So instructor dude knew what she meant? BEAM! Ella smiled and nodded her head, happy to have gotten her point across. Sometimes her brain moved faster than her mouth could express her thoughts so she was never sure if she was making sense.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

Lots and lots of good points made by her classmates. It made sense that things like the type of water and the depth would make the way in which a merperson spoke differ as well. Also, she noted the way in which Instructor dude explained how the way in which we speak differs from the way in which a merperson speaks and how we should be careful not to be offensive.

She didn't really have any new questions as she was wondering about formalities like Alyssa was. She recalled vaguely speaking to the Mermaid during their History of Magic Lesson though she had been relatively quiet then and would appreciate a little more information on this particular matter.

Peyton jotted down all the points that contributed to Merpeople speaking and what enhanced their vocal cords. This was some interesting stuff to her. If she could speak Mermish, she'd so annoy her stupid cousin with it, heh.

She let the pen fall on her lap as she mulled over the professor's question. She really just wanted to learn NOW, but she was curious about something, so she raised her hand. "My question isn't so much about Merpeople, but about their language and your experience with it, I hope that's okay. Since you speak twelve languages, was Mermish the easiest or hardest to learn?"

Was it a reeeeeeeally hard language to master? Because she wanted to learn it in a jiffy, but that depended on it's level of difficulty. Mr Higareda would know, right?

"With the merpeople I've encountered on my travels, much you can understand regardless of the dialect. It might sound different and the words that are used might differ at times, but the majority of the language is the same. Just as in another language, if you don't know the word for something, most people would correct you or ask what it is you mean. The same goes for merpeople. Most merpeople are polite you'll find, and will help you if you get stuck or are unsure how to speak their language."

A smile played on his lips "Just like with humans that speak another language then your own, they are just grateful that you have taken the time to try and learn their language and want to communicate with them."

Listening as a young slytherin asked about gestures in their communication. "Under the water I'm sure they use some gestures when speaking just like humans would use gestures if they aren't able to be heard, a merperson would do the same both in those circumstances as well as above water when talking to a human, to help them understand."

His eyes showed amusement when the little Gryffindor spoke. "No, you don't have to screech unless you can get the exact sound and tone properlike. Some people can get it exactly right but most often a merperson will think you are just making fun of their voice. It takes lots of practice and knowledge to be able to get the exact tone and pitch."

"I'm sure there is but would you yourself want to have a charm put on your voice just so you can talk like another person speaking another language? Merpeople appreciate when a person takes the time to learn their language just as any of us would appreciate it. What if there was a reason you needed to go into the lake, wouldn't it be beneficial for you to learn at least a few words if you needed to speak to them? It's their world, and just as if you were going to another country, it would help you to learn the language at least to a point." Hmm, did that sound right? He hoped so anyway.

"Good question!" he said beaming at the girl. "Depending on the circumstances. If you wish to just converse with them, watch their body language, you might encounter one of the guards, or even one of the princess's helpers. They might not be as willing to speak with you, or may direct you to speak with the chieftainess. Just be aware and respectful and they will respect you and direct you to another if need be."

"Indeed" he said with a nod and a smile to the young man "Yes, however, you have it a bit backwards. A male will have a higher pitched voice and a female would have the deeper tone. Remember, within the merpeople the females are the ones with more power. Excellent point!"

Looking up as another question came, he gave her a smile. "Thank you for asking this. Each language I've encountered and learned each has had it's own difficulties and set backs. Mermish is no exception."

"I found Mermish difficult at first because my main concern had been attempting to get the tone and pitch precise. And the more I was concerned about it the more difficult i found the language to be. Once i finally just took a step back from being concerned about tone and pitch the language came almost naturally. Mermish was actually one of the first languages I learned. I still don't have the pitch or tone exact, and it tends to make the merpeople I encounter tease me a bit when I try but they have been kind for the most part rather than offended."

"If there aren't any further questions let's move on to the language itself." he said as he picked up his pages off the floor by his beanbag chair. "You will find even with this list of words, the sounds can differ from what it says exactly. I tried to give exact sounds where I could on your sheets." Taking his wand he flicked it towards the board behind him.

"That should help you on any combinations. The consonants are hard and quick when you say the word. No drawing them out like on an 'h' just a quick sound for it, very pronounced. If you have any questions on the words, feel free to try saying some of the words you see on there."

"Em Chi" he said nodding to them with an encouraging smile. Meaning for them to feel free to begin.

Alyssa took a look at the worksheets again when the Instructor explained to them how each syllable would possibly sound.

'Hmmm...they seem to sound almost like how we would pronounce our vowels. Especially the A.' Alyssa looked at what he had written on the board. Then she looked again and her brows furrowed. E sounded the same as AA, u sounded the same as OO. 'Man. It's not as easy as it sounds after all.' Alyssa realized before turning to the worksheets.

'Okay let's give this a try.'

Alyssa tried pronouncing the word for Ouch which was Ah-ee. "Ah-eeeeee"....'Heh...Sounds like Ow-wie.' Alyssa thought to herself even as she muffled her laugh. "Ah-eeeee....Ah-eeee."

Then she tried another word. Maybe a greeting would be nice. She searched the words in the worksheet but all she could find was It which translated into Uhff, Is which translated to mermish was Fan, Good which was Ghood, See which was Lusa and You which in mermish was EM. Looking up at the blackboard, she began formulating the pronunction of each word.

"Oo-F....F-ah-n...G-oo-d...L-oo-sah...A-m" Alyssa tried pronouncing the words. Was she right?

Alyssa then noticed similarities in some of the Mermish words written on the worksheet. Some translated into English had the same meaning. So she raised her hand.

"Sir, I noticed that some Mermish words have the same meaning when translated into English. Like for example, according to the worksheets, Uhff and Lle in the worksheet both mean It, both Eeas and Heh mean Yes, Toh and Ungh means No, Suron and Ccuuoo means Wave and Kila and Ss translates to Many." Alyssa paused looking for more similarites which she knew that there were more. But she decided that she had given enough examples.

"Uh...when do we know when to use either one?" Alyssa hoped that her question wasn't too complicated.

Minerva looked around the room as others talked about the different languages they spoke. She really hadn't learned another language well until recently. All she ever knew was English and American English at that, she never knew the struggle she would have here at times with the different meanings to some words. Putting up her hand Minerva said softly, "I have been trying to learn a little German recently."



Minerva thought for a moment, well couldn't it be as easy as why people speak different languages. "Sir could it be because they are in different parts of the world, so their language will originate in that part of the world just as our languages are different depending on where you travel." It seemed to be the most appropriate answer, so she hoped she was correct.



Minerva thought for a second, "Sir, learning this language seems fun and all, but if we are underwater how could we hear what the words even were. Unless we have a charm or spell to hear under water better, I would think it would be all choppy and foggy sounding." She really wasn't sure it was possible to speak under water correctly, even with a spell to breath underwater the last thing she wanted was that lake water in her mouth.




Minerva looked at her paper, which words to try. She looked around to see if others had started already. She didn't know why she felt nervous, she didn't want to do this wrong, but it was her first try. Pointing her finger to the first word she came to on the worksheet she looked down. "li, li" was that right she wondered giggling a bit at the sound. Looking at a different word Minerva said that one out loud as well. "c..ca..caatuu, caatuu, caatuu." Shaking her head she really didn't know if she was saying these right, but they sounded funny.

They were going to get a chance to practice now? Grin! This was going to be fun...and probably funny, considering nobody here that she knew of could speak Mermish properly besides the instructor. Heh. Bring on the challenge.

Eyes glancing down at the first worksheet, Ella settled with a word she deemed to be pretty easy...hopefully. OUCH! This was something the blonde said a lot, mostly because she was quite clumsy so it seemed like a good word t know. And ouch was said like...ah-ee. Huh.

Okay and a makes the ah sound...and double e means you stretch out the e sound. Cool. She was ready to give this a go.

"Ah-ee." Okay, that wasn't so bad. "Ah-eeeeee." And then, Ella being the wonderful actress that she was, casually pretended to stub her toe and called out, "Ahhh-eeeeeeeeeee!"

Jory looked at the list he had in front of him. The words seemed easy enough to pronounce thanks to the assistance at the sides. "Well, let's get to work,'' he muttered.

The Puffer started at the bottom of the list. "Aye... aye... aye...'' He grinned. It sounded funny and strange because he was not used to hearing to hearing it. But he had heard it before, of course. It reminded him of the creole language spoken in the Caribbean.

"You, you...'' Had enough practice with that as he probably used it everyday. And so on Jory went, repeating some more than others. He hoped he was pronouncing them correctly.

The thirteen year old was pretty interested in learning other languages. She thought it might be a bit like learning Ancient Runes, since you had to learn to pronounce things and remember what they meant and all. She'd been wondering if Mermish used the same characters in their alphabet as the English language did or if they used other symbols. And do they read and write left to right like English? Or maybe they write in spirals or waves, like water? Wouldn't that be cool? And also really hard to learn... She was relieved and also slightly disappointed to see that Mermish was indeed the same characters are apparently the same orientation as English.

She didn't know much about any other languages, just a few things in Spanish, but nothing work mentioning really - so she kept quiet. It did make her feel sort of inadequate though that so many of her peers knew other languages. Perhaps she'd need to work on that...

And as far as what might be different about Mermish in different parts of the world, well she sort of just figured that water type, depth, and region would affect it just like things like regions, elevations, and history affected languages above the ground. She wished they could hear some audio tapes of the differences though so that they would be able to recognize dialects better.

She flipped through her worksheets and tried to sound out a few words in her head by using the pronunciation key, but it seemed to her there were a few sounds that overlapped each other. Did that mean there was no 'ih' sound in their language? She didn't see any combination of letters that were labeled that way. She also thought it was curious that a single i and double ii made the same long e sound. Was that a wand mistake on the board, or did they really use two versions for the same sound? And was the u for the oo sound in food the same sound as the uu for the ou sound in you? So yeah, she was a little confused, but maybe that's just how Mermished worked - duplicating the same sounds...and stuff.

SPOILER!!: Pronunciation Key

a - ah sound
o - long o
e - long a
i - long e
u - oo sound as in food
y - (as in a vowel) ee sound

aa - long a
oo - sound as in the word 'wood'
ee - stretch out the 'e' sound
ii - long e
uu - sounds like you

ih - uh sound
ae - aye sound

She looked at her sheets again and picked another word to inspect. Liiffoo - surprise. L...eee...ff...oo. Are consonants all pronounced the same as ours? I guess? Liiffoo = leefoo. Ok.


And here's another one that's interesting. Ghaajii - beneath. She raised her hand to ask about it, "Sir, do they pronounce their consonants like we do in English? For instance the word...um... G-h-a-a-j-i-i...is that a hard G like in gut? And is the J making a G sound or that more slurrish J sound like how French sounds sometimes?" She'd really confused herself now, so she hope he understood what she meant.

Listening as the students began trying out the different sounds and words. He smiled encouragingly at them. "Both of them can be used, when speaking with a merperson, it's just as if for instance I said 'yeah' instead of 'yes' it's like a slang term for the same word at times. Others can be like 'soda' and 'pop'. They'll understand which one you mean for the most part."

"Just as in different parts of a country, the language is basically the same just in warmer water it might have softer tones, where as in colder water it'll be more pronounced."



"An excellent language to learn!" he said brightly with a smile. "Absolutely, that is correct. That's how many of the different dialects of mermish come to play. By travels amongst the merpeople moving around the world."

Listening to her concerned question he nodded "To us perhaps it would. But most often when you or I will be under the water like in the lake, we'll use a bubble head charm or some sort of similar charm, so you'll be able to speak. Even with using gillyweed, you'll be able to speak normally as you'll be taking in the water through gills."



Giving Ella an encouragine smile he went on to the next person who was attempting to speak the language.



His eyes twinkled at the boy as he attempted to say the sounds and grinned. At least they were having fun with it!



"Indeed they do, the G will be a hard G as in gut, but a J will be soft not silent but like 'J' in 'Jacques' in French." Good question! "So for instance you would say in the word Ghaajii it would sound like 'G-ay-zh-ee'."

If we have quite a few responses in the morning I'll reply and have a little surprise! If not when I arrive in Iowa in the afternoon, I shall post the surprise then

"Thank you, Sir for clarifying that for me." Alyssa thanked him before reviewing the worksheets again.

"Okay, Yes is Heh..that should be easy to remember. No is Toh...Heh...Toh...Heh...Toh...Up is Hekk...Down is Mmawat...Hekk...Mmm-w-aht...Hekk...Mmawat" Alyssa practiced her mermish.

Vell this was going to be painful.

Erik tried not to wince too much as the students started pronouncing and practising. For the love of Odin...he wished he had thought to bring along a pair of earplugs. He glanced over at the Divination professor and raised his brows slightly. Was she going to try to butcher this beautiful language too?

In all fairness, it wasn't their fault they didn't have a competent instructor, as he had had when he learned Mermish. There was no better way to learn it than underwater from a native speaker, after all. But all they had was Gavin...Erik kept these thoughts to himself and his expression entirely neutral as the class droned on.

Um...was it bad that she didn't see anything wrong with having her voice charmed? She didn't really see the big deal...it was just to make them sound normal and they should have been grateful that anyone cared enough about what they said to actually want to hear them.

Gosh.

Rude. Just very rude of them.

She sat back in her cushy chair, watching everyone trying to get this pronunciation thing. They sounded kinda funny. Lex tilted her head and stared on at them. It took a while longer for her to realized that she was meant to be practising too. Right then. The stuff she needed were on the worksheets that got handed out, yes?

Here we go.

"Aahhhh-teeree...ah-tere....aaaaaah-teeerreeee..."

Because some people couldn't just take then dang charm and say forest like everyone else.

Well, Wade didn't have any questions regarding the language. Like everyone everyone around him said, mermish language might have different accents and ways of speaking like humans already do.

He then looked down at the sheet blinking as they now had to practice.


Wade would first silently mouth the instructions before he started again this time verbally. "ah... ohhhhh... ehhhhh... eeeeh... ooooh....ee."

"aaaaeee... vood.. voo.. ood.. oud.. ou.. uu.... aeeeeehhh...... eeeeeeeeee..... yeh..uu... yuuuu."

"ooh.. uh... uhh.... eye... eyee.. ae... aye.." Wade furrowed his brows at that.. it did not feel nor sound right as he retried mouthing it, this time silently from the top again.

Alyssa turned around when she heard Wade trying to pronounce his mermish words. She laughed...not because he sounded funny...but more because after he had said it verbally, he had turned silent but his eyes were furrowed. She suspected he was trying to pronounce the words in his mind.

Leaning over she whispered to him."Hey Wade. Are you struggling with pronouncing these words as I am? I mean I'm trying to say it phonectically like it is written in the worksheet. But I have a feeling that I'm still saying it wrong."

It was definitely conflicting his human speech as Wade was re-mouthing out the "e" sound. He then heard soft laughing, which made him smile slightly (laughter usually does that to him).. he must be sounding ridiculous trying before he now recognized the voice that followed.

"Hey Alyssa.. yea, this is very challenging. I'm tempted to mix in another accent to see if it would help." Wade smiled before looking at the sheet again to look at the most difficult. "For me it's the "oo", I can only end it with the 'd' otherwise it sounds like how "ih" is pronounced."

Encouraging smiles were encouraging and Ella BEAMED at instructor dude, happy he approved of the attempts she was making. ...Even if she was pretty sure she was rubbish at speaking Mermish.

Moving along, the blonde scanned yet another worksheet in search of a word she deemed wildly important. FOOD. Or more importantly, HUNGRY.

Ella felt hungry like...always and knowing how to convey that was pretty important, yeah? Yeah.

Scan. Scan. Scan.

Hnn-kii ...BLINK.

Yeah, that was going to be easy to say.

Well what she knew for sure was that ii made the long e sound. That was at least a little helpful. As for the rest, she was just gonna sort of hope for the best.

"Hnn-kii....Hnn-kii...Hnnnnnn-kiiiiiii"

Alyssa frowned. She could figure out why he would have problems pronouncing his Oo. So she asked him.

"Uh....Wade? Haven't you ever said the word Ooooooo as in ooo...la...la? Just pronounce it like that.she suggested to him with a smile.

SPOILER!!: Professor Question 1

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver Ninja

"Let's move to Mermish, what do you think are some reasons or ways that the Mermish language might differ in different parts of the world?"

Belle heard the question and had no idea how to answer it. She heard the other student's answers. She felt they were logical enough. She did not raise her hand because she did not want to make a fool of herself.

SPOILER!!: Professor Question 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver Ninja

"Let's go back to what a few of you have mentioned regarding the ways that merpeople speak and the sounds they make." he said as he sent smiles to the two students that had brought it up.

"Above water the screeching is said, but that is due to their voices not being accustomed to being above water. Underwater, they have a very melodious voice, pleasant to listen to." Folding his hands in his lap, he sat back "Many of you might be thinking you must screech as well, it might easily offend them, if you do so, making them think that you are making fun of the way they speak."

"Just as in if you were under the water trying to speak to them, your own voices would be distorted and sound funny to your own ears, the merpeople's voices sound different above the water. Our voices need air to pass through our vocal cords to make the sound. A merperson needs the water in order to make their sounds heard properly."

"Water depth, salt water versus fresh water, warm water versus cold water, currents, location, each one gives something different and you will find different species of merpeople in each area." Pausing for a moment, he thought maybe he should offer the chance for any questions. "Before we move on to learning how to speak and some of the basic phrases are there any questions or comments of what we've gone over so far? Anything that concerns you about how you would speak to a merperson if given the chance."

Belle had no questions so far. She was observing and listening intently to what others were saying. She seemed content and happy to go on with the activity. Some of her classmates asked about whether male or female and whether the gestures or dialect differentiate. Belle would have asked that question but someone beat her to it.

SPOILER!!: Activity!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver Ninja

"If there aren't any further questions let's move on to the language itself." he said as he picked up his pages off the floor by his beanbag chair. "You will find even with this list of words, the sounds can differ from what it says exactly. I tried to give exact sounds where I could on your sheets." Taking his wand he flicked it towards the board behind him.

"That should help you on any combinations. The consonants are hard and quick when you say the word. No drawing them out like on an 'h' just a quick sound for it, very pronounced. If you have any questions on the words, feel free to try saying some of the words you see on there."

"Em Chi" he said nodding to them with an encouraging smile. Meaning for them to feel free to begin.

Belle was ready to start the activity. Finally the chance she has been waiting for. She saw the sheet and she went to go collect it. She was relieved to know, if she did the language wrong, the merepeople would kindly correct them if she did it wrong.

Knowing Belle, she would do the same thing if someone else was in the same position. Belle was going to start trying to utter words but she noticed her friend who was doing the same activity.

SPOILER!!: Minnie!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Minerva looked at her paper, which words to try. She looked around to see if others had started already. She didn't know why she felt nervous, she didn't want to do this wrong, but it was her first try. Pointing her finger to the first word she came to on the worksheet she looked down. "li, li" was that right she wondered giggling a bit at the sound. Looking at a different word Minerva said that one out loud as well. "c..ca..caatuu, caatuu, caatuu." Shaking her head she really didn't know if she was saying these right, but they sounded funny.

Belle saw Minnie and smiled and walked over to her. "Harder than it looks doesn't it?" she giggled and looked at the list. She was going to pronounce the words first before making words.

SPOILER!!: worksheet

a - ah sound
o - long o
e - long a
i - long e
u - oo sound as in food
y - (as in a vowel) ee sound

aa - long a
oo - sound as in the word 'wood'
ee - stretch out the 'e' sound
ii - long e
uu - sounds like you

ih - uh sound
ae - aye sound

Belle was going to do the sounds. Belle cleared her throat and did the "aaaaaaaaa uuuuuuuu ih ih ae ae ae ae..." Belle then started giggling. She could not take herself seriously. "Like my words Min" she asked her.

Listening as the students continued practicing their sounds, he gave them encouraging smiles and nods "Well done each of you. I think you are ready to take and try out your new skills at speaking Mermish!" He knew that might bring some nervous looks as well as excitement about getting to meet a merperson.

"We're not going to swim to the depths of the lake, I promise, but you'll get a little wet, and I have arranged for a few merpeople to join us at the lake shore." Rising to his feet "Feel free to bring your notepads, pens and pages with you, and anything else, unless you wish to leave the remainder of your things here. And we'll head down to the lake.

Alyssa grinned when she heard that they would be going to the lake. She had hoped that they would be. Yay!...they were going to talk with the Merpeople.

Picking up her notepad, pan and worksheets with her, she followed the lecturer out the door.

Wade's brows furrowed once again at the strange saying "Ooh la la?" Before he blinked.. Merlin. "Wow, that worked.. thank you." He smiled brightly at Alyssa. She knew her stuff, he last thought as he looked at the sheet again..


Wade perked up at the next thing.. guess they were going for a dip with the merfolks. He was excited at this as he collected his things to follow.

The Lake? Jory knew it! They were going to speak to merpeople! Jory thought he would die of excitement. Grabbing his bag and sheets of paper, he jumped up from his seat and followed the instructor and other students.

"Merpeople, here we come!''

Okay, so, Lottie heard everyone else's questions...and didn't have one of her own, really. But they were all sooooo good. Especially West's. Who else could've brought gestures but him, right?

Smart people.

Then when the time came to pronounce things, the second year Hogwartian started, like everyone else, and then burst out laughing because everyone (her included) sounded so amusing!

OH, THE WERE GOING TO THE LAKE NOW? TO MEET THE GIANT SQUID OR SOMETHING? Where was Dustbin when you needed someone to throw into the lake, eh?

Lottie, OF COURSE, gathered her things and rushed outside, following the man who knows all 12 languages.