If I had a time machine...

[Nooj]

I'm ticked off that so little information was documented for most of my country's languages. There were native speakers still living in the 1970s for dozens and dozens of languages, and even a day's elicitation would prove to be invaluable data. Especially in the context of language revival, where people are scrounging for individual words from 19th century word-lists like it's pure gold. I know Australia's pretty big, but it's just disgraceful.

[sirred]

This reminds me of the documentary the Linguists. They go to talk to speakers of, among other languages, Chulym. The linguists were told that, "if you had only come so-and-so long ago my uncle or my grandmother'd be alive to talk to you." The film was made four years ago and the last linguist who went down there had done so in Soviet times.

[Matt]

Hear, hear. I'm studying Native American linguistics in the Southwest US, and every time I think there are under-documented languages around here, I try to remember how good we have it compared to Australia. There are so many interesting linguistic features in Australia; it's a real shame we know so little.

[Jipí]

Of course it's a field linguist's wet dream to go all the way back to 3500-ish BC when PIE is assumed to have been spoken. Or heck, go to Europe before PIE-speaking people arrived there to document pre-PIE languages.

[WeepingElf]

Of course it's a field linguist's wet dream to go all the way back to 3500-ish BC when PIE is assumed to have been spoken. Or heck, go to Europe before PIE-speaking people arrived there to document pre-PIE languages.

Yes. Europe must have been a fascinating world of languages before the spread of Indo-European, to judge from the meagre remains of that lost world (Basque, the three Caucasian families, traces of substrata in various European IE languages).

Well, we as conlangers cannot travel back in time, nor reconstruct the languages; but we can fill the void with our imaginations and invent languages that could have been. Old Albic is my attempt at one of those languages; there are several others in the League of Lost Languages.

[Izambri]

Hmmmm... If I had a time machine I would go to the time of the Minoan eruption. I would take a linguistic tour through Crete and the Cyclades and, for sure, I would admire the fateful eruption.

[Bristel]

Hmmmm... If I had a time machine I would go to the time of the Minoan eruption. I would take a linguistic tour through Crete and the Cyclades and, for sure, I would admire the fateful eruption.

Hey, I think I'd like to see this the most. I love volcanology and Minoan archaeology.

Let me go with you!

[Shrdlu]

Half-related question: what happend to the Palawa kani project?

[bulbaquil]

Hmmmm... If I had a time machine I would go to the time of the Minoan eruption. I would take a linguistic tour through Crete and the Cyclades and, for sure, I would admire the fateful eruption.

Make sure you are close to your time machine while admiring said eruption, though, in case you need to use it in a hurry.

[Izambri]

Hmmmm... If I had a time machine I would go to the time of the Minoan eruption. I would take a linguistic tour through Crete and the Cyclades and, for sure, I would admire the fateful eruption.

Hey, I think I'd like to see this the most. I love volcanology and Minoan archaeology.

Let me go with you!

Come in!

Make sure you are close to your time machine while admiring said eruption, though, in case you need to use it in a hurry.

For sure! I don't know how far I should be from the volcano, though.

[blank stare II]

.

[Xephyr]

I'm ticked off that so little information was documented for most of my country's languages. There were native speakers still living in the 1970s for dozens and dozens of languages, and even a day's elicitation would prove to be invaluable data. Especially in the context of language revival, where people are scrounging for individual words from 19th century word-lists like it's pure gold. I know Australia's pretty big, but it's just disgraceful.

Australian languages are nice, but they kinda seem to be 100 variations on the same theme. I would rather use it to try to get info on some of the extinct Penutian and Salish languages of America, and many extinct Khoisan languages of South Africa.

[Nooj]

Australian languages are nice, but they kinda seem to be 100 variations on the same theme.

Isn't that the same with Romance languages? True, most Australians belong to the same Pama-Nguyan family. Still, there's some really interesting stuff there. Dyirbal for example does some really cool stuff with its absolutive-ergative system. Warlpiri is non-configurational and pretty much blows my mind.

[sirred]

.

Peh! If Arnold has taught me nothing else, it's that you can't bring weapons back with you.

[Xephyr]

Australian languages are nice, but they kinda seem to be 100 variations on the same theme.

Isn't that the same with Romance languages?

Was... anyone suggesting we use the time machine for the (precipitously moribund !!!) Romance languages?

[Ser]

No, but nonetheless it'd be really nice to see how they evolved from Latin, since e.g. nothing is written significantly in French until the later 11th century, or in Spanish until the early 13th century. (Supposing they come from Latin in the first place...) How were cases gradually merged to a nominative vs. oblique distinction? How were all those Latin TAMs lost exactly (how did they gradually replace each other)? Was Old Spanish <f> before a syllabic vowel pronounced [f], [P], [h] or what!?

[Bristel]

I'd study the poorly documented languages of southern Europe such as Etruscan.

[WeepingElf]

I'd study the poorly documented languages of southern Europe such as Etruscan.

Bring home an Etruscan translation of a major work of Greek literature (we know that they existed, but, alas, none has survived). That would be the Rosetta Stone by which we could unlock the secret of Etruscan!

[brandrinn]

author's website: http://www.smbc.com

[richard1631978]

I'd study the poorly documented languages of southern Europe such as Etruscan.

Bring home an Etruscan translation of a major work of Greek literature (we know that they existed, but, alas, none has survived). That would be the Rosetta Stone by which we could unlock the secret of Etruscan!

Getting a decent account of Etruscan was one of the first things that came to mind when spotting this topic. Claudius wrote a history of them, which is now long lost.

A translation of Linear A would also be nice, along with an explanation of what the Phaistos disc is supposed to be.

[brandrinn]

And bring me back a pony.

[Herr Dunkel]

I'd study the poorly documented languages of southern Europe such as Etruscan.

Bring home an Etruscan translation of a major work of Greek literature (we know that they existed, but, alas, none has survived). That would be the Rosetta Stone by which we could unlock the secret of Etruscan!

Ertruscan was most certainly a fascinating language, I presume.
Decyphering it would be quite a feat.

[Echobeats]

...I would charge historians a shiteload to use it.