The Ostlandic language (Ostlandske sprog) is a Germanic language, specifically of the branch of West Scandinavian languages, spoken by over 44 million people across the globe, mainly in Ostland and Europe. It is the national language of Ostland.
Ostlandic language is a descendant of Old Norse language, which was spoken by Vikings when they arrived to the Styroe Island. It was classified as Insular Scandinavian, along with Faroese and Icelandic, yet it has more intelligibility with Norwegian and Swedish. Its current writing system is the Latin alphabet, being introduced in 16th century.
With 43,8 million, Ostlandic is the third most widely spoken among the Germanic languages, behind Germany, with nearly 100 million.
History[]
Prehistory (1160 - 1200)[]
There are hints and scripts that confirm about the existence of the "Ostlandic" language from 1400 decade, approximately. Before that, there was not enough difference between Norwegian and germanic dialects spoken in Ostland. The Ostlandic
Old Ostlandic (1200 - 1700)[]
The Ostlandic language started its formation since the 46th century B.C., after the discovery of the Ostlandic Islands. It was a dialect of Old West Scandinavian language and evolved closely to Norwegian language. The Ostlandic language was better known for having a 'rough pronunciation of the consonants.
The Ostlandic Islands were important for Norwegian - Danish Empires, but due the distance between the Mainland, the language evolved to a different way, that marked significant differences from the rest of the Scandinavian language. The Ostlandic language also was influenced by the Nordic languages of Northern England and Scotland.
Distinction from Norwegian and Danish[]
During the 19th century, the language in Norway was starting to experiment some changes to distinct the language from Danish, in Ostland this phenomenon divided into two different points of view in the country's linguistic scene: On the one hand, those linguists who wanted to assimilate the Ostlandic words to make it more similar to Norwegian and Danish, known as the Reductionists; and in the other hand, linguists who wanted to claim and highlight the distintions of the language compared with the rest of the Scandinavian, known contemptuously as secessionists. Gard Kinn was one of the most important figures for Ostlandic language's identity reasearch and claim.
In 1816, Kinn published a revisited edition of the Bible to remove some of, which he considered, Norwegian-foreign vocabulary. At the time, and due to country's devotee nature, this revision was one of the most important books of the language, and a fundamental base for its further development.
In 1820, Arnnold Svenningsen, professor of the Stavkling University, founded the Ostlandssprogehoss, the first institution to regulate the Ostlandic language. At the time Minister Torfinn Husstat, authority of the Danish cabinet in Ostland, demanded the dissolution of the intitution, and imprisonment of both Kinn and Svenningsen, along with other religious authorities in the archipielago. This episode is known for being one of the starting points of the independence movement of the country.
Speaker population[]
Ostlandic is spoken by over 44 million people, mostly in Ostland, yet also by the Ostlandic diaspora around the world. The United States and Germany are the countries with the most speaking population outside of Ostland, with over 3 and 1 million respectively.
Written language[]
Dictionary[]
- Main article: Words and Expressions in Ostlandic
Alphabet[]
The Ostlandic alphabet (Ostlandiske alfbetet) was introduced in the 18th century, following the establishment of the Ostlandssprogehoss. It is based on the by Swedish alphabet, originally consisting of 28 letters. It is a variation of the Latin Alphabet. Later in 1930, king Hans I, validated by the Sproghoss, introduced the current variant of the alphabet, with the removal of Æ and Ø from the base alphabet.
Slashed O (Ø) was de-facto accepted and reincorporated by the Sproghoss in 1964, but it is not widely used, as the O with Diaeresis (Ö) has replaced it in almost all the words where it was used. It is most commonly to be used in place names, such as the country's capital, Nordøstat.
| Letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A a | Ä ä | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m | N n | O o | Ö ö Ø ø |
P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
| Name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [ɑː] | [ɔ:] | [beː] | [tseː] | [deː] | [e:] | [ɛfː] | [ge:] | [khe:] | [iː] | [jɔː] | [kɛː] | [ɛlː] | [ɛmː] | [ɛnː] | [o:] | [ø'ː] | [peː] | [kʉː] | [ærː] | [ɛsː] | [teː] | [ʉː] | [vɔː] | [ɔweː] | [ɛks] | [y] | [sɛtː] |
Diacritic letters[]
The letters in the Ostlandic alphabet are the same as in the basic Latin alphabet, with the exception of two:
- Ä: pron. [ɔ:] or [oː], Known as Semi-Open 'A' or also as A with Diaeresis. Is the Ostlandic representation for the Scandinavian letter Å / å, which was removed in the language reforms made by the Sproghoss in 1928, to unify the spellings of Low and Modern Ostlandic. Its sound can be compared with the English expresion Oh.
- Ö: pron. [ø'ː], known Close-Mid rounded 'O'. It is a vowel with a shorter and a little more inhaled sound than Latin O. In Low Ostlandic it is represented as a Ō (O with macron).
- Ø: It represents the same sound as Ö. It was removed from the alphabet during the First Reform of 1930, but was still commonly used by the population. In 1964, Sproghoss recognized the validity of the Ø as it was present in many words and place names, reintroducing it to the alphabet, but suggested the use of the Ö from now on. In recent times, it is used for some place names and not so much for everyday life-words.
Former[]
- Æ: Known officially as 'Open surounded E' by Language Institute, it was used since 16th century to 1930. In 1918, Language Institute considered it unnecessary and "not widely used anymore", and propossed it be converted into a simple textual combination of vowels 'A' and 'E'. The council of Low Ostlandic spelling (Bhabiersproghe Ostlandisghe) refused these reforms. Later, it was royal-approved by the King Hans I in 1930 with the Reform of 1981 of the language.
Low Ostlandic[]
After the Ammend of 1918, Sproghoss recognized that some of the loan words could be respelled to, in some cases, match with their original language's spelling, after being widely debated between Standard and Low Ostlandic speakers. For example, country names that do not come from an European root, example: Azerbaijan, can be spelled as Asherbaijan since Low Ostlandic does not recognizes Z as an official letter.
Regulation[]
- Main article: Ostlandssprogehoss
The Ostland's Language Academy, the Ostlandssprogehoss, is the main institution in charge of the research, normalization normativization of the Ostlandic language. Although it serves as a regulatory body, its function is not planning the language, researching and providing reliable information and standards for its better preservation instead.