Piat

Piatland -- An Invisible Country

Piat is a conlang devised by John Cowan, originally as a Chinese-Finnish hybrid but got sidetracked. It is conjectured by some that Ill Bethisad (IB) and the Livagian World (LW) coexist in some fashion. The precise relationship might involve insubstantial substances and Histories that Never Actually Happened.

Somewhere in this mix is the tiny Eastern European country of Piatland. It's official language is Court Gothic, though there is a populist movement to make Piat the official language.

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Subject: Re: Borrowing from other conlangs 
From: John Cowan [CONLANG]
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 13:37:07 -0500 
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And Rosta scripsit:

> 3. Piat probably exists in Livagia's world (LW).

Livagia, I hasten to add, exists in Piat's world, which also contains
the Triune Monarchy (Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania) of which Piatland
is sometimes a part.  The T.M. dissolved after World War I.

A fortiori, Tsxunrcaa also coexists with Piat.

The official language of the Republic (formerly the People's Republic)
of Piatland is still Court-Gothic (the "court" in question being
the Triune Monarchy's), but there is an effort underway to change
the official language to Piat.  The objection is the expense of
translating all the official documents.

> 9. It remains to be seen whether Kemr exists in LW, and Livagia in
>    Kemr's. Probably they can, but the matter requires further
>    investigation, into the respective histories of the two nations.

My view is that Livagia, Kemr, and Piat are co-necessary (all
exist in the same world), but I am willing to be contradicted.

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Subject: Re: conlangs' worlds (was: Back!)
From: John Cowan [CONLANG]
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 11:07:18 -0400

A Rosta wrote:

> Piat belongs with the alternative histories,
> but with the details left ruritanianly vague.

Ruritanian perhaps, but not vague.  Piat was a part of the
Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, which came to
an end (like its much larger neighbor Austria-Hungary) at the
end of the WW II.  Piatland was one of the smallest of the
successor states.

N.B. I did not invent the Triune Monarchy:
Avram Davidson did in his alternate-history work _The Enquiries
of Doctor Eszterhazy_, which contains a most realistic-looking map
of the T.M.  If I have not settled just where Piatland is on this
map, it is out of sheer laziness, not an attempt to be vague on
purpose.

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Thus spake Zarathustra