Re: 32 related conlangs by 6 unique authors

Gary Shannon wrote:
> http://fiziwig.com/anglosic/tree.php
>
> It's intersting that a lot of conlang projects, either solo or collaborative,
> often get off to a flying start but then sputter and die after a short while. I
> guess that's why I have so many sketch-langs and so few "mature" conlangs.
> There's that exciting first rush of enthusiasm when a new idea takes hold, but
> then, for me at least, my attention span fades when it gets down to the point
> where massive amounts of "clerical" or uninspiring repetative work needs to be
> done.  At some point I have to sit down and slog through the list of all the
> fruits and vegatables and coin words for them all, and that sort of work can
> just get sooooo boring!
The whole vocabulary thing can really get to be time-consuming and
tedious after a while. I got lazy with Minza and made a katamari sort of
language, rolling up words from any other language that I could find
rather than trying to come up with new ones. But then I started getting
dissatisfied with the way the vocabulary didn't feel like it all
belonged in the same language, and that among other reasons has been one
reason I haven't done much with Minza lately. (Well, most of my free
time has been going to playing Okami and the numerous other games that
have come out in the last couple of months, but even before that I
wasn't doing much with Minza.) I've been wondering if it'd be a good
idea to relex Minza and come up with a unique Minza vocabulary, but
that's a pretty overwhelming task.

> So my current antidote is to do some sketch-langs based on making small
> alterations to an existing natlang or prior conlang. Five others have joined in
> the fun and each spent a few minutes contributing their sketch-lang ideas and
> the family tree of languages descended from the original root is up to 32
> members. Drop by and take a peek, or spend a few minutes adding your own
> sketch-lang to the family tree.
>
> --gary
Sounds interesting. I've occasionally done that sort of thing, going
back to my earliest language, Olaetian. Usually I end up with only brief
samples of the related languages, like Nimoryikh, Azzian, Neveldrayin,
and Gwelona Owachan. Back then I didn't know anything about how related
languages developed historically, but now that I do have some idea about
that, I think it's harder to get started on a family of related
languages, since I want to make the changes realistic. So every time
I've tried this in recent years, I get bogged down in the details and
just lose interest in all the languages of the group.

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