Johannes Hendrik "Jan" van Steenbergen (, born June 3, 1970) is a Dutch translator and interpreter. He is known for being the author of several

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...

s, notably

Interslavic Interslavic (''Medžuslovjansky'' / ''Меджусловјанскы'') is a pan-Slavic auxiliary language. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between speakers of various Slavic languages, as well as to allow people who do not speak a S ...

and Wenedyk. He was born in Hoorn, where he spent most of his childhood. In 1988 he became a student at the

Amsterdam University The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other b ...

, where he graduated in East European Studies with major topics in

Slavistics Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

and musicology. He continued his studies in Poland at

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

and worked at the

Warsaw Autumn Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

festival for contemporary music. In 1997, he became a Polish translator and interpreter in the Netherlands. In 1996, he started work on an artificial North Slavic language, ''Vuozgašchai'' (Vozgian), and in 2002 he created another language, Wenedyk, designed to show what

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

might have looked like if it had been a

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

rather than

Slavic language The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ea ...

. In 2006, he was one of the initiators of the

Pan-Slavic Pan-Slavism, a movement which crystallized in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic people. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires had rule ...

language Slovianski (later renamed

), as well as the coordinator of a project for the creation of an electronic Interslavic dictionary. In November 2013, he was awarded the

Josef Dobrovský Josef Dobrovský (17 August 1753 – 6 January 1829) was a Czech philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech National Revival along with Josef Jungmann. Life and work Dobrovský was born at Balassagyarmat, Nó ...

medal for his 'contributions to Slavic culture and science'. In 2018 he also received the medal "The Living Word" of the Khovansky Foundation. Van Steenbergen lives in IJmuiden. He is married and has three children.

References

External links

*
Towards a Unified Slavic Language
— Lecture at the Fourth Language Creation Conference, Groningen 2011 on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steenbergen, Jan van 1970 births Dutch translators Constructed language creators Linguists from the Netherlands University of Amsterdam alumni People from Hoorn Living people