Despite saying several times that I should write about other topics than linguistics, I always find myself going back to this topic in one way or another. And this time my niche interests lead me to discover more about Interslavic. For those of you who may be confused about what this language that I’m talking about is, you can for now imagine it as some kind of blend of all the different Slavic languages,or a Slavic Esperanto. 

What led me to writing this article is as always some random thoughts that I had, and of course curiosity. Indeed, over the last few years I met or became friends with quite a lot of people from various Slavic countries. And while I’ve been studying several Slavic languages for almost 5 years, I thought that it would be more interesting to ask people who are directly concerned by them, that is Slavic people.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Interslavic before doing some research for this article. I just knew it existed and imagined it as some kind of Slavic Esperanto, however I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing it. So, for me it was very interesting to find some texts in Interslavic. As a non-native speaker of a Slavic language, who has some knowledge in Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Polish, at first glance, I somehow get different impressions depending on if I read it in Latin or Cyrillic. That is in Latin I get Czech/Slovak vibes, however in Cyrillic I get Ukrainian vibes due to the presence of the letter є, since I know that it is used in Ukrainian. While I was doing research for this article, I started to think that maybe I should just learn Interslavic instead of digging into different Slavic languages. Obviously this is more of a joke for me, however I will try to keep an eye on news about Interslavic, because I’m still quite curious about it. 

Coming back to my original idea, I had many interrogations about how Slavic people from different areas may feel about a language such as Interslavic. Of course, I was wondering how Interslavic may sound or look like to native speakers of different Slavic languages, but I also had questions related to representation. That is how different languages are represented in Interslavic and if people of different nationalities can feel represented by the same language. Luckily, for this little research I managed to interview speakers of all 3 subgroups of Slavic languages: Czech, Slovak, Polish and Silesian for the Western group; Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian for the Southern group and Russian and Ukrainian for the Eastern group. 

It is also important to note that the majority of people that answered my questions speak or have knowledge in at least one other Slavic language. Furthermore, a lot of them also study or are interested in linguistics. There’s no doubt that these elements influenced the answers I received in some way.  Also, as you will see soon, while most had the same opinion about the purpose of a language such as Interslavic, opinions were divided concerning the impressions that Interslavic gives. 

Let’s start with the part that was the most surprising and honestly quite amusing to me: how Interslavic is perceived differently by native speakers of different languages. Indeed, I expected that there would be differences, but I didn’t expect that the vibes people got would be that contrasted. That is, every Polish speaker that answered my questions and that read/ listened to Interslavic said that they can see a very strong Czech or Slovak influence in it, to the point that Polish isn’t that much represented for them. However, when I told this to the Czechs and Slovaks they said that actually, they got more Balkan/Serbian or Russian vibes. Finally, when I asked my Macedonian/Serbian/Croatian acquaintances, generally, they said that on the contrary for them it’s more influenced by Central or Eastern Slavic languages, with maybe some South Slavic influence. For example, one of my Macedonian friends said to me about Interslavic that “it’s like Ukrainian if I could actually understand it”. 

For me this division is really funny. Of course, I expected to get different answers but I didn’t expect that everyone would get so different impressions of Interslavic, which I guess shows that in some ways every language, or at least every language family is somehow represented. This is even more interesting when considering the results to my questions about the degree of understanding of a short text and a short video. Indeed, the majority of people understood without much difficulty more than 50% of both the text and the video. I believe this is where the fact that most people had knowledge in another Slavic language had the most influence, especially for Macedonians. Indeed Macedonian (like Bulgarian) don’t use cases unlike other Slavic languages, as Interslavic uses cases, knowledge of Serbian or another Slavic language is somewhat crucial for understanding Interslavic, in our case. 

That’s why one could ask themself how, and most importantly if, native speakers of different languages can feel represented by the same language, or if they can feel their language being represented in Interslavic. Concerning the representation of native languages in Interslavic, the feeling of representation generally stems from words or  elements of the different languages being present. Though opinions are divided as despite the fact that features can be recognised it is obviously impossible for one single language to present all the characteristics of around 10 languages. Which means that core parts of what characterise one language may be missing. Regarding personal identity representation in Interslavic, answers are also somehow divided, while yes most feel represented in some ways, this feeling comes more from the P.O.V of “it will be used not for representation but more for improving communication—for example, replacing English in some form within the Slavic community”. 

Now that the use of English in international context has already become standard, it is unlikely that Interslavic would be learned for the purpose of replacing it. However, the fact that people of different nationalities can see the potential of Interslavic as a communication tool to avoid English means that it can fulfill more than just some goals (in the fields of education and communication) that may seem utopic at first. 

Finally, I would like to thank everyone that helped me write this article by answering my little questions about Interslavic. I hope you enjoyed reading it 🙂

Chloe Gaschy

Sources:
Interslavic – Introduction _ steen.free.fr/interslavic/introduction.htm
Strižik – Стрижик – The Wren _ steen.free.fr/interslavic/wren.html
Interslavic Folk Tale: Donkey that ate beans – verify how much you’ll understand! (Latin) – YouTube
Меджусловјанска бајка: Осел, кторы једал фасољу – увиди како много разумєш! (Кирилица) – YouTube
Interslavic – Wikipedia