Novial

Novial
novial
Created by	Otto Jespersen
Date	1928
Setting and usage	International auxiliary language
Purpose	Constructed language International auxiliary language Novial
Sources	RomanceandGermanic languages;alsoInterlingueandIdo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nov
Linguist List	nov
Glottolog	novi1234
Linguasphere	51-AAB-dc

Novialis aconstructedinternational auxiliary language(IAL) for universal human communication between speakers of differentnative languages.It was devised byOtto Jespersen,aDanishlinguistwho had been involved in theIdomovement that evolved fromEsperantoat the beginning of the 20th century, and participated later in the development ofInterlingua.The name means 'new' + 'international auxiliary language'.

Its vocabulary is based largely on theGermanicandRomance languageswhile its grammar is influenced byEnglish.

Novial was introduced in Jespersen's bookAn International Languagein 1928.It was updated in his dictionaryNovial Lexikein 1930,and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.In the 1990s, with the revival of interest in constructed languages brought on by theInternet,some people rediscovered Novial.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar/Glottal
Nasal		m	n		(ŋ)
Plosive/ Affricate	Voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	Voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ	h
	Voiced	v		(ʒ)
Approximant		(w)	l	j
Rhotic			r

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

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 (eg.bónibutbónim,notboním;apértabutapértad,notapertád) so perhaps it is better to say that the vowel before the final consonant of the stem takes the stress.

Orthography

Novial Alpha bet

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
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
IPAphonemes	a	b	k,set al.	d	e	f	g	h	i	dʒ,ʒ	k	l	m	n	o	p	k	r	s	t	u	v	ks, gz	j,ʝ	ts,zet al.

The digraphschandshrepresent[t͡ʃ]or[ʃ],depending on the speaker. For example,chokolatewould be pronounced either/t͡ʃokoˈlate/or/ʃokoˈlate/.

Grammar

Like many constructed IALs, Novial has a simple and regular grammar. The mainword orderisSVO,which removes the need for marking the object of a sentence withaccusative case(since the position normally tells what word is the object). There is however a way to mark accusative. There is no grammatical gender (but the sex or gender of referrents can be marked). Verbs are conjugated withoutagreement(according to person or number), and have a regular conjugation.

Nouns mainly end ine,a,o,uorumin the singular. There are definite forms of nouns marked with an article, and singular and plural forms, where the plural is marked with the suffix-safter vowels or-esafter consonants. There is also a form for indefinite number (like in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese), expressed by removing the ending of the noun in the singular (leone– lion,leon es kruel– 'a/the lion is cruel', or 'lions are cruel').

If a noun refers to a living being, then the form ending in-eis neutral in regards to sex, the one ending in-afemale, and the one ending in-omale. If the noun is based on an adjective, nouns referring to living beings can be made with the previously mentioned rule, and furthermore nouns referring to concrete objects with-u,and abstractions with-um.The third person pronouns follows the same rule, together with the definite article.

In the case of a noun that refers to an instrument – a tool or a means – the word that ends in-eis the tool or the means itself,-athe verb describing usage of the tool and so on, and-othe noun describing the actof that using:

rule

roll

–

–

rula

(to) roll

–

–

rulo

(a) rolling

rule – rula – rulo

roll – {(to) roll} – {(a) rolling}

mesure

measure (the tool)

–

–

mesura

(to measure)

–

–

mesuro

measurement

mesure – mesura – mesuro

{measure (the tool)} – {(to measure)} – measurement

Personal pronouns

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		me	nus
2nd		vu	vus
3rd	Common	le	les
	Masculine	lo	los
	Feminine	la	las
	Neuter	lu	lus

The standardword orderin Novial issubject–verb–object,as in English. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject, and nominative (I, he, she and so on) and oblique (me, him, her) pronouns are identical:

me

I

observa

observe

vu

you

me observa vu

I observe you

vu

you

observa

observe

me

me

vu observa me

you observe me

The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, in case of an ambiguity problem, an optional accusative ending,-m(-emafter a consonant), is available but is rarely used. The prepositionemis equivalent to this ending.

The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding-nor after a consonant-en.This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun somenmeans both 'my' and 'mine' ('of me'):

Men

My

hunde

dog

Men hunde

My dog

Li

The

hunde

dog

es

is

men

mine

Li hunde es men

The dog is mine

The possessive pronouns are thusmen,vun,len,etc.,lunandnusen,vusen,lesenetc. andlusen.Possession may also be expressed with the prepositionde:de me,de vu,and so on.

The reflexive pronoun isse:lo admira se– 'he admires himself'.The impersonal pronoun one ('one/they/you') ison,with the possessive formonen.

Verbs

Verb forms never change with person or number. Most verb tenses, moods and voices are expressed with auxiliary verbs preceding the root form of the main verb. The auxiliaries follow the same word order as the English equivalent. The following phrases give examples of the verb forms:

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to protect	protekte
Present	I protect	me protekte
Present Perfect	I have protected	me ha protekte
Simple Past	I protected	me did protekteorme protekted
Past Perfect	I had protected	me had protekte
Future	I shall protectorI will protect	me sal protekteorme ve protekte
Future Perfect	I shall have protectedorI will have protected	me sal ha protekteorme ve ha protekte
Future In The Past	I was going to protect	me saled protekte
Conditional	I would protect	me vud protekte
Conditional Perfect	I would have protected	me vud ha protekte
First Imperative	Let me protect!	Let me protekte!
Second Imperative	protect!	protekte!

• Present active participle:protektent– 'protecting'
• Past passive participle:protektet– 'protected'

Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verbto befollowed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expressed with the verbto getwhich is used in the examples below.

The passive voice of becoming is formed with the auxiliaryblifollowed by the root verb form. It can then be conjugated into the previously mentioned forms, for example:

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to get protected	bli protekte
Present	I get protected	me bli protekte
Present Perfect	I have got protected	me ha bli protekte
Simple Past	I got protected	me blid protekte
Past Perfect	I had got protected	me had bli protekte
Future	I shall get protectedorI will get protected	me sal bli protekteorme ve bli protekte
Conditional	I would get protected	me vud bli protekte

The passive voice of being is formed with the auxiliaryesfollowed by the past passive participle (stem +-t). For example:

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to be protected	es protektet
Present	I am protected	me es protektet
Present Perfect	I have been protected	me ha es protektet
Simple Past	I was protected	me did es protektetorme esed protektet
Past Perfect	I had been protected	me had es protektet
Future	I shall be protectedorI will be protected	me sal es protektetorme ve es protektet
Conditional	I would be protected	me vud es protektet

Articles

The definite article isliwhich is invariant. It is used as in English.

There is no indefinite article, althoughun('one') can be used.

Nouns

The plural noun is formed by adding–sto the singular (-esafter a consonant).

Theaccusative caseis generally identical to thenominativebut can optionally be marked with the ending-m(-emafter a consonant) with the plural being-sem(-esemafter a consonant) or with the prepositionem.

The genitive is formed with the ending-n(-enafter a consonant) with the plural being-sen(-esenafter a consonant) or with the prepositionde.

Other cases are formed with prepositions.

Adjectives

All adjectives end in-i,but this may be dropped if it is easy enough to pronounce and no confusion will be caused. Adjectives precede the noun qualified. Adjectives do not agree with the noun but may be given noun endings if there is no noun present to receive them.

Comparative adjectives are formed by placing various particles (plu,tam,andmin) in front of the adjective receiving the comparison. Likewise, the superlative particles (maximandminim) precede the adjective. The adjective does not receive an inflection to its ending.

Adverbs

An adjective is converted to a corresponding adverb by adding-mafter the-iending of the adjective.

Comparative and superlative adverbs are formed in the same manner as comparative and superlative adjectives: by placing a specific particle before the adverb receiving the comparison.

Vocabulary

Affixes

See theTable of PrefixesandTable of Suffixesat the Novial Wikibook.

Novial compared to Esperanto and Ido

See also:Comparison between Esperanto and NovialandComparison between Ido and Novial

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'inflectionalsystems, which he found needlessly complex. He sought to make Novial at once euphonious and regular while also preserving useful structures from natural languages.

In Novial:

• Syntax is largely a matter of word order, as inEnglishand modernScandinavian languages.There is no obligatoryaccusativemarker as in Esperanto, but the accusative may optionally be marked with either an accusative ending or an accusative preposition.
• Agenitiveorpossessive caseis available as an alternative to the prepositionde.This is based on Jespersen's observation that many modern languages have lost complex noun inflections, yet retain a possessive form.
• Auxiliary particles express mostverbtenses.An inflectional ending is available as a shorthand for the simplepast tense.

A major difference between Novial and Esperanto/Ido concernsnounendings. 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-uor-um.These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages, though there is no grammatical gender or requirement foradjectivesto agree with nouns.

Language sample for comparison

Here isthe Lord's Prayerin Novial and several related languages:

Novial version:	Esperantoversion:	Idoversion:	Latinversion:
Nusen Patre, kel es in siele, mey vun nome bli sanktifika, mey vun regno veni; mey on fa vun volio kom in siele anke sur tere. Dona a nus disdi li omnidiali pane, e pardona a nus nusen ofensos, kom anke nus pardona a nusen ofensantes, e non dukte nus en tentatione, ma liberisa nus fro malu. Amen.	Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo, Via nomo estu sanktigita. Venu Via regno, plenumiĝu Via volo, kiel en la ĉielo, tiel ankaŭ sur la tero. Nian panon ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaŭ. Kaj pardonu al ni niajn ŝuldojn, kiel ankaŭ ni pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj. Kaj ne konduku nin en tenton, sed liberigu nin de la malbono. Amen.	Patro nia, qua esas en la cielo, tua nomo santigesez; tua regno advenez; tua volo facesez quale en la cielo tale anke sur la tero. Donez a ni cadie l'omnadia pano, e pardonez a ni nia ofensi, quale anke ni pardonas a nia ofensanti, e ne duktez ni aden la tento, ma liberigez ni del malajo. Amen.	Pater noster, qui es in caelis: sanctificetur Nomen Tuum; adveniat Regnum Tuum; fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra. Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie; et dimitte nobis debita nostra, Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris; et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a Malo. Amen.

Criticism

As Jespersen relates in his autobiography, in 1934 he proposed an orthographic reform to Novial, which displeased a part of the users. Jespersen abandoned the essential principle ofone sound, one letter:

I proposed some not inconsiderable amendments, especially by introducing an "orthographic" Novial alongside the original phonetically written language. (...) Thus the sound [k], besides being represented by the letterskandqand the first part ofx,also acquired the new signc(beforea, o, uand consonants), a practice with which nearly all Europeans, Americans, and Australians are familiar from childhood. (...) I know that this orthographic form has displeased several of Novial's old and faithful friends, but it is my impression that many others have applauded it.

— Otto Jespersen (1995 [1938], pp. 227–8)

Some of Jespersen's colleagues among philologists jokingly referred to Novial asJesperanto,combining his surname withEsperanto,the prototypical auxiliary language.

See also

• Comparison between Esperanto and Novial
• Comparison between Ido and Novial

External links

• A summary of 1928 Novial
• A summary of the 1930 version
• Novial’98
• Novial Lexike: International Dictionaryby Otto Jespersen, 1930
• Discussiones inter E. de Wahl e O. Jespersen
• Introductory video to Novial