Akana

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The world of Akana (Ndak Ta: Ngkana; Fáralo: Kečǽnə), is a collaborative conlanging and conworlding effort, with a focus on family diachronics and a shared historical basis for these linguistic developments. The world grew out of two different games on the Zompist Bulletin Board: a linguistic reconstruction game in 2005 for which Akana was originally created, and a diachronic derivation relay in 2006, which gradually metamorphosed into the conworld of today and its flagship language family, the Edastean languages.

History

Historical telephone

In 2005 Legion had an idea that met with enthusiastic response: he challenged the members of the ZBB to create a proto-language and a set of daughter languages, and then have people try to reconstruct the proto-language from the daughters only. Due to a vague similarity with the ever-popular Polyglottal Telephone games on the ZBB, this game was called Historical Polyglottal Telephone. There were two teams, each with a secret protolanguage; Proto-Isles was created by Ran for the first team, and Ndak Ta was created for the second by Radius Solis.

Work on the daughter languages was supplemented with some basic conworlding to provide a historical setting. Much of the basis for Akana grew out of Team Two's creation of the Aiwa valley, including both a local and a world map and brief descriptions of other peoples in the region. The original maps were drawn by Radius following the setting description originally proposed by Zompist, who later revised the world map to allow the Eastern Isles setting of Team One to be on the same planet.

After the game was over, work on Akana slowed and then stopped. A summary of the state of the world at this time can be found in the Kečǽnə articles on Almeopedia. The linguistic reconstruction of the two proto-languages did not get all too far; only Zompist published his results, and he did so only several years later, when Akana had long become a more comprehensive collaborative conworlding project.

The Cursed Relay

In 2006, Radius suggested another game for the ZBB: starting with one protolanguage, to develop several long chains of daughter languages, to explore linguistic change over great time depths. While there was no original intention to connect this "derivation relay" to the world of Akana, a protolanguage was needed as a base to start from, and Dewrad offered his Adāta language from the Historical Telephone game. The structure of the relay began with each participant having ten days to complete at least a certain minimal level of description of their daughter language so that the next person in the chain could begin deriving a subsequent daugther from it.

Three teams were formed. In the first generation, three direct daughters of Adāta - Æðadĕ, Aθáta, and Ayāsthi - were derived by ebilein, RHaden, and Zhen Lin respectively. gsandi, Rory, and Legion provided the second generation, and the chains of descent continued for several months. Unfortunately, during this period a number of participants were forced to drop out for various personal reasons, some of them after losing their work in computer crashes. This gave rise to the game's nickname, "The Cursed Relay". The relay continued for months, gradually slowing as each link in the chains tended to take longer than previous ones had. Eventually work on these branches petered out, leaving only a few of the game's core participants still involved. By this time the three branches had reached their sixth, fourth, and fifth generations.

The languages created during the Cursed Relay were:

• Adāta (Dewrad)
  • Æðadĕ (ebilein)
    • Yād (gsandi)
      • Zhaj (con quesa)
        • Aríe (TzirTzi)
          • Arie (Nuntar)
            • ʔAghïyï (kodé) {backup link}
      • Yēt (TzirTzi)
  • Aθáta (RHaden)
    • E'át (Rory) {backup link}
      • Yhát (Starsinger)
        • Öhat (Whimemsz) {backup link}
        • Erhadzy (Zhen Lin)
          • Orrótx (Cedh) {never finished}
  • Ayāsth (Zhen Lin) {later revised as Ayāsthi}
    • A'gɑf (Legion)
      • Yïåf (jmcd) {backup link}
        • Ghaf (Corumayas)
          • Xa' (Ink Pudding) {description lost}
  • Mavakhalan (Zhen Lin)
    • Ājat he-Heloun (4pq1injbok)
  • Kozado (Legion)
  • Pencek (Radius Solis)

Revival

The modern game is far less structured than its two predecessors; as the Cursed Relay's original setup and progression slowly ground to a halt, those still interested in the world began creating other languages, broadening the Edastean language family for fun. In mid 2007 Radius suggested that this new "contribute how and when you like" paradigm be made official. This led to a substantial fleshing out of the conworld's history and, in turn, to the return of several prior Akana contributors from both games to the active conworlding/conlanging scene.

In late 2007 the level of activity reached a new high, with new maps, new historical descriptions, and new conlang proposals, among other things, appearing sometimes almost daily, with fast-paced discussion in between. Since then, work has slowed, and sometimes nearly halted for substantial lengths of time - but each time, progress has resumed. The central Edak sphere has reached an impressive level of description, and a body of work in other cultural spheres and language families is growing.

In June 2008, the team launched the AkanaWiki as an official project website, where articles on all kinds of topics relating to Akana are being published. In August 2009, the AkanaForum was opened as a place for detailed discussion about Akana.

The Second Derivation Relay

In October 2009, a second Derivation Relay was started - modelled on the Cursed Relay that produced the Edastean language family, but with a few conceptual differences. Most importantly, this game aimed for broader, more realistic language family trees, so each protolanguage was to have several descendants per generation. In order to flesh out regions that needed more attention, two protolanguages were chosen: Dewrad's Proto-Western and Zhen Lin's Proto-Peninsular. The relay progressed quite slowly and did not manage to attract as many new long-term participants as the team had hoped, but it resulted in the creation of several highly interesting languages.

The languages created during the Second Derivation Relay were:

• Proto-Western (Dewrad)
  • Proto-Coastal-Western (Legion, TzirTzi)
    • Ìletlégbàku (Alces)
    • Ishoʻu ʻOhu (thedukeofnuke)
    • Doayâu (Cedh)
  • Iŋomœ́ (eodrakken)
    • Satnímʔa (Kohorik)
    • Hāňheliubľ (Nortaneous)
  • Çetázó (WeepingElf)
    • Óhylvídós (Ingolemo)
    • Šetâmol (Curlyjimsam)
    • Shtåså (Arzena)
    • Hośər (caedes)
  • Empotle7á (Arzena)
  • Tmaśareʔ (Cedh)

• Proto-Peninsular (Zhen Lin)
  • Gaadràmarneš (Vortex)
  • Kibülʌiṅ (4pq1injbok)
  • Merneha (Nebula Wind Phone)

Presentation

In May 2011, Cedh and TzirTzi held a talk about the Akana project at LCC4 in Groningen, NL. The slides of this presentation can be viewed here.

Two posters were also made for this event:

• The World Of Akana
• The Edastean Languages

The Second Reconstruction Relay

A new linguistic reconstruction relay has been started in November 2011, modelled on the original Historical Telephone game. Again, two teams have been created, each of which is producing a small language family from a secret protolanguage, which will be reconstructed by the other team once all the relevant daughter languages have been published. As of May 2012, the game is still in progress. Latest news can be found in the Reconstruction Relay ZBB thread and/or on the AkanaForum.

Contributors to Akana, past and present

Following is a list of all participants who have made material contributions to the world of Akana, in alphabetical order. Some of the most notable credits are listed for each person (including only published languages).

Note: This list may not be updated frequently; it currently represents the status quo of April 2012.

• 4pq1injbok - two languages (Ājat_he-Heloun, Kibülʌiṅ)
• Alces - two languages (Ìletlégbàku, Wendoth); history and culture
• Arzena - two languages (Shtåså, Empotle7á)
• Avaja - one language (Ppãrwak)
• Basilius - one language (Affanonic); history and culture; linguistic families
• brandrinn - two languages (Zele v1.0, Potɑnsʉti)
• caedes - two languages (Hośər, Wokatasuto)
• Cedh - seven languages (Buruya Nzaysa, Ndok Aisô, Kuyʔūn, Tmaśareʔ, Doayâu, Cəssın, Lotoka); maps; history; linguistic families; game organization; wikicode
• con quesa - one language (Zhaj)
• Corumayas - two languages (Ghaf, Proto-Eigə-Isthmus); climate; history; linguistic families
• Curlyjimsam - one language (Šetâmol)
• Dewrad - two languages (Adāta, Proto-Western); history and culture; the infamous Tsinakan text
• Dunomapuka - five languages (Namɨdu, Ndok Aisô, Proto-Lukpanic, Thokyunèhòta, Jouki Stəy); history and culture
• ebilein - one language (Æðadĕ)
• eodrakken - one language (Iŋomœ́)
• ghur - one language (Ndok Aisô v1.0)
• gsandi - one language (Yād)
• Ingolemo - one language (Óhylvídós)
• Ink Pudding - one language (Xa')
• jmcd - one language (Yïåf); game organization
• Legion - five languages (Thokyunèhòta v1.0, Naxuutayi, A'gɑf, Kozado, Proto-Coastal-Western); game organization
• Kodé - one language (ʔAghïyï); history
• Kohorik - one language (Satnímʔa)
• kolyn - one language (Máotatšàlì)
• Nebula Wind Phone - one language (Merneha)
• Neon Fox - one language (Proto-Northeastern)
• Nortaneous - one language (Hāňheliubľ)
• Nuntar - one language (Arie)
• Pocketful of Songs - one language (Proto-Xoronic); maps; linguistic families
• Radius Solis - seven languages (Ndak Ta, Naidda, Pencek, Puoni, Tlaliolz, Jamna Kopiai, Zod); maps; history and culture; game organization
• Ran - one language (Proto-Isles)
• Rory - two languages (Mûtsipsa', E'át); religion
• RHaden - one language (Aθáta)
• Salmoneus - history; climate; helpful critiques
• Space Dracula - one language (Qedik)
• Starsinger - one language (Yhát)
• thedukeofnuke - four languages (Woltu Falla, Isho‘u ‘Ohu, Zele, Katatuti); maps; history and culture; pictures
• Treskro - one language (Cednìtıt)
• TzirTzi - five languages (Aríe, Yēt, Proto-Núalís-Takuña, Takuña, Proto-Coastal-Western); history and culture; hosting
• Vortex - one language (Gaadràmarneš)
• WeepingElf - two languages (Çetázó, Trinesian)
• Whimemsz - one language (Öhat)
• Zhen Lin - four languages (Ayāsthi, Mavakhalan, Erhadzy, Proto-Peninsular); history and culture
• Zompist - one language (Fáralo); maps; history and culture; game organization; hosting

New participants are welcome to join; see the Akana Project FAQ for more information.

See also

• Edastean languages

External links

• The AkanaWiki
• The AkanaForum
• Akana Project FAQ
• The cursed relay thread on ZBB
• Kečǽnə on Almeopedia