Interslavic facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Interslavic
Medžuslovjansky Меджусловјанскы
Flag of the Interslavic language
Created by	Ondrej Rečnik, Gabriel Svoboda, Jan van Steenbergen, Igor Polyakov, Vojtěch Merunka, Steeven Radzikowski
Date	2006
Setting and usage	Auxiliary language for communication between speakers of different Slavic languages
Ethnicity	Slavs
Users	7000  (2020)
Purpose	Constructed language International auxiliary language A posteriori language Naturalistic planned language Zonal auxiliary language Pan-Slavic language Interslavic
Writing system	Latin, Cyrillic, Glagolitic
Sources	Old Church Slavonic, modern Slavic languages
Official status
Regulated by	Interslavic Committee
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Interslavic (Medžuslovjansky / Меджусловјанскы) is a special language created to help people from different Slavic countries talk to each other. Think of it like a bridge between languages. It's also designed so that people who don't speak a Slavic language can still understand and communicate with Slavs.

This language is a bit like a "constructed language," meaning it was made by people. It's based on Old Church Slavonic, an old Slavic language. It also uses ideas from how Slavs have always tried to talk to each other, especially online. Interslavic uses words and grammar that are common in most Slavic languages. The main goal is for people to understand it right away, even if they haven't studied it much.

The idea for Interslavic started in 2006. Back then, it was called Slovianski. In 2011, Slovianski joined with two other similar projects. They decided to call the new combined language "Interslavic." This name was first suggested way back in 1908!

Just like other Slavic languages, Interslavic can be written using either Latin letters (like English) or Cyrillic letters (like Russian). Sometimes, it can even be written using the older Glagolitic script.

History of Interslavic

The idea of a common Slavic language is very old. It existed even before other made-up languages like Volapük and Esperanto. The first known description of such a language was written by a Croatian priest named Juraj Križanić between 1659 and 1666.

Pan-Slavism and Language

The history of common Slavic languages is linked to something called Pan-Slavism. This was an idea that all Slavic people should be united culturally and politically. They believed all Slavs were part of one big family. Because of this, they felt they needed one language that all Slavs could use.

In earlier times, Old Church Slavonic served this purpose. It was used for official documents and in churches, much like Latin was used in Western Europe. Later, Russian became very important. It was the language of the biggest Slavic country and spoken by many Slavs. However, after the Soviet Union ended, Russian was used less as a common language in Eastern Europe.

The Slovianski Project

In March 2006, a group of people from different countries started the Slovianski project. They wanted to create a simple Slavic language that Slavs could understand without having to learn it first. They aimed for a language that felt natural and only used words and grammar found in most Slavic languages.

At first, Slovianski had two main versions:

• Slovianski-N (Naturalistic): This version had more grammar rules, like six different cases for nouns.
• Slovianski-P (Simple): This version was simpler, using prepositions instead of many cases, similar to English or Bulgarian.

Later, they decided to focus only on the naturalistic version, calling it just Slovianski. Even though it had features like three genders and six cases, it was still made easier by having simple endings and very few irregular words.

Slovianski became popular online and in a newsletter called Slovianska Gazeta. In 2010, many articles about Slovianski appeared in newspapers and on websites in Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

Merging Projects

Neoslavonic logo

Slovianski also helped other language projects grow. Rozumio (2008) and Slovioski (2009) tried to connect Slovianski with another language called Slovio. Slovioski, created by Steeven Radzikowski, eventually became its own language.

In 2009, a new language called Neoslavonic was started by Vojtěch Merunka. It was based on the grammar of Old Church Slavonic but used some words from Slovianski.

In 2011, Slovianski, Slovioski, and Neoslavonic all joined together. They formed one big project under the name Interslavic. The grammar and dictionary of Slovianski were expanded to include ideas from Neoslavonic. This made Interslavic more flexible. Since then, Slovianski and Neoslavonic are no longer separate projects.

Around the same time, a very simple version of Interslavic was created called Slovianto. It was designed for beginners and non-Slavs. Slovianto has different levels, starting with basic plurals and tenses, then adding more grammar like genders and verb forms.

In 2017, a conference was held about Interslavic. After this, Vojtěch Merunka and Jan van Steenbergen started working on a new, single grammar and spelling system for Interslavic.

Interslavic Community

Vojtěch Merunka and Jan van Steenbergen at the Second Interslavic Conference in 2018

It's hard to know exactly how many people speak Interslavic. It's a common challenge for constructed languages. In 2012, it was estimated that "several hundreds" of people spoke Slovianski. By 2014, the language's Facebook page mentioned 4,600 speakers. In 2017, a more realistic number was around 2,000 speakers.

Interslavic has a very active online community. There are several Facebook groups with thousands of members. There are also groups on VKontakte, Discord, and Telegram. Of course, not everyone who joins a group is a fluent speaker, but these numbers show a lot of interest.

The project also has online news sites and a special journal for experts. There's even a wiki with texts and materials in Interslavic. Since 2016, Interslavic has been used in a scientific journal called Ethnoentomology for titles and summaries.

In June 2017, the first international conference about Interslavic took place in the Czech Republic. People gave presentations in Interslavic or had them translated. A second conference happened in 2018. A third one was planned for 2020 but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

People are also trying out Interslavic in practical ways. Short songs and films have been translated into the language. In 2022, an Interslavic version of the song "Jožin z bažin" came out. Also, a new social app was translated into Interslavic to help fill the gap where translations into other Slavic languages were missing.

A group of volunteers, who are native speakers of all standard Slavic languages, works to improve the Interslavic dictionary. They check how well people understand the words. This group includes speakers of smaller Slavic languages like Rusyn and Upper Sorbian too.

Interslavic Alphabet

A key rule for Interslavic is that you can type it on any Slavic keyboard. Since Slavic countries use both Latin and Cyrillic letters, Interslavic allows both. There are some small differences in how certain letters are written in different Slavic alphabets, but Interslavic accepts these variations. Also, because Interslavic isn't tied to one specific country, there are no strict rules about where to put the stress (emphasis) on words.

Here are the main Latin and Cyrillic letters used in Interslavic:

(The pronunciation is just a guide. It might sound a bit different depending on who is speaking.)

There are also some extra, optional letters in the Latin alphabet for Interslavic. These letters have special marks called diacritics. They are used to show where words come from, linking them to very old Slavic languages. Their pronunciation might be the same as regular letters.

How Interslavic Words Change (Morphology)

Interslavic grammar is based on what's most common in natural Slavic languages. It also simplifies some things. It uses elements that you can find in most, if not all, Slavic languages.

Nouns

Interslavic Nouns change their endings depending on how they are used in a sentence. This is called "inflecting." Nouns can have:

• Three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
• Two numbers: singular (one) and plural (more than one).
• Six cases: These show the noun's role in the sentence (like who is doing the action, who is receiving it, etc.). These cases are nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative.
• Some Slavic languages also have a "vocative" case, used for directly addressing someone. Interslavic includes it, but it's not a main case.

There are no words like "a" or "the" (called articles) in Interslavic. The many ways nouns change in Slavic languages have been simplified into four or five main groups.

• Masculine nouns (usually end in a hard consonant): dom "house"
• Feminine nouns ending in -a: žena "woman"
• Feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant: kosť "bone"
• Neuter nouns ending in -o or -e: slovo "word"

Adjectives

Adjectives (words that describe nouns) in Interslavic are always regular. They change their endings to match the noun's gender, case, and number. They usually come before the noun they describe.

Comparing Adjectives

To make an adjective mean "more" (like "weaker"), you add the ending -(ěj)ši. For example, slabši means "weaker." To make it mean "most" (like "weakest"), you add the prefix naj- to the "more" form. So, najslabši means "weakest."

Adverbs

You can turn some adjectives into Adverbs (words that describe verbs or other adverbs).

• If an adjective ends in a "hard" sound, you add -o. So, dobry "good" becomes dobro "well."
• If an adjective ends in a "soft" sound, you add -e. So, svěži "fresh" becomes svěže "freshly."

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are words like "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they."

• ja "I"
• ty "you" (singular)
• on "he"
• ona "she"
• ono "it"
• my "we"
• vy "you" (plural)
• oni "they"

When a third-person pronoun (he, she, it, they) comes after a preposition (like "to," "from," "with"), you add n- before it.

Other types of pronouns, like "my" (possessive) or "this" (demonstrative), change their endings just like adjectives.

Numerals

Here are the numbers 1 to 10 in Interslavic:

• 1 – jedin/jedna/jedno
• 2 – dva/dvě
• 3 – tri
• 4 – četyri
• 5 – pęt́
• 6 – šest́
• 7 – sedm
• 8 – osm
• 9 – devęt́
• 10 – desęt́

For numbers 11-19, you add -nadsęť. For tens (like 20, 30), you add -desęt. For hundreds, you add -sto.

Ordinal numbers (like "first," "second") are usually made by adding -y to the cardinal numbers. But some are special: pŕvy "first", drugy/vtory "second", tretji "third", četvŕty "fourth".

Fractions are made by adding -ina to ordinal numbers. For example, tretjina means "(one) third." The only exception is pol (or polovina, polovica) for "half."

How Interslavic Verbs Work (Verbs)

Aspect

Like all Slavic languages, Interslavic verbs have "aspect." This means verbs show if an action is finished or still ongoing.

• A perfective verb shows an action that is or will be completed. It focuses on the result.
• An imperfective verb focuses on the action itself, its duration, or if it happens often.

Most verbs without a prefix are imperfective. You can often make them perfective by adding a prefix:

• dělati (to do, ongoing) becomes sdělati (to do, completed)
• pisati (to write, ongoing) becomes napisati (to write, completed)

Sometimes, you need to make a new imperfective verb from a perfective one that already has a prefix. This is done in a regular way, often by changing the ending.

Stems

Slavic languages are known for their complicated verb changes. Interslavic simplifies this with two main ways verbs change and two "stems" (the base part of the verb). Usually, if you know the infinitive (the "to do" form), you can figure out both stems.

• The first stem is used for the infinitive, past tense, and some other forms. You get it by removing -ti from the infinitive. For example, dělati "to do" becomes děla-.
• The second stem is used for the present tense and other forms. Often, it's the same as the first stem. If not, it can usually be figured out from the first stem.

There are two main groups for how verbs change in the present tense:

• The first group includes most verbs that don't end in -iti, and some short verbs that do.
• The second group includes longer verbs that end in -iti and most verbs ending in -ěti.

Some verbs are "mixed" or "irregular," meaning their second stem doesn't follow the usual rules. You just have to learn these separately.

Conjugation (Verb Endings)

Verbs change their endings based on who is doing the action and when it happens (present, past, future).

• Present tense endings: For the first group, they are like -ų, -eš, -e, -emo, -ete, -ųt. For the second group, they are like -jų, -iš, -i, -imo, -ite, -ęt.
• Past tense (simple): Ends in -l (for masculine), -la (feminine), -lo (neuter), or -li (plural).
• Future tense: You use the future form of "to be" (byti) plus the infinitive of the main verb.
• Imperative (commands): Endings are -Ø, -mo, -te or -i, -imo, -ite.

There are also different forms of "participles" (verb forms that act like adjectives or adverbs) and "verbal nouns" (verb forms that act like nouns).

Irregular Verbs

A few verbs don't follow the usual rules:

• byti "to be": It has special forms in the present, imperfect, and future tenses.
• dati "to give", jěsti "to eat", and věděti "to know": These have special present tense forms.
• idti "to go (by foot)": Its past tense form is irregular (šel, šla, šlo, šli).

Interslavic Vocabulary

The words in Interslavic come from comparing words in modern Slavic languages. For this, Slavic languages are divided into six main groups:

• Russian
• Ukrainian and Belarusian
• Polish
• Czech and Slovak
• Slovene and Serbo-Croatian
• Bulgarian and Macedonian

All these groups are treated equally. Sometimes, even words from smaller languages like Cashubian or Rusyn are included. Interslavic words are chosen so that as many Slavic speakers as possible can understand them. The way a word is chosen also depends on how often it's used in modern Slavic languages and how it fits with the logic of Interslavic. This helps keep the language consistent.

Example Text

Here is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Interslavic, written in Latin alphabet:

Vsi ljudi rodet se svobodni i ravni v dostojnosti i pravah. Oni sut obdarjeni razumom i svěstju i imajut postupati jedin k drugomu v duhu bratstva.

The same article in Interslavic, written in Cyrillic script:

Вси људи родет се свободни и равни в достојности и правах. Они сут обдарјени разумом и свєстју и имајут поступати једин к другому в духу братства.

And here is the English version:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

• Pan-Slavic language
• Zonal auxiliary language

Images for kids

• 

  Neoslavonic logo

• 

  Vojtěch Merunka and Jan van Steenbergen at the Second Interslavic Conference in 2018