On 12/11/2011 1:22 PM, Gary Shannon wrote:
> I'm studying some interesting regional variations in Spanish,
> specifically a half dozen or more diminutive endings each of which has
> a different, and often overlapping, geographical distribution and
> different rules for use in different regions. Another example from
> Spanish is the use of tú, vos, and vosotros.
>
> Then it occurred to me to wonder about regional variations in
> conlangs. I've never given it any thought myself, but have any of you
> added such variations in your conlangs? There have been times when I
> couldn't make up my mind between two alternatives for some feature of
> a conlang, but if I include regional variations then I can do it both
> ways. I simply utter some mumbo-jumbo like: "it's done the first way
> in the northern highlands, but in the southern coastal regions they do
> it differently." That way I keep my cake and eat it too, as they say
> in the eastern provinces (The famous Schrödinger's cake paradox.).
>
> How well developed is your system of regional differences?
>
> --gary

Not well developed at all for Tirelat, since I don't even have a map! I 
suppose I ought to come up with a map of the Sangari world one day, but 
that's something I haven't done yet. There are variations in Tirelat 
phonology, and probably they have something to do with geography. I 
suppose I can also use the excuse of regional differences to explain 
grammatical and vocabulary-related discrepancies in some of the relay 
translations.

Olaetian has a few different standards for pronunciation that are 
associated with different regions, and over the years I've switched back 
and forth between a couple of different versions (which explains why I 
used to call it "Olaetyan"; the vowel /i/ preceding another vowel is 
pronounced [j] in the dialect I was using at the time).