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nightswithkookmin · 3 years

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Dear new friend,

I just finished reading your messages. First of all, thank you. I think I would have been less traumatized out here if a lot of people took to sharing their thoughts on matters such as these in the manner in which you do.

I think I set myself up too because I be wanting to participate in certain topics and discussions and so often I find myself trying to sieve through the vitriol and pejoratives.

The gender of the word is feminine not masculine. I don’t see how that is misinformation.

"Sorry, the misinformation bit was because I was thinking about that tweet that went viral about this word being used only for woman. The person said it was an adjective, and you said it was an adjective, so I thought you were basing this information on that tweet. That day was crazy, some people spread this, wanted to change his pronouns, trend a hashtag and were saying he had came out... This was too much. And the "debunked" thing was about this tweet, as well. Not about the words being feminine and masculine. That's a fact, you're right."

I had no idea a tweet went viral like that claiming he wanted to change his pronouns. That's wild and I disagree. Lol. I think I've always maintained he uses He/him pronouns and said time and again I do not think he wants to be emasculated at all. As I said, that would have made him transgender not bigender and thus defeat the purpose. To be bigender he has to be two genders at the same time not one.

But I have been following the discussions on this topic on the bird app and I try my best to bring nuance to certain discussions. I try. Lol.

I take note of the differences between your language and Latin as you rightly pointed out. But I also do see the similarities and I think the explanation you gave and the examples you provided gives me a better understanding of the language structure.

"Yeah, totally fine hahah We tend to interpret things according to our own experiences; for me, a gendered word is part of my daily life, normal, and I don't bat an eye about it. Is just a word, the importance is in its meaning ─ and it suits filter SOOO well. For you, it's something more. At the end of the day, art is here to be interpreted, and if Jimin doesn't explicitly explain the filter performance, tattoos, set, outfits... It's open for interpretation. (And I'm not a person that tries to find hidden meanings. I simply enjoy what I enjoy. I have this thing about being as accurate as possible, so I try to stick to facts (like: I don't feel comfortable saying he chose these words, because I don't know if HE was the person that chose it (in the sense that he was the one that bring it up to the staff/company). Maybe someone else showed it to him and he was like: "Nice! I want it!". But I feel okay saying he's had a tattoo with these words (A fact). Also I don't make a big deal of most things ─ for me Jimin is Jimin and I'm supporting him regardless, he's precious)

(But Memories 2020 is coming and I'm almost sure they are going to show filter behind the scenes!!!! So we're going to understand better this masterpiece (I HOPE SO))

I understand what you mean. Some people are inclined towards taking the literal meaning of texts or in this case art and not read much into situations beyond what is presented at face value- not me🤣🤣🤣🤣

I do the magnifying glass and errthang👁

I think humans are complex and there's always a possibility of a psychological and or pathological stimulus underscoring their behaviors, choices and actions in most cases.

But that aside, I think it's easier to take a heteronormative view on things sometimes because cis straight has always been the norm even in appreciating art- but truth is, coding and co opting codified expressions is almost always part of queer culture and behavior too. If any other queer celebrity had used that expression, I would be reading much into it too beyond its semantics.

For me it's simple, would I be reading too too much into the language and art choice of someone I thought was cis straight? Hell No. Straight is boring and blunt as fuck.

Unless of course they were being intentionally witty or secretive about something, I'd assume and expect their expressions to be pretty much straight forward- generally. I went home to be would mean just that.

If I sensed the author were queer coding Home would mean something else entirely to be. Home becomes a symbol not a word. And if he chose to write that in Latin and not the language they spoke naturally, I'd assume there's something about that language that he likes and perhaps uses to code a queer message.

For closeted queer people who live in a world where they are constantly coerced to take on a duality and have an expressional alter egos- two identical identities with one being the facade and pretense through which they openly and largely perform normalcy of self, the other being their real self which they tuck away because it is inconsistent with the acceptable norms- I'd a take a very different approach to their art. But that's me.

If a straight person said they needed escape, it would mean something totally different to me than say if a queer person said they needed escape. Because those two are escaping two very different things.

For example, the words Moon and moonlight used by a straight person means nothing to me- perhaps because I just don't care much to look for its deeper meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words as presented. If it appears in a queer person's parlance, even if in passing, I assume immediately they are referencing something much more deeper, meaningful and coded.

Queer coding is a thing you know? And it's born out of necessity not choice sometimes.

Take for instance BTS's proclivity to 'queer codify' their music. Moon and moonlight has become symbolic of the inner struggles of a queer person amongst black 'educated' queer men and women. It's come to symbolize cultural norms and expectations and how those affect queer people- perhaps of all race.

In the Movie Moonlight, which has become the epitome of queer black struggles and desires for liberation, this motif was used to represent the struggles of a black boy dealing with the pressures of a hyper masculine society.

When RM references this in 4 Oclock, 'the whole world is blue under the moonlight' is he queer coding or just appropraiting queer parlance as buzz word? That expression takes on a whole new meaning were he queer. Blue symbolizes queerness- a theory popularized of course by the Film. When V who once wrote an allegedly 'queer coded song' Stigma says he is blue- what does he mean now? On the surface blue means blue. Would you take a straightforward view on this or assume its symbolic? And what is it symbolic of?? Sadness?? Gayness?

If RM had an accompanying tattoo as compliment to the song in his performance that evoked similar sentiments or hinted at a possible second meaning I wouldn't assume that that tattoo meant nothing or that it didn't have a deeper meaning behind it.

It's just as how Lil Nas X posted a city of rainbows and people said 'rainbows are rainbows. Y'all shouldn't read much into it.' But for queer people that was pretty much a declaration of his sexuality.

Later he had to post again and reiterate that that rainbow post was his coming out moment. 'I thought I made it obvious.'

Somethings are pretty much obvious.

For JM who don't speak Latin- unless he is secretly fluent in which case my bad- I don't think he cares so much about the grammar of the language beyond it's meaning. And perhaps gender? Grammatical gender I mean. That's just because the first thing you learn about Latin is that all the nouns are gendered?

I won't lie. When I first learned that I was supper fascinated about grammatical gender and why speakers of the language felt a need to gender every word of the language.

In the end, we all don't know. I'm out here convinced two Asian men are so gay they can't straight to save their asses. I have a tendency to view everything they do through queer lens. If they are not gay I'm pretty much gaslighting them you know?

I'm always fascinated by different point of views on a myriad of subjects. Just as you said, our diverse experiences inform our experiences and perspectives. I just hope people acknowledge how their straightness informs their understanding of queerness too and how that has a tendency to be invalidating and dismissive of queer issues and experiences.

But to me it's like, if Jikook are gay why do you have to interpret what they do through straight lens?

Personally, I wouldn't interpret straight through queer lens and force that view on to straight people. That would be homonormative? Assuming rainbow means straight people are gay when they are not, moon means feminine to straight men, that the use of the word God makes one a Christian- that's just silly and bizarre.

I use Namaste often and suddenly some people here think I'm Indian. I wish. They have one hell of a culture.

When I was reading through your messages, all that kept playing in my head was- that's a very 'straight' view on the matter. Lol. Please tell me you got the pun. Lol.

I think my opinion will remain the same on the matter if you placed any queer person in Jimin's stead. Any queer person that I believed was queer and had hinted a few times at exploring a dual identity or going through that phase at least.

I think I'd enjoy your blog if you had one.

I love love the lesson on Italian or is it Spanish?

Also, I would love your take on V and Stigma. A lot of queer stans have a queer reading of the lyrics- I see the appeal however I don't have a queer reading of it at all. Thoughts??

Namaste.

Signed,

GOLDY

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spanishskulduggery · 5 years

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i don't know if you have a post about it but can you explain, dumb down if i'm being honestly, the uses/etc for the different pronouns: indirect object, direct object, etc?

Direct objects are basically what amounts to the accusative case for languages with case systems.

Basically it works like this: Subject verbs an object

The object that is “verbed” is the direct object; it receives the action and is directly acted upon.

So in a sentence like “I kick the ball”, the “I” is the subject, “kick” is the verb, and “the ball” is the object.

The pronouns are:

me = yo

te = tú

lo/la = 3ra persona singular / usted

los/las = 3ra persona plural / ustedes

nos = nosotros

os* = vosotros

*if you’re in Spain

Direct objects are most common with inanimate objects, so you need to know the gender of the object.

If it’s “I kick the ball” it would be pateo la pelota and so la pelota “the ball” is feminine… so la pateo “I kick it”, where “it” is the pronoun for “the ball” which is implied.

But you could say compro el libro “I buy the book”, or lo compro “I buy it”, and it’s masculine because el libro is masculine.

Same general idea exists for plural.

Indirect objects are the dative case for languages with case systems.

These mark “to whom” or “for whom” an action is done, and many times indirect object pronouns are used for people, animals, or personified objects.

The pronouns here are:

me = yo

te = tú

le = 3ra persona singular / usted

les = 3ra persona plural / ustedes

nos = nosotros

os* = vosotros

*again for Spain

You get introduced to indirect objects first with gustar

me gusta el libro = I like the book [lit. “the book pleases me”]me gustan los libros = I like the books [lit. “the books please me”]

Again, this is normally a person who receives the action of a verb… but not directly.

In other words… “I send the letter” is mando la carta and in here, la carta is the direct object.

The person who receives the action of “sending the letter” is its recipient… so te mando la carta “I send the letter to you”, or le mando la carta “I send the letter to him/her”

Direct and indirect objects do show up together, just like in English.

Luckily, as you’ve probably noticed it’s only 3rd person singular and plural that change, so even if you don’t totally know whether the me is technically direct or indirect, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still me

But for other sentences it’s more particular.

Because Spanish is a little more vague with the pronouns, it’s more based on implied knowledge. Like if I say “it”, it should be obvious what I’m referring to or the pronoun kind of feels weird in Spanish.

In general, if you don’t know what it should be, you tend to say lo but if you have the noun already at hand, you need to know its gender.

Te mando la carta. = I send you the letter.Te la mando. = I send it to you.

Te mando el paquete. = I send you the package.Te lo mando. = I send it to you.

Te mando las flores. = I send you the flowers.Te las mando. = I send them (f) to you.

Te mando los chocolates. = I send you the chocolates.Te los mando. = I send them (m) to you.

Where it gets a little more confusing is that when 3rd person meets 3rd person for indirect + direct, the indirect objects [le/les] change into se

This is because if you had le/les + lo/la/los/las it would sound really weird and trip you up when you speak.

The se here serves no grammatical purpose other than just to replace the le/les so it’s not super awkward:

Le mando la carta. = I send him/her the letter.Se la mando. = I send it to him/her.Les mando la carta. = I send them the letter.Se la mando. = I send it to them.

Le mando el paquete. = I send him/her the package.Se lo mando. = I send it to him/her.Les mando el paquete. = I send them the package.Se lo mando. = I send it to them.

Le mando las flores. = I send him/her the flowers.Se las mando. = I send them to him/her.Les mando las flores. = I send them the flowers.Se las mando. = I send them to them.

Le mando los chocolates. = I send him/her the chocolates.Se los mando. = I send them to him/her.Les mando los chocolates. = I send them the chocolates.Se los mando. = I send them to them.

*Note: Because se here could be le or les, it’s sometimes common to write a (sujeto) to make it clear who you’re talking about.

That’s common with indirect objects just in general. When it’s obvious like me gusta, saying a mí me gusta comes off as very emphatic “I’m the one who likes it” or “well, I like it [implying someone else didn’t]”

With le and les it could refer to “him”, “her”, “You”,“them”, “You all”… and “them” could be masculine or feminine.

So when it’s ambiguous and hasn’t been stated, sometimes people will just add the a to make it clear:

Se lo mando (a él). = I’m sending it to him.

Se los mando (a ella). = I’m sending them to her.

Se la mando (a usted). = I’m sending it to you.

Se la mando (a ellos). = I’m sending it to them (m+m, m+f)Se la mando (a ellas). = I’m sending it to them (f+f)

Se las mando (a ustedes). = I’m sending them to you guys.

And really you could have the direct object [lo/la/los/las] be anything.

When the direct object is a person, it can be a little weird.

In Latin America it’s more common to say something like:

Lo conozco (a él). = I know him.La conozco (a ella). = I know her.

in Spain, it depends on the region, but most places will say le conozco instead. Though some regions in Spain use the direct objects. There are other regional variations, but Spain typically favors the use of indirect objects when it’s a person or animate object to denote personhood or life.

There’s some debate over how active the object is… Like a verb like ayudar could be interpreted with direct or indirect objects. And based on this reasoning, le ayudo is like “I help him/her” but in the sense that they’re accepting help… and lo/la ayudo “I help him/her” makes the object more passive.

I find people will understand you regardless so don’t worry about it too much. Latin America favors the direct objects for people, but will use the indirect objects for people in very formal situations.

In my textbooks it used to say: es un placer conocerle “it’s nice to meet you”, and I also have some where it’s like es un placer conocerLa a usted, señora “it’s a pleasure to meet you, madam”

In general, I’d be using lo/la people, even if they were usted. But I think es un placer conocerte is pretty commonplace. And conocerle sounds real formal to me.

Verbs that typically use direct objects with people (to the best of my knowledge)

golpear = to hit

castigar = to punish

querer = to love [more Latin America]

amar = to love (passionately) [more Latin America]

juzgar = to judge

lastimar = to hurt, to injure

olvidar = to forget

perdonar = to forgive

llevar = to carry / to bring

tomar = to take

ayudar = to help [sometimes indirect objects are used]

mirar = to watch / to stare at [sometimes indirect objects are used]

llamar = to call

conocer = to know (someone/a place)

encontrar = to find

buscar = to look for

tener = to have

ver = to see

Verbs that typically use indirect objects (with a person)

dar = to give

enviar = to send

mandar = to send

culpar / echar la culpa = to blame

sugerir = to suggest

ofrecer = to offer

enseñar = to teach / to show, to point out

servir = to serve

traer = to bring

pedir = to request

decir = to say

contar = to tell

hacer daño = to harm, to do harm

hacer caso = to pay attention to, to mind, to heed

prometer = to promise

jurar = to swear

echar de menos = to miss (someone) [Spain]extrañar = to miss (someone) [Lat Am]

…also the gustar verbs, though some gustar verbs work in different applications:

gustar = to like

encantar = to really like[encantar can also take direct objects but it means “to enchant” or “to bewitch” in this case, as in using magic on an object]

sorprender = to surprise

fascinar = to fascinate

quedar bien/mal = to fit well/poorly (said of clothes)

doler = to hurt, to ache

parecer = to seem

resultar[used like… me resulta familiar “it seems familiar to me”, or me resulta curioso “I find it strange”]

extrañar = to find strange, to seem odd [when it isn’t “to miss someone”]

costar = to be difficult for someone

molestar = to annoy

interesar = to interest

importar = to matter, to care about

I would also recommend:

Anatomy of Spanish: Direct Objects

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

That’s a more quick and easy explanation of them.

Also, reflexive verbs are a thing but they’re easier.

Reflexive verbs are part of a subset of things known as “pronomial verbs”, which for your purposes means “they use the reflexive pronouns but might not always be reflexive in the traditional sense”

…So that’s a thing I’ll explain briefly later on.

me = yo

te = tú

se = 3ra persona singular y plural / usted y ustedes

nos = nosotros

os = vosotros

The se is the one to watch here because all of 3rd person and usted and ustedes use that se. They’re usually easier to spot though because of how reflexive verbs conjugate. More on that in a minute.

But reflexives in their truest sense are divided into regular reflexives and reciprocal reflexives.

The basic definition of reflexives are “verbs where the subject and the object are the same”… meaning “I do something to myself”, “you do something to yourself”…

A lot of reflexives show up in your daily routine, and also apply to you doing things to your own body parts… me lavo la cara reads literally as “I wash myself the face” but it means “I wash my face”… or me lavo las manos “I wash my hands”

A reflexive needs the pronoun to match with the subject… in other words me refers to yo, and lavo only conjugates as yo… so me lavo is “I wash myself”

If you mixed up one or the other, you’d end up with a different sentence and a direct/indirect meaning… me lavas “you wash me” or te lavo “I wash you”… are not reflexive.

Because reflexive pronouns need to match the conjugations, you can usually tell who it applies to pretty easily, except in third person where it could be ambiguous:

Me pongo la ropa. = I put on clothes.

Te pones la ropa. = You put on clothes

(Él) se pone la ropa. = He puts on clothes.(Ella) se pone la ropa. = She puts on clothes.(Usted) se pone la ropa. = You put on clothes.

(Ellos) se ponen la ropa. = They (m+m, m+f) put on clothes.(Ellas) se ponen la ropa. = They (f+f) put on clothes.(Ustedes) se ponen la ropa. = You all put on clothes.

Nos ponemos la ropa. = We put on clothes.

In the same vein, a “reciprocal reflexive” is where two or more subjects do something to one another.

Nos conocemos. = We know each other.Nos conocimos. = We met each other.Nos conocíamos. = We used to know each other.

Se conocen. = They know each other.Se conocieron. = They met each other.Se conocían. = They used to know each other.

Sometimes it’s potentially ambiguous, but when it could be you normally see el uno al otro, el uno del otro, or el uno con el otro depending on the verb in question. And that just means “one another”.

That formation is more uncommon but it has happened. Normally it’s just phrased as reflexive and you understand it by context.

abrazar a alguien = to hug someoneSe abrazaron. = They hugged. / They hugged one another.Se abrazaron el uno al otro. = They hugged one another.

enamorarse de alguien = to fall in love with someoneSe enamoraron. = They fell in love.Se enamoraron el uno del otro. = They fell in love with each other.casarse con alguien = to get married to someoneSe casaron. = They got married.Se casaron el uno con el otro. = They got married to each other.

Other ones would be like besarse “to kiss / to make out”, or divorciarse “to get divorced”, or reunirse “to meet up / to join together”

And then there are the other pronomial verbs that use reflexive but you can’t exactly say they translate very reflexively.

Like dormir is “to sleep” but dormirse means “to fall asleep”. It’s not like “one sleeps themselves”…

This is part of something called dativo ético which is a whole big thing that is kind of a lot, but basically it used a reflexive marker to show there’s something significant for the person it refers to, and it’s usually translated into English with some kind of additional word or preposition

Like mudar is “to mutate/change/molt”, and mudarse is “to move away (residences)”, or ir is “to go” and irse is “to go away/to leave”, or quedar is “to remain” and quedarse is “to stay behind”

So if you see a thing that looks reflexive but it doesn’t make sense reflexively, chances are you found dativo ético

#Spanish #language #languages #learning Spanish #español #direct objects #indirect objects #reflexive #la gramatica #asks

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languagemadness · 6 years

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Diminutives in Polish

this post was requested a looooong time ago, I’m sorry I just got down to it.

Diminutives are really popular in Polish. Like, super popular. People use them all the time, not necessarily when they should be using them.

So when should you use diminutives?

When you want to emphasize something is very small or cute or when you want to give something a more positive or a slightly scornful overtone. Diminutives are also a stylistic device and bring in some emotional undertone.

size: dom -> domek

positive attitude: palec -> paluszek

scornful attitude: bunt -> buncik

What words can you use the diminutive form with?

adjectives (słodki -> słodziutki), adverbs (słodko -> słodziutko), verbs (very rarely; płakać -> płakusiać), and nouns (okno -> okienko) — yes, these include names (Agata -> Agatka)!

Watch out: as I said, diminutives are usually used when you want to make something sound very small/cute/nice — but some words’ meanings differ from their diminutives. For example, "spodnie,” which is the "basic" form, in its diminutive form would be "spodenki" — but "spodenki" is usually used to refer to shorts. Same goes for kanapa (couch) -> kanapka (sandwich).

How do you create diminutives?

From now on, we’ll be working on nouns only as they’re the most popular words to make diminutives from.

Just take the root word and add the right suffix to it:

masculine nouns: -ek/-ik/-yk (dom->domek / list->liścik / kosz->koszyk)

"-ek" is the default option (dach->daszek)

"-ik" after l, ł, j, d, ń (słoń->słonik)

"-yk" only after sz, cz, c, ż, rz (deszcz->deszczyk)

feminine nouns: -ka (rzeka->rzeczka)

neuter nouns: -ko (lustro->lusterko)

If you paid attention, you noticed that it sounds simple at first but right when we got to the examples, it got… weird. What happened to rzeka? Why did the "k" turn into "cz"? What about lustro? There’s no "e" in lustro — why put it in lusterko then? Well, these are just some alternants that happen very often in Polish. There’s no other way than just learn it by heart — and through practice. I made a post about alternation and how to live with it here.

Watch out (again): word roots that end in "-na" always get an extra "-e-". Sooooo:

wiosna -> wiosenka

sarna -> sarenka

wojna -> wojenka

Sometimes it’s also possible to form diminutives from diminutives. Woah, what! They’re called double diminutives. One way to make them is to take a magical suffix (-ek, -ka, -ko — according to the gender of the noun) and add it to the diminutive’d word. BUT you also need to change the "k" into "cz" and add an "e". It’s not as complicated as it sounds, look:

bawełna -> bawełenka -> bawełeneczka

However, if it still sounds to you like a grammar rule invented by the devil himself, there’s an easier way of creating double diminutives. Just take the root word and add a proper suffix:

masculine nouns: -eczek/-uszek/-iszek/-yczek (dom->domeczek / kwiat->kwiatuszek / brat->braciszek / kosz->koszyczek)

feminine nouns: -eczka (dziewczyna->dziewczyneczka)

neuter nouns: -eczko (słońce->słoneczko)

Did you notice? Both these ways are basically the same thing. For example: dziewczyna -> dziewczyn-ka (we added -ka to make it a diminutive) -> dziewczyn-eczka (we took the root word “dziewczyn-” and added the double diminutive suffix “-eczka” -- but at the same time we took the entire normal diminutive “dziewczyn-ka” and we turned the k into cz and added an e before it!). So it’s basically the same rule, just two ways of applying it -- go with whichever makes you more comfortable!

Watch out (again!): if the root word ends in -ka/-ek/-ik/-yk/-ko, you can only make it a diminutive by turning it into a double diminutive. In other words, words which roots end in -ka/-ek/-ik/-yk/-ko don’t have a singular diminutive form. Just double.

książka -> książeczka

pudełko -> pudełeczko

Wanna hear something fun? There are triple diminutives, too! They’re easy, though. Again, it’s all about suffixes:

masculine nouns: -unio/-uś (miś->misiunio / chleb -> chlebuś)

feminine nouns: -unia/-usia (mama->mamunia / Ania -> Anusia)

neuter nouns: -unio/-usio (miś->misiunio / kino->kinusio)

So what’s the difference between all three degrees of diminutives?

Meaning. "Normal", singular diminutives are most common and they’re less… over the top. Again, you use them to say something is nice, small, cute, sweet, positive — or if you want to present something in an ironic way. Double diminutives are more intense than that. Triple diminutives are even more intense. The more intense the diminutive, the less used it is.

For that very reason, double or triple diminutives don’t always work. What you need to remember is that as long as you can create normal diminutives from basically any word, double and triple ones often sound just too weird to be true. For example: drukarka–>drukareczka (single diminutive)->drukareczeczka (double diminutive, but it won’t work because it’s too complicated and unnatural)->drukareczunia (triple diminutive, but come on — it’s even worse).

Important things to remember

* you can create diminutive forms from nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs — and that includes proper names.

* singular diminutives are very common in everyday language. Double and triple diminutives are not as common.

* not every diminutive means the same thing as their basic word (eg. spodenki are not “small pants”).

* you use diminutives to show something is small, cute, positive — or when you want to show it in an ironic light.

* alternation. Again, I made a post about it here.

If you have any questions at all, don’t even hesitate to shoot me a message or an ask 🎀

________________

I helped myself with these websites: 1 / 2 / 3.

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anilyan · 4 years

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Creative diary #4

Starting on 23/3/2020, I will start to force myself to expand my creative and technical skills every day by keeping a diary of what I did, a public diary, so that other people can judge me or otherwise get inspiration or tips from my posts. The skills I want to improve are: drawing (especially digitally, but since I focused on that 1-2 months ago I will treat that skill seriously soon), writing, writing for games, architecture/building design (favorite tool? the sims xD) and possibly sculpting. That means I will either study those skills or practice them at least 10 minutes every day, and my posts consist of a list of what I did.

What I did today:

Some minutes writing my Skyrim fanfic [Memories of a Dragon]

Participated in a facebook discussion about how to deal with pronouns in games, [this one]. The original post and my answer can be found below:

Question:

Hey all, this is a question for those of you who have written/worked on something in English that allows for the player to select their character's gender/pronouns.

HOW do you deal with the broken circle of "him/her," "his/her," "his/hers," without putting if statements in throughout? What do you name your variables so they feel ok to write?

((EDIT FOR CLARITY: This is a situation where the character is talked about in the third person. Another way to think about it is to choose the gender your main character is attracted to.))

Bonus question: if you allow for they/them pronouns, how do you handle the pluralisation (s/he is, they are)?

My answer:

As a non-binary person, this discussion interests me greatly and it makes me happy to see so many people considering the option for they/them pronouns in games. So, I only have a few things to add, but first I will mention the things you already said here:

1) Tim Scheiman said that “Could also include both full words in the variable or macros, "he is, she is, they are"”, however, Elen Jurik already stated the problems of that solution: “this breaks the minute you change from "he walks to the store" to "they walk to the store"”

2) Elen Jurik also pointed out that “The problem isn't the programming side of it - I've been setting up variables, but specifically "him/her," "his/her," and "his/hers" don't match up nicely, and end up causing grammatical errors.” The example given was that “his = her OR hers; her = him OR his”.

3) The best idea to me was the one of Alex Woodward: “On my last project the dialogue looked like {Pronouns: They do|She does|He does}. So they was 1, she was 2, he was 3 and the code checked the variable and inserted the right phrase accordingly.” I imagine it results in fewer grammatical errors.

That said, the setting and story of the game might allow for ways to avoid the problem in multiple situations, in the situation, the protagonist receives a title and that title doesn’t change independently of the gender, ie: “Inquisitor” (Dragon Age Inquisition), “Sole Survivor” (Fallout 4), “Dragonborn” (Skyrim). Not only makes coding easier (unless there were still situations where the gender needed to be addressed), if the game has voice-acting, it’s a huge advantage because there will be less lines of dialogue to record.

In fantasy or fiction settings it may also be possible to create gender-neutral pronouns that are not they/them. Not everyone would be pleased, but since most games don’t give options for non-binary people to exist in the first place, I doubt we would focus too much on that. So you could create pronouns that are gender neutral AND singular, and that way the only thing that has to change is the pronouns itself, not the verb. In a personal project, I had the idea of creating the pronouns “hey/hem/heir”. Examples: “Hey walks to the store”, “This is heir house” or “I used to see hem as a friend, but not anymore”. That looks strange but it’s quite easy to pronounce when reading a sentence, partly because it starts with an “h” like the feminine/masculine pronouns (so it even makes the language more consistent), and it’s also easy to associate that with the plural and gender-neutral pronouns of the English language. When this is possible, then it solves the problem mentioned in (1). Feel free to use the pronouns I invented if you like it.

If a non-binary character can be romanced, this is just a reminder that boyfriend/girlfriend can be easily converted to partner/lover and that even works for binary genders. Husband/wife, father/mother, dad/mom and others are a little harder and generate lots of discussion in the non-binary community. And don’t forget that if the non-binary character has brothers/sisters, they can be referred to as sibling or sib.

Last but not least, I’m from Portugal, and I’ve seen people here ask if you had the intention of translating the game into other languages. In Portuguese, like in most latin-based languages, even our plural is gendered and there is no official way to make a sentence gender-neutral. It’s really complicated. Most translations end up referring in a binary way to characters who are non-binary or whose gender is unknown, usually based on what the character looks like, which is really invalidating. That said, if the creators of the stories – games, books, movies… - have any say in the translation, I suggest looking individually to what the non-binary community uses in each language. That may be tricky to find and get diverse results, so I will advance that in Portuguese, most people who bother to try, as I do sometimes, use “Elu” instead of “Ela/Ele”, words finished in “a/o” are finished with “e” and the article “a/o” that precedes nouns is often omitted, though that’s the less consensual part. I’ve posted a study of the advantages and disadvantages of all possibilities I have ever seen someone use/consider, in Portuguese, so if anyone here speaks that language or wants to recommend something about this to a person who speaks Portuguese, here you have it: https://caixinha-any.blogspot.com/2018/11/pros-e-contras-das-varias-formas-de.html

#games #writing #fic #fanfic #tips #misc #mywork #creative diary #gender #pronouns #portuguese #non-binary #lgbt+#lgbt

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ash-etherwood · 6 years

Text

my gender and stuff

Ok so recently I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am, what I am presenting as and who I want to be.

My undercut is now a little over a year old and my self esteem has only risen since I cut my long hair off. I never did anything special with it, it was always in the way and the only hairstyle I ever had was a really ugly bun with all of my hair pulled back which made me look like a Karen who recently divorced her husband and wanted to speak to the manager. After I cut my hair and looked in the mirror, it was the first time in my life when I felt genuinely attractive, beautiful, handsome. I felt like a person that was content with how they looked and couldn’t help but smile when they saw themselves, not feel the need to hide and feeling not good enough. I also bought a lot new clothes and drastically changed my style: I wear snapbacks now, brighter colours, patterns, things I thought were “too mainstream” or “not edgy enough” before. Especially during my teens I felt a strong pressure to be edgy, different, dark, not like the other girls/kids. I was ashamed when I found myself actually liking a pop song and furiously denied it for years or tried to mark it as a joke. Today I don’t define my taste in music anymore, I listen to whatever I like, Bring Me to Life is still unironically one of my favourite songs, but so is Toxic and Everybody by the Backstreet Boys. I love what I love, no matter if it’s fashionable and basic or obscure and edgy.

I changed my mind about my sexuality quite often in the last few years, which is a normal thing to do I guess. I identified as bisexual for some time, then as lesbian, then as panromantic, and now I’m back to homoromantic and grey-asexual and right now it feels good and fitting for me. I can’t promise it will stay this way, but for now I feel right and well. The only thing that is set in stone is that I really, really, REALY like girls. I learned a lot about the butch identity in the past few months and found myself feeling very comfortable with that label. I have always been kinda gender-nonconforming since my teen years, but only recently I found out how nice it feels to wear flannel and caps and boxer shorts. I feel good when I present more masculine. Female masculinity is a real and an incredibly good and healthy thing and I know it sounds weird to say it like that, I was confused too, but when you experience it, you suddenly understand it so much better. I am a butch lesbian and I am good and masculine and female and I feel good this way.

And now there is something I’ve been thinking about. I don’t really dislike being a girlfriend. But I’d rather be a boyfriend. Not a man, I don’t want to stop being a woman, a lesbian. I like being a sir, a mister, a boyfriend, a guy. I’m not a man and I don’t want to be associated with manhood. I am a lesbian, I want to be associated with girls and women and lesbians, I feel like one of them, but not in a conventional way. I’m not really sure who I am, but I know that I’m not “just” a girl anymore. I’ve explored a few labels already, like nonbinary and demigirl, some people even identify their gender as butch, something that sounds very right and fitting in my opinion for what I’m experiencing, but I’m not sure about it yet and what to call it. I’ve read about lesbians who use he/him pronouns, who are not men and don’t want to be called men, but who feel like these pronouns fit them better than any others. Something that seems confusing and maybe contradictory at first, but makes more sense the more you learn and think about it. I’m not sure about personal pronoun changes yet, and I am not repulsed by she/her in any way, and the lack of gender-neutral pronouns in German makes it even harder for me to find something fitting, but I feel like I want to start looking how they/them feels for me. I think right now I would be okay with any pronouns. She? Fine. They? Also fine. He? I think even that would be fine if it is used by someone I know and trust and who knows about how I feel.

All I wanted to say is pretty much that I’m starting to feel more disconnected from being a binary woman and more connected to being a nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, more generally masculine, but not entirely femininity-repulsed woman. I own beautiful dresses and I will continue to look adorable in them. But I will also continue to look handsome as fuck in my leather jacket and flannel shirt.

I would be really thankful if y’all started referring to me as “they” sometimes, you don’t have to entirely avoid “she”, as I still feel ok with it, and I’m not sure about “he” yet, but I would also be nice I you could refer to me with masculine nouns (I mean that in a German way) like for example “actor” instead of “actress” (or Veranstalter, Träger, Freund etc. instead of Veranstalterin, Trägerin, Freundin etc., you know the stuff).

Thanks for reading and listening to my confused ass, if there was anything unclear or not well explained, feel free to ask me about it and I will try to answer you as clear as possible! <3

#my words of wisdom #genderboy #maybe i'll need that tag again

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kaparaonyou · 7 years

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Hebrew in ~300 words עִבְרִית בְּכְ־300 מִּלִּים

Attention! I made some mistakes on the original post due to how similar the vowel points look on the HTML editor, hopefully enough people will see this on my blog and see that I’ve fixed them. Sorry :(

As a part of this post about beginning to learn a language, I’d decided to translate 300 basic words and phrases into Hebrew.

Note: all words will be written in defective spelling (ktiv haser) and with vowel points for ease of pronunciation

A hyphen (מָקָף) indicates the preposition / conjunction is immediately attached to the next word, and a dot underneath the hyphen is a dagesh, a bowel point indicating change in pronunciation of ב, כ, פ from the expected mid-word soft pronunciations (v, kh, f) to the hard ones (b, k ,p, respectively).

First Verbs

Verbs are given in their simplest form: 3rd person, male, past tense. modal verbs are exceptional in Hebrew, so they are given in their most common form.

be - no equivalent. The subject and the complement are simply put one after the other in the case of an adj. (which is conjugated according to number and gender), and connected with a 3rd person pronoun conjugated accordingly in case of a noun complement (הוּא/הִיא; הֵם/הֵן)

there is - יֵשׁ, past הָיה

have - יֵשׁ לְ־ (there is to subj.) past הָיָה לְ־

do - עָשָׂה

go - הָלַךְ

want - רָצָה

can - m יָכוֹל / f יְכוֹלָה

need - m צָרִיךְ / f צְרִיכָה

think - חָשַׁב

know - יָדַע

say - אָמַר, הֵגִיד

like - אָהַב (same as love)

speak - דִּבֶּר

learn - לָמַד

understand - הֵבִין

Conjunctions

that (as in “I think that…” or “the woman that…”) - ּשֶׁ־ (i think that…, the woman that… all tenses), הַ־ּ (the woman that… alternative to present tense)

and - וְ־

or - אוֹ

but - אֲבָל

because - in decreasing order of frequency - כִּי, בִּגְלַל שֶׁ־ּ, מִשֹּוּם שֶׁ־ּ, (מִ)כֵּיוָן שֶׁ־ּ, etc.

though - in decreasing order of frequency - לַמְרוׁת שֶׁ־ּ, עַל אַף שֶׁ־ּ, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁ־ּ, etc.

so (meaning “therefore”; e.g. “I wanted it, so I bought it”) - אַז, לָכֵן

if - אִם

Prepositions

When used with pronouns, Hebrew prepositions are always conjugated with a specific ending for each pronoun.

of - של

to - אֵל (direction), לְ־ (all other uses tbh)

from - מִ־ּ

in - ְבְּתוֹך (inside), בְּ־ (in general)

at (a place) - בְּ־

at (a time) - בְּ־

with - עִם (with a noun), אֵת (with a pronoun, conjugated as ָאִתִּי, אִתְּך, etc.)

about - עַל

like (meaning “similar to”) - כְּמוֹ, כְּ־

for (warning, this one has several meanings that you need to take care of) - בִּשְׁבִיל (intended to)

before (also as a conjunction) - לִפְנֵי/לִפְנֵי שֶׁ־ּ

after (also as a conjunction) - אַחֲרֵי/אַחֲרֵי שֶׁ־ּ

during - תּוֹךְ כְּדֵי

bonus: direct obj. marker - אֵת (used with a defininte noun, conjugated ָאוֹתִי, אוֹתְך but אֶתְכֶם, אֵֶתְכֶן

Question Words

who - מִי

what - מָה

where - אֵיפֹה

when - מָתַי

why - לָמָּה

how - אֵיךְ

how much - כַּמָּה

which - אֵיזֶה

Adverbs

a lot - הַרְבֵּה

a little - קְצַת, מְעַט

well - טוֹב

badly - רַע

only - רָק

also - גַּם

very - מְאֹד

too (as in “too tall”) - מִדַּי (lit. (more) than enough)

too much - יוֹתֵר מִדַּי

so (as in “so tall”) - m כָּזֶה, f כָּזֹאת; or כָּל כַּךְ

so much - כָּל כַּךְ הַרְבֵּה

more (know how to say “more … than …”) - יוֹתֵר

less (know how to say “less … than …”) - פַּחוֹת

than - מִ־ּ

as … as … (e.g. “as tall as”) - … כְּמוֹ …

comparative (more, -er) - יוֹתַר

superlative (most, -est) - הֲכִי

now - עַכְשָׁו, כָּעֵת

then - אַז

here - פֹּה, כָּאן

there - שָׁם

maybe - אוּלַי

always - תָּמִיד

usually - בְּדֶרֶךְ כְּלַל

often - הַרְבֵּה, לְעִתִּים קְרוֹבוֹת

sometimes - לִפְעָמִים, מְדֵּי פַּעַם

never - אַף פַּעַם (used with neg. verb / copula)

today - הַיּוֹם

yesterday - אֱתְמוֹל

tomorrow - מַחַר

soon - תֵּכֶף

almostֹ - כִּמְעַט

already - כְּבָר

still - עָדַיִן

even - אַפִלּוּ, אַף, גַּם

enough - מַסְפִּיק

Adjectives

the, a (technically articles) - הַ־ּ, no indef. article

this - m הַזֶּה, f הַזֹּאת

that - m הַזֶּה, f הַזֹּאת or m הָהוּא, f הָהִיא

good - טוֹב

bad - רַע

all - כָּל הַ־ּ

some - כַּמָּה

no - שׁוּם

any - שׁוּם

many - הַרְבֵּה

few - קְצַת, מְעַט

most - רֹב הַ־ּ

other - אַחֵר

same - m אוֹתוֹ הַ־ּ , f אוֹתָה הַ־ּ

different - שׁוֹנֶה

enough - מַסְפִּיק

one - m אֶחָד, f אַחַת

two - m שְׁנַיִם, f שְׁתַּיִם

a few - כַּמָּה

first - רִאשׁוֹן

next - הַבַּא (in time), לְיַד, עַל יַד (both in place)

last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) - שֶׁעָבַר, הַקּוֹדֵם

last (meaning “final”) - הָאַחֲרוֹן

easy - קָל

hard - קָשֶׁה

early - מֻקְדַם

late - מְאֻחָר

important - חָשׁוּב

interesting - מְעַנְיֵן

fun - כֵּיף, כֵּיפִי

boring - מְשַׁעֲמֵם

beautiful - יָפֵה

big - גָּדֹל

small - קָטַן

happy - שָׂמֵחַ

sad - עָצוּב

busy - עָסוּק

excited - מִתְרַגֵּשׁ, נִרְגָּשׁ

tired - עָיֵף

ready - מוּכָן

favorite - הָאָהוּב עַל …

new - חָדָשׁ

right (meaning “correct”) - (e.g. a right answer) נָכוֹן; (e.g. to have the right answer) צוֹדֵק

wrong - לֹא נָכוֹן, שָׁגוּי; טוֹעֶה

true - נָכוֹן

Pronouns

Conjugated as:

subject

‘singular’ prepositional ending - בְּ־, כְּ־, לְ־, מִ־ּ, עם, את, של, בשביל, etc.

‘plural’ prepositional ending - עַל יְדֵי, אַחֲרֵי, מְאֲחוֹרֵי, עַל, אֵל, etc.

ס stands for the preceding prepostion

אֲנִי

סִי

סַי

you m

אַתָּה

סְךָ

סֶיךָ

you f

אַתְּ

סָךְ

סַיִךְ

הוּא

סוֹ

סָיו

she

הִיא

סָהּ

סֶיהָ

* it

m זֶה f זֹאת

אֲנַחְנוּ

סָנוּ

סֶינוּ

you (pl.) m

אֲתֶּם

סְכֵם

סֶיכֵם

** you (pl.) f

אַתֶּן

סְכֵן

סֶיכֵן

they (pl.) m

הֵם

סָם

סֶיהֵם

** they (pl.) f

הֵן

סָן

סֶיהן

* There is no neuter gender (it), so inanimate nouns are referred to by the corresponding male or female third person pronouns and conjugations

** Many speakers these days make no distinction between male and female second and third person pronouns (you, they), so these conjugations are gradually becoming obsolete.

Nouns

Hebrew nouns come in two genders, masculine and feminine, however unlike many other languages, the definite article is identical for all genders and inflections, therefore it is not included.

everything - הַכֹּל

something - מָשֶׁהוּ

nothing - כְּלוּם

everyone - כֻּלָּם

someone - מִישֶׁהוּ

no one - אַף אֶחָד / אַחַת (used in negation)

(name of the language you’re studying) - עִבְרִית

English - אַנְגְּלִית

thing - דָּבָר

person - בֵּן אָדָם (lit. son of Adam)

place - מָקוֹם

time (as in “a long time”) - זְמַן

time (as in “I did it 3 times”) - פַּעַם

friend - חָבֵר

woman - אִשָּׁה

man - אִישׁ

money - כֶּסֶף

country - מְדִינָה

(name of your home country) - ישְׂרָאֵל

city - עִיר

language - שָׂפָה, לָשׁוֹן

word - מִלָּה

food - אֹכֶל

house - בַּיִת

store - חָנוּת

office - מִשְׂרַד

company - חֵבְרָה

manager - מְנָהֵל

coworker - קוֹלֶגָה

job - עֲבֹדָה

work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) - עֲבֹדָה

problem - בַּעֲיָה

question - שֶׁאֱלָה

idea - רַעֲיוֹן

life - חַיִּים

world - עוֹלָם

day - יוֹם

year - שָׁנָה

week - שָׁבוּעַ

month - חֹדֶשׁ

hour - שָׁעָה

mother, father, parent - אֵם, אַב, הוֹרֶה/הוֹרָה

daughter, son, child - בַּת, בֵּן, יֶלֶד/יָלְדָה

wife, husband - אִשָּׁה, בַּעַל

girlfriend, boyfriend - חָבֵרָה, חָבֵר

More Verbs

work (as in a person working) - עָבַד

work (meaning “to function”, e.g. “the TV works”) - עָבַד

see - רָאָה

use - הִשְֹתַּמּשׁ

should - הָיָה צָרִיךְ

believe - הֶאֱמִין

practice - הִתְאַמֵּן (practice a skill), פָּעַל (practice one’s beliefs)

seem - נִרְאָה, נִדְמָה

come - בָּא

leave - עָזַב

return - חָזַר

give - נָתַן

take - לָקַח

bring - הֵבִיא

look for - חִפֵּשׂ

find - מָצַא

get (meaning “obtain”) - הֵשׂיג

receive - קִבֵּל

buy - קָנָה

try - נִסָּה

start - הִתְחִיל

stop (doing something) - הִפְסִיק

finish - סִיֵּם, גָּמַר

continue - הִמְשִׁיךְ

wake up - הִתְעוֹרֵר

get up - קָם

eat - אָכַל

happen - קָרָה

feel - הִרְגִּישׁ

create (aka “make”) - יָצַר, עָשָׂה

cause (aka “make”) - גָּרַם לְ־

meet (meeting someone for the first time) - פָּגַשׁ, נִפְגַּשׁ

meet (meaning “to bump into”) - פָּגַשׁ

meet (an arranged meeting) - נִפְגַּשׁ

ask (a question) - שָׁאַל

ask for (aka “request”) - בִּקֵּשׁ

wonder - תָּהָה

reply - הֵגִיב

mean - אָמַר

read - קָרַא

write - כָּתַב

listen - הִקְשִׁיב

hear - שָׁמַע

remember - זָכַר

forget - שָׁכַח

choose - בָּחַר

decide - הִחְלִיט / הֶחֱלִיט

be born - נוֹלַד

die - מֵת

kill - הָרַג

live - חַי

stay - נִשְׁאַר

change - שִׁנָּה (for someone to change something), הִשְׁתָּנָּה (for something to change itself)

help - עָזַר

send - שָׁלַח

study - לָמַד

improve - שִׁפֵּר (for someone to improve something), הִשְׁתַּפֵּר (for somthing to improve itself)

hope - קִוָּה

care - הָיָה לְ־ אִכְפַּת (word or word, there-was to-subj. care)

Phrases

hello - שָׁלוֹם

goodbye - שָׁלוֹם / לְהִתְרָאוֹת

thank you - תּוֹדָה

you’re welcome - אֵין בְּעַד מָה, עַל לֹא דָּבָר

excuse me (to get someone’s attention) - סְלִיחָה

sorry - סְלִיחָה

it’s fine (response to an apology) - זֶה בְּסֶדֶר

please - בְּבַקָּשָׁה

yes - כֵּן

no - לֹא

okay - אוֹקֵיִי, בְּסֶדֶר, סַּבָּבָּה (slang)

My name is _____ - קוֹרְאִים לִי _____

What’s your name? אֵיךְ קוֹרְאִים לְךָ/לָךְ?

Nice to meet you. - נָעִים לְהַכִּיר

How are you? - מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ/שְׂלוֹמֶךְ?, מָה קוֹרֶה?

I’m doing well, how about you? אֲנִי בְּסֶדַר, מָה אִתְּךָ/אִתָּך?

Sorry? / What? (if you didn’t hear something) - סְלִיחָה / שׁוּב?

How do you say ______? - אֵיךְ אוֹמְרִים _____?

What does ______ mean? - מָה _____ אוֹמֵר?

I don’t understand. - לֹא הֵבָנְתִּי.

Could you repeat that? אַתָּה/אַתְּ יָכוֹל/יְכוֹלָה לַחְזֹר עַל זֶה?.

Could you speak more slowly, please? אַתָּה/אַתְּ יָכוֹל/יְכוֹלָה לְדַבֶּר יוֹתֵר לְאַט?

Well (as in “well, I think…”) - not really one word as in English. טוֹב can be said, but oftentimes simple filler sounds are used (אֶמממ, אֶההה, etc.)

Really? - בֶּאֱמֶת?

I guess that … - -אֲנִי מֵנִיחַ/מְנִיחָה שֶׁ.

* It’s hot. (talking about the weather) - חַם.

* It’s cold. (talking about the weather) - קַר.

* As these are one word sentences, they’re rarely said as is, usually coupled with a preposition indicating who or what is cold. (E.g. I’m cold - קַר לִי; It’s cold outside - קַר בָּחוּץ

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