cosmic-fault-comic

[cosmic-fault-comic]

there's never been a magical girl comic like Lali Lopez and the Cosmic Fault before and there never will be again. go read it and show it your love!

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Ka'sa'i - Dance (Singing with your feet)

Ka'sa'i literally means Dancing with your feet. You might actually recognize Ka in other updates, meaning expression, or speaking, but it can also be singing!! You can express yourself with so many things, isn't it wonderful? What other things can you sing with?

Start from the beginning

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Ta - Dad

Ta! almost sounds like dad...

names like Baba Tata Dada or just dad are super common all over the world...

Start from the beginning

Next page: Ka'sa'I Dancing (Singing with your feet)

[cosmic-fault-comic]

[Image description: a drawing of Lali Lopez from @cosmic-fault-comic. Lali is a Mixtec girl with dark skin and black hair. She is wearing her restaurant working clothes: a white apron over a red shirt, yellow dishwashing gloves, yellow pants and pink sneakers. Lali is waving at the camera and smiling.

The background is white except for a multicolored rectanglar cutout behind Lali, and the similarly multicolored watermark. End description.]

everyone go read lali lopez and the cosmic fault. it's like if they made an explosion into a webcomic

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Khati - Shadow

Now that it's becoming summer (still spring at the time of writing, and still cool) I find myself appreciating shadows more.

Always embracing the dark side a bit... because you can cool down and have a paleta (popsicle) in one!

Start from the beginning

Next page: Ta - Dad

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Sa'ini - Sunset

Sa' short for feet, is more a description of a location.

literally meaning "at the foot of the sun" which is such a poetic way of referring to the dusk.

The way mixtec describes things, using the fingers, hands, feet to describe the position of things always adds a personifying element to these words. It's something I really appreciate.

These words apply the layout of humanity to the cosmos....

Start from the beginning

Next page: Khati - Shadow

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Hini'Nda'a - Fingertip/Finger

When i worked for this restaurant, I would wash the dishes basically 24/7, I really didn't know what else to do, except sweep the floors and pick up the trash that littered the floors. That was a hard day. I got these blisters at the edges of my nails, that usually happen right after getting my hands wet.

I'd get used to that feeling. But looking back, the dull pain was always the worst.

Also I got fired a day after because the Boss had second thoughts about me, but eh. That's life.

start from the beginning

Next page: Sa'Ini - Sunset

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Bonus Comic: Duendes

I love duende stories, almost every family member has a story of seeing a diminutive man scrambling across the room

I always like imagining my mixtec ancestors possibly meeting of them as well, maybe as little alien Greys

Instead conspiracy fantasies of aliens teaching the Maya/Mexica how to build pyramids, what if instead they taught something to them?

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Yu'i - My Mouth

Alright! I think its time i talk about pronouns!!! The last page i focused on was Yu'Yo meaning "Our mouth" but that's not quite accurate.

The 'Yo pronoun specifically refers to me and you, the listener or reader of my words. I kind of like this distinction. The listener is Actively acknowledged in conversation.

the Yu'i pronoun is funny, the sort of similarity that english and mixtec shares, with I and 'I refering to "I" or "Myself"

this shared aspect of language is nice, it's something I like picking out.

Next page: Hini'Nda'a - Fingertip/Finger

start from the beginning

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Ña - Woman

My favorite thing about mixtec is how tones change over time and become changed because of Spanish colonization, the ~ symbol over the N in Na means that you use a Y sound, so like "Nya".

Pretty cute.

Over time words and meanings change, maybe I'm changing the language as I go to through these words too, heh.

start from the beginning

Next page: Yu'i - My mouth

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Havi - Rain

Havi is such a cool word in my Mixtec, in many other variants of mixtec it can be Savi, Sari, or Davi. In these languages the name for their groups can mean "People of the rain"

People of the rain, that is really cool. In nahuatl, the name "Mixteca" means "people of the clouds" Slightly different yeah? I think it refers to how the mixtecs live in the mountains and in the valleys of Oaxaca, very cloudy and rainy places.

A source of life, the creator of floods, lightning, a symbol of war, abundance, creation. Rain is pretty nice.

start from the beginning

Next page: Ña - Woman

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Kanni Havi - Lightning/"Rain Strike"

Thunder in Oaxaca is so different from the thunder where I live, It crackles and echos, it echoes through the valleys like drums.

In rapid succession the lightning sounds like a sizzling barrage of punches through the air.

Almost as if the Storm god Tlaloc himself is waging war against the very earth itself.

It really is a marvel. You can feel it reverberate through your body. It's something I'd like to experience again someday.

start from the beginning

Next Page: Havi - Rain

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Yu'yo - Our Mouth

Mouth... eating... also used for making sounds, I think one of the coolest features of mixtec and other related languages is the glottal stop! whenever you see an apostrophe in a mixtec word you are supposed to abruptly stop the pronoucnciation of the word, through closing the glottis muscle in your throat, then produce the sound after the apostrophe right after Mouths are cool, a way to express ourselves, to eat consume, exhale and bite.

start from the beginning

Next page: Kanni Havi - Lighting/"rain strike"

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Chi'ki'ya - Butterfly

People all over Mexico used to wear butterflies on their noses, a symbol of power, beauty, status and riches

Like the souls of warriors that died in battle, able to cross into the land of the living in the form

Being able to transcend social ranks, the barrier between worlds, and life and death, that's a really cool power.

start from the beginning

Next Page: Yu'Yo - Our Mouth

[cosmic-fault-comic]

felt compelled to doodle lali from @cosmic-fault-comic

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Itchi - Path

My parents used to tell me, all paths lead into one.

Honestly that's dumb, there are definitely worse paths, and better paths.

When you're down one is it easy to switch? Will you be able to tell?

Probably not, but you still can, there's never a too late moment. Theres always a chance.

start from the beginning

Next page: Chi'ki'ya - Butterfly

[cosmic-fault-comic]

Na'yivi - Person

Nayivi means specifically "Person" My grandparents say it doesn't have to mean "Homo-sapien" or "Human being"

A tree could be a Nayivi as much as a human being could, and I like that distinction.

A strange alien creature could come from the skies or from beyond the stars and could be respected and as beloved a person all the same.

Its a sweet thought.

start from the beginning

Next page: Itchi - Path