Protolucidian Major
Protolucidian Major
moderate prevalence
low prevalence
sparse usage
Protolucidian Major—often simplified to Protolucidian in common and informal reference—is the most heavily-used spoken and written sub-language of the Protolucidian languages. Protolucidian Major is a minority language with usage primarily in the Timmons Peninsula and Brookeview Bay region of eastern Illuminatia. The most significant populations of Protolucidian Major speakers are concentrated in the vicinity of the cities of Anthem and Harmony.
Protolucidian Major—like all of the Protolucidian languages—is a constructed language that evolved from the greater Protolucidian language, which itself developed aboard the Lucidus mission. Protolucidian Major is considered to be central among the Protolucidian languages, with a vocabulary and structure that is developmentally more proximate to the ancillary Protolucidian languages than any of the other languages are to each other.
Protolucidian Major shares its closest relationship with its sister sub-language, Western Lucidian, which is spoken in southwestern Illuminatia in the vicinity of the Southwestern Megalopolitan Complex. Protolucidian Major is more distantly related to Quasilucidian and Demilucidian, which are used primarily in the Modal Peninsula and the continent's northeastern regions, respectively. Protolucidian Major remains mutually comprehensible with these languages, although the sub-languages aren't necessarily mutually understood amongst each other.
Protolucidian Major is natively spoken by 9% of Illuminatia's population. 15% of Illuminatians—including native users—are able to understand written and verbal Protolucidian Major as well as write and speak the language. 30% of Illuminatians have at least a functional understanding of Protolucidian Major in either written or spoken form if not both. Upmost Importance, Inc is the sole linguistics institution charged with preserving the language and regulating its usage.
Like all Protolucidian languages, Protolucidian Major is never used exclusively, but is instead spoken in complement of Illuminatia's common language, Glossa Communi. Protolucidian Major is taught electively in a minority of schools in southeastern Illuminatia where most of the language's speakers reside, though it is also taught as a specialty in a handful of schools in large population centers elsewhere in Illuminatia. Protolucidian Major is broadcast on a small number of wireless and telekinephotography outlets across the continent, and is printed in a selection of alternative publications in southeastern Illuminatia.
Distribution and divergence
The populations that use Protolucidian Major are concentrated in regions where descendant of survivors from the Lucidus II spacecraft reside. The inhabitants of Lucidus II shared their own common thread of the Protolucidian language which was only slightly differentiated from the Protolucidian used on the other Lucidus ships.
These branches of the language quickly diverged upon the population's arrival upon Neonisi, during a period when these populations were isolated from one another. Lucidus II populations, however, were less geographically dispersed than populations originating from the other Lucidus ships, allowing these Protolucidian speakers to interact sooner during Illuminatia's formative human history. This earlier interaction of would-be Protolucidian Major speakers from two different multiversal duplications let speakers of this developing sub-language share their dialect more readily than speakers of the other branches of the Protolucidian languages, leading to a more consistent language that deviated from its Lucidian origins by a lesser degree than other Protolucidian language branches.
Contemporary usage
Like all Protolucidian languages, Protolucidian Major is used as a "home" language, spoken chiefly among family and familiar people for everyday informal interaction. It's an unofficial language that is not recognized for use in commerce or civic and governmental matters. This personal, non-public usage has remained consistent throughout the evolution of the Protolucidian languages and continues to be the case to a less-consistent extent into the present day.
Protolucidian Major is often used as an agreed common language in alternative-language media and publications in regions with dense congregations of Western Lucidian, Quasilucidian, and Demilucidian speakers because Protolucidian Major is mutually comprehensible with the others sub-languages.