Kryvich language

Kryvich language (kryv. кръıвıцкаѧ мова, kryvickaĭa mova, IPA: [krɨvit͡s̞kaja mɔva]; historical names — Ruska, Ruthenian, Lithuanian, White Ruthenian) is an East Slavic language. It is considered the national language of the Kryvich people, the Kryvich Democratic Republic, and the Kryvich diaspora worldwide (but predominantly in neighboring countries).

Like the state itself, the status of the Kryvich language is somewhat controversial due to the relatively young age of its official codification. Nationalist Kryvichi consider it one of the oldest languages in Europe, continuously used since the time of the Kryvich tribe up to the present day. Meanwhile, some Kryvichi, especially from Central Lithuania, refer to the language as "Lithuanian", emphasizing its status as the primary language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Both of these theories are subject to criticism from neighbors, partly due to their own nationalism and/or territorial claims over Kryvich lands.

Owning to their young age, the exact name of the language in English correspondence is also not fixed: the name "Western Russian" is very common among older and Pro-Russian documents, while the Soviet and Soviet adjacent countries call it "White Ruthenian" (Belarusian). For the sake of neutrality, this article will refer to the language as "Kryvich".

Alphabets
Kryvich language officially uses both Latin and Cyrillic at the same time. The pharisng of the previous sentence is deliberate: though both alphabets were created in 1918, the Latin script was developed first and has a stable tradition of usage among Kryvich intelligentsia as their alphabet of choice. Cyrillic, on the other hand, though also commonly used and having some variants proposed before, was made by Bronislav Taraskevic as more of a compromise with the Orthodox Kryvichi.

Historically, Kryvich language was also written using Arabic (Lipka Tatars) and Hebrew scripts (Kryvian Jews), though as of 1930's the Lipka's have transitioned to current Kryvian standard, while the Kryvian Jews almost all use and write in Yiddish.

Cyrillic
Kryvian Cyrillic is based on the Russian alphabet and has 35 letters and one digraph. Outside of two specific letters, it's all supported by Unicode.

Latin
It is typically believed that the Kryvich Latin alphabet was created on the basis of the Polish alphabet, but this is not entirely correct. Although the Kryvich Latin script is clearly based on the Polish Latin script (which has a historical tradition of use), its modern form is the brainchild of Rudolf Abicht and has survived many revisions. Its initial version did not have capital letters, softening was depicted with the help of a diacritical dot, and the shape of some letters had a radically different appearance. This was done purposefully in order to, quote: "get rid of Polish and Russian writing and firmly stand on the path of Kryvichi". The lack of letters and diacritics in the printing houses combined with passive resistance from the people forced Tarashkevich and others to modify it to the current form, but nevertheless, Abicht 's original idea to separate Latin from its neighbours has been more of less preserved.

Kryvich Latin has 35 letters, two digraphs and one crucial diacritic. One letter is not supported by Unicode:

Morse
Morse code was not officially adopted by the Kryvich Democratic Republic, but nevertheless a "folk" version for the Kryvich language exists and is used enough by radio amateurs for it to be de facto considered as such.


 * 1) Kryvichi Morse code follows the "one letter - one sound" principle. Because of this all iotated sounds and digraphs are written using their respective letters.

How to write in Kryvich
Modern Kryvich language (read 1920-1930s) is in many ways similar to the Belarusian language of our world. Like in our world, the works of Branislaw Tarashkyevich, who codified his grammar based on dialects with a clear akanye and a hard pronunciation of the letter R. Because of this, 1918-1930 editions of Taraškievica (also known as Belarusian Classical Orthography) would be more than enough for an authentic representation of the Kryvich language. Even later 2005 edition will suffice, albeit with some limitations. Still, Kryvich orthography has some differences from both modern and classical Belarusian:

Letters

 * The letter G/Ґ is used to represent the [g] sound and is used mostly in loans and some rare native words. Some foreign proper nouns can be written with the letter H/Г, even though it’s pronounced as “G”. Thanks to this, the printers use H and G almost interchangeably, though there are written rules on how and when to use each letter. There is also some debate on the point of having this letter at all, as most Kryvichi consistently assimilate this sound, outside of [z̪g], [d͡z̞g] and [d͡ʒg].
 * Vašyngton, V́urtemberg, Grande
 * anegdot, vagzal, gvalt
 * mozah-masgi
 * Hrenĺandyĭa — Grenĺandyĭa, Hibraĺtar — Gibraĺtar

Stylistic differences

 * When choosing between a loanword and a native word an educated Kryvich will always write the latter, even if the meaning doesn’t change. However, it is only up to him as to what constitutes a “native” word.
 * Some words and punctuation rules are deliberately archaic. It should be noted that these are mostly stylistic, that is, they don’t influence the meaning and are written solely for historical authenticity or just because. In some cases, as with the words "младъı/mlady" and "мѧгкасць/ḿahkasć" even the pronunciation is the same as in Modern Belarusian.

To write “Kryvich” it’s best to use Tarashkyevich “Biełaruskaja hramatyka dla škoł” circa 1918 and Belarusian dictionaries of 1918-1925 preferably. For archaisms, one should (carefully) use “Гістарычны слоўнік беларускай мовы” (Belarusian Historical Dictionary)
 * (modern belarusian) армянін/armianin — (kryvich) армєѧнıн/arḿeĭanın
 * (mb) па-армянску/pa-armiansku — (kryv) паармєѧнску/paarḿeĭansku
 * (mb) мяккасць/miakkasć — (kryv) мѧгкасць/ḿahkasć
 * (mb) аўдыенцыя/aŭdyjencyja — (kryv) аўдэнцъıѧ/aŭdencyĭa
 * (mb) алмаз/almaz — (kryv) адамант/adamant
 * (mb) малады/malady — (kryv) младъı/mlady

Correct spelling of words

 * The first difference is the representation of β and θ in loanwords from Greek. In Taraškievica they are represented in Latin tradition, B and T respectively. Normative Kryvich orthography states the same thing, but in reality, there is a clear religious divide: Catholics consistently read and write down B and T (abat, symbaĺ, Bızantyĭa, artahrafıĭa, mıt, matematyka, rytm), while Orthodox consistently write and read V and F (avat, symvaĺ, Vızantyĭa, arfahrafıĭa, mıf, mafematyka, ryfm). This difference is a sign of a transitional period and in the future may be removed or addressed in newer editions of the orthography.
 * There are arguments about using the letter F/Ѳ, which is considered to be “foreign to Kryvichi people”. In Taraškievica these differences will finally be normalised only in 2005, but for the Kryvichi this is still a hotly contested topic. Officially F is only to be used in words that were recently loaned, while others are to be written with a digraph “ȟv”/“хв” (“ch” in this case being the letter), but what words are “recently loaned” is still not clear. Because of this everyone writes based on their knowledge and artistic sense:
 * ȟvorma, ȟvabryka — forma, fabryka