Arturo Alfandari (8 June 1888 – 1 May 1969) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

diplomat, known as the creator of the

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

Neo.

Life

Originally from Italy, Arturo Alfandari served in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a cipher officer for the Italian High Command. After the war he settled in Belgium, where he worked as an exporter before eventually becoming a diplomat for the Belgian state. Apart from Neo, he spoke seven languages.

Neo

His proposal for Neo, an international auxiliary language, was developed in the 1930s and first presented in 1961. As with Ido and some other constructed languages of the time, Alfandari's own was based on

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

, although he added elements from

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. However, he took some further steps, reducing the use of initial and final syllables, and devising a built-in vocabulary. Root words were made as short as possible, thus emphasizing rhythm and articulation, but sometimes, as with

Volapük Volapük (; , "Language of the World", or lit. "World Speak") is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an i ...

, at the expense of easy recognition of word meanings. War veteran Paul Rasquin, from Geraardsbergen, Belgium,Chris Cordner,
Six people may hold the key to a Belgian man's Hartlepool quest
, 9 September 2016, ''Hartlepool Mail''. Accessed 1 February 2017. described Alfandari's language as "the natural and inevitable further development of

",Michael Everson,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Neo
. March 21, 2013. Accessed 1 February 2017. whilst Aldo Lavagnini considered it as "a radical and satisfying way for a reform of Esperanto, which could have been accepted by

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto ...

s even as a simplification of their language." “After 25 years of research,“ a feature article in ''Life'' magazine stated, Alfandari had presented “a 1,300-page volume containing the complete grammar and 60,000-word vocabulary of his new universal language, Neo. Using Latin for many roots of words, Italian for phonetics, a vocabulary range inspired by French, adverbs and conjunctions from German and grammar from English and Russian, he claims to have welded them into a clearer and more fluent mixture than Esperanto, from which he also borrowed some structure.” He said he'd put so much effort into it because “whether you are

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

or Walloon, white or black, American or Russian, you all want peace, to make an attempt to understand and support each other.” Despite those efforts, however, Neo became largely forgotten shortly after the death of its creator, similarly to many other constructed auxiliary languages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfandari 1888 births 1969 deaths Constructed language creators Speakers of international auxiliary languages Linguists from Belgium Linguists from Italy Belgian diplomats Belgian people of Italian descent 20th-century linguists