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Very interesting. I've tried to read some texts and I could easily understand them (as a native Polish speaker). I wonder if it is as easy for other Slavic nat

Very interesting. I've tried to read some texts and I could easily understand them (as a native Polish speaker). I wonder if it is as easy for other Slavic nationalities. If so, it could be a nice intermediary language, if only for written texts. Unfortunately I guess almost nobody would learn to write or speak it but it is still funny to have a passive ability to read and understand and I guess all Slavic languages could be automatically translated to this interslavic version. It could be tried in museums, restaurants, etc.

ainar-g 7y ago
Russophone here, I can understand most texts, although some words require me to take a few seconds to “parse”.
xixixao 7y ago
As a Czech, can confirm it’s fairly understandable.
hellwd 7y ago
I'm from Bosnia and I can understand almost everything. There are some words where I have to stop and think but in the end, it's completely understandable. This is a great idea!
villedepommes 7y ago
My two cents, I skimmed through a few texts and I can understand 60-70% of what I've read. I'm a native Russian speaker, btw. However, I'd say I'd be skeptical about this whole idea, since I'd still need to invest considerable effort to learn the rest. Instead, I'd rather learn English, even though it's even more effort, still, a cost-benefit ratio seems to be much better in my particular case, as English will pretty much let me communicate with 1.5B people, which probably includes most Poles anyway.
muro 7y ago
Slovak - all understandable.
Keyframe 7y ago
Croatian here. I understood everything as well. No way I could write / construct anything with it without full-blown learning. However, I also understood all of English used to describe it and I can use English to write and construct text already. So, there’s that too.
mh-cx 7y ago
German here who tries to learn Czech for some time now. Even as a novice I had no problems to identify many words that I know in czech. Awesome.
paulsmal 7y ago
I'm Ukrainian and understand sample texts. I tried reading it to other people and they can understood it as well.
unsigner 7y ago
Southern Slav with fluent Russian and a bit of Polish here; this is very, very easy to understand.
sologoub 7y ago
It seems to succeed at being understandable, but I’m guessing it will be on par in difficulty to learning another Slavic language if you already speak one. Also, the written part is not hard - if you pause enough most Slavic language menus at a restaurant for example can be understood. It’s the spoken version that often makes it hard to communicate across these languages.
- eequah9L 7y ago
  ... and my experience is that even fairly similar languages are really hard to understand. I have no problem talking in Russian, I understand Slovak and Czech is my mother tongue, but Ukrainian is still fairly opaque to me. I suspect any spoken intermediate language will just do the same. A soup of words of which I'll understand every second and struggle to make sense of.
pferde 7y ago
I'm also from a Slavic country, and I couldn't understand anything, because I closed the website in disgust two seconds after loading it. I mean, black text on dark-blue background? Even the hyperlinks are using default html blue color. What is this, Geocities?
jwr 7y ago
I am a native Polish speaker as well, and I can understand the texts very well, but I think they might be more difficult for younger readers, who did not learn any Russian. It seems to me that Polish has drifted away from most other Slavic languages. As an example, without learning any Russian you have no chance to understand "govorju" which is like the Russian verb "govorit'", which is "mówić" in Polish. One thing I found interesting is that the cyrillic versions are actually easier to read, as many Slavic sounds can more easily be represented (like "ч" or "щ").
- rimliu 7y ago
  To anecdotally confirm this point: I am not a native Russian speaker, but I am fluent and Russian, and I am also very familiar with Polish (it's complicated). Those texts are very readable to me, so knowing Russian and Polish is likely to cover the widest base.
- yeellow 7y ago
  You could guess it from "gaworzyc" though. But I agree that knowing some Russian helps.
3flp 7y ago
Another native Czech here; I find the text at least 80% to 90% understandable without any training.
- cechmaster 7y ago
  Same. I noticed some words use the letter "g" in place of "h" like in the word "another" -> "drugy" -> in Czech "druhý", otherwise it is very similar to Czech.

ainar-g 7y ago

Russophone here, I can understand most texts, although some words require me to take a few seconds to “parse”.

xixixao 7y ago

As a Czech, can confirm it’s fairly understandable.

hellwd 7y ago

I'm from Bosnia and I can understand almost everything. There are some words where I have to stop and think but in the end, it's completely understandable. This is a great idea!

villedepommes 7y ago

My two cents, I skimmed through a few texts and I can understand 60-70% of what I've read. I'm a native Russian speaker, btw. However, I'd say I'd be skeptical about this whole idea, since I'd still need to invest considerable effort to learn the rest. Instead, I'd rather learn English, even though it's even more effort, still, a cost-benefit ratio seems to be much better in my particular case, as English will pretty much let me communicate with 1.5B people, which probably includes most Poles anyway.

muro 7y ago

Slovak - all understandable.

Keyframe 7y ago

Croatian here. I understood everything as well. No way I could write / construct anything with it without full-blown learning. However, I also understood all of English used to describe it and I can use English to write and construct text already. So, there’s that too.

mh-cx 7y ago

German here who tries to learn Czech for some time now. Even as a novice I had no problems to identify many words that I know in czech. Awesome.

paulsmal 7y ago

I'm Ukrainian and understand sample texts. I tried reading it to other people and they can understood it as well.

unsigner 7y ago

Southern Slav with fluent Russian and a bit of Polish here; this is very, very easy to understand.

sologoub 7y ago

It seems to succeed at being understandable, but I’m guessing it will be on par in difficulty to learning another Slavic language if you already speak one. Also, the written part is not hard - if you pause enough most Slavic language menus at a restaurant for example can be understood. It’s the spoken version that often makes it hard to communicate across these languages.

eequah9L 7y ago
... and my experience is that even fairly similar languages are really hard to understand. I have no problem talking in Russian, I understand Slovak and Czech is my mother tongue, but Ukrainian is still fairly opaque to me. I suspect any spoken intermediate language will just do the same. A soup of words of which I'll understand every second and struggle to make sense of.

pferde 7y ago

I'm also from a Slavic country, and I couldn't understand anything, because I closed the website in disgust two seconds after loading it. I mean, black text on dark-blue background? Even the hyperlinks are using default html blue color. What is this, Geocities?

jwr 7y ago

I am a native Polish speaker as well, and I can understand the texts very well, but I think they might be more difficult for younger readers, who did not learn any Russian. It seems to me that Polish has drifted away from most other Slavic languages. As an example, without learning any Russian you have no chance to understand "govorju" which is like the Russian verb "govorit'", which is "mówić" in Polish. One thing I found interesting is that the cyrillic versions are actually easier to read, as many Slavic sounds can more easily be represented (like "ч" or "щ").

rimliu 7y ago
To anecdotally confirm this point: I am not a native Russian speaker, but I am fluent and Russian, and I am also very familiar with Polish (it's complicated). Those texts are very readable to me, so knowing Russian and Polish is likely to cover the widest base.
yeellow 7y ago
You could guess it from "gaworzyc" though. But I agree that knowing some Russian helps.

3flp 7y ago

Another native Czech here; I find the text at least 80% to 90% understandable without any training.

cechmaster 7y ago
Same. I noticed some words use the letter "g" in place of "h" like in the word "another" -> "drugy" -> in Czech "druhý", otherwise it is very similar to Czech.