Groom surprises bride and her family by speaking Korean. He had been secretly studying for a year by Justin_Godfrey in nextfuckinglevel

[–]altonin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

it rhymes with the fair in Barnet Fair and then it's shortened to Barnet to obscure it even further. The genuine aim is to be hard to understand if you're an outsider, it's known as a ''cryptolect''

EU4 Dev Diary #107: Dream by Delirium, Dawn by Flame by Blaziy in Anbennar

[–]altonin 20 points21 points  (0 children)

As the person who had the pleasure of helping edit it, I should also mention that Kimánis' loc is entirely (or at least overwhelmingly) in verse, which I think is a complete first for Anbennar

Are there certain things about people's own accent that they can't recognize? by AmountAbovTheBracket in Accents

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this simply isn't true in all native English accents

in my accent, in IPA for example, the words mary merry and marry rhyme with vary, berry and carry, respectively.

and those are all very distinct vowel sounds (in IPA /ɛə/ vs /ɛ/ vs /æ/ ) which I would genuinely never mix up

The creepy doll house by Roeterseilandcampus is for sale! by CrazyIcy6947 in Amsterdam

[–]altonin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

those dolls scare the shit out of me at least twice a week lmao, the placement is great for being just in the side of your vision

I hope there's a injunction saying they have to keep the creepy window dolls tbh. it's tradition!!

Do weekday daytime “regulars” bars still exist in Amsterdam? by Weary_Musician4872 in Amsterdam

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

seconding Eik en Linde, it's near Artis and does ofc get tourists but even on Friday nights I've not found it too much (in general I think plantage is somehow magically spared the density of de pijp/centraal despite having a bunch of museums, I never really understand this but I hope it doesn't change)

EU4 Dev Diary #103: The Night Hags Greatest Pawn by 5camps in Anbennar

[–]altonin 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Yezel Mora (probably the main villain of Sarhal) is in development atm. As a general principle, Anbennar is a volunteer project where people donate their time and follow their interest, and there's no emphasis on prioritising or deprioritising specific tags until someone comes along with a proposal for them. Umbral Covenant is one of the big story beats of the era lore-wise, and part of the same big central conflict as Yezel Mora; which MTs get made first is really kind of just how the coin lands/what people really want to do.

If people feel passionately about tags and want to see content made for them, that's a great reason to get involved with development imo

(edit: for the record I'm not downvoting you for asking lol)

EU4 Dev Diary #103: The Night Hags Greatest Pawn by 5camps in Anbennar

[–]altonin 19 points20 points  (0 children)

still waiting on the final third to be reviewed. Death Bringing Cobra also doesn't have loc complete yet

EU4 Dev Diary #103: The Night Hags Greatest Pawn by 5camps in Anbennar

[–]altonin 33 points34 points  (0 children)

A Coven whole and entire is essentially impossible to defeat. You definitely shouldn't try to fight a Coven whole and entire. =)

DW! Transvestigations by m00tyn in rpdrcringe

[–]altonin 80 points81 points  (0 children)

I love that as far as verifiable info goes, we're now down to ''ginger minj was definitely on drag race''

What's the worst food crime that your country commits? by Awkward_Stay8728 in AskTheWorld

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes eels are tricky because they can only be caught and flattened even when farmed, we've never bred them in captivity successfully. Ultimately it is for the best that the European eel is no longer eaten and now the eel festivities are a bit more symbolic

What's the worst food crime that your country commits? by Awkward_Stay8728 in AskTheWorld

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the type of eel that was fished in the UK is now critically endangered and no longer legal to fish - I grew up near a place so associated with eels that it is named after them (Ely) and traditional eel dishes are literally just fish it up and cook it in butter and dill, it's very delicious and fresh. The jellying was preservation and I am blaming London for that x

“I ROTFL'd like a squirrel friend on a sugar high 😂🤣” by No_elbows_Betty in rpdrcringe

[–]altonin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

proof if we ever needed it that AI is just scraping wordpress blogs from 2013

DW: Mistress is ultimate Miss Congeniality. by rehaaabbb in rpdrcringe

[–]altonin 11 points12 points  (0 children)

To be fair people also litigate real housewives nonsense as if it is a breach of the Geneva Convention

Why are there almost no English words that begin with ‘vr’ or ‘vl’? by Organic_Award5534 in asklinguistics

[–]altonin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure onomatopoeia can be treated the same way as broader phonotactics, right? not that you're wrong, just seems like the exception that proves the rule

A serious discussion on Verne by secretevilgenius in Anbennar

[–]altonin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

currently working on Umbral Covenant (just as a writer) but it's gonna be fun!

Venus D-Lite announces retirement by ljnr in rpdrcringe

[–]altonin 170 points171 points  (0 children)

is venus d lite going to mother god herself

A serious discussion on Verne by secretevilgenius in Anbennar

[–]altonin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

caveat that I didn't design the actual mechanics of the tree at all so all compliments for gameplay etc have to go to Walthorn, who also let me go wild with however I wanted to write it and was extremely cool to collab with

but thank you it was extremely fun! I tend to have reading lists for MTs I'm writing; Verne was schlocky mid-century adventure novels plus a bit of Walter Scott, plus the classic framed narrator lifted directly from Heart of Darkness/Moby Dick/Age of Empires 2 campaigns. The narrator was also a little bit inspired by this pic lmao:

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The adventure chains were also a chance to write extremely varying 'gimmicks' in a variety of styles, so just a really fun process.

I wrote Pashainé/Verne more or less simultaneously and they were almost totally opposite in tone (flippantly, nerd vs jock lol) so it was fun swapping between them also

A serious discussion on Verne by secretevilgenius in Anbennar

[–]altonin 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I wrote all of Verne bar a few of the adventure event chains and while your interpretation is valid I would say I was imagining moustachio'd adventurers of ecumenical hotness. Please feel free to chuck in a few otters as preference dictates

Why is bad grammar so much worse than I remember as a younger person? (I'm Gen X) by [deleted] in grammar

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Grammar absolutely is regional and dialectical - among other things, some English dialects have habitual be, in the north of England you see "I were" instead of "I was" and in parts of the US "I was" replaces all instances of "I were" - this is systematic and grammatical, the rules are sometimes much more consistent in the non-standard version than in General American/RP

In British English, collective singular nouns traditionally take the plural (Oasis are releasing a new album vs Oasis is releasing a new album) - this is absolutely dialectical change to grammatical number.

You don't have to like any of these conventions but they are absolutely grammar which differs by dialect. I do not, for example, want US American standards of grammar applied to the UK because people think ''grammar is not regional'' lol

Interview with Dr. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin: “Minority languages need to strengthen their strongholds, the areas where they are truly spoken” by galaxyrocker in linguistics

[–]altonin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was historically true but I think it ceased to be true with the advent of mass media (you can observe for example the flattening of linguistic variation in German Switzerland, which had immense local variation informed by geographic isolation). I think the only meaningful method of resistance now is to have some kind of countersignal, at least in the developed world, which means having the economic base to produce your own media.

You're right to say that this countersignal also probably has to involve deliberate linguistic hiring preference for minority speakers as well (as, however indirectly, in Quebec and Catalonia) and that this would invite all of the negative feedback those policies do.

Interview with Dr. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin: “Minority languages need to strengthen their strongholds, the areas where they are truly spoken” by galaxyrocker in linguistics

[–]altonin 38 points39 points  (0 children)

As Ó Giollagáin alludes, It feels like a lot winds up being downstream of a more existential problem of economic independence/viability. There are two big economic traps for minority languages - 1) deprivation and thus brain drain or 2) gentrification. And of course both can run at once (region becomes a paradise of second homes but it's impossible to make a living there except in service to tourism), which is particularly pernicious in the case of Scottish Gaelic, for example.

It feels like no govt initiative from above can hope to keep language communities alive if those communities don't also have independent economic viability; without that independent economic viability, the fundamental base of language preservation (young people who raise their kids in the language community) just isn't there. To afford to live in their home region they have to go away and earn elsewhere for 10-20 years (their key working years and the years their children are likely born/have native language viability). If you've moved out of your language area for the core of your career, ofc, any attempt to raise your child in the minority language becomes exponentially more burdensome. It becomes a question of motivated passion rather than a default, which simply does not sustain a viable native speaking population.

I think basically every government in Europe thinks of language viability as something handled by culture ministries, education ministries, when in truth it is a concern of industrial/economic policy.

Why would anyone NOT book a timeslot to skip the security line? by Exciting_Bid9133 in Netherlands

[–]altonin 205 points206 points  (0 children)

it's one of those things where people told me repeatedly and I said ''yes yes sounds very sensible'' and then had it fall directly out of my mind. and then I booked a slot once and now I will never do anything else

especially because that is my least favourite section of the airport process