In 1996, he started work on an artificial North Slavic language, Vuozgašchai (Vozgian), and in 2002 he created another language, Wenedyk, designed to show what Polish might have looked like if it had been a Romance rather than Slavic language. In 2006, he was one of the initiators of the Pan-Slavic language Slovianski (later renamed Interslavic), as well as the coordinator of a project for the creation of an electronic Interslavic dictionary.[4][5] In November 2013, he was awarded the Josef Dobrovský medal for his 'contributions to Slavic culture and science'.[6] In 2018 he also received the medal "The Living Word" of the Khovansky Foundation.[7]
Van Steenbergen lives in IJmuiden. He is married and has three children.[8]