Pan-Romance language


A pan-Romance language or Romance interlanguage is a codified linguistic variety which synthesizes the variation of the Romance languages and is representative of these as a whole. It can be seen as a standard language proposal for the whole language family but is generally considered a zonal constructed language because it's the result of intense codification. Zonal constructed languages are, according to interlinguist Detlev Blanke, constructed languages which "arise by choosing or mixing linguistic elements in a language group".
Several pan-Romance languages have been developed by different individuals or groups in different times and places. They are so similar to each other that they have been considered variations of a same language: 'dialects' is how Campos Lima, one of the developers, refers to several projects of his time. This author also shows that the developers of pan-Romance language projects are generally aware of each other, are in contact and even collaborate, which is another sign of unity.
Pan-Romance languages are parallel to pan-Slavic languages and pan-Germanic languages.

Uses and benefits

A pan-Romance language is typically intended for communication amongst speakers of Romance languages, that is as a regional international auxiliary language, for the Latin world. Its vocabulary and grammar are codified to be as communicative as possible for Romance speakers. Words, for example, are chosen preferably if they have cognates among many Romance languages, especially if the meaning is the same or similar. As a result, and thanks to intercomprehension, it's potentially understandable by an audience of up to 800 million speakers of Romance languages. In addition, it can complement Romance intercomprehension in situations where this communication strategy isn't so effective.
A pan-Romance language can be meant, in some -specially older- projects, to become a global international auxiliary language, in substitution of English, which is also the aim of Esperanto and Interlingua. In this case, the reason of its Latin/Romance basis is that international vocabulary is mainly of Latin origin and, in opinion of the developers of these pan-Romance languages, the most natural and coherent grammar to use with the international vocabulary is that of the Romance languages, which evolved from Latin and are, furthermore, spoken by million people on different continents.
A pan-Romance language can even be intended, in certain projects, as an artistic language.
In addition, developers of pan-Romance languages suggest other uses and benefits: the language can benefit from contributions from Romance's different varieties, which improve and enrich it ; it can be a shelter for speakers of Romance languages which are vanishing, like Occitan or Sardinian; it could be effective as a middle step in machine translation between Romance languages; it can be used as a bridge to Romance languages and Latin; and it can be practical for foreign speakers as an introduction to Romance.

Background

's descendants, the Romance languages, have developed important differences but share so many traits that they have been considered a unity by Romance linguist :de:Michael Metzeltin|Michael Metzeltin. He explains the cohesion of the family by its shared Vulgar Latin inheritance, the use and influence of standard Latin until recently and the constant exchanges between Neolatin peoples.
The language family as a whole can be referred to as 'Romance', and it still functions as one language or macrolanguage in some present-day situations, where intercomprehension or accommodation take place. For example, some adverts are published in foreign Romance languages. And mixed varieties like Portuñol or Frespañol arise spontaneously to communicate with speakers of other Romance languages, for example while visiting their country. All this shows that spoken and written communication amongst Romance speakers is still a reality and that, to some extent, they are a linguistic community.
A manifestation of the tight relationship between different Romance speakers and peoples are the migration flows between Latin countries: Romanians, for example, emigrate preferably to Italy and Spain. And Neolatin countries created in 1954 the Latin Union, an international organization of nations that use Romance languages, which functioned until 2012.
Despite these tight connections, since French has been displaced as an international auxiliary language by English, which is a Germanic language, the Latin world lacks a common native language model for the first time in history.

The idea of a pan-Romance language since the Middle Ages

Standard Latin, which preceded French as an international auxiliary language, undergoes lexical modernization to the present day but is based on Classical Latin, the language stage of the late Roman Republic to middle Roman Empire. The idea of substituting it by a common Romance standard language can be traced back to Dante Alighieri, who in his essay De vulgari eloquentia deals with the problem of identifying a vernacular language which could be suitable for literary purposes. He starts by compiling a map of the languages he knows, dividing the European territory into three parts: one to the east, with Greek; one to the north, with Germanic ; one to the south, with Romance. He chooses Romance, for being his language, and then carries on his search by distinguishing in Romance three smaller languages, which he identifies by their word for 'yes': oc language, oïl language and sì language. He chooses the last variety, arguing that it's more similar to Latin, the literary language of the moment, and has more poets. He then assesses the many Italian varieties in which he subdivides the sì language, but considers no variety suitable. Dante comes to the conclusion that the illustrious vernacular which he seeks must still be developed, combining elements from the various Italian varieties.
After Dante, many other people have conceived independently the idea of a common Romance standard language or even a pan-Romance language, and not only the developers of the projects presented here. For example, Romance scholar Rebecca Posner declared that "It is not impossible to conceive a Romance interlanguage" and interlinguist Detlev Blanke spoke of a "Hochromanisch".

Pan-Romance languages in the 19th and 20th centuries

Lingua Romana

Lingua Romana is an artistic language which the German poet Stefan George used in part of his lyrical work. He started using Lingua Romana, a mixed Romance language, at a young age, in 1889. It is his own artistic creation, closest to Spanish but with elements from Italian and Latin. The combinations are motivated by their sound effect in the poems, according to Radaelli. George himself explains Lingua Romana with these words : “La idea que desde mi juventud me atormenta concebir yo mismo una lengua literaria para mis propios fines a partir de material claro, románico, de similar sonoridad así como fácilmente comprensible.” Some of his poems in Lingua Romana are La Rosa Galba and Paz, which he later translated into German.
Lingua Romana was later codified and proposed for pan-Latin communication in 1991.

Sample text in Lingua Romana

Neolatino (Ørberg)

is a Romance zonal constructed language intended to be used as a global international auxiliary language. It was developed by Danish Latinist Hans Henning Ørberg, known for his method for learning Latin, Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, first published in 1955. All the information available on this Neolatino is offered by the developer of another pan-Romance language, Campos Lima, who mentions it and publishes a letter that Ørberg had sent him in 1941. In this letter, Ørberg explains that he has started to work on a new international language, which he calls Neolatino, based on the Romance languages only and without artificial elements. According to Campos Lima, it had nominal agreement in gender and number and verbal personal inflexion, with more irregularities than Campos Lima's own pan-Romance language 'internacional' ; but Ørberg didn't publish his project and by 1947 had abandoned it in favour of a more simplified and regularized language.

Neolatino (Schild)

is a Romance zonal constructed language proposed to be used as a global international auxiliary language. It was developed by francophone Swiss linguist André Schild, who presented it in Petite Grammaire Neolatine, published in January 1947. This first work includes grammar, vocabulary and sample texts. An international group of supporters was founded shortly after, which published in Neolatino a bulletin with texts from several authors from May 1947 until, at least, February 1949. Later in 1947, Schild published an extended dictionary in Vocabulario Neolatino: Francese-Italiano-Hispano. In 1948, a group improved and further developed the language: Comitato Linguístico Neolatino, with Schild as its president. R. L. Stevenson's tale Will o' the mill: The plain and the stars was translated into Neolatino by H. Littlewood as Gulielmo del molino: La planura e las stelas.

Sample text in Neolatino

Internacional

Internacional is a Romance zonal constructed language proposed to be used as a global international auxiliary language. It was developed by Portuguese lawyer João Evangelista Campos Lima, who presented it in Gramática internacional, published in 1948.

Sample text in Internacional

Romano

Romano is the result of the codification of Stefan George's Lingua Romana, a Romance artistic language which the German poet used in part of his lyrical work. This codification is known though Grammatica de la lingua Romana de Stefan George, an anonymous manuscript preserved at the Sammlung für Plansprachen in Vienna. Romano is proposed to be used as a regional international auxiliary language for the Latin world.

Sample text in Romano

Pan-Romance languages in the 21st century

Interlingua Romanica

is a Romance zonal constructed language proposed to be used as a regional international auxiliary language for the Latin world. It is a reformed version of the constructed international auxiliary language Interlingua and was developed in 2001 by the English-speaking Canadian interlingualist Richard Sorfleet and the Spanish- and Basque-speaking Basque school teacher Josu Lavin. They presented it on the internet that same year on Latinity's Day.
The original Interlingua's grammar was presented by Gode and Blair in 1951 as "A Proposed Grammatical System for the International Language" but it has since been used generally by the interlinguistic community. Fifty years later, Sorfleet and Lavin proposed for Interlingua a new grammar, which incorporates some typical Romance features that are missing in traditional Interlingua: nominal agreement, verbal personal inflexion, etc. As a result, Interlingua Romanica shares vocabulary with Interlingua but proposes a more Romance grammar. This Romance version of the grammar isn't intended to replace the previous simple one, but is thought as a variant which Romance speakers can use if they regard the traditional one too unnatural. According to the developers, it could increase Romance speakers' interest in Interlingua and it shouldn't be an obstacle for someone who already knows Interlingua with its traditional grammar.
Interlingua Romanica has been abandoned by its proponents, but has still a small community of users and continues to attract interest of new people, often through Interlingua. A Facebook with 175 members and several internet pages are devoted to Interlingua Romanica.
There are other proposals to reform Interlingua. A slightly older project is by David Th. Stark, which includes verbal personal inflection but not nominal agreement. Another project is by Alexandre Rousset, which does not modify Interlingua's grammar but its vocabulary. They have both failed to build a community, but the former one has attracted attention. In any case, unlike Interlingua Romanica, these two projects cannot be considered pan-Romance, as they lack some typical Romance grammatical features.

Sample text in Interlingua Romanica

Version in Interlingua:

Romance Neolatino

is a pan-Romance language proposed as a standard language for Romance as a whole, to ease communication amongst or with speakers of Romance languages, complementing the standards that exist locally. In addition to its intended role in the Latin world, Romance Neolatino is proposed to build an alternative language policy for Europe in combination with interlanguages for other language families.
This standard language was started in 2006 by Romance scholar Jordi Cassany Bates and is now developed and promoted by a collective, international and interdisciplinary project called , which gathers linguists and other professionals from different Latin countries. A basic grammar and dictionary have been published in 2019: Grammatica Essentiale Neolatina and Dictionario Essentiale Neolatino, which reform some aspects of a preliminary model published in 2012. A first group of students is learning the language through a Facebook , with over 50 members. A Facebook with over 500 followers and several other internet pages are devoted to Romance Neolatino, including two blogs: , by Cassany, and , by Martín Rincón Botero. These two authors have also used the language orally, including a presentation of the project by Cassany at the University of Hamburg. The project has also been presented in the University of Barcelona, the University of Kiel and at the 1st. .

Design principles

The linguists of Vía Neolatina intend to design or codify a pan-Romance standard in a scientific way, and to do so they pay special attention to its design principles. The design principles developed by Vía Neolatina are based on applied linguistics' theoretical contributions; codifications for particular Romance languages which experts have designed; other interlanguages, both Romance and of other families ; and the experience of its members with Neolatin.
The developed methodology takes into account various criteria for the selection of forms. Each of the criteria is a positive quality of standard languages in general: forms should ideally be intelligible, used by the majority, encompassing, regular, traditional, concise, etc. They add up to more than 20 linguistic and extralinguistic criteria, all treated equally in the present version of the methodology. When no form is clearly positive in more ways than other forms, the methodology provides the codifiers with some resources: compositionality, polymorphism, centrality, innovation, etc. All this is done with the intention of developing a language model which is more easily acceptable by the potential users and more effective for communication.

Sample text in Romance Neolatino

Latino Interromanico

is a Romance zonal constructed language proposed to be used as a regional international auxiliary language for the Latin world. It was started in 2017 by European programmer Raymund Zacharias, who published an outline of the language in an internet site devoted to the project. Zacharias intends Interromanico to be used as a bridge to the Romance languages, that is as a didactic resource or strategy, but also as a communication tool. In order to achieve that and mimic the mappings of form and meaning for words and word parts as found in the Romance languages, their etymology is traced to common roots. These base forms by default then only receive a minimal adjustment to adhere to the grammar and spelling of Interromance. In order to produce text or speech that is as universally understood as possible, the words and word parts are checked to have as many cognates as possible within the different Romance linguistic variety groups. Flavorizations are possible in order to increase the comprehension to specific target groups or to indicate certain trends.
Since 2019, Interromanico has received another definition in Grammatica dello Latino Interromanico by Brazilian Thiago Sanctus, who intends it to be used as a more complete reference for acquiring knowledge of the language.
A Facebook and an active WhatsApp group with ca. 45 members are devoted to Latino Interromanico.

Sample text in Latino Interromanico

Relationship with other Romance-based languages

Pan-Romance languages and other Romance-based languages can be similar. The later are mostly constructed a posteriori languages that resemble Romance, mainly because of their vocabulary, but lack some typical, generally grammatical, Romance features, which pan-Romance languages do include. Mediterranean Lingua Franca was not a constructed language but a pidgin.

Partially Romance-based constructed languages

There are many constructed a posteriori languages which integrate elements from different, typically European, language families but have a very Romance or even Latin appearance because they are based on international vocabulary, that is, words which are common to the most internationally influential European languages. This vocabulary is mainly of Latin origin due to the century-long influence of this language over European languages.
They have been called Latinid constructed languages by Blanke, and include Esperanto, Ido, Interlingue, Interlingua, Romániço, etc. Some are schematic, others are naturalistic constructed languages. Naturalistic Latinid languages, due to their proximity to Romance languages, have been called Neolatinid languages by Carlevaro.
Interlingua is the most notable naturalistic language of the group. The linguists at the International Auxiliary Language Association who developed the language from 1937 to 1951 based it on international vocabulary and, as a result, it has a very Latin or even Romance appearance. Nevertheless, Interlingua grammar lacks some important Romance features. Because it is intended as a global international auxiliary language, its authors avoided what they considered unnecessary Romance complications which would be difficult to learn by non Romance speakers. Thus, they developed a simple grammatical system inspired by English which is not representative of Romance. It lacks, for example, nominal agreement or verbal personal inflection, which is a common trait of the major Romance languages.
Similarly, Interlingue was described by its developer Edgar de Wahl as "not a Romance but a Latinesque language", because in spite of its vocabulary -which gives it "a big similarity with Romance languages"- its grammar are "absolutely not Romance", but based on other European languages. As a result, Occidental is "much more European, more Anglo-Germano-Slavic by spirit".
There is no clear border between pan-Romance languages and some of these Romance-based constructed languages. For example, Schild's Neolatino, intended as a global international auxiliary language, includes the Greek-based preposition pri, which the developer considered practical to avoid confusions. Nevertheless, the language can be considered, according to Schild, a synthesis of the Romance languages even if this consideration is not completely adequate. It has been presented above among the pan-Romance languages, also because Campos Lima considered it a dialect of he's own pan-Romance project.
Another project that lies on the border is Interlingua Romanica, as it's a reform of Interlingua, which is based not only on Romance languages but also on English and, to a lesser extent, German and Russian.

Romance-based constructed languages

There are some constructed a posteriori languages which do not integrate elements from languages families other than Romance but are still not representative of Romance as a whole. This difference arises because, for example, they are also based on Romance creole languages, or their developers have strongly simplified or modified in other ways the Romance basis. They include Romanid, Lingua Franca Nova, Panlatino by William Angel de Mello and Romanova, among others.
Lingua Franca Nova, created by C. George Boeree, bases its lexicon on five major Romance languages and its simple grammar on Romance creole languages. According to the main site of the project, "It is designed to seem relatively “natural” to those who are familiar with Romance languages, without being any more difficult for others to learn."
Sample text in Lingua Franca Nova:
There is no clear border between pan-Romance languages and some of these other Romance-based constructed languages. For example, :nl:Romanova|Romanova lacks verbal personal inflexion, but nominal agreement is optional. As a result, it can seem a pan-Romance language when the subject of the sentences is the third person.
Sample text in Romanova:
On the other side, George's Lingua Romana has elements of Italian and Latin, but is closest to Spanish, so it's not so representative of Romance as a whole. Nevertheless, it is not a simple version of Spanish. It has been presented above among the pan-Romance languages because other pan-Romance developers have regarded the project as close and George as a forefather.

Latin-based constructed languages

Romance-based constructed languages can be also difficult to distinguish from Latin-based constructed languages, like Latino sine flexione. There are many proposals, typically intended as international auxiliary languages. An early project was Weltsprache, by A. Volk ed R. Fuchs.
Sample text in Latino sine flexione:A project that lies on the border is Latino Interromanico, which is presented as a "Latin-Romance language".