°• Learning Quenya, Norwegian, Latin, Korean and Toki Pona (and a little Finnish, old English and French) // Speaks English and Hebrew •°
"I will write what I love, and what I long for, in the hopes that for someone, it might be not only be a way out, but a way in.
In short, I will write in the hopes of writing someone else a door." -Victoria Schwab
Quenya is one of the languages Tolkien created, and the most developed one. I found that the site https://www.elvish.org/ contains most resources I could ask for, with good reviews of them and many in depth courses, all free. Right now I am studying with the following course (review is from the elvish site posted above):
Helge offers the most up-to-date and
accurate account of Neo-Quenya (that is, a synthetic and regularized
form of Quenya formed by the selective piecing-together of evidences
from across decades of Tolkien’s successive versions and elaborations of
Quenya) as a series of graded courses. The course is presented in a
series of RTF (text) files. Highly recommended as an introduction to
more rigorous and detailed study of Tolkien’s own Quenya(s).
French-
I use Pimsleur, an audio course (available in many languages) to practice speaking and listening, and read simple books to improve beyond that. I find french to be similar enough to English for me to be able to learn a lot from just opening a book (with a dictionary open if needed).
Norwegian-
I use Pimsleur to work on speaking and listening, and “The Mystery of Nils“ by Sonja Anderle and Werner Skalla to improve reading and writing. It is a mystery book written in Norwegian (with vocab and grammer explained, and exercises in the book) and the language skills used to read it increase as you progress.
Japanese-
I use Anki to memories Kanji and general vocab (cannot recommend enough).
For grammar I use “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar” by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui, which has in depth explanation of over 200 grammatical points.
Lingva Latina is an amazing book to learn Latin from. The entire book is in Latin, not a single English word (or any other language for that matter) and slowly teaches you all you need to know. There are complementary books with exercise and more information of grammar, but I usually create my own exercises.
Again it’s an honour to be drawing one of my favourite short stories ever. Thank you so much for the original authors for creating this story; and for everyone who bought a copy and donated to the above non-profits.
the most disorienting thing thats ever happened to me was when a linguistics major stopped in the middle of our conversation, looked me in the eye, and said, “you have a very interesting vernacular. were you on tumblr in 2014?” and i had to just stand there and process that one for a good ten seconds
[Image Description: a screenshot of a post by kramergate reading, “forget wanderlust, sonder, all those words for vague dreamy feelings… what I’m asking for is a concise word for the feeling you get when someone makes an assumption about you that’s 100% correct but you really don’t like that anyone was able to make that assumption. for now I’m calling it a fuckor”. they reblog their own post with, “he asked me ‘you main junkrat right’ and a wave of fuckor wracked my feeble body”. horreurscops adds a screenshot of a post by jacicfrost reading, “the best, most biting callout i’ve ever received was "it clearly shines through in nearly every aspect of your personality and general aura that you loved dave strider during your teenage years” like… dead on the nose. fucking eviscerated, right then and there. no one can top that. no one ever even needs to try because, beating that? impossible". End ID]
(en) kunst - (en) art å male - to paint å tegne - to draw et maleri - a painting en pensel - a paint brush (et) papir - a paper et papirark - a sheet of paper en blyant - a pencil et viskelær - an eraser en/ei maling - a paint en/ei akvarellmaling - a watercolor paint en/ei akrylmaling - an acrylic paint en/ei oljemaling - an oil paint (en) gouache - gouache en/ei skisseblokk - sketchbook et lerret - a canvas (et) kritt - chalk (et) blekk - ink en tusj - a marker (et) kull - charcoal
Colour categories are a great example for language universals, as well as for prototypes.
First off, each language has independently developed different words for colours and is therefore an example for universals in all languages. However, do all languages identify the same colours?
This is where prototype categories come into play. Usually, there is one optimal example for each colour category (a ‘prototype’), e.g. the reddest red, the greenest green, etc. However, the boundaries of these colour categories are quite blurred.
Take the chart below. Which of these colours would you sort into the category ‘blue’ and which into the category ‘green’? Are there colours where you’re unsure? Where do you draw the line?
That is basically what Berlin and Kay did in their experiment / research. They compared the colour term vocabulary of 98 different languages (they focused on the typical elements of a category, not just on the category boundaries). The participants were asked to name the basic coluor terms of their native language and to identify the focal points and boundaries of each of these words on a Munsell chart like the one above.
The colour terms had to be monoleximic (not ‘lemon-colored’, ‘blue-green’, etc.), no extensions (e.g. ‘crimson’ and ‘scarlet’ are both included in ‘red’), they must not be restricted to a narrow class of objects (e.g. not ‘blond’), and they have to be psychologically salient for informants (e.g. not ‘bluish’).
Results
-> from 1969
the test persons were very consistent in the identification of prototypes, but not so much in the identification of category boundaries
the number of basic colour terms is between 2 and 11/12
if a language has 11 basic colour terms, then the categories are: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple, and grey
examples for languages with 11 or 12 basic colour terms: Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Russian (12), Hungarian (12), Zuni, Korean, etc.
if a language has less than 11 basic colour terms, then there are clear limitations on which categories it may encode -> these can be described by 7 implicative universals:
all languages have words for ‘white’ and ‘black’
if a language has 3 colour terms, then it has a word for ‘red’
if a language has 4 colour terms, then it either has a word for ‘green’ or for ‘yellow’
…..
All languages follow this similar 7 stage pattern / development for colour terms:
Evolution of colour vocabulary:
all languages start with two colour terms
new colour terms are added over time
11 colour terms are the maximum
Later revisions:
grey can emerge earleier than at stage 7, sometimes already at stage 3 (e.g. Mandarin, Hopi, Tsonga)
some languages don’t distinguish ‘green’ and ‘blue’, but have words for later colours like ‘brown’ (e.g. Bantu languages)
only 6 salient perceptual landmarks (rather than
11): black, white, red, green, blue, yellow (vast majority of basic color terms in all languages
denote one or several of these six primary colors)
the terms in the two-color systems do not simply
denote ‘black’ and ‘white’, but they partition the
entire color space (e.g. Dani (language from Papua/New Guinea): partition of the color space into
”warm” and “cool” colors)
next to the six primary colors there are derived
color categories (so-called fuzzy intersection) and
composite basic categories (like “warm colors”): e.g. orange = red ∩ yellow, warm = red ∪ yellow
very color category system partitions the entire color
space -> evolutionary sequences move from
coarser to finer partitions
every time someone mentions the little prince I almost forget it’s a children’s book because I literally cannot get through the part about being tamed without crying
“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…“
But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life . I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…” The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time. “Please, tame me!” he said.”
Yeah………..
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near —
“Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”
“It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you…”
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.
“Yes, that is so,” said the fox.
“Then it has done you no good at all!”
“It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.”
Words You Wouldn’t Think Were Etymologically Related: Part 25
Adolescent and elder both originate from the PIE root *h₂el-, meaning to grow or nourish.
Adolescent is a loanword from Middle French, which was derived from the Latin adolescentem, from adolescere meaning to grow up. Adolescere came from the verb alescere meaning to grow up or increase, and originated from a verb alo, which meant to nourish. Alo was ultimately derived from *h₂el-.
Elder came from the Old English eldra or yldra, of the same meaning. Eldra was derived from the Proto-Germanic *alþizô, from *aldaz meaning old. *Aldaz was ultimately derived from *h₂el-.
Ghost comes from the Middle English gost, from the Old English gāst, meaning ghost or spirit. Gāst originated from the Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, meaning fear or spirit. The ‘h’ in ghost comes from William Caxton’s Royal Book, written in 1484, spelt as ghoost, and was likely influenced by the Flemish gheest.
Words You Wouldn’t Think Were Etymologically Related: Part 25
Adolescent and elder both originate from the PIE root *h₂el-, meaning to grow or nourish.
Adolescent is a loanword from Middle French, which was derived from the Latin adolescentem, from adolescere meaning to grow up. Adolescere came from the verb alescere meaning to grow up or increase, and originated from a verb alo, which meant to nourish. Alo was ultimately derived from *h₂el-.
Elder came from the Old English eldra or yldra, of the same meaning. Eldra was derived from the Proto-Germanic *alþizô, from *aldaz meaning old. *Aldaz was ultimately derived from *h₂el-.
if you’re learning a language you’re either “I have the vocabulary of a pretentious old literature professor but grammar is a sinful mistress who shall never cross the threshold of my house” or you’re “I only know what ‘strawberry’ and ‘to go’ mean but by ye gods I can make them jump through conjugation hoops and declension parcours that would peel the socks off your feet”. no in between
Okay, not to be overdramatic but this is one of those things that makes me feel so in awe and in love with people. OP spent their time making this?? And it’s delightful?? And full of compassion and curiosity about strangers on a hellsite. Take what you need, take a breath, enjoy this shared moment of human experience. I did. 💜
so i just googled the phrase “toeing out of his shoes” to make sure it was an actual thing
and the results were:
it’s all fanfiction
which reminds me that i’ve only ever seen the phrase “carding fingers through his hair” and people describing things like “he’s tall, all lean muscle and long fingers,” like that formula of “they’re ____, all ___ and ____” or whatever in fic
idk i just find it interesting that there are certain phrases that just sort of evolve in fandom and become prevalent in fic bc everyone reads each other’s works and then writes their own and certain phrases stick
i wish i knew more about linguistics so i could actually talk about it in an intelligent manner, but yeah i thought that was kinda cool
Ha! Love it!
One of my fave authors from ages ago used the phrase “a little helplessly” (like “he reached his arms out, a little helplessly”) in EVERY fic she wrote. She never pointed it out—there just came a point where I noticed it like an Easter egg. So I literally *just* wrote it into my in-progress fic this weekend as an homage only I would notice. <3
To me it’s still the quintessential “two dudes doing each other” phrase.
I think different fic communities develop different phrases too! You can (usually) date a mid 00s lj fic (or someone who came of age in that style) by the way questions are posed and answered in the narration, e.g. “And Patrick? Is not okay with this.” and by the way sex scenes are peppered with “and, yeah.” I remember one Frerard fic that did this so much that it became grating, but overall I loved the lj style because it sounded so much like how real people talk.
Another classic phrase: wondering how far down the _ goes. I’ve seen it mostly with freckles, but also with scars, tattoos, and on one memorable occasion, body glitter at a club. Often paired with the realization during sexy times that “yeah, the __ went all they way down.” I’ve seen this SO much in fic and never anywhere else
whoa, i remember reading lj fics with all of those phrases! i also remember a similar thing in teen wolf fics in particular - they often say “and derek was covered in dirt, which. fantastic.” like using “which” as a sentence-ender or at least like sprinkling it throughout the story in ways published books just don’t.
LINGUISTICS!!!! COMMUNITIES CREATING PHRASES AND SLANG AND SHAPING LANGUAGE IN NEW WAYS!!!!!!!
I love this. Though I don’t think of myself as fantastic writer, by any means, I know the way I write was shaped more by fanfiction and than actual novels.
I think so much of it has to do with how fanfiction is written in a way that feels real. conversations carry in a way that doesn’t feel forced and is like actual interactions. Thoughts stop in the middle of sentences.
The coherency isn’t lost, it just marries itself to the reader in a different way. A way that shapes that reader/writer and I find that so beautiful.
FASCINATING
and it poses an intellectual question of whether the value we assign to fanfic conversational prose would translate at all to someone who reads predominantly contemporary literature. as writers who grew up on the internet find their way into publishing houses, what does this mean for the future of contemporary literature? how much bleed over will there be?
we’ve already seen this phenomenon begin with hot garbage like 50 shades, and the mainstream public took to its shitty overuse of conversational prose like it was a refreshing drink of water. what will this mean for more wide-reaching fiction?
I’m sure someone could start researching this even now, with writers like Rainbow Rowell and Naomi Novik who have roots in fandom. (If anyone does this project please tell me!) It would be interesting to compare, say, a corpus of a writer’s fanfic with their published fiction (and maybe with a body of their nonfiction, such as their tweets or emails), using the types of author-identification techniques that were used to determine that J.K. Rowling was Robert Galbraith.
In an earlier discussion, Is French fanfic more like written or spoken French?, people mentioned that French fanfic is a bit more literary than one might expect (it generally uses the written-only tense called the passé simple, rather than the spoken-only tense called the passé composé). So it’s not clear to what extent the same would hold for English fic as well – is it just a couple phrases, like “toeing out of his shoes”? Are the google results influenced by the fact that most published books aren’t available in full text online? Or is there broader stuff going on? Sounds like a good thesis project for someone!
“Fanguistics” my English major heart just exploded
It’s fascinating to me the way that some of these phrases entered my speech and writing, not from fanfic, but from being in text RP communities for 30 years. (Yes, I’ve been RPing online since 1992. Hush.)
Curious also how much of these stylings would be taken out by a traditional editor, if we’re comparing fanfic to traditional publishing.
This is just fascinating, I love it. Its like those specific friend group or family in-jokes and meaningful phrases but spread a bit wider in fanfic.
Dunno. @thebibliosphere leaves a lot of my turns of phrase in when she edits my stuff.
Fandom lexicon and style have become more accepted in the mainstream over the last few years thanks to the rise in fandom writers turning pro. (and the built-in audiences publishers are more than happy to take money from.)
I dare say some bigger publishing houses won’t allow it if they’ve got a strict house style–the one I worked for used to, but from what I’ve read of some of their more recent stuff they’ve softened those rules over the last decade.
Good thing too, if you ask me. It always felt draconian to tell people they couldn’t use perfectly legible turns of phrase because it was “too fandomy.” But then again, I grew up with fandom, so I’ve always been biased :p
