History of Interlingua
Encyclopedia
The History of Interlingua
comprises the formation of the language itself as well as its community of speakers.
Ultimate credit for Interlingua must go to the American heiress Alice Vanderbilt Morris
(1874–1950), who became interested in linguistics
and the international auxiliary language
movement in the early 1920s. In 1924, Morris and her husband, Dave Hennen Morris, established the non-profit International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in New York City
. Their aim was to place the study of IALs on a scientific basis.
Investigations of the auxiliary language problem were in progress at the International Research Council, the American Council on Education, the American Council of Learned Societies, the British, French, Italian, and American Associations for the advancement of science, and other groups of specialists. Morris created IALA as a continuation of this work. She developed the research program of IALA in consultation with Edward Sapir
, William Edward Collinson
, and Otto Jespersen
.
's 1932 cross-linguistic study of ending-point phenomena, and Collinson's 1937 study of indication. Although the Morrises and their family provided most of IALA's funding, it also received support from such prestigious groups as the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation
and the Rockefeller Foundation
.
In its early years, IALA concerned itself with three tasks: finding other organizations around the world with similar goals; building a library of books about language
s and interlinguistics
; and comparing extant IALs, including Esperanto
, Esperanto II
, Ido
, Latino Sine Flexione
, Novial
, and Occidental
. In pursuit of the last goal, it conducted parallel studies of these languages, with comparative studies of national languages, under the direction of scholars at American and European universities. It also arranged conferences with proponents of these IALs, debating features and goals of their representative languages. With a "concession rule" that required participants to make a certain number of concessions, early debates at IALA sometimes grew from heated to explosive.
At the Second International Interlanguage Congress, held in Geneva
in 1931, IALA began to break new ground. Its conference was attended by recognized linguists, 27 of whom signed a testimonial of support for IALA's research program. An additional eight added their signatures at the third congress, convened in Rome
in 1933.
Also in 1933, Professor Herbert N. Shenton
of Syracuse University
organized an intensive study of the problems encountered with interlanguages when used in international conferences. Later that same year, Dr. Edward L. Thorndike published a paper about the relative learning speeds of "natural" and "modular" constructed languages. Both Shenton and Thorndike were major influences on IALA's work from then on.
In 1937, the first steps towards the finalization of Interlingua were taken when a committee of 24 eminent linguists from 19 universities published Some Criteria for an International Language and Commentary. However, the outbreak of World War II
in 1939 cut short the intended biannual meetings of the committee.
s were up to the task. By 1937, the members had made the decision to create a new language, to the surprise of the world's interlanguage community.
To that point, much of the debate had been equivocal on the decision to use naturalistic (e.g., Novial
and Occidental
) or systematic (e.g., Esperanto
and Ido
) words. During the war years, proponents of a naturalistic interlanguage won out. The first support was Dr. Thorndike's paper; the second was a concession by proponents of the systematic languages that thousands of words were already present in many – or even a majority – of the European languages. Their argument was that systematic derivation of words was a Procrustean bed
, forcing the learner to unlearn and re-memorize a new derivation scheme when a usable vocabulary was already available. This finally convinced supporters of the systematic languages, and IALA from that point assumed the position that a naturalistic language would be best.
At the outbreak of World War II
, IALA's research activities were moved from Liverpool to New York, where E. Clark Stillman established a new research staff. Stillman, with the assistance of Dr. Alexander Gode
, developed a prototyping technique – an objective methodology for selecting and standardizing vocabulary based on a comparison of control languages.
In 1943 Stillman left for war work and Gode became Acting Director of Research. In 1945, IALA published a General Report – largely Morris's work – which presented three models for IALA's language:
From 1946 to 1948, the renowned French linguist André Martinet
was Director of Research. During this period IALA continued to develop models and conducted polling to determine the optimal form of the final language. An initial survey gauged reactions to the three models of 1945. In 1946, IALA sent an extensive survey to more than 3,000 language teachers and related professionals on three continents.
Model P was unchanged from 1945; Model M was relatively modern in comparison to more classical P. Model K was slightly modified in the direction of Ido
.
The results of the survey were striking. The two more schematic models, C and K, were rejected – K overwhelmingly. Of the two naturalistic models, M attracted somewhat more support than P. Taking national biases into account (for example, the French who were polled disproportionately favored Model M), IALA decided on a compromise between models M and P, with certain elements of C.
in 1948, Gode took on the last phase of Interlingua's development. His task was to combine elements of Model M and Model P; take the flaws seen in both by the polled community and repair them with elements of Model C as needed; and simultaneously develop a vocabulary.
The vocabulary and verb conjugations of Interlingua were first presented in 1951, when IALA published the finalized Interlingua Grammar
and the 27,000-word Interlingua-English Dictionary
(IED). In 1954, IALA published an introductory manual entitled Interlingua a Prime Vista
("Interlingua at First Sight").
, which normalizes terminology, voted almost unanimously to adopt Interlingua as the basis for its dictionaries.
The IALA
closed its doors in 1953 but was not formally dissolved until 1956 or later. Its role in promoting Interlingua was largely taken on by Science Service, which hired Gode as head of its newly formed Interlingua Division
. Hugh E. Blair
, Gode's close friend and colleague, became his assistant. A successor organization, the Interlingua Institute, was founded in 1970 to promote Interlingua in the US and Canada. The new institute supported the work of other linguistic organizations, made considerable scholarly contributions and produced Interlingua precis for scholarly and medical publications. One of its largest achievements was two immense volumes on phytopathology produced by the American Phytopathological Society in 1976 and 1977.
The Interlingua Institute was adrift for a while after the deaths of Blair in 1967 and Gode in 1970. According to Esterhill, however, publishing slowed only briefly in the late 1960s and revived soon afterward, at about the time of the 1971 second edition of the IED. Flourishing interest in Europe
may have counterbalanced the struggles taking place in America.
Interlingua had attracted many former adherents of other international-language projects, notably Occidental
and Ido
. The former Occidentalist Ric Berger
founded The Union Mundial pro Interlingua
(UMI
) in 1955, and by the late 1950s, interest in Interlingua in Europe had already begun to overtake that in North America. Media coverage at the time, for example, was apparently heaviest in Northern and Eastern Europe
. Frequent European coverage has continued to date, joined by media attention in South America
in the early 1990s.
Beginning in the 1980s UMI has held international conferences every two years (typical attendance at the earlier meetings was 50 to 100) and launched a publishing programme that eventually produced over 100 volumes. Other Interlingua-language works were published by university presses in Sweden
and Italy
, and in the 1990s, Brazil
and Switzerland
. Several Scandinavia
n schools undertook projects that used Interlingua as a means of teaching the international scientific and intellectual vocabulary.
In 2000, the Interlingua Institute was dissolved amid funding disputes with the UMI; the American Interlingua Society, established the following year, succeeded the institute and responded to new interest emerging in Mexico
.
, Július Tomin received threatening letters after his first article on Interlingua was published. Despite continuing persecution, he went on to become the Czech Interlingua representative, teach Interlingua in the school system, and author a long series of published articles and books.
Today, interest in Interlingua has expanded from the scientific community to the general public. Individuals, governments, and private companies use Interlingua for learning and instruction, travel, online publishing, and communication across language barriers. Interlingua is promoted internationally by the Union Mundial pro Interlingua
(president: Barbara Rubinstein, Sweden; secretary-general: Petyo Angelov, Bulgaria
). Periodicals and books are produced by many national organizations, such as the Societate American pro Interlingua
(president: Dr. Stanley Mulaik
), the Svenska Sällskapet för Interlingua
(secretary: Ingvar Stenström), and the Brazilian Union for Interlingua
(president: Gilson Passos).
Currently, Panorama In Interlingua
is the most prominent of several Interlingua periodicals. It is a 28-page magazine published bimonthly that covers current events, science, editorials, and Interlingua. Thanks to the Internet, Interlingua has seen a resurgence over the last decade, with the number of speakers jumping tenfold by some estimates.
Interlingua
Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association...
comprises the formation of the language itself as well as its community of speakers.
Ultimate credit for Interlingua must go to the American heiress Alice Vanderbilt Morris
Alice Vanderbilt Morris
Alice Vanderbilt Morris , born Alice Vanderbilt Shepard, was a member of the American Vanderbilt family. She co-founded the International Auxiliary Language Association .-Biography:...
(1874–1950), who became interested in linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
and the international auxiliary language
International auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language...
movement in the early 1920s. In 1924, Morris and her husband, Dave Hennen Morris, established the non-profit International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Their aim was to place the study of IALs on a scientific basis.
Investigations of the auxiliary language problem were in progress at the International Research Council, the American Council on Education, the American Council of Learned Societies, the British, French, Italian, and American Associations for the advancement of science, and other groups of specialists. Morris created IALA as a continuation of this work. She developed the research program of IALA in consultation with Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
, William Edward Collinson
William Edward Collinson
William Edward Collinson was an eminent British linguist and, from 1914 to 1954, Chair of German at the University of Liverpool. Like Edward Sapir and Otto Jespersen, he collaborated with Alice Vanderbilt Morris to develop the research program of the International Auxiliary Language Association ....
, and Otto Jespersen
Otto Jespersen
Jens Otto Harry Jespersen or Otto Jespersen was a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language.He was born in Randers in northern Jutland and attended Copenhagen University, earning degrees in English, French, and Latin...
.
International Auxiliary Language Association
The IALA became a major supporter of mainstream American linguistics, funding, for example, Sapir's cross-linguistic semantic studies of totality (1930) and grading phenomena (1944). Morris herself edited Sapir and Morris SwadeshMorris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh was an influential and controversial American linguist. In his work, he applied basic concepts in historical linguistics to the Indigenous languages of the Americas...
's 1932 cross-linguistic study of ending-point phenomena, and Collinson's 1937 study of indication. Although the Morrises and their family provided most of IALA's funding, it also received support from such prestigious groups as the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
and the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
.
In its early years, IALA concerned itself with three tasks: finding other organizations around the world with similar goals; building a library of books about language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s and interlinguistics
Interlinguistics
Interlinguistics is the study of various aspects of linguistic communication between people who cannot make themselves understood by means of their different first languages...
; and comparing extant IALs, including Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, Esperanto II
Esperanto II
Esperanto II was a reform of Esperanto proposed by René de Saussure in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to Ido later called Antido 1...
, Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
, Latino Sine Flexione
Latino sine Flexione
Latino sine flexione , or Peano’s Interlingua , is an international auxiliary language invented by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano in 1903. It is a simplified version of Latin, and retains its vocabulary...
, Novial
Novial
Novial [nov- + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed international auxiliary language intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language...
, and Occidental
Occidental language
The language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922....
. In pursuit of the last goal, it conducted parallel studies of these languages, with comparative studies of national languages, under the direction of scholars at American and European universities. It also arranged conferences with proponents of these IALs, debating features and goals of their representative languages. With a "concession rule" that required participants to make a certain number of concessions, early debates at IALA sometimes grew from heated to explosive.
At the Second International Interlanguage Congress, held in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1931, IALA began to break new ground. Its conference was attended by recognized linguists, 27 of whom signed a testimonial of support for IALA's research program. An additional eight added their signatures at the third congress, convened in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1933.
Also in 1933, Professor Herbert N. Shenton
Herbert N. Shenton
Herbert Newhard Shenton was a professor of Sociology at Columbia University and later at Syracuse University in New York. He was executive secretary of the International Auxiliary Language Association from 1924 until his death in 1937. The interlinguistic work of IALA culminated in the publication...
of Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
organized an intensive study of the problems encountered with interlanguages when used in international conferences. Later that same year, Dr. Edward L. Thorndike published a paper about the relative learning speeds of "natural" and "modular" constructed languages. Both Shenton and Thorndike were major influences on IALA's work from then on.
In 1937, the first steps towards the finalization of Interlingua were taken when a committee of 24 eminent linguists from 19 universities published Some Criteria for an International Language and Commentary. However, the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939 cut short the intended biannual meetings of the committee.
Development of a new language
Originally, the association had not set out to create its own language. Its goal was to identify which auxiliary language already available was best suited for international communication, and how to promote it most effectively. However, after ten years of research, more and more members of IALA concluded that none of the existing interlanguageInterlanguage
An interlanguage is an emerging linguistic system that has been developed by a learner of a second language who has not become fully proficient yet but is approximating the target language: preserving some features of their first language , or overgeneralizing target language rules in speaking or...
s were up to the task. By 1937, the members had made the decision to create a new language, to the surprise of the world's interlanguage community.
To that point, much of the debate had been equivocal on the decision to use naturalistic (e.g., Novial
Novial
Novial [nov- + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed international auxiliary language intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language...
and Occidental
Occidental language
The language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922....
) or systematic (e.g., Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
and Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
) words. During the war years, proponents of a naturalistic interlanguage won out. The first support was Dr. Thorndike's paper; the second was a concession by proponents of the systematic languages that thousands of words were already present in many – or even a majority – of the European languages. Their argument was that systematic derivation of words was a Procrustean bed
Procrustes
In Greek mythology Procrustes or "the stretcher [who hammers out the metal]", also known as Prokoptas or Damastes "subduer", was a rogue smith and bandit from Attica who physically attacked people by stretching them or cutting off their legs, so as to force them to fit the size of an iron bed...
, forcing the learner to unlearn and re-memorize a new derivation scheme when a usable vocabulary was already available. This finally convinced supporters of the systematic languages, and IALA from that point assumed the position that a naturalistic language would be best.
At the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, IALA's research activities were moved from Liverpool to New York, where E. Clark Stillman established a new research staff. Stillman, with the assistance of Dr. Alexander Gode
Alexander Gode
Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch or simply Alexander Gode was a German-American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua.-Biography:Born to a German father and a Swiss mother, Gode studied at the University of Vienna and the...
, developed a prototyping technique – an objective methodology for selecting and standardizing vocabulary based on a comparison of control languages.
In 1943 Stillman left for war work and Gode became Acting Director of Research. In 1945, IALA published a General Report – largely Morris's work – which presented three models for IALA's language:
- Model P was a naturalistic model that made no attempt to regularize the prototyped vocabulary.
- Model E was lightly schematicized along the lines of Occidental.
- Model K was moderately schematicized along the lines of Ido (i.e., somewhat less schematicized than Esperanto).
From 1946 to 1948, the renowned French linguist André Martinet
André Martinet
André Martinet was a French linguist, influential by his work on structural linguistics....
was Director of Research. During this period IALA continued to develop models and conducted polling to determine the optimal form of the final language. An initial survey gauged reactions to the three models of 1945. In 1946, IALA sent an extensive survey to more than 3,000 language teachers and related professionals on three continents.
The four models
Four models were canvassed: Model P and K, plus two new models similar to Model E of 1945.| Model P | highly naturalistic | Jo habe nascite, o dea cum le oculos azure, de parentes barbare, inter le bone et virtuose Cimmerios | |||
| Model M | moderately naturalistic | Io have nascit, o dea con le ocules azur, de parentes barbar, inter le bon e virtuos Cimmerios | |||
| Model C | slightly schematic | Yo ha nascet, o deessa con le ocules azur, de parentes barbar, inter le bon e virtuose Cimerios | |||
| Model K | moderately schematic | Yo naskeba, o dea kon le okuli azure, de parenti barbare, inter le bone e virtuose Kimerii | |||
| (modern Interlingua) | Io ha nascite, o dea con le oculos azur, de parentes barbar, inter le bon e virtuose Cimmerios | ||||
| (English) | 'I was born, O goddess with the blue eyes, of barbarian relations, among the good and virtuous Cimmerians' | ||||
Model P was unchanged from 1945; Model M was relatively modern in comparison to more classical P. Model K was slightly modified in the direction of Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
.
The results of the survey were striking. The two more schematic models, C and K, were rejected – K overwhelmingly. Of the two naturalistic models, M attracted somewhat more support than P. Taking national biases into account (for example, the French who were polled disproportionately favored Model M), IALA decided on a compromise between models M and P, with certain elements of C.
Finalization
When Martinet took up a position at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1948, Gode took on the last phase of Interlingua's development. His task was to combine elements of Model M and Model P; take the flaws seen in both by the polled community and repair them with elements of Model C as needed; and simultaneously develop a vocabulary.
The vocabulary and verb conjugations of Interlingua were first presented in 1951, when IALA published the finalized Interlingua Grammar
Interlingua: A Grammar of the International Language
Interlingua: A Grammar of the International Language, sometimes called the Interlingua Grammar, is the first grammar of Interlingua. Released in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association , it remains an authoritative reference work for Interlingua speakers and students of...
and the 27,000-word Interlingua-English Dictionary
Interlingua-English Dictionary
The Interlingua–English Dictionary , developed by the International Auxiliary Language Association under the direction of Alexander Gode and published by Storm Publishers in 1951, is the first Interlingua dictionary. The IED includes about 27,000 words drawn from about 10,000 roots. It also...
(IED). In 1954, IALA published an introductory manual entitled Interlingua a Prime Vista
Interlingua a Prime Vista
Interlingua a Prime Vista is a manual developed by Alexander Gode as a basic introduction to Interlingua. Gode had collaborated with Ezra Clark Stillman on a manual Spanish at Sight. Published in 1943, this book utilized a procedure for learning a language using only text in that language,...
("Interlingua at First Sight").
Success, decline, and resurgence
An early practical application of Interlingua was the scientific newsletter Spectroscopia Molecular, published from 1952 to 1980. In 1954 Interlingua was used at the Second World Cardiological Congress, in Washington DC, for both written summaries and oral interpretation. Within a few years, it found similar use at nine further medical congresses. Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, some thirty scientific and especially medical journals provided article summaries in Interlingua. Science Service, the publisher of Science Newsletter at the time, published a monthly column in Interlingua from the early 1950s until Gode's death in 1970. In 1967, the powerful International Organization for StandardizationInternational Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
, which normalizes terminology, voted almost unanimously to adopt Interlingua as the basis for its dictionaries.
The IALA
International Auxiliary Language Association
The International Auxiliary Language Association was founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together with research and experiment that may hasten such establishment in an intelligent manner and...
closed its doors in 1953 but was not formally dissolved until 1956 or later. Its role in promoting Interlingua was largely taken on by Science Service, which hired Gode as head of its newly formed Interlingua Division
Interlingua Division of Science Service
The Society for Science and the Public founded its Interlingua Division in 1953. The division made scientific research accessible to a wide audience by translating abstracts and several larger scientific works into Interlingua...
. Hugh E. Blair
Hugh E. Blair
Hugh Edward Blair was a recognized linguist and an able artist. He was the assistant of Alice Vanderbilt Morris, who founded the International Auxiliary Language Association, and the closest collaborator of Alexander Gode...
, Gode's close friend and colleague, became his assistant. A successor organization, the Interlingua Institute, was founded in 1970 to promote Interlingua in the US and Canada. The new institute supported the work of other linguistic organizations, made considerable scholarly contributions and produced Interlingua precis for scholarly and medical publications. One of its largest achievements was two immense volumes on phytopathology produced by the American Phytopathological Society in 1976 and 1977.
The Interlingua Institute was adrift for a while after the deaths of Blair in 1967 and Gode in 1970. According to Esterhill, however, publishing slowed only briefly in the late 1960s and revived soon afterward, at about the time of the 1971 second edition of the IED. Flourishing interest in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
may have counterbalanced the struggles taking place in America.
Interlingua had attracted many former adherents of other international-language projects, notably Occidental
Occidental language
The language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922....
and Ido
Ido
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
. The former Occidentalist Ric Berger
Richard Berger
Richard "Ric" Berger was a Swiss professor of design, decoration, and art history. He is best known for his numerous newspaper articles about historical monuments, mainly in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, including his own drawings of the buildings...
founded The Union Mundial pro Interlingua
Union Mundial pro Interlingua
The Union Mundial Pro Interlingua , or UMI, is a global organization that promotes Interlingua, an international auxiliary language published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association . UMI was founded on July 28, 1955, when the first International Interlingua Congress took place...
(UMI
UMI
UMI may refer to:* Universal Mobile Interface * Universal Metering Interface * Urban Ministries, Inc. * The former name of ProQuest, a microfilm and electronic archive...
) in 1955, and by the late 1950s, interest in Interlingua in Europe had already begun to overtake that in North America. Media coverage at the time, for example, was apparently heaviest in Northern and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Frequent European coverage has continued to date, joined by media attention in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
in the early 1990s.
Beginning in the 1980s UMI has held international conferences every two years (typical attendance at the earlier meetings was 50 to 100) and launched a publishing programme that eventually produced over 100 volumes. Other Interlingua-language works were published by university presses in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and in the 1990s, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Several Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n schools undertook projects that used Interlingua as a means of teaching the international scientific and intellectual vocabulary.
In 2000, the Interlingua Institute was dissolved amid funding disputes with the UMI; the American Interlingua Society, established the following year, succeeded the institute and responded to new interest emerging in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Behind the Iron Curtain
Interlingua was spoken and promoted in the Soviet empire, in spite of persecution and efforts to suppress information about the language. In East Germany, government officials confiscated the letters and magazines that the UMI sent to Walter Raédler, the Interlingua representative there. In CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Július Tomin received threatening letters after his first article on Interlingua was published. Despite continuing persecution, he went on to become the Czech Interlingua representative, teach Interlingua in the school system, and author a long series of published articles and books.
Interlingua Today
- See also: Community of Interlingua
Today, interest in Interlingua has expanded from the scientific community to the general public. Individuals, governments, and private companies use Interlingua for learning and instruction, travel, online publishing, and communication across language barriers. Interlingua is promoted internationally by the Union Mundial pro Interlingua
Union Mundial pro Interlingua
The Union Mundial Pro Interlingua , or UMI, is a global organization that promotes Interlingua, an international auxiliary language published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association . UMI was founded on July 28, 1955, when the first International Interlingua Congress took place...
(president: Barbara Rubinstein, Sweden; secretary-general: Petyo Angelov, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
). Periodicals and books are produced by many national organizations, such as the Societate American pro Interlingua
Societate American pro Interlingua
The Societate American pro Interlingua is an Interlingua-speaking organization that covers the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico. It is currently undergoing reorganization to be considered a non-profit group under US law....
(president: Dr. Stanley Mulaik
Stanley Mulaik
Stanley A. Mulaik is Professor Emeritus at the School of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as the head of the Societate American pro Interlingua. Although born in Edinburg, Mulaik lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for most of his childhood...
), the Svenska Sällskapet för Interlingua
Swedish Society for Interlingua
The Swedish Society for Interlingua , founded January 1, 1964, is an agency that operates in Sweden to publicize Interlingua and encourage its active use...
(secretary: Ingvar Stenström), and the Brazilian Union for Interlingua
Brazilian Union for Interlingua
The Brazilian Union for Interlingua is the national Interlingua organization in Brazil. The UBI, founded at the first Brazilian Interlingua Conference in 1990, teaches and promotes Interlingua in South American countries...
(president: Gilson Passos).
Currently, Panorama In Interlingua
Panorama in Interlingua
Panorama in Interlingua is the primary periodical for the language Interlingua, published bimonthly. It was first issued in January 1988. The magazine is written completely in Interlingua and the activities of the Union Mundial pro Interlingua appear in each issue, but the content is not...
is the most prominent of several Interlingua periodicals. It is a 28-page magazine published bimonthly that covers current events, science, editorials, and Interlingua. Thanks to the Internet, Interlingua has seen a resurgence over the last decade, with the number of speakers jumping tenfold by some estimates.