Editing 2381: The True Name of the Bear

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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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The Canadian Internet linguist [[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.
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{{incomplete|Created by THE BEAR WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
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The Indo-European word for bear is ''*h₂ŕ̥tḱos'' (given in the comic as the root *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applies {{w|Sound change|sound shifting}} laws to it to guess how it would have evolved in English had it not been superseded, but saying it seems to actually summon a bear.
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The Canadian Internet linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} [https://twitter.com/gretchenamcc/status/1113195661275611137?lang=ca tweeted] about [https://www.charlierussellbears.com/LinguisticArchaeology.html the theory] that the word for bear became taboo in some branches of Indoeuropean languages - notably the Germanic one - and it was replaced by euphemisms in those branches. In the Germanic branch, the euphemism may have been like "the brown one" and words for bear derive from words for "brown".
  
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(The asterisk is used by linguists to mark a word that doesn't currently exist in a spoken language - in this case, because it's a reconstructed ancestor to modern words in a number of languages.)
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The Indoeuropean root for bears is *rkto-, which has been inferred from languages that use words derived for it. In the comic, Gretchen McCulloch applies sound shifting laws to it to guess how it would have evolved into English, but pronouncing it seems to actually summon a bear, showing that abandoning that word was a fairly wise move for the forefathers of German languages speakers.
  
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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 ''*h₂ŕ̥tḱos'', 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.{{Citation needed}}
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Interestingly the Welsh for the word Bear is also Arth.
  
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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. {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} has been mentionned in [[2250: OK/okay/ok]]. In later comics, Gretchen is used again, causing annoyance in [[2421: Tower of Babel]]. Since these stories occur during biblical times or in extra-dimensional realities, it is not Gretchen, but obviously this is how linguists look in xkcd from now on.
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==Transcript==
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{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
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==Transcript==
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:[Megan is looking down at her phon.e]
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:[Megan walks in from 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 McCulloch, drawn with short, curly hair, comes on-panel from the right.]
 
 
:Megan: Apparently there was a superstition that saying its name would summon it. "Bear" and "bruin" mean "the brown one." Its actual name has been lost.
 
:Megan: Apparently there was a superstition that saying its name would summon it. "Bear" and "bruin" mean "the brown one." Its actual name has been lost.
 
:Cueball: Wow.
 
:Cueball: Wow.
 
:Ponytail: Gretchen, is this for real?
 
:Ponytail: Gretchen, is this for real?
  
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:[Zoom-in on Gretchen.]
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[Gretchen comes on-panel.]
 
:Gretchen: Well, sort of
 
:Gretchen: Well, sort of
 
:Gretchen: The Proto-Indo-European root was *rkto-
 
:Gretchen: The Proto-Indo-European root was *rkto-
 
:Gretchen: It was lost in the Germanic languages like English, but survived elsewhere, e.g. Greek "arktos" and Latin "ursus"
 
:Gretchen: It was lost in the Germanic languages like English, but survived elsewhere, e.g. Greek "arktos" and Latin "ursus"
  
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:[Back to the second panel, with Megan holding her phone down, Ponytail with her hands in the air, and Gretchen with her hand on her chin.]
 
 
:Megan: So could we figure out what the word would have been in English?
 
:Megan: So could we figure out what the word would have been in English?
 
:Gretchen: Hmm. I mean, we'll never know, but given Germanic sound shifts, a reasonable guess might be "arth"?
 
:Gretchen: Hmm. I mean, we'll never know, but given Germanic sound shifts, a reasonable guess might be "arth"?
 
:Ponytail: ''No!!''
 
:Ponytail: ''No!!''
  
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:[The panel zooms in again to Gretchen.]
 
 
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''Stop! AAAAA!''
 
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''Stop! AAAAA!''
 
:Gretchen: What??
 
:Gretchen: What??
 
:Ponytail (off-panel): Don't ''say'' it!
 
:Ponytail (off-panel): Don't ''say'' it!
  
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:[Ponytail is holding her palms out. Megan is no longer in the panel.]
 
 
:Ponytail: What have you ''done''?
 
:Ponytail: What have you ''done''?
 
:Off-panel noise: <big>'''''ROAR'''''</big>
 
:Off-panel noise: <big>'''''ROAR'''''</big>
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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 Gretchen McCulloch]]
 
 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
 
[[Category:Language]]
 
[[Category:Language]]
 
[[Category:Animals]]
 
[[Category:Animals]]

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