Government of the Republic of Novegrad
The Republic of Novegrad is an alternative history ("althist")/fictional nation ("concountry") project, based on the premise that the medieval northern European Feudal Republic of Novgorod survived to the present day; in reality it was a merchant empire inhabited by Slavic and Finnic peoples up until it was annexed by an expanding Muscovy in the 15th century.
Links
- Government of the Republic of Novegrad — a mock homepage for the government of the modern-day nation
- Government of the Republic of Novegrad (in Novegradian) — a work-in-progress translation of the above into Novegradian, the fictional official language of Novegrad
- Novegrad FAQ — a brief description of the nature and goals for this project and website
External Links
- Novgorod Republic (Wikipedia) — for some background on the real nation that inspired this all
The Novegradian Language
Novegradian (новеградескей лизике novegrádeskei lizíke) is a fictional language ("conlang"), designed to be as realistic as possible. It is a Slavic language, derived from the reconstructed language known as Proto-Slavic, the ancestor of all of the other Slavic languages, including Russian, Polish, Serbian, and Bulgarian. It was inspired by and is partially based on the fragmentary documents surviving from the 11th-15th centuries containing what is now known as the Old Novgorodian Dialect, a highly divergent Slavic vernacular.
Links
- Grammar of the Novegradian Language — the main index page to the online version of the grammar
- Grammar of the Novegradian Language (pdf) — a direct link to the current version of the grammar, a 3MB pdf e-book.
- Novegradian Lexicon — a searchable online dictionary of Novegradian, including declension charts and word etymologies
External Links
- Old Novgorod dialect (Wikipedia) — for some background on the real language spoken in medieval Novgorod
- Birchbark Letter Photographs (University of Chicago) — photographs of some of the real birchbark letters written in the Old Novgorodian dialect, as well as some other artifacts from the region.
The Očets Language
Očets (һочец сеие hočets seie) is a fictional language ("conlang") related to the Yeniseian language family, a nearly-extinct group of languages spoken in central Siberia that have recently gained some widespread attention in the linguistics community as possibly being the first demonstrated link between Old and New World languages, with strong evidence of a relationship with the Tlingit-Eyak-Athabaskan (or Na-Dené) family of western North America. Očets itself is intended to be a cousin of the Yeniseian languages, sharing a common ancestor but many centuries removed.
Očets exists in the same alternative timeline as Novegradian, and has been undergone extensive influence from the Novegradian language, as well as a number of Uralic, Turkic, and Iranian languages spoken or once spoken in the Ob River valley. It is an exercise in language contact and to some extent language death as well as general historical linguistics.
At present Očets is still undergoing development, and information will be added as it becomes available.
Links
- Grammar of the Očets Language — the main index page to the online version of the grammar
External Links
- Yeniseian Languages (Wikipedia) — for some background on the Yeniseian family
The Alashian Language
Alashian (Αλλασούν Ναλασκιώ Hallasūn Nalaskyā) is a fictional language ("conlang") in the Semitic language family, closely related to such languages as Arabic and Hebrew. It is supposed to be spoken on part of the island of Cyprus, where over the centuries it has been significantly influenced by (in turn) Aramaic, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish.
Links
- Grammar of the Alashian Language — the main index page to the online version of the grammar
- Grammar of the Alashian Language (pdf) — a direct link to the current version of the grammar, a 4MB pdf e-book.
- Alashian Lexicon — a searchable online dictionary of Alashian, including listings by root and word etymologies
Linguistics
This section contains various articles and other information related to real-world linguistics written by myself. For the most part my primary interests lie in the Slavic and Semitic languages, but I may at times write about other groups as well.
Links
Programming and Computer Science
In addition to languages and linguistics, programming and web design have both been interests of mine for a long time. While I started out on the web, I've since gained quite a bit of experience in application and mobile application development as well.
On the web side of things, I am familiar with (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript + jQuery, XML + XSLT, and PHP, while on the desktop and mobile side of things, I have worked with C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Python, and Haskell, plus the Unix CLI.
Here are a few projects of various sorts I'm offering up as open-source.
Links
- LexManager — an open-source customizable PHP-based web dictionary, fully-functional but still in its early stages of development.
- WeatherDesktop — a relatively simple script written in Objective-C to plug into GeekTool on Mac OS X that will change your desktop background based on the time of day and weather at your current location.
- C Durak — a simple version of the popular Eastern European card game Durak using terminal graphics.
About
I am currently a student enrolled at the University of Chicago, studying Slavic Languages and Computer Science. Languages and linguistics have long been a passion of mine, as can be seen in the materials here on this site. I speak English and Russian, have extensively studied Spanish and Modern Hebrew, and have also had some formal training in Georgian. From a more linguistics-oriented perspective, my main interests lie in Slavic, Semitic, Uralic, and Paleo-Siberian languages.
Veche.net is my personal site, first launched (albeit at a different domain) back in 2006. It is named for the historical Novgorod Veche, a quirky, unique, and quasi-democratic legislative body that governed the entirety of the Novgorodian Lands during their independence in the Middle Ages.
Links
- Recent Updates — a listing of recent changes to this website