#timetourism

[ricorizzo]

timetourism replied to your post “do i have any polish followers that could translate some letters for...”

yep, me!

ahh for real?? could i send you some via email??

[thinkingredwizard]

timetourism replied to your post “Are you actually learning Polish or are you just passingly acquainted...”

yay :D thanks for answering! i'm kind of speechless actually - all my brain is saying is 'isn't it brilliant how i only know two people from scotland and both of them are not only encouraging everyone around them to try gaelic (and doing quite a good job too, at least in my case)(but that's unsurrprising perhaps) but also learning polish'

Oh! :D Who’s the other Scottish person who know who promotes Gaelic and learning Polish? :D 

And you’re very welcome. :D I will hopefully master Gaelic, Silesian, and Polish eventually... 

[thinkingredwizard]

Are you actually learning Polish or are you just passingly acquainted with it because you take Linguistics? (just curious b/c mother tongue & all!)(also yeah i don't really think it's as difficult as some people make it out to be either)

I’m kind of occasionally taking a stab at it on Duolingo, to the point where I’m slightly more than passingly acquainted with it and can recognise a few words. And it’s not really something I’ve covered in Linguistics, instead it’s the native-tongue of my romantic partner and though we have 0 difficulties communicating in English more avenues of communication won’t hurt. :D 

Also I’ve visited Poland twice already and it’s polite to at least try to take a stab at the language where you’re going.

(Actually, @blue-dwarves would prefer I learn Silesian, but there aren’t many resources available for learning that online, also they’re more interested in learning Gaelic than teaching me Polish. :P )

Some of the sounds are difficult for me only because I have difficulty remembering which affricate to use in which situation, and which letter combination goes with which sound. But that’s just because I’m not used to it and not because it’s a difficult system or whatever. :D 

[thinkingredwizard]

liamgalgey reblogged your post and added:

I’d like to point out that green wasn’t the colour of Ireland until very recently, (certainly not ‘over a thousand years ago’), but blue was more associated with Ireland.  The fact that our national animal is a stag doesn’t help in any way.  But if Slytherin is the upper-class Englishman, then would it not make sense for his opposite (Gryffindor) to be Irish?

Well, I suppose it depends whether you consider Irish to be the opposite of English or not. As a Scottish person I tend to think of Scotland and England more as opposites, but I think our dislike of the idea of England is fairly strong in both countries. 

However, the point about green is well made.

funereal-disease reblogged your post and added:

I I think the idea of Slytherin being from Ireland makes sense precisely because of the rumor that the snakes were all driven out. The “snakes” in the story were actually Celtic Pagans, victims of St. Patrick’s pogrom. Suppose Slytherin were descended from the only Irish magical family to survive the genocide. That would explain a lot about Slytherin values, actually: both the ambition (sheer will to survive) and the “stick to your own” mindset (your family was the last of its kind; of course you’re going to hate muggles).

Hmmmm. So you are saying he’s from The Fens, by way of having been kicked out of Ireland? That sounds more convincing than green=ireland, but it raises a number of troubling ideas. 

Firstly that Slytherin’s villain origin story involves a genocide that most likely did not happen in the real world, and wasn’t ever brought up in the books. I mean, obviously the cultural genocide of gradually replacing “pagan” religion with Christianity happened, but it had been happening before St Patrick and hadn’t finished happening until long after he died and there was no mass slaughter/expulsion of anyone from Ireland because of St. Patrick’s arrival.

Secondly I’m pretty sure that after the Irish Potato Famine the hordes of migrating Irish people were subjected to enough prejudiced discrimination and villainisation as it is. And to echo that in Slytherin’s departure from Ireland and then to place him in a villain’s role is... Iffy? JK Rowling is an English author after all and I’d rather not think that she used the idea of dispossessed Irish migrants as the basis for her social commentary on the problems of the  upper-class English Conservative politics. 

No, I’d rather think of him as a privileged, upper-class English wizard. And Hogwarts was founded well ahead of the Norman invasion of England so he’s good and proper Anglo-Saxon too. Probably from some Anglian kingdom, maybe Mercian.

timetourism​ said: 

Really enjoying your Harry Potter analysis! I heard (though I don't know how accurate that is) that alongside the leek, the daffodil is also associated with Wales, which would explain yellow, I guess. If it were correct. Anddd... idk, badger hats? Now that's really clutching at straws...

Aha! Daffodils! Of course! That makes perfect sense. Leeks and Daffodils are indeed associated with Wales, to the best of my knowledge. Yes, good. Badgers I think, are still a mystery here though. :P (And thank you! I am glad you are enjoying it.)