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Jamin

@bpnjohnson.bsky.social
261 followers 377 following 404 posts

Lingufacturer. Mead-maker. DIYer. Decolonizer. Fountain pen enthusiast. Thwacker of uncooperative technology. Purveyor of bespoke languages. Pinoek, Mi'kma'ki. /ʤəˈmɪn/ he/him 🇨🇦

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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I made 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑎ℎ𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 last night - a kind of traditional Valthungian stew. Meatballs seared in butter, caramelized onion, carrot, spinach, red bell pepper, garlic, and butter chicken sauce. (You can use any sauce, really. Tikka masala, green curry - heck, even marinara - adjust your spices accordingly.)
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My hoya seems to have liked her summer on the porch! I counted ten inflorescences without really trying, and a few are already spent. Unfortunately, this thing stinks. Not really a bad smell, but more like old-timey perfume, or a fancy soap that only your great-grandmother liked. And also feet.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Happy St. Hildegard's Day!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A very Happy Guillotine Sharpening Day to all who celebrate!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
🇨🇦 Happy Canada Day!🍁 🐰 Happy White Rabbit Day!🐇 🏳️🌈Pride Month is over🏳️⚧️ – are you ready for Queer Wrath? ☠️ 🍰Two weeks to Bastille Day! 🗡️Have you sharpened your guillotine recently?🪓 (There’s not a guillotine emoji... yet.) #CanadaDay #WrathMonth
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I didn't even notice this mountain laurel growing in the north side of the house until it started blooming yesterday!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It's a little wet for a good stroll in the Public Gardens today, but this flower in the succulent garden seemed happy about it. It wasn't labeled, but I'd guess it's some kind of Cereus.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Many thanks to the Indexing Society of Canada for the extended membership, and congratulations to Saleh!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Happy Solstice! Happy Litha! Fā linþ! Þohwa yar leþ hweysj!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
That's my favourite heterorganic affricate! I slip it into quite a few conlangs, like a little signature!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Here are a few new Valthungian words from today’s move-in to-do list. (Yes, this is the nonsense that is usually rattling around in my brain.)
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I'm pretty sure this path through Miner's Marsh is Fae propaganda. Wish me luck...
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Happy St. Urho's Day! Hyvää Urhon Päivää!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
As a late-GenX/proto-Millennial, I fear we're all going to be too tired by the time we get a chance. My retirement plan at this point is mostly just to wander off into the wilderness and never be heard from again.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I'm working on two projects presently - a movie and a fantasy series - but thanks to the magic of NDAs that's about all I can say. The languages for the novels are almost done, though, and hopefully I'll be able to share more soon!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I don't know enough Mi'kmaw to gloss the sign, but the Valthungian is: DEF.FEM.NOM.SG force COP-3SG.IMP COM-2SG.DAT, and DEF.MSC.NOM.SG meal COP-3SG.IMP COM-2SG.DAT
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
The second best Canadian thing I've seen today: The airport at the northern tip of Newfoundland has airport code YAY and it is located in postal district A0K.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I'm not sure I understand the question.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
By the way, my favourite example of the same phenomenon in Valthungian: - So māts imda miþís. “May the force be with you.” - Sa mats imda miþís. “You should have some lunch.”
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Best sign at today’s rally against Twobit Timbit’s ridiculous provincial budget: This is the best example I think I’ve ever seen to illustrate the importance of vowel length in languages that have that distinction. Kesalul = “I love you.” Ke’sa’lul = “I cast you into the fire.”
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Just got back from a weekend of looking at houses in Kentville and Canning, with a Saturday night interlude for Queer Curling at the Glooscap Curling Club of Kentville! Lots of fun, but my knees are not happy with me today. #HouseHunting #CanadianThings
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Has anyone tried Hey.cafe yet? It's an ad-free anti-data-collection home-grown alternative to Facebook and the other Big Bads, based in Canada. It went public yesterday. I haven't used it long enough to have much of an opinion about it yet, but it seems promising. If anybody's on there, I'm @Jamin.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
New pet conspiracy theory: Generative AI learned spelling and punctuation from the Epstein files.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
A native Italian speaker has informed me that "teschietti" sounds more natural, so I defer to their judgement!
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
What do you do when you have no orecchiette for the recipe you want to make, but you remember that you have a couple of silicon skull moulds?... I think I'm going to call them "teschini." #PastaPosting #ConCuisine
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Sorry, kinda in the middle of hockey season here.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
#Lexember 24: arǧinto/siluvra ‘rentremblu/rentru’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Fiškas njutnaþ iža giulas forð’usþínsna ocsigenio ustam watrin. ‘Picu brute na brinkopru pro-ke ka-tire na kisemblu fra-no vakwu.’ ‘Fish use their gills to extract oxygen from the water.’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Lexember 23: giula ‘brinku’ ‘gill’ (plural form giulas ‘brinkopru ~ pair/set of gills’)
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
#Lexember 23: giula ‘brinku’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Ik þlenǧa hisdagis, þā ik komœuǧa sképia ga forðu miðgangna gistrisdagis tragœuǧa. ‘Mu hodji pudralye, layo mu ha vopre na logu komœuǧa pro-ke me-yite tra-gedju getra.’ ‘I am feeling lazy today, so I created comedy to go with yesterday’s tragedy.’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
komœuǧa (comœudia) ‘me-medju’ ‘comedy’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
#Lexember 22: komœuǧa (comœudia) ‘me-medju’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
(*YMMV depending on your definition of ‘interesting’ or ‘funny’.)
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
then applied to new roots: medj- and gedj-, respectively. So, me-medju ‘comedy’ and tra-gedju ‘tragedy’. However, as with many classical calques, the prefixes are optional, and the adjective forms become medja ‘comedic’ and gedja ‘tragic’.
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
But the really funny* part is Europic. This is a little joke that Chrysanthi, the fictional future creator of the Europic language in 2097, sneaked into the corpus: The words for ‘comedy’ and ‘tragedy’ have been reanalyzed as classical borrowings com- ‘with’ (which becomes me-) and tra- ‘through’,
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
On the Valthungian side, the standard spelling is given, but there is also a “traditionalist” spelling for most words (recently) borrowed from Latin and Greek, so you might also see ⟨tragœudicus⟩. (Even the traditionalist spelling uses ⟨œu⟩ for Latin ⟨oe⟩ for reasons I won’t go into here.)
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
This one is interesting* in a couple of different ways:
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
#Lexember 21: tragœuǧikus ‘gedja’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Gažuka grējutungiška: “Þat hauðiþ swǣjugn’anþāft swa giula for kamilo.” ‘Dikatu grijica: “Tci-lasu he na lanta zemblu kwo brinkopru pro kamblu.”’ A Valthungian saying: ‘That makes as much sense as gills on a camel.’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Lexember 20: anþāft ‘zemblu’ ‘rational thought, logic, reason, sense’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
#Lexember 20: anþāft ‘zemblu’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Is tuswīslaða þa kronamilo wiðraða glekinsukra, usfánþu fetrin wresista his frǣjus. ‘Ru le ka-morfistre pulva-kurza dru pulva-sukru, wa-ke le me-kepe sulda-su drugista de tci-la mwaldu.’ ‘He mistook the corn starch for powdered sugar, and invented the world’s worst pastry.’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
‘to mix up (with), to confuse (for)’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
(Tci-la frazu ne zemblo-he pe pa duwa lingwo, layo-ke logu dru “truffle” ne se la dra-lu.) ‘(This sentence makes no sense in either language, because the word “truffle” is different in both.)’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Im ist sǣr vuiðra – bǣžis skātalis kystinasuþ – nīčin hyðnas šǭkoletina wiðra swatmalia tuswīslan. ‘Nacu ka-morfistraca se muji teja – kacka-mo wa denga-mo – mi trufu tcokla wa funga.’ ‘It is very important, both financially and gustatorily, to avoid confusing chocolate truffles with fungal ones.’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
‘truffle, fruiting body of mushrooms of the Tuber species’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
#Lexember 19: tuswīslan (wiðra) ‘ka-morfistre (dru)’
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Jamin @bpnjohnson.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
#Lexember 18: hyðna ‘trufu’
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