AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Not so Good as Existing Languages
An objection¹ which is often raised against constructed languages is that
they can never be as good as natural languages. It is true that our
Interlanguage is not as rich as English, not as elegant as French, not as
vigorous as German, not as beautiful as Italian, not as full of nuances as
Russian, not as "homelike" as our mother-tongue. But note this well, that all
these good qualities, which one appreciates and praises in the national
languages, are found only when they are spoken or written by natives. And the
Interlanguage may very well be richer than the English spoken by a Frenchman,
more elegant than French as spoken by a Dane, more vigorous than the German of
some Italians, more beautiful than the Italian of the English, more full of
nuances than the Russian of Germans, and more homelike than my own tongue
spoken by Russians. And as our language is an auxiliary language, it can only
be compared fairly with natural languages as spoken by foreigners; and then
neither Ido nor Novial need feel ashamed of itself.
¹ This and the following paragraphs are the translation of the
Novial text found below among
specimens.
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James Chandler 1997.