This comic was made with an insistent dachshund intruding upon my lap every five seconds.
The upper case I and lower case l in the font I use for Selkie look identical. Did not consider that when making substitution-cypher dialog. XD
This comic was made with an insistent dachshund intruding upon my lap every five seconds.
…this is almost too adorable for words.
…
*plays “AWWwwwwww” track*
I commented too late on the previous strip so maybe it might be answered here. Was Selkie really drawing those green characters or was that something she simply traced in the air and we see because we get to look in her head?
These past two strips have got me wondering if this is what English sound like to someone who hasn’t learned it. If anyone wishes to enlighten me I would be delighted.
Here’s a fun video. It’s a song spoken with American-English inflection, but it’s gibberish. I feel like it probably gives a good idea of what it might be like to non-English speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8
I hate this question. “What does english sound like to non english speakers”
That’s the question of someone who’s never learned a second or third language. It sounds like english, O.K?
French never started sounding ‘different’ after I learned it, and nor did Chinese. The only difference is that I know how to listen to it, where words end and begin, and I know what the words mean, and get mental images of what the words are when they’re spoken.
That doesn’t change the SOUND at all, it only changes the mental interpretation.
If you want to hear how someone who doesn’t speak english mentally interpretes english, gather a few hundred people in a room, and tell them all to talk at once very loudly.
Also, the downside to learning multiple languages? You start dreaming in a sort of fucked up pidgin made of all the languages you know.
Compared to Russian and Ukrainian, English is the most gibberish-sounding one. Yall’s pronounciation isnt connected to how the words are spelled so it’s kind of… less fixed? Like, you can say the same word like five subtly different ways that native speakers will identify because of context, approximately the same skill as differentiating between ‘their’, ‘there’ and ‘they’re’. Homophones are very common in English and yall dont even realize how much.
French, meanwhile, is ridiculously fast, and you can’t tell where one word ends and the other starts. English has traces of it too, compared to Russian especially, but nowhere near as much. I’ve been having fun asking people how many words do they think “Keskese” is in French (the answer is six) (there syllables is six words in French) (I’m not saying I hate French but good god)
Here is a slightly older video that’s been making the rounds recently. Warning, it’s actually rather disorienting to listen to!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY
Both of those are cool to hear. They sound like the way my sister talks when she talks in her sleep.
The first one is surreal because it sounds like I ought to understand them. It sounds like words!.
The second one is more like actual English word salad. Also, pineapple?!? Whaaaaat? WHY PINEAPPLE?
Is there some stereotype about angry Americans and pineapple?
Weird for me is I tried to attempt a fake English while listening and ended up with what sounded like a weird mix between Russian, Korean, and Japanese (English is my first language with some instruction in Japanese) … harder to do than it looks.
As someone for whom English is a foreign language, I can say that it was pretty much same as if you picked any other language you don’t know, and listened to it. Try Russian (unless you understand it).
Oh, and the first of those two videos was pretty much spot on!
Thanks for the videos as they helped satisfy my curiosity.
Is that why everything is spelled wrong? The penis dog?
It’s a cipher – every letter is shifted… I forgot how many letters it’s shifted by but others have figured it out.
Were you quoting the dachshund here? Please give a translation. I’m too thick to figure this out.
It’s a cipher/ WARNING! Gonna decode teh cryptogram.
Here goes.
LILLIAN–
Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Roll it and pat it, and mark it with a B…
And put it in the oven for… Selkie and me?
SELKIE–
{In Tensei}…Wait… is that ME? Does that mean Nei Li?
LILLIAN–
YES! YES! Selkie!
SELKIE–
Nei Li…
L_… Se…. (Never seen the E before, not sure what to translate it to)
LILLIAN–
Selkie!
Lelkbe!(Makes no sense.. halp?)
SELKIE–
Ses… rie…
Sel… kie…!
SELKIE!
I think Lelkbe is how Selkie is starting to comprehend her “human” name better.
“[meaningless word]! [sort of like a name]!”
I think the “slsril” could be not cipher, but the cipher morphing into the actual sounds as Nei Li begins to truly distinguish them.
… Then again, the “sls” sounds like “Sel” more than the “lel” does, and the “kbe” sounds more like “kie” than the “ril”… could be a combo of the two.
That’s true… probably the same with the “L_… Se…” too
“SE… ZL…” is the first part of “Selkie”, as spoken first in her own voice and then in the ROT7 that represents how she hears Lillian.
“SLSRIL” is an intermediate form in which the first and fifth letters are in her own voice, and the other four are in ROT7, indicating that she’s beginning to merge the two; I’d interpret it to mean that said “Selkie”, but using her native phonemes for about 1/3 of it.
The most common modern verses of “Patty cake” are:
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Roll it, Pat it and mark it with B,
Put it in the oven for baby and me.
Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Roll it up, roll it up;
And throw it in a pan!
Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man.
Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Roll it up, roll it up;
Put it in a pan;
And toss it in the oven as fast as you can!
That ain’t a naming game.
A lot of parents replace ‘baby’ with the child’s name. I wasn’t even aware of the ‘baby’ version until I read it in a nursery rhyme book when I was 8 or so.
But how would Lillian know to replace ‘baby’ with a name like Selkie? Her mother would have called her “Nei Li” when she spoke to the staff at the orphanage.
Probably Lillian just picked “selkie” because of the legends about skin-changing water people. Could also be just what humans call her people *in general*, despite the people having a different word for themselves. This happens a lot in real history, with “Indians” and “Africans” when said people are more likely to call their particular pod of people ‘Cherokee’ or ‘Zulu’.
I second this theory.
–But why would it be marked with ‘B’ if Selkie (rather than ‘baby’) begins with S?
Some versions of this game use the B regardless, and some parents actually switch the letter out… I’ve seen it both ways; it’s mostly a matter of what you grew up with/personal preference.
First word in English.
I would like to comment on how well young Selkie is done. It’s very clear that she’s the same character, but younger (and not just from the clothing.) Given the art style, and the fact that she’s non-human, this is really impressive.
Thanks. 😀 I tried to pay attention to that. Glad it shows!
Ah yes, I am quite familiar with the acute adorableness that is the Dachshund, particularly in those uncommon moments when they are persistent upon receiving attention 🙂 is yours always keen on being loved, or is yours of the more typical Dachshund come-and-go persuasion?
He must be cuddled at all times without cessation or reprieve, until he feels like napping at which point growl snarl glare.
I see, I see! Adorable little chap!
(My mom’s side has always loved dachshunds and most of the households on that side have at least one per house, if not two… you can imagine what reunions are like with literally a dozen of them underfoot XD)
Sounds like my Mom’s dachshunds too! Their personalities can be a lot like cats!
That face…. .-. <3