Venedic language facts for kids

Venedic is a constructed language that sounds and feels like a real language, even though it was made up! It was created by a Dutch translator named Jan van Steenbergen. He also helped create Interslavic, another language designed to help people from different Slavic countries understand each other.

Venedic is used in a fictional world called Ill Bethisad. In this world, there's a country called the Republic of the Two Crowns, which is like a different version of the real-life Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The big idea behind Venedic is: What if the Roman Empire had taken over the lands where the Poles lived long ago? And what if Latin (the language of the Romans) had become the main language there instead of the ancestor of Polish?

So, Venedic tries to show what the Polish language might have looked like if it had grown from Latin, making it a Romance language (like Spanish or French) instead of a Slavic language (like Russian or Czech). Because of this, many of its words and grammar rules come from Latin. But its sounds, spelling, and how sentences are put together are very much like Polish.

Venedic is well-known online as an example of an "altlang" (alternate language). Other languages like Brithenig and Breathanach are similar, but they explore what would happen if Latin mixed with Celtic languages instead of Polish.

In 2005, Venedic got a big update. Jan van Steenbergen worked with a Polish language expert, Grzegorz Jagodziński, to make the language even more realistic. You can find a dictionary of Venedic words online with over 4,000 entries! The language has even been featured in some Polish news articles and magazines.

How Venedic Sounds and is Spelled

Venedic uses the same alphabet as modern Polish. It has 32 letters: A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż

It also uses seven special letter combinations called "digraphs" to make certain sounds: Ch Cz Dz Dź Dż Rz Sz

If you know how to pronounce Polish, you'll know how to pronounce Venedic! The sounds are exactly the same. In Venedic, the stress (the part of the word you say a bit louder) almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable. For example, in the word "banana," the stress is on the second "na."

How Words Change in Venedic

Unlike English, Venedic doesn't use words like "a," "an," or "the" (called "articles"). This is because Latin was just starting to develop articles, and Polish doesn't use them either.

In Venedic, nouns (words for people, places, things), pronouns (like "he" or "she"), and adjectives (describing words) change their endings based on a few things:

• Gender: Words can be masculine, feminine, or neuter.
• Number: Words can be singular (one) or plural (more than one).
• Case: This shows what role a word plays in a sentence. Venedic has three main cases:
  • The direct case is used for the main subject of a sentence (who or what is doing the action) and the direct object (who or what the action is done to).
    • Example: Miej poterz leże libier means "My father reads a book." Here, "my father" and "a book" are both in the direct case.
  • The genitive case shows possession, like saying "whose" something is.
    • Example: siedź potrze means "my father's chair."
  • The dative case shows the indirect object, meaning who or what benefits from the action or receives something.
    • Example: Da mi ił libier means "Give me that book."

Venedic also has a vocative case, which is used when you're directly talking to someone or something, like saying "Oh father!"

Noun Groups (Declensions)

Nouns in Venedic are divided into four main groups, called "declensions." These are similar to how nouns were grouped in Latin:

• The first group includes most feminine words that end in -a.
• The second group is mostly masculine and neuter words that end with a consonant.
• The third group is mostly feminine words that end with a soft consonant sound.
• The fourth group includes words ending in -ej. These are often considered a bit irregular.

Adjectives

Adjectives (words that describe nouns) in Venedic always match the noun they are describing in gender, number, and case. They can be placed either before or after the noun. Unlike nouns, adjectives follow more consistent rules for how their endings change.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns (like "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," "they") in Venedic are a bit different from nouns. They keep a clear difference between the nominative (for the subject) and accusative (for the direct object) instead of using the direct case.

Venedic Verbs

Verbs (action words) in Venedic change their endings to show who is doing the action, how many people are doing it, and when the action happens. Because Latin and an old Slavic language called Proto-Slavonic had very similar ways of changing verbs, Venedic and Polish also share these similarities.

Venedic verbs have different forms for different situations:

• Infinitive: The basic form of the verb, like "to love" (jemar).
• Present tense: For actions happening now, like "I love" or "I am loving" (jemu).
• Imperfect: For actions that were happening in the past (jemawa "I loved").
• Perfect: For actions that have been completed (jemie "I have loved").
• Future tense: For actions that will happen. There are two types:
  • Imperfective: For ongoing future actions (joru jemar "I will love, I will be loving").
  • Perfective: For completed future actions (jemaru "I will have loved").
• Conditional mood: For actions that "would" or "would have" happened (jemarsi "I would love, I would have loved").
• Imperative mood: For commands, like "love!" (jem).
• Present active participle: Describes someone doing the action, like "loving" (jemęć).
• Perfect passive participle: Describes something that has had the action done to it, like "beloved" (jematy).

Venedic Words

The Venedic dictionary online has over 4,000 words! Because Venedic was built from Vulgar Latin (the everyday Latin spoken by common people), its words are most similar to Italian. However, the way Venedic words sound is different from Italian, much like how Portuguese sounds different from Spanish.

Even though Venedic is based on Polish sounds, very few Venedic words actually look like Polish words. This is because Slavic languages like Polish are very different from Romance languages like Latin. For example, in the tables below, you'll see how Venedic words compare to Latin, Italian, Polish, and other Romance languages.

Examples of Venedic Text

Here are some famous texts translated into Venedic:

The Lord's Prayer

Potrze nostry, kwały jesz en czałór, sąciewkaty si twej numię. Owień twej rzeń. Foca si twa włątać, komód en czału szyk i sur cierze. Da nów odzej nostry pań kocidzany. I dziemieć nów nostrze dziewta, komód i nu dziemiećmy swór dziewtorzór. I nie endycz nosz en ciętaceń, uta liwra nosz dzie mału. Nąk twie są rzeń i pociestać i głurza, o siąprz. Amen.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 1)

Tuci ludzie noszczę sie liwrzy i jekwali z rześpiece świej dzińtacie i swór drzecór. Li są dotaci ku rocenie i koszczęce i dziewię ocar piara wyniałtru en jenie frotrzeńtacie.

In English, this means:

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.

Similar Languages in Fiction

In the Ill Bethisad universe, Venedic isn't the only language created this way! There are two other related languages:

• Slevan: Spoken in the Ill Bethisad version of Slovakia.
• Šležan: Also called Silesian, spoken in Silesia. Šležan is like a "Romance mirror" of Czech, just as Venedic is for Polish.

Outside of Ill Bethisad, there are other cool examples of languages that explore "what if" scenarios:

• In the famous The Adventures of Tintin comics, the fictional language Syldavian is like a "Germanic Venedic." It shows what Polish might have looked like if it were a Germanic language instead of a Slavic one.
• The nearly extinct Wymysorys language is a real-life example of a language that mixes German and Polish in a unique way.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma wenedyk para niños