Spocanian

SPOKEN BY

Spocanian is a constructed language spoken by the inhabitants of the constructed island of Spocania, located between Ireland and the United States.

DOCUMENTED BY

Linguist Rolandt Tweehuysen has been working on Spocanian since 1962, compiling a vocabulary of 25,000 words. A Woordenboek Dictio (www.spocania.com/dictio/index.htm) translates Spocanian to and from Dutch, which—while inconvenient to many—makes sense since Tweehuysen is from the Netherlands.

BEHIND THE WORDS

Spocania is a parliamentary democracy, consisting of seven large islands, each having its own government. Languages include not only Spocanian but also Pegrevian and Garosh. The population of 7.6 million seem reasonably happy, despite the fact that Tweehuysen gave little indication of what economy keeps the country going.

DERIVATION OF THE LANGUAGE

Rolandt Tweehuysen constructed Spocanian with an Indo-Germanic influence.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE

Tense is indicated by word order. For example, compare the following three lines:

Jân stinde eft letra. (John writes a letter.)

Jân eft letra stinde. (John wrote a letter.)

Stinde Jân eft letra. (John will write a letter.)

A TASTE OF THE LANGUAGE

aerunelira (adjective)—impressive

bas-šark (noun)—land forces

cralarder (noun)—omnivore

dânta (noun)—sparks

decadiy (noun)—decade

efrechbâlmerr (noun)—basketball player

falle (verb)—to stumble

gabanejeren (noun)—transport industry

geul (noun)—gully

henkos (noun)—disturbance

idereppe (verb)—to denounce

jalorsiy (noun)—jealousy

kafqummertos (noun)—concession

monârgétt (adjective)—regal

nylt (noun)—sleigh

omelechót (adjective)—windy

parinn (adjective)—thirst quenching

ralveldur (noun)—neighbor

šempiy (adjective)—hospitable

wârf (adjective)—poor

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

First, learn Dutch, or wait until the project of translating the Spocanian website into English is completed. Then pay a visit to www.spocanian.com to learn how to communicate in Spocanian.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Review the works listed above, the resources listed in the bibliography, and the web page: “Four Features Of Spocanian Grammar” (www.spocania.com/archief/fourfeat.htm).

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR

In the video game Unreal (1998), players can find a universal translator that allows them to read alien languages.

SPEAKING OF LANGUAGES

Poets are always ahead of things in a certain way, their sense of language and their vision.

—Jim Jarmusch