#language stuffs

[bicycleboyblog]

Hi! I just binge read all of bicycle boy and I'm fucking hooked i love it so much but i have a huge question.....How do you pronounce Machk?

I love to learn about languages so I have done a lot of research to find the answer, but...I am still not sure! I confess I chose this name from a random list when I was a teenager. There’s a lot of misinformation around Native American names, so if anybody knows this better, or if I make any mistakes, please let me know.

Machk is part native, and I wanted his name to reflect that. Initially I thought the name was Algonquin but later learned that’s a misattribution, and it is actually a Lenape word part of the Algonquian language family. For those who don’t know, “Algonquian” is commonly mistaken to be a single tribe, and while there is one in Canada called the Algonquin/Algonkin, Algonquian is the name for dozens of tribes that speak related languages.

Now back to Machk. Machk (or Mauch) seems to only appear in this spelling in books written by settlers (1) (2) about the Lenape language, so its accuracy comes into question. The name also comes up in a bunch of places in Pennsylvania, where we find a mountain ridge, creek, reservoir, lake, switchback railway, and park all named Mauch Chunk (bear mountain). This leads me to believe that Machk/Mauch is an anglicisation of the Lenape word Màxkw [click to hear pronunciation], which means bear. It sounds a bit like ma-hwuh.

There is a character in the Canadian historical drama show Frontier named Machk, and I watched it purely to see how they said his name. For research! (For those interested: it’s on netflix & the first two seasons were p good, but it drops the ball on the third). The natives in Frontier are Cree, and the Cree language is in the same family as Lenape. I can’t find a clip online but they said it softly, like Mashk, and outsiders said Mok with a hard K. This is just a TV show, so I don’t know its accuracy.

I decided to go with the Cree pronunciation, it’s the easiest to say. All these years I’ve really butchered it though. I read it like Ma-chi-kuh.

Indian Local Names by Stephen Gill, 1885

Words, Phrases, and Short Dialogues, in the Language of the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians by Rev. John Heckewelder, 1819

Note: I don’t advocate for the wording used by those idiot 19th century settlers, but the names of the books are here for archival purposes.

[boxofbonesfic]

Hello dearest! I’ve just read your ‘Plus One’ fic (which was incredible btw) and there was a phrase in there I was wondering if you could explain some more?

‘Six of one, half a dozen of the other’

Maybe it’s because I’m from the UK but I’ve never heard it before and I am *intrigued* by it. I did a little google and it came up with a few possible descriptions, the one most prevalent being that’s it’s about 2 possible choices. Is that right?

Sorry, I did my maters thesis on common ‘sayings’ like heart of gold etc and their language journeys and I sort of nerded out at the thought of coming across one I haven’t before 😅

lol no worries! yeah, basically it means like “a little of column a, a little of column b”, when there are two choices presented, but both are appropriate/fitting/true. like if someone was like “are you late because you spent too much time on your hair, or too much time on your makeup?” “six of one, half dozen of the other.” I.E., both things are true.

i hope that made sense!!

[margineil]

Sometimes I just think it’s funny that people genuinely use food and drinks as mini curse words in my mother language.

I’ve heard someone yell ‘BISCUITS!’ (BISKWIT!). Of course there’s the common ‘YOU’RE MILK!!’ (LECHE KA!!) but honestly the food cusses are just there if you dont feel like using the medium cusses more so the cusses you get the tsinelas and your parents saying your whole name for.

Although, I can confirm I’ve gotten offended looks from old folk for saying leche. 50/50 on the cuss word safe to speak.

[bigeyedchangelingchild]

“research shows that fluency is partly dependant on Welsh being the dominant language” no shit sherlock.

Okay context.

I’m watching a documentary “Make me Welsh” a BBC programme about welsh language schools that prepare foreign students for enrolment in Welsh primary schools. And they’re talking a lot about the preservation of the language.

And they’re referring here to the schools where more parents speak welsh versus less parents speaking welsh.

English has always been an oppressive part in my life, but as much as I hate it because I’m surrounded by English it is the language of nearly everyone I know. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in it. It doesn’t come naturally to me (I truly don’t believe it comes naturally to anyone, every language has been easier for me than English.) I want my children to know their ancestral languages to hold our community, but I also don’t want to burden them. I want them to not speak english because I don’t want them to get swallowed up by the dominant english media, but I still want to give them opportunity. It depends on where I raise them I guess, I will raise them with French and Irish no matter what. I hope that having access to French, will give them good access to higher education. But I see so much in myself that I both condemn and need speaking English.

[selkiestars]

Can you speak another language????

I can read, write, and understand Hungarian but I am terrible at speaking it outloud. Hope that helps. -Finger guns-

[anony-mouse-writer]

There is no such this as "part-cyborg" as far as I can tell. If a cyborg is a part-robot/part-organic, then an organic cannot be "part-cyborg". Thats simply saying "part- part-robot"

[gyppygirl2021]

Random note: even though (in canon) Tomoe was born and raised in Japan, her name is listed in Western order in the Japanese version of the game, and written in katakana.

Maybe this was intentional?

[mithrasisgay]

*aggressively sneaks german music into my fanmixes hoping no one will notice*

*aggressively makes post about that*

*aggressively fucks up*