Where Angels Fear
2 min readMay 29, 2021

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But it's redundant:

Simply quoting me achieves exactly the same, because

1. double quotation marks indicate a direct transliteration in and of themselves; either literal speech or else a verbatim copy of written 'speech' — either way around, they indicate the subject's own words expressed verbatim.

2. without anything else to go on, the reader must, in any event, perforce accept that the quoted text is a literal transliteration, because there is nothing to suggest it be otherwise.

There is, therefore, no need to use '[sic]' for any purpose other than to indicate that a linguistic error within the quoted text existed in the original 'speech' and is not the result of an error in the transliteration process — if there are no linguistic errors in the material, there is no call to do more than wrap it in double quotation marks.

Furthermore, you need to consider other factors.

The use of lent (or borrowed) words in languages differs between them and the rules of one do not necessarily apply to another — English is not a Latin language and the use of Latin terms within it does not follow the same rules as it does in Romance languages.

Moreover, studying the Law in one land does not qualify one to understand it in another. Within the English legal system, for instance, even English words take on meanings of which native speakers are unaware, if they have no legal expertise/knowledge: be very wary of signing anything legally binding that contains the word ‘shall, for instance, if it pertains to your actions — unlike the everyday colloquial interchangeability with ‘will’, in English law it isn’t an expression of intent but means you are legally liable for the outcome under any and all circumstances.

And be very careful of what you say in Scotland — in English law a man's word is only worth the paper it is written on, whereas in Scottish law it is his bond and verbal agreements are legally binding in a way they aren't in England.

Do not, therefore, assume that your understanding of the use of lent/borrowed terms in one language means you have a complete grasp of them in another.

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Where Angels Fear
Where Angels Fear

Written by Where Angels Fear

There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die.

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