Novial language

Novial is a constructed language devised by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist who had previously been involved in the Ido movement. He devised Novial to be an international auxiliary language, which would facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language.

Novial compared to Esperanto and Ido

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.

Related Topics:
Latin - Inflection

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In Novial:

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• Syntax is largely a matter of word order, as in English and modern Scandinavian languages. There is no obligatory accusative marker as in Esperanto.
• A genitive or possessive case is available, based on Jespersen's observation that many modern languages that 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.

The most striking 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 -um. These endings may be taken to indicate natural gender according to the custom in Romance languages. Of course there is no grammatical gender or requirement for adjectives to agree with nouns.

Related Topics:
Noun - Adjective

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