Grrl Power #322 – Accent grave mistake
Come on Sydney, you skate on one kinda racist thing, and your next sentence is “Since you’re not white…” She sort of has a point though. In my experience, white people’s name generally don’t mean anything. My name is David, and if you look up David on baby naming sites, they’ll tell you David means king or beloved, but it doesn’t really. There was just a David of note who happened to be a king. No one speaking English stands on the bow of a ship and yells “I’m the David of the world!” In Japanese, Hana means flower. It’s also a common girls name, that or Hanako, which means Flower Child. Aki means Autumn. It’s also a woman’s name, as is Akiko. (Autumn Child) “Ko” means child if you weren’t picking up on that. Akira is a boy’s name that also means “A seminal work that anyone into anime should see if for no other reason as to round out their literacy of the genre. Also it has an amazing soundtrack, and a space scene that has no sound at all cause it’s space and that’s awesome.”
That’s not to say there aren’t any white people with names that actually mean something, (Summer, May, June, Sky(e), etc) but generally they just mean that their parents like that name. Maybe other cultures are the same way, but I get the impression that outside of white American culture, names tend to have a bit more meaning, unless of course your is also that of a famous person from a religious text or literature. That may just be my own Amero-centric perspective. It’s certainly Sydney’s anyway.
Edit: I meant to add this along with the post but I forgot. I gave Xochitl a side cut on a whim because I’ve recently decided it’s basically my favorite hairstyle on a gal. I tend to go for that Suicide Girl look anyway for some reason. It was only after I drew her that it occurred to me that it makes her look a bit Mohican (or at least the Hollywood representation thereof) so at the last minute I decided to add the mini comic to address it. Really, the flexible Uniform Dress Code going on around Arc-SWAT pretty much deserves it’s own full page, so I may yet do that, but in the meantime I didn’t want people to think Xochitl’s appearance was based on my idea of what Aztecs are supposed to look like.
If you’re not familiar with the Boston area accent, Xochitl sounds a lot like Nancy from 30 Rock.
I’m a fan of 4th wall humor, as long as it’s not abused. I think the last time Sydney did it was way back on page 54, so I’m comfortable I’m not overdoing it. I recently started watching Magnum P.I. on Netflix (along with this rewatch podcast) Every episode someone mugs to the camera. Then again, Abed from Community is basically 4th wall incarnate, and I dig that show, so I guess I’m down as long as it’s handled with care.
Today’s page again colored by Keith.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
This can only end wonderfully. EXPLOSIONS AHOY!
TITLE DROP. Sortoff
Roll credits.
Oh, is that what Dave meant by ‘4th wall humor’? I didn’t even notice the title drop, and wondered what he was talking about.
It was a bit more subtle this time, than before, where Sydney has actually peered out from the top of the comic and pointed up at the navigation buttons above. But the name did get mentioned twice. And Sydney then gave a significant look-to-camera, with a knowing grin.
Mind you we do all pick up on different things. Plus unpicking the accent from one of the two title mentions, would not have helped. I can well imagine that, with your artistic skills, you were focussing on technical issues, such as lighting and shadows.
Whereas I was going “Whee, Sydney is looking at ME!”
Less egotistical sorts, with an eye to character placement and positions, might well have taken it as “Sydney is looking at Xochitl” But that is just co-incidence, as she was giving a knowing look to ME!
My favorite reaction to someone’s wicked crazy accent was on the Webcomic Supernormal Step.
“Was that English?”
“Yeah”
“Are… are you sure?”
Awww, power demonstration denied till next week! :P
Gotta admit when I first saw her a few pages back she looked like she was gonna be less than friendly. Glad i was wrong :)
Her power is the outpouring of unicorn farts…
If only I could fit 18 panels on a single page. :/
No excuses , you can fit any number of panels on a webpage :-)
example :
https://www.wormworldsaga.com/chapters/chapter01/EN/Index.php
Well, excuuuuse Dave for trying to spare us from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from excessive scrolling…
:P
Hah, if you want to wait 16 month between pages.
that differs from yer usual how?
By 15 and 27/30th months.
always leave em wanting more :P
It’s not really American cultere about name meaning DaveB. More like western culture.
No names that mean anything in Dutch atleast. My sister is called Fleur, which litterally means flower in french, but that’s not what the name means. It just happends to be a word in a different language
No, it may not have had a meaning to your parents when they chose it, but that doesn’t take away it’s meaning
A cliff hanger ^^ BUT I WANNA KNOW THE POWER.
But on the other hand we have the possibility to speculate which power it will be:
My guess is touch based hallucination.
Whats your guess?
It’s definitly touch based. But it probably has something to do with that Aztec goddes, atleast in theme
“Girl Power stuff. Good to know.”
Yeah, Sydney would know about it. She got a dose of it just this morning, which caused her to Falcon Punch her own uterus & grab some Midol…
:P
Well, she said it could be awkward, and Meaningful Name might be in effect here- maybe her ability is that anyone she touches suddenly becomes more physically attractive?
So why would she be expecting any change when she touches Sydney? You can’t improve on perfection, so she will be unchanged. That would be anti-climatic, rather than dramatic.
Her collar has a V. Something to do with “view”?
Her power is the ability to keep people in suspense for what seems like days. I think Dave got the translation wrong. Her name actually means ‘Cliffhanger’. In the event of a battle with another supah, er, super, she takes center stage and says “Hey, watch this!”. All conflict comes to a stop as they stand there and stare, allowing the other Arc members to sneak up behind them and snap on the handcuffs.
“Her power is the ability to keep people in suspense for what seems like days.”
For those of us on this side of the 4th Wall, it’s literal; Until next Monday, anyway…
She can only show up on Thursdays, and only in the last two panels.
Concerning the names… did you check peoples last name? And concerning David… no idea if it means anything in Hebrew but i really wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
Last names often mean alot more, but not in the symbolic sense. It just means that at the time your ancestors had to pick a last name, they usually picked something in their direct enviroment. Usually their profession.
.. And, often enough, will hint at an interesting backstory.
My surname, for example is derived from a much older name which translates as ‘pilgrim’ and/or ‘one who has custody of a Holy relic’.
My last name means Keeper of Secrets :P
Mine is couch driver
Coach driver that is. Couch would be a little weird
Heh. Especially when read as “couch diver”. I thought, ‘bit of a strange origin in that one, I can understand a nick-name alluding to sexual prowess, but what given name would do that?’
‘Couch driver’ though, could be applied like ‘armchair warrior’. As a term, mind, rather than as a name.
Mine’s Blue Fire of Live ^^ [fuck you all XD]
A ‘couch diver’ is someone who dives down the back of couches looking for spare change
Or this:
https://youtu.be/HMlgqOtFQIM?t=50
Now *that* is a ‘Couch driver’. 101 miles per hour (162.5 kph).
Or about where they live. My last name translated into something like “Top of the hill” or something like that.
In Britain it was a matter of law. The Normans got fed up, when trying to tax their Saxon subjects. Because one village might have many individuals with the same name. So they insisted that everyone must take a second name, in order that they could be distinguished on the tax records. Such name to clearly differentiate from other individuals in the village with the same first name.
For instance you could not call yourself “John Farmer” if there was another one. Which would be likely in a farming village. Smith was acceptable though, as a village typically only had the one. Likewise Miller. So folks with more common trades needed to choose names based on where they lived, or some other distinguishing characteristic.
The nature of Saxon names changed in a single generation.
My last name is a ‘tribal’ name. It means ‘of noble blood’, and dates to before the Norman conquest. So my ancestors had no need of a ‘tradesman’ name. :-P
I’m being told it means ‘beloved one’.
Mine proclaims that I am the Son of Per, such as is often the Swedish tradition. This is partially true, since all men in my family receive the middle name Per.
As per custom.
My surname means River of Stones, (literally “hard water”) according to my Pictish ancestors and Cow Valley according to my Viking ancestors. Or so Ancestry.com insists. Since the family agrees of the first translation (which is an actual geological feature) and not the second that’s what I go with.
My full name, if you don’t mind jumping through a different language with every step, roughly translates into “Champion Son of the (Powerful and hard) River of stones.”
To comic book fans my forename and surname together means “The Chief” and is synonymous with leadership, genius and betrayal.
So, using nominative determinism, that should make you:
Head of Security/ Chief Executive Officer/ Commanding Officer
in one of:
Heavy water production facility/ strategic nuclear command bunker/ nuclear submarine
My Surname means “Of the Green Wood”… then again, it’s Greenwood, and was given to our family by William the Conqueror’s Daughter roughly a millenia ago. gotta love family history. We were apparently the royal cooks, a very trusted position.
My last name literaly means hero
That’s super!
My middle name is Kingsbury. My great-etc father was the apprentice to the royal undertaker in the English court. It was literally his job to bury the king so, yeah. That. Originally it was Kingburrer, but that mutated over time until it became Kingsbur, and then when my great-great-grandmother came to Ellis Island they wrote it down wrong and she became Ellen Kingsbury. She then married my great-great-grandfather and the tradition of ‘Kingsbury’ as a middle name was born.
Also, none of that is true except for the fact that it’s my middle name. Makes a good story, though.
I’m more likely to gather a group of injured people and combine their unique skills to form a dysfunctional and surreal team, only to betray them for my own ends after years of gruff friendship.
One day I really must cosplay as my namesake.
Was sounding good, up until the dysfunctional and betrayal bit. :-/
Fertility Goddess, assumptions on to her and Dabbler being buds.
i am thinking the same thing
I’m expecting rule 34 to kick in any moment. Get to it Internets.
and rule 35 has kicked in
Was that a flower pun?
I don’t know. Dabbler is more into the action than the result.
Or rivals. “His tantric energy is mine!”
I’m thinking Dabbs just got a massive free power up from overlapping special effects.
Anytime Aztec tosses off (pun intended) a power blast of whatever hotness she controlls, the level of lust in the area is going to blow up. Having Aztec in the same area as Dabbler is going to do for her what Vehemence’s aggro aura did for him: raise her overall power level tremendously while she’s operating. No need for the Barberian except for happy fun time…
Huh. I have to say, for someone who is used to hearing a non-English language (heck, even a non-Germanic one) all the time, there wasn’t that much of a difference between what Nancy sounded like and what Alec Baldwin’s character sounded like (also, up until this moment I didn’t know about 30 Rock…), until I started to try and focuse on the “r”s… Or lack thereof, that is.
I wonder whether I’m weird, or whether people who aren’t used to Czech would have trouble telling apart Prague and Ostrava accent?
I have trouble telling many Irish accents apart and I live there. So foreign accents? Yeah, unlikely that I’d know what is from where.
Hey, I’m an Aussie with much Scottish ancestry, yet I personally find even a middling Scottish accent to be pretty much incomprehensible.
You must hate Billy Connelly then :P
Not hate. I can follow him, just with some difficulty – which can be hard on the comedy..
Eh, some people make a big deal out of accents, but I usually hardly hear any difference.
I’ve found I’m pretty good at distinguishing that there is an accent, even in an unknown tongue, but am pretty hopeless in placing it, even if it’s a language I know (like the thousand and one variants of English).
There are professional linguists who can listen to you talk & figure out where you live, within a 20 mile radius. Yes, they can & do have opportunities to get paid for that particular job…
I highly recommend 30 Rock if you haven’t seen it. That particular clip probably won’t sell you on the show, but the sort of humor in it is right up my alley.
30 Rock is fantastic nonsense, and lots of fun.
In fairness, that accent wasn’t near as pronounced as I expected.
“…until I started to try and focuse on the “r”s… Or lack thereof, that is.”
I think Boston must be on the opposite side of the world from to the Land of Oz, because Boston is the “Land of Ah’s,” or more precisely, Boston is the “Land of No R’s.”
It’s not as simple as a lack of “r”s. You also have to put “r”s in places where they don’t belong. I haven’t spent enough time in Boston to pinpoint the rules for putting the “r”s where they aren’t, but they do seem to exist.
Were this R rated or beyond I’d guess some kind of boob power.
The background of the goddes also wouldn’t be behind her
For an Aztec heritaged woman she is very white. Even Sydney says that she is not white. But she is very very white. I’m all for you including people of different races and cultures, but maybe making her darker with black hair, instead of white with brown hair, would be better?
Great comic, I really enjoy it. Thank you for making it.
People of mixed heritage can vary a lot in skin colour. And as far as I know, the Aztecs weren’t that dark in skin colour (though I’m far from an expert on this matter).
I’m a little confused about this. From what I’ve read, the Aztec culture basically died off in the 1600s due to the conquistadors. Their capital is where modern day Mexico city is, and I’m sure much of the population can trace ancestry back to Aztec people, but it seems like someone today would be Aztec in the way that someone with ancestors from Plymouth would be Puritan.
Her family (or even just her) could be trying to resurrect the culture, but Boston seems like an odd place to do this.)
I could be wrong, if someone has greater familiarity with the subject, I’d be happy to be educated.
I have several Aztec friends; their people retreated into the mountains and didn’t join modern life until just a few generations ago; to the point of joking their grandmother was a cannibal when she was young.
and the family tends to have black hair, dark eyes, and tan skin, not ‘dark dark’ but noticeably darker than out new girl here.
It’s did to wear she leaved, Boston area mean a good part of the year your to covered up to get sun there for she’s a little light few weeks in the sun should brown her out nicely.
I don’t know… The Algonquin were/are a pretty dark-skinned people… I think this is more a case of genetic dilution, probably through interbreeding with Northern Europeans
If memory serves, the Aztec empire was an alliance of three tribes/cities that dominated the region, until Cortez ganged up with the oppressed villages, and broke the ruling Mexica tribe (and then slaughtered any natives that didn’t convert to catholicism). The culture itself would have been mostly shared by all the people in the region, but it would be odd for the oppressed to call themselves by their overlords name.
My guess is, Xochitl came from a tribe kept up the original culture and then later started calling themselves Aztec either from cultural pride, or ease of explanation.
And in the 15 minutes it took to type that, a better reply cropped up.
Damn my introspection.
And later, a number of the tribe moved to Detroit and got revenge on the conquering Europeans by selling them really ugly cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek
Given she’s an Aztec from Boston, I can’t help feeling she just might be racially mixed and very in touch with her heritage. I would be pretty surprised if both her parents were full-blooded Aztec descendants living in Boston.
Quit tumblr’ing all over Dave’s characters, especially when they have all of one page of characterization. At least you’re more polite than Tumblr.
*Shoots Tumblr multiple times before launching it into space*
A lot of popular names in Western culture come from saints and biblical figures, so that way what the etymological meaning of the name was quickly became less important. It’s pretty much the same trend in Islamic culture, with kids being named after Islamic historical figures (Mohammed comes to mind). Wouldn’t know about other cultures, really, though I assume in some the word-meaning of a name is still a thing people pay attention to. I dunno why Sydney brings race into it, though. Do African Americans for example tend to have names that mean something?
african americans follow western culture because they are american……
Yes, that’s what I’d expect. Hence why I found it weird that Sydney brought up race (and why I asked).
i think she was implying the fact that she has a very non-american (although technically more american than our perception of ameican) name…halo isnt exactly known for her excellent communication skills
This African Bulgarian has an Anglo Saxon name.
When not using my comic nom de plume, that is. Seeing as how my name originates from my culture (English), rather than were I was born (Africa), where my ancestors originated (Africa) or where I live, vote and pay taxes (Bulgaria). Although, admittedly, it is influenced by many generations of ancestors having lived in England.
does anyone have a youtube video that shows how a “Bashton” accent is supposed to sound? I have no idea how I’m supposed to hear that…
Also… how awesome would a superhero/villain city called “Bash-town” be?
Watch the movie “Ted”.
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/donnies-party/n36921
Affleck and Fallon are both from the area so this sketch is pretty indicative of the accent.
Her voice sounds pretty generic American to me. Albeit with a bit of mechanical processing to tint it.
“This content is unavailable.”
watch any episode of cheers – Cliff has a reasonably identifiable Boston accent
This Old House often visits Boston, and Tommy’s a native.
This Old House is in New England a lot because WGBH is the producing station for it…
Fairly sure MrSpokes is putting the cart before the horse here.
If you have a show idea, you tend to pick the station in that area to pitch your show to first, so no surprise it’s produced where Tommy lives.
Prefer these old houses :D
Are her upper teeth pink?
no just some color run in a couple of the frames look at the one where she is smilling real big
Yeah, pulls be right out of the page in panel 2 and 4 though. Hate getting fixated on such a minor issue with an otherwise entertaining intro
Peter Griffin: Ah! Ah! She said it! She said it!
You know, I am really happy that Sydney is a know-it-all. I am tired of being given a lecture on popular or freak culture every time it’s brought up.
(I’m talking about her knowing about Quetzalcoatl, Hulk, non-Newtonian fluids, incubi, quantum entanglement…)
I wonder if they will mention that Quetzalcoatl is Xochiquetzal’s kid? Maybe she’ll turn out to be a not fully awakened avatar of the goddess and we can get some family of gods action in here like the Assgaurdians in one of those OTHER comics.
Ooo, that might open up a chance for a crossover with “Wapsi Square”, haven’t seen that little blue guy in years :(
Actually, a lot of Bibilical names actually do have meaning. You are right that “David” isn’t one of them, though.
Actually, going over the most common names in America (I used https://www.lifesmith.com/comnames.html), and being a Hebrew speaker, quite a few jump out as having meaning.
In Israel, it is more likely to find names that do have meaning than not.
Shachar
I think that even most western (European? White? I don’t know what classification to use) names did have a meaning at one time, and people just aren’t as interested in that aspect of them any more.
https://www.ohbabynames.com/meaning/name/sydney/234#.VWcLJs9Viko
Last names are little trickier, but once again I think it’s something that our culture has moved past only relatively recently, and you can still find plenty of people named Smith or Cooper or Johnson.
Very few Johnsdotter though….
well just go to iceland, there the last name ending of daughter is common.
many last name either refer to what people did (e.g. weber and webster for male and female weaver. the -ster indicating female), parents or where you were from, which was come in the military at one point to refer to people with where they were from.
I only learned the “dotter” suffix was Scandinavian after looking it up, but the first time I ever encountered it was actually in a fantasy novel. I only realized years later what it actually meant though.
Kinda getting freaked out by them talking through their teeth. Previous pages have them open their mouths a little more often, more fully, and this sudden group of shiny, scary teeth is a little off-putting.
Comics are snapshots, though. The moments where they had their mouths open just didn’t get snapshotted in this instance.
… And having characters seemingly gape like stranded fish can be just as off-putting, if not more so.
I’ve seen comics where people never open their mouths when speaking, something I try to avoid, but Xochitl is a smiley gal, so her snapshots tend to catch her with a big grin on her face. I’ve occasionally tried to draw mouth making a particular phoneme noise, like “ooo” but it usually looks weird.
I think more cartoony comics can get away with it more easily. EGS for example has its characters appear with many expressions that it would be harder to represent in a more realistic style as you use here. Mainly because of the incanny valley.
Photos of people in real life seem to come in 3 “flavours”. Passive, smiling and over-emphasised expressions (think of a girl pouting her lips or over-blown laughing etc).
We get used to static images of people being in one of those states, and seeing images of people not looking like that can seem odd.
I thought.. I thought Cah Pahk was like.. an Aztec thing.. and it took me rereading the entire thing three times before I realized that she was speaking with a Boston accent. I assume it’s because I’m not American.
I had that too. As a non-native speaker who has little contact with actual spoken English, these accents fly right over my head. And accents are not easy to pull off in written form anyway. I just hope this won’t hinder legibility of the comic in the future. :|
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodNewEngland?from=Main.HahvahdYahdInMyCah
I’ve tried to write her accent sparingly, just enough to remind people she has one. On this page it’s a little emphasized in order to establish it, but after this page, is mostly just her saying “powah” instead of “power” and replacing “ar” with “ah”
Love the meaning of Akira in your post Dave, couldn’t agree more :D
So… is panel 4 the 4th wall break/camera mug? ‘Cuz I didn’t read it that way…
… panel 8. In which shelooks through the 4th wall and says “Girl Power”.
Its not both?
Then why the evil look where her eye is practically going back in the socket in an effort to look back at the “camera” in panel four?
That was actually supposed to be Sydney just glancing away nervously, but I realize she’s looking at the camera in it so it could be read as 4th wall.
Ah, OKeydokey.
Um, can I squeeze in a quick question about which font you use in the comic before you abandon the comments for the day? *begs* Got a friend making a first comic and some semi-professional advice would be great.
It’s Blambot Anime Ace. I’ve tried a few others like Blambot Silver Age, Digital Strip and another one called Jack Armstrong I think, which is what is used in Gold Digger (at least it was the last time I asked) but I think Anime Ace is the most legible. It lacks a certain panache I suppose but I’m more concerned with readability.
Thank you very much. I don’t know if those can be loaded into the program she is using but I’ll look around. Then there’s the task of helping her do tech stuff. Figures I would make friends with a young person and they would be one of those that knows less of computers and programs even than my aging brain….
Dave B. if you want a fun and “wicked gud” accent try the Maine accent. For a good example find some “Bert and I” recordings like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPGf77t9hRA
And this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQe_MMSRgYA
My favorite was the one that ended “Come ta think of it Ya can’t get thah from heah!”
AH! So THAT’s the “Boston accent”. Okay, good to know. Thanks for the links!
Mini-cliffhanger! boo!
white guy names don’t mean anything? pssh, speak for yourself. when taken altogether, my first, middle and surnames “translate” to ‘dove [black] of the woods’.
which means that, as the Black Dove of the Woods, I could fit just as easily into superhero shenanigans (is it a bird? is it a plane? it -is- a bird! Its the black dove!) as I would the Song of Ice and Fire.
my sister gets it even better. we share middle and surnames, but her first name means light. so she’s the Dark Light of the Woods, making her some galadriel-esque figure, clearly. now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go be awesome. awesome in the woods
It’s not that “white guy names” don’t HAVE any history or meaning behind them…It’s just that modern people tend to put less (or no) emphasis on history & meaning when choosing a name any more.
Boston accent? Already love her. She had me at ‘wicked’.
She’s wicked jealous, but is she wicked awesome jealous?
I don’t think she’s really “jealous” of Sydney…She should be envious instead. Envy is the desire for what someone else already has, while jealously is what a person feels when they think someone else is trying to take something from them.
Not sure what her powahs are but I’m sure they’re wicked pissah.
Geeze, stop, you’re getting me all excited.
I don’t know why, but I read that accent as northern english.
Xochitl Xochiquetzal? So her name is Flower Flowerbird. I’m not even sure how to feel about that name.
Also the idea of a person of South American heritage with a Boston accent is frightening.
Why is that “frightening”? What’s the difference between that and if the person was of, say, Southern European heritage?
Imagine a generic German person, all big and tall, blonde and blue eyed… speaking in Cholo / esse-type Latino Spanish. Natively. (I’ve met a few. It’s always weird.)
What was really weird was this extremely Irish looking young, thin, flaming red haired dude in Guadalajara, Mexico angrily swearing at us in Spanish for not buying a new tire. He couldn’t speak a word of English!
Also weird were all the Chinese in Mexico City speaking Spanish. The US is not the only melting pot of the world.
To risk being ‘that guy’ I would like to point out that Mexico is in North America.
If you don’t believe me, ask the guy in the lower right of the video conference.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1707
Hmm, if Mexico ever got their own group (Los súper amigos?) would they invite her to join?
Interesting, I had always viewed it as being central America. In terms of it being on the land connecting the northern and southern continental land masses.
But I see, politically and historically speaking you are perfectly correct. And, even geologically, as looking up the plates, Mexico clearly lies on the North American Continental Plate.
Central America is the popular name of a subregion differentiated due geography and politics but belongs to the northern subcontinental mass as well.
Yup, subcontinental, being strict the one continental mass is America from parallel 83 North to 59 South. North and South America are subcontinents.
Googling continental plates I come up with maps which are fairly consistent in showing that North America sits on one big continental plate. Whilst South America is on a completely separate one. Separated, for much of their length, by a couple of smaller plates.
Of particular interest the bottom boundary of the North America plate seems to lie along the southern most edge of Mexico. The various countries in the Central American region sitting on the Caribbean Plate.
My conclusions being drawn from eye balling those maps, rather than from any actual knowledge of geography. Day one of my formal geography education, a physical training teacher turned up to the class.
“Sorry all, but your geography teacher has quit. The school is looking for a replacement, but I would not hold your breath.”
(It was common knowledge that the school was too small to remain viable, so would likely shut in a few of years, which it did).
“Lets open up the text book at page one, and see what it says. I will be learning this stuff along side you.”
To give him his credit, I did pass the exam. But I would not pretend that it imparted more to me than the absolute basics. And that did not include anything about American geography at all.
I was speaking in the more classic, and popular, Geographic way which include “surrounded by water” in the definition and thus America is only one continent.
But yes, due tectonic plates Geology separates America in two continents, while Geography takes them as subcontinents.
Central America it’s composed by later emerged lands that filled the gap between North and South. As far as I know is just convention to take it as part of North America.
Funny thing: I just learned that where Mexico belongs is a bit controversial :)
Heh, my bad. I always mix up where the Aztec empire was supposed to be.
Also, in my experience, lots of Americans think anything South of Texas is already South America. Then again, they’re Americans. ;p
We South American people think we are Americans too. Funny :)
*sniff*
I feel so sorry for you.
*hugs*
Pst only kidding.
Most Americans think anywhere outside of the US isn’t North America. (They really should call themselves “Statesians” or something.)
I have a close friend that speaks French, Italian, German and Russian, all with a super-syrupy thick southern drawl. She’s a reliable source of cognitive dissonance – I never seem to get used to it.
My first encounter with a “wrong” accent was when I was pretty young, around 8-12 I’d guess, and the Olympics were going on. There was a black athlete on TV being interviewed, and this guy was black black, like deep Nigerian black, but turns out he was British, and when he spoke he was all “I say I think our chances are bloody good what what God save the Queen and all that.” He almost sounded as British as Prince Charles.
Heh, my own went the other way. Most of the time I was taken as being a Boer, due to my thick Afrikaans accent. But when speaking tribal languages I captured the accents very well. Such that, if someone was asking me to translate something on the phone, I could easily be mistaken for being a Zulu for instance.
I do not know how much my Afrikaans accent stood out, but clearly it was not enough that it marked me as not being a native speaker. Of course, culturally it would not be long before I said something which would distinguish me. I was a young kid and not trying to conceal who I was.
Whilst I have since lost all of my African languages, and accents, it has left me with a very good ear for accents. Being quite good at identifying particular foreign languages, by that means. But very good at spotting a hint of a foreign language in even a fluent English speaker.
And I have very little problem with understanding even the most pronounced English accents (such as thick Cornish, Glaswegian or Black Country). Even when they are being deliberately heavily pronounced. I loved being able to translate for other folks.
Weirdly though I don’t know the different regional accents well enough to pick out what region any given speaker is from. Which is something that a lot of Brits do as second nature. So I can understand everybody, but would not be able to say ‘he is from that city’ and ‘she is from that county’. Well I know a few, but appreciate that there are more I do not than I do.
But anytime I hear a new accent it fascinates me. Any girl gets an automatic +1 charisma, if they have a nice-sounding exotic accent. +2 if it is a new one to me.
I think the Brits are able to distinguish the regional accents so well, primarily due to the concentration of all the various accents in such a (relatively) small local.
What surprises me, is that they’re able to have so many different accents without them blending and blurring together into a homogenous mess.
My cousin is Cornish. She married a Yorkshireman. For a few years they lived in Yorkshire, but then moved down to Cornwall. Although they had a variety of reasons, as far as my cousin was concerned, there was one over-riding concern.
“Much as I love my husband, when I heard my children developing a Yorkshire accent, I decided that was enough. I want my kids to have a Cornish accent!”
& here I was reading your comments in a New York accent.
*wags tail*
Woof!
What was funny was picking up a hitch-hiker in New Zealand (common practice there) – a young man from London – who had such a thick Cockney accent that it was almost impossible to understand him. He was on a final tour around the country at the end of his year in NZ.
His next stop was to teach English to Koreans! Still mind boggling!
I come from a small corner of a place where, in that particular corner can be found accent that was, I was told back in the day, considered to be as close to having no accent as humans speaking english generally get. Supposedly the line goes that our non-accent was taught to news casters to make them as non-whatever as they could be so they wouldn’t color the news when they delivered it. (or something like that… )
Anyway, I’ve always thought that and a slight natural gift is why I can understand anybody, and almost any word (I once got an Indian gentlemen saying beard mixed up with beer. Several times. He thought I was messing with him since I had never had trouble before but was suddenly missing this several times in a row…. ), speaking english. I can also mimick any accent I am exposed to and have to be careful not to start doing it automatically/accidentally (people are so easily offended!).
My Mother is the nicest woman in the world but she once immediately starts speaking in a sort of general southern accent a few minutes after getting off a plane down there and hearing it. (she’s not at all southern) Her friends got freaked out and told her to stop, cause apparently southerners don’t like copycatting northerners, but she didn’t know what they were talking about and they took a while to spit it all out (they assumed she knew and was playing with them). She had slipped into a southern accent and had no idea. Also nobody noticed around them cause it was a good natural mimic.
I have a similar mimicry for accents, and have to consciously stop myself from doing it. Although it is very handy when learning new languages. As such I can absolutely flawlessly say phrases like “Sorry my Bulgarian is really bad, do you speak any English?“
Mid Atlantic? The one that newscasters from the 30’s had? ;)
Sorry, but that’s still an regular accent. If a made up bastard mutt of one. Ours was, at that time in the ears of other americans, a neutral or non-accent. (not really possible but that’s the idea anyway) If you are from the U.S.A. listening to something and hearing an accent then you aren’t listening to what I’m speaking of.
Nice try though. I loved those old films.
I have a friend like that. He picks up new accents in a matter of minutes, except when he’s drunk, in which case he lapses into his native Louisiana accent.
I, on the other hand, cannot seem to ditch my Texas accent.
Heh. I remember going to Botcon in ’99, and one of the other attendees was rather wigged out by the local accent – rather, the lack thereof. “I thought only people on the news talked like that but everyone here is doing it!” O_O
I understand our accent is now called, “Midwestern.” :)
I worked in a branch office of a North American (as in USA :) company here in South America. At some point a new principal arrived. We were told that she spoke Spanish at good level, what proved to be indeed true. But when she started her arrival speech it turns out that she had a strong accent from… Spain.
That was totally unexpected both for her having as a New England look as you can get, and for we being in South America where the accents are far different from Spain.
We all spend the rest of the day restraining a smile each time she uttered something.
I’m an Aussie. Long ago, I worked with a lady of Chinese parentage (actually born in Jamaica), who was tiny and delicate-looking in appearance – yet she had an Aussie accent so strong it would’ve made Crocodile Dundee envious.
A while back I was introduced to a Maori, here in Bulgaria, and got chatting. After a couple of minutes, she said something which, both by turn of phrase, and accent, was clearly at odds with the rest of her accent.
So I asked her what that hint of an other accent was. She replied “well I am a Maori.” So I told her that part was the obvious one, but I was curious about the subtle one. “Oh I was married to a Cockney for twenty years.”
Even though he had been dead for years, she still had the influence of his accent, within hers.
Interesting combination.
Even better: She is the “Flower of the Flower Goddess”. If her battle cry isnt “Flowers for the Flower Goddess!” I will cry.
And now I’m picturing her yelling “EAT POLLEN!” in a fight. Thanks, bub.
“Flowah Powah!”
From what I’ve gathered out of my resources (not all of them are on the internet, ya’ know…I do have BOOKS too), Xochitl means “flower,” true enough, but could also include something more specific, like Blossom or Violet, for example.
The first part of her last name (Xochi-) mainly reinforces “flower,” but the end (-quetzal) can also mean “precious.” But the literal translation of her last name (as the Aztec goddess of love) is “flower precious feather.”
With all of this “Flower Power” that was mostly left over from the ’60’s & ’70’s, I’ll leave it up to others for “nicknames” & such…
So she’s the Astec Moon Moon?
at least it seems that that’s better than SAILOR Moon…
Naughty especially mean a lot.
https://www.meaning-of-names.com/
Whereas nought means nothing.
pull up the shield sydney…this can’t end up well
Oh mah gerd! So much facepalm on this page!!
Is that good or bad? o_O
Mostly it’s, “The darn things Sydney says,” kinda moments ;-)
Also, I didn’t expect THAT accent to come from, well, THAT! XD
What does it say that I can read her name (correctly) more easily than the phonetic version?
Er… you’re much smarter than your namesake?
8-)
I’m just calling her Sue.
Nah. The phoenetic version confused me as well. I think it’s because trying to write the phoenetics of the ‘x’ in a lot of languages is difficult. I imagine this ‘x’ is actually somewhere between the ‘sh’ given, and ‘z’, making it a sort of ‘zch’ sound, but that’s also difficult to figure out.
The thing with the ‘q’ to remember is that without a u it’s basically a k.
I think because the non phonetic version is more dissimilar to familiar words, there is less of a tendancy to try and mentaly associate it with known english words.
That and sci-fi authors like similar sorts of names too :)
While ‘David’ my mean different things in different languages, The Dave Conspiracy rules the world!
(I don’t know if that counts as an obscure reference or not. One never knows with this crowd.) :)
be careful there CanuckAmuck – the Circle of Five may decide to expel you for your loose lips
Dave Gorman, a British comedian, did an entire series just exploring his name and meeting people around the world, with his name. Finding humour in the little things. Such as the “Miles Per Dave Gorman”, spent on his investigations. Or the battles with beaurocracy, when explaining that the purpose of his visit was neither business nor pleasure, but meeting Dave Gorman.
“But you are Dave Gorman”
“Correct”
“Yet you say you are travelling to three different cities, to meet somone!”
“Yes, each of which has a different Dave Gorman.”
Partially wrong, last names from Ireland and Scotland often have meaning behind them a sort of ancestral call back. Mine for example means “decedent of the great wolf”, “The great wolf” in Irish mythology was a man named Conall Cernach who was basically a bad ass Gaelic knight of sorts. His name “Conall” means “strong wolf”
Oh. So it wasn’t a glare in the last update, it was a poker face. That’s a relief.
…are we sure she’s not just baring her fangs?
We could use your expert opinion, Yorp
By visuals alone, I would use it to support my theory that she might be a were-velociraptor. But, from the dialogue, I guess that would not best be demonstrated by holding hands. Not unless she felt peckish, and wanted to make sure lunch did not escape!
Xochitl is just a smiley girl, as DaveB confirmed in a reply above.
I have to admit, I was not expecting some super friendly interaction. Her expression in the intro panel didnt look like she could barely restrain herself from saying hi. What next? Grumpy bishie boy will start stuttering and blushing all over sydney?
People can be a bit stand-offish, whilst they are sizing up someone. Since then they got to see Sydney and Ren breaking the ice. So, whilst your comments are fair, there is also a reasonable basis for them behaving as they have.
Although perhaps Blondie will be a rare exception, and be someone who does not like Sydney?
After all, even with a +20 cuteness aura, somebody has to roll a critical failure on their reaction roll, sooner or later!
David is a Hebrew name of uncertain origins that goes back to before the guy in the Bible, but most likely seems to mean “the beloved”. My name’s Emil, meaning either “eager” or “gentle” depending on who you ask. Our names do mean things, even if it’s not assumed that parents think about it when they come up with them, like we assume about other cultures.
I had one question about the artwork in today’s comic. Are you using a different coloring tool? It is very contrasty vs. previous pages. It looks like everyone in the comic has developed a bad case of oily skin.
Yea, personally I thought Sydney was coming down with a bad case of zombieism.
Perhaps it is fore-shadowing Xochtil’s power? Absorbing the life, out of things in her surroundings, in order to fuel the life-enhancing powers that she commands!
It is very noticeable. The assistant colourist’s influence, maybe?
“The next shocking teammate, A chinese guy with NO DETECTABLE ACCENT”
How many people suddenly thought of George Takei responding “Oh My…”
I already pointed out above that Mexico was in North America. I’ll let someone else point out that George Takei is Japanese. Nothing to read here. Move along. Move along.
+1
i know what you meant, but i’m going to nitpick :D … he’s AMERICAN… he was BORN in L.A. NOT in Japan…
Reminds me of Neil DeGrasse Tyson interviewing George on StarTalk. They were discussing his initial interview with Gene Roddenberry.
(Paraphrased) “He mispronounced my name. He called me George Takai. I told him I didn’t mind, though, because that was a Japanese word meaning ‘expensive’. But I also pointed out that Takei doesn’t mean cheap, either.”
I visited central-America one time and toured quite a few of the old historical sites that they’ve dug out of the jungle. And boy let me tell you- whatever the original language might have looked like the anglicized spelling of the names sure does us number on us poor white folk. I think I actually sprained my tongue.
Eventually I learned to not ask how anything was spelled or even look at the signs- the letters would just confuse me. Instead I’d ask someone what this place was, and then close my eyes when they talked to me, and tried to absorb only the sounds they where saying. Then in my mind I could spell it however I needed to make the pronunciation right. Mostly right….
Yea, that is one of the pleasures of Bulgarian, their written language is pretty much phonetic. Even when you see the Anglicised version. But whichever missionaries decided to convert Aztec names into the English language, must have been tripping on something.
“Ok, lets put a silent ‘t’ in the middle of this one!”
Want a factoid that’ll blow your mind?
Oxford (the college in England) was open and teaching for centuries before the Aztec empire was even a thing.
Oh I’m well aware- amateur history is one of my hobbies.
I was lucky enough to travel around a lot with my parents when I was younger and it was quite exciting to stand in a building and think “the stones in these walls were quarried before my country existed” (most of Europe). Then I visited Ireland, a country that pretty much reached it’s peak before the renaissance and but the 11 or 12 hundreds was already in decline.
And then you go to someplace like the Grand Canyon or Hawaii and you start to think about how all of human history only goes back about 6000 years and dinosaurs existed for a quarter of a BILLION.
It’s enough to make you feel very small indeed sometimes….
There is a way to cure that. Just step outside and cover up the sun with your thumb. It is all a matter of perspective.
I wondah waht her powahs ar, its gonna be somethin wicked bad like making people fall in luv with her or making them fall in lust with her lol
Well, fertility goddess. Maybe she can just make them one of the many stages of pregnant (up to and including childbirth!).
As a symbol of enhanced fertility she will give Sydney huge….tracts of land.
You know, to grow crops on and stuff.
Hopefully its in a prime dairy area.
You know, for raising cows and stuff
Poor Sydney, she would be ruined if that was done to her. Stop being so cruel!
She is a city girl, and loves working in her comic shop. She would be lost working on a farm. Sydney would not know the first thing about milking a cow!
“When is somebody going to tell her that is a bull?”
Could have sworn I heard her saying something about a “top cow”.
“When we stop being able to sell the results for $800 a gallon!” (unless its a bull of good breeding and then it could be worth many many times more… )
“I’ll tell her when the bull looks like he’s satisfied & calmed down. He’s always had an ornery temper until now.”