Magistri Linguio

[نازخاتون]

Magistri Linguio
A Latin-Based IAL




annotated by Paul Bartlett
[Paul Bartlett (http://www.njavan.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smart.net%2F%2 57Ebartlett) has been one of the more tireless documenters of past IAL projects (http://www.njavan.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.langmaker.com% 2FBartlett.htm) working today. He carefully typed and formatted the original book (now in the public domain) for the Web. He kindly gave me permission to include his annotation of this book here. His original annotation, which will be updated independently of this copy, can be found here (http://www.njavan.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smart.net%2F%2 57Ebartlett%2Fmaster.html). - Jeffrey Henning]
Over the generations, there have been many proposals for an international auxiliary language, too many in number and of too many kinds to try to describe here. Some of them have been completely ad hoc and a priori. Others have been based or modeled on one or more existing languages. One such language which has served as a model or a base is Latin, which for a long time was in fact for practical purposes the international auxiliary language of western civilization.


Perhaps the best known of international auxiliary languages based directly on Latin is the Italian mathematician Giussepe Peano's Latino sine Flexione, which he originally published early in the twentieth century. (At times Latino sine Flexione was also known as "Interlingua," not to be confused with the auxiliary language of that name published in 1950 by the International Auxiliary Language Association.)
Another such, which is described in the book reproduced here in its entirety, along with some comments, is The Master Language, published privately in 1907 by Stephen Chase Houghton. The name, "The Master Language," is a deplorable one, as it would seem to represent a sort of cultural arrogance and today might disincline some to consideration of the language. However, the language itself is a respectable attempt at an international auxiliary language based squarely on a modified Latin vocabulary with English word order in place of the Latin declensional system. (As for the name, it might be noted that there have been various projects with the words "Latin," "Latino," or "Latina" in their names, and perhaps Houghton wanted something more distinctive, however unfortunate his choice.) [I've decided to call it by its own name within itself here: Magistri Linguio. - Jeffrey Henning]
Although The Master Language is based on Latin, it will be seen that in a few respects, such as with the personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives, an original Latin word becomes merely the basis for a rather artificial and highly schematized system.
The Master Language has several notable characteristcs. Because the vocabulary is based on Latin, there is no need for separate dictionaries of the language. Two-way Latin dictionaries exist for many languages, and one of these, together with a brief description of this language (which would need to be available in various native tongues), are all one needs. One looks up a needed Latin word, applies any necessary transformation to it, and uses it forthwith. Another major advantage of the Master approach to vocabulary is that one has the entire range of the Latin lexicon to allow for many shades of meaning, facilitating its use for many purposes with less periphrasis or paraphrase than may be necessary in auxiliary languages with limited vocabularies.
Translation back from Master to one's own tongue may be a little more involved, as many nouns and adjectives are formed on the oblique stem, whereas most Latin dictionaries list first by the nominative form. However, the nominative and oblique stems are usually the same in their first few sounds/letters, so lookup should not be a major problem. Verbs, being formed on the supine stem in most cases, might take a little more looking to find them in the dictionary, inasmuch as the supine stem can vary somewhat from the present stem by which most dictionaries list verbs.
There is also the matter of changing the spelling of words to bring them more in line with phonetic orthography: nymph, for example, becomes nimfa. Furthermore, Latin double consonants are changed to singles. Awareness of these transformations, on the other hand, may facilitate searching the dictionary. Presumably, of course, with most auxiliary languages the goal is that sooner or later one would not need to depend on a dictionary in either direction.
Another characteristic of Master is that, perhaps somewhat unusually for its time, it has ***-neutral noun and pronoun forms applicable to ***ually differentiated living organisms. Lack of such forms has been a frequent criticism applied to some constructed auxiliary languages. In Master, for ***ually differentiable beings one could consider the epicene form as the semantically basic form with female and male forms being available when needed or desired.
The Master Language also has partial, although not complete, part of speech marking. For example, a word ending in i which is not one of the few primitive grammatical words with that ending is probably a possessive, an adjective in the positive, or a present participle. A word ending in o is likely to be a noun, either masculine or neuter if such characteristics apply. And so on.
One issue for Latin-based auxiliary languages which were published a few generations ago is the issue of vocabulary for modern terms which did not appear in classical or medieval Latin. However, those who have sought to keep Latin itself alive as a language have faced this issue, and wordlists do exist for modern terminology. One might say that according to rule 27, the Master form of "television" would be televisio. Other modern terms, such as "radio" and "modem," would have to be resolved. Rules 17, 18, and 19 partially address this issue, and rules 35 through 43 might provide some additional words. (Presumably, according to rule 39, a computer would be a computago.) Current terms derived from Greek and Latin roots can in many cases be turned into corresponding Master words with little difficulty. Although the penultimate paragraph of Houghton's Introduction indicates that the work was preliminary, with few modifications and elucidations it might be usable forthwith as an auxiliary language. [An interesting project would be to actually adapt a Latin lexicon (http://www.njavan.com/forum/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.langmaker.com% 2Fwordlist%2Flatin.htm) to provide the vocabulary for the language.]


Insofar as feasible, layout and bolding follow the original work (although most of the tables were originally left aligned in the page column). There are, however, four major departures from the original scheme. In the book, text appeared in two columns, whereas here it is in one column. Houghton placed his tables of "primitive adverbs," prepositions, and conjunctions at the end of the book after his translations. They are here moved to the end of the rules and before the translations, seemingly a more appropriate place for them. Houghton provided several translations into Master from Latin, Italian, French, and English. Here, the translations and originals appear one over the other instead of in Houghton's parallel columns. (In the original texts from which the translations were made, misspellings have been left as they were. These may have been typesetting errors, as they are not consistent.) Comments in italics are those of the transcriber, partly for clarification (some being clarification based on the sample translations) and partly for variation on Houghton's ideas.
It may be noted that Houghton's book is out of copyright, at least in the United States, and therefore in the public domain, so that it may be reproduced without infringement. [Paul's comments, though, are protected by his own copyright.]

[نازخاتون]

THE

MASTER LANGUAGE


AN OUTLINE

OF THE

PRINCIPLES AND RULES

OF A PROPOSED

INTERNATIONAL AUXILIARY LANGUAGE

BY

STEPHEN CHASE HOUGHTON


Published by the Author for Private Distribution

ROME, N. Y.
1907

COPYRIGHT 1907, by S. C. Houghton

[نازخاتون]

INTRODUCTION




In the summer of 1900, the Société Philomatiqe de Paris inaugurated a movement looking to the devisement and adoption of an artificial language, adaptable to the requirements of international intercommunication in general and to the needs of science in particular -- a language to be used as a vehicle for conveying standard scientific works to the readers of all nations. The several conventions and congresses of scientific organizations which convened in Paris during the year named were addressed on the subject, and all of these, to the number of twenty-four, joined in the movement, thirty members of the Institute subscribed their names to its support, and scholars in all parts of Europe expressed approval of the project. L'Association National des Académies assumed charge of the movement, a delegation representing all the societes referred to was chosen, and this delegation appointed a sub-committee to take active charge of the matter. Under the direction of the sub-committee a "Declaration" was prepared, published and spread broadcast, setting forth the urgent need of a Langue International Auxiliare, and the conditions required to be met in its construction, and calling upon scholars throughout the world to "prêter leur concours a la délégation et de hâter ansi cette grande réforme, qui marquera dan l'histoire de l'humanité une époque comparable ل [sic] celle de l'invention de l'imprimerie, e qui contribuera puissement aux progrès de la science et de la civilization."
In the "Declaration" it was prescribed that the internation auxiliary language should satisfy the conditions following:
1. It must be capable of serving for the habitual relations of social life, for commercial exchanges, and for scientific and philosophical reports.
2. It must be easy of acquirement by all persons of fair education, especially Europeans.
3. It must not be an existing national language.
While the sense of need of scientific Europe in this regard and an earnest desire on the part of its representatives that the need shall be supplied are thus made manifest, and the conditions required to be met are sufficiently simple and reasonable, it is undoubtedly the fact that the acceptable new language must be truly and thoroughly scientific, both in foundation and superstructure. For a scientific basis the mind at once turns to Latin, for centuries the universal language of scholarship and literature, rich and prolific mother of mother tongues, substantial foundation of English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and the other Romance languages of today and of the past, supplying to a greater or less degree elements to all the languages of modern civilization, chief basis of the nomenclature of science, and familiar to the scholars of all lands, Obviously, Latin, more than any other source of supply, affords material for a broad and homogeneous foundation for the proposed innovation.
But pure Latin, complex, unwieldy, out-of-date, is inadaptable to present-day requirements. The key-note of the desired artificial language must be simplicity. It should be logical, systematic and exact. It should have few forms, few rules, few exceptions. If upon Latin may be built up such a language, one which, while preserving the universally recogizable lineaments of the royal parent, shall be modern, simple, scientific in root and in construction, free from the complicaitons, irregularities and involved methods characterizing the great mother tongue and inherited in great degree by her progeny, so nearly akin to existing languages as to be easily learned and readily adapted to the ordinary uses of international intercommunication, and at the same time so precise and complete as to meet the exactions of science, such a langage should satisfy the required conditions, if they may be satisfied at all.
The elaborate terminology of the Latin must, of course, be discarded, and a modernized syntax provided. The regular terminology of the inflected words of the language is made up of the vowels a, e, i, o and u, giving a systematic resemblance to that most systematic and most melodious of tongues, the Italian. The advantages to be derived from the adoption of an established syntactic system are manifest and controlling; and since the English is simpler than that afforded by any other Latin-derived tongue, it is here followed, with few modifications.
This publication is issued with the purpose of submitting to scholars and others who may be interested an exposition of the fundamental principles and rules of the proposed artificial language, in the hope of eliciting criticisms and suggestions which may aid the author in improving the plan of the language before presenting to the public a complete grammar.

No attempt is here made to demonstrate the adaptability of the language to general social and commercial usages. The translations from various languages, though few and brief, are deemed sufficient for present purposes.
Rome, N. Y., July, 1907.

[نازخاتون]

OUTLINES OF GRAMMAR
OF

THE MASTER LANGUAGE







The words of this language are adopted or derived from the Latin or the Greek.



All words of classical Latin, and words of medieval modern or law Latin from which words of modern Romance languages have been derived, may be bases of words in this language.
Greek deriviatives are comparatively few, and chiefly relate to the arts and sciences.

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ORTHOGRAPHY AND ORTHOEPY.


The letters of the alphabet are twenty-three in number. They are:
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, l, m, n, o, p , q, r, s, t, u, v, x and z.
The language has twenty-one sounds.


The spelling is phonetic, though j, qu and x have have respectively the same sounds as i, c and cs.
J, q and x might be dispensed with, but are retained to indicate derivation and avoid confusion.
COMMENT: It is the opinion of the transcriber that one could also do away with j and u. J is a medieval invention originally the same in pronunciation as i, but it came later to represent sounds in national languages that did not exist in Latin, so is here superfluous. Also, as the next paragraph makes clear, v has the same sound as it did in classical Latin when used as a consonant (really a semi-consonant), close in pronunciation to the vowel u, so one could do as the Romans did and use v for both sounds. Elimination of j and u would bring the orthography more in line with that of original Latin texts, facilitating use (although some dictionaries do use j as an initial as well as u). Furthermore, in keeping with a principle of phoneticity and recognizability of derived words, it might be suitable to pronounce qu not like c but as in the original Latin. If one really wanted to emulate the Romans, one could do away with lowercase letters, which are also a medieval invention unknown to many of the world's scripts. (And even in those modern languages which do use the Roman alphabet, one often sees texts, such as signs and announcements, entirely in uppercase letters.)

All letters are pronounced as in the Roman pronunciation of Latin. A is pronounced as in part, e like a in made, i and j like e in me, o as in no, u line oo in noon. C is pronounced as in cap, g as in gap. H is aspirated. V has the sound of w in wet. All other consonants are pronounced as in Latin-derived languages generally.
Ch is represented by c, ph by f, th by t, y by i.

Examples: Eco (from echo), echo; filosofio (from philosophia), philosophy; trono (from thronus), throne; tipo (from typus), type.
In derivatives from Latin words in which double letters occur, one of these is omitted.
Posesio (from possessio), possession; apelata (from appello, appellatum), call.
In derivatives from Latin words in which cqu, xce, or xci occur, c is omitted.
Aquisitio (from acquisitio), acquisition; exelentio (from excellentia), excellence; exitata (from excito, excitatum), call out, excite.
This language contains no diphthongs. In derivatives from Latin words in which the diphthongs ae or oe occur, the first of the two letters is omitted:
Pene (from paene), almost; peno (from poena), punishment.


COMMENT: Houghton's first sentence is not strictly true, because he did retain the Latin diphthong au. One might question whether it is really necessary to convert ae and oe. Retaining them would give a little variety to the vowel structure of the language and would facilitate recognizability and dictionary use.
Accent or stress of voice is placed upon no syllable.

[نازخاتون]

ETYMOLOGY.



The parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.
Nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs derived from adjectives or participles are composed of two parts, a stem and a terminal, and have regular terminations, in all their parts and forms. Nouns end in o, a, or e; adjectives (including adjectives proper, present participles, pronominal adjectives and possessives), as to their positive form, in i; the indicative present, infinitive and imperative of verbs in a; the past indicative and past participle in e; derivative adverbs, of positive form, in u.

Adverbs not derived from adjectives or participles, and prepositions and conjunctions, are adopted from the Latin without other change than that incident to phonetic spelling.
Words may be compounded or constructed on Latin bases according to usages common to Romance languages.

Civilizata, civilizatio, civilize, civilization; supersensitivi, supersensitive; inamate, loveless -- unloved; inamati, loveless -- unloving; disincorporata, disincorporate; malcontenti, malcontent; disorganizata, disorganize.
Scientific words and terms adopted or derived from Latin or Greek and common to modern languages are used without change.
Species, genera, spectrum, spectra, bacillus, bacilli, os[,] coccyx.
Other words derived from the Greek are formed by the addition to Greek stems of terminals characteristic of this language.
Fenomeno, fenonemos, phenomenon, phenomena; hipoteso, hypothesis; analiso, analysis; antiteso, antithesis; fotografo, fotografa, photograph (noun and verb).


COMMENT: Houghton does not make clear how one determines which words fall under each of the two preceding rules.
This language contains no proper names. Names of persons and places, titles, forms of address and of salutation, articles of merchandise, weights, measures, moneys, and other things peculiar to any country or language, and words or phrases having no Latin equivalents, are written and pronounced as in the countries to which they respectively belong.

John, Jean, Juan, Jan, France (or La France), Italia, Roma, Wien, Count, Compte, Conte, Conde, Graf, Mr., Mrs., Monsieur, Madam, Senor, Signor, Senhor, Herr, Good morning, bon voyage, good bye, adieu, adios, lebe wohl, hat, chapeau, sombrero, capello, chapéo, hüt, pound, gramme, foot, mètre, dollar, sovereign, franc, peso, real, thaler, lنndler, jodel, bolero, obeisance, environment, ennui, chiaroscuro, en route.

COMMENT: Some might remark that several of these and similar terms do in fact have usable Latin or neo-Latin forms or equivalents.
Nouns and personal pronouns only have gender.

COMMENT: By this he seems to mean that only nouns and pronouns refer to biological ***, rather than to grammatical categories of gender, which do not necessarily refer to biological ***.
The only plural forms are those of nouns and personal pronouns and the pronominal adjectives istis, these, ilis, those, and alis, others.

[نازخاتون]

SYNTAX.


The arrangement of words in declarative sentences is as in English, in order as follows:
The article, adjectives modifying the subject, the subject, other modifiers of the subject, adverbs modifying the verb, the verb, adjectives modifying the object of the verb, the object, prepositions and the words depending on them.


English syntactical construction is followed, with the exceptions following:
(1) The negative adverb no precedes the verb.

Me no vel ira, I shall not go.
(2) The language contains no equivalents of the English auxiliaries do, does, did. In interrogative sentences in which in Egnlish these auxiliaries are used, the subject follows the verb.
Ea no sensa sani, she does not feel well. habitata ili homo isti domo? Does that man live in this house? Abire is hodie? Did he depart today?
(3) No equivalent of there as an expletive is used.
Ubi es igno es caloro, where there is fire there is heat.
COMMENT: One might introduce a little variety into interrogative sentences by the use of nonne and num in the Latin manner. The first begins a question to which the expected answer is "yes," and the second to which the expected answer is "no," with the word order remaining that of the corresponding declarative sentence.

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NOUNS.


In the nominative and objective case and singular number, masculine and neuter nouns end in o, nouns denoting the female *** in a, nouns of common gender in e.
Homo, man; homa, woman; home, man (an individual of the genus).
The possessive is formed by adding i to the nominative.
Homoi, homei, man's; homai, woman's; homosi, homesi, men's; homasi, women's.



The plural of nouns is formed by adding s to the singular.
Latin nouns ending in the nominative singular in o or a are adopted, but a in nouns not denoting the female *** is changed to o.


Homo, poemo, misio, manio, positio, fortitudo, fantasio, discrepantio, parsimonio.
Indeclinable Latin nouns are converted into Master nouns by the addition of the terminal o.
Faso, right; nefaso, wrong; instaro, image; nihilo, nothing; maneo, morning.



. The terminals ito, ieto, distinguish abstract nouns derived from adjectives, corresponding to the Latin suffices itas, ietas.
Nouns derived from Latin declinable nouns not ending in the nominative singular in o, a or tas are formed by the addition of the terminals o, a or e to the stem, or root, of the genitive singular, phonetically spelled.


Nomino, name; parto, part; linguo, tongue; patro, father; milito, soldier; argumento, argument; parente, parent; mendicanto, mendicanta, mendicante, medicant.



COMMENT: There is a reference to nouns whose Latin nominative singular ends in tas, as if they were to be dealt with separately. However, in the sample translation from Latin, the third declension dative singular civitati is rendered as civitato, leading one to think that -tas nouns are also built on the oblique stem.
In nouns formed from Master nouns io or ia is substituted for final o, a, or e.


Nominio, noun; partio, party; linguio, language; mendicantio, mendicancy; homio, mankind; homia, womankind; parentio, parentage; credio; creed.



COMMENT: Houghton does not specify an ending ie, but presumably it might be used for a ***-neutral term such as homie, humankind.
Master adjectives converted into nouns take the terminals o, a, or e in place of the adjective terminal.


Bone, good; malo, evil; captivo, captiva, captive, captive.
Participles are converted into nouns by the addition of o, a or e.
Amateo, amatea, amatee, beloved one, sweetheart; condemneo, condemnea, condemnee, condemned one; sensio, feeling; pensio, thinking; auditio, hearing
Verbal concrete nouns are formed by the substitution of o for the verb terminal.
Amato, love; penso, thought; credo, belief; scito, knowledge; creto, growth.
Verbal nouns denoting agency (one who, that which) are formed by the addition of ro, ra, or re to the infinitive.
Amataro, amatara, amatare, lover; rectaro, rectara, rectare, ruler; volutaro, roller; tipografaro, tipografara, tipografare, typewriter.
The terminal ico denotes an art or science.
Cemico, chemistry; matematico, mathematics; fisico, physics; organico, the art of playing on the organ; telefonico, telephony; fotografico, photography.
The terminal ismo denotes a system, theory, principle or practice.
Deismo, deism; panteismo, pantheism; cinicismo, cynicism.
The teminals isto, ista, iste denote an adherent or expositor of a science, art, system or theory.
Cemist, chemist; artisto, artista, artiste, artist; fatalisto, fatalista, fataliste, fatalist.
The terminal ago denotes a machine, apparatus or instrument.
Cemicago, chemical apparatus; telegrafago, telegraph instrument; fotografago, camera; aerago, aerial machine; tipografago, typewriter.
The terminal ario denotes a place where.
Cemicario, chemical laboratory; sanatario, sanatarium; somnario, dormitario, bed-chamber; fotografario, photograph gallery.
The terminals ulo, ula, ule denote diminutiveness or offspring.
Particulo, particle; globulo, globule; agnulo, agnula, agnule, lambkin.



Nouns denoting species end in io.
The terminal ilo denotes a variation in a species.


Homio, mankind; home man -- an individual of the species; homo man -- the male; homa, woman; homule, child; homulo, boy; homula, girl.
Taurio, the bovine species; taure, head of cattle; taures, cattle; tauro, bull; taura, cow; taurule, calf; taurulo, bull calf; taurula, heifer calf; taurilo, ox.
Canio, the dog species; cane, cano, cana, canule, canulo, canula, canilo.



COMMENT: Rules 24, 31, and 34 through 43 introduce a certain artificiality into the vocabulary, inasmuch as Latin has perfectly good words for some of these forms. For example, he gives homa for "woman," using a distinctive termination, but Latin has the perfectly acceptable words mulier, mulieris and femina, so that one could use either of the forms muliera or femina. Some might argue that such a schematization cuts down on the vocabulary to be learned, but the risk with such an approach is that if one person learns only the schematically derived forms and a second uses the direct forms, the first may have trouble understanding. As an aside, the terminal ilo seems rather ambiguous. Just what is a canilo? If it is a "variation in a species," presumably it is a generic term for breed of dog.
Adjectives in the comparative and superlative remain unchanged when used as nouns.


Il grandior inclusa il parvior, the greater includes the less.