Interlingua | |
---|---|
interlingua | |
Pronunciation | [inteɾˈliŋɡwa] |
Created by | International Auxiliary Language Association |
Date | 1951 |
Setting and usage | Scientific registration of international vocabulary; international auxiliary language |
Users | A few hundred (2007)[1] |
Purpose | International auxiliary language
|
Latin script | |
Sources | Source languages: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. |
Official status | |
Regulated by | No regulating body |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | ia |
ISO 639-2 | ina |
ISO 639-3 | ina |
Glottolog | inte1239 |
Interlingua (/ɪntərˈlɪŋɡwə/, Interlingua: [inteɾˈliŋɡwa]) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It is a constructed language of the "naturalistic" variety, whose vocabulary, grammar, and other characteristics are derived from natural languages. Interlingua literature maintains that (written) Interlingua is comprehensible to the billions of people who speak Romance languages,[2] though it is actively spoken by only a few hundred.[1]
Interlingua was developed to combine a simple, mostly regular grammar with a vocabulary common to a wide range of western European languages, making it easy to learn for those whose native languages were sources of Interlingua's vocabulary and grammar.[3][4]
The name Interlingua comes from the Latin words inter, meaning 'between', and lingua, meaning 'tongue' or 'language'. These morphemes are the same in Interlingua; thus, Interlingua would mean 'between language'.