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An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language.
Auxiliary language
The term "auxiliary" implies that it is intended to be an additional language for the people of the world, rather than replace their native languages. Often, the phrase is used to refer to constructed languages proposed specifically to ease worldwide international communication, such as Esperanto, Ido, and Interlingua. However, it can also refer to the concept of such a language being determined by international consensus, including even a natural language so chosen.
Auxiliary languages are sometimes also referred to as planned languages. Some scholars subdivide them into the following two categories:
- A schematic planned language is a type of language whose grammar and morphology have been deliberately simplified and regularized, with idiosyncrasies from source languages (if any) removed, in order to be simpler and more streamlined than those of the ethnic languages, even if this should make the language's vocabulary relatively unrecognizable to newcomers to the language. The best known example of this type of language is Esperanto.
- A naturalistic planned language is specifically devised to reproduce the commonalities in morphology and vocabulary from a group of closely related languages, usually with the idea that such a language will be relatively easier to use passively -- in many cases, without prior study -- by speakers of one or more languages in the group. The term is most commonly used to apply to pan-Romance planned languages, though there have also been a few pan-Germanic, pan-Slavic and even pan-Celtic naturalistic planned languages. The best known languages of this type are Occidental and Interlingua.
Proposals
Proposals for languages to serve as an official international auxiliary language fall into two categories; sentential languages or diagrammatic/pictographic languages.
Sentential languages are written languages like English, or Spanish. While some existing sentential languages have been proposed to serve as an official international auxiliary language, the concept has been most commonly associated with constructed sentential languages such as Esperanto which were designed from the beginning to serve this purpose. Proponents of Esperanto often use the term planned language instead, derived from the Esperanto word planlingvo (but this is somewhat ambiguous since it could also refer to a standardized ethnic language or constructed languages in general). Invented auxiliary sentential languages are not widely used; nor has English penetrated universally, as some people imagine. Moreover, advocates of various languages disagree about which sentential language should be universal. To overcome these difficulties, it has been proposed that some language (natural or invented) be chosen by consensus of officials elected by the nations of the world, perhaps through the United Nations, in consultation with experts of various disciplines, a top-down approach. The adoption of an official script for the blind has also been proposed, to correspond to the chosen written international language. The sentential language would be implemented in each nation as an additional (second) language, alongside the national languages. A bottom-up strategy tries to spread the language among ordinary users, so that it becomes the de facto standard. However, the idea has not yet spread as widely as intended. Some people see the need for an official political endorsement from the nations of the world, backed by resources for instruction and implementation.
Diagrammatic languages are languages of drawing diagrams and pictures, like the schematics of electronic circuits, Chemical symbols, or the Energy Systems Language of Systems Ecology. Proposals for a diagrammatic language to be used as an international auxiliary go back as far as Leibniz's Characteristica Universalis. Modern forms of such languages are designed to convey and model the circuit properties of systems that involve energy, money and information flow through different compartmens. Unlike sentential languages, diagrammatic languages are widely used as auxiliaries to national sential lanaguages throughout the world in the scientific and engineering communities. Moreover languages like the Energy Systems Language have also been used in the search for sustainaiblity through an ambitious attempt to unify science, society and religions of the world by modeling and simulating embodied energy flows as a common basis for value. While there are international bodies concerned with the standardization of the various diagrammatic langauges, there does not appear to be any body motivated to promote any one diagrammatic language as an official standard for 'the' international auxiliary.
Sign language
An international auxiliary sign language has been developed by deaf people who meet regularly at international forums such as sporting events or in political organisations. Previously referred to as Gestuno but now more commonly known simply as 'international sign', the language has continued to develop since the first signs were standardised in 1973, and it is now in widespread use. International sign is distinct in many ways from spoken IALs; many signs are iconic and signers tend to insert these signs into the grammar of their own sign language, with an emphasis on visually intuitive gestures and mime.
See also
See List of constructed languages#Auxiliary languages for a list of constructed international auxiliary languages.
Sources
Sudre, François. "Langue musicale universelle inventée par François Sudre également inventeur de la téléphonie". G. Flaxland, Editeur, 4, place de la Madeleine, Paris (France), 1866.
Pirro, Jean, und L. A.. "Versuch einer Universalischen Sprache". Guerin und Cie., Bar-Le-Duc (France), 1868.
Mainzer, Prof. Ludwig, Karlsruhe. "Linguo international di la Delegitaro (Sistemo Ido.), Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Internationalen Sprache (Reform-Esperanto)". Otto Nemmich Verlag, Leipzig (Germany), 1909.
De Wahl, Edgar. "Radicarium directiv del lingue international (Occidental) in 8 lingues". A.-S. "Ühisell" Trükk. Pikk Uul. 42, Tallinn, 1925.
Gär, Joseph. "Deutsch-Occidental Wörterbuch nach dem Kürschners "Sechs-Sprachen-Lexicon", mit kurzer Occidental-Grammatik". Kosmoglott, Reval, Estland, 1925/1928.
Pigal, E. and the Hauptstelle der Occidental-Union in Mauern bei Wien. "OCCIDENTAL, Die Weltsprache, Einführung samt Lehrkursus, Lesestücken, Häufigkeitswörterverzeichnis u. a.", Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1930.
Gode, Alexander, et al. Interlingua-English: a dictionary of the international language. Storm Publishers, New York, 1951.
Pham Xuan Thai. "Frater (Lingua sistemfrater). The simplest International Language Ever Constructed". TU-HAI Publishing-House, Saigon (Republic of Vietnam), 1957.
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