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Published: 2011-07-01 02:43:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 2529; Favourites: 8; Downloads: 11
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Description
So this map is a general imaging of language dialects within the German Empire from my 1400 TL. Most of the colors are fairly straight forward, though I will explain them all here.The Official Language of the Empire is German. It is spoken in all levels of government, business, education, transportation, and elsewhere. Lower (Saxon) German, shown in the TCS Saxony color is one main German dialect and, though regionally different, is not different enough to warrant the government any care over how it's defined. Central German is shown as the color TCS Prussia, and is identical to OTL German. It is the "Official" Dialect, but again, the differences are too minute for anyone to really care. High (Austrian) German is shown here with Austria's TCS color. And it too is a dialect that is widely known and used, but not cared to be expanded upon.
Dutch, shown here with the color that has been reserved for The Netherlands in the TCS, is far closer to German than in OTL. However, the differences between the Dutch and "Main" German Dialects are far greater than the differences between the "Main" German Dialects. As such it is better defined and, though still considered German, is not used in the highest levels of government, though throughout Benelux, is used as German is used elsewhere.
Other "Primary" German Dialects include surviving Lombardic (TCS Venice), Burgundian (TCS Belgium), Vandalic (TCS "Unified German"), and Gothic (TCS Spanish/Castilian) German Dialects. They differ from one another in the same manner that Dutch differs from TTL German, yet they all differ from TTL German in the same manner that OTL Dutch differs from OTL German. They are all given regional status and are considered as Official German Languages, but are not used in any government role outside of their regions of use.
TCS Poland and TCS Denmark denote regions where those two languages are considered official in that region. However, in these regions, German is used everywhere excluding private use. It is mandated in Government roles and encouraged in business, industry, and education.
Here, it gets tricky: Every region with the large spot, is a language that has a simply majority that continues to use that language in their private use, limited mostly to their personal lives. TCS Poland has this status in many regions. TCS "Radical Russia" here is OTL Baltic Prussian, and is only spoken in the Province of Prussia. TCS "Tsarist Russia" denotes Lithuanian, spoken as a large majority in the Duchy of Lithuania.
The small dots show minority languages that are spoken in those regions. In the west, French is the largest minority language, spoken in six of seven border provinces as well as Elsaß and the western most cantons of Helvetica (Switzerland). Burgundian is a minority language in Luxembourg, Wallonia, and Helvetica. Also Minority "Dialects" for Helvetica: Central German and High German. The TCS color for Turkey is used here to denote minority languages of a Slavic nature: Slovene, Croat, Bosnian, Dalmatian, Slovak, Ruthenian, Bohemian, Moravian, Ukranian, Russian, "True Polish" (OTL Polish[1]), and Sorbian. In Schleswig, Low German is a minority language, though also the official government language. And the final minority language, utilizing the color for TCS Isreal, is Romanian.
[1] True Polish, ITTL denotes OTL Polish as we define it. However, Polish as defined by TTL's German Empire, is a variation of Polish that is very heavily influenced by TTL's German Dialects. True Polish is Slavic in nature while Polish is Balto-Germanic in nature that has been "dirtied" by Slavic influences.