Something I’ve been meaning to ask Dave. So Tehk is living with his uncle and aunt, and it was implied they were Te Fahn’s parents. But in the strips we’ve seen of them, they look nothing alike. So are Tehk’s guardians a third sibling to Tehk’s father? And will we ever find out what happened to Benny’s sister?
Tehk does mention his “aunt and uncle,” Te Fahn’s parents, in 1696, which also implies that they’re the ones taking care of him now. But we see the two of them in 1133, and the woman looks nothing like Te Fahn’s mother in 1230. So maybe a different aunt and uncle are taking care of him.
Okay I asked Dave directly, he says that Te Fahn’s parents are Tehk’s maternal aunt+uncle, and Tehk is currently being taken care of by his paternal aunt+uncle. Different sets after all.
I would have thought that was obvious given that when Te Fahn gets dropped off in 1179 her mother tells her to remember that she’s going to Tehk’s after school. Which you know wouldn’t make sense if he was living with them.
The vertical continues unbroken from top to bottom while the horizontal bars never continue past it. This makes the horizontal line kinda feel more important than the horizontal ones. So yeah, I breafly thought of that possibility too before deciding the left to right was still the more probable order.
Kinda sounds like one of those lies that get told to kids to make them not do certain things that the adults don’t care to actually explain.
Also, comics layout is an art, and getting the eye to go where it’s meant to go is a big part of that. There are various techniques to accomplish that, including the placement of gutters but also the layout of elements within each panel. This page being rather spartan with the background details means there’s no additional elements helping out.
The fact that I’m reading it on a rather small computer monitor and could only see the top half of the comic at first is probably the only reason I read it correctly the first time. Vertical pages on horizontal screens is an interesting technological limitation that also needs to be taken into account.
Some regions also tend to have a lot more cursing in their vernacular. I have heard that the québécois, especially those from Montréal, tend to have a lot of swears. Since New York City is also generally viewed as having a high frequency of swearing, I wonder how much of it is a city trait.
Reminds me of my Venezuelan ex-wife teaching me to cuss a little. There’s a word that’s apparently pretty mild in Latin America. Then when we traveled to Spain I used it casually and she looked horrified and said “You can’t say that here!!!”
In Puertorico, the “evil N word” is used constantly. White people, black people, brown people, it doesn’t matter. Think of a Dave Chappelle routine – he says it like you might say friend or buddy. Same thing.
My daughter and her boyfriend were flying up for the holidays, and as the plane is coming in for a landing in Atlanta she turns to him and says, “Do NOT say that word while we are up here!!”
Also, I’m sure Te Fahn would love to know Selkie has also taught Amanda some Sarnothi insults. Yes, yes. Selkie’s been very proactive in presenting aspects of Sarnothi culture to those interested. :3
Does tend to be the phrases people learn first. Along with ‘Where is the bathroom?’ and ‘One more round.’ Though maybe that was just the priorities at my high school.
I always thought that “I do not understand.” and “I don’t speak .” were good options to learn too. Unfortunately, the only version of those phrases that I learned in my high school Chinese class was “wo bu zhi dao” (我不知道). Not sure if that is the best version.
My mother has 6 sisters and 1 brother. They have a spectrum of hair color, blonde, several shades of brown, red, and black. One of her sisters was sp similar that their friendly acquaintences frequently mistook them for each other. Her youngest sister you would never guess was related.
People would tell me “you look just like your mom/dad” when I was growing up. I replied “No, I look like my aunt, A!”
Several of my friends have been mistaken for my sister. A couple of them actually looked more similar to me than to each other. The sister of one of them looks like my mom!
On a historical that I found, what is considered profanity is always in flux depending on the culture at the time. Swearing tends to come either from religion, sexual acts or bodily functions. Prudish societies that don’t like talking about bodily functions tend to consider swears about that more profane (like the US, where you can commonly hear “oh my god” or something similar but thing like the f word is bleeped). Highly religious societies, like the Medieval times, viewed religious words more profane, while words dealing with bodily functions or secretions (like the s word) were more common. This might have been even more thr case since more people lived with animals like horses, cows, pigs, etc or dealt with their excrement in the street. The general public now doesn’t have to worry about the goat or cow getting pregnant so they can have milk at home.
It is an interesting cultural study, as much like fairy tales or children’s stories, you can tell a lot about what a culture values from its swear words and which ones are considered more acceptable.
I was a bit hesitant in knowing what terms could trigger an automatic filter, so the wording it a bit weird.
I don’t know what I find odder, atheists using religious swears when they don’t belive in a god or religious people using religious swears like they salt their food.
Something I’ve been meaning to ask Dave. So Tehk is living with his uncle and aunt, and it was implied they were Te Fahn’s parents. But in the strips we’ve seen of them, they look nothing alike. So are Tehk’s guardians a third sibling to Tehk’s father? And will we ever find out what happened to Benny’s sister?
Tehk does mention his “aunt and uncle,” Te Fahn’s parents, in 1696, which also implies that they’re the ones taking care of him now. But we see the two of them in 1133, and the woman looks nothing like Te Fahn’s mother in 1230. So maybe a different aunt and uncle are taking care of him.
Yeah that’s my curiosity, I don’t think Dave gave them names so it’s hard to know
Okay I asked Dave directly, he says that Te Fahn’s parents are Tehk’s maternal aunt+uncle, and Tehk is currently being taken care of by his paternal aunt+uncle. Different sets after all.
I would have thought that was obvious given that when Te Fahn gets dropped off in 1179 her mother tells her to remember that she’s going to Tehk’s after school. Which you know wouldn’t make sense if he was living with them.
The question is, if it’s that bad, how did she learn it? And does she know what it means?
Dunno if anyone else had this problem, but the layout made me think “Uh how bad is it?” was to be read second, rather than fourth.
The vertical continues unbroken from top to bottom while the horizontal bars never continue past it. This makes the horizontal line kinda feel more important than the horizontal ones. So yeah, I breafly thought of that possibility too before deciding the left to right was still the more probable order.
Kinda sounds like one of those lies that get told to kids to make them not do certain things that the adults don’t care to actually explain.
Also, comics layout is an art, and getting the eye to go where it’s meant to go is a big part of that. There are various techniques to accomplish that, including the placement of gutters but also the layout of elements within each panel. This page being rather spartan with the background details means there’s no additional elements helping out.
The fact that I’m reading it on a rather small computer monitor and could only see the top half of the comic at first is probably the only reason I read it correctly the first time. Vertical pages on horizontal screens is an interesting technological limitation that also needs to be taken into account.
She learned it because she heard her mother say it. Probably a lot more than once.
Plo’Quar had plenty of reasons to swear when Selkie was little. It may be a miracle Selkie isn’t more fluent in “Sarnothi cussing” than she is.
Some regions also tend to have a lot more cursing in their vernacular. I have heard that the québécois, especially those from Montréal, tend to have a lot of swears. Since New York City is also generally viewed as having a high frequency of swearing, I wonder how much of it is a city trait.
First thing you learn in foreign language from people not in a teaching position? Swears, cusses and profanity.
Reminds me of my Venezuelan ex-wife teaching me to cuss a little. There’s a word that’s apparently pretty mild in Latin America. Then when we traveled to Spain I used it casually and she looked horrified and said “You can’t say that here!!!”
I wonder if that’s similar case to the word c**t, severity of which varies wildly between different English speaking countries.
Or if they are just generally more accustomed to cussing in Latin America than in Spain.
In Puertorico, the “evil N word” is used constantly. White people, black people, brown people, it doesn’t matter. Think of a Dave Chappelle routine – he says it like you might say friend or buddy. Same thing.
My daughter and her boyfriend were flying up for the holidays, and as the plane is coming in for a landing in Atlanta she turns to him and says, “Do NOT say that word while we are up here!!”
Selkie, a mild opponent of everlasting torment.
Also, I’m sure Te Fahn would love to know Selkie has also taught Amanda some Sarnothi insults. Yes, yes. Selkie’s been very proactive in presenting aspects of Sarnothi culture to those interested. :3
Does tend to be the phrases people learn first. Along with ‘Where is the bathroom?’ and ‘One more round.’ Though maybe that was just the priorities at my high school.
I always thought that “I do not understand.” and “I don’t speak .” were good options to learn too. Unfortunately, the only version of those phrases that I learned in my high school Chinese class was “wo bu zhi dao” (我不知道). Not sure if that is the best version.
My mother has 6 sisters and 1 brother. They have a spectrum of hair color, blonde, several shades of brown, red, and black. One of her sisters was sp similar that their friendly acquaintences frequently mistook them for each other. Her youngest sister you would never guess was related.
People would tell me “you look just like your mom/dad” when I was growing up. I replied “No, I look like my aunt, A!”
Several of my friends have been mistaken for my sister. A couple of them actually looked more similar to me than to each other. The sister of one of them looks like my mom!
Tekh looks like his dad. https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie1679/
https://nypost.com/2015/03/02/meet-the-bi-racial-twins-no-one-believes-are-sisters/ shows an example of how different sibling can look!
I bet she got those from her mom reeeeeal young XD You drop an f-bomb once, kids never forget.
“The worst one.”
And also the one that Tehk chose to say in front of the entire assembly. And Then didn’t bat an eye. Haha!
Given what we know about Then’s personality, Then wouldn’t. LOL
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie1077/
For reference
On a historical that I found, what is considered profanity is always in flux depending on the culture at the time. Swearing tends to come either from religion, sexual acts or bodily functions. Prudish societies that don’t like talking about bodily functions tend to consider swears about that more profane (like the US, where you can commonly hear “oh my god” or something similar but thing like the f word is bleeped). Highly religious societies, like the Medieval times, viewed religious words more profane, while words dealing with bodily functions or secretions (like the s word) were more common. This might have been even more thr case since more people lived with animals like horses, cows, pigs, etc or dealt with their excrement in the street. The general public now doesn’t have to worry about the goat or cow getting pregnant so they can have milk at home.
It is an interesting cultural study, as much like fairy tales or children’s stories, you can tell a lot about what a culture values from its swear words and which ones are considered more acceptable.
Aren’t sexual acts a type of bodily function?
Yes, I know what bodily functions you meant…
As for the religious part, what continues to surprise me is how many people use swears like “oh my god” or “Jesus” despite professing to be atheists.
Put my reply below accidentally.
And now we know how to curse in Tensei… Fun. You know I gotta ask… Is Tensei in any way similar to Gaelige?
I was a bit hesitant in knowing what terms could trigger an automatic filter, so the wording it a bit weird.
I don’t know what I find odder, atheists using religious swears when they don’t belive in a god or religious people using religious swears like they salt their food.
Sorry, this somehow went under the wrong person. Meant to reply to Milo.
Tá beágon Gaelige agam. Not seeing it so far, but super curious what you’re getting at here.
On a note about Sarnothi culture, how easy would it be for them to spice their foods since they live underwater?