Syldavian is a fictional language created by Hergé as the national language of Syldavia, a small fictional Balkan kingdom that serves as a major setting in some Tintin stories. Hergé modeled the language on Marols, a dialect of Dutch spoken in and around Brussels. The entire corpus of the language has been analyzed by Mark Rosenfelder, and his work forms the basis of this article. (See References below.) Some authors use fictional languages as a device to underline differences in culture, by having their characters communicate in a fashion which is both alien and dislocated. ... Georges Remi (May 22, 1907 – March 3, 1983), better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. ... Syldavia is a fictional Balkan country featured in the adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The language spoken is Syldavian. ... ... In politics, a country (or in some cases, a group of countries) over which a king or queen reigns, is a kingdom, see: monarchy. ... The main cast of the series. ... Nickname: The Capital Of Europe, Comic City City of a 100 Museums Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area    - City 162 (Region) km²  (62. ... Mark Rosenfelder is the creator of the website Zompist. ...

Characteristics

As presented in the Tintin books, Syldavian resembles a Slavic language due to its orthography. It is most commonly written in the Cyrillic alphabet, albeit with the Latin alphabet by the royal court. It shares numerous orthographic features found in various Eastern European languages, most notably the "sz" and "cz" of Polish. However, the language is clearly a Germanic language. Its vocabulary and grammar resembles that of Dutch and German and has little in common with Slavic languages such as Russian. The language also appears to have been influenced by Bordurian, Slavic languages and Turkish.  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Bordurian is the national language of Borduria, a fictional Balkan dictatorship created by Hergé for the Tintin series. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...

This language, which is Germanic but bears a great resemblance to Polish, may be likened to the artificial Romance language Wenedyk, or to the real but endangered microlanguage Wymysorys. Wenedyk (in English: Venedic) is a constructed language of the naturalistic kind, created by the Dutch translator Jan van Steenbergen. ... Wymysorys or Wilamowicean (Wymysöryś) is a Central German dialect spoken in the small town of Wilamowice (Wymysoj in Wymysorys), on the border between Silesia and Lesser Poland. ...

Sounds

Syldavian boasts a rich range of sounds.

Vowels

In addition to the diacritical marks shown in the chart below, there are acute and grave accents that may indicate stress. A diacritic mark or accent mark is an additional mark added to a basic letter. ...

Single letters

• a - [a]
• ä - probably [æ] or [ɛ]
• â - uncertain
• e - [e]
• i - [i]
• ï - uncertain
• o - [o]
• ô - [ɔ]
• ö - [ø]
• u - [u]
• û - [ʊ]
• ü - [y]
• y - [ɪ]

Digraphs

• oe - [ø]
• ou - [ou]
• eu - uncertain: perhaps the vowel [œ] or [ø], perhaps a diphthong [eu] or [ɛu]. It is only seen in one word: teuïh ("door").
• ei - [ei]

Consonants

• Stops: b [b], p [p], t [t], d [d], k [k], g [g]
• Fricatives: f [f], w [v], s [s], z [z], sz [ʃ], zs [ʒ], kh [x], gh [ɣ], h [h]
• Affricates: tz [ʦ], dz [ʣ], cz [ʧ], dj[ʤ]
• Nasals: m [m], n [n]
• Laterals: l [l]
• Approximants: ph [ɸ], v [β], r [r], rz [rʒ]
• Semivowels: j [j]

Note: the letter r can be syllabic, as seen in names such as Staszrvitch and Dbrnouk.

There are some additional dicraphs and trigraphs, including tch (used in names and pronounced [ʧ]), chz (uncertain, but may be an alternative form of cz [ʧ]), and th [t]. These demonstrate that the Latin-based orthography has a number of irregularities.

Grammar

Plurals

• Native words are pluralized with -en: klebczen - "dogs"; fläszen - "bottles"

• Loanwords are pluralized with -es: zigarettes - "cigarettes"

Definite articles

Indefinite articles

• Singular: on - "a"

• Plural: onegh - "some"

Adjectives

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

czei - this
tot - that

Verbs

Adverbs

Interjections

szplug - a curse word, perhaps equivalent to "damn"

Syntax

Historical changes

Samples of Syldavian from only two periods - the 14th century and the 20th century - are available to us. But even with such a small sample, some changes can be seen in the language over a 600 year period:

• pho became vüh ("for")

Sample text

14th century manuscript, Noble Deeds of Ottokar IV.

From a 14th century manuscript, Noble Deeds of Ottokar IV: Image File history File links Text. ... Image File history File links Text. ...

Pir Ottokar, dûs pollsz ez könikstz, dan tronn eszt pho mâ. Czeillâ czäídâ ön eltcâr alpû, kzommetz pakkeho lapzâda. Könikstz itd o alpû klöppz Staszrvitchz erom szûbel ö. Dâzsbíck fällta öpp o cârrö.

English translation:

"Father Ottokar, thou falsely art king; the throne is for me." This one said thus to the other, "Come seize the sceptre." The king thus hit him, Staszrvitch, on his head. The villain fell onto the floor."

More examples

Czesztot on klebcz. - "That's a dog."

Kzommet micz omhz, noh dascz gendarmaskaïa. - "Come with us to the Police Station." ("politzski" in the English translation.)

On fläsz Klowaswa vüh dzapeih... Eih döszt! - "A bottle of Klow water for this guy... He's thirsty!"

Czesztot wzryzkar nietz on waghabontz! Czesztot bätczer yhzer kzömmetz noh dascz gendarmaskaïa? - "That's surely not a tramp! Isn't it better for him to come to the police station?" (Lit. probably "Is it better [that] he come to the police station?")

References

• "On the Syldavian language" by Mark Rosenfelder