/r/novial
This is a subreddit for people interested in Novial, an international auxiliary language created by Otto Jespersen.
/r/novial
For the time being, not everyone can submit new threads in this subreddit. Instead of jury-rigging other existing topics to ask otherwise generic questions about the Novial grammar and/or language, ask them here!
I (and, for the most part, everyone else here) am not a Novial expert but I will attempt to assist in answering these questions however I can. Learning is a collaborative effort so, please, if you have an answer to a question, reply.
Novial was created and used primarily in the 1920s through 1940s. It needs new words in order to be up-to-date with the modern world of the 2020s (at least, as of this writing).
In this thread, create new words for Novial and defend the reasoning for your choice. As always, peer review should be constructive and leave your ego "at the door" for, at the end of the day, the goal is to create a more robust vocabulary and not just "be right."
Good luck and may the best (new) words get selected.
As much as I enjoy Novial (and, in my heyday, I enjoyed it a lot), one aspect that always annoyed me was that it never quite nailed down how it formed questions.
"Yes/No" questions were easy because the book "An International Language" made that aspect very clear (put "Ob" in front of a regular sentence).
However, it was always a bit opaque how you formed questions such as "Where is the box?" "How many statues are in the park?" "Which book will you buy?" etc. so forth.
Occidental seems to be very clear that they form these questions no different than in English. However, it almost seems to me that Novial chooses the "Form a regular sentence & then put the question word in front of the sentence" path based on source documents, keeping a strict "SVO" format to it's sentence.
Has anyone ever "cracked" the code for forming these types of questions from source documents? I've never seen a definitive answer.
Me ha krea artikle pri li historie de Novial.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
(1547-1616)
Spanum
Chapitre I: Kel trakta del konditione e profesione del famosi jentilo Senior Quijote ek La Mancha
In loke de La Mancha, kel nome me non voli memora, non multi tempe ante nun, vivat jentilo kun lanse in portalanse, old shilde, magri kavale, e hunde por chasa.
Hi, I have problems to translate these words to Novial:
Could anybody please help me?
I figured that I would just start a thread to place practice sentences written in Novial (and then translated into English) as a way to liven up the board. Others may join in.
Li kate lekte libre (The cat reads a book // The cat is reading a book).
Jespersen`s Novial
An International Language 1928 ; A book written by Otto Jespersen examining the need for an international auxiliary language, critiquing existing IALs and finally introducing his own IAL, Novial.
Novial Lexike 1930 ; Continuing the languages development Jespersen published an official lexicon in phonetic Novial.
Novial 1930 Grammar Summary ; A summary of the grammar as explained by Jespersen in Novial Lexike.
Novial: Pronunciation and Spelling Systems ; A summary of the spelling of Novial from the original 1928 and 1930 spelling systems. Includes a note about the unrealized system of phonetic Novial.
Plubonisat Novial ; Jespersen`s 1934 reform of Novial, written in Novial and published in the Novial journal Novialiste.
Pri reformes in Novial ; Jespersen`s 1937 reform of Novial, written in his revised Novial and published in the Novial journal Novialiste.
---
Resources
Novial-Informatione ; Page containing many links to documents regarding Novial.
Example Novial Sentences on Tatoeba ;
Conlang Critic Video on Novial ;
---
Reforms
I know that Novial is not the most popular of old-school IALs, but who wiped the board?
Anyway, I honestly feel as though Novial (and to a lesser degree, Interlingue/Occidental) "gets it" when it comes to approaching an international auxiliary language: Mostly regular with very uncommon exceptions in order to accommodate truly international similarities in language.
After having read all that is presently available about Novial, I would like to venture an attempt at merging the main Novial branches. I consider that there are 3 such branches: Novial 28/30, Plubonisat Novial & the two major (but never fully realized) reforms of Novial, Novial '98 & Novial Pro.
I understand that this subreddit may not be used much but I thought that I would use it both as a sounding board and as a means for interested parties to weigh in on my thoughts concerning this issue.
In brief, here are my present thoughts:
** “un” as indefinite article [AIL (optional) / Plubonisat]
** Present progressive verb tense that is not merged with simple present tense (li hunde es promenanti / li hunde promena - The dog is walking / the dog walks)
** “va” for simple future tense (replaces “sal/ve”) [Novial '98 / Plubonisat]
** “nos” replaces “nus” for the personal pronoun “we” [Plubonisat]
** Conditional is only with vud + verb, eliminate 4 special verbs [Plubonisat]
** the -i is included with the participles (-nti & -ti)
** Verbs end in -a, -ia & -ua plus they are no longer stems but part of root [Novial Pro]
** “-r” at end of verb to mark infinitive, no more “tu” [Plubonisat] (Me desira dansar - I want to dance).
I understand that there would be far more work before a practical merging would occur and, regardless of how the branches would be merged, some people would be disappointed with the decisions.
My philosophy towards the individual decisions would be to lean towards internationality (for example, including a non-optional indefinite article) & regularity (for example, more consistent verb endings that are less confused with endings used elsewhere in the language).
Thank you.