Voting Machine

The Voting Machine is a tool that can be helpful for establishing new words in Interslavic. It applies the rules for word creation as explained in the design principles for vocabulary creation, including the voting system. In the first column, you can add words in the twelve Slavic languages we work with, by typing them, or by copying and pasting them from an online dictionary. The second column displays a representation of the word you have entered in a simplified Interslavic orthography. If you want to enter words directly in Interslavic orthography, then deselect the second checkbox ("Convert into simplified Interslavic") first.

The checkboxes next to the second column make it possible to select or deselect the language in question; if you deselect it, it will not be taken into account during the vote. Once you push the <SUBMIT> button, a script will calculate the number of votes and the number of speakers (Ethnologue, 2012) for each option.

It is possible to enter two or three words for one language. In that case, make sure that they are separated by a comma.

Because in most cases Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian do not differ from each other, it is sufficient to fill in one of them, although you always have the possibility of entering something else for the other one as well; in the final outcome, they are listed together as „Serbo-Croat”, which is not a political decision but a practical one.

In addition to the standard voting system, this page offers a few alternative systems as well, all based on the principle that West, East and South Slavic languages are weighed equally:

A „maxi vote”, which also counts the votes of Upper and Lower Sorbian, Rusyn and Cashubian (based on this proposal)
A „mini vote”, taking into account only the biggest member of each of the six subgroups (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croat and Bulgarian)
A „micro vote”, taking into account only the biggest language of each subfamily (Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croat)
It is also possible to include Old Church Slavonic in the vote, in which case it is given one vote.

For the record, the Voting Machine is not an actual word building tool. All it does is counting votes and speakers as a means of inventarising the support among speakers of the Slavic languages for a certain solution, but it doesn't generate any actual words, nor does it take any decisions. Also, one should be aware that for example Polish miasto, Ukrainian місто and Russian место should not be treated as separate words, because they all derive from the same Proto-Slavic word město. This should be taken into account while entering data.

Include Old Church Slavonic Convert into simplified Interslavic