Future of the Caucasian Language Forums

[księżycowy]

So, as you may have seen, we're discussing the idea of making changes to the forum structure in order to get rid of the "Other Language" section. Irusia posted a global announcement, which leads to this thread.

The question for those of you who frequent the Georgian forum is this:
-Do you want a merger with the topics of the other Caucasus Mountains languages (specifically the other Southern Caucasian languages, All of the Northern Caucasian languages [east and west], Armenian, and Ossetic)?

Please vote!

I'll run it exactly like I'm running the poll I created in the Hebrew forum (with one small change*):
-You can change your vote at anytime during the course of the poll
-This poll is timed. (We have to make a decision at some point after all. )

-If you select "I have another idea" you must comment below!

*As I'm not the mod of this particular subforum, I will not play the role of tie breaker.

Please feel free to reply below with your questions, comments, concerns, etc!

[Aurinĭa]

What if the two "yes" options each get fewer votes than "no", but together they would win? If the "yes, other idea" votes are explained as preferring a merge with only some Caucasian languages, or with more languages than the fist option, the "yes, other idea" voters would probably prefer the first option, the Caucasian merge, over no merge.

[księżycowy]

Yeah, i hadn't thought about that. I think that's a good point. New rule! (I hate coming up with rules on the fly like this!)

[atalarikt]

Armenian and Ossetic are Indo-European languages. I'm sorta afraid this might get some people confused. But hey, it's just my opinion.

[Multiturquoise]

I would say no, but you can move the threads about Laz, Mingrelian and Svan into this forum too. Georgian really deserves to exist here.

[księżycowy]

Armenian and Ossetic are Indo-European languages. I'm sorta afraid this might get some people confused. But hey, it's just my opinion.

I assume we're the one how voted "Yes - but I have another idea" then?

I would say no, but you can move the threads about Laz, Mingrelian and Svan into this forum too. Georgian really deserves to exist here.

And Georgian will continue to exist here. It's not going anywhere. And given how popular the other Caucasian languages have been (perhaps with the exception of Armenian), it'll still be getting most of the attention.

Part of my thought process here is, if Georgian deserves a forum, shouldn't the other languages of the Caucasus Mountains? And it would be hard to convince the admins to create even a Northern Caucasian Languages forum.
So this is the only viable option in my opinion. Expand the Georgian forum.

[atalarikt]

Armenian and Ossetic are Indo-European languages. I'm sorta afraid this might get some people confused. But hey, it's just my opinion.

I assume we're the one how voted "Yes - but I have another idea" then?

I think it's a bit too early to say that. Let's wait for another day or two.

[księżycowy]

Armenian and Ossetic are Indo-European languages. I'm sorta afraid this might get some people confused. But hey, it's just my opinion.

I assume we're the one how voted "Yes - but I have another idea" then?

I think it's a bit too early to say that. Let's wait for another day or two.

I meant to say "you're the one who voted." The poll still has 5 days to go, including today.

Are you the one who voted "yes, but I have another idea"? I just need to know so I know whether to count that vote or not. Or was it you Multiturquoise? Because if it's neither of you, it's at risk of being thrown out.

[Massimiliano B]

I voted for "Yes, but I have another idea". I want a merger with all the Caucasian languages, excluding Armenian and Ossetian, which are Indo-European. Although there are no relations between the three Causasian language families, they form a unity in that they are all distinct from Indo-European and Turkic languages that surround them. I would not just create a forum for a linguistic area composed by languages that share common phonetical and typological traits. The same logic could lead, for instance, to the creation of a Balkan forum and other Sprachbund-based fora.

[atalarikt]

Are you the one who voted "yes, but I have another idea"? I just need to know so I know whether to count that vote or not. Or was it you Multiturquoise? Because if it's neither of you, it's at risk of being thrown out.

It was me, indeed.

[księżycowy]

So, some new information has come to light. Apparently the mods are willing to make new subforums out of the Trash Bin. Therefore I think we can open our poll here to some new options.

So far I think I'm seeing, beyond our present options are:
A separate forum for Northern Caucasian languages, a separate subforum for Armenian, and Vijay has suggested a general Iranian subforum that Ossetic can go in. We could also expand our Georgian forum here to all Kartvelian languages, or include that with the Northern Caucasian languages.

What do you guys think?

I'll expand the poll and give it some more time in a few days (2-3).

[Massimiliano B]

As I said before, I would expand the Georgian forum to all Caucasian languages (Kartvelian, North-East Caucasian, North-West Caucasian).

[księżycowy]

I've changed the poll to reflect the new information and proposals we've had come through in the past few days.

Please (re)vote!

EDIT: I should probably specify that the reason that I don't have Armenian or Ossetic in most of the proposals is because:
1. There would be too many options to make a poll workable.
2. I'm assuming that we could work out a place for them without the necessity of merging them with either Kartvelian or Northwest and Northeastern Caucasian languages. Provided we went with one of the options that did not include them.

In short, the first option (one big forum) is not necessarily the only option to pick for those interested in Armenian and/or Ossetic. You can voice your ideas if you'd like to see one of those two get a forum of some sort here.

I know that an Iranian subforum has been suggested, so we could potentially have Ossetic there.

Of course you can still vote for the one huge subforum if you'd like to see that.

[księżycowy]

Well, this is interesting. We have a three way tie.

I welcome further discussion.

[As I expressed in the poll on Semitic languages, I'm not entirely sure what the admins intend to do with these polls anyway. So even supposing we had a clear winner, I'm not sure when we'd see any changes.]

[vijayjohn]

Okay, I didn't even know this thread existed, and I haven't even read the comments too carefully yet, but I think it depends on whether we're going with a family-based approach or something else. If we're going by families, it should probably be something like:

- Armenian
- Northeast Caucasian
- Northwest Caucasian
- Kartvelian
- Ossetic (or Iranian or whatever)

If traffic is a concern, then maybe one big subforum for all of these (except maybe Ossetic and maybe Armenian) is better.

[księżycowy]

How would you like to settle this whole language family vs geographic grouping, Vijay-san?

Poll or just discussion?

[vijayjohn]

It will have to be a gradual discussion since it's about all the languages of the world, not just the Caucasian ones. That doesn't mean you (or anybody else ) can't still make multiple polls, too, though!

[aaakknu]

I think it would be better to exclude Armenian and Ossetic.

[księżycowy]

I concer. I think it would probably be best to have them as seperate as possible, given that there isn't any connection between the Caucasian (i.e. Northwestern, Northeastern, Southern) languages as far as I know.

If we end up having to group them together, I'd say leave the Indo-European languages out and just make a Caucasian subforum for Northern and Southern/Kartvelian.

I'm sure we could find a home for Armenian and Ossetic elsewhere.