Zompist Bboard Again

There are loads of conlangs from the early 00s that are simply gone from the internet. Every once in a while I wonder "what ever happened to Saiwosh? Or Arendron? Or Noyahtowa?" I don't know if any of you feel the same way, but I thought I would make a space where we can ask (and possibly answer) questions about conlangs that have been scoured from the internet.

I remember Klaivas’ conlang ‘Diauedaug’ or something (it was pronounced /ju.i.jo/). That was fun. Noyahtowa rings a bell to me but I don't remember quite what it was or who it was by.

[Edit: it was Diúedaug, and there's a dead Youtube video from 2007 with a small sample still available in its description.]

Stuff on the internet seems to have the average lifespan of a domestic cat (unless protected by powerful magics, such as foresight).

I happen to know the guy who made Noyahtowa, through the internet at least: Jeffrey Scott Burke. He post sometimes on Facebook, although I have not seen him talk much about his conlangs or bothered to ask how they're coming. No idea about the others apart from remembering them scattered across the internet decades ago. I really do miss the old internet with its decentralization. It feels like there were so many small weird sites you could stumble on by accident.

I remember Twpsyn Pentref's language Anas, which had a humorous thread on the old (old old) board. Sadly there's like four words in it still visible anywhere online.

conlangs are often no more than the speech tics of their authors, which naturally fade as they change or leave us...

(and the magic of the internet is the advent of a written word even more volatile than the spoken word...
it reduces the importance of everything with the infobesity it allows...
and digital technology has a goldfish memory, requiring a lot of energy to retain everything indiscriminately...
since we're not frugal in production, we'll be randomly filtrate in conservation...)

malloc wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 6:56 pmI really do miss the old internet with its decentralization. It feels like there were so many small weird sites you could stumble on by accident.

Quoted for truth.

Arêndron was the main project of a former ZBB member going by the nickname Nuntar. I have no idea about his whereabouts, though.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 5:18 am Arêndron was the main project of a former ZBB member going by the nickname Nuntar, and whose real name was [...], if I remember correctly. I have no idea about his whereabouts, though.

Um, dude, are you sure that he's fine with you posting this?

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 5:35 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 5:18 am Arêndron was the main project of a former ZBB member going by the nickname Nuntar, and whose real name was [...], if I remember correctly. I have no idea about his whereabouts, though.

Um, dude, are you sure that he's fine with you posting this?

Sorry. I have edited it out.

The Internet is a thieves' market where it's better to remain masked, what a pity...

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 5:18 am Arêndron was the main project of a former ZBB member going by the nickname Nuntar. I have no idea about his whereabouts, though.

Oh, of course it was! I remember a meet in Manchester in c.2006; he carried the Arêndron lexicon in a big plastic jar full of folded little bits of paper which he got us to test him on. He was remarkably good, and Arêndron seemed very well developed. A detail that has stuck with me: we were taking English placenames and putting them through our conlangs’ phonotactics. The nearest Arêndron (or another of his conlangs) could get to Oxford was approximately ['ʔots.χo:d].

Weird what you remember.