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Wiktionary:Interlingua entry guidelines

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Main category: Interlingua language
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Interlingua is a constructed language included on Wiktionary. It is not to be confused with Interlingue.

Introduction

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

The aim of this page is to explain the norms used in Interlingua entries. It is intended to complement, not supersede, WT:CFI and WT:ELE. Interlingua is considered a well documented language, which means that all senses must be attestable, so that it is possible to find at least three independent attestations spanning at least a year.

Script

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Interlingua is written in the Latin alphabet, usually without diacritics. The Interlingua grammar proscribes the use of diacritics on loanwords unless they affect the pronunciation. There is no consensus on the correct base form of a term if it is attested as being written with diacritics.

Collateral orthography

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The Interlingua grammar provides an alternative, “collateral” orthography, which discards most of the etymological spelling. Terms using this orthography may be entered, but should be treated as an alternative form, and must be independently attestable.

Etymology

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Interlingua, as a constructed language, has no ancestors and no languages to which it is genetically related. In etymology sections for Interlingua entries, {{inherited}} must never be used. However, {{cognate}} may be used when referring to a term of related derivation in another mainspace constructed language, such as Esperanto.

The vast majority of Interlingua vocabulary consists of internationalisms by design. They are synthesized as “international prototypes” from terms present in its source languages: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German and Russian. As such, an Interlingua term in most cases cannot be said to be a clear borrowing from any one of these languages.

An exception to the above exists for many pronouns and adverbs, which were borrowed directly from Latin instead of the source languages. Examples include etiam (“also”) and ubi (“where”).

Pronunciation

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Interlingua is primarily a written language, and the pronunciation is not entirely settled. The original Interlingua reference publications do not strictly define the phonology, instead allowing for variation between speakers.

Pronunciations in Interlingua entries should always be given in broad transcription only, with the rhotic transcribed as /r/. Standard collateralities in pronunciation, such as the dropping of /h/, may also be provided.

The lexical stress in Interlingua is not entirely regular. While the general rule for lemmas is that stress falls on the vowel before the last consonant, this rule can be contravened, such as for garantia. Entries should assume pronunciation regularly obeys the general rule unless there is evidence to the contrary. In such cases, both the irregular and regular forms may be given.

Parts of speech

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Verbs

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The conjugation of verbs in Interlingua is regular, with the partial exception of the past participle form (see below).

Collateral participles

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For past participles, Interlingua permits either ones regularly derived by adding the suffix -te, or those which derived from the Latin supine stem, which are irregular. When it is present, the Interlingua–English Dictionary lists this stem alongside the base form. For many verbs, these stems are identical to those which can be derived via De Wahl’s rule, however this mechanism itself is not generally taken to be part of the Interlingua grammar.

Conjugations given in Interlingua verb entries should include the regular past participle, and may also include the irregular collateral form. The template {{ia-conj}} generates the former by default, and the latter can be supplied using the |perfpart2= parameter.

Adjectives

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The superlative form of an adjective can be regularly formed by appending the suffix -issime. This form is not generated automatically by {{ia-adj}}, but can be specified in the |sup2= parameter. Entries for such forms should only exist if the form is attested.

A small number of adjectives, such as bon, have optional irregular comparative and superlative forms.

Optional adjectivial degrees
Positive Comparative Superlative
bon (“good”) melior optime
mal (“bad”) pejor pessime
magne (“big”) major maxime
parve (“small”) minor minime

Descendants

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Interlingua has no known child languages. All descendants listed in an Interlingua entry should be indicated to be borrowings.

Resources

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