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User:IJzeren Jan

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Wikipedia:Babel
nlDeze gebruiker heeft het Nederlands als moedertaal.
pl-4Ten użytkownik posługuje się językiem polskim prawie jak językiem ojczystym.
en-4This user can contribute with a near-native level of English.
isv-3Tutoj upotrěbitelj posluživaje se medžuslovjanskym na vysokom uravnju.
Тутој употрєбитељ послуживаје се меджусловјанскым на высоком уравњу.
Wdk-3Ił wcielzatórz pocie kotrzybytar en lęgwie wenedczej sur niwiół owęcaty i przeście włydy.
de-3Dieser Benutzer hat sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse.
fr-2Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.
la-2Hic usor media latinitate contribuere potest.
ru-2Этот участник неплохо знает русский язык.
af-2Hierdie gebruiker het 'n gemiddelde begrip van Afrikaans.
pap-2 This user is able to communicate with parrots on a moderate level.
vo-2At pösod zenodiko pükon Volapüki.
uk-1Користувач може робити внесок українською мовою на початковому рівні.
grc-1Ὅδε ὁ χρήστης δύναται συμβάλλεσθαι ὀλίγῃ γνώσει τῆς ἀρχαίας ἑλληνικῆς.
...This user would like to be able to speak some more languages.
Conlang WikiProject
This user is a member of WikiProject Constructed languages.
This user is a member of the
Ill Bethisad Project
This user has created a global account. IJzeren Jan's main account is on Wikipedia (in Dutch).
Free political prisoners!

Subpage: User:IJzeren Jan/List Of Conlang-Related Articles

Welcome!

I'm not a person who likes talking about himself, so I will limit myself to the necessary. My real name is Jan van Steenbergen, I was born on June 3, 1970 (on the same day when Hjalmar Schacht died), and I live in Zaandam, near Amsterdam. Educated as a specialist on Eastern Europe, mainly Poland, I've worked as a journalist, as a translator, and (currently) as a software engineer in a bank. My main interests are: Poland and Ukraine; language, particularly constructed languages; Classical music; history. I am mostly active in the Dutch Wikipedia, under user name IJzeren Jan. Here I will probably mostly be dealing with interwiki links, and perhaps small modifications of existing articles. Also, I might dig up interesting stuff to translate into Dutch or Polish.

My user name, IJzeren Jan literally means Iron Jan. How so? Well, during my student years I used to play computer games from time to time, and "IJzeren Jan" was one of my favourite nicknames I used in highscores. Later I almost automatically used it in my e-mail address, and now as my Wikipedia user name. Only much later I learnt that IJzeren Jan was also the nickname of my famous countryman Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who also happens to be the symbol of my native town Hoorn.

I am the author of several constructed languages, two of which, Wenedyk and Interslavic, are listed in the English wiki. More about this and other things can be found on my home page, http://steen.free.fr/ .


Best regards,

Jan



Portal:Constructed languages
Today's language
Afrihili (Ni Afrihili Oluga 'the Afrihili language') is a constructed language designed in 1970 by Ghanaian historian K. A. Kumi Attobrah (Kumi Atɔbra) to be used as a lingua franca in all of Africa. The name of the language is a combination of Africa and Swahili. The author, a native of Akrokerri (Akrokɛri) in Ghana, originally conceived of the idea in 1967 while on a sea voyage from Dover to Calais. His intention was that "it would promote unity and understanding among the different peoples of the continent, reduce costs in printing due to translations and promote trade". It is meant to be easy for Africans to learn.

Afrihili draws its phonology, morphology and syntax from various African languages, particularly Swahili and Akan (Attobrah's native language). The lexicon covers various African languages, as well as words from many other sources "so Africanized that they do not appear foreign", although no specific etymologies are indicated by the author. However, the semantics is quite English, with many calques of English expressions, perhaps due to the strong English influence on written Swahili and Akan. For example, mu is 'in', to is 'to', and muto is 'into'; similarly, kupitia is 'through' (as in 'through this remedy'), paasa is 'out' (as in to go outside), and kupitia-paasa is 'throughout'—at least in the original, 1970 version of the language.

The language uses the Latin alphabet with the addition of two vowel letters, ⟨Ɛ ɛ⟩ and ⟨Ɔ ɔ⟩, which have their values in Ghanaian languages and the IPA, [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Find out more...