Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Does Slovio Still Exist?

Some time ago I took an interest in Slovio, a constucted language similar to Esperanto but based on Slavic languages. It's a good idea, but I don't find much interest in it any more online. My own interest has waned since starting this blog many years ago. But I am interested in constructed languages in general, and have decided to give a little more life to my constructed language blogs.

For a fictional work-in-progress of mine, I used several real constructed languages in a futuristic setting. I added Slovio to the other languages used in that way. For that purpose, I searched for the Our Father prayer (Lord's Prayer) in Slovio. And I found it. Here is the prayer:

Nasx Otec

Nasx otec ktor es om nebes,
Sviatju en tvoi imen,
Tvoi krolenie pridib,
Tvoi vola bu na Zemla takak om nebes,
Darij nams nasx denju hleb,
I uprostij nams nasx grehis,
takak mi uprostime,
tamkor grehijut proti nams,
I ne vestij nams v pokusenie,
no spasij nams ot zlo.

I understood a little bit of that, since in addition to trying to learn Slovio many years ago I have more recently been trying to learn Serbo-Croatian, and have listened to Radio Maria in Serbian and Croatian and used to have a recording of Radio Maria rosary broadcasts in those languages. The Our Father prayer is an important part of the rosary.

The official web site for Slovio is here: http://slovio.com/
It doesn't look like much has been done with the language since I first saw the web site. If you have interest in Slovio, you can comment on this blog about it. You can comment in English, Esperanto or German and I will understand you, and of course in Slovio, which I might not understand that well yet.




Saturday, January 15, 2011

Easy Slovio Lesson 01

Zdrav! That means hi or hello in Slovio, and it is the basic greeting. So now you know your first word of Slovio.

If you are unsure of how to pronounce Slovio words, consult with the new 'Slovio Alphabet' page above.

Now that we know how to say 'zdrav!', we will practice saying it. And if there are not any people around, try greeting animals with 'zdrav!'

Here are some animal names in Slovio:
kot = cat
vrona = crow
delfin = dolphin
lisa = fox
jastreb = hawk

Let's practice greeting some animals!
Zdrav, kot! = Hi, cat!
Zdrav, vrona! = Hi, crow!
Zdrav, delfin! = Hi, dolphin!
Zdrav, lisa! = Hi, fox!
Zdrav, jastreb! = Hi, hawk!

Now the names of five more animals:
kitriba = whale
meduza = jellyfish
mamot = mammoth, an extinct kind of elephant
mavpa = monkey
misx = mouse

Now we have to greet our new animal friends:
Zdrav, kitriba! = Hi, whale!
Zdrav, meduza! = Hi, jellyfish!
Zdrav, mamut! = Hi, mammoth!
Zdrav, mavpa! = Hi, monkey!
Zdrav, misx! = Hi, mouse!

Now we have ten different animals around and sometimes we might meet up with a group of animals. Then we might need to use i, which is the Slovio way to say 'and'. I is pronounced like the 'ee' in 'feet', not like the English word 'I'.

Let's greet some pairs of animal friends:
Zdrav, kot i kitriba! = Hi, cat and whale!
Zdrav, vrona i meduza! = Hi, crow and jellyfish!
Zdrav, delfin i mamut! = Hi, dolphin and mammoth!
Zdrav, lisa i mavpa! = Hi, fox and monkey!
Zdrav, jastreb i misx! = Hi, hawk and mouse!

You will see that our ten animals often have friends that live in very different places. We could learn from them!

Our lesson today is almost to an end. We have only one more word to learn: konc. That means 'the end'. (Be sure and pronounce the 'c' in konc like 'ts' in 'bits'.)

Here is a video which shows how many of the words in our lesson are pronounced.

Friday, January 14, 2011

My New Year's Resolution: Learn Slovio

Slovio is a constructed language, as easy to learn as Esperanto, which is based on the Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian and others. It is said that speakers of these languages can understand you when you speak Slovio to them.

Here is an example of Slovio--- the Lord's Prayer (Our Father):
Nasx otec ktor es om nebes,
Sviatju es tvoi imen,
Tvoi krolenie pridib,
Tvoi vola bu na Zemla takak om nebes,
Darij nams nasx denju hleb,
I uprostij nams nasx grehis,
takak mi uprostime,
tamktor grehijut proti nams,
I ne vestij nams v pokusenie,
no spasij nams ot zlo.

Since normal Slavic languages are WAY too difficult for me to learn, I decided to give Slovio a go, at least for the next two months. I will be blogging about my journey into Slovio if there is anyone interested.....