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thechekhov · 1 year

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you mentioned in recent tags about a horror comic you drew- i understand not wanting to link publicly to it to avoid creating MORE misinterpretations, but i really like your storytelling and now i’m curious?? so if you could, that’d be great! no pressure either way!

(i’m sending this off anon so you have the choice to respond to it privately anyways) (love your art thanks) (and the dungeon meshi reacts)

Thanks for the kind message! And it's not a secret or anything, it's straight up this post:

I used language comparing humans and other animals as two separate things (for the sake of drawing the narrative conclusions I needed to, in order to make the concept understood in only a few pages), like this:

But because of this simplified language, people drew their OWN wild conclusions about me as a person.

For example, this guy on twitter:

I never actually said humans WEREN'T animals, never said humans were somehow 'above' biology...I was simply putting them into a separate category capable of a specific set of skills for the sake of the comparison I made in the last couple of pages as the punchline.

But they decided that it must "clearly" mean I believe X, Y and Z.

This has happened MORE than enough times!

Writing is difficult, and writing for varied audiences with different dialects, different levels of reading ability, and different attention spans is hard! Sometimes, people don't want to sit through 2 pages of 'well humans are animals but due to a specific evolutionary niche we fill our ability to use language and calculate mathematical equations to the degree that we do is really unique--'

Now, mind you... I STILL got grief for trying to be soft-boiled in my delivery. People (who don't have a linguistics degree) IMMEDIATELY also messaged me to tell me that chimps CAN learn language - and haven't I seen that one video with the gorilla, the dolphin, etc?

And that's it's own can of worms. (No, other animals cannot learn language the way humans can. Yes, they can communicate in complex ways. No, language is a very specific human thing as far as leading scientists are concerned, at least based on current data. Yes, I went to University for this. I have a degree. Please just trust me.)

It happens, I'm not actively mad about it... Humans tend to take whatever we read and run with it.

But we make this mistake often! I know I also make this mistake. We come conclusions based on scarce evidence! We jump to the worst case scenario! We presume that we know better than that person what they believe, based on minimal interaction with them.

It's yet another thing that's unique to humans thanks to... wait for it... language!

It's the price we pay for having memes.

#but man memes are great #chekhov answers #language #linguistics

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absolutebl · 1 month

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I noticed your reblog of @tortibomb's post on the subtitle team at Viki for Until We Meet Again. I've watched Until We Meet Again on WabiSabi's YouTube channel twice. If I were to watch it again would it make sense to watch Viki's version so I get their subtitles? Would there be any advantage to get a different subtitle team's perspective?

For clarification, I use English subtitles, and I see it's still available on YouTube.

Yes! Definitely watch both versions!

Viki's subs using full teams (most of the time), because they are done by committee these tend to be slightly more correct and consistent (but not as elegant or poetical as a single translators POV). They are interesting because they come from a group think perspective. Even if they can be kind of... formal.

It's like the difference between accuracy and precision.

In house (like Wabi Sabi and GMMTV) and Gaga seem to be just one person (with maybe an editor or two).

With language (and linguistics) + translation there often is a lot of grey space to make judgement calls and no exact this = that, so it's really fun to see how a different voice or voices handles the same subject matter.

Also it'll give you a greater understanding of Thai, and perhaps the narrative, too. Or you'll learn your own biases about what you like translated and in what way. (Like I hate it when phi is translated as bro.)

I adore it when a Japanese and Taiwanese shows are airing on both Viki & Gaga in particular because the subs are so wildly varied. I like to watch both. Sometimes back to back.

I know I'm a monster.

But it's sooooo fascinating, especially considering the history of the relationship between the 2 countries, and the parent companies of the streaming platforms in play. (Gaga = Taiwan, Viki = Japan)

#asked and answered #thai linguistics #thia langugae #subs and captions #language in translation #viki subs #studio wabi sabi #thai bl #gmmtv #i have firm thoughts on this one #Japan's influence on Taiwanese food (esepcially street food) and viseversa is ALSO wild

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frenchiepal · 1 year

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8.11.22 ⛅ today's menu: contact linguistics class and then, lunch break with friends during which we desperately tried to solve a word puzzle

#and homework #so much homework #studyblr #langblr #aesthetic #study aesthetic #study inspiration #studying english literature #studying linguistics #studyspo #academia #tw food #bujo #btw i know the answers on the work sheet are wrong #:')#chaotic academia

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firstroseofspring · 2 months

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b’elanna vs her mother at similar ages, plus some sketches!

#my art #star trek voyager #my very first deanna…. my original obsession. if i ever read as much about betazoids as i do klingons we’re all in grave danger #also wrt the first image b'elanna is. 12 years old and as such is about to go emo mode but not quite yet. the girly girl thing is a front #sometime in winter she'll chop her hair off without permission #what do we think? human girl look to fit into the image her father has while he's still around or after to try and get him back?#miral is also a little bookish like b'elanna but on different subjects.... likes to keep to herself naturally but is also loudmouthed and #got told she shared her opinion too often a lot in university. didn't stop her though she speaks up when she thinks (knows) she's right #what did she study? don't ask me my answer changes with the weather #botany....linguistics.....military strategy.....chemistry....... uhmmmm religious studies. or even better the klingon system doesn't have #starfleet equivalents and she spent ages 15-22 doing apprenticeships for a certain (or multiple) disciplines #anyway.#kessik 2352 b'elanna has trouble sitting still for photos until she gets a little older so all the pics from before 7 are of her father #physically holding her so that she won't wander OR off guard shots or super blurry. theres more videos of that time than anything

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simplydnp · 1 month

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phandom, phouse, phivorce, pharmacy, it’s all making sense now…

don't forget phallic

#did you know there are only 1626 words in the english language that start with ph #and depending who you ask there are between 170 000 to 510 000 words in the english language #which means 0.9% to 0.3% of all words in english start with ph #and most of them use the ph- in a prefix such as physio- phylo- phil- pheno-#so we are contributing to linguistics when we start things with a ph 💅#dnp #c.text #dan and phil #answered #phan #<- for the fandometrics

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faroreskiss · 8 months

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the mailman in LU? yeah. hurt no-comfort linguist reader somehow gets a letter from their world. contents of the letter could be up to you, or it could simply be the stereotypical notice that someone they cared for has died. really puts it into perspective that they’ve been gone for over 2 years (if you count the time they spent in BOTW’s world)

Oh my Hylia anon, thank you for this request, it really gets the juices flowing. And no comfort? Damn, the dark side is really calling for you, eh? This ficlet is here to ruin the Isekai!Reader inserts.

There is Hylian in this ficlet!

I'm making it extra dark by placing this on a time where the linguist reader is still NOT able to communicate so expressively with the Chain in Hylian.

This can still be read stand alone.

Realities of being an Isekai!Reader. Is that even a genre?

For anybody wondering, "The Power of Understanding" the Cheat Sheet is here, the main fic is here.

CW: Hurt/no comfort. Not proof-read, mention of death, dark basically. Maybe don't read it at night.

Ended up longer than I thought.

Ao3

The Void / The Power of Understanding Short Story

Spending time with your favorite heroes, hell, even being involved with them romantically to an extent, was amazing.

Of course, only if you didn't count the fact that you could get killed any time, attacked by a random monster and suffer a horrible death.

...Or the fact that you have been away from anybody you have ever known in your life, for over two years.

At some point, you accepted the fact that you were just going to be living the rest of your life humbly in Hateno, in your little cottage. Before that, it had been terrible for a while, right after the honeymoon stage ended. The depressive episodes, sobbing at night, the nightmares, the guilt. In the first year, you were barely able to function due to your grief. Even when Link and Zelda were there for you.

You felt guilty, even though it wasn't your fault that you had been thrown in there. You felt guilty that you enjoyed it sometimes, going for hikes in the morning, hanging out with Link, decorating your cottage, learning a new language, playing the scholar. You felt guilty you didn't try hard enough (if at all) to get back to your world. What could you have even done?

Then your mind had been occupied, busy with trying to build a life for yourself, trying to communicate with people in the post Calamity Hyrule. Then, you settled in, just started to have a new routine to your life. Time has passed fast, oh so fast. And these people didn't even have the same calendar system over here. You didn't even know when your birthday was in the Hylian calendar!

Later, you had been thrown into yet another world and met the rest of the Links. So much for settling in, huh.

You usually actively tried to push the thoughts of your loved ones in your world away. At some point, it became second nature to you. The world here was different enough, not a lot of reminders.

Except when you saw the Sailor with her sister... Or Rancher with his adopted family perhaps. The Old Man with his lovely wife Malon. You still pressed on.

_____

You just departed from the Lost Woods and a sense of rejuvenation courtesy of the swarm of fairies you came across, after the boys killed the huge moblin.

It was a bit before Wild's era, you were guessing. The existence of the Captain really confused the shit out of you. You assumed he was also on a merger timeline or something, like Wild.

Then, your attention was drawn to a lanky individual with an exceptionally prominent nose and a rather comical hat. Could that be the postman once more? The mystery of how he managed to consistently locate your group, deliver letters, and then depart as if it were the most ordinary task continued to boggle your mind. Yet, given that you had ventured across various dimensions more times than you could count, you opted not to dwell on it extensively.

You were more curious about how he was able to read all those different scripts from different eras in the first place. Or how Links could sometimes tell which one belonged to which hero. Not like some of them were that different...

"Hireulu!" he greeted your group, holding only one letter in his hand this time.

As lost in thought as you were, you couldn't have missed the next thing you heard:

"(Y/N) tiyu? Ti riemun nia kubela."

He... had a letter for you? The others also seemed a bit perplexed. Nobody in your era wrote letters that much anymore. You silently held up your hand. He gave the letter to you, and as the boys were trying to somehow talk to him, he already rushed away, shouting "Hilay su aduerin!" You smiled. You knew at this point that it meant "Goodbye" in a sense. "May Hylia protect you" was the literal translation of it.

Sounded almost similar to the story behind the phrase "Goodbye" in English. God be with you.

Seated by the roadside, you carefully examined the letter in your hands. Strangely, a wave of unease washed over you. It had been ages since you'd last encountered something written in Latin script that wasn't written by you.

While curiosity tugged at your thoughts, it also stirred memories you had long sought to bury, bringing forth a flood of thoughts you'd rather avoid.

Wild sat next to you, he had curious eyes as the script looked quite unfamiliar to him.

As you started reading the letter, the blood drained from your face. You were only in a few sentences in, yet you knew exactly what it meant, and who it was. You dropped the envelope to the floor, it got stuck in the grass.

No.

"We lost her. After three days in bed, on her fourth she became one with the earth."

More than two years ago now, when you were first whisked away from your world, she had only recently been diagnosed with a sinister disease that affected the communication between her brain cells, making her forget things. But she was okay. Even though the doctors said they were slowing it down significantly, the end was inevitable. She would end up forgetting the most basic body functions towards the end.

But she was okay.

She had been the most badass person you had ever known in your life.

She would ride horses and scare off the corrupt shepherds in her time. Even though she was denied education above basics, she had been a fierce advocate for it. She had always been a fierce, strong woman. She planned everything.

Including her death, it seemed.

You remembered how she would say she wouldn't want to be bedridden and taken care of for months on end. How she even bought a place in the graveyard around 10 years ago, which caused a huge family drama. She even told her children what to announce once she died. What to wear.

As you read the rest of the letter, tears were streaming from your cheeks, yet your expression was still neutral. You weren't sure if you deserved feeling sad.

Were you sad because you lost her? Or were you sad for your own parent who lost a parent? Were you sad for yourself because one day you would have to do it also for a parent? For a loved one? Or were you sad because once again you were reminded of the bitter reality of mortality? Or were you sad because you couldn't even bid her a proper farewell?

Even if you were still in your world, you weren’t sure if you could make it on time for her funeral anyway. According to the traditions you were raised with, it had to happen within 24 hours. You lived quite far away already, and this had been one of your primal fears.

Not being able to spend enough time with them, not being able to say farewell.

Wild (and everybody else) noticed the tears streaming down your cheeks, and said something as he put his hand on your shoulder, only lightly pulling you to him. You were frozen, you really weren’t in the mood to try to understand anything.You didn’t move a millimeter.

Everything came back, everything you tried to hold back. You wondered what they thought, did they think you were lost, kidnapped, dead? What about your partner? How were they doing? Your sister? All the other loved ones? How were they feeling?

Too much. It was too much. It was crashing down upon you. You were scared, the guilt was too heavy. Your vision was blurry. You were rocking yourself back and forth as you pulled your knees to your chest, mumbling to yourself. You held them always back, but it seemed like your defenses had finally given in. They broke. You broke.

You were in a void, where the only sound you could hear was your heart beating as if it was going to escape your chest and the screeching sound ringing in your ears. It was hard to breathe. You felt sick to your stomach. Your hands and feet felt as if ants were walking on them. Cold, but also too warm. You were shivering,

You couldn't hear the sound of the boys chattering, trying to figure out what to do. How some of them understood exactly what was going on, but for the moment how confused they were. The Rancher was mumbling something to your ear, something soothing maybe. Wild’s hand was still over your shoulder, but you did not feel it anymore.

The void was the only thing that embraced you.

You wailed in pain.

_______________________

The Sailor picked up the envelope from the ground noticing there was something sticking out of it. It was a... picture? Black and white.

It felt really brittled and old in his hand. It had some text he didn't understand. Two relatively young women were in it, smiling. To him, it looked like weird clothing, but they gave off a fancy air with how they posed.

One of them really looked like you.

He put it in his bag for now, to give it to you later.

01/01/1955

#farie answers #the power of understanding #linked universe x reader #linked universe au #isekai reader #linguist reader #hurt/no comfort #angst #the power of understanding shorts #linked universe #tpos

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sassy1121 · 1 month

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me, stumbling across a video of Ben Willbond speaking Russian:

#like i'd been wondering if this was a thing i could have #cuz like it's very... brief and backgroundy in cabin pressure #the answer is yes!#it's christmas in march!#ben willbond #also filing this under #fandom linguistics #because it's my blog

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captainswan618 · 1 year

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(if you have an idea of how you'd pronounce it, but you're not confident, just go with your gut!)

#language #linguistics #english #international phonetic alphabet #polls #pronunciation #pathos #inspired by me seeing the pronunciation on wikipedia and going WHAT??#(don't look it up before you answer though!)#also the options are sorted alphabetically to avoid bias #mine

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vroomian · 2 months

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Dang, I thought YRZ's Reed persona just looks scholarly or somewhere along those lines. It must look weird seeing Val obsess over a guy who looks like they just gotten out of bed after studying for two days straight.

oh it's for sure fucking weird. yeah the yrz we know in bfiasc is a good little lan clan disciple which means following aesthetic rules like being clean and neat lol. on his own, yrz is -- not really a slob, but more of a controlled chaos type of person. so long as he knows where everything is and his health isn't in danger, he has better things to do than cleaning. much like cooking, grooming is to the healthy bare minimum.

he, also, does not care what other people think about him unless they're his close friends (very rare) already or they're paying him. so he'll be professional but otherwise its casual and comfortable for him.

(it causes val physical pain to see yrz not taking care of himself btw. yrz thinks it's funny to show up randomly and watch val try to aggressively shove him into something better or stop what he's doing to force yrz on a mandatory shopping spree. hey, yrz isnt' going to turn down free shit.)

#you've got questions we've got answers #yrz is like. a gremiln.#i keep forgetting other people can't see him in my head #he is a messy ass ho #he's got disaster grad all over him. he looks like an escaped mad scientist if he was also a linguistics teacher.#looking professional is for when he's being professional babey #otherwise lol no too much effort #hazbin au #better towns au

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linguistwho · 24 days

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How do you decide what words to translate?

Very impressed by your linguistic ability, you are very cool ^-^

★*☆♪ General good vibes for you★*☆♪

Honestly, I just use a random word generator. I initially chose words based on what happened that day (i.e. if I go on vacation, I might use "beach" or if I see a shooting star I could do "comet"), but I did that for so long that I kept coming up with repeats. Random generators are more likely to come up with words I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

I do still do words based on events though. Like "Boop" on April Fool's Day.

And general good vibes to you too. :-)

#the linguist answers

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canisalbus · 5 months

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what part of italy are machete and vasco from? not their birthplace since from what i've seen you're still workshopping that. where do they live? i assume rome?

In the 1500's setting Vasco lives and was born in Florence, his family has lived there for centuries. Machete was born in Sicily, was taken to Naples to serve as an apprentice and ended up living and working in Rome (and more specifically today's Vatican city, which as you may know has been an independent country since 1929 but wasn't back then). They first met when they were both studying in Venice in their late teens/early twenties.

I think in the modern au they live together somewhere in Florence.

#characters travelling this extensively at the time #from one end of the country to another #may not be very realistic but it's more fun to include a variety of interesting historical locations #let me be greedy and self indulgent for a moment #(not to mention that Italy wasn't unified until late 1800's and was instead made of various states kingdoms and duchies #that didn't always get along with each other that well and were culturally and linguistically diverse #and some of them were actually ruled Spain and Austria for example)#I say this as lovingly as possible but the history of Italian peninsula as a whole is just a real clusterfuck #I feel like I still haven't wrapped my head around it adequately to be explaining any of this to you #but please be patient with me I promise I'm trying my best #answered #anonymous

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thechekhov · 2 years

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What do you think would be the most practical if there were an official common language for global travel? Like, alphabetically, phonetically and grammatically speaking?

Mmmm... I'm afraid this is a question that people have been struggling to answer for well over a few centuries.

What you're asking is to create a universal Lingua Franca. A language that is simple to learn, easy for most people to pronounce, and has the potential of making global communication easier.

Well, the issue is that... asking that question is kinda like asking the question "Which color is the most universal color?"

I'm not asking for a witty reply here, so hold your horses before you type 'ultraviolet' or 'magenta, because it doesn't exist'.

The fact of the matter is, color (and language) exists on a spectrum much like this ever-looping ring of hues. They all have their specific properties, grammars, pronunciations, etc... but none of them are 'average', you know? It's not really a useful way to think about language.

In fact, people have been TRYING to invent this type of language forever - check out Esperanto, the one that has been around since 1887, and the other 500-some documented attempts (source).

But despite all these apparently 'universal' languages existing, they've universally never gotten very far. I bet you've never heard of most of them!

Why?

Well, for one thing, creating a 'common' or 'practical' language is a matter of subjective opinion. Practical for whom?

Esperanto is meant to be universal, but it's primarily based on Latin, and other European languages - romance languages, with some Germanic and Slavic words mixed in. That is to say - for someone who is a native speaker of a Bantu language like Swahili, it will be just as difficult to acquire as any other given European language. Similarly, no matter how 'universal' your southasian-based language is, someone who only speaks, say, Arabic, will still struggle to immediately communicate with it.

Just look at this list and you'll get a very quick sense of what language families these 'universal' languages tend to favor.

Now, I'm not saying 'wow, universal languages are bad, because people are using only western languages'. It's common sense, when you create a language, to draw on your own experience.

But it's very clearly not a 'universal' language if you lean too hard one way or another. *If you want to learn more about this, I HEAVILY recommend the book In The Land of Invented Languages by Annika Okrent, which goes much deeper into this topic.

So can we meet in the middle?

With the way languages work, by and large, no.

There is no 'central' grammar - all languages are on a spinning ring of agglutinative or fusion languages, and recent research suggests that languages become more one or another naturally over time. Similarly, phonetics doesn't have a 'standard' phoneme set. Most languages tend to have a specific set of common vowels, but consonants are more tricky, and you cannot guarantee a set that'll please everyone.

And the problem is, because it's all on a gradient, there is no 'middle' to work towards. A universal language would be no language at all.

So... in conclusion... is there a practical language for global travel?

Yes! It's English.

Is it practical because it's easy to learn?

No.

Is it practical because it is 'phonetically accessible'?

Not at all. In fact, the opposite might be true.

But the fact of the matter is, English is a lingua franca because it's attached to political and corporate and economic power. And that, more than any practicality, moves it to the forefront.

..............

Anyway, actually there IS a somewhat universal language, but it's not one you can read. The most universal thing in the world would probably be this.

#linguistics #language #universal language #langblr #conlang #chekhov answers

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absolutebl · 4 months

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Hii I've seen in your weekly windup that you're watching For Him, I had a linguistic question where i think i keep hearing Him say 'kha' when he ends a sentence. Is it just me or is that just the way he says khrab or is he actually saying kha? Please help i didn't know who else to ask about linguistics! Thank you!!

He's using the "ha" particle.

It's a version of kha, but also something a bit different. It's a softening of politeness, household intimate but not rude, warm. It's also a touch feminine, straight men flirting with their girlfriends or at home with wives may use the ha. Brothers with younger sisters. For example Phun uses ha with his beloved little sister in Love Sick.

It's also used by... gay men with each other. (So is ja, but ja is more camp and harsh.)

There's a kind of pulling back on tough masculinity with the use of ha. It's also pretty linguistically modern. So it's more common with younger generations. In Bangkok you'll hear it paired with borrowed words, especially English ones. For example: okay ha.

What's interesting about Him, is that he used ha with Nail RIGHT away. He didn't start polite, he jumped right into ha. This told Nail instantly that Him was a probubly a player and that he was gay. Note Him has never gone back? He always uses ha with Nail, he's the only character I've ever heard do this in a BL. Usually ha is situational and circumstantial. For special occasions not everyday wear.

I love it. It's a very telling characteristic and personality trait. It says a lot about Him and how hard he is trying to make this second relationship work.

It also makes him very very slightly... sleazy.

Incidentally, Nail avoided polite particles all together, he's rude and curt, as a kind of flirtation.

FYI. Men will also use kha on women, especially when flirting or with MUCH younger girls. For example when Pete (very VERY polite character) meets Ae's toddler niece he uses kha in Love By Chance.

(source)

#asked and answered #thai language #thai particles #thai honorifics #polite particles #for him the series #love sick the series #thai bl #thai linguistics

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