If you go hunting a tiger...

- 9 -

The fact is that the meeting with journalists was in the afternoon, and in the morning Professor Gatti brought fresh newspapers and five modern books of different genres in Old-Alnorrian to choose from, so that I could do independent reading, as is done when studying any language. And also a DVD with one of the anime that I planned to watch before the kidnapping—now it's clear why he asked what films I had in my queue to watch: Gatti was looking for interesting training material for listening.

I was surprised and excited that in the east of the country, the real language of our island is so well developed. There, they took the revival of real Alnorria culture seriously. Enthusiasts of Old-Alnorrian banded together, did serious research into which of the three types of writing was best adapted to modern software and easier for children to learn, and adopted it as the main one—not forgetting the other two as a constantly used addition. Since there were programmers among the Old-Alnorrian fan groups, they created language packs for several of the most popular personal computer operating systems and negotiated with their owners to add these packs to their product—via online download, of course. Support groups of Old-Alnorrian made alnorrizations of popular video games and contacted the developers so that such an addition would become official and could be downloaded through the settings of the game purchased on all popular game sites. There were Alnorrian subtitles and amateur voice-overs for movies and television series.

But what outraged me even more was that this was not known in other parts of the tiny island. In the east, for some reason, they decided that the revival of the Alnorrian language was interesting only to the inhabitants of their region.

And then I realised what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. There must be his real language on the island! And not only in the east, but everywhere. This needs to start from the east, because there is a base there with which you can work: teacher training centres, people who can make online courses and self-instruction applications for phones, and all that stuff.

Of course, the languages of the occupiers will not disappear in the coming decades, or even completely, but Alnorrian should have equal status with them!

We need to clarify here. If a tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea has many fresh springs, then in an era when there were no desalination plants and refrigerators on ships, even a piece of this island will be tried to be conquered by everyone who has even heard about the Mediterranean Sea. In very ancient times, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Vikings... Many others made their mark here. And in the not so distant years, the south of Alnorria was controlled more often and longer by the Venetians; in the north, England was more successful than other competitors; and in the west, the Teutonic Order first dug in, then the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

And almost every vicegerent left by the occupiers very quickly realised what a treasure he had and how he could influence the politics of two continents if he became independent. And in order to turn his masters away, he needs to conclude an alliance with the aborigines, giving them more rights and freedoms, and then, with their support, enter into a second alliance, this time with the rest of the vicegerents who want independence. The occupiers soon began a new seizure, and the vicegerents again declared independence... In short, until the beginning of the 17th century, it was fun on the island. Afterwards, the United Republic of Alnorria appeared, and things became calmer.

The east of the island was captured on a residual basis, the British and Venetians looked at it more as a satellite than a colony; the Germans didn't need the east of the island because there is not a single natural harbour there capable of accepting anything larger than a fishing boat.

Groundwater is also scarce, and artesian waters lie too deep to have been extracted in the pre-industrial era. Accordingly, only in the east was the true language of the island preserved in the form in which it was. Although it was not used very actively, Italian and English were needed for trade.