Language is a Concept – Jezik je Pojam

It started with a bad pun. “I fuck your [thing],” as opposed to “fuck you,” is a common insult in Croatian; it’s akin to saying “fuck the sun whose glow you bask in.” (Video features Serbian actors but the example serves nonetheless.) Yeah, I know, I know, using a foreign language for the express purpose of swearing; the “sun” pun was too good (awful?) to pass up.

Corrections were required.

At one point, in discussing exceptions to basic rules, Weeb suggested (to paraphrase) “Pull a Sunny! Acknowledge existence of [weirdness], then damn the word to hell Black Space.” Thus, hrvatski!Basil’s special hell, consisting entirely of words that (as of writing, March 30) I have mostly no goddamn clue how to translate:

Li, Se, Nego, Slati, Lišće, Momčad, Hlače, Kurac, Naime, Htjeti, Zbog, Koji, Granje, Dvoje, Petorica, Vidjevši, Bih, Svoj, Radi, Moći, A, Si, Niočemu, Zar, Nemoj

All credits to Weeb for the concept. Intended translation was “Language Catastrophe” but it accidentally turned into “Language of Catastrophe,” which is IMO funnier.

Weeb wanted “something to wake up to.” The translation is off, alas....

Prequel to the last one, or something. Croatian brat is actually pronounced similarly to English “brother,” with the a in brat sounding like “about,” but you wouldn’t get that from writing alone.

Belated follow-up, or “he_would_not_say_that.png”. (The incorrect version uses “return” as a noun, e.g. “the return [recurrence] of the errors;” correction uses “return” as a verb, e.g. “return [go back] to the source.”)

Learned about emphasis! Immediately learned about its origin and a very weird use case. (“Htjeti” is very much one of the Cursed Words.) Who knew the simple act of desiring (and/or, desiring to do) could be so fraught…!

*Also note that “I’ll try my best” apparently doesn’t translate as a phrase, for lack of the concept of ‘doing one’s best.’ An alternate approximation is Ja ću dati sve od sebe, literally “I will give everything from myself.”

Translated this one All By Myself™ :D …well, kinda:

There are more accurate words that could’ve been used here (“jad” for woe, and “nesreća” technically means “misfortune” or “trouble” but more commonly conveys “accident” or “disaster”) but I think I got the gist down anyway.