Adjuvilo

Adjuvilo is a language created in 1910 by Claudius Colas under the pseudonym of "Profesoro V. Esperema". Although it was a full language, it may not have been created to be spoken. Many believe that as an Esperantist, Colas created Adjuvilo to help create dissent in the then-growing Ido movement. Colas himself called his language simplified Ido and proposed several reforms to Ido.

Colas created a nearly complete grammar, but did not create a new vocabulary. Adjuvilo uses mainly the vocabulary of Ido with modifications according to the grammatical changes of Ido. Colas in some cases reestablishes the Esperanto forms of words and even constructed some new words like sulo for "sun" (Ido/Esperanto: suno) and dago for "day" (Ido: dio, Esperanto: tago).

Phonology and orthography

Adjuvilo uses the same phonology and orthography as Ido. The only modification is that the stress is always on the penultimate syllable like in Esperanto, whereas in Ido in the infinitive of the verbs the last syllable is stressed.

Grammar

• The definite article is in the singular la and in the plural las.
• All nouns end in the singular in -o and in the plural in -s. Example: la lando (the land) and las landos (the lands). Like Ido and Esperanto, Adjuvilo has no indefinite article
• Adjuvilo does not have grammatical genders. Nouns for females are all derived from the masculine form by using the affix -in. Example: filio (son) and filiino (daughter).
• The genitive and the indirect object cases are expressed by prepositions. Example: Me donin la libro de la patro a mea filio (I gave my father's book to my son).
• The adjective ends on -a, and also receives -s in the plural. It is placed before the noun. Example: un bona viro (a good man), belas juvenilos (beautiful girls), granda monto (a big mountain).

The comparative grade is formed by plu (more) and men (less). Example: El estan plu bela quam il. (She is more beautiful than he).

The superlative grade is formed by la pley (most). Example: Adjuvilo estan la pley facila linguo ex omnas linguos. (Adjuvilo is the easiest language of all languages).

• The adverb is formed from the adjective form by replacing the ending -a by -e. Adverbs are not changed in the plural. Example: Elas kantan bone. (They sing well).
• The personal pronouns are

Singular me (I), tu (you), il (he), el (she), it (it), lo (third person gender not defined)

Plural nos (we), vos (you), ilos (they, masculine), elos (they, female), itos (they, neuter), los (they, unspecified gender)

Additional personal pronouns: on (one, impersonal form), su (reflexive form)

• The possessive pronouns are formed by adding the adjective ending -a and in the plural the -s to the personal pronouns: mea (my), tua (your), ila (his), nosas (our), ilosas (their, masculine). The reflexive possessive pronoun sua (his/her/its) in the singular and suas in the plural is only used for the third person and can be only used when it refers to the subject of the sentence.
• Verbs are not conjugated according to singular/plural or person.

The infinitive ending is -i like in Esperanto: diri (to say), lerni (to learn).

The present tense is formed by replacing the infinitive ending by -an. Example: Me kantan (I sing), tu kantan (you sing).

The past tense is formed by -in. Example: Me vidin (I saw).

The future tense is formed by -on. Example: Me vidon (I will see).

The conjunctive is formed by adding -un. Example: Me vidun (I would see).

The imperative is formed by adding -en. Example: Lekten la libro! (Read the book!)

The active participles are formed with the suffix -ant for the present tense, -int for the past tense and -ont for the future tense. Example: La ridanta homo (The laughing man).

The passive participles are formed with the suffix -at for the present tense, -it for the past tense and -ot for the future tense.

The passive voice is formed with the forms of the auxiliary verb esti (to be). Example: La libro estin skriptita de Shakespeare (The book was written by Shakespeare).

• Tag questions are formed with the particle num. Num il parolan Adjuvilo? (Does he speak Adjuvilo?).
• The most important interrogative pronouns are qua (who), quo (what), quale (how), quare (why).
• The demonstrative pronouns are cia (this) and tia (that). Like other pronouns they also have plural forms. Cias floros estan bela ma tias arboros estan plu grandas (These flowers are beautiful but that trees are bigger.)
• The cardinal numbers are: 1 — un, 2 — du, 3 — tri, 4 — quar, 5 — quin, 6 — sis, 7 — sep, 8 — ok, 9 — nov, 10 — dek. The ordinal numbers are formed with the suffix -esma: unesma, duesma, triesma.

Comparison to Ido

• Adjuvilo completely eliminates a special ending for the accusative case, whereas in Ido it was still used in sentences beginning with the object.
• Adjuvilo uses the plural ending also for adjectives, the definite article and all pronouns.
• Adjuvilo uses as plural ending -s and not -i as Ido.
• Adjuvilo replaces the Ido infinitive ending -ar by the Esperanto form -i. The infinitive forms of the different tenses in Ido were completely abolished.
• Adjuvilo completely abolishes the synthetic passive voice form of the verbs by a compound form of a form of the auxialiary verb "to be" and the corresponding participle.
• Adjuvilo changes the Ido system of affixes by creating new affixes, omitting some and modifying some existing ones.
• Adjuvilo changes many pronouns of Ido.
• The accent in Adjuvilo is always on the penultimate syllable, as in Esperanto.
• Colas also announced changes to the vocabulary without elaborating this completely.

All in all the changes to Ido were so great that Adjuvilo in fact is a new constructed language.

Sample

A sample of Adjuvilo, the often-translated Pater Noster:

Patro nosa, qua estan en cielos, santa esten tua nomo, advenen tua regno, esten tua volo, quale en cielos, tale anke sur la tero; nosa panon omnadaga donen a nos hodie; nosas ofendos pardonen a nos, quale nos pardonan a nosas ofendantos e ne lasen nos fali en tento, ma liberifen nos de malbono.

Bibliography

• Claudius Colas, L'Adjuvilo. Paris, Gamber, 1910. 32+ pp.
• Mario Pei, One Language for the World and How To Achieve It. Devin-Adair, New York, 1958. xvi + 291 pp.

External links

• Claudius Colas (1884-1914), la kunfondinto de IKUE (in Esperanto)