2007 
2007 31 Dec. New rant: His Dark Materials.
11 Nov. Updated that last answer with a reader's comments. Also more fully Unicoded the Proto-Eastern page.
31 Oct. An Ask Zomp question and answer.
14 Oct. Unicodified the Caďinor grammar.
13 Oct. How did it get to be October? New rant.
13 Aug. No less than four Ask Zomp answers.
4 Aug. New rant.
16 Jul. Culture test corrections: the Dutch have same-sex marriage now; the Greeks don't get more time off than other Europeans; and Americans don't make many Polish jokes any more.
12 Jul. New rant.
8 Jul. New rant.
23 Jun. Another Ask Zomp answer.
17 Jun. Another Ask Zomp answer.
3 Jun. Two, count 'em, two Ask Zomp answers
28 May. Unicode for the Syldavian pages.
20 May. New rant: More on authoritarians.
3 May. New rant: Conservativism conquered from within. And a new Ask Zomp answer
20 Mar. New rant: Bond overdose.
11 Mar. New rant: The Hot Gates.
1 Mar. Another Ask Zomp answer.
27 Feb. Bob reviews Digger and Slow Wave.
19 Feb. New rant: Touting my brother. Also, Raphael Landeck has translated my Jane Jacobs page into German.
4 Feb. New rant: What kind of ape are we? Also, Matt Adams provides icons drawn from the Children's Railway from Hell.
15 Jan. Another Ask Zomp answer.
7 Jan. New rant: More mistakes in Iraq.
2006 30 Dec. New rant: The children's railway FROM HELL.
12 Dec. Three new Ask Zomp answers.
29 Nov. More ranting.
25 Nov. Everyone should embarrass themselves with a plan for Iraq. Here's mine.
23 Nov. Put up a new Fuschia comic, after just five years, and revamped Fuschia's home page, including glimpses of her creation.
16 Nov. I've been on vacation, so some stuff is pending. To start with, here's a new rant. And here's three new Ask Zomp answers.
5 Nov. Ask Zompist answers another question.
30 Oct. Bob reviews Making Comics and 99 Ways to Tell a Story. Another answer in Ask Zompist.
Note: I had these updates ready on Sunday, but our phone line (and thus DSL) was dead until tonight. Couldn't get at my mail, either.
22 Oct. Ask Zompist answers three more questions.
18 Oct. Maybe the last update on Oblivion, plus a new rant
14 Oct. New feature: Ask Zompist answers its first batch of questions.
10 Oct. New rant to get some queries for a new feature, Ask Zompist!
3 Oct. It's well past time for a new Swatoon! (#31)
1 Oct. New rant.
17 Sep. New rant.
15 Sep. New rant.
11 Sep. More on Oblivion.
26 Aug. Decided it was time to release the Almeopedia.
24 Aug. New rant.
22 Aug. More thoughts on Oblivion.
14 Aug. Bob reviews Gemma Bovery and Fun Home. Also, all the Bobs were converted to the new format and prev/next buttons were added so you can read them in sequence.
12 Aug. New rant.
10 Aug. New rant.
5 Aug. Unicodified the Ismaîn grammar.
30 Jul. New rant. Also corrected some typos in English spelling page.
25 Jul. More thoughts on Oblivion.
16 Jul. Added my Oblivion Journal.
11 Jun. Added a new story, The rogues, to Virtual Verduria.
10 Jun. New rant.
4 Jun. New rant.
20 May. New rant.
10 May. Bob reviews Atomic City Tales and Top Ten. Also added updates to the Sam & Max and Boondocks reviews.
30 Apr. How to do better at Civ4 than you probably were. And a new rant.
18 Apr. New rant. Linked to cultures tests from Ill Bethisad, a collaborative alternative history.
7 Apr. New rant.
3 Apr. Survey results are up.
27 Mar. Two new Swatoons (#29, #30).
21 Mar. The Skourene Historical Atlas is complete, with three final maps (1705, 1726, 1810).
Also, please to be taking this zompist.com reader survey!
13 Mar. Two more Skourene maps 1632, 1665). Second-to-last update on the Skourene Historical Atlas!
9 Mar. W. Shedd and K. Andreyeva have written a Russian culture test on their blog. There's a new rant.
3 Mar. Justin M. updated the English culture test.
26 Feb. Two more Skourene maps 1510, 1593).
18 Feb. Two more Skourene maps (1370, 1440); also substantially revised the commentary for 1260.
12 Feb. Two more Skourene maps (1150, 1260).
9 Feb. New rant. Added this Salon review to the L&R links page.
29 Jan. Two more maps (1005, 1070).
23 Jan. Two more maps (885, 950).
14 Jan. New rant.
10 Jan. Two more maps (785, 827).
3 Jan. Two more maps (635, 738). Moved 2004 to the old changes log.
3 Jan. Happy new rant to all!
2005 31 Dec. Redrew the picture on the Visitor's Guide to Verduria. Updated the link to Robert Delaney's the by-subject republishing of the culture tests.
26 Dec. Created a new header and used it on a few pages.
24 Dec. Two more maps (484, 558).
23 Dec. New Swatoon (#28). By the way, Tieboy here has his own extremely droll Half-Life 2 oriented cartoonishness; and as mentioned in the Swatoon, Agent Orange has a four-page cartoon in Fortune this month.
18 Dec. Metaverse for December. Beginning the Historical Atlas of Skouras. This is a Flash file, so get a Flash reader if you live in a cave. Ten maps are up; I'll be adding two maps a week till it's done.
5 Dev. Yet another rant.
30 Nov. New rant.
19 Nov. Fixed typos on the libertarianism page and the Ukrainian test. Added some references to the former. Added an anti-abuse warning to the mail page.
6 Nov. New rant.
31 Oct. New rant.
30 Oct. Metaverse for November. Added a page on English words from India, and Vadim Urasov's Ukrainian culture test. Improved the logos on several pages. Switched the Kebreni grammar to Unicode, which gets rid of the ugly apostrophes.
22 Sep. Raphael removed some outdated political references in the German culture test.
16 Sep. New rant.
12 Sep. Added some new words in Elkarîl.
10 Sep. Corrections and a few new words for the Chinese word list.
7 Sep. Made some corrections to the Chinese word list, and added a new rant-let.
6 Sep. Metaverse for September. Added a page on Chinese words in English, and Bob reviewed Sin City and Skippy. Also corrected some typos in Virtual Verduria, and noted a few more tribute words in the Secret History of Verduria.
3 Sep. New rant.
16 Aug. Finally filled in the missing panels for a Mafalda cartoon (the second-to-last one).
11 Aug. New rant.
31 Jul. New rant.
24 Jul. Two new Swatoons (#26, 27).
17 Jul. Metaverse for August. Finally finished Old Skourene.
11 Jul. New rant.
12 Jun. Minor correction to the English As She Is Spoke page.
5 Jun. New rant.
17 May. Metaverse for May. Yet another Swatoon (#25). And a culture test for Skouras (which, I hasten to add for the geo-illiterate, doesn't actually exist).
5 May. Corrected a typo in the Elkarîl grammar (ddut means 'sell' not 'buy') and added a new word to the lexicon (nddar 'weapon').
4 May. New rant.
20 Apr. Entirely rewrote my article on what's wrong with libertarianism. : it now takes twice as long to arrive at the same conclusion! (The major changes are to show that yes, people really do say this stuff; to avoid sidebars that no one seemed to read; and to respond to some criticisms.)
16 Apr. New rant.
12 Apr. Metaverse for April: Bob on Rich Burlew and Roy Lichtenstein, plus a page to be named later.
4 Apr. New rant.
13 Mar. Two new Swatoons (#23, 24).
11 Mar. Jeffrey Henning was so anxious to see an RSS feed for zompist.com that he created the initial file for me. That's pretty hard to resist. Supposedly the little XML button above will do something for you RSS types.
9 Mar. New rant.
28 Feb. Metaverse for March. An explication of Jane Jacobs's ideas on cities, the Chinese Culture Test, a new Amerindian word in English (buccaneer), and a new rant.
27 Jan. New rant.
23 Jan. Updated the Jaime Hernandez chronology through issue 12. And, first rant of the year.
2004 23 Dec. Updated the Jaime Hernandez chronology with page numbers from the big fat Locas book. Also converted the Verdurian grammar and dictionaries into Unicode.
11 Dec. New rant.
10 Dec. I'm moving this month and all you get for Metaverse for December is Bob reviewing Hellboy and Bacchus.
2 Dec. Added scans to the Ranma 1/2 page so you too can compare the Japanese and American editions.
22 Nov. Added scans for Cud, Artbabe, and Cowboy Wally. Added short updates to the latter two to mention more recent work. Fixed a couple of typos.
4 Nov. Newer rant.
1 Nov. New rant. Can you guess what it's on?
28 Oct. Metaverse for November. A review of what the Bible says about the poor and, at the very opposite end of the taste spectrum, two new Swatoons.
22 Oct. New rant. Also finally mentioned the zompist bboard in the Language Construction Kit, which will hopefully save me many an e-mail.
6 Oct. New rant.
5 Oct. Updated the proto-Eastern page with changes to Axunašin, Unicoded it, and added Nikolai's speculations on verb origins.
3 Oct. Fixed typos in Flaidish, Axunašin, Elkarîl, Jeerio. Clarified the vowel section for Flaidish, too. Updated the coinage table to reflect Elkarîl grammar.
2 Oct. Metaverse for October. Some folks have been waiting for years for this: the grammar of Axunašin.
29 Sep. Added nav bars all over Virtual Verduria. Converted a bunch of it to Unicode, corrected typos, finally added some text about that room, redrew some drawings, and added some Kebreni words. Oh, and added a new religion.
25 Sep. New rant.
21 Sep. Updated a couple of links on the Quechua page.
20 Sep. Added an addendum to the fascism page.
14 Sep. Metaverse for September. Added a page on fascism and a new page at Shrove Tuesday (Observed). The main page has also been redesigned.
15 Aug. Updated the numbers pages, which now contain over 5000 languages and dialects. This includes 227 new and 79 replacement sets acquired at the SIL Library in Texas.
14 Aug. Metaverse for August. Added a page on "The Cold Equations", plus one on my unpublished novel The Fire Shall Try, plus a new rant.
29 Jul. More ranting.
27 Jul. Bask in the rantiness!
24 Jul. New rant. Also added a a postscript to the Restructuring America page.
10 Jul. I know, not much has been happening here. I just finished a large paid project, so that should free up some time... though not quite yet; I'm on vacation for a week. There's three new pages at Shrove Tuesday (Observed).
18 Jun. New rant.
14 Jun. Minor changes to the numbers page (a language named Lou turns out to be Austronesian, not Indo-Pacific).
I got a nice blurb in the Chicago Tribune Magazine a couple of weeks ago. Even neater: Neil Gaiman answered my question in his journal; I'm tickled by this, as I assume he gets dozens of questions and answers only a few of them. I was hoping he'd provide examples, but I note that his answer is, well, very Gaiman: he zeroes in on a specific, slightly odd fact (the D's become S's).
16 May. Metaverse for May/June. Two new Swatoons (#19, #20). An essay on restructuring our government. Some additions and new scans on the French comics page.
16 Apr. New page over at Shrove Tuesday (Observed).
16 Mar. Another rant.
11 Mar. Nicolas Ossart very kindly sent me a huge collection of Australian numbers. There are 132 new languages or dialects, plus 29 replacements.
I'm working on a couple of paid projects at home this month, so no new pages.
24 Feb. Two rants.
10 Feb. Big ol' rant. Also removed a language from the numbers list. ('Tebu' turned out to be a version of Mandara.)
3 Feb. Metaverse for February. Two new Swatoons (#17, #18). Added an English-Ismaîn lexicon and a handy list of Almean languages for the zbb people.
15 Jan. Greatly improved the scans for the Rodolphe Töpffer review. Updated the SpinnMap. Wrote the first rant of the year.
13 Jan. Added a couple more tips to the Civ3 page. Also corrected the contact address for Liliane, and added a scan.
1 Jan. Metaverse for January. Finally decided to put upmy Jeerio story, written when I was 11. Revised and expanded the Wede:i grammar.
2003 28 Dec. Changed things around at the numbers page a bit. The numbers are stored in two ways: in a mondo 1.1M file, and in a set of 14 smaller files. The bigger file will now use Unicode (as much as my computers can display), which makes it look a lot better; the smaller files will remain in standard html only; I'm assuming those of you who connect to the net with toasters can't handle either large files or Unicode. Also added a few sets of numbers.
24 Dec. New rant.
9 Dec. New rant; also added a hot new tip to the Civ3 page.
30 Nov. Metaverse for December. Bob reviews Peanuts; new Swatoon (#16). No more for now, I have a headache.
18 Nov. Ranty ranty ranty.
10 Nov. New rant. I don't think I'll have any new pages for this month. However, there's a new page over at Shrove Tuesday (Observed)
27 Oct. And another..
22 Oct. Another new rant.
8 Oct. New rant.
3 Oct. Metaverse for October. Greek culture test; new Swatoon (#15). There's also a recent new rant.
13 Sep. Those slackers over at Shrove Tuesday (Observed) updated.
7 Sep. Metaverse for September. Bob reviewed Shutterbug Follies, Fables, Persepolis. Also, new rant.
28 Jul. Metaverse for August. Finally described the Elkarîl writing system; put up Carlos Thompson's Colombian culture test.
19 Jul. Updated the Verdurian downloads page since the ftp area doesn't work any more. Uploaded Daniele Calisi's translation of the Language Construction Kit into Italian.
15 Jul. Yet another rant.
14 Jul. More ranting. Raphael updated the German culture test.
11 Jul. Metaverse for July. Bob had more to say on some comics and reviewed some erotica; also added another mapmaking tutorial.
9 Jul. New rant. New illo in the Elkarîl grammar.
22 Jun. Made a bunch of corrections and clarifications in the Flaidish grammar, thanks to Philip Newton's review; and added some words, prompted by John Minot's Babel translation.
16 Jun. New rant. Also corrected a typo in the change log pointed out by one of you.
9 Jun. Corrected a couple of typos in the Flaidish grammar. Replaced the Kingdom of Verduria map and the Eretald map
5 Jun. Added a page telling what I've learned (and what I haven't) about Civ3.
1 Jun. Metaverse for June. Added a grammar of Flaidish; made some minor corrections to the Elkarîl lexicon. More new pages coming.
29 May. Updated the numbers list; see the sources page for details. Linked to a conculture test.
21 May. Corrected typos and de-Word-ized the Spelling page; fixed some links in the Sound Change Applier page and added some help hints for non-programmer Windows users.
19 May. New rant.
15 May. Two new Swatoons (#13, 14).
9 May. New rant.
7 May. Converted the Proto-Eastern page to Unicode; improved some table formatting; 'Sheo' is now 'Teôši'; corrected the statement that some Obenzayet infinitives end in -r.
5 May. Not much new here, not least because a lot of my energy has gone to setting up Shrove Tuesday (Observed), a new site featuring the humor stylings of Lore, Spinn, Agent Orange, Raven, Tieboy, SeanQ, Bob, and me. New rant, though.
24 Apr. New rant.
30 Mar. Metaverse for April. Added a Quebec culture test, from Freyja, as well as a page on drawing maps. Fixed up links in Virtual Verduria and clarified that Kahinisa is pushing up the daisies.
29 Mar. New rant. Also, a domain propagation error was corrected-- "zompist.com" used to go to the old server; now it properly goes to the same place as "www.zompist.com".
11 Mar. Corrected a typo in the Cuêzi grammar. Redrew the map of Spinnland and made sure the SpinnStuff page had a link to the toons.
9 Mar. New rant; new Swatoon (#12). Made some corrections (thanks, Ranskaldan) to the Faye lyrics page.
5 Mar. Metaverse for March. New culture test for Mexico; finally got the Cuêzi grammar up and updated the Cadhinor lexicon. Updated the list of stores selling French comics.
20 Feb. New, dreary rant
9 Feb. The 10th and last chapter of the Count of Years is up.
7 Feb. Everything seems to be back to normal. Here's what's been happening: RCN decided to move everyone from its old Enteract servers to RCN servers. Only RCN's web hosting has a limit of 10M; I use about 40M. So only about half the site was transferred. (With no notice of any kind.)
Well. The simplest solution was to upgrade to their 'Bronze' package, which fortunately isn't much more expensive, and offers 150M. There were some permissions problems this afternoon; but that's been cleared up.
So everything should be up now. If you get a missing file somewhere, tell me.
Also, new rant
5 Feb. Metaverse for February. Added a Polish culture test, while Bob reviewed Promethea and The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
1 Feb. Chapter 9 of the Count of Years is up. Added a gloss to the Amerindian words page (thanks, Jeff Burke), and added some rock band names.
30 Jan. New rant.
28 Jan. Added Swatoon #11; added Athnia to Verduria's embassies.
22 Jan. New rant.
21 Jan. Chapter 8 of the Count of Years is up. Made a couple corrections to the numbers list and added some conlangs.
18 Jan. Finally updated the Jaime Hernandez chronology with Love & Rockets vol. II #3 - #6.
11 Jan. Chapter 7 of the Count of Years is up. Corrected a couple of typos on the quotes pages.
10 Jan. New mini-rant.
9 Jan. It's time to make fun of search strings people used to get here!
5 Jan. And 2003 begins. Chapter 6 of the Count of Years is up, as well as a review of Psychohistorical Crisis.
4 Jan. New rant.
2002 28 Dec. Added a new rant as well as Chapter 5 of the Count of Years.
24 Dec. Revised the paper on chance resemblances between languages, expanding the discussion of multiple counting methodologies (with, finally, a formula to calculate them), adding a graphic to make the connection to the normal curve obvious, relegating a dull discussion of equiprobable phonemes to an appendix, discussing more ways to calculate phonetic matches, and addressing more issues in semantics.
23 Dec. Added a new Swatoon (#10).
22 Dec. Chapter 4 of the Count of Years is up.
17 Dec. New rant.
15 Dec. Chapter 3 of the Count of Years is up.
13 Dec. Revised my essay on libertarianism after some feedback.
9 Dec. New rant.
8 Dec. Uploaded the next section of the Count of Years; there's also anew Swatoon (#9). Also corrected a typo in Cadhinor morphology.
2 Dec. Metaverse for December. Added the Swatoons Page and the first section of the Count of Years (which I'll update once a week till it's done).
13 Nov. New rant.
8 Nov. Added a favorites icon for IE users. (If you have zompist.com bookmarked already, delete the bookmark and re-add it.)
6 Nov. New rant.
1 Nov. Metaverse for November. Added a Swedish culture test, and Bob reviewed Colonia and I Was Seven in '75. Also, Joe Fatula very kindly reprocessed the Sounds of Almea as MP3s, making them shorter and better-sounding. And if all that weren't enough, here's a new rant.
28 Oct. Fixed some typos and added an illustration to the Elkarîl grammar. Updated the samples in the proto-Eastern page (also added a couple of words).
25 Oct. New rant.
20 Oct. Some emendations to Elkarîl. Replaced the map of Cuzei in the Cuzeian theism page.
8 Oct. Put up a grammar of Elkarîl.
4 Oct. New rant.
2 Oct. Updated the Kebreni lexicon.
30 Sep. Metaverse for October. Added a Turkish culture test and a big rant on libertarianism .
23 Sep. New rant.
20 Sep. New rant.
19 Sep. The Zompist BBoard is working again.
17 Sep. New rant.
13 Sep. The Virtual Verduria Message Board has transmuted into the shiny new Zompist BBoard. Which, by the way, is having some glitches and hiccups. Read the announcements.
4 Sep. Another rant. The SpinnMap has been updated, too.
1 Sep. New rant.
30 Aug. New rant.
26 Aug. Quiet month, huh? Well, new rant today; plus some corrections to the Secret History of Verduria, plus a new Lord of News story for Verdurian readers only.
5 Aug. New rant.
28 Jul to 4 Aug. Uploaded remaining Brazil journal entries: two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
27 Jul. Metaverse for August. Added a page comparing bad human and machine translations from Portuguese and extracts from my Brazil journal. Also corrected a typo in the Amerindian Words in English page, and added a few rock bands.
Irgend Jemand has made some corrections to the German culture test and to the German part of the Zompist Phrasebook, and come out from the safety of his pseudonym; his real name is Raphael Landeck.
24 Jul. New rant.
16 Jul. New rant.
15 Jul. Updated the Love & Rockets links with a few new pages (including a message board).
8 Jul. New rant.
6 Jul. New rant. A few new numbers; see the sources page for the changes. Corrected a number of typos in the Verdurian grammar. Updated the Verdurian dictionaries and the Cadhinor lexicon. Corrected more typos in the French version of the numbers page.
3 Jul. Metaverse for July. Added a page on Searle's Chinese Room.
26 Jun. New rant. Corrected some typos in the Gaiman review; added a tip to the Civ2 page about Aegis Cruisers.
21 Jun. Added a few words to the Arabic Words in English page: lemon, racket, rebec, rook.
18 Jun. New rant.
9 Jun. Metaverse for June: added the Readers' Commentary to the Not My Desk Commentary, which will make no sense to you if you're not already a Not My Desk fan.
Also, Anna Shnayder has kindly revised the Russian translation of the Zompist Phrasebook.
5 Jun. Another rant.
4 Jun. Minor redesign of the front page.
3 Jun. Two new rants. Also added a bit to the Transmetropolitan review.
30 May. Another rant. Updated the Spinnmap.
24 May. A new rant. Fixed a bunch of typos (and added a few new words) in Proto-Eastern, Ismaîn, and Barakhinei.
21 May. Added a section on syntax and a sample text to the Proto-Eastern page. Also, the Cuzeian sound changes are revised, and the lexicon is updated.
20 May. Extended the creeping redesign to the message board.
18 May. Hirofumi Nagamura updated the Japanese culture test. For a limited time, you can see the changes here.
17 May. Redesigned the Virtual Verduria page. Also linked to Philip's Almea page from the Ambassadorial Service page.
14 May. New rant.
13 May. OK, here's the other new page for this month: When do people learn languages?
11 May. Added scans for the reviews of Patty Leidy and Walt Holcombe. Corrected some typos in refs.htm and names.htm.
9 May. Metaverse for May, or part of it: Bob reviews King David and Transmetropolitan.
6 May. New rant.
28 Apr. Updated the Spinnland map; corrected a link in the Kit.
24 Apr. Another rant.
22 Apr. New rant. A couple corrections to the Canada test.
17 Apr. New rant. And another one from Wednesday I forgot to mention.
14 Apr. More band names. Some corrections to the Verdurian grammar and to the Canadian culture test. Added some conlangs to the numbers list.
9 Apr. Metaverse for April. Added a Canadian culture test. Corrected more Verdurian typos.
7 Apr. Fixed some typos in the Verdurian grammar. Also worked on an actual new page, which should be done in a day or two.
30 Mar. A couple of conlangs added to the numbers page. Fixed broken links on the yingzi and andalou pages.
25 Mar. The SpinnWebe Spiral changed location.
23 Mar. Added two conlangs' numbers; fixed a typo in the million-speakers-languages list. Restored the missing answer on the rants page. Ranted some more about Civ3.
18 Mar. Another rant (which will explain why big updates are not to be expected for a bit...)
14 Mar. Another rant.
12 Mar. Two rants for the price of one! Plus the answer to the puzzler rant thing.
11 Mar. Corrected some typos in the Practical Course. Reformatted the conventional expressions in Ismaîn. What happened to the monthly update? It's basically been consumed in the spring crunch at work. There should be some new pages for April...
10 Mar. Added a section to the Verdurian grammar to clarify headless relative clauses; also made references to the Dictionary into links.
9 Mar. Corrected some typos in the native Cadhinor grammar, the Luke translation, and the Chinese version of the phrasebook. Verduria now has diplomatic relations with Tegireserana.
3 Mar. Uploaded Philip Newton's translation of Luke 2:1-21 into Verdurian. Added a new question to the sci.lang FAQ.
27 Feb. New rant.
26 Feb. The language classification for Amerindian languages in the numbers list has been thoroughly revised to follow Lyle Campbell's American Indian Languages (1997). This means a lot of languages moved around, a few changed names, dialect status, or (sadly) became extinct, and a few new dialects were added. The most noticeable difference, however, is that Campbell is an extreme splitter, where Ruhlen is an extreme lumper-- Campbell has well over 200 families where Ruhlen has just 3. I have kept quite a few of Campbell's families next to their traditional or Ruhlenian relatives (e.g. Hokan, Penutian, Andean, Equatorial), mostly for convenience, and so that the image map still works. Don't expect these groups to be resuscitated by future research; some are simply hopeless, and others will very likely be greatly rearranged-- e.g. note that Campbell places Cariban with Tupi, not (like Ruhlen) with Ge and Pano. In general, North and Central American families are well studied, and South American ones are still up for grabs.
21 Feb. New rant.
19 Feb. Corrected a typo in the Language Construction Kit.
9 Feb. Linked to Klaus Brunner's Austrian culture test.
4 Feb. Metaverse for February. Added some Crib Notes for the Turing Test. Added a few more numbers; there are now 4600 sets. New rant.
3 Feb. Updated the hit statistics on the about page for 2001.
31 Jan. Fixed some link rot in the Language Construction Kit.
29 Jan. Updated some of the explanations etc. on the numbers page.
28 Jan. New rant.
22 Jan. J. Leavitt sent me a cute picture of Oruseon and Rhavcaëna, two of the Cadhinorian gods. (He drew Fidra too, but that picture as a bit incomplete.) Thanks, mon!
21 Jan. Added three new French comics; clarified my odd description of German verbs in the Language Construction Kit; explained the almost-regular u to o change in English spelling. Made some corrections to the Verdurian-English dictionary.
17 Jan. New rant. New rock band. Corrected the katakana in the header for the Japanese culture test. Corrections to Barakhinei (realized that nouns in -â are a separate declension).
15 Jan. Added scans to the Dykes to Watch Out For review.
14 Jan. New rant.
12 Jan. Tieboy wanted a small ad (this one is 150 x 50 pixels) for zompist.com, and maybe someone else does. You can include a clickable ad by including the html to the right; change "zlogo" to "zlogo2" to get the second ad.
<a href="http://www.zompist.com"><img src="http://www.zompist.com/zlogo.gif"></a>
11 Jan. New rant.
10 Jan. Peter fixed some typos in the Chinese phrasebook.
5 Jan. Corrected the Spinnmap. Updated the Thematic Dictionary.
4 Jan. Is it January already? Bob reviewed From Hell and Gordo. New rant page for 2002. A Canadian culture test is in the works.
2001 30 Dec. Added (a revised version of) John Minot's translation of The Hollow Men to the Verdurian texts. Corrections to Visitor's Guide (no mules) and Kingdom of Verduria page (named avisar students; weight of gold in table was wrong; added a Cadhinorian coin); added a note on alphabetization to the Verdurian-English dictionary.
25 Dec. Added scans to several pages of Bob's, including Very Vicky and Red Meat.
23 Dec. Took advantage of the long weekend and the feverish intensity of a cold to finish off the Historical Atlas (four new maps). Also redid the map of Ereláe in the Drilldown. Corrected the languages names on the map on proto-Eastern page.
18 Dec. Uploaded the English-Verdurian dictionary, and updated links to reflect this. Removed the Word versions of the dictionaries, to save bandwidth.
16 Dec. Two new Atlas maps (3410, 3480), which take us up to the Almean present; still, there are a few more maps to go. And a new rant.
12 Dec. A half dozen or so new or corrected number sets. I reset the change colors on the sources page, so it currenty indicates what's new since Oct 2. Corrected some typos on the French translation of the numbers page, and hopefully fixed some lexical errors in the Portuguese Language Contruction Kit.
Uploaded an html version of the Verdurian to English dictionary.
11 Dec. New rant. Also added scans to the Mafalda review, so non-Hispanophones can see what they're missing.
10 Dec. Metaverse for December. Bob reviews Snake 'n' Bacon and Evil Eye; the Zompist Phrasebook is now available in Chinese. Two new Atlas maps (3220, 3302). A few new French comics.
4 Dec. Minor tweak to the Verdurian syntax page (added an example of a street name).
3 Dec. Two new Atlas maps (3004, 3059), and a tweak to the text of map 2958; and a new rant. New pages for December coming soon.
26 Nov. Another rant, and two new Atlas maps (2870, 2958).
19 Nov. Two new Atlas maps (2620C, 2750) and a new rant.
18 Nov. Fixed some bad datives in the Ismaîn grammar.
13 Nov. Updated the Barakhinei and Ismaîn grammars as well as the Cadhinor lexicon with those changes to Cadhinor, some new words, and updated stress information. Thanks to Philip, the native grammar of Cadhinor has been updated to use DUMEC as a paradigmatic verb in place of LIUBEC, which is partly irregular.
12 Nov. Two new Atlas maps (2538, 2620). Also rewrote the Cadhinor to Verdurian sound changes and corrected a typo in the Native Cadhinor grammar (psiekeda was misspelled). And the 2000 Election Guide needed a postscript.
9 Nov. New rant.
8 Nov. Changed a couple dozen words in Cadhinor and Verdurian. Details, for those few who will care, on the message board.
7 Nov. Corrected a typo in the Ismaîn grammar (reference to an earlier form of the pronoun si). Several corrections to the Cadhinor grammar, including errors in the verb conjugation tables for -R verbs, and a bad choice of sample verbs.
5 Nov. Found a better example of <ph> != /f/ for the spelling document. Improved an example in the how-to document in Virtual Verduria (the antialiasing example didn't work so well with a background gradient!).
4 Nov. Two new Atlas maps (2440, 2490); a new rant.
1 Nov. New rant. Added a note to the Secret History (about the origin of the word zut). Geoff updated (and improved) the Scottish culture test.
30 Oct. Metaverse for November. South African culture test; Arabic words in English. Two new Atlas maps (2220, 2310); also added something about Kebri for 1750 and 1989.
23 Oct. The Almea scenario for Civ2 is now available for the PC! (Also clarified the declension of nish and corrected a typo in the Verdurian grammar.)
22 Oct. Two new Atlas maps (1989, 2155) and a new rant.
17 Oct. Yet another rant.
15 Oct. Two new Atlas maps (1750, 1750 C).
13 Oct. New rant. Fixed some typos in the Verdurian grammar.
10 Oct. Updated the Verdurian Embassy page. Added another rant. Updated the SpinnStuff page too.
8 Oct. New rant. The road sign to Verduria on the front page is now corrected, thanks to Philip Newton. And, two new Atlas maps (1650, 1683).
6 Oct. Rearranged some perfectly good html on the Not My Desk interview so Netscape wouldnąt choke on it. And it turns out that "Mint Sauce for the Masses" isn't a band name but the name of an album. Corrected a mistranslation in the Portuguese version of the LCK.
2 Oct. Additions and corrections to the numbers list. As usual, see the sources file for what changed. Fixed some typos in the Verdurian lessons (hutor was sometimes used for 'farmer' not 'farm'; and a couple pronouns were wrong in the Lesson 3 text.
1 Oct. Metaverse for October. Added an interview with Chris, a.k.a. tieboy, the man behind Not My Desk; a page of facts from my bookshelf, and a Cadhinor lexicon. Added two maps (1645 and a map of Europe superimposed on Ereláe) to the Atlas. Corrected some errors in the Cadhinor examples. Added a new rant. Some sf references added to the sci.lang FAQ.
28 Sep. Corrections to the Verdurian grammar. Added samples of Cadhinor and other material to go with the grammar.
25 Sep. Dutch has been added to the Zompist Phrasebook, thanks to Constantijn van Slochteren.
24 Sep. Two new Atlas maps (1616, 1632).
20 Sep. Another rant.
17 Sep. Two new Atlas maps (1342, 1525).
16 Sep. A couple of new Barakhinei words (fokhê, rênfetê).
15 Sep. New rant.
13 Sep. Correction to a Voltaire quote in the French culture test. There was also a new rant Tuesday.
10 Sep. Two new Atlas maps (Z.E. 1024, 1150).
9 Sep. Numbers additions (Rheinfrankisch, Teoshi) and corrections (Luxembourgeois, Classical Hebrew, Gweno).
7 Sep. Corrections and clarifications to the Verdurian grammar.
3 Sep. New rant; two new Atlas maps (750, 938).
Corrected a redundancy in the sci.lang FAQ. Corrected a typo in the Kingdom of Verduria page (a misspelled Verdurian word) and made the schooling table easier to read. Changed the JavaScript in the Atlas to make it work for Linux browsers.
31 Aug. Metaverse for September. Finally got a new Fuschia comic done. I kind of wish I could show it to you as JPEGs-- the colors are more gorgeous-- but the bandwidth is high enough already. Also: a culture test for Italy, by Riccardo Distasi.
28 Aug. Added icons to the Fuschia page-- grab 'em! Re-recorded the Sounds of Almea, adding Xurnásh. Updated the Wede:i grammar with new words. New rant.
And, Gustavo Pereira very kindly translated the Language Construction Kit into Portuguese-- a massive effort. Muito obrigado!
27 Aug. Added down10 and humbreto to the Spinnmap. Added a couple of new number sets. Added two new maps to the Atlas (600, 600c).
26 Aug. Restored the Sound Change Applier page. I stupidly overwrote it with the Sounds of Almea page.
25 Aug. A few more Verdurian and Cadhinor corrections.
24 Aug. New rant. Corrections to the Verdurian grammar.
23 Aug. New bands. More Cadhinor corrections.
20 Aug. Added a new Atlas map.
19 Aug. Noticed the screen saver in Sam & Max. Also, now you can hear what Almean languages sound like.
16 Aug. Fixes and clarifications in the Verdurian and Cadhinor grammars. Philip's been at me again. :)
15 Aug. Fixed some typos, clarified some points, and shaded the tables in the Verdurian morphology section.
13 Aug. Added two maps to the Atlas. Fixed some typos, and added translations for grammatical terms, in Kebreni. Renamed Frodo in Verdurian. Recounted parliamentary votes.
12 Aug. New rant. Added down10 to the faces file.
10 Aug. New rant. Added or corrected some numbers.
9 Aug. Added a new rant (a review of Ghost World).
8 Aug. I'm informed that Frodo wasn't Froda in Westron, but Maura. Added Tongan to They Thought You'd Say This. Clarified the status of color Ranma.
6 Aug. Metaverse for August. Put up the first installment of the Historical Atlas of Almea. Bob reviewed Kabuki and Finder. There's a new Fuschia Chang comic coming, but it's not done yet...
1 Aug. Yeeks. All fifty pages of Virtual Verduria were modified-- mostly to add a logo, implement a single exploration path (follow the "Onward!" icons), and fix some HTML that IE4 liked but IE5 chokes on. There's a new map on the Almea page, and a map of non-humans on Almea (as well as some added facts on ktuvoks and flaids) on the biology page.
Also, new rants today and yesterday.
25 Jul. Similar revisions to the Barakhinei grammar.
24 Jul. Updated the Ismaîn grammar (because of changes in Cadhinor and about 80 new words; also prettified some sections, and fixed some html that IE5 choked on).
23 Jul. Revised the irregular verbs in Cadhinor, taking them back to proto-Eastern.
22 Jul. Added two rants, and a couple of bands. And corrected more typos in the Kebreni grammar.
16 Jul. Changed the Almean solar system page to reflect the fact that I now know what is the closest star. And this in turn was to support the revised Civ2 scenario.
13 Jul. Corrected some typos and thinkos in the Kebreni grammar, and updated it with new words. (Thanks to Philip Newton; not many people would be capable of finding a typo in a table of Kebreni verbs.) Also, there's a new rant.
12 Jul. Metaverse for July. Added an Australian culture test and, at long last, a new page of quotes. New D&D summary, too.
6 Jul. Added a rant. This month's update is coming.
30 Jun. Added something to the Sam & Max page (credit sequence). D&D is updated.
27 Jun. Added some more stuff to read in Verdurian.
21 Jun. Finally got around to updating the numbers page-- about 40 new sets and corrections. See the sources page to see what's new; I reset the color coding. Also, new rant.
20 Jun. Added some new info to the Sam & Max page, most notably a list of Max sightings in other LucasArts games.
17 Jun. New rant. Miscelleneous corrections, and some new stores, on the European comics page.
12 Jun. Metaverse for June. Added a non-walkthrough of the Sam & Max video game; finally html-ized the Practical Course in Verdurian.
9 Jun. Updated the Love & Rockets chronology 'cos of the new issue. Corrected a typo on the American Culture page. Also note that there's been some business on the bulletin board.
6 Jun. Another rant.
31 May. Updated the D&D page. The Virtual Verduria Message Board is also open for business again.
30 May. New rant. Also, updated the D&D page and the map for the Spinnvolk.
14 May. Metaverse for May. Added a culture test for India and a native grammar of Cadhinor. Bob reviewed Lone Wolf and Cub and Space Usagi.
11 May. Updated the D&D page.
7 May. New rant; new picture on the Sandman review. New pages are coming, hold your horses.
6 May. Cited a book on Whorf in the sci.lang FAQ.
2 May. Came back from vacation to find that I'd been laid off. Anyone in the Chicago area looking for an experienced C/C++ programmer...? (Corollary: markrose@spss.com is no longer a good way to contact me.)
Added a new rant, and a couple of Indian words (coho and pirogue).
17 Apr. New rant.
16 Apr. Changed all the mailto links to point to my new contact page. And I'll repeat the main bit of news here: I'm on vacation till the end of April, so correspondance will be delayed more than usual.
12 Apr. New rant.
11 Apr. Felix Wan very nicely provided me with a singable Chinese version of 'Eyes on Me'.
10 Apr. Decided that everybody like a backstory; added an intro to Fuschia Chang.
9 Apr. New rant.
6 Apr. Noted an interview with the creator of Leisuretown. Added more band names.
5 Apr. Rewrote a section of the essay on "Proto-World and the Language Organ", and added some neurological notes.
2 Apr. Added a couple of band names. And God knows why outsiders would want to follow our D&D game, but we have that technology. I also reformatted some Fuschia comics to follow Scott McCloud's advice: the computer screen is not a comic book page...
1 Apr. Added Danish to the Phrasebook. Updated some advice on the Winning Civ2 page.
30 Mar. Metaverse for April. Added a page on how Verduria was created, a New Zealand culture test, and translations of the Zompist Phrasebook into Russian and Italian. Added scans to all the Love & Rockets pages. Added lyrics to 'Eyes on Me' to the Faye Wong lyrics page. Added wacky search strings to the birthday page. Added some Elizabeth Watasin scans. And linked to Panu Höglund's Irish translation of the predicament page. Was this a busy day or what?
27 Mar. Another rant, and another French comic. Updated the #sw icons.
22 Mar. More ranting.
21 Mar. Another day, another rant. Also added a link to the French comics page, and added a scan to the Trondheim review.
19 Mar. Added more wacky phrasebook phrases.
13 Mar. Updated the Love & Rockets chronology and character list with the stories in Penny Century #7 and Love & Rockets Vol. II #1.
12 Mar. Added a rant. Updated a web-ref in the sci.lang FAQ.
Added a new section to the American culture test. If you've written one of the non-American sections, I urge you to send me the corresponding entries!
1 Mar. Decided to post my complete research on (al)chemical names. Added another rant.
26 Feb. Metaverse for March. Added a page on what happens when you meet Lore; Bob reviewed Sam & Max and The Boondocks. Plus, viewer mail! And more to come!
25 Feb. Two more rants. Also, finally wrote comments on the last Foundation book.
13 Feb. Two new rants.
12 Feb. New rant.
7 Feb. Added more stuff on governments in Civ2. Updated the Spinnmap and Spinnicons.
5 Feb. Metaverse for February. Added a page on how to win at Civ2; finally, after almost two years, drew the last picture for the the Verdurian drilldown; put up a diagram of Almean history.
23 Jan. New rant; updated the spinnmap; corrected typos in the culture test and thematic dictionary.
22 Jan. New rant. Put up a picture of a flaid (a scan of a years-old pic).
18 Jan. New rant. Featured another irc log. It's really on Raven's site, but it heavily features me, and I drew the pictures. So.
11 Jan. New rant. Added a book recommendation to the Kit.
9 Jan. New rant. Also updated the #spinnwebe icons.
7 Jan. Yay! Got a new scanner. So I could finally provide an illo for Bob's Jimmy Corrigan review.
2 Jan. Added to the rants page; did some analysis of hits in the last year; added some Amerindian words and some Latin American comics.
2000 29 Dec. Metaverse for January. Added a page on unlikely phrases from real phrasebooks; finished out the election page; inaugurated an ongoing rant page.
27 Dec. Irgend made some modifications to the German culture test.
19 Dec. Added some more band names.
14 Dec. Updated the election guide; corrected a couple of thinkos in Virtual Verduria.
6 Dec. Metaverse for December. Added reviews of Blade Runner and the Dick novel it's based on; Bob reviewed Jimmy Corrigan. Added new logos to a bunch of pages. Renamed the early Bob pages (so they're all uniform). Did a long-overdue update to the Love & Rockets links page.
5 Dec. More election stuff. I'm working on other new stuff. Really.
17 Nov. Updated the election guide; rearranged the intro page for Virtual Verduria. Pointed to a new Breton culture guide.
8 Nov. Updated the election guide.
2 Nov. Updated the election guide and the tax the rich page; rewrote the sci.lang FAQ question about Eskimo words for snow.
25 Oct. Made some predictions in the Election Guide. Also added various scans to Bob's reviews.
17 Oct. Finally worked out a Verdurian culture test.
16 Oct. Put up some icons for the #spinnwebe crew. Also, Irgend updated the German election guide and made some corrections to the phrasebook.
12 Oct. Updated the election guide.
11 Oct. Documented the night we cloned Tieboy in #spinnwebe. The channel is like a 24-hour improv game; sometimes it produces brilliant comedy, sometimes horrid foolishness-- your call which this is.
7 Oct. Metaverse for October. Added a Dutch culture test; Bob reviewed Watchmen and Kevin & Kell; the spinnmap is updated.
27 Sep. Revised the Syldavian grammar, in light of Yves Horeau's decipherment of the first version of the medieval Syldavian text.
26 Sep. Some minor changes to the sci.lang FAQ.
20 Sep. About thirty more numbers... finally processing the backlog. For fellow number freaks who really need to know which ones are new: look at the sources page, view the source of the page, and do a search for "# 0ffff" (that is, red text!).
18 Sep. Irgend also translated the Zompist Phrasebook into German, so you can now get in trouble in three languages. Also made two corrections to the German culture test (on vacations and Bavarians).
Also updated the election guide today, made some format changes and added some answers to frequent questions in the Language Construction Kit, and corrected an inaccurate statement about German grammar there.
More numbers: a bunch of conlangs, two West Atlantic sets, two newly described Vietnamese languages (one Tibeto-Burman, one Kadai). There are now more than 4500 languages and dialects.
5 Sep. Thanks to Irgend Jemand, the election guide is now available in German.
29 Aug. Metaverse for September. Bob reviewed Scott McCloud and Leisuretown; added a long rant on our political predicament. Also made a few changes to the sci.lang FAQ.
27 Aug. Added or changed about 12 sets of numbers. Since it's been awhile, I reset all the colors on the sources page, so you can easily see what's new.
18 Aug. Used Unicode instead of a special font on the spelling guide; also added some information from Hirofumi Nagamura on ginkgo, and pointed out a dialect variation on rule 29a. And since I learned how, everyone should: Added a link to the sci.lang FAQ to a page on representing IPA in Unicode.
16 Aug. Added some world-building links to the Language Construction Kit (check the bottom of the page). Corrected a phonological error in Verdurian (I didn't know that German Hüte has a different vowel than Hütte). Explained the term fixed air. Thanks to alert readers Evan Meyer and Jurgen Mifsud for the last two.
11 Aug. Made some corrections to the spelling guide, in response to several people's comments.
9 Aug. Put up a Civilization II scenario set on Almea. Added a bit more info in Virtual Verduria on flaids.
8 Aug. More election news, and an answer to the usual anti-Frank Cho ranting.
6 Aug. Added a link on the American culture page to Andrew Chaney's page on how to tell if you're from Louisiana.
31 Jul. Updated the election guide. Added links to new pages.
28 Jul. Updated the how-to guide for aspiring constructed-world artists (con artists?). The election guide is also up to date.
27 Jul. Metaverse for August. Added a page on how English spelling works and (at the request of the VV Message Boarders) a page on Proto-Eastern
4 Jul. Metaverse for July. Added a culture test for England. It's great when people write stuff for me. Don't we have any Dutch, Chinese, or Iranian people out there who want to do one?
28 Jun. Improved the translation of a couple lines in one of Faye's songs-- thanks, Laurie and Eugene.
20 Jun. At Irgend's request, added a line to the German culture test. No time to do anything else... too busy playing Civilization II.
9 Jun. Added some links to the embassy page; corrected a typo in the Zeir story, and updated the Spinnland map.
7 Jun. Changed main page to highlight new stuff a bit more. Updated the graphic to the American culture page, and added a link to a site that presents the same material by subject. Updated the election guide.
4 Jun. Metaverse for June. Added a review of Gunsmith Cats and Black Jack. Added the Virtual Verduria Message Board for people learning Verdurian or eager to discuss Almea.
23 May. Jazzed up the French comics page with some scans.
15 May. The Sound Change Applier is now available as a Macintosh binary.
9 May. Updated the election guide and the Spinnland map. Made a couple of corrections to the German culture page.
4 May. Added some more numbers. Replaced the picture of an Almean girl.
2 May. Metaverse for May. Added a page on how to tell if you're German, and a page for learning hiragana. Added some links to these, too.
1 May. Added some more numbers and sources.
24 Apr. Commented on the Elián circus.
22 Apr. Improved the formatting and internal links in the Verdurian grammar.
19 Apr. More numbers, and a Verdurian word for machine gun. Corrected a typo in the phrasebook.
16 Apr. Added a creole (Skepi) and subtracted one that was the same as another one under a different name. D'oh! And a few more.
3 Apr. Added some African and creole numbers; updated some sources. (Note: recent changes are color-coded on the sources page.)
1 Apr. Metaverse for April. Updated the birthday page; added pages on Japanese culture, Snow Crash, and Lynch's Thought Contagion.
28 Mar. The sources page for the numbers list is now automatically generated from my master list, rather than maintained separately and laboriously. What this means for you, the reader, is that there's a good deal more information available, including titles of sources and notes on classification. I divided out the language family information that used to be scattered among the sources.
22 Mar. Added some conlangs; corrected a bug in the numbers processing program that merged left and right quotes. Updated the Kebreni page. Improved the discussion of consonants and vowels in the Language Construction Kit; made some other changes in the Kit.
19 Mar. Added some more IE, creole, and Berber numbers, and corrected some typos in the Amerindian section; also added some more band names.
6 Mar. Finally added some new numbers (mostly South American, Iranian and other IE, Omotic, and constructed).
28 Feb. Metaverse for March. The new Fuschia comic is finally done; she also now has a page of her own. Since I had to buy a new computer to work with the new scanner to finish this, this is the most expensive comic, in dollars per page, ever. But hey, the computer is really nice.
Also put up the Sound Change Applier program.
23 Feb. Updated the election guide.
17 Feb. Added a stuffed Cthulhu to the SpinnStuff page; from the same place you can now order your own Kittens On Fire t-shirt.
12 Feb. Whee, new scanner! To celebrate, upgraded the pictures of Tintin in the Syldavian grammar.
31 Jan. Metaverse for February. Added a Verdurian short story, and a election guide for 2000. Also updated the Jaime pages with info on Penny Century #6 as well as Measles #5. Also added numbers for Fars.
20 Jan. Updated the description of Ralf König on the Euro comics page to focus on comics available in English.
10 Jan. Added a new question on grammaticalization to the sci.lang FAQ; also plugged a new book, Language Myths, and added Tungusic to the classification.
1999 10 Dec. Added a page of moo programming tips for denizens of SpinnMoo.
29 Nov. Metaverse for December. Added more comics reviews; redesigned the main page, mostly to make it more compact. My web stats suggest that people don't scroll down much, and probably miss a lot.
29 Nov. Added a new map of Verduria city, and a new source for French comics.
22 Nov. Finally found out where Planète BD is.
17 Nov. Added a bunch of numbers, in various areas; there are now over 4400 sets. Also, Marnen Laibow-Koser pointed out a mistranslation on the Modern Verdurian page-- St. Petersburg should be Nëron Petro, not Nëron Pavel. D'oh!
Also updated the map of #spinnland with Nyder, TitanRobb, and Kyol.
9 Nov. Added some scans to the Latin American comis page.
5 Nov. Added a lexicon of Verdurian terms for talking about the modern terrestrial world.
1 Nov. Metaverse for November. Added a roundup of Latin American comics. Added a cover page collecting all my SpinnWebe-related pages, including a new map of #spinnland. (This also involved changing links on all the referenced pages.) Removed an inaccurate reference to NASCAR on the French culture page. Modified Bob's Sandman review, now that I've read the last two books.
28 Oct. Corrected some typos (and explained s better) on the Ismaîn page.
22 Oct. Created a version of the DFC Text Index that works with archived copies of the DFC.
18 Oct. Added two more Love & Rockets links.
11 Oct. Corrected a Tolkien ref and added a Borges one to the Language Construction Kit; updated the Scottish culture page to note that there now is a Scottish parliament; removed Latin American comics from the French comics page.
9 Oct. Added about ten new number sets.
1 Oct. Metaverse for October. Added an elegy for one of the funniest websites ever, as well as a sample page. The Inside Guide has also been updated, before being preserved in aspic.
28 Sep. Added a bunch of numbers, mostly Papuan and S. American, though the Hmong-Mien section is almost entirely new. There are now more than 4300 languages.
27 Sep. Revised the paper on chance resemblances to be clearer, and added a computer simulation.
23 Sep. OK, I'm back, but with limited time due to a project at work. But I did update the DFC text index and the Inside Guide to the DFC.
18 Aug. Note: I'm on vacation for three weeks... so, no updates or e-mail till mid-September.
14 Aug. Linked to Boudewijn Rempt's page on how to tell if you're Charyan.
10 Aug. Added or replaced about 80 Sino-Tibetan numbers.
1 Aug. Metaverse for August. Reviewed The Sandman; added a reference to Johanna Laakso's How to tell if you're a Finn page. Corrected a few typos.
28 Jul. Added D'ni. Corrected an error in the U.S. Invasions page.
22 Jul. Added 36 Bantu languages, and replaced about 24 more.
20 Jul. Just for Wabe-- put up the Not the DFC page.
15 Jul. Added about 16 Mon-Khmer languages, and replaced a few more. There are now over 4200 sets.
13 Jul. Added Penny Century #5 to the Jaime chronology. Noted a new text available for aficionados of Verdurian. Updated the Inside Guide to the DFC.
6 Jul. Added a couple more bands. Updated a linguistics URL.
1 Jul. Metaverse for July. Added a page on Proto-World and the language instinct, and the Chien Spinndalou transcript.
23 Jun. Corrected some typos and bad links in the Verdurian section.
14 Jun. Added a few more French comics.
10 Jun. Added a couple links to the sci.lang websites, and to the Love & Rockets links.
9 Jun. Metaverse for June. The DFC Text Index never got a proper plug here. Most of my Metaverse work lately has been invisible bookkeeping for the numbers list, or stuff that's not done yet.
8 Jun. Added about 15 new African languages. Removed 2 from Nilo-Saharan that didn't belong there.
5 Jun. Added 'guacamole' and 'mole' to the Indian words. Added a link to the Language Construction Kit.
1 Jun. Added 'pawpaw', 'mahogany' to the list of Indian words in English. Added or replaced (IE) Armamagadhi, Sindhi, Mayang, Chattisgarhi, Siraiki, Magahi, (Afro-Asiatic) Tamasheq, (Dravidian) Kurukh, Tulu, Gondi, (Nilo-Saharan) Teso, (Niger-Congo) Temne, Bete, Bubi, (Tibeto-Burman) Bodo, Tripuri, Nyi, Mikir, Lisu, Thado, Akha, Lushai, Tangkhul, (Austronesian) PAiwan, Modern Chamorro, (Creole) Nubi.
28 May. Added 17 more African languages.
25 May. Added a bunch of Niger-Congo numbers: Aizi, Kposo, Wama, Naudem, Mbanja, Pinji (Pende), Sakata (Kesha), Etulo, Lese. Also replaced a number of languages with better sources. Added about 36 more languages the next day.
21 May. Added 34 new, mostly African languages to the numbers list; there are now over 4100 languages.
18 May. Added a description of Barakhinei.
5 May. Added the Verdurian Drilldown, a series of 10 views of Verduria from the stars on in. Reorganized Virtual Verduria to match. Updated internal links in VV. Added a text index to the DFC Archive.
Added a cool picture to the alchemy page.
3 May. Metaverse for May. Added a review of Rodolphe Töpffer's comics from the 1830s. Added an L&R link. And more to come.
29 Apr. Fixed some typos in the Kebreni page. Added numbers for Semaq Beri, Poong, Mpi, Ong; updated Ch'iang (Mawo).
26 Apr. Updated the DFC Inside Guide re the defunct Red Zone.
23 Apr. Added a dozen or so African numbers, plus new conlangs (Speedwords, Kankonian, a corrected Loglan).
18 Apr. Added about 50 more sets of numbers; also gave some examples of widely divergent transcriptions of the same language. Added a new rant on why the rich should pay more taxes.
15 Apr. Added a picture to the Cuzeian theism page; added a table of cognates to the Language Construction Kit now that more information on Ismaîn and Barakhinei is available.
11 Apr. Metaverse for April. New Bob reviews. Mentioned new Foundation book. Added a section on Ismaîn.
6 Apr. Fixed a typo in the Woodring review; updated a url in the sci.langFAQ; mentioned Ralf König's movie; linked to fellow number obsessive Jarel Deaton's page.
30 Mar, 5 Apr. Updated the Inside Guide to the DFC.
22 Mar. Added a band; updated Talossan numbers; added a French comic. Corrected some links in the sci.lang FAQ.
14 Mar. Added a mess of new numbers, mostly Australian, Indo-Pacific, Adamawan, and constructed. There are now more than 4000 languages. Also added a few more band names.
12 Mar. Corrected a typo in the Language Construction Kit.
28 Feb. Metaverse for March. Updated the birthday page. Added new maps, of Eretald and of Verduria province.
16 Feb. Updated L&R stuff with the new Penny Century. Added a ref to a How to Tell if you're a Texan page. Added a couple more French comics. Added a nice pic to the Quechua page. Updated the DFC Guide since we have a new editor.
10 Feb. Added 22 more numbers, mostly New Guinean. Corrected Old Prussian. There's now more than 3800 languages represented.
9 Feb. Added the Verdurian Ambassadorial Service page.
7 Feb. Added over 60 number sets, mostly from New Guinea and Australia, plus some conlangs-- all from Pavel Petrov's collection.
5 Feb. Added about 20 more number sets, mostly Adamawa-Ubangian and Chadic. Updated the proto-languages page.
3 Feb. Translated a new Faye Wong song.
2 Feb. Added about 45 number sets, almost all South American. There are now over 3700.
29 Jan. Yammered some more about Clinton.
28 Jan. Metaverse for February. Added 3 million excuses, and reviews of Woodring and Trondheim
22 Jan. Added 14 more Equatorial number sets, and some new band names. Corrected a word in the Verdurian material.
19 Jan. Added about 40 mostly South American numbers. Added another alchemical term. Added two new questions to the sci.lang FAQ.
17 Jan. Updated the pages on the Wede:i language with a map and description of the writing system.
11 Jan. The big move to www.zompist.com. My new domain is finally up. I moved all the files and put signposts on the tezcat pages in hopes of luring some of the visitors there over here. Also updated the French comics page.
1998 17 Dec. Added a couple more rock bands and changed a reference in the FAQ.
16 Dec. Added 20 more languages to the numbers list; replaced 14 more.
9 Dec. Added a link to the Quechua page to an on-line lexicon. Added a few more numbers, bringing the total to over 3600.
7 Dec. Metaverse for December. Bob's: Baker, Toomey. And added to the Kingdom of Verduria section: prices, schools, voting, coinage.
3-6 Dec. Added a load of numbers. There's now over 3500. This is why nothing else has been added recently.
23 Nov. Added about 11 languages and replaced 39 more, mostly from a Soviet linguistics series.
15 Nov. Added or replaced a bunch more numbers, including 36 artificial languages. Now over 3400.
12 Nov. Added Kumzari (IE), Khamet, Mrabri, Lawa (Mon-Khmer), Tay (Tai-Kadai), Iyaplay, Matigsalug, S Sama (Austronesian).
9 Nov. I wouldn't gloat about the election, no sirree. Also added numbers from Kansa (Siouan), Busa, Samo (Toma), Ngbaka, Gbaya (Niger-Congo), Saho, Xamir (Cushitic), Kanembu, Zagawa (Nilo-Saharan), and supplied missing numbers from Ometo and Xasonke. 10 Nov: and Natanzi, Gorani, and Sangisari (IE).
8 Nov. Added more numbers-- Suma, Verheggen's Langue Universelle, Idiom Neutral, Nu Teutonish, Hom-Idyomo (conlangs); Negerhollands (creole); Mazanderani, Parachi (Indo-European), Konda (Dravidian). Also replaced sets for Hurian, Santali, Tasmanian, Naiki, West Pahari, Kolami, Malto, Brahui.
6 Nov. Added another Love & Rockets link.
30 Oct. Metaverse for November. Bob on Beanworld and Baker; the rest of the Foundation books; two new sci.lang FAQ entries; more New Guinean, Australian, and Bantu numbers (now up to 3300).
23 Oct. Added more numbers (we're up to 3100), and divided up the numbers files some more so lame browsers are happier.
7 Oct. Added-- oh man, just a whole bunch of numbers. 18 Oct: Added a whole bunch more. There's now over 3000.
5 Oct. Added a band; corrected a Polish typo in the Language Kit.
1 Oct. Metaverse for October. Bob on Dorkin and Eat-Man; Scottish culture.
29 Sep. Updated the Jaime stuff based on Penny Century #3.
23-29 Sep. Added about 150 numbers sets. There's now over 2800 languages, roughly half of the world's living languages.
18 Sep. Tossed some well-deserved abuse at Henry Hyde.
17 Sep. Added links so you can read the quotes files without returning home each time.
13 Sep. Added 'muskrat' to Indian words. Corrected ref to humanities.classics in sci.lang FAQ.
Added or replaced a number of Caucasian languages (Proto-Nakh, Andi, Bagulal, Tindi, Xvarshi, Bezhta, Archi, Rutul, Tsaxur, Krytz), plus conlangs Langue Universelle (Sotos Ochando), Leturian and Arangothian. Also Kuvi (Dravidian), Parya (Indic), Negidal, Olcha, Orok (Tungusic).
8 Sep. Added Brokstat to numbers list (Indic).
29 Aug. Metaverse for September. New Fuschia comic; News from Verduria.
27 Aug. Corrected a typo in loveroc1; noted a flaw in Akiko; updated an early Sim review.
26 Aug. Added Auca (Equatorial), Michif (Pidgins), Woleai (Micronesian), Djinang (Pama-Nyungan), Okanagan (Salishan), Havasupai, Shasta, Karok (Hokan), Wapo (Gulf Penutian), Lamang (Chadic), Ingalik, Coquille, Kato (Na-Dené). Updated Bhojpuri (Indic), Mumuye (Adamawa), Haka (Kuki). There are now over 2600 languages in the list.
25 Aug. Added Geoff Eddy's conlangs Breathanach, Proto-Liotan, Kadhrein, Genistien. Beautified the sources list.
21 Aug. New numbers: Yasin Burushashki, Draseléq conlang; Bajalani Kurdish; Ekajuk '1'; Grebo (Kru), Tunen (Bantu), Bassari, Bedik, Konyagi (West Atlantic), Madi, Moru, Avukaya, Logo, Keliko (Central Sudanic), Réunion creole; Zhu|'hõasi, Proto-Central Khoisan, Hietso, ='Okoku (Khoi-san).
18 Aug. Added some notes on Clinton's speech. Corrected a typo in the Syldavian grammar; added a link to the Language Construction Kit.
17 Aug. Added Andamanese languages Akar-Bale, A-Pucikwar, Oko-Jowoi to numbers list. Added another L&R link.
13 Aug. Added conlangs Gladilatian and Degaspregos to the numbers list; also Lengadocian (Romance). Added some bands, too.
11 Aug. Ranma's picture is now in color. Thanks, Chris.
4 Aug. Corrected some typos in the Almean religions pages.
1 Aug. Added a couple new French comics. Also added dates so you can see when series were created.
28 July. Metaverse for August. Added a page on the Turing Test and one on Verdurian domestic architecture. Updated some links to make Virtual Verduria flow correctly.
25 July. Updated the Bob's review of Seth after learning (and verifying) something interesting about Kalo.
23 July. Updated the Clinton scandal page. Noted on the DFC Guide how much caption submissions are up: 800 captions used to be exceptional, now it's routine.
14 July. Happy Bastille Day! Updated Vorlinin numbers list and added Jarrda. Added about 300 new words to the Verdurian Thematic Dictionary. Corrected some typos in various Bob's.
9 July. Updated IAL links and linked to a great on-line Chinese dictionary in the sci.lang FAQ and the Yingzi page.
5 July. Added cigar to the list of Amerindian words in English.
1 July. Metaverse for July. Added Bob's reviews of Zot! and Ghost World, and an editorial on progressives & fundies.
30 June. Added Jèrriais (Jersey) and conlangs Doraya, Nova, Eklektu, Cispa, Sen:espera to numbers page.
Added another source of BDs. Corrected a grammatical error in Kebreni.
23 June. Added DiLingo, Elet Anta, Etwu, Frater (all conlangs). Added a link to a page where you can get more info on these and others.
22 June. Added Capanahua, Earth Minimal to numbers list. Corrected Vorlin address. Corrected a misstatement on Shintoism.
20 June. Added a bunch of words to the Verdurian Thematic Dictionary; updated look, links.
16 June. Added Brithenig to numbers list. Identified some previously mysterious Chadic languages.
7 June. Noted new IADL editor, Casey, in the DFC guide. Also corrected a dialect word in Verdurian, based on a better understanding of Ismaîn.
4 June. Metaverse for June: new Bob's, added this change log.
Corrected a typo in Belorussian.
31 May. Added the Proto-Tungus, Middle Mongolian numbers
30 May. Added some neat bits of grammar, from R.M.W. Dixon's The rise and fall of languages, to the Language Construction Kit; see Case, Verbs.
Added some information to the Numbers source page, based on Dixon, on which language families are well established (by application of the comparative method) and which are speculative; and mentioned Dixon's analysis of Australia as a linguistic equilibrium area.
27 May. Added a couple of bands to Rockers.
25 May. Added 46 new languages to the Numbers list. There are now over 2500 languages listed.
16 May. Added a new question to the sci.lang FAQ: How are tone languages sung?
14 May. Corrected some typos in the Kebreni grammar (and a few other files in Virtual Verduria).
11 May. Derived Syldavian hamaïh from Antwerp Dutch.
Brought the Jaime Hernandez chronology up to date with the release of Penny Century #2.
Added a couple artists to the French comics guide.
3 May. Metaverse for May: new birthday page, robot story.
April. New numbers: Hozo, Sezo, Bambeshi (Omotic), Birale, Tsamay (E. Cushitic), Mbara (Chadic), Meidob, Mikeyir (E. Sudanic), Ngbaka (C. Sudanic), Emai (Edo), Babungo (Grassfields), Ntomba (Bantu C), Shi (Bantu J); most of Sangir-Minahasan and Mongondow-Gotontalo (Celebes), SE Tepehuan (Pimic), Foothill N. Yokuts (California Penutian), Huanuco Quechua, Barasano (Tucanoan), Cofan (Jivaroan); most of Bora-Witoto (Macro-Carib), Hixkaryana (Carib).
