Fanakalo

Fanakalo is a pidgin language based primarily upon basic Imbesu with some Audonic influences. The language emerged in the late 19th century with the arrival in M'Biruna of a small number of settlers from Vannois attracted primarily by the potential of the Imbesan highlands to be new wine producing region away from Belisaria. Initially the pidgin remained a scattered and uncodified language spoken in different vernaculars in different vineyards, however with the increasing numbers of Belisarian settlers invited to assist with mechanisation and modernisation programs in the 1920s the M'Birunan government felt it necessary to simplify and unify the various forms of the language into a single form which was then taught to new settlers as a lingua franca to allow them to communicate with locals across the three main tribal groups.

## Etymology

The name Fanakalo comes from strung-together Imbesu forms fana-ga-lo meaning "like + of + that" and has the meaning "do it like this", reflecting its use as a language of simplicity and instruction. The name is also rendered as Fanagalo when there is a focus on the Ingubu dialect, as opposed to Imbesan.

When the pidgin is derived or taught from the Amaveni language it is known as Chilapalapa. This emerges from "chi" meaning language, and "lapa" meaning there (repeated for emphasis). Thus rendering as the language of there or more literally the language of the current place.

While all three names are used Fanakalo is the most commonly used name both in M'Biruna and the wider region.

## History

While primarily associated with the arrival of Audonic settlers in the latter part of the 19th century Fanakalo has deeper roots in M'Biruna. During the periods the nation was dominated by the Imbesu tribe, especially prior to the splintering of the tribe into the Imbesu and Ingubu groups, numerous smaller tribal groups were forcibly assimilated into the Imbesu and a large number of captives were taken as slaves during raids by the Nkosi's warriors. Some of these groups, particularly the Amaveni, had languages with some degree of mutual intelligibility with Imbesan others, like the Tongo-Tongo, did not. Thus a basic form of Imbesan emerged initially as a language purely of instruction for captives but as the second and third generations of captives lost their own language and adopted the basic Imbesan as their own it grew to a functional independent language. Some terms from this proto-Fanakalo even entered the Imbesan language, an example being "enyonwa" from the Tongo-Tongo phrase "anya ọnwa" meaning moon eyes, an expression of a woman's beauty and radiance in the first month of pregnancy has come to be a general expression meaning a beautiful woman.

With the increasingly sedentary nature of the tribal groups in M'Biruna, and the corresponding drop in the number of captives taken, this pidgin became less a separate language and more a dialect of Imbesan and occasional language of trade between the various tribes of the nation. However Fanakalo found a resurgence in use with the arrival of the first Belisarian settlers to the Imbesan hinterland. The first arrivals were often traders who had travelled in land from the coast on ill fated quests for ivory or gold and diamonds and learned little more of the language than "Lo Hamba!" (go now), however their reports of the climate encouraged an intrepid group of Vannosians to seek permission to establish a number of vineyards. Initial attempts at communication were limited to the occasional mutually intelligible Amaveni phrase and some Raji, often spoken as a trade language on the coast.

This led to the re-emergence of Fanakalo, with it's stock set of simple instructional phrases it was relatively simple for both parties to communicate on a basic level and establish the first of the Imbesan vineyards. The success of these led to a further small influx of settlers and the the expansion of Fanakalo from being spoken by a few hundred people to a few thousand across the country as shopkeepers and traders saw the advantage of being able to sell their goods to the new settlers, and the settlers learned to communicate with their employees. At this stage the language remained very localised and often speakers from short geographical distances struggled to fully understand each other as the influence of Audonic, or M'Birunan, languages varied greatly.

This remained the case until the 1920s when the M'Birunan government made a concerted effort to modernise the country. This entailed the importation of both a great deal of machinery and a large number of foreign operators and instructors. With various states and companies competing for M'Birunan contracts there was no single foreign language spoken by the new influx of immigrants and the government decided that the best solution would be to offer instructional courses in a native language, and it was decided Fanakalo would be the best option. Although industrialisation was focused on the coastal zone where the Amaveni dominate, it was decided that Fanakalo's already widespread use across the nation and overall simplicity it would be a better option than teaching the Amaveni language. So Fanakalo was for the first time written down and standardised and became for a brief period the most taught language in M'Biruna to both native and immigrant alike.

Immigration fell to a steady and small number, usually under one thousand a year, by the 1930s so the teaching of Fanakalo came to an end but it's usage did not. Amongst white M'Birunans it was often the language of choice, especially when they lack a shared mother tongue, and it remained useful for inter-tribal communication.

In recent times the language has seen a further revival for the tourist trade with guides and phrasebooks being offered for sale to visitors to allow them to experience a truer M'Birunan holiday.

## Usage

Fanakalo has fallen from it's pre-civil war highs of over one million speakers to around 750,000 speakers today although many more understand some of the language, and it is estimated that nearly 2000 people speak it as a primary language predominantly in rural exclaves in the Imbesan highlands.