Novial

Novial is an international auxiliary language (IAL) created by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen in 1928. It was designed to facilitate communication between speakers of different native languages. The name of the language is a blend of the Novial word novi (meaning 'new") and IAL.

Jespersen had been an early supporter of another international auxiliary language, Ido, a reformed version of Esperanto, before leaving to create his own language in 1928.

Novial's vocabulary is borrowed largely from the Romance and Germanic languages, while its analytic grammar is influenced by English.

Novial was introduced in Jespersen's book An International Language in 1928. It was updated in his dictionary Novial Lexike in 1930, and further modifications were proposed in the 1930s, but the language became dormant with Jespersen's death in 1943.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial		Coronal		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink				(Template:IPAlink)
Plosive/ Affricate	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Fricative	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	(Template:IPAlink)			Template:IPAlink
Approximant	(Template:IPAlink)		Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Rhotic			Template:IPAlink

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Open	Template:IPAlink

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 (e.g. but , not ; but , not ), so perhaps it is better to say that the vowel before the final consonant of the stem takes the stress.

Orthography

Novial alphabet

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
IPA phonemes	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink et al.Template:Efn	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	ks, gz	Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink et al.Template:Efn

The digraphs ch and sh represent Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink, depending on the speaker. For example, would be pronounced either or . w is not used.

Grammar

Like many constructed IALs, Novial has a simple and regular grammar. The main word order is SVO, which removes the need for marking the object of a sentence with accusative 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 referents can be marked). Verbs are conjugated regularly, without agreement (according to person or number).

Nouns mainly end in e, a, o, u or um in 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 after vowels or after consonants. There is also a form for indefinite number (as in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese), expressed by removing the ending of the noun in the singular ( – lion, – 'a/the lion is cruel', or 'lions are cruel').Template:Rp

If a noun refers to a living being, then the form ending in is neutral with regard to sex, that ending in female, and that ending in male. If based on an adjective, a nouns referring to a living being can be made with the previously mentioned rule, and furthermore nouns referring to concrete objects with , and abstractions with . The third-person pronouns follow the same rule, together with the definite article.

Referring to an instrument – a tool or a means – a word that ends in is the tool or the means itself, a verb describing usage of the tool and so on, and a noun describing the actTemplate:Rp of that using:

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 standard word order in Novial is subject–verb–object, as in English. Therefore, the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject, and nominative (corresponding to I, he, she and so on) and accusative (corresponding to me, him, us, etc) pronouns are identical:

The accusative (direct object) is therefore most often identical to the nominative (subject). However, for avoiding ambiguity, an optional accusative ending, ( after a consonant), is available; it is rarely used. The preposition is equivalent to this ending.

The genitive personal pronouns – whether dependent or independent (corresponding to my, their, etc, or to mine, theirs, etc, respectively) – are formed by adding or after a consonant :

The genitive pronouns are thus , , , etc., and , , etc. and . Such a relationship may also be expressed with the preposition : , , and so on.

The reflexive pronoun is : – 'he admires himself'.Template:Rp The generic personal pronoun (similar to the English one) is , with the genitive form .

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 are examples of the verb forms:

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to protect
Present	I protect
Present Perfect	I have protected
Simple Past	I protected	or
Past Perfect	I had protected
Future	I shall protect or I will protect	or
Future Perfect	I shall have protected or I will have protected	or
Future in the Past	I was going to protect
Conditional	I would protect
Conditional Perfect	I would have protected
First-person Imperative	Let me protect!
Second-person Imperative	Protect!

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

Novial clearly distinguishes the passive of becoming and the passive of being. In English the forms are often the same, using the auxiliary verb be followed by the past participle. However, the passive of becoming is also often expressed with the verb get which is used in the examples below.

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

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to get protected
Present	I get protected
Present Perfect	I have got protected
Simple Past	I got protected
Past Perfect	I had got protected
Future	I shall get protected or I will get protected	or
Conditional	I would get protected

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

Grammar	English	Novial
Infinitive	to be protected
Present	I am protected
Present Perfect	I have been protected
Simple Past	I was protected	or
Past Perfect	I had been protected
Future	I shall be protected or I will be protected	or
Conditional	I would be protected

Articles

The definite article is , which is invariant. It is used as in English.

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

Nouns

The plural noun is formed by adding to the singular ( after a consonant).

The accusative case is generally identical to the nominative but can optionally be marked with the ending ( after a consonant) with the plural being ( after a consonant) or with the preposition .

The genitive is formed with the ending ( after a consonant) with the plural being ( after a consonant) or with the preposition .

Other cases are formed with prepositions.

Adjectives

All adjectives end in , 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 (, , and ) in front of the adjective receiving the comparison. Likewise, the superlative particles ( and ) precede the adjective. The adjective does not receive an inflection to its ending.

Adverbs

An adjective is converted to a corresponding adverb by adding after the ending 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 the Table of Prefixes and Table of Suffixes at the Novial Wikibook.

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.Template:Rp Additionally, he objected to those languages' inflectional systems, 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 in English and modern Scandinavian languages. There is no obligatory accusative marker as in Esperanto, but the accusative may optionally be marked with either an accusative ending or a preposition.
• A genitive (or "possessive") case is available as an alternative to the preposition . This is based on Jespersen's observation that many modern languages have lost complex noun inflections, yet retain a genitive form.
• Auxiliary particles express most verb tenses. An inflectional ending is available as a shorthand for the simple past tense.

A major 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 , , , or or . These endings may be taken to indicate natural sex according to the custom in Romance languages, though there is no grammatical gender or requirement for adjectives to agree with nouns.

Language sample for comparison

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Novial and several related languages:

Novial version:	Esperanto version:	Ido version:	Latin version:
,

Criticism

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

Some of Jespersen's colleagues among philologists jokingly referred to Novial as Jesperanto, combining his surname with Esperanto, the prototypical auxiliary language.

See also

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

External links

• B. R. Gilson. "Novial". A summary of 1928 Novial
• Thomas Leigh. "Novial Grammar Summary". A summary of the 1930 version
• Don Blaheta. NovialTemplate:Nbsp’98
• Novial Lexike: International Dictionary by Otto Jespersen, 1930. Ed. by Don Blaheta and Xavi Abadia. Template:Webarchive
• Discussiones inter E. de Wahl e O. Jespersen