Kunikata

Standard Gao-Showa is a Gao-Showa language, and a member of the Gao-Indralan branch of the Super Seleyan language family. Spoken by the Gishotoi people of eastern Hulstria, Sekowo and other areas of the continent of Dovani where Gishoto population exist in significant numbers, the language also serves as a lingua franca for most of the Gao-Showa.

History
Standard Gao-Showa is one of the Gao-Showa languages, and thus closely related to Han, Kyo, and Southern Gao-Showa. Its predecessor, Classical Gao-Showa, was the official language of the Empire of Gao-Soto, and the language in which most of the traditional Gao-Showa literature was written. Classical Gao-Showa was also a widely used and influential language in the Middle Ages, being the official language of several other kingdoms and countries subordinate to the Empire of Gao-Soto. At that time, most of the literature produced in Western Dovani was in classical Gao-Showa. Its modern descendent, Standard Gao-Showa, is still a linga franca in the Gaosphere.

Status
Most ethnic Gishotoi are fluent speakers of the language. In Hulstria, standard Gao-Showa was once a co-official language, but nowadays it has no official status. It is also the only federal official language of Sekowo at the moment.

Writing System
Standard Gao-Showa has three alphabets each coming from different historical periods. The first is a pictographic system, named Gaoji (ガオ字) which was apparently in use before the arrival in Hulstria. It was extremely difficult to master however and it was until recently mostly in the preserve of the priestly class and the highly educated. As part of a greater Gao-Showa nationalist movement, there was a revival of the use of Gaoji, and now it is in wide use.

The second alphabet, Kana (仮名), uses a modified system of old Kazul rune script and opened up the written language to a far wider group. It is still used occaisionally today and many documents relating to clan by-law and ownership of land in eastern Gishoto are written in this script.

Very common in the present day is the latin script adopted from the Hulstrians. Much, but not most, of Gao-Showa writing is now in this script making the written form surprisingly accessible once a person has learnt the spoken language and vice versa.

OOC Notes
(For the most part Gao-Showa is Japanese. Previously it's used Japanese purely as a base for the general pronunciation of words, etc but for simplicities sake Japanese itself is used as the language with the exception of words where finding accurate translation can be difficult. Romanji is preferred again for sake of simplicity. The one basic rule is that ethnic groups end in Showa, countries end in Soto. Try to stick to past precedent beyond that it is up to the user.)

Now it's simply Japanese, without the Soto/Showa rule.