User talk:Tzirtzi/Siixtaguna

Just a note... I would be wary of letting the macro-Siixtaguna language family spread across the whole subcontinent at any time in the history. Later on we've got Isthmus peoples living on the subcontinent's northwest coast, at least two small-ish groups that won't be big players, but it's important to be aware that they're going to be there. Lotoka is spoken in the southeast by at least -500 YP. And by +800 YP there needs to be at least one other native language family present on the east coast, represented at minimum by a culture of seafaring raiders (the Kennan) speaking a language that I will be designing as substrate for Kozzaŋ Fasa and anyone else who wants to work in the area in that time period.

Besides which, realistically, there should be other native groups that hang on long enough to play roles in +YP, we just don't yet know anything about them because nobody's described them. At least in the mountains - there's a substantial mountain range in the middle-to-east of the subcontinent and it may not have the highest peaks on Akana but it certainly covers plenty of land, so it's a barrier we should be considering when planning linguistic movements. Just food for thought. Radius 10:21, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't think macro-Siixtaguna taking over will be a problem. Although I had in mind that at their height (-1000) they cover a large area with settlements, settlement density is only significantly high along the east coast and on the islands. On the islands they eventually assimilate to/merge with the Isles culture. Although the continental Siixtaguna culture does exist quite far in land to the south and west at this point, I had in mind that Siixtaguna culture is so sea-focused that once inland they find it difficult to survive and quickly assimilate to other cultures that they come into contact with - mainly the Isthmus cultures. I hadn't had it in mind that the Siixtaguna culture ever actually reaches the west coast of the Siixtaguna peninsular - the mountain range is a good point, it might provide a convenient barrier to further westward movement.

Siixtaguna culture is also very much small-scale and tribal. Although there are large tribal groupings that individual villages identify with (e.g. Nualis and Takuna), inter-settlement organisation remains at a minimum. There is communication, trade and war, but little expansion of territory or long-term groupings. As a result, I've imagined that they coexist (to some extent) with other cultures within the Siixtaguna peninsular.

How does that sound?

--Tzirtzi 13:20, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. I anticipate that later on, much will be built on the early-period foundations you're making right now, so I just wanted to make sure they can accomodate it. :-)

I don't know how much merging with Isles cultures will be happening, though. Maybe in the north and in the south... but for the central east coast, the Mûtsinamtsys and their decendents are not going to be doing much colonization of the mainland, just solidifying their hold on their islands. Later I envision them falling prey to the Kennan, in a loose analog of the Norse conquests in Britain, and later emerging from these troubles a stronger and more outward-looking people but not controlling much land beyond their islands. (Incidentally, the Kozzaŋ of "Kozzaŋ Fasa" is their ethnonym, derived from the Kennan term for Mûtsinamtsys: "rowers".) I'm not sure what will happen to the Takuña on the nearby mainland, though it seems likely that they too will suffer from the Kennan raiding... but they will be less vulnerable than the Kozzaŋ/Mûtsinamtsys, so they may emerge from that period as a regional power. That will be up to you and whoever else is working on that area in that period. Radius 13:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)