Farmine
Farmine is a spoken and written language of the Royal Northern language family that has the 4th largest number of speakers, both native and secondary, on Venturia today. The language was developed directly from English, with whom it shares many similarities, however Farmine also shares similarities in grammar with Allian and in dialect with both New Zwakazian and Pexsakxj. Developed in Telembria and quickly adopted in the United States of Quentin as its de jure independent language, Farmine quickly became de facto in the country as a facilitating and unifying language amongst the many cultures and traditions. The nation's expansion during the 19th century aided this expansion of Farmine, and immigration both changed and popularized the language even further. With the Great Venturian Wars of the 20th century, the language was spread to countries including Ravensonia and Xevenia, adopted in those countries for similar reasons. More recently, Quentinian dominance in geopolitics, culture, and technology has resulted in both the formalization and popularization of the language on a global scale, with the language fully cemented in the USQ and familiar to many other nations.
Today the language is spoken officially in Ravensonia, the United States of Quentin, and Xevenia, and is also spoken in pockets across the world, mainly as a secondary language. In Ravensonia, Farmine is spoken most often in the southern part of the nation, with the Diamond and Twothas states utilizing it as a majority language. In Xevenia, the language is more widespread, however in the northern mountainous regions, New Zwakazian is also used. The language is currently the second most used language on the Megaconn, and is recognized by the Venturian Union Bureau of Language, however it is not currently one of its official languages due to its similarity to English. In 2022, approximately 83% of Farmine's approximate 1 billion speakers live in the USQ and West Asper, 11% live in Zwakazi, 5% live in East Asper, and the rest live in island territories like Rapathion and Atillaraon.
The language is predicted to continue growing for many decades, however it is expected to decline in Ravensonia and in use worldwide, as languages like English, Rapathic, and Azurian increase at a much greater rate. Organization of Farmine nations, grammar, and standards internationally is concentrated in the International League for Farmine Propagation (OELPH).
Contents
History
Origin
Farmine's roots appeared in the 17th century, in the country of Telembria on the Asper continent. There, the language of English was the established and official language of the country, and nearly everyone born in the country spoke it. There was a group of linguists and language perfectionists in the city of Rathaleo, however, that wished to change the language, to make it flow better and make it more organized. This group began drawing up the first semblances of Farmine. Original Farmine changes included more straightforward pronunciation of words, less emphasis on silent letters, and more emphasis on punctuation in writing. As this new language variation spread across the country, the less educated began to speak it as it was actually far more simplified when compared with royal English. This led to royal and upright members of Telembrian society to classify the variation as common, low-class, and inferior.
Naturally, with the largely populist Megatridimensional Revolution and independence in the late 1700's, the new nation adopted the variations of English with great rapidity, incorporating the already prevalent changes into mainstream Megatridimensional society and linguistics. New changes placed even less emphasis on royal Telembrian spelling, changing -ou to -o, -re to -er, etc. This language variant continues to be popular to this day in the country, however Megatridimensional English is only a variation of Telembrian English, unlike Farmine which is a variant.
It took another revolution and independence for Farmine to independently develop, as the Quentinian War for Independence began in 1823 and ended in the 1830's with the establishment of the new United States of Quentin. By this time, the Megatridimensional variant was adopted in the Quentinian territories, however the frontier nature of the Territories had already modified everyday use. Native languages mixed with foreign languages (Allian and Pexsakxj, among others) which mixed with English, and created in the Territories a unique dialect and unique cultural linguistic practices pre-1823. For example, trading was done mainly in foreign languages, while English governed the home and native languages frequently governed outdoorsmanship. As a melting pot, the Territories were the perfect definition, and the revolution gave the country a new political identity to match its cultural one. In this way, many historians have continually classified Quentinian independence as inevitable.
Spread and Continued Development
As if the melting pot nature of the country and its new political identity were not enough, the nation began to rapidly expand across West Asper during the 19th century. This included expanding into Punctinaturalland territory, where English acquired an even greater reliance on Punctin vocabulary, inflection, and spelling quirks. Additionally, early immigration from Allia and Docneighland in particular spurred on the development of more silent letters in spelling, an antithesis of Farmine's roots which signaled its departure from its original intentions and classifications. As overseas trading opened up, foreign dialects worked their influence as well.
In stark contrast from the mother Megatridimensional Order, the Quentinians took a much more tolerant approach towards native tribes in their territory, and as such many of the language quirks were not quashed like in the MTO, but accepted, distributed, and interwoven amongst the general populous.
Political Recognition and Bannerism
With the Final Punctin Wars in the 1800's, the United States of Quentin marked its official incursion into the industrial world, one in which immigration was key to expanded employment and expansion as a whole. While immigration was shunned by many early politicians, especially immigration from Zwakazi, this spike in population became absolutely necessary for the vitality of the nation, despite what politicians and preachers cried from the debate stage and the altar. During this immigration period, the government and public as a whole recognized the need for unity and some level of uniformity, especially in the face of Paladinian secession in 1875. This public sentiment, referred to by historians as Quentinian Bannerism, drove the authentication and recognition of Farmine on the political level. Commissions and committees were established to not only recognize the growing "Quentinian" dialect, but to spur on its development, and guide it towards the "right" path.
This political authentication was exactly what Farmine needed to push it over the edge, and by the early 1900's Farmine had become near unintelligible to mainstream English speakers in the Megatridimensional Order, New Dawn, Lindsaya, and Telembria. This is not to say that traditional English was not spoken by some across the nation; quite the opposite, as even today the nation is largely bilingual. However not everyone in the country spoke English, as history and demographics have clearly demonstrated, and Farmine was the only solution put forward in a large, diverse nation where facilitation and unity were valued above all, but where history and demographics did not cooperate.
Quentinian Golden Age
After the Great Venturian Wars, the nation was even more secure in its Farmine identity, and recent victories not only solidified loyalty to the language, but also provided the scholarly and economic support to formalize unique rules and, more importantly for English speakers, pronunciation, and the political power to spread the language to countries like Ravensonia and already partially indoctrinated Xevenia (which had been introduced to the language during the Quentinian Expeditionary Corps expeditions and readily adopted it as the result of a similar need for unity). With the advent of the television and radio after the Wars, however, Farmine may have been in danger of extinction as a language not used anywhere else in the world.
However this was wholly stymied by Quentinian dominance in these areas postwar, with the Quentinian Age of Culture ensuring that Quentinian stations carried Quentinian films, programs, and other content. Instead of being marginalized, Farmine thrived and was thrust upon the world, which grudgingly accepted both it and English as the price to pay for Quentinian dominance. Similarly, the USQ brought Farmine to areas which hadn't before needed unity, such as homogenous Snowland, through the television and its accessibility features. By this time, primarily Farmine speakers could understand English to an extent, but English speakers (especially those in Telembria and the northern nations) could no longer make out the quasi-English which had similar characters and rules but unfamiliar and strange cadence and variety.
