(no subject)

[sythyry]

Language Lesson [12 Hispis 4385]

Me:(sleep sleep sleep. Alone. In a fireplace in my cabin.)

Everybody else, or some of everybody else, was gathered in some parlor or other for language lessons. It should be noted in advance that neither barons nor henchmen were present. (Well, actually I think several of them count as my henchmen, but certainly there were no barons present.)

Jyondre:"Este, please tell us about your day. Take care to use the proper status markers on your pronouns; you've been having trouble with that."

Este:"Umbers-unhi told me-low-unhi about a broken stove in one of the spare kitchens. She-unhi kippliwere me ---"

Jyondre: [interrupting] "Never, never use 'kippliwere'. You're not a noble. You -- and I -- should use 'want'. OK, pretend you've just been soundly thrashed by the baron and his henchmen, and continue."

Este:"I've just been thrashed?"

Jyondre:"You-unhi have just been thrashed, yes."

Este:"I-unhi will lie on the ground and bleed. I-unhi am too overcome with pain to do more than moan. This will save I-unhi ... me-unhi ... from having to deal with pronouns for a while. I-unhi am happier this way."

Yerenthax:"I-hero flounce forth and stand fortifically over Este's fallen form!"

Jyondre:"Hush, love. Your Srineian is better than anybody's."

Este:"I-unhi close my-unhi eyes to slits, so that you-jivu cannot tell whether or not I-unhi am peering up your-jivu lover's skirt while she-hero stands so nobly over me."

Phaniet:"I-jivu kick my-hero husband in the chest. I-jivu am sure-jivu he's looking."

Jyondre:"That sentence is all kinds of wrong."

Este:"Especially morally! I-jivu am allowed to look!"

Yerenthax::"And he-unhi is injured already. I-hero thought to defend poor Este from the baron's henchmen -- instead I-hero must defend him-unhi from his-unhi jealous wife!"

(Of course Este and Phaniet are not married -- how could they be? -- but among traff-folk, we pretend.)

Jyondre:"His-unhi jealous and ungrammatical wife! Phaniet, please kick Este again, this time with proper pronouns. You are not jivu; he-unhi is not a hero. And 'sure' isn't a pronoun at all."

Phaniet:"He-unhi is a hero to me!"

Yerenthax:"For this reason you-unhi kick him-unhi when he-unhi is wounded and stricken down?"

Phaniet:"Yes indeed! I-unhi kick him-unhi when he-unhi fails to live up to his-unhi heroic standards."

Jyondre:"Better!"

Yerenthax:"With grizzlèd guard and gleaming knife / I block the blows of wild wife!"

Este:"I am so definitely getting an eyeful of Yerenthax-bits. If I'm going to get kicked for it anyways."

Yerenthax:"With petticoats and panties pink / I stop the sight of fallen fink!"

Phaniet: [Who has been holding hands with Este all the while.] "If that's the case, I am definitely going to that hot tub that Umbers discovered when she holds her party, to ogle all the cute young Rassimel."

Zascalle:"Who? Me?"

Jyondre:"My dear, philandering, transaffectionate friends, you-unhi have stopped speaking in Srineian. Please return to the lesson at hand."

Umbers:"I-unhi would rather return to the hot tub, now that Este fixed it-unhi."

Jyondre:"The hot tub is not a person! It does not get a status marker!"

Umbers:"It-unhi certainly talks."

Jyondre:"Oh, it's one of those. I-jivu don't know that the Srineian language is quite ready for Strayway."

Este:"Would you-unhi actually take a bath in an intelligent person?"

Umbers:"Don't see why not. I-unhi've done everything else with one."

Jyondre:"Definitely not ready for Strayway."

Umbers:"What, no fallen Herethroy in Srineia?"

Jyondre:"On the whole, Srineia tends to be socially conservative. I-edu am dreading how I-edu will introduce Yerenthax to my-edu parents. I-jivu mentioned her-hero to them-jivu in letters, but did not explain the situation."

Umbers:"I'll try to keep my history to myself."

Jyondre:glared at her.

Umbers:"What?"

Yerenthax:"Your-unhi pronouns, Umbers."

Umbers: [with a sigh] "I-unhi will try to keep my-unhi history to myself-unhi."

Jyondre:"Much better, both grammatically and socially. Class, let both aspects of that be a lesson for you-unhi."

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe the crew of the strayway should all just give pronouns a miss. Eccentric and awkward is better than 'soundly thrashed'.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't think many of us will speak Srineian to Srineians very often -- not unless there's no choice. But we'd all like to understand it, at least.

[rowyn]

I think leaving off the status markers will get them soundly thrashed, too. At least if they're leaving them off when refering to someone with a nob/edu/jivu/his/hero one. c.c

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Terry said 'avoid pronouns', not 'avoid status markers'.

[rowyn]

Rowyn-unhi recalls that nouns get status markers too. And verbs sometimes are reserved-unhi for certain castes. Hence "we will all talk in adverbs and adjectives". Truly! Wonderful! >:)

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Me thinks making the hot tub inclined to speak may be counter to people wishing to use it.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I didn't do it intentionally! I didn't even know I had a hot tub!

[zeeth_kyrah]

I suspect a misplaced spell and/or a reapplied object. Perhaps a re-sized bath bucket (that heats water placed within) or washing-sink?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

No -- most of the interior of Strayway was built without my specific knowledge; it sort of crystallized. It's a very cool new kind of magic that, I think, hasn't quite been perfected yet. It is fine for architecture though; I wouldn't use it for something life-critical.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I would love to learn more about this crystallization method, and what kind of process and results appear to be possible with it. It sounds like something I could utilize in my own efforts!

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Likewise.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Maybe to an orren, a Hot Tub is a couch?

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Let's hope its more emotionally secure, particularly if it has control over its own heat.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

You should try to hook the hottub up with the sofa.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I am not running a cross-species dating service here!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, actually I am. But only for prime species. Not for furniture!

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

But loveseats need love too!

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

Argh the pronouns!

They confuse me greatly! It's been too long since we were told what they were (and we have te advantage of being able to go back through your journal to look them up, how do you cope with it?)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[I gave you a link! -bb]

This time, I cope with it by sleeping through class altogether.

[I won't write the pronouns except where it matters in actual entries. Like this one, where people kept getting them wrong. -bb]

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

[I'm all for more of the pronouns. I'm enjoying seeing the characters trying to get them all right, I daresay they are doing better at it than I would.]

After the fun at the temple and with Grinwipey and your cousin I had almost forgotten the lessons were taking place. Proof that gods and adventure are more interesting than grammar if ever there was any!€

[rowyn]

So when you're talking to a group, they get the status marker of the lowest member? >:)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Those rules are complicated! If you're talking to a group which is a high-status person and some subordinates who are acting for the high-status person's purposes, they all get the high-status marker. But if they're just hanging around, they get an indistinct marker -- usually omitting the markers altogether. This rule caused much whining in the classroom.

[matraia.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you've studied Japanese at some point. It's full of this sort of thing.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

No, actually I didn't know that. Cool.

[matraia.livejournal.com]

Here's a taste of it. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_titles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm sure that Japanese is designed to foster duelling.

[matraia.livejournal.com]

Or some strange form of choofing, though damned if I ever really figured out how they did it. :)

[winterbeast.livejournal.com]

With petticoats and panties pink / I stop the sight of fallen fink!

Love this line...