science

Interlingua

Interlingua is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Interlingua rather than just read about it. In short: Interlingua (, Interlingua: [inteɾˈliŋɡwa]) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It is a constructed language of the "naturalistic" variety, whose vocabulary, grammar, and other characteristics are derived from natural languages.

Key takeaways

Interlingua belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Interlingua to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Interlingua from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Interlingua (, Interlingua: [inteɾˈliŋɡwa]) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It is a constructed language of the "naturalistic" variety, whose vocabulary, grammar, and other characteristics are derived from natural languages. Interlingua proponents maintain that (written) Interlingua is comprehensible to the over 900 million native speakers of Romance languages, though it is actively spoken by only a few hundred. Interlingua was developed to combine a simple, mostly regular grammar with a vocabulary common to a wide range of western European languages, making it easy to learn for those whose native languages were sources of Interlingua's vocabulary and grammar. The name Interlingua comes from the Latin words inter, meaning 'between', and lingua, meaning 'tongue' or 'language'. These morphemes are the same in Interlingua; thus, Interlingua means 'between language'.

Overview Interlingua focuses on common vocabulary shared by Western European languages, which are often descended from or heavily influenced by Latin (such as the Romance languages) and Greek. Interlingua organizers have four "primary control languages" where, by default, a word (or variant thereof) is expected to appear in at least three of them to qualify for inclusion in Interlingua: English; French; Italian; and a combination of Spanish and Portuguese, which are treated as a single "mega-language" for Interlingua purposes. Additionally, German and Russian have been dubbed "secondary control languages". While the result is often akin to Neo-Latin as the most frequent source of commonality, Interlingua words can have origins in any language, as long as they have drifted into the primary control languages as loanwords. For example, the Japanese words geisha and samurai and the Finnish word sauna are used in most Western European languages, and therefore in Interlingua as well; similarly, the Guugu Yimithirr word gangurru is used in latinized form (Interlingua: kanguru, English: kangaroo). The maintainers of Interlingua attempt to keep the grammar simple and word formation regular, and use only a small number of roots and affixes. This is intended to make the language quicker to learn.

History The American heiress Alice Vanderbilt Morris (1874–1950) became interested in linguistics and the international auxiliary language movement in the early 1920s. In 1924, Morris and her husband, Dave Hennen Morris, established the non-profit International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in New York City. Their aim was to place the study of IALs on a more complex and scientific basis. Morris developed the research programme of IALA in consultation with Edward Sapir, William Edward Collinson, and Otto Jespersen. Investigations of the auxiliary language problem were in progress at the International Research Council, the American Council on Education, the American Council of Learned Societies, the British, French, Italian, and American Associations for the advancement of science, and other groups of specialists. Morris created IALA as a continuation of this work.

International Auxiliary Language Association The IALA became a major supporter of mainstream American linguistics. Numerous studies by Sapir, Collinson, and Morris Swadesh in the 1930s and 1940s, for example, were funded by IALA. Alice Morris edited several of these studies and provided much of IALA's financial support. For example, Morris herself edited Sapir and Morris Swadesh's 1932 cross-linguistic study of ending-point phenomena, and Collinson's 1937 study of indication. IALA also received support from groups such as the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In its early years, IALA concerned itself with three tasks: finding other organizations around the world with similar goals; building a library of books about languages and interlinguistics; and comparing extant IALs, including Esperanto, Esperanto II, Ido, Peano's Interlingua (Latino sine flexione), Novial, and Interlingue (Occidental). In pursuit of the last goal, it conducted parallel studies of these languages, with comparative studies of national languages. At the Second International Interlanguage Congress, held in Geneva in 1931, IALA began to break new ground; 27 recognized linguists signed a testimonial of support for IALA's research programme. An additional eight added their signatures at the third congress, convened in Rome in 1933. That same year, Herbert N. Shenton and Edward Thorndike became influential in IALA's work by authoring studies in the interlinguistic field. The first steps towards the finalization of Interlingua were taken in 1937, when a committee of 24 linguists from 19 universities published Some Criteria for an International Language and Commentary. However, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the intended biannual meetings of the committee.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Interlingua

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Interlingua claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Interlingua before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Interlingua ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Interlingua

In research: Interlingua appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Interlingua in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Interlingua is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 introductions, Constructed languages, Constructed languages introduced in the 1950s, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Interlingua outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Interlingua in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Interlingua means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Interlingua out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Interlingua in simple terms?

Why does Interlingua matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Interlingua?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Interlingua.