Wenedyk facts for kids

Wenedyk (say it like: Venedic) is a made-up language. A language expert and translator named Jan van Steenbergen from the Netherlands created it in 2002. He had a cool idea: What if the Polish language had grown from Latin instead of Old Slavic languages? Wenedyk is his answer to that question!

Wenedyk is a Romance language. This means most of its words are related to words in French, Italian, and Romanian. But they look and sound much more like Polish words. The rules for spelling and pronunciation in Wenedyk are exactly like Polish. Other parts, like grammar and how sentences are built, mix ideas from both Polish and Romance languages.

Wenedyk is part of a group called "alternative languages." These are languages that could have existed if history had gone differently. Another famous example is Brithenig, which imagines Welsh growing from Latin. Wenedyk became well-known in Poland after it was featured online and in a magazine called Wiedza i Życie ("Knowledge and Life").

Wenedyk is used in Ill Bethisad, a made-up world where the Roman Empire was much stronger than in our real history. In this world, Wenedyk is the main language of the Republic of the Two Crowns. This country is similar to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it was never divided up like Poland was in our history.

Spelling and Pronunciation

Wenedyk uses the same letters as the Polish language. Here they are:

• 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

There are also seven sounds that are written using two letters:

• Ch Cz Dz Dź Dż Rz Sz

Wenedyk is pronounced just like Polish. The stress in a word almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable. If a preposition (like "on" or "in") and a pronoun (like "he" or "she") are used together, they are treated as one word. If the pronoun has only one syllable, the stress moves to the preposition.

Grammar Basics

Wenedyk does not use articles, which are words like "a" or "the." This is a big difference from other Romance languages and even made-up languages like Esperanto. The reason is that Polish and most other Slavic languages do not use these words. Even in old Latin, articles were not very common.

Words in Wenedyk can change their form a lot. In English, words change only a little (like "cat," "cat's," "cats"). But in Wenedyk, words have many forms. These forms often replace what English would use as prepositions or modal verbs. For nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, these forms are called "cases." Wenedyk has three main cases:

• The direct case: This case is used for both the subject (who or what does the action) and the direct object (who or what receives the action) in a sentence. For example, in the sentence Miej poterz leże libier ("My father reads a book"), Miej poterz ("my father") and libier ("a book") are both in the direct case.
• The genitive: This case is used when English would use 's or the word of. For example: siedź potrze ("my father's chair"), or rzejna Anglie ("the queen of England").
• The dative: This case is used when English would use (or could use) the word to. For example: Da mi ił libier ("Give me that book"), or Da mi łu ("Give it to me").

Wenedyk also has a vocative case. This is used when you are calling out to someone. Sometimes it looks the same as the direct case, but not always. For example: O potrze! ("Oh father!").

Wenedyk has three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and four declensions. Declensions are different ways words change their forms. These are very similar to the declensions in Latin:

• The first declension includes all words ending in -a. Almost all of these words are feminine.
• The second declension mostly includes masculine and neuter words that end with a consonant. It combines parts of the second and fourth declensions from Latin.
• The third declension mostly includes feminine words that end with a soft consonant.
• The fourth declension includes words ending in -ej. This matches the fifth declension in Latin.

Here is a chart of the pronouns (words like I, you, we, they) in Wenedyk:

Verbs also have many forms. Each pronoun has its own verb form:

• jemu – I love
• jemasz – you love
• jema – he/she loves
• jemamy – we love
• jemacie – you love
• jemą – they love

Most tenses (which show when an action happens) have special forms:

• jemar – to love (the basic form)
• jemu – I love, I am loving (present tense)
• jemawa – I loved (past tense)
• jemie – I have loved (perfect tense)
• joru jemar – I will love, I will be loving (future tense)
• jemaru – I will have loved (future perfect tense)
• jemarsi – I would love, I would have loved (conditional tense)
• jem – love! (command form)
• jemęć – loving (present participle)
• jematy – beloved (past participle)

Word Examples

The Wenedyk word list available online has over 4,000 words! This chart shows 30 words and how Wenedyk compares to other Romance languages:

Examples of Wenedyk

Here is "The Lord's Prayer" written in Wenedyk:

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.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma wenedyk para niños