Latino sine Flexione
Encyclopedia
Latino sine flexione or Peano’s Interlingua (abbreviated as IL), is an international auxiliary language
invented by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano
(1858–1932) in 1903. It is a simplified version of Latin
, and retains its vocabulary
. It was published in the journal Revue de Mathématiques, in an article entitled De Latino Sine Flexione, Lingua Auxiliare Internationale, which explained the reason for its creation. The article argued that other auxiliary languages were unnecessary, since Latin was already established as the world’s international language. The article was written in classical Latin, but it gradually dropped its inflection
s until there were none.
In 1904 Peano undertook an essay about the way to obtain the minimal grammar of an eventual minimal Latin (Latino minimo), with a minimal vocabulary purely international.
Peano and some colleagues published articles in Latino sine flexione for several years at the Revue de Mathématiques. Because of his desire to prove that this was indeed an international language, Peano boldly published the final edition of his famous Formulario mathematico
in Latino sine flexione. Sadly, as Hubert Kennedy notes, most mathematicians were put off by the artificial appearance of the language, and made no attempt to read it.Kennedy, Hubert (2006). Peano. Life and Works of Giuseppe Peano. Concord, CA: Peremptory Publications: p. 169 (a), p. 185 (b).
In October of 1907, Peano was at the Collège de France
in Paris
to take part in the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language
. Having declared for Latino sine flexione to be adopted, he eventually could not participate in the final voting, because of labour affairs at Turin.
On 26 December 1908, Peano was elected member and director of the Akademi internasional de lingu universal still using Idiom Neutral
, which was refounded one year later under the name Academia pro Interlingua
. Every academician might use his favourite form of Interlingua, the term being initially used in a general sense as a synonym for international language, yet it soon began to be specially used to denote a reformed Latino sine flexione based on the common rules the academicians were reaching by frequent votings. Thus, the name Interlingua soon began to denote the language evolving from the Academia Pro Interlingua, with the corresponding abbreviation IL.
However, every member was free to write in his own personal style, and indeed some members were proposing radical reforms which eventually might end up as independent languages (like Michaux's Romanal or De Wahl's Interlingue). For this reason, the name Peano’s Interlingua might be regarded as the most accurate for the particular standard by Peano. (As is found in the chapter “Interglossa and its predecessors”.)
The discussions to reach a standard Interlingua may be seen on the pages of Discussiones, the official journal of the Academia pro Interlingua from 1909 to 1913. This and subsequent journals of the academy have been recently published in a CD-Rom by the mathematics department of the university of Turin
, the place where Peano developed his teaching and research.
Since «De Latino Sine Flexione» had set the principle to take Latin nouns either in the ablative or nominative form (nomen was preferred to nomine ), in 1909 Peano published a vocabulary in order to assist in selecting the proper form of every noun, yet an essential value of Peano’s Interlingua was that the lexicon might be found straightforward in any Latin dictionary (by getting the thematic vocal of the stem
from the genitive ending, that is: -a -o -e -u -e from -æ -i -is -us -ei).
Finally, a large vocabulary with 14 000 words was published in 1915.
A reformed Interlingua
was presented in 1951 by Alexander Gode
as the last director of the International Auxiliary Language Association
. It was claimed to be independent from Peano’s Interlingua, because it had developed a new method to detect the most recent common prototypes. But that method usually leads to the Latin ablative, so most vocabulary of Peano’s Interlingua would be kept. Accordingly, the very name Interlingua was kept, yet a distinct abbreviation was adopted: IA instead of IL.
s and adjective
s, he did not entirely remove grammatical gender
, permitting the option of a feminine ending for occupations. The gender of animals is immutable. All forms of nouns end with a vowel
and are taken from the ablative case
, but as this was not listed in most Latin dictionaries, he gave the rule for its derivation from the genitive case
. The plural is not required when not necessary, such as when a number has been specified, the plural can be read from the context, and so on. Verb
s have few inflection
s of conjugation; tenses and moods are instead indicated by verb adjuncts. The result is a change to a positional language
.
Those proper nouns written with the Roman alphabet are kept as close to the original as possible. The following are examples: München, New York, Roma, Giovanni.
, mood
, etc., are indicated by particles, auxiliary verbs, or adverbs, but none is required if the sense is clear from the context. If needed, the past may be indicated by preceding the verb with e, and the future with i.
There are specific endings to create the infinitive
and participle
s:
Adjectives can be used as adverbs if the context is clear, or cum mente or in modo can be used:
Consonants are pronounced as in English with the following exceptions:
The following simplifications to pronunciation are also allowed:
The principal accent is always on the penultimate (second from the last) syllable, and secondary accent may be placed when necessary as the speaker deems appropriate.
. But Peano’s Interlingua still shares a major flaw with many other auxiliary languages according to Lancelot Hogben
, namely having either too much grammar of the wrong sort, or not enough of the right.(p. 10).
Hogben argues that at least nouns and verbs should be easily distinguished by characteristic endings, so that we can easily get an initial understanding of the sentence. Thus, in Peano’s Interlingua the verbs might be given some specific, standardized verbal form, such as the infinitive
, which is sufficient at the Latin indirect speech
. Instead, the raw imperative is proposed in «De Latino Sine Flexione»:
Another handicap is the lack of a pure article
, which clearly indicates a noun. Indeed Peano occasionally suggested that illo and uno might work as articles (as if, for example, the English that and one were used for the and an), but for Hogben an article must be an empty word, a "pure" article, so to speak. In Peano’s Interlingua, nouns and adjectives or participles have a similar look. Other auxiliaries have attempted some kind of distinctive mark (for example, the adjectival -a of Esperanto
, the -i of Interlingue, and the fixed position of the adjective before the noun in Interglossa
), while the syntax of Peano’s Interlingua remained conservative:
Reviewing the list of more widely known Latin titles, one might conclude that the sequence noun-adjective is the norm in Latin, yet the inverted sequence is also current. The ratio is over 2 to 1 in a list of Latin titles commented by Stroh. E.g. “Principia Mathematica”.
As for a sequence nominative-genitive, it may be the norm in Latin in a similar ratio. E.g. “Systema Naturae
”. Indeed, the sequence nominative-genitive must always be the norm in Peano’s Interlingua, since the preposition de must introduce the genitive. Thus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica would turn into Principio Mathematico de Philosophia Naturale. Since the function of both the adjective and the genitive is often the same, one might infer that the sequence noun-adjective might always be the norm.
International auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language...
invented by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician, whose work was of philosophical value. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in...
(1858–1932) in 1903. It is a simplified version of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, and retains its vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
. It was published in the journal Revue de Mathématiques, in an article entitled De Latino Sine Flexione, Lingua Auxiliare Internationale, which explained the reason for its creation. The article argued that other auxiliary languages were unnecessary, since Latin was already established as the world’s international language. The article was written in classical Latin, but it gradually dropped its inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
s until there were none.
History
The article «De Latino Sine Flexione» is structured about a series of quotations of Leibniz’ suggestions for an artificial language based on a simplified form of Latin. Peano’s article appeared to be a serious development of the idea, so he gained a reputation among the movement for the auxiliary language.In 1904 Peano undertook an essay about the way to obtain the minimal grammar of an eventual minimal Latin (Latino minimo), with a minimal vocabulary purely international.
Peano and some colleagues published articles in Latino sine flexione for several years at the Revue de Mathématiques. Because of his desire to prove that this was indeed an international language, Peano boldly published the final edition of his famous Formulario mathematico
Formulario mathematico
Formulario Mathematico is a book by Giuseppe Peano which expresses fundamental theorems of mathematics in a symbolic language developed by Peano...
in Latino sine flexione. Sadly, as Hubert Kennedy notes, most mathematicians were put off by the artificial appearance of the language, and made no attempt to read it.Kennedy, Hubert (2006). Peano. Life and Works of Giuseppe Peano. Concord, CA: Peremptory Publications: p. 169 (a), p. 185 (b).
In October of 1907, Peano was at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to take part in the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language
Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language
The Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language was a body of academics convened in the early part of the twentieth century to decide on the issue of the which international auxiliary language should be chosen for international use...
. Having declared for Latino sine flexione to be adopted, he eventually could not participate in the final voting, because of labour affairs at Turin.
On 26 December 1908, Peano was elected member and director of the Akademi internasional de lingu universal still using Idiom Neutral
Idiom Neutral
Idiom Neutral is an international auxiliary language, published in 1902 by the International Academy of the Universal Language under the leadership of Waldemar Rosenberger, a St...
, which was refounded one year later under the name Academia pro Interlingua
Academia pro Interlingua
The Academia pro Interlingua was an organization dedicated to the promotion of international auxiliary languages, and is associated in particular with Prof...
. Every academician might use his favourite form of Interlingua, the term being initially used in a general sense as a synonym for international language, yet it soon began to be specially used to denote a reformed Latino sine flexione based on the common rules the academicians were reaching by frequent votings. Thus, the name Interlingua soon began to denote the language evolving from the Academia Pro Interlingua, with the corresponding abbreviation IL.
However, every member was free to write in his own personal style, and indeed some members were proposing radical reforms which eventually might end up as independent languages (like Michaux's Romanal or De Wahl's Interlingue). For this reason, the name Peano’s Interlingua might be regarded as the most accurate for the particular standard by Peano. (As is found in the chapter “Interglossa and its predecessors”.)
The discussions to reach a standard Interlingua may be seen on the pages of Discussiones, the official journal of the Academia pro Interlingua from 1909 to 1913. This and subsequent journals of the academy have been recently published in a CD-Rom by the mathematics department of the university of Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, the place where Peano developed his teaching and research.
Since «De Latino Sine Flexione» had set the principle to take Latin nouns either in the ablative or nominative form (nomen was preferred to nomine ), in 1909 Peano published a vocabulary in order to assist in selecting the proper form of every noun, yet an essential value of Peano’s Interlingua was that the lexicon might be found straightforward in any Latin dictionary (by getting the thematic vocal of the stem
Word stem
In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
from the genitive ending, that is: -a -o -e -u -e from -æ -i -is -us -ei).
Finally, a large vocabulary with 14 000 words was published in 1915.
A reformed Interlingua
Interlingua
Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association...
was presented in 1951 by Alexander Gode
Alexander Gode
Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch or simply Alexander Gode was a German-American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua.-Biography:Born to a German father and a Swiss mother, Gode studied at the University of Vienna and the...
as the last director of the International Auxiliary Language Association
International Auxiliary Language Association
The International Auxiliary Language Association was founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together with research and experiment that may hasten such establishment in an intelligent manner and...
. It was claimed to be independent from Peano’s Interlingua, because it had developed a new method to detect the most recent common prototypes. But that method usually leads to the Latin ablative, so most vocabulary of Peano’s Interlingua would be kept. Accordingly, the very name Interlingua was kept, yet a distinct abbreviation was adopted: IA instead of IL.
Parts of Speech
Though Peano removed the inflections of Latin from nounNoun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, he did not entirely remove grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, permitting the option of a feminine ending for occupations. The gender of animals is immutable. All forms of nouns end with a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
and are taken from the ablative case
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
, but as this was not listed in most Latin dictionaries, he gave the rule for its derivation from the genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
. The plural is not required when not necessary, such as when a number has been specified, the plural can be read from the context, and so on. Verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s have few inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
s of conjugation; tenses and moods are instead indicated by verb adjuncts. The result is a change to a positional language
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
.
Particles
Particles that have no inflection in classic Latin are used in their natural form:- supra, infra, intra, extra… (but superiore, inferiore, interiore, exteriore from superior, -oris and so on.)
- super, subter, inter, praeter, semper… (but nostro, vestro, dextro… from noster, -tra, -trum and so on.)
- tres, quatuor, quinque, sex, septem, octo, novem, decem… (but uno from unus, -a, -um; duo from duo, -ae, -o; nullo from nullus, -a, -um; multo from multus, -a, -um, etc.)
Nouns
The form of nouns depends on the Latin declensions.| Latin declension number (genitive ending) | 1: -æ | 2: -i | 3: -is | 4: -us | 5: -ei |
| Latino ending | -a | -o | -e | -u | -e |
| Latin declension/nominative form | Latin genitive | Latino | English |
| 1st: rosa | rosæ | rosa | rose |
| 2nd: laurus | lauri | lauro | laurel |
| 3rd: pax | pacis | pace | peace |
| 4th: casus | casus | casu | case |
| 5th: series | seriei | serie | series |
Those proper nouns written with the Roman alphabet are kept as close to the original as possible. The following are examples: München, New York, Roma, Giovanni.
Pronouns
| Number | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | me | nos |
| 2nd person | te | vos |
| 3rd person | illo (male), illa (female), id (neutral) | illos |
| Reflexive | se | se |
Verbs
Verbs are formed from the Latin by dropping the final -re of the infinitive. TenseGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
, etc., are indicated by particles, auxiliary verbs, or adverbs, but none is required if the sense is clear from the context. If needed, the past may be indicated by preceding the verb with e, and the future with i.
There are specific endings to create the infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
and participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
s:
- basic form: ama (loves)
- infinitive: amare (to love)
- past participle: amato (loved)
- present participle: amante (loving)
Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives are formed as follows:- If the nominative neuter ends with -e, the Latino form is unchanged.
- If the nominative neuter ends with -um, the Latino form is changed to -o: novum > novo (new).
- In all other cases adjectives are formed with the ablative case from the genitive, as is the case with nouns.
Adjectives can be used as adverbs if the context is clear, or cum mente or in modo can be used:
- Diligente (diligent): Cum mente diligente, cum diligente mente, in modo diligente, in diligente modo = diligently.
Articles
As with Latin, neither the definite nor the indefinite article exists in Latino sine Flexione. When necessary they may be translated with pronouns or words such as illo (it, that) or uno (one):- da ad me libro = give me (the) book
- da ad me hoc libro = give me this book
- da ad me illo libro = give me that book
- da ad me uno libro = give me a book
- da ad me illo meo libro = give me that book of mine
- da ad me uno meo libro = give me a book of mine
Pronunciation
According to Peano's guide to the language in 1931, "most Interlinguists are in favour of the old Latin pronunciation." This gives the pronunciation of vowels as follows:- a—as in father -- [a]
- e—as in they -- [e]
- i—as in feet -- [i]
- o—as in tone -- [o]
- u—as in rule -- [u]
- y—as French u -- [y]
- j—as in yes -- [j]
- ae—as in eye -- [aj]
- oe—as in boy -- [oj]
Consonants are pronounced as in English with the following exceptions:
- b—like English b, but like p if followed by s or t -- [b, p]
- g—like g in go, get -- [ɡ]
- h—silent in th, ph, ch, rh, otherwise like English h -- [h]
- qu—as qu in quarrel -- [kʷ]
- r—as in correct (trilled) -- [r]
- v—like English w. -- [w]
- x—as ks. -- [ks]
- ch, ph, th—as c, p, t in can, pan, tan -- [kʰ, pʰ, tʰ]
- c—like k always, as in scan, scat -- [k] (not aspirated)
- p—as in span
- t—as in stand
The following simplifications to pronunciation are also allowed:
- y and j—as i in tin -- [ɪ]
- ae and oe—as [e] above
- b—always like English b -- [b]
- h—silent
- ph—as p or f -- [f]
- v—like English v -- [v]
- th—as t
- ch—as c
The principal accent is always on the penultimate (second from the last) syllable, and secondary accent may be placed when necessary as the speaker deems appropriate.
Language examples
- « Latino es lingua internationale in occidente de Europa ab tempore de imperio romano, per toto medio aevo, et in scientia usque ultimo seculo. Seculo vigesimo es primo que non habe lingua commune. Hodie quasi omne auctore scribe in proprio lingua nationale, id es in plure lingua neo-latino, in plure germanico, in plure slavo, in nipponico et alio. Tale multitudine de linguas in labores de interesse commune ad toto humanitate constitute magno obstaculo ad progressu. »
- Latin was the international language in the west of Europe from the time of the Roman Empire, throughout the Middle Ages, and in the sciences until the last century. The 20th century is the first that does not have a common language. Today almost all authors write in their own national languages, that is in Neo-Latin languages, in Germanic, in Slavic, in Japanese, and others. This multitude of languages in works of communal interest to the whole of humanity constitutes a large obstacle to progress.
The Lord's Prayer
This is a sample text, intended to give the viewer a basic understanding of how the language sounds, and how related to Latin Latino sine Flexione is.| Latino sine Flexione version: | Interlingua Interlingua Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association... version |
Latin Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and... version: |
English (ELLC English Language Liturgical Consultation The English Language Liturgical Consultation is a group of national associations of ecumenical liturgists in the English-speaking world. Their work has been concerned with developing and promoting common liturgical texts in English and sharing a common lectionary wherever possible... - 1988) |
Patre nostro, qui es in celos, que tuo nomine fi sanctificato; que tuo regno adveni; que tuo voluntate es facto sicut in celo et in terra. Da hodie ad nos nostro pane quotidiano, et remitte ad nos nostro debitos, sicut et nos remitte ad nostro debitores. Et non induce nos in tentatione, sed libera nos ab malo. Amen. |
Patre nostre, qui es in le celos, que tu nomine sia sanctificate; que tu regno veni; que tu voluntate sia facite como in le celo, etiam super le terra. Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian, e pardona a nos nostre debitas como etiam nos los pardona a nostre debitores. E non induce nos in tentation, sed libera nos del mal. Amen. |
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen. |
Our Father (who are) in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. Amen. |
Latin proverbs converted to Latino sine flexione
| Latin | Latino sine flexione | English |
| Vox populi, vox Dei. | Voce de populo, voce de Deo. | The voice of the people is the voice of God. |
| Hodie mihi, cras tibi. | Hodie ad me, cras ad te. | It is my lot today, yours to-morrow. |
| Gratia gratiam generat, lis litem generat. | Gratia genera gratia, lite genera lite. | Goodwill begets goodwill, bickering begets bickering. |
| In medio stat virtus. | Virtute sta in medio. | Virtue stands in the middle. |
| Qui non laborat, non manducet. | Qui non labora, non debe manduca. | He that laboureth not, let him not eat. |
| Medice, cura te ipsum. | Medico, cura te ipso. | Physician, cure thyself. |
| De gustibus non est disputandum. | Nos ne debe disputa de gustu. | There is no disputing about tastes. |
| Ars imitatio naturae est. | Arte imita natura. | Art imitates nature. |
| Do ut des. | Me da ut te da. | I give so that you give. |
| Designatio unius est exclusio alterius. | Qui designa uno, exclude alio. | Who chooses one excludes another. |
Criticism
Peano formally defended the maxim that the best grammar is no grammar, bearing in mind the example of ChineseChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. But Peano’s Interlingua still shares a major flaw with many other auxiliary languages according to Lancelot Hogben
Lancelot Hogben
Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS was a versatile British experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He is best known for developing Xenopus laevis as a model organism for biological research in his early career, attacking the eugenics movement in the middle of his career, and popularising books on...
, namely having either too much grammar of the wrong sort, or not enough of the right.(p. 10).
Hogben argues that at least nouns and verbs should be easily distinguished by characteristic endings, so that we can easily get an initial understanding of the sentence. Thus, in Peano’s Interlingua the verbs might be given some specific, standardized verbal form, such as the infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
, which is sufficient at the Latin indirect speech
Indirect speech
In grammar, indirect or reported speech is a way of reporting a statement or question. A reported question is called an indirect question. Unlike direct speech, indirect speech does not phrase the statement or question the way the original speaker did; instead, certain grammatical categories are...
. Instead, the raw imperative is proposed in «De Latino Sine Flexione»:
Another handicap is the lack of a pure article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
, which clearly indicates a noun. Indeed Peano occasionally suggested that illo and uno might work as articles (as if, for example, the English that and one were used for the and an), but for Hogben an article must be an empty word, a "pure" article, so to speak. In Peano’s Interlingua, nouns and adjectives or participles have a similar look. Other auxiliaries have attempted some kind of distinctive mark (for example, the adjectival -a of Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, the -i of Interlingue, and the fixed position of the adjective before the noun in Interglossa
Interglossa
The auxiliary language Interglossa was devised by the scientist Lancelot Hogben during World War II. It appears to be a straightforward attempt to put the international lexicon of science and technology, mainly of Greek and Latin origin, into a language with a purely isolating grammar. Interglossa...
), while the syntax of Peano’s Interlingua remained conservative:
Reviewing the list of more widely known Latin titles, one might conclude that the sequence noun-adjective is the norm in Latin, yet the inverted sequence is also current. The ratio is over 2 to 1 in a list of Latin titles commented by Stroh. E.g. “Principia Mathematica”.
As for a sequence nominative-genitive, it may be the norm in Latin in a similar ratio. E.g. “Systema Naturae
Systema Naturae
The book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...
”. Indeed, the sequence nominative-genitive must always be the norm in Peano’s Interlingua, since the preposition de must introduce the genitive. Thus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica would turn into Principio Mathematico de Philosophia Naturale. Since the function of both the adjective and the genitive is often the same, one might infer that the sequence noun-adjective might always be the norm.
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- Adiectivo qui deriva ab sustantivo vale genitivo: "aureo = de auro". Peano (1903, § 6).
[Translation: ] An adjective derived from a substantive is equivalent to a genitive: "golden = of gold".
- Adiectivo qui deriva ab sustantivo vale genitivo: "aureo = de auro". Peano (1903, § 6).
External links
- Latino Sine Flexione introduction and English - Latino sine flexione wordlist
- Instituto pro Latino sine flexione - Site in Latino sine flexione; Peano's original writings on this language, blog in Latino sine flexione, etc.
- Blog in Latino sine Flexione