Slovio

Encyclopedia : S : SL : SLO : Slovio

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 Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Russian, Macedonian and Ukrainian languages. As of May 2006, the dictionary of Slovio contains over 37,000 entries.

Contents

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

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 and South Slavic languages. For example, the Slovio words "sobak" (dog), "tper" (now), and "pecxen" (liver) are very similar to the Russian words "sobaka", "teper", and "pyechen", but have different roots in the South and West Slavic languages. To overcome this, sometimes synonyms are used, e.g. the word "pes" for (dog).

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 (present only in the x-convention) and zx (equivalent to the Esperanto letter ĵ). 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	ch 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	s in leisure

Optional letters are:

Latin		Cyrillic		sounds like...
Hq	hq			always h in hotel
Hx	hx			always j in Spanish Juan
X	x	Кс	кс	ks in extra
Wx	wx	Щ	щ	shtsh in wish-chest
Q	q			softner, nq is ñ as in canyon

Text sample in Slovio

Slovio es novju mezxunarodju jazika ktor razumijut cxtirsto milion ludis na celoju zemla. Ucxijte Slovio tper!

Словио ес новйу межународйу йазика ктор разумийут чтирсто милион лудис на целойу земла. Учийте Словио тпер!

Slovio is a new international language that is understood by 400 million people in the world. Learn Slovio now!

External links

Wikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject:

Slavic languages
East Slavic	Belarusian \| Old East Slavic † \| Russian \| Rusyn (Carpathians) \| Ruthenian † \| Ukrainian
West Slavic	Czech \| Kashubian \| Knaanic † \| Lower Sorbian \| Polabian † \| Polish \| Pomeranian † \| Slovak \| Slovincian † \| Upper Sorbian
South Slavic	Banat Bulgarian \| Bosnian \| Bulgarian \| Burgenland Croatian \| Croatian \| Macedonian \| Molise Croatian \| Montenegrin \| Old Church Slavonic † \| Serbian \| Serbo-Croatian \| Slavic (Greece) \| Slovenian
Other	Church Slavonic \| Old Novgorod dialect † \| Proto-Slavic † \| Russenorsk † \| Rusyn (Pannonia) \| Slavonic-Serbian † \| Slovio
	^† Language death>Extinct