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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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!
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.