Algilez Information

Contents on this page

1    Introduction

1.1       The Reason for Algilez

The aims of Algilez are quite simple – to provide an auxiliary language for world use, that is simple to use and learn, that is unambiguous in use and, by basing the vocabulary and format as much as possible on English, providing a language is most familiar to the maximum number of people.

1.2       The main features of Algilez:

• Algilez follows the word order convention of English, Chinese etc (i.e. Subject, Verb, Object) but with a simpler grammar and vocabulary

• The vocabulary is based on 'condensed' English, providing maximum familiarisation for those people who have some knowledge of English as a first or second language and short simple words to learn for those who don't.

• The whole vocabulary is logically categorised by the meaning of the words.

• There is a single meaning for each word.

• Words are pronounced as they are spelt.

•  The grammar is 'logical', in that qualifiers (adjectives & adverbs) follow the word they are qualifying, enabling the listener to begin to understand the meaning of each sentence as it is spoken or read, rather than having to wait until the end.

• International conventions for numbers and Latin based plant & animal genus names are retained (but transcribed into phonetic Algilez words).

• The optional Algilez alphabet, using a single symbol matched to each sound, overcomes many of the difficulties associated with the well used, but far from uniform, Roman alphabet.  For further details see Algilez Alphabet.

2    English as a basis for a world language

Previous artificial languages have used a variety of mainly European based languages as the source of their vocabulary.  Some have used Latin.  Esperanto uses a mixture of English, French and German.  The only true international language used today is English and therefore it makes more sense to use English as the vocabulary basis for a world language than any other.  This does not mean that English words have always been used directly but that English words have been modified, by condensing them as much as possible, into short, single syllable words that are intended to be easier and quicker to learn.

The process of condensing the words has been done to simplify the vocabulary, the spelling and the learning.  Why use a two, three or even four syllable word when the meaning can be expressed clearly and uniquely in a single syllable, two or three letter word.  To the native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic etc, a vocabulary based on Latin will have hardly any elements that would be familiar.  Anyone with a smattering of English would be more likely to find something familiar with a Algilez vocabulary.

At first sight it might appear that there is very little recognisable English within Algilez.  I can sympathise with that view since, many of the 'core' verbs such as 'to be', 'to have', 'to see', 'to go' etc have been taken back to the simplest possible root base and then had the tense affixes etc added to them.  Many other English words have had to be condensed into rather unfamiliar Algilez root words.  This is a reflection of the large number of English words of totally different meaning that use similar word formation (just look in a dictionary and see how many English words begin with 'con...').  When a suitable English word was not easily available, then a word from another language was chosen.  Nevertheless, it is hoped that the majority of Algilez words, if not immediately obvious, should be easier to remember once the origin is known.

3    The Flexibility of Algilez

There is a considerable amount of flexibility built into Algilez.  Not all of the following alternatives are recommended but they show what is possible.

3.1    Word Order

Examples of alternative word orders are already given in Algilez Grammar, 21 Alternative Word Orders e.g.

            From    two old men     one fat fish      was given    to    three black cats

            o       du peil ajoma,     an piskis fata       adogoz        u        ti filis blaka

            to     three black cats       one fat fish        by two old men               was given   

            u       ti filis blaka,           an piskis fata        ad du peil ajoma           adogoz      

Since Algilez does not have grammatical inflexions, a totally free word order is not possible (i.e. one in which the same words can be ordered in a sentence in any way).  However Algilez can accommodate any word order provided that the correct prepositions and conjunctions are used.

3.2    Omission of Tense Marking

Tenses are formed with the root word and the suffixes 'oz', 'ez' & 'uz' (past, present and future) with 'iz' for continuous & infinitive and 'az' for conditional.  It is possible to use Algilez with an infinitive verb marker only and apply tense markers only when required e.g.

3.3     Omission of Verb Marking

Verbs are automatically identified by their tense marker.  It is possible to construct sentences using the noun (substantive) form of the word instead of the verbal form e.g.

3.4     Elimination of Agglutanives

The addition of prefixes and suffixes to words can be eliminated by the use of them as prepositions instead.  The meaning for these sentences is identical.  However in Algilez the same root is generally used both in the prefix/suffix and the preposition.  The choice of which to use then becomes a matter of which sounds best in the sentence.

4    Algilez design specification

5    The Algilez Rules

Dr Zamenhof summarised the grammar of Esperanto in 16 rules.  I have included here a similar summary in order that people can compare the two.

1)    Substantives (nouns) can consist of

• Proper Nouns (names of people, places etc), Common Nouns (things), Abstract Nouns

• Prepositions & conjunctions etc can be turned to nouns by adding suffix 'o'.

2)     Verbs.  Any word that can have an action associated with it can be used as a verb.

3)     A sentence (statement/utterance) may consist of

• a single noun, adjective, verb, adverb or preposition/conjunction

• any combination of one or more of the above

4)     Word Order

• Subject, Adjective / Verb, Adverb / Object, Adjective / Preposition / Indirect Object, Adjective/

• Adjectives follow the noun that they describe

• Adverbs follow the verbs that they describe

• Prepositions & conjunctions precede the words they describe

5)     Adjectives & Adverbs end in 'a'.

6)     Plurals are formed by adding suffix 'i'.  This is not required if the word has a preceding number

7)     Numbers

• The cardinal numbers are za, an, du, tri, før, fãv, sis, sev, ok, nin, ax, sen, kil, meg

•                                         (0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 100; 1,000; 1,000,000)

• Frequencies end in 'fe'.

• Collectives (substantives) end in 'o'.

• Ordinal numbers (position) end in 'a'.

• Fractions end in 'at'.

• Multiples end in 'om'.

• Groupings end in 'ga'.

• Single substantives end in 'bo'.

8)     Personal pronouns are me, mi, wi, yu, yi, il, el, ul, ol, ili, eli, uli, oli, su, sui.

         (I/me, we, we+you, you(s), you(p), he, she, he/she, it, they(m), they(f), they, they(inan.), self, themselves)

9)     Possessives are formed by prefix 'ov'.

10)   Verbs

• Past tense verbs end in 'oz'.

• Present tense verbs end in 'ez'.

• Future tense verbs end in 'uz'.

• Infinitive verbs end in 'iz'.

• Conditional tense verbs use 'az' (either as prefix or suffix).

• Passive verbs are prefixed by  'ad'.

• Active verbs may be prefixed by 'da'.

11)   Pronunciation.

• The alphabet consists of 21 consonants and 7 vowels (i.e. two new vowels added to the Roman alphabet).

• The differences between the usual English pronunciation of Roman alphabet letters is 'c' as in cheese, 'x' as in shed, 'ã' as in far, 'ø' as in fort. 'q' is not used for Algilez words but retained for the 'th' sound (as in three) for proper names etc in other languages.

• Every word is pronounced as it is spelt.

• In compound words the accent should be on the root word syllable.

12)   Names of people, places, currencies etc remain the same as their original languages.

13)   Compound words are formed by joining two or more root words.

14)   Comparatives are formed by suffixes

• More 'mu', most 'um'.

• Less 'tu', least 'ut'.

• Many/Multiple of 'om', fewer of 'ot'.

• Large size 'em', small size 'et'.

6     Contact Information

If you'd like further information about Algilez and its development, please contact me at alangiles@algilez.com.

7     Why the name 'Algilez'?

Algilez was formerly know as Gilo.  Although Gilo was a short and simple name, unfortunately many other people thought the same and a search for 'Gilo' on the internet produced too many links to different sources.  Algilez (when it was chosen) was unique and actually means something in the language - All begin listening (Al - gi - lez)!

Last revised: 04 September 2009