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Boreanesians and the Pacific Conlang League (was: Zera and other conlangs)

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 12, 2000, 12:21
Kenji Schwarz wrote:

>On Sun, 9 Apr 2000, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote: > >> Géarthnuns speakers (themselves yet unnamed) reside on an island (also >> as yet unnamed) in the Sea of Japan, offshore from where the borders >> of China, Korea, and Russia converge.
-----<snip>-----
>> As such, they don't really disrupt "here" history, but for the >> geological implications of a new island suddenly popping up near >> Vladivostok. > >A-ha! For such a large conworld, some of the prime territory can still be >fought over. I'd originally thought of locating the Sayat-speakers >someplace near there, either on Sakhalin or on the mainland, in the >Sikhote Alin range or along the Ussuri basin. In the end I decided not to >do that (it wasn't remote enough, and I wanted them to have more political >autonomy in the modern age), but I still regret it. Perhaps the >Gearthnuns-speakers can be slotted in with the Sayat and Boreanesians (if >not the Nowans, too) as a sort of Pacific Conlang League?
Alas! I'm not too sure whether Boreanesians can still be regarded as part of the Pacific Conlang League. The geological implications of a large archipelago popping up just south of Japan, north of New Guinea, and east of the Philippines bothered me so much. Especially its location is precisely where the Marianas Islands are suppose to be. I still want Boreanesians to exist in our world, and that ought to include the existence of the Marianas Islands too. My conscience made Boreanesia sink, and the inhabitants were forced to move to a new Boreanesia in the Indian Ocean between Indonesia and Western Australia. The name 'Boreanesia', pseudo-Greek for 'Northern Islands', became problematic when the islands were moved from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere. But I have grown so attached to the name I simply had to find an excuse to keep it. Then I considered that perhaps it could be geographically a part of Australia, and being the northern islands of Australia, they are 'Boreanesia'. Boreanesia would therefore be geographically a part of Oceania, hence, a possible member of the Pacific Conlang League. What do you guys think? This location fits the Geological history I had written for Boreanesia a lot better. To recap: Boreanesia was part of a long chain of ancient islands that existed in the Tethys Ocean during the Cretaceaous Period. The Tethys Ocean was the Ocean that existed between India and Asia before the former collided with the latter. Most of the island chain also collided with Asia forming what is now mainland SEAsia and Sundaland (Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Borneo). But part of the chain never got that far. This part is Boreanesia. As a result, Boreanesia has been biologically isolated longer than Australia. All of the endemic mammalian life are primitive monotremes (egg-laying mammals), and all of the endemic plant life are gymnospermous (non-flowering plants like; ferns, cycads, and coniferous trees). -kristian- 8)