Level 1
Alphabet and pronunciation
Slovianto can be written in the Latin alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet, but we will concentrate on the Latin alphabet here:
A – as a in English father
B – as in English
C – as ts in English „bits”
Č – as ch in English „church”
D – as in English
DŽ – as j in English „John”
E – as e in English „best”
Ě – as ye in English „yet”
F – as in English
G – as g in English „good”
H – as ch in Scottish „loch”
I – as ea in English „beat”
J – as y in English „yard”
K – as in English, but without aspiration
L – as in English
LJ – as li in English „million”
M – as in English
N – as in English
NJ – as ny in English „canyon”
O – as o in English „or”
P – as in English, but without aspiration
R – rolled r
RJ – rolled r, followed by ye as in English „yet”
S – as s in English „spin”
Š – as sh in English „shop”
T – as in English, but without aspiration
U – as oo in English „book”
V – as v in English „avoid”
Y – as i in English „bit”
Z – as in English
Ž – as si in English „vision”
In the Interslavic dictionary you will find other characters as well, like ò
, ų
, å
or ť
. You can simply ignore the diacritics and read them as o
, u
, a
, t
etc. That goes for ě
, too. The only characters that keep their diacritics in Latin orthography are č
, š
and ž
. If you find writing them inconvenient, you can always use cz
, sz
and zs
(or cx
, sx
and zx
) as an alternative.
Accentuation is fairly free. What matters more is that you speak slowly and clearly. As a general guideline, it would deserve recommendation to put stress on the antepenultimate syllable.
Grammar
Nouns
- Nouns can end in a consonant or
-a
,-o
,-e
. - Slovianto does not have articles. Therefore, žena can mean „a woman” or „the woman”.
- The plural is formed by adding
-i
if the word ends in a consonant, or by replacing the final vowel by -i:- muž „man” → muži „men”
- žena „woman” → ženi „women”
- slovo „word” → slovi „words”
Adjectives
-
Adjectives usually have the ending
-y
or-i
. They are not inflected and should be placed before the noun. -
An adjective can be made into an adverb by substituting
-y
with the ending-o
:dobry „good” → dobro „well”
-
Adjectives are compared by means of the words vyše („more”), menje („less”), naj- („most”) and najmenje („least”):
- dobry „good”
- vyše dobry „better”
- naj-dobry „best”
- menje dobry „less good”
- najmenje dobry „least good”
Personal pronouns
-
Unlike nouns, personal pronouns in Slovianto distinguish between the nominative (the subject of the sentence, the agent) and the accusative (the object, patient).
-
The subject forms are: ja „I”, ty „you (sg.), thou”, on „he”, ona „she”, my „we”, vy „you (pl.)”, oni „they”.
-
The object forms are: mene „me”, tebe „you (sg.), thee”, jego „him”, ju „her”, nas „us”, vas „you (pl.)”, jih „them”.
-
Like most natural Slavic languages, Interslavic has T-V distinction, i.e. vy and vas are used not only for the second person plural, but also as a polite form in the singular. Ty/tebe are used to address friends, relatives and children.
-
Slovianto also has a reflexive pronoun, se, meaning „oneself, myself, yourself, ...”. It has no subject form, only an object form.
-
This reflexive pronoun can also be used as a reciprocal pronoun. Oni myt se means: „they are washing themselves”, but can also mean: „they are washing each other”.
-
A preposition is always followed by the accusative:
- s mene „with me”
- bez jego „without him”
- za tebe „behind you”
-
For the indirect object, the preposition
k
„to, towards” can be added:Dajte k mene ... „Give me ...”
Possessive pronouns
- The possessive pronouns are: moj „my”, tvoj „your, thy”, jego „his, its”, jej „her”, naš „our”, vaš „your (pl.)”, jih „their”. Like adjectives, possessive pronouns are not inflected.
- If the possessor is also the subject of the sentence, the reflexive svoj „one's own” is used for all persons.
- There are also interrogative and indefinite possessive pronouns, like čij „whose”, ničij „nobody's”, něčij „somebody's”, čij-koli „anybody's”.
Demonstrative pronouns
- The demonstrative pronoun is toj „this, that, these, those”.
- Whenever it is necessary to make a distinction between here and there, we have it preceded by
tu-
„here” ortam-
„there”: tutoj „this, these”, tamtoj „that, those”. - When used independently, use to:
- Čto jest to? „What is this?”
- To jest kniga. „This is a book.”
Relative pronouns
- In a simplified language like Slovianto, it is better to avoid subordinate clauses. But if you need a relative pronoun anyway, use ktory „which”.
Interrogative and indefinite pronouns
- There are two basic pronouns: kto „who” and čto „what”. Just like personal pronouns, kto has an accusative kogo for the direct object.
- Derived from these are also several indefinite pronouns, e.g. někto „somebody”, kto-koli „anybody”, ničto „nothing”, vsečto „everything” (see the following section).
Pronominal adverbs
- Every language has a special category of interrelated pronouns, adverbs and adjectives, the so-called
correlatives
. In short, these are question words and the words that are used to give a general answer to these questions. In English, as well as many other languages, these words are related with each other in a fairly predictable way (for example: where/here/there/somewhere/anywhere/nowhere/everywhere, whence/hence/thence, etc.). This is the case in Slovianto, too. - Question words usually start with a
k-
: kto „who”, kogda „when”, kde „where”, ktory „which”, koliko „how many” - If the answer is a specific thing, place etc., the word starts with
t-
: to „this, that”, togda „then”, toliko „this many” - If the answer is something unknown or unspecified, the word starts with
ně-
(followed by the question word): někto „someone”, někogda „sometime, one day”, někde „somewhere, someplace” - If the answer is negative, the word begins with
ni-
(followed by the question word): nikto „nobody”, nikogda „never”, nikde „nowhere” - If the answer is something unimportant, the word ends with
-koli
, added to the question word: kto-koli „anyone”, kogda-koli „anytime, whenever”, kde-koli „anywhere, whereever” - If the answer is all-encompassing, the word begins with
vse-
orves-
: vsegda „always”, vesde „everywhere”
Numerals
-
The cardinal numbers from 1-10 are:
1 – jedin, 2 – dva, 3 – tri, 4 – četyri, 5 – pet, 6 – šest, 7 – sedm, 8 – osm, 9 – devet, 10 – deset
-
The „-teens” (11-19) are formed by adding
-nadset
:11 – jedinnadset, 12 – dvanadset, ...
-
The „-ties” (20, 30 ... 90) are formed by adding
-deset
:20 – dvadeset, 30 – trideset, ...
-
The „-hundreds” (200, 300 ... 900) are formed by adding
-sto
:200 – dvasto, 300 – tristo, ...
-
Higher numbers:
1,000 – tyseč, 1,000,000 – milion, 1,000,000,000 – miliard
-
Combinations of these are always made from high to low:
5,678 – pet-tyseč šeststo sedmdeset osm
-
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding
-y
to the corresponding cardinal number, except for the following:1st – prvy, 2nd – drugy, 3rd – tretji, 4th – četvrty, 100th – sotny or stoty, 1000th – tysečny
Verbs
-
All verbs have the infinitive ending
-ti
:- dělati „to do”
- prositi „to ask”
- nesti „to carry”
-
The stem is obtained by removing the ending
-ti
from the infinitive:- děla-
- prosi-
- nes-
-
At this early stage, one ending for the present tense will do. It is formed by adding
-t
to the stem. If the present tense stem ends in a consonant,-e-
is inserted between the stem and the ending:- ja děla-t „I do”
- vy prosi-t „you ask”
- oni nes-et „they carry”
-
And here's a bit of irregularity that happens so often in Slavic that you might as well learn it now: if the stem ends in
k
org
, these consonants becomeč
andž
before the insertede
:- pekti „to bake” → pečet
- mogti „can” → možet
-
For the past tense, add
-l
(singular) or-li
(plural) to the stem:- ja děla-l „I did, I have done”
- on prosi-l „he asked”
- my nes-li „we carried”
-
For the future tense, use
bude
with the infinitive:- ja bude dělati „I will do”
- my bude prositi „we will ask”
- oni bude nesti „they will carry”
-
The conditional is formed by using the particle by with the past tense:
- ja by dělal „I would do/I would have done”
-
The imperative has the ending
-jte
after a vowel or-ite
after a consonant:- děla-jte „do!”
- prosi-jte „ask!”
- nes-ite „carry!”
-
The past passive participle is created by adding
-ny
to the stem. If the stem ends in a consonant, insert-e-
between the stem and the ending. If the stem ends in-i-
, then insert-e-
and change resulting-ieny
to-jeny
:- děla-ny „done”
- nes-eny „carried”
- prosi-eny → prosjeny „asked”
-
The verb byti „to be” is irregular:
- present tense: jest
- past tense: byl, byli
- future tense: bude
- conditional: byl by, byli by
- imperative: budite
-
The passive voice is created as in English, by combining a form of the verb byti „to be” with the past passive participle:
- ja jest neseny „I am being carried”
- ja byl neseny „I was being carried, I have been carried”, etc.
Syntax
-
The preferred word order is subject – verb – object, like in English. It isn't mandatory, but any other word order might easily make a sentence unclear or ambiguous.
-
Adjectives, possessive pronouns and the like are preferably placed before the noun they modify:
toj dobry kniga „this good book”
-
Yes-no questions differ from normal indicative sentences only by intonation:
- Otec kupil kniga „Father has bought a book.”
- Otec kupil kniga? „Has father bought a book?”
-
In other questions, the interrogative pronoun or adverb comes first:
- Kaky kniga kupil otec? „What kind of book has father bought?”
- Kde otec kupil toj kniga? „Where did father buy that book?”
-
The easiest way for expressing possession is simply placing the possessor before the possessed. When this is not clear enough, use the preposition
od
„from, of”:- moj otec kniga „my father's book” (lit. „my father book”)
- kniga od moj otec „my father's book” (lit. „the book of my father”)
-
Likewise, you don't need to use any special accessories for the indirect object. Whenever this is not clear enough, use the preposition
k
„to”:- Dajte moj otec toj kniga. „Give that book to my father.”
- Dajte toj kniga k moj otec. „Give that book to my father.”
-
To express the instrument used for something, use the preposition
s
„with”:- Ja udaril svoj otec s toj kniga. „I hit my father with that book.”
Sample text: In the restaurant
- Dobry denj! Restoran jest otvorjeny?
- Dobry denj. Da, my jest otvorjeny.
- Možno tu piti něčto?
- Očevidno, čto prinesti k vas?
- Čto vy imat?
- Čaj, kava, pivo, vino, vodka...
- A vy takože imat něčto hladne?
- Da, my imat sok, voda, mlěko...
- Togda dajte nam dva soki, prosim.
- Dva soki, dobro. Vy takože hočet jesti něčto?
- Može... Vy imat hlěb?
- Da, očevidno. Hlěb, meso, ryba, vsečto jest.
- Hvala, samo hlěb s maslo, prosim.
- Good day! Is the restaurant open?
- Good day. Yes, we are open.
- Is it possible to have something to drink here?
- Of course, what shall I bring you?
- What do you have?
- Tea, coffee, beer, wine, vodka...
- Do you also have something cold?
- Yes, we have juice, water, milk...
- Then please give us two juice.
- Two juice, okay. Would you like to eat something as well?
- Maybe... Do you have bread?
- Yes, of course. Bread, meat, fish, everything is there.
- Thank you, just breat with butter, please.
Basic vocabulary
- a – and, but
- ako – if
- ale – but
- avto – car
- bez – without
- běly – white
- bliz – almost
- bolje – more
- brati – to take
- byti – to be
- čaj – tea
- čas – time
- časina – hour
- čest – part
- člověk – person, human being
- črěz – through
- črny – black
- čto – what
- da – yes
- dati – to give
- daže – even
- denj – day
- dělati – to do, to make
- dělo – act, deed
- děte – child
- dlja – for
- do – to, towards, till
- dobro – well
- dobry – good
- dom – house
- dostati – to get, to receive
- drugy – second
- država – state
- dva – two
- dveri – door
- glas – voice
- glava – head
- gleděti – to watch
- god – year
- govoriti – to say, to speak
- grad – city, town
- groši – money
- hladny – cold
- hlěb – bread
- htěti – to want
- hvala – thanks
- i – and
- idti – to go, to walk
- ih – them; their
- ili – or
- imati – to have
- iz – from, out of
- ja – I
- jedin – one
- jedino – only
- jego – him; his
- jej – her
- jesti – to eat
- ješče – still
- k – to, towards
- kaky – what kind of
- kako – how; like
- kava – coffee
- kde – where
- kniga – book
- kogda – when
- konec – end
- kto – who
- ktory – which
- lice – face
- ljubiti – to love, to like
- maly – little, small
- maslo – butter
- medžu – between
- menje – less
- meso – meat
- město – place
- minuta – minute
- mlěko – milk
- mnogo – much; very
- mogti – can, to be able
- moj – my
- može – maybe, perhaps
- možno – it is possible; possibly
- muž – man, husband
- my – we
- mysliti – to think
- na – on, upon, at
- nad – above, beyond
- najbolje – most
- naš – our
- ne – no; not
- nesti – to carry
- neželi – than
- něčto – something
- někaky – some kind of
- několiko – a few, several
- ni … ni … – neither ... nor ...
- ničto – nothing
- nikto – nobody
- noč – night
- noga – leg
- novy – new
- o, ob – about
- obči – common, general
- očevidno – of course
- od – of, from
- odgovoriti – to answer
- oko – eye
- on – he
- ona – she
- oni – they
- ostati – to stay, to remain
- otec – father
- otvoriti – open
- piti – to drink
- pivo – beer
- po – after; in the manner of
- početi – to begin, to start
- pod – under
- pogled – look, sight, view
- pokoj – peace, quiet
- poslědny – last
- potom – after that, then
- potrěbny – needed, necessary
- prěd – before
- pri – by, near
- prijatelj – friend
- prijdti – to come
- prinesti – to bring
- problem – problem
- prosim – please
- prositi – to ask (for sth.), to require
- prosty – simple, easy
- prvy – first
- pytanje – question
- pytati – to ask (a question)
- rabota – work, labour
- rabotati – to work, to labour
- raz – time (in the sense of: ... times)
- razuměti – to understand
- restoran – restaurant
- ruka – arm
- ryba – fish
- s – with
- směsta – immediately
- snova – again
- sam – alone
- samo – only, merely
- se, sebe – oneself
- seděti – to sit
- sejčas – now
- sila – power, force
- slovo – word
- slučaj – case, instance, event
- sok – juice
- sovsěm – entirely, completely
- spati – to sleep
- stary – old
- stati – to become
- stati se – to happen
- stojati – to stand
- stol – table
- strana – side
- svět – world
- svoj – one's own
- taky – such
- tako – so, in such way
- takože – also, too
- tamo – there
- teply – warm
- to – this, that
- togda – then
- toj – this, that
- toliko – this much, that much, only
- trěba – it is needed, it is necesary
- tri – three
- tu – here
- tvoj – your (sg.)
- ty – you (sg.)
- uho – ear
- uže – already
- v – in; into
- vaš – your (pl.)
- veliky – great, big
- ves – all, entire
- vid – aspect, look, vision
- viděti – to see
- vino – wine
- voda – water
- vojna – war
- vrěme – time
- vsaky – every
- vse – everything
- vsegda – always
- vy – you (pl.)
- vyjdti – exit, quit
- vysoky – high
- za – behind
- začto – why, what for
- zato – that's why, therefore
- zemja – earth, ground
- zly – bad
- značiti – to mean
- znati – to know
- že – that (conjunction)
- žena – woman, wife
- žiti – to live