On the development of Vrassan (Kalistani Luthorian)
Historical Influences in the adoption of a Lingua FrancaBy Alice Smith, Professor of Linguistics, University of Kalistan at YoshimiIntroductionKalistani Luthorian, called Vrassan in Kalistan, is a unique, mutually intelligible dialect within the Luthorian Language. Luthorian itself is a Dundorfic language, derived from archaic Heludic. However, for most of Kalistan's early history, Kalistan spoke languages more closely related to modern Majatran nations than anything similar to the languages found on Artania. The rise of Luthorian in Kalistan came relatively late in the pre-modern history of Kalistan, as late as 1780CE in many parts of Mainland and on the island of Ananto. Immediately preceding this, there was a determined and deliberate abandonment of the earlier Ananti, which was derived from the proto-Aldegarian language of the original Kemokian and Varagosian groups that settled and unified Ananto. It was a radical shift, to be sure, and one that happened over a very short (relatively speaking) period of time. In this paper, I argue that the development of Vrassan in Kalistan and Ananto was due primarily to the rise of the international trade exposure during the 17th century and the conscientious international outlook of Ananto's emperors and traders immediately following that period, combined with the deliberate rise of the Luthorian Empire during the same period. Egelian came to Kalistan more organically, and this, ironically, is the reason why it became a second Language in Kalistan, rather than the first.
Section 1: Anantan Culture; Ananti Language Prior to 1750, the language spoken by the Crown of the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan was classical Ananti. This language was a derivative of proto-Aldergarian and spoken by the Kemokian people who colonized Ananto from Vintalli in the 6th Century BCE. Ananti was the primary language spoken on Ananto for more than 2 millennia. In Mainland Kalistan, the people spoke Jelbo-Turkaric dialects peculiar and only partially mutually intelligible between the several tribes. Beginning in 250BCE, the tribes were slowly united by the kings of Voristan (now referred to as Vrassa) who spread their language to the Tribes, and created a unified linguistic identity on Mainland Kalistan, which was quite separate from the cultural marker on Ananto. Vrassa even conquered Ananto and held it for several decades before infighting over succession and land titles led to the collapse of authority among the Vrassans. Fleeing Varagosians from Aldegar arrived on Ananto at this time and created the first unified system of Government on the Island, adopted the Ananti Language and began establishing imperial control, first over the Island and then over Mainland Kalistan, Nostravan and Vintalli. 500 years of war, colonization and conquest followed, and ultimately, the crown of ancient Vrassa was destroyed in 405 CE by Ananto. Ananto's administration was short lived, however: The chaotic situation on the Mainland made it easy prey for the Mu-Tze Empire, a Jelbo-Turkaric Empire rising in the Central Highlands of Northern Seleya, to conquer, which they did in 420CE.
The Mu-Tze held on, in one form or another in Mainland Kalistan for about 500 years. During this period of time, Ananto was effectively locked out of the Mainland, and instead focused their efforts on building a maritime empire that allowed the Island to remain independent of Mu-Tze through the payment of an annual bribe. But the grip of petty Mu-Tze overlords, who treated Kalistan as a source of tribute but never attempted to alter the culture or language of Kalistan, began to loosen. By the early 900s, Ananto was playing local headmen off against one another, to begin attempting to wrest control over Mainland Kalistan. By 971, Ananto had established firm political control over Vrassa, Odufaray and Neveras on the Mainland. Meanwhile, Vintalli families, who were nominally controlled by Ananto but in fact spoke a different dialect of classical Ananti and held closer to the Varigosian traditions of their predecessors, established or rebuilt various cities in Suldanor. Beginning around 1000 CE, the influence of Estellian culture via modern day Gaduridos began replacing the last remnants of Anantan culture in Vintalli, and Anantan cultural influence was soon reduced to Ananto, and the three Northern Kalistani Provinces that Ananto directly controlled. New Vintallian (both the language and the script) held on in Suldanor, and eventually, even Ananti on the mainland came to be transcribed into the Estellic script.
For their part, Ananto began a policy of ruthless cultural assimilation on the mainland after the collapse of The Odorono Empire, resulting in the destruction of several major cities, the imposition of Hosian religion, that utterly replaced the multi-theistic ancient Ananti faith, and the establishment of the Ananti language as the only legal language for commerce, government, and civic life. Those who opted to keep their more ancient languages were shut out entirely from education, employment and civil service, and within two generations, Ananti was the spoken language, and Estellic was the script used throughout mainland Kalistan. The Kalistanis were a fully conquered people. Anantan cultural dominance extended to Jahmaica (northern Vrassa) by the mid-16th Century.
Section 2: Development of Egelian and Luthorian in KalistanEgelian first arrived in Kalistan at about the same time that Luthorian did. The arrival coincided with the rise of two major colonial empires--Selucia and Luthori. The arrival of Egelian was far more organic than Luthorian. For example, Suldanor had always been closer related, culturally speaking to Vintalli (modern day Gaduridos) than Ananto, and whether nominally ruled by Ananto or Vintalli, it spoke New Vintallian and used Estellic script for the entire period of the Middle Ages. It was the language that generations of Suldanoran people spoke, and went through many of the same changes over time that other Seluco-based languages went through, most closely following the developments in Gaduri, though with some Ananti admixture due to its proximity with Kalistan. The support for and protection of emerging Egelian in Kalistan was given a boost by the rise of the Seluco-Anantan Dynasty of the 19th Century.
Luthorian began arriving in Kalistan and Ananto during the early 17th century, but where Egelian's development was organic, Luthorian's adoption was synthetic. As Ananto experienced general peace for a prolonged period of the 17th and 18th Centuries, it drastically expanded its trade contacts in Keris and Artania. Combined with close ties to Northern Seleyan states which at this time were falling under the direct influence of Luthori imperialists, most of the people that Kalistani merchants dealt with on a day to day basis were Luthorian. In the mid 17th century, a trade pidgin of Luthorian and Ananti began developing, where Merchants could communicate with one another. This slowly morphed into an adoption scheme where Luthorian as a language grew in influence, and Ananti speaking merchants, and then religious and political officials more often began speaking more and more Luthorian in their daily functions. Kalistan became a protestant nation in the mid-1670s, and so there was also cultural transmission along this avenue. By the 1720s, Luthorian had been so successful in its penetration of Anantan culture that the first language spoken by the majority of the seafaring people of Kalistan and Ananto was Luthorian, though heavily accented. This rapid switch was the result of trade exposure, and it soon was not only the language of commerce, but also began to be the language of literature and news, and therefore quickly became the language of Government. By 1750, a new language creole based heavily on Luthorian emerged in Kalistan and quickly replaced Ananti, first in Vrassa and then in the rest of the Empire. Hence, the term "Vrassan".
For a long time, Ananti continued alongside these languages, but from this point on, its usage as a first language or a second language began a steady downward slide, while Luthorian became ubiquitous and Egelian became the dominant second language of Kalistan and Ananto. There are a number of reasons for this substitution. Egelian is seen as a more picturesque language than either Luthorian or classical Ananti. It is deemed to be aesthetically more pleasing in Kalistan to hear, especially when spoken by an intimate partner or a close friend. It is frequently the language of poetry, art and music. While there are many numerous cases, tenses, and articles in Egelian that challenge most Luthorian speakers, there are far fewer in Egelian than in Ananti, which can get so incredibly esoteric sometimes as to require a specific article for "
formerly possessive plural" that is radically different from "
formerly possessive singular" both of which are radically different from their "
currently" or "
future possessive" counterparts. Ananti language was so isolated following the fall of the Varagosian ways that it had nothing to do for centuries but turn back in on itself. Egelian and Luthorian were primarily successful therefore because they stripped away all the artifice and gilding that had been layered and layered and layered on top of the source language.
There is something also to be said for the prestige status of both Seluco-Egelian and Luthorian that played into the adoption of the languages in Kalistan. Classical Ananti was spoken primarily in Ananto, which, though it saw itself as the center of the entire universe for a good many centuries, was forced in modern times to accept the fact that not only was it not the center of the Universe, it was not even the center of Kalistan. For centuries, people on the mainland had spoken a much more simplified form of Ananti: they were seen by Anantans as provincial and rustic, while Kalistanis viewed Anantans as aloof and entirely out of touch. Regardless, Ananti was not spoken outside of Kalistan and Ananto. By anyone. Even the territories politically controlled by Ananto did not speak Ananti; Governors frequently adopted the local language of their subjects, and when they would make reports to the Crown, it was often in such broken Ananti that written reports were hardly decipherable and spoken audiences frequently required translators. With the rise of more universal and cosmopolitan Empires to Kalistan's south and West, the emerging modern State of Kalistan sought to break out of its cultural isolation and take its rightful place among the great maritime empires of the age. To do this, of course, it needed to be able to communicate across borders. So, instead of insisting on others learning Ananti, Kalistani traders and administrators learned Gaduri Egelian and Luthorian. And the vertical and horizontal pressure on Anantan culture began to increase, with the religion and then the language being the first institutions to give way.
Section 3: Why Vrassan and not EgelianThis leads to an interesting question as to why Kalistan adopted Luthorian in Kalistan rather than the more organically generated Egelian. Egelian was spoken in Suldanor. The Estellic script had long been adopted on the Mainland and Ananti transcribed into it. That development was centuries old by the mid 1700s. There was a lot that Gaduri Egelian had going for it in Mainland Kalistan, and it could have very easily gone the other way, with Kalistan speaking "Suldanoran" rather than "Vrassan".
Two important developments sealed Egelian's fate as the second language of Kalistan, and allowed Vrassan to become the dominant language spoken in Kalistan. First: Suldanor was traditionally part of the Vintalli States, which had broken free from Ananto during the rise of the Selucian Empire. Though Ananto declared eternal fraternity with Selucia following its own unification in 1811, Ananto had long coveted the Vintalli holdings of Athosia and Suldanor. After 1710, when Suldanor, Athosia and the Gaduri islands were formally re-added (for the last time) to the Anantan Empire, these lands were treated as conquered territories. They therefore had a lower status in the Empire. Eventually, they broke free, and Kalistan spent a good amount of treasure and blood to reconquer Suldanor and Athosia, while Vintalli and Gaduridos were gone forever and swallowed up by the Selucians. Therefore, though Ananto set about making Suldanor an integral part of the Empire, it was never seen as culturally equal with the Ananti, even as Ananti was being eclipsed within Kalistan itself.
Meanwhile, the growing trade contacts and occasional colonial squabbling between Ananto and Luthori (which would later turn into a series of major imperial wars) tended to push for Vrassan. Ananto long saw Luthori as both a major source of cultural transmission (it had already adopted its protestant faith, for example) but also deemed its trade relationship to be mutually economically beneficial. Those links deepened as Ananto began competing for ports and resources in Northern Seleya, Keris and Western Dovani. Many of Ananto's colonies were situated next to Luthori's colonies. Most intercoastal trading for Ananto happened between Kalistani merchants and Luthorian merchants. The opportunities for fraternization, cultural cross pollination and adoption, and international interaction happened far more often between Ananto and Luthori than they did within the so-called "eternal Fraternity" between Kalistan and Selucia. Finally, Vrassan merchants began actively transmitting Luthorian language into Kalistan and Ananto. Luthorian was an easy language to learn for simplified Ananti speakers, who were happy to shed almost all declension of verbs, complexities of articles, and gender tense of nouns. While the Vrassan accent created some unintelligibility with Luthorian speaking people, Vrassan speakers could far more easily shift consonants to be understood than they could try to make themselves understood while speaking a nearly dead, extremely insular foreign language. Gradually, Vrassan took hold and then became the language of the Empire, replacing Ananti almost completely by 1900 in everyday life, and even dominating the Odufar dialect, which was functionally Luthorian with a Suldanoran pronunciation and spelling and spoken primarily in Odufaray and Suldanor.
Hence: it was Luthori, not Selucia which was the prestige culture for Ananto, which explains the preference for Luthori rather than Egelian.
Section 4: ConclusionAs we see: the history of the development of Vrassan as the language of Kalistan is due to a number of factors, most of which have to do with war, conquest and international competition. This history also demonstrates why, say Canrilaise never took hold in Kalistan, though it is spoken by a fairly good sized Lourennais diaspora in and around Eveari and Dulnerstaad. The adoption of Vrassan and Egelian as the languages of Kalistan and Ananto, which happened over a fairly short period of time in the 17th and 18th Century were as much the result of cultural transmission of prestige languages as they were earlier conquest and brutal cultural assimilation by the Ananti speakers from the Island of Ananto. Until the universal adoption of Vrassan, it would not have been possible to think of Ananto and Kalistan as having anything like a unified culture: the harder the Anantans pushed, the more the Kalistani population which was always a governed population of subjects rather than equal citizens with their Anantan Overlords sought to retain a separate cultural identity, similar enough to get by under cultural hegemony but never fully embracing of Anantan culture or Ananti Language. Vrassan and the mildly reluctant acceptance of Gaduri Egelian was not only a major modernizing force for Ananto, but also served as a band that tied the Empire together.
Nor has Vrassan stagnated since the 18th century. It continues to evolve. There is significant loan word usage in Vrassan from Egelian, and common words between the two languages are frequently heard. Much of the sharing is around cultural words themselves: things like food, music, surnames, dances, arts, and everyday items of the people tend to retain or substitute an Egelian word for the Vrassan word. Items like "enchilada" or "amigo" or words like "cafeteria" or "Socialista" which use Egelian endings betray a long and fruitful interaction between Vrassan and Egelian. Additionally, as Ananti was left behind, vowels and consonants also shifted to their current positions, giving Vrassan a distinct sound, with longer vowel sounds, harder consonants, and copious use of the rhotic and trilled R. A separate document could go into the phonetic and idiomatic difference between Vrassan and Luthorian, but as this essay deals primarily with the development of Vrassan and Egelian in Kalistan, we can leave that discussion for another day.
The use of Vrassan persists even after other Luthrorian influences in Kalistani society have disappeared. For example: Kalistan is no longer a protestant nation, and is instead a Brethernist Nation. That development happened centuries after the adoption of Vrassan. But it is clear that Kalistan is particularly proud of its unique dialect of Luthorian, and it is a symbol of national identity and pride.