.:Ancient Kumogakurian:.
History of the Variations
The ancient language of Kumogakure was a regional dialect of a now extinct language of eidolons past. It survived its predecessor through cultural expansion and flourished during the advent of Cloud's militaristic conversion. Today there exists two dialects whose splits occurred around the same time for different purposes: The Vulgar Variant and the Classical Variant.
The Vulgar Variant has its origins during the Chaos Era, when flocks of immigrants from decimated lands made their way to the nascent settlement in Lightning country. At first they ignored the traditional language until a wave of backlash nationalism swept Kumogakure's previous residents into action and began enforcing linguistically draconian laws. Unable to return to their homeland, immigrants attempted to learn the native language while unintentionally introducing new words from previous archaic tongues. Words from foreign languages gnashed with the traditional mellifluous pronunciation and soon the language began to morph into the style recognized today. The Raikage Yamada Yuki feared that the loss of tradition would be catastrophic towards the descendants of the first settlers, so he organized a linguistics team to not only gather all known Pre-Chaos Kumogakure words, but to also he authorized a suppression of the vulgarized variant. Despite the waves of repression meted out against the variant, they met with resistance on nearly every level from folk tales to musical lyrics. The suppression was doomed to fail because of the inability to control thought. The retaliatory efforts were officially abandoned after only a year of enforcement. Resigned to allow the vulgar variant to flourish, the efforts of the linguistic team were redirected to salvage the ever-dwindling traditional language. Multitudes of scholars painstakingly worked to identify words that existed before the Chaos Era and compiled them into a set of scrolls now referred to as the Holy Tongue. In an ironic twist, the efforts of purity eventually terminated the language as anything more than a literary relic. Once the task was complete and the language fully usurped, the elite of Kumogakure hoarded the language allowing only the privileged few, whether it'd be those born of wealth or those proven in battle, to learn the language as a status symbol. The monopolization of the classical variant exists to this day despite populist movements on the part of local leaders to allow the knowledge to fall into open domain. The Classical variant remained mostly identical to the originally scribed version (or at least assumed so) while the Vulgar expanded only to decline after centuries of dominance to the now preferred Common. The Vulgar tongue's continued usage allowed it to graft important cultural additions, leaving both languages, despite the uniform origin, to vary in intonations, grammar, written symbols and social differential protocols.
The Vulgar Variant of Ancient Kumogakurian
The Vulgar Variant is the second most dominant language in Kumogakure even with regards to its increasing disuse. While previous eras had comprehensively taught this variant towards generations of citizens, the increasing popularity of the Common tongue has left the Vulgar variant to exist as mostly as a relic of the past. It can be found most dominantly spoken in the northern regions of the country or in small pocket regions who continue to use it. Only few people these days are born in neighbourhoods fluent in this style and most learn it as part of an educational addendum in their military careers for the purposes of secrecy. Initiatives by the most recent series of administrations have funded a comprehensive class for shinobi willingly to learn the language.
In RP, the language is written with a simple bbcode
[kumogakurean=Classic or Vulgar or Spy]The message goes here[/kumogakurean] For members of Kumogakure who have the requisite knowledge, they always retain the right to ask the user what the text means through private message if you do not post a translation in a spoiler at the end of your post, although they can just copy the text and paste it into a text editor to see the message in full. Vulgar Ancient Kumo looks like: This is a message in vulgar ancient. When RP'd, it must be written with size 22, it'll look big until previewed or posted, that's entirely normal. The Vulgar tongue takes many roots from the more Common language of the land, hence why some of the more frequently used words sound familiar such as Apple or Travel when an active attempt to decipher is made. Also, note that Vulgar has no question marks or other certain punctuation. Do not add those in.In order to learn this language, you must post in the Bibliotheca Conscientiae with your Extra RP slot (not including your free RPs, or lesson RP). This is known as a Study Post. There is only one study post required that must approximate 500 words or unless the topic is extended which in case the entire user's contribution to the topic must be 500 words. There is no restriction on the upper limit on posts nor a restriction on whether a character can learn it alongside a friend. The only restriction is that at the conclusion of any thread, no matter how short or how long, there will need to be at least 500 words per user to gain proficiency. Once you have posted, post a request in Cloud request to have your new language approved and keep a link to that in your profile as it says you have acquired the knowledge to use and understand the Vulgar Variant of Ancient Kumogakurian. The only IC requisites to learning this language is to portray learning a language accurately. While you don't have to wait several months Out of Character, please keep in mind that it does take months if not years and it is encouraged to retcon your character history to reflect your tutelage. So continuity-wise, you may act as if you had been learning it for large periods of time. (For example, you could post a story that is a flashback or your character learning the language as a child)
The Classical Variant of Ancient Kumogakurian
For most shinobi, their linguistic career expires after the fluency of the Vulgar offshoot; however, there are a rare few that are privileged enough to begin the education process of the Classical Variant. This is a more difficult process and only a select few are ever allowed to even gaze at the scrolls, let alone learn it. The Classical Variant is much harder to learn and requires full permission of the Raikage himself. Yet even after such approvals, a background check is established for security. No foreigner is ever allowed to read anything from these scrolls, and anyone taught spreading the language is put to death along with everyone who learned from the violator. The Classical Variant's study starts within the Jounin rank, once a character knows Vulgar, and after the appropriate permission from the Raikage had been sought.
Classical Ancient Kumo looks like: This is a message in classical ancient
When RP'd, it is written with size 26, which looks huge, but is fine when previewing or posting, it's recommended to add 2 extra spaces following the bbcode. The differences between the Classical and Vulgar are quite profound. While the Vulgar sounds eclectic at times, the Classical always retains an aura of commanding melody intermixed with the ferocity of thunder. To those who only know Vulgar, the Classical tongue seems foreign yet strangely familiar. They can only tell few words every once in a while and even then they are usually those mostly used by the general population, such as "shinobi" or "war."
Only one study post is required to learn the Classical Variant of Ancient Kumogakurian but only if the Raikage has given permission o do so. The only difference in this level of study is that the word requirement is now 1000 words for the brave few willing to take the challenge. Once the requirement has been met, post in Cloud Request, and a Cloud Councilman will inspect and appraise the post and reward the proficiency if found satisfactory.
Finally, a new language has been devised for use by the Kumogakurean ANBU branch, as well as the Spy division of the Main Branch. It's called the Kumogakurean Encoded Language, or KumoCode for short, and looks like this: This is a message in Kumogakurean Encoded.
The requirements to obtain knowledge of KumoCode is to be Chuunin+ in the Spy Division of the Main Branch, or ANBU+ in the ANBU Branch. Mednin serving in the ANBU/Mednin Cooperative division can also learn the language.
** please note that for mission/event NPCs there is no requirement to make a studeny post but personal NPCs will be required to make one in order to learn the language just like a PC
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