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#language
prokopetz · 14 hours
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Apart from the usual "aboot" business, a thing that I've noticed about American perceptions of Canadian accents is that Americans love to misidentify accents from other parts of America as Canadian accents. I once had an American dude insist to me that a particular YouTuber had an obvious Canadian accent, and when I looked them up, it turns out they were born and raised in fucking Florida.
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lhatesramen · 2 days
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incognitopolls · 2 days
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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.
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crepes-suzette-373 · 24 hours
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Japanese fans are pointing out that Sanji calling Zoro a deadweight/burden in the latest chapter is very concerning. It sounded arrogant, and said that it's indication that his Germa mode is manifesting even when his brows are not flipped.
They've been on sus alert since Sanji called Vegapunk "insolent" last year:
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In the exact same chapter you see S-Snake saying the same word 無礼者 ("insolent person"). If Sanji is talking like Hancock it's certainly super weird. 無礼 is not just rude. It kind of has this implication of "being rude to your superior".
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Even though Sanji do sometimes says flowery words, this is being detected as unusual.
We've seen his brows flipping twice in just one day, and there were also other disconcerting comments from him (saying that Zoro might die before they find One Piece, saying death penalty to S-Shark before his brow flips), it's just really suspect.
Looks like trouble is really incoming.
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ineffectualdemon · 3 days
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There are little things I enjoy about humanity and language
Like the fact that I have heard and seen a lot of people use "I don't have the bandwidth for that" to mean "I am overwhelmed/out of energy/to tired right now/etc"
I use that phrase!
And it's one picked up from the technology around us and most people understand it even if (like me) they only have a vague idea of what bandwidth even is
Its just fun because it's not someone trying to be cool or invent weird cyber slang. It's just natural
Similar terms I have heard or said and love:
"Got it, it just took a second to load"
"Sorry, I just bluescreened"
"They're just buffering"
I like how they all seem to be about ways our brains work or don't briefly. I love that
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yvanspijk · 3 days
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English is part of a large language family that includes French, Welsh, Polish, Persian, Greek, and Albanian. They stem from a common ancestor reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European.  The cardinal numerals from 1 to 10 illustrate their relationship well. Click the image for a selection.
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useless-catalanfacts · 15 hours
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Hehehe.... Here's a post I think you people will like.
A while ago, I was asked about Catalan swear words. I answered it and I explained how very often we say "I shit on ..." and gave some examples. You can find that post here:
Yesterday, someone in Catalan Twitter tweeted asking what are your favourite swearings, and I think you might like to hear what people answered. So here it goes!
Així plogués tant, que els ànecs arribessin a mossegar els collons de Déu! = This way may it rain so much that ducks could reach to bite God's bollocks.
Així baixi una olla del cel, amb el cap de Déu per tapadora! = This way may a cooking pot fall from Heaven/sky with God's head as the lid!
Cagum tots los sants posats en un bocoi amb Déu per tap! = I shit on all the saints placed inside a hogdhead (large cask barrel) with God as the lid!
Cagum la veta del capdavall de la cama dreta de les calces del pagès que va plantar la primera fava que va menjar l'ase que va dur la Mare de Déu a Egipte! = I shit on the ribbon of the lowest part of the right leg of the trousers of the farmer who planted the first bean that was eaten by the donkey that took the Virgin Mary to Egypt!
Cagum Sant Hilari i tots els sants del calendari, i si em deixés algun per dir, me cagum la mare que el va parir. = I shit on Saint Hilarius and all the saints on the calendar; and if I had missed saying any of them, I shit on the mother that gave birth to them. (But in Catalan it rhymes).
Cagum Déu i el que portava la creu, i el que la va fer que era fuster = I shit on God and the guy who carried the cross, and the guy who made it who was a carpenter (in Catalan it rhymes) or Cagum Déu, la creu i el fuster que la feu = I shit on God, the cross, and the carpenter who made it (also rhymes).
Em cago en els quatre puntals que aguanten la cagadora de Déu = I shit on the four stakes that hold up God's shitting hole. (Maaaany people have said this one or variations of it)
Em cago en la puta que va arribar a parir el paleta que va fer les quatre pilastres que aguantaven la cagadora de Déu i tots els sants = I shit on the whore who reached the point of giving birth to the bricklayer who built the four pilars what held up the shitting hole of God and all the saints.
Cagum Sant Roc, el gos i la mare que els va parir tots dos = I shit on Saint Roch, the dog, and the mother who gave birth to both.
Me cago en la tita del dimoni porc = I shit on the pig demon's dick.
Cago'n la sang d'un banc i el fetge d'una cadira coixa = I shit on a bench's blood and a lame chair's liver.
Em cago en els claus dels peus de Cristu crucificat = I shit on the screws/nails on crucified Christ's feet.
Em cago en l'ou que va fer la gallina que va servir per fer el caldo de la Mare de Déu quan era partera = I shit on egg that was laid by the chicken that was used to make the broth for the Virgin Mary when she had just given birth.
Me cagum Satanàs clavat dalt d'un cirerer = I shit on Satan nailed to the top of a cherry tree.
Mal davallés el secretari de Déu, vestit de torero = Wouldn't God's secretary come down, dressed as a bullfighter.
What swearings do you say when something goes wrong? In my house, the most common one is a simple one: collons de mico (monkey bollocks).
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spiderbirdo · 2 days
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Thinking about all the mxtx fics that gave effy names to their ocs/bg characters or straight up named them something that could not exist in Chinese pinyin again...
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Just so you know these are the basic pinyin combinations that exist.
That's not even going into dialects which is a whole other thing but as far as I've seen no one has tried to write LWJ speaking in gusu dialect yet which is the irl suzhou dialec
And please be careful what you name your characters, I've seen someone name their characters Blue Book, Blue Radish, Blue Smell, Blue Bag, Scenery
Also be careful with naming them after flowers because they might end up sounding like prostitute names
The thing is WWX's birth name is literally the character for baby so weird literal names can and do exist
Hell my aunt's Chinese name is literally 'rainbow', my yeye's name was 'genius' and my nainai's sworn sister (idk how to describe it they were basically such good friends they basically call each other sisters alongside like two other women and their and my family have reunion dinner once in a while) her name was literally High Cloud 高云
Even in svssss (not counting six balls) LBH's name is literally 'the icy Luo river'
But even then they at least have nice meanings even if they ate very literal, and not like objects (tho ngl 蓝香 lan xiang, is very pretty but the author intended it to be mean spice xiangliao香料 but xiang by itself really just means smells/fragrance)
Just, please please note that Chinese words meanings changes when paired with other words and lose that meaning when it's by itself.
Like 包 bao by itself means bag. 包子 baozi means dumpling. You cannot take out the zi子 away from baozi and keep the meaning of dumpling.
But the thing is, they were all not educated. I feel like educated ppl or people with money to go to a fortune teller get nice poetic names if not then the child gets a very literal name. Though I guess birth names could get away with being more literal. LooKING AT YOU CCSR AND WCZ YOU LITERALLY NAMED YOUR CHILD WEI BABY
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expiationist · 2 days
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philosophybits · 11 hours
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[Philosophical problems] are, of course, not empirical problems; but they are solved through an insight into the workings of our language, and that in such a way that these workings are recognized – despite an urge to misunderstand them. The problems are solved, not by coming up with new discoveries, but by assembling what we have long been familiar with.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
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adhd-languages · 1 day
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Keeping up your Languages when you’re Busy
Confession: I’ve been slacking on Japanese recently because my life has been so hectic recently. So here are some of the ways I’ve been trying to keep it in my brain when I can’t dedicate a lot of time to studying.
CHANGE YOUR PHONE LANGUAGE
This applies to computers as well! This is the easiest way to ensure you see at least some of your target language every day. It’s good for any level, even beginners.
If you haven’t already done this, do it now. I understand that some things are important and you need to be sure you understand them — in that case, you can always change individual apps to have different languages, just look up the app name in settings.
Podcasts/Music
Find some podcasts in your target language and listen to them before bed, during your commute, whatever. There are lots of podcasts made specifically for learners, or you can look up topics in your target language to find a podcast you might enjoy.
Music is also an amazing way to hear your target language being used. If you find an artist you like, that’s another good way to study your TL! Follow them on socials, look up interviews with them, etc.
Talk to Yourself
Any spare minute you have, talk to yourself in your target language. It doesn’t need to be out loud. You can have a conversation with yourself, try to express how you’re feeling, make up stories, or just describe the things around you in your target language. This is also a good way to see what kind of vocabulary you’re missing.
Apps
Duolingo has fired a ton of translators and started using crappy AI translations — so they’re probably not the best choice.
I’d recommend dictionary app that has some sort of flash card feature is also good, or an anki deck. Drops is good, and has a lot of languages, but keep in mind you’ll need audio. Anything that’s easy to get out and do for even just a few minutes is perfect.
Apps won’t teach you a language on their own, but doing a little every day helps remind me the language exists and keeps it in my mind.
Texting/Writing/Posting
Whether your friends know your TL or not, force them to experience it by randomly messaging in Japanese! Or, if you feel fancy, download an app like “HelloTalk”, “Tandem”, “Speaky”, “Tabee”…there are a lot.
If you keep a digital journal (like I do…inconsistently), try to write some entries in your TL.
If you have a blog, which I assume you do, post in your TL. Even if you’re a beginner, you can make a sideblog dedicated to saying stuff like “I’m hungry” and “Green is my favourite colour” in your target language.
Open your notes app and just write random words you can remember or sentences you can string together.
I know it’s really difficult, and don’t beat yourself up because you aren’t studying as hard. A language can be a lifelong companion — you’ll have phases of studying constantly, and sometimes it’ll take the back seat, but there’s no rush to learn it. Have a great day :)!
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yeesiine · 1 day
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Our hearts speak the same language but more importantly our souls share the same voice.
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clove-pinks · 2 days
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Even if the word funky apparently dates to the 17th century, I did not expect to read about a funky canoe in 1813:
We both sat on the sound end of the wooden Canoe, cocked her broken bow over the water and launched our bark for fame and glory. It was, in vulgar parlance, a funky affair but we got over safe. (x)
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yvanspijk · 14 hours
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The word Lent, which denotes the Christian abstention period of 40 days preceding Easter, used to be the default word for springtime. Its Dutch cognate lente still is the word for 'spring', while German Lenz is now archaic. They all come from a word meaning 'long-day'.
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jimmy-dipthong · 2 days
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Really good anime translation: コタローは一人暮らし
I complained in a post a while ago about how I mostly think english translations of anime aren’t very good, and @japanwords asked me if there were any anime I know of that have good translations. I don’t actually watch that much anime so I didn’t have a good answer, but recently I found one that really fit the bill: 『コタローは一人暮らし』or “Kotaro lives alone”
For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a show about a 5 year old kid who lives alone without any parents or guardians, and makes friends with his neighbours in the apartment complex (a lazy manga artist, a woman who’s a hostess at a local nightclub, and a scary yakuza who finds Kotaro unbelievably cute). These friends end up helping Kotaro when he needs someone to act as a guardian, such as when he enrols at the local kindergarten.
The other thing you have to know about Kotaro is he speaks like a Japanese feudal lord.
This really is the crux of what makes the translation so good, because how the hell do you translate that?! The way they chose to do it is by using archaic english phrases. He kinda speaks like a Victorian era gentleman, and he sometimes even verges on sounding like a stereotypical medieval knight. This works perfectly, because Kotaro is actually imitating a character from his favourite cartoon: a samurai hero/feudal lord. Let’s look at some examples:
「放すである」 "Unhand me!"
A simple example to start with, I thought it might be interesting to compare how a 5 year old might actually say this, and how I would translate that:
「放してー!😭"」 "Let goooo! 😭"
Even though the japanese uses the same verb (放す), the english translation is completely different. The choice here to make it “unhand me” (much more evocative of a time period) instead of just “let go of me” (simply a longer way of saying it) is a perfect example of the care this anime puts into its translation.
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狩野:「美月さん、アイス食べます?…… あれ?」 “Hey, Mizuki. Would you like an ice cream cone? …… Hello?” 美月:「アイスをもらうけど私、狩野くん誘ってないんだよなぁ」 “While I appreciate the ice cream, you know you weren’t actually invited, Karino.” コタロー:「お邪魔である」 “Interloper.”
邪魔 is a notoriously difficult word to translate, and the natural-sounding corresponding english phrase will vary quite wildly depending on the situation. In non-feudal lord speech, it usually gets translated to something like “you’re getting in my way” or “get out of here” or even “you’re a burden” (my least favourite).
Here, it’s creatively translated as “interloper”! A great way of sneaking in some archaic english while deftly handling a classically difficult-to-translate word.
コタロー:「わらわは写真が大の苦手なのだ」 “I am ill-disposed to having my picture taken!”
Here we have a slightly longer sentence which shows us a bit more of Kotaro’s unusual speech pattern. He uses the archaic first-person pronoun わらわ(妾)and often ends his sentences in なのだ. なのだ is not a particularly odd grammar structure to use, but it is unusual to use it unabbreviated (i.e. not shortening it to なんだ and/or adding よ to the end) especially when using it in speech rather than in writing. Not abbreviating it (as would be expected in a formal situation), but immediately contrasting that formality with the informal だ rather than です causes the speech to sound archaic without actually using any archaic vocabulary.
Now, if this show only translated the old-timey speech pattern well, I’d still call it a good translation. But the attention to detail and focus on natural sounding language extends to the other characters too!
Let’s take a look at an example of Karino’s speech. This is from ep 3; we already know a fair bit about who he is - a manga artist who doesn’t leave the house much (mostly works from home), usually wears comfortable clothes around, leaves things til the last minute and is generally a pretty lazy guy. I say this because the following translation doesn’t “work” (that is, the english and japanese wouldn’t mean the same thing) if it was spoken by a different kind of character.
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phone rings 狩野:「担当さんかー」 “Oh great, it’s my editor” 狩野:「お疲れ様です、狩野です。… はい … 今日原稿を?はい、わかりました。じゃあ、後で」 “Hello, this is Karino. How may I help you? … Yes … Wait. Now, now? … Uh-huh, yes. Okay, thank you, I’ll be there soon.” コタロー:「どこか行くのか?」 “Do you need to go somewhere?” 狩野:「仕事。出版社に行く。今回もダメ出しされんのかな?」 “Yeah, I gotta go to work. There goes my day. … I’m sure he’ll just rip it apart like he always does.” 狩野:「あの人結構グサグサ刺さる事言うんだよなぁ」 “The way he criticises, it’s actually pretty hurtful.”
I really like this translation, it feels very clever and results in very natural sounding english. I said this wouldn’t work for a different character, but I think even for the same character, this translation wouldn’t work on ep 1 - the audience wouldn’t have the context for the translation to omit the specific words it does and get away with it.
For example, the line 「今日原稿を?」 directly refers to a manga draft, but the draft isn’t directly referred to in the english. But it ends up being ok, because we can infer that he’s handing in some sort of draft for review from a later line (”I’m sure he’ll just rip it apart…”). Also, 「出版社に行く」 directly states that he’s going to the publishing house, but the english simply refers to it as “work”. But we can infer this too - he’s going to see his editor, and since most of his work is drawing and writing, which he does at home, we know that when he says he’s “going to work”, he’s actually going to the publishing offices.
Prioritising the natural sound of the script over the specific details is a bold choice that really pays off, imo. This is some of the most natural english I’ve ever seen in an anime translation. I recommend checking it out if you’re interested!
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lourytboop · 3 days
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Spanish is actually my favorite language, but there's no good free places to learn besides yt... Which is not my type of learning :(
(Duolingo is too repetitive for me, I remember things too quickly)
I learned English on b2 level by just watching yt and talking, school taught me nothin💀
My first language is Russian and I hate it, it's very clunky and sounds bad :(
ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, RUSSIAN IS SO HOT
Okay about learn spanish, I have to be honest with you, learning Spanish is difficult.
It has many variations and adding that people do not speak exactly like language scholars, it is very likely that not many will understand you when you speak and that mastering it will be quite complicated.
I have no idea where you can learn Spanish but I just know that duolingo is not the best by far 😭😭
To give you an idea, there are so many variations of Spanish that probably if I, as an Argentine person, come to speak to me a Venezuelan or a Chilean person, I will probably not understand half of what they say because we all have different accents and slang.
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