(Fictional) ESPLAR to launch Kalmyk and Buryat language services next week (4 February 2020)

(KATR-09 - ART)

February 4, 2020; by Elna Elshurnan (KLMK South Arcadia)

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Kalmyk, an Oirat Mongolic language that is spoken in the Russian Republic of Kalmykia as well as in Oirat County in south Arcadia, is one of two languages, the other being Buryat, being added to the Evanshire Super-Pro League of Auto Racing's language list at its official website next week. The addition of these two languages, especially Kalmyk, will serve to expand the audience of the series to a growing number of inhabitants across the archipelago who speak only Kalmyk or only Buryat and not English as a 2nd language, even though the vast majority of Kalmyk and Buryat speakers in Altruras (~45,000 as of 2019) also speak English.

As a language, Kalmyk has been on the decline since the 1950s, and was only widely saved thanks to efforts in the 2000s to inscribe endangered languages like Ossetian and Tuvan before they fell out of widespread use in Altruras. Although Kalmyk is no longer widespread in the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, the language is still spoken by a small group of people in south Arcadia; Oirat County, whose capital is Kalmar-Mecklenburg, is popular for Kalmyk speakers, spoken by 28% of inhabitants.

Buryat is another language being added to the ESPLAR database; however its implementation took a lot longer than anticipated due to complications regarding the Mongolian script which would be 2 primary methods of displaying the Buryat language, the other being Cyrillic. Today Buryat is spoken by 18,000 speakers of many ethnic groups across the archipelago, and is slowly rising thanks to online courses, while Tyrgard Lake University in NW Arcadia offers Buryat language courses. It is an official language besides English in Inlet County in frontier Auroia-Sylvania.

ESPLAR is working to better connect audiences across northern Europe, the Caucasus, northern Asia and Africa by engaging with them in their local languages, not just the majority language in their respective countries. Komi-Zyrian, Moksha Mordvinic, and Erzya Mordvinic were added last week to the ESPLAR website; Sakha (Turkic), Altai, Karelian, and Karachay-Balkar languages are being planned over the next few months.