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:

+Pronounssingular (one)plural (more than one)firstsecondthirdfirstsecondthirdmenwomenthingsmenwomenthingsEnglishImemineto methou (old), you (modern)thee, youthine, yoursto thee, to youhehimhisto himsheherhersto heritititsto itweusoursto usyouyouyoursto youtheythemtheirsto themWenedykjomiemiejmitycieciejciiłłułuliłałąlejlejłułułulinunosznosznówwuwoszwoszwówliłoszłórlewlełaszłarlewlelełórlew

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:

+Ten Romance languages compared 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)

Category:Constructed languages