| Istalian | |
|---|---|
| Istaliano | |
| Pronunciation |
/isˈtaˈljaːno/ [is-ta-lià-no] |
| Region | Majatra |
| Ethnicity | Istalians |
| Native speakers | ~ 151,000,000 (5103) |
| Language family |
Superseleyan
|
| Writing system | Selucian (Istalian alphabet) |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | Istalia |
| Recognised minority language in | Gaduridos, Tukarali, Kirlawa, Rildanor |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Ist |
The Istalian language or simply Istalian (lingua Istaliana or Istaliano in Istalian), known also as Standard Istalian (Istaliano Standard) is a South-Selucic language and is the official language of the Istalia. Istalian belongs to the Eastern branch of the South Selucic languages, and it was born out of the Selucian dialects spoken by the Selucian settlers which in antiquity colonized the shores of the island of Alaria and then the eastern coasts of the Sarrentina Peninsula.
Istalian is a language codified between the eighteenth and twenty-second centuries on the basis of literary Fidelian although it shares several features also with the other Estalian languages.
History[]
Istalian, or Standard Istalian, compared with other national languages, has a relatively shorter history, having being adopted as official language of the first Istalian national identity, the Kingdom of Istalia, only at the end of 18th century, adopting the Fidelian, the most prestigious of the Estalian language, as national language and promoting it as unitary language of all the Istalians as part of the work by part of the Istalian nationalism born on the Island to develop an unitarian Istalian culture and identity.
When the first unified Istalian nation was founded, the First Republic, Istalian was adopted as official language of the country and its use for education, in culture and into the institution was so heavily promoted that for the following two and half millennia it eclipsed the other regional Estalian languages, the use of which was reduced to more informal situations and was only spoken in the family environment, being then considered with the passing of the centuries as dialects of the Istalian.
It was only in 51th century that the local Estalian languages were once again recognized as veritable fulfledged languages distinct from Istalia and a linguistic revival work was implemented so that the various local languages were also used in education, in the media and as official languages of local institutions. As part of this linguistic revival of the Estalian languages, for most part of the 51th century, under the Union of Quanzar and Alaria and the Istalian Union of Quanzar and Alaria, it was promoted the use of the term Fidelian to identify the Standard Istalian.
Writing system[]
Istalian has a shallow orthography, meaning very regular spelling with an almost one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. The most important of the few exceptions are the letter c can represent both the sound /k/ like in the Luthorian word cat as well as the c in the first sound in the luthorian word chair, depending on the position and the vowel after the c; similarly the letter g can represent both the sound /g/ like in the Luthorian word game as well as the g in the first sound in the luthorian word gem; the letter h is always silent and it is used to form a digraph with c or g to represent the c of cat and g of game before the vowel i and e.
Istalian alphabet consists of 21 letters, using the other letters of the Luthorian alphabet exclusively for foreign imported words with the notably exception of the j which is used in the first name Jacopo and in some toponyms. The j is used in some of the other Estalian language but its use has always been discuraged within Standard Istalian.
Fidelian[]
Fidelian or Fidelian language (Fideliano or Lingua Fideliana in Fidelian, pronounced as /fide'ljaːno/, spelled [fi-de-lià-no]) forms, together with the other languages spoken in Istalia, including Trivenditan, Feranese, Nicomese, and Cisavuglian, the eastern (or Estalian) branch of South Selucic languages. As already said, until recently all these languages were considered dialects of the standard Istalian language. The latter is in fact virtually identical with Fidelian, with the addition of some vocabulary and pronounciation from the other Estalian languges.
The name of the language comes from the medieval Kingdom of Fidelia, the first Sarrentine kingdom to unify the peninsula. Fidelian was the court language of its kings, although Selucian remained the Kingdom's official language. At the height of its power Fidelia contemplated a dynastic union with the Kingdom of Alaria, which however never materialized due to the conquest of the Kingdom by the rapidly expanding Quanzar Empire. After the fall of Fidelia much of its inteligentsia found refuge in Alaria, bringing their native languages, of which Fidelian was the most prestigious, with them. Staking its claim to the Sarrentina Peninsula, the Alarian Kingdom, renamed as the Kingdom of Istalia, adopted Fidelian as its sole official language and gave it its modern name, Istalian.
The Fidelian rised in prominece all over the other Estalian languages already during the middle age, around 13th and 14th century when the vernacular Fidelian began to be used in litterature and it was the language used for some of the masterpieces of the middle age and Selucic-world litterature like the Heavenly Peregrination of Piero De Pieri, the Great Collection of Danilo Barcaccia, the Novellarum and the Satirical of Arnoldo Cafaggiolo, all of them contributing to establish the Fidelian as the litterature language of the Istalian culture.
Despite on the paper Fidelian and Istalian are almost identical, actually they presents some differences on the side of the phonetic and the pronunciation and with the Fidelian making use of several archaical terms and lexical forms. The most prominent featuers of the Fidelian is the so called "Fidelian gorgia": the gorgia affects the voiceless stops /k/ /t/ and /p/, which are pronounced as fricative consonants in post-vocalic position, in the southern areas of the region of Fidelian the voiced counterparts /ɡ/ /d/ /b/ can also appear as fricative, especially in fast or unguarded speech. The consonant that undergoes the most evident change is /k/, the weakening of which has become the most important symbol of the dialects spoken in Fidelia. In some areas of southern Fidelia it comes to total disappearance.
In the north part of Fidelia, namely the area along the river Sala, the Fidelian is influenced by the Feranese while in the metropolitan area of Romula and its countryside the Standard Istalian is the dominant and most widespread speech. Despite, looking to the Geography of Istalia, it would seem more intuitive that in the north area of Fidelia the Fidelian should be more influenced by the Trivenditan, the real linguistic divide between Ferans and Trivenditan are the Merevino River and the central lakes: being Romula and north Fidelian south of the Central lakes, the Ferans influence has always been greater than the Trivenditan one. There are also historical reasons for this: the ancient Kingdom of Tulino and Fidelia, influenced respectively by the Augustan and Selucian legacies, in turn culturally connected, developed better and closer relations than with the Kingdom of Trivendito where the ancient Solentian and even Tukundian influences were more incisive.
OOC[]
Istalian is Particracy's equivalent of the Italian, and Fidelian is the equivalent of the Tuscan dialect.