Carnian

Carnian
Carnisc
Flag of Carnia
Pronunciation	[kɐɾnɪ̌s]
Created by	Larsqui
Date	2025
Setting	Alternative history
Native to	Carnia
Ethnicity	Carnians
Native speakers	2.5 million (2024)
Language family	Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic South Slavic Alpine Carnian
Early forms	Proto-Carnian Old Carnian
Writing system	Latin

Carnian (/ˈkɑːni.ən/, Carn. carnisc [kɐɾnɪ̌s(k)], carniscky jenzik) is a Slavic language spoken in the Central European state of Carnia, which encompasses the historical regions of Carinthia, Upper and Inner Carniola, the Slovene Littoral, the Province of Gorizia, Trieste, Istria, Rijeka, and the islands of Cres and Krk. The language represents a unique evolutionary branch within the Slavic family, having developed from Northwestern Alpine Slavic (NWAS) under distinct historical and sociolinguistic conditions that differentiate it significantly from its South Slavic neighbors.

Historical background

Alpine landscape played a. significant role in preserving certain features that were lost in South Slavic languages

The linguistic development of Carnian is inseparably linked to the political history of the region. The territory derives its name from the medieval Duchy of Carantania, where local Slavic elites maintained autonomous governance within the Frankish Empire beyond the 9th century, subsequently establishing a hereditary dynasty that persisted throughout the following centuries during the Holy Roman Empire period. This political continuity proved crucial for the language's development, preventing its merger with Southeastern Alpine Slavic varieties that later evolved into Slovene.

The name "Carnia" emerged historically as Carinthia and Carniola became unified under a single political entity. During the Early Modern period, territorial expansion toward the Adriatic coast incorporated additional Romance-speaking populations, contributing to a gradual shift of the cultural and economic center from the Alpine interior to the coastal regions. This geographic reorientation had profound implications for the language's subsequent development.

Medieval Carnia experienced substantial German linguistic influence due to its integration within the Holy Roman Empire. However, the Early Modern period witnessed increasing Romance influence, particularly as economic activity shifted toward the coastal areas. This multilingual environment created the complex substrate conditions that shaped Carnian's distinctive phonological evolution.

Phonological history

Main article: Phonological history of Carnian

Carnian developed from Northwestern Alpine Slavic and preserves a number of archaic Proto-Slavic features, but its later evolution diverged sharply from both West and South Slavic. Early sound changes include its distinctive treatment of liquid metathesis, conservative retention of i–y contrast, and gradual loss or vocalization of yers. Nasal vowels denasalized in stages but were preserved long enough to shape stress and vowel length.

During the Old Carnian period, the accent system shifted to fixed stem-initial stress, triggering widespread vowel reduction and extensive posttonic syncope. These processes reorganized the vowel system, created new consonant clusters, and led to far-reaching cluster simplification, geminate development, and several new phonemes such as /f/ and /ts/. Systematic depalatalization eliminated most Proto-Slavic palatal consonants, while l later underwent partial coda vocalization.

Other hallmark developments include the unique evolution of yat into a centering diphthong ea, restructuring of vowel length according to syllable structure, breaking of earlier long high vowels, and fronting/dissimilation of high-vowel diphthongs. The phoneme written ⟨œ⟩ reflects the distinctive Carnian reflex of Proto-Slavic *y.

Modern Carnian experienced a secondary accent shift toward penultimate stress, accompanied by additional vowel lengthening and the levelling of the old l–ł contrast. Postalveolar consonants underwent further analogical simplification, completing the modern system.

Phonology

Vowels

Carnian phonemic monophthongs (in black) with their main allophones (in red) on a vowel chart

Carnian has six vowel phonemes. Length is not phonemic, but all stressed vowels in open syllables are long [Vː]. When unstressed, all vowels are somewhat reduced toward mid-central positions.

Vowel phonemes of Standard Carnian

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ʊ
Mid	ɛ	ɜ	ɔ
Open		a

Close vowels

• /i/ is a near-close front vowel [i̞]. In all unstressed syllables and closed stressed syllables it is near-front [ɪ]. When preceded by /r/, it is retracted to [ɨ̞]

• /ʊ/ is described as a near-close central-near back vowel with pronunciation ranging from [ɵ̝] to [ʊ] with [ʊ̟] being the most common pronunciation

Mid vowels

• /ɛ/ is an open-mid front vowel [ɛ]. When preceded by /j/ it may be raised to mid [e̞]. In unstressed syllables, it is somewhat centralized [ɛ̈]

• /ɜ/ is an open-mid central vowel with considerable lip rounding [ɜ̜] and slightly advanced pronunciation. Alternatively, it may be described as retracted [œ̠]. Lip rounding is lost in unstressed syllables where it is central unrounded [ɜ]

• /ɔ/ is an open-mid back vowel [ɔ]. When preceded by /j/ it may be raised to mid [o̞]. In stressed closed syllables it is near-open [ɒ̝]. In unstressed syllables it is centralized [ɞ]

Open vowel

• /a/ is an open central vowel [ä]. In unstressed syllables, it is near-open [ɐ]

Diphthongs

Carnian has a rich diphthong inventory. Falling diphthongs typically end in [ɪ̯] and [ʊ̯], while rising diphthongs begin with a glide /j/ or /w/. Many of them are not phonemic and can be reinterpreted as allophones of vowel + glide sequences.

One of the main characteristics of Carnian is a centering diphthong ea [ɛɐ̯], which typically becomes a monophthong in closed and unstressed syllables or when adjacent to a semivowel, with pronunciation ranging from [ɛ] to [æ], making it indistinguishable from /ɛ/ in most regions.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Standard Carnian

		Labial	Dental / Alveolar	Postalveolar	Dorsal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricate			ts	tʃ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x
	voiced	ʋ	z	ʒ
Approximant			l		j
Flap			ɾ

• In the standard language, all obstruents are devoiced word-finally and before voiceless obstruents

• /n/ has an allophone [ŋ] before velar consonants. Many dialects also tend to realize /nj/ clusters as palatal [ɲ]

• Word-final stops are unreleased or elided entirely when part of a cluster (carnisc [kɐɾnɪ̌s])

• /b, d, g/ are spirantized to [β, ð, ɣ] or [β̞, ð̞, ɣ̞] in northern dialects. In a subgroup of those dialects which exhibit word-final devoicing, these are realized as [ɸ, θ, x]. Some Carinthian dialects with the spirantization /g/ > /ɣ/ also tend to realize /k/ as uvular [q]

• /x/ is usually glottal [h] word-initially

• /ʋ/ is a labiodental approximant with the fricative allophone [v] in certain contexts, such as when preceded by /ɾ/ or /l/. In coda and after most consonants, it is realized as [ʊ̯] or [w] and forms a diphthong

• /l/ is alveolar in most positions with a velarized allophone [ɫ] when in coda

• /ɾ/ is a flap, although some speakers may realize it slightly like an approximant. In coda, especially in urban dialects, it is often vocalized to [ə̯], forming a diphthong, or elided with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel

Foreign sounds

Loanwords containing sounds absent in Carnian phonology are usually approximated to their closest counterpart. Regarding vowels, it is most common for front rounded vowels ö and ü which are usually approximated to œ /ɜ/ and u /ʊ/, respectively. Among consonants, [dʒ͡] usually becomes [ʒ] (giardin 'garden'), with some exceptions (dgiem 'jam').

Prosody

Carnian has, with some exceptions, fixed stress on the penultimate syllable. Stressed vowels in open syllables are long [Vː], while in closed syllables they are short, and in some cases somewhat lax. Vowels in word-final stressed open syllables are shorter than in penultimate syllables and are most often described as half-long [Vˑ].

Unstressed vowels tend to be pronounced with a more mid-central quality.

Ultimate accent is an exception to the fixed pattern, although its occurrence is predictable:

• In words which lost their final vowel, such as all infinitives (prosit [pɾɞsɪ̂t] 'to ask')
• In most predicative forms, by analogy with non-predicative (prosien [pɾɞʃɛ̂n] vs. prosiena [pɾɞʃɛ̂ːnɐ] 'asked')
• In words which used to have word-final nasal vowel, in this case always marked in spelling (jannè [jɐnnɛ̂ˑ] 'lamb')
• In loanwords which retained original accent (tiramisù [tɪɾɐmɪsʊ̌ˑ])

In addition, Carnian has pitch accent, with two pitch contours: rising and falling. In non-final syllables, pitch contour is carried over to the following syllable in the opposite manner. For example, falling pitch on the penultimate stressed syllable is followed by a slight rise of intonation on the ultimate, unstressed syllable.

Not all dialects exhibit the same accentual patterns as Standard Carnian. Particularly northern dialects of Carinthia and Upper Carniola retain Old Carnian stem-initial stress. Small transitional dialects on the borderlands with Slovenia and Croatia tend to have a free and mobile accent.

Phonotactics

In contrast to the majority of Slavic languages, Carnian prohibits many consonant clusters. It permits up to three consonants in the syllable onset; however, in most words only two consonants are found. The most common allowed clusters begin with a sonorant or fricative, or consist of an obstruent followed by a sonorant.

In the coda, up to two consonants are allowed, although word-final stops preceded by another obstruent (i.e., a fricative) tend to be unreleased or omitted entirely (e.g., cost 'bone' is realized as [kɒ̂s] or [kɒ̂st̚]).

Word-internal fricatives beginning an onset cluster resyllabify to the coda of the preceding syllable. If the preceding syllable ends with a vowel, it becomes closed and thus the vowel is short: vezda 'star' becomes [ʋɛ̂z.dɐ] instead of [ʋɛ̂ː.zdɐ]. All medial geminates are syllabified as [C.C], with the first element becoming part of the coda of the preceding syllable.

Morphology

Main article: Carnian grammar

Carnian morphology closely resembles that of other Slavic languages while exhibiting several distinctive features that set it apart from its neighbors. The language maintains a rich inflectional system, though considerably simplified compared to Proto-Slavic.

Nominal System

Carnian nouns decline for four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative), having lost the instrumental, locative, and vocative cases found in neighboring South Slavic languages. Some conservative dialects preserve instrumental and dual number. Nouns are divided into three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural).

The masculine declension distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns, affecting accusative case formation and nominative plural endings of velar-stem nouns. Carnian preserves the hard-soft stem distinction in nouns, though these patterns have partially merged, similar to developments in neighboring languages.

A unique feature of Carnian among Slavic languages is the presence of both definite and indefinite articles in preposition, both of which are fully inflected for case, gender, and number (except the indefinite, which lacks plural forms). The definite article ten is used consistently, while the indefinite jen is often omitted in practice.

Adjectival System

Modern Carnian preserves only the definite adjectival declension. The most distinctive feature is the uninflected predicative form, which evolved from the old indefinite masculine nominative singular but is now used for all genders, cases, and numbers. This predicative form serves as the base form of adjectives (similar to German) and usually carries ultimate accent, distinguishing it from the penultimate-stressed non-predicative forms.

Adjectives in attributive position precede nouns and agree in case, number, and gender. Comparison is primarily analytical, using the adverbs vent 'more' and nai 'most', though a few basic adjectives preserve irregular comparative forms (bols 'better', gors 'worse', ventz 'bigger', miens 'smaller').

Verbal System

Carnian verbs distinguish:

• Two numbers (singular, plural)
• Three persons
• Four tenses (present, past, pluperfect, future)
• Three moods (indicative, imperative, conditional)
• Two aspects (perfective, imperfective)

The infinitive is short, ending only in -t (the final vowel was lost after the establishment of penultimate accent), resulting in ultimate stress on all infinitives. Some dialects preserve the long infinitive in -ti or show rhotacization to -r / -ri / -re.

Past tense is formed analytically using the auxiliary verb bœt 'to be' in the present tense plus the past participle (L-participle), continuing the Slavic perfect construction with the auxiliary in preposition rather than postposition. The future tense of perfective verbs is expressed through their present forms, while imperfective verbs form future analytically using the auxiliary stem ba- plus the past participle.

Three verbs (bœt 'to be', meat 'to have', teat 'to want') have special negative forms in the present indicative rather than simply adding the particle ne.

Carnian maintains several participles: active (indicating ongoing action), passive (indicating state), past (used in analytical forms), and the rare ṡ-participle (corresponding to English "having + past participle"). All participles in predicative position receive ultimate accent.

Other Features

• Pronouns distinguish formal and informal second person (vy vs. ty), with the formal pronoun combining forms of ty with the consonant v- from the plural
• The reflexive pronoun se is used with verbs
• Numerals decline by case, with 1-4 additionally declining by gender
• Adverbs are typically formed from adjectives with the suffix -o

Classification

The status of Carnian has been subject to academic debate, with various disagreements about whether it should be classified as a West or South Slavic language. While it shares multiple innovations with South Slavic, it initially evolved with western features and lacks several defining characteristics of the southern group. A common solution to this problem was to call Carnian a transitional language; however, considering geographical factors and considerable agreement in grammar and vocabulary, the modern consensus is to classify Carnian as a South Slavic language with its own Alpine branch (distinct from the Western South Slavic branch).

Features shared with West Slavic:

• Preserved Proto-Slavic kv-, gv- before old Slavic ě (cuet 'flower' vs. Slovene cvet)
• No epenthetic l (zemia 'earth' vs. Slovene zemlja)
• Preservation of tl and dl (leveled to a great extent in the modern language)
• North Slavic reflexes of oRT metathesis (locket 'elbow' vs. Serbo-Croatian lakat)
• -me ending in the first person plural indicative, a feature shared with Czech and Slovak (ċitame vs. Sl./SCr. čitamo)
• Preservation of nasal vowels (shared with Lechitic)
• General preservation of i-y distinction
• Animacy-induced behavior of velar-stem masculine nouns in nominative plural
• e-like reflex of yer vocalization
• Vocalization of syllabic liquids (not shared with Czech-Slovak, shared with Slovene)
• Extension of the accusative form *tъnъ to nominative in place of *tъ (modern ten vs. Sl./SCr. ta)
• Tendency towards fixed stress
• Diminutive and feminine counterparts of masculine nouns formed with the reflexes of *-ьca / *-ъka instead of *-ica. Such diminutive formation is also found in Slovene and Kajkavian
• Short infinitive in -t
• vi- prefix instead of iz- (also found in Kajkavian)
• Spirantization g > ɣ (dialectal feature, shared with Czech-Slovak and Sorbian)

Features shared with South Slavic:

• Partial i-y merger
• Merger of Proto-Slavic *ś (resulting from the second and third palatalization) with *s
• -ega suffix in genitive singular of the adjectival declension
• Pitch accent (shared with Slovene and Serbo-Croatian)
• u- > vu- (modern vue- and vo-), shared with Kajkavian
• Rhotacization *ž > r, shared with Slovene, Kajkavian, and Chakavian
• *ď > j in some cases (shared with Slovene, Kajkavian, and Chakavian)
• No general palatalization before front vowels (shared with Slovene and Serbo-Croatian)
• Preservation of the Late Common Slavic long falling syllables (shared with Slovene and Serbo-Croatian)
• Generalization of the -m suffix in the first person singular conjugation
• Mergers between soft and hard declensions
• kei 'what' pronoun, shared with Slovene and Kajkavian, locally also cie / cia (shared with Chakavian)
• Residual preservation of the indefinite adjectival declension (modern predicative adjectives)
• Approximant character of v with the tendency for vocalization
• Usual vocalization of yers in word-initial syllables
• Loss of vocative (shared with Slovene and Kajkavian); Carnian additionally lost instrumental and locative
• Presence of a mid-central vowel phoneme
• Ł-L merger (also shared with Czech-Slovak)
• Transformation *iь > i
• Common vocabulary

Dialects

Carnian is traditionally divided into five dialect groups: Carinthian (corinsc), Upper (gorn), Lower (doln), Central (centraln), and Kvarner (cuarn). The dialects can also have several subdialects, which are further divided into microdialects.

Background

The rise of the March of Carinthia allowed Northwestern Alpine Slavic to become a prestigious vernacular and spread beyond the territory of Carinthia proper. Initially a unified language, NWAS, and later Old Carnian, divided into two main branches: western, covering much of the Littoral and Inner Carniola, and northern, spoken in Carinthia and Upper Carniola. Apart from this division arose the transitional Lower dialect in the northwestern parts of Lower Carniola, which was predominantly Slovene-speaking. Early Modern times and the territorial expansion of Carnia saw further division of those dialects and the rise of new ones.

Dialect overview

Map of Carnian dialect groups

Carinthian

The Carinthian dialect is spoken in Carnian Carinthia and a few places in Upper Carniola, as well as by Austrian Carnians. During the Middle Ages it was the most prestigious dialect and the vernacular of the nobility and clergy, and therefore strongly influenced the other regions. At the same time, Carinthian is the most Germanized of all Carnian dialects due to Carnian-German bilingualism existing there since the very beginning of Carnian statehood. These factors account for the presence of German-influenced features across Carnian speech territory, such as four-case system, uninflected predicative adjectives, stem-initial accent, vowel reduction, and syncope. Traces of German influence can be seen in spelling, although nowadays to a much smaller extent, and visible in the use of ⟨œ⟩ for /ɜ/ (realized as [œ] in Carinthian), ⟨ch⟩ for /x/, or ⟨tz⟩ for /t͡s/, and ⟨ck⟩ for /k/ before front vowels. Other features like open-syllable lengthening and the use of articles are attributed to both German and Romance/Italian influence.

Carinthian maintains several conservative features not present anymore in modern Carnian, yet does not lack its own innovations. Its main features are:

• The preservation of stem-initial stress and pitch accent. Stressed open syllables are long in the majority of Carinthia, although some more conservative valleys maintain the original length distinctions
• Lenition of voiced stops /b, d, g/ > /β, ð, ɣ/. The degree of lenition ranges from full lenition in all positions to medial positions only
• Realization of ea in its traditional form [æ], with the diphthongal pronunciation becoming more popular only recently
• ą raised to ỹ in unstressed syllables, visible in words like minint (vs. standard minant 'to pass') or in Corintia, the name of Carinthia which spread to the standard (vs. Corantia in some conservative southern dialects)
• Retention of nasality and extension toward previously non-nasalized contexts. Some of these nasal phonemes later underwent changes (/ʊ̃/ merged with /œ̃/, /ĩ/ lowered to [ɪ̃ ~ ẽ])
• Realization of œ as rounded [œ̈] in stressed syllables
• General preservation of L-Ł distinction, with some dialects experiencing ṡuapanie (realization of [ɫ] as [w])
• y is closer [ɪi̯]
• Uvular realization of k as [q]. This is likely caused by the lack of voiced counterpart after g became ɣ
• Retention of voiced final obstruents in the western parts
• Preservation of instrumental case and dual number in some conservative dialects
• Active participles of i- and e-stem verbs are formed with -je- (vidient vs. standard vidiant)
• Eastern dialects experience feminization of neuter gender
• High degree of German loanwords

Upper

The Upper dialect is spoken in the majority of Upper Carniola and Lubiana. It is often considered "transitional" between Central and Carinthian dialects. Its main characteristics distinguishing it from the standard include:

• The accent is predominantly penultimate, although some valley dialects retain stem-initial accent with varying degree of length-syllable correlation
• Lenition of voiced stops varies from medial positions in the north and in the valleys to no lenition at all in the south
• Some subdialects preserve monophthongal ea [æ]
• L-Ł distinction in most parts, lost in the southern areas
• Delabialization [ɒ] > [ɑ]
• Voicing of final obstruents is retained in the Selsa subdialect
• Some dialects experience masculinization of neuter gender
• Majority of dialects do not alter stem-final velar consonants in the nominative plural of masculine hard declension (bœcki vs. standard bœci)

Lower

The Lower dialect is the most divergent from the standard and has developed as transitional between Carnian and Slovene. It is spoken in the Carnian part of Lower Carniola south and east of Lubiana, as well as in the border areas in Slovenia. Its main characteristics:

• The western part agrees with the Upper dialect in terms of penultimate accent, although the eastern parts retain old free accent with shifts influenced by the Lower Carnian dialect of Slovene
• Pitch contours often mismatch with the standard and align with Slovene words
• Since stem-initial accent never arose here, the syncope is very weak and limited to high vowels only
• The reflexes of liquid metathesis often agree with South Slavic pattern
• Early denasalization: *ę > ä, *ǫ > å, in some regions raised to e and o
• œ realized as ï [ɪ ~ ɘ]
• *ě > ie
• Lack of geminated consonants
• y is either diphthongal [ɪi̯] or monophthongal [iː]
• -je- form of active participle in i- and e-stem verbs
• Fossilized locative and dual expressions

Central

The Central dialect is spoken in the Littoral and most of Inner Carniola, making it the largest dialect in Carnia. Due to geographical and historical reasons, it is the most diverse group. The coastal regions and Gorsa surroundings show significant Romance (mostly Venetian and Friulian) influence, while the mountainous eastern part around Route exhibits some well-preserved conservative features. While peripheral in the Middle Ages, it rose to prominence in Early Modern times and eventually became the base for Standard Carnian.

The features differentiating it from the standard include:

• y ranges from [ɛɪ̯] to [aɪ̯]
• No lenition, except Inner Carniolan dialects with consistent spirantization g > ɣ
• Loss of pitch accent in some dialects
• Voiced final obstruents are preserved in easternmost dialects
• Rhotacization of the infinitive suffix -t > -r in the southwestern coastal regions
• Mixed use of kei and cie 'what', the latter being used in the southwestern parts
• Higher degree of Romance loanwords
• Loss of animacy distinction in majority of Obale-Cars region
• Neuter-masculine merger (with singular nominative ending in -o/-e) in the most Romanized dialects

Kvarner

The Kvarner dialect, spoken in Istria and Libursca, represents a type of newer, mixed dialect which evolved as a consequence of Carnian territorial expansion southwards. It evolved from the mix of the traditional dialects, primarily Central, and had been significantly influenced by Chakavian and local Romance varieties. While those influences were stronger locally (i.e., Romance in western Istria and Reaca, Chakavian in the other areas), those features are found beyond the borders of the traditional settlement due to population mixing.

Main features:

• Weak to no vowel reduction. It should not be understood as the lack of reduction, but rather as fuller realization of unstressed vowels (e.g., [ɔ ~ o̞] instead of [ɞ])
• Moderate and varying degree of syncope
• The accent is predominantly penultimate. Eastern Istria and Gorski Kotar exhibit some degree of free accent influenced by Chakavian. Parts of Cres preserve stem-initial accent
• Presence of pitch accent with tones often agreeing with the Chakavian words
• cie or cia instead of kei
• Lack of geminated consonants
• ea either merged with e or a, or decomposed to [ɛ.ä]
• œ usually merged with a, except for Reaca agglomeration which has standard [ɜ]
• Non-palatal tzacavizm: ċ, ṡ, and ġ are replaced with tz, s, and z, or transitive tzj, sj, zj. This is most common in eastern Istria and on the islands
• Varying degree of accent retraction in place of old word-final nasal vowels (blocked entirely in areas with stem-initial accent)
• Mid vowels are often true mid [e̞] and [o̞]
• The realization of y ranges from [ei] to [iː]
• The infinitive is usually long -ti, with rhotacization to -ri, -re, or -r in western Istria
• Fossilized instrumental and locative expressions
• High degree of Romance and Chakavian loanwords
• Presence of unadapted ć and đ in Chakavian loanwords
• Loss of animacy distinction in Western Istria
• Neuter-masculine merger in the Western Istria dialects

Orthography

History of orthography

The earliest known records to be written in Carnian are Freising Manuscripts from the 10th century. They have been invaluable for the research of Carnian and Slavic language history. Later centuries brought more texts; all were, however, written in primitive orthography based primarily on German and Latin. The spelling conventions varied between writers and were ambiguous, especially for sounds absent in German or Latin systems. Following settlement along the Adriatic coast, the situation became more chaotic with new Italian-influenced spellings emerging.

In Early Modern times, two competing spelling systems existed: Carinthian or traditional, used in Carinthia and Upper Carniola, and coastal, used in the Littoral, Inner Carniola, Istria, and Libursca. The first one continued German-based spelling, such as the use of ⟨sch⟩ for /ʃ/, ⟨tsch⟩ for /ʧ/, ⟨ch⟩ for /x/, or ⟨k⟩ for /k/. The second applied Italian orthographic principles, including ⟨sci⟩ for /ʃ/, ⟨ci⟩ for /ʧ/, or ⟨c⟩/⟨ch⟩ for /k/. However, none of them reflected Carnian phonology in an accurate and clear manner. Following the 16th century, there were several attempts to unify Carnian spelling or present a new approach (such as ⟨sh⟩ for /ʃ/, similarly to neighboring South Slavic languages at that time), although they never became popular and were blocked primarily by the coastal writers.

Eventually a new convention was developed in the 17th century which sought to compromise the two existing systems. It was met with approval and became the ground for modern orthography. It included the following rules:

• ⟨c⟩ used for /k/ unless preceded by a front vowel, when the German ⟨ck⟩ was used (instead of Italian ⟨ch⟩). Word-initially and in German loanwords only ⟨k⟩ was used. The choice of ⟨c⟩ was motivated by morphological alternations caused by Proto-Slavic palatalization and stubborn positions of coastal writers
• /s/ was generally expressed by ⟨s⟩, although etymological ⟨c⟩ before front vowels was kept and reinforced
• ⟨ch⟩ used for /x/, except in some word-initial positions and loanwords
• ⟨ci⟩, ⟨gi⟩, and ⟨si⟩ were introduced for /ʧ/, /ʒ/, and /ʃ/, respectively. Since it was ambiguous in certain positions (e.g., word-finally, before a consonant, or before ⟨i⟩), new letters ⟨ċ⟩, ⟨ġ⟩, and ⟨ṡ⟩ emerged by removing ⟨i⟩ and moving the dot over the preceding consonant
• ⟨œ⟩ for /ɜ/ was maintained
• ⟨y⟩ was reinforced for the special /ɛɪ̯/ phoneme, given its various pronunciations between regions (formerly ⟨ij⟩ was also used)
• ⟨tz⟩ used for /ts/ (given the origins of this phoneme)

The rise of the Illyrian movement in the 19th century gave rise to another spelling convention based on Gaj's Latin alphabet. It included the use of ⟨č⟩, ⟨š⟩, and ⟨ž⟩ for postalveolar consonants, replacement of ⟨ea⟩ with ⟨ě⟩, ⟨ch⟩ with ⟨h⟩, ⟨tz⟩ with ⟨c⟩, and ⟨œ⟩ with ⟨ë⟩. While it received considerable popularity in the 19th century, it never became official and became officially rejected following tensions with Yugoslavia in the 20th century. As of today, it is used by a few minor pan-Slavic organizations.

Spelling principles

Modern Carnian orthography follows primarily phonemic principles, with each phoneme represented by a distinct letter or digraph. The system attempts to balance historical etymology with phonetic transparency.

Key principles:

• Morphophonemic spelling: Alternations caused by historical sound changes are preserved in spelling to maintain morphological transparency (e.g., bœc 'bull' vs. bœci 'bulls', where /k/ > /s/ is preserved orthographically as ⟨c⟩)
• Diacritics for disambiguation: The grave accent ⟨à, è⟩ marks unpredictable stress patterns and distinguishes minimal pairs (although the latter is in practice limited to didactic texts)
• Gemination: Double consonants represent true geminates, not just orthographic conventions
• ⟨ea⟩ is used to represent etymological /ɛɐ̯/ even when it becomes indistinguishable from /ɛ/ (in closed and unstressed syllables), as long as it alternates with the full [ɛɐ̯] (cf. Nom. sneag [snɛ̂k], Gen. sneaga [snɛ̂ɐ̯gɐ] 'snow'). In words with no alternation, ⟨e⟩ is used (e.g., venno 'always')

Spelling to sound correspondence

Spelling		Pronunciation	Examples
a	stressed	[ä]	pant 'road'
	unstressed	[ɐ]	nella 'Sunday'
b		[b]	balto 'mud'
c	usually	[k]	carva 'cow'
	before e, i, y	[s]	bœci 'bulls'
ch		[x]	mech 'moss'
ck		[k]	macki 'poppies'
ċ, ci		[t͡ʃ]	ċitat 'to read' ciarn 'black'
d		[d]	de 'where'
e	stressed	[ɛ]	biesla 'bee'
	unstressed	[ɛ̈]	bober 'beaver'
ea	stressed open syllables	[ɛɐ̯]	leato 'summer'
	unstressed / closed syllables	[ɛ]	reacà 'river' (Acc)
f		[f]	fala 'thank you'
g		[g]	guessier 'lizard'
ġ, gi		[ʒ]	jeġ 'hedgehog'
h		[x]	hœsa 'house'
i	stressed open syllables	[i̞]	lipa 'linden'
	unstressed / closed syllables / after /ɾ/	[ɪ]	cuepit 'to buy'
	in a diphthong	[ɪ̯ ~ j]	noit 'night'
j		[j]	jon 'young'
k		[k]	kei 'what'
l	usually	[l]	laba 'weekend'
	in coda	[ɫ]	stol 'table'
m		[m]	medio 'between'
n		[n]	nœn 'now'
o	stressed open syllables	[ɔ]	gora 'mountain'
	stressed closed syllables	[ɒ̝]	cot 'cat'
	unstressed	[ɞ]	melco 'milk'
p		[p]	campa 'island'
r		[ɾ]	rœid 'ginger' (color)
s		[s]	syn 'grey-blue'
ṡ, si		[ʃ]	siur 'rat' ṡit 'to sew'
t		[t]	tich 'quiet'
tz	usually	[t͡s]	tzem 'I want'
	between vowels	[t͡sː]	notzoi 'tonight'
u	usually	[ʊ̟]	luna 'moon'
	in a diphthong	[ʊ̯ ~ w]	vuela 'street'
v		[ʋ]	vermè 'weather'
y		[ɛɪ̯]	ty 'you'
z		[z]	zora 'dawn'

Vocabulary

Dictionary

Carnian language in Contionary

Sample texts

The Ugly Duckling

The sample text below is a passage from 'The Ugly Duckling' by Hans Christian Andersen.

Orthographic version

Gerde antè

T’ant ga je polendau. “To je jeno strasno velcke antè”, je reckeu. “Nie malo podonn drugim. Li res je jeno puranè? No, scoro savem. Ba sieu ve vodà, taco li ga bam morau sama tisnant”.

Phonetic transcription

[tǎnt gɐ jɛ pɞlɛndâʊ̯ | tɞ jɛ jɛ̂ːnɞ strâsnɞ ʋɛ̌lkɛ ɐntɛ̂ˑ jɛ rɛ̌kɛʊ̯ | njɛ mâːlɞ pɞdɒ̌n dɾʊ̂ːgɪm | lɪ ɾɛ̌s jɛ jɛ̂ːnɞ pʊɾɐnɛ̌ˑ | nɞ skɔ̌ːɾɞ sâːʋɛm | bɐ ʃɛ̌ʊ̯ ʋɛ ʋɞdǎˑ tǎːkɞ lɪ gɐ bɐm mɞɾǎʊ̯ sâːmɐ tɪsnânt]

Phonemic transcription

/tǎnt ga jɛ pɔlɛndâʊ̯ | tɔ jɛ jɛ̂nɔ strâsnɔ ʋɛ̌lkɛ antɛ̂ jɛ rɛ̌kɛʊ̯ | njɛ mâlɔ pɔdɔ̌n dɾʊ̂gim | li ɾɛ̌s jɛ jɛ̂nɔ pʊɾanɛ̌ | nɔ skɔ̌ɾɔ sâʋɛm | ba ʃɛ̌ʊ̯ ʋɛ ʋɔdǎ tǎkɔ li ga bam mɔɾǎʊ̯ sâma tisnânt/

English translation

The duck took a look at him. "That's a frightfully big duckling," she said. "He doesn't look the least like the others. Can he really be a turkey baby? Well, well! I'll soon find out. Into the water he shall go, even if I have to shove him in myself."

Comparison to the other Slavic languages

English	Carnian	Slovene	Serbo-Croatian	Bulgarian	Czech	Slovak	Polish	Belarusian	Ukrainian
hello	brega	živjo	zdravo	здравейте (zdravejte)	ahoj	ahoj	cześć	здароў (zdarow)	привіт (pryvit)
Welcome	Dobrosli	Dobrodošli	Dobrodošli	добре дошли (dobre došli)	Vítejte	Vitajte	Witajcie	Вітаю (vitaju)	Вітаю (vitaju)
Thank you	Fala	Hvala	Hvala	благодаря (blagodarja)	Děkuji	Ďakujem	Dziękuję	Дзякуй (dziakuj)	Дякую (diakuju)
How are you?	Cao je?	Kako si?	Kako si?	Как си? (Kak si?)	Jak se máš?	Ako sa máš?	Jak się masz?	Як справы? (jak spravy?)	Як справи? (jak spravy?)
What are you doing?	Kei deajeṡ?	Kaj storiš?	Što radiš?	Какво правиш? (Kakvo pravish?)	Co děláš?	Čo robíš?	Co robisz?	Што ты робіш? (Shto ty robish?)	Що ти робиш? (Shcho ty robysh?)
to buy	cuepat	kupovati	kupovati	купува (kupuva)	kupovat	kupovať	kupować	купляць (kuplać)	купувати (kupuvaty)
morning	jotro	jutro	jutro	утро (utro)	ráno / jitro	ráno	rano / ranek	рана / ранак (rana / ranak)	рано / ранок (rano / ranok)
dream	sen	sen	san	сън (sǎn)	sen	sen	sen	сон (son)	сон (son)
day	dien	dan	dan	ден (den)	den	deň	dzień	дзень (dzień)	день (den' )
night	noit	noč	noć	нощ (nosht)	noc	noc	noc	ноч (noč)	нiч (nich)
flower	cuet	cvet	cvijet	цвят (tsvyat)	květ	kvet	kwiat	кветка (kvietka)	квітка (kvitka)
arm	ranca	roka	ruka	ръка (rǎka)	ruka	ruka	ręka	рука (ruka)	рука (ruka)