Comunleng
Comunleng, or "the common language", is a constructed language that was created in the year
2000. Its unique characteristics include:
- Advocates of the language believe it is not as rigid as Esperanto, and some say that it seems more like a natural language. There is no special suffix for verbs or nouns, because this does not correspond to other natural languages. For example, in Esperanto, the "-in-" suffix turns the word patro (father) into patrino (mother).
- Comunleng has a simple spelling scheme. Some consider the spelling schemes of many constructed languages to be unnecessarily complex.
- It doesn't inherit its properties directly from another language. For example, Latino sine flexione is largely based on Latin, and Basic English is derived directly from the English language.
- Comnunleng is not a juxtaposition of words from other languages. While some may consider this to be a strength of the language, others find it useful to borrow words from other languages, like in the Europanto language.
- Although it uses some grammatical characterisics that are not common in European languages, advocates of the language argue that it does not increase the language's complexity, and serves to increase its precision.
Comunleng has
European roots, in particular roots from
Latin and
Germanic languages. The aim of the language to take the best characteristics from each European language, but still be intelligible to people familiar with a southern European language and a northern European language. It is a matter of controversy of whether this aim is achieved by Comunleng, or whether the aim is worthwhile.
The language is written phonetically, and there are no grammatical exceptions. It endeavors to be more concise and precise than the languages it is based on.
To the ear, it sounds more Latin than Germanic, although the words rarely end with a vowel. Words can contain successive consonants somewhat longer than in Italian, Spanish, or even English. The vowels distribution is more equitable than English, with more use of a (which is more open than in happen for instance), and more e (as in the French café).
Alphabet and Pronunciation
The alphabet consists of 22 letters, which are:
a, b, <, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, x, z.
The vowels have the same sound as in Spanish, Latin or Italian, the j and the z are those of the French, the g and the h are as in German ( always a hard g), and the x is pronounced like sh in English (this is the value of x in Portuguese, Gallician, Catalan and Basque. The < is the fusion of c and k, and it is always a hard sound. The upper case < cannot be created easily on a keyboard, though it can be replaced with a c or k. It is preferred that a c be used so as to not disturb alphabetical ordering.
The names of the letters are:
a, be,
The accent of the word always falls in the vowel or dipthong that precedes the last consonant by the root of the word. It sounds complicated, but it is similar to Spanish and many constructed languages. There are no exceptions to this rule. Example: telefon (on o), juni (on the u), faian, (on the a, because the root is fa).