Interlingua Grammar
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Interlingua Grammar by Alexander Gode & Hugh Blair 1951 Formatted by: Fuszenecker Róbert [email protected] Copyright, MCMLI, by International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. Copyright, MCMLV, by Science Service, Inc. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 5 1.1. General Principles ...................................................................................... 5 2. Spelling & Pronunciation ............................................................................ 7 2.1. General ........................................................................................................ 7 2.2. Collateral Orthography ............................................................................ 10 2.3. Punctuation ............................................................................................... 11 3. Parts of Speech ............................................................................................. 13 3.1. Article ........................................................................................................ 13 3.2. Noun .......................................................................................................... 15 3.3. Adjective .................................................................................................... 18 3.4. Adverb ....................................................................................................... 25 3.5. Pronouns ................................................................................................... 29 3.6. Verb ........................................................................................................... 39 3.7. Numerals ................................................................................................... 54 4. Grammatical Words ..................................................................................... 65 4.1. A - D ........................................................................................................... 66 4.2. E - H .......................................................................................................... 67 4.3. I - L ............................................................................................................ 68 4.4. M - P .......................................................................................................... 69 4.5. Q - T ........................................................................................................... 71 4.6. U - Z ........................................................................................................... 73 5. Word Building ............................................................................................... 75 5.1. Nouns derived from nouns ....................................................................... 77 5.2. Adjectives derived from nouns ................................................................ 82 5.3. Verbs derived from nouns and adjectives ............................................... 84 5.4. Words derived from adjectives ................................................................. 85 5.5. Words derived from verbs ........................................................................ 87 5.6. Compounding by means of prefixes - general ......................................... 96 5.7. Compounding by means of prefixes - technical ..................................... 103 5.8. Compounding by means of compounding forms ................................... 106 5.9. Compounding Derivation ....................................................................... 112 6. Appendix 1 ................................................................................................... 116 6.1. Double-Stem Verbs ................................................................................. 116 7. Appendix 2 - English-Interlingua Word List ....................................... 121 7.1. A - D ......................................................................................................... 121 7.2. E - H ......................................................................................................... 127 7.3. I - L .......................................................................................................... 132 7.4. M - P ........................................................................................................ 134 7.5. Q - T ......................................................................................................... 138 7.6. U - Z ......................................................................................................... 144 3 8. Appendix 3 - sample texts ........................................................................ 147 8.1. Colonisation del Nove Anglaterra .......................................................... 147 8.2. Le ordine ................................................................................................. 149 8.3. Visita al mercato ..................................................................................... 152 8.4. Energia .................................................................................................... 153 8.5. Le administration de recercas scientific ............................................... 155 9. Alphabetical Index .................................................................................... 159 4 1. Introduction 1. Introduction 1.1. General Principles "Vocabulary" and "grammar" are not hermetically sealed-of categories. If grammar describes the structure of a language, it goes without saying that no such description can be ofered without constant reference to word material illustrative of various structural features. But it is also true that there can be no dictionary of words presented as amorphous raw material. Lexical listings are necessarily possessed of structure, and the structure of words and phrases is a matter of grammar. These observations are not to suggest that the distinction between vocabulary and grammar might be abandoned, nor even that their treatment under separate heads is exclusively a matter of practical convenience. They are merely to restate the fact that the vocabulary and the grammar of a particular language are interdependent as naturally and necessarily compatible aspects of one and the same phenomenon. Beyond this they may raise the question as to what special characteristics distinguish the relationship of vocabulary and grammar in the case of a planned interlingua. The basic character of any language is largely determined by features of a structural, i.e., a grammatical nature. Let the dictionary of a language be invaded by hordes of foreign words, as long as its patterns of word and sentence structure stay intact, the foreign material will eventually be assimilated and the basic character of the language will survive essentially unchanged. This principle, applicable to all languages, is strikingly illustrated by English with its very considerable Romance vocabulary assimilated to a Teutonic base. There is no apparent reason that planned auxiliary languages should be governed by fundamentally diferent laws. Yet superfcially their situation does look completely reversed. There has been ample opportunity to observe that once agreement on the best possible vocabulary for an auxiliary language is assured, diversities of opinion in regard to grammatical problems lead to nothing more than parallel variants of one general language. But this is not so because the grammatical structure of planned languages is less signifcant than that of natural languages; it is so because an established vocabulary implies the settlement of so many questions of structure, i.e., of grammar, that the remaining grammatical features play of necessity a subordinate and dependent role. It is, then, only a seeming reversal of the principle of grammar's precedence over vocabulary that after the vocabulary of a planned auxiliary language has been determined all that remains to be said by way of grammar must be completely subordinated to the structural characteristics of the vocabulary. The grammatical structure of a planned 5 1. Introduction language determines its basic character precisely as does the structure of a natural language But the determination of the vocabulary leaves few grammatical questions wholly indeterminate. The vocabulary of IALA's form of the interlingua is that embodied in the Interlingua-English Dictionary. The fundamental principle of the corresponding grammar must be that this grammar shall be the minimum or simplest possible system ft to govern the use of the chosen vocabulary in coherent speech. IALA's endeavor to compile a dictionary of generally international words led of necessity to the assembly of a basically Romance vocabulary. The source languages to whose domain search and research could safely be restricted were Spanish and Portuguese, Italian, French, and English, with German and Russian as possible substitutes. 1 Hence a sound working principle in the elaboration of IALA's system of grammar is that the term "minimum grammar" shall not permit the suppression of any grammatical feature which according to the testimony of the source languages is indispensable in the government of their vocabularies and hence of the vocabulary of the interlingua embodied in the Interlingua-English Dictionary. In other words, every grammatical feature which is encountered