zompist bboard

Whoa. Whoa. I am genuinely at a loss of where to begin speculating.

Yes, sorry for my delay in responding! Nortaneous wins. with bells on!! I am both without all my computery and all my print library at the moment, so took a sample of what I had immediately to hand. If I win another round, obviously I need to go further abroad, so my known predilections aren't such ...

What, really??? I mean, um, indeed, thank you! ;) Like I said above, the only reason I even tried out for this one is because of old conlang-prep reading I'd done, which left me pretty sure this was a southern-group Bantu language, but it didn't look like Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana etc. for mostly orthogr...

OK, one more guess in the dark (well, dimness) and then I'll shut up: Shona? About fifteen years ago I read a bunch about southern-zone Bantu languages for a conlang idea I had (which never went anywhere) -- which is why I feel like this sample must be one of them. I'm kind of dismayed about the kin...

OK, I'm kinda playing 20 Questions, exactly like I abhorred last week -- but I feel like I'm close, and maybe taking a 1:3 or 1:4 gamble with this guess: Venda?

I feel like thanks to hints given I know what parts of what language family to try finding this one in, but my entire library in that area was electronic and sitting on a hard drive in a repair shop right now. And I really don't want to do the 20 Questions game. Maybe we should think about wrapping ...

Birdlang is cutting corners. Obviously the cool and smart thing that is desired is a conlang composed of all the inconceivable phonemes -- each and every single one of them. Until I see that, or he kicks down some of the turbocharged drugs he's on, which weren't around when I was his age, I don't se...

Oh, sure, you creeps! Wait till my computer dies and I take a couple weeks away from reality the web, and then start tossing out Mongolian & Tungusic samples... ;p

As a newcomer to this thread, I defer to Xephyr In any case, I'd just like to see this deadlock broken before the whole game/thread withers away.

Birdlang, are you willing to put us out of our misery yet?

The current puzzle is just shy of two weeks old, and until Birdlang offered another hint today, had gone without any new proposals for nearly a week. I'm going to propose that: 1) in (let's say) another 24 hours, Birdlang reveals the answer, 2) hopefully, gives us some bibliography on this mystery s...

Dang, Birdlang. I'm stumped. Yes, well, I have a vague sense of areal and maybe even 'genetic' being; but I just don't have the brain-stuff nor the personal library to track it down. The text itself is pretty clear, which makes the temptation to begoogle it up quite strong. One of the weird things I...

Could it be Mapundugun?

I was tempted to suggest that earlier, since the text reminded me of the little bit I've read about it. But then I really haven't read about other S.A. languages, and what are the odds it would happen to be that one? But, if it's from Argentina... I'll take the shot.

Nesescosac got it -- Nanai! You're up!

(Since I didn't check in in time to spot Nivkh, I thought it would be nice to bring one of its neighbors to the party...)

It's too rich for me, for that matter -- both the price tag and the sheer volume of the thing. So I only have it on loan for a bit, and will read some tonight while kicking myself for not realizing that extinct languages were fair game here ;) "Ryukyuan"? Embarrassing! What the heck, here's my round...

Vovin's volume on it is sitting at home -- and if I'd had to specify which dialect on the spot, I'd just have been guessing Wow. I'll get my sample out late tonight, once I can lay hands on a chunk of text.

Wait, is it a transcription of Old Japanese?

One of the Ryukyuan languages/dialects? I'm away from all my stuff so can't easily look them up.

Also, re the question on the last page: converting a language sample to IPA when a perfectly-fine Roman orthography is available is probably against the rules. We discussed this on the first page: use whatever your source uses or, failing that, use an orthography/transcription that People Use. Than...

Quick technical question (in case I ever am in a position to present a mystery language) -- how should one represent a language which has a non-Latin-based script for which there is no recognized transliteration scheme?

Apologies for intruding, but I really wanted to speak up and say, this is my favorite thread, by far! I love reading it and following the guesses; though I feel like a cat watching sparrows through a window. (Mind you, I've never seen a cat seem actively unhappy about that pastime, and I'm not eithe...

Max Planck Gesellschaft's World Loanword Database, maybe?

http://wold.clld.org/

Exponentially increasing beat time? Seriously, none of you know what he's talking about?

HONESTLY, YOU NICE TWERPS!!! He's trying to describe the ratio in which the more he talks, the more that sane people gather from all around to beat him into jelly.

Me? I have a _good_ sense of rhythm.

Adjective Recoil wrote:I'd like to request sound changes for Proto-Mongolic to modern Mongol.

Which modern Mongolian? Khalkha? Anyway I might be able to provide, but can't promise.

That's surprising why? Maybe I'm out of touch, but I thought the Altaic hypothesis had fallen out of favor and was a decided minority view at this point. My understanding -- based on hearsay, not any first-hand experience -- is that the Altaic theory is widely accepted in Korea (ROK, at least), and...

Um, can we get back to serious business, like the level of SRYSLYNSS appropriate to a given scope of a priori conlanging? I really don't give a crap about "Drydic", who -- OH YES AD HOMINEM -- does admittedly come across like living totally up to his name, dea gratia, but this is the intarwebz: the ...