dae

Occupation: T'Pring's defense attorney

[daemonologywrites]

Name: dae, daemonology (ao3 here)

(I am also at @melmedardaapologist where i post my Arcane ramblings)

#my fics for fanfiction

#dae’s stuff for misc. personal/academic

My asks are open—I love to chat!

[daemonologywrites]

The City & the City, China Miéville

Being a linguist in Besźel-Ul Qoma would almost certainly drive me to commit Breach, because the tantalizing opportunity of having a language that evolved parallel to yours in the same physical space but then not being able to acknowledge the entire city where it’s spoken for fear of breaking centuries-long taboo sounds like absolute torture

[lostyesterday]

I can suspend my disbelief for a lot in Star Trek, but for some reason one of the things I have the most trouble with is the idea that entire species have one single language. (This is very much not a unique thing in Star Trek and basically all sci-fi does this, I’m just specifically talking about Star Trek here.) How is there one single Vulcan language, one single Klingon language, one single Bajoran language, etc.? I know it’s just done to simplify the writing process, but it’s so unbelievable to me. Even the idea that there might be one “main” language for each species and then a few other dialects which is occasionally hinted at feels unconvincing for an entire species on an entire planet.

I remember there were a few episodes of DS9 that talked about “Ancient Bajoran” which modern Bajoran descended from and I love that idea for the history of language on Bajor, but there should be tons of different languages descended from a language that old! Maybe an old form survives as a liturgical language while another somewhat related language is the primary dialect spoken in, say, the Rakantha Province. Maybe there are different branches of languages descended from Ancient Bajoran that are mutually unintelligible to each other but that can be traced back by scholars to a common ancestor. And certainly there must be other language families on Bajor for which no link to Ancient Bajoran can be established at all. How have Bajoran religious and governmental authorities historically treated these languages? How many small languages might have been wiped out or become endangered during the Cardassian occupation? What kinds of language revitalization efforts might exist after the end of the occupation? To think about any of this stuff you just kind of have to ignore canon, though.

[briarleoht]

Maybe an old form survives as a liturgical language while another somewhat related language is the primary dialect spoken in, say, the Rakantha Province.

I've always had a similar idea! The "Ancient Bajoran" language is one I've imagined as having a colloquial use and a hermeneutical use--similar to how medieval Latin is somewhat preserved in Catholic practice and developed a sheen of 'the sacred' which is separate from classical Latin, the language that was actually spoken and from which romantic languages are derived. The main difference, as I imagine it, from this comparison is that this language became so widely spread due to semi-religious reasons which are qualified by the fact that this is the language in which the "prophecies" are recorded, material artifacts that are in some ways untranslatable but still very real attempts at communication from the prophets/wormhole aliens. The fact that ancient Bajorans also built star ships and traveled around their star system also suggests a possible unity in planet identity and the presence of a 'lingua franca'. And maybe the retention of this language in everyday practice even as language development branched out might also be compared to learning Hebrew. I can imagine every Bajoran mostly has it as one of two or more dialects and during the occupation it gained traction as people were forced from communities, children were born in these mixed-up communities, and they fell back on a shared tongue. Then afterwards, at the end of the occupation, it was revitalized as a source of cultural pride and survival.

And the reason why they have trouble translating actual material from that temple in that one episode which has the language transcribed is that the written-aspect of the language was not wholly preserved: maybe there's an alphabet used specifically to capture the particular language of the communications coming from the wormhole but its encoding is lost so translation is extra fraught.

[childweanedonpoison]

my sasha fic is coming along. slowly. but it's going somewhere.

[emilinqa]

ziyallllll

[daemonologywrites]

at a fourth of july event i joked to an editor of a local magazine about the fact that i’d gotten rejected twice by them and somehow i ended up being invited to help with the judging of the submissions for their latest contest. success??

[dailyclassicart]

Charles Rosen - "Icebound River" (c.1915)

[daemonologywrites]

back in hell (looking for an apartment on facebook groups)

[daemonologywrites]

Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, Mónica Ojeda

finished the book, and while i adored the psychedelic prose of the festival-goers, the journal sections have probably some of my favorite prose about the awful beauty of nature ever

[sirellas]

[bimboficationblues]

legal procedural about a sleazebag lesbian lawyer cruising divorce court to pick up emotionally vulnerable women by helping turn up dirt on their husbands

[daemonologywrites]

they should invent a footstep tracker that adds numbers in sympathy to the many instances of near broken ankles between tide-pool rocks

[defconprime]

[daemonologywrites]

Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, Mónica Ojeda, transl. Sarah Booker

i almost can’t believe i stumbled onto this book because the way ójeda communicates the terror and ecstasy of sound and music is so incredibly vibrant that i have to linger on every single page (and also major respect to sarah booker for the complex beast of the text, especially with the poetic sections and the frequency of kichwa terms)

[daemonologywrites]

Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, Mónica Ojeda

[onetobeamup]

Klingon romance novels on the other hand are definitely like chinese historical dramas but also like shonen anime. they absolutely have Real Klingon Historical Figures in them, there is a HUGE emphasis on interpersonal court politics as well as physical violence, there are always massive battles with cool moves and cuts to impressive poetry written about the battle and how covered in blood everyone was. theres a lot of minor characters that have their own massive plotlines, theres warrior homosexuality and klingon girl fights (lesbians but no one outside of klingon culture could discern it, its highly contextual) the books are all like 800 pages because editing klingon literature is a true battle against the artists vision.I feel like The Legend of Haolan or Kangxi Dynasty is pretty close to what im picturing but significantly more blood. So much more. might also have more episodes and meander more.

[onetobeamupart]

[daemonologywrites]

key to understanding afoljaits is the way that when you live in another country for a limited amount of time, by the end of a year you'll form several intense friendships where you'll have bared your soul to them knowing you likely won't see them for months, if not years again, but when you do you’ll find you can still spend literal hours talking together about topics you wouldn’t dare touch with your closest family