One Side Effect Of My Research For This Novel Being Steeped Heavily In Textile History Is My Swelling

Thank you so much for answering! I had no idea what Wiktionary (though i probably should since i took german for 5 years and took linguistics as one of my college courses) and it looks so much better than google translate! Don’t worry, i didn’t think you were representing these languages in that way, i’m just amazed how you combine sorta real words to make your dialogue so interesting. i too would like to bastardize some languages for my own works, but wasn’t sure how to get the ball rolling on said bastardization! this has helped a lot! you’re the best, linny! :)

hello! quick question: how do you conduct your research regarding languages? Like which sources do you use to find accurate translations of different words in different languages? i so admire the way you use languages in your fics; it’s so impressive! please share your wisdom, linny, i would greatly appreciate it! :)

(aka a struggling writer that has found that googling just doesn’t cut it)

I am flattered by this ask but feel the need to emphasize that much of the language stuff in my fics is totally made up! Like, I do often use real words, and try to mimic the sounds of some real words sometimes but especially in the case of Suli I am imposing a pretty much entirely fictitious grammar. I also take real words and declare them to have alternate meanings. I am neither doing pure conlang nor representing authentic languages.

All that said! Wiktionary is my best friend. I often use an online dictionary (Cambridge has a good selection of languages and will often save you from, for example, wanting a translation of “give up” and unwittingly getting words that mean “[hand over] [opposite of down]” instead of “surrender” or “leave off”) to get either a word I want or a close relative. Then I take the word the dictionary gave me to Wiktionary to see things like its grammatical construction, its etymological root, or its cousin words, and then I fuck around until I get a sound I like.

(For example, the Dutch word “to fuck” is “neuken.” I didn’t like the sound of that, so I took it to Wiktionary and found the slang synonym “batsen,” which also means to bounce or slap. I wanted to mimic the hard sound of the English “fuck,” so I switched the s and the t, and so when Kaz is talking dirty in the Ballads fics, he uses a lot of words with the root “bast-” including “verbast” to mean “fucking” in the sense of a gerundive intensifier, though literally meaning something like “befucked.” (Actual Dutch doesn’t use profanities as English-speakers think of them as intensifiers.) The ver- prefix as a gerund is parallel to when Kaz asks Inej not to leave him— “jet kennet me verzaken,” with the last word breaking down literally to ver-zak-en, something like “do leaving to, make left.” But also cognate to the English “forsaken,” which is really why I did it.)

I hope this confession of my tangled and honestly somewhat whim-and-aesthetics-driven methodology doesn’t diminish me too much in your eyes! I am so, so serious about my apologies to languages.

I have now edited this twice for clarity; I am so bad at this; I’m sorry.

Dream bedroom ~

Although they didn’t go into much detail about the crows’ past, this is something I really appreciated while watching the show. Instead of straight up telling you of Kaz’s touch aversion via flashbacks, they show you through close ups of Kaz’s face and the way he interacts with others. I wasn’t crazy about how they chose to introduce the crows, but I really liked this small detail. I think it was a lot more interesting for fans than simply skipping to a flashback (we had enough meadow scenes btw).

Shadow and Bone + subtly showing us Kaz’s touch aversion without actually mentioning it

Les sphinx au dictionnaire   -   Francine van Hove

French b.1942-

"To change our relationship to the physical world – to end an era of profligate consumption by the few that has consequences for the many – means changing how we think about pretty much everything: wealth, power, joy, time, space, nature, value, what constitutes a good life, what matters, how change itself happens. As the climate journalist Mary Heglar writes, we are not short on innovation. “We’ve got loads of ideas for solar panels and microgrids. While we have all of these pieces, we don’t have a picture of how they come together to build a new world. For too long, the climate fight has been limited to scientists and policy experts. While we need their skills, we also need so much more. When I survey the field, it’s clear that what we desperately need is more artists.”" -Rebecca Solnit. Emphasis added.

Artists are so so important. I've had people tell me they feel bad because, as an artist, they don't think they can contribute anything worthwhile to climate change. They're wrong.

We cannot build a future we cannot imagine. Artists are so important. Artists show us what could be - what we could be

Blood Meridian by violet_persephone

Chapter 5: Interlude I: Across America, Seasons Change

A jerk of movement pulls her into consciousness. She’s no longer on the ground; she’s in someone’s arms, Inej realizes with a start. Her fingers twitch, seeking out one of her knives, but so much pain is radiating from her arm that she can’t move.

Whoever is carrying her isn’t doing so gently. With each staggering step, Inej is wrenched against the person’s chest.

“Inej? Are you awake?” says a rasping voice.

Kaz. Kaz is carrying her.

“Kaz?” Inej says. Her voice is hoarse from the vomiting and the drinking.

“Yes. It’s me. We’re almost there.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56463739/chapters/163618366

A dress owned by Russian empress Aleksandra Fëdorovna Romanova, second half of the 1890s.

via x

feels like fake news

I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean

"Don't you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth"

Who's afraid of little old me?

Well, you should be

( nothing special just somth i drew while thinking about TS new album …. It was suppose to have a second slide but i got tired so here it is 🫶🏻)