Just made the teams. They're also posted at the end of the thread. And there are rules. Please read them, especially if this is your first time playing.
Team A (done):
Team B:
Serafín: Mandarin → Latin
Emma: Latin → English
Again, I'm rewriting the rules this time, so please read them!!
Edit: highlighted because someone already hasn't bothered.
When you get the passage sent to you, you should translate it as soon as reasonably possible into the new language. Three days should be adequate, but not mandatory. This year I'm not going to set any dates, but I may start harassing people who are taking their time too much. It's fine if you do have to take your time – most of us have commitments other than the ZBB, but please at least check the board regularly enough that you know when it's your turn, and just tell us if you can't do it within three days. If you don't have it on already, you can set your PMs to notify you by email.
As always, you should translate your text into the new language given to you above AND into English (unless one of your links is English – then you only need one text). You should then prepare TWO private messages: one goes to the next person in the chain with ONLY the text in the new language, and one to me with BOTH the text in the new language and in English. Please put "PGT17" in the subject line of the PM to me. Then later I can collate them and post them on here for us to laugh at. If you want to make a gloss, or a translation into another language entirely (or your conlang), I'd be happy to take those too, although this of course is not necessary.
Also, if you can resist the urge to change your username over the next few weeks, that'd be nice (I've just realised 2-4 is not called 2-4 anymore). This is mainly so that the list on this post is current so that the person before you can use your username exactly when sending a PM.
Have fun, anyway. I have a text ready, so we can start whenever.
Original post wrote:New year, new polyglottal telephone. I have no idea what number it is.
Register your interest here and I'll pick a suitable passage later.
The rules here are different to how they've been in the past so pay attention
Please write your language choices alphabetically (by their English name) and put a star next to your native language(s). Put the From line above the To line (don't write "From/To" lines please, this is what the copy and paste functions are for). This is pretty much because I'm lazy and I find it easier to organise if they're all the same way up. If you're "shaky" about using a language, just don't write it down. Or write it down but don't mark it any differently (no "just for fun", no "maybe", I don't care, but you can explain your choices in a following paragraph if you like), and then you might get a surprise challenge. If you write down a category like "Romance languages", be aware that you might get Romanian. If you want to restrict your choice to a particular language, make it the only item in your list, but be aware that it might be difficult to find you a "partner" who can do the other side of the translation and you may have to change.
So my languages are:
From: English*
To: French, German, Japanese, Latin
In theory I could probably do any Romance or Germanic language given a bit of extra time and a good dictionary, in practice since I'm the organiser I basically have to go first translating from English. And my Japanese sucks, but if that's the only way I can get the chain to work I'll do it and our chain will fuck up quicker. Big success!
We'll write rules later and decide whether there's one chain or two once I determine how much interest there is. Go!
