The international auxiliary language Interlingua is a constructed language based on words that are common to the major West-European languages and on a simplified Anglo-Romance grammar. It was first published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association and is sometimes called Interlingua de IALA to distinguish it from the other uses of the word. This use of Interlingua is the subject of the rest of this article.

Other uses of the word Interlingua include the following:

• Giuseppe Peano's Latino sine Flexione was called Interlingua until this name fell into disuse after the publication of IALA's Interlingua.
• Interlingua is sometimes used as a synonym for international auxiliary language. See also interlinguistics.
• Abstract intermediary languages used in the machine translation of human languages are also called interlinguas.

There is also Interlingue, a constructed language which was formerly called Occidental.

Rationale

The expansive movements of science, technology, trade, arts, etc. combined with the historical dominance of the Greek and Latin languages have resulted in a large overlap of vocabulary among contemporary languages. Interlingua is designed to be a combination of this pre-existing international vocabulary with a streamlined Anglo-Romance grammar, created in hopes that many people would be able to understand it easily.

History

The grammar and vocabulary of Interlingua were initially published in 1951. Alexander Gode, director of IALA during its later years, was one of the prime movers in this effort. He published a survey of the grammar, a one-way dictionary (Interlingua to English), and an introductory book entitled Interlingua a Prime Vista ("Interlingua at First Sight").

Vocabulary

The international vocabulary has absorbed materials of the most varied origins, but its center of gravity lies in the sphere of the Greco-Latin tradition. It can be collected within the confines of a homogeneous group of source or control languages which not only represent the Greco-Latin tradition in our time but have likewise absorbed all significant international words radiated from other centers. This group was defined by IALA as the Anglo-Romance group of languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) with German and Russian as potential contributors.

A word is eligible in Interlingua if it occurs with same meaning and etymology in three of the four main control units. Spanish and Portuguese are regarded together as one control unit. If support is found in two control units, German and Russian are checked to provide the last support. Grammatical words, required to operate the language, are taken from Latin if the regular procedure fails.

The form of the international words is based on the historical or hypothetical form from which the national forms evolved. The derivational series is also examined. Though French oeil, Italian occhio, Spanish ojo and Portuguese olho ("eye") are quite different, they all came from a historical form oculo, and international derivatives like ocular and oculista determine the form oculo to be used in Interlingua.

Interlingua as now used tends to have less Classical Latin vocabulary than IALA's original version, replaced in part by southern Romance vocabulary. For example emer ("to buy") has been mostly replaced by comprar, sed ("but") with mais and nimis ("too") with troppo. However, other classical Latin words, such as "pro" ("for"), "contra" ("against"), "post" ("after") and "ergo" ("therefore") are retained because they are seen as more internationally understandable than their Romance counterparts.

Grammar

The grammar of Interlingua is simplified by discarding grammatical features absent in at least one of the control languages. As a result it is functionally very similar to English grammar, since that is in many respects simpler than the grammar of the Romance languages (German and Russian not taken into consideration here).

Verbs

-ar (crear, to create)

   Present and imperative crea (creates)
   Present participle     creante (creating)
   Past                   creava (created)
   Past participle        create (created)
   Future                 creara (will create)
   Conditional            crearea (would create)

-er (vider, to see)

   Present and imperative vide (sees)
   Present participle     vidente (seeing)
   Past                   videva (saw)
   Past participle        vidite (seen)
   Future                 videra (will see)
   Conditional            viderea (would see)

-ir (audir, to hear)

   Present and imperative audi (hears)
   Present participle     audiente (hearing)
   Past                   audiva (heard)
   Past participle        audite (heard)
   Future                 audira (will hear)
   Conditional            audirea (would hear)

Irregularities and Exceptions

Irregularities and exceptions in Interlingua

Community

Interlingua is the second-most spoken international auxiliary language after Esperanto, although it is claimed to be the most widely understood IAL by virtue of the naturality of its grammar and vocabulary, allowing polyglots and especially speakers of Romance languages to read and understand it at first sight. The number of speakers is estimated to be between a thousand and several thousands.

Interlingua has some enthusiastic supporters in North and South America, Europe (particularly Scandinavia) and Russia. There are some Interlingua web pages, and several periodicals, including Panorama in Interlingua from the Union Mundial pro Interlingua and the magazines of the national societies allied with it. There are several active mailing lists, and Interlingua is also in use in Usenet newsgroups, particularly in the europa hierarchy.

Every two years the Union Mundial pro Interlingua organizes an international conference in a different European country, which is usually attended by 50-75 people. In the year in between, the Scandinavian Interlingua societies co-organize a conference in Sweden, which welcomes not only Scandinavian but also international visitors.

Sample

Interlingua sample: the widely-translated Lord's Prayer (also available as an MP3 file):

Nostre Patre, qui es in le celos,

que tu nomine sia sanctificate;

que tu regno veni;

que tu voluntate sia facite

super le terra como etiam in le celo.

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.

See also

• Irregularities and exceptions in Interlingua
• International auxiliary language
• Romanica
• Reviews and personal experiences: Anarres.

External links

• Wikipedia in Interlingua
• Union Mundial pro Interlingua (includes text with corresponding audio version (in WAV))
• Interlingua-English Dictionary
• Interlingua Grammar by Gode and Blair
• Directory of websites in Interlingua at Open Directory Project
• Google in Interlingua
• The europa.* Usenet hierarchy which uses Interlingua for the denomination of its newsgroups and as one of the documentation languages
• Generator for Interlingua typographical filler text
• Internodio A website in Interlingua containing news items, of which some are also in audio (occasionally updated)
• Interlingua-English