Robotstani Dialects

The Robotstan Dialects

Overview

Robotstan, constantly influenced by outsiders through trade, piracy, invasion and counter invasion, has never in its entire history spoken one single language.

Pashtun, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, and Hebrew have been rolled more or less into one great tower of incomprehensibility which has eluded the full understanding of linguists for decades.

The Robotstani Alphabet is anywhere from 25 to 37 characters long, depending on the region, and was developed towards the middle of the 19th century as a solution to the trouble of writing in up to seven languages for even a short document. Due to the even greater confusion caused by the Alphabet, credited to the linguist Pierre-Isaac Neveskii, it never caught on outside of scholarly circles.

Perhaps Neveskii's alphabet was to become just a historical footnote after all, but he was instrumental in the establishment of the first national postal system in 1833-38.

While most Robotstanis learn to speak at least three languages in their lifetime, common speach consists mostly of a mixture of languages, dominantly Hebrew and Russian, with the occasional French, English, or Arabic word used when considered appropriate. Traveling in Robotstan is notoriously difficult for non-natives for this reason. In some regions, spoken language is more a way to express emotions than a method of communicating coherent thoughts, but well-funded literacy programs allow the population to just about universally write in Russian or Hebrew.