Post by Kior Olfaa on Sept 26, 2010 17:10:55 GMT -5
What is an auxlang?
Auxlang (short for international auxiliary language) is a language meant for communication among people from different nations not sharing a common native language. Languages of dominant societies (e.g. Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish) have been used as such in recent times in many parts of the world. However, these languages are associated with the very dominance – cultural, political, and economic – that made them popular, and are often met with resistance. For this reason, some have turned to the idea of promoting an artificial or constructed language as a possible solution. The term "auxiliary" implies that it is intended to be an additional language for the whole world, rather than to replace native languages. Often, the phrase is used to refer to planned or constructed languages proposed specifically to ease worldwide international communication, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua. Paqatyl is NOT intended to become everyone's second language nor a miraculous solution for the language problem, but to be an efficient and fun means of communication for as many people as possible.
Should constructed languages, and, more specifically, auxlangs, be taken seriously?
The notion that if people wish to take auxlangs seriously there's something wrong with them is widespread. But there isn't. Any more than there is something wrong with someone who wants to take Irish seriously, or Cornish, or Klingon, or Volapük, or any other minority interest. Taking an auxlang seriously might mean nothing more than learning one and attempting to communicate with others in it. There's nothing to criticize in that.
What is Paqatyl?
Paqatyl (pronounced pah-shah-teel) – from Kechwa/Aymara pacha world and Yakut tyl language – is an auxlang created by language teacher, translator and amateur linguist Kior Olfaa (pen name of Jorge de Oliveira). It is also a worldlang, a type of auxlang that derives its roots, phonology and grammar from different language families in order to avoid perceived European bias (Eurocentrism). Paqatyl is free of charge and available for everyone to use. It is Internet-based and has its own message forum, where one can find the grammar, the dictionary and the conversation course, use the language, express oneself and make friends.
What's wrong with most conlangs?
Many constructed languages are regular and easy to learn, but they present various shortcomings:
• Most are a pan-European language salad – their authors are linguistically biased;
• Most sound artificial and awkward;
• Some (like Esperanto and Interlingua) are too sophisticated and/or meant for literary or scientific writing;
• Some (like Toki Pona and Basic English) are too simple to be practically used.
What makes Paqatyl unique?
• It's meant for informal person-to-person communication, with a small vocabulary – drawn from 100 languages – of only 3,000 words;
• Its grammatical framework is based on features provided by languages from all over the world, thus being genuinely international;
• Paqatyl is totally regular, expressing things logically and with extreme clarity;
• The phonetic system and its graphic representation are very simple, with only 18 phonemes and as many corresponding letters.
Paqatyl is a mixed language, including grammatical features drawn from a great number of languages from all over the world. A great advantage of a mixed language is that no ethnic group will feel that it is "their own language" and that they have the right to make decisions about what is right or wrong. The feeling that something sounds wrong to the ear won't occur if it's different enough from any spoken language. It's only natural that you may find some of Paqatyl's traits weird at first sight, but bear in mind that in German and Japanese, for example, the verb comes last in the sentence; Russian has no articles and the equivalent of our verb to be is omitted; German, Latin, Finnish, Hungarian and many other languages have grammatical cases.
Paqatyl is meant neither to be better or more sophisticated than any other language nor to replace English, Spanish or Arabic in international communication. It's meant to be democratic, unbiased and thoroughly regular, which no living language can claim to be. Additionally, it will make it easier for all to learn a bunch of natural languages later on. Try your hand at learning and using Paqatyl and you'll be acquiring not only a powerful tool for communication but a surprisingly efficient new way to express yourself.
Communicate with the whole world independently and with no restraints.
Join the Paqatyl Community now!
