1.1 Introduction
Novegradian (also called Novgorodian, from its name in Russian) is the official language of the Republic of Novegrad. It is the only documented language of the North Slavic branch, which preserved many archaisms not found in the other Slavic languages while at the same time acquiring many Uralic features. With approximately 52 million native speakers, mostly in Novegrad and Russia, it ranks as the 23rd most widely-spoken language on Earth.
1.2 History
Novegradian is descended from Proto-Slavic, a hypothetical language spoken in Eastern Europe prior to the mid first milennium AD. By the 7th century it had broken into four main dialect groups as the Slavic peoples migrated from their original homeland. The South Slavic branch gave rise to Old Church Slavonic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, and several other languages. The East Slavic branch gave rise to Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian. The West Slavic branch gave rise to Polish, Czech, and Slovak. The North Slavic branch became Novegradian and its many dialects.
Originally Novegradian and Russian were considered the same language, being just regional variants spoken in the kingdom of Kievan Rus'. However, this was not necessarily an accurate categorization, as the two languages already were displaying very different features. As Kievan Rus' fractured, the Empire of Novegrad distanced itself from the Russians of Kiev and later Moscow, and the Novegradian language began to develop its distinct identity.
The empire's growth brought the language in contact with many different Uralic peoples, whose own languages influenced Novegradian greatly. Church Slavonic was also a major influencing force due to the presence of the Orthodox Church in Novegrad. The process of codifying the language began in the 17th century. Its spelling system has gone through a number of reforms up until reaching its current state in 1918.