u/Iisfujal

 Strednoslovančina or Strednoslovanský jazyk is a constructed Slavic language. Its aim is to take advantage of the existing similarities between Slovak and South Slavic languages like Slovene or Serbo-Croatian while being relatively easy to pronounce and understand for most Slavs. I also aimed to make the language sound pleasant to the ear by avoiding consonant clusters, overuse of palatalization and hissing sounds.

My philosophy is: “What would happen if a West Slavic language sounded as close as possible to what you can hear in the Balkans?”. Indeed, Strednoslovančina is a West Slavic language like Polish, Czech or Slovak and as a result, I make sure it follows the characteristics of that specific branch (maintain of the “d” in the –“dlo” suffix, clear distinction between animate and inanimate masculine nouns in their declension patterns.) and I most of the time only use roots that are from this branch, which means I generally don’t borrow from South and East Slavic languages.

Typically, this is how I go about how to choose my vocabulary: I have a look at the major three West Slavic languages (Polish, Czech, and Slovak) and if the same  root is used in all three languages I take it. For example, my word for “hour” is “godina” because Polish uses “godzina” while Czech and Slovak say “hodina”. They all ultimately share the same root. Similarly, my word for “thank you” is “dekujem”, because Polish, Czech, and Slovak all use a word for the same root to convey the same idea. When all three languages don’t use the same root, if one of them uses a root that’s the same as in the western branch of South Slavic languages like Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, I typically take it. For example, my word for “train” is “vlak”, same as in Czech or in Slovak, but the exact same word was later on borrowed by Slovene, Croatian, and Bulgarian. This is why it was a better choice than Polish “pociąg”. That’s also why I say “jagoda” for “strawberry”, this root is used in Czech and Slovak for the same meaning (jahoda) but it also connects with the South where “jagoda” means strawberry  in Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian.  To say “question”, you say “pytanie” as that word is found both in Polish and in the South in Serbo-Croatian (pitanje). That alone makes it a better choice than “otázka” that is too specific to Czech and Slovak.

When no Western root connects to the South between the three languages, if there’s one that connects to the East, I take it. For example, my word for yes is “tak” like in Polish, because the same word is found in Ukrainian and Belarusian. That’s why I didn’t take the root “ano/áno” which is once again, too specific (I know the same root exists in the East in Rusyn, but “tak” is still much more used in Eastern Slavic languages overall).

If among the roots used in all three languages, none of them connect either to the South or the East, if a root is found in more than one language, it’s the one I use. For example, my word for “now” is “teraz” because it’s found in Polish and Slovak, even if it’s not used in Czech.

In the rare case where all three major West Slavic languages use a different root and none of them connect to the South or the East, I just take my favorite.

This is the basic formula I apply to decide what word to pick but sometimes I don’t follow these exact rules, when I want to avoid some misunderstandings or connect as many Slavs as possible. For example, my word for “to look for/to search” should be “šukat”  because it connects the West (Polish) and the East (Ukrainian, Belarusian) but I prefer to avoid using it  because of the vulgar connotation it can have in Czech or Slovak. Another solution would have been to go for “gledat”, but once again… the root only means “to look for”  in Czech and Slovak. In the rest of the Slavic world (including in Polish), similar roots are used to  mean “to look”. That’s why I went for the root “skat” in the end. The old Slavic root that’s found in Slovene “iskati” and in Russian “искать”. Logically, my verb “to love” should be “kochat” because it connects the West (Polish) to the East (Belarusian) but since that root is absent in the South, in Russian, and in Ukrainian, I decided to go for “milovat”, because thanks to its root “-mil” I believe it can be understood by most Slavs (and to be honest, I like how it sounds). After all isn’t “love” also “miłość” in Polish (“milost” here)?

Pronunciation

Strednoslovančina has five vowel sounds ([a], [e], [i], [o], [u]) which are the same as in Slovak or Serbo-Croatian. The [i] sound can either be spelled “i” or “y”. Like in Czech and Slovak, writing “i” instead of “y” signals that the previous consonant should be palatalized. Just like in Slovak, the only consonants that can be palatalized are “t”, “d”, “l” and “n”. They are only palatalized before an “i” or in the digraphs “lj” (like in “králj” (king)) and “nj” (“ogenj” (fire)). Vowels can vary in length and be short or long like in Czech, Slovak, Slovene, and Serbo-Croatian. As can be seen in the name “Strednoslovanský jazyk” vowel length is reflected in the spelling by the use of accents, like in Czech or Slovak. Unlike Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, my language doesn’t have pitch accents and variable stress. Instead, staying  true to its West Slavic roots, it always stresses words on the first syllable like Czech or Slovak. The consonants typically keep the same pronunciation as in most Slavic languages, the “r” is rolled, the “l” is dark when it’s not palatalized, the “g” is always hard, the “c” is pronounced [ts], the “j” is pronounced [j], and of course Strednoslovančina has the diacritics č, š and ž…

Some phonetic evolutions

While Czech and Slovak softened the Proto-Slavic [g] sound into an “h” sound, Polish kept a hard [g] sound. I decided to keep that hard sound, precisely because it’s what you can hear almost everywhere in the South (excluding some dialects). My language also lost its nasal vowels and they typically become “e” (gledat (to look)), “a” (jazyk) or “u” (ruka, or its accusative form ruku). That shift to “u” connects Strednoslovančina to Czech, Slovak and Serbo-Croatian but also to East Slavic languages like Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian where that shift also happened (рука). The “yat” evolves to become “é” or “e” in my language. Therefore, “city” is “mésto”, “body” is “telo” and “summer” is “léto”.

The historical long “o” in Proto-Slavic is notorious for being pretty unstable in natural West Slavic languages, where it became [u] in Polish (ó), [u:] in Czech (ů) and the diphthong [uo] in Slovak (ô), as can be seen in a word like “salt” which became “sól” in Polish, “sůl” in Czech and “sôl’” in Slovak. In my language, that sound evolved into the [oa] diphthong, giving us “soalj” for salt. This diphthong is also present in other words such as koaža (skin) or koanj (horse).

I also decided to apply liquid metathesis instead of pleophony because it connects the West and the South. Just like in Czech, Slovak, and the South, Proto-Slavic “o” becomes “a” if it undergoes liquid metathesis, which means that terms such as *borda and *golva evolved to become “brada” and glava” (here I keep the hard “g” while Czech and Slovak say “hlava”).

While consonant clusters are one of the core aspects that connect the West (especially Czech and Slovak) to the South, I refuse to use syllabic “r” and “l” for purely esthetical reasons. That’s why I say “smert” rather than “smrt” for “death” and “perst” rather than “prst” for “finger”, among other examples. As far as syllabic “l” is concerned, I decided to make it evolve into an [u] sound like in Serbo-Croatian. That’s why I have words like “jabuko” (apple), “puný” (full) or “vuk” (wolf). Polish does something similar (to some extent) in some words with its “ł” letter like in “jabłko” or “łzy” (“suzy” here).

Some South/East Slavic endings

To make the language feel more distinct from Czech and Slovak, I decided to bring over a few features from other branches. For example, the ending for the first-person plural in the present tense in my language is “-mo”. So, “we speak” is “govorimo”, that’s the form that’s typically found in the South and  in Ukrainian. Czech and Slovak use “me”, while Polish uses “my”. I also use “oj” for the feminine instrumental like in Russian where Czech and Slovak would use “ou” (eg: “with me”= so mnoj). This is the only area where I “cheated”.

Some vocab:

Numbers: jeden (1), dva (2), tri (3), štyri (4), pet (5), šest (6), sedem (7), osem (8), devet (9), deset (10), jedenást (11), dvanást (12), dvadsat (20), dvadsat jeden (21), tridsat (30), petdesat (50), sto (100), dvesti (200), trista (300), štyrista (400), petset (500), tisec (1000)

Body parts: telo (body), koaža (skin), glava (head), tvár (face), vlasy (hair), čelo (forehead), oko (eye), nos (nose), usta (mouth), zub (tooth), jazyk (tongue), brada (beard), fúzy (mustache), šeja (neck), gardlo (throat), ruka (arm/hand), raméno (shoulder), laket (elbow),perst (finger), palec (thumb), grudj (chest), noga (leg/foot), koleno (knee), serce (heart),  krev (blood)

Food: jest (to eat), pit (to drink), jédlo (food), napoj (drink), sniadanie (breakfast), obéd (lunch), večera (dinner), voda (water), sok (juice), mléko (milk), káva (koffee), čaj (tea), chléb (bread), ryža (rice), jabuko (apple), jagoda (strawberry), sliva (plum), meso (meat), ryba (fish), losos (salmon), grach (pea), merkva (carrot)

Family members: otec (father), matka (mother), syn (son), cerka (daughter), rodiča (parents), brater (brother), sestra (sister), babjučka (grandmother), dedek (grandfather)

Example sentences:

-Pijem kávu so mlékom i bez cukru. (I drink coffee with milk and without sugar)

-Milujem te. (I love you)

-Či mi rozuméš. (do you understand me)

-Bolí me glava. (my head hurts)