Louis Couturat on Idiom Neutral, Part Two: The Reform Years

[rpbm...@gmail.com]

Partly in reaction to the publication of the Histoire, and partly off their own bats, the Neutralists and others interested in Idiom Neutral continued with their tinkering and speculation, effectively rendering the 1902 version stillborn. Here's a (hopefully) chronological list of what passed between 1902/03 and 1907.

Rosenberger made these five proposals:
1. A schwa -E suffix on present indicative verbs
2. An optional accusative suffix: -N after vowels, -EN after consonants.
3. Optional pluralisation of adjectives when they modify multiple singular nouns.
4. The prefix NE- denotes the opposite, NO- the negation.
5. The suffix -ERI becomes -ERIA (to avoid confusion with the plural of -ER).
The Academy accepted #3 and #4, but rejected the others.

Rosenberger had "insendier" (firefighter) changed into "insendian".

Frost proposed the following suffix reform in relation to verb roots:
-ATOR = a thing that acts.
-ER = a person or animal associated with the root.
-IST no longer used for agents.

Rosenberger and van Bylevelt proposed that science/arts/political roots in -I take -IA instead, to avoid being mistaken for plurals.

Rosenberger (cf. Frost) propsed that -IST denote adjectives of -ISM words, not people.

Numerous new roots and derivatives were adopted, many of them proper nouns.
A broader system for words pertaining to nations was proposed.

The following orthography and pronunciation proposals came from multiple people:
1. K changes into C, as /k/, before A, O, U, and consonants.
2. KU as /kw/ changes into QU.
3. KS changes into X.
4. Introduction of C as /tS/ before E and I.
5. G before E and I be pronounced /dZ/.
6. The pronunciation of Z changes from /ts/ to /z/

Rosenberger proposed the following replacements, for brevity/efficiency:
istkos    into ci        siloke    into hi
elkos    into te        sitempe    into nu
kelkos    into ke        keloke    into quo
nokos    into nil    tetempe    into tande
noun    into nul    kekause    into per ke
kos    into shos    tekause    into per te

Miller suggested that C always be pronounced /tS/.

[It is about now, in the timeline, that the slide towards Occidental really picks up speed.]

De Wahl presented a new project, including the following features: definite and indefinite articles ("l" and "un"), nominative and accusative/dative pronouns, three verb families, and ten irregular verbs.

Rosenberger proposed "Proyekt de Resolusion" based on de Wahl's ideas, which included the following features: a sometimes distinction between /z/ and /s/, as S and SS; three verb families, having as their final vowels A, E, and I; the suffixes -ION, -OR, and -IV added to past participles; the use of either -AL or -IC as general adjective suffixes.

Pinth proposed these ideas. Two sets of personal pronouns, one nom/gen, the other acc/dat, thus:
mi, me; tu, te: vo, vu; il, le; ila, la; noi, nos; voi, vos; ili, les; ilai, las; giving, for example, mi, de mi, me, a me. And two families of verbs, in A and E.

Van Bylevelt set up a periodical called "Idei international, revue in lingua european", with the hope of producing something from the melting pot of the following pre-existing auxlangs: Mundolingue, Nuove-Roman, Lingua Komun, Universal, Latin Sine Inflexion, and Idiom Neutral. This group was apparently quite anti-Esperanto.

A year or two later, LSE/Interlingua was top dog, and though people continued to push their own ideas, Idiom Neutral was effectively shelved. But Rosenberger still published what turned out to be the final historical version, Reform Neutral, in 1912, from which only the Patr Nostr is currently available online. When Google gets round to scanning this book, we'll be able to see how much Rosenberger incorporated from the preceding ten years' worth of reforming, although based on all the  post-1902 material I've now seen, together with the two Lord's prayers, I don't think there'll be anything amazingly new. Perhaps the most interesting revelation will be whether or not he caved in and introduced a definite/indefinite distinction.

[rpbm...@gmail.com]

Here's a nice little proposal for you. Expand the "-al" adjective rule to include words ending in "-(s)ion" and "-u", giving for example: dimension, dimensional; fraksion, fraksional; nasion, nasional; anu, anual; individu individual; lingu, lingual.

And if you want to push the boat out further, include "-i" words as well, e.g. industri, industrial; radi, radial; teritori, teritorial. The downside with the i-family, however, is that most of them will come out "unnatural" - although having said that, the official forms are unnatural anyway, e.g. energi, energiik, *energial; filosofi, filosofiik, *filosofial; strategi, strategiik, *strategial.

Ke idiom intr-nasional viv!

[rpbm...@gmail.com]

Correction to OP: "3. Optional pluralisation of adjectives when they modify multiple nouns" i.e. the nouns don't have to be singular (my mistake). It's a shame we can't edit posts here...

It should be stated that some of these proposals were actually officially accepted, and so can be considered as historically correct and legal Idiom Neutral;

1. Resolution 147: An adjective that modifies more than one noun can optionally be pluralised.
2. Resolution 148: The prefix NE- forms opposites (like Esperanto's MAL-) and NO- forms negations (like Esperanto's NE-).
3. Resolution 153: The suffix -IA is used to derive the name of a science/art/profession from its practitioner, and the IK-adjective for the science/art/profession is also derived from the practitioner, e.g. ASTRONOM, ASTRONOMIA, ASTRONOMIK.