goal: make carrie fisher proud

And with the retirement of my literary persona, I should like to formally introduce myself. Previous wallflower, current columnist, observer, wielder of a quill. Nobody unique, and yet, I have my moments. And hopefully, dear reader, you will stay on to enjoy them with me as we begin this next part of our journey.

Yours Truly, Penelope Bridgerton.

titans, olympians, nymphs, and monsters; women of the sea in greek mythology

But most other languages don’t do this by literally switching which sub-language of themselves you’re using.

It also makes it somewhat more ambiguous in English—in other languages (at least, the ones I’m familiar with; I won’t try to make a universal claim!), switching registers is an explicit thing. You’ll use the informal form, or you’ll use the formal. In English, because it’s just using different words with roughly the same definitions, in a language richly supplied with synonyms, it’s not that hard to, say, write an introduction for a character who’s speaking primarily in the upper, Latinate, register—but without genuinely intending to be presenting themselves as formal, educated, or snobbish.

"jesus christ" "who's that"

"this is just like (tv show/movie)" "that's my favorite play"

referring to famous musicians or actors from the real world as "bards"

adding the word "fantasy" in front of modern things (i pull out my Fantasy iPhone and open Fantasy Tinder)

"how hurt are you" "on a scale of one to twenty-eight i'd say i'm at about a nine."

What happens, happens.