Talk:Interlingua grammar

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[edit] 'Let them eat cake'

(Que illes mangia le brioche)

Can this be said in this way:

Lassa illes mangia le brioce.

--Jondel 00:22, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

As I see it, it could be, if the intended meaning is "Permit them to eat cake". But what Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote (later attributed to Marie Antoinette) was "Qu'illes mangent de la brioche", which is more like "They should eat cake". If you've never heard it, the old story runs like this:

"My lady, the peasants are rioting."

"Rioting? Whatever for?"

"Bread, my lady. They have no bread."

"No bread? Well, let them cake. It's much nicer." --Chris 14:54, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] missing alternative forms

It's good to see this all laid out, CJGB. However, there are several alternate forms at [1] that I don't see here. Even if they're rare, it would be good to include them, so that people can identify them if they come across them.

  • Future vol + INF (Io vol scriber te.)
  • Demonstratives: ce, is, esse, isse (no distinction for distance); este, celle, id
  • Comparisons: tam ... quam (as ... as), minime, maxime
  • Conjunctions:
atque, et (and), aut, vel (or), dunque (therefore), itaque (that's why), ma (but), nec (neither nor), pois (because), sive ... sive (whether ... whether)

Perhaps aut and vel represent an inclusive/exclusive distinction?

There are also alt versions of subjunctions and prepositions, but the regular forms aren't covered yet. kwami 02:40, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I'd like to include this kind of stuff, and plan to put some of them (the more common ones) in the "Variants" section. I wouldn't put it all of them, though. First, 'cos this is an overview, not a textbook; second, 'cos I think they belong in a different article, maybe one on Interlingua vocabulary.--Chris 07:14, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Thinking about, there should be a Prepositions section. But I wouldn't list every preposition there. This isn't a dictionary. My feeling is the article as a whole should follow Gode's preferences as expressed in Gode & Blair's 1951 Grammar. The Variants section should cover significant variants (meaning, in widespread use), basically the usage you find in Panorama, plus Stan Mulaik's innovations. I'd also include things like ella, cos they're mention in the Gode & Blair. That's where I'd put the cutoff point, 'cos you don't want long lists of (to the reader) meaningless particles from IED. We should mention, I think, that the original Interlingua-English Dictionary contains those "square bracket" words, most of which are not used by anyone.

I think you're right that aut/vel is supposed to be an inclusive/exclusive distinction. As far as I know, no-one uses it.

Perhaps there should be an article on Interlingua Variants, not for lists of alternative particles, but to document actual alternative versions of Interlingua, like the "Blair" version from 1951, Josu Lavin's Romanica, and a couple of others. It could provide more info on the variants you get within normal Interlingua, but I'd only want to talk about stuff that is in actual use (e.g., by competant users in Interlng or wherever), not totally stillborn stuff from the IED.--Chris 14:43, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

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