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Interlinguistics, also known as cosmoglottics, is the science of that has existed for more than a century.Federico Gobbo, Interlinguistics and Esperanto Studies in the new millennium, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, 27 March 2015. Formalised by Otto Jespersen in 1931 as the science of , in more recent times, the field has been more focused with language planning, the collection of strategies to deliberately influence the structure and function of a living language. In this framework, interlanguages become a subset of planned languages, i.e. extreme cases of language planning.Federico Gobbo, Interlinguistics in the 21st century: planned languages as a tool to learn linguistics by doing, University of Amsterdam, 24 March 2017.
Interlinguistics first appeared as a branch of studies devoted to the establishment of norms for auxiliary languages, but over its century-long history it has been understood by different authors more and more broadly as an interdisciplinary branch of science which includes various aspects of communication, language planning and standardization, multilingualism and globalisation, language policy, translation, sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, the history of language creation and literature written in constructed languages (international auxiliary languages (auxlangs) as well as constructed languages : conlangs), fictional artistic languages (artlangs), , , Creole language and constructed languages in the internet and other topics were added.Věra Barandovská-Frank, " The Concept of Interlinguistics as an Object of Study" pp. 7–8 (abstract), 4th Interlinguistic Symposium 21–22 September 2017, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
The main historical periods of interlinguistics are:
At the Institute of Linguistics of Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań) there is the extramural Interlinguistic studies program. "Over the course of three years these studies provide the students with a basic knowledge of general linguistics, interlinguistics, international and intercultural communication with a focus on the linguistics, culture and movement of the internationally dispersed and naturally functioning planned language Esperanto." As of 2017, every third year the Interlinguistic Studies program was also organizing an international interlinguistic symposium. Pp. 211–212.
The University of Amsterdam also has a chair of interlinguistics and Esperanto.
The term Interlinguistics can be interpreted in at least two ways:
The term appears first to have been used in French ( interlinguistique) by Jules Meysmans in 1911 in a text concerning international auxiliary languages.Jules Meysmans (1911-12): Une science nouvelle. In: Lingua Internationale (Bruxelles). 1, Nr. 8, 14-16. 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".Otto Jespersen (1931): "Interlinguistics". In Herbert N. Shenton, Edward Sapir, Otto Jespersen (eds.): International Communication: A Symposium on the Language Problem. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London 1931. Also in Selected Writings. London: George Allen & Unwin; Tokyo: Senjo, 1960. . At the Internet Archive. Pp. 771–782. London: Routledge, 2010. , . Pp. 422–429. 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).
Valter Tauli considered interlinguistics as a subdiscipline of language planning.Valter Tauli (1968): Introduction to a theory of language planning. Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksells, S. 167. The principles recommended by him for language planning applied to the guided development of national languages are also, and more liberally so, applicable to constructed interlanguages. It is noteworthy that these principles have close counterparts among Grice's conversational maxims. These maxims describe how effective communication in conversation is achieved, and in order to function well, a language must be such that it allows respecting these maxims, which languages not always do.Hartmut Traunmüller: Conversational Maxims and Principles of Language Planning PERILUS XII, pp 25-47, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, 1991.
Most publications in the field of interlinguistics are, however, not so constructive, but rather descriptive, comparative, historic, sociolinguistics, or concerned with translation by humans or machines. As for Esperanto, which is the most widely used constructed interlanguage, there is a relatively abundant literature about the language itself and its philology (see Esperantology).
Only a few of the many constructed languages have been applied practically to any noteworthy extent. The most prosperous were Volapük (1879, Johann Martin Schleyer), Esperanto (1887 Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof), Latino sine flexione (1903, Giuseppe Peano), Ido (1907, Louis Couturat), Interlingue-Interlingue (1922, Edgar de Wahl) and Interlingua (1951, IALA and Alexander Gode), with Esperanto being the one gathering the most significant community of active speakers at present. Here, the Bliss symbols (1949, Charles K. Bliss)Charles K. Bliss: International semantography: a non-alphabetical symbol writing readable in all languages Institute of Semantography, Sidney 1949 deserve also to be mentioned. These were intended for international communication, but have found their field of application elsewhere, namely as an aid for persons who lack an adequate ability of using ordinary language, because of motorical or cognitive handicaps.
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Among constructed languages, it is usual to distinguish between a priori languages and a posteriori languages. The latter are based on one or, more often, several source languages, while this is not evident for a priori languages, e.g., the philosophical languages of the 17th century, Solresol and the of the 20th century, such as Loglan and Lojban. Spontaneously arisen Interlanguages are necessarily a posteriori or iconic (using imaging or imitating signs).
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