So while rereading White Sand, I noticed that the riding beasts on Taldain are called tonks and my mind immediately jumped to Tonk Fah. I wonder if there is a connection in the name. It seems much to random a word to be coincidental, especially for a created word. It would be simpler to just create a completely new name for one or the other, depending on when you realize they were the same. It could be that Brandon originally used the word for White Sand prose and then repurposed it for Warbreaker not anticipating a return to Taldain (or at least planning on having a more direct role in the return to Taldain, where he could change any words he needed) but I would imagine he or Peter or someone on their team would have looked over the graphic novel before its release and noticed that.
Pure speculation in an attempt to answer my own question, but Tonk Fah could be a nickname given to him by Denth. Denth is a known worldhopper, based on a recent WoB, and could have gone to Taldain before it was closed off, seen the idiotic beasts known as tonks (they think any attack is a sandstorm and bury themselves in the sand) and nicknamed Tonk Fah after them as an inside joke that only he got, calling him an idiotic pack animal to his face without Tonk Fah knowing.
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Bromo_Sapien
So while rereading White Sand, I noticed that the riding beasts on Taldain are called tonks and my mind immediately jumped to Tonk Fah. I wonder if there is a connection in the name. It seems much to random a word to be coincidental, especially for a created word. It would be simpler to just create a completely new name for one or the other, depending on when you realize they were the same. It could be that Brandon originally used the word for White Sand prose and then repurposed it for Warbreaker not anticipating a return to Taldain (or at least planning on having a more direct role in the return to Taldain, where he could change any words he needed) but I would imagine he or Peter or someone on their team would have looked over the graphic novel before its release and noticed that.
Pure speculation in an attempt to answer my own question, but Tonk Fah could be a nickname given to him by Denth. Denth is a known worldhopper, based on a recent WoB, and could have gone to Taldain before it was closed off, seen the idiotic beasts known as tonks (they think any attack is a sandstorm and bury themselves in the sand) and nicknamed Tonk Fah after them as an inside joke that only he got, calling him an idiotic pack animal to his face without Tonk Fah knowing.
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