On the 21st of February it’s the International Mother Language Day This day exists to promote multilingualism and to bring awareness to linguistic and cultural diversity. We want you to write about a language that used to exist in your world. What happened to the language? Write about it in a language template article, you will find a link to the prompt of this Flash Challenge further down in the rules.

“To have another language is to possess a second soul”
— Charlemagne.

languages

By Hanna Wright

So why did this language disappear? What happened to it’s people? Where they all killed? Did they naturally die out? Did they join another culture? What did your world lose when this language disappeared? How was it culturally important? Was it used for magic? For science?

The most common way in our world is a slow death when it’s speakers become bilingual and lose proficiency in their original language over several generations. This happens when people learn a language that will gain them more social and economic advantages.

Here is a video you can listen to about the subject: Language Death by Langfocus You can also try out this game: Dialect

 

RULES

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984

– First, you need a World Anvil account.

plastic letters to write languages with

By Jason Leung

– Minimum of 300 words and a maximum of 1500 words.

– One article per account, one person per account.

– The article needs to be public.

– Submit the article before the 23th of February, at 12:01AM GMT (the site time, look at the bottom of almost all pages of WorldAnvil.)

– Go to this prompt page and create your article.

-You can also post the link to your article as a reply to this blog post, but for it to count you have to link it by creating the article from the prompt page.

 

PRIZES

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein.

 

books of different languages

By Pricilla du Preez

-The pride of having finished an article.

-Fun with friends, if you haven’t joined the discord do so and join in on the fun on the #challenge-discussion channel. (#sync-your-roles to see it) You can find a link to the discord at the top right corner after clicking the circle with a question mark.

-Janet and Dimitris will show off some of the entries on a stream over at the WorldAnvil Twitch channel when there is time. If you aren’t already following it, jump on over there and give it a follow, that way you won’t miss out on any of the WorldAnvil streams.

-Some articles might even be featured on the site over on your dashboard.

 

OTHER CHALLENGES

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
— Toni Morrison

Want to plan what challenges you want to join? Check out this year’s challenges: WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Challenges -2021 Edition!

Or check out our older Flash Challenges: Birthrites and Afterlives