Collaboration

I often recall looking through the archives of Sessiwn Kemres and NGL,
and the recent discussion of the Brithenig Universe. It seems to me
that a joint project in conlanging could be a really fascinating game!

It's a rather common complaint among the list members that actually it
would take a whole life to finalize a single conlang.

Nevertheless, many of us periodically start new projects. Moreover,
lately we see quite a few very ambitious undertakings in language
evolution modelling, each involving several protolangs, a few 'Old
Tongues', and many descendant 'modern' languages.

I thought of an *open* project of this type. For example, an
alternative timeline (several millennia long) with many protolanguages
contributed by different people in the form of very sketchy
descriptions (note that a proto-lang doesn't need to be described in
much detail), which are then elaborated by joint efforts.

The participants can announce new daughter languages (not
necessarily derived from their own proto-langs) which borrow words from
each other, become classical 'Old Tongues' for still younger cultures,
form linguistic areas, illustrate various typological possibilities
of language evolution, etc.

Each announced conlang is then elaborated collectively. Each
participant (not necessarily authors of separate conlangs) can freely
propose details (roots, words, phrases, rules, etc.) not specified in
the original sketch, and they are accepted if no objections have been
put forward concerning their compatibility with the other details and
the 'spirit' of the language in question.

I think many interesting unfinished projects can gain flesh this way,
by involving the diverse expertise of the participants. Some rules
could be set for the minimal requirements for a new proto-lang entering
the game, the limits of 'property rights' for project initiators, etc.

What will you say, folks?


Basilius