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Que siempre la lengua fue compañera del imperio; y de tal manera lo siguió, que junta mente començaron, crecieron y florecieron, y después junta fue la caida de entrambos.
‘Must be you’ve never met a Scot.’
Thankfully this is not an audiobook, because mrs piper and her Scottish accent can go…
He could read the language better than he spoke it.
What was that footnote about?
Family names were not things to be dropped and replaced at whim, he thought. They marked lineage; they marked belonging.
But I chose kiut, so don’t blame me for that one
As in Taylor swift
Never had he imagined he might follow the linguistic fragments of this pidgin back to their source.
Only he could determine the truth, because only he could communicate it to all parties.
As a language student I can relate to this.
He buried his past life, not because it was so terrible but because abandoning it was the only way to survive.
What?!
You’ll be one of the few scholars in the world that knows the secrets of silver-working. That’s what I’ve brought you here to do.’
‘You can’t disappoint Mrs Piper; she’s been in the kitchen all afternoon. At least push your food around on your plate for a bit.’
Ok, I agree!
he knew what worked in English because it sounded right
All my languages kids here!
Copula?!?!
‘Languages are easier to forget than you imagine,’
Yes, they are
‘Once you stop living in the world of Chinese, you stop thinking in Chinese.’
‘I want you to live in English,’
‘But I know English.’ ‘Not as well as you think you do. Plenty of people speak it, but few of them really know it, its roots and skeletons.
But he was forgetting. That terrified him. Sometimes, during practice conversations, he found himself blanking on a word he used to toss around constantly. And sometimes he sounded, to his own ears, like a European sailor imitating Chinese without knowing what he said.
My mind with Spanish, English, French and portuguese
Look at his eyes.
I kinda thought of this, but it was for real?! Like… that fast?
A lie was not a lie if it was never uttered; questions that were never asked did not need answers.
who was very funny but seemed to hate very much anyone who was not white.
Where did you got that conclusion babe
Goodbye was, incredibly, a shortened version of God be with you.
What?!
This seemed plausible, if disappointingly mundane.
I thought the sane damn thing
He enjoyed novels more than anything else.
I can relate
what a pleasure it was to hold the weight of an entire, finished story in his hands.
I can’t comment on a footnote but was this footnote even needed?!?
What was the reason of it?
‘Pick one,’ said Professor Lovell. ‘You ought to know the feeling of acquiring your first book.’
I would’ve died on the spot
Pick one? Just one,
Same bruh
He knew very well what he was doing. He seemed to have done this before.
You’re saying it, and I believe the narrator.
Suddenly his chest felt very tight, though he couldn’t understand why this was.
You’re intimidated
They’re poor and ugly,’
Oh!
unsure what to do with their hands.
Ummm well you’re saying it as if this were romantic…
He was only now realizing how badly he wanted a friend, but he didn’t know how to make one,
At some point they began reciting poems to each other
Out of nowhere they start reciting poetry!
they only established Cambridge as overflow for the mediocre talent.’)
Shadeee
third of October,
The life of a showgirl day
If they’re going to tell stories about you, use it to your advantage.
But Ramy, who had no choice but to stand out, had decided he might as well dazzle.
Robin had the absurd impulse to place his hand against Ramy’s cheek; indeed, he’d half lifted up his arm before his mind caught up with his body.
Are you gay?
‘I like just us.’
books are meant to be touched, otherwise they’re useless,
These are the footnotes I appreciate
‘Je suis tout à fait d’accord,’ Letty murmured
Long live FRENCH
they could be the most dangerous scholars of them all, because they’re the ones who really understand languages
– know how they live and breathe and how they can make our blood pump, or our skin prickle, with just a turn of phrase.
We’re here to make magic with words.’
The loneliness, the beatings, the long and aching hours of study, the ingesting of languages like bitter tonic so that he could one day do this – it was all worth it.
‘Shouldn’t we have a nurse in here?’
Honestly... Same, sis!
But unlike the alchemists, we’ve actually figured out the key to the transformation of a thing. It’s not in the material substance. It’s in the name.’
