Slovianski

Conlang	Slovianski
Author	Ondrej Rečnik, Gabriel Svoboda, Jan van Steenbergen
Year Began	2006
Language Type - by purpose - by source	auxlang Slavic conlang
Typology - morphology - word order	fusional SVO
Lexicon Size	0
Etymologies	No
Grammar	Yes
Sample Texts	Yes
Primer	No

Slovianski is an international auxiliary language, created by a group of people interested in the creation of a Slavic interlanguage.

Description

The Slovianski project was started in March 2006 as an effort to create a language that would be easily understood by speakers of any Slavic language, and that can be learned easily by both Slavs and non-Slavs. It is the collaborative effort of a group of people, gathered in the Slovianski Forum. In part, it came about as a reaction against various non-Slavic elements in the best-known Slavic interlanguage, Slovio.

Because the language is a fairly recent phenomenon, it is not yet clear which precise direction it will take. At present, three different versions of the language are being developed:

Slovianski-P, proposed by Ondrej Rečnik: a highly simplified but still naturalistic language, incorporating various elements from pidgin languages.
Slovianski-S, proposed by Gabriel Svoboda: an equally simplified language with a schematic (say, Esperanto-like) grammar.
Slovianski-N, proposed by Jan van Steenbergen: a more naturalistic language based on everything the Slavic languages have in common.

The differences between these three versions are mostly in the field of grammar: for example, Slovianski-P and Slovianski-N have grammatical gender, while Slovianski-S doesn't. Slovianski-N has six cases, Slovianski-S two, and Slovianski-P none. On the other hand, the creators of the language try to keep things like vocabulary and orthography central.

At some later point of the development of Slovianski it will be decided with of the three versions has most advantages, or otherwise whether a compromise can be reached.

Design principles

Slovianski flag

The primary designs goals of Slovianski are the following:

it should be understandable for anyone who knows a Slavic language without prior study;
it can be learned easily by speakers of a Slavic language;
it can be learned easily by speakers of other languages.

How important each of these points is varies between the three versions of the language.

Because it should be possible to write Slovianski on any keyboard, various different orthographies based on the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are allowed.

Language sources

All living Slavic languages. Also, to some degree, Common Slavic and Slovio.

Interest of others

Basically, Slovianski can be useful to anyone who is interested in addressing the entire Slavic world via websites, fora, mailing lists, etc., without being forced to translate a text into several languages. Knowledge of the language should enable a person to make himself understandable to any Slavic speaker, and to understand more than just the basics of a text in any Slavic language.

The Slovianski Forum currently has over 50 members.

Sample translation

Slovianski-P: "Novi ukrainski parlament sobiral-sa pervi raz posle generalno viberanie v marec. Eto viberanie bilo hvaleno kak naj-svobodno i naj-spravedlivo ktore do-teper izdelalo-sa v eta bivša-sovietska republika."

Slovianski-S: "Novij ukrajinij parlamenta vosotretilo pervo-razo depos generalnij viberania vo marec. Eta tut viberania bilo hvalenij kako naj-svobodij i naj-spravedlivij, ktora libo-kogdo bilo delanij vo eta tut bilij sovietij republik."

Slovianski-N: "Novi parlament Ukraini sbiral sia pervi raz ot generalnih viborov v marece. Te vibori bili hvaleni kak naj-svobodne i naj-čestne ktore libo-kogdi imali mesto v toj biloj republike soveckoj."

English: "Ukraine's new parliament has met for the first time since the general elections in March. Those elections where praised as the freest and fairest ever held in the former Soviet republic."

From Langmaker

Description

Design principles

Language sources

Interest of others

Sample translation

See also

External links