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Arabic in the batfam

@leefail has gotten me obsessed with how arabic would work in the batfamily

because arabic is natively spoken by 230 million people and is taught in any muslim majority to country because its considered poor faith to recite the Quran in any other language.

its also the most inconvenient and stupidly difficult language to learn in human history.

why?

because it is a colonial language

meaning the Arab empire happened and we all switched to arabic but unlike English... there wasn't the internet for people to learn how the 'og Arabs' spoke it and Arabs didn't slaughter and replace like the puritans they just taxed and converted (slaughter optional im not ignoring north Africa but it was region specific)

so that means that arabic which has a collective vocab of about 12.1 million words as well as a nasty habit of giving 100 words the same meaning as well as assigning 1 word like 8 meanings got practiced by these arabic speaking countries differently

so certain words fell out of use or changed meaning in one country while being startlingly popular in another

it also means that a lot of arabic regions maintained their older speech patters

latinised softer letters in levant countries closer to Cyprus due to the presence of Aramaic, syrianic and latin.

harsher more guttural sounds in regions that were closer to Iran.

so what does this mean? and Why does this mean arabic is a bitch to learn

well for one you don't write in your regional dialect, you write in modern standard or fus7a which is a whole other beast. Meaning that you don't really learn to speak in school.

two the dialects are significantly different enough across the region that people who learned arabic in Lebanon won't understand people from morocco.

now we are all SUPPOSed to speak Modern Standard Arabic but you have to understand how little it is used outside of like legal jargon. so you kinda lose it once you leave Arab formal education.

Which means if you immediately default to MSA 99% of Arabs will assume you are a cop like if you know the word for government but not skirt... come on man be less obvious.

Now most us speak 1 -3 dialects and understand 9-10

me personally I speak a levantine dialect and can understand most Egyptian, Jordanian and Gulf dialects. Iraqi and the rest of North Africa (with the exception of Tunisia) not so much.

Now what does that mean for arabic in the batfamily

its too useful for the Bats to not use

so do all of the bats speak arabic 1000%

Do all of them speak different dialects 1000%

Here they are imo

Bruce: Bruce is a cop (MSA) He can code switch and speak all the dialects but he just genuinely likes MSA, its the most complex and intricate form of the language and what's most commonly used for things like poetry and literature. But it does mean that his speech comes off very stilted and cringeworthy to most Arab speakers. The first dialect he learned was definitely Egyptian because its the one that's the most common in music and television as well as having the largest group of people speaking it (110 of the 230 million are from Egypt)

Dick: now I have no evidence for this but Dick Grayson would speak Lebanese arabic. It's notoriously the softest of the dialects and has the most higher pitched and flippy tones. His mother also grew up in France which would Fit for Dick since Lebanese Arabic tends to substitute harsher arabic words with French. the most common greeting in Lebanon is 'Hi, kefak ca va' which is English, arabic and French. And for a cameleon character with such an interesting and convoluted ethnic background I think picking the softest dynamic tongue with the most intersectionality fits.

Jason: Jason todd speaks Jordanian arabic, Jordanians are the most hilariously creative people in the mid east imo. there are turns of phrase from Jordan that kinda make you pause and blink for a second because damn... okay then. I have never met a Jordanian without a degree in the most creative insults you've ever heard. Jordanian arabic is also very close to stereotypical Levant arabic which still maintaining a lot more of the harsher more guttural sounds that countries like Lebanon and Syria tend to exclude. Jordan also has a huge Bedouin population and I just think he'd match that vibe

Tim: Tims parents were archeologist.. Egyptian. Tim has the heaviest Egyptian accent when he speaks arabic. His parents definitely had him learn it in hopes he'd follow their footsteps. Ja become Ga and he works so damn hard to keep the accent out of his words to try and hide any identifiers and he fails miserably. He also uses it the most out of the kids and he can read and understand MSA fluently unlike Dick and Jason who are fine readers but cannot speak it for the life for them. Tim also does the international students Mix and Match where you sometimes just use a word that's country specific to other countries. Tim doesn't tell Damian he understands it and so Damian has the most intense shock of his life when Tim replies back to his angry arabic muttering.

Damian: So I know that talia studied at the university of Cairo but I feel like Ra's speaks a very old form of arabic so I think Damian code switches quite often. I picture him speaking like a Saudi upper court dialect when he's talking with Ra's and I think talia does the same. But I think Damian is most comfortable somewhere in-between Jordan and UAE arabic with more levant terms of endearment (because of the aforementioned softness and ik talia isn't a soft parent in canon but she is one in my heart so there) and more casual speech following GCC speaking patterns. Tho I think Damian can understand and speak all of the dialects including the less popular ones like Moroccan daraji.

Steph: I have zero evidence and not even an elaboration but if steph was Middle Eastern she'd be Iraqi bc vibes so that's what she speaks fuck you im right. It's definitely on the harsher side tonally but idk she gives the energy of using it and teasing Jason and Dick for using frou-frou arabic. Tho I will absolutely make the argument that she learned Syrian arabic for a friend pre her involvement with the bats.

Also Steph, Dick and Jason do sip and bitch sessions and they disagree on the correct way to make coffee. Jason is absolutely a traditionalist, Dick is a Turkish coffee believer and steph adds way too much cardamom.

also also Jasons favorite poet is Darwish, Tims fave is Al-muttanabbi, Dicks is Gibran (ik he spoke mostly in English but tell me Dick Grayson isn't gonna freak over 'your children are not yours they are children of the world') , Bruces is Qabbani. Steph doesn't like poetry but she has absolutely read memoirs of a woman doctor by nasal el saadawi and loved it

Single parent Dick Grayson on the brain rn

Does anyone have any fics?

I’m not talking about like Dick raising one of the robins im talking about a whole ass child like a baby.

The only canon character I will accept is Mari Grayson but plz

Someone give this man a tiny child.

If any fanfic writers come across this and need convincing I give you.

-Jason comes back from the dead and decides it’s revenge time and it gets ruined bc wtf why does Dick have a 5 year old. Why is the 5 year old adorable? He cannot kill this 5yr olds dad even if he is a dick (lowercase)

- young Tim being an uncle (wtf is he supposed to do here??) and calling Steph bc she knows things and him getting yelled at bc “oh bc I’m a girl ik how to child rear?? Fuck you” this is not why he called her but now he’s too scared to try and clarify.

-Lian and Baby Grayson play dates

-23 yr old Dick has a Baby, he got adopted at 22. Baby is legally Bruce’s grandchild. Bruce is a grandpa at 38 wtf is he supposed to do here. He’s being broody his son is dead! He can’t care about a chil- awwww look they’re smiling at me hiii baby

-Damian and baby Grayson fighting during Bruce time stream vacation. Baby Grayson “well I’m the blood child so there!” Cue Damian violently screaming.

-titans baby sitting shenanigans

-each person who interacts with baby Grayson decides to buy the child their hero merch. This is competition. Dick has about 5 closets worth of baby sized hero merch he doesn’t do laundry for 3 months..

Baby Grayson being a freakishly good acrobat like their dad and scaring everyone (why is the 4 yr old doing a backflip) Batman finally feels vindicated bc everyone knows how hard it was to keep Dick on the ground and not a chandelier now.

Plz send links if anyone has anything like this or writes something I require content and it’s midterms

hey so it’s march now aka the beginning of endometriosis awareness month and i feel obligated to remind you that debilitatingly painful periods are not normal. if you or someone you know is ending up sick or bedridden every month, you are not crazy and deserve medical attention from someone who will take you seriously

Well it’s less direct comic panel and more a lot of implicit stuff but I have a few saved and a few that I remember things vaguely happening

But Jason Todd canonically resents Nightwing for being the perfect son

And for following Bruce’s teachings which he deems frankly ineffective and useless.

As well as feeling that he will never be able to live up to Nightwings legacy

(Feat Jason’s hallucinations)

But Dick Grayson is another story

Because Nightwing is Batman’s pride and Joy. Proof the the concept of the child hero and one of the first second gen hero’s who got justice league level respect without taking over a mentors titles

Meanwhile

Dick Grayson is his brother

And sometimes these two come into conflict like in under the redhood

You can see in the image here that when bludhaven got destroyed

Initially Jason wasn’t happy, his face was shadowed and he was genuinely upset and then Bruce screamed Dicks name and Jason immediately remembers himself and returns to taunting Bruce

Jason’s relationship is bad with nightwing bc he sees nightwing as another hand in Batman’s crusade

Dick has been Jason’s hero since long before he put on the uniform

And here is where I struggled to find more images

But Jason Todd and Dick Grayson have a completely separate relationship

Despite dick and nightwing being the same guy it’s very obvious when Jason is talking to Dick his Big Brother and Nightwing Batman’s lil perfect solider

They can insult each other and joke around and be supportive with one another

And Dick Grayson will always have Jason Todd’s back if not the red hood

There was a panel in I think the Nightwing 2021 annual where Jason was accused of murder and Dick goes to talk to him and Jason immediately goes “I didn’t do it” and Dick replies I believe you “just like that?” “Just like that”

And of course there was the iconic Nightwing and Batman fight during Gotham war with my boy did so well in he should’ve won

Anyway Dick and Jason are friends and brothers

Nightwing and red hood despise each other

Thank u for coming to my ted talk

I love how severely Jason refuses to differentiate between Bruce and Batman while also refusing to acknowledge that Nightwing and Dick Grayson are the same dude

Kind of ironic how one of Xie Lian's titles is "The god-pleasing crown prince" when the one thing he does consistently without fail is piss off the Heavenly Emperor.

I hate not liking a female character bc if I sit here and say I think one of the batboys is completely cringe there will be a group of people who viscerally hate this man for valid reasons and I can stew in my bitterness

But if say I hate a female character it’s annoying bc everyone else who hates said female character hates all female characters and rants about how women are too involved in the fandom

Like no I just don’t like her character

“But would you like her if she was a guy”

No actually she has a male version of herself and I hate that fucker too

Please Donna doesn’t even make the list she’s so far above literally everyone else in his life.

That’s his platonic soulmate

Bitches be like: Dick's favourite sibling is Damian, Dick's favourite sibling is Tim, Dick's favourite sibling is Cas. Meanwhile we all know that his favourite is Donna Troy

imagine bludhaven and gotham having a custody battle over nightwing

Gotham citizen talking to a metropolis citizen: anyway we have a fuck ton of heroes, Batman, Batwoman, signal, red hood, Nightwing, robin

Bludhaven citizen eavesdropping: I’m sorry what the fuck did you say

Gotham: listen pal you got a problem with me??

Bludhaven: yeah asshole, you ain’t the only city in Jersey and every hero in Jersey don’t belong to you get nightwings name out your filthy mouse

Gotham: I’m sorry? Nightwing?? Aka a bat. Yeah no we got a copyright on that shit

Bludhaven: he ain’t a bat dipstick HES A BIRD it’s in the damn name

Gotham: BATS HAVE WINGS

They proceed to tackle each other

Metropolis: bad time to say this I’m sure but New York was where nightwing was first scene right?

New Yorker: don’t bring me into this

The pipeline from “I’m indifferent/slightly averse towards this popular ship” to “this ship shows up in every fucking unrelated fanwork and post and now I have a personal grudge against it because it’s so hard to avoid” is surprisingly short

Me when some of yall post about Dick Grayson and Roy Harper angst unprompted on a regular Tuesday

Tumblr already has a personalization algorithm it's called my beloved mutuals who have great taste and only wish to psychologically damage me sometimes