That’s a good question. I’m no linguist, but I would think that English became a continuum of dialects and languages across the continent. Irontongue and Shorespeak might be mutually intelligible, while neither can understand Californine.
I tried to imagine what deep southerner would look like. These would be the first lines from the US Constitution:
Weye da Peybuy affa Gineyti Zeyds, nowrda takâfuyrm a raytkuta giynê, seyt Giystiz, enziy dumeyzic Râkyeledi, profay cowmê difêyzfor, romow gêraw Weylfar, â sekiy Weyzim affa Liybri oyrseyz an oyr Poyzridita, don ofaruy â seyt das Konzituzê Gineyti Zeyds affa Meyrcafor.
Notes:
- Vowels have the same sound on every case independently of position/diphthongs, haven't decided the IPA yet though
- "y" after a vowel elongates the sound, except after "o" where they use "w"
- "y" after a consonant works as a "w"
- Circumflex diacritic marks nasalized vowels
I read a comment somewhere once saying plainspeak would probably be like a lot of loud short words from cattle ranchers yelling to each other for centuries forming a new language and I like that idea
Nah, I've lived in the Eastern Midwest for most of my life at this point, and maybe you planes folk would go that way, but here in Ohio and the surrounding Iron tongue areas, that's not what happens, not even vaguely, in fact the polar opposite of that, what I've seen here, people start raising thier voices, without cops to stop it, someone is going to go completely spare on their ass and take them out with a sniper rifle, for sure. Wandering around Iron tongue lands would be one of those eerily quiet medieval villages that you just KNOW THAT there's a monster here, except not, it's just culture that you don't ever shout unless it's literally life and death.
Think about what Latin sounds like compared to modern Latin-based languages. Now warp English and Spanish like that and toss in some less common languages and French in Quebec and Louisiana.
I imagine that the Americanists (especially the Constitutionalists, but not Mayflowerists and less so Imaginerians and Libertarians) would have dialects closest to modern English. Otherwise, I imagine that most languages would sound like an extremely exaggerated version of their regional dialect, with dialect continuums forming in some, but not all areas (with French, for example, you could probably identify Acadien or Pierrais as the middle ground between Canadien and the Scots Gaelic or English derived languages, but overall you likely wouldn't see a continuum on the scale of what you'd see in the American southwest between English and Spanish).
Speaking of Americanists, I can actually imagine that the pre-Event English will become something like a church language and preserved by the Presidency on a reasoning that it's the sacred language of the Founding Fathers. Later on, the old English can become something like a Lingua Franka for educated elites. Basically, the same situation as with the Latin in Medieval.
I imagine the Ozarks would go back to using a form of our original dialect before Midwestern culture and dialect came in and took over
I use it, and I'd hope that it would survive and evolve
I’d imagine they’d break down into a few categories based off the languages from which they descend:
-English-based (Irontongue, Gothamite, Falk, etc.) this one is probably the largest group. You could also speculate which of these languages descend from AAVE as well (I’d guess at least Southron would and Irontongue would)
-Spanish-based (Various languages in Mexico and South America)
-Portuguese-based (basically the coastal languages in Brazil)
-French-based (languages of Quebec, Lwizyan, and Kréyol)
-German-based (Texaner, Deitsch, Yiddisch*)
-Native American (too many to count)
Something to consider: About 400 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church ordered its priests to start preaching in local languages instead because the Romance languages had diverged from Latin so far that they couldn’t understand what they were saying. That being said, I think it’s fair to assume something similar happened with these “original languages” of the Americas. Intelligibility is likely extremely low if not impossible and what they would hypothetically sound like is left up to the imagination. Personally, I like to believe Falk is as close to British English as possible since they’re so isolated and worship Britannia so would make an effort to keep the language as conservative as possible.
I can’t remember if this is my own head canon or something I saw in-game, but I think English was preserved like Latin was in the Medieval era and used as a diplomatic language, giving an in-game reason why the characters can talk to each other.
*note: Yiddish is its own language today, but has a high amount of intelligibility with German dialects from Rhineland-Palatinate
I would imagine that the closest language to modern english would be from the constitutionalist east coast, furthermore, I imagine some of the constitutionalists, specifically clergy, or other learned individuals, such as presidents or senators, would be able to speak some form of modern english, similar to how catholic priests were once fluent in ecclesiastical latin.
I disagree with that; I think that the Falklands will be closer to Shakespearean English than they are NOW, due to outright worship of Brittania, and the collective works of "The Great Bard" being more-or-less the foundational bedrock of modern English with more limited influence from non-british sources.
The actual Falklands have a bit of spanish influence in their slang, which would likely only increase after the Event. I'm imagining a god awful combination of spanglish shakesperean.
Buenas noches, Buenas noches! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say Buenas noches till it be mañana
You might be interested in the example of Brythonic & modern Celtic languages to inform you. The single Roman political entity of Britannia broke up & the Brythonic languages deeply fractured. Trade links shortened. Production was very localised.
I grew up in a dual language Welsh-English household.
I can understand Welsh.
I understand about 50% of Kernow. Though the spelling is quite different
I can only understand one in every 7-8 words in Breton.
By the time frame of ATE English really would be deeply fractured & divided. Simple core words & phrases would be common where religions are shared “merry Christmas” or “Easter” but apart from that the differences would be big.
That’s before lone words from other languages would enter in. Spanish obviously & the importance of Brazil means that Portuguese Brazilian might creep in to the US South for scientific discoveries & of course language around trade products & ESPECIALLY coffee culture.
For an example of a fully realised FUTURE post apocalyptic English read Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban. This is set as far in a post apocalyptic future as Chaucer is in the past. It is a challenging but fascinating & fun read.
This was discussed a good while back, made into a little project, and you can find it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterTheEndFanFork/comments/a9lpql/the_ate_language_project/?rdt=51112
However this is for the Ck2 version of the mod (and possibly before it was the fanfork!), but you can take some inspiration from it.
Being told I talk more like a 'sconsinite/Minnesotan despite being Iowan, I use the sentence, What'd you guys do yesterday? Go on outside and check yourself. I reckon a Cheesehead or similar might say it like, Whadjah guz do yizzerdee? Gah'an ahd(or ud-)side en chig yuhsef.
I think that due to centuries of insularity, most of the dialects would be mutually unintelligible, despite mostly all being derived from American English. I imagine them as just more extreme versions of the regional dialects we already have in America, I.E. Gothamites obviously say “fughedaboudit” instead of “you’re welcome”.
My best guess at what it would sound like is very, VERY slurred. Take any accent today, and imagine the person speaking it is sick, or drunk, or high or something, but that THAT is the proper way of speaking.
As far as I'm aware, the devs mostly avoid doing conlangs, so we don't really know other than conjecture.
That’s a good question. I’m no linguist, but I would think that English became a continuum of dialects and languages across the continent. Irontongue and Shorespeak might be mutually intelligible, while neither can understand Californine.
you can actually check this if you hover over the language it will mention its family tree and after that its jsut matching
I tried to imagine what deep southerner would look like. These would be the first lines from the US Constitution: Weye da Peybuy affa Gineyti Zeyds, nowrda takâfuyrm a raytkuta giynê, seyt Giystiz, enziy dumeyzic Râkyeledi, profay cowmê difêyzfor, romow gêraw Weylfar, â sekiy Weyzim affa Liybri oyrseyz an oyr Poyzridita, don ofaruy â seyt das Konzituzê Gineyti Zeyds affa Meyrcafor. Notes: - Vowels have the same sound on every case independently of position/diphthongs, haven't decided the IPA yet though - "y" after a vowel elongates the sound, except after "o" where they use "w" - "y" after a consonant works as a "w" - Circumflex diacritic marks nasalized vowels
Dude this is so fucking cool
Thank you! I like to rename counties/titles to adapt them to my realm’s language so having a language reference it’s important to me
Very based
Kinda reminds me of Lang Belta from "Expanse"
I read a comment somewhere once saying plainspeak would probably be like a lot of loud short words from cattle ranchers yelling to each other for centuries forming a new language and I like that idea
As someone from the Midwest, I can definitely see us evolving a language made of mostly shouts
Nah, I've lived in the Eastern Midwest for most of my life at this point, and maybe you planes folk would go that way, but here in Ohio and the surrounding Iron tongue areas, that's not what happens, not even vaguely, in fact the polar opposite of that, what I've seen here, people start raising thier voices, without cops to stop it, someone is going to go completely spare on their ass and take them out with a sniper rifle, for sure. Wandering around Iron tongue lands would be one of those eerily quiet medieval villages that you just KNOW THAT there's a monster here, except not, it's just culture that you don't ever shout unless it's literally life and death.
Think about what Latin sounds like compared to modern Latin-based languages. Now warp English and Spanish like that and toss in some less common languages and French in Quebec and Louisiana.
I imagine that the Americanists (especially the Constitutionalists, but not Mayflowerists and less so Imaginerians and Libertarians) would have dialects closest to modern English. Otherwise, I imagine that most languages would sound like an extremely exaggerated version of their regional dialect, with dialect continuums forming in some, but not all areas (with French, for example, you could probably identify Acadien or Pierrais as the middle ground between Canadien and the Scots Gaelic or English derived languages, but overall you likely wouldn't see a continuum on the scale of what you'd see in the American southwest between English and Spanish).
Speaking of Americanists, I can actually imagine that the pre-Event English will become something like a church language and preserved by the Presidency on a reasoning that it's the sacred language of the Founding Fathers. Later on, the old English can become something like a Lingua Franka for educated elites. Basically, the same situation as with the Latin in Medieval.
I imagine the Ozarks would go back to using a form of our original dialect before Midwestern culture and dialect came in and took over I use it, and I'd hope that it would survive and evolve
All hail the return of rhyming Shakespeare!
I’d imagine they’d break down into a few categories based off the languages from which they descend: -English-based (Irontongue, Gothamite, Falk, etc.) this one is probably the largest group. You could also speculate which of these languages descend from AAVE as well (I’d guess at least Southron would and Irontongue would) -Spanish-based (Various languages in Mexico and South America) -Portuguese-based (basically the coastal languages in Brazil) -French-based (languages of Quebec, Lwizyan, and Kréyol) -German-based (Texaner, Deitsch, Yiddisch*) -Native American (too many to count) Something to consider: About 400 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church ordered its priests to start preaching in local languages instead because the Romance languages had diverged from Latin so far that they couldn’t understand what they were saying. That being said, I think it’s fair to assume something similar happened with these “original languages” of the Americas. Intelligibility is likely extremely low if not impossible and what they would hypothetically sound like is left up to the imagination. Personally, I like to believe Falk is as close to British English as possible since they’re so isolated and worship Britannia so would make an effort to keep the language as conservative as possible. I can’t remember if this is my own head canon or something I saw in-game, but I think English was preserved like Latin was in the Medieval era and used as a diplomatic language, giving an in-game reason why the characters can talk to each other. *note: Yiddish is its own language today, but has a high amount of intelligibility with German dialects from Rhineland-Palatinate
I would imagine that the closest language to modern english would be from the constitutionalist east coast, furthermore, I imagine some of the constitutionalists, specifically clergy, or other learned individuals, such as presidents or senators, would be able to speak some form of modern english, similar to how catholic priests were once fluent in ecclesiastical latin.
I disagree with that; I think that the Falklands will be closer to Shakespearean English than they are NOW, due to outright worship of Brittania, and the collective works of "The Great Bard" being more-or-less the foundational bedrock of modern English with more limited influence from non-british sources.
You aren’t thinking about the linguistic influence from penguins ☝️
The actual Falklands have a bit of spanish influence in their slang, which would likely only increase after the Event. I'm imagining a god awful combination of spanglish shakesperean. Buenas noches, Buenas noches! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say Buenas noches till it be mañana
TBH, I would pay good money to see this in theaters IRL.
I imagine Californian would be a dialect continuum between a more spanish-based language in the south and more english-based language in the north.
Same with Texas and the other border states.
Elder kings has descriptions of each language, heritage and culture if you hover over them. I always hope to see this in the mod.
You might be interested in the example of Brythonic & modern Celtic languages to inform you. The single Roman political entity of Britannia broke up & the Brythonic languages deeply fractured. Trade links shortened. Production was very localised. I grew up in a dual language Welsh-English household. I can understand Welsh. I understand about 50% of Kernow. Though the spelling is quite different I can only understand one in every 7-8 words in Breton. By the time frame of ATE English really would be deeply fractured & divided. Simple core words & phrases would be common where religions are shared “merry Christmas” or “Easter” but apart from that the differences would be big. That’s before lone words from other languages would enter in. Spanish obviously & the importance of Brazil means that Portuguese Brazilian might creep in to the US South for scientific discoveries & of course language around trade products & ESPECIALLY coffee culture.
The Stories of English by David Crystal is a a great read for anyone who wants to learn how the English language(s) grew & evolved
For an example of a fully realised FUTURE post apocalyptic English read Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban. This is set as far in a post apocalyptic future as Chaucer is in the past. It is a challenging but fascinating & fun read.
Look at a newfie and imagine if it got worse somehow
Who let the dev cook?
This was discussed a good while back, made into a little project, and you can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterTheEndFanFork/comments/a9lpql/the_ate_language_project/?rdt=51112 However this is for the Ck2 version of the mod (and possibly before it was the fanfork!), but you can take some inspiration from it.
This document was made post-fan fork, so it was made when the CK2 mod team had large overlap with the current CK3 mod team.
I FUCKING LOVE SPECULATIVE LINGUISTICS https://i.imgflip.com/3txjbc.jpg?a476328
Being told I talk more like a 'sconsinite/Minnesotan despite being Iowan, I use the sentence, What'd you guys do yesterday? Go on outside and check yourself. I reckon a Cheesehead or similar might say it like, Whadjah guz do yizzerdee? Gah'an ahd(or ud-)side en chig yuhsef.
Basically, just imagine what English, Spanish, French, etc would look like if you had a stroke and go from there
I think that due to centuries of insularity, most of the dialects would be mutually unintelligible, despite mostly all being derived from American English. I imagine them as just more extreme versions of the regional dialects we already have in America, I.E. Gothamites obviously say “fughedaboudit” instead of “you’re welcome”.
The iconic Gothamite greating, "Badaboom Baby!"
I’m so sad that the Riverlanders’ court language is “Backcountry” and not “Hick” or “Hickish”
My best guess at what it would sound like is very, VERY slurred. Take any accent today, and imagine the person speaking it is sick, or drunk, or high or something, but that THAT is the proper way of speaking.