Interlingua

Interlingua is a constructed language using words that are found in most West-European languages. It was made by IALA - a group of people (the most known was Alexander Gode) who worked on it for more than 20 years, and they finished and published the first dictionary in 1951. Interlingua was created on the base of languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

Inter is the same root word as in the words "interaction", "interface" and so on, and it means "between" or "to each other"; lingua means "language". They chose the name Interlingua because they wanted it to be used for people of different countries to talk to each other easily. Because Interlingua was made by people to be easy, it is easier than natural languages to learn.
In the year 2000, the language could be spoken by 1,500 people. Interlingua speakers say that millions can understand it (read texts in it and listen to someone talk in it) without having to learn it first.

There are three other constructed languages in the world that have more than 1000 speakers, Esperanto, Ido, and Toki Pona. Esperanto and Ido were made before Interlingua. Toki Pona was made in 2001. Some people think Esperanto and Ido are easy to learn because they have no exceptions (words that break the rules) but other people think Interlingua is easier because the makers chose all the words to be easy to understand for people who know English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian, plus languages like Occitan and Romanian, languages that used to be Latin, the language used in Rome a long time ago.

Actually, people who use Interlingua say that their language is actually new Latin, just simpler and modernized (made new).

 History 

At the beginning of the 20th century, several associations such as the International Research Council, the American Council on Education and the American Council of Learned Societies were investigating the problem of the international auxiliary language.

Alice Vanderbilt Morris and her husband, Dave Hennen Morris had become interested in linguistics and the international auxiliary language movement in the early 1920s. In 1924 they created the non-profit International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in New York City. They wanted to give scientific support to the study of IALs. They asked for the help of linguists like Edward Sapir, William Edward Collinson, and Otto Jespersen.

In its early years, IALA was focused on finding other organizations around the world with similar goals; building a library of books about languages and interlinguistics; and comparing IALs such as Esperanto, Ido, Novial, and Interlingue. To achieve the last goal, it arranged conferences with people that supported those IALs. IALA gain the support of different linguists during these conferences and congresses. However, the beginning of World War II in 1939 meant the end of those meetings.

Although the IALA did not have the goal of creating its own language, after ten years of research, it concluded that none of the existing artificial languages was good enough. By 1937, the members had made the decision to create a new language.

E. Clark Stillman with the help of Alexander Gode, developed a technique for selecting and standardizing vocabulary based on a comparison of control languages. Later, in 1943 Stillman left 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.Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian, "Profunde recerca duce a un lingua" , Historia de interlingua, 2001, revised 2006.

In 1946, with the French linguist André Martinet was Director of Research, four models for the language were introduced (two more naturalistic and two more schematic). IALA decided to find a middle way between the two naturalistic models, with some elements of one of the schematic ones.Gopsill, F. P., and Sexton, Brian, "Le natura, si – un schema, no" , Historia de interlingua, 2001, revised 2006. Martinet left the project in 1948, and Gode was in charge of the last phase of Interlingua's development.

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").

 Grammar 

 Articles 
 un - a/an
 le - the
 al - to the
 del - of the

 Nouns 
The plural is -s after a vowel, -es after a consonant, but -hes after final c:
 catto > cattos - cat > cats
 can > canes - dog > dogs
 roc > roches - rook > rooks (of chess)

Interlingua has no grammatical gender. Some words distinguish female from male by changing -o into -a, or by adding -essa. Other ones have two different forms. But the most of words do not distinguish:
 puero > puera - boy > girl
 tigre > tigressa - male tiger > female tiger
 rege > regina - king > queen
 jornalista - journalist (male or female)

 Adjectives 
Adjectives do not change for agreement with nouns. They can precede or follow the noun, except numbers, that always precede the noun. In general, short adjectives precede and long adjectives follow.
 belle oculos = oculos belle - beautiful eyes
 un bon idea, un idea ingeniose - a good idea, an ingenious idea

To compare, use plus or minus and le plus or le minus:
 un plus feroce leon - a more ferocious lion
 un traino minus rapide - a less rapid train
 le plus alte arbore - the highest tree
 le solution le minus costose - the less costly solution

One can use the suffix -issime for the absolute superlative:
 un aventura excellentissime - the most excellent adventure

 Adverbs 
There are two kinds of adverbs: first form and second form. Adverbs of first form are a closed class of grammatical words, like quasi (almost), jam (already), and totevia (nevertheless). Adverbs of second form are an open class derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -mente (or -amente after final c):
 felice > felicemente - happily
 magic > magicamente - magically

 Personal pronouns 
   singular plural person  gender  subject  with preposition  object  reflective  possession subject  with preposition  object  reflective  possession 1  –  io  me  mi, mie  nos  nostre 2  –  tu  te  tu, tue  vos  vostre 3  male  ille  le  se  su, sue  illes  les  se  lor, lore female  illa  la  illas  las thing  illo  lo  illos  los

 Verbs 
These are the most common forms of verbs (note exceptions in underlined letters):

  ending  -ar  -er  -ir Infinitive  -r  parlar ("to speak")  vider ("to see")  audir ("to hear") Present  -  parla  vide  audi Past  -va  parlava  videva  audiva Future  -ra  parlara  videra  audira Hypothetical  -rea  parlarea  viderea  audirea Active participle  -(e)nte  parlante  vidente  audiente Passive participle  -te  parlate  vidite  audite

The verbs do not vary for persons and plural, except for alternative versions for esser. The tenses normal are used for the subjunctive and the command. Esse, habe, and vade have forms short for the present: es, ha, and va.

 Literature 

At first, Interlingua was mostly used for scientific summaries and language-learning books. The creator, Alexander Gode, didn’t expect it to be used for much else.

Over time, more creative works appeared. In the 1960s, Eric Ahlström translated and published short fiction in Interlingua. Sven Collberg, a Swedish writer, became one of the most active authors, writing and translating many poems and stories.

During the 1970s and 1980s, more original works and translations were published, including fairy tales and poetry. Translations of classic authors like H.C. Andersen, Carlo Goldoni, and John Bunyan were also made in the 1990s.

In recent years, new writers like Vicente Costalago and Eduardo Ortega have continued to write and translate literature in Interlingua, showing that the language is still being used for creative writing today.

 Example text in Interlingua 

 Pater Noster in Interlingua 
 Interlingua  Basic English   Our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your kingdom come.Let your pleasure be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day bread for our needs. And make us free of our debts, as we have made free those who are in debt to us. And let us not be put to the test, but keep us safe from the Evil One.

Related pages
 Interlingua grammar

References

 Writings on the subject 

 Gode, Alexander, et al. Interlingua-English: a dictionary of the international language. Storm Publishers, New York, 1951
 Gopsill, F.P. Le historia antenatal de Interlingua.. (In Interlingua.) Accessed 28 May 2005.
 International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). General Report. IALA, New York: 1945.

 Brian C. Sexton, Karel Wilgenhoff, and F. Peter Gopsill. Supplementary Interlingua-English Dictionary. British Interlingua Society, Sheffield, 1991

Other websites

 A Grammar of Interlingua  by Alexander Gode & Hugh Blair
 (Danish) (Interlingua) http://www.interlingua.dk/