Volume IV: Language — Chapter 11: History of the Language

"Language is a living organism. It is born, grows, changes, and — if not recorded — dies. Twelve thousand years of our speech — that is twelve thousand years of our memory." — From "History of the Xha'Ruun Language," Archive of the Academy

Related sections: → see [Volume IV, Ch.01, "Phonetics"], → see [Volume IV, Ch.07, "Sharuu Writing System"], → see [Volume IV, Ch.08, "Lexicon and Word Formation"], → see [Volume IV, Ch.10, "Dialects"], → see [Volume II, Ch.02, "Early Civilization"], → see [Volume II, Ch.03, "The First Empire (Era of Flourishing)"]

Introduction

The Xha'Ruun language developed together with the civilization over more than twelve thousand years (→ see [Volume II, Ch.01, "The Pre-Civilization Era"]). Its history is a history of unification and collapse, of standardization and fragmentation. The periods of the language coincide with the epochs of the civilization established in the historical canon (→ see [Volume II, Ch.06, "The Era of Unity"]): every political turn was reflected in the language, and every linguistic shift — in society.

11.1 Periods of Development

The history of the language is divided into five periods, coinciding with the epochs of the civilization. The boundaries of the periods are key events of history: the invention of writing, the founding and fall of the First Empire, the Unity Treaty.

Each period left its trace in the modern language: the roots of the Proto period, the grammar of the Empire, the dialectal diversity of the Classical period, and the norm of the Renaissance.

11.2 Proto-Xha'Ruun: Early Written History (−9 800 – −6 150)

At the beginning of Early Civilization a corpus of approximately 500 semantic roots took shape (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.08, "Lexicon and Word Formation"]). The language was oral; the main achievement of the period was the invention of proto-writing.

• −9 780 — the invention of the proto-syllabary independently in three regions (→ see [Volume II, Ch.02, "Early Civilization"]). The three writing traditions — on Kharak, Rhuval, and Vexar — subsequently merged into a single system.
• The proto-language is root-isolating, without developed morphology. Meaning was conveyed by word order and particles.
• Oral tradition: epic tales and genealogies transmitted by word of mouth (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.07, "Sharuu Writing System"]).

11.3 Ancient Xha'Ruun: Imperial Standardization (−6 150 – −2 150)

The founding of the First Empire in −6 150 (the Verksan dynasty) made the language an instrument of governance (→ see [Volume II, Ch.03, "The First Empire (Era of Flourishing)"]). For the first time, a single standard covered the entire northern continent.

• The Imperial chancellery — unified norms of writing and official speech; edicts and codes were recorded in the standard language.
• Dissemination — through colonies, trade routes, and roads (→ see [Volume II, Ch.09, "Economic History"]), the standard spread beyond Kharak.
• Grammatical consolidation — in this period the foundations of the 14 cases (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.04, "14 Cases"]) and of the agglutinative structure (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.03, "Grammar: Overview"]) took shape.
• Writing — from the three proto-traditions a syllabary took shape, the predecessor of the modern Sharuu (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.07, "Sharuu Writing System"]).

11.4 The Classical Period: Fragmentation (−2 150 – −750)

The fall of the First Empire in −2 150 and the ensuing Dark Ages (−2 150 – −750) destroyed the single standard (→ see [Volume II, Ch.04, "The Era of Crisis"]).

• Regional variants — without central authority the norms diverged; from them the modern dialects subsequently grew (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.10, "Dialects"]).
• Preservation of classical writing — temples and archives continued to keep records in the classical language; in this way it became "sacred" and bookish (→ see [Volume II, Ch.12, "Legal History"]).
• Technical vocabulary — the invention of the steam engine in −1 200 gave rise to a new industrial layer of technical vocabulary.
• The classical language — the period gave its name to the "classical" variant, on which the main literary and scientific works are written.

11.5 Revived Xha'Ruun: Restandardization (−750 – +850)

The signing of the "Unity Treaty" in −750 united eight regions and returned a single standard to the language (→ see [Volume II, Ch.05, "The Renaissance and the Second Unity"]).

• Reform of writing — the ordering of the syllabary, the fixing of 124 syllabic signs and 48 logograms (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.07, "Sharuu Writing System"]).
• Introduction of the unified calendar (year 0) — required a new lexicon of time reckoning (→ see [Volume II, Ch.17, "History of the Calendar"]).
• The flourishing of the sciences — the vocabulary was supplemented with terms of mathematics and astronomy; the long-established senary system received common teaching norms (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.09, "Senary Numeral System"]).
• The Revived standard — based on the classical language, but with simplified orthography.

11.6 Modern Xha'Ruun: The Era of Unity (+850 – Present)

The founding of the Council of Unity in +850 established the unified language as the norm of the entire planet (→ see [Volume II, Ch.06, "The Era of Unity"]).

• A unified language — the Kharak-Thar standard is taught everywhere; mass media and education sustain unity (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.10, "Dialects"]).
• A lexical explosion — the modern vocabulary exceeds 50 000 words; the growth is provided by agglutinative word formation (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.08, "Lexicon and Word Formation"]).
• Digital writing — Sharuu is encoded and used in digital systems (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.07, "Sharuu Writing System"]).
• The dialects persist — as markers of regional identity, with full mutual intelligibility (→ see [Volume IV, Ch.10]).

11.7 Lexical Growth

The growth of the vocabulary reflects the development of the civilization: from the 500 roots of the proto-language to 50 000+ modern words.

Chapter Summary

1. Five periods of the language coincide with the epochs of the civilization.
2. Proto-writing was invented in −9 780 independently in three regions.
3. Imperial standardization (−6 150 – −2 150) laid the foundations of grammar and the norm.
4. The crisis gave rise to regional variants — the ancestors of the modern dialects.
5. The Unity Treaty and the Era of Unity restored the single standard; the modern vocabulary — 50 000+ words.

The appearance of writing was not the birth of speech. Stories, songs, negotiations and teaching preceded surviving signs. Written forms can be traced differently from the much older history of spoken language.