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Confederation Slavonic

Confederation Slavonic, or Словѣнскы Iѣзык (Slavonic), sometimes “Conslavonic” (Консловѣнскы), is the de facto official language of the Free Realms.

Why do we need a conlang? Why Slavic? How will it get adoption?

  • It ties the worldbuilding together: Tolkein wrote his books as background for his conlangs
  • It's a great way of diversifying the in-game culture without the baggage of actual different cultures
  • It's cool: virtually no other game has this
  • Slavic languages are basically mutually intelligible, while different Slavic cultures have quite diverse cultures
  • Confederation Slavonic will be intelligible and very intuitive, and super easy to learn for all Slavic-language speakers

Brief description

Confederation Slavonic is a “creolized” dialect/descendant of the Interslavic constructed language, spoken as a native language by the approximately 1 billion inhabitants of the Confederated Free Realms of Svitania the Uttermost (Вольности Конфедеральни Свитанїе Найдальшей Vollnosti Konfederallni Svitanije Naidallszei), and as a second language by another approximately 4 billion. Alongside English, it’s one of the de facto official languages of the early 25th-century Confederation.
In-universe, it originated as a novalang championed by the Slavic elements of the League rebellion as an identity marker against the imposition of languages like the Russian-based UNISLAV. The original version, in keeping with the neo-traditionalist ideology of the rebels, had a conservative, “pan-Slavic” phonology and morphology (OOC: this is just "etymological Interslavic")
But by the 25th century a series of mergers and simplifications has led to a distinct Confederation Slavonic language, with some basilectal influence from other Slavic languages like Belarusian.
The main differences from Interslavic are:
  • Merger of yuses and yers:
    • *ě, *ę, *ė > ѣ /ʲɛ/
    • *ȯ > ъ /ɤ/
    • *ų > у /u/
  • Iotated hiatuses transformed into gemination:
    • *člověčji > чловѣччи
    • *konji > конни
  • Deaffrication and merging of the dž/dź series
    • *medjunarodny > межународны mezsunarodny [mɛʒunaˈrɔdnɨ]
  • "Polish-like" alveolar stop palatalization and i/y neutralization
    • *sědětji > сѣдѣчи sėdėczy [ɕɛˈdʑɛtʃɨ]
    • Note on orthography: even though there are only two phonemes i and y, Cyrillic script distinguishes between i/и/ы using morphophonemic considerations:
      • и is the “unmarked” i, which is always used after consonants that lack a hard/soft distinction in native words (like ч ш к г х), regardless of the actual phonetic realization. In other circumstances, it represents /i/ as opposed to /ɨ/
      • ы is the “hard” i, which represents /ɨ/ in environments where it can contrast with /i/
        • Also marginally used in loanwords to force an [ɨ] pronunciation, such as in Iыптък Jyptȯk, a placename loaned from an extraterrestrial adstratum
      • і, when used as a vowel rather than a palatalization indicator, is used in the following three circumstances:
        • To force an /i/ pronunciation in loanwords: АК Тоокаці-Къркланд Tōkachi-Kirkland Corporation.
        • To avoid ugliness next to и or й: опій opium чій whose
          • This generalizes to any ij sequence being written as ій, or ї next to vowels. Свитанїа Svitanija
  • Rather large number of declinable Latinate loanwords. In particular, there are a few s/t alternations borrowed from Latin that are not found in other Slavic languages.
    • секуритас, секуритаты security
    • либертас, либертаты liberty
      • За нашы й вашы либертас!
    • виртус, виртута virtue
    • целестїaльны celestial
    • Секуритатне Силы Премислїе Security Forces of Premislia*
    • Еклесїальна Унїа Кардашовскы Ecclesiastical Union of Kardaszovsk

Samples

Random in-universe stuff

Витамо в Кардашовск --- срѣдищно мѣсто Iужных Звѣздых. Vitamo v Kardašovsk --- šedično miesto Južnih Zviezdih. Welcome to Kardaszovsk --- the central city of the Southern Stars
Наступна станицїа: Музей Кардашовског Наслѣдства Nastupna stanicija: Muzei Kardašovskog Nasliedestva Next station: Kardaszov Heritage Museum

Tower of Babel

И всiа земмiа имѣла iедин iѣзык и подобне слова. I vsia zemmia imiela jedin jiezyk i podobne slova.
Але къгда лiуди прѣмѣстилисѣ из възхода, они нашли равнину в краiу Шінар и онде осадилисѣ. Ale kygda liudi pšemiestilisie iz vyzhoda, oni našli rauninu v kraju Šinar i onde osadilisie.
Last modified 6mo ago