Novial | |
---|---|
novial | |
Created by | Otto Jespersen |
Date | 1928 |
Setting and usage | International auxiliary language |
Purpose | |
Sources | Romance and Germanic languages; also Interlingue and Ido |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nov |
nov | |
Glottolog | novi1234 |
Linguasphere | 51-AAB-dc |
Novial [lower-alpha 1] is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of different native languages. It was devised by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who had been involved in the Ido movement that evolved from Esperanto at the beginning of the 20th century, and participated later in the development of Interlingua. The name means 'new' + 'international auxiliary language'.
Its vocabulary is based largely on the Germanic and Romance languages while its grammar is influenced by English.
Novial was introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928. [1] It was updated in his dictionary Novial Lexike in 1930, [2] and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943. [3] In the 1990s, with the revival of interest in constructed languages brought on by the Internet, some people rediscovered Novial.[ citation needed ]
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar/Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ( ŋ ) | ||
Plosive/ Affricate | Voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k |
Voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |
Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h |
Voiced | v | ( ʒ ) | |||
Approximant | ( w ) | l | j | ||
Rhotic | r |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i | u |
Mid | e | o |
Open | a |
The basic rule is: stress the vowel before the last consonant. However, consonantal flexional endings (ie. -d, -m, -n, -s) do not count for this (eg. bóni but bónim, not boním; apérta but apértad, not apertád) so perhaps it is better to say that the vowel before the final consonant of the stem takes the stress. [4]
Upper case | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Y | Z |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lower case | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | x | y | z |
IPA phonemes | a | b | k , s et al. [lower-alpha 2] | d | e | f | g | h | i | dʒ , ʒ | k | l | m | n | o | p | k [lower-alpha 3] | r | s | t | u | v | ks, gz | j , ʝ | ts , z et al. [lower-alpha 2] |
The digraphs ch and sh represent [ t͡ʃ ] or [ ʃ ], depending on the speaker. For example, chokolate would be pronounced either /t͡ʃokoˈlate/ or /ʃokoˈlate/. [1]
Like many constructed IALs, Novial has a simple and regular grammar. The main word order is SVO, which removes the need for marking the object of a sentence with accusative case (since the position normally tells what word is the object). There is however a way to mark accusative. There is no grammatical gender (but the sex or gender of referrents can be marked). Verbs are conjugated without agreement (according to person or number), and have a regular conjugation.
Nouns mainly end in e, a, o, u or um in the singular. There are definite forms of nouns marked with an article, and singular and plural forms, where the plural is marked with the suffix -s after vowels or -es after consonants. There is also a form for indefinite number (like in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese), expressed by removing the ending of the noun in the singular (leone – lion, leon es kruel – 'a/the lion is cruel', or 'lions are cruel'). [5]
If a noun refers to a living being, then the form ending in -e is neutral in regards to sex, the one ending in -a female, and the one ending in -o male. If the noun is based on an adjective, nouns referring to living beings can be made with the previously mentioned rule, and furthermore nouns referring to concrete objects with -u, and abstractions with -um. The third person pronouns follows the same rule, together with the definite article.
In the case of a noun that refers to an instrument – a tool or a means – the word that ends in -e is the tool or the means itself, -a the verb describing usage of the tool and so on, and -o the noun describing the act [6] of that using:
rule
roll
–
–
rula
(to) roll
–
–
rulo
(a) rolling
mesure
measure (the tool)
–
–
mesura
(to measure)
–
–
mesuro
measurement
Person | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | me | nus | |
2nd | vu | vus | |
3rd | Common | le | les |
Masculine | lo | los | |
Feminine | la | las | |
Neuter | lu | lus |
The standard word order in Novial is subject–verb–object, as in English. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject, and nominative (I, he, she and so on) and oblique (me, him, her) pronouns are identical:
me
I
observa
observe
vu
you
vu
you
observa
observe
me
me
The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, in case of an ambiguity problem, an optional accusative ending, -m (-em after a consonant), is available but is rarely used. The preposition em is equivalent to this ending.[ dubious ]
The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both 'my' and 'mine' ('of me'):
Men
My
hunde
dog
Li
The
hunde
dog
es
is
men
mine
The possessive pronouns are thus men, vun, len, etc., lun and nusen, vusen, lesen etc. and lusen. Possession may also be expressed with the preposition de: de me, de vu, and so on.
The reflexive pronoun is se: lo admira se – 'he admires himself'. [7] The impersonal pronoun one ('one/they/you') is on, with the possessive form onen.
Verb forms never change with person or number. Most verb tenses, moods and voices are expressed with auxiliary verbs preceding the root form of the main verb. The auxiliaries follow the same word order as the English equivalent. The following phrases give examples of the verb forms:
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to protect | protekte |
Present | I protect | me protekte |
Present Perfect | I have protected | me ha protekte |
Simple Past | I protected | me did protekteorme protekted |
Past Perfect | I had protected | me had protekte |
Future | I shall protect or I will protect | me sal protekteorme ve protekte |
Future Perfect | I shall have protected or I will have protected | me sal ha protekteorme ve ha protekte |
Future In The Past | I was going to protect | me saled protekte |
Conditional | I would protect | me vud protekte |
Conditional Perfect | I would have protected | me vud ha protekte |
First Imperative | Let me protect! | Let me protekte! |
Second Imperative | protect! | protekte! |
Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verb to be followed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expressed with the verb to get which is used in the examples below.
The passive voice of becoming is formed with the auxiliary bli followed by the root verb form. It can then be conjugated into the previously mentioned forms, for example:
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to get protected | bli protekte |
Present | I get protected | me bli protekte |
Present Perfect | I have got protected | me ha bli protekte |
Simple Past | I got protected | me blid protekte |
Past Perfect | I had got protected | me had bli protekte |
Future | I shall get protected or I will get protected | me sal bli protekteorme ve bli protekte |
Conditional | I would get protected | me vud bli protekte |
The passive voice of being is formed with the auxiliary es followed by the past passive participle (stem + -t). For example:
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to be protected | es protektet |
Present | I am protected | me es protektet |
Present Perfect | I have been protected | me ha es protektet |
Simple Past | I was protected | me did es protektetorme esed protektet |
Past Perfect | I had been protected | me had es protektet |
Future | I shall be protected or I will be protected | me sal es protektetorme ve es protektet |
Conditional | I would be protected | me vud es protektet |
The definite article is li which is invariant. It is used as in English.
There is no indefinite article, although un ('one') can be used.
The plural noun is formed by adding –s to the singular (-es after a consonant).
The accusative case is generally identical to the nominative but can optionally be marked with the ending -m (-em after a consonant) with the plural being -sem (-esem after a consonant) or with the preposition em.
The genitive is formed with the ending -n (-en after a consonant) with the plural being -sen (-esen after a consonant) or with the preposition de.
Other cases are formed with prepositions.
All adjectives end in -i, but this may be dropped if it is easy enough to pronounce and no confusion will be caused. Adjectives precede the noun qualified. Adjectives do not agree with the noun but may be given noun endings if there is no noun present to receive them.
Comparative adjectives are formed by placing various particles (plu, tam, and min) in front of the adjective receiving the comparison. Likewise, the superlative particles (maxim and minim) precede the adjective. The adjective does not receive an inflection to its ending.
An adjective is converted to a corresponding adverb by adding -m after the -i ending of the adjective.
Comparative and superlative adverbs are formed in the same manner as comparative and superlative adjectives: by placing a specific particle before the adverb receiving the comparison.
See the Table of Prefixes and Table of Suffixes at the Novial Wikibook.
Jespersen was a professional linguist, unlike Esperanto's creator.[ neutrality is disputed ] He disliked the arbitrary and artificial character that he found in Esperanto and Ido. [8] Additionally, he objected to those languages' inflectional systems, which he found needlessly complex. He sought to make Novial at once euphonious and regular while also preserving useful structures from natural languages.
In Novial:
A major difference between Novial and Esperanto/Ido concerns noun endings. Jespersen rejected a single vowel to terminate all nouns (-o in Esperanto/Ido), finding it unnatural and potentially confusing. [9] Instead, Novial nouns may end in -o, -a, -e, or -u or -um. These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages, though there is no grammatical gender or requirement for adjectives to agree with nouns.
Here is the Lord's Prayer in Novial and several related languages:
Novial version: | Esperanto version: | Ido version: | Latin version: |
---|---|---|---|
Nusen Patre, kel es in siele, | Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo, | Patro nia, qua esas en la cielo, | Pater noster, qui es in caelis: |
As Jespersen relates in his autobiography, in 1934 he proposed an orthographic reform to Novial, which displeased a part of the users. Jespersen abandoned the essential principle of one sound, one letter : [10]
I proposed some not inconsiderable amendments, especially by introducing an "orthographic" Novial alongside the original phonetically written language. (...) Thus the sound [k], besides being represented by the letters k and q and the first part of x, also acquired the new sign c (before a, o, u and consonants), a practice with which nearly all Europeans, Americans, and Australians are familiar from childhood. (...) I know that this orthographic form has displeased several of Novial's old and faithful friends, but it is my impression that many others have applauded it.
— Otto Jespersen (1995 [1938], pp. 227–8)
Some of Jespersen's colleagues among philologists jokingly referred to Novial as Jesperanto, combining his surname with Esperanto, the prototypical auxiliary language.
Esperanto is the most widely used constructed language intended for international communication; it was designed with highly regular grammatical rules, and as such is considered an easy language to learn.
Ido is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective international auxiliary language, Ido was specifically designed to be grammatically, orthographically, and lexicographically regular. It is the most successful of the many Esperanto derivatives, called Esperantidoj.
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.
The Finnish language is spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns elsewhere. Unlike the languages spoken in neighbouring countries, such as Swedish and Norwegian, which are North Germanic languages, or Russian, which is a Slavic language, Finnish is a Uralic language of the Finnic languages group. Typologically, Finnish is agglutinative. As in some other Uralic languages, Finnish has vowel harmony, and like other Finnic languages, it has consonant gradation.
This article outlines the grammar of the Dutch language, which shares strong similarities with German grammar and also, to a lesser degree, with English grammar.
Russian grammar employs an Indo-European inflexional structure, with considerable adaptation.
This article describes the grammar of Afrikaans, a language spoken in South Africa and Namibia which originated from 17th century Dutch.
An Esperantido is a constructed language derived from Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language which is now known as Ido. The word Esperantido contains the affix (-ido), which means a "child, young or offspring". Hence, Esperantido literally means an 'offspring or descendant of Esperanto'.
Adjuvilo is a constructed language created in 1910 by Claudius Colas under the pseudonym of "Profesoro V. Esperema". Although it was a full language, it may not have been created to be spoken. Many believe that as an Esperantist, Colas created Adjuvilo to help create dissent in the then-growing Ido movement. Colas himself called his language simplified Ido and proposed several reforms to Ido.
The grammar of the Polish language is complex and characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.
Romanian nouns, under the rules of Romanian grammar, are declined, varying by gender, number, and case.
Esperanto and Novial are two different constructed international auxiliary languages. Their main difference is that while Esperanto is a schematic language, with an unvarying grammar, Novial is a naturalistic language, whose grammar and vocabulary varies to try to retain a "natural" sound. Demographically, Esperanto has thousands of times more speakers than Novial.
Ukrainian grammar is complex and characterised by a high degree of inflection; moreover, it has a relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). Ukrainian grammar describes its phonological, morphological, and syntactic rules. Ukrainian has seven grammatical cases and two numbers for its nominal declension and two aspects, three tenses, three moods, and two voices for its verbal conjugation. Adjectives agree in number, gender, and case with their nouns.
In linguistic morphology, inflection is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and definiteness. The inflection of verbs is called conjugation, and one can refer to the inflection of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, participles, prepositions and postpositions, numerals, articles, etc., as declension.
This article deals with the grammar of the Komi language of the northeastern European part of Russia
Intal is an international auxiliary language, published in 1956 by the German linguist Erich Weferling. Its name is an acronym for INTernational Auxiliary Language. Intal was conceived to unite the most important features of existing international auxiliary languages, like Esperanto, Ido, Occidental-Interlingue, Neo, Novial and Interlingua, into a compromise system.
This article concerns the morphology of the Albanian language, including the declension of nouns and adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs. It refers to the Tosk-based Albanian standard regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
Langue nouvelle is a grammatical sketch for a proposed artificial international auxiliary language presented in 1765 by Joachim Faiguet de Villeneuve, a French economist, in the ninth volume of Diderot's encyclopedia. It is likely that it influenced Volapük, Esperanto, and other language projects of the 19th century.
This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.
The grammar of the Silesian language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.