International auxiliary language
An International auxiliary language[upper-alpha 1] (shortly IAL or auxlang) is a language that is intended for communication between people who have different first languages.[1]
Languages of large societies over the centuries have almost reached the international level, for example Latin, Greek, Standard Arabic, Standard Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.[2]
Some people have turned to the idea of promoting an artificial or constructed language as a possible IAL, for example Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua.[2]
Significant auxiliary languages
- pidgins - a simplified language used in Singapore, the Philippines, Polynesia and other places.[3]
- Mediterranean Lingua Franca - A Pidgin based on Romance languages.
- Tok Pisin - A Pidgin based on the English language.
- Volapük - the first widely used constructed language, less popular after Esperanto was introduced.[4]
- Esperanto - a constructed language with up to 2,000,000 speakers.[5]
- Ido - a project of reformed Esperanto.
- Interlingua - a constructed language.
- Interlingue
- Basic English - A constructed language, a simplified form of English with reduced number of words[6]
Notes
- ↑ The term was used at least as early as 1908, by Otto Jespersen.
References
- ↑ Herbert N. Shenton, 'An International Auxiliary Language', Proceedings: Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of Rotary International (Chicago: Rotary International, 1934), p. 105
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bodmer, Frederick. The loom of language and Pei, Mario. One language for the world.
- ↑ Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Vol 3, eds. S. A. Wurm; Peter Mühlhäusler; Darrell T. Tyron (Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996), p. 519
- ↑ Esperanto, Interlinguistics, and Planned Language, ed. Humphrey Tonkin (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997), p. 183
- ↑ Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition, eds. M. Paul Lewis; Gary F. Simons; Charles D. Fennig (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2014) online version
- ↑ Language, a Right and a Resource: Approaching Linguistic Human Rights, ed. Miklós Kontra (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999), p. 26