Interlect: YAIAL, a personal view

Disclaimer:

  The following project is a personal academic project for which I would
appreciate the collaboration and constructive criticism from the people
in this forum.

  The purpose of this project is not to design the ultimate and
definitive auxiliary language, nor to promote a particular auxiliary
language or to promote the use of planned auxiliary languages.

  My goals by sharing this project in this forum is to get feedback on
what are the most notable flaws on this particular and personal vision
of what a planned auxiliary language would be, and to discuss this
planned auxiliary language as a constructed language.

  Flaws on interlinguism as an ideal, movement or whatever should be
discussed in the other forums of threads.  I am not a fan of
interlinguism myself and I don't need to be reminded of that.

  I apologize if you feel that this theme is not proper for this forum
and I apologize beforehand if the replies on this thread threatens the
forum.

Design purposes:

  Interlect (provisional name), is a planned language designed for being
used as international auxiliary language (AIL).

  Interlect should be designed for ease of learning as second language
regardless of background of the speaker.

  Interlect should be able to specialized use in science, technological
work and legal speech with minimum ambiguity.

Design approach:

  Modularity, with different language/dialects of different degree of
complexity.

  Integration of the modules (more complex and specialized dialects
based on the simpler and more general ones).

  Pidgin/Creole based grammar in the _basic_ (most general) language.

  Around 1000 roots in the _basic_ language.

ORIGINAL DRAFT:

Phonology:
The language has the following set of phonemes (orthography at the
right)
consonants:
 m  p  b  f      w  |  m p b f     w
 n  t  d  s  r l    |  n t d s r l
    c  J\ C      j  |    c j x     y
    k  g  x         |    k g h
vowels:
 i   u              |  i   u
  e  o              |   e  o
   a                |    a

The voiceless stops are aspirated but unaspirated are acceptable.  The
voiced stops might be fricatives or even frictionless (approximants) in
intervocalic position.
/r/ is an alveolar tap, flap or trill.

  <c> and <j> might alternatively be affricates and/or postalveolar.
<x> might be postalveolar.

Syllable structure:
  The basic language is chiefly (C)V(F) with C any consonant and F one
consonant between <n>/<m>, <s>, <r>, <w> and <y>.  (<n> and <m> have no
contrast syllable final).

For technical vocabulary (C(L))V(F) syllables are allowed with F from a
larger set and L taken from <l>, <r>, <w>.  Restrictions apply.

Vocabulary structure:

The roots from the basic language are all CV(N)C-, (N is either <m> or
<n> accorfing to the following C) functional particles are CV(F).  The
endings of the roots from the basic language are:
  -o: for nouns
  -a: for nouns
  -e: for verbs in indicative
  -ar: for verbs in infinitive
  -i: for adjectives.

Foreign words that are CV(N)CV, should change their endings when
imported if they are in conflict with the above endings.  Specialized
vocabulary does not have to conform with this root structure nor
endings.

Particles:
This are functional, rather than semantical, words, and might be
articles, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.  The main particles
are:


Las principales partículas son:

a: dative preposition - marks that the following nominal group is the
indirect objetc.
  Si Carlos dabe ni libo a si Lucía - Carlos gives Lucía a Book.

ba: interrogative particle - used at the end of a sentence asks if the
sentence is true.
  Si Carlos pire li domo ba? - Does Carlos burn the house?

ha: perfect aspect Adverb. - shows that the action has already happened
in the reference time:
  Si Carlos ha compe li libo - Carlos has bought a book.

li: definite article - marks following word as a noun and shows that is
a known entity.
  Si Carlos ha compe li libo - Carlos has bought the book.

ni: indefinite article - marks following word as a noun and shows that
is a new entity.
  Si Carlos dabe ni libo a si Lucía - Carlos gives Lucía a book.

no: negative adverb - shows that the sentence is negative.
  Si Carlos no ha pire li domo - Carlos hasn't burn the house.

on: continuous aspect adverb - shows that the accion is currently
happening.
  Si Carlos on compe ni libo - Carlos is buying a book.

pu: agentive preposition - shows that the following nominal group is the
agent.
  Li domo ise pirari pu si Carlos - The house is burned by Carlos.

se: middle voice adverb - shows that the verb is intransitive and the
subject is the pacient.
  Li domo se pire - The house is burning.

si: personal article - marks that the following word is a proper name.
  Si Carlos dabe ni libo a si Lucía - Carlos gives Lucía a book.

ta: accusative preposition - marks that the following nominal group is
the direct object.
  Ta li domo si Carlos pire - The house, Carlos burns.
  Si Carlos ame ta si Lucía - Carlos loves Lucía.

us: habitual aspect adverb - shows that the action happens on regular
basis.
  Si Carlos us compe ni libo - Carlos use to buy books.

xa: patientive preposition - marks that the following nominal group is
the patient.
  Se pire xa li domo - It's burning, the house.

If context is enough particles can be dropped, i.e.
  {pu} and {xa} might be omitted if the subject and before the verb.
{ta} is not needed with inanimate concepts when the object is just after
the verb.  Articles might always be omitted.

Pronouns:
1st: mi (sg), mimi (pl ex), nos (pl).
2nd: wo
3rd: lo/la

{nos} is general (might be either inclusive or exclusive), while {mimi}
is explicitly exclusive.
{la} applies to words ending in -a and to females.
{lo} applies to words ending in -o and to males.

Number:
There is no grammatized number (except in the first person pronouns).
When needed quantity might be marked:
  generic:  li domo (the house or the houses)
  singular: li un domo (the house)
  plural:   li domo domo (the houses)
            li muti domo (the many houses)
            li wari domo (the few houses)

If context is not enough, generic would be taken for singular.
  Si Carlos ha compe ni libo      - Carlos has bought a book.
  Si Carlos ha compe ni libo libo - Carlos has bought books.
  Si Carlos us compe ni libo      - Carlos use to buy books.
  Si Carlos us compe ni un libo   - Carlos use to buy the same book.

Note that in the habitual, the implicit number for {compe} is plural.


Cardinal numbers:
  n:      sero, un, do, tre, kwa, kwin, six, seti, oto, now, dis ...
  10+n:   dis, unsi, dosi, tresi, dis kwa, dis kwin, dis six,
          dis seti, dis oto, dis now, vin ...
  10*n:   sero, dis, vin, treti, kwati, kwinti, sixti,
          setiti, ototi, nowti, centi ...
  100*n   sero, xenti, doxenti, trexenti, kwaxenti, kwinxenti,
          sixenti, setixenti, otoxenti, nowxenti, mil ...
  1000*n: sero, mil, do mil, tre mil, kwa mil, kwin mil ...
  1000^n: un, mil, un milyon, un milyar (mil milyon), un bilyon,
          un bilyar (mil bilyon), un trelyon, ...

For complex numbers, the most significant part comes first:
  1972: (un) mil nowxenti setiti do
        (un)milnowcentisetitido
        (un-)mil-nowcenti-setiti-do

The elements might come separated by spaces (preferred for small
numbers), by hyphens (preferred for larger numbers, but the numeric
figure would probably fit better) or as a single word.

-- Carlos Th

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