#language!!!!

one of my projects today is to proofread a 25 page doc from one of our partners in the MENA region, and because I love language and often enjoy menial tasks, this is nice for me because often people writing in a non-native language make word choices that make me go huh. I would never have picked that word. does it actually work? and usually the answer is yes because the vocabulary you pick up is based on geography and utility.

not totally related, but it makes me think of how a pal used to always have me edit her Facebook posts because she liked to post in English for her family living abroad because of the usual linguistic colonialism things, and she'd always use the phrase Done and Dusted and I was like??? toko, what does this mean? and it was just a normal kiwi phrase I'd never encountered. same with "sweet as" and the many iterations. everyone always jokes about unique Australian language usage but I am looking at y'all a little farther south.

my super regional thing (may even be unique to Oregon but maybe also the pnw in general) is spendy as in, "I'd love one of those 12 foot skeletons, but they're super spendy and I am cheap as shit." probably my most regional giveaway since I think living lots of places with lots of different types of English has messed up my natural accent. I'd adapt to be the most understandable when I taught, and some stuff has stuck.

We agreed there was a definite difference, but we could not find a solid way to describe it.

I've been thinking about it a lot!! I think seeing the old cleric uniforms in the mission this afternoon helped me along with this definition. Magi were a real thing, people legitimately believed their Magi could bring miracles or magic to them as cures, answers to prayers, etc.

So anyway I have a feeling that 'mage' gives a more umbrella term, a more "real" term, something we can imagine happening, maybe?

'Wizard' does seem to go straight to the archetypal old man with a beard, robe, and cane-thing.