IALA
International Auxiliary Language Association
General Report 1945

I N T E R L I N G U A   -  UN  NEUTRAL  LINGUA  COMMUN  PRO  LE 
PROSPERITATE  DE  NATIONES!

In 1946 le IALA invitava ex Sorbonne a New York un linguista famose, André Martinet [*] e confideva a ille le direction de su recerca interlinguistic. Le producto del IALA era pro le prime vice appellate Interlingua. Professores Martinet e J.P. Vinay preparava un questionario satis grande de 127 questiones in anglese e francese que illes distribueva a expertos in varie paises pro saper lor commentos super le variantes proponite in iste General Report de 1945. In 1947 André Martinet se jungeva al Universitate de Columbia e dr. Alexander Gode-von Aesch reprendeva su position como director de recerca del IALA. Interlingua era complite in 1951 post extensive labor international durante 27 annos. IALA era dissolvite in 1953 e reimplaciate per le Division de Interlingua del Science Service, dr. Watson Davis como director. 1955 era arrangiate Le 1e Conferentia International de Interlingua in Tours, Francia, ubi Le Union Mundial pro Interlingua (UMI) era fundate le 28 de julio 1955. Como le prime presidente del UMI era electe Alexander Gode-von Aesch (1906-1970, dr. Gode moriva in le mesme anno quando prof. Martinet era promovite doctor h.c. al Universitate de Turku, Finlandia).
    [*] Prof. André Martinet moriva in 1999 in etate de 90 annos como membro distinguite del UMI, su vidua Sra. Jeanne Martinet es desde 2001 un active interlinguista e la presidente del UIF (Union Interlinguiste Francese)

Contents

Directors, Committees, Staff, 1945 [1]
Former Associates [4]
Preface [5]
The Language Problem [7]
    - Need of a Common Language for Post-War World [7]
    - A Neutral International Language [8]
The International Auxiliary Language Movement [9]
    - An Anthropologist's View [9]
    - A Psychologist's View [10]
    - Origin of the Movement [11]
    - Constructed Languages [12]
    - Evolution of an Auxiliary Language [13]
    - Two Types [14]
    - A New Impetus [14]
    - International Auxiliary Language Association [14]
    - IALA's Program [15]
IALA's Linguistic Research [15]
    - Exploratory Studies [15]
    - Meeting of Linguistic Research [16]
    - Approval of Linguists [16]
    - Bibliography [17]
    - Semantic Frequency List [17]
    - Science of Interlinguistics [18]
    - Committee for Agreement [19]
    - Specifications for an Auxiliary Language [19]
    - Work in Liverpool [20]
    - Work in New York [20]
IALA's System — Underlying Facts and Reasoning [21]
    - Languages of the World [21]
    - International Words [22]
    - Range of Internationality [23]
    - Clearing House for International Words Needed [24]
    - Sources of International Words [25]
    - The Anglo-Romanic Group of Languages [27]
    - Standardization of International Words [28]
    - Many Mother Tongues Represented [29]
    - Naturalistic and Schematic Types [29]
    - IALA's Contribution [31]
IALA's System — Basic Procedures — Vocabulary of the Naturalistic Type [31]
    - Setting Up of Control Languages [32]
    - Rules for Obtaining Standardized International Words [32]
    - Supplementary Devices for Complementing the International Vocabulary [33]
    - IALA's Fundamental Naturalistic Vocabulary [34]
IALA's System — Possible Additional Procedures — Vocabulary of the Schematic Type [35]
    - Further Regularization Possible [35]
    - Regularization of Word-Formation [36]
    - Regularization of Spelling and Pronunciation [38]
    - IALA's Schematic Vocabulary [38]
Grammar [39]
Experimental Translations of a Sample Text [42]
    - Sample Text [43]
    - Keys to Pronunciation [43–47]
    - Translations according to Naturalistic and Schematic Models [44–47]
Status of Linguistic Research [48]
Experimentation in Language Learning [49]
    - Comparative Ease of Learning [49]
    - General Language Course [50]
    - Contribution to New Methods of Language Study [50]
Language Practices of International Conferences [51]
    - International Conference Movement [52]
    - Data on Language Practices [52]
    - Attitude Toward an Auxiliary Language [53]
    - Language Problem of League of Nations [53]
    - New Machinery for International Cooperation [54]
Promotional Activities [54]
    - Contacts with Governments [55]
    - Contacts with International Organizations [55]
    - Cooperation Sought [55]
    - Translation Service [56]
    - Membership [56]
    - IALA's Headquarters [56]
Appendix A [57]
    Illustrations of IALA's Procedures for Standardizing the Vocabulary
    - Basic Procedures — For Standardizing International Words (Naturalistic Model) [57]
    - Supplementary Devices — For Obtaining Standardized Complementary Words (Naturalistic Model) [58]
    - Illustrations of Additional Procedures — For Regularizing Word-Formation (Schematic Models) [59]
Appendix B [63]
    - Participants of IALA's Meeting of Linguistic Research, Geneva, 1930 [63]
    - Members of Second International Congress of Linguists, Geneva, 1931, who signed a Testimonial
          expressing their general sympathy with "International Auxiliary Language Association" (IALA)'s program of
          linguistic research [64]
    - Members of Third International Congress of Linguists, Rome, 1933, who added their names to the
          Testimonial [64]

International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA)
Suite 1808
420 Lexington Avenue
New York 17, N. Y.

Directors, Committees, Staff, 1945

Board of Directors

President
    Stephen Duggan, Director, Institute of International Education

Vice-President
    Commander W. Hallam Tuck, Vice-President, Belgian-American Educational
    Foundation

Honorary Secretary
    Mrs. Dave Hennen Morris, Vice-President, World Service Council, Y. W. C. A.
Secretary
    John V. Irwin, Attorney-at-Law
Treasurer
    Lawrence Morris, Attorney-at-Law

  • LeRoy E. Bowman, Supervisor, New York State Bureau of Adult Education
  • Ben M. Cherrington, Director, Foundation for the Advancement of the Social
        Sciences

  • Frederick G. Cottrell, Founder of Research Corporation
  • Harry Edmonds, Founder of International House, New York
  • Alfred N. Goldsmith, Past President, Society of Motion Picture Engineers
  • Henry Goddard Leach, President, American Scandinavian Foundation
  • Paul Monroe, President, World Federation of Education Associations
  • Major General Frederick H. Osborn, Director of the Army Service Forces
        Information and Education Division

  • Mrs. Harrold Peabody, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Thomas J. Watson, President, International Business Machines Corporation


    Former Associates

    The following until their death were actively associated with IALA:

  • Earle B. Babcock, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, New York
        University, Directeur-Adjoint of the European Center of the Carnegie Endowment
        for International Peace, President of IALA
    , 1924–1935.

  • John J. Carty, Vice-President of American Telephone & Telegraph Company,
        Vice-President of IALA
    , 1924–1932.
  • J. P. W. Crawford, Professor of Romanic Languages and Literatures, University of
        Pennsylvania, Member of IALA's Advisory Board for Educational Research
    ,
        1927–1939.
  • John H. Finley, Editor of The New York Times, Member of IALA's Board of Directors,
        1924–1940, President of IALA, 1932–1940.
  • Arthur A. Hamerschlag, former President of Carnegie Institute of Technology,
        President of Research Corporation, Member of IALA's General Advisory Committee
    ,
        1924–1927.
  • Clarence Howard, President of International Chamber of Commerce, Member of
        IALA's General Advisory Committee
    , 1924–1931.
  • Otto Jespersen, Professor of English, University of Copenhagen, Member of IALA's
        Advisory Board for Linguistic Research
    , 1927–1943.
  • Sidney E. Mezes, President of College of the City of New York, Member of IALA's
        General Advisory Committee
    , 1924–1931.
  • Dave Hennen Morris, Former United States Ambassador to Belgium, Treasurer of
        IALA
    , 1924–1944.
  • Edward Sapir, Professor of Anthropology and General Linguistics, Yale University,
        Member of IALA's Advisory Board for Linguistic Research
    , 1927–1939.
  • Herbert N. Shenton, Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University, Secretary of IALA,
        1927–1937.
  • Nicolaas van Wijk, Professor of Baltic and Slavonic Languages, University of Leiden,
        Member of IALA's Committee for Agreement
    , 1936–1941.

  • PREFACE

    In conformity with war economy, the International Auxiliary Language Association has issued no annual report since 1941. The present general report covers the work from 1942–1944 and the current year, 1945, and also gives an account of the Association's work as a whole from its founding to the present time. It includes information of all kinds for which requests are constantly received at our headquarters. The sections dealing with research are written in non-technical language to the fullest extent possible and present only essentials. Technical reports giving full details are available at our office.

    Alice V. Morris
    Honorary Secretary and Chairman of
    Research Division


    THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM

    The question today is not whether we should have a common auxiliary language for international communication but what that language should be. Men and women of many nationalities swept together in the great tidal wave of worldwide war are acutely aware of the mental barriers which the diversity of national tongues imposes. New methods of language study have been devised to meet the military emergency. A host of organizations has come into existence for the purpose of foreseeing the economic and social situations inevitable after the war and of planning now to meet them. Modern communications have achieved global range and the speed of light. They need an accepted auxiliary language to bring international communication to still greater efficiency.

    Need of a Common Language for Post-War World

    Along with the passing of many established customs, the custom of translation and interpretation as the only methods for dealing with language barriers may be expected to give place to, or at least be supplemented by, an auxiliary language which all national groups will be willing to accept as a means of simplifying the exchange of ideas. The need for such a practical aid in expediting international collaboration has been strikingly indicated in two of the greatest efforts yet made by the United Nations to work together now, even during the war, on constructive measures for feeding hungry bodies and hungry minds.

    When for the first time in the course of the war official delegates of all the forty-four United Nations convened at the Food Conference at Hot Springs, Virginia, in the Spring of 1943, almost the first news available to the press from that Conference was that there was controversy over what languages should be recognized as official languages.

    While he war is still in progress educators from the United Nations are holding their conferences on plans for restoring educational opportunities to the children of the conquered countries and of developing new ways and means of educating all children to be prepared to live in an international age. One of the questions receiving significant discussion in the earliest meetings was what language should be studied in all school systems as a secondary, auxiliary language. The recommendation of the educators is as follows:

    "Furthermore, we believe it to be of the greatest importance that, so far as possible all the peoples of Europe at least, should be able to speak a common tongue. We have taken note of the decline in the teaching of Latin which once served as a means of communication between all well-educated people in Europe and have also noted the position of French as the European 'langue de culture' after the decline of Latin, and the increasing use of English as an international language among citizens of the United Nations during the present war. We recommend that all Governments should (1) choose some auxiliary means of communication; (2) ensure that in at least all European countries, including Germany, it shall be adequately taught — quite apart from the study and teaching of languages — to all school children before they leave school."*

    * Education and the United Nations, a report of the Joint Commission of the Council of Education in World Citizenship and the London International Assembly, published by American Council of Public Affairs, Washington, D. C., 1943, page 80.

    A Neutral International Language

    The Prime Minister of England recognizes the language problem in international collaboration and has suggested that it be met by a resort to the use of Basic English, a limited vocabulary system worked out by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. However, the adaptation of English, or of any other one language associated with large national groups, does not promise to be a permanent solution of the problem. If we are to have an auxiliary language that will be officially acceptable to all governments, national sensibilities should not be ignored. Psychological factors are as important as political and military factors in shaping the future. Mr. Churchill has stimulated popular thought upon the question. The answer to this question might well be the recognition by the governments of the world of a form of language in which many national tongues are represented, and which is therefore free from any suggestion of political dominance by any group of powers.


    THE INTERNATIONAL AUXILIARY LANGUAGE MOVEMENT

    The International Auxiliary Language Movement

    The International Auxiliary Language Association, usually referred to as IALA (pronounced ee-áh-lah), has long been conducting its researches for determining the form of auxiliary language best fitted to serve as the international medium of communication for the contemporary world. As the background for its work IALA has drawn upon the rich field of experimentation provided by those who have preceded us in work on the problem of a neutral auxiliary language. All their labors have furthered the movement for an auxiliary language. This movement is stronger than ever today because global war and planning for the world beyond the war have focused public attention upon the idea of a common language.

    The auxiliary language movement has already demonstrated that it is possible to construct from many national languages a single language by means of which people of different mother tongues can exchange ideas. No one of the languages devised to date, however, has proved to be generally acceptable. Therefore IALA has evolved objective procedures for providing an auxiliary language that will be so international in substance and in spirit that it will meet the present situation of political and psychological realities.

    An Anthropologist's View

    As far back as 1931 the distinguished anthropologist, the late Edward Sapir, formulated the problem as we have it today. He wrote:

    "The modern world is confronted by the difficulty of reconciling internationalism with its persistent and tightening nationalisms. More and more, unsolicited gifts from without are likely to be received with unconscious resentment. Only that can be freely accepted which is in some sense a creation of all. English, once accepted as an international language, is no more secure than French has proved to be as the one and only accepted language of diplomacy or as Latin has proved to be as the international language of science. Both French and Latin are involved with nationalistic and religious implications which could not be entirely shaken off, and so, while they seemed for a long time to have solved the international language problem up to a certain point, they did not really do so in spirit. English would probably fare no better, and it is even likely that the tradition of trade, finance, and superficial practicality in general that attaches to English may, in the long run, prove more of a hindrance than a help to the unreserved acceptance of English as an adequate means of international expression. . . .

    "English, or some simplified version of it, may spread for certain immediate and practical purposes, yet the deeper needs of the modern world may not be satisfied by it and we may still have to deal with a conflict between an English that has won a too easy triumph and a constructed language that has such obvious advantages of structure that is may gradually displace its national rival.

    "What is needed above all is a language that is as simple, as regular, as logical, as rich, and as creative as possible; a language which starts with a minimum of demands on the learning capacity of the normal individual and can do the maximum amount of work; which is to serve as a sort of logical touchstone to all national languages and as the standard medium of translation."*

    * International Communication, H. N. Shenton, E. Sapir, O. Jespersen; Kegan Paul, London, 1931, pages 71–74.

    A Psychologist's View

    The internationally known psychologist, Edward L. Thorndike, conceives of an auxiliary language as a social tool serving a utilitarian purpose:

    "The function of purpose of an international auxiliary language differs from that of a national and primary language in the relative importance of the reactions or responses which it is used to produce. . . .

    "It will, in particular, be used by men of science and scholarship to express and discuss truths, by business men and manufacturers to give and get information and come to agreements, by diplomats and other public agents to conduct international affairs, by telephone, telegraph and radio operators in the transmission of messages, by travelers in supplying their wants in foreign lands, by policemen, guides, railway officers and the like in dealings with foreigners, by broadcasters, by missionaries and educators in certain aspects of their work, by men of all sorts who make world peace and world welfare an active ideal, and in other cases where individuals need to communicate with people of several different native tongues. . . ."*

    * Language Learning, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, New York, 1933, pages 1–3.

    Origin of the Movement

    The idea of a common auxiliary language as defined by Professor Sapir and Professor Thorndike is rooted in three centuries of thought. It goes back to the world of learning of the seventeenth century when certain philosophers conceived of a common language to express their thinking on universal questions. The systems of arbitrarily chosen symbols with which they experimented limited the idea to the world of scholarship. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the conception of a language composed of elements from national languages appeared. The adaptation of ethnic language material into constructed languages follows a line of evolution toward a form of auxiliary language which embodies material shared by the largest number of languages.

    Constructed Languages

    Men of many nationalities have contributed their labor toward an auxiliary language. The Bibliografio de Internacia Lingvo, compiled by Pierre E. Stojan of Geneva in 1929, lists over three hundred constructed auxiliary languages and covers five hundred pages of five thousand titles of books and treatises on and about auxiliary languages.

    A German, Martin Schleyer, produced Volapük in 1880. This system had a meteoric popularity both in Europe and the United States for about a decade. Esperanto, the creation of Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof of Poland, was given to the world in 1887. Esperanto has many devoted adherents throughout the world. While statistics upon the actual number of persons who use this language are not available, its propagandists claim from a million to three million adherents. There are more than six thousand books and pamphlets in Esperanto and the language has been used in international conferences, in travel, and in continuous publication of periodicals. It was seriously considered for an official language by the League of Nations but not adopted. For long it has been the only widely known constructed language, and the name Esperanto is practically synonymous in the popular mind with the term auxiliary language.

    Today there are, however, five other constructed languages which have attained the status of having published dictionaries, grammars, text books, and periodicals and which therefore offer a substantial body of printed matter which can be critically examined.

    In 1907 the Delegation for the Adoption of an Auxiliary Language met in Paris. It was an international body made up of scientists and scholars. Several authors of language projects appeared before the special committee of the Delegation. Certain changes in Esperanto were considered with the permission of its creator, Dr. Zamenhof. The failure to reach agreement upon the extent of those changes resulted in the appearance of another language called Ido which today has the second largest following among constructed languages.

    In 1908, the noted Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano, of Turin, president of the Academia pro Interlingua, a body which has done important experimental work in the auxiliary language field, brought out a form of simplified Latin which he called Latino Sine Flexione. In 1925 Edgar De Wahl of Esthonia and a group of associates produced Occidental. Otto Jespersen of Denmark, the internationally known philologist, published his Novial in 1928. In Switzerland René de Sausurre has labored for a lifetime on his modifications of Esperanto. During many years he published successive versions. The latest version, Esperanto II, appeared in 1942.

    Evolution of an Auxiliary Language

    The foremost authority in this country on auxiliary languages, Albert Guérard, Stanford University, in his Short History of the International Language Movement* pointed out: The adoption, by a large number of men, and within a limited time, of a fully elaborated artificial language, would of course be unexampled. But so was every starting invention of the last two centuries. History is full of new departures, although the apparent new departures, more closely studied, are found to be the inevitable consequences of a long development. There was no railway transportation, as we understand it, until the third decade of the nineteenth century; there we have a revolution, as sudden and as far-reaching as any in the annals of mankind. Yet the locomotive did not spring, Minerva-like, from the brains of Zeus-Stephenson. In the same way, we can trace, far back in past centuries, the pre-history of the international language question: local and crude attempts, blind gropings, half-conscious applications, early dreams. Ours is not the first century in which men have attempted to tamper with, or control, language evolution.

    * Boni & Liveright, New York, 1921, page 76.

    Two Types

    The constructed languages devised to date fall into two types. Though both are based on ethnic languages, one type, which may be called the naturalistic type, conforms more closely to ethnic languages, and the other type, which may be called the schematic, is more regularized in form and more logical in structure than any ethnic language. Occidental is an example of the more naturalistic type, and Esperanto and Ido of the more schematic. These two lines of experimentation persists throughout the modern period of the auxiliary language movement, and have guided the course of IALA's own research and experimentation.

    A New Impetus

    The auxiliary language movement was given a new impetus by the first World War. In the period immediately after the war when international collaboration symbolized the hope for a peaceful world, scientists in many countries began to think about the practical possibility of a common language for the international world of science. The International Research Council appointed a committee to investigate the question. Frederick G. Cottrell, internationally known chemist, served as Chairman. In response to his invitation, the American, British, French, and Italian Associations for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council of the United States formed cooperating committees. The American Council on Education, the American Classical League, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Philological Association also organized committees. The reports of these committees revealed that the subject was a highly complicated one which demanded long and thorough study.

    International Auxiliary Language Association

    In 1924 the International Auxiliary Language Association, at the instance of Dr. Cottrell's committee, was organized as the permanent body to undertake this task. Under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Hennen Morris of New York, the Association was incorporated 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 on stable foundations.* IALA is composed of men and women interested from many points of view in the establishment of a common auxiliary language.

    * Outline of Program, 1924, page 9.

    IALA's Program

    IALA's international program comprises two types of activity, research and promotion. Research activities have included linguistic research, experimentation in language learning, and a survey of the language practices of international organizations and their conferences. Promotional activities have been focused on gaining and strengthening interest in the idea of an auxiliary language, and will go forward, it is hoped before the end of 1945, to the promoting of the use of the language which IALA will recommend as a result of its linguistic research.

    In developing its program IALA has consulted outstanding linguists, educators, psychologists, business men, scientists, diplomats, from many different countries, and specialists in constructed languages.


    IALA'S LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

    Exploratory Studies

    IALA first undertook various kinds of exploratory linguistic studies. A series entitled Foundations of Language, edited by Alice V. Morris, was participated in by Edward Sapir, William E. Collinson, Alice V. Morris, Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas Swadesh. Three of the studies were published as monographs of the Linguistic Society of America. Other work comprised comparative studies of specific linguistic features in seven ethnic languages (Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English, German, Russian), and six constructed languages, Esperanto, Esperanto II, Ido, Novial, Occidental, Latino Sine Flexione. Each study covered from five to eleven of these languages. The subjects of the more important studies were word-building, phonetics, a nuclear vocabulary, inflections and suffixes. Among those who took part in these studies were William E. Collinson, Helen S. Eaton, Henri F. Muller, and George L. Trager.

    Meeting of Linguistic Research

    In 1930 IALA called at Geneva, Switzerland, a Meeting of Linguistic Research. It was presided by Otto Jespersen, University of Copenhagen. Here for the first time in the history of auxiliary language movement eminent linguists spent uninterrupted days in conference with the leading advocates of different constructed language systems. The constructed languages represented were the six at the time best known to the public. The eighteen participants comprised eight different nationalities. The meeting lasted about a fortnight during which the majority were presented for the entire conference, others for varying lengths of time. There was general agreement upon IALA's method of investigation and proposed researches. (See Appendix, page 63.)

    Approval of Linguists

    The following year, 1931, a report on IALA's work was made to the Second International Congress of Linguists at Geneva by Professor Jespersen, and the subject of an auxiliary language was given an important place on the agenda. Members of the Congress subscribed to a testimonial expressing their general sympathy with IALA's program.

    At the Third International Congress of Linguists held at Rome, 1933, other linguists added their names. (See Appendix, page 64.)

    Bibliography

    A bibliography and commentary on linguistic works published in European languages was compiled by Erich Hofmann under the direction of Edouard Hermann, University of Göttingen, and Albert Debrunner, University of Jena.

    This bibliography was planned for at IALA's Meeting of Linguistic Research. It was completed in 1933. The manuscript is available in IALA's office.

    Semantic Frequency List

    A pioneer piece of research on international concepts was begun by Miss Eaton of IALA's staff in 1934. The last year's work on this study was carried on by Miss Eaton as research assistant in the Division of Psychology, Institute of Educational Research of Teachers College, Columbia University. The completed study was issued by the Committee on Modern Languages of the American Council on Education and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1940 under the title Semantic Frequency Lists for English, French, German, and Spanish. The Semantic Frequency List correlates from the point of view of their meanings the words in the following single-language frequency lists: Thorndike's Teachers Word Book of 20,000 Words, Vander Beke's French Word Book, Kaeding's Häufigkeitswörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, and Buchanan's Graded Spanish Word Book. It shows the relative frequency of approximately 6,000 international concepts expressed in four modern languages.

    In the foreword to the book Robert H. Fife, Chairman of the Committee on Modern Languages, wrote: Only those who have examined the history of linguistic theory can appreciate the full significance of an experiment which employs a technique recently developed to establish in relative frequency of use the common conceptions of mankind as they find expression in four languages of the present day. . . . This [method of approach to the problem] is based on the assumption that the words and locutions which appear most often are those which are most necessary for the concerns of life. . . . A word has two factors of equal importance: form and meaning. These are inseparable in the mind of the user; but, while the word-form is a relatively stable phenomenon in the written languages of civilized peoples, word-meaning includes a number of possibilities. . . . Even words with a wide range of semantic values, often determinable only by the context in which they are used, have a certain semantic focus about which the meanings cluster. Evidence of such a basic idea appears plainly when we find words of complex meaning with a similar semantic focus in several language. The correlation of the word frequencies in a group of languages may then show an interlingual relationship among the concepts measurable by a scale of frequency of use.

    Science of Interlinguistics

    Our exploratory studies of natural, or ethnic, languages, and of the many constructed languages already devised, led to the conclusion that there was a practical contribution which IALA could make to the science of interlinguistics. This science as defined by Professor Jespersen, is that branch of the science of language which deals with the structure and basic ideas of all languages with a view to the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i. e., auxiliary languages destined for oral and written use between people who cannot make themselves understood by means of their mother tongues.

    The practical contribution would be the development of a system by which the impersonal methods of science might be applied more thoroughly than ever before in determining what material in the many languages of the world is sufficiently common to be the basis of standardization for the vocabulary of an international language. In 1933 the Directors of IALA voted that a standardization project should be undertaken.

    Committee for Agreement

    In that year also Mr. and Mrs. Morris, founders and officers of IALA, went to reside in Brussels when Mr. Morris was appointed United States Ambassador to Belgium. During their four years in Brussels, Mr. and Mrs. Morris consulted authorities from many countries, eminent both in the field of linguistics and in the various branches of the auxiliary language movement. As a result an international committee, known as the Committee for Agreement, was formed with the following members: Albert Debrunner, Professor of Classical Philology and Indo-European Linguistics, University of Berne and University of Basle, Chairman; Willem de Cock Buning, former Trade Commissioner for The Netherlands East Indies; William E. Collinson, Professor of German and Honorary Lecturer in Comparative Philology, University of Liverpool; Joseph Vendryes, Dean of the Faculty of Letters, University of Paris; Nicolaas Van Wijk†, Professor of Baltic and Slavonic Languages, University of Leiden; and Mrs. Dave H. Morris, ex-officio.

    † Died March 26, 1941.

    Specifications for an Auxiliary Language

    In a series of conferences held by the Committee for Agreement specifications for an auxiliary language were drawn up. The Committee conceived of the auxiliary language not as altogether a new language, but rather as a synthesis based upon existing ethnic and constructed languages. It specified that the projected language should be adequate for every kind of international communication and should be easier to learn than any ethnic language. It also specified that in order to insure comparative ease of learning, (1) the vocabulary of the language should be composed of elements and features familiar to the largest possible number of people with different mother tongues, and (2) the structure of the language should be characterized by a high degree of simplicity and regularity. It stipulated that to the fullest extent possible the language be developed according to a system of procedures so objective that anyone with adequate linguistic knowledge and capacity could be trained to apply them.

    The Committee recognized the fact that there have been two schools of thought in the auxiliary movement: one, the naturalistic, which emphasizes that an auxiliary language should embody the traditional patterns of ethnic languages; the other, the schematic, which emphasizes that an auxiliary language should be more logical and regular than any ethnic language (see page 14). Since both naturalness and regularity are desirable, the Committee recommended that experimentation be carried on with both types of languages, with the end in view of gathering data on which to base a judgment as to whether an auxiliary language of the more naturalistic type or one of the more schematic type would serve more satisfactorily as a medium of international communication.

    Work in Liverpool

    An international staff composed of persons trained in comparative philology was assembled with William E. Collinson of the University of Liverpool as Director and E. Clark Stillman as Assistant Director.

    A grant for initial work on the standardization project was given by Rockefeller Foundation to the University of Liverpool, where IALA's research staff was housed.

    Research Corporation has generously given IALA an annual grant for research to assist in bringing about a neutral, non-political auxiliary language.

    Work went forward in Liverpool in the assembling and organization of linguistic data until the fall of 1939. When England entered the war, the Liverpool staff of many nationals had to be dispersed. Just before Liverpool was bombed the linguistic data and library accumulated up to that time were transferred to New York.

    Work in New York

    In New York a new staff of trained workers of different nationalities was organized by Mr. Stillman, who directed the work until he entered Government service in March 1934. Dr. Alexander Gode the assumed direction of the project.

    The was has cut off communication with the European members of the Committee for Agreement, expect Professor Collinson in England. However, the plan of work was so carefully charted by the Committee that it has gone forward in spite of the many adjustments necessitated by war conditions, primarily those arising from members of the staff going from IALA to Government work where their knowledge of languages is needed.

    Fundamental work on the standardization project has been completed. The system of standardization has been evolved and its methods applied to the production of a standardized vocabulary for an international auxiliary language.

    It is not possible to present within the compass of this general report details of IALA's linguistic research. We only attempt to give here in highly simplified form the facts and the line of reasoning which led to our system, the outline of the system itself, and its results.


    IALA'S SYSTEM. UNDERLYING FACTS AND REASONING

    Let us now summarize for the general reader the linguistic facts and the reasoning based on these facts which have led to the development of IALA's system of standardization.

    The underlying idea of IALA's system is that international words already in circulation in languages actually spoken in the world today are sujected to standardizing processes to fit them for service in the vocabulary of a neutral auxiliary language.

    Languages of the World

    All the languages of the world may be roughly estimated as numbering between 2,500 and 3,500. Students of linguistics find it difficult to make a scientifically exact count due to the problem of dialects. All these hundreds of languages belong to so-called language families, each family sharing a common ancestor language. Within these language families there are groups of languages very closely related in both vocabulary and structure because they share a more immediate common ancestor. For example, the Indo-European language family in usually regarded as including ten different language groups, the largest groups among them being the Romance languages, the Germanic languages, and the Slavic languages.

    International Words

    Each of these language groups possesses many words traceable to common ancestral words. Since these words appear in two, three, four, five, or more languages of a family, they are international words. They may vary in spelling but they are usually recognizable as the same words and they have common essential meanings. We may call them the variants of an international word.

    An example of an international word which can be traced back to a common ancestor in primitive Germanic is our familiar word house, which appears in German as Haus, in Dutch as huis, in Danish as hus, and in Swedish as hus. All of these forms are variants expressing a common concept. An international word in the Romance languages is that meaning earth which in its ancestral form in Latin is terra. In the modern languages which are de descendants of Latin we have the variants terre (French), terra (Italian), terra (Portuguese), tierra (Spanish).

    In addition to such international words which are native to each language within a given group, there is another kind of international word which has migrated into many languages. This class includes all those words which have been carried from country to country by such diverse activities as commerce, colonization, travel, war, literature, advertising, science and technology, transportation, radio, international conferences, and education, to mention only a few. The great majority of these traveling words become naturalized citizens of each language into they migrate and therefore appear in variant forms typical of the language which has welcomed them.

    The following are examples of international words originating in different languages, all of which appear in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and in many other languages, so that they are, in fact, international words of more or less global range:

    • from American Indian languages, chocolate, hammock, tomato
    • from Arabic, admiral, alcohol, caramel, cemetery, cotton, syrup, zero
    • from Chinese, serge, tea, sampan
    • from Hebrew, amen, Eden, sabbath
    • from Hungarian, coach
    • from Persian, bazaar, caravan, shawl

    The native and the naturalized words in the large majority of cases appear as variants in the languages of a given group related through a common ancestor language. Together these two classes of international words give us a vast fund of ethnic language material already in international circulation.

    On the basis of these facts our problem was to evolve a system of standardization by means of which we could extract international words from this wealth of material and adapt them to give practical service in the vocabulary of a neutral auxiliary language.

    Range of Internationality

    The range of internationality of a word can be regarded from two points of view: the number of languages in which the word is found, and the geographical range of that international word. Since we are conceiving of an auxiliary language for a global age, it would be desirable to take from our fund of international words only those which qualify from both aspects of internationality — namely, those in the largest number of languages, and those most widely known through geographical distribution. This conception is not practicable, however, in the present stage of the contacts of languages because there are not yet enough international words shared by Oriental and European languages to provide a large enough vocabulary for an auxiliary language.

    If we cannot get a complete vocabulary of international words of global range, how near can we come to such a comprehensive vocabulary? When is the geographical range of an international word wide enough to make it eligible for the auxiliary language vocabulary for our contemporary world?

    From the linguistic point of view, the vocabulary of an auxiliary language should not be a hodgepodge of miscellaneous words which happen to be international. For practical purposes it should have an aspect of familiarity to the speakers of as many different national languages as can be represented in it.

    Is there any method by which we can compile and standardize international words of both classes so that the auxiliary language vocabulary will be comprehensible to the largest number of people of different mother tongues?

    Clearing House for International Words Needed

    If we find that international words of wide geographical range, whatever their language of origin, are to be found in nearly every case in one group of related languages, we can explore the possibility of using this group as a clearing house for international words. What languages of our contemporary world promise the richest sources of international words?

    The argument that European languages rather than Oriental languages can furnish the vocabulary of an auxiliary language is supported by nearly all who have preceded or paralleled IALA in work in the field of interlinguistics. Notably among them was Professor Jespersen, who, after IALA's Meeting of Linguistic Research, wrote:

    "It would be vain to aim at the real 'world-language' in the sense of one that should be perfectly impartial to human beings of whatever nationality and language, for that could be done only . . . by making the contemplated artificial language as difficult as possible for everybody. The task of constructing and even of learning such a language woild be beyond human power. But the matter assumes a different aspect as soon as it is recognized that we should utilize as much as possible any community in linguistic form already existing, for it turns out that there is nowhere in the world anything that can be compared with the community existing among West-European nations and their offshoots in the other parts of the world."*

    * International Communication, Herbert N. Shenton, Edward Sapir, Otto Jespersen; Kegan Paul, London, 1931, page 114.

    In addition to the fact that at this time in the history of the world the languages of Europe, from the linguistic point of view, offer the greatest supply of international words, there is another practical reason for considering them rather than the Oriental languages as the main sources for an auxiliary language vocabulary. The auxiliary language movement originated in Europe. The forty odd languages of Western Europe which complicate the free exchange of ideas among different national groups present as great a problem today as they did when the movement came to popular attention more than half a century ago. The growing interest in the auxiliary language idea heightened by the war, the possibilities of practical promotion of an auxiliary language in Europe immediately after the war, make the concentration upon European languages a logical one.

    Sources of International Words

    Let us examine the European languages which are best suited to serve as the clearing house of international words.

    The European languages most widely spoken geographically throughout the world today are English and the Romance languages — French, Spanish, and, to a lesser degree, Portuguese, and Italian.

    It is claimed that English is the most widely spoken of all languages. This does not mean that the largest number of people speak it as a mother tongue. Statistics show that a greater number of people speak Chinese in its various forms. But English is more international in a geographical sense that Chinese or any language group of the Orient for the reason that it has penetrated into every corner of the world. In a linguistic sense English is also more international. It has absorbed words from all languages with which it has come in contact, and has contributed words to practically all languages. After the Norman Conquest so many French words came into English that, although it is a Germanic language by origin, it is in a large part a Romance language in vocabulary.

    Now the major Romance languages — French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish — are all widely spoken, in varying degrees, in both hemispheres. Since these languages are all direct descendants of Latin they possess in their respective vocabularies a vast body of international words which are native and common to this group of languages. These native international words have, of course, been carried to all countries wherever the Romance languages are spoken as mother tongues or as acquired languages of culture.

    An enormous number of naturalized international words is also to be found in the Romance languages for these far-flung languages have assimilated large numbers of words from other languages, and have given them Romance forms. The Romance languages are not, however, so highly receptive to migratory words as is English, which is a melting pot of internationally current word material. If, then, English and the Romance languages are grouped as sources of international words, we are certain to have, both from the linguistic and the geographical points of view, centers of radiation of international words and also centers of absorption of international words. One of the reasons for this fact is that modern science and technology, which have made the world one community, draw upon Latin and Greek for their terminologies, and these two classical languages have contributed vast numbers of words to English and the Romance languages. Latin and Greek are used today in creating words to cover new ideas and new inventions of which those who spoke Latin or Greek as their mother tongues never dreamed. Just one example: the word automobile is half Greek and half Latin. In fact, probably the bulk of the international vocabulary in world-wide circulation is the vocabulary of the international realm of science. This is an important reason for using English and the Romance languages in a system of standardization for an auxiliary language vocabulary.

    Now let us compare other languages of Europe with English and the Romance languages as centers of international words. None of the other Germanic languages — German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages — when compared to English has in any degree sent so many words into international circulation, or has absorbed so many words from languages throughout the world.

    The Slavic languages, spoken in Russia, Poland, and the Balkan countries, and the Baltic languages have so far given comparatively few words to the contemporary fund of internationally current words; but the Germanic and Slavic tongues have assimilated many words from the Romance languages. For example, such important concepts as politics and cooperation are expressed in German, Russian, and Polish in words of Romance origin.

    The Anglo-Romanic Group of Languages

    In view of these facts, we concluded that English and the Romance languages together could serve as a clearing house for international words of both kinds, the native and the naturalized. They qualify for this service both from the geographic and from the linguistic points of view of internationality. As a group of related languages we may call them the Anglo-Romanic group.

    The limitation of the sphere of selection of international words to the Anglo-Romanic group of languages makes possible the setting up of a standard of internationality for determining the eligibility of words for the auxiliary language vocabulary. It also makes possible setting up standards for the form and for the meaning of all eligible international words. In these processes of standardization we can use as controls the Anglo-Romanic group of languages. In taking this group of languages as our control group, we may limit our field still further by concentrating on the major Romance languages. The major Romance languages, due to their wide geographical distribution, have contributed many more international words and absorbed many more of them than the minor Romance languages — Catalan, Provençal, Romansh, Roumanian. Therefore the minor Romance languages would not be likely to provide any international words not already to be found in the major languages of that group. Our system is therefore simplified by using only the major Romance languages as controls.

    Standardization of International Words

    The variants of all international words represented in English and the major Romance languages show so close a family resemblance that it is possible to evolve a neutral or standard form typical of Romance words. This common denominator, or prototype, may usually be found by going back to the nearest common ancestor word from which the variants have developed. But if the international word has come into existence only in modern times and therefore no historical prototype exists for it, a prototype form can nevertheless be determined by applying scientific imagination to linguistic knowledge and constructing a form of the same type as the historical prototypes.

    As a word moves from language to language it sometimes takes on a secondary or extended meaning peculiar to the language of a given country. The science of semantics, which has recently attracted much popular attention, is the branch of linguistics concerned with the meanings of words. In our modern world where words are "weapons of war" and can be made the tools of peace, the meaning of an international word can be a vital matter. Hence the meanings of international words and the exact definitions of the standardized international words are a most important aspect of IALA's linguistic research.

    Many Mother Tongues Represented

    In taking the Anglo-Romanic group of languages as the basis for a system of standardization, we are using five ethnic languages but actually we are using many national languages, since these five modern languages are the mother tongues of many nations in the old world and the new. The auxiliary language vocabulary therefore achieves the highly practical aspect of familiarity to many national groups in both hemispheres. In fact, it will be comprehensible to the largest group of people in the world whose mother tongues have a common bond.

    In European countries it will be familiar to native speakers of any one of the Romance languages. The part that English plays as a control language will make it comprehensible to all the English speaking people of the British Commonwealth of Nations. To speakers of the Germanic and Slavic languages, especially those who have studied English or one of the Romance languages, it will not be difficult to understand.

    In the new world the Spanish speaking nations of South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Portuguese speaking people of Brazil will find this auxiliary language vocabulary recognizable at sight.

    In the United States and Canada, the English speaking people and also those who speak other languages will find in this representative vocabulary much that is immediately familiar.

    Colonial populations as, for example, the French in Africa, will find it easy to understand.

    For people of Oriental countries it can be the key to the languages of Western Europe as well as their direct means of communication with Europeans.

    Naturalistic and Schematic Types

    IALA's research and experimentation were planned to cover both lines of development of the auxiliary language movement, namely the naturalistic and the schematic types of an auxiliary language. We always bore in mind that the final outcome of our research should be one language and that this one language to the fullest extent possible should embody the qualities of both the naturalistic and schematic types.

    We have already mentioned the general nature of the two types (page 20). A brief explanation of the distinguishing characteristics of their respective vocabularies is now pertinent as an introduction to the presentation of our system of standardization and of our work in developing experimental models of both types.

    The distinguishing characteristic of any auxiliary language of the naturalistic type is that it follows closely words as they actually exist in the ethnic languages. Words are given forms which embody to the fullest extent practicable what is common to the corresponding variants in the ethnic languages used as sources. The method used in producing this type of vocabulary centers on the extraction of these corresponding variants. The aim is to achieve immediate recognizability of the meaning of naturalistic words in context by persons familiar with one or more of the ethnic languages from which the vocabulary is extracted. Therefore, in the production of a vocabulary of the naturalistic type the desirability of familiarity of word material is given a primary importance. The desirability of regularity of word-formation, spelling, and pronunciation, though not disregarded, is considered to be of secondary importance.

    The distinguishing characteristics of an auxiliary language vocabulary of the schematic type is that regularity of word-formation, spelling, and pronunciation is given primary importance.

    The method used in producing a vocabulary of the schematic type centers on the deliberate establishment of a system of regular word-formation. Such a system includes a set of standardized affixes, that is, suffixes and prefixes, and rules for using them. The vocabulary is organized into groups of words of closely related meaning, each group headed by a base word, that is, a word which does not itself contain any of the standardized affixes, and which can be used as the base from which derivatives can be formed to cover the meanings of the other words of the group. Such groups may be referred to as "schematic groups." As a result of the organization of the vocabulary into schematic groups of words, it can be fairly said that, if one knows the standardized affixes and the rules of word-formation, whenever one learns a base word, one also learns all of its derivatives in their general meanings. Users of the pioneer constructed languages of the schematic type, such as Esperanto and Ido, have often commented on how greatly the feature of regular word-formation economizes the effort of learning a language of that type and also contributes to freedom and facility in the active use of the language.

    IALA's Contribution

    In accordance with the facts and reasoning presented in the preceding pages, IALA has developed its system of standardization of national language materials. This system IALA offers as one of its contributions to the science of interlinguistics and therefore to the constantly growing movement for a common language for our international age.

    IALA's system as a whole includes: (1) certain basic procedures which are fundamental to the development of any vocabulary by means of the system, whether such vocabulary be of the naturalistic of schematic type, and (2) procedures which can be used for modifying the naturalistic vocabulary produced by the basic procedures.


    IALA'S SYSTEM - BASIC PROCEDURES - VOCABULARY OF THE NATURALISTIC TYPE

    The essentials of the basic procedures of IALA's system of standardization are now briefly summarized. Basic procedures include: (1) the setting up of control languages; (2) three main rules for the extracting of international words from the control languages and giving them standardized forms and meanings for the auxiliary language vocabulary; and (3) supplementary devices which make certain that the auxiliary language vocabulary includes all words needed for practical service.

    Setting Up of Control Languages

    Five interrelated modern languages — English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish — are set up as controls in the process of extracting a complete auxiliary language vocabulary that will have a maximum degree of comprehensibility for the largest possible number of people of different mother tongues. These five modern languages are used as four control units, Spanish and Portuguese, for the purpose of our procedures, being regarded as one unit.

    Rules for Obtaining Standardized International Words

    For standardizing international words, there are three general rules. The rules determine (1) in how many of the control units an international words must be found in order to be eligible for representation in the auxiliary language; (2) in what form an eligible international word is to be standardized; and (3) what meaning or meanings it is to convey. The rules follow:

    (1) Eligibility

    If an international word is represented by variants with at least one common meaning in at least three out of the four control units — English, French, Italian, Spanish-Portuguese — it is eligible for representation in the auxiliary language.

    (2) Form

    The standardized form in which an eligible international word is represented is a common-denominator form of all its variants and may be called their prototype. The prototype is arrived at by a thorough study of the etymology of the word-family in which the international word is found.

    (3) Meaning

    The meaning or meanings of a standardized international word are the meaning or meanings which the variants contributing to its eligibility have in common.

    Supplementary Devices for Complementing the International Vocabulary

    By the above three main rules for eligibility, form, and meaning we are able to obtain standardized international words to express the great majority of concepts sufficiently international from the linguistic and geographical points of view to call for expression in the vocabulary of an auxiliary language. However, certain words are still lacking to cover important concepts, usually of universal character.

    This fact is due to the limitations imposed by our main rule of eligibility which requires that variants of a single word have a range of internationality covering three out of the four control units. Now some of the most familiar international concepts are not expressed by variants of a single word but by quite different words in the control languages. It is therefore necessary to complement the vocabulary by providing standardized words to represent these concepts, relatively few in number, but essential for an auxiliary language.

    We have therefore filled these gaps in the vocabulary by using certain supplementary devices in harmony with the spirit of our three main rules. The standardized words obtained by these devices round out the vocabulary to a complete active vocabulary. For purposes of differentiation we refer to such words as complementary words.

    In comparison with our main rules the supplementary devices are different in quality. They are not objectively applicable in the same way. They are less fixed, for they may become somewhat modified in the course of our work, and some new ones may be needed. For our experimental naturalistic and schematic models considerable freedom in working out different devices for standardizing complementary words could be exercised without affecting the general character of the particular model in which such devices were applied.

    The underlying principle for determining which concepts should be represented by the complementary words is as follows: Every concept which is represented by words in all languages of the Anglo-Romanic control group, but for which there are no variants of a single word that has the required range of internationality within that group, is entitled to be represented in the auxiliary language by a standardized complementary word.

    For determining the form in which a complementary word is standardized there are specific supplementary devices for different kinds of cases.

    IALA's Fundamental Naturalistic Vocabulary

    As explained above, the application of the basic procedures of IALA's system of standardization produces a vocabulary of the naturalistic type. This vocabulary we call our fundamental naturalistic vocabulary.

    IALA's naturalistic vocabulary closely resembles what is common to the Romance languages and English, from which it is extracted. Hence it has the asset of familiarity to the millions of people who speak those languages.

    It is in no sense a minimum or limited vocabulary but a full one. Eventually it will cover all the concepts which are international within the five modern languages used as controls. Hence its adequacy to express whatever needs to be expressed in an auxiliary language for the contemporary world.

    New words are continually being added to the international vocabulary already existing within ethnic languages. That is due to scientific and technological progress and to the increasingly closer inter-communication of all parts of the world. Our system provides the means for giving such words a standardized form for use in the auxiliary language.

    All the five languages from which our naturalistic vocabulary is extracted have the creative capacity of forming derivatives by the addition of prefixes and suffixes to root words. Consequently the naturalistic vocabulary also possesses this creative capacity. In our process of standardization many of the irregularities in the meanings of prefixes and suffixes characteristic of the individual control languages disappear; other, however, survive because of the close conformity of the naturalistic vocabulary to the ethnic languages used as controls.

    The fundamental naturalistic vocabulary is used in a translation of a sample text on pages 44–45.

    Illustrations of our procedures for standardizing international words and for obtaining standardized complementary words are given on pages 57–59.


    IALA'S SYSTEM - POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL PROCEDURES - VOCABULARY OF THE SCHEMATIC TYPE

    IALA's System - Possible Additional Procedures - Vocabulary of the Schematic Type

    Further Regularization Possible

    Our schematic vocabulary is developed by applying certain additional procedures to the basic procedures which have produced the fundamental naturalistic vocabulary. That vocabulary is taken as the starting point and subjected to further regularization of word-formation, spelling, and pronunciation. In producing our experimental models of the schematic type we set the aim to develop them in such a way that the vocabulary of these models would have approximately the same degree of recognizability as that of the naturalistic model.

    Various degrees of regularization of our naturalistic vocabulary are possible. We have worked out two models of the schematic type, representing different degrees of regularization. For laboratory purposes we have labeled those models "schematic E" and "schematic K." In the schematic E model the degree of regularization of our naturalistic model is the minimum which, we believe, can be carried out and yet produce the essential characteristics of the schematic type. In the schematic K model regularization is carried out to about the highest degree which we believe to be possible without unduly sacrificing recognizability of the general meaning of a text to those familiar with English or one or more of the Romance languages. The schematic K model may be said to represent a medium degree of regularization, since further stages of regularization would be possible.

    Regularization of Word-Formation

    The preliminary work in establishing a set of standardized affixes to be used in regularizing our naturalistic vocabulary into a vocabulary of the schematic type was carried out with the aid of comparative studies of word-formation and of the frequency of affixes in the major ethnic languages of Europe, in the best known constructed languages, and in our fundamental naturalistic vocabulary itself.

    The affixes were selected as far as possible according to three specifications: (1) that they are "living" affixes in the five languages used as controls: that is, that these five languages use them for the formation of new words; (2) that they occur frequently in our naturalistic vocabulary; (3) that they are needed in forming words essential to an everyday vocabulary. The affixes have all been taken from the Romance languages and given experimental standardized forms. At present we have standardized 45 suffixes and 15 prefixes but our experimentation indicates that the final number of our standardized affixes will probably be less. It was not found practicable in all cases to limit each standardized affix to a single meaning, although that would be desirable, but we have limited their meanings in accordance with the same specifications used in selecting them.

    This process of systematization of affixes can be illustrated by a few examples taken from English. In English we have the suffix -ness, which is most frequently used to form nouns of state of quality from adjectives, as idleness from idle, or greenness from green. But in English we have other suffixes with the same function. We have severity from severe + -ity, promptitude from prompt + -itude. If we chose to use the formations with -ness, severeness and promptness, both of which are good English words, instead of severity and promptitude, we would still be understood.

    In our three models of an auxiliary language, the adjectives severe and prompt are standardized, as severe and prompte. For the nouns severity and promptitude, our fundamental naturalistic vocabulary has severitate and promptitudine. Schematic E has severita'* and promptita', and schematic K has severeso** and prompteso.

    * The apostrophe after -ita' is used to indicate the stressing of the final vowel. -ita' is a shortened form of suffix -itate, used in the naturalistic model.

    ** The schematic K suffix -eso is derived from the Latin suffix -itia, which is the source of the French -esse, the Italian -ezza, and the Spanish and Portuguese -eza.

    The general rules of word-formation which are used in regularizing our naturalistic vocabulary into a vocabulary of the schematic type are as follows:

    1. Our naturalistic words are examined in the framework of the etymological families in which they belong. Each etymological family is divided into what we have termed schematic groups, each group headed by a base word. (See pages 30–31.)
    2. A naturalistic word whose meaning can be expressed by a base word plus one of more of the standardized affixes is given a form made up of the base word, minus its final vowel, and the appropriate standardized affix or affixes.
    3. A naturalistic word is not subjected to this schematic treatment when it has a meaning which cannot be expressed by the formation of a schematic word from a base word plus one or more of the standardized affixes, but is taken over bodily into our schematic vocabulary, with adaptations of spelling, and can be used as a base word.

    There are a few exceptions to the above rules of which the following exception to the second rule is the most important: The form of a word as used in our naturalistic vocabulary is retained in technical vocabularies.

    The system of word-formation outlined above has two functions, a regularizing function and a creative function. The regularizing function deals with words in our naturalistic vocabulary. It is exercised by those who build our schematic vocabulary. Regularization as a rule is the final step in determining the schematic form of derivatives. Emphasis on regularization of the form of derivatives is the outstanding feature which differentiates developing the vocabulary of our schematic models from developing our fundamental naturalistic vocabulary. The creative function of schematic word-formation is the spontaneous creation of new words. It is to be exercised by the users of the auxiliary language. It is the capacity to form new words as the need arises by combining known words of roots with standardized affixes. It is not different in nature from the creative capacity in ethnic language vocabularies or in our naturalistic vocabulary but it is a good deal less limited in scope and can be used more freely.

    Regularization of Spelling and Pronunciation

    In developing the schematic models the aim has been to establish a relationship between spelling and pronunciation even closer that prevails in Italian, Spanish, and German. Consequently the spelling has to be changed in many words in which English and French retain the spelling of the prototype. Pronunciation in our schematic models has been regularized. If the rules are learned the spelling of a word becomes merely a mechanical process of transcribing the sounds.

    IALA's Schematic Vocabulary

    By applying the above outlined regularizing procedures to our fundamental naturalistic vocabulary, we have produced a vocabulary of the schematic type. The principal feature, as has been pointed out, which differentiates a vocabulary of this type from a more naturalistic vocabulary is regularity of word-formation.

    Actually the amount of change from our naturalistic vocabulary resulting from our regularization of word-formation is not as sweeping as might be imagined. In the total vocabulary compiled to date the proportion of naturalistic words requiring a different affix in the schematic versions is relatively small. It might be roughly estimated as about ten per cent.

    In our schematic models, from most base words one can regularly form anywhere from two to fifteen derivatives, and all such derivatives, whether or not represented in the control languages, are considered legitimately part of the schematic vocabulary and may be freely used.

    Like our naturalistic vocabulary, our schematic vocabulary is in no sense a minimum or limited vocabulary but a full one.

    The nature of the experimentation of the schematic models leaves some of the linguistic details still open to discussion. However, if IALA recommends a language of the schematic type, it cannot be very different from one or the other model presented in this report.

    The same sample text according to the naturalistic model given on page 44 is shown according to the schematic models on pages 46 and 47. The reader will note the fundamental similarity of the three versions of the auxiliary language vocabulary.

    Illustrations of our procedures of regularization of word-formation will be found on pages 59–62.


    GRAMMAR

    In order to use the standardized vocabulary in a language, it is, of course, necessary to provide also a grammatical apparatus.

    In working out a grammatical system we have benefitted from the wealth of experience of older auxiliary languages, Some constructed languages have simple and ingenious grammatical systems devised without much reference to the forms used in natural languages. Other take their grammatical forms from English and the Romance languages.

    Our guiding idea for supplying grammatical forms is to provide from the Romance languages forms for functions found in all the control languages.

    English has a special role in working out a simple system of grammar, as the trend toward simplicity in the evolution of languages has advanced farther in English than in the Romance languages.

    In our system the Romanic norm is simplified to a slightly greater extent than English has simplified the Teutonic norm.

    The following statements apply to the naturalistic model. They apply also to the schematic models, except in a few details which need not to be mentioned here.

    Noun. The plural ending is -s, as in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

    As in English, natural gender replaces grammatical gender. Inanimate objects are not referred to as masculine and feminine, as they are in the Romance languages.

    Personal pronoun. We have retained subject and object forms of certain pronouns, since all the control languages do so.

    Adjective. As in English, adjectives have a single form, whether the nouns they govern are masculine of feminine, singular or plural.

    Derived adverb. In the Romance languages adverbs are freely formed from adjectives by means of a suffix whose prototype is -mente, even as in English they are formed by -ly. We have adopted the suffix -mente for forming adverbs.

    Verb. In most Indo-European languages person and number are expressed by personal endings of the verb. In English the system has shrunk to the -s of the third person singular, present tense, and a few irregular verb forms. We provide only one form for each tense, with the exception of the present tense of essere 'to be' and ire 'to go'. In all other cases person and number are indicated by the subject, not by the form of the verb. The Romance languages have two simple past tenses, derived from the Latin perfect and imperfect tenses. Following the example of English, we provide only one simple past tense. The major Romance languages all have for the subjunctive mood two or more simple tenses, and several compound tenses. English has a few traces of the subjunctive, but since the subjunctive is a notorious source of difficulty for language learners we do not have it at all in the auxiliary language grammar. Our control languages all possess a conditional, and it is in active use in all of them except Portuguese; therefore we provide a conditional. In our system of conjunction the verb has the infinitive; present and past participles; present, past, and future tenses; compound perfect tenses; the imperative; and the conditional. There are compound passive forms paralleling all the active forms.

    Sentence structure. The control languages which furnish the vocabulary may also serve as a model for word order. They differ in some points but no rigid rules are prescribed for word order. The arrangement of words to form the sentence may be the same as in any of the control languages. But what is common to most of the control languages should be preferred to what is peculiar to a single one of them.

    The most important points that the English speaking person needs to note are: that the adjective may either precede or follow the noun it modifies; that the object pronouns may either precede of follow the verb.

    Since the verb form (except present tense of essere 'to be' and ire 'to go') does note express number and person, subject pronouns are used more often than they are in most of the Romance languages.


    EXPERIMENTAL TRANSLATIONS OF A SAMPLE TEXT

    Experimental translations of all types of texts are part of the process of determining whether a vocabulary of the naturalistic type or a vocabulary of the schematic type will be more suitable for the auxiliary language which IALA will recommend.

    Below is given a sample text in English and in experimental translations according to our naturalistic and schematic models in order that the reader may compare them. This text is an excerpt from the speech of the Honorable Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, given at the opening of the historic International Security Conference at Dumbarton Oaks, August 12, 1944. In order that people of as many nations as possible might hear his words it was necessary to broadcast them in twenty-six languages.

    The translations of the sample text in the auxiliary language are accompanied by rules for pronunciation which will enable the reader to read the text aloud.

    The schematic models have a vocabulary which is a deliberate modification of the naturalistic vocabulary along the lines of regularization of word-formation, spelling, and pronunciation beyond the standardization already achieved by the naturalistic model.

    Schematic E represents the minimum degree of such regularization and schematic K the medium degree.

    In these experimental translations the position of the adjective is given in different ways to emphasize that no rigid rule for the position of adjectives is required. In the naturalistic translation and in the schematic E translation, the adjective usually follows the noun as is customary in the Romance languages, and in the schematic K translation, the adjective usually precedes the noun as in English.

    Sample Text — Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Cordell Hull at Dumbarton Oaks, August 21, 1944

    The lessons of earlier disunity and weakness should be indelibly stamped upon the minds and hearts of this generation and of generations to come. So should the lesson of unity and its resultant strength achieved by the United Nations in this war.

    Unity for common action toward common good and against common peril is the sole effective method by which, in time of peace, the nations which love peace can assure for themselves security and orderly progress, with freedom and justice. In the face of what modern war means to the physical and moral being of man, the maintenance of such unity is a matter of the highest and most enlightened self-interest. In the final analysis it is, first and foremost, a thing of the spirit.

    Peace, like liberty, requires constant devotion and ceaseless vigilance. It requires willingness to take positive steps toward its preservation. It requires constant cooperation among the nations and determination to live together as good neighbors in a world of good neighbors. Peace requires an acceptance of the idea that its maintenance is a common interest so precious and so overwhelmingly important that all differences and controversies among nations can and must be resolved by resort to pacific means.

    But peace also requires institutions through which the will to peace can be translated into action. The devising of such institutions is a challenge to the wisdom and ingenuity of men and women everywhere. That is why the United Nations, in the midst of a relentless prosecution of the war, have been working together to create the institutional foundations for a just and enduring peace.

    Key to Pronunciation of Vowels and to Stress in Translations According to Naturalistic and Schematic Models

    In our versions of an auxiliary language, whether naturalistic or schematic, vowels are pronounced approximately as in father, met or they, machine, north or note, flute.

    In all versions the stress normally falls on the vowel ahead of the last consonant. In naturalistic and schematic E exceptions may be made to conform to the way certain words are stressed in the Romance languages. In all versions the addition of -s to form the plural does not change the stress.

    Key to Pronunciation of Consonants and Combinations Which Occur in Translation According to Naturalistic Model

    c before e and i, like ts, s, or ch in church
    c in other positions, like k
    g before e and i, like j, z in azure, or g in go
    g in other positions, like g in go
    j like y in yes, j in joke, or z in azure
    qu before e and i, like qu in queen, or like k
    qu in other positions, like qu in queen
    t in the combinations tia, tie, tio, like ts, s in sum, or t in top (but always as t in the word questione)
    t in other positions, like t in table
    other consonants and combinations, approximately as in English

    Translation According to Naturalistic Model

    Le lectiones insignate per le disunione et le impotentia de le passato debe essere imprimite indelibilemente super le mente et le corde de iste generatione et de le generationes future, sic como le lectiones insignate per le unitate et le fortia resultante de ille, que le Nationes Unite habe attingite in iste guerra.

    Le unitate que permitte de agere in commune pro le bene commune et contra le periculo commune es le sole methodo effective per que, in tempore de pace, le nationes que ama le pace, pote mantenere et guarantire securitate et progresso bene regulate, cum libertate et justitia. Si nos considera ille que le guerra moderne significa pro le existentia physic et morale de le homine, le mantenentia de un tale unitate deveni un questione de le plus alte egoismo. In ultime analysis iste unitate es primamente un cosa spirituale.

    Le pace, como le libertate, require constante devotione et incessante vigilantia. Ille require le voluntate de prendere mansuras concrete pro su conservatione. Ille require constante cooperatione inter le nationes et le determinatione de vivere in commune como bone vicinos in un mundo de bone vicinos. Le pace require le acceptationes de le idea que su mantenentia es un causa commune sic pretiose et sic immensamente importante que omne differentias et controversias inter le nationes pote et debe essere resolvite per le uso de medios pacific.

    Sed le pace tam bene require institutiones per que le voluntate de mantenere le pace pote essere transformate in actione. Le delineatione de planos pro tale institutiones es un problema stimulante que provoca le sapientia et le ingeniositate de homines et feminas in omne partes. Pro iste ratione le Nationes Unite, in le medio de le tenace prosecutione de le guerra, habe cooperate pro creare le institutiones que forma le base de un pace juste et permanente.

    Key to Pronunciation of Consonants and Combinations Which Occur in Translation According to Schematic E Model
    c before e and i, like ch in church
    c in other positions, like k
    g like go, in all positions
    j like j in joke
    qu like queen, in all positions
    t like t in top, in all positions
    other consonants, approximately as in English

    Translation According to Schematic E Model (Minimum Regularization)

    Le lectiones insignate per le desunita' e le impotentia del pasato debe eser impresete indeleblemente sur le mente e cordia de este generation e del generationes future, asi como le lectiones insignate per le unita' e le fortia resultante da elo, keles le Nationes Unite ave atingete in este guera.

    Le unita' kel permise action comun por le bono comun e contra le periculo comun es le sole metodo efective per kel, in tempore de pace, le nationes kel ama le pace pote guarantir se securita' e progreso ben regulate, con liberita' e justitia. Si nos considera eso kel le guera moderne significa por le existentia fisike e moral del home, le manteno de un tal unita' deveni un question de le plu alte et iluminate egoismo. In ultime analise este unita' es primemente un cosa spirital.

    Le pace, como le liberita', require constante devotion et incesante vigilantia. Elo require le volentia de prender mesuras concrete por su conservation. Elo require constante cooperation entre le nationes e le determination de viver ensemble como bon vicinos in un mundo de bon vicinos. Le pace require le acceptation del idea ke su manteno es un causa comun tan pretiose e tan imensemente importante ke omne diferentias e controversias entre le nationes pote e deve eser resoluete per le uso de medios pacifike.

    Ma le pace tamben require institutiones per kel le volunta' de mantener le pace pote eser transformate in action. Le delineation de planos por tal institutiones es un problema stimulante kel provoca le sapientia e le ingeniosita' de homes e feminas in omne partes. Por este ration le Nationes Unite, in le medio del tenace prosecution del guera, ave cooperate por crear le institutiones kel forma le base de un pace juste e permanente.

    Key to Pronunciation of Consonants and Combinations Which Occur in Translation According to Schematic K Model
    c like ts, in all positions
    g like g in go, in all positions
    j like j in joke
    qu like qu in queen, in all positions
    t like t in top, in all positions
    other consonants, approximately as in English

    Translation According to Schematic K Model (Medium Regularization)

    Le lekcionos insignate per le desuneso et le nonpotentso del pasato deve esere impresete nondeleblemen sur le mento et kordio de iste generaciono et del future generacionos, sik kom le lekcionos insignate per le uneso, et le forcio resultante de id, keles le Unite Nacionos ave atingete in iste guero.

    Le uneso kel permise komune akciono por le komune bono et contra le komune perikulo es le sole efektive metodo per kel, in temporo de paco, le nacionos kel ama le paco pote guarantire se bene regulate sekureso et progreso, kon libereso et justicio. Si nu konsidera ilo kel le moderne guero signifika por le fisike et morale existo del homo, le manteno de un tale uneso deveni un questiono de le plu alte et iluminate egoismo. In ultime analiso iste uneso es primemen un spiritale koso.

    Le paco, kom le libereso, require konstante devoto et noncesante vigilantso. Id require le volentso de prendere konkrete mensuros por su konservo. Id require konstante koopero inter le nacionos et le determino de vivere ensemble kom bone vicinos in un mundo de bone vicinos. Le paco require le akcepto del ideo ke su manteno es un komune kauso tan preciose et tan imensemen importante ke omne diferentsos et kontroversios inter le nacionos pote et deve esere resoluete per le uso de pacifike medios.

    Sed le paco tambene require institucionos per kel le voluntato de mantenere le paco pote esere transformate in akciono. Le delineo de planos por tale institucionos es un stimulante problemo kel provoka le sapientso et le ingenioseso de homos et feminas in omne partos. Por iste raciono le Unite Nacionos, in le medio del tenace prosekuto del guero, ja koopera por kreare le institucionos kel forma le baso de un juste et permanente paco.


    STATUS OF LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

    IALA's original linguistic program, as planned by the Committee for Agreement before the war, projected the critical review by specialists in many countries of all the linguistic research and the experimental use by different nationals of the resulting auxiliary language of both the naturalistic and schematic types. War conditions have greatly delayed the work and limited the field of such experimentation. Nevertheless we are nearing the completion of our linguistic program with such adjustments as are necessitated by war conditions.

    More than twenty thousand international words have been standardized according to our basic procedures. Since the process of standardization treats words in etymological families and hence includes words expressing all kinds of concepts, we have in our present compilation many words for a general vocabulary and also many words from the sciences, arts, and other fields. Work on the selection of items for a dictionary in English and the auxiliary language is well under way. The dictionary will be for general purposes, and will have about 10,000 entries. In selecting these entries the studies correlating the existing frequency lists in four languages, the Semantic Frequency List, described on page 17, has been used for the first five to six thousand.

    Technical reports on the procedures used in developing the naturalistic and schematic models have been prepared or are in course of preparation. It should be emphasized that the nature of the experimentation leaves certain details still open to discussion. We are submitting our technical reports to persons experienced not only in linguistics but in science, education, commerce, international relations, government, communications, and other fields of contemporary life. Guided by their judgment IALA will decide which type of language, the naturalistic or the schematic, it will recommend. If the naturalistic type is to be recommended, IALA's system will consist of the basic procedures only, and the auxiliary language will be fully developed accordingly. If the schematic type of language is to be recommended, IALA's system will include both basic procedures and the additional procedures of regularization, and an auxiliary language will be developed similar to one of the schematic models. It is hoped that this decision can be reached in 1945 or soon thereafter.

    When, as the result of its research, experimentation, and consultation, IALA decides which type of language it will recommend, it will proceed to develop a single model of that type which will not be fundamentally different from the models of that type in this report.


    EXPERIMENTATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

    Since educational institutions will be one of the most important channels for introducing an auxiliary language, IALA, simultaneously with its linguistic research, has sponsored experimentation in language learning.

    Comparative Ease of Learning

    In the early years of IALA's work Edward L. Thorndike, Director of the Division of Psychology, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, undertook for IALA experimentation to ascertain the relative ease of learning constructed language and natural languages. The project was initiated by a grant given to the Institute of Educational Research by Carnegie Foundation. In 1933 the results of Professor Thorndike's six years' study were published in summarized form in Language Learning.* Esperanto and Ido were the constructed languages used in the experimentation. Statistics for comparison were available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Professor Thorndike found that On the whole, with expenditures of from ten to a hundred hour, the achievement in the synthetic language will probably be from five to fifteen times that in a natural language, according to the difficulty of the latter.

    * Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, New York, 1933.

    General Language Course

    Two types of educational experiment have been carried on by Helen S. Eaton of IALA's staff in cooperation with private and public schools and universities. The purpose of one type of experiment is to find out, in the subsequent learning of an ethnic language, the value contributed by an initial study of a Latin-derived constructed language. By means of this language, the student is equipped not only with a basic vocabulary recognizable in the Romance languages and Latin but also with a knowledge of certain grammatical features not expressed formally in English. For this purpose a General Language Course prepared by Miss Eaton was published in 1934.* Parts of Esperanto, a language of the schematic type, were used in this text, because it provided a greater body of reading material than any other constructed language.

    * Banks Upshaw and Company, Dallas, 1934.

    Contribution to New Methods of Language Study

    A second type of experiment makes a contribution to new methods of language teaching. Basic philological data assembled for IALA's research are used as the basis for language study. This material is arranged in Latin word families with equivalent words in the Romance languages and English for the purpose of showing the derivational system used by the majority of European tongues. It is used in the form of vocabulary building courses which equip the student with a sizeable vocabulary in any one of the major Romance languages and also give him a basis for recognition of new words when encountered in these tongues. The same method is used to enlarge the English vocabulary of a student. This experimentation was carried out in four such courses given by Miss Eaton in the University of New Mexico, 1942–1943.

    Reports on IALA's various types of educational experimentation have been published in The Modern Language Journal. Reprints are available at IALA's headquarters. On much of this experimentation IALA has continued to have the counsel of Professor Thorndike.

    Cooperation of more educational institutions in IALA's experimentation is greatly desired. The amount of experimentation to date indicates that the study of an auxiliary language such as IALA is evolving is an aid in clarifying the study of more complex foreign languages.

    Educators cannot fail to grasp the potentialities of a common international language in connection with the social sciences. It can be used as one of the fundamental means for developing in young minds the international outlook which will be required by citizens of all countries if they are to work together for a peaceful world.

    IALA shares the vision of educators of the United Nations that every school child in all countries shall learn, in addition to his mother tongue, a secondary language as part of his educational equipment for the global age in which he will live. We believe that the form of international language evolved by IALA's research merits the serious consideration of educators.


    LANGUAGE PRACTICES OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

    In order to study objectively the language problems arising in international life, IALA decided upon an intensive investigation of the language situation in international organizations and their conferences. Herbert N. Shenton, head of the Sociology Department of Syracuse University, completed in 1933 his pioneer work on that research project.

    International Conference Movement

    Professor Shenton limited his study to the private and semi-private international conferences, that is, conferences financed by individuals interested in a common subject, and not by governments.* He found that conferences of this type began as early as 1840, averaged one a year for a decade, and then continued to increase in number until by 1929 there were more than 300 such international conferences a year. Some of these conferences brought together thousands of people from scores of nations. They came together to discuss every conceivable subject. The international conference movement represented a great net-work of international cooperation which promised much for a future international civilization.

    * Cosmopolitan Conversation, the Language Problems of International Conferences, Columbia University Press, 1933. This book is available in many university and public libraries.

    Professor Shenton sent questionnaires to all international organizations on record which held international conferences. Data were received from 1,415 such organizations. These data showed the great number of different nationalities taking part in conferences. On an average twenty different nationalities participated in a conference, but there might be as many as fifty individuals or groups of different national cultures coming together to discuss a subject in which they were all interested enough to travel often great distances and with considerable outlay of time and money. How did they manage to exchange ideas in such a diversity of languages?

    Data on Language Practices

    The data showed that in order to cope with language difficulties international conferences generally used two or more "official" languages and that the tendency was to use even more. French, English, and German in the order named were the official languages most frequently used, but Italian and Spanish were also recognized as official in some of the larger conferences in Europe. Other languages were recognized as "permitted" languages, "translation" languages, and "languages of publication." The use of interpreters was usually followed as an established practice. Every interpretation or translation of a single speech into the different official languages increased the length of time of the conference, and consequently its cost. The publication of documents in the several publication languages added to the cost of the conference. A fact of even greater significance was that delegates were sometimes sent to the conferences because they could speak some of the conference languages rather than because they were otherwise the most qualified persons to participate in the conference.

    Attitude Toward an Auxiliary Language

    More than 80 international organizations reported upon their attitudes toward an auxiliary language. From such varied fields as education, sport, arts, sciences, labor, and commerce, the general trend was one of genuine interest in the possibility of an auxiliary language. Among the eight educational organizations reporting, the World Federation of Education Associations had experimented with Esperanto as the only language of translation in three of the Sections of its Geneva Congress in 1929.

    In annual Esperanto Congresses and in special conferences organized by Esperantists in the fields of education, commerce, and the sciences that language had been successfully used. However, evidence showed that a half century of propaganda on the part of devoted Esperantists had not succeeded in establishing that constructed language in the international conference field in general.

    For a period of time of three years, the advocates of Esperanto succeeded in obtaining serious consideration of that language by the League of Nations, but it was never adopted, except as a translation language by the International Labor Office.

    Language Problem of League of Nations

    The League of Nations met its language difficulties by recognizing English and French as the official languages. This solution was not without protest. The claims for Spanish were made by 18 countries with the argument that Spanish was spoken as the mother tongue in more member countries of the League than any other language. The Italians vigorously urged the claims of their language. Deep national feelings were displayed. The same intensity of national feelings must be reckoned with in meeting the language difficulties in post-war collaboration in building world peace today.

    New Machinery for International Cooperation

    Much of the rebuilding of the structure of international cooperation will have to be undertaken by private international organizations as well as governments. Collaboration for scientific, humanitarian, and cultural work on an international scale must supplement the efforts of governments in the immense task of reconstruction. As Secretary Hull pointed out at the Dumbarton Oaks conference, several official organizations of the United Nations are already functioning. In all such efforts the language problem will prove to be a common one. It will impede action until a single, secondary, neutral language is generally adopted as the auxiliary to all national tongues.


    PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

    Since the beginning of this work IALA has sought to stimulate general interest in the subject of an international language while, at the same time, conducting its research. Promotional activities have included meetings organized by IALA, sending speakers from IALA to meetings of their organizations, and contacts with influential persons in many different fields. Since the war IALA has been concentrating on the final stages of linguistic research in order to have the auxiliary language resulting from that research available for the post-war world. Consequently promotional activities have been limited.

    Contacts with Governments

    Since the entrance of the United States into the war the resources of IALA have been at the disposal of various departments of the Government.

    As an act of cooperation with our Government's "good neighbor" policy, a by-product of IALA's linguistic research was developed in the form of a pictorial primer in Spanish. It was prepared by two members of IALA's staff, E. Clark Stillman and Alexander Gode, with the title Spanish at Sight, and published by T. Y. Crowell, New York, 1943. The graphic method it employs for learning a foreign language is one of the methods IALA will use in text books for the auxiliary language.

    Before the war twenty-five governments had appointed officials, usually in their educational departments, to whom all publications of IALA were transmitted. It is planned to increase the number of such official government contacts.

    Contacts with International Organizations

    International organizations have been especially responsive to the aim of our work. Rotary International follows the progress of the work with official interest. Up to the outbreak of war, the International Federation of National Standardizing Associations evidenced great interest in IALA's program.

    Cooperation Sought

    In the final stage of its research IALA is seeking cooperation from groups concerned with work of an international nature. It would be of great practical help to have the auxiliary language tried out in its present experimental versions in articles or brief abstracts in the publications of international societies or business concern. IALA's staff is prepared to make non-technical translations of such material on request, and will welcome every opportunity to do so.

    Translation Service

    As soon as the final form of the language is recommended by IALA, a translation service will be developed as one of the means for introducing the language into practical use.

    Membership

    IALA urges all those who believe that there should be a common language to aid international cooperation to take an active part in supporting the Association's work. Memberships in IALA are classified as follows:

    - Founder, $1000 or more
    - Life Member, one payment,     500 or more
    - Sustaining Member, annually,       25 or more
    - Subscribing Member, annually,   10 to 20
    - Associate Member, annually,                                       3 to 5
    Contributions, including membership dues, by a special ruling of the Treasury Department, are deductible for income tax purposes.

    IALA's Headquarters

    Those interested in securing detailed information which the present general report does not attempt to provide are requested to visit IALA's headquarters or to write or telephone the Executive Secretary.

    Address:
    International Auxiliary Language Association,
    420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1808, New York 17, N. Y.
    Telephone:
    Lexington 2-2951.


    Appendix A

    Illustrations of IALA's Procedures for Standardizing the Vocabulary 1 — Basic Procedures - For Standardizing International Words (Naturalistic Model)

    (See pages 31–33)

    We consider international words not in isolation but in the context of their etymological families. For example, we take the international word which has as variants French ouïr, Italian udire, Portuguese ouvir, and Spanish oír, all of them meaning 'to hear', and all descended from Latin audire 'to hear.' Having assembled in one word-family all the words derived from audire which occur in the control languages, we carefully examine those which are entitled to be represented in the auxiliary language in conformity with our rule or eligibility.* We proceed to provide standardized forms for all eligible words, according to our rule for a prototype form, and at the same time we delimit the meaning or meanings according to our rule for meaning.

    * See Rules for Obtaining Standardized International Words, pages 32–33.

    The following table, containing the international word meaning 'to hear' and a few of its derivatives, gives the ethnic language variants of each word, and then its standardized forms. The figure (1) and (2) indicate different meanings of the same word. The meanings of all the words are given after the table.

    The international meaning of a standardized word is determined by comparing the meanings of its variants in the control languages and finding which meanings or meanings are common to at least three control units. We find that all the variants of audire mean 'to perceive by the sense of hearing.' We also find such international usage as "the judge hears the argument of the attorney," but this may be considered merely as a special application of the basic meaning of the word, and it need not to be listed as a separate meaning. The standardized word audire therefore means 'to perceive by the sense of hearing.'

    Two meanings of audientia are common to the variant forms of that word in at least three control units, (1) 'perception by the sense of hearing,' found in English,* Italian, and Portuguese, and (2) 'formal hearing or interview' as by a king or in a court of law, found in all the control languages. The other meanings of its ethnic language variants do not attain the required range of internationality and are therefore excluded. Among these meanings are 'assembly of listeners' (English, Italian) and 'reception room' (Italian).

    * As in the phrase 'to give audience' meaning 'to give ear.'

    2 — Supplementary Devices — For Obtaining Standardized Complementary Words (Naturalistic Model)

    One of several supplementary rules for standardizing complementary words** to fill up the relatively small number of gaps in the international vocabulary may be illustrated by the treatment of the concept 'cellar,' 'underground storeroom.' This concept is represented by words in all our control languages but is not expressed by variants of the same word in three control units. In such a case we may take into consideration the international range outside the control languages of the different Romanic words within the control languages, and admit for standardization a word with variants in at least three different languages in all, of which at least one is a control language.

    ** See Supplementary Devices, pages 33–34.

    3 — Illustrations of Additional Procedures — For Regularizing Word-Formation (Schematic Models)

    (See pages 35–39)

    To illustrate our procedures for regularizing the formation of words in the schematic models E and K, we give the following table of some words in the family audire, including those previously given in the table on page 57.

    IALA's Naturalistic and Schematic Forms of Some Words in Family AUDIRE

    In the above table, the schematic base words are broken up into roots and endings, and the derivatives into roots and affixes.

    We give below a table of the standardized suffixes used in the schematic words of the above table. The base words and derivatives are broken up in the same way as in the previous table.

    A few of the standardized suffixes have long and short forms. The short form (with the single exception of schematic E -ita', -ia) is merely an abbreviation of the fuller form, and is used in certain cases in order that the derivative may either have a more natural appearance, or be less long. Only 6 of the 45 suffixes which we have standardized have short forms. Four of the suffixes with short forms occur in the table of Standardized Suffixes, given below.

    All verbs stems in the schematic models, as in the naturalistic model, end in a vowel, either -a, -e, or -i. This stem vowel is dropped in certain cases ahead of certain suffixes.

    Schematic K suffixes in almost all cases are simply more regularized forms of the same suffixes used in schematic E. In some the spelling is adapted to the spelling system of schematic K; in others the final vowel of noun-forming suffixes is changed to -o, in accordance with the general rule for nouns in schematic K.

    Standardized Suffixes in Schematic E and K Used in Previous Table (on page 59)
    Standardized Suffixes  
    -ario (E & K) Forms noun from noun. 1) 'Place for a collection of —s'. gran|ario (from gran|o 'grain')
    'place for a collection of grain, granary'. libr|ario (from libr|o 'book') 'place for a collection
    of books, library'. 2) 'collection of —s'. statu|ario (from statu|o 'statue') 'collection of
    statues, statuary', libr|ario 'collection of books, library'.
    -ble (E & K) Forms adjective from verb. 1) 'That can be —ed'. separa|ble (from separa|r [separa|re]
    'to separate') 'that can be separated, separable'. 2) 'That is worthy to be —ed'. ama|ble
    (from ama|r [ama|re] 'to love') 'that is worthy to be loved, lovable'.
    -ente, -nte
    (E & K)
    Active participial ending. The short form is used after verb stem in -a or -e. ama|nte 'loving',
    depende|nte 'depending, dependent'. The full form is used after verb stem in -i. obedi|ente
    'obeying, obedient'.
    -ita'*, -ia (E)
    -eso, -so (K)
    Forms noun of quality or state from adjective. The short form is used only with adjective which
    ends in nte. Schematic E, eminent|ia (from eminent|e 'eminent') 'quality of being eminent,
    eminence'. dependent|ia (from dependent|e 'dependent'), state of being dependent,
    dependence'. Schematic K, eminent|so, dependent|so. The full form is used in all other cases,
    valid|ita' (from valid|e 'valid') 'quality of being valid, validity'. Schematic K, valid|eso.
    * The apostrophe after -ita' (valid|ita') is used to indicate the stressing of the final vowel.

    -r (E)
    -re (K)

    Infinitive ending. Schematic E, ama|r,
    depende|r, obedi|r. Schematic K, ama|re, depende|re, obedi|re.
    -torio, -orio
    (E & K)
    Forms noun from verb. 'Place where —ing is done'. The rule for use of short and
    long forms is the same as given below with -tor, -or [-toro, -oro]. deposit|orio
    (from deposite|r [deposite|re] 'place where depositing is done, depository', audi|torio
    (from audi|r [audi|re] 'to hear') 'place where hearing is done, auditorium'.
    -tor, -or (E)
    -toro, -oro (K)
    Forms noun from verb. 'Person or thing that —s'. The short form is used only with verb stem
    in -se, -te, or -xe, and the final -e of the stem is omitted. The full form is used in all other cases.
    Some examples are given below.

    Infinitive Schematic E Schematic K
    'to possess' posese|r posese|re
    'to reflect' reflecte|r reflekte|re
    'to bend' flexe|r flexe|re
    'to educate' educa|r eduka|re
    'to ascend' ascende|r ascende|re
    'to hear' audi|r audi|re
    Derived Noun Schematic E Schematic K
    'possessor' poses|or poses|oro
    'reflector' reflect|or reflekt|oro
    'flexor' flex|or flex|oro
    'educator' educa|tor educa|toro
    'elevator, lift' ascende|tor ascende|toro
    'hearer, auditor' audi|tor audi|toro

    Let us now summarize the process by which the schematic words in the table on page 59 result from the application of the general rules given on page 37:

    We examine the seven naturalistic words in the framework of their etymological family, namely, audire. We find that the standardized word audire should be taken as a base word, since its meaning is basic to the meanings of the other words. We find that the meanings of five of the other words can be expressed by using this base word plus standardized affixes. The other word, audito 'sense of hearing', is an example of a word whose meaning cannot be expressed by a regular derivative of the base word audire, since there is no schematic suffix meaning 'sense, faculty.' Therefore audito is kept in its naturalistic form as a base word.

    The examples in the table are typical. They show that in most cases the schematic forms of derivatives are almost or quite identical with the naturalistic forms. In a relatively small proportion of cases has the meaning of the naturalistic derivative had to be rendered by a formation with a different affix. This fact, coupled with the fact that nearly all our schematic base words are drawn from our naturalistic vocabulary, accounts for the result that in the schematic models structural regularity of words has been attained with comparatively little sacrifice of recognizability.

    Appendix B

    (See page 16)

    Participants of IALA's Meeting of Linguistic Research, Geneva, 1930*
    • Earle B. Babcock, President of IALA
    • Mrs. Dave H. Morris, Honorary Secretary of IALA
    • Miss Helen S. Eaton, Linguistic Research Associate of IALA
    • Siegfried Auerbach, Germany, member of the Ido Academy
    • William E. Collinson, England, member of the Esperanto Academy
    • Otto Jespersen, Denmark, author of Novial, Convener of the Meeting and Chairman of the plenary sessions
    • William Perrenoud, Switzerland, expert in Esperanto
    • René de Saussure, Switzerland, author of Esperanto II
    • Pierre Stojan, Rumania, expert in Esperanto
    • Edgar de Wahl, Esthonia, author of Occidental
    • Reinhold Zeidler, Germany, expert in Novial
    • Charle Bally, Professor of General Linguistics, University of Geneva
    • Albert Debrunner, Professor of Comparative Philology and Sanskrit, University of Jena
    • Otto Funke, Professor of English, University of Berne
    • Eduard Hermann, Professor of Comparative Philology, University of Göttingen
    • Serge Karcevski, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Geneva
    • A. Sechehaye, Professor of French Grammar, University of Geneva
    • Pitman B. Potter, Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales, Geneva

    * Giuseppe Peano, Professor of Mathematics, University of Turin, Italy, author of Latino sine Flexione, had expected to attend but was not permitted by Mussolini to leave Italy. He was kept in touch with the conference by correspondence.

    Members of Second International Congress of Linguists, Geneva, 1931, who Signed a Testimonial Expressing Their General Sympathy with IALA's Program of Linguistic Research*

    • C. Bally, University of Geneva
    • M. Bartoli, University of Turin
    • D. A. Blondheim, Johns Hopkins University
    • G. M. Bolling, Ohio State University
    • E. G. W. Braunholtz, Cambridge University
    • C. D. Buck, University of Chicago
    • M. Cohen, University of Paris
    • A. Debrunner, University of Jena
    • F. Edgerton, Yale University
    • G. van Ginneken, University of Nijmegen
    • S. Ichikawa, Imperial University, Tokio
    • K. Jaberg, University of Berne
    • L. Jordan, University of Munich
    • S. Karcevski, University of Geneva
    • V. Mathesius, Charles IV University, Prague
    • A. Meillet, University of Paris
    • M. Migliorini, University of Rome
    • Sir R. Paget, London
    • K. Sandfield, University of Copenhagen
    • Mgr. Schrijnen, University of Nijmegen
    • A. Sechehaye, University of Geneva
    • A. Sommerfelt, University of Oslo
    • Prince N. Trubetskoy, University of Vienna
    • C. C. Uhlenbeck, University of Leiden
    • J. Vendryes, University of Paris
    • J. Wackernagel, University of Basle
    • N. van Wijk, University of Leiden

    * IALA was represented by a delegation composed of its President, Professor Earle B. Babcock, Professor William E. Collinson, Professor Otto Funke, and Professor Otto Jespersen. (See previous page 63.) These linguists did not sign the Testimonial as their presence as representatives of  IALA already indicated their support of  IALA's program of research.

    Members of Third International Congress of Linguists, Rome, 1933, who Added Their Names to the Testimonial

    • B. Collinder, University of Uppsala
    • A. H. Gardiner, University of London
    • M. Guidi, University of Rome
    • R. Hittmair, University of Tübingen
    • H. Lindroth, University of Gottenborg
    • B. Otto, German University, Prague
    • V. Pisani, University of Rome
    • J. Pokorny, University of Berlin

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