Conlang Diachronics Relay II (now with schedule!)

[PeteTheMadScientist]

Hi, I'm Pete Bleackley, fairly well known on the conlang listserv as the creator of Khangaþyagon and iljena, and I'd like to join in.

[WeepingElf]

We could have it as free as "when the person's turn begins they choose which of any of the existing langs to derive their daughter from". That way we get relatively random number of splits per generation.

This is a very good idea, I think. That not only leads to a realistic mix of numbers of descendants per language; it also means that anyone can choose the language he thinks he can do the best with.

[Qwynegold]

I want to vote for Proto-Núalís-Takuña.

Yes As cedh said, anyone can join as long as the relay is still running.

OK, great!

What if we paired up, so that one person dealt with the sound changes, and passed it on to someone else, who would have to figure the syntax out?

(A paradigm sound change applier may be useful here.)

If any grammars freak wants to team up with me, I could do the phonetics.

We could have it as free as "when the person's turn begins they choose which of any of the existing langs to derive their daughter from". That way we get relatively random number of splits per generation.

I want to vote for this too.

[roninbodhisattva]

We could have it as free as "when the person's turn begins they choose which of any of the existing langs to derive their daughter from". That way we get relatively random number of splits per generation.

I'd like to vote for this as well, though I guess if I end up going first, it doesn't really matter for me.

[ing]

I wouldn't mind going first, as long as you guys can put up with annoying questions.

[Niedokonany]

Question: what happens if somebody needs a root that haven't been included in the parent language? Does everybody just have to rely on derivation then??

[Cedh]

Question: what happens if somebody needs a root that haven't been included in the parent language? Does everybody just have to rely on derivation then??

Derivation is certainly a good thing; however, other possibilities are borrowing from an unknown substrate language (quite possibly several words at once) or positing a parent-language root that can't be reconstructed because other daughters don't have it. We've come across this problem with several Akana languages in the past, and all of the above solutions have already been used.

[faiuwle]

On that note, I assume we're allowed to borrow vocabulary from the existing Akana langs, assuming we can come up with a plausible conhistory that involves interaction with one of the existing concultures? And if someone does the borrowing-from-unknown-substrate-language thing, we can maybe collaborate to create (at least partially) that language? That'll be more work, of course...

[Drydic]

After further goings over, I'd probably like to do one from Proto-Western. Ergatives I like dealing with, plus it's got areas where I could mess with the consonants.

[Yng]

Any team's good for me - I don't really mind.

[WeepingElf]

Proto-Western looks great to evolve a language from. I already have a few ideas what I could do with it ...

[Radius Solis]

WeepingElf and Drydic Guy, you have the official green light to start your turns, using Proto-Western.

Goal date for the first turn: Friday the 16th of October. If that ends up not being quite enough time it's okay, just keep us informed about it.

Anytime you have questions don't hesitate to ask, and please feel free to work out a little con-history to go with your languages if you choose to, or invent substrate-language word lists to borrow words from if you like. Neither of these is required. If you do want to, it might be best to work with us a little to make sure everything fits together well. (You can of course also borrow words from each other, provided your languages are roughly contemporary.)


Many organizational details of this relay are still in discussion, like the rest of the lineup, and everything to do with the Peninsular side, but there is no reason why those taking the first turn on Western shouldn't get started. Note that this does not necessarily exclude others from deriving directly from Proto-Western - I see two others have also expressed such interest. We will have to work something out.

[Tiamat]

I have a lot of free time on the weekends (especially this sunday) so I can (and am willing) to begin right away.

[Drydic]

I'm on it.

:explodes:

[dunomapuka]

Omigod guys, Akana now enters a new phase of glory.

*drinks to celebrate*

[Mbwa]

I'm not gonna join in, just to let everybody know. I don't feel up to the challenge yet, at least with the bar set as high as it was.

[Dewrad]

Just a quick note to those who end up deriving from Proto-Western: if you want to ask any questions about the language, feel free to drop me a line.

[ave matthew]

I will help derive a language, I'll go on which ever team has the least participants, but I dunno which one that is.

[Amuere]

Aqui! Checkin' in ya'll, I'm here!

Though I'm alitte worried about the two week deadline seeing as I've been at conlanging for two years with no product to show for it ( except that it served as a catalyst to vastly increase my linguistic knowledge), I've committed myself to the challenge, so that I may at long last create my first conlang.

I also have no idea what the grammar of a ergative lang is like, I'm already at a disadvantage! I hope this whole thing isn't outta my league!

[Basilius]

We have more than twenty people signed in already! :) Five of them want to work with Western, and three with Peninsular. I think we should use both language families then. Anyone specifically interested in going first round?

It's a pity that few people voted for Proto-Núalís-Takuña. It seems to present some challenging options, as a protolanguage...

Is it possible to have a third family in the relay?

If it is, I would like to join Qwynegold, but unlike Qwynegold I can start right now.

Are there any other people willing to join the PNT Party? Tzirtzi, are you going to participate in the relay?

[the duke of nuke]

I'd be happy doing a PNT descendant, though as things are turning out I won't be able to put much time in for a few weeks.
Doesn't Siixtaguna need a NT language?

[TzirTzi]

Siixtaguna needs a series of NT languages (the more innovative group, of which Takuna is one, and the rest of which borrow relatively heavily from Takuna) plus a language (or dialect continuum) descended from a very close sister of PNT. The Isles need some NT languages also, theoretically conservative ones, of which the undescribed Nualis is one. The draft ideas I jotted down a while ago for NT culture and spread are here .

I'm holding back on saying I'd like to be involved in the relay as I'm three weeks into a term at a new uni and don't really have a feel for the workload yet. I've been intending to possibly join later on when I've settled in a bit more and am missing fewer deadlines due to disorganisation Assuming that happens, I'd be very happy to join a team starting with PNT - I very much enjoyed working on Takuna and would be happy to see the family expand. But if we don't have the numbers to make a third team, then it might not be practical..

[Zhen Lin]

Any Peninsular questions may be directed at me. I won't be on IRC much until I can figure out how to get online - college still hasn't implemented NAT, so all I have are proxies...

[Curlyjimsam]

I have no preference for any of the different families, largely because I haven't looked at any of them. Just give me whatever.

I don't much want to do anything immediately, but quite soon would be nice.

[Nesescosac]

I would like to back out. This seems too hard.