I wasn’t originally going to reveal Selkie’s “true” name this early, but I’ve bumped it up because the original reveal point no longer makes sense due to some rewrites, and having her mother dodge around saying her name while saying goodbye was just unbelievably awkward and stiff.
I have not yet mentioned Selkie’s mom by name, so for those who are curious, her mother’s name is Plo Quar.
Selkie’s “true” name and the origin of her barrette have been (obscurely) hinted at previously. If you enjoy the archive trawl go for it, but for those that would like a reference link, here and here.
Megan Rhodes also sent me a cute fanart interpretation of this scene.
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Thanks!
Plo Quar's name comes from a story I wrote back when I was 12 about two twin monsters, Fing Mar who had scorpion tails and created smog and storms, and Plo Quar who had caterpillar legs and created rain and breezes. I drew them both on notebook paper and cut them out and made them fight when I should have been paying attention to history. In Selkie canon, Plo Quar has a twin sister named Fing Mar who I have yet to include as anything more than a piece of background information.
So, ‘Selkie’ is a result of having her name mispronounced?
I like that idea.
Huh?
Have you never googled “Selkie” ??? It’s not a mispronunciation, it’s a description.
Yes, but the way it’s presented, that her mom calls her “Nei Li” suggests that in this story, it was mispronounced by the humans into “Selkie”.
Just because we have legends of Selkies in our world doesn’t mean the same goes for Selkie’s world.
I’m just not getting how you think “Nei Li” could be mispronounced as “Selkie” when I can think of more human names that are closer to it.
It depends on how close the accent is. Selkie and Nei Li have similarities, and if the only source of Selkie’s name is overhearing what Plo Quar said, they might be trying as best they can to reproduce the sounds.
In IPA, we have [selki] and [nai li] (assuming I’m reading the sounds right) which, granted, aren’t entirely similar. On the other hand, if you look at words borrowed into English from other languages those words don’t necessarily sound the same at all. Take the Spanish vaquero [βɑkɛrɔ] which became buckaroo [bɜkəɹu].
Nei Li doesn’t use any sounds that aren’t already in English, but switching languages implies switching accents, which can really change the sound a lot on its own. If Selkie’s language really is Asian-esque, Asian languages are about as far from English as you can get so it’s quite feasible you’d see a few changes going on.
Going on a tangent, many Asian languages use tone phonetically. It’d be interesting to know if Selkie’s speaking pitch is similarly modulated, but I have doubts. Given that some of the other students were picking up on the words so easily either Selkie is a forgiving teacher or tone probably isn’t involved. English speakers suck at tone-differentiation because we use tone semantically instead of phonetically.
Of course, I doubt Dave actually knows most of that, so this is some hard-core speculation.
it could be that nei li, when pronounced in english, sounds like selkie, also…
Selkie´s world has Selkies, too. Back when Andi heard Selkie´s name, she asked “Selkie – like the seal people?”.
Actually, Selkie is more a description of what she is, not really a name.
Dave, just a comment, I seriously hope that at some point Todd finds out Selkie’s real name and they switch to it– because right now the turnabout analogue would be for a human kid to be called “Human” as a name.
“Hey, Human, come over here.”
“This is my daughter, Human.”
Once Selkie’s vocabulary grows, she may realize this herself… and be unhappy about it.
Nei Li Smith is a perfectly acceptable name, if a bit asian-sounding.
I would also hope that in the fullness of time Todd takes an interest in Selkie’s language enough to attempt to learn some of it, hopefully before he runs into other members of Selkie’s race.
It could also be kind of a nickname-ish name; kind of like calling a girl who came from plants “Fern”. They don’t call her that because she IS a fern, but because it’s kind of a fitting name considering what they know about her.
Pretty much all they know about Nei Li is that she comes from the water, like a Selkie. Since they can’t understand her fishpeople-talk, they probably can’t differentiate between her name and any other word. So it makes sense that they would give her a name… and Selkie is cute and appropriate.
I don’t think she actually resembles the selkies of myth. Which just makes it worse. Like referring to a human as Monkey.
O.o Did… did anyone else notice that Selkie’s mom doesn’t have eyebrows, but Selkie does??? That made a little idea pop into my head; that maybe Selkie is part human and part… fish-people (as Theo researched).
I don’t have enough to go by with just that but it’s just a thought.
And wow, way to go with linking things together from way back when, Dave! o.o A thought popped into my head after the last strip about when Selkie said “Nei Li” that it might have been the name of her race in her language, but none the less I recognized it immediately in this strip.
Also I like the gray wavy-like background in Selkie’s memories. Just like anyone’s memories, they can sometimes be blurry or hazy or something. XD
Also had a bit of a feeling that her hair bow might have been something her mother left with her when she had to be given up…
And to finally end my long-winded comment, I need to ask, did Selkie mean to say, “What’s she saying?” instead of “What’s /he/ saying?” in panel 3?
The gender confusion is intentional. She wasn’t that good with humans yet. :3
Okay I see now! XD
I wouldn’t be so sure on the eyebrows front. Plo Quar has eye-circle ridges which may be the mature form of the little things Nei Li has which we’re misinterpreting as eyebrows. For all we know, that could be an indicator of sexual maturity in her species.
I love how Selkie even misinterprets the gender of the human.
This is beautiful–and it nearly made me cry.
I hope Selkie tells Todd about what she’s remembering, soon. She needs
reassurance and some hugs, stat.
And at Plo Quar’s saying “I won’t be long”( as opposed to “I won’t be *away* long…) …eeep! or maybe I’m just reading too much into it.
Man, why do you have to make me cry??? TTT__TTT *goes into a corner and does so*
I’m a bit lost…when was the name Plo Quar released? Also, whats the translation of the second word she speaks in English? I can only translate two letters
Plo Quar’s name was not released until now. And the last word is supposed to be “take”… I probably messed up the cipher. XD
If it was a real language it wouldn’t be as simple as a letter subsitution cipher. You’d have different words and grammer formed from the context of a wholely different history and culture.
That would be true, if it wasn’t just putting the cipher to english to show that it was foreign and alien to them.
Ah yes, I missed that part. Thanks.
Especially since the “cipher” is just to demonstrate that they’re unfamiliar with English.
🙁
Sad.
Also: plot! Selkie’s bow was glowing in her mum’s hands. A MacGuffin, perhaps?
The bow stood out to me in today’s comic as well. Its not quite bow shaped in her hand either- kinda fish shaped even.
I don’t think that’s the bow in the 5th panel. Not only is it glowing it’s also the wrong shape and colour. And with the way Selkie’s mom is holding her arm in front of her and that high up it would be hard for the palm to be facing Selkie.
I think Selkie’s mom is showing her the back of her hand and that green thing may be the reason she has to leave her, “I wont be long.”
A wound perhaps, with something wrong with her normally blue blood?
Heartwrenching scene, but my attention is again drawn to the “glowy green” thing that Selkie’s mom can… make? Produce? Mould? The hairpin might interest the MIB, if they knew its source. 😛
I noticed that, too. Intriguing.
You made me so sad with this page, so very sad.
And yet my brain wanted to play with the language that Plo Quar hates.
So
Vtg B axej rhn? Translates to Can I help you?
and rxt mtdx is Yes _s_e, that last word defeated me…
the last word is supposed to be “take”… I probably messed up the cipher. XD
This really is a touching story…but I still say Selkie is a Deep one….maybe I read a little too much Cthulhu mythos…sigh.
Also I cracked the code….its a 7 letter switch so ms…kimono lady asks “can I help you” and because selkie’s mama cant speak english that well or has trouble with it says “yes…’rake’ or ‘rawd'” I am guess the later part is suppose to be a mistake since she cant speak that well of it.
Sorry for the copy-paste. XD The last word is supposed to be “take”… I probably messed up the cipher. XD
that makes a lot more sense and I am happy I broke your cipher hehehe I feel proud of moi self. I really love your work.
Ps: if you wanted to keep the name a secrete you could have just had her mama call her Little one or some other equivant that her kind would call their children. I use that in my stories all the time like one of my character’s calls his daughter “sunflower” more often then her actual name because its a pet name and endering.
That’s what I thought it was. Mija, or Baby Girl, or something like that. Your “real” name is for other people to use, not for family. Notice how Todd seldom says “Selkie”. Usually says “Hun”.
Da where I am from Hun is a very common term of endearment. It would be cute if it was something like “Xiphia” ah that’s latin for swordfish….sorry
a)I knew it. https://selkiecomic.com/?p=640#comment-5883
b) I wonder how much Plo Quar thought to tell Lillian about Selkie’s health needs. “She has gills and needs to breathe water”, certainly, but was there anything else?
I don´t think she´s going to tell them much. She seems to have enough trouble just telling them to take her daughter.
powerful stuff here… I love the writings in this.
The cross-language communication is interesting… makes me wonder if her new dad might end up learning some of it.
and speaking of foreshadowing the barrette, don’t forget:
https://selkiecomic.com/?p=403
Somebody on that page lost a bet…
Glowing green object certainly draws attention. I’m going to assume it’s the bow. If so, two questions: why is it glowing? And where did Plo Quar get it from? I think the answer could be the same for both: magic. It’s a bit far out considering that we’ve had no hint of the supernatural yet (Nonhumans don’t have to be supernatural) but it could be something along those lines…
I can actually connect this green glow to the flashback where Plo Quar appears to be controlling a puppet with glowing green strings. It looked like magic then, and it seems like she may have just made something appear out of thin air…
At the very least, telekinesis?
I may very well be wrong, just putting that out there.
It *could* be magic, but we really don’t know enough to say that yet. Selkie’s eyes might just be able to see something (perhaps something as mundane as another spectra of light) that human eyes can’t, and so from Selkie’s flashback perspective we can view this. On the other hand, that something she can see might be magic. Or maybe Fish Essence.
The light explanation is plausible, but it is only glowing in the panel where it first appears. If it is glowing in a color of light only fishpeople can see, shouldn’t the light be visible in the next panel, which is from Plo Quar’s POV? It also doesn’t explain why the bow appeared to be floating.
Plus-seven substitution cypher:
Vtg B axej rhn? -> Can I help you?
rxl … mtdx? -> yes … take?
“yes… take?” Oh god, that hit me hard.
Selkie doesn’t add S’s to her words in her native language, so might it be her hissing or something toward the end of some sounds, a problem that wouldn’t exist in a language created with her pointy teeth in mind?
Why didn’t they just call her “Nellie”? It’d be so much closer to her real name.