A E I O U F H J K L M N P R S T W [The Alphabet]
5 VOWELS
A O U [a]¹ [o] [u]²
E I [e]³ [i]
Long Vowels:
Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū [a:] [e:] [i:] [o:] [u:]4
¹ may be pronounced [ɑ]
² may be pronounced [ɯ]
³ may be pronounced [ɛ]
4 if macrons cannot be used, double the letter: e.g. aa for ā.
12 CONSONANTS
Stops: K P T [k] [p] [t]
Nasals: N M [n] [m]
Fricatives: S H F [s]¹ [h]² [f]3
Glides: W J [w] [j]
Liquid / Flap: R L [r]4 [l]
¹ may be pronounced [ʃ]
² may be pronounced [x]
³ may be pronounced [φ] or [υ]
4 may be pronounced [ɾ] or [ɹ]
Voiced stops and fricatives are not used because there is no difference between voiced and voiceless stops/fricatives in many languages. The letters used for the sounds are the resp. IPA symbols. The choice of the sounds is based on the frequency of the sounds in world's languages.
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
An International Auxiliary Language
I have been toying with the idea of an international auxiliary language for years. I have gotten acquainted with the peculiarities of Esperanto and the wonders of Slovio and other innumerable quests to plan an auxlang which would facilitate the communication between people with different native tongues. Most of the auxlangs I have come across are
either philosophical and based on pure logic or practical and imitate natural languages both of which have their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I have come to support the idea of an auxlang that
imitates natural languages.The question is: "Which language?" "Latin", some people say. the others say: "Romance languages". The third ones think it should be based on common Slavonic roots, the fourth group might rather go for Proto-Indoeuropean roots. This is were we tend to forget the main idea of creating an international auxiliary language. We are creating an auxiliary language but there isn't much international in it. Instead of concentrating on a certain language family and its opportunities and restrictions, my proposal is (I) to concentrate on the universally shared features of the human language, (II) to make the language so phonetically and morphologically simple that the great majority of people would have no problem acquiring good skills in comprehending and producing it, (III) to exploit any natural language ignoring its
spread and prestige.
either philosophical and based on pure logic or practical and imitate natural languages both of which have their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I have come to support the idea of an auxlang that
imitates natural languages.The question is: "Which language?" "Latin", some people say. the others say: "Romance languages". The third ones think it should be based on common Slavonic roots, the fourth group might rather go for Proto-Indoeuropean roots. This is were we tend to forget the main idea of creating an international auxiliary language. We are creating an auxiliary language but there isn't much international in it. Instead of concentrating on a certain language family and its opportunities and restrictions, my proposal is (I) to concentrate on the universally shared features of the human language, (II) to make the language so phonetically and morphologically simple that the great majority of people would have no problem acquiring good skills in comprehending and producing it, (III) to exploit any natural language ignoring its
spread and prestige.
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