Planning languages and language planning

Index Introduction Planning languages Before the I WW After the I WW Esperantic studies

Planning languages and language planning
The contribution of interlinguistics to cross-cultural
communication

Federico Gobbo
federico.gobbo@uninsubria.it
Insubria University


Introduction
1
What is Interlinguistics?
What is language planning?

Planning languages
2
Some basic facts

Before the I WW
3
Amateurs plan languages

After the I WW
4
Planned languages and linguistics

Esperantic studies
5
Evaluation of IALs
Current trends in Esperantic studies


A taxonomy problem

Interlinguistics, planned language, auxiliary language, language
planning...

What do these terms exactly mean?

This Introduction will give a solution to this taxonomy problem.



Interlingua, a term with very different meanings

‘Interlingua’ has at least 5 meanings:

as lingua franca, i.e. a language for communication between
people with different native tongues;
as a formal language in machine translation softwares;
as a language of L2 learners, i.e. with influences from L1 or
overregularization traits;
as the original name of the planned language of Giuseppe
Peano, better known as latino sine flexione;
as the name of the planned language of IALA, as published
under the direction of Alexander Gode.



Origins of Interlinguistics

The term was coined in 1911 by Jules Meysmans (1976, reprint),
but became known during the 2nd International Conference of
Linguistics in Geneve, 1931.
A new science is developing, Interlinguistics - that
branch of the science of language which deals with the
structure and basic ideas of all languages with the view
to the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i.e.
auxiliary languages destined for oral and written use
between people who cannot make themselves understood
by means of their mother tongues.

O. Jespersen, Interlinguistics (1931)



A deﬁnition of Interlinguistics

In this context, Interlinguistics is the study of international
linguistic communication in every aspect, including the roles,
structures, ways of development and application of ethnic and
planned languages, as international means of communication.

Interlinguistics may well give a contribution to the science of
language planning, exp. in language revitalization issues.



Language planning as language policy

According to Phillipson (2003), language planning is a
specialization in the sociology of language requiring input from
economics, demography, education and linguistics. It is a toolset
for language policy measures, and it has its major application at
the time of post-colonial states.

Furthermore, as demonstrated by Tsunoda (2005), language policy
measures should be taken to reverse language endangerment
situations, e.g. in eliminating socio-economic oppression, in raising
the prestige and the language attitude of the speakers themselves
and so promoting language loyalty.



Typical areas of language planning

status planning;
acquisition planning;
corpus planning;
lexicon planning;
structure planning.



Status and acquisition planning

According to Phillipson (2003), status planning is concerned with
attributing a status to a given language, e.g. laws or measures
specifying the rights of speakers to use their language.

An important subarea is acquisition planning, i.e. the way the
learning of languages is organizes in education, from preschool to
university.



Corpus and lexicon planning

Corpus planning refers to the codiﬁcation of permissible words and
forms of a language, i.e. the creation of a standard language
register. The ﬁrst institution created in the world for this is the
Accademia della Crusca (1584) in Italy.

An important subarea is the lexicon planning, e.g. the construction
of specialized terminology in widening the use areas of a given
language. A great help is given by language comparation – as in
translation issues. The role of auxiliary planned languages in the
work of Eugen W¨ster was very important: Esperanto and other
u
IALs were used as tertium comparationis (personal communication
from Blanke).



Structure planning: language revival

Structure planning refers to language revival situations, i.e. either
where there is no ﬂuent speaker left, but a signiﬁcant amount of
the language is known within the community (language renewal),
or where the language is no longer spoken and little is known orally
within the community, but there is earlier material on the language
(language reclamation).

The revival of Hebrew is a typical example of language
reclamation, while Welsh is an example of a language renewal
process. Typically, structure planning involves every aspect of the
language – in particular, the promotion of language-and-culture.



Language Planning and Interlinguistics

So, Interlinguistics is a part of the science of language planning.

Language planning is the methodical activity for
regulation and improvement of existing languages or
cretion of new regional, national or international
languages. [Interlinguistics] is the science of international
language planning.

V. Tauli, Introduction to a theory of language planning (1968)


The problem

‘Planned language’ is a term originally in German, invented by
Eugen W¨ster in 1931: Plansprache. A planned language is a
u
complete language system which started to be written before to be
spoken.

Using a planned language is a language viviﬁcation process, very
similar to structure planning in language revitalization issues. After
all, “all human languages can be imagined on a scale between
naturalness and artiﬁciality.” (Schubert 1989), e.g. Hebrew,
Bahasa Indonesa, Kiswahili.


How many planned languages?

In 2005, more than 1,400 planned languages have been indexed by
the Web site www.langmaker.com.

We will see the most important ones. The comparative text is part
of IALA’s Comparative Texts (Comparative Studies, series A, part
VI, division 1). The original text is taken from a book by Prof. W.
Ostwald Die Forderung des Tages (“The demand of the day”),
Leipzig, 1910.


The comparative text in English

The idea of a world literature, which Herder and Goethe conceived
essentially from the point of view of art, has now gained even
greater importance from the point of view of science. For, of the
things that mankind possesses in common, nothing is so truly
universal and international as science. Now all communication and
propogation of science uses the means supplied by language, and
so the internationality of science irresistably demands the
internationality of language. If we consider that today numerous
scientiﬁc works, particularly textbooks, are translated into twelve
or more foreign languages, then we understand what an immense
quantity of labour could be saved, if everywhere on the globe
books could be as generally understood as, for example, musical
notes or tables of logarithms.


Some basic facts

Features of planned languages

As noted by Alessandro Bausani, every planned language may be
esoteric (secret) or exoteric (public), and its aims may be ludic, for
pure game (Markuska by Bausani), literature (Tolkien’s languages),
ﬁction (Klingon by Mark Okrand) or for religious purposes
(Balai-balaan, in Bausani 1974) or auxiliary, i.e. as a lingua franca.

We will see that the axis esoterism-exoterism is a very important
one in the history of planned languages, even if constructed for
auxiliary purposes.


Some basic facts

The role of language amateurs in IALs

As Blanke (1998) said, language amateurs often attack problems
more bravely than professionals, i.e. linguists.
However, when diverse knowledge ﬁelds interrilate,
the ﬁrst pioneering work should made by amateurs. As
the discipline does not exist yet, so experts can’t exist
indeed. They appear later, when the discipline gets into
institutions.

W. Ostwald, Die Forderung des Tages (in Blanke 1998)


Some basic facts

What is a complete language system?

language use pragmatics

semantics

syntax

morphology

language core phonetics


Some basic facts

A-priori languages are not human languages!

The ancestors of planned languages are pasigraphics,
notion-to-symbol systems, i.e. visual semiospheres, in which ideas
are decomposed into atomic units and combined, as in Wilkins’
Real Character (1668), a sort of hypertext, or ontology, in modern
terms.

A-priori languages were created in the 17th and 18th centuries, and
they are closed systems – i.e. knowledge should be split up in
atoms in every part, and there is no possibility to accept new ideas
in the system. The authoritative work is still the collection fo
Couturat-Leau (1903).


Some basic facts

So, what is language planning?

language use pragmatics status and acquistion planning
writing system

semantics corpus planning (lexicon)

syntax

morphology structure planning

writing system
language core phonetics



The Golden Age of planned languages

Mostly, planned languages are made for auxiliary purposes, and
they have been published after Esperanto (1887) and before the II
World War (1939).

1879: Volap¨k by J. M. Schleyer.
u
1887: Esperanto by L.L. Zamenhof.
1903: Latino Sine Flexione by G. Peano.
1907: Ido by L. Couturat and L. Beaufront.
1922: Occidental/Interlingue by E. de Wahl.
1928: Novial by O. Jespersen.
1931: Basic English by Charles K. Ogden.
1951: Interlingua by A. Gode.



Volap¨k, by Johann Martin Schleyer
u

Volap¨k is the ﬁrst planned language for auxiliary purposes to have
u
succeed raising a community of practice. It was a great novelty in
time, as, unlike previous perfect languages, Volap¨k was based on
u
ethnic languages (English, French, German, Latin).

In order to be the most international as possible, Schleyer decided
not to use /r/ phoneme – for Asians – and to simplify
drammaticaly pronunciation, preferring monosyllabic words.



The structure of Volap¨k
u

The result is that words are unrecognizable to anyone, regardless of
the native tongue, e.g. volap¨k derives from ‘Vol’ (world), ‘a’
u
(GEN), ‘p¨k’ (speak). From the other side, its grammar is
u
perfectly regular.

When Esperanto was launched (1887), a lot of volapukist circles
(over 300 books and 25 reviews were regularly published in 1889)
left for the new lingvo internacia de d-ro Esperanto, the
international language of Dr. Esperanto. As a tribute to its
historical role, some people had started a Wikipedia version in
Volap¨k.
u



A specimen of Volap¨k
u
Pater Noster in Volap¨k, from Wikipedia
u

O Fat obas, kel binol in s¨s, paisaludom¨ nem ola!
u z
K¨mom ¨d monarg ¨n ola!
o o a
Jenom¨z vil olik, ¨s in s¨l, i su tal!
o a u
Bodi obsik v¨deliki govol ¨s obes adelo!
a o
E pardol¨s obes devis obsik,
o
a
¨s id obs aipardobs debeles obas.
E no obis nindukol ¨s in tendadi;
o
sod aidalivol¨s obis de bas.
o
Jenos¨d’ !
o



Esperanto, by L.L. Zamenhof (1887-1905)

L.L. Zamenhof published the ﬁrst book (unua libro) in Warsaw,
1887, under the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto (then, it became the
name of the language). It was written in Russian. It had an
immediate success, thanks of volapukists.

The limits of language variations were written down by Zamenhof
in 1905, when the ﬁrst Universala Kongreso occurred in France.
After that moment, every structure planning attempt had lead out
of the community of practice.



The structure of Esperanto

Esperanto is a pan-European product. Its source languages are:
Yiddish, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, English, French, Russian,
Polish and Hewbrew. It has the consonants of Yiddish (Litvak
variety) and the vowels of sefardic languages (5 Mediterranean). It
has a strictly phonematic writing, as e.g. Croatian.

The ﬁnal morphemes marks the part of speech: e.g. ‘o’ for nouns,
‘a’ for adjectives, ‘e’ for circumstantials, e.g. adverbs. It is an
agglutinative language as Hungarian or Turkish, and that’s why its
compound forms were accused to be “volapukisms”. E.g. junularo
‘jun’ (young), ‘ul’ (guy), ‘aro’ (set), i.e ‘Youth’.



The reasons of Esperanto

Zamenhof was an Ashkenazi influnced by the Haskalah (Jewish
Enlightenment) and freemasonry. The lingvo internacia was
intended to be at first a bridge between Jewish groups (a
proto-Zionist project), and then it became a bridge between people,
human beings in general. Speaking with a politically neutral
language, nationalisms would have died, according to Zamehof.

For historical reasons, the Jewish origins of Esperanto and the
relations with Zionism were taken as a secret by the earlier
supporters. Zamehof decided in 1905 to let the language free for
every use, i.e. its political and religious ideas wouldn’t influence
the community of Esperantists.



The comparative text in English

The idea of a world literature, which Herder and Goethe conceived
essentially from the point of view of art, has now gained even
greater importance from the point of view of science. For, of the
things that mankind possesses in common, nothing is so truly
universal and international as science. Now all communication and
propogation of science uses the means supplied by language, and
so the internationality of science irresistably demands the
internationality of language. If we consider that today numerous
scientiﬁc works, particularly textbooks, are translated into twelve
or more foreign languages, then we understand what an immense
quantity of labour could be saved, if everywhere on the globe
books could be as generally understood as, for example, musical
notes or tables of logarithms.



The comparitive text in Esperanto

La ideo pri mondliteraturo, kiun Herder kaj Goethe konceptis êfec
el la vidpunkto de la arto, akiris nun el la vidpunkto de la scienco
ˆ
multe pli gravan signifon. Car el la komunaj posedaˆ de la
oj
homaro, neniu estas tiel vere ênerala kaj internacia kiel la scienco.
g
Sed îu komunikado kaj disvastigado de la scienco uzas la helpilon
c
de la lingvo kaj tial la internacieco de la scienco nerezisteble
postulas la internaciecon de la lingvo. Se ni konsideras, ke
nuntempe kelkaj sciencaj verkoj, precipe lernolibroj, estas
tradukitaj en dek du au pli da fremdaj lingvoj, tiam ni komprenas,
kiom granda kvanto da laboro povus esti ˆparata, se libroj îe en la
s c
mondo povus esti tiel ênerale komprenataj kiel ekzemple la
g
muziknotoj au logaritmaj tabeloj.



Latino sine flexione, by Giuseppe Peano

It is the first simplified ethnic language, as it was intended to be
used by scholars and scientists with the help of a Latin dictionary,
almost without morphology (Chinese is the model). As explained
by Peano itself, the original idea is by Leibniz:

Poste publicatione de manuscriptos de Leibniz in
1903 me adopta in plure script Latini sine flexione; id es
lingua composito ex vocabulos latino, sine flexiones
grammaticale.

G. Peano, 1915 (in Blanke 1998)



The comparative text in Latino Sine Flexione

Idea de literatura mundiale, que Herder et Goethe habe intellecto
praecipue ex puncto de visu de arte, habe hodie acquisito, ex
puncto de visu de scientia, sensu etiam majore. Nam, de commune
possesiones de genere humano, nihil es tam generale et
internationale quam scientia. Sed omne communicatione et
propagatione de scientia ute auxilio de lingua, et ita
internationalitate de scientia postula in modo irresistibile
internationalitate de lingua. Si nos considera, que hodie plure
opere scientiﬁco, in particulare tractatus, es translato in duodecim
vel plus lingua extero, tunc nos cognosce quale immane mole de
labore pote es praeservato, si libros, ubicumque in terra, pote es
aequaliter intellecto in generale, sicut per exemplo notas musicale
aut tabulas de logarithmos.



Efforts towards an International Auxiliary Language (IAL)
The work of the D´l´gation pour l’adoption d’une langue auxiliaire internationale
ee

Louis Couturat launched a call for studies for the adoption of an
IAL in 1900, Paris. In 1907, 310 organizations and 1250 scholars
gave a fund, and a Commission was formed, with 12 members:
Hugo Schuchardt, Otto Jespersen, Baudouin de Courtenay, Emil
Boirac (for Esperanto), Giuseppe Peano (for Latino Sine Flexione)
and others. President: Wilhelm Ostwald. Secretaries: Lópold
e
Leau and Couturat.

The aim of the D´l´gation was to find a common and definitive
ee
form of the International Auxiliary Language (IAL), starting from
the existing ones, among the others Esperanto and Latino Sine
Flexione.



The debate between Couturat and Peano: a new direction

Couturat and Peano, both mathematicians and expert of Leibniz’s
works, exchanged a great number of letters in years 1896-1914
about maths and IALs. For Peano, the IAL should have no
morphology – as Latino Sine Flexione.

On the contrary, for Couturat: “il est impossibile de faire une
langue r´guli´re avec le latin... Vous ˆtes esclave et prisonnier du
ee e
vocabulaire latin classique... Por la d´termination du mot
e
international, l’´tymologie est inutile: il doit r´sulter, soit de la
e e
comparaison des mots des langues modernes, soit des r`gles dee
formation de la L.I.”.



The diﬃdence of Zamenhof
Why Interlinguistics became an “etherodox branch” (Martinet) of linguistics

Regarding your opinion about the so-called
volapukisms I don’t agree with you at all. You know, that
in 1894 I tried by myself to cut oﬀ every constructed
word, but afterwards I convinced myself this would be a
great mistake. To linguists every arbitrarily constructed
word in the beginning should be avoided, but for the
forecoming users of the language a certain number of
such words is absolutely necessary. I can’t write about
this in detail, for a lack of time, but I ask to you never
take suggestions from linguists, confront yourself only
with people who have a feeling for philology and a lot of
practice in Esperanto... who sincerely love the language
and want to see in it something eternal, living, powerful.

L.L. Zamenhof, Letter to Javal, 1906 (in Ludovikito 1980)



The results of the D´l´gation
ee

The Commission voted at unanimity the following declaration:

None of the existing languages may be accepted in block
without changes. But the Commission decided at
principle to adopt Esperanto for its relative perfection
and multifaceted use that has proved yet, but under the
reserve of more changes to be executed by a permanent
Commission (above, subcommittee) in the sense
indicated by the ﬁnal rapport of the secretaries and by
the project Ido, and, if possible, in agreement with the
Language Committee of Esperantists.

A language planning error: when a language enters its
“semiological life” (F. de Saussurre), it cannot be planned in
structure any more.



The Ido schism (1908)

Louis Couturat and Louis Beaufront, elaborated a Romanced,
Latinized version of Esperanto, called Ido (it means ‘offspring’). In
Ido, every Slavic element and mostly Germanic ones present in
Esperanto had been cut off. Quite paradoxically, Ido has
stimulated the linguistics of Esperanto, i.e. Esperantology.

They proposed the project as the result of the Del´gation, but
e
most members didn’t accept the form, and in fact they started
proposing other projects. Moreover, the Esperanto supporters
considered Ido a “schism”, and they became diffident towards
linguists. In the same years, linguistics became institutionalised.



The comparative text in Ido

La ideo pri mondo-literaturo, quan Herder e Goethe konceptis
esence del vidpunto dil arto, ganis nun del vidpunto dil cienco mem
plu granda importo. Nam del kozi, quin la homaro posedas
komune, nula es tam vere universala ed internaciona kam la cienco.
Or, omna komunikado e propagado dil cienco uzas la moyeno dil
linguo, do la internacioneso dil cienco postulas nerezisteble la
internacioneso dil linguo. Se ni konsideras, ke cadie sat multa
ciencala verki, specale lernolibri, tradukesas aden dekedu o plu
multa stranjera lingui, ni komprenas, qua enorma quanteso de
laboro povus sparesar, se libri omnaloke sur la terglobo povus
komprenesar tam generale, kam exemple muzikal noti o logaritmala
tabeli.



The Golden Age of planned languages

After the Great War, Couturat (1914) and Zamenhof (1917) were
died. The Esperanto and the Ido movements had a ﬁrm vitality –
congresses, books, reviews, services. Linguists got interest in IALs.

1879: Volap¨k by J. M. Schleyer.
u
1887: Esperanto by L.L. Zamenhof.
1903: Latino Sine Flexione by G. Peano.
1907: Ido by L. Couturat and L. Beaufront.
1922: Occidental/Interlingue by E. de Wahl.
1928: Novial by O. Jespersen.
1931: Basic English by Charles K. Ogden.
1951: Interlingua by A. Gode.



The novelty of Occidental (1922)

Edgard De Wahl was a supporter of Volap¨k and became one of
u
the ﬁrst 1,000 Esperantists, before 1894. After the ballot about
reforming Esperanto, based on a proposal by Zamenhof itself, he
followed Ido and then he proposed his own project, named
Occidental.

Although he was a language amateur, he introduced a new
principle in IAL planning. He tried to standardize the morphology
of Romance languages, as most international vocabulary derives
from this language group, even if passed in English. Occidental is
deeply inﬂuenced by French.



Two principles, two directions in planning a IAL
Existe du principies: li un es li regulari grammatica e clar
e precis derivation, e li altri li usation de paroles ja
conosset, por ne cargar li memorie del usatores, e por
max facilmen intercomprender-se.

Ma li fatal cose esset, que ti du principies presc strictmen
contradictet li un al altri. Pro to Schleyer obsedet del id´
e
que li grammatica es lu principal in su Volap¨k negliget li
u
vocabularium international. [...] Peano mem eat in su
Latino sine Flexione till abolir li tot grammatica. Ma to
arudimentat talmen su lingue que su adherentes esset
fortiat introducter divers arbitrari grammatical formes,
quam por ex. e quel signiﬁca li preterit.

E. De Wahl, Evolution: du principios, du directiones, Cosmoglotta,
1930



Occidental tries to be a synthesis
Un´simili in li systema Occidental ti harmonisation
e
esset attin´t in comparativmen alt gradu. Un absolut
e
harmonisation, quam ja dit, ne es possibil. Pro to on anc
ne posse haver un ﬁx l´ ımite a quel li lingue va evoluer. In
fact ti evolution posse marchar in li direction de sempre
plu grand naturalit` e do anc ´
a ınregularit`, o in li opposit
a
direction a plu grand regularit` con autonomi derivation
a
de propri paroles, forsan divergent del existent
international tales. Quel direction nu fact li va secuer li
evolution, es ancor ´ ınpossibil predir ye li hodial momente.
Chascun del du directiones depende del constellation del
usatores.

E. De Wahl, Evolution: du principios, du directiones, Cosmoglotta,
1930



The comparative text in Occidental

Li id´ pri mund-literature, quel Herder e Goethe hat conceptet
e
esentialmen ex li vidpunctu del arte, ha nu ganat ancor mult plu
grand importantie ex li vidpunctu del scientie. Nam de omni
comun possedages del homanit` niun es tam vermen general e
a
international, quam scientie. Ma omni comunication e
transmediation del scientie usa li medie del lingue. Do li
internationalit` del scientie ´
a ınresistibilmen postula li
internationalit` del lingue. Si noi considera, que hodie pluri
a
sciential ovres, specialmen libres de aprension, trova se traductet in
decidu o plu foren lingues, tande noi comprende quel immens
quantit` de labor on vell economisar, si on vell posser comprender
a
libres part´ sur li glob sam generalmen quam por exemples notes e
u
tabelles de logaritmes.



Novial, by Otto Jespersen (1928)

Otto Jespersen was deeply convinced of the need to ﬁnd a
acceptable form for the IAL, so he tried to combine Esperanto, Ido,
Occidental in a new project, called Novial.

Novial is very regular in structure and readable by people educated
in European-based cultures. This is the last attempt to planning
from structure: the direction of Interlinguistics will be more and
more planning from corpus, and in particular from the lexicon.



The comparative text in Novial

Li idee pri monde-literature, kel Herder e Goethe koncepted
esentialim fro li vidpunctu del arte, ha nun ganat mem multim plu
grand importanteso fro li vidpunctu del scientie. Den ek li coses kel
li homaro posese comunim, nuli es tam verim general e
international kam li scientie. Or omni comunico e mediatione del
scientie usa li moyene del lingue, dunke li internationaleso del
scientie demanda nonresistablim li internationaleso del lingue. Si
nus considera ke disdi pluri sciential verkes, particularim lernolibres,
es traductet en dekdu e plu multi stranjeri lingues, tand nus
comprenda qui imensi quanteso de laboro povud bli sparat, si libres
povud omnilok sur li globe bli comprendat tam generalim kam
exemplim musical notes o tabeles de logaritmes.



Basic English, an ethnic-based planned language

Ch. K. Ogden, author of The Meaning of Meaning, proposed the
Basic English in 1931, under the support of Churchill. As Latino
Sine Flexione, he had a lexicon planning-driven approach. Basic
English should have 850 basic words, divided in three categories
(things, qualities, operators).

Every concept may be expressed by circumlocutions: to descend
becomes to come down/to go down, to wander becomes to go
from place to place without aim. Nowadays, this principle is
followed in building dictionaries for advanced learners. In De
Wahl’s terms, it’s an extreme: no structure planning is performed.



A new IAL from linguists

Andr´ Martinet in the 6th Congress of Linguistics, 1948, Paris,
e
announced its work for an IAL, as Jespersen did in 1928.
French would lose nothing if, instead of saying: je vais, tu
vas, nous allons, nous irons you say j’alle, tu alles, nous
allons, nous allerons: so it would be simpler for all.
Consequently, the contact with a language such as Ido
convinced be that something essential in every language
really exists: its structure – phonological, grammatical, it
doesn’t matter, and that every morphological intrication,
pushed by tradition, is useless, and only get
communication more diﬃcult.

A. Martinet, Interview to Franca Esperantisto (1992)



The role of IALA

The International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) tried to
make the work of the D´l´gation again under a more scientiﬁc
ee
point of view and with a lot of money – among others, Rockfeller’s.

IALA was found by by Mrs. Vanderbilt-Morris in 1924 in
Swizerland. It started an impossible attempt to synthetize
Esperanto, Ido, Esperanto II (by Rene´ De Saussure, 1910), Novial
e
and Occidental. In the 1930s Herbert L. Schenton and Edward L.
Thorndike tried to measure the propedeutical value of Esperanto
for English L1 learners of French.



IALA after the II World War

Because of the war, IALA went to New York in 1943. Here Mrs.
Morris tried to establish two groups of linguists working on the
definitive form of the IAL. The first group (3 people) was lead by
Andr´ Martinet, who joined in 1946, and they prepared an
e
autonomous system, by classics of structuralism and functionalism
in linguistics, similar to Occidental

The second group (5 people) was lead by Alexander Gode,
philogist and expert of Romance languages. Under the influence of
Basic English and the experiments of Thorndike, his group
introduced the propedeutic principle: the IAL should provide basic
introduction to national languages with vocabularies based on word
frequency statistics. In particular, Gode wanted to prove the
Standard Average European hypothesis by Benjamin Lee Whorf.



Interlingua by A. Gode (1951)

After a ballot into 3,000 informants between 4 proposals, the
winning form of Interlingua was Gode’s, wha had the votes of
not-Romance and English natives. Unsurprisingly, Martinet’s form
had the votes of French natives.

Io non voleva partir del latino ma trovar le parolas
que le gente comprenderea al lectura directemente sin
haber apprendite le lingua o forsan con un minimo de
apprentissage. Un sorta de parve libretto esserea
suﬃcente. Lo que on pote reprochar a Gode es haber
automaticamente limitate le internationalitate al linguas
romanic.

A. Martinet, Interview to Panorama, (62, 1998)



A specimen of Interlingua
Le genese del lingua universal coincide con le genese
del civilisation. Le vision historic e genetic del
interdependentia de civilisation e lingua universal es
certemente un vision revolutionari. Qui aspira a un
moderne lingua universal debe familiar se con este
interdependentia. In este nostre studio nos cerca
demonstrar factos e fortias que governa le
interdependentia de civilisation e lingua universal. In tal
maniera nos va ganiar un vision profunde in le processo
del genese de linguas universal, e nos va discoperir le
leges del genese e del developpamento. Le autor non
parti de hipoteses o teorias, ma prefere sequer le metodo
empirico-inductive, que consiste in le collection de factos
e in le tentativa de organisar este factos a un succession
regular, subjecte a leges natural.


Evaluation of IALs

Have planned languages some vitality?

Possible metrics may be taken from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. Number of articles (February 2006):

950,000 + in English
350,000 + in German
233,000 + in French
38,000 + in Esperanto
13,000 + in Ido
2,900 + in Interlingua
265 in Interlingue (ex Occidental)
46 in Volap¨k
u

Esperanto is clearly the winner.


Evaluation of IALs

What we may learn from IALs’ history?

From estimates ofGesellschaft F¨r Interlingvistik (GIL), about 60%
u
of interlinguistics literature is written in planned languages (and
95% in Esperanto). Too often I ﬁnd English-only bibliography in
interlinguistic papers.

In general, the (un)success of an IAL in the world is due to a
failure of status and acquisition planning, i.e. quasi-extralinguistic
factors. Moreover, a key part of Esperanto success is to the
language policy of the founder: absolute freedom of use and
absolute closeness to reforms, at least after 1905, i.e. the ﬁrst
international public meeting.


Evaluation of IALs

Esperanto is a language that created a new culture

Among IALs, Zamenhof’s project always was the most used in
practice, and survived II World Wars, in spite of persecutions by
Nazis and Stalinists. (Remember that Zamenhof was a Jew).
Why? Because Esperantists believe in it. Zamenhof started
translating classics of world literature and proverbs. People use it
for theater, rock music, podcasting, whatever. After all, ordinary
people – not linguists – prefer to use a language instead of
questioning about grammar details without using it!

Esperanto is the proof that a language can create a culture.



Esperantology and Esperantic studies

Eugen W¨ster (1955) say that Esperantology – a branch of
u
Interlinguistics – is the language planning ﬁeld for Esperanto, i.e.
how to lead consciously an organized evolution of the Esperanto
language.

Conversely, the Esperantic studies underlines the study of
Esperanto as a living language, i.e. without structural language
planning eﬀorts, exactly as every natural language. This is the
approach followed by the Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF).



A small corpus fo contemporary spoken Esperanto

lernu.net is a e-learning portal made entirely by volunteers to
learn Esperanto on-line – now from 24 languages, from Mandarine
to Lithuanian.

It uses a lot interaction (live chat) and video and audio materials.
There are intervjuetoj (“small interviews”) about general questions
to young informants: 64 interviews to 11 people from Italy, South
Corea, Russia, France, Venezuela, Canada, Montenegro, Lithuania,
Scotland, Japan. In total, about 700 sentences.



An explorative study on pragmatics and politeness

In Esperanto, asking: “where are you from?” is quite unpolite.
Most esperantists have a complex notion of identity relating place
and languages: they feel more linked to languages than places, e.g.
“I am Italian as my language is Italian, even if I live in Britain”.

One of the most asked questions is: “how many languages do you
know?” Esperantists tend to exaggerate their knowledge and to
consider minority languages or dialects simply languages.
Theoretically, languages give prestige into the community, even if
paradoxically one is expected to speak to Esperanto with one own’s
natives, e.g. a group of only Germans will speak Esperanto in a
meeting very naturally (otherwise, you are a krokodilo).



Pragmatics of Esperanto as an endangered language?

Esperanto gives no social prestige out of the community, so
speakers may be a bit close and fanatical about the virtues of the
language, as sometimes happen with speakers of endangered
languages.

Of course, talkin in English (or any other lingua franca) as a
foreign language (kajmani) is absolutely anathema, save to
externals, e.g. journalists or other people in visit. An other typical
question is: “how did you learn Esperanto?”, meaning ‘how did
you entered our world? Who or what introduced you’. Nota bene:
to be an Esperantist you don’t need to know (well) the language,
you need to go to a meeting.



Esperanto as a Language Ecology tool

The Language Ecology paradigm is a view in which
commodiﬁcation, eﬀectiveness, communication (Rationalist view,
Blommaert) is less important than authenticity, identity, expression
(Romantic view). Linguistic diversity is treated as biodiversity – a
richness of humankind (Phillipson, Skutnabb-Kangas).

The 4th Nitobe Symposium, Vilnius, 2005, adapted the Universal
Declaration of Linguistic Rights (Barcellona, 1996) to the situation
of enlarged EU.



Nitobe Conclusions, Commitments
4. Alternative visions.
Defining and defending the status and needs of small national
and non-national language communities, both indigenous and
immigrant, within the EU;
Developing policy frameworks to ensure that any widely used
lingua franca does not undermine the continued vitality of
national languages, the equal treatment of their speakers in
EU institutions, and the preservation of cultural diversity;
Exploring the potential role of Esperanto within an EU
language framework, with particular regard to the economic
benefits of its use as a pivot language in translation and
interpretation, its efficacy as an introduction to foreign
language education, and its advantages as a medium of
intercultural communication;



Thanks

I want to acknowledge Detlev Blanke for his unvaluable help.

Attribuzione - Non Commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 2.0 Italia
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