Many of you probably have heard of Esperanto, the world's most famous constructed international auxiliary language. The concept is admirable: creating a new language that is easy to learn for speakers of most European languages. Esperanto has over 100,000 fluent speakers and is taught on Duolingo, where over 300,000 people are following the course. Nonetheless I have never been a big fan of Esperanto. It doesn't sound very beautiful and looks even worse in writing. I think that English has imposed itself as the de facto international language for people all over the world (well, not entirely; small communities like the Sentinelese in the Andaman islands have surely never heard of English).
So why this thread? As a native speaker of French, who is also fluent in Italian and comfortable with Spanish, and as someone who is deeply interested in ancient Roman history, I have long felt that it would be nice to create a new Romance language that would be easily intelligible to speakers of all modern Romance languages. Searching the Web I found that several such Pan-Romance languages have already been created by linguists.
1) Interlingua : developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It is based on Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and English, with German and Russian acting as secondary controls.
Sample from the Declaration of Human Rights in Interlingua:
"Tote le esseres human nasce libere e equal in dignitate e in derectos. Illes es dotate de ration e de conscientia e debe ager le unes verso le alteres in un spirito de fraternitate. Tote esser human ha tote le derectos e tote le libertates proclamate in iste Declaration, sin alicun distinction de racia, de color, de sexo, de lingua, de religion, de opinion politic o de altere opinion, de origine national o social, de position economic, de nascentia o de qualcunque altere position."
2) Lingua Franca Nova : originally created by C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. It is based on French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. It is a creole of Romance languages with very simplified grammar. That's one reason not to like it. It's also not that beautiful in my opinion.
Sample of the same text from Wikipedia in LFN:
"Tota umanas es naseda como persones libre e egal en dinia e diretos. Los ave razona e consiensa e debe trata lunlotra con la spirito de fratia. Cadun merita tota diretos e libres descriveda en esta declara, sin distinguis de cualce tipo, como raza, color, seso, lingua, relijio, opinas politica o otra, orijina nasional o sosial, propria, erita, o otra state. Plu, no distingui va es fada par la state political, legal, o internasional de la nasion o teritorio de cual un person parteni, esce lo es autonom, fidusial, nonautogovernante, o su cualce otra limita de autonomia."
3) Romance Neolatino : a collective project started by linguist Jordi Cassany-Bates in 2006. The principles of the language were only codified in 2017 and the first dictionary and grammar book were published in 2019. That makes it the newest language in the lot, but in my opinion also the best sounding and the easiest to understand.
Sample from this blog.
"È diffícile immaginare como una lengua parlata per una pettitta communitate de fermeros, de commerziantes e de soldatos arriva ad èssere, en Occidènte, la lengua de toto un impèrio. Diffícile altrosí è comprèndere que se haia mantenuto durante sècolos, benque ja non era plus la lengua madre de las popolaziones que la han utilizato.
Quesse será, non obstante, lo destino del latino, mèio de expressione de una pettitta popolazione de pastores e agricultores del Lázio, en lo valle paludoso del Tíber, octo sècolos ante nòstra era.
Queste pettitto villajo, Roma, se extenderá pòco a pòco a expensas de suos vecinos ed, en lo sècolo 3 a. C. prenderá possessione de tota la península itálica. En los sècolos successivos, Roma realiza la conquista de territòrios sèmpre plus numerosos, fine a constituire lo plus grande impèrio que haia existito en la Antichitate."
So why this thread? As a native speaker of French, who is also fluent in Italian and comfortable with Spanish, and as someone who is deeply interested in ancient Roman history, I have long felt that it would be nice to create a new Romance language that would be easily intelligible to speakers of all modern Romance languages. Searching the Web I found that several such Pan-Romance languages have already been created by linguists.
1) Interlingua : developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It is based on Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and English, with German and Russian acting as secondary controls.
Sample from the Declaration of Human Rights in Interlingua:
"Tote le esseres human nasce libere e equal in dignitate e in derectos. Illes es dotate de ration e de conscientia e debe ager le unes verso le alteres in un spirito de fraternitate. Tote esser human ha tote le derectos e tote le libertates proclamate in iste Declaration, sin alicun distinction de racia, de color, de sexo, de lingua, de religion, de opinion politic o de altere opinion, de origine national o social, de position economic, de nascentia o de qualcunque altere position."
2) Lingua Franca Nova : originally created by C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. It is based on French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. It is a creole of Romance languages with very simplified grammar. That's one reason not to like it. It's also not that beautiful in my opinion.
Sample of the same text from Wikipedia in LFN:
"Tota umanas es naseda como persones libre e egal en dinia e diretos. Los ave razona e consiensa e debe trata lunlotra con la spirito de fratia. Cadun merita tota diretos e libres descriveda en esta declara, sin distinguis de cualce tipo, como raza, color, seso, lingua, relijio, opinas politica o otra, orijina nasional o sosial, propria, erita, o otra state. Plu, no distingui va es fada par la state political, legal, o internasional de la nasion o teritorio de cual un person parteni, esce lo es autonom, fidusial, nonautogovernante, o su cualce otra limita de autonomia."
3) Romance Neolatino : a collective project started by linguist Jordi Cassany-Bates in 2006. The principles of the language were only codified in 2017 and the first dictionary and grammar book were published in 2019. That makes it the newest language in the lot, but in my opinion also the best sounding and the easiest to understand.
Sample from this blog.
"È diffícile immaginare como una lengua parlata per una pettitta communitate de fermeros, de commerziantes e de soldatos arriva ad èssere, en Occidènte, la lengua de toto un impèrio. Diffícile altrosí è comprèndere que se haia mantenuto durante sècolos, benque ja non era plus la lengua madre de las popolaziones que la han utilizato.
Quesse será, non obstante, lo destino del latino, mèio de expressione de una pettitta popolazione de pastores e agricultores del Lázio, en lo valle paludoso del Tíber, octo sècolos ante nòstra era.
Queste pettitto villajo, Roma, se extenderá pòco a pòco a expensas de suos vecinos ed, en lo sècolo 3 a. C. prenderá possessione de tota la península itálica. En los sècolos successivos, Roma realiza la conquista de territòrios sèmpre plus numerosos, fine a constituire lo plus grande impèrio que haia existito en la Antichitate."