the center of the plot, I believe they took an important part in it. That also brings me to Sai Tai Sai... but I guess we'll find out about Sai in the future. I hope to see Tenkai and Taruchie lore as well :3
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ragnarokproofing · 9 months
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Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday!
Can you tell me a bit more about your conlangs? What's your approach to creating them, where do you start? To what extent do you draw inspiration from real world languages? Which ones?
Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier but YES ALWAYS, thanks for the ask!
Okay so the best resource/inspiration for conlanging I've ever found has been this video:
youtube
because it just completely illuminated the process for me. I've always been interested in languages/linguistics but have had no idea where to start, because a lot of guides or videos assume some background knowledge of linguistics, and I have basically none except what I've picked up from very casually studying a handful of languages and reading the single chapters on languages in the anthro textbooks I buy from used bookstores. So this guy says, "you need these few things, and you do these few steps," and then boom, you have a functional pseudo-conlang!
This isn't for crafting a FULL constructed language, it's for doing the sort of hollow-iceberg equivalent; you do this background work so that your needs are met (generating proper nouns and basic words), and you have everything you need to be able to create whatever is necessary relatively easily when you need it. So, if I ever want to have a version of the plot-relevant prophecy in my novel in an elven language, I have a handful of words, list of consonants and phonemes, and sentence structure, so I can just whip that up without too much work.
I started by printing out the Wikipedia IPA consonant and vowel lists and deciding which ones I wanted; in the video he explains how they usually come in groups/patterns, so I stuck with that. I generated a list of syllables from those phonemes, and to create words I just started jamming them together. I decided which ending syllables indicate gender and plurality, and how compound words work, and just started filling out the list of words I wanted.
So, the most central language in my novel isn't a conlang at all; it's just real-life Old Icelandic, and without getting into the details of my continental map I'm also going to be using little tiny bits of Arabic and Latin. My only completely constructed language is the elven language, which is a little complicated because it's sort of two languages.
Here's the deal: a long time ago there was the elven empire, the Elfirasalin Empire, and they had this language, which is called Imperial Elvish. It's the enforced language throughout the empire. After a while they go around to the other side of the continent and invade, and take control of this space of valuable land, which becomes their only real colony. Several centuries later, the colony rebels, stages a revolution, and kicks the empire out, and becomes the fascist nation, the Elven Ascendancy. And their government, as a form of governmental control/newspeak, changes the language: they say that it's a more archaic, traditional form, and it's true to their roots, and excising any corrupting foreign influence etc, but actually they're making big chunks of it up whole-cloth to serve their own purposes.
So, some modern Imperial words go back to their longer, archaic forms (the modern Imperial word for river, rathlin, reverts to the archaic rathsalin), but also a lot of modern words have been excised, and new words have been created. I haven't developed many of them yet, but in an example stolen but expanded upon from 1984, there are only two words for sex, "good sex" which is heterosexual vaginal sex for procreation without regard for the pleasure of the woman, and "criminal sex," which is literally everything else (from sex for pleasure outside of marriage to homosexual sex to bestiality). There is only one word for "criminal," meaning someone who breaks a law, which is more similar to the English word "deviant," meaning someone who is separate from acceptable standards, presumably by nature, and this includes anyone who has "criminal sex," and these people are the scapegoats of the culture; they are the cause of all of our ills, and only can we reach our former glory by eliminating them. This creates a culture where everyone is constantly on the lookout for those among them who don't belong. But the thing is, with such strict standards, you can make the argument that basically anyone is "deviant" should it fit your needs. Since some of the main themes of my novel are homophobia and being classed as criminal, all of this is actually relevant instead of just being background.
In terms of phonic inspiration the elven languages are similar to the elven languages of Dragon Age and the Elder Scrolls, because I like the way they sound and the accents that their speakers have when speaking English. I think of my Imperial and Ascendancy Elvish speakers having an upper-class British accent, similar to TES' high elves... but my characters aren't actually speaking English, they're speaking Old Icelandic, so what on earth does that accent sound like in-universe? Imperial doesn't have rolling Rs, no H or NG, no umlauts, and no voiced fricatives (th as in that). So I think that Imperial speakers would generally tap their Rs instead of rolling them and have trouble with NG and H, and have great difficulty with the twice-as-many vowels of OI. They would also have a bitch of a time with the inflection/cases, and the addition of a neutral gender. This is made harder by the fact that the OI-speakers don't really write much; they have a written form, runes, but most people are barely literate and don't use them at all.
So I'm sure that's way more than you were expecting, but I am in the THICK of the language thing right now and it's really fun to talk about. I could go on about it forever lmao.
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bitter-sweet-coffee · 2 years
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RESOURCE FOR MEDIEVAL DRAMA ENTHUSIASTS + SATBK FANS
okay, totally not like my normal posts since i'm sonic biased and this doesn't have to be sonic, but i wanted to share something with all of you. as someone who has recently gotten into the medieval academic world, i'm bombarded with cool knowledge and ways to read medieval plays in their untranslated form!
if you want inspiration from Arthurian plays or anything else from this time period, want to learn Middle English, or like academia in general... here:
these are free to read, and the glosses and footnotes help out with clarifications on words and references so please use them! it would be really great to purchase the TEAMS editions in print because this type of work is difficult, and it's great to pay scholars for their efforts (especially niche stuff like this, they really do deserve the money) but i understand not everyone has the funds or means to purchase books... so enjoy however you choose!
i also have some tips! some of these are official instructions from people specialized in the field (i'm a shakespeare person, this isn't my usual jig) but some are things i noticed that helped me:
1. read stuff out loud, these are phonetically written (aka how they sound) because grammar and spelling weren't standardized yet! this is PRE modern english, so don't worry if english isn't your native language, you actually have an advantage if this is the case.
2. if you're stuck on a word, change the vowels! vowels are whatever you need them to be tbh, swapping them out makes stuff make sense. also, e's can be added or taken away freely, there is essentially no regulation with them
3. y's are often i's, v's are sometimes u's and vice versa, þ (thorns) are pronounced th, and 3's are y, g, or gh (it depends on the word: g/gh is more common within words whereas y's are for ends or beginnings... the 3 stuff trips me up still, but go with whatever looks best!)
4. syntax is messy sometimes (like what you see in shakespeare) so swap it if it's confusing! something like "scorn thou me now?" is "thou scorn me now?" or "you're scorning me now?" in modern day english, so playing with syntax might help reconstruct a line in a way you understand better
5. stuck on a word? look it up! not just anywhere though, use this:
try to use infinitive versions of words when using the MED, but if you don't know how to do that it's fine! you might need to switch to "search for full entry" but you'll get there eventually.
you can also look up modernish words in the dictionary (i use the OED but it's behind a paywall: see if your institution can get you free access but any dictionary should be fine!)
6. don't read too fast! you'll miss stuff and probably get confused
7. don't read too slow either! if something really doesn't make sense (it could be a name or a city or an outdated phrase) just skip it, as long as you get most of what you read it's ok to move on! dont let one word stump or spoil your whole experience :")
8. if you have younger family members who haven't learned a lot (or any) english grammar, ask them to read stuff to you! i'm a tutor, and when i teach units on phonetics i get my students to read some middle english for fun because they always get it quicker than the teens and adults i ask (because things are written like how they sound: plays during this time were crafted orally and only scribbled down as an afterthought on the backs of receipts and shit, not officially scripted and then performed)
9. have fun with this! some of these plays are downright hilarious, and if you're using this for fanfiction or other creative endeavours, imagine all the cool or funny stuff your characters will be doing! i honestly didn't expect medieval drama to be so damn entertaining, but that's because these are PLAYS, also referred to as GAME interchangeably. the goal for these was fun, so you should try to have a good time!
this is definitely a rushed sparknote version of a proper and formal academic study, so don't treat this as a sacred text or anything! i'm totally out of my element here, but i know there are satbk fans in particular who might want an extra spark or source for their works, and this is what i have to offer... so read away!
(as always, pms are open for further questions and advice on this, since i can only ramble so much in a post)
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warsofasoiaf · 7 years
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Would you mind elaborating on why you think FDR "misread" Stalin? As someone who didn't get into history until I was away from American public school textbooks and really saw history as much more grey concept than the "We're America, and we went there to help" propaganda nonsense they spill, its really refreshing to hear about our past presidents for what they more than likely were than to only show the shiny bits. Hope you had a great vacation! Long time reader, first time asking.
Question about your recent answer on the Western Betrayal question. Could you elaborate on the theories as to why Roosevelt misread Stalin, or for whatever reason did not oppose his actions in puppetizing the Eastern European countries? I had come across this issue before and generally feel that western historians typically give the western Allies a very rose colored glasses treatment in relation to their unsavory actions in the war. I would love to hear your thoughts.     
What are theories on why Roosevelt misread Stalin? Was it just cynical realpolitik on his part?            
I also always found it baffling how trusting FDR was of Stalin. It really doesn’t make any sense. Care to share your theories? A more conspiratorially minded aquintance of mind once theorized that FDR was intentionally trying to set up what we now call the Cold War.            
Hmm, I definitely didn’t expect this much feedback from that question.
Anyway, first things out of the way that the first and second Anon’s brought up, this is absolutely true that historians tend to give their home team a lot of leeway. Politics in history is nothing new, plenty of historians have put pen to paper with the intent of making sure a particular truth is told through a combination of overemphasizing their own contributions and minimizing others, spinning or omitting critical context, lies of false statements and omissions, and other media shaping techniques that have been used throughout history. As an example, a lot of Western history books written during the Cold War era had a tendency to glorify the Allies while vilifying the Soviet Union. In the age of the internet though, that is starting to change. High-quality translations are made much more available in modern day, and research papers regarding any number of historical topics are one search away on JSTOR or library, so we can read about Churchill in Greece and so on.
Anyway, as I said, there’s theories as to what Roosevelt was thinking, propagated by a variety of scholars and historians. Coloring everything is that Roosevelt was certain to know that his papers would all become records; he had donated them in 1939 and knew that the rest would be donated again, so it would have been in his best interest to record the best possible version of himself for posterity.
The most realpolitik of theories is that he knew that the money wasn’t in the tank, that the military budget would be slashed hard, and so he couldn’t afford the efforts to stymie Stalin once wartime spending ended. Certainly, Truman had to handle massive military spending cuts following V-J Day, so the knowledge that the budget would be a problem can’t simply be dismissed without consideration. Supporting this are the percentage concessions made by both Churchill and FDR which suggests that the administration of postwar Europe would need Soviet contribution. The problem with this theory is that we don’t see any talk about budget slashing until the Truman administration, and why would FDR be worrying about the budget in 1942 and 1943 for post-war concerns beyond the most theoretical; the war still needed to be won, so I don’t consider it to be so credible.
FDR’s defenders often point out that he was hoping for both the USSR and the USA to act as stabilizers in the world at the forefront of the United Nations, and that shared victory and the cost of war would cause the USSR to give up the idea of seizing buffer states. This would be achieved through a positive relationship with Stalin was the way to achieve this and prevent the sort of dynamic that actually erupted during the Cold War, citing FDR’s optimism and ease as defining personality traits, as well as his rather warm relationship with Stalin. It’s also posited that FDR didn’t believe the rumors about the famines of the 1930′s. The Times’s Moscow Bureau Chief Walter Duranty won a Pulitizer Prize for his articles which denied Holodomer, the Ukranian famine. English playwright George Bernard Shaw also wrote heavily denying Stalin’s starvation policies in the Ukraine. Those writings have largely been discredited, and it’s speculated that both men denied the Holodomer because both had affinities for socialism and did not wish to report on the rampant starvation as they believed it would drive support away from socialism and Communism (there’s that particular truth being told again), but at the time the sources were considered highly credible, though alternate sources even in the 1930′s contradicted them. In turn, following FDR’s death, Truman lacked the same relationship with Stalin and so Stalin seized border states and menaced Europe with the Red Army. The problem with this theory is that Stalin was rather ruthless beforehand and rather ruthless after, so there’s no real evidence to suggest that FDR’s natural bonhomie would have significantly altered Stalin and the foreign policy of the USSR. Even Bertrand Russell, noted World War I pacifist, suggested soon after World War II that America should use the atomic bomb to establish a one-world order, stating that Stalin had inherited Hitler’s dream to conquer Europe.
There’s also the theory that gullible FDR was played like a violin by Stalin, that he was led into believing that Stalin could be amenable if offered a few concessions, then Stalin snapped them up and laughed at the naivete of his American counterpart, because Stalin never missed a chance to seize an opportunity where one could be gained. Another less favorable read goes in the opposite direction, that FDR arrogantly believed he could control the “drunken Georgian” through a few carrots, and that Stalin made it seem like he was all to happy to have the Americans as friends and then fleeced him. Either way, the result is the same, Stalin tricked FDR. The problem is, even in private moments, Stalin did seem to really like FDR, though it’s possible he maintained it simply because Japan before he could really swipe Europe in the post-war aftermath. Stalin was certainly no slouch as a foreign policy man, and he was eager to prop up communist satellite states and snatch up territory to expand the USSR.
More cynical reads suggest FDR simply had little to no regard for Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania and did not desire to expend the blood and treasure necessary to keep them from Stalin. Racial attitudes during the 1940′s were about what you’d expect. This would fit with realpolitik of not seeing the expenditure as justified, though there’s no evidence to my knowledge that suggests that FDR cared so little about Eastern Europe that he didn’t care if Stalin brutalized them. Certainly he had to envision that his intended UN would specifically look to stop this sort of thing.
There are even more theories out there. Which theory is correct? I don’t know. I personally subscribe that Roosevelt didn’t feel that stopping the Soviets from taking Eastern Europe was worth the expenditure or risk of losing Stalin as an ally for his fledgling UN project, given his statements to Churchill when the latter proposed ignoring Soviet demands for no air support and closing his airfields for American use. Given how much media FDR was said to consume, I find it hard to believe he didn’t have suspicions about Stalin’s intentions given all the intelligence reporting coming out of Bern, so I don’t think he was tricked. He wrote off the Eastern Bloc as the price of doing business in realpolitik fashion.
Thanks for the questions, Anons.
SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King
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matteorossini · 7 years
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12 Letters That Didn't Make the Alphabet
You know the alphabet. It’s one of the first things you’re taught in school. But did you know that they’re not teaching you all of the alphabet? There are quite a few letters we tossed aside as our language grew, and you probably never even knew they existed.
1. Thorn
Have you ever seen a place that calls itself “ye olde whatever”? As it happens, that’s not a “y”, or, at least, it wasn’t supposed to be. Originally, it was an entirely different letter called thorn, which derived from the Old English runic alphabet, Futhark.
Thorn, which was pronounced exactly like the "th" in its name, is actually still around today in Icelandic. We replaced it with “th” over time—thorn fell out of use because Gothic-style scripting made the letters y and thorn look practically identical. And, since French printing presses didn’t have thorn anyway, it just became common to replace it with a y. Hence naming things like, “Ye Olde Magazine of Interesting Facts” (just as an example, of course).
2. Wynn
Another holdover from the Futhark runic alphabet, wynn was adapted to the Latin alphabet because it didn’t have a letter that quite fit the “w” sound that was common in English. You could stick two u’s (technically v’s, since Latin didn’t have u either) together, like in equus, but that wasn’t exactly right.
Over time, though, the idea of sticking two u’s together actually became quite popular, enough so that they literally became stuck together and became the letter W (which, you’ll notice, is actually two V’s).
3. Yogh
Yogh stood for a sort of throaty noise that was common in Middle English words that sounded like the "ch" in "Bach" or Scottish "loch."
French scholars weren’t fans of our weird non-Latin letters and started replacing all instances of yogh with “gh” in their texts. When the throaty sound turned into "f" in Modern English, the "gh"s were left behind."
4. Ash
You’re probably familiar with this guy from old-fashioned Greek or Roman style text, especially the kind found in churches. It’s even still used stylistically in words today, like æther and æon.
What you may not know, however, is that at one time the ae grapheme (as it’s now known) was an honorary English letter back in the days of Old English. It still had the same pronunciation and everything, it was just considered to be part of the alphabet and called “æsc” or “ash” after the ash Futhark rune, for which it was used as a substitute when transcribing into Latin letters.
5. Eth
Eth is kind of like the little brother to thorn. Originating from Irish, it was meant to represent a slightly different pronunciation of the “th” sound, more like that in “thought” or “thing” as opposed to the one found in “this” or “them.” (The first is the voiceless dental fricative, the second is the voiced dental fricative).
Note that, depending on your regional accent, there may not be much of a difference (or any at all) in the two pronunciations anyway, but that’s Modern English. Back in the old days, the difference was much more distinct. As such, you’d often see texts with both eth and thorn depending on the required pronunciation. Before too long, however, people just began using thorn for both (and later “th”) and so eth slowly became unnecessary.
6. Ampersand
Today we just use it for stylistic purposes (and when we’ve run out of space in a text message or tweet), but the ampersand has had a long and storied history in English, and was actually frequently included as a 27th letter of the alphabet as recently as the 19th century.
In fact, it’s because of its placement in the alphabet that it gets its name. Originally, the character was simply called “and” or sometimes “et” (from the Latin word for and, which the ampersand is usually stylistically meant to resemble). However, when teaching children the alphabet, the & was often placed at the end, after Z, and recited as “and per se and,” meaning “and in and of itself” or “and standing on its own.”
So you’d have “w, x, y, z, and, per se, and.” Over time, the last bit morphed into “ampersand,” and it stuck even after we quit teaching it as part of the alphabet.
7. Insular G
This letter (referred to as “insular G” or “Irish G” because it didn’t have a fancy, official name) is sort of the grandfather of the Middle English version of yogh. Originally an Irish letter, it was used for the previously mentioned zhyah/jhah pronunciation that was later taken up by yogh, though for a time both were used.
It also stood alongside the modern G (or Carolingian G) for many centuries, as they represented separate sounds. The Carolingian G was used for hard G sounds, like growth or good, yogh was used for “ogh” sounds, like cough or tough, and insular g was used for words like measure or vision.
As Old English transformed into Middle English, insular G was combined with yogh and, as mentioned earlier, was slowly replaced with the now-standard “gh” by scribes, at which point insular G/yogh were no longer needed and the Carolingian G stood alone (though the insular G is still used in modern Irish).
8. “That”
Much like the way we have a symbol/letter for “and,” we also once had a similar situation with “that,” which was a letter thorn with a stroke at the top. It was originally just a shorthand, an amalgamation of thorn and T (so more like “tht”), but it eventually caught on and got somewhat popular in its own right (even outliving thorn itself), especially with religious institutions. There’s an excellent chance you can find this symbol somewhere around any given church to this day.
9. Ethel
Similar to Æ/ash/æsc above, the digraph for OE was once considered to be a letter as well, called ethel. It wasn’t named after someone’s dear, sweet grandmother, but the Furthark rune Odal, as œ was its equivalent in transcribing.
It was traditionally used in Latin loan words with a long e sound, such as subpœna or fœtus. Even federal was once spelled with an ethel. (Fœderal.) These days, we’ve just replaced it with a simple e.
10. Tironian “Ond”
Long before there were stenographers, a Roman by the name of Marcus Tullius Tiro (who was basically Roman writer Cicero’s P.A.) invented a shorthand system called Tironian notes. It was a fairly simple system that was easily expanded, so it remained in use by scribes for centuries after Tiro’s death.
One of the most useful symbols (and an ancestor to the ampersand) was the “et” symbol above—a simple way of tossing in an “and.” (And yes, it was sometimes drawn in a way that’s now a popular stylistic way of drawing the number 7.) When used by English scribes, it became known as “ond,” and they did something very clever with it. If they wanted to say “bond,” they’d write a B and directly follow it with a Tironian ond. For a modern equivalent, it’d be like if you wanted to say your oatmeal didn’t have much flavor and you wrote that it was “bl&.”
The trend grew popular beyond scribes practicing shorthand and it became common to see it on official documents and signage, but since it realistically had a pretty limited usage and could occasionally be confusing, it eventually faded away.
11. Long S
You may have seen this in old books or other documents, like the title page from Paradise Lost above. Sometimes the letter s will be replaced by a character that looks a bit like an f. This is what’s known as a “long s,” which was an early form of a lowercase s. And yet the modern lowercase s (then referred to as the “short s”) was still used according to a complicated set of rules (but most usually seen at the end of a word), which led to many words (especially plurals) using both. For example, ?uper?titous is how the word superstitious would have been printed.
It was purely a stylistic lettering, and didn’t change the pronunciation at all. It was also kind of silly and weird, since no other letters behaved that way, so around the beginning of the 19th century, the practice was largely abandoned and the modern lowercase s became king.
12. Eng
For this particular letter, we can actually point to its exact origin. It was invented by a scribe named Alexander Gill the Elder in the year 1619 and meant to represent a velar nasal, which is found at the end of words like king, ring, thing, etc.
Gill intended for the letter to take the place of ng entirely (thus bringing would become bri?i?), and while it did get used by some scribes and printers, it never really took off—the Carolingian G was pretty well-established at that time and the language was beginning to morph into Modern English, which streamlined the alphabet instead of adding more to it. Eng did manage live on in the International Phonetic Alphabet, however.
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