Caizu

[sasasha]

Quick question ‒ does Caizu (the Karazi language still spoken in Caizura in 3480) survive through the modern era? And... Do you have any notes on it / plans to work it out, one day?

I imagine it’s quite a big task ‒ seeing as it would involve working out Coruo as well.

Just curious, really!

[zompist]

Quick question ‒ does Caizu (the Karazi language still spoken in Caizura in 3480) survive through the modern era? And... Do you have any notes on it / plans to work it out, one day?

That's a good question... modernism has a tendency to do what medieval kingdoms could never do: push the nomads out of all agricultural land and make them settle down. There will still be Caizurans in 3678, but probably speaking Verdurian.

But I haven't decided yet.

If I do a modern Karazi language it would probably be one of those in the eastern Barbarian Plain, where they can still maintain their lifestyle (at least as well as, say, the Mongolians do).

[WeepingElf]

I have always wondered whether Caizu is inspired by Czech - it juts into Verdurian-speaking territory in a way very similar to how Czech juts into German-speaking territory in our world.

[sasasha]

Quick question ‒ does Caizu (the Karazi language still spoken in Caizura in 3480) survive through the modern era? And... Do you have any notes on it / plans to work it out, one day?

That's a good question... modernism has a tendency to do what medieval kingdoms could never do: push the nomads out of all agricultural land and make them settle down. There will still be Caizurans in 3678, but probably speaking Verdurian.

But I haven't decided yet.

If I do a modern Karazi language it would probably be one of those in the eastern Barbarian Plain, where they can still maintain their lifestyle (at least as well as, say, the Mongolians do).

Good points. Still, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility it could go the other way linguistically. I don’t know much about the Czech comparison, though I can see WeepingElf’s point there ‒ but Hungary, which I’ve visited a couple of times, is an example of a once-nomadic nation which has maintained its linguistic independence despite ‘settling down’.

You can go to Hungary, hear a Uralic language, listen to distinctive folk music and see traditional horsemanship and art of a very Hungarian type ‒ but also sit in a Viennese style coffee house enjoying some of Europe’s best cakes between an ornate opera house and some of the fanciest churches I’ve ever seen.

I know, Caizura isn’t Hungary. For one thing, it doesn’t have much in the way of an imperial legacy of its own, (unlike Curiya, which however has already lost its Karazi language by 3480). Also, its political status into the modern era does argue toward Verdurianisation ‒ without risking spoilers.

I could believe it either way ‒ but I certainly could believe, if you did take that path, the region of Caizura doubling down on its ‘Caizuranness’... ‘Hungarianness’ survived Habsburg and Soviet cultural/political incursion, after all.

Anyway, a modern Karazi language would be a fun thing to explore, in whatever way!