Linguist Adam Aleksic has described Viossa as an "artificially created pidgin language" due to its similarity to natural pidgin languages.[4] 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 the grammar, orthography, semantics or phonetics of the language.[3][5]
History
The project was launched on December 24, 2014, by members of the Skype group associated with the subreddit r/conlangs. The language was developed via video 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.[6][7]
Being an artificial language, Viossa has influence from several distant languages which contribute to the language's vocabulary. 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 and Swiss German. Other contributing natural languages include, among others, Irish, Swedish, Northern Sámi, Ainu, Old English, French and Latin.[3]
Viossa was the second attempt at creating an artificial 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.[3]
Linguistic data
Viossa is characterized by its lack of standardisation, particularly in grammar and spelling. Each speaker of the language develops a personal idiolect, 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 an interlanguage.
Spelling in Viossa varies greatly among speakers and is considered by many to be a form of self-expression. The most frequently used script is Latin, often with the use of diacritical marks and rare letters, although speakers have also devised writing systems based on Cyrillic, Hebrew, Kana, and Chinese 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 Viossa word for "hello" has at least three common spellings (jaa, ya, and iá), with other spellings also accepted.[5]
Community
Viossa is a community-driven, international and decentralised language taught in a dedicated Discord server of thousands of fellow speakers. It is said to be taught in a "fully immersive" 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 of emoji and images.[5]Translation between Viossa and other languages is largely prohibited, except in circumstances such as academic studies of the language and artistic translations of media.
The Viossa community functions almost exclusively online, primarily based on Discord, where it is learned and taught through immersion.[5] However, meetups in person are increasingly common. In 2024, Viossa had both a dedicated speech and an interactive panel at the 11th Language Creation Conference at University of Maryland, College Park.[9]
There is a Viossa wiki called Vikoli, using the MediaWiki software, which hosts a Wikipedia-like encyclopedia along with teaching materials. There are also user-created story-based learning materials for Viossa, in the style of Duolingo, targeted primarily at teaching dialect rather than vocabulary.[10]
Original music has been created in the language, including the album Korohtella released in February 2022 by Djima on streaming services including Spotify. Several podcasts in Viossa also exist, notably Davi Hanu! and K'Slucj?, both of which are published sporadically. As of 2025, an annual writing competition called Vimivera (also Vimi Vera) occurs every July, which is hosted on Discord. The competition is divided into three categories: long-form writing, short-form writing, and poetry. Voting is done by the community, with the top performing poems compiled into an anthology.
Flag
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 or pigeon (in English, a pun with the word 'pidgin'), placed similarly to the 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.[11] The blue represents the Skype logo, where the language began.
↑ English pronunciation: /vi.ˈoʊ.sa/, /vi.ˈɒ.sa/. Viossa pronunciation varies; something akin to [/vi.ˈo.sa/] is common. Literally 'our language', from vi ('we, our') + glossa, glosa ('language'). Common alternative spellings include Vjosa, Vjossa, and Vyossa.
↑ "LCC8 Speakers & Presenters". Language Creation Society. Retrieved 16 October 2024. 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.
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