Random musings...Auxiliary Languages...

Bild von Eduardo Davad auf Pixabay

An auxiliary language is a constructed language intended for international communication. The idea is to have an auxiliary language as a second language. People would use their own native language in everyday life, hence preserving their culture. The second language would be used to communicate with people in other countries.

Back in the day, some people actually had the idea, and created the languages. You may have even heard of one of those languages...Esperanto. There are quite a number of those languages out there. A few examples, besides Esperanto, are IDO, Interlingua, Toki Pona, Interlingue...originally Occidental...and Lojban. Esperanto just seems to be the most visible. One of the major problems is getting people to even speak them, but Esperanto seems to be leading the way with an estimated 2 million plus speakers, with some of them being native speakers.

It seems most auxiliary languages are created using root words which are used in the majority of their control languages. This helps make the language more familiar to the native speakers of those control languages. That, in turn, flattens their learning curve a bit. The grammar of these languages is mostly simplified, flattening their learning curve even more, even for learners of the language who aren't native speakers of languages used as control languages.

English seems to be the worlds “lingua franca” now days, giving native English speakers an advantage over those who speak it as a second language. Native English speakers will have the advantage, because their language is central to their own thought process, their culture and their ability to communicate with other members of their communities. Their language is central to their every day life. They understand how to manipulate others using their knowledge of their own language, with all it's nuances. Those who speak English as a second language will probably not have the same abilities using the language. That's the reason for pulling words from a language pool, or control languages, to build an auxiliary language. You minimize the advantage one language group has over the others. It's a level playing ground, if you will. Of course, there are exceptions.

Since discovering these languages, I've often wondered why some communities don't use them. For example, It seems that transferring knowledge would be a whole lot easier for those companies that claim to be citizens of the world, if they would adopt an auxiliary language.

Auxiliary languages could be used as a means of communication for governmental organizations needing to communicate with a number of other countries. For example, the European Union (EU) "presides(?)" over around 27 countries. If you consider the costs of translating texts, live discussions, etc., how much of the taxpayers money could be saved if those politicians could speak with each other in one auxiliary language, which everyone knew? Well, they do have one currency! Why not one common language?

Another interesting aspect would be families. A family which adopts an auxiliary second language would have no problem communicating with family members who were born in a different country. I like this idea a lot.

Well, I don't suppose there will ever be an auxiliary language that will be sufficient for the whole world, though. But, a language like Interlingua, called modern Latin by some, could make one common language for all countries where romance languages are spoken. Even English and German speaking countries could benefit from that same language. It would be vacation without language barriers...for all.

In closing, I started with Esperanto, but I found it a bit too complicated, and I had no one to practice with. But I still find the idea of an auxiliary language a really good idea, with a lot of potential.

Just random musings...