Interslavic | |
---|---|
Medžuslovjansky/Međuslovjańsky Меджусловјанскы[1] | |
Created by | Ondrej Rečnik, Gabriel Svoboda, Jan van Steenbergen, Igor Polyakov, Vojtěch Merunka, Steeven Radzikowski |
Date | 2006 |
Setting and usage | Auxiliary language for communication between speakers of different Slavic languages |
Users | 7,000 (2020)[2] ~ 20,000 (2022)[3] |
Purpose | |
Latin, Cyrillic, Glagolitic | |
Sources | Old Church Slavonic, modern Slavic languages |
Official status | |
Regulated by | Interslavic Committee[4][5] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | isv |
Glottolog | inte1263 |
IETF | isv |
Interslavic (Medžuslovjansky / Меджусловјанскы) is a pan-Slavic auxiliary language. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between speakers of various Slavic languages, as well as to allow people who do not speak a Slavic language to communicate with Slavic speakers by being mutually intelligible with most, if not all, Slavic languages. For Slavs and non-Slavs, it can be used for educational purposes as well. Its use spans a broad range of fields, including tourism and education.[6]
Interslavic can be classified as a semi-constructed language. It is essentially a modern continuation of Old Church Slavonic, but also draws on the various improvised language forms that Slavs have used for centuries to communicate between nationalities, for example in multi-Slavic environments and on the Internet, providing them with a scientific base. Thus, both grammar and vocabulary are based on common elements between the Slavic languages. Its main focus lies on instant intelligibility rather than easy learning, a balance typical for naturalistic (as opposed to schematic) languages.[7]
The Interslavic project began in 2006 under the name Slovianski. In 2011, Slovianski underwent a thorough reform and merged with two other projects, with the result called "Interslavic", a name that was first proposed by the Czech Ignác Hošek in 1908.[8][9]
As with the languages of the Slavic language family, Interslavic is generally written using either Latin or Cyrillic letters, or on rare occasions the Glagolitic script.