Language structure of Interlingua
Interlingua is an international planned language whose language structure was derived from the Romance languages as well as English , German and Russian . The language structure is based on thegrammar presented in1951 by Alexander Gode and Hugh E. Blair. There are regular inflections (with a few exceptions) and no genera . Interlingua does not use systematic indicators for the parts of speech, for example the ending -o for each noun or the ending -a for each adjective.
spelling
Interlingua uses the Latin writing system without any further characters: 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 . There are also three digraphs : ch , sh , and qu .
Proper names are capitalized, e.g. B. Germania, Austria, Switza etc.
The beginning of the sentence is capitalized, e.g. B. “ Un homine morde su can quando le can le morde ”.
When a new word is added to the Interlingua vocabulary, the word retains its letters and pronunciation, but the diacritics are omitted, e.g. B. French défaite becomes defaite . However, if the diacritics affect pronunciation, they will be retained, e.g. B. with caraway.
pronunciation
The vowels sound like the vowels in Italian or Spanish.
| Letter | a | e | i | O | u |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation ( IPA ) | a | e | i | O | u |
The letter “y” sounds like / j / in an unstressed syllable and before a vowel like / i / different. Both vowels involved sound in double sounds, a connection can be heard in between: “ai” is pronounced / ai̯ / .
Interlingua has the following consonants:
| Letter | b | c | d | f | G | H | j | k | l | m | n | p | q | r | s | t | v | x | z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation (IPA) | b | k / ts | d | f | g / d͜ʒ | h / nothing | ʒ | k | l | m | n | p | k | r | s | t | v | ks / gz | z |
The letter “c” before e, i, and y pronounced softly / ts / or / s / , before a, o and u hard / k / . The letter “g” is pronounced hard in front of the dark vowels / g / , but softly in front of the light vowels / ʒ / . G is used in the suffix -age is always pronounced softly / ʒ / . The letter "h" is optionally aspirated as in German / h / or is optionally silent. In Greek words it is silent after r and t (e.g. rhythm , rhetoric , theatro , theoria ). The letters “ch” are pronounced like / k / in Greek words and like / ʃ / in romantic words. The letter “q” only appears in the digraph “qu”. It sounds like / kw / , except for que and qui , which are pronounced / k / . The letters “ti” are pronounced like / tsi / before vowels (e.g. scientia , question , essential ).
Sentence structure
Interlingua uses the subject-verb-object order, but if the object is a pronoun it becomes subject-object-verb.
| Io inviava un message a illeg. Io lo inviava a illeg. | I gave him a message. I gave it to him. |
The relative clauses can begin with qui , que , le qual , and cuje .
| Is it le homine qui ha rumpite le fenestra . | This is the man who broke the window. |
| Le documentos que le currero portava esseva multo importante . | The documents that the courier carried were very heavy. |
items
Interlingua has two articles : the definite article is le and the indefinite article is un . You never flex.
| In le familia il ha le patre, le matre, e le infantes. | In the family there is the father, the mother, and the children. |
| Mary es un puera . | Mary is a girl. |
If the definite article follows the prepositions a and de , they become al and del .
| Le patre e le matre es le parentes del infantes. | The father and mother are the parents of the children. |
noun
The noun of Interlingua are similar to the nouns of natural languages, in that they have no regular form. Similarly, the adjectives also have no inflection for case or genera. Only the nouns about beings that end in -o are declined for genera. Then you end the noun with -o for masculine and -a for feminine.
|
le homine (the man)
le libertate (the freedom) le fructo (the fruit) |
The nouns have no gender. |
|
asino / asina (donkey / female donkey)
oca / oco (goose / gander) |
Some nouns have the gender endings -o (masculine) and -a (feminine). |
All nouns are pluralized for numbers with the endings -s and -es .
| Examples | rule |
|---|---|
|
tabula → tabulas (table)
homine → homines (man) |
Nouns that end in a vowel take -s |
|
uxor → uxores (wife)
generation → generationes (generation) roc → roches (castle) |
Nouns ending in a consonant take -es (those ending in -c must also change the c to ch ) |
|
test → tests (exam; from English)
lied → lieder (song; from German) addendum → addenda (addition; from neo-Latin) |
The loanwords pluralize like their original languages. |
|
guardacostas → guardacostas (coast guard)
rumpenuces → rumpenuces (nutcracker) |
The compound nouns that are already pluralized with the second noun do not have a clear plural form. |
pronoun
Interlingua has these personal pronouns :
| Nominative | Ind. Obj. | Dir. Obj. | Reflexive | Genitive | Possessive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Singular | ok | me | mi | le mie | |||
| Plural | nos | nostre | le nostre | |||||
| Second | Singular | do | te | do | le do | |||
| Plural | vos | vostre | le vostre | |||||
| third | Sing. | M. | illegal | le | se | see below | le sue | |
| F. | illa | la | ||||||
| N. | illo | lo | ||||||
| Plural | M. | illes | les | lor | le lore | |||
| F. | illas | read | ||||||
| N. | illos | Come on | ||||||
The indefinite pronoun , on , is used like "man" in German:
| On pote viagiar per le Dardanellos e vider multe historic cosas. | One can travel through the Dardanelles and see a lot of historical things. |
Interlingua also has an expletive : il
| Il nive. | It's snowing. |
| Il ha un can in le casa. | There is a dog in the house. |
The demonstrative pronouns of the Interlingua are iste (this) and aquelle (that). They inflect depending on gender and number: isto , ista , iste , istos , etc.
| Aquelle libro it interesting. Aquello it interesting. | That book is interesting. That is interesting. |
The interrogative pronouns of the interlingua are:
| que | qui | agonizing | cuje | proque | quando | ubi |
| What | who | which one | whose | Why | when | Where |
Verbs
The verbs of Interlingua end in -er , -ar or -ir , and there is no personal conjugation . The verbs the Interlingua have two forms: infinitive , two participles ( imperfect and perfect ); three tenses ( present , past , and future), and a conditional form.
The verbs esser (to be), haber (to have), and vader (to go) have irregular present tenses: es , ha , and va .
| shape | Ending | ar-verb | he-verb | ir-verb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | ~ r | crear
(create) |
vider (see) | abolir (abolish) |
| Present
as an original form |
~ Ø | crea
(I create) |
vide |
aboli |
| Past tense (past tense) | ~ especially | creava
(I created) |
videva |
aboliva |
| Future tense | ~ ra | creara
(i will create) |
videra |
abolira |
| Present participle | ~ [e] nte | creante
(creating) |
vidente |
aboli e nte |
| past participle | ~ te | create
(create) |
vid i te |
abolite |
| Perfect | had | ha create
(I created) |
ha vidite |
ha abolite |
| past continuous | habeva ~ te | habeva create
(I had created) |
habeva vidite |
habeva abolite |
| Conditional
(Future) |
~ rea | crearea
(I create) |
viderea |
abolirea |
| imperative | ~ Ø | crea!
(create! / create!) |
vide!
(see!) |
aboli!
(get rid of! / get rid of!) |
The perfect forms are combinations of the conjugated form of the auxiliary verb haber and the past participle of the full verb. For the future tense you either use the future tense or the combination of the conjugated form of the auxiliary verb vader and the infinitive of the full verb (as in German). There is also a progressive form that uses the present participle:
| Johannes es ambulante a su casa. | Johannes "is running" to his house.
(Johannes is walking to his house. Or Johannes is about to run home.) |
As in German, the participles also serve as adjectives:
| Le baby plorante | The crying baby |
| Le statua fabricate | The statue produced |
The infinitive also serves as a predicate noun: Vider es creder. Seeing is believing.
The past tense shows an event that happened at a specific point in time in the past:
| Nos le adjutava in construer su casa. | We helped him build his house / We helped him build his house. |
The present perfect indicates an event that is in the future or the present tense over:
| Io ha arrivate. | I arrived. |
But the past perfect shows an event that ended before another event:
| Quando io arrivava al cinema, le film jam habeva comenciate. | When I got to the cinema, the film had already started. |
The conditional form is used to describe an assumed event:
| Si io habeva un million dollars, io comprarea te un nove casa e automobile. | If I had a million dollars I'd buy you a new house and car. |
Adjectives
Unlike German, in that its adjectives have declined for case genera and numbers, interlinguas adjectives have no inflection.
| rubie tabula | red table |
| rubie lampa | red lamp |
| rubie camisa | red shirt |
They are not declined even in the comparative and superlative . The comparative is formed with the adverbs plus (more) and minus (less). The superlative is formed from the comparative with the definitive article before. The absolute superlative can be formed with adverbs (e.g. multo ) or with the suffix -issime .
| bon; plus bon; le plus bon | Well; better; preferably |
| bon; minus bon; le minus bon | Well; less well; least good |
| un "non" multo emphatic; un emphatichissime "non" | A very emphatic no |
Unlike German, the adjectives usually come after the noun. They take precedence when the adjective is important, when it is short and has more rhythm, or when it is a numeral.
| le lingua international e le linguas national | The international language and the national languages |
Interlinguas adjectives can get all pronouns and even pluralized. Some adjectives also have the full noun set. These nouns often end with -o if the noun is masculine or abstract, or -a if the noun is feminine.
| Le puero ha quatro conilios, duo mascules e duo feminines | The boy has four rabbits. Two males and two females. |
|
bon (adjective)
le bon (pronoun) bono (noun) |
Well
The good Quality; Testimony; Voucher |
|
natural (adjective)
le natural (pronoun) natural (noun) |
Naturally
The natural one temperament |
Adverbs
Interlingua has fixed adverbs and adverbs derived from adjectives. These derived adverbs are formed from an adjective and the suffix -mente (or -amente for the adjectives that end with c ). The adverbs have the same rules as adjectives for the comparative and the superlative. The suffix -issimo is used for the absolute superlative (not -issime ). Like adjectives, adverbs come before their target word.
|
nunc (now)
minus (less) plus (more) |
Fixed adverbs |
|
natural → naturalmente (natural)
remarcabile → remarcabilemente (remarkable) austriac → austriacamente (Austrian) |
Derived adverbs |
|
bellissime → bellissimo
ben → benissimo |
Adverbs in absolute superlatives |
Numerals
The cardinal numbers of Interlingua are made up of 31 atomic number words: ten words for 0 to 9, ten for 10 to 100 and eleven for 1,000, 1,000,000 etc. From this all other numbers are put together as follows:
| Examples | rule |
|---|---|
|
zero (0)
novanta (90) milliardo (1,000,000,000) |
Atomic number words |
|
duo centos (200)
octo milles (8,000) dece milliardos (10,000,000,000) |
The atomic number words of 100 multiply by the single digit number words can.
|
|
quaranta duo (42)
novanta-nove (99) mille un (1,001) octo milles tres centos quaranta recipes (8,347) |
The numerals can add up.
|
Atomic number words
| 0 | zero | ||
| 1 | U.N | 10 | dece |
| 2 | duo | 20th | vinti |
| 3 | tres | 30th | trenta |
| 4th | quatro | 40 | quaranta |
| 5 | cinque | 50 | cinquanta |
| 6th | sex | 60 | sexanta |
| 7th | recipes | 70 | septanta |
| 8th | octo | 80 | octanta |
| 9 | nove | 90 | novanta |
* The underlined numerals are to be formed with the one-digit numerals and the suffix -anta .
| 100 | 10 2 | cento |
| 1,000 | 10 3 | mille |
| 1,000,000 | 10 6 | million |
| 1,000,000,000 | 10 9 | milliardo |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | 10 12 | trillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 15 | billiard |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 18 | trillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 21 | trilliardo |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 24 | quatrillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 27 | quatrilliardo |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 30 | quintillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 10 33 | quintilliardo |
* The underlined numerals are to be formed with the suffixes -ion and -iardo .
swell
- Alexander Gode, Hugh E. Blair: Interlingua: a grammar of the international language . Storm Publishers, New York 1951 (English, adoneilson.com ).
- Stanley A. Mulaik: Interlingua Grammar and Method . Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5052-1036-1 (English).
- Learn and practice German grammar online. In: Lingolia - simply better in languages. Lingolia, accessed April 13, 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 4
- ↑ a b Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 27
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), pp. 24-25
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), pp. 23–55
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 40
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Noun §22
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Noun §26
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Noun §23
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Noun §24
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Noun §25
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 50
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 53
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), pp. 58–59
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), p. 64
- ↑ Interlingua Grammar and Method (2015), pp. 79–113
- ↑ Lingolia , tenses - future tense I
- ↑ Lingolia , Verbs - Participles
- ↑ Lingolia, Adjectives - Declination
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §32
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §34
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §36
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §33
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §38
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §39
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adjective §40
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adverb §45
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adverb §47
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Adverb §52
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Numerals §120
- ↑ Interlingua (1951), Parts of Speech - Numerals §119