| Intal | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Erich Weferling |
| Date created | 1956 |
| Setting and usage | international auxiliary language |
| Users | virtually extinct (date missing) |
| Category (purpose) | |
| Category (sources) | a posteriori language, developed as a compromise system between Esperanto, Ido, Occidental-Interlingue, Neo and Novial |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | art |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Intal is an international auxiliary language, published in 1956 by the German linguist Erich Weferling. The name of the language is the acronym for INTernational Auxiliary Language. Intal had the intention to unite the most important existing systems of an international auxiliary language like Esperanto, Ido, Occidental-Interlingue, Neo, Novial and Interlingua into a compromise system.
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In the year 1956 Erich Weferling published the first version of his system Intal. The final version of Intal was published by Weferling in the year 1978.
Weferling saw his Intal as a compromise solution for the most important constructed language, so he deliberately abstained from creating a complete dictionary of Intal. He regarded the existing different constructed languages as dialects of one common international language. He recommended to use the vocabulary of the major international auxialary languages which should be adapted to the orthography and phonology of Intal.
Weferling wrote most of his material on Intal in the language himself. In the year 1976 Weferling even published his autobiography "Ek le vive de un oldi interlinguistiker" (From the life of an old Interlinguist) in Intal.
After the death of Weferling in the year 1982 his efforts were nearly forgotten and the authorities of the still active organizations of constructed language showed no readiness to change their system according to Intal or to unify.
Intal uses the latin alphabet without special signs. The Intal alpabet has 23 letters, 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 19 consonants (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, y, z). The consonants q, w and x are only used in proper names and foreign words.
c is pronounced like sh in English, g like in the German languages, j like in French and y and z like in English.
The stress of a word is always on the vowel before the last consonant. If this rule does not apply, the stress is marked by an accent like in idé and tabú.
The definite article in Intal is le. It is used the same for singular and plural and for all genders. The indefinite article in Intal is un. It is used for all genders, but only in singular.
Nouns have no specific ending. The usual euphonic ending is -e like: libre book, table table, but also manu hand and hotel hotel.
Natural gender of living entities can be expressed by -o for male gender and -a for female gender: like kavale horse, kavalo stallion, kavala mare.
The plural is marked by 's like table's tables.
The genitive case is expressed by the preposition de and with the definite article it becomes del, like del patro of the father. The dative case which indicates the indirect object is formed by the prepostion a or with the definite article al, like al patro to the father. The accusative case which indicates the direct object is identical with the nominative. Only when the word order is changed one can use the particle -em, like Vu-em me danka It is you that I thank.
Adjectives end usually in –i: boni good, beli beautiful. The ending -i can be omitted for euphonic reasons. The adjective is not changed according to case, gender or singular/plural. It is placed before the subject.
Adverbs are mostly derived from adjectives by changing the ending to –im. Examples: bonim well, verim truly.
in in, a to, sur on, etc.
e and, o or, si if, ma but, etc.
The basic word order is subject–verb–object.
Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller
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