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AYIC to promote Redn Language Institute in Kaliburg
"Redn is a cosmopolitan language" says Kaplan
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
April 8, 5695


AYIC Director Robert Kaplan with Rabbi Abe Fischer in downtown Kaliburg

The Anantonese Yeudi Interests Committee has announced the founding of the Redn Language Learning Institute in Kaliburg. The effort to revive and propagate the Redn language of the Yeudi Diaspora has been going on behind the scenes and began in earnest more than 50 years ago in Kalistan and, as AYIC states, was one of the main drivers in the founding of the Interests Group.

"Redn is a very cosmopolitan language," said AYIC director Robert Kaplan in AYIC Headquarters in Kaliburg, where he officially launched the initiative. "The History of the language is the history of our people in the Diaspora, and reflects our travels across the world, including our ancestors' sojourns in Artania, then to Seleya and eventually Kalistan, where today there are more than 350,000 of us who speak some amount of Redn in our every day language along side our Vrassan and Egelian. Admittedly, out of 2.9 million, that's not a lot, but we would like to change that. Here in Kalistan, it is a language we use among ourselves, but of course, due to Yeudi contributions to the broader Kalistani culture, we also see Redn loan words used a lot of times in Vrassan without the people even knowing of their Redn origins.

"I think of the words like 'klutz', for a clumsy person, or 'chutzpah' for like insane hubris, or 'schmooze' for socializing. Gamers who watch others play games 'Kibbitz', and during the game you can often hear those who are behind 'kvetching' about how unfair the rules or the refs are. Fashionistas and busineses people often refer to themselves as 'mavens' while workers often refer to themselves as 'schlubs'. People collect 'tchotchkes' during their trips abroad. Bookies collect their vig, which is just short for 'vigorish'. We 'nosh' on 'bagels' 'smeared' with cream cheese or topped with 'lox', and sweet or savory 'blintzes', while 'challah' is sold regularly at our bakeries; comedians have a 'schtik' while salespeople have a 'spiel'. Computers 'glitch'; after working out, some of us like to take a 'schvitz' in the sauna; people sit on either their 'tush' or their 'tuchas'; we 'schlepp' something when we carry it, and things are all 'fakakta' when they are all confused and in hopeless 'mishmash'. Meanwhile, things that are allowed are called 'kosher'. Kids get 'gelt', or chocolate coins during the winter Yule holiday. And people say 'Oi!' when they are trying to get your attention. These words are so common in Vrassan that nobody really even knows they are from Redn, but sure enough they are. And most Vrassans use these sorts of words daily."

Kaplan feels it is important for not only Kalistani Yeudis, but all Diaspora Yeudis and even non Yeudi Kalistanis to have the opportunity to learn to speak Redn. "Our goal, I hope to say, by the end of my tenure is that I would like to see at least one million Yeudis be fluent in Redn to the point where they can have a conversation in the language and sometimes speak it in Yeudi majority events, like at our synagogues and in our meetings, for instance, or in our homes. I don't expect that it will ever replace Vrassan or Egelian as the first language of anyone, and I think we would be doing ourselves a disservice to try to aim for that, because we would essentially cut ourselves off from the broader culture. But many of us already use Redn, or some mixture of Redn and Vrassan among ourselves anyway. The Mob, for example, conducted much of their conversations in Redn, and one of the ways they were brought down was the Cops brought in Redn translators. It's already here, why wouldn't we want to learn about our heritage in this way?"

Mr. Kaplan then introduced Rabbi Abraham Fisher, Professor of Dundorfic studies at Kaliburg Imperial University, who will take a sabbatical to develop the curriculum for the Redn Language Learning Institute. Rabbi Fischer discussed the origins of Redn. According to Fischer, around 1200 AD, as the Anantan Empire was in its middle ages, several large groups left Amudim and scattered across the globe. One group went into Artania through what we now call Narikaton and Darnussia. They settled across central and Southern Artania, and while they were there, the met with Dundorfian speakers, and mingled the early Yeudi they spoke with Darnussian and Dundorfic, forming the essential grammar and vocabulary of what we refer to as Redn, probably by 1500.

Meanwhile another group went to the area we refer to as Valruzia today, and mixed Redn as it was spoken much wider in the diaspora with Valruzian adopting a large amount of loan words to the language. "This was the Redn we got," said Rabbi Fischer. "Nearly all our Yeudi population can trace their ancestry either to Valruzia or Dundorf and Kundrati and they all brought a dialect of Redn to Kalistan. When those two groups mixed their languages together, that becomes the Redn you hear in Kalistani cities today." As other Yeudi groups imigrated into Kalistan through the end of major relocations around 2000 AD, they adopted Redn immediately, or faced losing their cultures all together into the dominant emerging Kalistani culture, which was based in Vrassan Luthorian and Egelian.

"Redn therefore is essentially a Dundorfic language at its core that first emerged in Narikaton and Darnussia," said Rabbi Fischer. "Its grammar is essentially Dundorfic, and therefore is easily learnable by Vrassan Luthorian speakers. Its structural words are Dundorfic, while its vocabulary is a mix between Middle Dundorfic, Middle Yeudi, early Vrassan and Early Lurrian. Traditionally it used Yeudi graphemes for its characheters, but in Kalistan and other places, it eventually adopted Selucic characters to transliterate the Yeudi characters. Today, Redn is primarily a spoken but not necessarily a written language, but Mr. Maxwell was and now Mr. Kaplan is working to promote the revitalization the use of Yeudi characters in writing alongside the Selucic transliteration, at least in simple instances, to help people begin to relearn the sounds associated with the characters. The Selucic transliteration is becoming more commonly written as a standard once again, but we still do not have whole books printed in Redn yet, in either Selucic or Yeudi Characters. We would like to possibly try to translate well known texts into Redn, and see how that goes."

The project to revive what is essentially a nearly extinct language which was at one time spoken as a first language and used for composition for thousands of years is daunting. "But I think we have a chance," said Rabbi Fischer. "There have been numerous examples of language revival throughout human history. Most language revival movements do not succeed, but we have noticed that those that tend to succeed are attached to cultural revival movements. The number of Kalistani Yeudis identifying as such is on the rise in Kalistan and across Seleya. Redn is a great way to galvanize that movement, to give us a banner around which to unite. Because you look at me, you see a Kalistani. You look at Mr. Kaplan, and if he doesn't tell you he attends a synagogue, how could you possibly know that he even is a Yeudi. Redn is a great way to revitalize that wonderful and very special identity that nearly 3 million Kalistanis share with 18 million Yeudis in Valruzia and tens of millions of others across Seleya and Artania, to name a few places."

Kaplan said that if the AYIC has some success with reintroducing Redn to the larger Yeudi population in Kalistan, he will attempt to work with other nations with significant Yeudi minorities to see if there is any interest in expanding the Redn program abroad. "I would love it if I could go to Dundorf someday, meet another Redn speaker, and just have a conversation though he might not know Vrassan and I don't speak Dundorfic. That would be a really powerful thing for our people across the entire diaspora." The Curriculum for the Learning Institute should be constructed by July 5696. Meanwhile AYIC is in the process of purchasing the old Newton's Department Store building in Downtown Kalistan and will be converting that into a 185,000 square foot education building with both lecture halls and classrooms, study spaces, and office spaces for instructors and scholars. He also says AYIC will be raising funds for endowed positions at the college, so funding for instruction will not be an issue into the future. His goal is to raise ₭50 Million Imperial Rubles from Yeudis across Kalistan and Seleya.

"If every single Yeudi contributes just ₭4 imperial Rubles to the project, we will more than meet our goal for the Institute's Endowment and will be able to open our doors. If its just Kalistanis contributing, ₭15 Imperial Rubles per Yeudi or ₭60 Imperial Rubles per family will do the trick." Kaplan already said that he has received pledges from anonymous donors for more than ₭10 Million toward the goal. "I don't want to say who they are," said Kaplan, "but let's just say they are very wealthy, and AYIC sincerely appreciates their ongoing support of our community. And when you get a gift like this, it gives others confidence in your mission: If one rich person donates, its almost like a signal for other rich people to open their bank accounts too. I suspect we will meet our fundraising goals ahead of our deadline."

@LaModa