Novial
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Novial
Flag:
Created by:	Otto Jespersen	1928
Setting and usage:	international auxiliary language
Total speakers:	—
Category (purpose):	constructed language  international auxiliary language   Novial
Category (sources):	Romance and Germanic languages; also Occidental and Ido
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	art
ISO 639-3:	nov
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Novial nov- ("new") + IAL, International Auxiliary Language is a constructed international auxiliary language (IAL) intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language. It was devised by Professor Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who was previously involved in the Ido movement, and subsequently in the development of Interlingua.

Its vocabulary is based largely on the Germanic and Romance languages and its grammar is influenced by English.

Novial was first introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928. It was updated in his dictionary, Novial Lexike, published two years later and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.^{citation needed} In the 1990s, with the revival of interest in constructed languages brought on by the Internet, some people rediscovered Novial.^{citation needed}

An International Language

Novial was first described in Jespersen’s book An International Language (1928). Part One of the book discusses the need for an IAL, the disadvantages of ethnic languages for that purpose, and common objections to constructed IALs. He also provides a critical overview of the history of constructed IALs with sections devoted to Volapük, Esperanto, Idiom Neutral, Ido, Latino sine Flexione and Occidental (Interlingue). The author makes it clear that he draws on a wealth of earlier work on the problem of a constructed IAL, not only the aforementioned IALs.

Part Two of An International Language describes Novial in detail. Alternative possible solutions for problems in the phonology, orthography, grammar and word-stock are considered. The choices made are explained by comparison with ethnic languages and previously constructed IALs.

Pronunciation

See the Pronunciation Guide of the Novial Wikibook.

Grammar

Personal pronouns, subject and object

Note that in Novial the Nominative and Accusative pronouns are the same.

The standard word order is, as in English, subject-verb-object. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject: E.g:

• me observa vu – "I observe you"
• vu observa me – "you observe me"

The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, in case of an ambiguity problem, an optional accusative ending, -m (-em after a consonant), is available but is rarely used. The preposition em is equivalent to this ending.

The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both "my" and "mine" ("of me"): E.g:

• "My dog" = Men Hunde
• "The dog is mine" = Li Hunde es men

Possession may also be expressed with the pronoun de: de me, de vu, and so on.

Verbs

Verb forms never change with person or number. Most verb tenses, moods and voices are expressed with auxiliary verbs preceding the root form of the main verb. The auxiliaries follow the same word order as the English equivalent. The pronouns are indicated with parenthesis and are given for example purposes.

• Present active participle: protektent – "protecting"
• Past passive participle: protektet – "protected"

Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verb to be followed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expessed with the verb to get which is used in the examples below.

The passive voice of becoming is formed with the auxiliary bli followed by the root verb form.

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

Articles

The definite article is li which is invariant. It is used as in English.

There is no indefinite article, although un (one) can be used.

Nouns

The plural noun is formed by adding –s to the singular (-es after a consonant).

The accusative case is generally identical to the nominative but can optionally be marked with the ending -m (-em after a consonant) with the plural being -sem (-esem after a consonant) or with the preposition em.

The genitive is formed with the ending -n (-en after a consonant) with the plural being -sen (-esen after a consonant) or with the preposition de.

Other cases are formed with prepositions.

Adjectives

All adjectives end in -i, but this may be dropped if it is easy enough to pronounce and no confusion will be caused. Adjectives precede the noun qualified. Adjectives do not agree with the noun but may be given noun endings if there is no noun present to receive them.

Adverbs

An adjective is converted to a corresponding adverb by adding -m after the -i ending of the adjective.

Vocabulary

Affixes

See the Table of Prefixes and Table of Suffixes at the Novial Wikibook.

Novial compared to Esperanto and Ido

Main article: Esperanto and Novial compared

Jespersen was a professional linguist, unlike Esperanto's creator. He disliked the arbitrary and artificial character that he found in Esperanto and Ido. Additionally, he objected to those languages' Latin-like systems of inflection, which he found needlessly complex. He sought to make Novial at once euphonious and regular while also preserving useful structures from natural languages.

In Novial:

• Syntax is largely a matter of word order, as in English and modern Scandinavian languages. There is no obligatory accusative marker as in Esperanto, but the accusative may optionally be marked with either an accusative ending or an accusative preposition.
• A genitive or possessive case is available as an alternative to the preposition de. This is based on Jespersen's observation that many modern languages have lost complex noun inflections, yet retain a possessive form.
• Auxiliary particles express most verb tenses. An inflectional ending is available as a shorthand for the simple past tense.

A major difference between Novial and Esperanto/Ido concerns noun endings. Jespersen rejected a single vowel to terminate all nouns (-o in Esperanto/Ido), finding it unnatural and potentially confusing. Instead, Novial nouns may end in -o, -a, -e, or -u or -um. These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages. Also there is no grammatical gender or requirement for adjectives to agree with nouns.

Language sample for comparison

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Novial and several related languages:

See also

• Esperanto and Novial compared
• Ido and Novial compared

External links

Novial edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikibooks has more on the topic of

Novial

Look up Novial in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

At Wikiversity, you can learn about: Topic:Novial

• An International Language: Prof. Otto Jespersen's 1928 book which introduced Novial.
• Novial Lexike: Novial to English, French and German dictionary.
• Novial Wiki Book: A Novial course for beginners.
• Novial Discussion Group: Novial discussion group at Yahoo!
• A summary of 1928 Novial
• A summary of the 1930 version
• Novial '98
• A classified word list with Novial equivalents