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

Main article: Carnian dialects

Map of Carnian dialect groups

Carnian exhibits considerable dialectal diversity shaped by geography, historical settlement patterns, and language contact. The language is traditionally divided into five major dialect groups: Carinthian (corinsc), Upper (gorn), Lower (doln), Central (centraln), and Kvarner (cuarn).

The Carinthian dialect, spoken in Carnian Carinthia and parts of Upper Carniola, represents the most conservative variety and was historically the prestige dialect of the medieval nobility and clergy. It preserves stem-initial stress, maintains the L-Ł distinction, and exhibits lenition of voiced stops (/b, d, g/ > /β, ð, ɣ/). Strong German influence is evident in both phonology and lexicon due to centuries of Carnian-German bilingualism in the region.

The Upper dialect of Upper Carniola and Lubiana forms a transitional zone between Carinthian and Central varieties, generally featuring penultimate stress while retaining some conservative features such as the L-Ł distinction in northern areas.

The Lower dialect is the most divergent from the standard, having developed as a transitional variety between Carnian and Slovene. It is characterized by weak syncope, reflexes of liquid metathesis that align with South Slavic patterns, and early denasalization. This dialect retains free accent in eastern areas and preserves some archaic dual and locative expressions.

The Central dialect, spoken in the Obale-Cars and most of Inner Carniola, is the largest and most diverse dialect group. Peripheral during the Middle Ages, it rose to prominence in Early Modern times and became the basis for Standard Carnian. Coastal regions show significant Romance (Venetian and Friulian) influence, while mountainous eastern areas preserve conservative features. The Gorso-Tresten subdialect of the northern Obale-Cars exhibits particularly strong Romance substrate effects, including retention of a synthetic imperfect tense and merger of neuter with masculine gender.

The Kvarner dialect of Istra and Libursca represents a newer mixed variety that emerged following Carnian territorial expansion southward in the Early Modern period. It evolved from a blend of traditional dialects (primarily Central) with significant Chakavian and local Romance influences, featuring weak vowel reduction, varying degrees of free accent, and widespread tzacavizm (merger of palatal consonants with dental affricates).

Beyond geographic variation, Carnian has developed a distinct prestige sociolect called Fyn (lit. "refined"), spoken in the metropolitan areas of Lubiana, Trest, and Reaca. Emerging among 19th-century administrative and commercial elites, Fyn is characterized by r-vocalization in coda position, merger of e and ea, obligatory article use, and aspectual simplification. While originally an upper-class marker, it has become the natural speech of working-class residents in all three major cities and serves as the de facto standard pronunciation there.

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 rec. “Nie malo podonn drugim. Li res je jeno puranè? No, scoro savem. Ba sied ve vodà, taco li ga bam morau sama tisnant”.

Phonetic transcription

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

Phonemic transcription

/tǎnt ga jɛ pɔlɛndâʊ̯ | tɔ jɛ jɛ̂nɔ strâsnɔ ʋɛ̌lkɛ antɛ̂ jɛ rɛ̌k | njɛ mâlɔ pɔdɔ̌n dɾʊ̂gim | li ɾɛ̌s jɛ jɛ̂nɔ pʊɾanɛ̌ | nɔ skɔ̌ɾɔ sâʋɛm | ba ʃɛ̌t 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)