Difference between revisions of "Biotopian"

Revision as of 05:41, 31 October 2005

There are three distinct phases in the evolution of Biotopian before which it has been estimated that between 11-28 distinct languages had existed. In the immediate pre-Imperial Era the processes of trade, conquest and religious missionary work had eroded this number to approximately 5 major groups. Imperial Biotopian become the language of Court and was translated into the major religious scripts, furthering it across the land. By incorporating from the other language families it developed an organic presence within the regional aristocracy and nobility but left peasants to talk in local dialects. Although it was comprised from an artificial selection of dialects and mixing of the various language groups it became embodied in the intellectual, religious and political structure of Imperial Biotopia.

Middle Biotopian followed replacing the archaic "rough edges" of the language with a more systemised language structure and an officially standardised alphabet was introduced. Many of the grammatical conventions were developed during this period as printing in conjunction with the ‘great literature era’ produced some of the finest Biotopian novelists and poets. In the year 1534 the Language Book was published cementing the keystones of the grammatical and spelling convention for the new language. The simplification of the language made it more accessible to peasants and others outside the clergy and nobility. Although local dialects did not die altogether they did incorporate many of the new words, a feature still common today.

Late Biotopian is the present language of state. It was officially instigated in 1904 to coincide with the first decade of the First Republic. The Republican Dictionary incorporated many new and “exotic” phrases and terminology particularly for the areas of the science and medicine, dictionary itself being directly imported from the main mother of the new language, Celdonian. Linguists have continued to argue wether this was an attempt to guide an already pre-existing fusion of languages or if it was a coup of political propaganda intended to wipe out the old ‘imperial’ language and to lay the foundations for a type of Republican ‘thoughtspeak’.

Middle Biotopian still persists but only three communities are thought to still continue using it as a living language and usually only within the immediate family group. Derivative dialects such as Folksway is widely spoken on the island of Vellok but not on the mainland, similarly there are isolated pockets of other tongues in the rural areas, especially the central alpine and north coast regions. There have been some recent attempts to preserve and even promote these languages as part of a living heritage.

The largest non-native language spoken is Celdonian representing the generations of humans that have travelled eastward from the Aperin region. There is at least one community which still preserves a local form of Xikuangese although its appearance is unaccounted for. Following Celdonian Dutch is the third largest known language but is not officially recognised and exists mostly along the south coast where Knootoss trading was historically centred. Late Biotopian has incorporated a handful of Dutch words but its similarity to Celdonian makes it difficult to trace the exact root of base words.