Slovianski / Slovijanski / Словиянски

Version: March 2010

3. PHONOLOGY & ORTHOGRAPHY

3.1. Phonology

Slovianski has a simple phonology, primarily based on sounds that occur in all Slavic languages. Therefore, it does not make a distinction between, for example, i and y.

Consonants can be palatalised as well. In that case, they are followed by e, i, j or ’. This pronunciation, however, is not mandatory.

3.2. Orthography

3.2.1. Alphabet

Slovianski can be written using in the Latin alphabet (Latinica) and the Cyrillic alphabet (Kirilica). One basic design principle is that it can be written on any Slavic keyboard. Therefore, it is inevitable to allow alternate spellings that are both natural and convenient:

• The standard Latin spelling of Slovianski uses three characters with diacritics: č, š, ž.
• For those who do not have easy access to č/š/ž on their keyboard, an asciified version with cz/sz/zs is acceptable.
• Instead of ž or zs, Poles can also write ż.
• The standard Cyrillic spelling uses the characters ю, я for "ju, ja".
• For those with a Serbian keyboard (i.e. without й), ју, ја is acceptable, too.

Thus we have:

In addition, we have the following digraphs in Cyrillic:

(*) only at the beginning of a word or after a vowel.

The Slovianski Transliterator makes it possible to transliterate any of these versions into any of the other.

3.2.2. Palatalisation and the semivowel „j”

Slovianski distinguishes between hard and soft consonants. In Latin orthography, a consonant is softened before i, ’ and (optionally) e. How this palatalisation is realised exactly may depend on the speaker (see 3.3.1 for details). There is much interaction between the softener ’ and the semivowel j (pronounced like English y), and it depends largely on the speaker whether a preceding consonant is indeed palatalised or simply followed by a j-like sound. The representation of both is somewhat problematic in all orthographies. In general, a softener can occur only after a consonant, while j will occur after a vowel or word-initially; in rare cases, usually after a prefix, it can follow a consonant as well. Because the two are largely complementary, they could theoretically be represented by one letter, if it hadn't been for the following problems:

• In Latin script, an abundancy of the letter j (as in the word pjatj) is generally considered ugly. Same thing goes when the softener is consistently replaced with an apostrophe ’. Therefore, in both Latin orthographies the semivowel is represented by j, while the softener is represented by i before a vowel or by ’ in other cases. This apostrophe is merely an orthographic device, and may be omitted in writing.
• In non-Serbian Cyrillic script, we have to face the fact that й can never follow a consonant, while ь can never follow a vowel. Therefore, we have to separate them, using й as a semivowel and ь for a softener. Because neither of them can be followed by а or у without raping Cyrillics, йа/ьа is represented as я, йу/ьу as ю. An additional problem is the spelling йе (for je), which is awkward in Cyrillic. Non-Serbian Cyrillic uses е in these cases; when in Latinica e occurs at the beginning of a word or after a vowel, non-Serbian Cyrillic uses э. Examples: jeden, znaje, električni, poet become једен, знаје, електрични, поет in Serbian Cyrillic, but еден, знае, электрични, поэт in non-Serbian Cyrillic. Likewise, the sequence ji is represented in Serbian Cyrillic as *ји, in non-Serbian Cyrillic as и (instead of *йи).
• In Serbian Cyrillic, both й and ь are absent, and we can therefore use ј for both, except after н or л: in those cases we write њ and љ (ћ and ђ are better avoided, because they are not well understood outside their own realm).

All this is demonstated in the following table:

3.3. Pronunciation

Pronunciation in Slovianski is fairly free. That is to say, Slovianski pronounced "the Russian way" is by no means considered better or worse than Slovianski pronounced the Polish or the Serbian way. Therefore, the recommended pronuncation given in the table above is not more than an approximation.

4. GRAMMAR

4.1. Nouns

As in all natural Slavic languages, nouns in Slovianski have three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). All Slavic languages, except Bulgarian and Macedonian, have six or seven cases. These cases are fairly consistent with one another. Therefore, Slovianski has six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative. The vocative, used in some Slavic languages, is absent in Slovianski, but Slavic vocatives can be used anyway, if desired. A simplified form of Slovianski, Slovianski-P, has no declension at all, and replaces all grammatical cases by means of prepositions or word order.

Long and complicated paradigms are to be avoided, but we cannot escape distinguishing between a few different word classes.

These are the basic endings in Slovianski-N:

¹ When a masculine noun is inanimate, the accusative has the same form as the nominative; when it is animate, the genitive is used instead.
² It is recommended that after j the endings -o, -om and -ov are changed to -e, -em and -ev.

Below follow a few examples of each declension:

4.1.1. Masculine declension

One declension will do here. After i/j, the endings -om and -ov are preferably changed to -em/-ev. For animals and male persons the accusative is identical to the genitive, while in the case of inanimate objects the accusative is identical to the nominative.
Three examples: muž „man”, p(e)s „dog”, put' „journey”.

4.1.2. Feminine declension

Here we can't escape introducing two different declensions: one for words on -a, one for words ending in a consonant. Note that the declensions of nouns on -a and nouns on -ia are identical. Examples: žena „woman”, zemia „earth”, jednost' „unit(y)”.

4.1.3. Neuter declension

Neuter nouns can end in -o or -e, but this difference does hardly affect declension. Like in the case of masculine nouns, the ending -om can best be changed to -em after j. Also, when the noun ends in -e, use -u in the locative singular instead of -e. Again, three examples: slovo „word”, imeno „name”, and morie „sea”.

4.2. Adjectives

Adjectives match with the noun they modify in gender, case and number. Declension is regular. Example: dobri „good”.

4.2.1. Adverbs

An adjective can be made into an adverb by using the ending -o: dobro „well”.

4.2.2. Comparison

Comparatives and superlatives can be made in two ways: a simple form and a more complex form. The simple form uses the words više- (more), mene- (less), najviše- (most) and najmene- (least), preceding the adjective and preferably connected to it with a hyphen. The complex form replaces the ending -i with -ejši for the comparative, which in turn can be turned into a superlative by adding the prefix naj-.

When changed into an adverb, instead of *-ejšo we simply use -ej.

There is also another superlative with the prefix pre-, meaning „very” or „too”. An adjective can be turned into the opposite by by prefix ne-.

Here is again the word dobri as an example:

• dobri „good”
• više-dobri or dobrejši „better” (adjective)
• više-dobro or dobrej „better” (adverb)
• najviše-dobri or najdobrejši „best” (adjective)
• najviše-dobro or najdobrej „best” (adverb)
• mene-dobri „less good”
• najmene-dobri „least good”
• ne-dobri „not good, bad”
• pre-dobri „too good, extremely good, excellent”

4.3. Pronouns

4.3.1. Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have the same six cases as the nouns. Because even the Slavic languages that got rid of most declension kept dative and accussative forms of personal pronouns besides the nominative ones, Slovianski-P has got them, too.

Notes:

1. After a preposition, all pronouns of the third person are preceded by n-: jego > do njego; im > pri nim, etc.
2. Slovianski-P uses the short forms in the accusative singular and the long forms in the dative (preceded by n-).

And a few notes regarding usage:

• Because not all verb endings are equally obvious to all speakers of Slavic languages, pro-drop (i.e. omitting personal pronouns when they are the subject of a sentence) is not recommended. It is better to say „on čita” instead of just „čita”.
• In Slovianski-P, the accusative form is used as a direct object or after a preposition. In Slovianski-N, prepositions can be governed by any case, depending on their usage in the Slavic languages.
• The pronoun on refers to any noun of masculine gender and not only to male beings. In the same way, the pronoun ona refers to any noun of feminine gender and not only to female beings.
• As all natural Slavic languages, Slovianski has got T-V distinction, i.e. vi is a universal second person pronoun for both numbers, but in singular, ti may be used to address friends, relatives and children.

4.3.2. Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

The reflexive pronoun is sebe. It is inflected like ti, tebe, ..., the only difference being that it does not have a nominative.

There is also a shorter form, almost always used in reflexive verbs: se. For example: „Ja mijem se” „I'm washing myself”. Instead of se, the form sia can be used as well and should even be preferred when writing in Cyrillic.

The reflexive pronoun can also be used as a reciprocal pronoun: „Oni bijut se” can mean „They are hitting themselves”, but would rather have the meaning: „They are hitting each other”. To be more explicit about the meaning „each other”, you can add the formula jedin drugogo: „Oni bijut se jedin drugogo”.

4.3.3. Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns are inflected like adjectives, except that they have a zero ending in the masculine singular and the ending -e in the neuter singular. The forms are:

• moj, moja, moje „my”
• tvoj, tvoja, tvoje „your, thy”
• naš, naša, naše „our”
• vaš, vaša, vaše „your (pl.)”
• svoj, svoja, svoje „one's own” (reflexive)

There is no possessive pronoun of the third person. If the possessor is also the subject of the sentence, the reflexive svoj is used. Otherwise, the genitive form of the corresponding personal pronoun is used: jego, jej, ih. These do not change their form.

There are also interrogative, definite and indefinite possessive pronouns: čij „whose”, ničij „nobody's”, etc. They are inflected like moj. For more forms, see section 4.3.7.

Just like adjectives, possessive pronouns correspond with the noun they modify in gender, number and case. Here is an example of their declension:

4.3.4. Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronoun in Slovianski is toj „this, that”. When it is necessary to make a distinction between here and there, we use tuttoj „this” and tamtoj „that, yonder”. Except for the nominative, toj, tuttoj, and tamtoj are declined like adjectives.

4.3.5. Relative pronouns

The relative pronoun is ktori (declined like an adjective). Alternatively, the use of čo „what” is also allowed.

4.3.6. Interrogative, definite and indefinite pronouns

The basic forms are kto „who” and čo „what”. Derived from these are also several indefinite pronouns, e.g. nekto „somebody”, libokto „anybody”, ničo „nothing”, vsečo „everything”. For more forms, see section 4.3.7. They are inflected as follows:

4.3.7. Pronominal adverbs

One of Zamenhof's best inventions was his table of correlatives, a group of interrelated pronouns, adverbs and adjectives. There words have been kept as regular as possible in Slovianski, but not at the expense of recognisability for speakers of Slavic languages. A few virtually impossible words have been left out, and a few other regular forms have been replaced by forms that are common in the natural languages.

¹ In all cases when čo appears, što can be used interchangeably.
² In all cases when kak or kaki appears, jak/jaki can be used interchangeably.

In the table above, adverbs are in  black , adjectives in  blue , demonstrative and possessive pronouns in  green , interrogative and indefinite pronouns in  red . Irregular forms (i.e. not looking the way they should according to the table) are in italics.

4.4. Numerals

4.4.1. Cardinal numbers

The cardinal numbers are:

Combinations of these are always made from high to low: tri-tisiač četiristo piatdesiat šest' „3,456”.

4.4.2. Ordinal numbers

Basically, ordinal numbers are formed by adding -i to the corresponding cardinal number. Except for the following:

1st — pervi
2nd — drugi
3rd — treti
4rd — četverti
7th — sedmi
8th — osmi
100th — sotni or stoti
1000th — tisiačni

When a higher number forms a string, only the last member is modified to create an ordinal number: v tisiač deviatsto osemdesiat' četvertom gode „in the year 1984”.

4.5. Verbs

Verbs in Slovianski behave pretty much the way they do in the natural Slavic languages: they are conjugated for three persons in two numbers. There are three tenses: present tense, past tense and future tense. Furthermore, there are participles, imperatives and verbal nouns. There is also aspect: most verbs are either perfective or imperfective, most perfective verbs have an imperfective counterpart and vice versa.

Slavic verbs are quite a complicated thing. Most verbs have two different forms („aspects”), both listed the dictionary: the imperfective and the perfective one. Usually, they need to be learned separately. In addition to that, many verbs have two basic roots, which also need to be memorised. And since this phenomenon occurs in áll Slavic languages, that leaves us little choice but to incorporate it into Slovianski as well.

Verbal conjugation is simplified to the highest possible extent, however, without sacrificing naturalism. As a result:

• conjugation is as regular as possible, and irregularity is allowed only when it really cannot be avoided;
• the Slavic system of numerous verbal classes (conjugations) is reduced to a system of two stems: the infinitive stem and the present tense stem;
• the number of verbs with a present tense stem that cannot be derived regularly from the infinitive remains limited;
• endings are unitary, so that no matter the conjugation every form will be instantly recognisable.

4.5.1. Infinitive stem and present tense stem

Infinitive stem

In Slovianski, infinitives always have the ending -ti. The infinitive stem is created by simply removing this ending. The result serves as a starting point for the infinitive, the past tense, the conditional, the past passive participle, and the verbal noun.

Present tense stem

For most verbs goes that the present tense stem can be derived regularly from the infinitive, so that the infinitive is enough to establish the entire conjugation of a verb. Usually, the present tense stem it is identical to the infinitive stem: it can be derived by simply removing the ending -ti:
delati > dela-, prositi > prosi-, nesti > nes-. There are, however, a few exceptions:

• monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel have -j- added to the infinitive stem: znati > znaj-, biti > bij-, čuti > čuj-
• infinitives on -ovati or -ivati (the latter are frequentatives) have a present-tense stem -uj-: diakovati > diakuj-, prigotovivati > prigotovuj-
• infinitives on -nuti have a present-tense stem -n-: tiagnuti > tiagn-, dvignuti > dvign-

In these cases conjugation is simply a matter of regularly establishing the present tense stem and adding the correct endings to it. A number of verbs, however, use a separate root in the present tense. In most cases, these are verbs of the mixed a/j, a/i and e/i classes. An active user of Slovianski will have to learn both forms. He will notice, however, that in most cases the formation of this second root happens in a predictable way. Whenever the present-tense stem cannot be derived from the infinitive by applying the rules above, it will be given in the dictionary. A few examples: pisati (piš-) „to write”, plakati (plač-) „to cry, weep”, spati (spi-) „to sleep”, videti (vidi-) „to see”, hoteti (hoč-) „to want”, zvati (zov-) „to call”, brati (ber-) „to take”.

This system gives a fairly accurate approximation of verbal conjugation in the Slavic languages. We are of course aware that it is more complicated than in a language with a fully regular grammar, but any further simplification would be impossible without creating a greater distance to the natural Slavic languages. And with this approach, we can at least avoid subdividing verbs into classes and the like.

4.5.2. Conjugation

Infinitives

All infinitives have the ending -ti: delati „do, make”, umeti „can, to be able”, prositi „to ask”, nesti „to carry”, pisati „to write”, čuti „to feel”, diakovati „to thank”, tiagnuti „to pull”.

Present tense

The present-tense endings are:

• when the present-tense root ends in a vowel: -m (-ju), -š, -Ø, -me, -te, -jut;
• when the present-tense root ends in a consonant: -em (-u), -eš, -e, -eme, -ete, -ut.

In the first person singular, the ending -(e)m is preferred, but the ending -(j)u is also allowed.

In the case of the i-stems, the sequence -iju- should be avoided: *-siju-, *-ziju-, *-tiju-, *-diju-, *-stiju- and *-zdiju- become -šu-, -žu-, -ču-, -džu-, -šču- and -ždžu-, while in other cases -iju- becomes -ju-.

In the case of the consonantal stems, -k and -g become -č and -ž before -e. Thus: mog-eš > možeš, etc.

Examples:

Explanation of our choice for the forms:

• 1st singular: South Slavic, Slovak and Lower Sorbian have only the ending -m; East Slavic only the ending -(j)u; Polish, Czech and Upper Sorbian have both. All in all, the difference is so small that we decided to allow both.
• 3rd singular: all West and South Slavic languages have a zero ending, Russian always has -t, Ukrainian and Belarussian have both. Conclusion: zero ending.
• 1st plural: the ending -me (present in Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Bulgarian and Macedonian) has a slight majority over -mo (Ukrainian, Serbo-Croat), -my (Polish, Sorbian) and -m (Russian, Belarussian).
• 3rd plural: quite a mess. Endings vary: -at, -a, -u, -ut, -e, -jo, -i etc. Choice is arbitrary. Final -t occurs in East Slavic, Bulgarian and Macedonian.
• 2nd singular and plural: all languages have -š resp. -te, so there's no problem here.

Past tense

The past tense in formed by adding the ending -l (masculine singular), -la (feminine singular), -lo (neuter singular), -li (plural) to the infinitive stem. Examples:

One verb has an irregular past tense: the verb idti „to go” has šel, šla, šlo, šli „went”.

Future tense

The future tense is formed by combining the future tense of the verb biti „to be” with the infinitive. The forms are the same as if a verb with the stem bud- were conjugated in the present tense.

A perfective verb cannot have a future tense form: the future tense is expressed by the present form.

Conditional

The conditional is formed by adding the particle bi to the past tense: ja bi delal(a) „I would do/I would have done”.

If really needed, a past conditional can be formed by inserting the paste tense of the verb „to be” into the normal conditional form:

• ja bil bi pisal „I would have written” (m.)
• ja bila bi pisala „I would have written” (f.)

Imperative

The imperative has forms for the 2nd person singular, the 1st person plural and the 2nd person plural: delaj „do!” (to one person), delajme „let's do!”, delajte „do!” (to more persons). The imperative can always be recognised by the letter -j, added to the present tense stem. If the stem already ends in -j, it is not added again. If the stem ends in another consonant, -i- is inserted. Examples:

Participles

There are two participles: the present active participle and the past passive participle.

• The present active participle is derived from the present tense stem. It has the ending -uč when this stem ends in a consonant and -juč when it ends in a vowel. In other words, you can build it by replacing the ending -t of the 3rd person plural by -č. These forms are adverbs; to create an adjective, add the ending -i after -uč, for example: delati > delajuč(i) „doing”, nesti > nesuč(i) „carrying”.
• The past passive participle is created by adding -ni to the infinitive stem: delani „done”. However:
  • if the infinitive stem ends in a consonant or i, -e- is inserted, thus giving -eni resp. -ieni (for example: nesti > neseni „carried”, govoriti > govorieni „spoken”);
  • *-sieni, *-zieni, *-tieni, *-dieni, *-stieni, *-zdieni become -šeni, -ženi, -čeni, -dženi, -ščeni, -ždženi (similar to what happens in the present tense);
  • all verbs on -uti, as well as monosyllabic stems on -iti (those with a present tense stem ending in -j) have -ti instead of -ni.
• A verb can very simply be converted into a noun by substituting the ending -ni/-ti of the perfect past participle by -nie/-tie. Examples: delanie „the act of doing”, govorienie „talk, speech, the act of talking/speaking”.

Examples:

The passive voice

The passive voice is created as in English, by combinating a form of the verb biti „to be” with the past passive participle:

• ja jesem neseni „I am being carried”
• ja bil neseni „I was being carried, I have been carried”
• ja budem neseni „I will be carried”
• ja bil bi neseni „I would be carried, I would have been carried”

Now, a sentence like: „Pica je delana” „Pizza is being made” is grammatically completely correct. It is, however, recommended to avoid such constructions because they sound clumsy to those Slavs who are not accustomed to using the verb „to be” very often, especially in the present tense. If the subject is known, it is better to utilise a normal active sentence. And if the subject isn't known, as in the case of our pizza, it is possible to use third person plural form without the subject: „Delajut picu” „They make pizza, one makes pizza, pizza is being made”.

4.5.3. Irregular verbs

Slovianski has only one irregular verb: biti „to be”. It is conjugated as follows:

(*) Because „budem” would be understood as „we will be” rather than „I will be”, the form on -u is preferred here.

4.6. Prepositions

Prepositions should only be used according to their logical meaning, not according to national idioms. As a general rule, prepositions that indicate a location govern the following cases:

• the locative case when a stable location is indicated;
• the accusative case when a movement towards, or into a location is indicated;
• the genitive case when a movement away from, or out of a location is indicated.

In most other cases, the genitive is used. Here follows an incomplete list of prepositions in Slovianski:

In caseless Slovianski-P, all preposition govern the nominative (the accusative in case of personal pronouns). Besides, od (sometimes s) replaces the genitive case, k the dative case, and s (sometimes posredstvom) the instrumental case, while na serves as a „universal preposition”.

Many prepositions can also be used as prefixes. See word formation for details.

4.7. Conjunctions

• a — and, but
• ali — but
• čo, že — that
• jesli — if, whether
• i — and
• ili — or
• ili ... ili ... — either ... or ...
• kak ... tak i ... — both ... and ...
• kolko ... tolko ... — the ... the ...
• ni ... ni ... — neither ... nor ...
• hoti — although

4.8. Syntax

The preferred (and stylistically most neutral) word order is subject – verb – object. It isn't mandatory, but please note that if you put the object before the subject, the meaning will no more be clear. This is not the case of sentences where either a personal pronoun or the pronoun kto is either subject or object, because personal pronouns and kto have their own accussative forms, so the meaning is always clear.

There are two types of questions:

• Yes-no questions are preceded by the particle li at the beginning of a normal indicative sentence. Otec kupil knigu "Father has bought a book". Li otec kupil knigu? "Has father bought a book?"
• Other questions start with an interrogative pronoun or adverb. Ktoru knigu kupil otec? "Which book has father bought?", Gde otec kupil tu knigu? "Where did father buy that book?. In this type of sentences, the meaning is usually made clear by the case that's been used:
  – Ktora žena liubi tuttogo muža? „Which woman loves this man?” (woman = subject, man = object)
  – Ktoru ženu liubi tuttoj muž? „Which woman does this man love?” (man = subject, woman = object)
• If necessary, it is possible to use passive sentences that are always clear.

Final clauses are translated by means of čobi or da bi which is followed by past tense forms:

• Turisti posečut Niderlandi, čobi fotografovali tulipani. „Tourists visit the Netherlands to take a photo of tulips.”
• Turisti posetili Niderlandi, čobi fotografovali tulipani. „Tourists visited the Netherlands to take a photo of tulips.”
• Ona prinosi jabloka, da bi detka bili zdrove. „She brings apples so that the kids will be healthy.”
• Ona prinosila jabloka, da bi detka bili zdrove. „She brought apples so that the kids would be healthy.”

5. Word formation

5.1. Vocabulary patterns

Words are created in accordance with the living Slavic languages, and when they are not in agreement with each other, we basically follow the majority. However, merely counting „votes” does not always give the desired result. To avoid inconsistencies, we have to assume that words using the same root always use that root in the same form. Besides, since all Slavic languages derive their forms from Common Slavic in a fairly predictable way, it would be helpful if Slovianski follows a model for simple derivation from Common Slavic as well (although Slovianski is by no means intended to be directly based on it). This will make the language easier to recognise for everybody, if he knows how a given sound in his own language is represented in Slovianski – something he will learn very quickly and automatically while reading a few texts.

• The Proto-Slavic nasals ǫ and ę are preserved only in Polish; in other languages the former usually becomes u, while the latter can variously become e, je, ja, a, etc. In Slovianski they become u and ia/ja: put', ruka, piat', sviati.
• Proto-Slavic -or- (rendered as -oro- in East Slavic, as -ro- in Polish, as -ra- in South Slavic, Czech and Slovak) becomes the most middle -ro- in Slovianski: grod, krova.
  Likewise:
• Proto-Slavic -ol- becomes -lo-: glova, mlodi.
• Proto-Slavic -er- becomes -re-: breg, pred.
• Proto-Slavic -el- becomes -le-: mleko.
• Proto-Slavic syllabic r becomes -or-: torg, borzo, gorlo, korčma.
• Proto-Slavic syllabic ŕ becomes -er-: berloga, deržati, merkati, mertvi, pervi, serp, verba, verh.
• Proto-Slavic syllabic l and syllabic ĺ become -ol-: dolg, kolbasa, molva, polk, solnce, stolp, holm, žolč, čoln, polni, tolsti, volk, žolti.
• Proto-Slavic kt and tj (West Slavic c, East Slavic and Serbo-Croat č, Bulgarian št) becomes č: sveča „candle” and noč „night”.
• Proto-Slavic kv'- and gv'- become cv- and zv-: cvet „flower” and zvezda „star”.
• Proto-Slavic dj (West Slavic dz, East Slavic ž, Serbo-Croat đ, Bulgarian žd) becomes dž: medžu „between”.
• Proto-Slavic g remains g, because the change to [h] occured in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech and Slovak only.
• Proto-Slavic šč remains šč, because the change to [št] occured in south Slavic, Czech and Slovak only.
• Proto-Slavic initial ǫ- (Russian/Czech/Slovak u-, Polish wą-, Sorbian wu-; other languages tend to be less consequent) becomes vu-: vutroba „liver”.

Words derived from Latin or other Western languages should have predictable forms as well:

• Latin -ia, which was rendered either as -ia or as -y in English, becomes -ija in Slovianski: economy > ekonomija.
• English adjectives in -ic(al) end in -ični in Slovianski: specific > specifični, comical > komični.
• English -sion becomes -zija: television > televizija. Adjectives derived from these nouns end in -zijni: televizijni.
• English -ssion becomes -sija: discussion > diskusija. Adjectives derived from these nouns end in -sijni: diskusijni.
• English -tion becomes -cija: action > akcija. Adjectived derived from these nouns end in -cijni: tradicijni.
• English -ics becomes -ika: economics > ekonomika.
• English -ism becomes -izm: communism > komunizm.
• English -ist becomes -ist: communist > komunist.

6. Sample texts

6.1. The Lord's Prayer

6.2. Babel text