Editing Syldavia (section)

==Overview==
Syldavia is a [[monarchy]], ruled at the time of ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' by [[List of The Adventures of Tintin characters#King Muskar XII|King Muskar XII]]. The capital is Klow, formerly Zileheroum, located at the confluence of the Moltus and Vladir Rivers (after [[Prague]], which is on the [[Vltava]] River). Other cities named in the books are Niedzdrow, Istov, Dbrnouk, Douma, Tesznik, and Zlip. The population of Syldavia is 642,000 with 122,000 living in Klow, suggesting the country is similar in size to [[Montenegro]]. The national airline is Syldair and the official currency is the khôr. One khôr is subdivided into 100 paroe.

The people speak [[Syldavian]], a language that looks and sounds [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] but is mostly based on the [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] [[Marols]] dialect from Brussels.{{r|brok}}{{rp|5–10}} It is written in [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], but curiously, the [[Latin alphabet]] is used in medieval documents, and some of the Cyrillic letters used are a straight transcription from the Latin letters (e.g., "sh" is written "сз" -compare to Polish "sz"- rather than "ш").

The kingdom's motto is "{{Lang|mis|Eih bennek, eih blavek!|italic=no}}" which Hergé translates as "{{Lang|fr|Qui s'y frotte s'y pique}}" "Who rubs himself there gets stung" (in fact, the motto of [[Nancy, France|Nancy]], from the Latin {{Lang|la|non inultus premor}}, referring to its emblem, the [[thistle]]; in the British edition, the translators rendered the motto "If you gather Thistles, expect Prickles"). The motto can also be interpreted as a [[Brussels]] [[dialect]] rendering of the Dutch phrase "{{Lang|nl|Hier ben ik, hier blijf ik}}" ("Here I am, here I stay").

Syldavians seem to be fond of [[mineral water]], which does not go down well with the [[whisky]]-drinking [[Captain Haddock]], one of Tintin's travelling companions.

The exact location of Syldavia is not given in the comics, and nothing more is known than that it is located on the [[Balkan peninsula]], bordering another fictional country [[Borduria]], and that it has access to the sea. It is also mistaken for Greece in one instance, but explained as having very different local clothing. In ''Destination Moon'', the trail of the Syldavian-launched rocket points to a location north of the [[Danube]]. There are various inspirations for Syldavia. As Hergé noted, the primary inspiration was [[Kingdom of Montenegro|Montenegro]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/voyages/2012/10/26/03007-20121026ARTFIG00665-balade-princiere-au-montenegro.php|title=Balade princière au Monténégro|date=26 October 2012 }}</ref> but the country's history is modeled after many Balkan countries. Har Brok writes that Syldavia "may have been modelled after a country like [[Romania]] or [[Yugoslavia]]".<ref name="brok">Har Brok, Is Syldavisch Slavisch? Achtergronden van het Beeldverhaal nr. 2, Bovenkarspel 1979 ({{ISBN|90 64475 02 4}}).</ref>{{rp|4–5}}

Syldavia is also known for exporting violinists.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herge |title=King Ottokar's Spectre}}</ref>