Conlang relay

A conlang relay is a translation game involving conlangs. It is similar to the game called by names such as Telephone or Chinese Whispers, where a message is whispered from person to person, often in the process being changed beyond recognition. Instead of by whispers, in a relay the text is passed by translation: it is translated from the conlang it is received in, into one's own conlang, and then passed to the next person to be translated. The resulting text is generally much changed; a tendency noticed in early relays was for the original texts to mutate into creation myths.

A typical conlang relay takes around a month or two to run, excluding the initial planning phase and delays in publishing the final results (which are unfortunately common). On the relay mailing list one or two relays are run per year.

List of relays

Conlang Relay 18 is technically currently running, though it has been finished modulo the final retranslations and a few stragglers since early March 2011.

The main ring of the LCC4 relay is finished, but the scheduleless Ring B is in essentially the same situation as Relay 18.

A new relay is being planned on the relay mailing list.

Known previous relays, in order of occurrence, are

• Starlings' Song Translation Relay
• Bast Relay Translation Game of 1999 (Second Relay)
• Third Conlang Translation Relay [Internet Archive]
• Tenth Anniversary Conlang Relay (Fourth Relay)
• First Planetpii relay
• Fifth CONLANG Translation Relay
• Sixth Conlang Translation Relay
• Relay 6.5
• Seventh Conlang Translation Relay (incomplete)
• Conlang Translation Relay 8
• Conlang Relay 9
• Conlang Relay 10/R
• Conlang Relay 11
• Conlang Relay 12
• Conlang Relay 13
• Conlang Relay 14
• LCC2 Relay
• Inverse Relay 1
• Conlang Relay 15
• Conlang Relay 16
• LCC3 Relay
• Inverse Relay 2 (incomplete)
• Conlang Relay 17

External links

• Rules for the Conlang Relay Game
• CONLANG Translation Relay — mailing list for organization of conlang relays
• List of participants in previous relays
• David J. Peterson's list of old relays and their participants — very complete up to Relay 16, LCC2 relay, and Inverse Relay #2
• Preliminary Relay Scheduler at Theiling Online