Syldavian

Syldavian is a fictional West Germanic language created by Hergé as the national language of Syldavia, a fictional Balkan kingdom that serves as a major setting in many of The Adventures of Tintin stories. Hergé modeled the language on Brusselian, a dialect of Dutch spoken in and around Brussels. The entire corpus of the language has been analyzed by Mark Rosenfelder.

Characteristics

As presented in the Tintin books, Syldavian has a superficial resemblance to certain Central European languages, particularly Polish and Hungarian, due to its orthography. Like Serbian, it uses both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts, although apparently in somewhat different contexts; 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 any Slavic languages. But while Brusselian, Hergé's native dialect, was used as a basis for the language, Syldavian has a much more complicated grammar, with other Central European influences added.

The language also appears to have been influenced by Bordurian (another fictional language), Slavic languages and Turkish. The Syldavians often bear names of Slavic origin, such as Wladimir; the dish that Tintin encountered also appears to be a borrowing. ( is the Polish word for shish kebab, borrowed in turn from Turkish.) Many words are based on common French slangs. For examples, is constructed on the French Parisian slang meaning "dog".

This language, which is Germanic but bears a great resemblance to Polish, may be likened to the artificial Romance language Wenedyk, or to the endangered Wymysorys language.

Phonology

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.

Roman letters are on the left, Cyrillic letters on the right.

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Near-close	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Close-mid	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Open-mid	Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Near-open
Open	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket

In addition to these letters, Syldavian also contains several digraphs and letters for which the pronunciation is uncertain:

• Template:Angle bracket - uncertain, possibly /Template:IPAlink/
• Template:Angle bracket - uncertain. Likely a diaeresis indicating to pronounce as syllabic Template:IPAslink rather than Template:IPAslink, or for the benefit of French-speakers so they do not mispronounce ai as instead of the correct .
• Template:Angle bracket - Template:IPAslink
• Template:Angle bracket -
• Template:Angle bracket - uncertain: perhaps the vowel Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink, perhaps a diphthong or . It is only seen in one word: ("door").
• Template:Angle bracket -

Consonants

Roman letters are on the left, Cyrillic letters on the right.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Plosive	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket			Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Fricative	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Affricate			Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket	Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Trill			Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket
Approximant			Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket		Template:IPA link Template:Angle bracket

Note: As in Czech, the letter Template:Angle bracket can be syllabic, as seen in names such as Staszrvitch and Dbrnouk.

There are some additional digraphs and trigraphs, including Template:Angle bracket (used in names and pronounced with Template:IPAslink, the apparent Syldavian version of the common Serbo-Croatian/Balkan surname ending -ić), Template:Angle bracket (uncertain, but may be an alternative form of Template:Angle bracket Template:IPAslink), and Template:Angle bracket Template:IPAslink. These demonstrate that the Latin-based orthography has a number of irregularities, or else these are old inconsistent spellings that have been preserved in family names but are no longer used in the standard orthography (as in Hungarian, where for example one may find the family name Széchenyi retaining a traditional spelling rather than the orthographically correct *Szécsenyi).

Note that Syldavian Cyrillic diverges in some important respects from Cyrillic as used in real-world languages, most notably by porting over Latin digraphs into the Cyrillic alphabet (for example, /ʃ/ is written "сз" instead of "ш"), and to use a few Cyrillic letters (щ, ю) for sounds for which they are never used in the real world. This, together with the use of Latin script in old medieval manuscripts, may suggest that the Syldavians adopted the Latin alphabet first, and the Cyrillic later, which is the reverse of several real-world languages (most notably Romanian) which switched from Cyrillic to Latin.

Grammar

Plurals

• Native words are pluralized with : - "dogs"; - "bottles"
• Loanwords are pluralized with : - "cigarettes"

Definite articles

Unlike Marols, but like German (shown in italics in the table), Syldavian definite articles are extensively inflected.

	Masc./Fem.	Neut.	Plural
Nom.	dze der/die	dascz das	dzoe die
Acc.	dzem den/die	dascz das	dzoe die
Dat.	dze dem/der	dza dem	dzem den
Gen.	doscz des/der	doscz des	doscz der

Indefinite articles

• Singular: - "a"
• Plural: - "some"

Adjectives

Adjectives precede nouns:

'prohibited area'; Zekrett Politzs 'Secret Police'.

There is no sufficient evidence to tell whether adjectives change form. The rules of Dutch, a control language of Syldavian, are very complex.

Note: the derivation Klow > Klowaswa is merely one of many adjectivizations, however, compare Zyldav 'Syldavian'

Adjectives can be used to modify verbs like adverbs:

Nadja Wladimir zekrett löwt. 'Nadja secretly loves Vladimir'

Dzapeih wzryzkar eszt on vaghabontz. 'The guy is surely a tramp.'

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

	Sub.	Obj.	Poss.
1 sing.	ek	ma	mejn
2 sing.	dûs	da	dejn
3 sing. m.	eih	itd	yhzer
3 sing. n.	itd	ein	zsejn
3 sing. f.	zsoe	irz	yhzer
1 plur.	vei	ohmz	ohmz
2 plur.	jei	jou	öhz
3 plur.	zsoe	khon	khon

3rd person singular neuter objective and possessive and 2nd person plural pronouns are reconstructed based on Dutch and German.

Demonstrative pronouns

- this
- that

Verbs

Verbs are either weak or strong. This decides how they are conjugated.

Conjugation

Strong verb: 'to stay'

	Pres. Ind.	Past Ind.	Subj.	Imp.	Pres. Part.	Past Part.
1 sing.	blav	blev	blavetz	-	blavendz	bleven
2 sing.	*blavszt	*blevszt	*blavetzt	blaveh	blavendz	bleven
3 sing.	blavet	blev	blavetz	-	blavendz	bleven
1 plur.	blaven	bleven	blavendz	-	blavendz	bleven
2 plur.	*blavet	*blevet	*blavetz	blavet	blavendz	bleven
3 plur.	blaven	bleven	blavendz		blavendz	bleven

Weak verb: löwn 'to love'

	Pres. Ind.	Past Ind.	Subj.	Imp.	Pres. Part.	Past Part.
1 sing.	löw	löwda	löwetz	-	löwendz	löwen
2 sing.	*löwszt	*löwdaszt	*löwetzt	löweh	löwendz	löwen
3 sing.	löwt	löwda	löwetz	-	löwendz	löwen
1 plur.	löwen	löwenda	löwendz	-	löwendz	löwen
2 plur.	*löwet	*löwdet	*löwetz	löwet	löwendz	löwen
3 plur.	löwen	löwenda	löwendz		löwendz	löwen

• The 2nd person conjugations are unknown, with reconstructions shown with asterisks. Corresponding German verbs and the 2 pl. imperative were used as a guideline in the reconstructions, with -szt in 2 sing. based upon German -st, although -szcz and -eh (the latter written -ещ in Cyrillic, which would be -esht in Bulgarian Cyrillic) are other possibilities.

Negatives

To negate a sentence, the particle nietz is placed after the subject, in auxiliary position.

Müsstler nietz dzem könikstz löwt. 'Müsstler does not love the king.'

In copulative sentences, nietz is placed after the verb (or czesztot) :

Müsstler eszt nietz güdd. 'Müsstler is not good.'

Czesztot wzryzkar nietz on waghabontz! 'That's surely not a vagabond!'

Adverbs

Most adverbs tend to be identical to adjectives in form. Adverbs can be used to modify verbs:

Nadja Wladimir zekrett löwt. 'Nadja secretly loves Vladimir'

Dzapeih wzryzkar eszt on vaghabontz. 'The guy is surely a tramp.'

Interjections

- a curse word, perhaps equivalent to "damn". (Not found in original French edition, only English translation.)

- a more extreme form of

- praising or surprise, could be something like "hail!" or "wow!"

- a command, probably meaning "stop!" or "halt!"

- another command, sounds almost like "shh!" and perhaps means "silence!"

- a greeting, probably "salute" or "hello".

Syntax

Verbs

The verb normally follows the object:

'In the car stay!'

'I love my girlfriend.'

'I want some red wine.'

Where there's an auxiliary and a main verb, the main verb remains at the end, and the auxiliary verb moves just after the subject:

' 'They're going to open the doors.'

'I want to stay in Klow.'

Pronouns

In earlier Syldavian the pronoun may follow the verb, and this form may still be used for emphasis:

'Here I am, here I stay.' [medieval spelling]

'I'm coming, for sure!'

You can say either Eihn ben ek, Eihn bennek or Ek ben eihn, but never *Eihn ek ben (unlike English, where you can say 'Here I am'). In general "X is Y" can be inverted to "Y is X". When X is a pronoun, the inversion adds some emphasis:

, 'Good it is.'

In the sentences in the corpus, prepositional phrases follow the verb. The comma, however, is a signal that the prepositional phrase has been moved for emphasis, or because it is an afterthought:

Come with us to the police station!

Forms of 'be' directly follow the subject :

Könikstz eszt güdd. 'The king is good.'

Sbrodj on forwotzen eszt zona . 'Sbrodj is a forbidden zone.'

. 'Then the throne is for him.'

The merged form 'it is, that is' begins a sentence: Czesztot Tintin. "That's Tintin."

Historical changes

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

• pho became vüh ("for")
• became ("say")
• eih became eihn ("here")
• coe became kzou ("cow")
• ön became o ("at, about")
• became ("what")
• w and v transposed
• c (/Template:IPAlink/) became k

Sample text

From a 14th-century manuscript, Noble Deeds of Ottokar IV:

Medieval Spelling

Modern Spelling

Cyrillic Spelling

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

- "That's a dog."

- "Hail!" (The Bordurian language borrows this as )

- "Come with us to the Police Station." ( in the English translation.) is a borrowing from French . The suffix is also apparently borrowed from the Russian feminine adjective ending .

- "A bottle of Klow water for this guy... He's thirsty!" (cf. Dutch & cf. Swedish , "thirst". (Lit. 'He thirsts!')

- "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 comes to the police station?")

- "Quick! Into the boat!" (cognate literally to German )

See also

• Bordurian

References

• "On the Syldavian language" by Mark Rosenfelder
• Har Brok, Is Syldavisch Slavisch? Achtergronden van het Beeldverhaal nr. 2, Bovenkarspel 1979. Template:ISBN