A pan-Romance language or Romance interlanguage[1][2] is a codified linguistic variety which synthesizes the variation of the Romance languages and is representative of these as a whole. It can be seen as a standard language proposal for the whole language family[3] but is generally considered a zonal constructed language because it's the result of intense codification (that is, more construction, planning, design, engineering, manipulation than what regular standard languages usually require). Zonal languages are, according to interlinguist Detlev Blanke,[4] constructed languages which "arise by choosing or mixing linguistic elements in a language group" (meaning elements from one same language family, for example Slavic or Germanic).
Several pan-Romance languages have been developed by different individuals or groups in different times (since the 19th century) and places (Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, etc.). They are so similar to each other that they have been considered variations of a same language: 'dialects' is how Campos Lima, one of the developers, refers to several projects of his time.[5][6] This author also shows that the developers of pan-Romance language projects are generally aware of each other, are in contact and even collaborate, which is another sign of unity.
Pan-Romance languages are parallel to pan-Slavic languages[7][8] and pan-Germanic languages.[9]
- ^ Posner (1996), p. 344.
- ^ Not to confuse with the interlanguage of a second language learner. Blanke (1985: 154), dealing with the Slavic equivalent, speaks of "Interslavic language", which avoids the possible confusion.
- ^ Lewaszkiewicz (1977), p. 46. Here, Lewaszkiewicz deals with Slavic projects.
- ^ Blanke (1985), p. 153.
- ^ Campos Lima (1947), p. 20-21
- ^ The same has been said of a close group of languages, the naturalistic constructed languages based on the international vocabulary, which include elements from different languages families but are mainly Latin/Romance due to the origin of that vocabulary. According to Blanke (1985: 160), they show similarities with each other to the point that ‘they appear like dialects of a language’.
- ^ Sakaguchi (1998: 51–52) deals with ‘pan-Slavic languages’: ‘language projects with a common Slavic basis’ ("gemeinslawischer Grundlage", in her German original text). She presents several projects, but only describes the structure of one of them (Ruski jezik, by Juraj Križanić, 1666): it's ‘a naturalistic synthesis of Slavic languages’ (Russian, Croatian and Church Slavonic with 55 to 60% of words common to all Slavic languages, a ‘sort of a reconstruct of proto-Slavic’. She doesn't equal pan-Slavic languages to zonal auxiliary languages nor mentions this concept/term. She is here specifically interested in languages created with the intention to unify multiple peoples. The pan-Slavic language Ruski jezik is also based on Polish, according to Meyer (2016: 293).
- ^ Blanke (1985: 154), after defining what zonal constructed languages are, gives four examples. As Germanic examples he offers a project (Tutonish) based on English with other –mainly German– elements; and another project (Euronord) based on northern Germanic vocabulary. Amongst his Slavic examples, he offers a project (Neuslavische Sprache) based on Slovenian with many Russian elements; and another project (Mežduslavjanski jezik) based on ‘the most important common characteristics of the Slavic languages in Grammar and Vocabulary’. From all these 4 examples, he only qualifies as an ‘Interslavic constructed language’ the last one, which means that not all Slavic zonal constructed languages are Interslavic.
- ^ Klaus Schubert (1989: 9–10) says that ‘pan-Slavic’ and ‘pan-Germanic languages’ unify ethnic languages, they are a compromise of ethnic languages. He doesn't equal them to zonal auxiliary languages, a concept/term that he doesn't mention even though he refers to Blanke (1985), who presents and defines the category.