Do you want to make up an international language

Do you want to make up an international language? Don't bother. It has been done already. Don't reinvent the wheel.

You have plenty of choice.

My favourite made up language in theory is Interlingua (which uses root words which are common to several languages). Unfortunately, not many speak it.



Then Ido (which is an improvement on Esperanto).

Finally, Esperanto, which is an entirely regular language with simple rules and remains the most popular.

 I learned Esperanto from Duolingo. An Esperanto group in Reading has gone online. They have annual conferences in different countries (except when Covid 19 prevents travel). 

Useful websites
duolingo

wiki

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages

Useful websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_American_and_British_English
https://context.reverso.net/translation/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polyglotcommunity
https://translate.google.com/

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am Immediate Past President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting on Zoom the first Wednesday of the month but  the third Saturday afternoon and occasionally on other Wednesdays our workshops are on app learncool.sg 

Incoming president Faith from July 1st 2020 could change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

learncool.sg

Or quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

For language lovers:Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_place_names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_Australian_place_names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reduplicated_New_Zealand_place_names

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
translate.google.c

How do you communicate with foreigners? Simple Sentence In Ido

English into Ido

English

The reader is invited first just to gain the knowledge necessary to understand this language. Soon you will discover the pleasure of rapid progress and perhaps you will want to correspond with someone in another country. We know that Ido works. Now you can try it.

Ido

La lektanto es invitata unesme nur ganar la savo necesa por komprenar ca linguo. Balde vu deskovros la plezuro di rapida progreso e forsan vu volos korespondar kun ulu en altra lando. Ni savas ke Ido funcionas. Nun vu povas probar ol.

English

Ido is a key that opens the door to a wider world.

Ido

Ido es klefo qua apertas la pordo a plu vasta mondo.

See more on

Useful Website

http://www.idolinguo.org.uk/bgrammar.htm

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

I converted to Ido - the world's easiest language

Lesson one is so easy. Just look at it. I galloped down the first page. Much easier than esperanto. You can type it straight away.

How many hours? It is not just the number of hours. It is
1 How quickly you make progress in the language.
2 How much you enjoy learning the language.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Easy_Ido/Lesson_one

About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What is the Ido Language? Should I learn ido Rather Than Another Easy Invented Language Like Esperanto?

What Is Ido?


The Ido language is one of several derivatives of Esperanto.



Esperanto
Esperanto is the most popular of the made up, international languages. Zamenhof created Esperanto as a simple to learn language which could be used in multi-lingual city, and all over the world.

The idea of all these simplified languages is straightforward. get rid of the words a and an. simplify verbs which are all regular. use a series of prefixes (syllables fixes on the starte of words, and suffixes, fixed on the end.

I find it easier to understand by looking at the tables in Wikipedia, rather than the explanations.

I like Ido. I also like Interlingua, which picks words which are most popular across languages, rather than those which are constructed logically.

Alphabet[edit]

Alphabets

Esperanto	a	b	c	ĉ	d	e	f	g	ĝ	h	ĥ	i	j	ĵ	k	l	m	n	o	p	kv	r	s	ŝ	t	u	ŭ	v	-	-	z
Esperanto1894	a	b	z	-	d	e	f	g	-	h	-	i	j	-	k	l	m	n	o	p	kv	r	s	c	t	u	-	v	-	-	-
Ido	a	b	c	ch	d	e	f	g	j	h	-	i	y	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	qu	r	s	sh	t	u	-	v	w	x	z
IPA phonemes	a	b	t͡s	t͡ʃ	d	e	f	g	d͡ʒ	h	/x/	i	j	ʒ	k	l	m	n	o	p	/kw/,/kv/	r	s	ʃ	t	u	u̯ (in diphthongs)	ʋ	w	/ks/,/ɡz/	z

I find Wikipedia too detailed. I like the comparison charts I have copied here.

Grammatical form	Ido	English		Esperanto
Singular noun	-o (libro)	book		-o (libro)
Plural noun	-i (libri)	books		-oj (libroj)
Adjective	-a (varma)	warm		-a (varma)
Adverb	-e (varme)	warmly		-e (varme)
Present tense infinitive	-ar (irar)	to be going	to go	-anti (iranti)	-i (iri)
Past tense infinitive	-ir (irir)	to have gone		-inti (irinti)
Future tense infinitive	-or (iror)	to be going to go		-onti (ironti)
Present	-as (iras)	go, goes		-as (iras)
Past	-is (iris)	went		-is (iris)
Future	-os (iros)	will go		-os (iros)
Imperative	-ez (irez)	go!		-u (iru)
Conditional	-us (irus)	would go		-us (irus)

Esperanto	Ido	English	French	German	Italian	Spanish	Portuguese
bubalo	bufalo	buffalo	buffle	Büffel	bufalo	búfalo	búfalo
ĉelo	celulo	cell	cellule	Zelle	cellula	célula	célula
ĉirkaŭ	cirkum	around/circa	autour de	ungefähr/circa	circa	alrededor, cerca	ao redor de, em volta de
dediĉi	dedikar	to dedicate	dédier	widmen	dedicare	dedicar	dedicar
edzo	spoz(ul)o	husband/spouse	époux	Ehemann	sposo	esposo	esposo/marido
elasta	elastika	elastic	élastique	elastisch	elastico	elástico	elástico
estonteco	futuro	future	futur	Zukunft	futuro	futuro	futuro
kaj	e(d)	and	et	und	e(d)	y/e	e
lernejo	skolo	school	école	Schule	scuola	escuela	escola
limo	limito	limit	limite	Limit	limite	límite	limite
maĉi	mastikar	to chew/masticate	mâcher	kauen	masticare	masticar	mastigar
mencii	mencionar	to mention	mentionner	erwähnen	menzionare	mencionar	mencionar
nacio	naciono	nation	nation	Nation	nazione	nación	nação
penti	repentar	to repent	repentir	bereuen	pentirsi	arrepentirse	arrepender-se
ŝipo	navo	boat/ship	bateau/navire	Schiff	barca/nave	barco/nave/navío	bote/barca/barco/nave/nau/navio
taĉmento	detachmento	detachment	détachement	Abteilung	distaccamento	destacamento	destacamento
vipuro	vipero	viper	vipère	Viper	vipera	víbora	víbora

Esperanto	La malbela maljunulino mallaŭte malfermis la pordon al sia kelo kaj malrapide malsupreniris la ŝtuparon.
Ido	La leda oldino silence apertis la pordo a sua kelero e lente decensis l'eskalero.
English	The ugly old woman quietly opened the door to her basement and slowly descended the stairs.

Above you can see extreme use of mal as a prefix (fixed in front of a word) to create negatives. Makes it easy and quick to learn vocabulary. However, the Ido is easier to recognize.

			Relative and interrogative		Demonstrative		Indeterminate		Most Indeterminate	Negative		Collective
			Esperanto	Ido	Esperanto	Ido	Esperanto	Ido	Ido	Esperanto	Ido	Esperanto	Ido
			ki-	qua, ∅	ti-	ita, ∅	i-	ula, ∅	irga	neni-	nula	ĉi-	omna
Individual	Esperanto	-u	kiu		tiu		iu			neniu		ĉiu
	Ido	-u	qua		ita		ulu		irgu	nulu		omnu
Thing	Esperanto	-o	kio		tio		io			nenio		ĉio
	Ido	-o	quo		ito		ulo		irgo	nulo		omno
Plural	Esperanto	-j	kiuj/kioj		tiuj/tioj		iuj/ioj			neniuj/nenioj		ĉiuj/ĉioj
	Ido	-i	qui		iti		uli		irgi	nuli		omni
Adjective	Ido	-a	qua		ita		ula		irga	nula		omna
Motive	Esperanto	-al	kial		tial		ial			nenial		ĉial
	Ido	pro	pro quo		pro to		pro ulo		pro irgo	pro nulo		pro omno
Association	Esperanto	-es	kies		ties		ies			nenies		ĉies
	Ido	di	di quo		di to		di ulo		di irgo	di nulo		di omno
Place	Esperanto	-e	kie		tie		ie			nenie		ĉie
	Ido	loke	ube		ibe		ulaloke		irgaloke	nulaloke		omnaloke
Time	Esperanto	-am	kiam		tiam		iam			neniam		ĉiam
	Ido	tempe	kande		lore		ulatempe		irgatempe	nulatempe		omnatempe, sempre
Quality	Esperanto	-a	kia		tia		ia			nenia		ĉia
	Ido	-a, speca	quala		tala		ulaspeca		irgaspeca	nulaspeca		omnaspeca
Manner	Esperanto	-el	kiel		tiel		iel			neniel		ĉiel
	Ido	-e, maniere	quale		tale		ule, ulamaniere		irge, irgamaniere	nule, nulamaniere		omne, omnamaniere
Quantity – adjective	Esperanto	-om	kiom		tiom		iom			neniom		ĉiom
	Ido	quanta	quanta		tanta		kelka		irgaquanta	nulaquanta		omnaquanta

Here's the Lord's Prayer.

I have to admit I prefer Ido but for practical reasons I have learned Esperanto on Duolingo and shall continue to do so.

But then Ido is not offered on Duolingo.

Having said that, I looked on the internet and, of course, immediately found courses on IDO.

Esperanto For Asians and Africans
Some people have argued that Esperanto is only useful for Europeans and European language speakers. However, I have seen other reports that Esperanto is a quick way for people from Asia and Africa to pick up a language they can use to speak to Europeans. What's more, having started with Esperanto, and found success, they are encouraged to continue and they then find it much easier to learn one or two or more European languages.

People devote hours of time, sitting at home, sitting on trains and planes, doing crosswords and Sudoku. Why not study Ido or Esperanto or both? It is fun and you can talk about it and talk with it to people from all over the world.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Easy_Ido
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_Esperanto_and_Ido

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite post.

How To Make Your Posts and Pictures Popular. Why Should You Read And Update Your Old Posts?

I looked at the numbers of readers of my posts and which posts they were reading. I found that an old post on Esperanto was still relevant and attracting lots of readers.


Esperanto flag. Photo from Wikipedia.

 I keyed into blogger.com (the page for creating posts, blogspot is for reading posts) the search word on Esperanto. My search brought up all my posts on the subject. I thought, let's have a look at the popular post.

I took a set of steps to improve my old posts:

1 Correct Spelling And Typing Errors
When I read my old posts I spotted one or two typing errors.  (I am getting typing errors as I type this post. I just corrected 'of' to 'or' in that sentence I just typed. Then I started the next sentence without a capital letter. The word 'sentence' keeps coming out as sentance. You have to keep correcting as you type if you type fast as I do.)

2 Correct Grammar
So, step one was correcting the spelling and punctuation.

As I read through, I found that I had sentences using the word they, which could refer to either the speakers of a language or the words they spoke. Oops - I had to change 'they' to 'speakers' or 'words ' for clarity.

Wikipedia
The Wikipedia entry was not clear. I changed it, although I left in the acknowledgement, and pointed out that I had changed the text for clarity. So my post was not just repeating but improving on the original.

I love Wikipedia. It gives me copyright free photos.

Grammarly
The next check was for correct and understandable grammar. I use Grammarly. Some writers type  their posts elsewhere, in Word, do a Grammarly spelling and grammar check, then load up the corrected version to the blog.

3 Add Transitions
Finally, in my post's text at the end I had jumped suddenly from learning the language to places to visit. it was like reading two unconnected posts. I needed to add a transition or bridging sentence.

Time Spent Updating
I had now spent 15 minutes, 30 minutes, changing an old post, rather than writing a new one for today.

4 Ideas For New Posts
However, I had a new subject for a post. The language Ido, I had mentioned but not in detail. A little known artificial language. A totally minority subject. 

5 Note Relevant And Popular Subjects
I then considered my method in updating. What is gratifying is that when I look back at old posts, I find the content still relevant. Been there, done that. I know it all, but new readers are finding it interesting.

6 Add New Skills In Creating Posts
Why rewrite, or write another post? Because my grasp of what to do to make a post interesting is improving.

So after writing the text of this post, I add photos, references to other websites, and references to my other websites.

7 Add Keywords For Text
In blogger, they are called labels. As I edit and save I add keywords.

8 Add Keywords For Photos
Click on your photos. Up pops options including the boring word properties. This is really very exciting. It is labels or keywords to help photo searches find the photo in your post. So adding the word bagel to my picture of bagels will send readers interested in bagels to my post on buying bagels from Brick Lane in East London, England.

9 Link Your Posts
Link your earlier posts to later posts.

10 Focus On The Reader
I know to focus not on myself but on what the readers want. So I shall end this post with a focus on you. I hope this helps you as a writer of your own posts and reader of my posts.

11 Focus On Readers You Want
I can see that I have lots of readers in the USA, Russia and Italy. I can go through all my posts ensuring that I mention these three area of the world, to keep my readers interested in other posts and becoming regular readers.

On the other hand, supposing I have only a few readers in Singapore. I could add a post on Singapore. Or link each post on Singapore to another. Or refer to Singapore in posts on other subjects. Add labels or tags to Singapore. Add flags of Singapore.

Here are some links to subjects I have mentioned in this post and often in my posts.

Some of My Popular Posts And Esperanto Posts
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/how-to-learn-esperanto-easy.html

Useful Websites
Duolingo.com


About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.

Makaton and A Multi-language Course Idea

I am very interested in learning languages and sign languages. I watch the sign language in the safety instructions on Singapore airlines and can follow fasten your seat belt and plane taking off with a diagonal movement. When I looked at the languages, I learned that American and British sign languages are different. Oh, dear. However, I just had some good news for language learners, general knowledge - for quizzes, who knows?

Makaton - what is it?
Makaton - an easy sign language system - first I had heard of it in 2019 from a BBC website.

Makaton is a simplified sign language for those with learning difficulties, so they can communicate with family friends, and teachers. The idea is to learn to make a new sign for only one word every day.

Makaton can also be used to communicate by people who cannot speak because of a throat operation, or a stroke. it is easier and quicker to learn than sign language, using simple signs per word instead of spelling out words.

Sign For Fish
I already learned from a website the signs for giraffe and fish. The sign for a fish is your right hand held horizontal, palm facing you, thumb up to show the fin.

The first words taught are useful everyday words. So, the sign for fish would be useful for eating fish, as well as seeing fish in an aquarium or pond.

Very good. This and sign language should be on Duolingo and the O level syllabus. In fact, I would like a general languages paper at GCSE and O level and the Bac, like general science. I would have pupils learn the letters of four languages (eg Greek - useful for modern and ancient Greek and maths, Hebrew like Latin which is the basis for Romance languages, Hebrew is the basis for Cyrillic and Greek and Esperanto, Cyrillic used by the Russians and Bulgarians, Esperanto) and 100 words in 12 languages. All as practical as possible, 100 words in modern daily use and any specialist words.
One would be a sign language, English sign language, American sign language or Makaton.

For A level or second level Bac, or college course for linguists, translators and communicators, I would have a polyglot paper for 12 languages.

My 12 language options would be one from the American continent, American or Spanish as spoken in Mexico or a S American country or Brazilian Portuguese, One from Europe, British English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or German:

1 English
 (British or American), International English (vocal from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, S Africa, USA Canada, Australia, New Zealand); all over the internet, on holiday, old Hollywood films, used by pilots

Chinesasy from Wikipedia.

2 Asian Chinese or similar
Chinese (Mandarin) or Cantonese or Taiwanese or one of the dialects, or Japanese (same symbols) a General Asian languages paper,

3 Spanish Or Similar to Spanish
Spanish or Italian or Portuguese.

German flag.

4 German or Similar to German
German, Dutch or Swedish or Norwegian or Danish - German common surnames such as Kleinman means small man, eine kleine nachtmusik, a little night music or evensong

5 Indian Continent Language
Urdu or Hindi or Tamil or Sansrkrit.

6 Cyrillic Base Language
Cyrillic or Russian or Bulgarian or all three.

7 Greek
Ancient or modern,  including mathematical signs alpha beta gamma fi psy omega (for angles), omicron, pi circumference etc

8 Latin
Latin including plant names, on Roman gravestones, some religious services, prayer books, hymns.

Israel flag.

9 Hebrew, Arabic or Similar
Hebrew (used in religious services) or Arabic (classical or modern) or Aramaic (language of Jesus, still used on Jewish wedding certificates), or Samaritan language spoken today.

If you can recognize that Hebrew and Arabic are written right to left, your can recognize the word kosher on a packet of matzoh (crackers) in the kosher section of a supermarket or many products sold worldwide with a Hebrew translation.  Look for three Hebrew letters. The word kosher is written backwards, riht to left, and looks like rshc or kosher backwards. The letters are without the vowels, like text language. the c is back to front. The SH letter looks like a W. The r is back to front. Simple.

Cyrillic, used in Russia, devised by two Bulgarian priests, uses Hebrew letters.

10 Asian Language
Korean, Thai or Vietnamese - fiendishly difficult, but at least we know the words karaoke

11 Sign Language or Braille
A sign language, American or English or Makaton. Or Braille.

All too difficult? I gave up and tried the easiest language, Esperanto.

 
12 Esperanto or Devised Language
I would like to see Esperanto. I would also like to see Ido (updated Esperanto, made even simpler without the diacritics or dots to show that c is ch).  Interlingua is even easier, specifically choosing words common to several languages instead of creating new words from a root. ideally I would like to see a general paper on all three recently invented languages.

You can probably read the Esperanto on this monument to the man who designed it. Authoro is author. De is of. La is the. Internacia is international. Lingvo is language.

Hof, incidentally, is German for court, courtyard, yard, farm, halo. I think of the hof as the hat or halo drawn on a map around a home.

13 Free language
Instead of one of the above, or in addition, a minority, ancient or modern - your mother tongue or any other, from native American to Icelandic to Swahili to Maori to Gaelic, Welsh, Yiddish, or an old language such as ancient Greek or Latin or ancient Egyptian symbols language.

A four year course with three terms a year, or a summer holiday crash course, or one week crash course all day for twelve weeks in a long summer holiday This would suit students, teachers and academics, and drop-outs and those who cannot afford the time or money for a long course. Just as the British council promotes English, each country could be asked to provide scholarships or books and resources. The course would be useful to potential tour guides, and the hospitality industry hotels and restaurants. the students could work on translating government documents into other languages.

Of course, the place to learn a language is at school in that country.

Even just a visit will help teach you languages.

Useful Language Learning Websites
Multi Languages
duolingo.com
Chinese
https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php
Makaton
https://singinghands.co.uk/about/what-is-makaton/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaton
Explains how the system was developed in a school for the deaf where children had additional challenges.

Useful Translation websites
https://www.interglot.com/dictionary

Useful Travel Websites
visitbritain.com
visittheusa.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. teacher of English and other languages.  Please share links to your favourite posts.