Niklausian Ledonian

Niklausian Ledonian
Nikolausianious Ledoniano
Pronunciation	/nɪkɭaʊsiɛn ɭʌdoʊniɛn/
Native to	Ledonia
Native speakers	L1: 57.3 million (2057) L2: 674.8 million
Language family	Indo-European Paleo Verdelainiatic North Paleo Verdelainiatic Latinus-Ledoniaticus Ledonian Españolicus-Ledonian Niklausian Ledonian
Early forms	Old Verdelainiatic Old Ledonian Old Españolicus-Ledoniaticus Middle Españolicus-Ledoniaticus
Writing system	Españolicus-Ledoniaticus script (Niklausian Ledonian alphabet)
Signed forms	Signed Niklausian Ledonian
Official status
Official language in	Berush
Recognised minority language in	Ledonia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	NL
ISO 639-2	NKL
ISO 639-3	NKL
Glottolog	stan1355  Niklausian Ledonian
Linguasphere	76-AAA

Niklausian Ledonian (pronounced /nɪkɭaʊsiɛn ɭʌdoʊniɛn/, standard Niklausian Ledonian: Nikolausianious Ledoniano, pronounced /nɪkoʊɭaʊsiɛn ɭʌdoʊniɑnoʊ/) is a Ledonian language in the Indo-European language family spoken in Ledonia. The namesake of the language is St. Niklaus, a priest that founded the religion of Saletrism. The term "Niklausian Ledonian" was not used to refer to the language in Niklaus' Laws of Holiness and Saletrism; rather, it was called Lenguaeticus Sagrade, or "Holy Language. A speaker of Niklausian Ledonian may be referred to as a Niklausiphone.

Niklausian Ledonian is part of the Españolicus-Ledoniaticus branch of the Ledonian language family, which is part of the larger Indo-European language family. It has close similarities to Old Ledonian. The language, as a whole, is a minority language; however, to become a priest in Saletrism, one must learn the dialect.

Niklausian Ledonian emerged from the Españolicus-Ledoniaticus dialect spoken by Ledonians in the south. Niklausian Ledonian borrowed some grammar rules from Old Verdelainiatic, a North Paleo Verdelainiatic language. The dialect also borrowed some diacritics from Old Ledonian.

History

Niklausian Ledonian is a Ledonian language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Old Ledonian) that evolved out of Españolicus-Ledoniaticus dialects spoken largely in the west. The early forms of the language include Middle and Old Españolicus-Ledoniaticus.

Old Verdelainiatic

The history of Niklausian Ledonian begins with the shift of alphabets between Old Verdelainiatic and other Sino-Tibetan languages. This rule shift included drastic change in how words were pronounced, including the addition of the letters â, ê, î, ô, and û, as well as ï and ü. The primary rule shifts were the following:

• Lattermost syllables are always stressed;
• The first vowel sound is always short;
• A trio of consonents are to be combined into the sound of the middle one.

The earliest records of Old Verdelainiatic come from several clay tablet carvings dating 9,000 years ago, near the border of modern Verdelain. The period of Old Verdelainiatic is seen as being originally spoken by the now-extinct indigineous tribes of the region known as the Verdlâcôtières (c. 6732 BL-6498 BL). These tribes grew to colonize the majority of the continent; by the 62nd century BL, the language had spread to encompass the overwhelming majority of the Verdelainian population.

The language continued to gain ground as the Verdelain Empire established various colonies. The Empire soon started trading with foreign nations, further spreading the language. At various times, it was the common tongue, used in all sorts of diplomacy. The language soon became one of the most widespread languages throughout the world, and still holds the crown as the language with the most speakers in history.

Influence from Ledonia

Meanwhile, a new, emerging power was quickly gaining power in the north; the Ledonians. Seeing no need to suffer. Verdelain started trading with this new Empire, spreading their tongue to the natives. The Ledonians were resistant in giving up their language; for seven centuries, Old Verdelainiatic was not common in Ledonia. Eventually, the language and the native tongue assimilated together, creating a new dialect; namely, Old Ledonian.

Old Ledonian had various characteristics from both languages; it inherited the diacritics of Old Verdelainiatic, but the rigid sentence structure of the Ledonians; as such, Old Ledonian was more diverse than languages from neighbouring nations. As the wealth of Ledonians continued to grow, the language did so as well, especially as Ledonia expanded its borders via conquest. The Ledonian Empire enforced its language on nations that were conquered, making the language the most common in the world, replacing the then dying Old Verdelainiatic.

Although the language was still largely tied to territorial borders, it continued to explode in popularity, with over two billion speakers worldwide by 5039, showcasing the dominance of the Ledonian Empire in the world stage. A great wealth of texts survived from this era; the overwhelming majority of them, surprisingly, were secular. The abundance of the language contributed to a more peaceful world during its time.

The Old Ledonian period is generally seen as ending when Ledonia lost to Salajón in one of the longest wars in history and was subsequently divided between the north and south by a fortress spanning the length of the nation.

Influence from the Españolicus language

After the defeat of the Ledonian Empire in 4842, Ledonia was divided between Salajón and itself; the south became a vassal of Salajón, and the north retained independence. A wall was built that seperated the two zones, starting a major language shift that spanned the course of centuries.

The Republic of Salajón first attempted to force their language, Españolicus, onto the people they conquered; like centuries prior with Old Verdelainiatic, Old Ledonian resisted this shift, with a much longer transition period lasting for 1.5 millennia. However, in 3154 BL, Salajón started oppressing the use of Old Ledonian throughout South Ledonia, integrating their own language. Despite repeated attempts, the two languages simply assimilated into one; namely, Españolicus-Ledoniaticus.

The new language continued to spread across South Ledonia, gaining heavy influence in diplomatic matters regarding the vassal. The dialect became increasingly popular throughout South Ledonia for the next millennia.

Transition into Middle Españolicus-Ledoniaticus

The language continued to develop over time, with sentence structure becoming more and more loose over time. This change also introduced new characters, including apostraphes. Middle Españolicus-Ledoniaticus began during this transition, characterized by the Great Ledonian Shift. Rules surrounding the stressing of lattermost syllables were relaxed, as well as the first vowel sound being short; this was perhaps a major factor in global diplomacy, as Españolicus-Ledoniaticus replaced Middle Ledonian as the lingua franca. Niklausian Ledonian evolved out of this dialect.

Creation and spread of Niklausian Ledonian

By the late 1500s BL, St. Niklaus had spread Saletrism througout much of Ledonia; however, there was not one scripture that was used for the religion. This raised the debate over creating a Holy Text for Saletrism.

St. Niklaus came up with an idea in 1483; creating a new dialect to use for the language, similar but distinct from Españolicus-Ledoniaticus in order to ensure that readers knew that the book was special, while simultaneously being relatively easy to read. During the Linguae Grandis Mutationem, Niklausian Ledonian evolved out of Españolicus-Ledoniaticus, featuring even looser rules, making the language distinctly poetic. Pronounciation of various sounds also changed, most notably /dʒ/; the language continued to spread, gaining significant ground in the province of Berushia, or the Holy Empire.