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. It is concerned with investigating how ethnic and auxiliary languages (lingua franca) work in such situations and with the possibilities of optimizing interlinguistic communication, for instance by use of international auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto or Interlingua. These are languages that are created by an intentional intellectual effort, usually with the aim of facilitating interlinguistic communication, but there are also interlanguages that have arisen spontaneously. These are called pidgin languages.

The term Interlinguistics can be interpreted in at least two ways:

Among these interpretations, the first one is by far the most well established, while Mario Wandruszka had only the second one in mind.

The term appears first to have been used in French (interlinguistique) by Jules Meysmans in 1911 in a text concerning international auxiliary languages. It became more widely accepted subsequent to an address by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen to the 2nd International Congress of Linguists in 1931. According to Jespersen, interlinguistics is ”that branch of the science of language which deals with the structure and basic ideas of all languages with the view to the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i.e. auxiliary languages destined for oral and written use between people who cannot make themselves understood by means of their mother tongues”. According to this definition, investigations that are useful for optimizing interlinguistic communication are central to the discipline, and the purpose may be to develop a new language intended for international use or for use within a multilingual country or union. Research of this kind has been undertaken by the International Delegation, which developed Ido (1907), and by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA), which developed Interlingua (1951).

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