Wenedyk
Encyclopedia
Wenedyk is a naturalistic constructed language
, created by the Dutch translator Jan van Steenbergen (who also co-created the international auxiliary language Slovianski
). It is used in the fictional Republic of the Two Crowns (based on the Republic of Two Nations
), in the alternate timeline
of Ill Bethisad
. Officially, Wenedyk is a descendant of Vulgar Latin
with a strong Slavic
admixture, based on the premise that the Roman Empire
incorporated the ancestors of the Poles
in their territory. Less officially, it tries to show what Polish
would have looked like if it had been a Romance
instead of a Slavic
language. An alternative Polish term for the language could thus be either polskowłoski, incorporating the term włoski, originally meaning Vlach but now applied in Polish to Italian
, or polskoromański, literally "Polish-Romance". On the Internet, it is well-recognized as an example of the altlang genre, much like Brithenig
and Breathanach.
The idea for the language was inspired by such languages as Brithenig, Breathanach and Kerno, languages that bear a similar relationship to the Celtic languages as Wenedyk does to Polish. The language itself is based entirely on (Vulgar
) Latin
and Polish
: all phonological, morphological, and syntactic changes that made Polish develop from Common Slavic are applied to Vulgar Latin. As a result, vocabulary and morphology are predominantly Romance in nature, while phonology, orthography and syntax are essentially the same as in Polish. Wenedyk uses the modern standard Polish orthography
, including (for instance) ⟨w⟩ for /v/ and ⟨ł⟩ for /w/.
Wenedyk plays a role in the alternate history
of Ill Bethisad, where it is one of the official languages of the Republic of the Two Crowns. In 2005 Wenedyk underwent a major revision due to a better understanding of Latin and Slavic sound and grammar changes. In the process, the author was assisted by the Polish linguist Grzegorz Jagodziński.
The dictionary on the WWW page linked below contains over 4000 entries.
The language has acquired some attention in Poland, including a few online news articles and an article in the monthly Wiedza i Życie ("Knowledge and Life").
, which consists of the following 32 letters :
Also, there are seven digraphs, representing five phonemes (ch being identical with h, and rz with ż):
Pronunciation is exactly like in Polish. Stress almost always falls on the penultimate syllable
. A preposition and a pronoun
are generally treated as one word, and therefore, when the pronoun has only one syllable, the preposition is stressed.
(In theory, the construction of Wenedyk enables relatively easy construction of other "Slavo-Romance" languages. The Romance "mirror" for Czech
, for example, is called "Šležan"; http://steen.free.fr/slezan/index.html another for Slovak
, although somewhat looser than the other two as it uses a partially Hungarian orthography
, is called "Slevan". http://wiki.frath.net/Slevan)
. This is a feature that distinguishes Wenedyk from all natural Romance languages and also from other Romance-based constructed languages languages like Esperanto
and Ido
. The reason for this is that Vulgar Latin
showed only a rudimentary tendency toward the formation of articles, while they are absent in Polish and most other Slavic languages.
Unlike for example English, Wenedyk is an inflecting language. Nouns, pronouns and adjectives can have three genders
(masculine, feminine, neuter), two numbers
(singular, plural), and three cases
:
Wenedyk also has a vocative case
. In most cases it has the same form as the direct case, but there are exceptions: O potrze! "Oh father!"
Noun can be subdivided into four declension
s. They are similar to the declension system in Latin:
Adjective
s always agree in gender, number and case with the noun they modify. They can be placed both before and after it.
s do not use the direct case, but preserve the distinction between the nominative
and accusative
instead. They are displayed in the following chart:
s are inflected for person, number, mood and tense. The forms in the present tense are:
Interestingly, because Latin and Proto-Slavonic had virtually identical person/number inflections, Wenedyk and Polish do also.
Wenedyk verbs have the following moods
and tenses
:
, but with phonologic differences from Italian which may be compared to those distinguishing Portuguese
from Spanish
. The following charts of 30 shows what Wenedyk looks like in comparison to a number of other Romance languages; note that unlike Brithenig
, where one-quarter of the words resembled Welsh words, only four Wenedyk words (not counting szkoła, borrowed into Polish from Latin) resemble Polish words, due to the Slavic languages' greater distance from the Romance languages compared to the Celtic languages:
:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
, Article I
; and Šležan, or Silesian, spoken in Silesia
. Šležan mirrors Czech
http://steen.free.fr/slezan/index.html http://steen.free.fr/slezan/gmp.html in much the same way Wenedyk does Polish, while Slevan, despite being located in Slovakia, is more similar to Hungarian
and Croatian
in its orthography. (The Romance "mirror" of Slovak is a dialect of Slevan spoken in Moravia
called Moravľaňec.) (As if in compensation, Croatian
in Ill Bethisad is forced to be noticeably different from Serbian
by being made to resemble the now-virtually-missing Czech and Slovak. http://ib.frath.net/w/Croatian )
Additionally, in the famous Tintin
series, the fictional language Syldavian
may be thought of as the Germanic
counterpart of Wenedyk, showing what Polish might have looked like if it was a Germanic and not a Slavic language. Interestingly, the nearly extinct Vilamovian language provides another real-life example of this. Ill Bethisad also has such a "Slavo-Germanic" language: Bohemian, spoken in that universe's Czech Republic
, developed by amateur Czech
linguist Jan Havliš.
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
, created by the Dutch translator Jan van Steenbergen (who also co-created the international auxiliary language Slovianski
Slovianski
Slovianski is a Slavic interlanguage, created in 2006 by a group of language creators from different countries. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between representatives of different Slavic nations, as well as to allow people who don't know any Slavic language to communicate with Slavs...
). It is used in the fictional Republic of the Two Crowns (based on the Republic of Two Nations
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
), in the alternate timeline
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
of Ill Bethisad
Ill Bethisad
Ill Bethisad is an ongoing, collaborative alternate history project which currently has over 70 participants, originally created by Andrew Smith from New Zealand. It was initiated in 1997 as the Brithenig Project. It can be counted to the subgenre of steampunk, and is known as one of the oldest and...
. Officially, Wenedyk is a descendant of Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
with a strong Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
admixture, based on the premise that the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
incorporated the ancestors of the Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
in their territory. Less officially, it tries to show what Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
would have looked like if it had been a Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
instead of a Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
language. An alternative Polish term for the language could thus be either polskowłoski, incorporating the term włoski, originally meaning Vlach but now applied in Polish to Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, or polskoromański, literally "Polish-Romance". On the Internet, it is well-recognized as an example of the altlang genre, much like Brithenig
Brithenig
Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language . It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it....
and Breathanach.
The idea for the language was inspired by such languages as Brithenig, Breathanach and Kerno, languages that bear a similar relationship to the Celtic languages as Wenedyk does to Polish. The language itself is based entirely on (Vulgar
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
) Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
: all phonological, morphological, and syntactic changes that made Polish develop from Common Slavic are applied to Vulgar Latin. As a result, vocabulary and morphology are predominantly Romance in nature, while phonology, orthography and syntax are essentially the same as in Polish. Wenedyk uses the modern standard Polish orthography
Polish orthography
Polish orthography is the system of writing the Polish language. The language is written using the Polish alphabet, which derives from the Latin alphabet, but includes some additional letters with diacritics...
, including (for instance) ⟨w⟩ for /v/ and ⟨ł⟩ for /w/.
Wenedyk plays a role in the alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
of Ill Bethisad, where it is one of the official languages of the Republic of the Two Crowns. In 2005 Wenedyk underwent a major revision due to a better understanding of Latin and Slavic sound and grammar changes. In the process, the author was assisted by the Polish linguist Grzegorz Jagodziński.
The dictionary on the WWW page linked below contains over 4000 entries.
The language has acquired some attention in Poland, including a few online news articles and an article in the monthly Wiedza i Życie ("Knowledge and Life").
Spelling and pronunciation
Wenedyk uses the Polish alphabetPolish alphabet
The Polish alphabet is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography . It is based on the Latin alphabet, but includes certain letters with diacritics: the line or kreska, which is graphically similar to an acute accent ; the overdot or kropka ; the tail or...
, which consists of the following 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
Also, there are seven digraphs, representing five phonemes (ch being identical with h, and rz with ż):
- Ch Cz Dz Dź Dż Rz Sz
Pronunciation is exactly like in Polish. Stress almost always falls on the penultimate syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
. A preposition and a pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
are generally treated as one word, and therefore, when the pronoun has only one syllable, the preposition is stressed.
(In theory, the construction of Wenedyk enables relatively easy construction of other "Slavo-Romance" languages. The Romance "mirror" for Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, for example, is called "Šležan"; http://steen.free.fr/slezan/index.html another for Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
, although somewhat looser than the other two as it uses a partially Hungarian orthography
Hungarian alphabet
The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Hungarian language.One sometimes speaks of the smaller and greater Hungarian alphabets, depending on whether or not the letters Q, W, X, Y are listed, which can only be found in foreign words and traditional...
, is called "Slevan". http://wiki.frath.net/Slevan)
Nouns and adjectives
Wenedyk does not have articlesArticle (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
. This is a feature that distinguishes Wenedyk from all natural Romance languages and also from other Romance-based constructed languages languages like Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
and Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
. The reason for this is that Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
showed only a rudimentary tendency toward the formation of articles, while they are absent in Polish and most other Slavic languages.
Unlike for example English, Wenedyk is an inflecting language. Nouns, pronouns and adjectives can have three genders
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(masculine, feminine, neuter), two numbers
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular, plural), and three cases
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
:
- the direct case: used for both the subjectSubject (grammar)The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and the direct object of a sentence. 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 caseGenitive caseIn grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
: used to indicate possession, for example: siedź potrze "my father's chair", rzejna Anglie "the queen of England". - the dative caseDative caseThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
: used to indicate the indirect object of a sentence, for example: Da mi ił libier "Give me that book", Da mi łu "Give it to me".
Wenedyk also has a vocative case
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
. In most cases it has the same form as the direct case, but there are exceptions: O potrze! "Oh father!"
Noun can be subdivided into four declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
s. They are similar to the declension system in Latin:
- the first declension are all words on -a, the vast majority of which are feminineFeminineFeminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.Feminine may also refer to:*Feminine , a grammatical gender*Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position...
; - the second declension are mostly masculine and neuter words ending with a consonantConsonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
. It is a mixture of the second and fourth declension in Latin; - the third declension are mostly feminine words ending with a soft consonant;
- the fourth declension are words on -ej, it matches the Latin fifth declension.
Adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s always agree in gender, number and case with the noun they modify. They can be placed both before and after it.
Pronouns
Unlike nouns, adjectives and other pronouns, personal pronounPersonal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s do not use the direct case, but preserve the distinction between the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
and accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
instead. They are displayed in the following chart:
| singular | plural | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| first person | second person | third person | first person | second person | third person | |||||
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | |||||
| Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. |
jo mie miej mi |
ty cie ciej ci |
ił łu łu li |
ła łą lej lej |
łu łu łu li |
nu nosz nosz nów |
wu wosz wosz wów |
li łosz łór lew |
le łasz łar lew |
le le łór lew |
| English | I me mine to me |
thou, you thee, you thine, yours to thee, to you |
he him his to him |
she her hers to her |
it it its to it |
we us ours to us |
you you yours to you |
they them theirs to them |
||
Verbs
VerbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s are inflected for person, number, mood and tense. The forms in the present tense are:
- 1 sg. – jemu "I love"
- 2 sg. – jemasz "you love"
- 3 sg. – jema "he/she loves"
- 1 pl. – jemamy "we love"
- 2 pl. – jemacie "you love"
- 3 pl. – jemą "they love"
Interestingly, because Latin and Proto-Slavonic had virtually identical person/number inflections, Wenedyk and Polish do also.
Wenedyk verbs have the following moods
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
and tenses
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
:
- infinitiveInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
– jemar "to love" - present tensePresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
– jemu "I love, I am loving" - imperfect – jemawa "I loved"
- perfect – jemie " I have loved"
- future tenseFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
(imperfectiveImperfective aspectThe imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
) – joru jemar "I will love, I will be loving" - future tenseFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
(perfectivePerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
) – jemaru "I will have loved" - conditional moodConditional moodIn linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
– jemarsi "I would love, I would have loved" - imperative moodImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
– jem "love!" - present active participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
– jemęć "loving" - perfect passive participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
– jematy "beloved"
Word list
Wenedyk vocabulary as published on the internet consists of over 4000 words. Because of how it was developed from Vulgar Latin, Wenedyk words are closest to ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, but with phonologic differences from Italian which may be compared to those distinguishing Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
from Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The following charts of 30 shows what Wenedyk looks like in comparison to a number of other Romance languages; note that unlike Brithenig
Brithenig
Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language . It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it....
, where one-quarter of the words resembled Welsh words, only four Wenedyk words (not counting szkoła, borrowed into Polish from Latin) resemble Polish words, due to the Slavic languages' greater distance from the Romance languages compared to the Celtic languages:
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... | Latin | Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... | Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... | Catalan Catalan language Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island... | French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... | Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia... | Rhaeto-Romance | Romanian Romanian language Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova... | Brithenig Brithenig Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language . It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it.... | Kirian | Wenedyk | Polish Polish language Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arm | brachium | braço | brazo | braç | bras | braccio | bratsch | braţ | breich | brakyu | brocz | (ramię) |
| black | nĭger | negro | negro | negre | noir | nero | nair | negru | nîr | Nikhrurm | niegry | (czarny) |
| city, town | cīvĭtas | cidade | ciudad | ciutat | cité | città | citad | oraş | ciwdad | urb/shivitäti | czytać | (miasto) |
| death | mŏrs | morte | muerte | mort | mort | morte | mort | moarte | morth | miur | mroć | (śmierć) |
| dog | canis | cão | perro | gos | chien | cane | chaun | câine | can | khan | kań | (pies) |
| ear | auris | orelha | oreja | orella | oreille | orecchio | ureglia | ureche | origl | aurikhulah | urzykła | ucho |
| egg | ovum | ovo | huevo | ou | œuf | uovo | ov | ou | ew | iuv | ów | jajko |
| eye | ŏcŭlus | olho | ojo | ull | œil | occhio | egl | ochi | ogl | okhul | okieł | oko |
| father | pater | pai | padre | pare | père | padre | bab | tată | padr | padär | poterz | (ojciec) |
| fire | ignis, fŏcus | fogo | fuego | foc | feu | fuoco | fieu | foc | ffog | fiuk | fok | (ogień) |
| fish | pĭscis | peixe | pez, pescado | peix | poisson | pesce | pesch | peşte | pisc | shamka | pieszcz | (ryba) |
| foot | pĕs | pé | pie | peu | pied | piede | pe | picior | pedd | pä | piedź | (stopa) |
| friend | amīcus | amigo | amigo | amic | ami | amico | ami | amic | efig | ulamik | omik | (przyjaciel) |
| green | vĭrĭdis | verde | verde | verd | vert | verde | verd | verde | gwirdd | virdi | wierdzi | (zielony) |
| horse | ĕquus, cabăllus | cavalo | caballo | cavall | cheval | cavallo | chaval | cal | cafall | khaval | kawał | (koń) |
| I | ĕgo | eu | yo | jo | je | io | jau | eu | eo | eu | jo | ja |
| island | īnsŭla | ilha | isla | illa | île | isola | insla | insulă | ysl | inshulah | izła | (wyspa) |
| language, tongue | lĭngua | língua | lengua | llengua | langue | lingua | linguatg, lieunga | limbă | llinghedig, llingw | liuva | lęgwa | język |
| life | vīta | vida | vida | vida | vie | vita | vita | viaţă | gwid | vitah | wita | życie |
| milk | lac | leite | leche | llet | lait | latte | latg | lapte | llaeth | lakhta | łoc | mleko |
| name | nōmen | nome | nombre | nom | nom | nome | num | nume | nôn | num | numię | imię |
| night | nŏx | noite | noche | nit | nuit | notte | notg | noapte | noeth | nukhta | noc | noc |
| old | vĕtus | velho | viejo | vell | vieux | vecchio | vegl | vechi | gwegl | vätul | wiekły | (stary) |
| school | schŏla | escola | escuela | escola | école | scuola | scola | şcoală | yscol | shkhiulah | szkoła | szkoła |
| sky | caelum | céu | cielo | cel | ciel | cielo | tschiel | cer | cel | shael | czał | (niebo) |
| star | stēlla | estrela | estrella | estrella | étoile | stella | staila | stea | ystuil | shtelah | ścioła | (gwiazda) |
| tooth | dĕns | dente | diente | dent | dent | dente | dent | dinte | dent | dän | dzięć | (ząb) |
| voice | vōx | voz | voz | veu | voix | voce | vusch | voce | gwg | vusha | wucz | (głos) |
| water | aqua | água | agua | aigua | eau | acqua | aua | apă | ag | akua | jekwa | (woda) |
| wind | vĕntus | vento | viento | vent | vent | vento | vent | vânt | gwent | vän | więt | wiatr |
Example
The Lord's PrayerLord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
:
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 świew dziewtorzew.
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
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
, Article I
Tuci ludzie noską 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.
Similar languages
In the Ill Bethisad universe, there are two other languages which are related to Wenedyk: Slevan, which is spoken in that universe's counterpart of SlovakiaSlovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
; and Šležan, or Silesian, spoken in Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
. Šležan mirrors Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
http://steen.free.fr/slezan/index.html http://steen.free.fr/slezan/gmp.html in much the same way Wenedyk does Polish, while Slevan, despite being located in Slovakia, is more similar to Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
and Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
in its orthography. (The Romance "mirror" of Slovak is a dialect of Slevan spoken in Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
called Moravľaňec.) (As if in compensation, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
in Ill Bethisad is forced to be noticeably different from Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
by being made to resemble the now-virtually-missing Czech and Slovak. http://ib.frath.net/w/Croatian )
Additionally, in the famous Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
series, the fictional language Syldavian
Syldavian
Syldavian is a fictional West Germanic language created by Hergé as the national language of Syldavia, a small fictional Balkan kingdom that serves as a major setting in some Tintin stories. Hergé modeled the language on Marols, a dialect of Dutch spoken in and around Brussels...
may be thought of as the Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
counterpart of Wenedyk, showing what Polish might have looked like if it was a Germanic and not a Slavic language. Interestingly, the nearly extinct Vilamovian language provides another real-life example of this. Ill Bethisad also has such a "Slavo-Germanic" language: Bohemian, spoken in that universe's Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, developed by amateur Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
linguist Jan Havliš.