Transoxthraxia wrote:The beginnings of something great. (Note that a language with a red box means that it is extinct, a language with a yellow box is in danger of being extinct, and a black box meaning that it still has quite a few speakers.) So, after a bit of deliberation with Nature Spirits, we've decided that the continent will be split into two major language groups (One being Ezeric, and the other having yet to be named. These two would be the equivalent of, say, Indo-European and Dravidian, or the Asiatic Languages.), though to cause less confusion most of the relevant languages in the RP will belong to one group, the Ezeric Group. Now, the Ezeric Group has a long and varied history, but can trace its beginnings back to a group of Horse-herders on the westernmost point of the Western Island. The Proto-Ezeric people led a rather nomadic lifestyle that revolved around horses, including sacrificing them, eating them, being buried with them, and, most importantly, domesticating them. The Ezeric people were the first to successfully domesticate the horse, and many linguists and historians theorize that this was the cause of the rapid Ezeric expansion across most of the Continent.
Around the 3,000 B.C mark (Or whatever this universes' equivalent is), the Ezeric People began to rapidly expand their culture and their language influence to most of the Western Island. This is shown through the increase of pottery and other decorative material culture that is adorned with horses, as well as burial mounds with multiple horse skeletons within them. In about three and a half centuries, most of the Western island had come under the cultural influence of the Ezeric Peoples. Whether this was done via conquest or trade, there is no evidence either way. Soon enough, however, they departed their island for the mainland, through the adaptation of non-Ezeric seafaring. Ezeric language and culture seems to have arrived on the Western Shores of the mainland around (the equivalent of) 1800 B.C, most likely through trade, rather than conquest. By then, the cultural and linguistic influence of the Ezeric speakers exerted enough pressure upon the small coastal trading settlements on the western coast that within two generations, these towns, too, had adopted Ezeric culture, especially the domestication of horses.
This is where we see the beginning of the split of the Ezeric languages. Those that remained on the Western Island would eventually develop the Haggaic Languages, and those on the mainland would develop the Nahumic and Reuelic languages. From here, there is a rapid expansion of Ezeric languages within a time frame of two centuries, when they would expand to almost every corner of the mainland. The prior inhabitants of the mainland continent, who are the ancestors of the
Thornorgisil Family, (which will be coming/explained in a bit) were either rapidly displaced or assimilated into the Ezeric Culture. The notable difference between the Thornorgisil and Ezeric cultures was the domestication of the Horse. The Thornorgisil cultures, which had long adopted a sedentary lifestyle, as well as an (undeciphered) alphabet, fielded armies that had never ridden a horse, or faced an adversary who rode horses, putting them at a massive disadvantage. The Thornorgisil languages and culture survived only in remote areas, though somewhat admirably, managed to do so for over three millennia.
Adopting the sedentary lifestyle of their political predecessors, the Ezeric languages quickly split between Nahumic and Reuelic between the 15th and 14th centuries B.C (Or their equivalent.). The boundary between the two languages was the large mountain range near the center of the continent. From then on, Nahumic survived on its own as a rather plain language on the western half of the continent, eventually naturally evolving into Old (or Lower) Nahumic with the fall of the Nahumian Empire (Ironically, the Nahumian Empire wasn't ruled by any ethnic Nahumic, at least, not at the end. They were ruled by a Haggaic Dynasty out of the city of Nahumia, which was burnt to the ground following the fall of their empire.) Old Nahumic remained dominant in the western half of the continent during the interregnum period (Think the Dark Ages/Low Middle Age) due to its heavy use by the political leaders of the time. It eventually evolved into Middle Nahumic, which was slightly influenced by the dying Benaihic Language that was spoken primarily on the Eastern Coast of the West Island, due to the heavy presence of trade between the two cultures. Many loan words, place names, and a few surnames can be attributed to Benaihic. Eventually, during the Rebirth Period (Think renaissance/enlightenment) Middle Nahumic evolved into High Nahumic, which was quickly adopted as a language of the nobility and clergy of not only those on the western part of the mainland, but on the western island as well. The dying Benaihic language (Which was in decline due to the depopulation of the Western Island and the cultural domination by the Nahumic branch due to political and trading advantages) began to be supplanted by a language that combined High Nahumic and Benaihic known as Achavic.
However, as the world entered the modern age, High Nahumic itself was in decline. It was a complex languages with almost no regular grammar and difficult spelling. For those who had not the time nor the money to pay for education, a simpler alternative began to present itself: Bastardized Nahumic. A simplified Creole of High Nahumic, it was quite a bit more grammatically regular, but still somewhat mutually intelligible with High Nahumic. While High Nahumic was kept as a diplomatic and religious language, most adopted Bastardized (otherwise known as Modern) Nahumic as an everyday language. Modern Nahumic is what most people in the Fourth Speak, with most having a remedial knowledge of High Nahumic. Officers and Nobility would be able to speak High Nahumic fluently as well as Modern Nahumic.
In regards to the Reuelic Tree, my hands hurt a shit ton from typing this up, but I'll explain briefly. Caiaphic was the Westernmost dialect of the Reuelic languages, and as the Eastern part of the Continent was mostly dominated by political forces originating from the western part of the east (odd I know.), it became the lingua franca of the entire sector, eventually evolving into Modern Symean. Symean is about as mutually intelligible to Modern Nahumic as Albanian is to Spanish, so keep that in mind. Symean is spoken by the majority of our adversaries, but due to Nahumic being the lingua franca of the world today, most would have at least remedial knowledge of both Modern and High Nahumic. Diomedic is an Eastern dialect of the Reuelic languages, and is in danger of going extinct with native speakers numbering in the low hundreds.