MotF 63: Those Strange Tongues

[Krall]

Those Strange Tongues


The Challenge
Make a map showing the linguistic geography of a region that is dominated by a language that did not dominate that region in our timeline.


The Restrictions
There are no restrictions on when your PoD or map may be set. Future maps and ASB (i.e. blatant implausibility) are not allowed.

Your map must be at least partially linguistic - you must show the extent of the alternate dominant language in some way. This does not need to be the main focus of your map (e.g. making a political map with a small insert that shows the linguistic geography of the same region is acceptable) and you may show other languages in the region if you want.


If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me.


The entry period for this round shall end on Saturday 28th of July.

!THIS THREAD IS FOR POSTING OF ENTRIES ONLY!

Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread then you will be asked to delete the post. If you refuse to delete the post, post something that is clearly disruptive or malicious, or post spam then you may be disqualified from entering in this round of MotF and you may be reported to the board's moderators.


Remember to vote on the previous round of MoF!

[JJDXB]

My first entry in the MotF

Basically, Spanish, not English, became the dominant foreign language of the Philippines, eventually, like English itself, becoming a dominant language altogether.

EDIT: Smaller map version

[pearsonwright]

How the Map Works:
This Map is a collection of maps, which can be accessed each by clicking one of the buttons at the top of the map. (They will link you to a Political Map, Population Density Map, Map of Language Groups, Map of the German Language, Map of the Berber Language, and a Map of the Arabic Language). It is recommended you press the "#3" at the top right corner of this post before interacting with the map. (Also, "Dominant Area's are where that Language is the most spoken, and "Secondary Area's are where the Language is spoken by the second greatest amount of people)

Backstory:
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This action prompted a declaration of War against Serbia by Austria-Hungary. The rest of Europe was brought into the war by a complicated web of alliances. Austria-Hungary's Ally, Germany, managed to defeat France quickly by crossing through Belgium and quickly capturing Paris. After Paris was captured, France and Belgium (which by then had been mostly occupied) capitulated and discussed terms. Belgium ceded the Belgian Congo to Germany, and France ceded French Equatorial Africa, and its Protectorate of Morocco (which the German's had long been eyeing) in exchange for peace. After the protectorate was ceded to Germany, the French Pied-Noir's of Morocco, fled to French Algeria. Back In Europe, Russia found itself facing Germany and Austria-Hungary alone. As a result, Russia made peace with the Central Powers, in exchange for releasing Courland, Congress Poland, and Lithuania as German Puppets. The UK, protected by the sea's was able to receive a White Peace.

After gaining control of Morocco, Germany began to improve its infrastructure, and build new port facilities to host an expanding German Navy. In order to service this navy, and improve it's hold on Morocco, Germany began encouraging some of its citizens to move to Morocco, in return for generous land and property grants. Morocco, was soon competing with the USA, Poland, Lithuania, and Courland as top area's for German immigration (Germany had goals in the east of incorporating its puppet states eventually). German settler's settled primarily along the River's of Morocco, and in cities and their vicinity. Eventually, Germany had a sizable population in Morocco (about 15%), and due to the Settler's influence, many Local's (especially in the cities), began to adopt German as their language to help facilitate Commerce. Due to the fact that Rural area's of Morocco are not very dependent on the cities, the German Language has made few inroads to Rural communities.

Currently, (in 1960) German, although confined to small area's of the country is the Countries Lingua franca, due to the high German populations of the cities, and Morocco being part of the German Colonial Empire. Long-Term, Germany hopes to have an ethnic population of at least 50% Germans, and for most, if not all of the native Moroccan's to learn German by the end of the century.

[Lascupa0788]

(I had a big description of kingdoms and events and epicness, but the bloody dog turned my computer off.)

Basically, The Angles and Saxons form into rival federations and the two languages separate. A long time later, a single queen inherits the thrones of Seaxony, England, and Wales. This United Kingdom goes on to be a major power, but never comes close to the caliber of OTL's UK. ITTL, Mann stays fully independent right into the 1600s, when it is conquered by the UK in fear that the Irish might take it instead. Resistance is so great, that by the modern day Manx is still the dominant language, unlike OTL.

(P.S. North is down.)

[Future8]

Right before the Hafsid Dynasty got around to making treaties with Spain, Genoa invaded it. The Hafsid Dynasty, limited to Tunis and without any allies was quickly taken over by Genoa, who established a stable colony in and send many settlers to coastal Tunisia with no one else contesting the land.

However, within a few decades, a superpower did begin to contest the area: the Ottomans. While Genoa wasn't willing to give up any land to the Ottomans, the local government in Tunisia, which had developed a different identity than the rest of Genoa, struck up a deal with the Ottomans: if they helped Tunisia gain freedom from Genoa and gave them Tripoli, they would come de jure under Ottoman control and pay them the annual tax.

The deal was too good for the Ottomans to pass up: Tunisia would probably end up de jure under Ottoman control anyway; Tripoli was mostly under the control of pirates, so it wouldn't make a major difference to give it to Tunisia, and a lot of troops would be saved from being killed over an area that would end up self-governed. The Ottomans quickly defeated Genoa at the Battle of Tabarka.

Tunisia gained independence and got Tripoli, and the Ottomans gained a valuable piece of land. For the next few centuries, the ruling class of Tunisia, which was mostly Genoese, both influenced and were influenced by Tunisia. They adopted Islam, though not Arabic; instead, most of Tunisia and Tripoli began speaking Genoese. Most of history continued the OTL way after that.

Other than the language, of course. Today, most Tunisians speak Genoese fluently, alongside Arabic, with the exception of Tunisians from Gabes and Gafsa, who speak mostly Arabic. In Algeria, citizens of the city of Annaba speak Genoese, and the province of Annaba is unique in that it is the only province of Algeria where a language other than French and Arabic are official languages. Most Libyans also understand Genoese, with Tripoli being the capital. In Tripolitania, nearly everyone speaks Genoese as well.

And so, a language which in OTL is almost entirely spoken in one city ends up being the official language of a country, the official language of a region and the official language of a city, all three in an entirely different continent than the continent of the language's mother city.

[Future8]

And the map:

[Muwatalli']

My MOTF entry (and also my first real map with GIMP):

The POD is that the Franks never manage to create an empire as powerful as in OTL. Therefore, OTL Eastern Germany stays fully Slavic. After a while, the tribes in these areas start to unite. The new country is known as Wendska, derived from the Germanic word Wend, which they used to denote the Slavs living in this area.

-The main language in Wendska is Wendish. It is the official language and the native tongue most of the people in Wendska.
-Kashubian is still spoken by some people in the northeast of the country. It is not that important, because most of its speakers have switched already to Wendish.
-Polish is spoken by the Polish minority in Lubuska.
-German is in this TL not a unified language. Low German and High German are the two most important German languages. Both languages are spoken by the Germanic minority (about 10% of the Wendish population) in the west of the country. Low German is spoken in the north, whilst High German is spoken in the south.
-Jutish is spoken by the small Jutish minority in South Jutland.
-There are also some small Turkish communities in Wendska. They are all small communities, close to the border of the Khaganate (the Turkish Khaganate conquered the largest part of Rus’ in the 13th century)

[Æsir]

Literal last minute entry. Not very good, either.

[Ares96]

In this, Sancho III's sons Ferdinand and Gonzalo both die before their father does, making the entire domains fall to Garcia after his father's death. As such, Navarre, rather than Castille, survives to become a major power in Iberia, although Leon's continued independence (since Ferdinand didn't live to take the throne there) prevents it becoming the major power. Due to less internal feuding on the part of the Christians and more of it by the Muslims, the Reconquista goes faster then IOTL, with the last Muslim holdout (Algeciras) falling to the Leonese in 1345.