Interlinguistics
Interlinguistics, as the science of planned languages, has existed for more than a century as a specific branch of linguistics for the study of various aspects of linguistic communication. Interlinguistics is a discipline formalized by Otto Jespersen in 1931 as the science of interlanguages, i.e. contact languages tailored for international communication. In more recent times, the object of study of interlinguistics was put into relation with language planning, the collection of strategies to deliberately influence the structure and function of a living language. In this framework, interlanguages become a subset of planned languages, i.e. extreme cases of language planning.
Interlinguistics first appeared as a branch of studies devoted to the establishment of norms for auxiliary languages, but over its century-long history it has been understood by different authors more and more broadly as an interdisciplinary branch of science which includes various aspects of communication, language planning and standardization, multilingualism and globalisation, language policy, translation, sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, the history of language creation and literature written in planned languages, fictional artistic languages, lingua francas, pidgins, creoles and constructed languages in the internet and other topics were added.
Etymology and history
The hybrid term was first coined in French by the Belgian Esperantist Jules Meysmans.The main historical periods of interlinguistics are:
- first, the pioneer era, when its basis was put forth;
- secondly, the foundational era, when the interlinguistics wars took place to decide the most appropriate form of an auxiliary language;
- thirdly, the school era, when independent Interlinguistics schools formed in different countries, mainly Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland, each with particular attention to Esperanto;
- lastly, the current era of language policy, during which interlinguistics is more tightly integrated with other disciplines, mainly linguistics and various social and political sciences, particularly via the topics of globalism, linguistic justice, management of multilingualism, and new forms of mobility.
At the University of Amsterdam there is also a chair of interlinguistics and Esperanto.
Field of studies
The field of interlinguistics is concerned with international planned languages as Esperanto, and with the relationship between planned languages and language planning. Increasingly, undergraduate courses in planned languages are expanding to embrace not only the history of languages planned for international use, but also the field of imaginary and fictional languages. Interlinguistics is also concerned with investigating how ethnic and international planned languages work as lingua franca and with the possibilities of optimizing interlinguistic communication.The term Interlinguistics can be interpreted in at least two ways:
- Study of interlinguae, i.e., of interlanguages that serve for interlinguistic communication - not to be confused with the interim languages of language learners, which also came to be called ”interlanguages” by some authors.
- Study of phenomena that can be observed inter linguae 'between languages'.
The term appears first to have been used in French by Jules Meysmans in 1911 in a text concerning international auxiliary languages. It became more widely accepted subsequent to an address by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen to the 2nd International Congress of Linguists in 1931. According to Jespersen, interlinguistics is ”that branch of the science of language which deals with the structure and basic ideas of all languages with the view to the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i.e. auxiliary languages destined for oral and written use between people who cannot make themselves understood by means of their mother tongues”. According to this definition, investigations that are useful for optimizing interlinguistic communication are central to the discipline, and the purpose may be to develop a new language intended for international use or for use within a multilingual country or union. Research of this kind has been undertaken by the International Delegation, which developed Ido, and by the International Auxiliary Language Association, which developed Interlingua.
Valter Tauli considered interlinguistics as a subdiscipline of language planning. The principles recommended by him for language planning applied to the guided development of national languages are also, and more liberally so, applicable to constructed interlanguages. It is noteworthy that these principles have close counterparts among Grice’s conversational maxims. These maxims describe how effective communication in conversation is achieved, and in order to function well, a language must be such that it allows respecting these maxims, which languages not always do.
Most publications in the field of interlinguistics are, however, not so constructive, but rather descriptive, comparative, historic, sociolinguistic, or concerned with translation by humans or machines. As for Esperanto, which is the most widely used constructed interlanguage, there is a relatively abundant literature about the language itself and its philology.
Only a few of the many constructed languages have been applied practically to any noteworthy extent. The most prosperous were Volapük, Esperanto, Latino sine flexione, Ido, Occidental-Interlingue and Interlingua, with Esperanto being the only one still gathering a considerable community of active speakers today. Here, the Bliss symbols deserve also to be mentioned. These were intended for international communication, but have found their field of application elsewhere, namely as an aid for persons who lack an adequate ability of using ordinary language, because of motorical or cognitive handicaps.
Kinds of interlanguages
The following table lists only one representative for each type explicitly.| Spoken language only | Spoken and written language | Written language only | Gestural language | Multimedial language | |
| Spontaneous | Russenorsk and others | Tok Pisin and other stabilized pidgins | Classical Chinese | Plains Indian Sign Language | Silbo gomero and other whistled languages |
| Constructed | Damin | Esperanto and others | Bliss symbols and other pasigraphies | Gestuno | Solresol |
Among constructed languages, it is usual to distinguish between a priori languages and a posteri languages. The latter are based on one or, more often, several source languages, while this is not evident for a priori languages, e.g., the philosophical languages of the 17th century, Solresol and the logical languages of the 20th century, such as Loglan and Lojban. Spontaneously arisen Interlanguages are necessarily a posteriori or iconic.