Edling, my life and love

Umemiya: AHHHH IT BURNS IT BURNS

Tsubaki: WE'RE DONE FOR!! I CAN SEE THE LIGHT

Takumi: i am disapea–

Mizuki: mister stark, i do–

I'm trying to write an Edling fic right now and I want to use a bit of chinese. Like Ling calls Ed a nickname. And while I do love using nicknames as it pertains to how Ed looks, I want to see if I could find something else before going that route just to see the options.

Problem is I don't actually know chinese and I don't want to be offensive or use google translate cause it could just be wrong. I mean I could always just not and use italics or something but if I can then I want to.

Then I remembered that you use a lot of chinese phrases in your fics and you don't use google translate so I've been dying to ask but I got nervous and put it off a lot and I'm very obviously doing a nervous ramble, oh geeze.

Okay the question. Do you have any ideas for chinese nicknames that Ling would give Ed? I was kinda exploring on the net a little and found that depending on where you look, in Old English his name could mean 'rich guard' or 'wealthy guard' and it could also mean 'prosperous protector' but my exploring wasn't really a deep dive so I could be wrong there but I really like the idea of a play on his name too.

My god this is long winded, I'm really just wondering if you have any ideas that haven't been used and/or popularized yet cause I don't want to be culturally offensive if I can help it.

P.s: I adore your Edling fics, they bring me joy and whimsy and inspiration.

Hey ho!! I LOVE a good ramble, dw about it at all!

Thinking outside the box for nicknames for Ed is pretty good, and I fully encourage you to do deeper research into the language, but I think I need to clarify something: using google translate itself is not inherently bad. Taking what it spits out at you without double-checking it nor even asking yourself if it makes sense is what's bad—which is what most ppl tend to do, hence my advising against it.

If you know you'll double-check the translation, or you're just using it for singular words, then by all means, use that tool! At least it's not frickin' ai.

As far as plays on Ed's name meaning, I have two suggestions. First of all, consider looking up Mandarin names with meanings similar to Ed's! What first came to mind for me was 杰 (jié); it can mean hero, someone outstanding, etc... Toss in a prefix like 小 (xiǎo), and that can be a cute little nickname for Ed.

THAT'S JUST AN EXAMPLE THO! I encourage you to do your own research into several other names, because the variety is crazy!

My second suggestion would be to look into Chinese myths! Specifically, any animals or such that are seen and celebrated as "protectors". I can see Ling making a nickname for Ed based on one of those!

Chinese names inherently hold deep meaning because of how they're made up of several other smaller symbols mushed together into one character, so whatever name Ling comes up with, if it's gonna stick, I don't think he'd choose it lightly. So keep that in mind!

I haven't stopped thinking of suginirei as ivantill since...

Sorry I'm dooming yaoi again

But like…I always read italics in a different tone like they’re thoughts. It seems quieter than using normal quotations which makes what they say look less significant on the page than other character’s dialogue.

I really don’t think my audience needs me to use completely different punctuation around a mute character. There’s no need to act like they’re speaking a different language since their muteness isn’t a focal point in the story.

You can add little things for emphasis though, like how fast or flippant a sign is given, also a lot of our “punctuation” is in facial expressions, so wild looks is kind of normal. Also messing up signs and just.. pushing them aside. Like, you mess up a fingerspell and just take both hands and shove the air in front of you to your side, people who sign eventually end up doing this for other things, like a “forget it” motion. It’s like a “wave it off” gesture.

If your character is only partially mute (as in they can sometimes speak) or newly mute (they recently lost their ability to speak and previously knew how to do so in the common tongue) and/or grew up around hearing people who speak even if they never could, keep in mind that they have a different signing “accent” for lack of a better word.

People who are Deaf And Learned Sign As Kids instead of the common tongue will be more fluent, they’ll have a wider vocabulary, their signs will be fluid and fast, like speaking to anyone in their first language. They will not have to mentally translate their thoughts to sign the way someone who learns sign as their second language would have to - they already think in sign. Traditionally, sign language even in American or British sign goes in spanish sentence structure, not english. They will be difficult for anyone who is NOT a fluent signer to understand! If your character isn’t fluent, they will probably need to ask fluent signers to slow down!

Meanwhile if your character is Mute, there’s a good chance that they weren’t always, OR they grew up around people who could both hear and speak. Their signing will be more rudimentary (even if the hearing speaking people around them teach them sign at an early age instead of just having them write down what they want to say, bc most people do not care to accommodate you if you can’t speak at all), at least until they learn it better from other signing people. Their vocab will be smaller, and their signs may be slow and clumsy. They may have to finger spell a lot. They will probably get frustrated with their inability to articulate what they want, and they may frequently need to resort to writing down what they want to say. They’ll also likely put signs in the same sentence structure as the language the people around them spoke. This literal translation of each sentence WILL confuse fluent signers!

When talking to deaf people, or other fluent signers, there are a few pretty widespread cultural things you could consider as well: for example, Deaf Time! Deaf time means that once you start talking with a deaf person/fluent signer with no other means of communication, They won’t stop till the conversation is done or you literally have to leave! The chance to sign with someone you don’t know tends to be pretty rare, and the language barrier in general makes deaf people/people who sign exclusively pretty isolated. There’s also the fact that signing with a flat face is only common in non-fluent signers; your expression determines some words! The difference between “good” and “great” comes down to your expression, and signing either with an impassive face is the equivalent of talking in a monotone. Not necessarily rude - but fluent signers will be able to clock you. (I know this bc my autistic ass cannot sign the difference between words like that, and it drove my teachers nuts.)

I hope that helps and that I’m not too late