Slokaisian Language

Slokaisian (Slokaisian: Bahasa Slokaisian) is a language spoken primarily in Slokais Islands. Slokaisian was created during the 1940s although modifed and adopted as a national language in 1973. Today the language is spoken by around 68 million people, with most being in Slokais and additional minorities in Haesan, Laeral, and Mallacaland.

History

The Slokaisian Language originates from the founding of the Slokais Islands in the 1890s. Due to the many language groups found in Slokais, politicians at the time suggested the creation of a "common language" At the time, English and Spanish were widely accepted as the two recognized languages. However, this was not cemented officially by law. In the 1930s, a group of political thinkers, linguists, and religious leaders established the Slokaisian Language Organization (SLO). The SLO held several meetings across Slokais, gathering public input for the structure of a new language. In 1940, the SLO adopted Bahasa Slokaisian and its corresponding alphabet and structure as a declared "language for Slokais".

Basha Slokasian saw limited use in its early years and was largely used by academics or highly educated social progressives. The first school for the language opened in 1943 in New Liverpool and was known as Sekolah le Slokais or "The School of Slokais" and operated classes for grade and college-level students. In 1947 the school's first graduates helped write the Slokaisian Language Dictionary or "Kamus Bahasa Slokaisian" the text becoming a key part of a growing group of collegiate classes in the language. In 1954, Juan Costa declared the Slokaisian Language as "an elitist form of communication" and banned the dictionary from public sale. Later several teachers were arrested on charges of "faulty teaching credentials" as teaching the language led to banishment from the Slokasian Reformist Teachers Union.

Commission on the Slokaisian Language

After United Federation forces captured New Liverpool in 1966 and declared a new government, the first meeting of the United Federation Parliament was held. At that meeting Speaker Howard Xiang stated in his opening remarks “I want to create a new united Slokais, a common tongue, a common name and a common goal”. This statement was actually taken from a pre-war nationalist book, yet was still well received by many. Just a few months later, the UFP passed a legislation to establish a sub-committee to build national unity known as The Parliamentary Sub-Comitee on a Common Language (PSC-CL). In 1967, the PSC-CL passed a set of rules around language, a highly debated topic, known as the Language Act of 1967. Included was the creation of a the Commission on the Slokaisian Language to create a new national language in addition to the national languages of English and Spanish.

The Commission on the Slokaisian Language was made up of 27 members, with representatives languages from each major language group as well linguistic scholars from several universities. Included in the committee were some surviving Basha Slokasian experts who largely pushed for the existing system to be implemented. However it was argued by Professor David Yuen, the Slokasian Bashra system largely relied on the San Fernando dialect of Spainsh and didn't include representation for Mandarin or speakers of indigenous languages. The work of the committee was largely focused on expanding the Slokaisian Language Dictionary from around 1,000 words to about 10,000. These words were often developed from existing words with balance given to major languages. In addition, each Commission member was trained to speak the language during development so issues with grammar could be addressed as they arose. Eventually after 3 year's, the Commission released a report for language implementation with January 1st, 1973 being declared as the start date for it's use as one of the three official languages.

Writing System

Slokaisian is written in direct Latin script to be understandable for English and Spanish speakers and also uses 24 letters.