as a southerner i just have to say that we as a society can’t allow people to keep spelling y’all as ya’ll like. y’all means “you all” the apostrophe can’t go in the middle of the word all. it’s not you a’ll. ya’ll isn’t anything. it isn’t real.
ya’ll looks like it means “ya will” and it is entirely wrong.
(as a general rule, an apostrophe in a contraction indicates where there are letters that have been left out. in theory, if you know what the fully written out words should look like, you can tell where the apostrophe goes.)
I just learned that English hazard, Spanish azar, and Russian азарт/azart, despite some differences in their range of meaning, all trace back to Arabic اَلزَّهْر /az-zahr [the dice].
The English and Russian words came via French, while the Spanish word seems to have come more directly from Arabic. Spanish and Russian have the parallel constructions juego de azar and азартная игра for “game of chance”.
Just discovered that the sound similarity between the words for “dew” in Spanish (rocío) and Russian (роса/rosa) is not a coincidence. They trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European root: *h₁róseh₂
Meanwhile, the Spanish word tinieblas [darkness, shadow] seems to be related to both Russian тень/ten’ [shadow, shade] and тьма/t’ma [darkness], via PIE *temH- [darkness]. (Despite the greater sound similarity between tinieblas and тень, it looks like тьма is actually the closer relation: that word traces more directly to the shared PIE root, while тень is an offshoot.)
Also: Spanish horno [oven, furnace] and Russian горнило/gornilo [furnace, kiln, hearth], both going back to PIE *gʷʰr̥-nó-s, from *gʷʰer- [warm, hot].
“Any word that sounds like it might be the noun form of a verb is in fact the noun form of a verb” is 100% a valid grammatical rule. Fingers do fing. Creatures docreach.
Just discovered that the sound similarity between the words for “dew” in Spanish (rocío) and Russian (роса/rosa) is not a coincidence. They trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European root: *h₁róseh₂
Meanwhile, the Spanish word tinieblas [darkness, shadow] seems to be related to both Russian тень/ten’ [shadow, shade] and тьма/t’ma [darkness], via PIE *temH- [darkness]. (Despite the greater sound similarity between tinieblas and тень, it looks like тьма is actually the closer relation: that word traces more directly to the shared PIE root, while тень is an offshoot.)
Just discovered that the sound similarity between the words for “dew” in Spanish (rocío) and Russian (роса/rosa) is not a coincidence. They trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European root: *h₁róseh₂
I was looking through the Wiktionary list of translations of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, and it was interesting to see how many other languages have a similar expression where the type/s of bird is/are specified:
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a pigeon/dove on the roof.” Czech, Estonian, German, Luxembourgish, Polish, Slovak
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a pigeon/dove on the branch.” Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a grouse on the knot of a tree.” Polish
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a falcon on the knot of a tree.” Polish
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a crow on the fence.” Romanian
“Better a sparrow today, than a bustard tomorrow.” Hungarian
“Better an egg today, than a hen tomorrow.” Friulian, Italian
“Better a hazel grouse in the hand, than ten on the branch.” Finnish
“Better a titmouse in the hand, than a wood grouse in a tree.” Latvian
“Better a titmouse in the hand, than a crane in the sky.” Russian
A friend just informed me that English also has the expression: “A pullet in the pen is worth an hundred in the fen.” I don’t think I’ve heard that one before. I like it.
I was looking through the Wiktionary list of translations of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, and it was interesting to see how many other languages have a similar expression where the type/s of bird is/are specified:
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a pigeon/dove on the roof.” Czech, Estonian, German, Luxembourgish, Polish, Slovak
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a pigeon/dove on the branch.” Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a grouse on the knot of a tree.” Polish
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a falcon on the knot of a tree.” Polish
“Better a sparrow in the hand, than a crow on the fence.” Romanian
“Better a sparrow today, than a bustard tomorrow.” Hungarian
“Better an egg today, than a hen tomorrow.” Friulian, Italian
“Better a hazel grouse in the hand, than ten on the branch.” Finnish
“Better a titmouse in the hand, than a wood grouse in a tree.” Latvian
“Better a titmouse in the hand, than a crane in the sky.” Russian
Do you think they sing seashanties on the Eternal Throne? It’s a floating ship after all!
Hm. That’s definitely something to keep in mind. Not sure the Lord of Bones or his Doorstop would like it, seeing as some shanties were essentially protest songs in a way.
alright so, honestly I was an adorable lil cis girl. BUT my 14yo metamorphosis from “I’m a girl” never-thinking-twice-about-it into “be an enigma, break down societal stigma” they/he-ing aggressively was genuinely spectacular
none of this could have possibly been dramaticized in any way, I’M TRYING TO GET GAYER OKAY
Middle school Rinita (left) was a quite different person. More of a “I don’t care because I’ve been very hurt through caring, I have to be numb or else I’ll scream.” Whereas my current self is a lot more free to be who I am, and all of the subsequent joys and sorrows old me had to bottle up. Physical appearance wise my body hasn’t changed much since middle school (literally my height and face have not changed much if at all since I was twelve.). I just want to give her a hug and some reassurance.
The worst thing is having a dream about someone loving you so much it hurts, about them kissing you with so much passion it makes your heart soar, about them hugging you to themselves, about them just simply touching you but it all feels so real and you’re so happy… but then you wake up and the world seems all grayish all over again and you are a hollow shell waiting for something to happen.
