Tokkijins(德基人) - The Ethnic group of Town Speech: view article

Menu 1. Overview 2. Etymology 3. Physiology 4. History 5. Culture
The Tokkijins (Kanji transliteration: 德基人) is the main ethnic group of the Nousa Kingdom (能佐皇国), around 91% of all people in the Nousa Kingdom are ethnic Tokkijins.

Tokkijins speak

Town Speech(町語), which is a West Germanic language with heavy influences from Sinosphere languages, especially Japanese, the language of the Yamato people, and Tokkijins also are similarly influenced by East Asians both culturally and genetically.

[edit] [top]Overview

Culturally and linguistically, the Tokkijins are very unique in the Sinosphere. They speak a West Germanic language belonging to the Indo-European language family, and have a cultural (and partial ethnic) heritage from the Germanic peoples. Despite the exotic cultural and linguistic heritage of Tokkijins in their cultural sphere, they are genetically typical East Asians. There is no significant genetic difference between Tokkijins, Japanese and Chinese people. While there are some member of Tokkijins with distant European ancestry, most Tokkijin ancestry is really Japanese, Chinese and even Korean and Southeast Asian. When Tokkijins arrived Yungzhou, the Sunrise island and Nousa islands, it was inhabited by Chinese, Japanese and aboriginals respectively. Throughout the ages, Tokkijins have had a strong Japonic ethnic and cultural influence by mixing with Japanese. Chinese settlers in Yungzhou also lent a Chinese influence to the people. Also, there was mixture with aboriginals in Nousa islands.

In short, Tokkijins are a mixture of peoples united under a common cultural, linguistic and historical heritage. While they descend from many ethnic groups, they still bear the belief and the language brought by the Ensarkonists, and carry on their legacy.

[edit] [top]Etymology

The origin of the name "Tokkijin" is obscure, but it is suppopsed that the tokki- part is from a highly corrupted form of a word originated from Proto-Germanic *þiudisk.

[edit] [top]Physiology

Tokkijins originated from Germanic speaking peoples; however, physiologically the looks and genetics of Tokkijins are indistinguishable from those of East Asians, this is due to a long history of intermarriage with East Asians, mainly the Yamato people but also Chinese people, Ryukyuans, Koreans and Austronesian peoples, and also due to the fact that the Ame people, another ethnic group that the Tokkijins intermarry with, also appear East Asian physiologically.

After the Second Migration in the late 17th century, the Tokkijins intermarried extensively with the Ame people, the aboriginal people of the Nousa islands, and as a result of the genetics from Ame people, a gender imbalance biased towards female started to emerge among the Tokkijins, and the imbalance of gender became apparant during the mid-20th century, and nowadays there are virtually no native males below 60 among the Tokkijins; besides the Tokki people also gained the unique physiology from the Ame people, in which they don't grow older in appearance after 15-20 years old, which has created an illusion that their females are forever young and are thus immortal; but in reality, they still die of natural causes and often don't have a significant longer lifespan on average.

The picture below shows the look of typical Tokkijin females:

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Genetics
A genetic study to 259 early 17th century skeletons from well documented cemeteries of Tokkijins shows that the main paternal haplogroups of 17th century Tokkijins are Haplogroup D-M55, Haplogroup O-M122 (O2, formerly O3), Haplogroup O-M176 (O1b2), Haplogroup C-M217, and Haplogroup C-M8. Haplogroups N-M231, O-M119, O-K18, and Q-M242 also have been observed with lower frequency; Besides, about 10% of the male samples show Haplogroups I1, R1a1a, R1b-P312, R1b-106 and E1b1b.(Note: The Y-haplogroups I1, R1a1a, R1b-P312, R1b-106 and E1b1b are of European origin, and all other Y-haplogroups mentioned above are of Asian origin) The most common Y haplogroup of 17th century Tokkijins in that study was Haplogroup D-M55, but Haplogroup O-M122 also has a similar frequency in the samples.

Besides, according to an analysis of the sample of early 17th century Tokkijins, the mtDNA haplogroups found among early 17th century Tokkijins include D, B, M7, G, N9, F, A, Z, M9, and M8. No mtDNA haplogroups that are of European ancestries are found among the samples of Tokkijins in the study.

Another study reveals that the major genetic components of Tokkijins is similar to the Japanese, followed by Han Chinese clusters. Genetic components from Southeast Asians and Austronesians (Mostly Malays) are also discernible.

[edit] [top]History

First Migration

The First Migration of Tokkijins occured during the 15th century. The ancestors of Tokkijins originated from the Principality of Sealand(

Plattdytch: De Firstendom von Seeland). In 1449, Jan Smid, a theologist of the Principality of Sealand, proposed that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the "Ensarks"(i.e. avatars) of the God, his theory is called Ensarkonism, and followers of Ensarkonism are Ensarkonists. Ensarkonism soon got hundreds of thousands of followers in the Principality of Sealand after its publication; however, Ensarkonism was then seen as a heresy by local churches and got harshly criticized, as it contradicts with the doctrine of the Trinity held by local churches. Leaders of local churches claimed that Ensarkonism is the new Sabellianism and should be banned, and under the suggestion of local churches, the prince of Sealand made a ban on Ensarkonism, and an order that followers of Ensarkonism would be sentenced to death.

However, there were many sympathizers of Ensarkonists among the nobles and commoners, and with the help of the sympathizers among the nobles, Jan Smid and many Ensarkonists were saved; however, as the ban on Ensarkonism still persisted, the remaining Ensarkonists decided to move to a place where they could practice their beliefs freely. After several twists and turns, the Ensarkonists eventually settled in the Mitsuhara(三つ原) area of the Hinode Kingdom(日の出国) on the Akitsushima(秋津洲) island in 1518. The Hinode Kingdom is a country of the Yamato people that speak Japanese.

After arriving the Mitsuhara area, the Ensarkonists were called Tokkijins by the locals. The Ensarkonists intermarried the locals extensively and absorbed tons of cultural elements from the locals; on the other hand, while the government of the Hinode Kingdom knew the arrival of the Ensarkonists, they could not deal with them because there was an ongoing civil war in the Hinode Kingdom and many places were affected, therefore, the Tokkijins communities became a permanent existence in the Hinode Kingdom, and their language gradually developed into

Town Speech under the influence from surrounding communities of Yamato people.

On the other hand, the Mitsuhara area was not affected by the civil war, so the communities of Tokkijins seized the opportunity and developed their own power, Tokkijins became the ruler of the Mitsuhara area and eventually the leader of the Tokkijin communities in the Mitsuhara area became one of the warlords of the Hinode Kingdom. After the end of the civil war, the government of the Hinode Kingdom admitted the rights for Tokkijins to stay and to preserve their own language and belief; but as a trade off, the Tokkijins and their territory, the Mitsuhara area, became a vassal state of the Hinode Kingdom called the Mitsuhara-han(三原藩), and the leader of the the Tokkijin communities in Mitsuhara-han also adopted a Japanese surname Mitsuhara(三原).

While being surrounded by Yamato people, Tokkijins never lost their language, this is partly because of the physical distance between the Mitsuhara-han and the main part of the Hinode Kingdom, and the relative prestige and total number of Tokkijins(they probably made up 20% of the population in the Mitsuhara-han area in the 16th century) in the Mitsuhara-han area; on the contrary, the use of their language eventually grew, as many merchants and officials of ethnic Yamato people in the Mitsuhara-han area started to speak the language of Tokkijins, but the use of the language of Tokkijins was mostly restricted to the urban areas of the Mitsuhara-han, in the rural areas of the Mitsuhara-han, and in areas outside of the Mitsuhara-han, Japanese was still spoken, and that's why the the language of Tokkijins gained its name "Town Speech".

Second Migration

Since the end of the 16th century, many Tokkijins started to work as mercenaries because of the poverty of the Mitsuhara-han, the most common employers of Tokkijin mercenaries were Ame villages on the Nousa main island, many Ame villages hired Tokkijin mercenaries to help them defend their villages from foreign invasions, and some mercenaries ended up settling on the Nousa islands.

Besides, to seek protection, many Ame villages on the Nousa islands voluntary became vassal states of the Mitsuhara-han; on the other hand, while being a vassal state, the Mitsuhara-han still enjoyed a great autonomy due to its distance from the main part of the Hinode Kingdom, and while Tokkijins enjoyed a high status in the Mitsuhara-han area, they still felt that their language and identity was threatened by surrounding Yamato communities, therefore to solve the problem of overpopulation and poverty, and to preserve the cultural and linguistic independence of Tokkijins, the government of Mitsuhara-han also actively encouraged Tokkijins to migrate to the Nousa islands, mainly the Nousa main island, as a result, more than half of the Tokkijins had moved to the Nousa main island in the dawn of the 18th century, and the Nousa islands had become another vassal state of the Hinode Kingdom called the Nousa-han(能佐藩), and the Tokkijin Mitsuhara family that ruled the Mitsuhara-han was also the ruler of the Nousa-han. The migration of Tokkijins from the Mitsuhara area to the Nousa islands is called the Second Migration.

The Formation of the Nousa Kingdom

While the territories of the Mitsuhara family, namely the Mitsuhara-han and the Nousa-han, were de facto independant states, they were de jure a vassal state of the Hinode Kingdom, and the Tokkijin Mitsuhara family of both territories never tried to seek independence from the Hinode Kingdom; however, in 1743, the Great Denpa Empire from the continent invaded the Akitsushima island, which ended up putting an end to the Hinode Kingdom. The Great Denpa Empire also invaded the Nousa islands, but the invasion attempts to the Nousa islands failed, therefore the Nousa-han became an independent state.

The fall of the Hinode Kingdom shocked the Tokkijin communities on the Nousa islands, but eventually the government of the Nousa-han(it was led by the 三原忠明/史世明/Jan Smid IV.) decided to revive the Hinode Kingdom, and fortunately, they found a member of the royal family of the Hinode Kingdom on the Nousa main island called Azumakatsuranomiya Tadahito Shinnou(東桂宮忠仁親王). Tadahito was enthroned as the emperor of the Hinode Kingdom in 1745, he chose Toukyou(同興) as the era name of his reign, in the next year, he changed the name of the new country into Nousa Kingdom(能佐皇国); however, Tadahito died of malaria in 1748, after he got malaria several months ago, he got malaria when he was visiting the Kampon area, the southmost area of the Nousa main island.

The death of Tadahito saddened the people on the Nousa island, as there were no other surviving male members of the royal family, and Tadahito only had a daughter named Akiko Naishinnou(明子內親王). While it was unusual for a female to ascend the throne, the government of the Nousa Kingdom eventually decided to pass the throne to Akiko after some hesitation, as there's nothing else they could do, eventually, Akiko became the empress of the Nousa Kingdom in 1749, and she chose Meitoku(明德) as her era name.

The intermarriage between the Tokkijin immigrants and Ame aboriginals was intense, eventually, Tokkijins with some Ame ancestries started to emerge, and by the mid-20th century, most Tokkijins in the Nousa Kingdom had some Ame ancestries.

[edit] [top]Culture

Language

The main language of Tokkijins is

Town Speech. Town Speech is a West Germanic language with a heavy influence from sinosphere languages, mainly Japanese, it has even adopted the use of Kanjis and Kanas.

The name of Town Speech is from the fact that in the 16th century, most Tokkijins lived in cities and towns; however, the rule that "Town Speech speakers live in towns" no longer applied after Tokkijins started to migrate to the Nousa main island in the late 17th century.

There are two Kun-reading systems in

Town Speech, one is Wa-kun(和訓), the other is Min-kun(民訓). Min-kun is used for the transliteration of inherited words and early borrowings and is the usual Kun-reading in

Town Speech; Wa-kun are kun-readings from Japanese and Wa-kun is usually only used for proper nouns.

Customs

Tokkijins have been heavily influenced by Yamato people, their traditional architecture, traditional costumes, daily necessities and certain practices are often indistinguishable from those of Yamato people; however, Tokkijins still preserve some of the unique customs, including few folk tales, religious beliefs and practices, and cuisine. One practice that is specific to the Tokkijins is that during the period of winter solstice, they often set up a conifer tree in the square of their towns and villages, and it is said that the tree is to "commemorate the one true God"; besides, exchanging gifts during the period of winter solstice is also common among Tokkijins.

Religion

Tokkijins descended from adherents of Ensarkonism; however, since the 16th century they have absorbed a lot of religion elements from Confucianism, Buddhism, Yamato Shintoism, Chinese folk religion and Hakeroism of Ame people, therefore the Christian root in the "folk" religion of Tokkijins has become obscure, many Tokkijins don't even know the Christian root of their "folk" religion.

Sycretism between the Christian God and deities from other religions is common in the "folk" religion of Tokkijins, the Amitābha buddha from Buddhism, Yahata from Yamato Shintoism and the Mother Sky of Hakeroism of Ame people have all been syncretized with the Christian God and Jesus Christ. Tokkijins even use Shintoist-style shrines to worship the Christian God and illustrations depicting Jesus as a buddha in buddhism is also common among Tokkijins.

Deities that are widely seen as different "avatars" of the Christian God by Tokkijins include(but not restrict to) the Amitābha buddha, Yahata of Yamato people, the Mother Sky of Ame people and Jesus Christ.

However, most Tokkijins still insist that there's only one true God in the universe, which is the Christian God, and all other supernatural beings are either avatars of the true God or divinities inferior to the God, and this insistence in the existence of only one true God is thought to be one of the few remnants of Christianity in the "folk" religion of Tokkijins.

Naming Traditions

Tokkijins use Japanese style names, the most common surname for Tokkijins is Tanaka(田中), other common surnames among Tokkijins include Yamamoto(山本), Nakamura(中村), Yoshida(吉田), Matsumoto(松本), Inoue(井上), etc

Some surnames and given names of Germanic and Slavic origin are preserved, but these names have undergone a Japonization process. For example, Janov has become Yano(矢野), Kovač/Kowacz has become Kobachi(小鉢), Jana has become Yana(弥奈), Jan has become Yaan(也安), Hans has become Hansa(藩佐), etc.

Cuisine

The cuisine of Tokkijins has been heavily influenced by Yamato people; however, breads, cakes, beer and dairy products are still a part of the traditional cuisine of Tokkijins. Meat consumption was(and still is) rare among Tokkijins; also, due to the influx of Asian genetics, lactose intolerance has become common among Tokkijins, as a result, direct consumption of milk has become less common among Tokkijins as well, and there's a greater reliance on dairy products among Tokkijins.

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