Editing 2381: The True Name of the Bear
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The Canadian Internet linguist | + | The Canadian Internet linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} [https://twitter.com/gretchenamcc/status/1113195661275611137 tweeted] about [https://www.charlierussellbears.com/LinguisticArchaeology.html the theory] that the word for bear became taboo in some branches of Indo-European languages - notably the Germanic one - and it was replaced by euphemisms. In the Germanic branch, the euphemism may have been "the brown one," and thus the modern word "bear" (derived from Germanic "beran") would more literally translate into the color "brown" rather than the animal. |
− | The | + | The Indoeuropean root for bear is *rkto-, which has been inferred from modern languages that still use a word derived from it. In the comic, McCulloch applies {{w|Sound change|sound shifting}} laws to it to guess how it would have evolved in English had it not been superseded, but saying it seems to actually summon a bear. |
− | + | Interestingly enough, the hypothesized word “arth” is the same as the Welsh and Cornish for the word “bear.” Welsh belongs to the Celtic language family, which is one of the Indo-European branches that still uses a word derived from *rkto-, as do the Italic (Romance), Greek and Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) branches, while Germanic, Slavic and Baltic branches abandoned it for different euphemisms. Another Indo-European language where the word for bear is very close to this extrapolation is Armenian, where it's written [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/արջ արջ] and pronounced “artch”. The comic does not explain why speakers of Welsh, Cornish, Italic, Greek, Indo-Aryan, and Armenian languages do not summon a bear every time they refer to one. | |
− | + | Use of true names appears to be [[1013: Wake Up Sheeple|highly effective in the xkcd universe, rather like a fairy tale]], and it is also {{tvtropes|IKnowYourTrueName|a common trope}} elsewhere. Some say a true name contains clear meaning of who someone or something really is. | |
− | + | In [[2421: Tower of Babel]] a linguist that resembles Gretchen from this comic appears. Since that story takes place in biblical time, it is not Gretchen, but obviously this is how linguists look in xkcd from now on. | |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Megan walks in | + | :[Megan walks in front the left, looking down at her phone. Cueball and Ponytail are standing next to each other.] |
:Megan: Wow - according to the internet, we don't know the true name of the bear. | :Megan: Wow - according to the internet, we don't know the true name of the bear. | ||
:Cueball: What? | :Cueball: What? | ||
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:Gretchen: Oh | :Gretchen: Oh | ||
:Gretchen: Oh no | :Gretchen: Oh no | ||
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+ | == Trivia == | ||
+ | The last comic strip that ended with the words "Oh no" was [[2314: Carcinization]], which also featured an unfortunate occurrence involving an animal as its punchline when Cueball spontaneously transformed into a crab. | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] | [[Category:Comics featuring real people]] | ||
[[Category:Language]] | [[Category:Language]] | ||
[[Category:Animals]] | [[Category:Animals]] |