CHAT: International relations in concultures (Was: Re: CHAT: UniversityAdvice (was Re: A bit of advice))

"H. S. Teoh" wrote:
>
> On Mon, Sep 11, 2000 at 09:17:42AM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > ObConLang: international relations in *your* concultures/conlangs: lingua
> > franca?  Pidgins/creoles?  (If I ever *have* enough languages sketched
> > out, I'd *love* to do a pidgin!  I've always thought they sounded Really
> > Neat.)  General hostilities?
Well, depends on the time period talked about.  :-)  My descriptions are
of Classical Watakassí, which is considered to have been around 300 BR -
50 AR [BR = Before the Revelation, AR = After the Revelation] - the
language of the Most Holy Books is considered to be the "perfect" form,
and everything after was a degeneration of that perfection.

In the Early Classical and Pre-Classical periods, Watakassí was a minor
language with many dialects, spoken on the eastern coast of the Fláu
Island.  Their ancestors had come from the Continent, the reasons being
lost in myths, all of which were declared heretical by the Prophetess.
Most of the myths, however, suggest some kind of dispute within the
original Kassí community.  Before they migrated to the island, they'd
lived in a small region on the southwest coast of the Continent, no more
than a couple hundred square miles.  Before that, they'd migrated
westward from another place, basically, a history of migrating to one
place, and then being forced to leave for one reason or another.

Anyway, after the First thru Third Holy Wars, the new Faith dominated
the entire Kassí Homeland, and most of the non-believers had been
eliminated.  A large number of them (from the north) migrated to the
Little Island Province of the Kar'el Empire.  The Kassí Homeland was now
united under a single government, and a kind of koine evolved from
several related dialects.  The Kassí then burst out of their Homeland
conquering a vast empire.  The Common Watakassí spoken by the Kassí was
spread by soldiers.  As they imposed their religion, culture, and, to
some extent, language, creolized versions sprung up.  Generally
speaking, there then existed a continuum ranging from the basilectal
creole to the acrolectal Common Watakassí, so a period of decreolization
occurred, influencing Common Watakassí considerably as well.  In the
Northern Continent, that territory was not held for very long, but the
pidgin W had taken hold as a lingua franca among the various tribal
groups there.

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