{"id":23,"date":"2026-10-28T16:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2026-10-28T16:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:50:23","slug":"about-viossa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/?page_id=23&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"About Viossa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What IS Viossa?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Viossa is a collaborative artificial pidgin, created from a basic but novel set of constraints. It began as an online experiment to see whether or not we could simulate the conditions for pidgin formation. We achieved this by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Refusing to translate our speech to (or use words from) a preexisting shared language, like English.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Refusing to <em>correct<\/em> speech from others that we can understand<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These essential constraints result in a language that is free to grow and change over time, since it is anchored neither by internal or external prescriptivism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To date, Viossa is the first known and most successful conpidgin of its kind: being founded on Christmas eve of 2014, and growing today to a devoted community of around 100 competent-to-fluent speakers. It features contributions from a number of natural and artificial languages\u2014and even other conpidgins!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Today&#8217;s Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Viossa community is an international and deeply eclectic one, and seeks to draw from many cultural and linguistic traditions. The community is currently centered on the <strong>Viossa Diskordse\u0433ver (VDS)<\/strong>, and there are several satellite communities under independent leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No matter which part, the community still teaches Viossa exclusively by immersion: there exist <em>artistic<\/em> translations and language packs for various software, but there is no translation-based dictionary or exhaustive grammatical description of Viossa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Diversity and Vilant<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Viossa, the language itself, features significant diversity on all its layers. Its users spell and speak differently, use different words, teach differently, and pull from a grab-bag of grammatical features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It contains pieces of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Japanese<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Norwegian<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finnish<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chinese<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Russian<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Greek<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Albanian<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>toki pona<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many more!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The VDS also hosts a set of additional conpidgins you can read about\u2014Wodox, Minemiaha, and Luferen\u2014which are not mutually intelligible, but together form a sort of cultural bund called <strong>Vilant<\/strong>. Vilant is currently an informal collective of these conpidgins, intended to create mutual support for each. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Very often, conpidgins do not survive for a long time unless individuals within the community are very persistent over time. It&#8217;s normal for these projects to fade! Often, though, there are one or two last speakers who are willing to teach, and would like to continue. Creating a broader society of conpidgins allows members to exchange with each other, and work towards mutual preservation, or even growth. There is, after all, power in numbers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Projects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Active projects in and for Viossa take many forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Original literature<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Original music<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Original podcasts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Software and websites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Translation of existing works, notably videogames<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In-person meetings in multiple countries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>State and international formal recognition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more, see &lt;link to PROJECTS page><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What IS Viossa? Viossa is a collaborative artificial pidgin, created from a basic but novel set of constraints. It began as an online experiment to see whether or not we could simulate the conditions for pidgin formation. We achieved this by: These essential constraints result in a language that is free to grow and change [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.viossa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}