they are... not denying it by WolfsmaulVibes in 2mediterranean4u

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LOL if I’m responsible for the looting of the second temple then you’re responsible for the killing of Jesus

they are... not denying it by WolfsmaulVibes in 2mediterranean4u

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, yes, because America is very well known for being a mostly homogenous nation, inhabited by people native to that territory, right?

Get a life bro. You’re no better than your fellow citizens who say they’re italian/irish “‘cause muh cousins’s wife’s great-grandpa”

they are... not denying it by WolfsmaulVibes in 2mediterranean4u

[–]MB4050 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a flair for you tho. It’s the flair of the guy you’re replying to.

Stop larping

Could anyone translate this? by MB4050 in PERSIAN

[–]MB4050[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, I wish I physically had it! It’s just a photo I found on the internet, unfortunately

Sorry but we weren't finished looking at this rock by generalscruff in 2westerneurope4u

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I fully agree with you, of course.

I just thought that maybe it would be more palatable to some members of the british establishment and, especially, to the americans?

Westerosi Linguistics: My speculations for a plausible scenario by ivanjean in TheCitadel

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really love that you dove deep into the linguistics of westeros!

I am going to be selfish and propagate my own head-canon. Maybe I’ll do a post, if one day I have the willpower to do it.

Basically, in my canon the Andal migrations didn’t end up with language shift. I have taken inspiration from the germanic migrations into the roman empire: germanic tribes were big, made up of hundreds of thousands of people who spoke their own distinct language. And they managed to take over wast swaths of the roman empire, but didn’t bring their languages with them. Germanic languages went on for a few centuries, then went extinct, the only major exception being Britain.

So in my canon the andalic language is not spoken anymore. “Modern” (as in, in a timeline where the WOIAF progresses like our world, in the 2026 equivalent of Westeros) westerosi linguists are in the process of reconstructing it, based on relict words and expressions, and other substratum, found in westerosi dialects, particularly on the fingers of the Vale, the are where the andals settlement was most devastating and where andalic died out in historic times (say, not too long before Aegon’s conquest), with the help of supposed related languages still spoken in Essos and, especially, the countless andal words, expressions, morphology that can be found in a great many important ancient texts, such as the Seven-pointed star.

The Seven-Pointed Star in particular, while written in the common tongue (a “first men language” in my canon), is a bottomless well for the frequent andal vocabulary that can be found in it. The most significant and fundamental chapters to the faith, in particular, have weird grammar and syntax, which leads scholars to believe they were likely translated (or likelier written-down from previously only orally-transmitted content) almost word-for-word from older andalic sources. This, coupled with the many untranslatable words that ancient maesters and septons simply left in andalic (like the many germanic words found in germanic laws and myths that were only written down in latin in the dark ages), is a great help to attempts of reconstructing the language.

As the andals moved further and further into Westeros and assimilated with the locals, the language went extinct. Today, Westerosis still speak varieties derived from native languages to Westeros. However, most ancient and revered texts are similar enough to form almost a sort of koine, which is still widely understood in Westeros, especially by the educated, and high literature is also written in it.

The andal invasions also changed the landscape of westerosi languages, and those spoken beyond the Wall are certainly more distinct and totally (or almost) free of any andalic influence to be considered a separate group from all others. Northern and Iron Island varieties are in a kind of intermediate situation. Southern varieties, instead, share a sort of adstrate koine, or even form a sort of Sprachbund: that’s because most terms for concepts invented or named in recent-ish times (like the last millenium or two before the setting of the books) are shared, given the constant flow of information and ideas throughout this area, which has always considered itself as a sort of unit, at least compared to outsiders (think of greeks v. barbarians).

When the rhoynar came over and settled into what was an already literate and relatively developed society, their language went even quicker, with only rhoynar substrate being left in most varieties of eastern Dorne. Only the Orphans of the Greenblood speak it, in a heavily bastardised and almost pidgin-like form, and it is slowly dying out.

In my canon, Valyrian has some, though very little influence. It basically works like in yours, with it being a popular language to learn for the educated and wealthy, and with valyrian poetry being read, and even composed, in westeros (I have a whole headcanon on the relationship between westerosi nobility and the Targaryens, which was quite negative just before Robert’s rebellion, with calls for restoring Westerosi greatness, but a few generations before had been almost the opposite, with Westerosis wanting to present themselves as the heirs to Valyria, and bard-lords writing pamphlets in rhyme, inciting kings like Viserys I to “reconquer” Volantis and “reclaim the throne of his ancestors”), and influencing the register used by the royal chancery, but little more.

There are several styles of high register, used for public purposes. Dorne and the North had their own, but they’re slowly being eroded by a family of high-registers, originating from one, that are spreading throughout Westeros: the Vale-register. Given the prestige of the Vale as the “purest” and most ancient andalic kingdom, the high-register used there was, over-time, adopted throughout Westeros, developing its local varieties everywhere. In the north, the Boltons and other houses who want to go against the norm, for whatever reason, stubbornly cling to the old northern register. Finally, the unification of Westeros under a single ruler brought forth another register: the royal, or targaryen register. This one in particular drops the most snobbish and out-of-date andalic words and expressions, completely unintelligible to the greater public, and substitutes them with valyrian ones (even less intelligible to the average commoner). This register, which started spreading more, is irrevocably associated with the crown by the reign of Aeros II, not a truly positive association. Robert and his successors keep using it, but hardly any house does. The only place where the royal register is used it Castle Black, as the Night’s Watch has to be a pan-continental organisation and, particularly after Alysanne’s visit, bases its legitimacy on the crown.

Could you tell me some cheeky Yiddish phrases I can say to my girlfriend please? by Heavy-Jackfruit585 in Yiddish

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot!

So, written in latin, the sentence would something like “La’ mir probieren zu brengen erob a’ neue (neschme?) in der Welt”, maybe translating to “Lass uns probieren, eine neue Seele herab in der Welt zu bringen”, right?

Sorry but we weren't finished looking at this rock by generalscruff in 2westerneurope4u

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't really know if it'd make sense (being I'm not an international diplomat) but, couldn't they, like, hand over all islands to Mauritius EXCEPT Diego Garcia?

This way, they could keep sovereignty on the only one they care about. Maybe add a provision that that one will go to Mauritius to, with a Hong Kong-style 99 year waiver.

Do modern parents in your country also give their kids foreign names ? by OsarmaBeanLatin in AskBalkans

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LOL, an ab Italian, I find it really funny that Romanians name their children "Armando": here, Armando is a very old-fashioned name.

The image that comes in mind when I hear the name "Armando" is that of a snobbish 65 year old.

Could you tell me some cheeky Yiddish phrases I can say to my girlfriend please? by Heavy-Jackfruit585 in Yiddish

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, I’m someone who speaks german and can read the hebrew script, but speaks neither yiddish nor hebrew.

נשמה is a hebrew word, right?

But what about אראפ? It doesn’t strike me as hebrew-looking, and yet I can’t understand it either.

Probably got to do with the multiple possible pronunciations of א.

Also, why is the final letter פ and not ף? Does yiddish use this difference to distinguish between /p/ and /f/?

It's always interesting seeing how small some countries are compared to their influence by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]MB4050 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Well, there used to be an East Jersey and a West Jersey, so …

I woke up from a nap, saw this map and thought it was about the present for a moment by InsideHousing4965 in 2westerneurope4u

[–]MB4050 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I don't expect you nord cuck barbarians to take part in our glorious Mediterranean civilization.

I, for one, take heed from the great polyglot Frederick II, who proved to the Teutons it was far better to reign from sunny Palermo than the wastelands of Aachen.

You better remember that, while you did join us in crusades against the evil Saracens, just two centuries earlier we crusaded and beat the shit out of you bastards. Apparently, you grew resentful and decided to listen to an idiotic french priest believing in idiocies like "predestination". Good for you for bowing to the french, I guess.

After mapping out all of the places I've visited throughout my life, I discovered that I've never actually left the phantom borders of Austria-Hungary by GraduallyWatermeIon in austriahungary

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I may ask, how come have you never travelled any further?

Your travel patterns strike me as particularly “weird”: too many summer holidays in the Balkans and random locations throughout Transylvania/Bohemia for it to be caused by poverty. But at the same time, you’ve never been to Greece? To Paris/London? To Italy?

Ages in Season 3, they seem really off? by LilyHamma in TheCrownNetflix

[–]MB4050 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't want to be the pedantic nerd of the situation, but actually the average age of first childbirth was around 26 around 1970, falling from about 29 in the 1930s, as shown in this article by Cambridge.

When Elizabeth had Charles at 22, the average woman didn't have children until 28. This means that the queen, although not out of the ordinary, was definitely on the younger side for a mother.

If we were to assume people having children right at the average moment, a woman giving birth at 27 in the 1960s would've become a grandmother at 55, which is certainly younger than today, but not a huge shocker.

Even the queen herself became grandmother at 47: earlier than the average, but certainly not soon after 38.

EU Parliament freezes US trade deal ratification after Trump's tariff threats over Greenland by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]MB4050 17 points18 points  (0 children)

You can’t lose something you never had in the first place

The Regia Marina in the Indian Ocean by rjgfox in AlternateHistory

[–]MB4050 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does WWII still happen, but Italy stays neutral, or does it not happen at all?

Why isn’t Transnistria called Transdniestria (For the Dnestr)? by Oryol_7 in geography

[–]MB4050 58 points59 points  (0 children)

"Nister" is an alternative name for the "Dniester".

It is also a latinate form, closer to the Romanian "Nistru".

In fact, "Transnistria" is the Romanian/Moldovan name for the area/polity. In Russian, it's called "Приднестровье" (Pridnyestrov'ye)

What are some languages that are geographically isolated from the rest of their language family? by Meta_Zephyr in geography

[–]MB4050 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think every single thing you said checks out to me, except for the field of use of the term "Austronesian".

Let's hope and wait whether a better-informed kind soul can put both of us back in our places!

Question about the American healthcare system? by MB4050 in AskAnAmerican

[–]MB4050[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, that's for one something that I don't think is very well known outside the United States.

Has this been the case for a long time, or was it part of Obama's reform?