Heterogeneous Linguistics - Vol. 4 Ch. 29 - I Want To Make Small Talk

[MangaDex]

 

[25kirbs]

Outrageously wholesome

 

[gpl]

"Heterogenia Linguistico" isn't even Italian. In proper Italian it would be "Eterogenesi linguistica" ("eterogenia" is a less common version of "eterogenesi").

 

[Kaisermutt]

@gpl That's odd, in Spanish the word for linguistics is feminine so it definitely couldn't be Spanish either. I'm not exactly an expert on romance languages, although I did take a few years of latin.

 

[Filuth]

I'm learning linguistic from this comic more than from my real linguistic classes.

 

[Tersione]

All that with such a language barrier between them. That's just sweet. It reminds me of the time they had to stay with the old centaur who eventually passed away.

 

[Aleco]

@Kaisermutt My opinion is that the title was simply done by someone that doesn't know latin and incorrectly translated the english title

 

[BasilD]

Hakaba is relatable af. I've had my fair share of language barriers and cringing at silly language mistakes, but at the end of the day, we'd still eat the same food and help each other out. I think that's a precious thing.

Also, Susuki has friends! I'm so happy for her!

 

[KeiosKod]

@Aleco: Nah, ヘテロゲニア リンギスティコ is phonetic, so it’s Heterogenia Linguistico like what gpl said.

I mean, it’s the author who wrote the title. If it’s actually incorrect in whatever language is supposed to be, then it’s simply because he’s likely not a native speaker. It’s not a translation issue, at any rate, unless it’s on the author’s side. But hey, translation issues are pretty much a central theme of this series anyway.

 

[readguy616]

That's pretty meta, being pretty obvious about what it can mean even if it's not actually using a language. Plus it sounds cool, which is important. lol

 

[Serpiton]

@gpl I think in Italian should be "Linguistica eterogenea", eterogenesi in english would be heterogenesis

 

[nobaka]

literally fascinating

 

[Kaisermutt]

@nobaka I don’t see anything fascinus-related in this chapter, and I hope there is none for that matter

 

[Beregorn]

@gpl @Kaisermutt @Serpiton
The other interpretation I thought about the title is that it refers to the protagonist, and in that case it would be "linguista eterogeneo". But yeah, I still find "linguistica eterogenea" a better interpretation.

@KeiosKod does Japanese even have the phonemes for a correct spelling?

 

[Lomyr]

@Kaisermutt You do have -o nominatives in latin in the third declension: "virgo", "Varro", "cicero", "ordo", "sermo"... AFAIK all of these come from the elision of the final -n- of the stem. But yes, the latin word would have been "linguistica", short for "ars linguistica" (linguistic science, with "ars" a feminine), or a variant of the adjective "linguisticus, a, um". A more proper Latin title would have been something like "de linguis extraneis" .

Both volitional and hortative are used in linguistics, but they mean different things.
Volitional modality is sometimes contrasted with alethic modality ("what you wish to be true" vs. "what is true"). You also find it used to describe constructions like "want to" in English, or specific grammatical moods like the optative or desiderative.
"Hortative" is generally used to describe a mood that contrasts with the imperative. It comes from latin "hortor" for to encourage; so the rule fo thumb is that it's used when "the speaker encourages someone else to do something". Sometimes it's used as "imperative mood that also has a third person form". In contrast, the Japanese volitional doesn't always imply that you want someone else to do it, e.g., 手伝いましょうか.

 

[Kaisermutt]

@Lomyr Hakaba isn’t saying that the single tap represents the volitional modality, nor is he saying it is the volitional case, he only uses a volitional example, so I assume its use does not include phrases with a volitional verb followed by か.
Oddly enough, the volitional case is alternatively called the hortative case.
I'm not a expert on modality, so I might be entirely wrong.

 

[Lomyr]

@Kaisermutt I don't think there's a correct interpretation; it's probably more a matter of having a convenient label for "that YO form". Unsurprisingly, labels inherited from classical European grammars don't always fit very neatly.
I guess that Japanese having no overt person marking on verbs doesn't really help when you're trying to distinguish cohortatives from exhortatives and the like. Even more confusing is that you also have basically a desiderative (which I guess you could call a "volitional deverbal adjective" in a linguistics paper?) with -たい, as well as an imperative -え...

 

[Kaisermutt]

@Lomyr yeah, I remember once hearing that applying latin grammar standards to formal english language (in the context of criticizing a preposition at the end of a sentence or trailing infinitive) is like trying to cram a foot into an ill fitting shoe, and in my experience Japanese fits the shoe worse even worse.

 

[Lomyr]

@Kaisermutt I very much like the phrase!

 

[LordTeddington]

Screw linguistics, Have a Susuki playing with tiny minotaurs.