Nolíshiwan and Èlgowan

[Nolishiwan]

Some centuries ago, there was the Kingom of Sloshwan, meaning "Land of Water" in Nolíshi. That nation was ruled by a royal house.
During the reign of one of the kings, he decided to send out colonists to some uninhabited island that happened to be next to or part of the 10000 islands and was in fact bigger than Sloshwan. It was then named Sherusílwan, meaning "Foreign Land" in Nolíshi.
Some decades ago there was a huge civil war in Sloshwan, started by the hostile neighbour Rakhgarim by turning the Rakh people in Sloshwan against the royal house. Millions of Nolíshiwer in Sloshwan were slaughtered, as well as the whole royal house. Sloshwan was then renamed Rakhwan, since nearly the whole population was made up of Rakh people now. The Rakh people there had taken the -wan suffix from Nolíshi into their language, that's why the ending stayed Nolíshi-ish.

Seeing the homeland being 'destroyed', so to speak, two groups in Sherusílwan simultaneously declared independence.
One resulted in the creation of the Democratic States of Nolíshiwan, named after their language Nolíshi and setting democracy and social welfare as their utmost importance.
The other one resulted in the creation of the Confederacy of Èlgowan, "Land of God's People", which puts religion first and has otherwise the same values.

As the two groups realised the other group had declared independence at the same time, they settled for Èlgowan to be a nearly totally self-governing province of Nolíshiwan. When Nolíshiwan entered the World Assembly it was decided that Èlgowan was to be exempt from having to apply any WA laws, though most were applied as provincial laws. In turn they also wouldn't get any of the benefits of the WA.

[Nolishiwan]

Both nations, being essentially more or less just one when seen from the outside, speak Nolíshi. The language Nolíshi is named after "nolíshi", the Nolíshi word for imagination.

Nolíshiwan is highly involved in regional communication affairs and started to involve in regional military affairs. Èlgowan, just being a province after all, does not really have it's own relationships with other nations.

[Nolishiwan]

Our minister of foreign affairs deeply apologises for having given out incorrect information. He says he was 'under the influence' yesterday, when he spoke about Nolíshiwan and Èlgowan being two sister nations covering the same area. His statements were today corrected to speak the facts.

The chairperson of the Council of Èlgowan made a short statement thereto which translates more or less like this: "Dear fellow believers, dear fellow Nolíshiwer" (-we is the -person suffix, -r the Pluralmarker)
"While it would be nice if all of Nolíshiwan would love our Lord above, this is far from being the case and will never be so. That's why Èlgowan will always stay at only being a part of Nolíshiwan. Apart from that we don't wish to be involved into the many complications that lie in international politics. And now let us pray for ..."

We're back at the studio to announce that the Council of Èlgowan finally decided whether or not to create it's own provincial flag. Be sure not to miss when the flag comes out of development.

[Nolishiwan]

Some facts about Nolíshiwan:
Capital: Qa¢tes (Shaletown)
National motto: Digù nolíshi! (Have imagination!)
National currency: Dafò (Tree) [not actual trees, if anyone wonders]
National animal: ¢aniv (eagle)
National religion: None.
National flag:

Some facts about Èlgowan:
Province capital: Hìvshasem (Lightmeadow)
Motto: Èlol nushiruf ur. (In God [is] our hope.)
Religion: Protestantic Christianity and various other denominations
Provincial flag:


Some pointers for pronounciation:
"¢" (sometimes "kh") is pronounced like the "j" in spanish or, more accurately, like the "ch" after an "i" or "e" in High German
"#" (sometimes "qh") is pronounced like the "j" in spanish or, more accurately, like the "ch" after an "a", "o" or "u" in High German
"´" marks stress
"`" makes the sound longer
"^" is the combination of the above
"w" is pronounced like the "v" in van
"v" is a stretched b, similar but not equal to "w"

[Nolishiwan]

Yesterday the 'Council for the Preservation and Definition of Language' of Nolíshiwan officially acknowledged "Nol" as an alternative for "Nolíshi", the national language's name, in speech and informal writing. Also, "Nol'wan" was accepted as informal way of writing or saying "Nolíshiwan", the ' having no influence in pronounciation, just showing something was omitted.

Informal Writing: Nol' | Nol'wan
Formal Writing: Nolíshi | Nolíshiwan
Formal and informal speech: Nol' | Nol'wan
Formal reading aloud: Nol' or Nolíshi | Nol'wan or Nolíshiwan

These acknowledgements were based on an ever growing number of Nolíshiwer (informally now also Nol'wer) starting to use it like that. This was the case partially because Nolíshi(the language's name) isn't distinguishable in speech from nolíshi(imagination), but mostly because people were too lazy.

[Nolishiwan]

The Ministry of Economics decided today to put a large part of the big still state owned area apart for pig rearing and to give farmers financial help to become pig rearers. This decision came in response to evergrowing demands of bacon for use in the nation's renowned Nol'wan Sandwiches.

[Nolishiwan]

The flag Creation Commitee of the Council of Èlgowan has finished 3 versions of a proposed provincial flag.
, or
After much reasoning it was decided to go with the first one, because of the tradition of dairymen in the province and the sporting of the province's most famous mountain.

[OOC: Because of RP reasons the flag concept is christianity themed. The first one has each an element from my dad's and mom's family crests, which aren't. Then I thought they should probably not be there because I'd have to explain it somehow. After having removed it I thought it looked empty, so I added two more christian symbols, which made it overloaded with references to the same thing. So I went for the first one and made up some explanantion.]

[Nolishiwan]

Today the Nol'wan Sandwich Association celebrated having opened the first chain outside Nolíshiwan and Taco Island. Salinthal gave permission to open an all-organic vegetarian variant chain in it's territory. The opening of the chain was celebrated by handing out free samples to the population of Salinthal.