zompist bboard

Torco wrote:Finally, I don't think having saltpeter in Krat Loyaan makes a lot of sense. On earth, the only significant deposits of saltpeter, IIRC, are in the peru-bolivia-chile frontier, in the Atacama desert, you know, in the place where there's the least rain at the planetary level, but I don't know. does anyone know more geology than me?

I believe, though I'm not sure, that any very dry island covered in sedimentary rock might have a chance at saltpetre deposits. Krat Loyaan cannot be a volcanic island if you want to have saltpetre deposits.

If Viraayon doesn't have good deposits of saltpeter, what does it have? I mean you said stuff like turpentine, but is there anything else... something lucrative enough that regional powers would fight over it?

I don't know... since it has lots of mountains, I guess mineral resources? something like gems or silver?

@Torco – I've left you a reply to your comment and am writing up the article on PVQ in another tab right now while listening to Mannheim Steamroller.

Also, I've caused a bit of a predicament. I'd originally named X!aǹaikk U before I'd made some changes to the language and now it should be more properly called X!aǹækikk U. Would it be possible to get the article deleted? I've fixed all the links and references to it myself and moved the page, and apologize for this massive inconvenience.

Couldn't you just rename the article?

I've been keeping up with this project and it's pretty interesting. No chance I could be a late joiner and take up this slice here?


Has anyone suggested thematic features for the western languages yet?

Jonzobean wrote:I've been keeping up with this project and it's pretty interesting. No chance I could be a late joiner and take up this slice here?

Unless if anyone objects, feel free to hope on, name your folks, and start the Wiki page. I'll make an updated claims map tomorrow.

Torco wrote:

agreed. it's easy to find water. it'd be harder to find water that's safe to drink (whether because of salt, parasites, poo, etc)

Yeah, but that's even true in the Amazon. People will live near rivers and lakes, after all.

These islands are the size of britain, siam and japan. there's gonna be someplaces where living isn't going to be easy, sure, but I don't think it'll be the reality of most places.

when they initially mentioned the islands too small for fresh water bodies, or where its horrid to be stranded on, I was thinking of something roughly atoll-sized, the sort of "we will throw you off hte ship here, and you will die" scene in real life and films.

Jonzobean wrote:I've been keeping up with this project and it's pretty interesting. No chance I could be a late joiner and take up this slice here?

I'm ok with you joining too.

Jonzobean wrote:Has anyone suggested thematic features for the western languages yet?

So far we have agreed on palatalization, 5 to 7 vowels and inflection (with minor isolation). Nothing much; the western branch is pretty free-spirited for now...

I've been keeping up with this project and it's pretty interesting. No chance I could be a late joiner and take up this slice here?

BE MOST WELCOME IN OUR MIDST
yeah, nice to have ya, get to work on the wiki

when they initially mentioned the islands too small for fresh water bodies, or where its horrid to be stranded on, I was thinking of something roughly atoll-sized, the sort of "we will throw you off hte ship here, and you will die" scene in real life and films.

oh, yeah, those kill you fo'sho'

Torco wrote:

when they initially mentioned the islands too small for fresh water bodies, or where its horrid to be stranded on, I was thinking of something roughly atoll-sized, the sort of "we will throw you off hte ship here, and you will die" scene in real life and films.

oh, yeah, those kill you fo'sho'

Not if you're Captain Jack Sparrow.

I claim Captain Jack Sparrow for Qicui, also.

Torco wrote:

when they initially mentioned the islands too small for fresh water bodies, or where its horrid to be stranded on, I was thinking of something roughly atoll-sized, the sort of "we will throw you off hte ship here, and you will die" scene in real life and films.

oh, yeah, those kill you fo'sho'

Also, it happened to be exactly what I was thinking. I thought maybe someone could write into their history some time when a deposed ruler was exhiled to some useless rock too small to even hold fresh water, so that he would either die slowly or be forced to walk into the sea and drown.

I was away from home all day today so I had no chance to work on this but tomorrow I'll make sure to do a ton of work on the wiki

I'm not part of the project (at least at the moment) but I have some questions about the PVQ clicks. Are they all velar for the secondary part of the click? I have a hard time reading IPA diacritics, is that contrasting voice and nasalization or stiff and creaky voice?

Přemysl wrote:I'm not part of the project (at least at the moment) but I have some questions about the PVQ clicks. Are they all velar for the secondary part of the click? I have a hard time reading IPA diacritics, is that contrasting voice and nasalization or stiff and creaky voice?

You are correct; they're all secondarily velar. As for the diacritics, the former; the clicks have a three-way contrast: Voiceless, voiced, and nasalized.

Quick question guys, is the Southern Sprachbund still subdivided into a Southwestern half (Leaci and Cyb) and a Southeastern half (Me and Valiums), or was it decided to divide it into to unrelated zones? I personally would prefer for the Southern Übersprachbund (yeah I'm gonna coin this new term just for us ) to remain, I like the idea of my conpeople being connected to such a large linguistic area.

I think there is still some confusion as to which sprachbund scenario was chosen.

Ollock wrote:I think there is still some confusion as to which sprachbund scenario was chosen.

I've just now officially threw in my vote on the wiki as a tie breaker, I've voted in favor of Alphabetarium's Amendment for maintaining the three regions, but subdividing the Southern Übersprachbund into two "untersprachbunds", the Southeast and Southwest. I will haz my dream!

The wiki is just a record. It's not the actual place where you vote. You vote on the referedum thing from google docs... So did you vote on the actual referendum (I'm not talking about the wiki)? Because if you did you can't vote on it again.


Not that it really matters, but we do need to have totalitarian consistency here.

Update

The twelve tribes of Istion

Turtlehead wrote:The twelve tribes of Istion

I thought the Watchers had thirteen stars in their tattoo.

Valiums' Report
Holy crap, am I late.

I rather like the idea of belonging to an Übersprachbund. If it's a no-go, Amuere, we could steal a few of the qualities from the other list, and add more of our own.

Seeing as you're my closest/only neighbor, and mostly pacifistic, I'm going to up the fighting between my islands.
Also considering adding some folklore making your islands out to be some kind of earthly haven, at least in the past. If I make my people more aggressive towards the rest of the world, you'll probably be regarded as a semi-holy place, and left alone.

In the mean time, I've been messing with ideas for a language, so I'll be using it until the sprachbund is more or less complete. New info should be on the wiki within the hour.

Not as late as me...

Hmm. Maybe I'll have my territory/people be taken over by a neighbour...

Deriving a new daughterlang for a population on the smaller of my two islands.

yeah, checked it out... pretty neat

I just can't seem to find any time or energy to conworld lately... I'll probably have some free time tomorrow, after work and before my flight home.