Gerwain
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Kingdom of Gerwain | |
|---|---|
 Flag
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| Capital and largest city | Rudruth |
| Official languages | Gerwennic, Penntian |
| Demonym(s) | Gerwennic |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• King | Briac IV |
| Erwan Caradec | |
| Legislature | Parlamant Gwelarnh |
| Kuzul an Arlozed | |
| Bodadenn an Pobl | |
| Population | |
• 2018 census | 9,673,258 |
• Density | 59.13/km2 (153.1/sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2018 estimate |
• Per capita | $29,468 |
| Gini (2018) |  30.3medium |
| HDI (2018) |  0.896very high |
| Currency | Gerwennic Pound (GWP) |
| Date format | mm-dd-yy |
| Driving side | right |
| ISO 3166 code | GWN |
| Internet TLD | .gw |
Gerwain, officially the Kingdom of Gerwain (Gerwennic: Rouantelezh Gwelarnh, Penntian: Ruvaneth Gorlewn) is a sovereign country located on the island of Gerwain, within Dysia. Gerwain is separated from the rest of Dysia by the narrow Strait of (tba), which forms the nation's maritime border with neighboring Penntia. Gerwain is the second smallest Dysian state at (tba) km2, and has the smallest population of the four nations at roughly 9.6 million people, the majority of which live in the south and the east. The capital and largest city of Gerwain, Rudruth, sits on the southern coast of the nation, within the Bay of (tba).
Etymology
The origin of the name "Gerwain" has its origins in the early people that first came to the island from Penntia. Because of Gerwain's status as a bilingual state, as well as the differences in the two major dialects of Gerwennic, the country goes by multiple official names. The Penntian name for Gerwain, Gorlewn, stems from the old Penntian word gorlewin, meaning "west." There are multiple theories concerning the reason for this, and the most popular points to an old Penntian phrase that is thought to describe Gerwain. This phrase, Gwlas gorlewin an mor, translates to "The land (or country) west of the sea." The sea in question is believed to refer to the Strait of (tba) between Gerwain and Penntia.
The Gerwennic form of this name is Gwelarnh. While not being derived from gorlewin as it is in Penntian, Gwelarnh also stems from the same phrase. It instead derives from Penntian gwlas, translating to "land" or "country." The exact reason for this is unclear, but the most widely accepted explanation is that, as time went on and the Gerwennic language evolved from Penntian, the phrase Gwlas gorlewin an mor would have fallen out of use, but would still leave an impact on the language. Early Gerwennics, who had little exposure to the rest of Dysia, would likely have referred to Gerwain as "the land" or "the country," or gwlas. As the language evolved, gwlas as a common term was gradually replaced by glad in Gerwennic, and as a term for the nation evolved into Gwelas or Gwelan.
Middle Penntian and modern Penntian began to see use in the east following the conquest of some parts of Eastern Gerwain by Penntian nobles, and this had an effect on the eastern dialect of Gerwennic. The eastern dialect shares many more traits with Penntian than the western dialect, taking on several loan words from the foreign language. As a result, rather than Gwelas or Gwelan, the general term to describe Gerwain in the east was Gorwen, and since then evolved into the term Gerwelh, dropping the n in favor of the h. The modern name of Gwelarnh came about during an effort to create a standard form of Gerwennic in 1923. A compromise was made to include both the western n and the eastern h, a practice that has resulted in the Gerwennic nh and zh that are characteristic of the language.