riyan etymology 🥘
most words in riyan have their roots going back to proto-riyanic, then proto-hirdic and finally all the way back to proto-laenkean.
however, the modern riyan word to refer to the riyan people, ríŗa, is not as old as one might think.
the story of biolt
a long time ago, in the hirdic period, the people in riyana just called themselves *bø̄́lkhthəs, meaning “fellow country-person”. this continued in the riyanic period, where the term had become *bjǿltă and eventually the old riyan term biolt.
however, throughout the 12th century, increasing radestrian influence in riyana began a set of cultural dominoes that increased the dominance of radestrian upper class culture in riyana. this culminated in the beginning of a personal union between riyana and radestria in 1235, when queen ŗúbra i passed away leaving the throne to her daughter, who became queen ŗúbra ii, who was married to king reshoth of radestria.
the personal union solidified the emergence of radestrian dominance over riyan politics at the time, and the radestrian term for riyana became much more prominent. the term, from old radestrian, was rījø̄r, meaning “one who worships riya”.
so a little bit of context: both riyana and radestria, for the most part, follow a closely related polytheism with deities stemming back to a common hirdic source. however, there are still many major differences. riya is the radestrian goddess of thunder, and popular radestrian belief at the time was that the uncivilized rural riyans worshipped only the thunder goddess.
although the belief is demonstrably false from a historic perspective, the name riya-worshipper stuck and had become the radestrian word to refer to riyan people so much so that the term transferred into riyana during the personal union (eventually giving modern riyan ríŗa “riyan person” and ríŗâs “riyana”) and within a few hundred years, the native term biolt had all but died out.
today, the term has been revived by riyan nationalists trying to dissociate riyana from its past under the grip of radestrian rule, though the movement is not a large one nor does it seem like it will catch on. furthermore, the movement is hindered by the fact that many dialects of riyan kept the word biolt, but shifted it to be a derogatory term meaning “country bumpkin”.