Interlingua (;
ISO 639
ISO 639 is a set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization that is concerned with representation of names for languages and language groups.
It was also the name of the original standard, approved in 1967 (as ''ISO 639/R ...
language codes
ia
,
ina
) is an
international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American
International Auxiliary Language Association
The International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. (IALA) was an American organisation founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together wi ...
(IALA). It ranks among the most widely used IALs and is the most widely used
naturalistic IAL
– in other words, those IALs whose vocabulary, grammar, and other characteristics are derived from natural languages, rather than being centrally planned. Interlingua literature maintains that (written) Interlingua is comprehensible to the hundreds of millions of people who speak
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
, though it is actively spoken by only a few hundred.
Interlingua was developed to combine a simple, mostly regular grammar with a vocabulary common to the widest possible range of western European languages,
making it unusually easy to learn, at least for those whose native languages were sources of Interlingua's
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
and grammar.
[Breinstrup, Thomas, Preface]
''Interlingua course for beginners''
Bilthoven, Netherlands: Union Mundial pro Interlingua, 2006. Conversely, it is used as a rapid introduction to many natural languages.
The name Interlingua comes from the Latin words ', meaning "between", and ', meaning "tongue" or "language". These
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
s are the same in Interlingua, thus "Interlingua" would mean "between language".
Rationale
Interlingua recognises that many European languages share common vocabulary – due to the historical prominence of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
– and therefore aims to extract and standardize the most widespread words for a concept. To qualify for inclusion in Interlingua, the presence of words must be shown in the primary control languages (
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,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, and
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
) or secondary control languages (
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, words from a diverse range of languages are found in Interlingua, including
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
(''geisha'' and ''samurai''),
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
(''califa''),
Guugu Yimithirr (''gangurru'') (Interlingua: kanguru), and
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
(''sauna'').
Speakers of other languages can learn to speak and write Interlingua in a relatively short time, due to simple grammar and regular word formation using a small number of
roots
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
and
affixes.
[ Morris, Alice Vanderbilt, ]
General Report
'', New York: International Auxiliary Language Association, 1945. This is particularly true for speakers with a good knowledge of
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
and
international scientific vocabulary.
Research with
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
students has shown that, after a year of learning Interlingua, they can accurately translate elementary texts from Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. A 1974 study showed that students who had taken a year-long Interlingua class could translate Spanish and French texts that students who had taken 150 hours of either Spanish or French found too difficult to understand.
Gopsill has suggested that Interlingua's freedom from irregularities allowed the students to grasp the mechanisms of Romance languages quickly.
History
The American heiress
Alice Vanderbilt Morris
Alice Vanderbilt Shepard Morris (December 7, 1874 – August 15, 1950) was a member of the Vanderbilt family. She co-founded the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA).
Early life
Alice was born on December 7, 1874 in New York. S ...
(1874–1950) became interested in
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
and the
international auxiliary language movement in the early 1920s. In 1924, Morris and her husband,
Dave Hennen Morris
Dave Hennen Morris (April 24, 1872 – May 4, 1944) was an American lawyer, diplomat, and Thoroughbred racehorse owner who co-founded the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA).
Early life
Morris was born in New Orleans, Louis ...
, established the non-profit International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Their aim was to place the study of IALs on a more complex and scientific basis. Morris developed the research program of IALA in consultation with
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.
Sap ...
,
William Edward Collinson
William Edward Collinson (4 January 1889 – 4 May 1969) was a British linguistics, linguist and, from 1914 to 1954, Chair of German at the University of Liverpool. Like Edward Sapir and Otto Jespersen, he collaborated with Alice Vanderbilt Morris ...
, and
Otto Jespersen
Jens Otto Harry Jespersen (; 16 July 1860 – 30 April 1943) was a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language. Steven Mithen described him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth ce ...
.
Investigations of the auxiliary language problem were in progress at the International Research Council, the American Council on Education, the American Council of Learned Societies, the British, French, Italian, and American Associations for the advancement of science, and other groups of specialists. Morris created IALA as a continuation of this work.
International Auxiliary Language Association
The IALA became a major supporter of mainstream American linguistics. Numerous studies by Sapir, Collinson, and
Morris Swadesh in the 1930s and 1940s, for example, were funded by IALA. Alice Morris edited several of these studies and provided much of IALA's financial support.
For example, Morris herself edited Sapir and
Morris Swadesh's 1932 cross-linguistic study of ending-point phenomena, and Collinson's 1937 study of indication. IALA also received support from such prestigious groups as the
Carnegie Corporation
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...
, the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, the
Research Corporation
Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has id ...
, and the
Rockefeller Foundation.
[Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian]
"Le historia antenatal de interlingua"
''Historia de interlingua'', 2001, revised 2006.
In its early years, IALA concerned itself with three tasks: finding other organizations around the world with similar goals; building a library of books about
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s and
interlinguistics
Interlinguistics, as the science of planned languages, has existed for more than a century as a specific branch of linguistics for the study of various aspects of linguistic communication. Interlinguistics is a discipline formalized by Otto Jespers ...
; and comparing extant IALs, including
Esperanto,
Esperanto II
Esperanto II or Esperanto 2 was a reform of Esperanto proposed by René de Saussure in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to Ido with a project called Lingwo Internaciona, later called Antido 1. ,
Ido
Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
,
Peano's Interlingua (Latino sine flexione),
Novial
Novial is a constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Denmark, Danish linguistics, linguist who ...
, and
Interlingue
Interlingue (; ISO 639 ''ie'', ''ile''), originally Occidental (), is an international auxiliary language created in 1922 and renamed in 1949. Its creator, Edgar de Wahl, sought to achieve maximal grammatical regularity and natural character. ...
(Occidental). In pursuit of the last goal, it conducted parallel studies of these languages, with comparative studies of national languages, under the direction of scholars at American and European universities.
It also arranged conferences with proponents of these IALs, who debated features and goals of their respective languages. With a "concession rule" that required participants to make a certain number of concessions, early debates at IALA sometimes grew from heated to explosive.
At the Second International Interlanguage Congress, held in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
in 1931, IALA began to break new ground; 27 recognized linguists signed a testimonial of support for IALA's research program. An additional eight added their signatures at the third congress, convened in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1933.
That same year,
Herbert N. Shenton and
Edward Thorndike became influential in IALA's work by authoring key studies in the interlinguistic field.
The first steps towards the finalization of Interlingua were taken in 1937, when a committee of 24 eminent linguists from 19 universities published ''Some Criteria for an International Language and Commentary''. However, the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in 1939 cut short the intended biannual meetings of the committee.
Development of a new language
Originally, the association had not intended to create its own language. Its goal was to identify which auxiliary language already available was best suited for international communication, and how to promote it more effectively. However, after ten years of research, many more members of IALA concluded that none of the existing
interlanguage
An interlanguage is an idiolect that has been developed by a learner of a second language (L2) which preserves some features of their first language (L1), and can also overgeneralize some L2 writing and speaking rules. These two characteristics ...
s were up to the task. By 1937, the members had made the decision to create a new language, to the surprise of the world's interlanguage community.
[Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian]
"Profunde recerca duce a un lingua"
''Historia de interlingua'', 2001, revised 2006.
To that point, much of the debate had been equivocal on the decision to use naturalistic (e.g.,
Peano's Interlingua,
Novial
Novial is a constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Denmark, Danish linguistics, linguist who ...
and
Occidental) or systematic (e.g.,
Esperanto and
Ido
Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
) words. During the war years, proponents of a naturalistic interlanguage won out. The first support was Thorndike's paper; the second was a concession by proponents of the systematic languages that thousands of words were already present in many, or even a majority, of the European languages. Their argument was that systematic derivation of words was a
Procrustean bed, forcing the learner to unlearn and re-memorize a new derivation scheme when a usable vocabulary was already available. This finally convinced supporters of the systematic languages, and IALA from that point assumed the position that a naturalistic language would be best.
IALA's research activities were based in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, before relocating to
New York due to the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, where
E. Clark Stillman established a new research staff.
Stillman, with the assistance of
Alexander Gode
Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch (October 30, 1906 – August 10, 1970) was a German-born American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua.
Biography
Born to a German fat ...
, developed a ''prototyping'' technique – an objective methodology for selecting and standardizing vocabulary based on a comparison of ''control languages''.
In 1943 Stillman left for war work and Gode became Acting Director of Research.
IALA began to develop models of the proposed language, the first of which were presented in Morris's ''General Report'' in 1945.
From 1946 to 1948, French linguist
André Martinet was Director of Research. During this period IALA continued to develop models and conducted polling to determine the optimal form of the final language. In 1946, IALA sent an extensive survey to more than 3,000 language teachers and related professionals on three continents.
[Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian]
"Le natura, si – un schema, no"
''Historia de interlingua'', 2001, revised 2006.
Four models were canvassed:
The results of the survey were striking. The two more schematic models were rejected – K overwhelmingly. Of the two naturalistic models, M received somewhat more support than P. IALA decided on a compromise between P and M, with certain elements of C.
Martinet took up a position at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1948, and Gode took on the last phase of Interlingua's development.
The vocabulary and grammar of Interlingua were first presented in 1951, when IALA published the finalized ''
Interlingua Grammar'' and the 27,000-word
Interlingua–English Dictionary (IED). In 1954, IALA published an introductory manual entitled ''
Interlingua a Prime Vista'' ("Interlingua at First Sight").
Interlingua as presented by the IALA is very close to
Peano's Interlingua (Latino sine flexione), both in its grammar and especially in its vocabulary. Accordingly, the very name "Interlingua" was kept, yet a distinct abbreviation was adopted: IA instead of IL.
The four models
Four models were canvassed: Model P and K, plus two new models similar to Model E of 1945.
Model P was unchanged from 1945; Model M was relatively modern in comparison to more classical P. Model K was slightly modified in the direction of Ido.
The vote total ended up as follows: P 26.6%, M 37.5%, C 20%, and K 15%. The results of the survey were striking. The two more schematic models, C and K, were rejected – K overwhelmingly. Of the two naturalistic models, M attracted somewhat more support than P. Taking national biases into account (for example, the French who were polled disproportionately favored Model M), IALA decided on a compromise between models M and P, with certain elements of C.
[Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian]
"Le natura, si – un schema, no"
''Historia de interlingua'', 2001, revised 2006.
Finalization
When Martinet took up a position at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1948, Gode took on the last phase of Interlingua's development. His task was to combine elements of Model M and Model P; take the flaws seen in both by the polled community and repair them with elements of Model C as needed; and simultaneously develop a vocabulary.
The vocabulary and verb conjugations of Interlingua were first presented in 1951, when IALA published the finalized ''
Interlingua Grammar'' and the 27,000-word
Interlingua–English Dictionary (IED). In 1954, IALA published an introductory manual entitled ''
Interlingua a Prime Vista'' ("Interlingua at First Sight").
Success, decline, and resurgence
An early practical application of Interlingua was the scientific newsletter ''Spectroscopia Molecular'', published from 1952 to 1980. In 1954, Interlingua was used at the Second World Cardiological Congress in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
for both written summaries and oral interpretation. Within a few years, it found similar use at nine further medical congresses. Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, some thirty scientific and especially medical journals provided article summaries in Interlingua.
Science Service
Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including ...
, the publisher of ''Science Newsletter'' at the time, published a monthly column in Interlingua from the early 1950s until Gode's death in 1970. In 1967, the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
, which normalizes terminology, voted almost unanimously to adopt Interlingua as the basis for its dictionaries.
The
IALA closed its doors in 1953 but was not formally dissolved until 1956 or later.
Its role in promoting Interlingua was largely taken on by Science Service,
which hired Gode as head of its newly formed
Interlingua Division.
Hugh E. Blair
''Interlingua: A Grammar of the International Language'', sometimes called the ''Interlingua Grammar'', is the first grammar of Interlingua. Released in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA), it remains an authoritative re ...
, Gode's close friend and colleague, became his assistant. A successor organization, the Interlingua Institute,
[Portrait del organisationes de interlingua.](_blank)
Access January 16, 2007. was founded in 1970 to promote Interlingua in the US and Canada. The new institute supported the work of other linguistic organizations, made considerable scholarly contributions and produced Interlingua summaries for scholarly and medical publications. One of its largest achievements was two immense volumes on phytopathology produced by the American Phytopathological Society in 1976 and 1977.
[Esterhill, Frank, ''Interlingua Institute: A History''. New York: Interlingua Institute, 2000.]
Interlingua had attracted many former adherents of other international-language projects, notably
Occidental and Ido. The former Occidentalist
Ric Berger
Richard "Ric" Berger (1894–1984) was a Swiss professor of design, decoration, and art history. He is best known for his numerous newspaper articles about historical monuments, mainly in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, including his ow ...
founded The
Union Mundial pro Interlingua
The Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI; World Interlingua Union) is a global organization that promotes Interlingua, an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). UMI was ...
(
UMI
Umi or UMI may refer to: Geography
* Umi, Iran, a village in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran
* Umi, Fukuoka, a town in Japan People
* Umi-a-Liloa, king of the island of Hawaii
*Umi Dachlan, Indonesian female artist
* Umi Garrett, American female pi ...
) in 1955,
and by the late 1950s, interest in Interlingua in Europe had already begun to overtake that in North America. Media coverage at the time, for example, was apparently heaviest in Northern and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
. Frequent European coverage has continued to date, joined by media attention in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
in the early 1990s.
Beginning in the 1980s, UMI has held international conferences every two years (typical attendance at the earlier meetings was 50 to 100) and launched a publishing programme that eventually produced over 100 volumes. Other Interlingua-language works were published by university presses in
Sweden and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, and in the 1990s,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Switzerland. Several
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
n schools undertook projects that used Interlingua as a means of teaching the international scientific and intellectual vocabulary.
In 2000, the Interlingua Institute was dissolved amid funding disputes with the UMI; the American Interlingua Society, established the following year, succeeded the institute and responded to new interest emerging in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
In the Soviet bloc
Interlingua was spoken and promoted in the
Soviet bloc, despite attempts to suppress the language. In
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, government officials confiscated the letters and magazines that the UMI sent to Walter Rädler, the Interlingua representative there.
In
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
,
Július Tomin published his first article on Interlingua in the Slovak magazine ''Príroda a spoločnosť'' (Nature and Society) in 1971, after which he received several anonymous threatening letters. He went on to become the Czech Interlingua representative, teach Interlingua in the school system, and publish a series of articles and books.
Interlingua today
Interest in Interlingua has expanded from the scientific community to the general public. Individuals, governments, and private companies use Interlingua for learning and instruction, travel, online publishing, and communication across language barriers.
Interlingua is promoted internationally by the
Union Mundial pro Interlingua
The Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI; World Interlingua Union) is a global organization that promotes Interlingua, an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). UMI was ...
. Periodicals and books are produced by many national organizations, such as the Societate American pro Interlingua, the
Svenska Sällskapet för Interlingua, and the
Union Brazilian pro Interlingua.
Panorama In Interlingua is the most prominent of several Interlingua periodicals. It is a 28-page magazine published bimonthly that covers current events, science, editorials, and Interlingua. Thanks to the Internet, Interlingua has seen a resurgence over the last decade, with the number of speakers jumping tenfold by some estimates.
Community
It is not certain how many people have an active knowledge of Interlingua. As noted above, Interlingua is claimed to be the most widely spoken naturalistic
auxiliary language.
Interlingua's greatest advantage is that it is the most widely ''understood''
international auxiliary language besides
Interlingua (IL) de A.p.I. by virtue of its naturalistic (as opposed to schematic) grammar and vocabulary, allowing those familiar with a Romance language, and educated speakers of English, to read and understand it without prior study.
[Blandino, Giovanni, "Le problema del linguas international auxiliari", ''Philosophia del Cognoscentia e del Scientia'', Rome, Italy: Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis, Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, 1989.]
Interlingua has active speakers on all continents, especially in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
and in
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Northern Europe, most notably
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
; also in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. There are copious Interlingua web pages, including editions of
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
an
Wiktionary and a number of periodicals, including ''Panorama in Interlingua'' from the
Union Mundial pro Interlingua
The Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI; World Interlingua Union) is a global organization that promotes Interlingua, an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). UMI was ...
(UMI) and magazines of the national societies allied with it. There are several active mailing lists, and Interlingua is also in use in certain
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
newsgroups, particularly in the europa.* hierarchy. Interlingua is presented on CDs, radio, and television.
Interlingua is taught in many high schools and universities, sometimes as a means of teaching other languages quickly, presenting
interlinguistics
Interlinguistics, as the science of planned languages, has existed for more than a century as a specific branch of linguistics for the study of various aspects of linguistic communication. Interlinguistics is a discipline formalized by Otto Jespers ...
, or introducing the international vocabulary.
[Breinstrup, Thomas]
"Interlingua: Forte, Fructuose, Futur"
Historia de Interlingua, 2001, Revised 2006.[Stenström, Ingvar, "The Interlingua of IALA: From 'the linguists' project' of 1951 to the working 'tool of international scientific communication' of 1981", ''Interlinguistica e Interlingua: Discursos public per Ingvar Stenström e Leland B. Yeager'', Beekbergen, Netherlands: Servicio de Libros UMI, 1991.][Stenström, Ingvar, "Utilisation de Interlingua in le inseniamento de linguas" (Utilization of Interlingua in the teaching of languages), ''Interlinguistica e Interlingua: Discursos public per Ingvar Stenström e Leland B. Yeager'', Beekbergen, Netherlands: Servicio de Libros UMI, 1991.] The
University of Granada
The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Ap ...
in
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, for example, offers an Interlingua course in collaboration with the Centro de Formación Continua.
Every two years, the UMI organizes an international conference in a different country. In the year between, the Scandinavian Interlingua societies co-organize a conference in Sweden. National organizations such as the Union Brazilian pro Interlingua also organize regular conferences.
,
Google Keyboard supports Interlingua.
Orthography
Interlingua has a largely
phonemic orthography
A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
.
Interlingua alphabet
Interlingua uses the 26 letters of the
ISO basic Latin alphabet
The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard (beginning with ISO/IEC 646) for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets (uppercase and lowercase) of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and ...
with no
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s. The alphabet, pronunciation in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
and letter names in Interlingua are:
# ''c'' is pronounced (or optionally ) before ''e, i, y''
#* ''ch'' is pronounced in words of French origin e.g. ''chef'' = meaning "chief" or "chef", in words of Greek and Italian origin e.g. ''choro'' = meaning "chorus" and more rarely in words of English or Spanish origin as in ''Chile'' (the country
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
). ''Ch'' may be pronounced either or depending on the speaker in many cases e.g. ''chocolate'' may be pronounced either or .
#* there is no consensus on how to pronounce ''sc'' before ''e, i, y'', as in ''scientia'' "science", though is common
#Unlike any of the Romance languages, ''g'' is even before ''e, i, y''
#* but in ''-age'' it is (i.e. like ''j''), as it is in several words of French origin such as ''orange'' and ''mangiar''
#''q'' only appears in the digraph ''qu'', which is pronounced (but in the conjunction and pronoun ''que'' and pronoun ''qui'' and in terms derived from them such as ''anque'' and ''proque'')
#a single ''s'' between vowels is often pronounced like ''z'', but pronunciation is irregular
#''t'' is generally , but ''ti'' followed by a vowel, unless stressed or preceded by ''s'', is pronounced the same as ''c'' (that is, or )
Collateral orthography
The book ''Grammar of Interlingua'' defines in §15 a "collateral orthography" that defines how a word is spelt in Interlingua once assimilated regardless of etymology.
Phonology
Interlingua is primarily a written language, and the pronunciation is not entirely settled. The sounds in parentheses are not used by all speakers.
Pronunciation
For the most part,
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
s are pronounced as in English, while the
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s are like Spanish. Written double consonants may be
geminated
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
as in Italian for extra clarity or pronounced as single as in English or French. Interlingua has five falling
diphthongs, , and , although and are rare.
Stress
The ''general rule'' is that stress falls on the vowel before the last consonant (e.g., ''lingua'', 'language', ''esser'', 'to be', ''requirimento'', 'requirement') ignoring the final plural ''-(e)s'' (e.g. ''linguas'', the plural of ''lingua'', still has the same stress as the singular), and where that is not possible, on the first vowel (''via'', 'way', ''io crea'', 'I create'). There are a few exceptions, and the following rules account for most of them:
* Adjectives and nouns ending in a vowel followed by ''-le, -ne,'' or ''-re'' are stressed on the third-last syllable (''fragile, margine, altere'' 'other', but ''illa impone'' 'she imposes').
* Words ending in ''-ica/-ico, -ide/-ido'' and ''-ula/-ulo,'' are stressed on the third-last syllable (''politica, scientifico, rapide, stupido, capitula, seculo'' 'century').
* Words ending in ''-ic'' are stressed on the second-last syllable (''cubic'').
Speakers may pronounce all words according to the general rule mentioned above. For example, ''kilometro'' is acceptable, although ''kilometro'' is more common.
Phonotactics
Interlingua has no explicitly defined
phonotactics
Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
. However, the prototyping procedure for determining Interlingua words, which strives for internationality, should in general lead naturally to words that are easy for most learners to pronounce. In the process of forming new words, an ending cannot always be added without a modification of some kind in between. A good example is the plural ''-s'', which is always preceded by a vowel to prevent the occurrence of a hard-to-pronounce consonant cluster at the end. If the singular does not end in a vowel, the final ''-s'' becomes ''-es.''
Loanwords
Unassimilated foreign
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
s, or borrowed words, are spelled as in their language of origin. Their spelling may contain
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s, or accent marks. If the diacritics do not affect pronunciation, they are removed.
Vocabulary
Words in Interlingua may be taken from any language, as long as their internationality is verified by their presence in seven ''control'' languages:
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
French, and
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 ...
, with
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 ...
acting as secondary controls. These are the most widely spoken
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
,
Germanic, and
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, respectively. Because of their close relationship, Spanish and Portuguese are treated as one unit. The largest number of Interlingua words are of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
origin, with the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Germanic languages providing the second and third largest number. The remainder of the vocabulary originates in
Slavic and non-
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
.
Eligibility
A word, that is a form with meaning, is eligible for the Interlingua vocabulary if it is verified by at least three of the four primary control languages. Either secondary control language can substitute for a primary language. Any word of Indo-European origin found in a control language can contribute to the eligibility of an international word.
[Stillman, E. Clark, and Gode, Alexander, ''Interlinguistic standardization'', New York: International Auxiliary Language Association, 1943]
Articles 82–100
translated by Stanley A. Mulaik
Stanley Allen Mulaik (born April 9, 1935, in Edinburg, Texas) is Professor Emeritus (retired) at the School of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as the head of the Societate American pro Interlingua. Although born in Edi ...
. Revised 2006. In some cases, the archaic or ''potential'' presence of a word can contribute to its eligibility.
A word can be potentially present in a language when a
derivative
In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. ...
is present, but the word itself is not. English ''proximity'', for example, gives support to Interlingua ''proxime'', meaning 'near, close'. This counts as long as one or more control languages actually have this basic root word, which the Romance languages all do. Potentiality also occurs when a concept is represented as a
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...
or derivative in a control language, the
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
s that make it up are themselves international, and the combination adequately conveys the meaning of the larger word. An example is Italian ''fiammifero'' (lit. flamebearer), meaning "match, lucifer", which leads to Interlingua ''flammifero'', or "match". This word is thus said to be potentially present in the other languages although they may represent the meaning with a single morpheme.
Words do not enter the Interlingua vocabulary solely because
cognates exist in a sufficient number of languages. If
their meanings have become different over time, they are considered different words for the purpose of Interlingua eligibility. If they still have one or more meanings in common, however, the word can enter Interlingua with this smaller set of meanings.
If this procedure did not produce an international word, the word for a concept was originally taken from Latin (see below). This only occurred with a few
grammatical particles.
Form
The form of an Interlingua word is considered an ''international prototype'' with respect to the other words. On the one hand, it should be neutral, free from characteristics peculiar to one language. On the other hand, it should maximally capture the characteristics common to all contributing languages. As a result, it can be transformed into any of the contributing variants using only these language-specific characteristics. If the word has any derivatives that occur in the source languages with appropriate parallel meanings, then their
morphological connection must remain intact; for example, the Interlingua word for 'time' is spelled ''tempore'' and not ''*tempus'' or ''*tempo'' in order to match it with its derived adjectives, such as ''temporal''.
The language-specific characteristics are closely related to the
sound law
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
s of the individual languages; the resulting words are often close or even identical to the most recent form common to the contributing words. This sometimes corresponds with that of
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
. At other times, it is much more recent or even contemporary. It is never older than the classical period.
An illustration
The French ''œil'', Italian ''occhio'', Spanish ''ojo'', and Portuguese ''olho'' appear quite different, but they descend from a historical form ''oculus''. German ''Auge'', Dutch ''oog'' and English ''eye'' (cf. Czech and Polish ''oko'', Russian and Ukrainian ''око'' ''(óko)'') are related to this form in that all three descend from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
''*okʷ''. In addition, international derivatives like ''ocular'' and ''oculista'' occur in all of Interlingua's control languages.
Each of these forms contributes to the eligibility of the Interlingua word.
German and English base words do not influence the form of the Interlingua word, because their Indo-European connection is considered too remote. Instead, the remaining base words and especially the derivatives determine the form ''oculo'' found in Interlingua.
Free word-building
Words can also be included in Interlingua by deriving them using Interlingua words and
affixes; a method called free word-building. Thus, in the
Interlingua–English Dictionary (IED),
Alexander Gode
Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch (October 30, 1906 – August 10, 1970) was a German-born American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua.
Biography
Born to a German fat ...
followed the principle that every word listed is accompanied by all of its clear compounds and derivatives, along with the word or words it is derived from. A reader skimming through the IED notices many entries followed by large groups of derived and compound words. A good example is the Interlingua word ''nation,'' which is followed by ''national, nationalismo, nationalista, nationalitate, nationalisar, international, internationalitate,'' and many other words.
Other words in the IED do not have derivatives listed. Gode saw these words as potential word families. Although all derived words in the IED are found in at least one control language, speakers may make free use of Interlingua roots and affixes. For example, ''jada'' (jade) can be used to form ''jadificar'', (to jadify, make into jade, make look like jade), ''jadification'', and so on. These word forms would be impermissible in English but would be good Interlingua.
Word-building by analogy
Gode and Hugh E. Blair explained in the
Interlingua Grammar that the ''basic principle of practical word-building'' is analogical. If a pattern can be found in the existing international vocabulary, new words can be formed according to that pattern. A meaning of the suffix ''-ista'' is ''person who practices the art or science of....'' This suffix allows the derivation of ''biologista'' from ''biologia,'' ''physicista'' from ''physica,'' and so on. An Interlingua speaker can freely form ''saxophonista'' from ''saxophone'' and ''radiographista'' from ''radiographia'' by following the same pattern.
Usefulness and clarity
As noted above, the only limits to free word-building in Interlingua are ''clarity'' and ''usefulness''. These concepts are touched upon here:
Any number of words could be formed by stringing roots and affixes together, but some would be more useful than others. For example, the English word ''rainer'' means ''a person who rains,'' but most people would be surprised that it is included in English dictionaries. The corresponding Interlingua word ''pluviator'' is unlikely to appear in a dictionary because of its lack of utility. Interlingua, like any traditional language, ''could'' build up large numbers of these words, but this would be undesirable.
Gode stressed the principle of ''clarity'' in free word-building. As Gode noted, the noun ''marinero'' (''mariner'') can be formed from the adjective ''marin'', because its meaning is clear. The noun ''marina'' meaning ''navy'' cannot be formed, because its meaning would not be clear from the adjective and suffix that gave rise to it.
Grammar
Interlingua has been developed to omit any grammatical feature that is absent from any one primary control language. Thus, Interlingua has no
noun–adjective agreement by gender, case, or number (cf. Spanish and Portuguese ''gatas negras'' or Italian ''gatte nere'', 'black female cats'), because this is absent from English, and it has no progressive verb tenses (English ''I am reading''), because they are absent from French. Conversely, Interlingua
distinguishes singular nouns from plural nouns because all the control languages do.
With respect to the secondary control languages, Interlingua has articles, unlike Russian.
The definite article ''le'' is invariable, as in English. Nouns have no
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
.
[Wilgenhof, Karel. ''Grammatica de Interlingua''. Union Mundial pro Interlingua, Beekbergen, Netherlands, 1995.] Plurals are formed by adding ''-s'', or ''-es'' after a final consonant.
Personal pronouns take one form for the subject and one for the direct object and reflexive. In the third person, the reflexive is always ''se''.
Most
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s are derived regularly from
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...
s by adding ''-mente'', or ''-amente'' after a ''-c''. An adverb can be formed from any adjective in this way.
Verbs take the same form for all persons (''io vive, tu vive, illa vive'', 'I live', 'you live', 'she lives'). The
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
(''pare'', 'appear', 'appears') is the same as the
imperative (''pare!'' 'appear!'), and there is no
subjunctive.
Three common verbs usually take short forms in the present tense: ''es'' for 'is', 'am', 'are;' ''ha'' for 'has', 'have;' and ''va'' for 'go', 'goes'.
A few irregular verb forms are available, but rarely used.
There are four simple tenses (present, past, future, and conditional), three compound tenses (past, future, and conditional), and the passive voice. The compound structures employ an auxiliary plus the infinitive or the past participle (e.g., ''Ille ha arrivate'', 'He has arrived').
Simple and compound tenses can be combined in various ways to express more complex tenses (e.g., ''Nos haberea morite'', 'We would have died').
Word order is
subject–verb–object, except that a direct object pronoun or reflexive pronoun comes before the verb (''io les vide'', 'I see them').
Adjectives may precede or follow the nouns they modify, but they most often follow it.
The position of adverbs is flexible, though constrained by common sense.
The grammar of Interlingua has been described as similar to that of the Romance languages, but greatly simplified, primarily under the influence of English.
More recently, Interlingua's grammar has been likened to the simple grammars of Japanese and particularly Chinese.
Reception
Critics argue that, being based on a few
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Ro ...
, Interlingua is suitable only for speakers of European languages. Others contend that Interlingua has
spelling irregularities that, while internationally recognizable in written form, increase the time needed to fully learn the language, especially for those unfamiliar with
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
.
Proponents counter that Interlingua's source languages include not only Romance languages but English, German, and Russian as well. Moreover, the source languages are widely spoken, and large numbers of their words also appear in other languages – still more when derivative forms and
loan translation
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language whi ...
s are included. Tests had shown that if a larger number of source languages were used, the results would be about the same.
Samples
From an essay by Alexander Gode:
:
:Interlingua has detached itself from the movement for the development and introduction of a universal language for all humanity. Whether or not one believes that a language for all humanity is possible, whether or not one believes that Interlingua will become such a language is totally irrelevant from the point of view of Interlingua itself. The only fact that matters (from the point of view of Interlingua itself) is that Interlingua, thanks to its ambition of reflecting the cultural and thus linguistic homogeneity of the West, is capable of rendering tangible services at this precise moment in the history of the world. It is by its present contributions and not by the promises of its adherents that Interlingua wishes to be judged.
Flags and symbols
![Interlingua2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Interlingua2.png)
As with Esperanto, there have been proposals for a flag of Interlingua; the proposal by Czech translator Karel Podrazil is recognized by multilingual sites.
It consists of a white four-pointed star extending to the edges of the flag and dividing it into an upper blue and lower red half. The star is symbolic of the four cardinal directions, and the two halves symbolize Romance and non-Romance speakers of Interlingua who understand each other.
Another symbol of Interlingua is the ''
Blue Marble
''The Blue Marble'' is an image of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of around from the planet's surface. Taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon, it is one of the most reproduced images in history. ...
'' surrounded by twelve stars on a black or blue background, echoing the twelve stars of the
Flag of Europe
The Flag of Europe or European Flag consists of twelve golden stars forming a circle on a blue field. It was designed and adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe (CoE) as a symbol for the whole of Europe.
Since 1985, the flag has also been ...
(because the source languages of Interlingua are purely European).
See also
* Comparisons with other languages
**
Comparison between Esperanto and Interlingua
Esperanto and Interlingua are two planned languages with different approaches to the problem of providing an International auxiliary language (IAL). Esperanto has many more speakers; the number of speakers is 100,000-2,000,000. On the other hand ...
**
Comparison between Ido and Interlingua
Ido and Interlingua are two constructed languages created in the 20th century, Ido circa 1910 and Interlingua circa 1940. Both have had some measure of success, but Interlingua has enjoyed greater diffusion and acceptance by public and private ...
**
Comparison between Interlingue and Interlingua
* Other languages
**
Esperanto
**
Interslavic
Interslavic (''Medžuslovjansky'' / ''Меджусловјанскы'') is a pan-Slavic auxiliary language. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between speakers of various Slavic languages, as well as to allow people who do not speak a S ...
**
Ido
Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
**
Interlingue
Interlingue (; ISO 639 ''ie'', ''ile''), originally Occidental (), is an international auxiliary language created in 1922 and renamed in 1949. Its creator, Edgar de Wahl, sought to achieve maximal grammatical regularity and natural character. ...
**
Novial
Novial is a constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Denmark, Danish linguistics, linguist who ...
* Publications
** ''
Grammatica de Interlingua''
** ''
Interlingua, Instrumento Moderne de Communication International'' (course manual)
**
Interlingua dictionaries
* Vocabulary
**
Classical compound
Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical an ...
**
Hybrid word
A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages.
Common hybrids
The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin ...
**
Internationalism (linguistics)
In linguistics, an internationalism or international word is a loanword that occurs in several languages (that is, translingually) with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology. These words exist in "several different languages as a re ...
**
List of Greek and Latin roots in English
The English language uses many Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages:
* Greek and Latin roots from A to G
* Greek and Latin roots from H to O
* Greek and Latin roots from P to Z.
Som ...
**
Medical terminology
*
Irregularities and exceptions in Interlingua
*
Willem Jacob Visser
References
Sources
* Falk, Julia S. ''Women, Language and Linguistics: Three American stories from the first half of the twentieth century.'' Routledge, London & New York: 1999.
*
* Gode, Alexander, et al
''Interlingua-English: a dictionary of the international language'' Storm Publishers, New York, 1951
* Gopsill, F.P
(In Interlingua.) Accessed 28 May 2005.
* International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA)
IALA, New York: 1945.
*
* Pei, Mario. ''One Language for the World and How To Achieve It.'' Devin-Adair, New York; 1958.
* Brian C. Sexton, Karel Wilgenhoff, and F. Peter Gopsill. ''Supplementary Interlingua-English Dictionary''. British Interlingua Society, Sheffield, 1991
* Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI)
(in Interlingua). Accessed 17 August 2006.
External links
*
*
Word Building in ''A Grammar of Interlingua'' by
Alexander Gode
Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch (October 30, 1906 – August 10, 1970) was a German-born American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua.
Biography
Born to a German fat ...
and
Hugh E. Blair
''Interlingua: A Grammar of the International Language'', sometimes called the ''Interlingua Grammar'', is the first grammar of Interlingua. Released in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA), it remains an authoritative re ...
,
IALA, 1951.
Formation de parolas in Interlingua(PDF), by
Ingvar Stenström
Yngvar Harra (or Ingvar; Proto-Norse ''*Ingu-Hariz''; non, Yngvarr ; d. early 7th century) was the son of Östen and reclaimed the Swedish throne for the House of Yngling after the Swedes had rebelled against Sölvi.
He is reported to have fa ...
,
Swedish Society for Interlingua {{Short description, Linguistic society
The Swedish Society for Interlingua (Societate Svedese pro Interlingua, SSI), founded January 1, 1964, is an agency that operates in Sweden to publicize Interlingua and encourage its active use. The SSI arrang ...
. (In Interlingua)
{{Authority control
International auxiliary languages
Constructed languages
Fusional languages
Constructed languages introduced in the 1950s
1951 introductions
Romance languages