Interglossa is an International Auxiliary Language devised by Professor Lancelot Hogben (1895-1975), a British zoologist and medical statistician. He started working on it in the empty hours of fire-watching in Aberdeen during World War II, and continued while working in Birmingham in the 1940s.
Hogben taught biology at universities in London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Birmingham in the UK, Cape Town in South Africa, and Georgetown in Guyana. He saw that his students had trouble memorizing biological terminolgy as they were not familiar with classical languages or etymology. To help them, he showed them the Greek and Latin roots of the words. He began to compile a list of such words, and later created a syntax, which became his draft for a new international auxiliary language based on the lexicon of science.
In 1943 Hogben published a description of his language in a book entitled Interglossa: A Draft of an Auxiliary for a Democratic World Order, Being an Attempt to Apply Semantic Principles to Language Design. This is available as a PDF at: http://www.glosa.org/en/interglossa.pdf
Interglossa is an isolating language, which means that words don't change to show their grammatical function. The bulk of Interglossa vocabulary is based on Latin and Greek, and there are some influences from Chinese, Creole languages of Africa, pidgin languages and English. Hogben believed that a vocabulary of about 880 words was enough to have a basic conversation in his language.
Hogben saw his language as the first draft, and invited suggestions and constructive criticisms from readers of his book as the basis for something better. He didn't intend the book as a primer for the beginner. Work on an expanded version of Interglossa, known as Glosa, began in 1960, when Ron Clark came across Hogben's book, then met him, and they started refine the language. They were joined by Wendy Ashby in 1972.
Na Parenta in Urani:
Na dicte volo; tu Nomino gene revero;
plus tu Crati habe accido;
plus u Demo acte harmono tu Tendo
epi Geo homo in Urani;
Na dicte petitio: Tu date plu di Pani a Na;
plus Tu acte pardo plu malo Acte de Na;
metro Na acte pardo Mu; Su acte malo de Na.
Peti Tu non acte dirigo Na a plu malo Offero;
Hetero, Tu date libero Na apo Malo.
Causo Tu tene u Crati plus u Dyno plus un eu Famo
pan Tem.
Amen.
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglossa#Sample_text
Information about Interglossa | Numbers | Tower of Babel
Information about Interglossa and Lancelot Hogben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglossa
https://glosa.fias.fr/interglossa
https://sites.google.com/view/english-interglossa-dict-1943/home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_Hogben
Blissymbolics, Esperanto, Folkspraak, Glosa, Ido, Interglossa, Interlingua, Interlingue/Occidental, Interslavic, Lingua Franca Nova, Lojban, Novial, Romance Neolatino, Romániço, Slovio, Solresol, Uropi, Volapük
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 06.09.24
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