Lingwa de planeta
(Lidepla)
Logo of Lingwa de planeta
Created byDimitri Ivanov, Anastasia Lysenko, etc.
Date2010
Setting and usageInternational auxiliary language
Users25+ (2012)[1]
Purpose
Latin
SourcesVocabulary from ten representative languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone
IETFart-x-planeta

Lingwa de planeta (also Lidepla or LdP) is a constructed international auxiliary language[1] based on widely spoken languages of the world, including Arabic, Mandarin, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.[2]

The main idea of Lidepla is a harmonious whole on the base of the most widespread and influential national languages. The intention is also for it to have something in common with the native languages of most people. With the various source languages from across the globe, it is one of the a posteriori languages.

Development of the language began in 2006 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by a group of enthusiasts, with Dmitri Ivanov being the project leader. The basic version of the language was published in June 2010.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The official Lidepla alphabet is based on the Latin script and contains the following 25 letters,[3] and their upper case equivalents:

Lingwa de Planeta alphabet
Letterabchdefghijklmnoprstuvwxyz
IPA phonemes a b t͡ʃ d e f g x~h i d͡ʒ k l m n o p r[decimal 1] s t u v (w) w k͡s~ɡ͡z (s) i d͡z
Name a be che de e ef ge ha i ja ka el em en o pe er es te u ve wa iks ye ze
  1. ↑ There is no preferred sound for /r/; any rhotic sound is equally acceptable.

The letter q is not used, and c occurs only in the digraph “ch”. The letter y represents the same vowel as “i”, but is never stressed. The following digraphs and letters are pronounced as follows, with examples:

  • ch – /t͡ʃ/ as in “cheese”: chay — tea
  • -ng, at the end of a word – /ŋ/[4] as in fang: feng — wind
  • sh – /ʃ/ as in “shoes”: shi — ten
  • j – /d͡ʒ/ as in “Jack”: jan — to know
  • z – /d͡z/: zun — to go in for
  • x – /ks/ as in “extra”: examen — exam

-ng- in the middle of a word is pronounced /ŋg/ (as is “ng” in finger). v and ending -ng may alternatively be pronounced as /w/ (as in wood) and /n/ (nose), respectively. x between two vowels may be slightly voiced, and x before a consonant may be pronounced as /s/.

Some learning material uses /h/ for the letter h.[5] The grammar allows that pronunciation, but gives /x/ as ch in German Fach as the primary.

For more details on the phonology, see the section Phonology below.

Stress

The general rule regarding the stress is:

  • the vowel before the last consonant (or “y”) is stressed: máta (mother), família (family), akshám (evening), ruchéy (brook)

Lidepla tries to preserve the original sounding of the international words, though, so there are some exceptions, as follows, in short:[1]

  • some endings (-um, -us, -er, -en; -ik-, -ul-[6], and most but not all suffixes[3]) are never stressed
  • the doubled vowel is always stressed (like in adyoo, “bye”)

Description and grammar

The main idea behind Lidepla was to create a harmonious whole on the base of the most widespread and influential national languages of the planet. That results in the Lidepla vocabulary containing a fairly significant amount of non-European words, which makes Lidepla a world language. A general design principle for Lidepla was to have something in common with the native languages of most of the people on Earth.[1][7]

The Lidepla grammar is based on three rules, the rule of the constant form, the rule of belonging to a word class, and the rule of direct word order.

Rule of the constant form

The word form never changes. Special particles are used to express the grammatical meanings, for example:

  • me lubi – I love
  • li lubi – they love
  • yu ve lubi – you will love
  • me wud lubi – I would love
  • lubi (ba) – love!

The only two exceptions are:

  • the plural of nouns, which is made by adding the suffix -s: kitaba (book) — kitabas (books), flor (flower) — flores (flowers), and
  • the verb to be, which has its own forms:
    • bi for the indefinite
    • es for the present
    • bin for the past

Rule of belonging to a word class

Every Lidepla word belongs to a word class – noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc. Derivation takes place by means of affixes and particles:[4]

  • lubi – to love (verb)
  • luba – love (noun)
  • lubi-she – loving (adjective)
  • lubi-shem – lovingly, with love (adverb)

There are no fixed endings for the word classes; there are preferable ones, though. Thus, most verbs end in i, but there are some exceptions (for example: jan – to know, shwo – to talk, etc).

Derivation

By means of affixes and particles, new words can be made up, both of the same class and of the other.[4] For example:

somni – to sleep somni-she – sleeping
en-somni – to fall asleep somni-shem – sleepingly, as if while asleep
somni-ki – to doze somnishil – sleepy
gro-somni – to be dead to the world somnilok – sleeping place
ek-somni-ki – to take a nap somninik – sleepyhead
Affixes
Affix Productive Hyphenated Stressed Type Added to Creates Meaning Example
-ney yes yes suffix pronoun, noun adjective creates adjectives mata-ney (mother's)
-ge yes yes suffix noun noun piece, single item doga-ge (a single dog)
(e)s yes no suffix noun noun plurality (in a countable sense. Not needed if preceded by a plural quantifier like "mucho") lingwas (languages)

akshames (evenings)

man- yes yes prefix noun noun masculine man-doga (male dog)
gin- yes yes prefix noun noun feminine gin-doga (female dog)
o yes no suffix noun noun masculine dogo (male dog)
ina yes no suffix noun noun feminine dogina (female dog)
(s)a yes no suffix verb noun Act and its manifestation/instance/result/resulting state ada (addition)
ing yes no suffix verb noun The very action as process; repeated action; occupation, hobby, sport swiming (swimming)
(i)ka yes no (with monosyllabic i-verbs, -ika is added with a hyphen) no suffix verb noun object, thing, something concrete novika (something new, novelty)

ski-ika, pi-ika

tura yes no suffix verb noun end result/product of action mixtura (mixture)
wat yes no suffix verb noun object of action piwat (beverage)
er yes no suffix verb, noun noun both doer (person) and tool/ device/appliance zwoer (doer)

politiker (politician)

or, ator no no suffix doer or tool
-sha yes yes suffix verb noun doing person (noun form of the active participle marker -she) lekti-sha (reader person)
tul no no suffix verb noun vintitul (screwdriver)
ista yes no suffix noun noun person in relation to a certain doctrine (‘ism’) or profession dentista (dentist)

Principle of necessity

The use of a special particle is optional if its meaning is clear from the context.[1][4] For example:

  • Yeri me miti ela – "Yesterday, I met her", and
  • Manya me miti ela – "Tomorrow, I'll meet her"

both lack particles indicating time, because it is already obvious from "yesterday" and "tomorrow". In the same manner:

  • Me vidi mucho kinda – "I see a lot of children"

lacks the plural indicating ending -s, because the plural is already indicated by mucho, in contrast to:

  • Me vidi kindas – "I see children"

that uses the plural "-s" ending.

Rule of direct word order

The word order in a sentence is usually direct; that is, subject — predicate — object, attribute goes before the noun, prepositions are before the noun group they refer to.

If the word order is changed, it is shown by the use of special particles. For example, den is put before the object,[4] like this:

  • Ela lubi lu – “She loves him”, versus
  • Den lu ela lubi, with the same meaning (literally “Him she loves”) – where the object lu is marked by placing den before it.

Personal pronouns

The basic personal pronouns of Lidepla are:

person singular plural
1 me nu
2 yu yu
3 ta li
it

There is a distinction in third person singular between animate and inanimate: ta is used for humans and animals (corresponding to he/him, she/her, and it when used about an animal), and it about things and objects. If the speaker wishes to distinguish gender, there is also third person singular ela (she, her) and lu (he, him).

Just as in English, second person plural (you, you all) and singular (you) are both the same word: yu. Lidepla also has an indefinite personal pronoun: oni (one, they as in “they say that...”, and “one does not...”).

Possessive forms

The short form of the possessive pronouns looks like this:

person singular plural
1 may nuy
2 yur yur
3 suy ley

The third person singular suy is universal and can be used as the possessive form for both ta, it, ela and lu – for ela and lu there's also the forms elay and luy.

The suffix -ney is used to form adjectives from nouns.[8] Therefore, it is also possible to form longer possessive pronouns with the base form and the suffix -ney: mi-ney, yu-ney, etc.

Verbs

Verb roots never change in Lidepla. Verbs belong to one of two types:

Verb Types
Type Description Examples
1 i-verbs end in consonant+i vidi — to see

dumi — to think

fobisi — to frighten

pri — to like

chi — to eat

pi — to drink.

1.1 monosyllabic i-verbs subtype, in derivation their -i is always preserved chi — chier, chiing

pi — pier, piing

2 other Ending in anything other than consonant+i.

Verbs with prefixes fa- and mah-, which contain adjectives, are type 2 verbs too:

fa-syao — to diminish, become smaller (syao small)

fa-muhim — to become more important (muhim important)

mah-hao — make better, improve (hao good).

 jan — to know

gun — to work

go — to go

yao — to want

lwo — to fall

krai — to cry

prei — to pray

joi — to rejoice, be happy

jui — to enjoy, revel in

emploi — to employ

kontinu — to continue.

Tense are formed by particles, or by suffixes.

Verb Forms
Tense Formation Meaning Example
Present Simple verb vidi (see)

chi (eat)

gun (work)

Present Continuous zai + verb zai chi (is eating)
Present Passive gei + verb gei chi (is being eaten)
Present Conditional wud + verb wud chi (would eat)
Present Perfect he + verb he vidi (have seen)

he chi (have eaten)

he gun (have worked)

Past Simple verb-te vidi-te (saw)

chi-te (ate)

gun-te (worked)

Past Perfect he + verb-te he kuki-te (had cooked)
Past Remote gwo + verb some time ago, earlier in life, have been to somewhere or used to do something
Past Immediate yus + verb have just done something (the word yus means just)
Past Continuous zai + verb-te zai chi-te (was eating)
Future Simple ve + verb will do something, going to do something ve shwo (will speak)
Future Immediate sal + verb to be about to do something sal go (about to go)

sal chifan (about to have a meal)

Future Perfect ve he + verb ve he chi (will have eaten)
Future Continuous ve zai + verb ve zai chi (will be eating)

Vocabulary

Most Lidepla vocabulary is made up of international words of Latin origin. The most frequent words, though, are of English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Hindi origin. There are not definite endings for different parts of speech, so nearly any word can be easily incorporated. The words are adapted to Lidepla phonology and do not preserve original orthography – the pronunciation is preserved in first hand, not the spelling.[1][9]

As of 2014, the Lidepla vocabulary had about 4,000 entries, meaning about 10,000 individual words, with an increasing number. For a word to be incorporated, the following principles are taken into account:[1]

  • short words without consonant clusters are preferred
  • the word has to be widespread and/or phonetically familiar for speakers of at least a few different national languages. For example, the word darba (strike),[10] of Arabic origin, is close to Russian "удар" (udar; strike), Chinese "打" (dǎ; to strike), and even English "drub".

Similarity examples

Whole Lidepla phrases sometimes sound very close to national languages ones,[1][4] with the same meaning:

  • Brata snova dumi om to is similar to its equivalent in Russian Брат снова думает об этом (transcription: brat snova dumayet ob etom, "The brother is thinking about it again"),
  • Ta bu yao shwo to Chinese 他不要说 (transliteration: "tā bù yào shuō", "They don't want to talk"),
  • Way yu go bak? to English "Why do you go back?" or "Why are you going back?",
  • Me jan ke mata pri pi chay to Hindi ("I know that mother likes to drink tea"), and
  • Pa sabah me safari is similar to Arabic في الصباح أسافر (transcription: fi'ṣ-ṣabāḥ usāfir, "In the morning I travel").

Phonology

There are 17 basic consonants (b, d, g; p, t, k; w, f; s, ʃ; x; d͡ʒ, d͡z; m, n, r, l) and 3 optional ones (v; t͡ʃ; ŋ) in Lidepla.[1]

Distinction of the sounds w — v, d͡ʒ — t͡ʃ is not obligatory, that is they may be pronounced in the same way, as there are no minimal pairs for them. The ŋ sound is the same as in English (in -ing ending).

Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar
Nasal m n (ŋ)
Stop pʰb tʰd kʰɡ
Affricate d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative f (v) s ʃ x
Approximant w l
Rhotic r

There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in the language.

Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Development and use

The project is led by the psychologist Dmitri Ivanov. He laid the foundation of the language, using mainly the ideas of Otto Jespersen on the Novial language, and also the facts of Creole language development and structure, while linguists A. Vinogradova and E. Ivanova helped a lot during the early period of development. In 2007 A. Lysenko joined and became the main linguist of the project.[1]

From the very beginning the project was open and widely discussed in a number of conlanger groups.[11] As of 2014, more than 15 people contributed to the language considerably (that is, worked on vocabulary and grammar, translated and wrote original texts, including songs),[1] not speaking about those who participated in discussions.

The basic version of the language was published on June 1, 2010.[1] In some sources,[12] the date of creation of Lidepla is stated to be 2006. It is thus important to clarify that the "basic version" of the language – that is, the version after which the basics of the language is not to be changed – was not published until 2010.[1]

At the moment, the language is used mainly on the Internet, when it comes to direct communication. About 10–15 people have mastered the language, and about 50 can use it in communication.[1] A lot of texts have been translated, including rather spacious texts like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll,[13] and Sailor Ruterford in Maori captivity by Nikolay Chukovsky (son of Korney Chukovsky; translated from Russian),[1] and also some tales. There are songs both written and translated, including an album by musician Jonny M, and subtitles made for cartoons and movies (like the popular Russian film Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future).[1]

In 2017, a request was sent to the International Organization for Standardization as an attempt to obtain an ISO 639-3 language code for Lingwa de planeta, which was rejected the next year for the language "not appearing to be used in a variety of domains nor for communication within a community that includes all ages.[14]"

Sample text

Pater Noster in Lingwa de planeta:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Статья в журнале СПбГУ (№ 13 (3855)" [Lingua de planeta (planetary language)]. Журнал «Санкт-Петербургский университет» (in Russian). 26 October 2012.
  2. ↑ "Journal of Universal Language" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-19.
  3. 1 2 Grammar with examples, sections:
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Riverego
  5. ↑ English Wikibooks course, and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfItYf-cAig, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUz_mjfqBIY
  6. ↑ Do note that -fula is an ending on its own, not containing the -ul- ending, and thus receives normal stress
  7. ↑ Azgaldov, Eric (4 July 2008). "Single Language vs. Language Translation". Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (PDF). pp. 111–119. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  8. ↑ -ney is also used to form passive/past active participe
  9. ↑ Yahoo discussion group: “ ... While borrowing a word, we usually save its pronunciation, not spelling...”
  10. ↑ "LDP Lingwa de Planeta - Neutral language for international communication".
  11. ↑ for example
  12. ↑ Libert, Alan Reed; Moskovsky, Christo (2011). Aspects of the Grammar and Lexica of Artificial Languages (PDF). Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien. p. 180. ISBN 978-3-631-59678-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ↑ Carroll, Lewis (2014) [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]. Alisa-ney Aventura in Divalanda (1 ed.). Cnoc Sceichín, Leac an Anfa, Cathair na Mart, Co. Mhaigh Eo, Éire: Evertype. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-78201-071-5.
  14. ↑ "Change Request Documentation: 2017-033".

Literature

Mass media

Look up Appendix:Lingwa de Planeta Swadesh list in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Lingwa de planeta
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