Volsh language

  

Volsh language
Volsh lenguej ˈvoʊlʃ ˈlɪŋɡwɪːʒ
Region	Aidus system (primarily Orbalia)
Native speakers	306 million (IV.12000)
Language family	Anglatinic
History	Anglatin & Lost Volsh Old Volsh Modern Volsh
Script	Orbalian script
Official status
Official in	Aidusian Empire Orbalian Dominion Imperiyan Metropole
Minority in	Chaian Dominion Circumtoroidal Dominion
Regulated by	Volsh Academy of Rhoden

The Volsh language (Volsh: Volsh lenguej, lit. "folk language") is one of the three major languages spoken in the contemporary Aidus system, alongside Langin and Podchin. An official language of the Aidusian Empire, Volsh is the most widely spoken language in the system, with a native speaker population of over 306 million as of IV.12000 (50.7% of the system's total population). Volsh is believed to be the living descendant of the Anglatin language, which is predominantly spoken by scholars and individuals affiliated with the Orbital University. Alongside Langin, Volsh is one of the primary languages of Orbalia, and its influence there has allowed it to spread across the system. Anglatin, Langin, Volsh collectively make up the Anglatinic language family.

Volsh is descended from Old Volsh, which itself is believed to be a direct descendent of the Anglatin language spoken in the Forgotten Age. During the First Age, Old Volsh was chiefly spoken by the large working-class population of the Drevnian Divinty, a polity dominated in large part by speakers of Old Langin. Becoming a formalized language soon after the beginning of the Second Age, Old Volsh-speaking Orbalian colonists to Chaius and other parts of the system brought the language beyond Orbalia itself. For much of the early Second Age, Volsh competed with Podchin as the primary lingua franca in space commerce and navigation. The Two Uec War obliterated much of Volsh civilization; it was during the Caligum that Old Volsh transitioned into the modern form of the language.

The creation of the Aidus Combine in the early Third Age represented the emergence of the contemporary Volsh language into systemwide affairs once more. After the fall of the Combine, Volsh's outer space influence would be somewhat superseded by Podchin, but its linguistic majority on Orbalia ensured its continued prominence in both intraplanetary and interplanetary navigation and trade. The victory of Dammeringia in the Iyusi Wars cemented the influence of the Volsh-speaking country in planetary politics, and with the creation of the Orbalian Dominion at the beginning of the Fourth Age, Volsh would become an official language of the system-encompassing Aidusian Empire. In contemporary times, Volsh and its speakers remain influential on Orbalia, Imperiya Station, and the Empire at large.

Volsh is an analytic language with a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order and little inflection. The modern form of the language relies on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of tenses, aspect, and mood, alongside passive constructions, interrogatives, and some negation. There are many dialects of the language which can have sometimes significant differences in phoenetics and phonology, and to a lesser extent, vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and spelling; some of these dialects are so extreme that there is often mutual unintelligibility between those at the extreme ends of the dialect continuum.

Classification

Volsh is a mixed-origin language: while it is believed to descend mostly from Anglatin, there are distinct grammatical and vocabulary differences which imply the influence of another, unknown language at some point, which is sometimes referred to as Lost Volsh. Volsh shares many similar terms with Langin, as is the case with Anglatin and Langin; as a result, the three are commonly grouped into a language family known as the Anglatinic family. About two-thirds of Volsh's vocabulary is derived from the same base language as both Langin and Anglatin, while about a third of the Volsh vocabulary is derived from Lost Volsh. There is evidence that elements of the Volsh vocabulary come from even more mysterious languages than Lost Volsh, which are corroborated with their presence in the other Anglatinic languages as well; these words are group together under the umbrella term Lost Old Anglatin, distinct from the more coherent Old Anglatin.

On Orbalia, there are three major Volsh dialects: Meridian Volsh, Juxtal Volsh, and Polar Volsh. These dialects of Volsh are commonly grouped together as the Orbalian Volsh group, and they are so mutually intelligible and similar with one another that some consider Orbalian Volsh to be a single dialect of its own. Off-world, there are four extant dialects of the language: Imperiyan Volsh, Chaian Volsh, Circumtoroidal Volsh, and Deep Space Volsh. Off-world Volsh differs from Orbalian Volsh relative to the historical distance of its speakers from their ancestors on Orbalia; the youngest dialect, Imperiyan Volsh, is fairly similar to Orbalian Volsh, whereas the oldest dialect, Deep Space Volsh, is so distinct that it is sometimes considered its a language in its own right due to its unintelligibility.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n						ŋ
Stop	p	b			t	d					k	ɡ
Affricate							tʃ	dʒ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ					h
Approximant						l		ɹ*		j		w

* Conventionally transcribed /r/

Vowels

Vowels

Monophthongs		Closing diphthongs*
IPA	Translit.	IPA	Translit.
i	ee	eɪ	ay
ɪ	ih	oʊ	oa(d/t/l)
ɛ	eh	aɪ	ai
æ	ah	aʊ	ow
ɑ	aa	ɔɪ	oy
ɔ	aw	Centering diphthongs*
u	uu	IPA	Translit.
ʊ	oo	ɪɹ	eer
ʌ	uh	ɛɹ	air
ɜɹ	ur	ʊɹ	oor

* Monophthongs and diphthongs are listed adjacently but as such are unrelated; this format merely minimizes page clutter

Dialects

A diagram detailing the development of the Volsh dialects.

The dialects of modern Volsh can be divided into two broad groups: those found on Orbalia and those found off-world. There are three major Orbalian dialects of Volsh, and within these planetary dialects, there is further variation based on locality. There are four primary off-world dialects of Volsh; unlike their planetary counterparts, the off-world dialects have much stronger differences between each other and some are even mutually unintelligible.

The three Orbalian dialects of Volsh are Meridian Volsh, Juxtal Volsh, and Polar Volsh. These dialects emerged after the end of the Caligum of the late Second Age, diverging from one another as the surface of the planet was slowly resettled. Much as their denominations imply, the Orbalian dialects are variant primarily on the basis of geographic distance. Class-based linguistic differences have a greater impact on the secondary dialect features of each respective primary dialect. All of the primary dialects of Orbalian Volsh are highly mutually intelligible. Meridian Volsh, spoken throughout the heartlands of the Volsic peoples on Orbalia, is sometimes called "Standard Volsh" for legal purposes by the Dominion government of Orbalia and even the Imperial Government.

The four off-world dialects of Volsh are Imperiyan Volsh, Chaian Volsh, Circumtoroidal Volsh, and Deep Space Volsh. These dialects have a much wider range of establishment and intelligibility than their planetary cousins. The oldest two of the off-world dialects, Chaian and Deep Space Volsh, predate the Two Uec War; for this reason, some linguists argue that they have developed into separate languages in their own right. Indeed, Deep Space Volsh in particular is mutually unintelligible with most other dialects of Volsh aside from Chaian Volsh, which itself differs significantly from other inner-system dialects of the language. Imperiyan and Circumtoroidal Volsh are much younger dialects than the other two off-world variations, and as such, they are much more intelligible to speakers of any variety of Orbalian Volsh. Imperiyan Volsh in particular is notable for its syncretic adoption of many Podchin and Langin words and grammatical structures, with some linguists considering it to be a prototypical form of either a Pidgin or Mixed language.

See also

• Anglatin language
• Langin language
• Podchin language