Ostrian

Osterian is a language family found in the Osteri Isles and parts of Plagos. It is commonly spoken within the former territories of the Osteri Plagosi Trading Company. This page will serve as a historical guide as to how the language and its dialects came to be.

Dialects
There are 4 Major Dialects of Osterian:

True Osterii

Hollenkreisii

Harktladian (with 2 sub-dialects)

Shikksor

History of Osterian
Osterian can be traced back to Southern Plagosi lands known today as Urcastle. This proto version would eventually split into 2 dialects, the Eastern and Western. The Eastern would become Zendenian and the Western would become Osterian. This started when the speakers of this language migrated south on boat.

For the next hundred years this would evolve into Proto-Osterian. They inhabited the glaciers and islands south of Plagos and would start to evolve form distinctive features different from the mainland dialect.

This would continue following the evolution of Old Osterian and Old Shikksor. Osterian would become popular in the Osterii Islands and would become the Official Language of the OTC. While Shikksor would become a regional dialect within the glaciers of Fearg. Osterian would also adopt the Villager Script, an archaic script used by Osteri Villagers before the arrival of humans. The Osterians would take this script and simplify it into the Osteri Alphabet. This language would be a dominant language for trade in the region.

From here, Osteri diverged as they collected more and more colonies. Harktladian was the first dialect to evolve, which today would be completely foreign to native speakers on the Osteri Isles. Then, Hollenkreisii would form, being closer related to True Osterii where mutual intelligibility is possible between the two.

3 regions have formed within the OPTC. Hollenkreis, Harktlady, and the Osteri Isles all had their own separate dialect. The difference between Harktlady dialects and True Osteri was so different that some argue that it is a completely different language. This contributed to the dispute had that resulted in Amberian-Urcastle's departure from the company.

Importance amongst the Isles
True Osterii is still commonly used as the Lingua Franca in former Osterian territories. Even under the UPPO and the Kingdom of Osterium, True Osterii was vital to keeping trade and the government intact.

The Harktladian dialect saw some rise in popularity under the rule of RHK249, a native of Harklady. However, this dialect had a hard time catching on as True Osterii was still the most convenient for trade and study. Also, rual dialects are far removed from what some may consider Urban-Dialect or "Urcastle-Dialect", to the point where most speakers already use True Osterii just because it is convenient.

Luckly, spelling has remained relatively the same throughout the isles, with a small spelling reform in the later days of True Osterii setting it apart from the rest. They all use the Osterii Alphabet, a small alphabet used exclusively by the Osterian languages. It was also made easier to distribute thanks to the print version made, which helps with the inscription and publication of important papers and documents into an easily legible form. Samples of Print and Cursive forms are shown below: