Krushnovian is a rare language/dialect of Vod Krushnov that developed in mid-2021.

Statistics

• Ethnicity: Krushnovian, Magadanian, Siberian
• Native speakers: 7 players (July 2021)
• L2 speakers: 10-18 players (July 2021)
• Language family: Indo-European, Germanic, West Germanic, Ingvaeonic, Anglo-Frisian, Anglic
• Early forms: Krushnov Spelling Forms, Early Krushnovian
• Writing system: Latin alphabet
• Primary official language: One town, one nation
• Secondary Official language: Six towns, two nations
• Language status: Vulnerable
• Dialects: Standard High Krushnovian, Rikretfir Dialect

History

Spelling reforms

When Pastelant settled around the old buildings, he thought of correcting some of the spelling on signs to make it more phonetically consistent so it is easier to read out loud. This was known as the Krushnov Spelling Forms, and became the standard form of spelling.

Early Krushnovian

As trade expanded, new trans-Siberian highways connected private or hard-to-reach towns in the area together. These were constructed crudely, yet complete, and the signs used on them were completely in Krushnovian, that was beginning to bring in Dutch grammar and other forms of spelling from Dutch Africa (now Dutch Empire). As the supply of books increased during this time in May, and as the need for the Shrekist faith to be noted down into a Great Bible, new vocabulary was introduced. At this time, English and Krushnovian grew further apart.

Very little of this original language has been preserved, as there is only enough to cover 10 pages in total of a book. The largest texts are the original Bible ov Shrek, parts of the now unused trans-Siberian highways and the preserved Original Constitution of Vod Krushnov in the the Senate hall. The rest of the signs were preserved until early August, when removed during the great town restoration. There are no speakers of it, apart from perhaps Pastelant himself, and the vocabulary only consists of a hundred words because of the lack of written work.

Great tense reforms of June, July and August

Dutch and German influence significantly influenced the Past and Future tenses, and the use of agglutination. As more books were acquired, it was at this time the Epic of Ketamine Yoda was started. By the end of June, the language's tenses had completely changed. The perfect and imperfect tenses were formed to be similar to those found in Dutch. Into July, the tense changes became standardized, and there were some spelling changes and more vocabulary added- mostly describing diplomacy and shipping. Some Byzantine-Danish influence also came as the alliance with the Empire continued. A perfect and an imperfect tense for the past were slowly introduced by the end of July. Rikretfir Dialect also began to diverge from the standard language.

There is a substantial amount of texts written during these reforms, and the development of them has been documented well and are in the Library of Pogtopia. A few native scholars study it and are well-learned in it these days.

Grammar and vocabulary

Around 70% of the vocabulary is from English and is easy to translate. Around 15% is Dutch or Frisian, 10% is German, and 5% is from native Kolyma nomadic language. The vowels and consonants are the same as English, but written differently (these examples use the international IPA).

• "oe" is the Shwaa "ə" sound, as in the u in "but" ("boet" in Krushnovian) though it is also often the "ʊ", found in "could" or "pull" in standard English.
• "u" is the close-back rounded vowel "u:", as in "food" in standard English.
• "ie" is a spelling from the German Empire, and makes the "i:" sound, as in "need", though -more rarely- "ee" from the Dutch is used here as well. Another spelling from the Germans, "ei" is used for the "aɪ"- as in the y in "cry".
• "Die", meaning the, comes before a vowel, while "De" -or more rarely "Der"- comes before a consonant. This is in English, too, but they don't notate the vowel change.

There is only one gender, but the past (though there are many exceptions) and future tense sends the verb to the end. The present tense uses the same structure as English.

An English speaker and a Krushnovian can understand each other a bit better than an Englishman and a Glaswegian, but that does not mean they can hold a fluent conversation. There are debates whether Krushnovian is a language or a dialect of English as it is quite similar, but can you really understand Pastelant when he's ranting about "De Zekoende Seiberiean Empeireigh"?

Distribution

Krushnovian is a very minor language, and is at threat of being lost- especially since the Magadan Dark Age. However, the Dutch towns sometimes use it and have a few examples of it in their libraries. After the great grief of Dutch Africa, these texts and speakers of the language moved to Alexandria. There are many examples of the language in the Library of Alexandria. It is however the main language of Grand Siberia, the capitol and the Religion of Shrekism. The new source of books means more of it is published each day. Also, to navigate Kolyma, you need knowledge of the language to get around. This is because the Routes use signs in the language. There is a secondary dialect used by Regret_4 in his duchy called Reikretfir that only has two native speakers and one secondary speaker. It is an older form of the language and closer to English but is still easily mutually understood between those speakers and the standard Krushnovian speakers. The most primary speakers are in Vod Krushnov, while the most secondary speakers are in Alexandria.