Languages of Uralica

Uralica is a land of great linguistic diversity, and prides itself on having fewer monoglots (speakers of only one language) than any other nation in the world.

As of the last census, Uralicans registered 55 spoken languages. Of these, 32 have national official status (meaning all government documents must be available in the languages), and another four have "recognised regional minority" status, and a few others have "protected status."

The "Big Three"
Finnish - the most common language spoken in Uralica, in spite of the fact that the land of Uralica is within former Russian lands. The language actually varies slightly throughout Uralica, with there being four main dialects.

There is the Uralican Spoken Finnish standard, which is most common in the eastern half of the nation and has the greatest number of speakers - around 33 million - of the four. It is considered a "neutral dialect."

The distinctive Sointula Finnish dialect is also spoken in Uralica, although this one has the smallest number of speakers, numbering only around 1500 people, almost all of which live in Syktyvkar.

Around Viipuri and Käkisalmi, the Suomenkarjala dialect is spoken.

Finally, the Sortavala dialect is spoken in the old Republic of Karelia.

Russian - the second-most common language in Uralica is the Russian language, which is only natural considering Russia once owned all the land that currently constitutes Uralica. Just as Uralican Spoken Finnish is influenced by Russian, Uralican Spoken Russian is influenced (albeit not quite as much) by Finnish. In the areas further-removed from the core area of Russian influence (that is, Sankt-Peterburg and Moskva), the "я" letter is sometimes pronounced as a Finnish ä (that is, /æ/), and "a" is backed (/ɑ~ɐ/). This is mostly a trait that has been found in the more northerly areas, and is one of the markers of "Northern Uralican Russian," along with dentalisation of alveolar plosives and the coalescence of the Щ (/ɕtɕ/ or /ɕɕ/) into simply /ɕ/.

One feature noticed in regular speech by linguists studying Russian-speakers in Uralica regardless of geography, is the reduction of unstressed ы (/ɨ~ɯ/) to /ə/ when not followed by an off-glide.

English - the third-most common language, boasting about 86% of Uralica's population worth of speakers, it is considered important as a global lingua franca, and is also the mother tongue of Tribal Chief Jarkko Salomäki. Unlike Finnish or Russian, there is only one distinct dialect spoken, which while very much based on Western Canadian English, has its own quirks, such as the retention of the low back rounded vowel /ɒ/ in words with the "short o" such as "God" or "pot," and the linguistically odd transformation of /j/ into /ɟ/ word-initially. Also, if /t/ and /j/ are on opposite ends of a syllable boundary, it will sometimes coalesce into /c/.

Still, Uralican English is largely understandable by North Americans and speakers of most other dialects, even though it does have its regionalisms.

Over 1 Million Speakers
Hungarian - with a large population having moved to Uralica from Old Hungary, Hungarian has risen in status to become the fourth-most-spoken language in Uralica, with around ten and a half million total speakers. Many Khants and Mansis also speak this language, since it is close to their own.

Udmurt - of the Uralican languages of Russia, Udmurt is by far the most vigorous, with around eight million speakers total, including 100% of the population of Udmurtiya North, 94% of the population of Udmurtiya South (including the Agryz enclave which does not become part of Uralica until 13 January 2010), and 100% of the population of Izhevsk unitary authority. Although of these, only around four hundred twenty thousand are mother-tongue speakers, this number is expected to increase dramatically in the next generation, as the number of people using Udmurt in the home has skyrocketed since the foundation of Uralica. Spoken mainly in the south-central part of the country - historical Udmurtiya, Permski Rayon, and Kirovski Rayon in particular.

Estonian - Around a million mother tongue speakers and roughly six and a half million total speakers of Estonian live in Uralica. This does not count the Võru language, which some consider a dialect of Estonian, but is listed as a separate, recognised language within Uralica's constitution.

Komi - Despite only being spoken as a mother-tongue language by around three hundred thousand, this language is spoken by around six million as a second language. This is not to be confused with the Komi ethnic group, which also includes the Permyak.

Eastern Mari - the much more widely-spoken of the two Mari languages, this vigorous language has five million speakers, of which around six hundred thousand are mother-tongue speakers. Many of these live in Mari El, however there are also a great many living in Kirovski Rayon in Mari-named centres such as Viche Alan and Ürzhüm, and in parts of Permski Rayon as well.

This language has three recognised dialects within Uralica as well: Eastern, North-Western, and Meadow Mari.

Chuvash - the only Turkic language spoken in Uralica having full official status, Chuvash is mainly spoken in Chuvashia, eastern Mordovia, and Mari El, although there are pockets of speakers elsewhere. Before Chuvashia joined Uralica, the Chuvash language had "recognised regional minority" status in Mari El. At its low point, Chuvash had around a million speakers. Now the number is closer to three million, of which around nine hundred thousand are mother-tongue speakers.

Permyak - once considered a dialect of Komi, and still grouped in a "Komi" subgroup of the Permian branch of Finno-Permic, this language is spoken by close to two and a half million people, mainly in Permski Rayon, the Kudymkar Circle, and the unitary authorities in the area. The number of mother-tongue speakers doesn't even constitute five percent of the speaking population, with around ninety-thousand people claiming mother-tongue status. Of these, many live in northern Permski Rayon or in the Kudymkar Circle.

Moksha - the more-spoken of the two Mordvin languages, but not by much. Formerly co-official with Russian and Erzya in the old Russian republic of Mordovia, Moksha is mainly spoken in the southern half of Mordoviya and in parts of Chuvashia, and has around one and a half million speakers, of which a little under one in three are native speakers.

Erzya - although Erzya has more native speakers than Moksha, it has about a hundred fifty thousand fewer speakers overall. Spoken in northern Mordoviya and Chuvashia.

Between 1 Million - 100 Thousand
Karelian - Mostly spoken in Karelia with a decent number of speakers in Sapmi, Karelian has roughly eight hundred fifty thousand speakers.

Võru - almost the entire mother-tongue population of this language lives in Uralica now, roughly eighty thousand strong. The total number of speakers of the language is closer to two hundred fifty thousand, with the remainder mainly being mother-tongue Estonian speakers. A good number of speakers live in Vaahruše.

Plautdietsch - boasting around two hundred forty thousand speakers on Planet Bob in early 2006 after the Cataclysm, this Mennonite language has experienced a revival within Uralica and now has around two hundred thousand fluent speakers of the language, including Jarkko Salomäki, in this nation alone.

Meänkieli - this daughter language of Finnish originating in Sweden has around a hundred eighty thousand speakers, including roughly sixty-five thousand mother-tongue speakers. Many of them live in Karelia.

Kven - a major language in Sapmi county, Kven has around a hundred fifty thousand speakers, many of whom live in either Montsa or Apatity. Has its origins in Finnmark, a region of what was once Norway.

Western Mari - the number of mother-tongue speakers of this language bottomed out around twenty thousand after the Uralic Purges, but a revitalisation effort spurred on by Uralikan Yliopisto has been successful in bringing the number of second-language speakers up - most of these are either Finns living in western Mari El, Eastern-speaking Mari, or Chuvash people, with the total number of speakers now around a hundred ten thousand.

Saami Languages
Northern Saami - the most-spoken Saami Language, it has emerged as the literary language of the entire Saami ethnicity, and has thus been quicker to grow, now boasting some seventy thousand speakers. The city of Käddluhtt is a major centre for this language.

Lule Saami - with origins in Sweden, all speakers of this language are at least bilingual in Swedish, but have tried to rejuvenate their own language - this was set back somewhat by the Cataclysm, however the language now boasts around nine thousand five hundred speakers, with most living in Karhumägi, Karelia.

Kildin Saami - With roughly five thousand speakers, this language's future is considered better than it was at the beginning of the Robertian Era, when it barely had a tenth of that number. Most Kildin-speakers live in or around Montsa, Sapmi

Skolt Saami - at the beginning of the Robertian Era, this language was considered moribund, however, the Uralic Purges brought a couple nations to the point where they desired to try to revitalise the language. It has only had moderate success, however with all the ethnic Saami born in the area now speaking the language, as Jarkko Salomäki says, "it's a start." Only has around three thousand speakers, but children learn the language in schools in Sapmi county, especially in Käddluhtt and Kuálõk, both of which are settlements with Skolt names.

Inari Saami - this language was once exclusively spoken in one specific municipality in Finland, after which it was named. However, the destruction of Inari during the First Polar War forced the entire Saami community to move. They would join their fellow Skolts in what was then Murmansk Oblast. When Uralica was formed, they would establish a new settlement, Uusiinari, not far from Olenegorsk. A municipal rule is that all living in the settlement must speak Inari Saami, and the settlement was recently granted town status, thanks to a census putting the rough total of speakers at 2,500.

Southern Sami - The population speaking this language fled its "strongholds" in Norway during the Cataclysm, and would end up in

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