New CBB

As the title says!

I'm going to ask you a question, and you try answering it, then you ask a question. These questions should be "what if"s

So I'm gonna start:
What would have been different if the Bulgars hadn't migrated out of the Caucasus?

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Svo hvernig get ég annað en glott á þig dauðlega?

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(native)
(learning)

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Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

The South Slavs would have taken longer to consolidate into states or even have been absorbed by Byzantium.

What if Julius Caesar had not been assassinated? Would his campaign against the Parthians have been successful? What would happen afterwards?

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Mekoshan
Alpic

If Caesar hadn't been assassinated, a continuing offence against the Parthians would bring some success, and while pushing the Parthians into India and Central Asia, it would secure a border on the east against the eventual Arabs later on in Byzantium's era.
The Roman Republic would also survive, even though having a princeps, and I'd say that Rome might even survive if it had a Senate that actually had some power.
Even though a long shot, Rome might also survive for more time, given that having a border with the Caucasus, they might cross the Caucasus and conquer the Huns even before they have a chance of migrating.

What if German was voted as the US's primary language? (It was one vote away from being passed, and that person was supposedly very ill that day, but came to the vote anyway)

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Svo hvernig get ég annað en glott á þig dauðlega?

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КЕРВЕНСКИЙ

I didn't know that.
The question still stands, although its foundations are a bit shaky now

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Svo hvernig get ég annað en glott á þig dauðlega?

Absolutely nothing because you can't legislate language anymore than you can legislate the seasons.

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♀♥Ø

Yes you can.

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Dotjen
Kotanese

There's still no reason for it. Or you like brainwashing people.

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(native)
(learning)

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Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

You can legislate what language is taught, and used in official contexts.

I would imagine they may have looked to Germany instead of Britain moreso...

But then there may have been huge revolts from the vast majority of English speakers (as despite there being a huge influx of Germans, I believe most people spoke either English or Spanish still (but I don't know American history that well )).

There is a reason for it. Do you speak a standardized language? I know you know at least one, because we are typing in it. Do you feel brainwashed?

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Dotjen
Kotanese

Hmm... I speak my idiolect.

I feel that considering people who speak "wziąść", "poszłem", "wzięłem" instead of "wziąć", "poszedłem", "wziąłem" as under-Poles is brainwashing.

We learn how to speak respectable standardized language, which is - obviously - arbitrary. We could learn how to understand closely related languages and find regularities among them, instead.

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(native)
(learning)

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Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

Well, you can, in the same sense that King Canute could command the tides, or Muhammad could summon the mountain.

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I am not responsible for the accuracy of my sources; they're responsible for their own mistakes, if any, and also responsible for defending their own statements if you disagree with them.

If it's not important that English is the legalized language of US, Spanish will replace it soon. Swedish is legalized in Finland but some groups are still lowering its status.
This is a nice thread. If somebody believes to have answered the guestion, ask a new one.

What? How do you figure?

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Dotjen
Kotanese

I don't know. Maybe you'd had a situation like in Quebec. Part of U.S. would have been german-speaking.



Of course you can. Though general social factors is generally the most important factor when it comes to which languages are being used, legislation and various actions from the state may also have an influence.

Though there's a general tendency for speakers of minority languages to switch to larger or more prestigious languages, assimilatory policies can increase the speed if this process. Probably government-sponsored programmes of various kind can to some degree delay the extinction of threatened languages. Though I'd guess that in many cases, such programmes have a limited success.)

Probably the increased use of Mandarin in some Chinese-speaking territories is due to state-sponsored mandarinisation.

Whether such policies are moral or desirable is another question.

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constructedlanguages.net

New scenario: Charles XII of Sweden was never assassinated and lived a full life. Would this have been good or bad for Sweden? How would Sweden look today? What changes would this have on the rest of the world?

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

I love alternate history. AlternateHistory.com (a site I belong to, although I am a severe noob there), has some really good timelines. This one and this one are some of my favorites.

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"Wait for the starvation of glaciers, chicken hamburger Noel Weber Arthur."

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I tend to visit their forum to find good blank maps But I'll agree, alternative history is awesomly fun!

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КЕРВЕНСКИЙ

Either Sweden would have been dragen further into war against Russia and Danmark until CHarles was forced into some sort of even harder peace treaty since Swedens enemies wouldn't want him in control of a strong country. He might even have been usurped by a councel or something.

Or the same council would have usurped the King before the war was over and make some one else the legal ruler of Sweden.

What if the vikings had made a stronger and permament immigration to North America (e.g. New England and New Foundland)?

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Sadanjatås = I wished we had survived, too bad we didn't


Talar svenska flytande (eller ja, typ skånska)
Speaking english, but dammit it's hard to spell!
Mi komencas paroli esperanton
Wo bu xihuan shou hanyu
Deutsche? Danke, aber nein