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What is Yoda’s syntax in other languages?

What is Yoda’s syntax in other languages?

allthingslinguistic:

Sometimes people ask the best questions on Reddit:

What does Yoda’s syntax look like in non-English versions of Star Wars? For those who aren’t familiar with Star Wars (all two of you), Yoda is an alien who, when speaking English, uses what seems to be an OSV syntax instead of the traditional SVO syntax.

So how do foreign translations of the script handle this? I am particularly interested in what it looks like in non-SVO languages. Are there any translations where Yoda’s incorrect syntax is emulated by using an English-like syntax? Or are other languages’ syntax so free that mistakes in the use of case or verb conjugations must instead be used to emulate Yoda’s “alien” speech?

And some answers so far:

  • Czech: Free word order. Yoda speaks consistently in SOV. Interestingly enough, putting an object before a verb does sound unusual to most speakers of Czech.
  • Estonian: Free word order language. Yoda retains the English OSV order. This is grammatical in Estonian, but does make it seem as though Yoda is constantly stressing the object phrase as the main point of his statements. This gives his speech an unusual quality.
  • French: An SVO language. Yoda speaks in OSV.
  • German: A SVO or SOV language. Yoda brings the Object to the front (OSV), like in English.
  • Hungarian: A free word order language. There is nothing unusual about Yoda’s speech.
  • Italian: An SVO language. Yoda speaks in OSV. Note: OSV is also the syntax used in the Italian of the less-proficient speakers of Italian from the region of Sardinia.
  • Japanese: An SOV language. Yoda seems to use a more or less correct syntax, with a more archaic vocabulary.
  • Korean: An SOV language. Nothing is unusual about Yoda’s grammar.
  • Norwegian: An SVO language. Yoda speaks in OSV.
  • Romanian: An SVO language. Yoda speaks in OSV. He also places adjectives before the noun instead of after the noun, and uses an archaic form of the future tense.
  • Spanish: An SVO language. Yoda speaks in OSV.
  • Turkish: An SOV language. Yoda speaks in OSV. Note: This order is also used in classical Ottoman poetry, so the syntax may have been chosen in order to emphasize Yoda’s wisdom or age.

UPDATE: Former police officer arrested after 3-hour standoff in Athens

UPDATE: Former police officer arrested after 3-hour standoff in Athens

gorogues:

We live in the strangest timeline.

My thoughts:

1. Oh Barry, look what you did.

2. I had to keep reading just to see which state the city was in, because during the Bronze Age, Athens *Ohio* was canonically in the same location on Earth Prime as Central City on Earth One. Which would have made this even stranger than it already is.

3. My brain kept reading Eastanallee into Eastallen.

Re: Spoilers for upcoming comics in April!

I haven’t been able to bring myself to open an issue of The Flash since I saw the list of casualties in Heroes In Crisis #1. I’ve been buying them. I’ve picked the next one up a couple of times to read it. But I just haven’t been able to do it.

I’m getting close to the why-are-you-buying-it-if-you-aren’t-reading-it point.

Cleaning up

So, with Facebook continuing to be a pain, Google+ shutting down, Twitter continuing to be a dumpster fire, and Tumblr clumsily kicking off a huge section of their userbase so that Verizon can better monetize them (making me wonder how long they’ll try before they decide it’s not worth it), I figured it was time to reconsider my social network presence.

Mainly I’m on my main blog at K-Squared Ramblings and on Mastodon at @KelsonV@Wandering.shop these days (Plus Flickr and Instagram.)

As far as Tumblr goes, I’m in wait-and-see mode. I’ve never been super-active here, and I’ll often go a few weeks without reading or posting, but I also have automatic cross-posting set up with Flickr, Instagram, and my blog. A lot of my posts here are duplicates.

I’ve saved a full archive of my Tumblrs, and I’m going to be going through over the next week or few cleaning out the duplicates, except for posts that got traction over here (like M’Hael’s, for instance). Hopefully it’ll result in a more focused blog going forward, with mostly Tumblr-original material (both my own stuff and reblogs), and it’ll be easier to pick out what needs to be saved in the event that Tumblr does go the way of GeoCities and Google+ (or even just the way of LiveJournal, which it’s halfway to already).

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water. Correction: it’s an information kiosk.

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water. Correction: it’s an information kiosk. Same style of roof as the picnic shelters, but not as tall. #flooded

Photo taken at: Polliwog Park

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water.

—

Correction: it’s an information kiosk. Same style of roof as the picnic shelters, but not as tall. #flooded

eighteenbelow says:
Oh geez, that seems pretty extreme! I’d heard you guys got a lot of rain and flooding, but I hope it’s a good thing in the long run and helps alleviate the drought.

Thanks, I hope so too. Our part of town did pretty well. We had an inch of water in our garage, but it only went halfway back (apparently it’s not level) and the only things that seem to have any damage are an old suitcase that might dry out ok, and some empty boxes. Power only went out for about a minute before it came back on, and we drove through some flooded roads yesterday before holing up at home.

This park is a basin in the hills, and apparently used to be part of the same seasonal marsh system as the preserve I’ve posted photos from. It’s all playground areas, benches, and picnic shelters. A friend who used to live here says flooded during heavy rain when she was here, so I imagine it’ll be fine when it dries out. Muddy, but the area near the pond is usually covered in duck and goose dropping anyway. Not my favorite part of the park, let me tell you.

The local paper reported one death a few miles away, believed to be the same person who went missing during a rescue from a flooding homeless camp. Lots of mudslides, flooded garages and damaged stuff, but not much structural damage. A retaining wall a few blocks from us collapsed and crushed an empty car.

Other parts of the LA area fared a lot worse, especially near the mountains, and especially areas downhill from last year’s fires, but we’re ok here.

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Notes: Flickr album with more photos, other commentary and pics here.

I really appreciate Morrison’s work on Flash and JLA

gorogues:

Oh my god, dude I love this. It’s like a plot out of the silver age.

[Yeah, the Silver Age was definitely the inspiration for this story!  There are plenty of winks and nods to it throughout the story, not the least of which is the dedication to John Broome. –Lia]

I really appreciate Morrison’s work on Flash and JLA because for him, bringing back the Silver Age didn’t mean just bringing back specific characters, it meant bringing back the creativity, the wild and madcap ideas, the storytelling sense that anything is possible.

It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

The last few years have been really dry – since I moved to the area, actually – that this year’s half-normal rainfall seems to have kicked all the perennials into high gear. Most of the flowers are winding down (or being trimmed off) now that the rain is done, and I’d started wondering if I’d missed the jacarandas or if the change this year had meant they hadn’t flowered. And there was my answer: A tree with leaves, flowers, and buds forming. I hadn’t missed them after all, they just run on another schedule than everything else around.

Yeah, the trees vary a lot depending on which microclimate…

eighteenbelow:

kelsonv:

eighteenbelow:

kelsonv:

6 new photo(s) on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/

Great photos!  I think I should visit California in winter at some point, because I thought it would look really different.  

Thanks!

The ponds are unusual, actually – the whole area’s been built up so much that only a few fragments of the marsh habitat are left, and remaining open space near LA is mostly in the hills and mountains. Those tend toward sparse forest, chaparral, and seasonal grasslands. The taller mountains usually get snow each winter, but the lowlands don’t.

The overall climate is hot and dry in the summer and mild and wet in winter, so January and February are when the hills start turning green. In wet years there’s usually a lot of wildflowers in spring, and then the grass turns golden brown in summer as the weather heats up and the rains stop.

Every year there are a few wildfires somewhere around the state too, usually in the mountains and canyons. That used to be mainly in fall, but the last few years it’s stretched out to year-round.

Further inland the deserts are are another totally different experience, with wider temperature extremes on both ends, fascinating geology, and their own ecosystems.

I’d definitely recommend visiting when you get a chance. Out of curiosity, what were you expecting?

I didn’t expect there to be so many deciduous trees that would lose their leaves.  This looks just like Ontario in late fall or early spring, and I guess I was thinking it’d look a little more sub-tropical or desert-like.  I know northern California is more temperate, but since you live in the southern part I assumed this would be different.  So now I’ve learned something new, and thanks for the explanation!

And yeah, I really would like to visit someday.  Probably not in the heat of summer because my spouse hates those kinds of temperatures, but I’d like to see it at any time of year.

Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, the trees vary a lot depending on which microclimate and whether they’re landscaped or wild. Most of the trees used for landscaping either don’t drop their leaves in winter or only thin out. Palm trees, eucalyptus and pine are popular. And it doesn’t get cold enough for a lot of trees that would drop their leaves in other climates, at least if they’re getting enough water. Driving around the neighborhood I’d say only about 10% of the trees have gone totally dormant.

I suspect one of the reasons so many of the trees in the marsh drop their leaves is the seasonal water access. I went up into the mountains a few weeks ago and mostly there were either small bushes and trees that were green or taller evergreen trees.

I’m reminded of the story about a student when I was in college with …

I’m reminded of the story about a student when I was in college with a name something like Sarah Tan, who was assigned an email address using the first two letters of her first name and her full last name. At the time they were really reluctant to change anyone’s address once it was assigned, with only a short list of reasons allowed to get a new email (like a legal name change).

They made an exception.

(Also, back then, finger was the name of a network command you could use to find out if your friends were online at the time, so…)

A reminder to those still reblogging and complaining about Teen Titans Go:

sometimesboffosometimesnot:

I think one of the markers of maturity is to look at a piece of art or pop culture and say, “Well, this isn’t my thing, but that’s OK.”

But of course that’s a lot quieter than complaining about kids these days and their awful TV shows/music/whatever, and how it’s nowhere near as good as the equivalent when *I* was that age (that I’m remembering through rose colored glasses, and of course that *shaped* my tastes), now that stuff was the pinnacle of TV/movies/sci-fi novels/etc. and everything out now is trash.

So guess which viewpoint gets noticed.

hoo boy, here comes some serious talk about fandom mentality

buckyballbearing:

amuseoffyre:

voltisubito:

hoo boy, here comes some serious talk about fandom mentality.

I feel like there’s a huge failing on readers’ parts to communicate to fic authors how much they appreciate their works or how much it affects them, unless the fic is “fandom famous” for some reason. sometimes it gets translated into demands (which are awful literally do not demand updates from an author ever).

more often than not, it gets translated into silence, and coming from a writer, the silence is probably the worst. you never know if they like it, you never know what the reader actually thinks about it. or even if they read it at all. and it’s… heartwrenching, and nervewracking and you start constantly questioning yourself and wondering if you’re actually good enough or if you belong. and you start comparing yourself. to the people who are popular, to the people with huge followings, to the people who get questions and art and compliments up the wazoo. and you start wondering if you should have bothered writing at all. in some cases you start begging. and in some cases, you do worse.

and it’s terrible. a writer shouldn’t have to beg. a writer shouldn’t have to only get attention when they’re frustrated or upset. a writer shouldn’t have to doubt themselves every time they pick up a pen or open their laptop. a writer should never feel so unimportant that they consider deleting their work–and do. and then be subjected to questions of why they deleted it.

(which, by the way, is kind of a rude thing to do. it’s their content, and they can do with it whatever makes them comfortable. and more than that–why wait until it’s gone to just suddenly unleash your appreciation for it?)

if, at this point, you are thinking, “well, writers shouldn’t write for attention anyway! writers should be writing for themselves!” then you are missing a Very Huge Point about the intricacies of and emotions behind creating art. of course art comes from the self, but art is meant to be shared. with people. like you. art is created for people to talk back to, to engage with, to live alongside–and yes, that in turn bolsters the creator’s own securities and motivation. it’s also a sad testament to the fact that we as a people have come to condemn the notion that anyone, especially content creators, should want attention at all.

and that’s toxic, and an awful mentality to have. (it’s also atrocious marketing. but, that’s another discussion for another time.)

what I’m trying to say here is this: a lot of this could be prevented by one simple thing. if you read a fic you like, *speak up about it.* make some kind of sign. about whether you like somebody’s work, or whether it excites you. reblog it to share with other people, gush in the tags, leave a comment/review if it’s on ao3 or ffn. (authors read tags as much as artists do, trust me.) kudos and likes are fine too, but like with any other kind of art, they’re very invisible. be vocal, y’all. spread the love.

and above all, *tell the author directly.* send them an ask, write a comment, tag them in an appreciation post. I can’t stress that enough. you’d be making someone’s day, relieving some securities, visible or not, instead of being complacent in this system, this mass way of thinking, that only popular writers deserve attention, that it has to be earned through working yourself raw instead of asked for. it causes these cliques and hierarchies and ultimately people start or keep maintaining this idea that people who are at the top deserve to be at the top, and people who get ignored deserve to be ignored. (which I have, in fact, heard people say, and that’s… I don’t even have a word for that.)

I just. something has to give, you guys. we have to stop doing this. we have to stop letting this happen. we have to be kind to our writers before they disappear.

and yes, you can reblog this post. in fact, I’d highly encourage it.

As someone who has been ficcing online since 1999, I can confirm that feedback is incredible for us. We like to know if there’s something you especially like or dislike. Kudos are nice and all, but is our characterisation okay? What about the dialogue? Did you find the plot slow/fast-paced?

I’ve been lucky lately, in that I have a solid core of people who tend to review a lot, but for nearly 7 years, I was in tiny, tiny, tiny fandoms where you were lucky if you got even one or two comments.

It’s encouraging when people do say something. Even if it’s just to say “i like when character X said Y, because it felt in character”. How do we know if we’re doing something right if no one tells us?

Fun fact: I realized that if I have time to send a text to my bff, I have time to leave a one line comment on fanfics

And yeah okay most of these wind up being something like “this was adorable, I love the way you showed [X] character’s conflict with [Y] by use of [Z]”

But hey if it’s the choice between that or nothing at all…

I’m not much of a fic reader these days, but I have to remember to give feedback on what I do read. I’ve settled into a pattern of saving blog posts and articles to read offline, which adds the extra step of remembering to come back later to comment. It might be efficient, but it keeps me quieter than I should be.

Jacaranda debris

Jacaranda debris. #flowers #jacaranda #purple

They are one of my favorite trees, though apparently there are people who absolutely hate them. From what I can tell it comes down to whether you have to deal with cleanup, because the flowers can get really sticky and messy after they fall, and there’s always a lot of them.

There’s a residential street near where I used to live that’s completely lined with jacarandas for most of a block. I loved driving or walking along there in April. I wouldn’t want to park there, though!