Talossa, also known as the Kingdom of Talossa ( ), is one of the earliest

micronation A micronation is a polity, political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from list o ...

sfounded in 1979 by then-14-year-old Robert Ben Madison of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

and at first confined to his bedroom; he adopted the name after discovering that the word means "inside the house" in Finnish. Among the first such projects still maintained, it has kept up a web presence since 1995."Castles in the air."
''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', 20 December 2005."Shortcuts: Starting your own country"
CNN.com, 27 September 2006. Its internet and media exposure since the late 1990s contributed to the appearance of other subsequent internet micronations. Talossa claims several places on Earth as its territory, especially a portion of

, calling it the "Greater Talossan Area"; no such claim, however, is recognized by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

or by any sovereign nation. As of August 5, 2023, the number of active citizens is said to be 157. Including those who are no longer citizens for various reasons, those who are under the age of 14 and so are not yet citizens, and those from the ESB Affair there are 564 total registered individuals. The current King of Talossa is Sir Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvá, who in December 2024 succeeded John I. The successors to the throne are the children of the Present King (Prince Patrick, Prince Peter, Princess Daniele). Kings of Talossa: Robert I (1979–1987), Robert II (1987), Florence I (1987–1988), Robert I (1988–2005), Louis (Regent, 2005–2006), John I (2006–2024), Txec I (2024-present)

Culture

Talossan culture has been developed over the years by Robert Madison and other fans. The Talossan language, also created by Madison in 1980, claims a vocabulary of 35,000 root words and 121,000 derived wordsThe CÚG and Its Mission
" ''El Glheþ Talossan,'' 2012. Accessed 2 June 2016.including ''fieschada,'' meaning "

love at first sight Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common theme in creative works: a person or character feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger upon first seeing that stranger. It has been desc ...

"."" (Translator), ''El Glheþ Talossan,'' 2012. Accessed 2 June 2016.

History and growth

Talossa was founded as a kingdom on December 26, 1979,R. Ben Madison (2008), "Ár Päts: Classic History of the Kingdom of Talossa"
accessed on 2020-03-18. by Madison, shortly after the death of his mother. Madison maintained Talossa throughout his adolescence, publishing a handwritten newspaper and designing a flag and emblem. During this time its only other members were about a dozen relatives and acquaintances. This changed in the mid-1990s, when a series of stories in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''Stephen Mimh (2000) ''Utopian rulers and spoofs stake out territory online''. New York Times, May 25, 2000Roberta Smith
"Art in Review: We could have invited everybody"

July 15, 2005. and ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'',Alex Blumberg
"It's good to be king"

, March 2000, 8.03. subsequently republished elsewhere, drew his website to popular attention. Several new "citizens" joined Talossa as a result, and Madison began to claim that he was the inventor of the term "micronation". In April 1996, Madison reestablished the dormant

League of Secessionist States The League of Secessionist States (LoSS; LOSS) is a dormant, Internet-based intermicronational organisation that exists "to promote intermicronational communication and partnership, and serves to act as a supramicronational, impartial Body wh ...

—an intermicronational organisation originally founded by him and two friends in 1980—and launched a website for it. Between 1997 and at least 2000, it was the most prominent intermicronational organisation on the Internet. Madison disestablished the "kingdom" in late 2005, but Talossa is still active today despite the lack of involvement of the original founder. Madison registered "Talossa"Talossa entry
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Accessed June 2, 2016 as a service mark in 2005 and created Talossa, Inc., a Wisconsin not-for-profit corporation. By 2013 the service mark had been cancelled and the corporation had been administratively dissolved.Talossa entry
in Wisconsin Financial Institutions register. Accessed on 2010-01-01.

Governance

The government of Talossa takes place in a framework of a

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

under a

constitutional monarchy Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...

, whereby the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

, and of a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional ...

Executive power The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

is exercised by the president.

Legislative power A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers o ...

is vested in the Parliament of Talossa.

Talossan language

Madison invented Talossan ( or ) as a

constructed language A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...

for his

. With its relatively large vocabulary, which is mostly French-based, it is said to be one of the most detailed

fictional language Fictional languages are the subset of constructed languages (conlangs) that have been created as part of a fictional setting (e.g. for use in a book, movie, television show, or video game). Typically they are the creation of one individual, while ...

s ever invented. The former Association of Talossan Language Organisations (ATLO) maintained a website describing the language for new learners, providing language information, research and online translation to and from English. The

ISO 639 ISO 639 is a international standard, standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) concerned with representation of languages and language groups. It currently consists of four sets (1-3, 5) of code, named after each part w ...

designation is "tzl".Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: tzl
2013-01-23. Accessed 2 June 2016. That website is now deprecated, and new resources will be created with the formation of ''la Società per l'Ilesnaziun del Glheþ Naziunal'' (Society for the Facilitation of the National Language, SIGN). The language is overseen by the ''Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ'' ("Committee for the Use of the Language," CÚG), a group formed by Madison which periodically issued both ''Arestadas'' (decrees) to describe and document changes in language usage of the language and ''Pienamaintschen'' (supplements), to update the vocabulary list. The CÚG maintained a multi-lingual website providing access to the recent recommendations of the Committee., CÚG More recently, la SIGN is currently being created with the goal of assuming the CÚG's responsibilities.

Writing system

Talossan uses the Latin alphabet. The letters of modern Talossan are:

Literature

* Clemens J. Setz: ''Die Bienen und das Unsichtbare'', Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2020, pp. 174–184.

References

External links

Talossa website

Talossa wiki

Talossan language information and translation resource
*
L'Översteir, bidirectional Talossan-English translator
* *
Kingdom of Talossa
on

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...

{{conlang Artistic languages Constructed languages Micronations in France Micronations in the United States States and territories established in 1979 West Antarctica micronations