Kraughne:IAL = international auxiliary language, for those not familiar with the term.

I've been studying Ido in the last few months, and it's remarkable in its own way. It was tailored for euphony, and it makes distinctions in meaning that you can't find in most other languages. It has a few excellent prepositions: one to indicate possession, one to indicate the agent of a passive verb, one that means "in the presence of," and even one meaning "on this side of."

Then there's Lojban, which to me seems so contrived and inaccessible that the only point in studying it is to kill a Sunday afternoon. This language was apparently based on principles of logic. It has things called "attitudinal indicators" that show how a speaker feels about something, but that's the best part about Lojban.

The last IAL I've dabbled in is the fantastic Solresol, an early constructed language which will doubtless be of interest to some of you. Solresol is made up of only seven syllables, and by combining these syllables in various ways, different words are made. Each syllable is alternatively represented by a musical note and by a color of the rainbow, meaning that the language can be communicated without speech or writing.

But the best IAL I have ever known is Esperanto, the language of friends. Besides, the major downside to those other IALs is that their communities aren't as widespread or as closely knit as ours!

If any of you have studied any constructed languages other than Esperanto, it'd be interesting to know how that went for you.

The short answer in my case is a big no. Apart from English the only languages I'd ever have have a use for would be Esperanto and French. Long before I knew about Esperanto I had a vague idea I might learn Interlingua but having seen how brilliant Esperanto's design is, it's the only language other then English and French I'd ever entertain.

Tomo S. Vulpo:

Kraughne:It has a few excellent prepositions: … one to indicate the agent of a passive verb, … and even one meaning "on this side of."

So does Esperanto. They are far and maltrans, respectively.

Oh, as the dictionary says of far: "done by, written by (this usage is strongly discouraged, and this entry is for reference only)". So the word is a forbidden fruit. Interesting.

Tomo S. Vulpo:

Kraughne:Solresol is made up of only seven syllables …

This probably limits the vocabulary a bit, doesn’t it?

Yes. There are no synonyms in Solresol, unfortunately.

Having been at least somewhat familiar with the conIAL (constructed international auxiliary language) field, as distinguishable from the general conlang field, since the 1990s, my personal all time favorite is Peano's Latino sine Flexione. However, I have no delusions that it has any likelihood of success today (if it ever had any ). The one I myself have done the most with is Interlingua (of the IALA, as LsF was sometimes also called Interlingua). Even so, if any conIAL is likely to be able to compete with English (in some form) as a global auxiliary, I would say that it is Esperanto.

Paŭlo

After learning Esperanto I was also learning Ido and Interlingua, but I didn't like them more.

Now my only IAL is Esperanto.

bartlett22183:my personal all time favorite is Peano's Latino sine Flexione. However, I have no delusions that it has any likelihood of success today (if it ever had any ).

Oh, that one is a good one! I even retrofitted my pocket latin dictionary with a little index about how interlingua mark1 grammar works

Not that I have any idea where that dictionary has gone, but at least I have some reference written down!

Solresol is my personal favorite, but I'm an auditory learner in the extreme. If you actually make music/tones to "speak" Solresol (instead of flatly vocalizing "do, re, mi ..."), then the "words" sound a lot like techno-music. So, I'm surprised it's not more highly regarded and widely used, particularly by people who can whistle and have perfect pitch . When tonalized like this, its much more of a tiger than a kitten.

So, besides a keen interest in tone-based Solresol and a phrase or two of Klingon for display purposes, I'm committed to Esperanto because it really works. Just look at us here on LERNU!

Kraughne:Solresol is made up of only seven syllables …

Yes, but... there are actually 21 syllables if you consider 3 variants for: 1) double-length markers, 2) stressed tones and 3) unstressed tones. Technically, you could add two more combinations to this: a double-length stressed or unstressed. This means potentially 5 variants for each of the 7 syllables or 35 "letters" in the Solresol alphabet; i.e. you must consider a "syllable" to be made up of multiple letters (tones). With this slight change of viewpoint, then the 35 "letters" of Solresol exceed the syllabic combinations of the 26 letters in English. This is because there are 10 more "letters" in Solresol, and you can combine any two of them (unlike English, where you need at least a vowel, but there are only 5 vowels). Then, if you add 5 letter Solresol words to this mix (as was originally intended, but never lexiconized), you have the basis for an extraordinary language.

I thought there was no stress or length markers in Solresol, and word boundaries were signified via a hiatus? It's been a while (maybe a year) since I got bored and had another brief read up on it though.

Anyway, even with what it has, I'm sure there's more than enough room for many words - that's the author's problem anyway, not the user's

biguglydave:Solresol is my personal favorite, but I'm an auditory learner in the extreme. If you actually make music/tones to "speak" Solresol (instead of flatly vocalizing "do, re, mi ..."), then the "words" sound a lot like techno-music. So, I'm surprised it's not more highly regarded and widely used, particularly by people who can whistle and have perfect pitch . When tonalized like this, its much more of a tiger than a kitten.

Hhm, that sounds interesting. Does there excist an kind of Esperanto adaption of Solresol? I mean auditive ideas of Solresol used with some playing around using Esperanto language. Probably both language concepts have to different concepts(?).

ceigered:I thought there was no stress or length markers in Solresol, and word boundaries were signified via a hiatus?

The syllable of stress is supposed to indicate the part of speech, similar to Esperanto's o/noun, a/adjective, e/adverb, i/verb system. Word order can also sometimes resolve ambiguities. Given that there are no native speakers, I'm not sure how regularly they would apply these rules if they did exist.

You're correct about word boundaries. Plurals, however, are indicated by a double-length final syllable.

biguglydave:You're correct about word boundaries. Plurals, however, are indicated by a double-length final syllable.

Ah, now I remember! Thanks Dave for the refresher. Perhaps I'm due for my annual "look at Solresol aimlessly"....