9 Cassandra and nick names.

And we continue with the 9 faces experiments (stay tuned for more) and I still have problems connecting to the internet from home.

I have few announcements to make.

1) I have set filters for the comments: recently I was receiving the wrong type of spam in it (porn and blue pills)... this was due to the fact that some content had swayed too much and Google had started indicizing the blog the wrong way. So some words are being filtered out and if your post does not show under my blog I have never received it and it was filtered out.
Sorry, it was getting tiring and I don't like to be listed with porn.

2) There was a bit of a situation on Smack Jeeves: although I believe I am the authority on this comic (because author and authority come from the same root XDD - simple pirate logic) I also realize that when an artwork is put out there interpretation cannot be avoided. And as much as sometimes things could be frustrating I try not to interfere and let the comic explain itself and unravel my thinking. I wish for you to enjoy the comic without picking fights over a fictional thing that is created - for me - as a form of exercise and - for you - for pure entertainment.
I will not answer to any other questions that are not related to the comic because I do not have time and also... I cannot answer to questions if I am trying to explain that very concept in the comic itself so please let me finish what I am saying first, alright. I can guarantee it's worth the wait, thank you for understanding.

3) Nicknames: the previous situation led to another situation. Some readers have created their own nicknames for the characters which led to much confusion (man, I already have 5 identical sisters, if we begin to mix names around then Hell breaks loose hahahaha). I will not refrain any of you from picking nicknames or term of endearment for any of the characters, it is how you show affection and I appreciate that, just as long as it does not create confusion in other readers.

Please do not be offended, though, if I don't participate nor share your love for these names you created, because I have picked mine already and am veeeery attached to them.

I think I explained once in the past why I picked the names, they had to go with the personality of the characters and how I developed them.

I did not mention how the nicknames came to be.

Nicknames in Southern European languages are derived in different ways and for different reasons than in English or German. Latin languages have to deal with accents and sounds. Greek has to deal with compound words too.

For example, in Italian, we don't have Lissie or Lizzie for Elizabeths.. we have Betta, Bettina, Elisa (I love Bettina) or Lisabe'. We might use more Bice for Beatrice than Bea (I call my niece Bice). Filippo can become Fili and Edoardo can become Dodi.

Although Italian youth is getting more and more Americanized, and now we also have some Jessicas and Samanthas, Jessica becomes Je' and Samanta becomes Sama'. Samuele is Samu or Sami not Sam.

Some languages also have grammatical forms that are called pejorative and diminutive (peggiorativo and vezzeggiativo - this last word is translated as term of endearment quite often).
They work by adding a suffix at the end of the word.

Let's take Deda, for example. If you call me Dedaccia I am being a bad bad Deda, if you call me Deduccia or Deduzza... I am your pet.

Also people with ancient names take a lot of pride in them.

One of my colleague has a Sanskrit name and you have to call her Subanthra not Subi or Banthra. It's long but she doesn't care: it's her name she doesn't want anybody to mess it up.

It's the same reason why I turned to Deda, to spare my name from being butchered (my British manager would call me Deb or Debbie - but my name is not English, it's Hebrew XD). That's what my sister calls me, Deda, at least it is a familiar name and that is what I allow everybody to use (and save my poor biblical name for the only two people who know how to say it: my nephew and niece - although they call me Bau more often, as many of my closest friend do.)

Other nicknames are born due to people's qualities/abilities (Cat) or defects (Foxy).

Let's see how our nicknames were born. Usually for nick names you take the first part of the name or the second one without mutating, only truncating.

Cassandra - Κεσάνδρα (Kesandra), shortened Kes the first part of the name was chosen.

Calliope - Καλλιόπη (Kalliopeh), shortened Lio because originally Feetsie was called Kalli and Liope was too long and got shortened into Lio (Leeo).

Cassiopea - Κασσιόπη (Kassiopeh), shortened as Pea the second part of the name was chosen.

Callista - Kαλλίστα (Kallista) she became Feetsie, eventually, but was originally Kalli.

Castalia- Κασταλία (Kastaleeah) she is the odd one and does not belong to the circle. If her name were to be shortened (and Italian was very much a Universal language back then) Casta would mean chastity, Taleea is an Hebrew name and would not bring her any good luck (as we've seen with the doctor) - so, sorry Bobo, I know you read it as Talia/Taglia e Cuci (I do too) but the accent fall on the i in Greek (I know, we all read it Castalia by now, but back home the pronunciation of the girls' name is very different)... her nickname could be Leea. But these are names the girls gave to each other, they never gave one to Castalia. It is very important.

Callimaco - Καλλίμαχος (Kallimahos), shortened Limi because Machos is an actual place and it is also a word used in compounds like stomach and would lead to confusion.

And now you know why I do prefer my choice for the nicknames, I feel them closer to the characters' personalities, but I also took some time to researched them. So I'll stick to mine, if you don't mind.