I may be causing my own descent into insanity by trying to make a conlang based on real languages I don't speak..

Hello!! Tell me what you think about Polish 😊

hiiiiii karo!!!

SO. I am fairly ignorant about Slavic languages in general - I have never learnt any and I don't have imminent plans to.

given that I know relatively little - let me go on wikipedia and RATE POLISH for typological features I PERSONALLY find very sexy.

(for legal reasons, all languages have intrinsic value, this is just for fun, and I know very little about polish. my opinions hold no weight and that's ~just fine~)

'characterised by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order' >>>>> VERY sexy objectively speaking, cases are sexy, the ability to put random words in random places to mean slightly different things is very sexy 10/10 would go home with probably

'dominant arrangement is subject-verb-object' >>> hmm very averagely Indo-European, 5/10

'frequent dropping of subject pronouns' >>>> this means I assume that if there's relatively free word order that the verb endings are distinct enough. I'm assuming there is NOT the same tolerance for ambiguity as in chinese (lmao) so this bodes well!!! all cool people hate obligatory subject pronouns, so 11/10

'vowel alternations which cause vowel changes in some words depending on whether the syllable is closed or open...' >>>> EXCELLENT FUCKING. YESSS. no further comments 9/10

'consonant changes....now produce a number of different changes depending on which consonant is involved' >>>>> Ohhhhhhhh we love a good bit of fossilised grammar from a previous stage in the language!!!!! conservatively going to go for 100/10

'it retains seven cases' >>>>> YESSSSSSSSSSS *sicko meme* haha....yess......1000000/10

'singular and plural; it used to have dual' >>>>> very indo-european, points for effort, like the synchronically irregular plural but COULD 5/10

'there are three cases that always have the same ending in the plural, regardless of gender or declension class' >>>>> you better keep a fucking EYE on that syncretism!!! we don't want your nouns going the way of the old english!!!

dative plural -om!!!!!! instrumental plura -ami or -mil!!!!!! hello my old indo-european friends!!!! so good to see a familiar face in my time of need!!!!! loses two points for predictability, but 8/10 for those nostalgic proto-indo-european vibes

oh I am So intrigued by this. a THREE WAY animacy distinction??? but only in the masculine???? what, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck. and for EVERY plural to collapse into a generic non-personal-masculine category and be exactly the same (te)!!!!! also hiiii to neuter nominative and accusative being the same, waving at my other little indo-european friends across the table <3

(after spending time doing Weird indo-european languages like scottish gaelic i.e. ones that really don't....do typical indo-european things, and then languages like chinese....it is so immensely comforting to look at an inflection table of a language I have never studied in a language FAMLY I have never studied and go...hm. that looks familiar.)

I'm also very intrigued by the nom. plural masculine personal demonstrative 'ci'. I don't know enough about polish orthography + phonology to know but...is this an expected pronunciation change? like is it because of the vowel / palatalisation? how would 'ti' be pronounced? or is this properly suppletive?? (i.e. is it a word that originally came from a different source and has sort of Snuck its way in?) if so YES ALL my homies love suppletion

Absolutely 100000/10, and this is ONLY nominative and accusative. what a stonker of an ability to inflect!!! I am SO curious!!

this is getting SPICY!

'emotionally charged nicknames' >>>> this is even better than the german 'some rivers'. 16/10 polish can have that point.

but also I'm going to take away some points for predictability. oh?? your masculine nouns end in a consonant??? you can KNOW that? boring 4/10

.....I take it back. it's pure chaos. 16/10 once again.

Ok, it's FAR too late for me to unpack all of these delicious animacy treats, but....my gosh!!!!! I think this has to be my favourite thing so far. I LOVE animacy, and the personal / animate distinction here is fascinating to me. the idea of elevating objects to animate that have something to do with human activity / beloved objects is fairly common with what I know of animacy in general.

'it is common for personal masculine nouns to change gender to inanimate to create semantic neologisms' >>> OHHHHH this is EXTREMELY cool and makes total sense. an editor = not a person, but a thing that edits = becomes inanimate to showcase that difference in meaning. EXCUSE ME 5000000/10, extremely cool.

------

that's it for now - thank you Karo and thank you Polish for this wild ad wonderful cornucopia of delights!! I am not likely to learn it soon, but I may spend some more time pouring over the wiki page. the stuff about animacy is FASCINATING.

thank you!!!

part 2 for meow love! 'so nada is dream’s first love' OH nice to learn abt her finally. 'dream we cant be together im sorry i was stupid pls let me go this is bad' cant really judge her. its probably scary to learn that smn youre connected with is... nothing normal and nothing you know about. and pity for dream... hope hell get some love. well this rock thing... is so desperate... feel so bad for her. and its kinds cute (bc oh <зhe doesnt care<з/sarc) but REALLY creepy of dream to still want her to be his queen when shed done THIS to get rid of him.. 'so they make love on top of the mountain' ok i have some questions for the author... well now you have all the right to only sympathise with him bc they said it doesnt matter hes been creepy. (dont take all my words seriously in the first meaning). 'THEN FUCKING BURNS NADA’S ENTIRE VILLAGE' 🤡🤡🤡 . idk whats going on. just remember that i dont know any of them and have no (0) feelings about the characters and the events. 'its cold hard reality the people have to suffer for their rulers’ mistakes' understand like nothing else... its kinda difficult to speak abt the other century bc i know what and why and morality was different but i want to say what i think now with me own experience but dont want to repeat that its only how i feel... they all are so fucked. 'CRYING FUCK then jumps of the cliff and dies' ghdjdd sorry but it sounds amusing to me. reasonable 100%. 'theyre dead youre dead just be with dream forgetting that guilt exists' yeah i thought about it too. like you can do nothing for them now? so what? so punish yourself for them? it has no meaning. BUT also dream? man chill down pls TT yeah she betrayed you, thats all, just hate her peacefully and have good fluffy dreams lol. 'of course i still love you BUT i stilll havent forgiven you' what sex on top of the mountain does to men.... as ever, i judge everyone. she couldve done better, he couldve done LOTS of different things. but ok. it is as it is. YEY FINALLY TALKING ABOUT JOSE RIZAL! this worldwife TT hdsddk actually reminded me of pushkin. good for them both. 'his work inspired the revolution and he did so with non violence so' sounds really cool. and hes so badass for his death. this cunning spain... wow its really good to learn about your history. and the KKK is pretty cool. i like this title. and this cute story about you being confused bc of the song TT such a pure feeling. wow its REALLY amazing to learn about his works. your retelling is delightful. thanks SO MUCH for your efforts, your time, your big brain vibes and everything you do to answer to me! youre SO educational! youre an amazing catmom! 'we love kdramas here in the ph and complain if there arent eng subs on their shows' fhdhsp cute. its soso intriguing to learn about the culture that in fact is a lot different from my own. so please continue! 'this is such a long love letter' i love it!! i cant answer to everything bc itd be even longer and im too gripped by all the information you give but i love long love letters! omg i.. i JUST UNDERSTOOD that i misplaced papak and flan FJSHFHJ. my inattentiveness will be the death of me im SORRY TT so ive already said you what is the thing similar to flan so what is similar to papak.. i meant the defenition, not the very word. theres a word 'кусочничать' (kusochnichat' ig) which is informal, actually, and literally means do smth with the pieces. in fact eating them... i already see how confused you were TT im sorry im silly. well majority of european languages derive from the proto-indo-european including english and spanish as well as slavic languages. and all the vagons come from proto-indo-european 'woghnos'. actually, our vagon came from the french. as far as i know, we didnt have much face to face contact with spain throughout the history. 'its normal to be anxious but you will overcome it' yeah i did! but i was so sleepy and dizzy and all bc of the things i was doing in the night... so ig part 3.... see you soon, love! have a nice.. time? yeah, enjoy your time. love you<з

HELLO <3

'so nada is dream’s first love' OH nice to learn abt her finally. 'dream we cant be together im sorry i was stupid pls let me go this is bad' cant really judge her. its probably scary to learn that smn youre connected with is... nothing normal and nothing you know about.

true T_T i dont blame nada at all she be a stupid mortal like the rest of us 😩 Icarus core flew too close to the sun

and pity for dream... hope hell get some love.

T_T yes and therapy

well this rock thing... is so desperate... feel so bad for her. and its kinds cute (bc oh <зhe doesnt care<з/sarc) but REALLY creepy of dream to still want her to be his queen when shed done THIS to get rid of him..

i mean HAHAHAH he's not human so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what is morals to someone like him? what is injury or death to a flesh form to him ya feel. i get what you mean its kinda cut eHLSAHAHSF but he problematic af still HAHAHAH

'so they make love on top of the mountain' ok i have some questions for the author...

I MEAN THEY WERE ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN ALREADY COS SHE WAS RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM I THINK HAHHAHA I DONT REMEMBER HAHAAH

well now you have all the right to only sympathise with him bc they said it doesnt matter hes been creepy. (dont take all my words seriously in the first meaning).

AHAHHHAHHAHAH

'THEN FUCKING BURNS NADA’S ENTIRE VILLAGE' 🤡🤡🤡 . idk whats going on. just remember that i dont know any of them and have no (0) feelings about the characters and the events.

HAHHAHAHAHAHAH ITS FINE ITS JUST LIKE HAHAHAHAHAHAH ???? WHYYYYY>???????

'its cold hard reality the people have to suffer for their rulers’ mistakes' understand like nothing else... its kinda difficult to speak abt the other century bc i know what and why and morality was different but i want to say what i think now with me own experience but dont want to repeat that its only how i feel... they all are so fucked.

eat the rich and powerful

'CRYING FUCK then jumps of the cliff and dies' ghdjdd sorry but it sounds amusing to me. reasonable 100%.

NAH HAHAHH IT IS KIND OF FUNNY HAHAHAHAHAHA COS REAL HAHAHAHAH T_T

'theyre dead youre dead just be with dream forgetting that guilt exists' yeah i thought about it too. like you can do nothing for them now? so what? so punish yourself for them? it has no meaning.

see we be the same

BUT also dream? man chill down pls TT yeah she betrayed you, thats all, just hate her peacefully and have good fluffy dreams lol.

FACT but he be petty 😩

'of course i still love you BUT i stilll havent forgiven you' what sex on top of the mountain does to men.... as ever, i judge everyone. she couldve done better, he couldve done LOTS of different things. but ok. it is as it is.

HAHAHHAHAHHAHAAHHAAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS IS SO FUNNY SEX ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN DOES TO MEN AHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAH ur so right #justicefornada and yeah dream with that one braincell coming through HAHAHAHAHAHAH

YEY FINALLY TALKING ABOUT JOSE RIZAL! this worldwife TT hdsddk actually reminded me of pushkin. good for them both.

HAHAHA OMG YOU GOT A MR WORLDWIFE TOO HAHAHHHAH

'his work inspired the revolution and he did so with non violence so' sounds really cool. and hes so badass for his death.

yeah bang bang 😞😩✊

this cunning spain... wow its really good to learn about your history.

<3 im glad you think so i find it so funny that you keep saying cunning spain HAHHAH IDK ITS KINDA CUTE HAHAHHAAH

and the KKK is pretty cool. i like this title.

THEYRE THE REALEST AND THE COOLEST 😫😫😫😫

and this cute story about you being confused bc of the song TT such a pure feeling.

T_T i was so confused for real

wow its REALLY amazing to learn about his works. your retelling is delightful. thanks SO MUCH for your efforts, your time, your big brain vibes and everything you do to answer to me! youre SO educational! youre an amazing catmom!

💗💗 I LOVE THAT FOR ME thank you my kitty kat muning <3

'we love kdramas here in the ph and complain if there arent eng subs on their shows' fhdhsp cute. its soso intriguing to learn about the culture that in fact is a lot different from my own. so please continue!

i love kdramas 😩 and yeah were pretty culturally different huh, besides the kwoa thing HAHAH

'this is such a long love letter' i love it!! i cant answer to everything bc itd be even longer and im too gripped by all the information you give but i love long love letters!

<3 <3 im glad you think so <3 <3 <3 im worried i might be telling you things you dont care about so this is reassuring <3

omg i.. i JUST UNDERSTOOD that i misplaced papak and flan FJSHFHJ. my inattentiveness will be the death of me im SORRY TT so ive already said you what is the thing similar to flan so what is similar to papak.. i meant the defenition, not the very word. theres a word 'кусочничать' (kusochnichat' ig) which is informal, actually, and literally means do smth with the pieces. in fact eating them... i already see how confused you were TT im sorry im silly.

no i know you meant the definition! its ok mistakes happen stop apologizing /: its fine. its cool to know you have a similar word <3

well majority of european languages derive from the proto-indo-european including english and spanish as well as slavic languages. and all the vagons come from proto-indo-european 'woghnos'. actually, our vagon came from the french. as far as i know, we didnt have much face to face contact with spain throughout the history.

wow my blown mind mind blown wow oh my HAHAHAHHA DAMN i got schooled love that for me purr 💅 as you should queen

'its normal to be anxious but you will overcome it' yeah i did! but i was so sleepy and dizzy and all bc of the things i was doing in the night...

YAY GOOD FOR YOU MY LOVE <3

so ig part 3.... see you soon, love! have a nice.. time? yeah, enjoy your time. love you<з

omg p3 wow slaYYY

xxx

when you study philology (polish, german, scandinavian, english... whatever you pick), you focus mostly on literature and linguistics but also theater, film, art, music... i truly had all sorts of classes, including history and philosophy as well. basically everything important to understand not only literature and language but also culture of the country. and yeah, you also answered your own question about latin haha 😂 but the sentence is actually from the 13th century 😉 not that it's important lol. btw my year in uni was the first one who didn't have to take old church slavonic... truly a blessing because historical grammar was already hard and imo it counted as a foreign language... proto-slavic is nothing like modern polish 🥲

yeah, jewish people lived everywhere. from big towns to small villages. i always try to read and learn as much as i can, even about the most traumatic parts of their history here, and it always makes me feel like there's a big hole here which will never be filled.

oh i do like paris, it's a lovely place, so full of art and history 😍 i hope i can go at least one more time and experience it all again. that reminds me i went to a small shop with turkish pastries with my friend and the owner didn't know the word poland in english but he really wanted to know where we're from (he was super nice) and we tried everything, including explaining that it's where chopin was from but it obviously didn't help 🤣 luckily a younger guy came and explained it to him in turkish lmao. and another time i was standing in a line for something and some old guy approached me and started talking a bit in polish (he heard me talk on the phone), said he worked on ships and lived there for a bit so he still remembered some of the language 😂 so yeah, i met some nice people...just not "native" parisians 😬

we do study some history of music in schools but my passion comes from my mom who loves classical music and opera! i basically grew up on it. of course, i am not an expert or anything, just an enjoyer, but i listen to it a lot, go to many, many concerts and just love it dearly. and yes, film music can be classical music, of course :) as for chopin...i can't pick a fave, it really depends on my mood. my mom's ringtone is the so-called revolutionary etude 😊 if you want you, can try listening to ingolf wunder's chopin (he's my fave classical pianist) and if you like jazz, definitely check out leszek możdżer's impressions on chopin! but please don't feel obligated or anything, these are just my little recs 😳

oh and as for jp2, he actually saved the entire world. just so you know 🙂🙃🙂🙃

that genuinely sounds sooo interesting and fulfilling to study! also can't believe wikipedia lied to me like that about the date 😤 old-church slavonic does not sound fun lol

a huge part of the country's people and history is gone with them... even though they built this country as well and are part. I read last year a fantasy novel titled sinning silver and its main character is jewish and I think the author is polish-lithuanian-american so it's heavily influenced by the history of jewish people in the region

I'm glad you had a good time here (and also that I'm not the only one who didn't know where chopin was from 😂) there are so many nice things to do and see (and eat!!)

it's so cool that your mother shared her passion with you and that now it's also yours, that's a lovely thing to have in common 😊 my parents didn't listen to a lot when I was growing up and for some reason the only type of classical music that I can remember them listening to (although I know they listened to a bit more than just that lol) are some stabat maters because my father had a compilation cd or something like that lol but my grandmother loves it so I did go to an open air violin recital with her once (I don't know if you've heard of the menton music festival but it's her region and the setting of the concert is gorgeous, I love this town) and she once offered me a subscription for a program of operas being broadcasted in cinemas it was really cool! I've came back home this weekend for my birthday so I listened to some ingolf under (I picked the chopin recital album) and it was perfect to listen to as I watched the landscape go by my window on the train, but I do like jazz so I'm looking forward to your other rec!

also another fun info : we had my birthday lunch today (even if it's tomorrow) because it was more practical and so we got to also have a little celebration for my brother's girlfriend's birthday, anyway I love most cakes and her fave is what we call a tropézienne (named after the town, St tropez, where it was created) so that's what my mother made and by researching a recipe she learned that it was created by a polish pastry maker who came to france after ww2 and adapted a recipe from his grandmother to the south of france so after a week of chatting about poland and france I've had a french-polish cake for my birthday 🥰

Hello, I am interested in what entertainment or content you would recommend for some one trying to learn as much about ancient slavic people and cultures as possible. I thank you for your pined post, it served as an incredible introduction and I felt that given the effort and importance you placed on separating the facts of history from personal belief we in the modern day hold I would like to know what you would tell someone watch. Sorry if it's a rambly or confusing ask.

Oh thank you for your kind words! Unfortunately I feel like I will not be able to provide much help because I really don’t know that much entertainment that is about ancient Slavic peoples and their culture. I suppose you could look for the movie An Ancient Tale: When the Sun Was a God (Polish: Stara baśń: Kiedy słońce było bogiem), which is an ecranisation of a cool book by the same title, and also a modern rendition of a very famous Polish legend about overthrowing of Popiel, a tyrannical leader of some of the proto-Polish tribes, who was replaced by a just ruler of the Piast dynasty (yeah Piasts have their own founder myths). It also borrows some themes from other popular legends like the story of Saint Olga of Kyiv. Another movie that I suppose is more or less on theme is the Nest (Gniazdo, 1974), a story of Mieszko, another Piast and also the guy who is viewed as the first ruler of Poland and who christianized the tribes under his rule. Of course those are strictly for fun, it would be erroneous to treat everything said in them as historical truth. In fact they probably say more about how modern Poles view ancient Slavic tribes than about the ancient Slavs.

Maybe some of my Slavic mutuals could help me out? Do you know any stuff worth watching/reading on the subject of ancient Slavs? I would love to find more!

Guess what?

Witches all over Eastern Europe are going to have a really, really, really big sabbath party on the night of July 6-7! All of our mystical colleagues from other parts of the world are invited so prepare long white shirts, flower wreaths and brooms - we're celebrating Ivanа-Kupala!

but first, let's find out what kind of celebration it is and why it is so cool so get ready for a little historical tour

Ivanа-Kupala is a traditional eastern Slavic holiday, which is celebrated in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia during the night from 6 to 7 July (on the Gregorian calendar). (This corresponds to 23-24 June on these countries’ traditional Julian calendar.) The celebration relates to the summer solstice when nights are the shortest and includes a lot (you even can’t imagine how much) of rituals and beliefs 

the name of the holiday was originally Kupala; a pagan fertility rite later adapted into the Orthodox Christian calendar by connecting it with St. John's Day.

the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian name of this holiday combines "Ivan" (John, in this case John the Baptist) and Kupala which was thought to be derived from the Slavic word for bathing, which is cognate. However, it likely stems from the proto-Slavic kump, a gathering. The two feasts could be connected by reinterpreting John's baptizing people through full immersion in water. However, the tradition of Kupala predates Christianity. The pagan celebration was adapted and reestablished as one of the native Christian traditions intertwined with local folklore

I know, it was a rather boring story, but how can we celebrate something without knowing the background, right? Now we get to the fun part

at this time, all the plants are gaining magical and healing properties so the first thing we need to do at this day is to wake up early in the morning, go on the meadow being absolutely naked and gather different plants and herbs. There is a legend that on a day in Ivan Kupala you can heal with dew, so in the morning you need to walk barefoot on the grass (if the gathering herbs in the early morning being naked is too much for you) 

it is believed that people shouldn't sleep on the night of Ivan Kupala, because at this time not only nature comes to life, but also all spirits become especially active - werewolves, mermaids, watermen, foresters so you can see that witches and sorcerers have a really good company today, we're all celebrating!

However, it is necessary to swim in open water. On this night, water acquires healing properties, helps to cleanse the body and soul from bad thoughts and evil.

in the evening the main entertainments come and special attention is drawn to divination. A lot of girls want to find out more about their "love life" but witches are not interested in it (are we?) although I think I must tell briefly about it

the girls throw their wreaths into the water in order to find the love of their life, and the boys have to get them. The wreath is a symbol of happiness and marriage.

if the wreath sinks right away - the beloved has fallen out of love, and the wedding will not take place, the wreath comes to the shore - girl will be unmarried this year. Whoever has the longest wreath will be happy, and whoever burns the candle longer will live a long, long life.

there are also divinations on a candle: break it into small pieces and put in a metal spoon. The spoon is heated until the pieces turn into melted wax, and then abruptly pour it into water and divination on the figure. Or, without spying, the girls plucked a bouquet of flowers, which was then placed under a pillow. If in the morning it turns out that at least twelve different herbs have been plucked, then the girl has a great chance to get married this year.

the main core around which the action takes place is the Kupala fire. Before lighting a fire, four men with torches become a square around the bush, denoting the four suns (four seasons). Then everyone gathers in the bushes and lights a fire, symbolizing the "solar plexus". It should burn all night. Around him, young people play games, sing songs, lead round dances. But the main thing is jumping over the fire.

there are signs related to this: if a young man jumps the highest - his family will have a good harvest, he will jump into the flames - wait for trouble. When a young man and a girl successfully jump over the fire, they will definitely get married and live in harmony all their lives.

the most important thing to do tonight is to find a fern flower. Whoever finds it will know everything in the world, will get all the treasures without difficulty, will have the highest harvest, will not be afraid of evil forces, will have the miraculous power to do everything with the hand that plucked the flower of happiness.

but the Flower of Happiness is awaited not only by people, but also by evil forces, which are difficult to fight for the person who finds it (so, yes, in the night all of the witches are going to find it as well) They try to stop, to divert the attention of a young person who finds this flower - the old person, as a rule, is not lucky to find it. And if the young is lucky enough to find a flower of happiness, she/he has to cut the skin of the little finger on left hand and put that flower under the skin. Then a person must take a wormwood or a tatarzilla in his left hand and circle it with chalk - only then the evil forces will not be able to do anything to the lucky one.

so, witches and sorcerers, werewolves, vampires  and mermaids, watermen and foresters and many others, let's celebrate the Ivana Kupala together, so fly, swim, run to Ukrane and Eastern Europe, we are waiting for you all here!

I'd love to hear more about you bringing back the bear cult. It's a never-ending fascination of mine

BEAR CULT BEAR CULT BEAR CULT! 

It’s an interesting concept! Since there was believed to be a paleolithic/neolithic bear cult plus the idea that the “true” proto-indo-european name for the bear was lost because it was too powerful to be said out loud (bear is technically considered the very first euphemism which is cool). Similar euphemisms are found in Finnish and other Slavic languages if I remember correctly (like being called the “honey-eater,” “grandfather,” and “the destroyer” respectively.)

There’s Artio in the Gaulish Polytheism world view, bear worship is seen prevalent in Finnish traditions as well, including the archaic bear cult with Artemis, so the evidence of the bear cult is there but I’m going to have to do more research and do more comparative mythology to really get a grasp on how I would want to approach my own idea of a bear cult.

I like to think of it as an extension of animal worship I want to start branching off into (including deer, corvids, boars, and bison as well, but that’s also going to take a bit more time and research), and the idea of the power of the bear, and the seasonal aspects of hibernation and the devotion of she-bears towards their cubs.

ink, teapot, tweed!

Ink: Favorite dead language? It’s really interesting what linguists have put together for proto-indo-european. Like they’ve constructed SO much, just from analyzing living languages and extrapolating back based on common transformations that humans do.

Teapot: How do you take your tea or coffee? For tea I usually drink it black, but sometimes (especially if I have a sore throat) I’ll put some honey in it. Coffee I drink with lots of milk and sugar.

Tweed: Any languages you want to learn/are learning? I’d love to learn more languages outside of the language families I already kind of know, but that’s really hard. Arabic would be cool, as would some Slavic language - I’ve heard that Polish is supposed to sound “refined” for Slavic languages. I guess ideally I’d go for one with the most mutual intelligibility between all of them. I’d also love to learn some Japanese!

Thanks Anna! These questions were fun!

“My my~. It is delightful to see that today, too, is quite pleasant and lively, and hopefully forevermore.”

Name: Cirnu Alva Valirgethen

Dorm: Diasomnia

Year: 3rd Year

Like/s:

Flowers (although she has a few specific favorites)

The moon

Chaos and peace

Literature

Dislike/s:

Wishes and hopes

Snow

Church bells

Twisted from: Chernabog from Fantasia

Short Description:

A third-year student from the Diasomnia dormitory. Mature and very lady-like, there is almost never a time wherein she loses her composure although something feels off about her despite her generally “nice big-sister” attitude towards everyone.

Personality:

Despite having an air of mystery and something unearthly just feels like it’s enveloping you slowly, Cirnu is actually quite nice and rather cordial to be around. She is a calm, cool, and collected person who rarely if ever raises her voice at others and almost always maintains level-headedness and is generally quite supportive of others. She’s also rather patient with everyone’s antics and is pretty quick at understanding one’s motives and reasoning. She more often than not acts like everyone’s big sister, or almost like either a mother or a gra— *the narrator almost gets killed*, mostly towards the first years whom she considers “cute children”; this applies even to the other dorm students and even the dorm leaders. At times she may come off as a bit teasing but she doesn't mean or intend for it to be like that. So far the only she appears to not be able to baby, besides the staff of course, is Lilia and they are generally good friends who seem to go way back.

Though it does not mean that she can express other emotions/feelings; she can’t help but chuckle a bit at how everyone tries to awkwardly distance themselves from Malleus and doesn’t get invites to any occasion too much, she also thinks Sebek is a bit cute in his wholehearted devotion to Malleus and thinks of him as “a cute puppy” or “a zealous child”, is friendly with Lilia though isn’t above being exasperated at him at times, and often worries about Silver’s drowsiness and finds the fact he can openly call Lilia “old man” quite amusing. Cirnu can also be quite stern when she needs to be but prefers not to resort getting physical or resorting to force when handing out discipline. There are times when she gets quite sentimental and talks in a much deeper sense than she’d like before a tiny bit sheepishly apologising.

However, despite all that and more…. she can be really terrifying when she actually gets enraged. Oh, no no, she’s not the type to burst out and get violent, rather, it’s subdued, quiet, and calm— much like clear water… before the storm arrives. Also hidden underneath that elegant surface, lies a sinister demon. Much like a snake, Cirnu can be quite the secretive and hides her “true nature”. She can be quite cold, unsympathetic, ruthless, and sadistic when she WANTS to be, but she’s managing to keep it all under wraps so that she would not scare the “young ones” (that and for another reason in which she will NEVER disclose to anyone baring Lilia and the Headmaster, who already seem to know about the full details). She can be very deceiving and can lie just as easily as if she was breathing and isn’t above to using either psychological torture or actual physical and emotional torture— though because the latter would prove to be “too much” and “be a hassle”, she doesn’t do it as much. Cirnu is not above actually harming someone, but in secret, if it meant protecting others… after all, it would not be the first time she did so, even when said harm wasn’t for protecting someone but rather for… “devious” and “selfish” reasons.

Relationships:

[Will be edited in the future]

Trivia:

Her first name, Cirnu, is the Proto-Slavic word of [Cherno], meaning “black”. Cherno, in turn, comes from the word [Chernobog], meaning “Black God”, ie. the Slavic deity representing “darkness” and “evil” who is the “dark” counterpart of Belobog, the “White God”.

Her middle name, Alva, is the Hebrew name for “evil, iniquity”.

Her last name, Valirgethen, is a combination of two words; Valir comes from the word [Valr], meaning “the dead, the slain”, and [Gethen], a variant spelling of the Welsh (Gethin) meaning “dark”.

Okay, so:

Latin has this word, sic. Or, if we want to be more diacritically accurate, sīc. That shows that the i is long, so it’s pronounced like “seek” and not like “sick.”

You might recognize this word from Latin sayings like “sic semper tyrannis” or “sic transit gloria mundi.” You might recognize it as what you put in parentheses when you want to be pass-agg about someone’s mistakes when you’re quoting them: “Then he texted me, ‘I want to touch you’re (sic) butt.’”

It means, “thus,” which sounds pretty hoity-toity in this modren era, so maybe think of it as meaning “in this way,” or “just like that.” As in, “just like that, to all tyrants, forever,” an allegedly cool thing to say after shooting a President and leaping off a balcony and shattering your leg. “Everyone should do it this way.”

Anyway, Classical Latin somewhat lacked an affirmative particle, though you might see the word ita, a synonym of sic, used in that way. By Medieval Times, however, sic was holding down this role. Which is to say, it came to mean yes.

Ego: Num edisti totam pitam?

Tu, pudendus: Sic.

Me: Did you eat all the pizza?

You, shameful: That’s the way it is./Yes.

This was pretty well established by the time Latin evolved into its various bastard children, the Romance languages, and you can see this by the words for yes in these languages.

In Spanish, Italian, Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, Galician, Friulian, and others, you say si for yes. In Portugese, you say sim. In French, you say si to mean yes when you’re contradicting a negative assertion (”You don’t like donkey sausage like all of us, the inhabitants of France, eat all the time?” “Yes, I do!”). In Romanian, you say da, but that’s because they’re on some Slavic shit. P.S. there are possibly more Romance languages than you’re aware of.

But:

There was still influence in some areas by the conquered Gaulish tribes on the language of their conquerors. We don’t really have anything of Gaulish language left, but we can reverse engineer some things from their descendants. You see, the Celts that we think of now as the people of the British Isles were Gaulish, originally (in the sense that anyone’s originally from anywhere, I guess) from central and western Europe. So we can look at, for example, Old Irish, where they said tó to mean yes, or Welsh, where they say do to mean yes or indeed, and we can see that they derive from the Proto-Indo-European (the big mother language at whose teat very many languages both modern and ancient did suckle) word *tod, meaning “this” or “that.” (The asterisk indicates that this is a reconstructed word and we don’t know exactly what it would have been but we have a pretty damn good idea.)

So if you were fucking Ambiorix or whoever and Quintus Titurius Sabinus was like, “Yo, did you eat all the pizza?” you would do that Drake smile and point thing under your big beefy Gaulish mustache and say, “This.” Then you would have him surrounded and killed.

Apparently Latin(ish) speakers in the area thought this was a very dope way of expressing themselves. “Why should I say ‘in that way’ like those idiots in Italy and Spain when I could say ‘this’ like all these cool mustache boys in Gaul?” So they started copying the expression, but in their own language. (That’s called a calque, by the way. When you borrow an expression from another language but translate it into your own. If you care about that kind of shit.)

The Latin word for “this” is “hoc,” so a bunch of people started saying “hoc” to mean yes. In the southern parts of what was once Gaul, “hoc” makes the relatively minor adjustment to òc, while in the more northerly areas they think, “Hmm, just saying ‘this’ isn’t cool enough. What if we said ‘this that’ to mean ‘yes.’” (This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened, please just fucking roll with it, this shit is long enough already.)

So they combined hoc with ille, which means “that” (but also comes to just mean “he”: compare Spanish el, Italian il, French le, and so on) to make o-il, which becomes oïl. This difference between the north and south (i.e. saying oc or oil) comes to be so emblematic of the differences between the two languages/dialects that the languages from the north are called langues d’oil and the ones from the south are called langues d’oc. In fact, the latter language is now officially called “Occitan,” which is a made-up word (to a slightly greater degree than that to which all words are made-up words) that basically means “Oc-ish.” They speak Occitan in southern France and Catalonia and Monaco and some other places.

The oil languages include a pretty beefy number of languages and dialects with some pretty amazing names like Walloon, and also one with a much more basic name: French. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, n'est-ce pas?

Yeah, eventually Francophones drop the -l from oil and start saying it as oui. If you’ve ever wondered why French yes is different from other Romance yeses, well, now you know.

I guess what I’m getting at is that when you reblog a post you like and tag it with “this,” or affirm a thing a friend said by nodding and saying “Yeah, that”: you’re not new

Hey thanks @fetching-the-vache​

1: What is your native language? Dutch 2: Have you learnt any other languages? If yes, what are they? Sure have! I’ve always been around family who speak Frisian, so I can understand that and speak it to an extent. I learned English in school (though mostly at home tbh) of course, and some French and German, a little Latin and ancient Greek, and a tiny bit of Hebrew (I still know the alphabet!). More recently I learned some Swedish. 3: Have you ever read a book in a foreign language? Lots of English books of course, a few in French and German (mostly poetry) 4: Did you learn any languages at school? If yes, what were they? Yep, see 2! 5: What is the prettiest language? Uh, depends on my mood really... 6: What is the ugliest language? Uh, fascist rhetoric? BUT ALL LANGUAGES ARE BEAUTIFUL 7: Have you ever made up your own language? Nope 8: What languages do your parents speak? Mom speaks Dutch and Frisian fluently, English pretty well, German okay; Dad speaks Dutch fluently, English very well, German and French pretty well. 9: If you were granted a wish that allowed you to instantly be able to speak any language, which would it be? Proto-Indo-European hahahaha. Uhm, I would like to know Hindi :) 10: Have you ever tried to learn sign language? No, but I think I will at some point! 11: Have you ever watched a movie with subtitles in a different language, or vice versa? Heh, yeah. I used to always download films from some Spanish website so they had hardcoded Spanish subs which at one point taught me quite a bit of Spanish haha. 12: Choose a Scandinavian language you’d like to learn. Gonna go with Icelandic too 13. Choose a Slavic (eastern European) language you’d like to learn. Russian! 14. Choose an Asian language you’d like to learn. Mongolian. 15. French, Spanish, Greek - which is the best? Pffff can’t say 16. German, Dutch, Italian - which is the best? See 15 17. Have you ever been embarrassed by a native speaker of the language you are trying to learn? Don’t think so 18. Name a dead language that you wish to make a come back. Proto-Indo-... Uh, Latin would be cool since that’d give me an advantage hehe. 19. What is your native language / homeland famous for? Ah, a neat trait of Dutch is that it likes to connect words that relate to each other in a sentence, such as “chronischevermoeidheidssyndroom”; chronic fatigue syndrom :) 20. What language is overrated? ????? 21. What language do you think is too intimidating to learn? I think to me languages are not so much intimidating as “ugh, so much effort” 22. What language should more people speak? Chinese would be a good practical choice probably 23. What language uses the prettiest alphabet? I like Hindi a lot 24. What language uses the weirdest alphabet? Mongolian 25. Try to find some foreign currency in your house. Where is it from? I have a few pounds from when I went to England and visited @fetching-the-vache in December :)

That was a lot of work, whew.  I tag @darkness-profound @ziggywashisname