Argentans
The Argentans are an ethnic group in southern Hemithea, Septentrion, concentrated in the eastern part of the Innominadan peninsula. The term Argentan is an exonym coined by Sylvan colonists; in their own language, and in Menghean, Argentans are known as the Chan people (ຊົນເຜົ່າ ຈັນ, sonpeoa Chan). Though Argentan remains the most widespread term for the group in Anglian, some activists advocate for the use of Chan as an alternative.
Until recently, the Argentans were a stateless people, their last independent kingdom having been annexed in 1671. After this annexation, they were split between northeastern Innominada and southwestern Menghe, with a small presence in southeastern Maverica. In response to the Innominadan Uprising, Menghean authorities allowed three provinces of the Republic of Innominada to secede as the new state of Argentstan, encompassing most of Innominada's Argentan-majority areas. There are still large Argentan populations in the People's Republic of Innominada, and in southwest Menghe, where most live in the Chan Semi-Autonomous Province.
Etymology
In their own language, the Argentan people refer to themselves as the Chan (ຈັນ), a term whose first recorded use dates to the 7th century CE. This term likely derives from an old word for sandalwood (ຈັນທນ໌), a prized material used in art, furniture, and incense and known to grow abundantly in the area where the Chan people lived.
The term Argentan was coined by Sylvan colonists in the 17th century. It is derived from the Río Argento, the name of the major river around which the Chan or Argentan people were concentrated. This river, in turn, was named by the Serenoran explorer Emmerico De Cesare while he was in service of the Sylvan crown, and means "silver river." Sylvan colonial administrators continued to use this term while ruling over Argentans in Innominada, and they brought it back to Casaterra, where other languages adopted it.
In general, Casaterran languages adopted the term Argentan as it was brought back by Sylvan contacts, while Hemithean languages continue to use Chan or some variant of it. Menghean records refer to these people using the Gomun character 儧 (찬 / chan), which originally used the derogatory "dog" radical 犭 in place of the "person" radical 亻. The use of "Chan" remains standard in Menghean today, for example in the name of the Argentan Semi-Autonomous Province (찬족 준자치도 / 儧族準自治道, Chanjok Jun-jachido). This division continues up to the present: Argentstan is the official Anglian name of the Chan/Argentan state formed in 2018, though it is known locally as ປະເທດຈັນ (Pathet Chan) and in Menghe as Changuk (儧國 / 찬국).
History
During the 3rd to 5th centuries CE, the previously disorganized rice-farming tribes in inland South Hemithea began giving way to a grouping of small organized kingdoms speaking Tai languages. By the 6th century, the city of Vien Chan ("city of sandalwood") had emerged as the center of a circle of tribute fiefdoms, though these lacked the fixed boundaries of an organized state.
Over time, this Chan confederation was eclipsed by a rival political center in Ao Mangkon (later renamed Nueva Meridia), a coastal trading city dominated by a large Taleyan merchant population. The Sultanate of Ao Mangkon had annexed most of the Chan kingdoms by the beginning of the 11th century. Although it fragmented into local kingdoms again in 1194, the Sultanate left a lasting mark on Chan culture: most of the population converted to Shahidism, and many Taleyan customs were adopted or adapted into local practice.
The Southwestern Expeditions of the early 14th century brought the Chan kingdoms under the control of Menghe's Yi dynasty. Though nominally a part of the Menghean Empire rather than a tribute state, the Chan province enjoyed relative autonomy, and Meng cultural influence was fairly limited compared with its extent among the neighboring Lac people. The Chan language, for example, continued to use the Chan script, itself based on similar scripts in South Hemithea, even as the Lac people adopted Chữ Nôm characters.
With the collapse of the Yi dynasty in the Menghean Black Plague, the Chan people regained independence, forming the Sultanate of Phan Dok. This, too, was a collection of smaller states owing mixed tribute loyalties, and in the 16th century its northeastern corner was integrated into the Menghean Myŏn dynasty. The remaining Chan lands were annexed by the Sylvan colony of Innominada in the mid-17th century.
Partition between Sylvan Innominada and Menghe had a lasting impact on the Chan-Argentan people, as the two states imposed very different policies and did not permit any travel across the border. Sylvan Creole landowners in Innominada imposed a system of serfdom in the eastern provinces, permanently tying Argentan laborers to the land and requiring them to work on plantations growing sugarcane and spices. This forged a lasting racial hierarchy which placed pure-blood Creoles at the top, Argentans at the bottom, and mixed-race persons in the middle. During the Sylvan conquest, many Argentans were also forced to convert to Christianity, though under the manorial regime Creoles allowed serfs to revert to Shahidism or traditional religion as a way of deepening the hierarchy between groups. Even after serfdom was abolished in 1885, many Argentans still lived as tenant farmers on land owned by Sylvan Creoles, and policies of racial segregation remained in place. The Innominadan Communist regime, which formed in the late 1960s, abolished the system of apartheid and reorganized the manorial estates into collective farms, but racial and religious tensions rose again during the 1990s, boiling over into widespread violence in January 2018. This ongoing violence convinced Menghean authorities, who maintained an occupation force in Southeast Innominada following the Innominadan Crisis, to abandon the prior project for a multi-ethnic Republic of Innominada and allow the formation of an independent state for the Argentan people.
On the Menghean side of the 1671 border, the Chan/Argentan people enjoyed somewhat better conditions. The Chan were permitted to continue practicing Shahidism, and although the government apparatus at the County level and above was dominated by ethnic Meng, village life remained under the control of Chan elders. After the Uzeri Rebellion, Chan lands in Menghe fell under the control of the Uzeri Sultanate, though everyday life changed little with the rotation of imperial rulers. The Federative Republic of Menghe created a special federal unit for Menghe's southwestern peoples, and granted greater autonomy to the Chan people, only to revoke it under the Greater Menghean Empire. Following the Menghean War of Liberation, the Chan/Argentan people in southwest Menghe were given a Semi-Autonomous Province with special rights in cultural and social policy. Some scholars have credited this more generous policy with shaping lasting differences in attitudes on either side of the border; Menghean Argentans tend to be more secular, more tolerant of other groups, and less likely to condone violence as a tool of political activism.
Regional differences
The partition of Argentan lands between Myŏn-dynasty Menghe and Sylvan Innominada in 1671 had a lasting effect on regional culture. The two states had very different economic policies and ruling hierarchies, and neither permitted travel and communication across the border. Innominadan Argentans, also known as Southern Argentans, developed a strong resentment of the Sylvan Creole elite, who stood at the top of a racial pyramid which persisted unofficially even after the Communist victory. Northern Argentans living in Menghe were also generally poorer and less literate than Taleyan merchants and Meng administrators, but they enjoyed relatively greater autonomy, particularly after the creation of an Argentan federal province.
Although the proportion of Shahids is lower in the South, South Argentan Shahids identify more strongly with their religion, due to centuries of attempted conversion to Christianity and a surge in religious discrimination during the 1990s and 2000s. Compared with their counterparts living in Menghe, Southern Innominadan Shahids report that religion plays a larger role in their lives, are more likely to pray five times a day, and are more likely to say that laws should be guided by Sharia principles. They also report much lower levels of trust in other ethnic groups.
Linguistically, separate administration also led to a stronger divergence in Argentan dialects. South of the border, most loanwords for new concepts or objects were borrowed or imposed from Sylvan. To the north, by contrast, Menghean loanwords became more common, and since the formation of the Argentan SAP, the Argentan Language Institute in Muang Sing has favored new vocabulary words pieced together from existing terms. Thus "helicopter" in South Argentan is ເຮລິຄອບເຕີຣໍ (heli khob toe ro) from Sylvan helicóptero, while in North Argentan it is ຈິສຶງກິ (chi sung ki) from Menghean Jiksŭnggi.
Religion
In the Menghean 2020 census, 93% of Argentans living in Menghe identified Shahidism as their religion, with most of the remainder choosing either no religion or traditional religion. In Innominada, it is estimated that the proportion practicing Shahidism is closer to 81%, with 17% practicing Christianity and 2% practicing traditional faiths.
As among the Lac people, Argentan Shahidism incorporates a number of existing local customs, with several existing songs, dances, and festivals seamlessly adapted into Shahidic practices. The local variant of the hijab takes the form of a black or patterned cloth wrapped around the hair, but leaving the sides of the face uncovered. Headscarf-wearing is more common among Argentans than among the Lac, and more common among Southern than Northern Argentans, though it is not universal or mandatory outside of religious services. Men may wear a songkok cap as part of their formal attire. Argentan mosque designs also incorporate gold-painted towers and spires, similar to the architecture of prior polytheistic temples.
Language
Most Argentans speak the Chan language (ພາສາຈັນ, Phasa Chan), which is likewise known as Argentan in Innominada. The Chan language is a tonal language belonging to the South Hemithean language family, and it is mutually intelligible with some dialects of Southern Tai. The Chan script is also Tai-derived, and takes an alphabetic form, with individual symbols representing consonants and vowels.
The Chan language is fragmented into many dialects, which though mutually intelligible may differ in spelling and pronunciation, particularly in the number of vowel tones. Some of the most pronounced differences are found on either side of the former Menghe-Innominadan border, particularly in the implementation of loanwords: Tai and Sylvan loanwords are more common to the south, while standard linguistic practice to the north favors Menghean loanwords or compounds constructed from local terms.
Names
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Historically, Chan or Argentan commoners were only known by a single, given name, with no surname or patronymic. This practice persists today in some poor or remote villages, and even in formal settings it is customary to refer to an individual using their given name plus a title or honorific. Given names are traditionally assembled from a set of common name elements, and generally have an auspicious meaning. In everyday settings, however, it is customary to refer to individuals by nicknames, which may be unflattering or nonsensical. Traditionally, it was believed that using these nicknames would ward off evil spirits by concealing a person's true identity.
During the Myŏn dynasty, Menghean administrators required that Chan individuals adopt surnames, as a measure to facilitate tax collection and household registration. Among most commoners, these surnames were geographic, and had meanings that could be written in Gomun characters. Some elites also adopted Meng surnames as a sign of status. As in other parts of Menghe, it is customary among the Northern Chan to place the surname first, followed by the individual name, and women generally keep their original surnames when marrying.
Southern Chan commoners, by contrast, were assigned surnames under Sylvan rule, for purposes of registering serf families to their land. Colonial administrators toured the region village-by-village with sections from a book of Sylvan surnames, assigning names to families as they went; for this reason, Southern Chan surnames in nearby villages often start with the same letter. Even before coming to power as Argentstan's single ruling party, the Movement for Argentan Freedom encouraged Argentans to drop their Sylvan surnames and adopt new surnames in the local language, and since early 2019 the Argentstani government has taken steps to encourage traditional name registration. In continuity with Sylvan practice, however, Southern Chan surnames are still listed after the given name, not before it as in Menghe.