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.....