Kalistan

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Kalistan opens Center for Vrassan Studies
Linguistics and Literature differentiation is focus of center, says new Director
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
February 25, 5709


Professor Jack Northrup teaches a course in Vrassan Linguistics at Kaliburg Polytechnic University

Robert Montrose, the eminent linguistic scholar has been tapped by Her Imperial Magesty's Minister of Education and Culture, Dr. Diane Caballero, to become the new Director of the Center for Vrassan Studies, to be headquartered in Kaliburg Polytechnic University. The center will study the linguistic and literary development of the Vrassan Language in Northern Seleya. It is the first such program to offer formal study and research into the difference between the language, idiom and pronunciation of Northern Seleyan Luthorian from standard spoken Luthorian, and will focus on the various dialects within Northern Seleyan Luthorian, which is referred to, in general as Vrassan in Kalistan.

"In many ways, Vrassan is much closer to the original spoken Luthorian of Artania than modern Luthorian Standard is," said Jack Northrup, a linguist who will work with Montrose at the center and and who teaches linguistics, etymology and phoneme differentiation at Kaliburg Polytechnic, as part of their linguistics program. "A lot of the rhoticism we have retained in Northern Seleya has been dropped in Luthori, for example, while Standard spoken Luthorian has continued evolving due to local cultural influences away from where it once was when Northern Seleyans received it. As a result, our langauge, which is first and foremost a spoken language, and THEN a written language still looks far closer to the written version than the Standard Luthorian."

Northrup gave some examples. "We can see the organize. In Vrassan the word is pronounced ore-gan-ize and is pronounced as ˈɔːrɡənaɪz, while in Standard Luthorian, it is pronounces oaw-gan-ize with the hard r dropped out or ˈɔːɡənaɪz. Even using the phonetic alphabet, you can see that while 'Organize' keeps the R in both written Vrassan and Standard Luthorian, the spoken word only keeps the r, phonetically speaking, only the Vrassan speaker pronounces it. In addition, in Luthori the spelling has even moved so that it is not spelled 'organize', but 'organise.' In phonics, we learn that a word spelled like this should sound more like or-GAN-ice. But it's not. The Vrassan spelling and pronunciation is much closer to a unified whole, and ironically, it used to be this way in Luthorian, but then they evolved away. Not a value judgement, it just is what it is." Other examples are color and colour: "Vrassan color is much closer to the Egelian color (we have a different emphasis on the first syllable), but not even the Luthorians pronounce the world co-loor as you would if you said the word as it was spelled. The addition of the u is inexplicable."

In setting up the Vrassan Center, Montrose said the goal was to not only establish firmly that our two languages, though largely mutually intelligible, are in fact rapidly becoming different languages. "The superficial pronunciation matters are one thing. Rhoticism doesn't necessarily prevent understanding and communication. But there are a good many vowel shifts which suggest that our languages don't just have accents, but they are becoming different languages all together. Vrassan Speakers have a much flatter vowel sound that might lead to confusion in a Luthorian speakers. In Vrassan, a common thing example is 'I got caught on a cot'. The flat vowels lead Vrassan speakers to say those words similarly if not identically. But that could potentially lead to confusion in someone hearing a Vrassan speaker. These types of examples are becoming more and more prevalent as the months and years pass."

Montrose also noted idiomatic shifts and the large infusion of Egelian pronunciation and idiomatic usage which is becoming standard in many parts of the Vrassan speaking world. "It will soon get to the point where we are no longer 100% mutually intelligible, as words take on new meanings, new words from other languages are introduced, old words are contracted and the emphasis in syllables in compound words changes until the excess is just eroded by time and regular usage so it is just a whole new word. These processes have been at play for millennia already, and it is amazing that we can still understand one another as well as we do."

The new Director also wants to acknowledge the role that some degree of national pride plays in the study of Vrassan. "Vrassan is what Luthorian sounded like when it came to our continent. We don't sound anything like they do in Mordusia, which is much closer to the Standard Luthorian because they wanted it to be that way. Northern Seleyan nations speak a different, and some would say, cleaner language, one which is based much closer to the actual source than the modern Luthorian. You might call it more rustic, you might call it purer, but whatever you call it, its clearly not the same as what they speak in Artania. That is a language which is utterly surrounded by foreign languages, most of which are not even linguistically similar to hold family relationships.

"In Northern Seleyan nations," continued Mr. Montrose, "we all speak one kind of Luthorian. Which we happen to refer to in Kalistan as Vrassan. You would not be able to tell much of a difference at all between a native Vrassan speaker in Kaliburg, or in Kensington or in Johnston Baltusia, or in Clovisport Likatonia. We all have the same diction, we all have the same cadence, we all have significantly flattened our vowels and we all spell words for the most part the same. And all those are different from how they speak and write in Luthori. Its something we can be proud of, something that is our own, and something which differentiates us from Artania, from which some of us do not even derive our cultural lineage and merely adopted the language because at the time we were interested in beginning to trade, it just so happened to be the language of trade."

While the primary focus will be on the spoken Vrassan language, there will also be a complementary study on the written language. "Vrassan is a very straightforward and efficient language, as all creoles are" said Montrose. "Stripped down to fundamentals so it can be built into something new. But in the centuries that have passed, the things that artists and authors have done with written Vrassan have been things of beauty, and they deserve their own study as things that are ours, things that shine a light on our national attitudes, and our political philosophies, and our viewpoints of the world. And these fundamentally separate us, the mind of the Kalistani from the Artanian source, just in the way we see the world and where we fit into that world. It's quite special and we want to study that as well."

The center is endowed by philanthropists, including House Ananto, where Her Imperial Majesty continues her study of lingustics, etymology and rhetoric in her spare time, and will offer grants to scholars to come to the capital where they may either teach or research, or present on the topics surrounding Vrassan, and its dialects, as a spoken and written language.

@LaModa