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1. pronunciation and alphabet


Unlike English, NS words are pronounced in the same way they are written. This is good news. It means that once you learn how to pronounce individual NS characters, you will be able to pronounce any NS word.


However, Neoslavonic is an artificial language and therefore allows different kinds of stressing. Polishes, for example, will tend to put stress always at the second last syllable of the words, Czechs will tend to put stress every time at the first syllable etc.


Neoslavonic actually uses two equivalent alphabets: Latin and Cyrillic. In addition, it also has a transcript available in ASCII and Greek alphabets, and it is possible to use the first-ever Slavic script: Glagolitic for Your pleasure.

In this course
we will use the Latin alphabet, with the brief outline of its transcription in Cyrillic.
Take notice, that Neoslavonic uses the English version of the Latin alphabet appended by only three specific characters: č = ch, š = sh, ž = zh. There are no other accented or else characters:

 Latin  ASCII  Cyrillic  Greek  IPA  example  name
 a  a  а
 α  [a]  alphabet, but
 b  b  б
 μπ  [b]  beer, bird
 c  c  ц
 τσ  [ts]  cats
 č  ch (cz)
 τζ  [tʃ]  chimney, bench
 d  d  д
 δ  [d]  date, do, odd
 dj  dj  дь
 δι  [ɟ]  duty  dje
 dž  dzh  дж
 δζχ  [dʒ]  juice, gymnastics
 e  e  е
 ε  [ɛ]  bed, yes
 f  f  ф
 φ  [f]  photo, leaf  ef
 g  g  г
 γ  [g]  go, get
 h (ch)
 h (kh)
 i  i  и
 η  [i]  city, see, meat  i
 ie (ě)
 ie  ѣ (е)
 ιε  [jɛ]  yes, cavalliero (Spanish)  jatj
 j  j  ј (й)
 ι  [j]  yes, you
 ju  ju  ю  ιου  [jʊ]  you, cute  ju
 k  k  к  κ  [k]  kill, skin
 l  l  л  λ  [l]  like, loop
 lj  lj  ль  λι  [ʎ]  cavalliero (Spanish)
 m  m  м  μ  [m]  man, ham
 n  n  н  ν  [n]  no, nose
 o  o  о (ω)
 ο (ω)
 [ɔ]  law, talk, no (Spanish)
 p  p  п  π  [p]  pen, spin
 q  q  к  κ  [k]  kill, skin  kve
 r  r  р  ρ  [r]  sombrero (Spanish)
 s  s  с  σ  [s]  see, city, pass
 š  sh  ш  σχ  [ʃ]  she, shame
 št  sht  щ  σχτ  [ʃt]  š + t
 t  t  т  τ  [t]  to, motor
 th  th  ѳ  θ  [θ]  thing, teeth
 tj  tj  ть  τι  [c]  Tuesday, opportunity
 u  u  у  ου  [ʊ]  put, good
 v  v  в  β  [v]  voice, have
 w  w  в  β  [v]  voice, have  dvojne ve 
 x  x  кс (ξ)
 ξ  [ks]  sex, six  eks
 y  y  ы (υ)
 υ  [i]  city, see, meat  ypsilon
 z  z  з  ζ  [z]  zoo, zombie, rose
 ž  zh  ж  ζχ  [ʒ]  pleasure, Jean (French)
 '  '  ъ  '  [ɜ̆]  very short sound from burn, earth, bird   jor 

(auxiliary character j=ь without its own sound, which is used in ligatures of soft consonants dj=дь, tj=ть, nj=нь, lj=ль= we call "jer")


  2. Ligature ie=ѣ can be written as ě. This character is pronounced in the same way as standard e and softens the preceding consonants from die, tie, nie, lie to dj+e, tj+e, nj+e, lj+e. In other cases this character is pronounced as jotized e (eg. two sounds j+e). This character is often written in Cyrillic (and simplified Latin) as the standard e.


  4. Some Slavic languages ​​(Slovak, Russian, ...) use vowels e and i for softening the preceding consonants in the same way as ie and ju are doing this. NS language does not. The combination of the letters ne is pronounced only as n+e, and not as nj+e, or the combination of the letters ni is pronounced only as n+i, and not as nj+i, for example.

  5. Neoslavonic has syllabic l and r, which behave in the same way as vowels in creation of syllables as in Sanskrit, for example. They are written auxiliary character "jor" as 'l=ъл and 'r=ър. Some modern national Slavic languages (Russian for example) lost this feature and therefore must combine r and l with standard vowels (ol and or, for example).

  6. Old Church Slavonic (and similarly in modern Polish) has nasal vowels ę=ѧ=[eⁿ] and ǫ=ѫ=[oⁿ] plus their jotized versions. In accordance with the evolution of most Slavic languages, ​​we do not use nasals. There is simple application rule in order to nasal replacement: ę=ѧ → e and ǫ=ѫ → u.

  7. However, Neoslavonic is an artificial language and therefore allows different kinds of pronunciation. It will not be a big mistake, for example, if Russians or anybody else will pronounce e and i softly.

soft pronunciation of consonants versus simplicity

    (e.g. nedielja = Sunday, ponedieljek = Monday, burja = storm, večerja = evening meal)



    (e.g. konj = a horse  ⟷  kon = ending, termination; miedj = cooper 
    ⟷  med = honey)

palatalization and euphony

  1. kč,
  2. hš,
  3. gž.
Example: človiek (a man N), človieče! (man! V); prah (a dust, noun), prašny (dust, adj.)

In order to sound almost like an ordinary natural Slavic language, we need to improve some artificially generated sound combinations caused by application of some grammatical endings. There are only three euphony rules
related with the same soft consonants  č, š, ž  as
  1. cju→ču, cie→če,
  2. sju→šu, sie→še,
  3. zjužu, zieže.
Example: prositi (to please, inf.), prosjuprošu (I please), prosienijeprošenije (pleasing, verbal noun).

Please remember that for this euphony reason the characters ie and ju are newer written and pronounced after  c, s, z, č, š, ž. The only possible way is to put  ce, se, ze, če, še, že and cu, su, zu, ču, šu, žu  instead of them.

example 1


voda   [vɔda]   water
hlieb   [xljɛb]   a bread
auto   [aʊtɔ]   a car, an automobile
s'lnce   [sɜ̆lncɛ]   a sun
človiek   [tʃlɔvjɛk]   a man (human being)
muž   [mʊʒ]   a man (masculine)
žena   [ʒɛna]   a woman
dietko   [ɟɛtkɔ]   a child
imaju   [imajʊ]   I have
imaješ   [imajɛʃ]   you have
imajeme   [imajɛmɛ]   we have
doma   [dɔma]   at home (adv.)
jedin   [jɛdin]   one (m.)
dva   [dva]   two (m.)
tri   [tri]   three
četyri  [tʃɛtiri]   four
pet   [pɛt]   five
deset   [dɛsɛt]   ten
sto   [stɔ]   hundred 

example 2


Vsi ljudi rodjut se svobodni i rovni v svojem dostojenstviji i pravah.
[vsi  ʎʊdi  rɔɟʊt  sɛ  svɔbɔdni  i  rɔvni  v  svɔjɛm  dɔstɔjɛnstviji  i  pravax]

Oni sut obdarieni razumom i sviestju, 
[ɔni  sʊt  ɔbdarjɛni  razʊmɔm  i  svjɛscʊ]
They are endowed with reason and conscience,

i treba jim jest postupati drug s drugom v duhu bratstva.
[i  trɛba  jim  jɛst  pɔstʊpati  drʊg  s  drʊgɔm  v  dʊxʊ  bratstva]
and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
