Novial is an international auxiliary language (IAL) created by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen in 1928. It was designed to facilitate communication between speakers of different native languages. The name of the language is a blend of the Novial word novi (meaning 'new") and IAL.
Jespersen had been an early supporter of another international auxiliary language, Ido, a reformed version of Esperanto, before leaving to create his own language in 1928.
Novial's vocabulary is borrowed largely from the Romance and Germanic languages, while its analytic grammar is influenced by English.
Novial was introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928. It was updated in his dictionary Novial Lexike in 1930, and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.
Phonology
Consonants
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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!
! colspan="2" | Labial
! colspan="2" | Coronal
! colspan="2" | Palatal
! colspan="2" | Velar
!Glottal
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! Nasal
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! Fricative
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! Approximant
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! Rhotic
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Vowels
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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! Back
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! Close
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! Mid
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Stress
The basic rule is: stress the vowel before the last consonant. However, consonantal flexional endings (ie. -d, -m, -n, -s) do not count for this (e.g. but , not ; but , not ), so perhaps it is better to say that the vowel before the final consonant of the stem takes the stress.
Orthography
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; table-layout:fixed"
|+ Novial alphabet
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!Upper case
|A||B||C||D||E||F||G||H||I||J||K||L||M||N||O||P||Q||R||S||T||U||V||X||Y||Z
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!Lower case
|a||b||c||d||e||f||g||h||i||j||k||l||m||n||o||p||q||r||s|||t||u||v||x||y||z
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!IPA phonemes
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|style="background-color:#fcc"|, et al.
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|style="background-color:#fcc"|,
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|style="background-color:#fcc"|
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|style="background-color:#fcc"|ks, gz
|style="background-color:#fcc"|,
|style="background-color:#fcc"|, et al.
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The digraphs ch and sh represent or , depending on the speaker. For example, would be pronounced either or . Instead, Novial nouns may end in , , , or or . These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages, though 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:
{|class="wikitable"
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! Novial version:
! Esperanto version:
! Ido version:
! Latin version:
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,<br />
<br />
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<br />
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<br />
|}
Criticism
As Jespersen relates in his autobiography, in 1934 he proposed an orthographic reform to Novial, which displeased a faction of the users. Jespersen abandoned the essential principle of one sound, one letter:
Some of Jespersen's colleagues among philologists jokingly referred to Novial as Jesperanto, combining his surname with Esperanto, the prototypical auxiliary language.
See also
- Comparison between Esperanto and Novial
- Comparison between Ido and Novial
Notes
References
External links
- B. R. Gilson. "Novial". A summary of 1928 Novial
- Thomas Leigh. "Novial Grammar Summary". A summary of the 1930 version
- Don Blaheta. Novial’98
- Novial Lexike: International Dictionary by Otto Jespersen, 1930. Ed. by Don Blaheta and Xavi Abadia.
- Discussiones inter E. de Wahl e O. Jespersen