Spocanian

Spocanian (Dutch: "Spokaans") is a constructed language, created by the Dutch linguist Rolandt Tweehuysen. Unlike languages like Esperanto, Spocanian was never intended to be used for international communication; instead, it serves as the language of Spocania, a fictional island group in the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Iceland.

Spocania and Spocanian are typical examples of early geofiction, predating the Internet. Tweehuysen started working on them when he was still a boy, in 1962. Over the years, they have attracted much attention in the Netherlands of press, radio and television. Two travel books about the country have been published. To date, Spocania is one of the most elaborated fictional cultures ever published.

In its fictional setting, Spocanian is a member of the "Atlantic language" family. As a constructed language, it can be classified as highly naturalistic a priori language: apart from loan words from European languages, the basic vocabulary and the grammar are unique. Grammar itself is full of "bizarre characteristics":

quote|"Spocanian does not only have a lot of rules, but also a lot of exceptions to the rules. Those exceptions are sometimes understandable only to those who know the hundreds of years old history of the language." [cite paper
author=Marc van Oostendorp
title=Wat en hoe in het Spokaans. De taal en cultuur van een zelfbedacht land.
version =
publisher=Onze Taal
date=May 1998
url=http://www.vanoostendorp.nl/interviews/tweehuys.htm
format=
accessdate=2008/07/05]

With a dictionary of over 25,000 entries, Spocanian is one of the most elaborated artistic languages ever created.

References

Bibliography

* Rolandt Tweehuysen: 'Uit in SPOKANIË nooit weg - een reisverslag.' Gralkrich, Pelger & Mardant, 1982. With grammophones record, drawing and maps. ISBN 90-216-0515-5
* Rolandt Tweehuysen: 'Spokanië: Berref'. Travel guide. Uitgeverij Dominicus. ISBN 90-257-3189-9

External links

* [http://www.spok.demon.nl/grammatica/index.htm Grammatica van het Spokaans]
* [http://www.spocania.com Site over Spokanië]
* [http://www.vanoostendorp.nl/interviews/tweehuys.htm Interview met Rolandt Tweehuysen] ("Onze Taal", mei 1998)