Wenedyk

**Wenedyk** (in English: Venedic) is a made-up language. **Jan van Steenbergen**, a linguist and translator from the Netherlands, made it in 2002. The idea behind it is this: what would have happened if the Polish language had developed from Latin instead of Old Slavic? Wenedyk is a possible answer to that question. It is a Romance language, so almost all words are family of words in French, Italian, Romanian, and so on. But they look very different and much more like Polish. The rules for spelling and pronunciation are completely based on Polish. Other parts of the language, like grammar and sentence structure, are a mixture of Polish and Romance.

Together with other made-up languages like Brithenig (which does the same thing with Welsh), Wenedyk is part of the group of so-called "alternative languages", languages that could have existed if history had been different. With Brithenig, it is the best known example of this sort of languages. Wenedyk became known in Poland after it was written about on the Internet and in the monthly paper _Wiedza i Życie_ ("Knowledge and Life").

Wenedyk is used in Ill Bethisad, a made-up world in which the Roman Empire was stronger than in real history. It is the most important language of the **Republic of the Two Crowns**, a country similar to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but not broken up by partitions like Poland was.

## Spelling and pronunciation

Wenedyk uses the same letters as Polish does:

- **A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż**

Also, there are seven sounds written by two letters:

- **Ch Cz Dz Dź Dż Rz Sz**

Wenedyk is pronounced just like Polish. Stress almost always falls on the second-last syllable. A preposition and a pronoun are treated as one word, so when the pronoun has only one syllable, the preposition is stressed.

## Grammar

Wenedyk does not have articles, words like "a" and "the". This is an important difference with the other Romance languages and also with made-up languages like Esperanto and Ido. The reason is that Polish and most other Slavic languages do not have those words, and even in Vulgar Latin they were not so strong yet.

Words in Wenedyk can have many forms. English words have only a few (**cat, cat's, cats; work, working, works, worked**), but in Wenedyk a lot of forms exist where English would have used other words, like prepositions or modal verbs. In the case of nouns, pronouns and adjectives these forms are called "cases". Wenedyk has three cases:
- the _direct case_: used for both the subject and the direct object of a sentence. In the sentence: ***Miej poterz_ leże _libier*** "My father reads a book", _Miej poterz_ "my father" and _libier_ "a book" are both in the direct case.
- the _genitive_: used when English uses **'s** or **of**, for example: **siedź _potrze*** "_my father's_ chair", **rzejna _Anglie*** "the queen _of England_".
- the _dative_: used when English uses (or can use) **to**, for example: **Da _mi_ ił libier** "Give _me_ that book", **Da _mi_ łu** "Give it _to me_".
Wenedyk also has a _vocative_ (used for calling someone). Often it has the same form as the direct case, but not always: **O potrze!** "Oh father!"

There are three genders and four declensions (different ways of making forms). They are very much like the declensions in Latin:
- the _first declension_ are all words on **-a**, almost all of them are feminine;
- the _second declension_ are mostly masculine and neuter words ending with a consonant. It is a mixture of the second and fourth declension in Latin;
- the _third declension_ are mostly feminine words ending with a soft consonant;
- the _fourth declension_ are words on **-ej**, it matches the Latin fifth declension.

Here is a chart of the pronouns (words like **I, you, we, they**, and so on) in Wenedyk:

|colspan="5"|singular (one)|colspan="5"|plural (more than one)|||||||||||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="3"||||||||||||||||||||
|align="center"|I me mine to me|align="center"|thou (old), you (modern) thee, you thine, yours to thee, to you|align="center"|he him his to him|align="center"|she her hers to her|align="center"|it it its to it|align="center"|we us ours to us|align="center"|you you yours to you|align="center" colspan="3"|they them theirs to them|||||
|align="center"|jo mie miej mi|align="center"|ty cie ciej ci|align="center"|ił łu łu li|align="center"|ła łą lej lej|align="center"|łu łu łu li|align="center"|nu nosz nosz nów|align="center"|wu wosz wosz wów|align="center"|li łosz łór lew|align="center"|le łasz łar lew|align="center"|le le łór lew|

Verbs have a lot of forms, too. Every pronoun has its own form:
- **jemu** – I love
- **jemasz** – you love
- **jema** – he/she loves
- **jemamy** – we love
- **jemacie** – you love
- **jemą** – they love

Most tenses have special forms:
- **jemar** – to love
- **jemu** – I love, I am loving
- **jemawa** – I loved
- **jemie** – I have loved
- **joru jemar** – I will love, I will be loving
- **jemaru** – I will have loved
- **jemarsi** – I would love, I would have loved
- **jem** – love!
- **jemęć** – loving
- **jematy** – beloved

## Word list

The word list of Wenedyk, made public on the internet, has more than 4000 words. This chart of 30 words shows what Wenedyk looks like when compared to other Romance languages:

|English|Latin|Portuguese|Spanish|French|Italian|Rhaeto-Romance|Romanian|Brithenig|**Wenedyk**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**arm**|brachium|braço|brazo|bras|braccio|bratsch|braţ|breich|**brocz**|
|**black**|nĭger|negro|negro|noir|nero|nair|negru|nîr|**niegry**|
|**city, town**|cīvĭtas|cidade|ciudad|cité|città|citad|_oraş_|ciwdad|**czytać**|
|**death**|mŏrs|morte|muerte|mort|morte|mort|moarte|morth|**mroć**|
|**dog**|canis|cão|_perro_|chien|cane|chaun|cîine|can|**kań**|
|**ear**|auris|orelha|oreja|oreille|orecchio|ureglia|ureche|origl|**urzykła**|
|**egg**|ovum|ovo|huevo|œuf|uovo|ov|ou|ew|**ów**|
|**eye**|ŏcŭlus|olho|ojo|œil|occhio|egl|ochi|ogl|**okieł**|
|**father**|pater|pai|padre|père|padre|_bab_|_tată_|padr|**poterz**|
|**fire**|_ignis_, fŏcus|fogo|fuego|feu|fuoco|fieu|foc|ffog|**fok**|
|**fish**|pĭscis|peixe|pez, pescado|poisson|pesce|pesch|peşte|pisc|**pieszcz**|
|**foot**|pĕs|pé|pie|pied|piede|pe|picior|pedd|**piedź**|
|**friend**|amīcus|amigo|amigo|ami|amico|ami|_prieten_, amic|efig|**omik**|
|**green**|vĭrĭdis|verde|verde|vert|verde|verd|verde|gwirdd|**wierdzi**|
|**horse**|_ĕquus_, cabăllus|cavalo|caballo|cheval|cavallo|chaval|cal|cafall|**kawał**|
|**I**|ĕgo|eu|yo|je|io|jau|eu|eo|**jo**|
|**island**|īnsŭla|ilha|isla|île|isola|insla|insulă|ysl|**izła**|
|**language, tongue**|lĭngua|língua|lengua|langue|lingua|linguatg, lieunga|limbă|llinghedig, llingw|**lęgwa**|
|**life**|vīta|vida|vida|vie|vita|vita|viaţă|gwid|**wita**|
|**milk**|lac|leite|leche|lait|latte|latg|lapte|llaeth|**łoc**|
|**name**|nōmen|nome|nombre|nom|nome|num|nume|nôn|**numię**|
|**night**|nŏx|noite|noche|nuit|notte|notg|noapte|noeth|**noc**|
|**old**|vĕtus|velho|viejo|vieux|vecchio|vegl|vechi|gwegl|**wiekły**|
|**school**|schŏla|escola|escuela|école|scuola|scola|şcoală|yscol|**szkoła**|
|**sky**|caelum|céu|cielo|ciel|cielo|tschiel|cer|cel|**czał**|
|**star**|stēlla|estrela|estrella|étoile|stella|staila|stea|ystuil|**ścioła**|
|**tooth**|dĕns|dente|diente|dent|dente|dent|dinte|dent|**dzięć**|
|**voice**|vōx|voz|voz|voix|voce|vusch|voce|gwg|**wucz**|
|**water**|aqua|água|agua|eau|acqua|aua|apă|ag|**jekwa**|
|**wind**|vĕntus|vento|viento|vent|vento|vent|vînt|gwent|**więt**|

## Sample

The Lord's Prayer:
- Potrze nostry, kwały jesz en czałór, sąciewkaty si twej numię.
- Owień twej rzeń.
- Foca si twa włątać, komód en czału szyk i sur cierze.
- Da nów odzej nostry pań kocidzany.
- I dziemieć nów nostrze dziewta, komód i nu dziemiećmy swór dziewtorzór.
- I nie endycz nosz en ciętaceń, uta liwra nosz dzie mału.
- Nąk twie są rzeń i pociestać i głurza, o siąprz. Amen.

## References

- Dorota Gut: _Now@ Mow@_ ("New Language"), _Wiedza i Życie_, February 2004.
- Tilman Berger: _Vom Erfinden Slavischer Sprachen_ .
- Ziemowit Szczerek: _Świat, gdzie Polska nie jest Polską_ , Interia.pl, 26 September 2008.

## Other websites

- Wenedyk
- The Republic of the Two Crowns
- Romance glossary (a list of common words in all Romance languages, also Wenedyk and Brithenig)

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Wenedyk
- **creator**: Jan van Steenbergen
- **created**: 2002
- **setting**: A thought experiment in the alternate history (fiction), alternate history, Ill Bethisad, if Latin had replaced Polish language, Polish's ancestor.
- **familycolor**: constructed language
- **fam2**: Indo-European languages, Indo-European
- **fam3**: Italic languages, Italic
- **fam4**: Romance languages, Romance
- **fam5**: Italo-Dalmatian
- **posteriori**: constructed languages
 a posteriori languages
(Romance languages, Romance language based on Polish language, Polish)
- **iso3**: none
- **notice**: IPA