welsh
Original: welsh on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman: In 1567, William Salesbury created a Welsh translation of the New Testament.
Panel 2:
Woman: This helped establish the orthographic standards for written Welsh.
Panel 3:
Woman: Before that translation, the letter K was quite common in Welsh. Today it's gone. It's always C instead.
Panel 4:
Woman: That's because in Salesbury's New Testament, he dropped K and used C.
Panel 5:
Woman: You might imagine this was for linguistic reasons, but we have a contemporary statement of his own on the topic. That reads: "C for K because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth."
Panel 6:
Woman: So modern Welsh looks more exotic than it should because a seventeenth-century printer ran out of tiny metal letters.
Man: Probably lots.
Panel 7:
Woman: I wonder what percent of authentic culture comes from an arbitrary decision by a long-dead ancestor.
Panel 8:
Man: That is so empowering!
Woman: Wut?
Panel 9:
Man: We can make arbitrary choices right now and people will never know! Are they gonna dig up the past? No! And future people will think our descendants will protect it like a beloved heirloom!
Panel 10:
Woman: If we play our cards right, they'll believe the tradition is both old and real. And where do you draw the line on idle conversation like this anyway? Where we begin?
Panel 11:
Man: And you have such a deep antipathy toward future people?
Panel 12:
Man: Probably. Because of something my ancestors did.
Votey:
A round flame-haired character (shown as a small head poking up at the bottom) with a sly grin says in a large speech bubble: "We can convince them that comics are for adults!"
Woman: In 1567, William Salesbury created a Welsh translation of the New Testament.
Panel 2:
Woman: This helped establish the orthographic standards for written Welsh.
Panel 3:
Woman: Before that translation, the letter K was quite common in Welsh. Today it's gone. It's always C instead.
Panel 4:
Woman: That's because in Salesbury's New Testament, he dropped K and used C.
Panel 5:
Woman: You might imagine this was for linguistic reasons, but we have a contemporary statement of his own on the topic. That reads: "C for K because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth."
Panel 6:
Woman: So modern Welsh looks more exotic than it should because a seventeenth-century printer ran out of tiny metal letters.
Man: Probably lots.
Panel 7:
Woman: I wonder what percent of authentic culture comes from an arbitrary decision by a long-dead ancestor.
Panel 8:
Man: That is so empowering!
Woman: Wut?
Panel 9:
Man: We can make arbitrary choices right now and people will never know! Are they gonna dig up the past? No! And future people will think our descendants will protect it like a beloved heirloom!
Panel 10:
Woman: If we play our cards right, they'll believe the tradition is both old and real. And where do you draw the line on idle conversation like this anyway? Where we begin?
Panel 11:
Man: And you have such a deep antipathy toward future people?
Panel 12:
Man: Probably. Because of something my ancestors did.
Votey:
A round flame-haired character (shown as a small head poking up at the bottom) with a sly grin says in a large speech bubble: "We can convince them that comics are for adults!"
Alt text
A twelve-panel SMBC comic. A woman with dark hair explains a piece of Welsh history to a red-haired man: in 1567 William Salesbury made a Welsh translation of the New Testament that set the orthographic standards for written Welsh. Before it, the letter K was common in Welsh, but Salesbury dropped K in favor of C, and modern Welsh still uses C instead of K. She notes his own contemporary reason was not linguistic but practical: "C for K because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth" - i.e., a 17th-century printer simply ran out of tiny metal K letters. She muses about what percent of 'authentic culture' comes from arbitrary decisions by long-dead ancestors. The man finds this empowering: they could make arbitrary choices now that future people will revere as ancient tradition, never knowing the truth. He then admits his deep antipathy toward future people is 'probably because of something my ancestors did.' Votey: a round, flame-haired character grins slyly and declares, "We can convince them that comics are for adults!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.