Timewaster's Guide Archive

Where's that forum for people who've read the ARC? 'cause I can't find a link anymore.

I've been developing a guide on how to use Eastern Slang for the Mistborn rpg. I figured many of you might want to learn how, So I thought I'd post it here as well.

Language and Dialect in Mistborn:

Eastern Slang.


There is, of course, slang on Scadriel. People from different dominances speak subtly differently. And sometimes not so subtly. In the Eastern Dominance, skaa street gangs have their own dialect even their parents can't understand.

If you have read The Final Empire, you're already familiar and bewildered by Spook's Eastern Slang.

Here's a few examples:

"Wasing the place when I was young."
"Someone's coming! Out in the night with the calling!"
"Notting as the now," ... "Kelsier wasing the the hit with my name; changed it to Spook."
"Weapons for the getting, giving for the time to be."

Absolutely Insensible, right?

Well, that's because it's meant to confuse people.

Yes. That was actually the Author's intention.

Yes. Brandon Sanderson IS awesome, why do you ask?

Since it is meant to confuse people, the only way we'll actually be able to use eastern slang in a Forum RP is if there's communication between the characters involved. If you want to post in Eastern slang, the people you're talking to need to be able to understand.

There are many methods to doing just that, among which are PMs, email, IMing, and the Cbox on this page.

There are very few 'rules' to the grammar of this dialect, but I have listed those ones I could find.

First, when you break it down, what is most important is the beginning and the ending. The beginning and end of a sentence is important, and the words in the middle are less so. This rule is not always true, but it works for most occassions.

Second, the dialect has a focus on the possessive, meaning prepositions are overused. At least one 'Of the,' 'With the,' 'In the,' or 'To the' should be included in every sentence, often attached to things that make only tenuous sense.

Third, nicknames are thrown in to the sentence just to confuse others. For instance: "Kelsier and the others are waiting for you on the third floor," becomes "You're wanted. Ups in the where above with the doing. With Master Jumps to the third floor."

The dialect is, however not very restrictive grammatically. "It's not nice to play with my emotions," could be "Niceing the not on the playing without," as it is in the book. But it could also be "Playing of the play, not of the nice." Or many other variations.

Fourth, nonsense words are often thrown in just to confuse people, for instance: "He's stressed. It makes his mind dull and apathetic," becomes "Losing the stress on the nip. Notting without the needing of care." Here nip refers to wit.

Similarly, "Riding the rile of rids to the right," is complete nonsense, but is interpereted as agreement that yes, he is dimwitted and uncaring.

For more examples, "He wishes he was smarter, but wishing doesn't actually make him smarter," becomes "Wasing the was of brightness. Nip the having of wishing of this."

And "He's always wished that," becomes "Ever wasing the doing of this."

But there are many other sentences in eastern slang that could have sent the same messages. The author thinks of Eastern slang as a living language, so as time progresses and new generations start using it, the 'ing' might become an 'ed.' Thus, these rules are not always applicable.

So, basically, Write what you want to say. Then take it and reduce it down to the most important words. Twist those words around, and try to remove any negative words. It's harder to write with them, but it can be done. Put 'ing' on words it doesn't belong on, and use vague prepositions at every possible instance. Then, every once in a while, say complete nonsense.

Again, since the language is insensible, you'll want to clarify your intent with a PM or an IM to the intended recipient, then they can respond to exactly what you mean to say, and they can provide a proper reasoning or translation in their next post. This is how it was done in the books most of the time. Spook would say something, and someone would attempt to translate before responding.

And since we're RPing, we need to understand what the other characters are saying. Communication is crucial. If a character is absolutely incomprehensible, he's not interesting.


If anyone would like to help improve this, I would greatly appreciate the collaboration!

Hope that worked. Tell me what you think.

SQUEEEEE!!

This'll explain this topic: http://xkcd.com/470/

I'm moderately hungry, guys.

Just watched this agian last night. Still gives me goosebumps. Great movie.

Makes me want to read the Diary of Anne Franke again. Without the "Augh, I was assigned to read this, I will hate it because it is homework, I'll find the first thing I don't like in the book and dismiss it all as ridiculous and gross" mentality.

Yeah, I was a bit of a Jerk in Middle School.

For those of you who haven't seen it. It has gangs, murder, and teenagers in it. It's about a teacher to tries to remove those three things from her entire class of students.

I love the way Spook talks, even though most of the time I can't tell exactly what he said, so I decided as I read through the series this time, i'm going to post everything Spook says and translate it, roughly.


Thought ya'll might wanna learn some eastern slang as well.

anyway-- first spookspeak-

"You're wanted,"... "Ups in the where above with the doing. With Master Jumps to the third floor. Uh, I've gotta go."

basically, Kelsier wants you on the third floor. I've gotta go.

btw... if anyone has a better suggestion for these translations I'd love to hear.

Also... if someone wants to lay down the rules of Eastern slang, this is a good place to do it, eh?

I know I've seen it before, his last name is Lestibournes, he was named after his father. I think it started with a J.

In any case, I can't find it right now.

For some reason, that irks me.