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Viossa (IPA: /vi.ˈoʊ.sa/, /vi.ˈɒ.sa/) is anexperimental, community-created,constructed language (conlang) and an artificialpidgin,[1] created in 2014 by the digital community of r/conlangs inReddit, who wanted to simulate a pidgin. The language is created to examine the contact between languages and is classified as anengineered language.[2]
Viossa is said to be a “conpidgin” rather than a conlang due to its similarity to pidgins. From the beginning, its development has been driven exclusively by conversations between members of its community, where only three mandatory rules are followed: Direct translations of Viossa are forbidden except for academic or artistic reasons (therefore one must learn the language via total immersion); if one is understood, they are using the language correctly; and there are no standards for thegrammar,orthography,semantics orphonetics of the language.[2][3]
The project was launched on December 24, 2014, by members of theSkype group associated with the subreddit r/conlangs. The language was developed viavideo conference, which allowed its creators (who were geographically isolated) to simulate the natural conditions of pidgin formation. In the video calls, each participant selected a mutually unintelligible language from as many others as possible, and the use of English was generally prohibited.[4][5]
Being a constructed language or conlang, Viossa has influence from several languages which contribute to the language'svocabulary. These contributing languages are divided into "major contributing natural languages" and "minor contributing natural languages". The major contributing natural languages are:Russian,Finnish,Albanian,Greek,Japanese,Norwegian andSwiss German. The minor contributing natural languages include, among others:Irish,Swedish,Northern Sámi,Ainu,Old English,French andLatin.[2]
Viossa was the second attempt at creating a constructed pidgin by the r/conlangs group. The first, titled NEA (No English Allowed), failed because the speakers ended up simply speaking in each of their languages instead of mixing them.[2]
Viossa is characterized by its lack ofstandardisation, particularly in grammar and spelling. Each speaker of the language develops a personalidiolect, with syntax, vocabulary, and spelling that correspond to both personal preferences and social context. The language operates on the principle that 'if it can be understood, it's Viossa.' As a result, only generalizations can be made about the language's use, which may not reflect the usage of all individuals. Since personal varieties are strongly influenced by a speaker's native language, Viossa is sometimes described as aninterlanguage.
The majority of Viossaphones use asubject–verb–object word order (SVO), althoughsubject–object–verb word order (SOV) andobject–subject–verb word order (OSV) are used by minorities.Grammatical case is generally not marked, butverbal agreement has been observed, inflecting for grammatical person and number (although compound subjects are exempt from this).Pronouns distinguish between person and number but generally do not show any distinction ofgrammatical gender.[6]
Spelling in Viossa varied greatly among speakers and is considered by many to be a form of self-expression. The most frequently used script isLatin, often with the use of diacritical marks and rare letters, although speakers have also devised writing systems based onCyrillic,Hebrew,Kana, andChinese characters.
There are no standardised rules for spelling, as spelling is said to not be important as long as the speaker is understood. For example, the word for "hello" has at least three spellings (jaa/ya/iá), and other spellings are also accepted.[3]
The Viossa speech community functions almost exclusively online. It is primarily based onDiscord, where it is learned and taught through immersion.[3] Translation between Viossa and other languages is largely prohibited, except in circumstances such as academic studies of the language and artistic translations of media.
Viossa is acommunity-driven, international anddecentralised language taught in a dedicated Discord server of thousands of fellow speakers. It is said to be taught in a "fullyimmersive" manner where no languages other than Viossa are permitted to be used for teaching. Learners are expected to form their own conclusions on the meaning of other members’ messages based only on their existing knowledge of the language, and visual aids in the form ofemoji and images.[3]
A Viossa wiki called Vikoli, using theMediaWiki software, exists. Original music has been created in the language, including the albumKorohtella released in February 2022 by DJIMA. Several podcasts in Viossa also exist, notablyDavi Hanu! andK'Slucj?, both of which are published sporadically.
The flag of Viossa often represents the language and consists of a bird inside a white circle on a blue background. The bird that appears on the flag is a dove orpigeon (in English, a pun with the word 'pidgin'), placed similarly tothe letter V, the first letter of the language's name. The flag was created in 2016 by Reddit user u/clausangeloh, and it uses a color palette of #00bbff and #ffffff.[7]
Sascha will be focusing on his own experience of creating Viossa, which was created over the duration of many video calls, in which he and friends initially all spoke mutually unintelligible languages, learning and teaching words to each other, and gradually developing the structure of a full-fledged language, which by the end they all could speak rather proficiently.
