Re: Concosmic Conlocation (was; Re; Back!)

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, J. Barefoot wrote:

> >On Sun, 18 Jul 1999 23:56:38 -0600 Adam Parrish <myth@...> writes:
> > >        I'm curious as to how other conlangers have solved the problem
> > >of cosmic location, since it does seem to be rather vital to an
> > >important part of a language's vocabulary.  It seems to me that most
> > >of
> > >us have languages set in an Earth with a different social history
> > >(extreme: Tokana, where civilization never took place; less extreme:
> > >Brithenig, where history diverged hundreds of years ago; even less
> > >extreme: Elet Anta and Teonaht, which make no modification to history
> > >except to suggest the presence of secretive subcultures).  An almost
> > >equal proportion have chosen to locate their creations on distant
> > >planets (the Kolagian languages, many of Nik Taylor's creations, and
> > >the
> > >ubiquitous Star Trek languages).  I'm not satisfied with either of
> > >these
> > >options.  Have I missed anything?  Is there a middle ground?
> >
> > >Whee, I've rambled long enough,
> > >Adam
> >
After colonizing Alpha Centuri A, humans began looking for new places to
cast their seed.  Unfortunately, the nearest planet, orbiting Epsilon
Eridani, was 11 light years from earth.  Far too far away.

Then we ran into the Advena, an alien race who offered to take us under
their wing in return for our obedience.  Our leaders accepted, and thus
gained the right to use Advena gravity-bending ships, to colonize five
worlds, and to petition for redress of grievances (such petitions were
always ignored).

As part of the Advena empire, we began exploring, already chaffing under
our new reins.  The Advena refused to share gravity control, and we
couldn't give up when that secret, which made space travel feasible,
existed.

We arrived around Epsilon Eridani II, to discovered artificial satallites
already in orbit.  The Advena made no claim to the world, as its only land
mass was an enormous archipegalo in the midst of its hurricane-lashed
ocean.  We landed, named the planet Ahura-Mazda, and then met our first
native.

Tall, brown-skinned, well-dressed, and human.  Riding something that
looked like a golf-cart.

The Hataso have no idea how they got to Ahura-Mazda.  Well, except for one
Hataso, a biologist who discovered a clever nanomachine stuck to her DNA,
one that was constantly transmitting a signal through quantum twinning.
Once she knew where to look, it wasn't hard to find these same
nanomachines everywhere.  Including offworld DNA.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.