Novial | |
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Created by | Otto Jespersen |
Date created | 1928 |
Setting and usage | international auxiliary language |
Category (purpose) | |
Category (sources) | Romance and Germanic languages; also Occidental and Ido |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nov |
Linguasphere | 51-AAB-dc |
Novial [nov- ("new") + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language. It was devised by Professor Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who was previously involved in the Ido movement, and subsequently in the development of Interlingua.
Its vocabulary is based largely on the Germanic and Romance languages and its grammar is influenced by English.
Novial was first introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928 [1]. It was updated in his dictionary Novial Lexike in 1930 [2], and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.[3] In the 1990s, with the revival of interest in constructed languages brought on by the Internet, some people rediscovered Novial.[3]
Contents |
Novial was first described in Jespersen’s book An International Language (1928). Part One of the book discusses the need for an IAL, the disadvantages of ethnic languages for that purpose, and common objections to constructed IALs. He also provides a critical overview of the history of constructed IALs with sections devoted to Volapük, Esperanto, Idiom Neutral, Ido, Latino sine Flexione and Occidental (Interlingue). The author makes it clear that he draws on a wealth of earlier work on the problem of a constructed IAL, not only the aforementioned IALs.
Part Two of An International Language describes Novial in detail. Alternative possible solutions for problems in the phonology, orthography, grammar and word-stock are considered. The choices made are explained by comparison with ethnic languages and previously constructed IALs.
Capital letters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Y | CH | SH |
Lower case | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
a | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | x | y | ch | sh |
IPA phonemes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
a | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | ʒ | k | l | m | n | o | p | k | r | s | t | u | v | ks | j | tʃ | ʃ |
Jespersen suggested that it might be possible instead of the digraphs SH and CH to use the phonetic symbol ʃ.[1]
For more details, see the Pronunciation Guide of the Novial Wikibook.
Person | English (Nominative) | English (Accusative) | Novial |
---|---|---|---|
1st Singular | I | Me | Me |
2nd Singular | You | You | Vu |
3rd Singular (Male) | He | Him | Lo |
3rd Singular (Female) | She | Her | La |
3rd (Common) | N/A (He/She/They) | N/A (Him/Her/Them) | Le |
3rd Singular (Neuter) | It | It | Lu |
Impersonal | One/They/You | One/Them/You | On |
1st Plural | We | Us | Nus |
2nd Plural | You | You | Vus |
3rd Plural (Male) | They | Them | Los |
3rd Plural (Female) | They | Them | Las |
3rd Plural (Common) | They | Them | Les |
3rd Plural (Neuter) | They | Them | Lus |
Note that in Novial the Nominative and Accusative pronouns are the same.
The standard word order is subject-verb-object, as in English. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject: E.g.:
The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, in case of an ambiguity problem, an optional accusative ending, -m (-em after a consonant), is available but is rarely used. The preposition em is equivalent to this ending.
The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both "my" and "mine" ("of me"): E.g.:
Possession may also be expressed with the pronoun de: de me, de vu, and so on.
Person | English (Nominative) | English (Possessive) | Novial |
---|---|---|---|
1st Singular | My | Mine | Men |
2nd Singular | Your | Yours | Vun |
3rd Singular (Male) | His | His | Lon |
3rd Singular (Female) | Her | Hers | Lan |
3rd Singular (Common) | N/A (His/Her/Their) | N/A (His/Hers/Theirs) | Len |
3rd Singular (Neuter) | Its | Its | Lun |
Impersonal | One's/Their/Your | One's/Theirs/Yours | Onen |
1st Plural | Our | Ours | Nusen |
2nd Plural | Your | Yours | Vusen |
3rd Plural (Male) | Their | Theirs | Losen |
3rd Plural (Female) | Their | Theirs | Lasen |
3rd Plural (Common) | Their | Theirs | Lesen |
3rd Plural (Neuter) | Their | Theirs | Lusen |
Verb forms never change with person or number. Most verb tenses, moods and voices are expressed with auxiliary verbs preceding the root form of the main verb. The auxiliaries follow the same word order as the English equivalent. The pronouns are indicated with parentheses and are given for example purposes.
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to protect | protekte |
Present | (I) protect | (me) protekte |
Present Perfect | (I) have protected | (me) ha protekte |
Simple Past | (I) protected | (me) did protekte or (me) protekted |
Past Perfect | (I) had protected | (me) had protekte |
Future | (I) shall protect or (I) will protect | (me) sal protekte or (me) ve protekte |
Future Perfect | (I) shall have protected or (I) will have protected | (me) sal ha protekte or (me) ve ha protekte |
Future In The Past | (I) was going to protect | (me) saled protekte |
Conditional | (I) would protect | (me) vud protekte |
Conditional Perfect | (I) would have protected | (me) vud ha protekte |
First Imperative | Let (me) protect! | Let (me) protekte! |
Second Imperative | protect! | protekte! |
Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verb to be followed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expressed with the verb to get which is used in the examples below.
The passive voice of becoming is formed with the auxiliary bli followed by the root verb form.
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to get protected | bli protekte |
Present | (I) get protected | (me) bli protekte |
Present Perfect | (I) have got protected | (me) ha bli protekte |
Simple Past | (I) got protected | (me) blid protekte |
Past Perfect | (I) had got protected | (me) had bli protekte |
Future | (I) shall get protected or (I) will get protected | (me) sal bli protekte or (me) ve bli protekte |
Future Perfect | (I) shall have got protected or (I) will have got protected | (me) sal ha bli protekte or (me) ve ha bli protekte |
Future In The Past | (I) was going to get protected | (me) saled bli protekte |
Conditional | (I) would get protected | (me) vud bli protekte |
Conditional Perfect | (I) would have got protected | (me) vud ha bli protekte |
First Imperative | Let (me) get protected! | Let (me) bli protekte! |
Second Imperative | get protected! | bli protekte! |
The passive voice of being is formed with the auxiliary es followed by the past passive participle (stem + -t).
Grammar | English | Novial |
---|---|---|
Infinitive | to be protected | es protektet |
Present | (I) am protected | (me) es protektet |
Present Perfect | (I) have been protected | (me) ha es protektet |
Simple Past | (I) was protected | (me) did es protektet or (me) esed protektet |
Past Perfect | (I) had been protected | (me) had es protektet |
Future | (I) shall be protected or (I) will be protected | (me) sal es protektet or (me) ve es protektet |
Future Perfect | (I) shall have been protected or (I) will have been protected | (me) sal ha es protektet or (me) ve ha es protektet |
Future In The Past | (I) was going to be protected | (me) saled es protektet |
Conditional | (I) would be protected | (me) vud es protektet |
Conditional Perfect | (I) would have been protected | (me) vud ha es protektet |
First Imperative | Let (me) be protected! | Let (me) es protektet! |
Second Imperative | be protected! | es protektet! |
The definite article is li which is invariant. It is used as in English.
There is no indefinite article, although un (one) can be used.
The plural noun is formed by adding –s to the singular (-es after a consonant).
The accusative case is generally identical to the nominative but can optionally be marked with the ending -m (-em after a consonant) with the plural being -sem (-esem after a consonant) or with the preposition em.
The genitive is formed with the ending -n (-en after a consonant) with the plural being -sen (-esen after a consonant) or with the preposition de.
Other cases are formed with prepositions.
All adjectives end in -i, but this may be dropped if it is easy enough to pronounce and no confusion will be caused. Adjectives precede the noun qualified. Adjectives do not agree with the noun but may be given noun endings if there is no noun present to receive them.
An adjective is converted to a corresponding adverb by adding -m after the -i ending of the adjective.
See the Table of Prefixes and Table of Suffixes at the Novial Wikibook.
Jespersen was a professional linguist, unlike Esperanto's creator. He disliked the arbitrary and artificial character that he found in Esperanto and Ido. Additionally, he objected to those languages' Latin-like systems of inflection, which he found needlessly complex. He sought to make Novial at once euphonious and regular while also preserving useful structures from natural languages.
In Novial:
A major difference between Novial and Esperanto/Ido concerns noun endings. Jespersen rejected a single vowel to terminate all nouns (-o in Esperanto/Ido), finding it unnatural and potentially confusing. Instead, Novial nouns may end in -o, -a, -e, or -u or -um. These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages. Also there is no grammatical gender or requirement for adjectives to agree with nouns.
Here is the Lord's Prayer in Novial and several related languages:
Novial version: | Esperanto version: | Ido version: | Latin version: |
Nusen Patre, kel es in siele, mey vun nome bli sanktifika, |
Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo, Via nomo estu sanktigita. |
Patro nia, qua esas en la cielo, tua nomo santigesez; |
Pater noster, qui es in caelis: sanctificetur Nomen Tuum; |
As Jespersen relates in his autobiography, in 1934 he proposed an orthographic reform to Novial, which displeased a part of the users. Jespersen abandoned the essential principle of one sound, one letter :[4]
I proposed some not inconsiderable amendments, especially by introducing an "orthographic" Novial alongside the original phonetically written language. (...) Thus the sound [k], besides being represented by the letters k and q and the first part of x, also acquired the new sign c (before a, o, u and consonants), a practice with which nearly all Europeans, Americans, and Australians are familiar from childhood. (...) I know that this orthographic form has displeased several of Novial's old and faithful friends, but it is my impression that many others have applauded it.
— Otto Jespersen (1995 [1938], pp. 227-8)
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