Baranxeï

Baranxeï is spoken by a vast number of people in many countries, most of which are currently not represented in NationStates. It is not related to any of the other languages of NationStates, but is the member of the most prominent Sumyaian languages on its home continent Ašmeina (Baranxeï: Ašmina), second in its number of speakers only to Manyala- the Manyaian language.

History

Origin

During the peak of its reign, the Ilatemaian Empire colonized the territories around it, creating a system of marches solely for the purpose of defense. Most of the colonists for the Western Marches were drawn from the West Ilatemaian regions of Panhura, especially from the area around the now lost city of Baranhide.

March Baranxeï

Unfortunately, almost no written sources of this dialect survives, safe for a few inscriptions on personal items. Today, there is scientific agreement in the 1st century CE, a new language had developped out of the Panhuran dialects. As the March of Baranxi was still under Ilatemaian reign, the Ancient Ilatemaian language remained official, and any regional languages were oppressed, so there is as few written material of this so called 'March Baranxtuan' as of the Panhuran dialects.

It was not until the Western Marches gained their independence in the 3rd century that the local language started to be written down in lengthier texts. However, the script of that time is suggested not to be a close representation of the actual phonology of the time, as it was a syllabary of about 150 characters which did not match the suggested inventory of some possible 600-800 syllables of the language.

Old Baranxeï

In 728 CE, queen Amina Sohateratu Megkura-Oratirh introduced the first alphabet which fitted all sounds of the language. It was modeled after the alphabet which was used for the closely related Mányala kónie (Manyaian language), which in turn was largely inspired by alphabets used by the neighboring Talitrian tribes.

The language recorded from this time - whose phonology, morphology and syntax is actually known - received the name of Old Baranxeï.
Of course, the language changed - and in the 13th century, it underwent such dramatic changes that from that time on, it is called Middle Baranxeï. The language that was spoken during this first 500 years of official Baranxeï existence is further divided into Early, Classical, Post-Classical and Late Old Baranxeï.

Middle Baranxeï

At the beginning of the 13th century, Baranxeï made distinction between aspirated and unaspirated, voiced and unvoiced, palatalized and unpalatalized consonants. In only some 70 years, this distinction vanished, and only voiced and unvoiced consonants were left. The Old Baranxeï inventory of affricates even vanished entirely. The reason for this is still heavily disputed, but most linguist agree today that the Atamian occupation of first Asuanei and later Baranxtu, leading to the flight of many Asuaneians to Baranxtu, inflicted this heavy reduction of the consonantal inventory on the language, as the two languages Old Baranxeï and Old Asuaneï were mixed, perhaps even creating a creole (the last part being the most heavily disputed of this theory).

The case system was also simplified, dropping most positional cases in favor of simple prepositions and postpositions.

However, the drastic change also added to Baranxeï's phonological inventory. Previously only spotting an 'r' (X-SAMPA: r), it now also included a variant of 'l' (X-SAMPA: K).

As the country of Baranxtu's rise began, so did the rise of the repuation of the language. More and more texts were written in Middle Baranxeï, including some of the most important philosophical works of the time. However, Mányala ws the more prestigious language, as the kingdom Mányai was now covering an area almost as large as the now-gone Ilatemaian Empire, wheres Baranxtu was still relatively small.

The Traditional Baranxtuans still speak a version of this language, as they emigrated just shortly before a major sound shift occured in the original area where Baranxeï was spoken. At the end of the 17th century, the language had changed again enough to be given a new name.

Modern Baranxeï

It were already the contemporary writers who wrote about 'Modern Baranxeï' in the early 1700s.

Beginning from the core of the Baranxeï-speaking regions, a sound shift took place in almost all areas where the language was spoken. It saw the emergence of more fricatives, the loosening of the formerly strict distinction between c/x/χ [c, x, X], the roughing of h before consonants (to [x]) and its loss in prevocalic positions, the written blurring of <gg, ng, gk> and the like.

Status

Modern Baranxeï

It is Modern Baranxeï which is officially recognized on a national level in the Most Serene Republic of Baranxtu, the Kingdom Baranxtu, Manyai, North Manyai, Sijai and Akaria (of which only the first is represented in NationStates) and on a regional level in numerous provinces.

In the areas where it is officially recognized (either on national or provincial level), the number of those who use it as their primary language is estimated to be about 105 million.
In other regions, there are an estimated 15 million speakers, of which about 10 million use it on a daily basis at home, but not in public. The other 5 million speakers live in primarily Baranxeïan enclaves and speak it as a primary language both at home and in public, but not in school and cannot use it to communicate with their government.
In addition, 20-30 million people have learn the language from their parents, but do not use it unless they absolutely have to.
All in all, they are between 120 million and 150 million native speakers of Baranxeï, depending on the definition of 'native speaker'.
Baranxeï is also a popular foreign language, with an estimated 250 million non-native speakers.

Middle Baranxeï

Middle Baranxeï, on the other hand, is only officially recognized in the province of Abasina (Middle Baranxeï: Aipašina).

In this province of the republic, it has about 250,000 speakers who use it as their primary means of communication in both private and public. Another 250,000 learned it as their mother tongue (or one of their mother tongues), but only use it when talking to a monoglot.
Middle Baranxeï is also spoken in remote areas where emigrants from Baranxtu went to pursue a usually more conservative, traditional live (quite similar to that of Traditional Baranxtuans). Their number is somewhere between two or three million speakers, but their culture is not recognized anywhere.
The total number of speakers of Middle Baranxeï is therefore somwhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million.

Some Phrases in Baranxeï