Analysis Swap?

[Trailsend]

Hey friends! Here's a fun activity I've been thinking about for a while—I actually tried something like it years and years ago and it was a ton of fun, thought I'd see if anyone wanted to give it a shot.

The object of the game is to develop an analysis of the other person's conlang, by eliciting examples from them the way you would from a lay (i.e., non-linguist) speaker of that language.

For example, an untrained speaker is not likely to tell you "Ah yes, my language has a case system marked with suffixes on nouns, it has a nominative case and an accusative case and..."

But, they could tell you how to say things in the language, so if you asked for the right translations and paid attention to patterns in the endings of words, you could figure out "Hm, these look like suffixes, and based on when they change, I think they're noun cases. It seems like there's at least a nominative case and an accusative case..."

We do it as a swap, so, we have two threads going, with you analyzing my language in Thread A and me analyzing your language in Thread B.

Part of the benefit from playing is that you get some confirmation whether your own analysis of your language is a good fit. If someone else, looking at your language, draws very different conclusions about how it works, then theirs might actually be the better analysis!

Would anyone be interested in playing?

EDIT: Turns out the answer was yes! Here's an index of the threads people have started. If a thread starts to feel too crowded, feel free to propose splitting into teams.

• Abaniscen, by Flavia
• Alushi, by Arayaz
• Amarin, by thethief3
• Commonthroat, by lurker
• Daas, by Kesshin
• Dzougedan, by Visions1
• Hiding Waters, by Trailsend
• Olwöa, by _Just_A_Sketch

[lurker]

I'd certainly like to try. I had a similar idea where people would try to produce meaningful utterances in other people's conlangs in order to help you understand where you need to shore up grammatical explanations etc, but this seems both more doable and more fun.

[Arayaz]

THIS LOOKS SO FUN!!!!!!!!!!

I will happily join! However, Xúuuatxia (and 2c2ef0) are well-documented already, and the Areyaxi languages must remain secrets. With Sketch's OK, the two of us together could do Arskiilz, but in the meantime I'll start thinking about another language to do it with that I wouldn't put anything up on here about.

[Visions1]

Message me on Dzougedan.

[Trailsend]

THIS LOOKS SO FUN!!!!!!!!!!

I will happily join! However, Xúuuatxia (and 2c2ef0) are well-documented already, and the Areyaxi languages must remain secrets. With Sketch's OK, the two of us together could do Arskiilz, but in the meantime I'll start thinking about another language to do it with that I wouldn't put anything up on here about.

I don't think a language being well-documented is a reason not to use it! I haven't read your documentation for Xúuuatxia, so I'm still spoiler-free :) I'd probably be using Hiding Waters, which definitely has documentation available. You'd just want to not read it, and then at some point we can see whether the analyses we came up with matched the respective documentation!

[Arayaz]

I haven't read your documentation for Xúuuatxia, so I'm still spoiler-free :)

Oh, that's good, then! I might well use it, then.

I'd probably be using Hiding Waters, which definitely has documentation available. You'd just want to not read it, and then at some point we can see whether the analyses we came up with matched the respective documentation!

All right! We'll see.

If we have multiple people, would it be like a ring of sorts? That is, you analyze my language, I analyze lurker's language, lurker analyzes Visions's language, and Visions analyzes yours?

[Trailsend]

I think a better way would actually be to have multiple participants in the analysis. Like, if A, B, and C are playing, we'd have a thread where A and B analyze C's language, a thread where B and C analyze A's language, and a thread where A and C analyze B's language.

That way, if any one person goes inactive, only their own language's thread stalls, and not the other threads they're participating in.

(Compare to a ring arrangement: if someone goes inactive, two links in the ring stall.)

[Arayaz]

I think a better way would actually be to have multiple participants in the analysis. Like, if A, B, and C are playing, we'd have a thread where A and B analyze C's language, a thread where B and C analyze A's language, and a thread where A and C analyze B's language.

That way, if any one person goes inactive, only their own language's thread stalls, and not the other threads they're participating in.

(Compare to a ring arrangement: if someone goes inactive, two links in the ring stall.)

True, that's a good idea. However, I think this is likely to end up with a lot of people, and while having two analyzers work on something is feasible, I doubt coordinating four players would work as well, especially if they're all spread thin over analyzing all the other projects.

So I propose that with, for example, six people, they're divided into two groups of three, which then work as you described above.

[Trailsend]

That seems reasonable, but also like a problem we could solve if it arises. At the moment, there's two, maybe three of us?

(Visions, did you mean I should message you privately about doing a swap with Dzougedan? I'd rather play in a public thread rather than private messages, so others can read along.)

[Arayaz]

That seems reasonable, but also like a problem we could solve if it arises. At the moment, there's two, maybe three of us?

lurker too, right?

[Trailsend]

Oh yeah!! I'll go ahead and start a thread for Hiding Waters. If the number of voices becomes cumbersome, we can split into teams.

[Arayaz]

Yay! I'm cooking up a quick sketch language right now. (Decided not to do Xúuuatxia, since even if you've not seen it, Visions has.)

[Trailsend]

Hiding Waters thread is here, for reference!

[Trailsend]

Just so people don't feel any pressure: It's super fine to use a language that other people have seen documentation for, if you want to. You don't have to create a new language for this :)

[_Just_A_Sketch]

Yay! I'm cooking up a quick sketch language right now. (Decided not to do Xúuuatxia, since even if you've not seen it, Visions has.)

Why are you making me a language? (/j)

I'll join with Olwöa!! This sounds like a lot of fun!

[Arayaz]

Yay! I'm cooking up a quick sketch language right now. (Decided not to do Xúuuatxia, since even if you've not seen it, Visions has.)

Why are you making me a language? (/j)

Why not?

I'll join with Olwöa!! This sounds like a lot of fun!

I'm excited to see more Olwöa!

[Trailsend]

I'll join with Olwöa!! This sounds like a lot of fun!

Can't wait! If you post a thread with a little bit of setting info (so I don't ask your spacefaring octopi how to say "thumbs") I'll have so many questions!

[Kesshin]

Okay so i may have done a faux pas.
I read this AFTER I posted on the Hiding Waters thread.
Is that fine...?

[Trailsend]

Very fine! Arayaz foresaw that it could be hard to wrangle if too many people are participating in one thread; if it starts to feel that way, we'll split into teams.

Are you going to post a thread for us to figure out one of your languages? :D

[Kesshin]

Are you going to post a thread for us to figure out one of your languages? :D

I want to, but I don't know if Daas actually has enough grammar and stuff done in it. (I might end up making stuff up as I go, which seems to be the only way Daas actually progresses)
I think maybe? Perchance?
It'll either go wonderfully or flop like a fish out of water.
I like risk! I think I will!