Re: Six more conlang relays already complete

John Cowan writes:
 > For some reason, I have never cross-pollinated from the Lojban-only relays
 > to the greater Conlang community.  The Lojban community has conducted
 > six relays (the term "broken phone" or "spofu fonxa" is preferred there)
 > in the last 7 years.  The only conlang involved is Lojban, of course, but
 > natlangs have included French, Spanish, and Esperanto as well as English.

I understand what you're saying here, of course, but it's a little odd
to describe Esperanto as a natlang, even if it doesn't play the role
that lojban does here and all the conlangs play in the conlang
relays.

I'm not sure what the correct term for this role would be, though.
"Language under test", maybe?  Are relays tests, exactly, though?  I
don't know, the lojban one probably is more than the conlang ones,
where it's understood that people won't have a very good grasp of the
language they're translating from.  "Language unfamiliarity with which
is anticipated to cause distortion"?  I wonder if any conlangs
here could reduce that to a manageable phrase or compound (without
rendering it ambiguous)?

Reply