International auxiliary language

1.1 Natural international languages: Lingua francas

An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) or interlanguage is a

language meant for communication between people from
dierent nations who do not share a common native language. An auxiliary language is primarily a second language.

Lingua francas have arisen around the globe throughout

human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (socalled trade languages) but also for diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging
information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term originates with one such
language, Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a pidgin language used as a trade language in the Mediterranean area
from the 11th to the 19th century. Examples of lingua
francas remain numerous, and exist on every continent.
The most obvious example as of the early 21st century is
English. There are many other lingua francas centralized
on particular regions, such as Arabic, Chinese, French,
Portuguese, Russian and Spanish[4] .

Languages of dominant societies over the centuries have

served as auxiliary languages, sometimes approaching the
international level. Latin, Greek or the Mediterranean
Lingua Franca were used in the past, Arabic, English,
French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish have been used
as such in recent times in many parts of the world.[1]
However, as these languages are associated with the
very dominancecultural, political, and economicthat
made them popular, they are often also met with resistance. For this reason, some have turned to the idea of
promoting an articial or constructed language as a possible solution.[1]
The term auxiliary implies that it is intended to be an
additional language for the people of the world, rather
than to replace their native languages. Often, the term
is used to refer to planned or constructed languages proposed specically to ease international communication,
such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua. However, it can
also refer to the concept of such a language being determined by international consensus, including even a standardized natural language (e.g., International English),
and has also been connected to the project of constructing
a universal language.

1.2 Constructing languages

Main article: Constructed language
Since all natural languages display a number of irregularities in grammar which makes them more dicult to learn,
and they are also associated with the national and cultural dominance of the nation that speaks it as its mother
tongue, attention began to focus on the idea of creating an
articial or constructed language as a possible solution.
The concept of simplifying an existing language to make
it an auxiliary language was already in the Encyclopdie of
the 18th century, where Joachim Faiguet de Villeneuve in
the article on Langue wrote a short proposition of a laconic or regularized grammar of French.

History

Some of the philosophical languages of the 17th18th

centuries could be regarded as proto-auxlangs, as they
were intended by their creators to serve as bridges among
people of dierent languages as well as to disambiguate
and clarify thought. However, most or all of these languages were, as far as can be told from the surviving publications about them, too incomplete and unnished to
serve as auxlangs (or for any other practical purpose).
The rst fully developed constructed languages we know
of, as well as the rst constructed languages devised
primarily as auxlangs, originated in the 19th century;
Solresol by Franois Sudre, a language based on musical
notes, was the rst to gain widespread attention although
not, apparently, uent speakers.

The use of an intermediary auxiliary language (also called

a working language, bridge language, vehicular language or unifying language) to make communication
possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in
particular when it is a third language, distinct from both
mother tongues,[2] may be almost as old as language itself. Certainly they have existed since antiquity. Latin
and Greek (or Koin Greek) were the intermediary language of all areas of the Mediterraneum; Akkadian, and
then Aramaic, remained the common languages of a large
part of Western Asia through several earlier empires.[3]
Such natural languages used for communication between
people not sharing the same mother tongue were called
lingua francas.
1

1.3

1 HISTORY

Volapk

Main article: Volapk

During the 19th century, a bewildering variety of such
constructed international auxiliary languages (IALs) were
proposed, so Louis Couturat and Leopold Leau in Histoire
de la langue universelle (1903) reviewed 38 projects.
Volapk, rst described in an article in 1879 by Johann
Martin Schleyer and in book form the following year, was
the rst to garner a widespread international speaker community. Three major Volapk conventions were held, in
1884, 1887, and 1889; the last of them used Volapk
as its working language. Andr Cherpillod writes of the
third Volapk convention,
In August 1889 the third convention was held
in Paris. About two hundred people from many
countries attended. And, unlike in the rst two
conventions, people spoke only Volapk. For
the rst time in the history of mankind, sixteen
years before the Boulogne convention, an international convention spoke an international language.[5]
However, not long after this the Volapk speaker community broke up due to various factors, including controversies between Schleyer and other prominent Volapk
speakers, and the appearance of newer, easier-to-learn
planned languages, primarily Esperanto.

1.4

From Kadem bevnetik volapka to

Academia pro Interlingua

Answering the needs of the rst successful articial language community, the Volapkists established the regulatory body of their language, under the name International
Academy of Volapk (Kadem bevnetik volapka) at the
second Volapk congress in Munich in August 1887.[6][7]
The Academy was set up to conserve and perfect the auxiliary language Volapk, but soon conicts arose between
conservative Volapkists and those who wanted to reform
Volapk making it a more naturalistic language based on
the grammar and vocabulary of major world languages.
In 1890 Schleyer himself left the original Academy and
created a new Volapk Academy with the same name,
from people completely loyal to him, which continues to
this day.
Under Waldemar Rosenberger, who became the director
in 1892, the original Academy began to make considerable changes in the grammar and vocabulary of Volapk.
The vocabulary and the grammatical forms unfamiliar to
Western Europeans were completely discarded, so that
the changes eectively resulted in the creation of a new
language, which was named "Idiom Neutral". The name
of the Academy was changed to Akademi Internasional de

Lingu Universal in 1898 and the circulars of the Academy

were written in the new language from that year.
In 1903, the mathematician Giuseppe Peano published
his completely new approach to language construction.
Inspired by the idea of philosopher Leibniz, instead of
inventing schematic structures and a priori language, he
chose to simplify an existing and once widely used international language, Latin. This simplied Latin, devoid
of inections and declensions, was named Interlingua by
Peano, but it is usually referred to as "Latino sine exione". Impressed by Peanos Interlingua, the Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal eectively chose to abandon Idiom Neutral in favor of Peanos Interlingua in
1908, and it elected Peano as its director. The name
of the group then was changed to Academia pro Interlingua (where Interlingua stands for Peanos language).
The Academia pro Interlingua survived until about 1939.
It was partly Peanos Interlingua that inspired the betterknown Interlingua of the IALA presented in 1951 by the
International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA).

1.5 Esperanto
Main article: History of Esperanto
After the emergence of Volapk, a wide variety of other
auxiliary languages were devised and proposed in the
1880s1900s, but none except Esperanto gathered a signicant speaker community. Esperanto was developed
from about 18781887, and published in that year, by
L. L. Zamenhof, as a primarily schematic language with
word stems randomly borrowed from Romance, West
Germanic and Slavic languages. The key to the relative
success of Esperanto was probably the highly productive
and elastic system of derivational word formation which
allowed speakers to derive hundreds of other words by
learning one word root. Also, from early on, Esperantists created their own culture, philosophy and spirituality,
which made them a movement devoted to the sacred
cause (see Finvenkismo).
Within a few years this language had thousands of uent
speakers, primarily in eastern Europe. In 1905 its rst
world convention was held in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Since
then world congresses have been held in dierent countries every year, except during the two World Wars. Esperanto has become the most outlandishly successful invented language ever and the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language.[8]
Esperanto suered a setback after the 1922 proposal
by Iran and several other countries in the League of
Nations to have Esperanto taught in member nations
schools failed,[9][10] and Esperanto speakers were subject
to persecution under Hitler and Stalins regimes,[11] but
in spite of these factors more people continued to learn
Esperanto, and signicant literary work (both poetry and
novels) began to appear in Esperanto in the period be-

1.8

Interlingua

tween the World Wars.[12] From among the various con- Novial and Occidental were abandoned in favour of
structed language projects, it is Esperanto that came clos- Interlingua, the rst auxiliary language based fully on sciest to the possibility of truly becoming an ocially rec- entic methodology.
ognized international auxiliary language.

1.6

Ido and the Esperantidos

1.8 Interlingua
Main article: History of Interlingua

Main article: Ido language

The Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language was founded in 1900 by Louis Couturat and others; it tried to get the International Association of Academies to take up the question of an international auxiliary language, study the existing ones
and pick one or design a new one. However, the metaacademy declining to do so, the Delegation decided to do
the job itself.[13] Among Esperanto speakers there was
a general impression that the Delegation would of course
choose Esperanto, as it was the only auxlang with a sizable
speaker community at the time; it was felt as a betrayal
by many Esperanto speakers when in 1907 the Delegation came up with its own reformed version of Esperanto,
Ido.[14] Ido drew a signicant number of speakers away
from Esperanto in the short term, but in the longer term
most of these either returned to Esperanto or moved on
to other new auxlangs. Besides Ido, a great number of
simplied Esperantos, called Esperantidos, emerged as
concurrent language projects, still, Ido remains today one
of the three most widely spoken auxlangs.

1.7

Occidental (Interlingue) and Novial

Main article: Occidental language

The International Auxiliary Language Association

(IALA) was founded in 1924 by Alice Vanderbilt
Morris; like the earlier Delegation for the Adoption of
an International Auxiliary Language, its mission was
to study language problems and the existing auxlangs
and proposals for auxlangs, and to negotiate some
consensus between the supporters of various auxlangs.
However, like the Delegation, it nally decided to create
its own auxlang. Interlingua, published in 1951, was
primarily the work of Alexander Gode, though he built
on preliminary work by earlier IALA linguists including
Andr Martinet, and relied on elements from previous
naturalistic auxlang projects, like Peanos Interlingua
(Latino sine exione), Jespersens Novial, von Walhs
Occidental (Interlingue), and the Academys Idiom Neutral. Like Occidental, Interlingua was designed to have
words recognizable at sight by those who already know a
Romance language or a language like English with much
vocabulary borrowed from Romance languages; to attain
this end the IALA accepted a degree of grammatical
and orthographic complexity considerably greater than
in Esperanto or Occidental, though still less than in any
natural language.
The theory underlying Interlingua posits an international
vocabulary, a large number of words and axes that are
present in a wide range of languages. This already existing international vocabulary was shaped by social forces,
science and technology, to all corners of the world.
The goal of the International Auxiliary Language Association was to accept into Interlingua every widely international word in whatever languages it occurred.[16] They
conducted studies to identify the most generally international vocabulary possible, while still maintaining the
unity of the language.[17] This scientic approach of generating a language from selected source languages (called
control languages) resulted in a vocabulary and grammar
that we can call the highest common factor of each major
European language.

Edgar von Wahl's Occidental (also called Interlingue)

of 1922 was in reaction against the perceived articiality of some earlier auxlangs, particularly Esperanto. Inspired by Idiom Neutral and Peanos Interlingua, von
Wahl created a language whose words, including compound words, would have a high degree of recognizability
for those who already know a Romance language. However, this design criterion was in conict with ease of
coining new compound or derived words on the y while
speaking. Occidental gained a small speaker community
in the 1920s and 1930s, and supported several publications, but had almost entirely died out by the 1980s.[14] Interlingua gained a signicant speaker community, perMore recently Occidental has been revived on the Inter- haps roughly the same size as that of Ido (considerably
net.
less than the size of Esperanto). Interlinguas success
In 1928 Idos major intellectual supporter, the Danish can be explained by the fact that it is the most widely
linguist Otto Jespersen abandoned Ido, and published understood international auxiliary language by virtue of
his own planned language, Novial.[15] It was mostly in- its naturalistic (as opposed to schematic) grammar and
spired by Idiom Neutral and Occidental, yet it attempted vocabulary, allowing those familiar with a Romance lana derivational formalism and schematism sought by Es- guage, and educated speakers of English, to read and unperanto and Ido. The notability of its creator helped derstand it without prior study.[18] Interlingua has some
the growth of this auxiliary language, but soon both active speakers currently on all continents, and the lan-

CLASSIFICATION

guage is propagated by the Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI), and Interlingua is presented on CDs, radio,
and television.[19]

an unbiased opinion concerning it, although a

good idea lies at its basis. (1910, p. v).

After the creation of Interlingua, there were no more

successful attempts in international language engineering
that would attract a signicant number of supporters, thus
the enthusiasm about constructed languages gradually decreased in the years between 19601990.

For Couturat et al., both Volapukists and Esperantists

confounded the linguistic aspect of the question with
many side issues, and they considered this a main reason
why discussion about the idea of an international auxiliary
language has appeared unpractical. Leopold Pfaundler
wrote that an IAL was needed for more eective communication among scientists:

1.9

Internet age

All who are occupied with the reading or writAll of the auxlangs with a surviving speaker community
ing of scientic literature have assuredly very
seem to have beneted from the advent of the Internet,
often felt the want of a common scientic lanEsperanto more than most. The CONLANG mailing list
guage, and regretted the great loss of time and
was founded in 1991; in its early years discussion focused
trouble caused by the multiplicity of languages
on international auxiliary languages. As people interested
employed in scientic literature.
in artistic languages and engineered languages grew to
be the majority of the list members, and ame-wars between proponents of particular auxlangs irritated these 4 Classication
members, a separate AUXLANG mailing list was created, which has been the primary venue for discussion of
languages was
auxlangs since then. Besides giving the existing auxlangs The following classication of auxiliary
[22]
developed
by
Pierre
Janton
in
1993:
with speaker communities a chance to interact rapidly online as well as slowly through postal mail or more rarely
A priori languages are characterized by largely artiin personal meetings, the Internet has also made it eascial morphemes (not borrowed from natural lanier to publicize new auxlang projects, and a handful of
guages), schematic derivation, simple phonology,
these have gained a small speaker community, includgrammar and morphology. Some a priori languages
ing Kotava, Lingua Franca Nova, Mondlango and Toki
are called philosophical languages, referring to their
Pona.[20]
basis in philosophical ideas about thought and language. These include some of the earliest eorts at
auxiliary language in the 17th century. Some more
2 List of languages
specic subcategories:
Main article: List of constructed languages

2.1

19th century

2.2

20th century

2.3

21st century

Scholarly study

In the early 1900s auxlangs were already becoming a

subject of academic study. Louis Couturat et al.[21] described the controversy in the preface to their book International Language and Science:
The question of a so-called world-language, or
better expressed, an international auxiliary language, was during the now past Volapk period, and is still in the present Esperanto movement, so much in the hands of Utopians, fanatics and enthusiasts, that it is dicult to form

Oligosynthetic or oligoisolating languages

have no more than a few hundred morphemes.
Most of their vocabulary is made of compound
words or set phrases formed from these morphemes. Sona and Toki Pona are well known
examples, although Toki Ponas word stock is
mostly based on other languages and therefore
not a priori.
Taxonomic languages form their words using a
taxonomic hierarchy, with each phoneme of a
word helping specify its position in a semantic
hierarchy of some kind; for example, Solresol
and Ro.
Pasigraphies are purely written languages
without a spoken form, or with a spoken form
left at the discretion of the reader; many of
the 17th18th century philosophical languages
and auxlangs were pasigraphies. This set historically tends to overlap with taxonomic languages, though there is no inherent reason a
pasigraphy needs to be taxonomic.
Logical languages, for example, Loglan and
Lojban, aim to eliminate ambiguity. Both

4.1

Comparison of sample texts

these examples, it should be noted, derive their 4.1 Comparison of sample texts
morphemes from a broad range of natural lanSome examples of the best known international auxiliary
guages using statistical methods.
languages are shown below for comparative purposes. As
a reference for comparison, you can nd the English and
A posteriori languages are based on existing natu- Latin versions of the Lords Prayer (a text which is regural languages. Nearly all the auxiliary languages larly used for linguistic comparisons) here:
with uent speakers are in this category.[23] Most
of the a posteriori auxiliary languages borrow their
4.1.1 Schematic languages
vocabulary primarily or solely from European languages, and base their grammar more or less on Eu4.1.2 Naturalistic languages
ropean models. (Sometimes these European-based
languages are referred to as euroclones, although
this term has negative connotations and is not used 5 Methods of propagation
in the academic literature.) Interlingua was drawn
originally from international scientic vocabulary, As has been pointed out, the issue of an international
in turn based primarily on Greek and Latin roots. language is not so much which, but how.[26] Several apGlosa did likewise, with a stronger dependence of proaches exist toward the eventual full expansion and
Greek roots. Although a posteriori languages have consolidation of an international auxiliary language.
been based on most of the families of European
languages, the most successful of these (notably
1. Laissez-faire. This approach is taken in the belief
Esperanto,[24] Ido and Interlingua) have been based
that one language will eventually and inevitably win
largely on Romance elements.
out as a world auxiliary language (e.g. International
English) without any need for specic action.
Schematic (or mixed) languages have
some a priori qualities. Some have ethnic
morphemes but alter them signicantly to t a
simplied phonotactic pattern (e.g., Volapk,
Toki Pona) or both articial and natural
morphemes (e.g., Perio). Partly schematic
languages have partly schematic and partly
naturalistic derivation (e.g. Esperanto and
Ido). Natural morphemes of languages in this
group are rarely altered greatly from their
source-language form, but compound and
derived words are generally not recognizable
at sight by people familiar with the source
languages.
Naturalistic languages resemble existing natural languages. For example, Occidental,
Interlingua, and Lingua Franca Nova were developed so that not only the root words but
their compounds and derivations will often be
recognizable immediately by large numbers of
people. Some naturalistic languages do have
a limited number of articial morphemes or
invented grammatical devices (e.g. Novial).
(Note that the term naturalistic as used in
auxiliary language scholarship does not mean
the same thing as the homophonous term used
in describing artistic languages.[25] )
Simplied natural languages reduce the full
extent of vocabulary and partially regularize
the grammar of a natural language (e.g. Basic
English, Special English and Globish).

2. Institutional sponsorship and grass-roots promotion

of language programs. This approach has taken various forms, depending on the language and language
type, ranging from government promotion of a particular language to one-on-one encouragement to
learn the language to instructional or marketing programs.
3. National legislation. This approach seeks to have individual countries (or even localities) progressively
endorse a given language as an ocial language (or
to promote the concept of international legislation).
4. International legislation. This approach involves
promotion of the future holding of a binding international convention (perhaps to be under the auspices
of such international organizations as the United
Nations or Inter-Parliamentary Union) to formally
agree upon an ocial international auxiliary language which would then be taught in all schools
around the world, beginning at the primary level.
This approach seeks to put international opinion and
law behind the language and thus to expand or consolidate it as a full ocial world language. This approach could either give more credibility to a natural language already serving this purpose to a certain degree (e.g. if English were chosen) or to give a
greatly enhanced chance for a constructed language
to take root. For constructed languages particularly,
this approach has been seen by various individuals
in the IAL movement as holding the most promise
of ensuring that promotion of studies in the language
would not be met with skepticism at its practicality
by its would-be learners.

8 CRITICISM

Pictorial languages

There have been a number of proposals for using pictures, ideograms, diagrams, and other pictorial representations for international communications. Examples
range from the original Characteristica Universalis proposed by the philosopher Leibniz, to suggestions for the
adoption of Chinese writing, to recent inventions such as
Blissymbol.[27]
Within the scientic community, there is already considerable agreement in the form of the schematics
used to represent electronic circuits, chemical symbols,
mathematical symbols, and the Energy Systems Language of systems ecology. We can also see the international eorts at regularizing symbols used to regulate
trac, to indicate resources for tourists, and in maps.
Some symbols have become nearly universal through
their consistent use in computers and on the internet.

Sign languages

An international auxiliary sign language has been developed by deaf people who meet regularly at international
forums such as sporting events or in political organisations. Previously referred to as Gestuno[28] but now more
commonly known simply as 'international sign', the language has continued to develop since the rst signs were
standardised in 1973, and it is now in widespread use.
International sign is distinct in many ways from spoken
IALs; many signs are iconic and signers tend to insert
these signs into the grammar of their own sign language,
with an emphasis on visually intuitive gestures and mime.
A simple sign language called Plains Indian Sign Language was used by indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Gestuno is not to be confused with the separate and unrelated sign language Signuno, which is essentially a Signed
Exact Esperanto. Signuno is not in any signicant use,
and is based on the Esperanto community rather than
based on the international Deaf community.

Criticism

scale, without breakup into unintelligible dialects, has

shown that either a rapid break-up into dialects shall not
happen too soon in the future, or that there is enough constant 'standardisation' to reduce the diversity of the language. Subsequently, much criticism has been focused
either on the articiality of these auxlangs,[9] or on the
argumentativeness of auxlang proponents and their failure to agree on one auxlang, or even on objective criteria by which to judge auxlangs.[30] However, probably
the most common criticism is that a constructed auxlang
is unnecessary because natural languages such as English
are already in wide use as auxlangs and work well enough
for that purpose.
One criticism already prevalent in the late 19th century,
and still sometimes heard today, is that an international
language might hasten the extinction of minority languages. One response has been that, even if this happens, the benets would outweigh the costs;[29][31] another, that proponents of auxlangs, particularly in the Esperanto movement, are generally also proponents of measures to conserve and promote minority languages and
cultures.
Although referred to as international languages, most of
these languages have historically been constructed on the
basis of Western European languages. In the late 19th
and early 20th centuries it was common for Volapk and
Esperanto, and to some extent Ido, to be criticized for
not being Western European enough; Occidental and Interlingua were (among other things) responses to this kind
of criticism. More recently all these major auxlangs have
been criticized for being too European and not global
enough.[32] One response to this criticism has been that
doing otherwise in no way makes the language easier for
anyone, while drawing away from the sources of much
international vocabulary, technical and popular.[33] Another response, primarily from Esperanto speakers, is
that the internationality of a language has more to do
with the culture of its speakers than with its linguistic
properties.[23] The term Euroclone was coined to refer
to these languages in contrast to worldlangs with global
vocabulary sources; the term is sometimes applied only to
self-proclaimed naturalistic auxlangs such as Occidental and Interlingua, sometimes to all auxlangs with primarily European vocabulary sources, regardless of their
grammar, including Esperanto and Lingua Franca Nova.

There has been considerable criticism of international The response to this argument was made by Alexander
auxiliary languages, both in terms of individual propos- Gode[34] and reiterated by Mario Pei:[35] A vocabulary
als, types of proposals, and in more general terms.
selected from a broad variety of languages does not make
Criticisms directed against Esperanto and other early the language any easier for speakers of any one language.
auxlangs in the late 19th century included the idea that Godes example compares a paragraph in Interlingua with
dierent races have suciently dierent speech organs a paragraph with words from Chinese, Japanese, Malay,
that an international language might work locally in Eu- and other non-European languages. The rst is readily
rope, but hardly worldwide, and the prediction that if understood by anyone familiar with the Romance lanadopted, such an auxlang would rapidly break up into lo- guages, and not dicult for most English speakers:
cal dialects.[29] Advances in linguistics have done away
with the rst of these, and the limited but signicant
use of Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua on an international

La sol dice: io me appella sol. Io es multo brillante. Io me leva al est, e cuando io me leva, il

7
es die. Io reguarda per tu fenestra con mi oculo
brillante como le auro, e io te dice quando il es
tempore a levar te. E io te dice: 'Pigro, leva te.
Io non brilla a n que tu resta al lecto a dormir,
sed que tu lege e que tu te promena.'"

Lingua franca
Bah' Faith and auxiliary language
Zonal constructed languages
Global language system

The second is not only dicult for Europeans, but the

Malay speaker will not understand the Chinese words, the
Chinese speaker will not understand the Japanese words,
and the Japanese speaker will not understand the Malay
words:

10 References
10.1 Notes

Mata-hari yu: Wo-ti nama mata-hari. Wo taihen brillante. Wo leva wo a est, dan toki wo
leva wo, ada hari. Wo miru per ni-ti fenestra sama wo-ti mata brillante como kin, dan
wo yu ni toki ada tempo a levar ni. Dan wo
yu ni: 'Sust, leva ni. Wo non brilla sam-rap ni
tomaru a toko a nemuru, sed wo brilla sam-rap
ni leva ni, dan que ni suru kam, ni yomu, dan
ni aruku.'"

[1] Bodmer, Frederick. The loom of language and Pei, Mario.

One language for the world.

An a priori vocabulary such as that of Spokil or Kotava,

or a vocabulary constructed mathematically, such as that
of Loglan or Lojban, would likely be as comprehensible.

[5] Foreword to Konciza Gramatiko de Volapuko, Andr

Cherpillod. Courgenard, 1995.

Gode argues, additionally, that the western languages

are the unocial languages of international science,
medicine, and technology, and therefore an IAL based
on them provides the best access to that literature. Nevertheless, it must be said that a more neutral vocabulary,
perhaps even an a priori one, would be less oensive to
some non-Europeans.

[2] Viacheslav A. Chirikba, The problem of the Caucasian

Sprachbund in Pieter Muysken, ed., From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics, 2008, p. 31. ISBN 90-272-31001
[3] Ostler, 2005 pp. 3840
[4] Languages that Inuence the World.

[6] Schmidt, Johann. 1964. Jenotem valemapka Volapk.

Amsterdam: Volapkagased.
[7] Schmidt, Johann. 1996. Historio de la universala lingvo
Volapuko. Tradukinto: Philippe Combot. Courgenard:
La Blanchetire. ISBN 2-906134-30-9
[8] Zasky, Jason (2009-07-20), Discouraging Words,
Failure Magazine, But in terms of invented languages, its
the most outlandishly successful invented language ever.
It has thousands of speakerseven native speakersand
thats a major accomplishment as compared to the 900 or
so other languages that have no speakers. Arika Okrent

In the 1990s and early 2000s, many proposals for

auxlangs based on global sources of vocabulary and grammar have been made, but most (like the majority of
the European-based auxlangs of earlier decades) remain
[9] Le De des Langues by Claude Piron, L'Harmattan 1994.
sketches too incomplete to be speakable, and of the more
complete ones, few have gained any speakers. More re- [10] The Esperanto Book, Chapter 7: History in Fine by Don
cently there has been a trend, on the AUXLANG mailing
Harlow. 1995.
list and on the more recently founded worldlang mailing
list, to greater collaboration between various proponents [11] Lins, Ulrich. La Danera Lingvo. Gerlingen, Germany:
Bleicher Eldonejo, 1988.
of a more globally based auxlang.
[12] The Esperanto Book, Chapter 9: The Literary Scene by
Don Harlow. 1995.

See also

See List of constructed languages#Auxiliary languages for a list of designed international auxiliary languages.
Interlinguistics
International Language Review
Language education
Language planning

[13] Otto Jesperson, An International Language. The Delegation. Ido. 1928.

[14] Harlow, Don. The Esperanto Book, chapter 3: How to
Build a Language.
[15] Harlow, Donald J (4 July 2006). Novial. How to Build
a Language. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
[16] Words appearing in only a few, closely related languages
were ignored. See Gode, Alexander, Interlingua: A
Dictionary of the International Language [Introduction],
1971 edition. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing
Company.

[17] Gode, Alexander, Interlingua: A Dictionary of the International Language [Introduction], 1971 edition. New
York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company (p. xxii).
[18] Blandino, Giovanni, Le problema del linguas international auxiliari, Philosophia del Cognoscentia e del Scientia, Rome, Italy: Ponticia Universitas Lateranensis, Ponticia Universitas Urbaniana, 1989.
[19] Radioemissiones in e re Interlingua, Panorama in Interlingua, Issue 3, 2006.
[20] Although Toki Pona was not intended by its creator as
an auxlang, it has been used for communication between
people of dierent native languages far more often than
most of the thousands of auxlang proposals throughout
history.
[21] L. Couturat, O. Jespersen, R. Lorenz, W.Ostwalkd and
L.Pfaundler. International Language and Science: Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language
into Science. 1910.
[22] Pierre Janton, Esperanto: Language, Literature, and Community. Translated by Humphrey Tonkin et al. State University of New York Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7914-1254-7.
[23] Essay (hopefully long)", by Don Harlow. AUXLANG
mailing list post, 7 January 2006.
[24] http://failuremag.com/feature/article/discouraging_
words/
[25] Re: Naturalistic for auxlangers vs artlangers?"
AUXLANG mailing list post by Jrg Rhiemeier, 30 August 2009
[26] Mario Pei, One language for the world (1958)
[27] Charles Keisel Bliss, Semantography (Blissymbolics)
[28] Rubino, F., Hayhurst, A., and Guejlman, J., Gestuno: International sign language of the deaf.
[29] Esenco kaj Estonteco de la Ideo de Lingvo Internacia, L.
L. Zamenhof, 1900. Reprinted in Fundamenta Krestomatio, 1992 [1903].
[30] Farewell to auxiliary languages, by Richard K. Harrison.
1997.
[31] "u Zamenhof Pravis?", Vinko Olak, Fonto, februaro
2005.
[32] Types of neutrality, and central concerns for an IAL.
AUXLANG mailing list post by Risto Kupsala, 2 December 2005.
[33] Alexander Gode, quoted by Mario Pei in One language for
the world (1958).
[34] Gode, Alexander, et al. Interlingua-English: a dictionary of the international language. Storm Publishers, New
York, 1951.
[35] Pei, Mario. One Language for the World. N.Y.: DevinAdair, 1958:

10

REFERENCES

10.2 Bibliography
Bliss, Charles Keisel. Semantography (Blissymbolics). Semantography Press: Sydney, 1965.
Bodmer, Frederick, and Lancelot Hogben.
Loom of Language. N.Y.: Norton, 1944.

The

Couturat, L., Jespersen, O., Lorenz, R., Ostwalkd,

W., and Pfaundler, L. International Language and
Science: Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science. Constable and
Company Limited, London, 1910.
De Wahl, Edgar. Radicarium directiv del lingue international (Occidental) in 8 lingues. A.-S. "hisell
Trkk. Pikk Uul. 42, Tallinn, 1925.
Drezen, Ernst: Historio de la Mondlingvo (History
of the World Language). Oosaka: Pirato, 1969 (3d
ed.).
Eco, Umberto, [tra. James Fentress], The Search for
the Perfect Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
Gr, Joseph.
Deutsch-Occidental Wrterbuch
nach dem Krschners Sechs-Sprachen-Lexicon, mit
kurzer Occidental-Grammatik. Kosmoglott, Reval,
Estland, 1925/1928.
Gode, Alexander, et al. Interlingua-English: a dictionary of the international language. Storm Publishers, New York, 1951.
Jesperson, Otto. An International Language. (1928)
Mainzer, Ludwig, Karlsruhe. Linguo international di la Delegitaro (Sistemo Ido), Vollstndiges Lehrbuch der Internationalen Sprache (ReformEsperanto). Otto Nemmich Verlag, Leipzig (Germany), 1909.
Meyjes, Gregory P. P. 2006. Language and world
order in Bah' perspective: a new paradigm revealed. In T. Omoniyi & J. A. Fishman (Eds.) Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion, 26 41, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Nerrire, Jean-Paul, and Hon, David Globish The
World Over. Paris, IGI, 2009
Pei, Mario. One Language for the World. N.Y.:
Devin-Adair, 1958.
Pham Xuan Thai. Frater (Lingua sistemfrater). The
simplest International Language Ever Constructed.
TU-HAI Publishing-House, Saigon (Republic of
Vietnam), 1957.
Pigal, E. and the Hauptstelle der Occidental-Union
in Mauern bei Wien. Occidental, Die Weltsprache,
Einfhrung samt Lehrkursus, Lesestcken, Hugkeitswrterverzeichnis u. a., Franckh. Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1930.

9
Pirro, Jean. Versuch einer Universalischen Sprache.
Guerin und Cie., Bar-Le-Duc (France), 1868.
Rubino, F., Hayhurst, A., and Guejlman, J. Gestuno:
International sign language of the deaf. Carlisle:
British Deaf Association, 1975.
Sudre, Franois. Langue musicale universelle invente par Franois Sudre galement inventeur de
la tlphonie. G. Flaxland, Editeur, 4, place de la
Madeleine, Paris (France), 1866.

11

External links

Proposed Guidelines for the Design of an Optimal

International Auxiliary Language An article written by Richard K. Harrison.
The Function of an International Auxiliary Language An article written by linguist Edward Sapir
discussing the need for prospects of an international
language.
Farewell to auxiliary languages, a criticism of the
auxiliary language movement by Richard K. Harrison.
Thoughts on IAL Success, an essay by Paul O.
Bartlett
OneTongue.org A project for promoting a world
auxiliary language.

10

12

12
12.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

International auxiliary language Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International%20auxiliary%20language?oldid=642589215 Contributors: Brion VIBBER, Danny, Shii, Michael Hardy, Liftarn, Chuck SMITH, Brettz9, Kwekubo, GeShane, Dysprosia, Gebeleizis,
JorgeGG, Owen, Robbot, Chealer, Altenmann, Babbage, Adam78, Gwalla, Dissident, Ausir, LLarson, SWAdair, Golbez, Beland, DenisMoskowitz, TonyW, Svnhund, N-k, Jim Henry, Dbachmann, Ntennis, Kulturo, Livajo, Edwinstearns, Kwamikagami, Suhardian, Dalf,
Func, BrokenSegue, Riddhill, Blahma, Water Bottle, Suruena, Pauli133, IJzeren Jan, Angr, Je3000, Tokek, Chlewey, Tinker4glow, Koavf,
Amire80, Aindreas, Glen Finney, FlaBot, Sinatra, Mga, Gurch, LiangHH, Chobot, Mortenoesterlundjoergensen, YurikBot, Wavelength,
Hairy Dude, Jlittlet, RussBot, Lauge, Mithridates, Ksyrie, Cryptic, Cunado19, Anchjo, Richard Allen, Ytcracker, Adamrush, Cgboeree,
Johndarrington, S. Neuman, Nikkimaria, Saizai, Ekstazo, Curpsbot-unicodify, Sardanaphalus, SmackBot, Mezopotamia, KZF, Kintetsubualo, Arpgme, Kazkaskazkasako, Chris the speller, LaggedOnUser, Hongooi, CJGB, Sholto Maud, Tamfang, Chlewbot, Cdh1984,
Blicarea, Cameron Nedland, Arab Hafez, Paul S, Darkildor, Hlucho, JorisvS, Antonielly, Beetstra, BryanAJParry, Courcelles, The Missing Piece, Neelix, Jhskulk, Gregbard, Cazaux, SimenH, Markstarrs, Qwyrxian, Mlandau, Sobreira, Alexandre-Jrme, Rie, Towelhead,
Ingolfson, Ioeth, JAnDbot, Epeeeche, Nicholas Tan, Parcemihi, LittleOldMe, WLU, Ansric, Midnight Madness, Mattrogers, Treisijs,
Pelicula a Once, Davecrosby uk, Signalhead, Cal Evans, VolkovBot, Derekbd, FlorentGaret, TXiKiBoT, Technopat, M gol, Numbersinstitute, Meyjes, Bob98133, Dlidy, Anchor Link Bot, Maralia, Mr. Stradivarius, Quinacrine, Shadowminionz, ClueBot, Awg1010, Pi zero,
Niceguyedc, Hacia, Mundialecter, Atomic7732, Sun Creator, Shlishke, XLinkBot, Inmahbutthole, Euyasik, MystBot, Good Olfactory, Addbot, MR.CRO95, Gonda Attila, Favonian, SpBot, Tassedethe, 84user, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, Valodnieks, AnomieBOT, LilHelpa, Xqbot,
Whiyufghj, Leadusata, Humilulo, Sfermmi, Silvano64, Matsuda kurofuji, Ioakar, RedBot, TobeBot, Kasjam, Alph Bot, Zilyuki, EmausBot,
WikitanvirBot, Lafcadiol, Faolin42, Britannic124, Hpvpp, Stephencole2, Jen789, ZroBot, Anon J, BasilDiggswell, ChuispastonBot, RIchmondAtty, Therewillbehotcake, Myalee, Xabadiar, Trans2011, Itayj, BG19bot, Andoromeda, BiggerAristotle, Meclee, JYBot, Cerabot,
Deonyi, Hendrick 99, Strecosaurus, Musealtitude, Secretkeeper12, Lyliew1, Rambnian, Shahrazkhan and Anonymous: 122

12.2

Images

File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg License:

CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
Wiki_letter_w.svg Original artist: Wiki_letter_w.svg: Jarkko Piiroinen

12.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0