As presented in the Tintin books, Syldavian has a superficial resemblance to certain Central European languages, particularly Polish and Hungarian, due to its orthography. Like Serbian, it uses both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts, although apparently in somewhat different contexts; it is most commonly written in the Cyrillic alphabet, albeit with the Latin alphabet by the royal court. It shares numerous orthographic features found in various Eastern European languages, most notably the "sz" and "cz" of Polish.
However, the language is clearly a Germanic language. Its vocabulary and grammar resembles that of Dutch and German and has little in common with any Slavic languages.[1] But while Brusselian, Hergé's native dialect, was used as a basis for the language, Syldavian has a much more complicated grammar, with other Central European influences added.
The language also appears to have been influenced by Bordurian (another fictional language), Slavic languages and Turkish. The Syldavians often bear names of Slavic origin, such as Wladimir; the dish szlaszeck that Tintin encountered also appears to be a borrowing. (Szaszłyk is the Polish word for shish kebab, borrowed in turn from Turkish.) Many words are based on common French slangs. For examples, klebcz is constructed on the French Parisian slang clebs meaning "dog".
This language, which is Germanic but bears a great resemblance to Polish, may be likened to the artificial Romance language Wenedyk, or to the endangered Wymysorys language.
⟨ï⟩ - uncertain. Likely a diaeresis indicating to pronounce as syllabic /i/ rather than /j/, or for the benefit of French-speakers so they don't mispronounce ai as /ɛː/ instead of the correct /aj/.
Note: As in Czech, the letter ⟨r⟩ can be syllabic, as seen in names such as Staszrvitch and Dbrnouk.
There are some additional digraphs and trigraphs, including ⟨tch⟩ (used in names and pronounced with /t͡ʃ/, the apparent Syldavian version of the common Serbo-Croatian/Balkan surname ending -ić), ⟨chz⟩ (uncertain, but may be an alternative form of ⟨cz⟩/t͡ʃ/), and ⟨th⟩/t/. These demonstrate that the Latin-based orthography has a number of irregularities, or else these are old inconsistent spellings that have been preserved in family names but are no longer used in the standard orthography (as in Hungarian, where for example one may find the family name Széchenyi retaining a traditional spelling rather than the orthographically correct *Szécsenyi).
Note that Syldavian Cyrillic diverges in some important respects from Cyrillic as used in real-world languages, most notably by porting over Latin digraphs into the Cyrillic alphabet (for example, /ʃ/ is written "сз" instead of "ш"), and to use a few Cyrillic letters (щ, ю) for sounds for which they are never used in the real world. This, together with the use of Latin script in old medieval manuscripts, may suggest that the Syldavians adopted the Latin alphabet first, and the Cyrillic later, which is the reverse of several real-world languages (most notably Romanian) which switched from Cyrillic to Latin.
Grammar
Plurals
Native words are pluralized with -en: klebczen - "dogs"; fläszen - "bottles"
Loanwords are pluralized with -es: zigarettes - "cigarettes"
Definite articles
Unlike Marols, but like German (shown in italics in the table), Syldavian definite articles are extensively inflected.
Dzapeih wzryzkar eszt on vaghabontz. 'The guy is surely a tramp.'
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Sub.
Obj.
Poss.
1 sing.
ek
ma
mejn
2 sing.
dûs
da
dejn
3 sing. m.
eih
itd
yhzer
3 sing. n.
itd
ein
zsejn
3 sing. f.
zsoe
irz
yhzer
1 plur.
vei
ohmz
ohmz
2 plur.
jei
jou
öhz
3 plur.
zsoe
khon
khon
3rd person singular neuter objective and possessive and 2nd person plural pronouns are reconstructed based on Dutch and German.
Demonstrative pronouns
czei - this tot - that
Verbs
Verbs are either weak or strong. This decides how they are conjugated.[1]
Conjugation
Strong verb: blavn 'to stay'
Pres. Ind.
Past Ind.
Subj.
Imp.
Pres. Part.
Past Part.
1 sing.
blav
blev
blavetz
-
blavendz
bleven
2 sing.
*blavszt
*blevszt
*blavetzt
blaveh
blavendz
bleven
3 sing.
blavet
blev
blavetz
-
blavendz
bleven
1 plur.
blaven
bleven
blavendz
-
blavendz
bleven
2 plur.
*blavet
*blevet
*blavetz
blavet
blavendz
bleven
3 plur.
blaven
bleven
blavendz
blavendz
bleven
Weak verb: löwn 'to love'
Pres. Ind.
Past Ind.
Subj.
Imp.
Pres. Part.
Past Part.
1 sing.
löw
löwda
löwetz
-
löwendz
löwen
2 sing.
*löwszt
*löwdaszt
*löwetzt
löweh
löwendz
löwen
3 sing.
löwt
löwda
löwetz
-
löwendz
löwen
1 plur.
löwen
löwenda
löwendz
-
löwendz
löwen
2 plur.
*löwet
*löwdet
*löwetz
löwet
löwendz
löwen
3 plur.
löwen
löwenda
löwendz
löwendz
löwen
The 2nd person conjugations are unknown, with reconstructions shown with asterisks. Corresponding German verbs and the 2 pl. imperative were used as a guideline in the reconstructions, with -szt in 2 sing. based upon German -st, although -szcz and -eh (the latter written -ещ in Cyrillic, which would be -esht in Bulgarian Cyrillic) are other possibilities.
Negatives
To negate a sentence, the particle nietz is placed after the subject, in auxiliary position.
Müsstler nietz dzem könikstz löwt. 'Müsstler does not love the king.'
In copulative sentences, nietz is placed after the verb (or czesztot) :
Müsstler eszt nietz güdd. 'Müsstler is not good.'
Czesztot wzryzkar nietz on waghabontz! 'That's surely not a vagabond!'
Adverbs
Most adverbs tend to be identical to adjectives in form. Adverbs can be used to modify verbs:
Where there's an auxiliary and a main verb, the main verb remains at the end, and the auxiliary verb moves just after the subject:
Zsoe ghounh dzoeteuïh ebb touhn.' 'They're going to open the doors.'
Ek werlagh ihn Klow blavn. 'I want to stay in Klow.'
Pronouns
In earlier Syldavian the pronoun may follow the verb, and this form may still be used for emphasis:[1]
Eih bennec, eih blavec. 'Here I am, here I stay.' [medieval spelling]
Wzryzkar kzomme ek! 'I'm coming, for sure!'
You can say either Eihn ben ek, Eihn bennek or Ek ben eihn, but never *Eihn ek ben (unlike English, where you can say 'Here I am'). In general "X is Y" can be inverted to "Y is X". When X is a pronoun, the inversion adds some emphasis:
Güdd eszt itd, 'Good it is.'
In the kzommet sentences in the corpus, prepositional phrases follow the verb. The comma, however, is a signal that the prepositional phrase has been moved for emphasis, or because it is an afterthought:
Kzommet micz omhz, noh dascz gendarmaskaïa! Come with us to the police station!
Forms of 'be' directly follow the subject :
Könikstz eszt güdd. 'The king is good.'
Sbrodj on forwotzen eszt zona . 'Sbrodj is a forbidden zone.'
Dan dzetronn eszt ervöh. 'Then the throne is for him.'
The merged form czesztot 'it is, that is' begins a sentence: Czesztot Tintin. "That's Tintin."
Historical changes
Samples of Syldavian from only two periods - the 14th century and the 20th century - are available. But even with such a small sample, some changes can be seen in the language over a 600-year period:
From a 14th-century manuscript, Noble Deeds of Ottokar IV:
Medieval Spelling
"Pir Ottocar, dûs pollsz ez cönicstz, dan tronn eszt pho mâ." Czeillâ czäídâ ön eltcâr alpû, "Kzommetz lapzâda pacceho." Cönicstz itd ön alpû clöppz Staszrvitchz erom szûbel ön. Dâzsbíc fällta öpp ön cârrö.
Modern Spelling
"Pir Ottokar, dûs pollsz ez könikstz, dan tronn eszt vöh mâ." Czeillâ czäídâ o eltkâr alpû, "Kzommetz lapzâda pakkeho." Könikstz itd o alpû klöppz Staszrvitchz erom szûbel o. Dâzsbíck fällta öpp o kârrö.
Cyrillic Spelling
"Пир Оттокар, дўс поллсз ез кёникстз, дан тронн есзт вёщ мӕ.” Чеиллӕ чяѝдӕ о елткӕр алпў, “Кзомметз лапзӕда паккещо.” Кёникстз итд о алпў клёппз Стасзрвитчз ером сзўбел о. Дӕзсбѝк фяллта ёпп о кӕррё.
English translation:
"Father Ottokar, thou falsely art king; the throne is for me." This one said thus to the other, "Come seize the sceptre." The king thus hit him, Staszrvitch, on his head. The villain fell onto the floor."
More Examples
Czesztot on klebcz. - "That's a dog."
Hamaïh! - "Hail!" (The Bordurian language borrows this as Amaïh)
Kzommet micz omhz, noh dascz gendarmaskaïa. - "Come with us to the Police Station." (politzski in the English translation.) Gendarmaskaïa is a borrowing from French gendarme. The suffix -skaïa is also apparently borrowed from the Russian feminine adjective ending -ская.
On fläsz Klowaswa vüh dzapeih... Eih döszt! - "A bottle of Klow water for this guy... He's thirsty!" (cf. Dutch dorst & cf. Swedish törst, "thirst". (Lit. 'He thirsts!')
Czesztot wzryzkar nietz on waghabontz! Czesztot bätczer yhzer kzömmetz noh dascz gendarmaskaïa? - "That's surely not a tramp! Isn't it better for him to come to the police station?" (Lit. probably "Is it better [that] he comes to the police station?")
Rapp! Noh dzem buthsz! - "Quick! Into the boat!" (cognate literally to German Nach dem Boot!)
