Valrikan Cukish

Valrikan (Vistarian: Valrijks) or Valrijkian Cukish is a Valrijkian dialect cluster of the Cukish Language. It is generally spoken throughout its native land of Valerijk, with 33.61% of the population claiming to speak Valrikan as a first language in the 2016 census, giving the language an approximate 8 million native speakers. Beginning with the 1981 Linguistic Sovereignty and Recognition Act, Valrikan has been one of the three official dominion languages of the Grand Dominion of Valerijk, with the Valrikian Act of 2021 officially designating for it to become an Official Federal Language of Vistaraland as a whole.

Valrikan split off from the main branch of Cukish in the 16th Century, as Cukish-Speaking settlers from the Commonwealth Empire intermingled with the native and Vistari population after the territories that are now Valerijk were ceded to the Commonwealth following the First Vistari-Commonwealth War, forming the colony of Tierra Valerosa.

This intermix of cultures and languages saw the eventual adaptation of some Vistarian vocabulary into the verging Middle Cukish dialect, which was exemplified in 1638 after the Vistari recapture of the territory in the Second Vistari-Commonwealth War. Vistari Administration saw the persecution of the Impelanzan language, which gave rise to Cukish as a more acceptable alternative. Thus, Valrijkian Cukish began to drift away from other forms of Cukish as it embraced Vistari vocabulary while remaining isolated from the development of Modern Cukish, causing it to have an innovative vocabulary compared to other forms of Cukish, but a much more conservative phonology, with some elements of Middle Cukish remaining in the dialects.