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[Kiro Kathora]

I am new here, and I haven't got the time to read everything here yet, so perhaps part of the questions turns out to be unnecessary.

1.   Is it known who built the Acceleration Gates? Evelopedia says nothing in particular, but I wonder how ancient it is.

2.   Stargates are relative novelties in the history of New Eden, built by the now known civilizations. Nonetheless I wonder how the initial colonists from the old Earth etc. transported themselves across star systems.

3.   In addition to 2, I am curious about a list of planets that were initially colonized by the first human settlers. Also, I like to know which of those colonies survived and which did not. Is this data known?

4.   Here and there I read some stray notes on the development of fictive languages of the races in the game, but so far I did not really read about thorough linguistic endeavours (phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, semantics) with a final result, let alone historical linguistic projects that link several stages of languages to the fictive history of colonies. Is this correct?

5.   In addition to 4, I had the impression that so far there has not been written a descriptive grammar of Gallente/Gallentian, and that no reconstructed proto-languages are made. Is this correct?

6.   About questions 4 and 5: I am simply asking this befóre plunging into the deep with any ideas.

[kalaratiri]

I like this one. Lets keep him/her.

[Arnulf Ogunkoya]

If memory serves correctly acceleration gates were the method that the old, pre Day of Darkness, Minmatar empire used for long distance travel.

The original intro video made it clear that stargate tech was in use in the Milky Way. Bear in mind the Amarr built their first gates using a ruined one in their home system as a pattern. I would imagine that the original colonists must have used some sort of advanced jump drive or warp drive to set them up though.

[Evi Polevhia]

I'm an absolute nub at certain parts of this game but I think I can attempt to answer some of these.

1: The technology behind them, dunno. But we (Or CONCORD, or someone like that) build them. They are put in specific places to lead to specific areas. For example in Incursion zones, every site is led into by an Acceleration gate. CONCORD puts them there so that Capsuleers can assault Nation sites hidden in deadspace complexes.

2: Via technology that dwarfs the Jove I assume. iirc we are still behind the apex of the previous civilization's technology. Though I could very well be wrong, this is where my knowledge is fuzzy.

3: The ones that survived you see, mostly, in the civilizations around you. The survivors became the Amarr, the Gallente, Minmatar, Caldari, and Jove.

Not sure about the language stuff. I hope my answers are accurate and helpful.

[Kiro Kathora]

3: The ones that survived you see, mostly, in the civilizations around you. The survivors became the Amarr, the Gallente, Minmatar, Caldari, and Jove.

Not sure about the language stuff. I hope my answers are accurate and helpful.

I think that is not entirely what I meant. 

It is clear to me that in the game we have a fixed set of civilizations (or races), namely three major ones with three subgroups each. However, I was thinking that this can hardly be the full picture. In any case, we still don't know the spread of the specific groups of colonists, but if we, the gameplayers, ever whish to build a fictive history behind the game, this is to my opinion an important steppingstone, since it determines archaeology, ethnics, comparative mythology, etymology and the like.

[Safai]

Re: Stargates, we know from the old intro video that humans were building them prior to traversing the EVE Gate. So Stargate tech goes way back, then I suppose was forgotten and re-learned. (Just noticed Arnulf answered this one better than myself )

for 2) the chronicle Old Man Star talks a bit about interstellar travel prior to Jump Drives, though I don't think it'll answer your question entirely.

For the linguistics stuff, I'm less sure about. But good thread with great questions!

[Perramas]

The first first humans came to the cluster in the New Eden system in the Genesis region. So the first planets would be close to that area. You should make a pilgrimage to New Eden and see the first star system in this cluster that humans set foot in.

[Karmilla Strife]

They have some linguisitic information on the evelopedia, specifically the demographics of amarr empire/gallente federation/caldari state. No minmatar one that I can find. I believe it mentioned that the "gallente language" is pretty much a language used for trade and diplomacy. Within the Federation there are hundreds, if not thousands, of locally or regionally spoken languages. I don't remember anything in particular regarding grammar for any of the official languages.

[Kiro Kathora]

The first first humans came to the cluster in the New Eden system in the Genesis region. So the first planets would be close to that area. You should make a pilgrimage to New Eden and see the first star system in this cluster that humans set foot in.

I would, if I still had an active account. I had that last summer, but due to a lack of time during the semesters I did not add playing time. This is also the reason I cannot post anything on the official forum, hence my presence here. I will have to wait untill summer to start fulltime exploring again.

They have some linguisitic information on the evelopedia, specifically the demographics of amarr empire/gallente federation/caldari state. No minmatar one that I can find. I believe it mentioned that the "gallente language" is pretty much a language used for trade and diplomacy. Within the Federation there are hundreds, if not thousands, of locally or regionally spoken languages. I don't remember anything in particular regarding grammar for any of the official languages.

Indeed, I read some Evelopedia articles on the matter, but these are very basic. All I found were some words of Amarr, and some Caldari sentences.

The original intro video made it clear that stargate tech was in use in the Milky Way. Bear in mind the Amarr built their first gates using a ruined one in their home system as a pattern. I would imagine that the original colonists must have used some sort of advanced jump drive or warp drive to set them up though.

Allright. I just found this: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Interstellar_travelling

Anyhow, concerning the linguistic topic, I am planning to write a post on it this weekend, but I wanted to look around and listen first. Thanks everyone, so far.

[Pieter Tuulinen]

I know there's a Napanii primer and also, here's a link to a small napanii dictionary/phrase book. http://asz.wikispaces.com/Caldari+dictionary

You'll have to find the Napanii Primer yourself, I'm afraid, I can't remember where I got it.

[kalaratiri]

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Ken/Napanii_Primer_%28July_10%29%5B1%5D.pdf

[Mithfindel]

I am new here, and I haven't got the time to read everything here yet, so perhaps part of the questions turns out to be unnecessary.

1.   Is it known who built the Acceleration Gates? Evelopedia says nothing in particular, but I wonder how ancient it is.

Probably several different builders, even when we have only one model. Canon (yes, THAT book) does even have a functional "Terran" acceleration gate (possibly built by Europa Yards Corporation - there may be a Jove connection). Minmatar used really big gates for interplanetary and possibly even interstellar travel. Edit: Acceleration gates may still be built, for example to access deadspace locations.

2.   Stargates are relative novelties in the history of New Eden, built by the now known civilizations. Nonetheless I wonder how the initial colonists from the old Earth etc. transported themselves across star systems.

Actually - at least according to the original game intro - the first stargates were discovered before EVE gate and helped mankind to colonize the Milky Way galaxy. There are references of old stargates being scavenged and the remains of the old network seemingly spreading from the New Eden system.

3.   In addition to 2, I am curious about a list of planets that were initially colonized by the first human settlers. Also, I like to know which of those colonies survived and which did not. Is this data known?

We know of the locations of several colonies that survived. Athra/Amarr Prime housed at least three (Amarr, Khanid, Udorians) in the Amarr system. Then Caldari (who survived in artificial environments while their planet was being terraformed) on Caldari Prime and the Gallenteans (who may or may not came from a Tau Ceti -based settlement) in Luminaire. Intaki survived in Intaki. The Mannar are from... uh, Mies? Cannot remember. Jin-Mei colonised a planet in Lirsautton. Ealurians were from Ealur and Ni-Kunni from Mishi. Various Minmatar tribes inhabited planet Matar in Pator system. And the Achura have their home planet in Saisio. There are also mentions of colonies in Feythabolis that survived to be captured by the Angel Cartel. And then, finally, the Jovians.

Edit: And yes, the very first systems are unknown, but assumably, New Eden. The system was wiped clean when EVE gate collapsed. Nearby temperate planets are good candidates.

4.   Here and there I read some stray notes on the development of fictive languages of the races in the game, but so far I did not really read about thorough linguistic endeavours (phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, semantics) with a final result, let alone historical linguistic projects that link several stages of languages to the fictive history of colonies. Is this correct?

As for canon, some of the player-made languages have been used. There is a post I remember form somewhere which had a link to somewhere else which detailed what CCP based the character name "look & feel" on. Just can't remember details.

5.   In addition to 4, I had the impression that so far there has not been written a descriptive grammar of Gallente/Gallentian, and that no reconstructed proto-languages are made. Is this correct?

Old (now removed) prime fiction suggested that the Gallenteans are descendants of the descendants of the French. In some instances, we have seen individual French words. It may be that Gallentean is distantly related to romance languages. As for it being actual French, well. Imagine you'd try to speak English with Germanic tribesman from the Roman times. English and his language are much more closely related than any language in New Eden is to any modern language. But yes, as far as I know, no one has tried to make a "Gallentean" language. French is occasionally used as a substitute.

[Seriphyn]

I'd just chip in that it's not as arbitrary as 'four empire with three subgroups each'. The Fed have 4-5 'native' groups (ethnic Gallente, Intaki, Mannar, Jin-Mei, Caldari), all the others as immigrants, then hundreds more who don't hear about. The State is the Caldari (Civire+Deteis) who make up something like 90% with 10% of others (incl. Achura). They too have the hundreds of other groups but they aren't classed as full citizens. Amarr is same as Fed, multi-ethnic, but a lot of them would be enslaved.

Curious about non-Minmatar natives in the Republic. Maybe second-class as it is indirectly mentioned.

As for the interstellar Gallente language, any of the Romance language would do IMO. French, Spanish, Italian, whatever. 'Classical' influences in the naming scheme for the Gallente seem to include Greco-Roman, Gaul, Arthurian/Briton, Celtic, and Mesopotamian. I think there are a few others...

[Horatius Caul]

I am new here, and I haven't got the time to read everything here yet, so perhaps part of the questions turns out to be unnecessary.

There are no stupid dumb questions, only dumb answers.

1.   Is it known who built the Acceleration Gates? Evelopedia says nothing in particular, but I wonder how ancient it is.

The acceleration gates we use in-game are modern constructions. However, there are accounts in the PF of accel gates from the colonization era surviving into the end of the dark age - specifically in the Pator system, allowing the Minmatar to colonize several worlds. It's unlikely that any such ancient accel gates are active today. The ancient ones in Pator are probably scientific sites or museums... would make a brilliant in-game fiction marker, I think.

2.   Stargates are relative novelties in the history of New Eden, built by the now known civilizations. Nonetheless I wonder how the initial colonists from the old Earth etc. transported themselves across star systems.

Well, EVE has three types of FTL travel: Gates, Warp and Jump Drives.

We know that the settlers built their own stargates, because A) they built the EVE gate to stabilize/replace the wormhole, and B) it's said that when the wormhole collapsed the stargate network was destroyed.

We know from accounts of the Amarr and Gallente space age that stargates were seeded by slowboating ships to new systems and having the crew on those ships wake up from cryostasis and construct the end-point gate. However, once warp and jump drives were invented I'm sure the pace quickened dramatically. At normal warp speeds, I think it's been calculated that an interceptor could go to a neighboring star in a week or so. Considering less efficient warp drives, a light ship might take a few months to get to a nearby star, then light up a cyno for the gate-builders to hop on over. You might even be able to do it with unmanned probes - just blast cynodrones in all directions and have the industrials jump in when they're ready.

The Terrans and Milky Way people were probably more advanced than the current EVE tech level when they started colonizing, so they would have had no problem seeding gates throughout the cluster.

3.   In addition to 2, I am curious about a list of planets that were initially colonized by the first human settlers. Also, I like to know which of those colonies survived and which did not. Is this data known?

Well, no. We don't know all the planets that were colonized before the dark age. We do, however, know that the following civilizations arose separately, and we can pin original settlements to most of them:

The Jove (Probably in Utopia)
The Talocan (Possibly somewhere in Okkelen, although they were nomads so it's unclear if that's where they originated, or if they even had a homeworld)
The Yan-Jung (Deltole V and VI)
The Amarr (Athra/Amarr Prime, shared homeworld with the Takmahl, Khanid and Udorians)
The Gallente (Gallente Prime)
The Caldari (Caldari Prime)
The Ni-Kunni (Mishi IV)
The Ealur (Ealur system)
The Mannar (Mannar system)
The Jin-Mei (Lirsautton system, Chandeille and Chakaux)
The Achura (Saisio III)
The Intaki (Intaki Prime)

4.   Here and there I read some stray notes on the development of fictive languages of the races in the game, but so far I did not really read about thorough linguistic endeavours (phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, semantics) with a final result, let alone historical linguistic projects that link several stages of languages to the fictive history of colonies. Is this correct?

I've done some historical analysis of Amarrad, especially behind the scenes where I tie certain words and terms to different cultures on Athra (as a very rough guide, scientific terms come from Takmahl, civilized words come from Udorian, words about warfare and survival come from Khanid, etc). There's a link to the project thread in my signature. I welcome anyone who wants to chip in if they think they can contribute.

5.   In addition to 4, I had the impression that so far there has not been written a descriptive grammar of Gallente/Gallentian, and that no reconstructed proto-languages are made. Is this correct?

I think this is true. The two biggest constructed languages are Napanii and Intaki. Amarrad is probably third, and there are plenty of smaller ones around (check the language sticky in this forum). I don't think anyone has touched Gallente. Possibly because it was so clearly stated that they were descended from French people that people have just used French as a substitute.

6.   About questions 4 and 5: I am simply asking this befóre plunging into the deep with any ideas.

Happy to answer them. It's always wise to test the waters before jumping in. If you'd like to contribute to Amarrad, just post on the thread with your ideas, or PM me if you have questions about it.

[orange]

The State is the Caldari (Civire+Deteis) who make up something like 90% with 10% of others (incl. Achura). They too have the hundreds of other groups but they aren't classed as full citizens.

  State "citizenship" is tied to employment/client status in one of the corporate fiefdoms.   A Civire or Detesis without said status are not classed as a "full citizen."

The Caldari State is an ethnically homogeneous nation relatively speaking, with 95-99% of its accounted-for citizens originating from Caldari Prime. The majority of this figure is split between the Civire and Deteis almost equally, though it does include some Gallente, with the latter adopting the ways of the former groups.

As for the OP

Demographics of the Caldari State
Demographics of the Gallente Federation
Demographics of the Amarr Empire

There are no Demographics of the Minmatar Republic (atm).