Language is a ConceptJezik je Pojam

My friend Weeb has been teaching me Croatian. Thought it would be fun to make a character speak it. These spawned!

Moj prijatelj Weeb uči [me] hrvatski. Ja [was think] [i have no idea what to do for the rest here.]

…I’m still learning.
Credit for all corrections (and linguistic context, where relevant) goes straight to Weeb!

2023/03/25

Aubrey, swearing, points accusitorily at Basil. Both mention some form of “sun,” which confuses Kel (who stands alongside a blank-faced Sunny). An artist’s note mentions, to translate, I “used google translate & ran it thru search results. probably off, oprostite(?)… isprike??”
🇭🇷

Aubrey: Jebo ti sunce žarko!
Basil: Izostaviti Sunny iz ovoga....

🇺🇸

Aubrey [approx.]: Fuck your glowing sun!
Basil [misaimed attempt at]: Leave Sunny out of this....


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.

A+ for Aubrey, who corrects B-grade Basil (details below). He apologizes; “Oprosti, oprosti…”

Aubrey was given an “A+”; normally the verb jeb- (fuck) would be subject to grammatical gender (technically jebao, because the speaker's gender =/= the verb’s) but this gets ignored a lot in practice because people aren’t thinking about grammatical correctness when cursing someone out. Wild.

Basil, on the other hand, got a “B”-grade. 1) Izostaviti = “omit,” ≠ “leave out;” 2) “into this” = “u ovo”; and 3) “Sunny” needs a “-ja” for grammar reasons I have yet to fully grasp. Thus, corrected sentence: Ne miješaj Sunnyja u ovo. (Basil got a B anyway, though, because if izostaviti had been right, the resulting Izostavi Sunnyja iz ovoga would’ve been much closer!)

Finally, turns out both apology words were relevant, but in different contexts. Oprosti = “forgive me,” which is used more casually than its English analogue.

2023/03/25

“Moj najbolji prijatelj....” Basil and Sunny, kids, echoing their poses in the “Basil tagged you” picture: Basil rests his head on Sunny’s, his arms wrapped around Sunny’s neck. (Sunny looks vaguely uncomfortable.)
🇭🇷

Moj najbolji prijatelj....

🇺🇸

My best friend....


More practice, friend edition.

2023/03/27

Basil sits hugging his knees in the void, surrounded by confusing words.

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

2023/03/28

Basil approaches a Black Space-esque door. What lies behind? More Croatian?! Oh, god, he remembered it wrong!!!!
🇭🇷

Što je behind door?

Je more hrvatski??

Ti sjćecaš it wrong!!!!
[behind the door, three separate words:] Ni. O. Čemu.

🇺🇸

What is behind [the] door?

Is [it] more Croatian??

You remembered it wrong!!!!
[behind the door, three separate words, the translation to which I still do not know:] Ni. O. Čemu.


It was late.

In which Basil runs away while Stranger-but-Aubrey demands he learn Croatian.

Stranger-Aubrey: Ti will učiti hrvatski! = You will learn Croatian!
Basil: No!!! / Stranger-Aubrey: Ne??? (=no) / Basil: N-ne!!!
Stranger-Aubrey: Što nije clicking??!!! = What isn’t clicking??!!!

2023/03/28

Basil and Sunny bathed in dark blue; Basil is surrounded by his Something, which also happens to be all the confusing words from earlier. He mutters “Ni o čemu” repeatedly. Caption below:
🇭🇷

Jezik katastrofe.

🇺🇸

Language of catastrophe.


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

2023/03/28

Something (Sunny ver.) greets Basil in the hospital. Basil is displeased.
🇭🇷

Something: Dobro jutro.
Basil: Što. Povratak Sunnyu....

🇺🇸

Something: Good morning.
Basil [attempted]: What. Return to Sunny....


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

2023/03/28

Mari reads a photo caption in which Basil seems to call Sunny a “brat.” Basil is flustered.
🇭🇷

[photo caption]: Mari i njezin brat Sunny!

Basil: Ne ne neer, da? But

🇺🇸

[photo caption]: Mari and her brother Sunny!

Basil: No no no— er, yes? But—


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.

2023/03/29

Aubrey corrects Basil’s Croatian. He uses it to flip off Something. There’s nothing there.
🇭🇷

Basil: ‘Povratak Sunnyu’?
Aubrey: …‘Vrati se Sunnyu’?

Basil: Da, hvala ti.
Aubrey: Zašto?
Basil: Vrati se Sunnyu

🇺🇸

Basil: ‘The return to Sunny’?
Aubrey: …‘Return to Sunny’?

Basil: Yes, thank you.
Aubrey: Why?
Basil: Return to Sunny


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.”)

2023/03/29

Aubrey encourages Basil. He’ll try his best!
Stranger-Aubrey says the same thing but it sounds threatening. Basil’s struggling….
🇭🇷

Aubrey: Ti hoćes učiti hrvatski~!
Basil: J-ja ću pokušavam… moj najbolji!!

Stranger-Aubrey: Ti hoćes učiti hrvatki
Basil: B-but.... hoćes ≠ želim… ž-željeti… ja ne znam....

🇺🇸

Aubrey: You will learn Croatian~!
Basil [attempt at*]: I-I will try… my best!!

Stranger-Aubrey: You will learn Croatian
Basil [approx.]: B-but.... ‘I want’ ≠ ‘I wish’… ‘t-to wish’… I don’t know....


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.”

2023/03/29

Woe! Croatian be upon ye! (ft. Stranger!Aubrey and the word “htjeti”)
🇭🇷

žalost
hrvatski je tvoja nesreća

🇺🇸

sadness
croatian is your misfortune


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

A winding canvas showing off the translation process.

I tend to circle around the canvas when sketching, which is a perfectly reasonable order in which to do/write things. Essentially: started with the original meme’s words (“Woe! Croatian be upon ye!”) → changed the grammar & exact word meanings (mostly because “be upon ye” wtf even) → “sad! Croatian is your problem” → shoved the words I didn’t know into an auto-translator and general search → duct-taped it all together → Memeage Complete.

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