Status Active Demonym Talossan Area 13 km² | Capital Abbavilla Founded 26 December 1979 | |
 | ||
Location Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. Official languages Talossan
(official language)
English Organizational structure Constitutional monarchy | ||
A brief history of talossa
Talossa, officially the Kingdom of Talossa (Talossan: Regipäts Talossan [ˈred͡ʒipæt͡s tɐɫɔˈsan]), is one of the earliest micronations — founded in 1979 by then 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison of Milwaukee 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. Its internet and media exposure since the late 1990s contributed to the appearance of other subsequent internet micronations.
Contents
- A brief history of talossa
- Talossa at 30 pm madison addresses the nation
- Culture
- History and growth
- Talossan language
- References
Talossa claims several places on Earth as its territory, especially a portion of Milwaukee, calling it the "Greater Talossan Area"; no such claim, however, is recognized by the United Nations or by any other nation. As of June 23, 2016, the number of active citizens is said to be 213. 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 493 total registered individuals.
Talossa at 30 pm madison addresses the nation
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 words — including fieschada, meaning "love at first sight".
History and growth
Talossa was supposedly founded as a kingdom on December 26, 1979, 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 and Wired, 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".
Madison disestablished the "kingdom" in late 2005, but a number of online groups that have no connection with the original founder have since claimed to represent Talossa.
Madison registered "Talossa" 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.
Talossan language
Madison invented Talossan ([tɐɫɔˈsan] or el glheþ Talossan [ɛɫ ʎeθ tɐɫɔˈsan]) as a constructed language for his so-called micronation. With its relatively large vocabulary, it is said to be one of the most detailed fictional languages ever invented. The Association of Talossan Language Organisations (ATLO) maintains a website describing the language for new learners, providing language information, research and online translation to and from English. The ISO 639 designation is "tzl".
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 issues both Arestadas (decrees) to describe and document changes in language usage of the language and Pienamaintschen (supplements), to update the vocabulary list. The CÚG maintains a multi-lingual website providing access to the recent recommendations of the Committee.