UniLang

I didn’t know how to name this topic, because it’s my question what that is at all. So I have found this website while looking for Sorbian materials. At first I didn’t know what language that was, though I was surprised I could understand most of it. I’ve never seen a Slavic language like this before so that’s why I was so confused. During reading it became quite clear that it’s Slovenian (mainly because of words like ‘in’, ‘kot’, ‘vse’, dual number ‘nista’, etc. and the name of the language ‘Slovensko’ at the top..)

What I’ve deduced is that this orthography uses one character for one vowel phoneme (which isn’t true in standard Slovenian.) Probably:
a - /a/
e - /e/, ẹ - /ɛ/ (or the other way?)
o - /o/, ọ - /ɔ/ (or the other way?)
i - /i/
u - /u/
ə - /ə/

My questions: What is this magic? Is it a thing in Slovenia? How popular is it? Etc.

xivrox wrote:What I’ve deduced is that this orthography uses one character for one vowel phoneme (which isn’t true in standard Slovenian.) Probably:
a - /a/
e - /e/, ẹ - /ɛ/ (or the other way?)
o - /o/, ọ - /ɔ/ (or the other way?)
i - /i/
u - /u/
ə - /ə/

My questions: What is this magic? Is it a thing in Slovenia? How popular is it? Etc.

It's the other way around: <e> is /ɛ/ and <ẹ> is /e/, <o> is /ɔ/ and <ọ> is /o/. The rest you got right.

This is usually how the sounds are represented in dictionaries like SSKJ (Dictionary of Slovene Literary Language) or Etimološki slovar (Etymological dictionary). Usually with added diacritics for pitch accent and/or vowel length. Outside those dictionaries, such a system is never used. At best you see variants with diacritics above (á, à, é, è, ê, í, ì, ó, ò, ô, ú, ù, ŕ) but even that only when you want to avoid ambiguity. But I do like their solution with ẹ, ọ and ə.

Ashucky wrote:It's the other way around: <e> is /ɛ/ and <ẹ> is /e/, <o> is /ɔ/ and <ọ> is /o/. The rest you got right.

Oh crap, I had 50% chance of getting it right.

This is usually how the sounds are represented in dictionaries like SSKJ (Dictionary of Slovene Literary Language) or Etimološki slovar (Etymological dictionary). Usually with added diacritics for pitch accent and/or vowel length. Outside those dictionaries, such a system is never used. At best you see variants with diacritics above (á, à, é, è, ê, í, ì, ó, ò, ô, ú, ù, ŕ) but even that only when you want to avoid ambiguity. But I do like their solution with ẹ, ọ and ə.

Thank you for clarification! I was really curious about that. It’s interesting why the entire website was written using this system, though, if you can’t see it outside dictionaries...

They used ə for /ə/? Poor bastards. I actually remember I found this site a while ago, but I forgot all about this ridiculous spelling. Standard written Slovenian has no diacritics or weird letters apart from čšž.

edit: found out that parts of the site are written normally:

http://serbscina.w.interia.pl/zajmienniki_s.htm

I quite liked their spelling, to be honest. It makes pronunciation easier, especially for foreign learners. I do wish we actually used that orthography, or the one with the usual diacritics (acute, grave, circumflex). Would make everything cooler cos diacritics FTW

Actually, I just might start using that for Slovene

I wouldn't like diacritics. I think the comparison between standart ortography and pronounciation makes Slovenian kinda mistic. I wouldn't change it for any other ortography in the world.