Sona (planned language)
| Sona | ||
|---|---|---|
| Project author | Arthur Kenneth Searight | |
| Year of publication | 1935 | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| particularities | Planned language with only 360 basic words | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
art (other constructed languages) |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
mis (not coded) |
|
Sona is one of Kenneth Searight created and described in a published book in 1935 constructed language .
Origin and influences
Searight created Sona as an answer to the Eurocentrism of the planned languages such as Esperanto and Ido that were widespread at the time . At the same time, he wanted to avoid creating a language a priori , since the corresponding projects such as Solresol or Ro , known at the time, were impractical to acquire and use. Searight therefore sacrificed the familiarity of grammar and vocabulary in favor of a certain universality , but without foregoing the most elementary principles that are used in languages around the globe. An example of this is the word composition as a means of word formation: So for language and na for neutral results in the name of the language Sona (neutral language).
The language bears influences from Persian , Turkish , Arabic , Russian , Chinese and Japanese . There are also influences from English .
Morphology and word formation
Sona consists of 360 basic words, including 360 radicals and among them 15 particles , from which the formation of a useful vocabulary should be possible. Like Japanese, the language is agglutinative (see rako below ) and, like Chinese (and in some cases English), has a strongly isolating tendency, as can be seen in the cat / rat examples.
Text examples
- xe den jan = The cat bites the rat.
- jan den xe = the rat bites the cat.
- xe ru = The cat goes away.
- an na sa laba ci Ruso = She does not speak the Russian language.
- ra = man.
- ko = child.
- rako = boy.
ranjosi jolen (our father)
literature
- Kenneth Searight: Sona: an auxiliary neutral language . London: Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1935
Web links
- Sona: an auxiliary neutral language - web version
- English-Sona dictionary ( Memento of July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Sona-English dictionary ( Memento from July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Sona / English online dictionary and translation aid
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Understanding the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 454 Online
- ^ Edward Lee Thorndike : Studies in the psychology of language, Volume 33, Issues 231-234, 1938 Online
- ↑ Sona meeting point ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - including an HTML version of almost the entire Sona book published in 1935.
