Quotes
[W]hen I visit some old city, I'm always starting with looking on the map and trying to guess, which streets follow former city walls, a river, a ditch or a railway.
For instance, in Old Riga there is a trading center with a passage inside. This passage used to be a street - some house facades are preserved, though the walls are mostly replaced with showcases. The street itself used to be a river branch, and the whole trading center (well, half of it) stands on the place where the original fishermen settlement used to be. [...]
I find that there is a good similarity between cities and languages. Saying something in a human language is like telling a way: "First go by the Smith street, then turn right to the Butcher lane, and when You reach the Gatebrigde square You'll find a bookstore in the building of the former city jail". There are neither smiths, nor butchers in the old city any more, nor can You find either gate or bridge on the Gatebrige square. But heading just north and then east is not an option. This is the shortest path because the landscape was like that in the past, and because the houses still follow its aready nonexistent shape up to now.
That is how I love to see any piece of art, no matter whether it is a building, a story or a conlang ^)
External links
Essentialist explanations: a long list of "Language X is essentially language Y under conditions Z"
