intergermanic, interslavic

Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:02 am GMT
Has anyone created an intergermanic or interslavic language to be understandable by as many of those language family members as possible, like interlingua?
David   Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:07 am GMT
Yes, I am a big fan of the idea of creating languages which are understandable by [most] of that language families members. For the Germanic family, Middlespraak and Folkspraak come to mind. For Slavic, Slovio. I recently found a inter-Semitic language, Semitish, which is supposed to be understandable to Hebrew and Arabic speakers.
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:13 am GMT
Not me. Although the idea of Interlingua is interesting WHY was that language needed? The Romance languages share so much vocabulary already.

Who is going to speak Semitish? Does it have the mystical value of letters like Hebrew? What kind of writing does it use?
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:13 am GMT
Not me. Although the idea of Interlingua is interesting WHY was that language needed? The Romance languages share so much vocabulary already.

Who is going to speak Semitish? Does it have the mystical value of letters like Hebrew? What kind of writing does it use?
David   Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:15 am GMT
Guest,

I somewhat agree. Interlingua may have been pointless, because, as you've pointed out, the Romance languages already have a high degree of mutual intelligibility, and perhaps the same can be said with Slovio, although my knowledge of Slavic languages is small, so I really can't speak for how intelligible they really are. IMO constructed languages are useful with languages that have the potential to be mutually intelligible, if you just take the time to construct a language based on their shared vocabulary, etc. This is why languages like Folkspraak and Semitish are useful, because they ALLOW languages which would otherwise be mutually unintelligible to BECOME INTELLIGIBLE! but, unfortunately, the reality is that these constructed languages will probably never catch on.

you can learn more about Semitish here:
http://www.nizarhabash.com/
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:29 am GMT
David,

I went to another site and took a look at the script. In general, I don't like making MORE languages. Of course this happens "naturally" with creoles, I think.

The reason it hasn't happened with Arabic and Hebrew naturally seems obvious.

On the surface, the idea of increased communication seems great, but people like their languages and I don't think they will easily choose a man-made version.
David   Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:00 am GMT
On the surface, the idea of increased communication seems great, but people like their languages and I don't think they will easily choose a man-made version. >>

Good point. Although I for one wouldn't mind learning something like Folkspraak, because I could speak to people in other Germanic languages and be understood, while they could speak their respective language back to me, although this would obviously hinder intelligibility. Because of the this, actually, it would only be possible if both people spoke the constructed language, so I guess it really isn't feasible unless you can find other people who speak it. But I think if I did speak it to a German, for example, they might catch on to what I am doing and make an effort to 'dumb down' their
their speech so that I could understand it, although like I said it probably won't work unless they speak the constructed language, but I am optimistic :)....
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:20 am GMT
Is MSA constructed?

If not, this is the kind of situation where an interfamily language would be useful.
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:05 am GMT
No. MSA is just old Arabic with innovations. It wasn't constructed.
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:18 am GMT
But MSA is how this 'interlanguage' would work. Can you think of a linguistic situation similar to Arabic which needs a mode of itnercomunication?
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:09 am GMT
For Germanic languages, English is ideal: it is already existant and relatively easy to learn
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:16 am GMT
Except then English speakers can't understand.
Guest   Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:41 am GMT
"Except then English speakers can't understand. "

They understand English, so what´s the problem? A speaker of Middlespraak and Folkspraak will not automatically be able to understand other Germanic languages like High German, Norwegian or Nederlands
Guest2   Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:17 pm GMT
What about Yiddish and German? Can Yiddish speakers usually understand Standard German, or else one of the dialects? How about vice versa (ignoring the Hebrew and Slavic vocabulary)?
greg   Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:57 pm GMT
'Guest' : « Has anyone created an intergermanic or interslavic language to be understandable by as many of those language family members as possible, like interlingua? »

Oui : un des habitués de ce forum, Travis, pour ne pas le nommer, a créé une langue germanique "barycentrique" connue sous le nom d'intergermania (IG).