1912 - Reform-Neutral

Contents.

Preface.

Only 40, nay 30 years ago, existed a general prejudice that the invention of an artificially constructed and nevertheless real language was an absolute impossibility. In the year 1879 J. M. Schleyer gave us a surprising example of such a language in his Volapük by which he inaugurated a whole series of attempts to embody into concrete forms the idea in question, a problem which was formerly thought simply ridiculous.

Though the Volapük met with great approbation, still, as a first attempt to solve so difficult a problem, it had to give way to other more practical proposals. Thus, after the Volapük, the Esperanto was most widely propagated and approved of; now the Esperanto has split into the orthodox «Esperanto» and the reformed «Ido» of the «Délégation».

But in the very midst of the Volapük clan itself there sprang up a reaction against its too great «artificiality» and difficulty. This reaction led to the creation of the «Idiom Neutral» or Neutral Language *), which had been elaborated with the greatest prudence and care and is continuously improved upon.

The «Neutral Language» owes its existence chiefly to Mr. W. Rosenberger, formerly director of the «International Academy of the Universal Language» founded in 1887 by the Volapükists.

The original «Neutral Language» was gradually changed into the present Reform-Neutral which certainly represents a well and deeply considered and thoroughly fulfilled realization of the idea of an international auxiliary language.

Now we have before us rather a large number of such artificial languages, which are constructed on very different principles. The choice is not always easy. For my part I consider the whole question from a historical point of view and regard all attempts made hitherto as mere phases of evolution on the way to a definite realization of that ideal which all creators of the artificial auxiliary languages aspire to.

The author of the Reform-Neutral belongs to the noblest and most zealous champions in this contest.

I will finish by quoting some passages from my pamphlet Zur Kritik der künstlichen Weltsprachen (To the critique of the artificial Universal Languages) Leipzig 1908:

«The indolent and impotent admiration and deification of the all-powerful «Unconscious» should be rejected and replaced by a conscious and intentional handling of the problem» (p. 47).

«It is not man who exists for the language, but language that exists for man.

«The language is neither a finished organism, nor an intangible idol, but a tool and an activity; and man has not only the right, but even the social duty to improve his tools or, in case of need, to replace those that exist by other, better ones (pp. 47—48, 12—13).

«The question of the international auxiliary language has to be considered sub specie aeternitatis» (pp. 31, 45).

«The realization of the idea of an international auxiliary language will number amongst the greatest and most beneficent inventions of our time. It is as worthy a problem as the promised possibility of the transmutation of all the chemical elements into each other, and as the theory of the eternally existing and eternally continuing psychical energy. Besides the unity of the physico-chemical and the biological world is worthily placed the unity of the psychico-social world» (p. 46).

«The mighty idea of an international auxiliary language has now sufficiently progressed, to make it quite impossible for any one to supress it either by silence or by irony» (pp. 47, 51).

J. Baudouin de Courtenay.

*) M. A. F. Holmes «Dictionary of the Neutral Language» Rochester. N. Y. John P. Smith Printing Company 1903.

Introduction.

The international intercourse increases steadily. It is the task of the twentieth century to remove, one by one, all the impediments to that commerce, the principal one being the fact that every nation has her own language differing from that of every other nation.

This obstacle can, if not entirely at least partly be overcome by instituting a so-called Universal Language for the use of everybody besides his or her own mother-tongue.

In order to decide the question which language is the most qualified for such a purpose, a proposition has been made, that the great Powers may establish an international «Board of Language», like the International Postal Union, for instance*).

Until the realization of this idea, I recommend to all, who desire to communicate either by word or by writ with foreigners, to make use of the Neutral Language, which I publish here in an improved form.

The Reformed Neutral Language or Reform-Neutral is an artificial language which is destined for those people, who are in more urgent need of a universal language, i. e. European nations.

This language is the easiest for these very nations because it makes use of the universal words, i. e. words which are common to all of them.

The Reform-Neutral is the quintessence of the European tongues. It has a simple grammar and precise rules for pronunciation, for spelling and for the derivation of words; it is constructed with the help of natural, mostly international, roots and affixes.

The Reform-Neutral possesses an international alphabet and gives thus the impression of a natural language of Roman derivation, of a tongue understood almost at first sight by any man of ordinary education.

Indeed, those who take upon themselves the small trouble to learn the few grammatical rules, are immediately enabled to correspond with any such man with the occasional assistance of a dictionary.

A text in the Reform-Neutral does not require to be translated in order to be understood at the first glance.

The Reform-Neutral is more suitable for international intercourse

• • than Volapük because it is not ossified in an absolute regularity and because it has taken the roots of its words from the natural languages without disfiguring them;

  • than Esperanto and even than Ido, because it has no consonants with accents, its nouns and adjectives have no unnecessary, unnatural final vowels, it has no invented words and no artificial forms of conjugation — but is, con the contrary, of a perfectly homogenous structure;

  • than Idiom Neutral of 1902, because it is more like a natural tongue and because it has an international spelling;

  • than Latino sine flexione and Novilatin, because it has neither obsolete latin terms, nor unnecessary, meaningless and unharmonious final vowels at the nouns and adjectives, and only one conjugation;

  • than Universal and Lingua Internazional, because it has an international spelling and precise rules for the derivation of words.

Publishing this work I avail myself of the opportunity of so many cosmoglottists, linguists and philologists, that it is impossible to give all their names. I will not therefore even attempt it, for fear of giving offence to those whose names I should happen to omit.

Eventual propositions for a second edition of this book I beg my readers to kindly send to my address: St. Petersburg, V. O. Bolshoy 5.

W. Rosenberer.

St. Petersburg.

*) W. Ronsenberger, «Über den Bau künstlicher Sprachen». Cortrag. St. Petersburg 1909. — Price 9 d.

I. Grammar.

Vowels: a e i o u y.

Consonants: b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v x y z.

The pronunciation is the same as it is in English excepting: a always = a as in task, father (rar); e = a as in mate (ped); i = ee as in meet (limit); o = o as in note (mod); u = oo as in soon (lun); au = ou as in mouth (autor); eu = eu as in the French word veuve (neutral); — c before e, i, y = tz (censur, cigar, cypress); g before e, i, y like the French j (general, agio, gymnast); que and qui = English kay and kee (que, qui); ti before a vowel = tsee (nation); ch in the syllable arch = k (monarch). All final consonants are pronounced (capabl, hymn); in writing such words it is however admitted to add an e after final double consonants.

The accent is always on the vowel, which stands before the last consonant; fortún, mánu, fílio, except u before l: múscul. If there is no vowel before a consonant, the accent is on the first vowel: mái, Déo. — The accentuated vowels are long (fras, agio, idé); but if they stand before two or three consonants, they are short (cent, tass, necess, programm).

Article. Definite: el the; indefinite: un a. They are used at liberty. The prepositions de and a with a subsequent el are contracted into del and al.

Declension. The genitive takes the preposition de, the dative — a; the preposition a can be omitted if the word immediately follows the verb; dona [a] mi!. The accusative is like the nominative, but it stands after the verb: Nom. tabl; Gen. de tabl; Dat. a tabl; Acc. tabl. Patr punie filio, the father punishes the son. — The plural takes -i: N. tabli, G. de tabli, D. a tabli, A. tabli (-s or -es can be employed, but it is less qualified). The words ending in -c and -g preserve the guttural sound and change c and g into qu and gu: barc, barqui; zoolog, zoologui. — The objective case generally follows the verb; but if it precedes it, the subject must be placed between the objective case and the verb: El hom quel av vided vo (objective case). El hom quel vo (subject) av vided.

Adjectives generally precede substantives; but very long ones can follow them: grand orquestr, lingue universal; they always remain unchanged as to gender and number: bel ros the beautiful rose; bel rosi; bon part (the good father), bon matr. — The comparative and superlative are formed by the addition of plu and leplu: grand great (also large and tall), plu grand greater, leplu grand the greatest. After the comparative we use the conjunction qua: plu bon qua part better than the father. The derived adjectives are generally formed by the ending -al (which is changed into -ar after an l): mortal, regular; there are other endings mentioned in the list of suffixes.

The numerals. — Cardinal. Un, du, tri, quart, cinc, sex, sept, oct, nov, dece; 11 deceun, 12 decedú . . . , 18 deceoct, 19 decenov, 20 duent, 21 duenteun, 32 trientedú, 40 quitrent, 50 cinquent, 80 octent, 100 cent, du cent; mil, tri mil; million. — Ordinal: Prim, second, terce, quart, quint, sext, octav; the rest have -im: septim, decim, cinquenteunim; centim. — Multiplicative: simpl, supl, tripl; the rest have -upl: quartupl. — Distributive: a un = singul, a du. Iterative: unvolte once, duvolte twice . . . Fraction: ½ [un] dimidie; the rest are like the ordinal numbers: 2/3 du terci, ¾ tri quarti. — Adverbs: prime firstly, seconde secondly.

Pronouns. I I; vo [in literal translations tu = thou]; il he, ila she, it it; — noi we; voi you (plural); ili they (masculine and neuter), ilia they (feminine); on one, they (indef.); se himself (reflexive); — i ipse I myself; vo ipse you yourself etc. If the subject is very long it can be placed after the verb. In this case the pronoun it is used before the verb: it essav un reg, quel . . . The pronouns i, tu, il, ila, ili e have special forms for the «casus obliquus»: mi me, te thee, lo him, la her, li them, lai them (feminine).

Possessive: mie my, mine; votr your [in liter translations tue thy, thine]; sue his, her, hers, its; — nostr our, ours; vostr your, yours; lor their, theirs. — Reflexive: sue or sue propr one’s, his own.

Demonstrative: cel that, ist or cel ci this; cel sem the same; juste cel sem just the same; tel that, the one; — the following ones are used only substantively: ce that /thing); ce-ci this (thing); ce sem or el sem the same thing.

Interrogative and relative: quel who? which? what? that, — qui who? — qué what? which? (things).

Indefinite: alcun or quelcun some, any, a; — alquí or quelc-hom somebody, some one; alqué or quelc-cos something, anything;

• • nul no, not ant, none; — nul-hom no-body, no one; nul-cos or nil nothing;

  • omni each, every; omni-du both; omni-hom everybody; omni-cos everything;

  • tutt all; tutti du both; — tutt-hom everybody; tutt-cos or tot everything;

  • otr other; — otr or otr-hom another man; otr-cos something else; — (el) un — (el) otr the one — the other; [unotre mutually, one another];

  • cert certain; cert-hom or cert a certain; cert-cos a certain thing; quele some, any; — quelqui some (men), some few; quelc-cosi or plusior-cos something, anything;

  • plusior several; — plusiori several (people); plusior-cos many, diverse;

  • quelcunc whichever; — quicunc whoever; quecunc whatever; mult much, many; — poc not much, not many, few, little.

Correlative: qual what kind of? tal such; — quale how? tale (also sic) so; — quant how much, how many? tant so much, so many; — quante how much? tante so much, so greatly.

Verb. There is only one conjugation. All verbs are regular; they remain unchanged as to person and number, as for instance the verb amar to love: I ame, vo ame, il ame, ila ame, it ame; noi ame, voi ame, ili ame, ilia ame, ili ame.

Infinitive -ar: amar. — Participle active -ent: ament loving; P. passive -ed: amed loved. — Gerundive -and: amand that must, ought, deserves to be loved.

The imperative II pers. sing. -a: ama! plur. -ate: amate! I pers. plur. -am: amam! III pers. -a with the preceding or following subject: Akademi viva!

In indefinite phrases the subject is rendered by the pronoun it: it pluve it rains.

An interrogation either direct or indirect begins with a pronoun, adjective or interrogative adverb or with the conjunction esque = whether.

NB. Roots ending in c (ce) and g (ge) preserve their pronunciation in all verbal forms: barc, debarcar, debarquerá; force, forciar or forcear; – delegar, delegued; privilege, privilegiar or privilegear.

Adverbs. I. Primitives: alor then, at that time; ancor still, yet; anque also; bene well; cí here; circa about, around; denove again, anew; domane to-morrow [podomane the day after to-morrow]; ergo therefore, consequently; etsi even if; etc. and so forth; heri yesterday [anteheri the day before yesterday]; hodie to day; lá there, yonder; leplu most, mostly; mem even; minu less; no no, not; nu now; plu more; quasi almost, nearly; retro back, backward; sic so, thus, yes; tro too (overmuch) ; ya already.

II. The rest are derived adverbs and take the suffix -e, e. g. certe certainly, surely; cetre for the rest, moreover, furthermore; ci-momente instantly; continuale continuously; dextre at (on) the right; dome at home; effectivee effectively; finale finally, at las; frequente often; interiore inside, within, interiouly; juste just, exactly, precisely; lente slowly; multe much, very; nocte at night, by night; obstine notwith standing; otre otherwise, else; pede on foot; pene hardly, scarcely; per ce therefore, for this reason, hence; pobreve soon; possible possibly, perhaps; probable probably, likely; rare seldom; regrette unfortunately; sole only, alone, solely; sue-témpore in [due] time; suffice sufficiently, enough, quite; tale so, thus; totale totally, wholly.

The adverbs of manner can take -emente in the place of -e as a reinforcement: totalemente totally, wholly.

The adverbs are always placed after the verb (except no), but if they modify an adjective or an adverb, they are placed before it: Scribar correcte. Mi no scribe. Multe grand; no ancor; juste ist.

The interrogative (and relative) adverbs are: per qué why? quale how? quande when? quante how much? Quant-volte how many times? quel-volte which (what) time? quo where?

Prepositions. I. Primitives: a to; (before the infinitive) in order to; ad at, on, near, with; ante before; circa round; co with; contra against, towards; da since, from; de of; di concerning, about, on; extra besides; in in, at, into; intra between, among; per through, by (the agent); po behind, after; pro for; sine without; sub under, beneath, underneath; sur on, upon; ultra beyond, above, over, more than; usque until, till; versu towards; via by way of, via.

II. The rest are derived and take -u or they are formed by paraphrase: abstractu abstractedly from; a caus de on account of; citerioru on this side of; in consideration de in consideration of; dextre de to (at) the right of; durantu during; exceptu with the exception of, except; favoru in favour of; inferioru below; in honor de in honour of; in nómin de in the name of; locu or in loc de in place of, instead of, for; longu along; mancu for want of; mediu through, by means of; merciu owing to; negligentu regardless of; obstinu in spite of; occasionu on the occasion of; passantu en passant; presentu in presence of, before; relativu relative to; sequentu according to; sinister de to (at) the left of; superioru over, above; traversu across; ulterioru beyond; vicinu beside.

Prepositions are always followed by the substantive; favoru mie fratr in favour of my brother; ad mur on the wall; pro mi for me; a caus de pluv on account of the rain.

Conjunctions. I. Primitives: do then, so, therefore; e or et and; e – e as well – as; esque = interrogative particle, whether, if; etsi if even; ma but; ni – ni neither – nor; o or; o – o either – or; qua than (for comparison); que that; si if; támen yet, nevertheless.

II. The rest are formed by paraphrase: a fin que in order to, that; ante que before; da témpor que since; durente que while, during; immediate po que as soon as; loce que instead of; negliginte que in spite of that, nevertheless; no sole – ma anque not only – but; omnivolte que whenever, as often as, every time that; per ce que or cause because, as, for; po que after; supponente que provided that, supposing that; tale que so that; usque ce que until.

Interjections. I. Primitives: a ah! apo away, begone! basta enough! ecco behold! look! fi fie! o oh! stop stop, halt! ve woe!

II. The rest are rendered by circumlocution: a Deo adieu! good bye, farewell! a revidar se until we meet again! audia ho! brave bravo! damnos it is a pity! haste quick! parat ready! silence silence, hush! succurs help!

II. Derivation of words.

1. Prefixes.

The prefixes ad-, con-, de-, dis-, ex-, in-, sub- and trans- are changed according to the letter which follows them, as indicated below. The rest remain unchanged.

*) In the following examples the words will not be translated any more if they are conform to the English words.

Besides all Greek prefixes which have become international: a-, acro-, anti-, archi-, auto-, bi-, calli-, cosmo-, cromo-, crono-, deca-, dys-, electro-, eu-, foto-, fysio-, hecto-, hepta-, hexa-, homo-, hydro-, hyper-, kilo-, lito-, macro-, micro-, mono-, neo-, nona-, octo-, orto-, poly-, proto-, pseudo-, steno-, syn-, tele-, teo-, termo-, typo-, etc.

2. Suffixes.

The final letters -a, -e, -o are omitted before a suffix; -i is omitted before -ism, -ist: lepr(a)os, firm(a)i, bandag(e)ist, pian(o)ist; – artiller(i)ist. – Between a root ending in -ce or -ge and the suffixes beginning with a, o or u an i is inserted, which helps to preserve the hissing sound of the e and g: differenc(e)ial, colleg(e)ial. – The final letter c is changed into qu if the following suffix begins with an e: casc, casquett, porc, porquer.

a. Substantive suffixes.

Notice. Between the 5 suffixes -ion, -iv (see below), -or, -orie, -ur and the verbal root the syllable at is inserted if the root ends in a consonant: declamation, ventilation, and the letter t is inserted if the root ends in i or u: expedition, institution [Exceptions: associar (-ation), pronunciar (-tion), mediar (-ation); – fluctuar (-ation), situar (-ation)].

These 5 suffixes*) are joined immediately to the verbal roots in the following cases:

1. to roots ending in: -et, -pt, -xt, -ss: protector, scuptur, textor, confession [Exceptions: dictar (-ator), spectar (-ator), cassar (-ation), cessar (-ation)].

*) Also the adjective suffix -ibl (in place of -abl): perceptibl; combustibl; comprensibl; admissibl.

2. to the 9 following roots: cens, combust, congest, credis, edit, execut, fris, invent and sut.

3. to the 19 following roots when the final d changes into s: apprend, ascend, cad, collid, conclud, defend, expend, explod, led, lud, mord, respond, rid, suad, tend, tond, tord, vad and vid.

4. to some especially international roots (see dictionary), which certain verbs have: absorption from the verb absorbar, scriptur from the verb scribar. – The 33 following verbs have such particular roots: absorbar, acquirar, adherar [also coherar etc.], aperiar, apparar, cedar, confundar, corrigior, covrar, currar, dicar, discutar, distingar, ducar, faciar, mittar, movar, patiar, pellar, petar, ponar, primar, redimar, rumpar, scribar, secar, sedar, solvar, struar, veniar, vertar, vinciar, volvar.

Many of these new roots are employed as independent words; some of them are verbal adjectives, e. g. resultat, vendit, institut, – cas, defens, respons, ris, vis, – apert, confus, correct, covert, curs, distinct, conduct, fact, puls, press, script, insect, benevent, volut.

b. Adjective suffixes.

3. Compound words.

that is, words containing two roots, may be formed of all parts of speech, if the sense allows it, by simple juxtaposition, with a hyphen or (usually) without it; the determining (or modifying) word precedes the determined one: petr-olio, post-cart (or with the preference: cart postal or cart de post), grand-patr, grand-filia, dupl-punct colon, nul-hom no-one, nobody, omni-potent, bene-dicar to bless, no-quande never, extra-ordinar, per-currar to run through, to peruse; de-formar to deform, to disfigure.

Almost each word formed according to the above rules is an international or at least a natural word. – In a few cases, when a regularly formed word does not correspond to the international word of the same meaning, such as an international word is mentioned in the dictionary in parenthesis; either form may be used; the international form however is preferable: simplitet (simplicitet), pacial (pacific), eduction (education).

Dictionary English - Neutral.

A dash (–) signifies, that the spelling of the word in the Reform-Neutral is the same as the spelling of the English word:

arsenal – = arsenal arsenal

The suffixes and prefixes printed in italics are added to the roots and usually result in international words, the translation of which is not necessary. Besides, the signification of the affixes is given in the grammar:

amputar, -ation = amputar, amputation.

A.

a un; alcun.

abandon, v. abandonar.

abbot abat, -essa, -ia. abbreviate, v. abbreviar, -ation.

abdicate, v. abdicar, -ation.

abdomen, n. abdómin.

abduction, n. rapt, -ar.

aberrate, v. aberrar, -ation.

abide, v. permanar, -ent, -ence.

able, a. capace, -itet.

able, be, v. poter, -ent, -ence, -abl (possibl).

abound, v. abundar, -ence.

about, adv. circa, p. di (concerning); circa (around).

above, p. superioru (over); ultra (beyond).

abscess, –.

absent, –, -ence.

[…]

Texti.

Nostr patr, qui es in cieli! Votr nómin essa sanctifiqued; votr regnia venia; votr volu essa facied quale in cieli tale anque sur terr. Dona noi hodie nostr pan quotidian; e pardona nostr débiti quale anque noi pardone nostr debitori; e no induca noi in tentation, ma libera noi del maligne. Cause votr es regnia, potence e glorie in seculi. Amen!

St. Petersburg, 12 decembr 1911.

Signor!

El Reform-Neutral es un lingue artificial multe convenabl pro relationi international. It es facile apprensibl pro omnihom de cultur European; it av grammatic simpl e reguli precis pro pronunciation, pro scriptur e pro formation de paroli; it es construed sur radicali international e it av ortografí international; it facie impression de un lingue natural.

Qui possede un vocabular e qui apprendav reguli grammatical — pote correspondar immediate co externiani. I recommende a vo provar it.

Co salut cosmolingual i reste votr serv leplu devot

R.

It es lingue, quel separe e quel unie.

Schiller.

Texti ulterior in jurnal Progress, Redactor e editor W. Rosenberger; St. Petersburg V. O. Bolshoy 5. Annuale 6 numeri 1 rubl 20 copequi.