Wortsproke
| Wortsproke Vårt språk | |
| [[File:|300px]] | |
| Pronunciation | // |
| Region | Vittmark |
| Status | official |
| Speakers | 28 million |
| Language family | Kachal-Anarian
|
| Parent languages | |
| Early forms | Scarch, Imperial Stoldavic, Odalish |
| Writing system | Anarian (adapted) |
| Official status | |
| Official in | Vittmark |
| Regulated by | Styrelsen för vårt språk |
Wortsproke (vårt språk in Wortsproke) is the official and national language of Vittmark. It is the native language of over 95% of the residents of Vittmark. The language was formalised in 7564 as a standard between interintelligible language variations in Ådalen, Liden and to a lesser extent Hagen, all predecessor states of Vittmark. At first, Wortsproke was used for communication between states and citizens of the different states and as such taught as official language on all schools. Today, the predecessor language variations Odalish, Lidenite and Hagenish are considered dialects of Wortsproke instead, since a (near) standard version of Wortsproke is in use in over 80% of the Vittmarker homes.
Due to the central role Vittmark plays within Mellanhand Orkanan, as well as the rise of the entertainment industry with movies and music, Wortsproke is widespread as a second language, with over 100 million people having some language skills in Wortsproke. Many loanwords on topics like religion, shipping, trade and business management are present in foreign languages.
History
The inhabitants of the region that currently is Vittmark started using a proto-Stoldish language around 4000RH. The Orkanan Realm (roughly 4700-5600RH) led to a wide distribution of the so-called Realm Stoldish language across Stoldavia and Thultannia, even parts of mainland Anaria. After the fall of the Realm, large regional variations developed, with the region north of the water divider of Stoldavia maintaining some sort of cohesion.
The Union of Skara which emerged around 6100RH led to a standardisation at the north coast, using Scarch in all the trading towns and ports of the union. Scarch was mainly written in a rune-like writing systems which had adapted some characteristics of the Anarian alphabet. Scarch was a direct predecessor of Imperial Stoldish, the northern language from the region around Östervallen as summer capital of the Greater Stoldavic Empire. Imperial Stoldish manifested itself in an early, middle and late version.
After the fall of the empire, Late Imperial Stoldish gradually evolved into more regional language variations, coinciding with the post-imperial kingdoms and city states emerging in the aftermath of the disintegration of the empire. Despite falling under different administrations, the languages of Ådalen, Hagen and Liden (as well as smaller language variations like Wallish, Dunish and Holmish) remained largely interintelligible.
In 7564, when Vittmark was formed, a universal language for internal communication and the formulation of coded law was needed. Linguists constructed vårt sproke (leiterally meaning "our language") based on the dialect of Östervallen, adapted to language characteristics from nearby Ådalen and Liden. While grammatical changes were very limited, it was mainly the modernisation of the spelling that made Wortsproke the language innovation that could carry the young federal kingdom into the future.
Over the last century, the language has not changed much, apart from some peculiarities from the spoken language making it into the official grammar. The third person plural pronomen "de" (subject), "dem" (object) and "dom" (dative) all got replaced by the word "dom", a change that even transferred to the plural definite adjective "de" which is also "dom" these days. The auxiliary verb "ha" in present perfect tense can be left out, just as the word "att" functioning as preposition can often be omitted. Dialect and sociolect from the capital has made it into common grammar as well, like the standing expression "hanba" and "honba" as an abbreviation of "han/hon bara sa" (he/she said). The biggest change however was the inclusion of the letter ⟨j⟩ in the Wortsproke alphabet in 7584. Until then it was considered similar to the ⟨i⟩ functioning both as vowel and consonant, despite the ⟨j⟩ being present in Hagenite and southern dialects.
Classification
Wortsproke is one of the extant northern Stoldavic languages, beside Aldsay being spoken in Aedeland and West Hagen, as well as XX in XX. By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the northern Stoldavic languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Stoldavic language. In that case there would be a language continuum with intermediate dialects and language variations like Härska and Jennem as intermediate versions.
It is a matter of debate if the language variations Lidenish, Odalish and Hagenite should be seen as dialects, language variations or separate languages as well. Today, all these languages are put in the newly constructed Vittmarker language family, a more recent construct in linguistics. Without a status as national language and lacking a egulatory body, they are no longer separate languages de jure and should be considered dialects.
Phonology
The language has 17 or 18 vowel phonemes (depending on the dialect) and 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, /ɧ/ and /r/, vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect. For example, /r/ is both present in a guttural and dental variation. It is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal.
Writing system
Wortsproke uses and adapted version of the standard Anarian alphabet with 26 letters. The ⟨q⟩, ⟨w⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are not present in Wortsproke, they can be used in foreign names, but never in loanwords. The letters ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩ and ⟨å⟩ have been added at the end, the three characters are not considered to be diacritics, but rather separate letters, and are independent following ⟨y⟩. Officially, the lowercase version can only be written as the double-storey ⟨a⟩ and not the single-storey ⟨ɑ⟩. The same goes for the double-storey (sometimes "looptail") ⟨g⟩, with the upper case ⟨G⟩ represented by a double case ⟨8⟩. As such, the Wortsproke writing system is a mix of older rune signs (that also made it into standard Anarian like ⟨B⟩, ⟨I⟩ and ⟨R⟩), mainland Anarian writing systems and 4-5 letters unique to the language.
A less official addition is the use of ⟨@⟩ instead of the proposition att. It is not sanctioned by the governing language body, but it is commonly used in written language anyway. In many cases, the word att isn't used anymore in spoken language and most probably the use of ⟨@⟩ reflects this in the written language: it's there but it isn't in use anymore.
In orthography, the colon is also used for some abbreviations, such as 3:e for tredje ("third") and N:a for norra ("north"), and for all types of endings that can be added to numbers, letters and abbreviations, such as a:et ("the a") and CD:n ("the CD"), or the genitive form OSSO:s ("OSSO's").
Grammar
TBA
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Wortsproke is mainly Stoldish, most often through common Stoldish heritage. As with many Stoldish languages, new words can be formed by compounding, e. g. nouns like nagellackborttagningsmedel ("nail polish remover") or verbs like smyglyssna ("to eavesdrop").