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Original - 12 - HD (Patreon)

Published:
2022-05-19 06:56:50
Imported:
2022-05

Content

You okay?

- At egscomics 

Commentary

The strange phrasing in the first panel did not begin as intentionally strange. As is often the case with my mind brain, it was reminded of something, and tossed a quote at me.

That quote was "fish are friends, not food" from the movie Finding Nemo.

And because I heard that quote in my mind brain and thought "yes, good," Ashley thinks "are" instead of "is".

Only thing was, at that point, I only had "Grace are friend, not _____", so I had to actually think, and not just go off whatever random quote my mind brain was reminded of.

Thinking of single words I could put there, the only one I thought of that sort of fit while being one word was "waifu", a term often used by some to refer to fictional characters they like.

What exactly a person means by waifu will vary, but it's essentially the English word "wife" adopted into Japanese, so there are certain inherent implications there.

We're getting a bit tangential now, but when non-Japanese words are adopted into Japanese, they will likely sound different. Due to pronunciation and how things are written, there's not often a one-to-one match. Even if it sounds the same, the way its written will be based on sound, not on letter matching.

Waifu, for example, would be written with three Katakana characters: ワイフ. Wa, i, fu.

In many words, the "u" could be silent, so that really could just sound like "wife". Granted, I don't think I've ever heard it said with a silent "u" in context, so I've no idea if anyone actually does that.


Files

Comments

Dalek2150

Dang it Grace.

Dan Merget

Those six strands of hair in front of Ashley's face have really taken on a life of their own since https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/oc-06. There are a few earlier examples in which they straightened a bit when she got excited, but lately they've been completely changing shape every time her mood shifts: lightning bolts when brainstorming, wilted sine waves when embarrassed, bent rods when shocked, etc.

Daniel

The intention is for the "u" to be silent. The reason they use it in the first place is because of how Japanese syllables work. A syllable must always have a vowel sound (except for n), so words that end in a consonant sound in English get a tacked-on "u" at the end. But Japanese have trouble pronouncing English (in part because of how the syllables work), and they often mistakenly pronounce the tacked-on "u", which leads to stereotypical "Engrish" sounds like "waifu"; they might not even know it's supposed to be silent (though the same convention appears for native Japanese words). It doesn't help that non-Japanese fans of Japanese media embrace those mistakes, thinking they are quaint. But it's supposed to just be the English word transliterated into Japanese using the Katakana alphabet. It isn't actually adopted into the Japanese language. But it has also become slang for a fictional character they like, as you noted -- certainly in English, and possibly even in Japanese, though I'm less certain about that. (The more English-speaking and Internet-savvy Japanese might use it, as they likely encounter it online, but I'm skeptical about how ubiquitous it is.)

Narzain

And the breaking of Ashley's brain progresses.

Daryl Sawyer
>>84162072

Certainly, ワイフ was originally intended as a transliteration of English into Katakana. But language is not static. In this context, ワイフ is not just "wife" transliterated, but a fandom term referring specifically to female characters we like from a show. It shares etymology with the original word,. but has become its own thing. Thus, it does not have to be pronounced the same. Voicing the 'u' in フ may have began as a mistake, but many language features begin as mistakes, sometimes by foreign speakers. Thus, it is not incorrect to voice the 'u'. When we say "waifu", that has very little to do with the woman we married.

Stephen Gilberg

I've had moments like that. "Oh, hello, I was just talking about you behind your back."

Platus

Grace is exactly the sort of friend Ashley needs. Ashley's got such a vibrant imaginative life, but as we see over and over again she's just wracked with guilt and shame over some pretty darn tame fantasies. I feel really bad for her! She needs to learn to take pleasure in her sexuality without treating it like some kind of dark secret. Spending a lot of time with Grace, who's on the opposite end of the shame spectrum, will probably be good for her, and should get her on the way to a healthier relationship with her desires.

Daniel
>>84162072

Yes, "waifu" is jargon, or slang, used in certain subcultures to that effect. I mentioned that, specifically. That does not equate to the word being used in either English or Japanese *in general*. It is still true that pronouncing the "u" IS incorrect when attempting to speak the English word "wife" in Japanese. Context is important. Also, I didn't say it was incorrect when used in context. I was explaining the etymology, more than anything.

Anonymous

In the last panel Ashley's hair strands look a bit like segmented legs, like a crab or spider. So if someone leans in to kiss her, the trap is sprung and the hair-legs will snap in, holding the victim's head to Ashley's so that she may suck out their fantasies via her kiss without them escaping. Diabolical.

jubs
>>84162072

Just to add, on the "so words that end in a consonant sound in English get a tacked-on "u" at the end", the main exception being if the word would end in "t" or "d", since they don't natively have a "tu" or "du" sound (instead they're "tsu" and "dzu"), so they tend to use "to" and "do", as in "deddo" for "dead". I say "don't natively have" tu and du, they have come up with ways to write those, namelyトｩ and ドｩ. But these, along with many others are quite new developments and not traditional ways of using the system.

ijuinkun
>>84181959

I always thought that Ashley's hair reminds me of the "crab hair" of the character Washu from "Tenchi Muyo". https://tenchi.fandom.com/wiki/Washu_Hakubi

Anonymous

I bet Grace is thinking: "I got Sarah partway into our polycule - I mean cuddle pile, next I shall get Ashley, and then Elliot will have no choice but to join, and thus my long-awaited dream of seeing Tedd and Elliot kiss will come true! Muha ha ha ha haaaa!" Except somehow more ominous except not ominous at all, and all giggles and cuddles.