=====
BABEL
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da[971124]
ab[Piet Cleij <[log in to unmask]>]
su[Sito de interlingua]
Qui pote me indicar como io trova le sito:
http://www.homunculus.com/access/ClientPersonatities/FaFaMen ?
Iste adresse me da sempre: FILE NOT FOUND
Salutes Piet
-----------------------------------------------------------
[Ensjo 971124]
Piet, le problema es que le URL (adresse) es multo longe e
le programma de e-posta de Paolo lo rumpeva in duo partes.
Tu debe unir los. Ecce le adresse complete, ben que io
crede que tamben le mie lo va rumper:
http://www.homunculus.com/access/ClientPersonalities/
FaFaMenus/Babel/AInterlingua.html
[Allan Kiviaho 971126]
Car Piet,
Io invia le texto a te ben que tu probabilemente ha jam
vidite le contento del sito. Le sito pare esser totalmente
anonyme.
Amicalmente Allan
INTERLINGUA
Back to Menu Back to Babel Like-Minded Freaks
Introduction
Alphabet and Pronunciation
Accent
Derivation
Articles
Nouns
Adjectives/Adverbs
Proper Nouns
Comparatives
Pronouns
Verbs
Numbers
Glossary
Conclusion
Sample Text
Links
INTRODUCTION
The history of Interlingua is one of the least interesting of its kind.
Esperanto has its heady utopianism, its past struggle with Volapük, its
epic story of betrayal by the Idists and the ferocious civil war that
followed; the Idists have their bitterness and feeling of ignored
legitimacy; even the Latino camp had its small moment of theatricality
with its famous article, which smoothly and dramatically transformed
itself from Latin to Latino. But the language project published by Clark
Stillman and Alexander Gode for the International Auxiliary Language
Association has no interesting story behind it. Essentially, IALA sought
to create a scientifically based international language; after 1943 the
new language was more or less ready, and in 1951 Gode published the
first Interlingua dictionary. That's it. End of story.
The story of Interlingua since 1951 is similarly brief: it was the
darling of the naturalist school for a time, but when Gode died so did
the language.
******************************************************
Allan: "Jesze Polska nie zginela, poky my zivem!"
Ancora Polonia non es perdite, perque nos vive!
******************************************************
Recently, though, it's come to enjoy something of a renewed lease on
life in cyberspace, taking the form of several websites and occasional
sallies into Esperanto newsgroups. Is it worth this second wind? You be
the judge.
ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION
The Interlingua alphabet is classical Roman, and for the most part is
pronounced as such. The exceptions are th (usually pronounced t), ph
(pronounced f), and c (pronounced k except before e, i, and y, where it
has no set pronunciation).
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x,
y, z
ACCENT
Interlingua boasts of its freedom from diacritical marks, but at the
same time imitates the capricious accents of the Romance languages. So
while the accent falls on the penultimate syllable for most words, it
often falls elsewhere (eg., cápite, córpore, sánguine), and the student
has no means of finding it.
******************************************************
Allan: Hah, ben que io non ha jammais studiate linguas
le "regula de penultima" es totalmente facile
e natural.
******************************************************
DERIVATION
Peano's Interlingua (now Latino sine Flexione) at least had a more or
less consistent method of etymological derivation, with which one could
predict the form of most Latino words. But the method of Gode's
Interlingua is a return to the "compromise pan-European" of Esperanto
and Ido (in which the word derivation and orthography are compromises
between the bigger European languages). Thus one finds words like
besonio "need", the Italian form of the French besogneaux, bureau
unchanged from the French, estranier from Italian straniero and French
étranger, and so forth. To avoid gender-bending word arrangements like
bona patro, Interlingua arbitrarily either neuters the final vowel with
e (tote, Latin totus) or drops it altogether (bon, from bonus).
ARTICLES
The definite article is le, and, as in Esperanto, is invariable, except
for the contracted forms del (de + le) and al (a + le). The indefinite
article is un.
NOUNS
The plural ends in -s after vowels, -es after consonants. Final c in
singular words becomes ch in the plural. Le melodia -- le melodias; un
generation -- duo generationes; un artichoc -- duo artichoches.
As far as gender goes, although Interlingua inherited many of Latin's
gender endings, supposedly there is absolutely no gender in Interlingua.
On the other hand, the language has pairs like filio/filia and
marito/marita, which suggest that at least some of its words do still
carry grammatical gender.
PROPER NOUNS
Names normally written in the Roman alphabet are transcribed as
literally as possible: Caesar, Shakespeare, Descartes, Dell'Abate, John,
Giovanni, Fafa Floly, Europa, Asia, Peru, San Salvador, München, New
York. Names written in non-Roman scripts are transcribed phonetically:
Socrates, Pushkin, Pythagoras, Dniepr.
ADJECTIVES/ADVERBS
Adjectives are invariable, and can appear both before and after the
nouns they modify: stupide personas face le error de reguardar se como
personas intelligente.
Adverbs are created from adjectives by adding -mente (or, after c,
-amente): un impossibilitate physic -- physicamente impossibile; le
littera es confuse -- le litera es scribite confusemente.
COMPARATIVES
Comparatives are made along the following model:
Fafa es minus intelligente que Howard. Fafa is less intelligent than
Howard. Fafa es tanto intelligente como Howard. Fafa is as intelligent
as Howard. Fafa es plus intelligente que Howard. Fafa is more
intelligent than Howard. Fafa ha le minus blanc dentes ex omne. Fafa has
the least white teeth of all. Fafa ha le plus verde dentes ex omne. Fafa
has the greenest teeth of all.
PRONOUNS
PRONOUNS POSSESSIVES
Person Nom. Prep. Acc. Ref. Before Noun After Noun
1st Singular io me me me mi mie
Plural nos nos nos nos nostre nostre
2nd Singular tu te te te tu tue
Plural vos vos vos vos vostre vostre
3rd Singular mas. ille ille le se su sue
fem. illa illa la se su sue
neut. illo il illo il lo se su sue
Plural mas. illes illes les se lor lore
fem. illas illas las se lor lore
neut. illos illos los se lor lore
VERBS
Verbs are conjugated as follows:
INTERLINGUA ENGLISH
tirare
tirate
tirante
tira to pull (or shoot)
pulled
pulling
pull! io tira
io tirava
io tirara
io tirarea I pull
I pulled
I will pull
I would pull io ha tirate
io habeva tirate
io habera tirate
io haberea tirate I have pulled
I had pulled
I will have pulled
I would have pulled io es tirate
io esseva tirate
io essera tirate
io esserea tirate I am pulled
I was pulled
I will be pulled
I would be pulled io ha essite tirate
io habeva essite tirate
io habera essite tirate
io haberea essite tirate I have been pulled
I had been pulled
I will have been pulled
I would have been pulled
Exceptions:
The Present Participle. If the root ends in -i, it is changed to
-ie- before adding -nte-: sentir "to feel", sentiente; finir "finish",
finiente.
The Past Participle. If the root ends in -e, it is changed to -i-
before adding -te-: saper "to know", sapite; scriber "to write",
scribite.
The Present Tense. The verbs esser "to be", haber "to have", and
vader "to go" in the present tense are reduced to the first syllable
(es, ha, va). Esser has the additional conjugations sia and optional
plural son.
The Future Tense. The accent falls on the final -a. The future can
also be expressed by vader: io va scriber.
NUMBERS
The numbers are: un, duo, tres, quatro, cinque, sex, septe, octo, nove,
dece, dece-un, dece-duo, vinti, trenta, quaranta, cinquanta, sexanta,
septanta, octanta, novanta, cento, mille.
CONCLUSION
Interlingua's structured conjugation system is in some ways an
improvement over the nebulous guidelines offered in Latino, but
otherwise the whole language suffers -- more than any other I've seen --
from slavish over-imitation of the Romance languages:
**************************************************
Allan: ??? Interlingua ES un lingua romance, nulle
imitation.
**************************************************
the pronouns have three separate cases (nominative, accusative, and
prepositional), the possessives have two separate forms, depending on
whether they appear before or after the words they modify, verbs have
different conjugations depending on the last vowel of the stem, and many
verbs have two stems. Peano's one innovation worthy of imitation -- his
method of derivation -- is tossed aside for the haphazard method of
compromise and fancy used in Esperanto and Ido. Even the business of
dealing with gender endings is made more complicated in Interlingua,
which arbitrarily draws from this or that Romance tongue and takes this
or that ending (or simply invents one) without any regard for
consistency. But as uniquely convoluted as Interlingua is, its net
result is typical for any naturalistic constructed language: easy to
read, nearly impossible to write or speak.
*****************************************************
Allan: Un multo stupide allegation. Io non ha jammais
studiate linguas romance, totevia io ha trovate que
interlingua es extrememente facile a leger e scriber!
*****************************************************
Between the mercurial derivation, accent, and double consonants, the
teeming homonyms, and the
byzantine pronoun and verb system, Interlingua has little
*********************************************
Allan: Bravo! Byzantia es un de mi favoritos.
*********************************************
to recommend itself. It is, in the end, the same grammatical hydra Peano
gave the world earlier in the century, only this time most of the heads
have grown back.
SAMPLE TEXT
Nostre Patre qui es in le celos, que tu nomine sia sanctificate; que tu
regno veni; que tu voluntate sia facite como in celo assi etiam in
terra. Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian, e pardona a nos nostre debitas
como nos pardona a nostre debitores; e non duce nos in tentation, sed
libera nos de malo; quia tue es le regno, e le potentia, e le gloria in
sempiterno. Amen.
LINKS
Concise English-Interlingua Dictionary
How to Build a Language -- Interlingua
Information Interlingua
Union Mundial Pro Interlingua
Valle del Sol
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