At War’s Edge webcomic episode 160 is up! So, yeah, that plan of Neia’s to talk to the editor even should the editor be dead already? Didn’t quite work out.
Bonus #1. I do have another translation into Halcian for anyone who’s interested. Halcian is heavily based on Proto-Celtic, and the hardest part for this page was figuring out whether Celtic languages have negative concord (double negatives) or not. Apparently that’s “yes and no”, because “something” and “nothing” are kinda the same word. At least in some of them. So “they don’t know anything useful” and “they don’t know nothing useful” sounds exactly the same. Go figure.
| English | Halcian | Literal translation | |
| Areghyr | Drowned? | Abaidtria? | Drowned? (feminine, passive, past participle) |
| Tyan | Fractured skull. Someone’s tying up loose ends. | Askenu kiestitom. Keleit nekos lorgonom. | Skull shattered (neuter, passive, past participle). Hides (3rd person, active, present) someone footprints (accusative). |
| Neia | Sorry, I didn’t manage to chat her up either. Brain’s too damaged. | Bruginu, ni galntu mei labreti kom ai. Wregito arkotom re mairom du enkenei. | Regret (1st person, singular, present), not could I chat with her. Done (neuter, passive, past participle) damage too big to brain (accusative). |
| Areghyr | The war hasn’t yet begun, and the death toll is rising. Did she have a family? | Ni sengt tane kowikar, on tumeit ankesom reima. Est du ai weni? | Not began (3rd person, singular, past) yet war, and rises (3rd person, singular, present) death (genitive) count. Was to her (prepositional) family? |
| Tyan | A husband and a child. The husband’s a bulldancer, the child is six. Neither of them knows anything relevant. | Wiro hon kendim. Wiro steit taroleinigi, du kendei steit weh. Ni gninonti os neiri uworsatom. | Husband and child. Husband is bulldancer (prepositional), to child (prepositional) is six. Not know (3rd person, plural, active, present) they nothing/anything helpful. |
| Areghyr | A child… is very easy to threaten. | Steit kendim… arde skaime bakariti. | Is child… very easy to threaten. |
| Neia | So’s a bulldancer, really. | Steit saime taroleinig, eni rendatei. | Is same bulldancer, in reality (prepositional). |
| Areghyr | True. | Weire. | Truly/correct. |
Bonus #2. I’ve had people ask what the heck is a bulldancer. Exactly what it says on the tin – someone who dances with bulls. Think bullfighting, but the human isn’t armed and the bull is supposed to survive. Which is why the editor’s husband is pretty darn vulnerable accidents.