Novial

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Novial is an international auxiliary language (IAL) created by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen in 1928. It was designed to facilitate communication between speakers of different native languages. The name of the language is an acronymic compound of the Novial word novi (meaning 'new') and IAL. Jespersen had been an early supporter of another international auxiliary language, Ido, a reformed version of Esperanto, before leaving to create his own language in 1928. Novial's vocabulary is borrowed largely from the Romance and Germanic languages, while its analytic grammar is influenced by English. Novial was introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928. It was updated in his dictionary Novial Lexike in 1930, and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Stress The basic rule is: stress the vowel before the last consonant. However, consonantal flexional endings (ie. -d, -m, -n, -s) do not count for this (e.g. bóni but bónim, not boním; apérta but apértad, not apertád), so perhaps it is better to say that the vowel before the final consonant of the stem takes the stress.

Orthography

The digraphs ch and sh represent [t͡ʃ] or [ʃ], depending on the speaker. For example, chokolate would be pronounced either /t͡ʃokoˈlate/ or /ʃokoˈlate/. w is not used.

Grammar Like many constructed IALs, Novial has a simple and regular grammar. The main word order is SVO, which removes the need for marking the object of a sentence with accusative case (since the position normally tells what word is the object). There is however a way to mark accusative. There is no grammatical gender (but the sex or gender of referents can be marked). Verbs are conjugated regularly, without agreement (according to person or number). Nouns mainly end in e, a, o, u or um in the singular. There are definite forms of nouns marked with an article, and singular and plural forms, where the plural is marked with the suffix -s after vowels or -es after consonants. There is also a form for indefinite number (as in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese), expressed by removing the ending of the noun in the singular (leone – lion, leon es kruel – 'a/the lion is cruel', or 'lions are cruel'). If a noun refers to a living being, then the form ending in -e is neutral with regard to sex, feminine when ending in -a, and masculine when ending in -o. If based on an adjective, a noun referring to a living being can be made with the previously mentioned rule, and furthermore nouns referring to concrete objects with -u, and abstractions with -um. The third-person pronouns follow the same rule, together with the definite article. Referring to an instrument – a tool or a means – a word that ends in -e is the tool or the means itself, a word that ends in -a is a verb describing usage of the tool and so on, and a word that ends in -o is a noun describing the act of using it:

Personal pronouns

The standard word order in Novial is subject–verb–object, as in English. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject, and nominative (corresponding to I, he, she and so on) and accusative (corresponding to me, him, us, etc.) pronouns are identical:

The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, for avoiding ambiguity, an optional accusative ending, -m (-em after a consonant), is available; it is rarely used. The preposition em is equivalent to this ending. The genitive personal pronouns – whether dependent or independent (corresponding to my, their, etc., or to mine, theirs, etc., respectively) – are formed by adding -n or after a consonant -en:

The genitive pronouns are thus men, vun, len, etc., lun and nusen, vusen, lesen etc. and lusen. Such a relationship may also be expressed with the preposition de: de me, de vu, and so on. The reflexive pronoun is se: lo admira se – 'he admires himself'. The generic personal pronoun (similar to the English one) is on, with the genitive form onen.

Verbs 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 following are examples of the verb forms:

Present active participle: protektent – 'protecting' Past passive participle: protektet – 'protected' Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English, the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verb be followed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expressed with the verb 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. It can then be conjugated into the previously mentioned forms, for example:

The passive voice of being is formed with the auxiliary es followed by the past passive participle (stem + -t). For example:

Articles 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.

Nouns 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.

Adjectives 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. Comparative adjectives are formed by placing various particles (plu, tam, and min) in front of the adjective receiving the comparison. Likewise, the superlative particles (maxim and minim) precede the adjective. The adjective does not receive an inflection to its ending.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Novial

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Novial 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 Novial 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 Novial 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 Novial

In research: Novial 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 Novial 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: Novial is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 introductions, Constructed languages, Constructed languages introduced in the 1920s, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Novial 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.

How to study Novial in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Novial 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 Novial out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Novial in simple terms?

Novial is an international auxiliary language (IAL) created by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen in 1928. It was designed to facilitate communication between speakers of different native languages.

Why does Novial 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 Novial?

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 Novial.