Language is wine upon the lips ~ Virginia Woolf

Kathryn, 20, lletraferida Main blog: prismic_glass Instagram: katerinarosa96 Languages: Spanish, French, Russian, Catalan Languages I have a small knowledge of: Ancient Greek, Latin, Italian

[eilooxara]

Do you ever get bored on the internet and then grab your phone to see what the other, smaller internet is up to?

[languagenerds-archive]

mourir  to die déceder  to pass away déceder de cause naturelle, mourir sa belle mort  to die a natural death s’éteindre  to pass away (usually of old age) trouver la mort  to die (by an accident) passer l’arme à gauche  to kick the bucket (lit. to pass the weapon to the left) casser sa pipe  to die (lit. to break your pipe) la mort  death le décès  death (more polite) le mort, le défunt  the dead person le corps, le cadavre  the corpse, the body le cercueil  the casket, the coffin la bière  the coffin (more polite) le porteur de cercueil  pallbearer le deuil  mourning être en deuil  to mourn, to be in mourning faire le deuil de qqn, faire son deuil  to grieve for something or someonee déplorer la perte de  to mourn the loss of  pleurer la morte de qqn to mourn the death of someone le cortège funèbre  a funeral procession le corbillard  hearse les funerailles  funeral l’organisation des funérailles  funeral arrangements l’enterrement  burial la chapelle funéraire, la maison funéraire  funeral home les obsèques, le service funèbre  funeral service la crémation  cremation le bûcher funéraire  funeral pyre le cimitière  cemetery le lieu de sépulture  burial site la pierre tombale  tombstone la tombe, le tombeau  tomb, grave le caveau  plot l’épitaphe (f.)  epitaph

[lucylangblr-deactivated20220424]

Vocab to describe the impulsive and carefree in French

une attitude risque-tout - devil-may-care attitude

un air canaille - cheeky attitude/devil-may-care attitude

cavalier - offhand/nonchalant/devil-may-care 

désinvolte - devil-may-care

fougueux - spirited/hotheaded/fiery/enthusiastic

impétueux - impetuous/spontaneous/impulsive

imprévisible - unpredictable

imprudent - reckless

insouciant - carefree

irréfléchi - reckless

je-m’en-foutiste/fichiste - devil-may-care

une personne impétueuse/exaltée - a hotheaded personne

une personne téméraire - reckless person

une personne fantasque/capricieuse/changeante - an erratic person

sans attache - free/carefree/footloose

sans soucis - carefree/worry free

tumultueux - rowdy/boisterous

[spanishlandia]

The difference between -ado and -ante in Spanish

Like the -ed and -ing adjective endings in English, in Spanish we have -ado and -ante, besides other suffixes. Let’s take a look at the -ado and -ante endings.

-Ado / -Ada / -Ados / -Adas

This ending implies how we feel.

I am interested. Estoy interesada.

-Ante / -Antes

This ending implies that something gives us that feeling.

David is interesting. David es interesante. (He makes me interested)

Example list:

Interesante / Interesantes. Interesting Interesado / Interesada / Interesados / Interesadas. Interested Relajante(s). Relaxing Relajad(o/a/os/as). Relaxed Excitante(s). Exciting Excitad(o/a/os/as). Excited Avergonzante(s). Embarrassing Avergonzad(o/a/os/as). Embarrassed Decepcionante(s). Disappointing Decepcionad(o/a/os/as). Disappointed

[just-shower-thoughts]

Why do Germans use smilies like this :) or this:0 If they already got Ü oh Ö?

[ellighthousekeeper]

I just texted my German friend about this and she replied: WE DO NOT SMILE IN GERMANY

[macrolit]

Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else’s head.

What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell (via macrolit)

[educatier]

“don’t kill flowers growing inside of you for someone who doesn’t appreciate  the way you bloom.”  iambrillyant

“How strong you are, to go through Hell on Earth, and still smile and carry yourself like you’re in Heaven.”   Maxwell Diawuoh  

“Now, let me be, let me not want for another. Let me fall in love with the curves and edges of my own body and soul. Let me plant a garden in my heart, and let it spring forth in a blanket of décor.” @prolixen

“I’m not going to let anyone steal or destroy who I’m meant become.” @riffatmatinpoetry

“she was a single drop of the ocean, but she moved with the force of a tsunami” @a-pen-and-some-words

“You are damaged and broken and unhinged. But so are shooting stars and comets.” —  Shooting Stars and Comets | Nikita Gill

“some people are artists. some, themselves are art.” @ever-blooming

“ And don’t you ever feel like you are a summary of other people’s opinions. If anything, you’re an unfinished book, and you decide who you let co-write.” —  k.h. 1.04 am @evolvement

“Even all the grandest things in life were once something lesser than what they are today.” —  It’s okay to start with rubble, castles were built on less / A.G @abasnails

“be softer with you. you are a breathing thing. a memory to someone. a home to a life” —  Nayyirah Waheed

“ People who only wish to stifle your bloom, do not belong in your garden.” —  Upile. @odetopablo

“We will always be something. Because Darling, we were never nothing.” —  Sarn @sarncobin

“The real beauty of being human is knowing that whether something destroys or strengthens you is completely your choice.” @i-wrotethisforme 

“She stopped being your Icarus. And she became her own sun.” —  cynthia go // Sun [85/365]

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” —  Rumi @wearefearfullyandwonderfullymade

“ i was not made with fire in my belly so i could be put out i was not made with lightness on my tongue so i could be easy to follow” —  from Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

“some women fear the fire some women simply become it…”—  r.h. sin

“The body changes over time, becoming a gallery of scars, a canvas of experience, a testament to life and one’s capacity to endure it.”—  Janet Fitch, Paint It Black

“And for me, you are the best piece of art of this collection called humans.” —  NALK @notalostkid 

“Your roots do not determine the beauty of your blossom.”—  Sage S. 

- Afterword

This is for all the rainy days. they are not necessarily quotes from artist or famous people (actually most of them are from the spilled ink section of tumblr), but they are words that had made me feel better. I hope this helps + please check out the poet’s blogs! Those people are amazing and deserve so much recognition for what they do. (please tell me if anyone want their poem taken down !!!)

[formyfrench]

Can you please answer 20 and 21 for the ask thing?

20) Opinion on duolingo? I think it’s a good tool for learning languages but I don’t think it should be the sole source of study. I found it useful for practising grammar I had already learned and also expanding my vocabulary a little (for example learning more animals than I learned in class) but I definitely think it’s an additional tool rather than a sole one.

21) What’s your favourite method of studying? I really like to do worksheets given out by my teacher because I think it’s pretty straightforward and kind of soothing in a way because it is a mechanical process. But in terms of self-directed study, I like to make mindmaps, create lists and plans and also use quizlet for most subjects. I’m a pretty visual person when it comes to studying.

[bassiter]

while looking up 1950s slang, i found the phrase “come on snake, let’s rattle,” which has 2 meanings: asking someone to dance, and challenging someone to a fight

and. hhhooooooooo boy does that fact have some Potential

[steampunkepsilon]

Invite your crush to the dance floor, but instead they just fuckin deck you

[lemonadeandlanguages]

Shortened Spanish Words

Just like English shortens some words because they’re too long (e.g.: bike for bicycle), Spanish has some shortened words too.

Bici - (la) Bicicleta - Bicycle

Boli - (el) Bolígrafo - Pen

Chacho/a - (el/la) Muchacho/a - Boy/Girl

Cole - (el) Colegio - School

Compa - (el) Compañero - Partner

Compu - (el/la) Computador/a - Computer

Cumple - (el) Cumpleaños - Birthday

Depre - (la) Depresión - Depression

Finde - (el) Fin de semana - Weekend

Foto - (la) Fotografía - Photograph

Moto - (la) Motocicleta - Motorcycle

Peli - (la) Película - Movie

Poli - (el/la) Policía - Police

Porfa - Por favor - Please

Profe - (el/la) Profesor/a - Teacher, professor

Súper - (el) Supermercado - Supermarket

Tele - (la) Televisión - Television

[arcueid-archive-deactivated2019]

shout out to the vietnamese kids named phuc, dam, bich, son, dat, nga and so much more for enduring the namecalling and jokes about your name; you’re strong and beautiful.

[yellowxperil-deactivated2026012]

& đông and dủng

[theythems]

lemme tell yall, my mom came to america when she was around 4 y/o and went to school in america and the white kids made jokes about her name becus her name was MyDung. when she was old enough she changed her legal name to a more “acceptable” one becus she was afraid it wouldnt b seen professional in america. she was too embarrassed to say her name out loud. when she did have to, she’d say it quietly. ever since i was a kid i would notice her behavior when ppl asked her name. so yeah fuckin SHOUTOUT to vietnamese kids w/ vietnamese names who get teased, yall amazing

[rubygoby]

Alright, this post has been going around and I think it’s high time for a lesson in Vietnamese. People who tease foreigners about their names, sit the fuck down and let me show you what those names mean.

_ “Phúc” (Phuc) means phúc đức, phúc hậu, hạnh phúc - kindness, merit and happiness.  _ “Đam”, “Đàm” (Dam) mean yên tĩnh, yên lòng, an tâm - tranquility, calmness, relief. _ “Bích” (Bich) means ngọc bích, ngọc lục bảo - emerald, jade (can be understood as both the color and the precious gemstones). _ “Sơn” (Son) means núi, mạnh mẽ và uy nghiêm như núi - mountains, as strong and majestic as the mountains. _ “Đạt” (Dat) means thành đạt, vẻ vang - success, honor, glory. _ “Nga” (Nga) means xinh đẹp, tốt đẹp - beauty, kindness. _ “Đông” (Dong) means mùa đông, hướng đông - winter, East. _ “Dũng” (Dung) means dũng mãnh, anh dũng - strength, power, bravery. _ “Dung” (Dung) means xinh đẹp, yêu kiều - beauty, elegance, grace.

Can you see it? Can you see how beautiful these names are? And you dare compare them to your vulgar profanities?

Names are extremely important in Vietnamese culture. They represent the virtues, qualities, characteristics that parents want their children to possess. They represent the hopes and dreams of Vietnamese parents. THEY REPRESENT A VERY HUMAN BEING.

WHEN YOU TEASE SOMEONE ABOUT THEIR NAME, YOU ARE NOT ONLY INSULTING THEM, YOU ARE MAKING THEM ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES, OF THEIR OWN NAME AND THEIR OWN LANGUAGE, EVEN THEIR OWN ORIGIN.

DO NOT MAKE FUN OF OUR PEOPLE, DO NOT MAKE FUN OF OUR LANGUAGE AND DO NOT MAKE FUN OF OUR CULTURE. 

[language-obsession]

OMG my friend told me about mayan hieroglyphics and they’re SO cute!!! They’re just a bunch of rounded squares ahhhhh it makes my heart warm

LOOK !!!!!

AWHHHH 

I WANT TO HUG WHOEVER MADE THIS SYSTEM I LOVE IT

[earlgraytay]

do you want to know more cute things about Mayan hieroglyphics

First off you don’t read them front to back or left to right or anything like that, you read them in paired columns. It’s a little like reading a PDF where you have two pages next to each other- you read the first two left to right, like in English, but then you read down the column, going down left to right.  

Another cute thing is that the reason it took so long to decipher Mayan hieroglyphics (a couple hundred years!) was because the scribes liked to play around with how they wrote. The Mayan system had two different ways to write - they had logograms, which are like Chinese characters; and they had phonetic signs, which stood for a syllable of spoken speech- kind of like hiragana or katakana. 

Sometimes the scribes picked one or the other to make the sentences make sense- when you’re writing with a lot of syllables sometimes you need to specify whether you’re talking about a stone or a turkey, or which word for “jaguar” you’re using. 

But a lot of the time they’d just pick the one they thought looked prettiest. So you had people playing with words all over the place!

Another cute thing about Mayan hieroglyphics: the Mayan gods of scribes were twin brothers called the Monkey-Man scribes!

This is a statue of one of the Monkey-man scribes.  

As far as we know, writing was sacred to the ancient Mayans, and calligraphy was a really important art.   

[language-obsession]

OMG IT GOT BETTER !!!!

ok so Mayan logograms look a lot more complicated than Chinese characters, but if they combined both logograms + some kind of phonetic signs in writing, would that make it similar to Japanese then?? Just way more complex?

[kinichwiktoj]

The system is indeed similar, but a lot more complex in the mayan one. It comes from the fact that the “phonetic signs” can be in any position and because there is no concept of “orthography” in mayan : you can write things the way you want :

All those glyphs mean “shield” pronounced pakal in classical mayan, but all of them are writen using different methods :

The first one is just the logogram PAKAL

The second is the phonetic decomposition of the word using syllabic glyphs : pa-ka-la. The last voyel is usually not pronounced in such a position. 

The last one makes use of both the logogram PAKAL and the syllabic glyph la. It is the most common spread orthography, as the mayan liked to make sure that no ambiguity was possible.

The real complexity of the system comes from the fact that one glyph could be written in many different ways, according to its position in the block (on top, on the side..) and the skill of the carver or scribe. Contrary to the chinese characters, a glyph had no fixed form : as long as its main attributes were presents, the scribe could draw or carve the glyph the way he wanted. Add to this the fact that most of the logograms had at least an anthropomorphic form and a more abstract one, and you get a pretty complex system.  As an example, all those glyphs mean “sun” and are pronounced k’in :

Here are a few useful links to learn more :

The FAMSI website, where you can use a dictionnary to find glyphs and also read this great study guide.

The Corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, where you can admire the beauty of the script when carved of rock .

Mayavase.com, if you want to take a look at mayan calligraphy on ceramics.

Maya decipherment, the best research blog on the subject.

Mayan teacher teaching his student mathematics (you can see numbers coming out of his mouth, and an open book, or “codex” in front of  him)

[quarantine-diaries-of-me]

Language is always evolving, English or otherwise, nothing wrong with new pronouns, there used to be different pronouns in other languages like Spanish too but they changed over time and are still changing, it's a completely normal process that has been happening since the beginning of language :0

Yeah I get that but I don’t think this is natural development of language. Like, tons of people have expressed that using they as a singular pronoun feels odd to them, let alone using new pronouns. Also, many languages work with adjectives changing accordingly to the gender of the person or object you’re referring to. For example, there’s no gender neutral way of saying beautiful in French so you’d have to come up with a new word to call a gender neutral person beautiful. You’d have to change the whole system and I just don’t see that happening because it seems pointlessly difficult?

[msrenai21]

In @mcnuggyy‘s original post, you said: Why do y'all have to complicate things for non-native english speakers? Like none of this pronoun inventing thing happens outside of the english language

Listen, this DOES happen outside of English all the time. In fact, just a few years ago in Sweden, they officially introduced a gender-neutral pronoun into their language for people (trans or not) to use and feel comfortable when identifying themselves or others.

As for the English “they,” I don’t want to go into this too much because it makes me very angry when people say “oh it can’t be used as singular” when it clearly is. People use it for singular when they’re talking about a person they don’t know or have context for.

Example 1: “Oh, you have a new friend? What are they like?” Example 2: “I have a guest over right now so is it okay if I bring them along with me?”

It doesn’t matter if the singular they feels odd to YOU; what matters is the feeling of the person asking for they/them to be used for them. But I’m not getting into that right now.

Back to languages, yes, many languages are gendered and as a native English speaker, I can’t understand what it’s like intimately. I speak other languages, like French, but I don’t have enough emotional connection to the pronouns and how they work to really request anything. However, that doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried or proposed ways to make their language more gender-neutral.

In fact, I have sources here and here of people coming up with ways to make their languages more accommodating. These sources are for Polish and French, both of which are very gendered languages. Unfortunately, these aren’t official changes (like with Swedish), but hey, neither are my pronouns xe/xem/xyr and I’m not gonna stop using them because they’re not official.

Also, learning a foreign language, pronouns are a part of the package. I understand that being a non-native speaker might make it more difficult, but honestly, learning someone’s pronouns is just the same as learning the ones officially in the language. It takes a few tries but you’ll get the hang of it. No one’s out here complicating things on purpose, so don’t act like some victim because someone wants to be referred to in a certain way. Learning pronouns is part of learning a language.

So all in all, I really don’t understand where you’re coming from with this frustration and attitude about people’s pronouns. This doesn’t only happen in English, so next time please look up information before you go around to people’s posts and saying stuff. I refuse to feel horrible and guilty for using pronouns that help with my identity and let me feel comfortable about myself when they talk like this.

[moriartystudies]

you know what I love? when after an intense session of language learning I’m going to bed and there are just tons of words in my target language flowing through my head

[topofrancais]

Une conversation française traditionnelle.

[spanishskulduggery]

mi abuelita siempre me decía "mi corazón de melón"

That’s adorable

[spanishskulduggery]

Things I’ve called people that maybe you might want to but probably not some of these aren’t even real words, I’m just saying don’t be like me kids:

chicarrón

patata de nata

remuerto de mi alma

bola de nieve

alaska

corcel

mundísimo

trozo de pozo

mi queso

…Listen, I have no idea what I’m doing and I also want me to stop, but yet,