Old Vasruga

The language dominated the current Satri Marus of the Vasaraga, which was the province where Vasruga people were the majority. Its strongholds were the Vasu River and the oases scattered across the Great Southern Desert. Every city and oasis had unique dialects and phrases. It was the spoken language used most often in everyday life. Priests used an older form of the language when worshipping the gods, writing scripture, and singing hymns. This supposedly pure form of Vasruga originated before the exodus over the mountains many centuries ago. As the spoken varieties diverged significantly from the Fahris languages spoken west of the mountains, the ancient types remained similar each another.   The Barturi Empire conquered the region and ruled for several centuries. Cultural exchange over trans-desert trade routes was common before the conquest. Many Fahris had already learned Barturi to communicate with their northern neighbors. The transition from Vasruga accelerated after the conquest. First, the upper classes adopted Barturi to ingratiate themselves with their new rulers. Some resisted initially, but the Empire’s influence eventually triumphed. Next, urban dwellers began to speak the language, eager to imitate their social superiors. The cities served as the initial points from which Barturi spread. Villages and towns then adopted it, while the oases were the last points to resist the language change.
Vasruga simply didn’t abandon their ancestral tongue overnight. Children learned Barturi as a second language. The next several generations grew up bilingual. Eventually, fewer and fewer Vasruga learned the old tongue. Monolingualism then dominated. As Old Vasruga was forgotten as a vernacular, it persisted in the hallowed confines of temples and shrines. The priests to the many Vasruga gods never ceased to use the language, as it was believed the gods never listened to tongues used by humans. Unfortunately, songs and scripture written in Old Vasruga were also forgotten because knowledge of the language declined even among the priesthood. The gods need to make do with holy words, the priests decided. They relied on a Barturi-based language sprinkled with Vasruga words well into the Satri period.