Slovio

From Open Encyclopedia

{{Infobox Language |name=Slovio |caption=Flag |image=Image:Flaga Slowian.jpg |creator=Mark Hucko |date=2001 |speakers=unknown |setting=International auxiliary language, designed for native speakers of Slavic languages |fam2=auxiliary language |posteriori=a posteriori language based on the Slavic languages}}

Slovio is a written and spoken constructed language created by Swiss -based Slovak linguist Mark Hucko and published on the Internet in 2001. Slovio is an international auxiliary language created to help Slavic speakers intercommunicate.

The name, Slovio, comes from the Proto-Slavic slovo which means "word" and has been retained in similar form in contemporary Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian languages. As of December 2005, the dictionary of Slovio contains some 33,000 entries.

1 Characterization
2 Alphabet
3 Text sample in Slovio
4 External link
5 See also

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Characterization

The grammar principles of Slovio are similar to Esperanto (unified noun, adjective and verb endings, no flexion). Affixes are used to change the function or meaning of a word. For example, adding -ju to the end of a word makes it an adjective to a neighbouring noun. Consequently, there is no need for a strict word sequence:

trava zelenju - "green grass"

zelenju trava - "green grass"

The vocabulary is derived from the most common words from Slavic languages. According to Hucko, Slovio is understandable by more than 400 million people (Slavic-speaking) throughout the world without any prior study of the language.

However, critics say that such intelligibility is far from granted, especially for speakers of West Slavic languages (Polish, Czech and Slovak language). For example, the Slovio words "sobak" (dog), "tper" (now), "govorene" (speech) and "pecxen" (liver) are very similar to the Russian words "sobaka", "tper", "govorenye" and "pyechen", but have different roots in Polish, Czech and Slovak languages.

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Alphabet

Slovio can be written using the Latin letters, as well as using Cyrillic letters. The Slovio letters lack any diacritic markings.

The sound and pronunciation of the letters are similar to Esperanto, except for the Slovio letters cx, gx, sx, zx, and h. Using a letter in combination with the letter x forms a new single sound. For example, s represents the s sound, and sx the english sh sound. This system allows for easy transmission via computer and other communication networks without the need for any special fonts.

Latin		Cyrillic		sounds like...
A	a	А	а
B	b	Б	б
C	c	Ц	ц	ts in rats
Cx	cx	Ч	ч	tsh in china
D	d	Д	д
E	e	Е	е
F	f	Ф	ф
G	g	Г	г	g in good
Gx	gx	ДЖ	дж	g in George
H	h	Х	х	h in hotel or j in Juan
I	i	И	и
J	j	Й	й	y in yes
K	k	К	к
L	l	Л	л
M	m	М	м
N	n	Н	н
O	o	О	о
P	p	П	п
R	r	Р	р	rolling r
S	s	С	с	s in suit
Sx	sx	Ш	ш	sh in shoot
T	t	Т	т
U	u	У	у
V	v	В	в
Z	z	З	з	z in zoo
Zx	zx	Ж	ж	zh in leisure