CHAPTER II
THE ESSENTIAL GRAMMAR OF INTERGLOSSA

Since Interglossa is an isolating (analytical) language, learning Interglossa involves learning merely: (a) its etymology, i.e. mnemonic association of each vocable to an internationally current root (Chapter XI); (b) its semantics, i.e. analysis of the meaningful content of the vocables; (c) its word-order; (d) its phonetics and typography. Some preliminary, and at this stage very tentative, remarks about phonetics and typography, together with a fuller discussion of the word-order pattern, are the topic of what follows:

(a) Phonetics

The vowel symbols have the following values: a as in father; e or ae as in fête; i as in élite; o as in open; and u as in rule; y is equivalent to i. With the following exceptions, consonant symbols have their characteristic values in accordance with those of the international phonetic symbols:

In the following initial consonant combinations the first element is silent: ct-, gn-, mn-, pn-, ps-, pt-. Thus ps- in pseudo is equivalent to s, as in Anglo-American. The h in the combination rh is also silent. These rules admit of no inconsistencies. The inconvenience of having a few anomalies which go into a dozen lines of print is far less than the disadvantage which would result from mutilating roots beyond visual recognition. Non-Aryan-speaking people who find difficulty with compound consonants and closed syllables (as in blinding or trumpet) will find that some pigeon-holes of the semantic schema offer alternatives of the Yo-ko-ha-ma or To-ky-o type (cf. itinero travel, nesia island). All polysyllables end with a vowel. Unless the last two syllables are both vowels (-io, -ia, etc.), the stress is on the penultimate one, e.g. billEta, permIto. If the word ends with two vowels, the stress is on the antepenultimate syllable, e.g. nEsia and orientAtio.