Polyglottal Telephone
From KneeQuickie
Polyglottal Telephone is a co-operative game involving translation. The players are organised into an order, and the first player chooses or writes a text and sends it to the next player. He or she then has to translate it into another language and pass it on, and so forth; the order is chosen so that each player always knows a language in common with the next player, and so that the chain ends with the text back in the original language.
The game's name derives from Telephone, an alternative name of the game sometimes called Chinese Whispers.
The game is a regular feature of the Languages and Linguistics forum on the ZBB.
Contents |
History
The first Polyglottal Telephone was suggested by civman2000 in March 2004. Because of some confusion as to how to the thing was meant to work, the initial attempt was abortive (despite Shinali Sishi's efforts at keeping the thread alive), and Echobeats took charge of reorganising it. Ahribar (now Nuntar) provided an initial text from his in-progress novel The Adventures of Athribar. The game ran from 22 April to 7 June.
In July, Twpsyn Pentref suggested a repeat of the game, and found himself in charge of putting together the order, with Radius Solis providing the original text (from Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters). The game ran from 26 July to 1 November; because several people took a long time over their translations or even forgot they were participating, the organisers ended up having to impose deadlines (after which a participant could be skipped) to get the Telephone finished.
Space Dracula started a thread for volunteers for the third Polyglottal Telephone even before the second was finished, and Ahribar took charge of putting together the order. So many people signed up that it was decided to split the Telephone into two teams, with the same initial text going to both teams, so that extra amusement would be provided by seeing how much the final versions diverged. After the experience of the second Telephone, it was decided to add a 7-day deadline for translations to the rules from the outset, which worked well. The game ran from 3 November to 9 January 2005, with an initial text from an article in The Heuristic Squelch contributed by alephnaught, and ended with a last-gasp victory for Team Alpha, who had been behind for most of the game.
The fourth Polyglottal Telephone, organised by Phasmo (now called Coelacanth) with a starting text written by Gulli (incorporating a riddle from this site), and again divided into two teams, started on 20 January 2005 and ran to 24 April, ending with a very narrow victory by Team Alpha after Team Beta fought back to return from eight links behind at one stage to just one. The same 7-day rule was followed, but unfortunately less often adhered to, prompting a suggestion to reduce the deadline further.
The fifth Telephone was organised by brandrinn with a starting text written by Twpsyn Pentref. The deadline was reduced to five days, and the game ran from 14 May 2005 to 7 August, with Team Beta finishing first, although they had fewer people. This Telephone was notable for a sequence of three conlang links in Team Alpha (Verdurian, Arêndron and kardii), which completely messed up the text – especially as the setting was futuristic and all three conlangs are designed for pre-modern conworlds. (Not to mention the fact that kardii is written without word spaces, and when the text had already been made pretty nonsensical, there were very few contextual clues to enable Nortala to work out where the breaks should go.) A rule was added that participants who were not translating into English should write an English text as well, to make it easier to compare the results at the end.
A year's hiatus intervened before Nuntar revived the game for the sixth telephone, which ran from 23 October 2006 to 14 December. The teams were close throughout, but Delalyra just pulled ahead at the finish to win for Team Beta. Nuntar chose the starting text, which was (again) from The Adventures of Athribar.
The seventh game was started on 16 May 2007 and ran to 3 July; Team Alpha won narrowly, although they had been a long way in front earlier in the game. Nuntar was again the organiser, and MUBA took the starting text from his own writings on his conworld.
The results
Polyglottal Telephone I
Initial text
I grew up in the city of Zblatr with my parents and my sister Ruby, and never had any adventures until I was nine. It so happened that one day we went into the country, to a quiet spot we knew by the River Nlobo, for a picnic. It was a gorgeous and tranquil place, where the purple rose-bushes grew and the winged horses frolicked in the purple rain. We sat down by the riverbank and shared our sandwiches, and very nice they were too, although the peanut butter made my hands rather green; and then my sister, who was young and liked to play around, clambered onto a rock in the middle of the river. As quick as semolina, the rock got up and floated away with her! You see, it was really the shell of a tortoise that had been slumbering in the mud. Ruby was only seven at the time, so the mistake was quite understandable.
Final text
When I was young, I came from Zibolatre with my sister Lubia and my parents. I was nine years old, and I had not seen what others had seen many times. One time we came by a church. We took a rest and ate at Enluobo (a secret place). It was truly an imposingly beautiful place; we marvelled at the beautiful flowers there and at the blue of the sea, which was due to the rain. We came from afar, near Ufer, and brought meat with us for to eat. It was not bad meat, but it bothered the art, for we had to inflict wounds upon a small intelligent craftsman. As we finished, my sister started running, passing over the wet sand and the pieces of wood gathered on the shore. It is indeed the correct verdict that a strong current took Lubia with it. Because of a snail's shell did she get stuck in the pieces of wood. Lubia was at most eight years old; that is why we discussed her miserable fate.
Polyglottal Telephone II
Initial text
Thunder rolled back and forth across the dark, rain-lashed hills as the hoofbeats neared, slowed. The rider leapt down and dashed toward the witch, carrying a large bundle. He almost reached her before he stopped, staring in horror. A lightning flash allowed Granny Weatherwax to look directly into the man's eyes; he was no longer looking at anything in this world. With a final jerk he thrust the bundle into Granny's arms and toppled forward, the feathers of a crossbow bolt sticking out of his back.
Granny twitched aside the blanket in her arms and looked down at a small face, wrapped in sleep.
A soldier stepped into the firelight and tossed his crossbow aside. "You will give it to me," he said.
"No," she said, on general principles.
The soldier glanced around her. "You are a witch?" he said.
Granny nodded.
"Your peasant magic is for fools, mother of the night. I could strike you down where you stand."
"Then strike, man," said Granny. "Strike as hard as you dare."
The man raised his sword. Lightning stabbed down again and split a stone a few yards away. "Missed," he said smugly. Then a look of extreme puzzlement crossed his face. His sword dropped out of his hand and landed point downward in the peat. Then he gave a sigh and folded up, very gently, collapsing in a heap at Granny's feet.
"Perhaps you weren't aware of what I was aiming at," she whispered. "Mother of the night, indeed."
Final text
An incredible thunder echoed in the rain above the wet ground, and I heard riders arrive, and then it was quiet.
The rider, who at the departure was in another magic time, and who carried a kettle filled with meat, jumped. A flash manned shadows in his face. He was Sufe Lurelissorono. Sufe saw human eyes, but he saw Balorana go away.
He took the kettle and put it to the ground there close. Nails fell from the roof.
Sufe saw the southern wind with a flag on his hand. He saw a small bishop's chair.
Alone saw an altar. It looked strange from the earth.
"Did you give it to me?" he asked.
"No", answered Sufe.
"Do you know..." Alone started his sentence..
"You have a wonderful talent for moving your mouth, Cadaciano. It is done."
"We carried. Aim your litany towards my bony daughter, your talent will be seen there", said Sufe.
The man complimented one more sword. Noisy made a summary, but a tight beam of starlight made noise.
"Put some spokes in his wheel" I said.
The sword fell from his hands. And then his body feared the ground.
Polyglottal Telephone III
Initial text
Man Wasting His Life By Enjoying It
Sources close to Berkeley resident Daniel Arnette report that the 24-year-old percussionist and freelance graphic designer is throwing his life away by habitually seeking happiness and fulfillment from his waking hours.
"Just last week, Daniel was telling me that he had spent the day holed up in his apartment, watching cartoons, eating potato chips, and practicing on his bongos," said Arnette's mother, Helen. "I can't tell you how it breaks my heart to see him enjoying himself like that."
Steve Hewitt, Arnette's roommate and a sufferer of chronic fatigue syndrome, agreed. "No two ways about it: Dan's in serious trouble here. If he doesn't get it together soon, he's going to wake up one morning and realize that he's squandered the best years of his life having a good time."
Final text (Team Alpha)
Daniel Arnott Berkely was blue as a rat one morning. He wanted to taste like one. He was twenty-four years old when he became an anarchist.
He saw many photographs, and often said, "I live in that beautiful vain land." His mother said, "I am also a close friend of him in sickness. I might have eaten food and also oil, because we still see young people without clothes in movies."
We don't want to see a movie. Arnott gave it us after he saw it, but it seemed to excite him greatly. He was always greatly excited.
They rejected living on that island, Huitt Steep, through privilege. "Don't think about it: let us be sick of it always." He woke on the first day and lived through many new years.
Final text (Team Beta)
Even dead he is beloved. History told us, that Daniel Arnett, a drummer, that was freed from his fight with barely twenty-three years, sought fame and adventure in Berkeley.
It was in the direst moment of his disease, when he said, that he could yet try to play the drums, when he was summoned by the estate of his mother – to Ellen.
I was not there then, to raise an objection, and I guessed, that this was the time, when he would die.
Pity him, Stefan Luvitt, that his respiratory disease subsided – I know that he got used to his disease, and nobody attempted once, to cease it – and that was exactly in the day that he completely abandoned hope, that I wanted... that which I never allowed myself.
Polyglottal Telephone IV
Initial text
Alice sat in her rocking chair on the veranda, rocking, as one does in these situations. In her lap was a book of riddles and puzzles, which her mother’s adopted sister’s brother had given her for her fourteenth birthday, thirty-six years ago. It was tattered and well-thumbed, but that didn’t matter. She put on her reading glasses, flicked her greying hair from her face and opened the book at random. It read:
Of no use to one
Yet absolute bliss to two.
The small boy gets it for nothing.
The young man has to lie for it.
The old man has to buy it.
The baby's right,
The lover's privilege,
The hypocrite's mask.
To the young girl, faith;
To the married woman, hope;
To the old maid, charity.
It was one of her favourites. She had solved (usually without cheating) all of the riddles years ago, so it was more of a challenge to her memory than to her cognitive abilities. She knew the answer immediately: a kiss.
Final text (Team Alpha)
Adeline sat on the bus, with a book of darkness, which her mother and brother gave her for her eighth birthday, on her knee. The book was torn, worn, and misshapen, because she read it often. And later, as she moved her hair from her face and donned her glasses, she started to read aloud in a great voice:
“Humanity has no purity at all [note to reader – this is the point at which the text becomes nearly meaningless. If this is the fault of my own inability, I apologize, but I suspect the text made no sense even when it reached Maknas.], they bring a gift for the educated, but scorn to bring a gift for the elderly. The book reveals all! The kingdom of friends, and the cloak of liars, strong girls, hopeful women, and revenge upon goats.”
Darkness was good, and lips immediately confessed.
Final text (Team Beta)
Alice was sitting in the armchair by the door.
She leaned back.
She had a question book that she had recieved on her fourteenth birthday from her grandmother's brother.
She became worried. She patiently browsed through.
She took the book, went outside, and quickly read the exercises from the pages.
– When Alice was alone, it shouldn't be absolutely important.
– And even when it were things for adults, it is absolutely lucky.
– A boy, the adult women must say, that it isn't right.
– The adult men must do good to the past.
– She bore message of a child.
– It will have false items.
– For a child there is reliability.
– A wife is surprised.
– For a Miss there are benefits.
Despite this this woman is happy now. She had answered all the questions correctly; this year the questions were much easier. Nostalgia and convenience discovered. The explanation was a mystical energy.
Polyglottal Telephone V
Initial Text
The interesting beeping lights on the control console of the starship Plingctliobble were beeping a great deal more loudly than usual. "O my!" shrilly shrieked the second-in-command, Auocvomm, who was a small, very excitable man who looked like nothing so much as a hamster with haemorrhoids. "Whatever shall happen to us? Hostile aliens are swiftly approaching from-" his voice deepened dramatically, which was quite an accomplishment for him, whose vocal cords were comparable breadthwise to PrishpleMax Phun-Size HyperKleenex - "-Deep Space." "Never fear!" said the strong, gallant, heroic Captain Himpruse, who was a woman, and had had to work hard to defeat the chauvinist pigs of Its Majesty's Royal Space Navy to get her job. "My baby Plingctliobble hasn't failed me yet. We shall crush them! Ha-ha!" As the deadly aliens approached ever more quickly, things inside Plinctiobble were becoming quite frenzied. People rushed hither and thither calibrating the PrishpleMax Special PhunPack Ion Cannons and the UltraSensors 2300 Only By PrishpleMax! and the PrishpleMax Flechette Detonators Extra Blood-'n-Guts, Guaranteed, Or Your Money Back! But alas! despite the best efforts of the valiant crew of Plinctliobble, the aliens were exceedingly powerful, and blew the starship Plingctliobble into many pieces. And Captain Himpruse's last dying thought was "Hold on? how can lights beep?"
Final Text (Team Alpha)
The house and the cloud by the boat named Purinyoburu.
As for large things a bell announced it's greatness.
With respect for Aawokubo, even seven are fewer than the Paa.
On is little - despite that it was brown and delicately made.
It can burn if it is taken there.
"A sword used against one of our own? Perhaps we are a bad species...", you say grandly.
Thus it became a mouth. A suitable person among the humans will be large and fast.
With a bloody nose it is possible to create purishpuire, quickly in the two, reaching a distance away.
Without fear.
Yes, like a mountain it was the king of the cloud, on a courageous boat called Irukuribeto.
The king's cloud terminated the struggle among the group on the boat.
It was as if those who belonged to the mountain had had the virus, which was fortunate for the proud ones.
Like a boy this person will take care of what we found. I made a mistake.
We cancelled the truth about the fact that everything else creates seiaa.
What was a temporary lightning doing with those people?
It is a disturbance in the Purinyoburu.
In the person before the arrival of the Purinyoburu.
In vain, the four balls are not semi-controlled.
The purishipuarenta it controls was broken with the arrow.
(Be famous and united to the theme concerning other countries, we shall enter the house protecting us from the mosquitoes.)
The repetition of the truth you told among the gathered masses.
The arrival of fear.
By the way, at this very moment a friend of the cloud is dancing good on the male boat Purinyoburu.
The race in which the mountains are very bad broke the Purinyoburu.
Final Text (Team Beta)
Note: the question marks in the names were originally accented characters that were killed off when the ZBB transferred to a new server.
The lights aboard the space-ship Plinctiobailo didn't burn down. "Oh, my God!" said Abhacbh?mo, the assistant. He was tired, exhausted even; and had for a long time suffered from hemorroids. "Who are standing in our way?" If they are extraterrestrials, let them come.." His voice tried to be more extreme, but there was a strong hair in his thundering string. "...out of space."
"Do not be afraid!" said captain Ghibr?sco. "The strict womans space is brave, and it has easily matured to fight your tyrant; the one the women hates for having inherited the throne.
"Son! Don't let Plictliobailon get away! Catch up with them! Ahahahaha!"
The extraterrestrials came threateningly clos, and Plinctliobailon quivered. The crew realised something: they had to go back to prepare the Extreme Experienc 2300 Canon (it only came from Prishelmax; blood and loss had been shared, but the silver was front backwards!). There were to many wounds, and in spite of Plinctliobailons heroic efforts the beings were too strong. The captains last shought: "Look.. why are the lights still on?"
Polyglottal Telephone VI
Initial text
We can never guess how much pain lies ahead, we who are only starting out on the long road. If we could, all of us, even the bravest, would never take that first step out into the world; bravery is nothing more than turning off the torch that lights the way into the unknown. There is a dream we have, a dream of standing on the mountains with the long road behind us, our friends and enemies alike long vanished in the all-consuming mist. And up there by an eroded milestone we scream into the last wind, even though none will ever hear us, that nothing we have suffered can diminish the glory of that moment, and that if we could choose to have the whole of our lives again, step after step, the whole of every day and each long year just as before, we would make the choice gladly for the sake of that triumph. But it is not up there, in that final Rendezvous at the Mountain, that we have to make the choice; and what they really say who reach it we can only know when we arrive.
Final text (Team Alpha)
Firstly, the whole world has given a lot, knowing that they never will know. If they’d know, it’s possible that no matter would exist in the world except for power. And there are the Powers the only way for the brilliant light.
It has been seen in dreams, that what one needs to climb the mountains. For long, what was, has been, by the friend or by the devil, lost in history. Nobody has said that they induced an intelligent man to flee from a peasant.
But, even if he doesn’t understand the greatness of the workers, the respect we have is never useless, and before humanity exists, every moment, every hour, every year, this respect is the total of experience. There is no end of matter, and at this period, humankind needs to decide without delay. And no matter who, this is possible, is afraid to last, should not forget the place from where he has come.
Final text (Team Beta)
When we had started our journey, we'd had no idea that it would end in tragedy. The brave men had for many years travelled the globe, because of the various bad things that made us leave.
Hail these brave men, who met fiery dawn at the first rough light!
When we see them in a dream, can we advance and start our own adventure? You will have all the long journeys before the end of time.
In the haze we will find our friends and enemies.
At this point, our profit towards the valiant signs when we came to the end, easily, nobody fell at that moment.
Again when we held the seen and the sure time and the good year, have we left already, in the case of our limited date nearly becoming never?
When we went against these problems, after we had to know, if everyone got up, did they have to know less what we knew happened?
Polyglottal Telephone VII
Initial text
In the time of the old gods, before the young gods were born, Tabaim did not really have a task. He mostly just walked through the desert and talked to the other gods. However, when the gods created forests and mankind and animals, Tabaim became god of meals. Tabaim is generally considered the most powerful god of the pantheon, or at least the primus inter pares in the pantheon. He's also the head cook of the gods.
There is one festival associated with Tabaim: Tabaim's Day. It is held after the fields are harvested, because this means that there will be food for the next year again. Tabaim's Day takes a full day, and it looks a lot like many of the other religious festivals: there is a lot of food and wine, even older children are allowed to drink, musicians play high-tempo dance music, games are played, feuds are forgotten for a day, and upcoming marriages are announced.
Final text (Team Alpha)
When the honourable gods were alive, they didn't cover up new babies nor did they conceil Tabeym himself. They did it, through mutual communication, Tabeym left. Tabeym, the god of wood and the animals and the fish, had studied as if to hit back at the gods. Some time after, Tabeym made a sacrifice to the gods. Alsua, thanks to the god's power, lit the world's first father. Then there was a marvellous feast day.
Yt was set free to celebrate. The "Day of Tabeym" was to be celebrated from next year, as soon as the harvest of the grain had been gathered. The jubilee continued for several days, and there was mixed paractices of the whole world, freindship, and much wine (the children are allowed to drink wine on the Day of Tabeym), and there was music too. There were plenty of duels, and the duel in which two competitors fight and win over each other was an announcement that they would marry. This was great news.
Final text (Team Beta)
This story is about the age of the ancient gods. Before the young hair, the Tabiem were famous. The garlic was loved. Even more, Tabiem went to the other side of the room. How Musios was to search for Tabiem, he was not sure. Munios, who was tied to the gods, knew what had been done again to much of the people in the forest. They made metal discs in the honor of the gods because people had believed in the gods for many years. They got ready. Tabiem, with his friends, ate the entire dawn. As none went to look for anything, it had eaten to arrange. By chance, somebody called to the victims of the Gods. The young ones had wine, sang, and danced to the pattern of the music, and said that they wanted to marry.
