Meng

Meng is an almost-extinct language, once spoken by the people of Pinmeng. A language isolate with unique phonemes and complex irregular grammar, it was regarded by non-speakers as impossible to learn. When Pinmeng was a region of the kingdom of Rupen, Meng was a point of pride for the people who spoke it and a crucial part of their identity. When the region became an independent state, Meng was made their official language.   However, when the Keizon Empire’s borders grew closer, the government of Pinmeng decided that protection from the Empire was more important, and made some very controversial changes to national policy in an effort to strengthen diplomatic ties with the country’s neighbouring independent superpowers. One of the notable acts it passed was to make Dmok its official language—not only that, but it actively suppressed the use of Meng. The rationale behind replacing Meng with Dmok was to give the impression of the people being more approachable and understandable—a flawed logic at best, given that language barriers were not an issue at all.   Dmok is a creole of Dming and Nokken, two languages which everybody on the continent of Tikaj can magically and innately understand at least one of, due to the law of portal linguistics. Dmok is commonly spoken in the central regions of Tikaj, where those born there can understand both portal languages. A conspiracy theory exists that the move was in fact orchestrated in secret by the Empire, in order to destabilise the Pinmeng government in advance of invasion by destroying its people’s confidence in it. While the theory is not widely believed, it does align well with the Empire’s typical underhanded practises.   The suppression of Meng happened incrementally: first by its removal from official status and use in official settings; then by its removal from education. After that, a series of laws were passed, restricting its use in different public settings; finally, its use was banned entirely, even in private. While there was a huge outcry, much public resistance, and most initially ignored the ban, the government escalated sentences for use of Meng until they were grossly disproportionate to the “crime”. It called those who spoke Meng in defiance of the ban as guilty of endangering their country—propaganda that the Empire would be proud of.   Once the Empire did invade, forty years after the ban had been put in effect, the government had more pressing problems than use of Meng. However, the language remains outlawed, and its diminished use during those forty years meant that few born in that time could speak it, and the continued ban meant that fewer still were able to pass it down the generations. Today, only about thirty native speakers of Meng exist, and the language’s continued illegal status means that only informal Meng spoken in private in the family home has survived.