Orîginâlite

Orîginâlite (Estmerish: Originality; Gaullican: originalité) is an official state policy within Champania. The policy began in the 1940s, and has seen periods of waxing and waning intensity. The policy was initiated in 1939 at the 2nd National Congress of the Champanois Socialist Workers' Party in an effort to get rid of Gaullican and Amathian influences on the newly independent Champania.

Under the policy, cities, streets, and provinces were renamed to more "traditional" Champanian names, people are encouraged to adopt Champanian names or Champanian spellings of names, and historical Champanian literary and artistic pieces are promoted by the government. Orîginâlite is closely linked to Champania's national communism, and forms an important pillar of the Champanois ethnic identity. The results of orîginâlite have been debated as Gaullican personal names continue to be used, and many Gaullican names of cities and regions continue to be used interchangeably with their Champanian counterparts. One of the few universally agreed upon successes of the policy is the resurgence in the day-to-day usage of the Champanian language, going from the primary language of roughly 17.6% of the population in 1925 to being spoken at varying capacities by over 45.9% of the population by 2000.

Renaming

Following the 2nd National Congress of the Champanois Socialist Workers' Party, then acting General Secratary Tiberî Astrûc issued the August Manifesto, which put into law the various issues voted on at the 2nd National Congress among which was the implementation of orîginâlite. Titled "Proclamation of the Usage and Implementation of the Champanian Language," Astrûc laid the groundwork for the broad renaming of cities and departments to "traditional" Champanian names, while changing one's personal name to a culturally Champanian one or to use the Champanian spelling of their Gaullican or Amathian name was painted in a patriotic light.

Place names

The "Directive on the Usage of Original Place Names" (Champanian: Ła dîrèctiva seuper ło ûs deu nômes de łuòc orîginâls), often simply referred to as Directive 22, made it mandatory for all settlements and administrative regions on all official documents, maps, and road signs to use original or reconstructed Champanian names. This change came into effect on 1 June, 1941, and simultaneously made it illegal to use the Gaullican names, although this in practice is rarely enforced and often used solely as a political tool. Many cities pre-emptively changed their names and signage following the issuing of the directive in March, and some cities such as Lièn (formerly Brigançon), Sènpremaiz (formerly Aubaret-lo-Comtal), and Caipûgiô (formerly Marsòlas) changed their names before the issuance.

Personal names

In a similar manner to place names, Champanians were strongly encouraged to adopt traditionally ethnic Champanian names or use the Champanian spelling of their Gaullican names. Unlike place names, however, there was no directive issued that made it compulsory for Champanians to do this. Instead, pressures were put into place that rewarded those who did this. Additionally, altering ones name became heavily politicized in the immediate years following the implementation of orîginâlite, as those who did it were seen as supporters of the socialist government, while those who retained their "colonial" names were viewed with suspicion by the government, and were often monitored to some extent.

In the contemporary, Champanian names and spellings have become the norm with the vast majority of the country's Champanian population.

Language revitalization

Main article: Status of the Champanian language

One of the more universally agreed upon successes of orîginâlite is the revitalization of the Champanian language. According to the 2015 census, approximately 31.4% of Champanians can read, write, and speak Champanian fluently (up from an estimated 6.9% of the population in 1935), and an estimated 56.2% can read it and are conversational in it (up from 12.5% in 1935). Additionally, an estimated 77% of the population claims Champanian as their native language, up from 64% in 2005, and a study by the Champanian government conducted from September 2018 through March, 2019, shows approximately 85% of the population speaks either Champanian or Champanian and Gaullican at home.

The revitalization was helped in part by migration from the western parts of Champania – that is the areas formerly under the control of Amathia where "Amathianization" efforts were largely abandoned by the mid-1800s – to the east, particularly Lièn, Sènpremaiz, and other large population centers, which had been subject to extensive Gaullicization. Similarly, forced movement of rural peasantry to cities under the guise of "resource reallocation" also helped contribute to the resurgence in the usage of Champanian. Despite the Gaullicization taking place in Gaullican Champania, the rural populace largely escaped unscathed, and Champanian continued to be spoken at home or at the workplace. This was taken advantage of during the Champanian Civl War, where prominent socialist leaders, despite being educated in Gaullica and speaking solely Gaullican, dispersed numerous propaganda pieces written exclusively Champanian targeted at peasantry.

One thing not accounted for when looking at statistics on the usage of Champanian is the prevalence of mestra, a diverse range of mixed sociolects of Champanian and Gaullican (and a lesser extent Champanian and Amathian) spoken throughout the country. Most non-government linguists and linguist institutes have cast doubt on the numbers of Champanian speakers believing the numbers to be inflated with those who use mestra. Independent surveys have found an estimated average 14.5% of the population communicate in mestra, however the actual usage varies. The Lièn department is believed to have the highest usage rate of mestra at approximately 23.2%, while the western departments have a far lower usage rate, believed to be in the range of 2-4%. The data-collecting on the usage of mestra has not come without its own criticisms, however, as there is a tendency for code-switching errors to exist, which could be interpreted as the user commincating in a mestra even if there was no intent.

Contemporary

In the contemporary period, orîginâlite has shifted from being exclusively a Champanian issue to being utilized as a tool to encourage assimilation, especially following the annexation of Lemovicia in 198X. The policy has been used exclusively towards both Lemovicians and Kasavrines. The all settlements in Lemovicia utilize either Champanian orthography or were renamed entirely from Lemovician to Champanian. Likewise, most ethnic Lemovicians utilize at minimum Champanian orthography for their names. Kasavrines historically underwent the same process, although this became less stringent following the onset of the Champanian Thaw. The application of orîginâlite towards both ethnic groups has come under fire as both a sanctioned, systemic linguicide and cultural genocide.