European Graphic Novels+

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“BD” refers to Franco-Belgian comics, but let's open things up to include ALL Euro comics and GN's. Euro-style artistry from around the world is also welcome.

* BD = "Bandes dessinées"
* BDT = Bedetheque
* GN = graphic novel
* LBK = Lambiek
* LC = "Ligne claire"

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The designated language here is English, with a traditional bias towards French, followed by other Euro languages.

When posting foreign-language content, please DO include helpful context for English-speakers.

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How many Europeans speak non-native languages, anyway? (imgur.com)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So for me, as I stumble and bumble my way through learning French (mostly through DuoLingo, hey), I'm often thinking about this issue.

Now-- on the surface of things, Modern English is almost exclusively comprised of German & French, and almost every word in these sentences are specific examples of such in terms of direct etymology. Which is a big part of why I've typically regarded French & German as my sibling languages. It's a nice, bright thought, anyway!

Let's take the modern English word "fight"-- WP claims:

From Middle English fighten, from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan, from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”).

My point is that there's so many ways to run with that over time... in any language whatsoever! Indeed, IIRC there was a "fisten" variation which meant an entirely different thing in earlier German.

But, "shear?" Yes, yes back in my schoolyard days, I wanted to shear my opponent like a little lost lamb, but... I don't think that's right.

So here's my point, assuming you've lasted this far. Modern German in fact split from modern English maybe around ~~800AD? And Modern French, around... perhaps slightly earlier than the Norman Conquest (1066), meaning that even though Modern English is absolutely PACKED full of French & German pronyms, we can't just assume they mean the same thing, anymore, as with the examples above.

It sort of breaks my heart, but it's just reality, non?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Now is there a way I might touch on that in future, as I explore Euro-style art & comics across this community?

The nearest that I've seen about the topic in comics fashion was not from Euro comics, but from a manga called Heterogenia Linguistico. At a certain point the protagonist is thinking about his grandma, who passed away as the last speaker of her language - so as she died so did her culture.

That said this topic is specially relatable for plenty Europeans, I think, so I'd be really surprised if we couldn't find any Euro comic talking about it.