Angstian

Angstian is the 'official' language of Der Angst, and a rather odd and complicated one at that. As a matter of fact, there isn't one Angstian language. There are several.

Old Angstian

Linguists aren't certain just when Old Angstian as a spoken language developed, generally, it is assumed that it developed sometime between 8000 B.C. and 3000 B.C., during the Angstian neolithic. Around 3000 B.C., a first script was developed (With its predecessors being pre- script systems that cannot really be counted as actual writing systems), with the amount of characters rising, slowly, from about 1100 characters (3000 B.C.) to approximately 3300 characters (1800 B.C.)

This script, Old Angstian was an entirely logographic, in its look comparable to cuneiform, writing system, and due to its inherent complexity, as well as the social structure of that time, only known to approximately 1% of the population.

The first, primitive version of Old Angstian developed further, and around 2500 B.C., Imperial Angstian seems to be the new standard, with a somewhat changed, more complex grammatical structure.

It might be noted that until about 2200 B.C., Old Angstian was mainly used for rather practical issues, calculations, official notes, cadaster issues, trade, government, with religion and spirituality playing a minor role. Exceptions (Tale of Razeel) are of a relatively minor nature.

From about 2200 B.C. on, a distinct growth of prosaic literature, as well as codified religious texts can be noted, the Angstian culture expanding, this happening together with Old Angstian reaching its next stage, High Old Angstian, featuring a distinct growth of the vocabulary.

However, this period proves to be rather short, and from about 1800 B.C. on, foreign languages successfully oust Old Angstian (Although it remains a major language for religious purposes).

Middle Angstian

Around 800 B.C., with foreign dominance retreating, various nationalist groups tried to impose a more national (Or rather, cultural, since the term national wasn't exactly known, and wouldn't have been understood, at that time) language over DA. However, foreign influence and developments resulted in the amount of logographs being imported from Old Angstian being massively reduced, to about 300 logographs, at the same time, a simpler, easier to write syllabic script was developed (Again, with foreign influences), counting about 300 syllables. Introducing a phonetic writing system (That subsequently included the phonetization of the 300 logographs that had been kept, by way of adding syllables to them), and featuring a less complex grammatical structure/ easier pronounciation, literacy reached a high of 10% of the population. With the expansion of the Seven Republics onto other continents, as well as the cultural (Especially historical and semi historical texts), technological and economical Golden Age of this time, Middle Angstian became the lingua franca of a significant geographic area.

Around 200 B.C., Middle Angstian begins to decline, together with the Angstian culture, as well as political influence.

Young Angstian

Around 600 A.D., Young Angstian developes with the rise of the (Christian) Angstian Kingdom. While the old scripts are still remembered (About 30 Old- and 30 Young Angstian logographs/ syllables are kept), 800 years of massive foreign influence result in the influx of many new words, phrases, a new grammatical structure and, most importantly, an overall alphabetic writing system. With about 30 letters (Not counting the imported 'Special Characters' from Old- and Middle Angstian), the alphabet wasn't exactly the most simple, yet, it was simple enough (One might add that signs like commas, quotation marks and the like didn't exist, instead, one used characters/ character combinations of the available alphabet, syllables and logographs, as well as some foreign symbols).

Incidentally, while developed quickly, Young Angstian took its time, developing literature heights, many texts, especially religious/ official ones, were written in Middle Angstian or Latin, Young Angstian being the language (And script) of the common man and merchant, often considered to be a Low Language not worthy of the people in higher social classes.

It takes until approximately 1700 A.D., until Young Angstian finally reached a level were effective cultural influence became significant, eventually replacing Middle Angstian and, more importantly, latin. Even after the destruction of the Second Republic in 1815, Young Angstian continued being important, although immigration from East Asia, as well as Eastern and Western Europe, results in a slow but steady increase of foreign, linguistic influence.

New Angstian

New Angstian is an exceptionally odd mixture of languages. In the first decades of the 21st century, immigration of more and more people from Japan, China, Russia, Germany, Great Britain and France resulted in a massively growing importance of this groups, as well as their linguistic origin. Young Angstian became more and more an 'elitist' language, with a complex, and not exactly easy to understand, mixture of aforementioned languages becoming more and more dominant, featuring a 'Melting Pot' of characters, words and sounds whose structure was actually rather similar to Young Angstian, while its sounds and grammar differed vastly.

Today, New Angstian is the 'Official' and most common language in DA, although Young Angstian is occasionally included in some schools curriculum, and (in its basics) understood by the majority of the population.

Minor Languages

Aside from the various real Angstian languages, certain other languages are spoken in DA, be it the original versions of New Angstian (German, English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian), Latin or Drow, however, their influence in a very minor one, and not of overall importance.