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Conlang Diachronics Relay II

Prompted by a recent comment, we are finally getting started with the second Conlang Diachronics Relay. For those who don't know: This is a follow-up game to the 2006-2007 "Cursed Relay", during which the Edastean language family was created. For a history of the predecessor and associated games, see here. This new game will follow the same concept, using the same conworld setting as a background to create a new language family with new participants.

How it works:

Starting from one protolanguage, participants develop a multi-branched, multi-generational language family, by each deriving a daughterlanguage from someone else's. There will be a (flexible) time limit of approximately two weeks, so the people in line after you don't have to wait too long before they can get to work. There will be several parallel groups so we'll end up with a realistic, broad linguistic family. If there are enough participants, we could run a second relay at the same time, starting from a different protolanguage.

[EDIT: We're indeed starting from two main protolangs - Dewrad's Proto-Western and Zhen Lin's Proto-Peninsular. See relay schedule below.
And of course anyone is welcome to create a daughter of Proto-Núalís-Takuña (PDF) outside of the relay framework.]

At the beginning of each turn, the participants of the next round take a look and decide on the language they want to work from. The decision will be made in discussion in this thread. Eligible languages are those created in the previous turn as well as those from one generation earlier, including languages that were created before this relay (i.e. Proto-Coastal-Western (PDF)). For instance, the people of Team A Group II will be able to choose between Proto-Western, Proto-Coastal-Western, and the two languages to be created by Drydic Guy and WeepingElf.

Alternatives will only have to be found (a) if it has been decided that more descendants of a particular language would be unrealistic, or (b) if all participants of a non-initial round choose the same language.

What you'll have to do:

Nobody's going to ask you to produce a hundred page grammar, certainly. The basics needed for someone to be able to derive an entry from yours are:

• A list of your sound changes
• Lists/tables of the main morphology
• At least enough basic grammar/syntax to translate the sample text
• Your translation of this text, preferrably with an interlinear gloss
• A word list with definitions and, if necessary, morphological information

Requirements:

Of course, any previous experience with diachronic conlanging is helpful, but this is not required in order to sign in. If you have some basic knowledge about how sound changes work, you can do just fine. You should also bring some time - deriving a daughterlanguage within two weeks is quite a bit of work, but it's definitely doable. And last but not least you should bring your creativity and some ambition to produce a realistic conlang

Recommendations:

• You can choose the time depth of your language yourself. A good amount would be 800-1500 years, just enough so that it becomes a different language but keep a strong familiarity (see Latin to Romance).
• 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 discuss it with the Akana team a little - here, on the AkanaForum, or on [url=irc://irc.sorcery.net/akana]IRC[/url] - to make sure everything fits together well. You can of course also borrow words from each other, provided your languages are roughly contemporary.
• You can post the description of your language at the AkanaWiki or at another place on the internet, as you prefer.
• If you want, you're encouraged to use the AkanaForum to create a work-in-progress thread about your relay project to discuss sound changes, grammar issues, historical setting etc.
• If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Questions regarding game organization are best directed at me or Radius. Questions specific to the protolanguages may be directed at the creators themselves - Dewrad for PW, Zhen Lin for PPI, and TzirTzi for PNT/PCW. Questions regarding the setting can probably be answered by most of the main Akana participants, i.e. the aforementioned plus Legion, Corumayas, and boy #12.

Goal:

To have fun, and see how it turns out.

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Schedule

Here are the provisional relay groups and their goal dates. If anyone doesn't like the time or language family I've placed him/her in, please tell me.

Team A: Western

Round I (October 18th)
Drydic Guy (from Proto-Western)
WeepingElf (from Proto-Western): Çetázó
TzirTzi (from Proto-Western): Proto-Coastal-Western (PDF)

Round II (November 2nd)
eodrakken (from Proto-Western): Iŋomœ́
Curlyjimsam (from Çetázó): Šetâmol (PDF)
ingolemo (from Çetázó): Óhylvídós
cedh audmanh (from Proto-Western): Tmaśareʔ

Round III (December 4th)
Abi (from Óhylvídós): Ohilí (WIP)
Arzena (from Çetázó): Shtåså
brandrinn (from Iŋomœ́)
kohorik (from Iŋomœ́): Satnímʔa (WIP)
Nortaneous (from Iŋomœ́): Hāňheliubľ

Round IV (December 31st)
caedes (from Çetázó)
PeteTheMadScientist (from Tmaśareʔ)
Tarasoriku (from Tmaśareʔ)
Trailsend
...

Team B: Peninsular

Round I (December 4th)
nebula wind phone (from Proto-Peninsular): Merneha
Vortex (from Proto-Peninsular): Gaadràmarneš
4pq1injbok (from Proto-Peninsular): Kibülʌiṅ

Round II (December 31st)
faiuwle
krinnen
Kuanye
ulan

Round III (January 23rd)
Amuere
Cadeshadow
Jojo
Skomakar'n
YngNghymru

Round IV (February 14th)
thedukeofnuke
...

Names in red are running late.
Entries in gray are not officially part of the relay, but may be selected to derive daughters from.
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Of course, more participants are welcome - if you're interested, please sign up!

There is no deadline for signing up. New people will be accepted for as long as the game is running. If you're interested, simply drop me a PM or place a post in this thread If you have any RL constraints on when you can participate, please say so in your sign-up post so I can adjust the order. Also, please indicate your preference which language family to work with.

checking in

I'm still down.

I'm still good for it, just wanted to say that I don't have much experience.

Confirmed!

If it's possible, I'd like to... er... make use of the flexible deadlines. Having a number of people waiting for me to finish would be bad, since I expect to be fairly busy until the end of November.

Also, my vote for starting language goes to PW or PCW.

Count me in.

eta: I just realized that I won't have time if I get scheduled in November, but as long as it's not then, I'm good to go.

I haven't been paying that much attention to the other thread, but it does sound like a fun idea. I've always wanted to make a diachronic conlang, but always wind up starting in the middle and trying to work backwards and forwards simultaneously, and that never works. I'm hoping having a specific goal to accomplish in a short period of time will improve my conlanging a bit.

In other words - sign me up!

I don't have any specific RL constraints, but I'd rather not go first. I'll look over the proto-langs and post back with a preference.

I'll give 'er a go! Sounds like a great opportunity to expand into a field of conlangery that...I've usually thought was over my head.

In terms of time constraints, could I request a placement that would have me working some time in early November?

Count me in, as long as I can go later than mid-October.

... hm, by those standards, I never did finish Ājat he-Heloun, did I? Maybe this'll put me in the mood to wrap that up as well...

Maybe me. I have a pretty full plate as far as conlangery goes, but I may have a spot freeing up. Either way I'll be following this.

At your service.

Ok, my vote for the proto-lang goes to Proto-Peninsular.

I'm in.

thedukeofnuke wrote: If it's possible, I'd like to... er... make use of the flexible deadlines. Having a number of people waiting for me to finish would be bad, since I expect to be fairly busy until the end of November.

Well, you should probably either wait until the end of the line, or else do your best to get your turn done in two weeks so others can go after you. It really is not unfeasible even if you're busy. The "flexible" part means: once you've started, nobody's going to have a heart attack if it ends up taking a third week. But two months is definitely too long. So yes, there's a bit of pressure, but past participants have often found it helpful to have a deadline with other people waiting on it. It gets you moving!

I'll try.

In.

I love making sound changes, count me in!

In case people are interested in seeing what a daughter of PNT might look like, Takuña (PDF) is worked out.

faiuwle wrote:Ok, my vote for the proto-lang goes to Proto-Peninsular.

I'd also like to take a shot at Proto-Peninsular.

Definitely want to try this.
Also, I shouldn't have any serious constraint at least until december.
And I'd also prefer not to go first, if possible.

I'll do it.

I'll do it.

I'm in.

I'm in.


One thing I proposed the first time was to have two daugthers per language (per level), to create a wider rather than deeper tree. In the end it was decided to have two groups, which wasn't exactly the same... What do you think?

krinnen wrote:One thing I proposed the first time was to have two daugthers per language (per level), to create a wider rather than deeper tree. In the end it was decided to have two groups, which wasn't exactly the same... What do you think?

I've been thinking something like this, too. We don't have to split each line exactly once in every generation; it looks more natural if sometimes there is no split and sometimes there is a three-way split instead. But it's definitely a good idea to allow several daughters of any given language.