Algilez Home Page

Contents on this Website

Introduction to Algilez

1.1       The Reason for Algilez

Knowledge of another language is not just a convenience for tourists wanting to order a coffee.  For many people in the world it is an economic necessity – their livelihoods depend on being able to communicate with other language speakers.  Reducing the learning time for a new language would be an economic benefit that would impact on millions of people and is the ultimate target of Algilez.  To achieve this, the aims of Algilez are quite simple – to provide an auxiliary language for world use, that is simple to use and learn, that is unambiguous in use and, by basing the vocabulary where possible on English, providing a language that is most familiar to the maximum number of people.

1.2       The Problems with English

At the present time, English is the major second language of the world.  It is the only language that fills an international role.  The English language, although easier to learn than some others, is still complicated and illogical.  To speak English well takes a very long time.  A universal second language that is quicker and simpler to learn would be of benefit to all who need to learn a second language.  If that universal language also uses a vocabulary that is similar to English, it would make the learning process easier for those with a knowledge of English.

1.3       The Features of Algilez

Algilez is intended to provide the following features:-

• To be unambiguous - there should be no doubt or confusion over intended meanings.

• To be comprehensive - anything that can be said in any major world language can be said in Algilez.

• To be regular - grammatical and vocabulary items follow simple regular patterns to ease learning.

• To be compact - words are shorter and fewer words are required than English (which is already one of the more compact major languages).

• To be flexible - grammatical rules permit a variety of different ways to express the same meaning (some more compact than others).  This enables people of different language backgrounds to express meanings in a way that feels more intuitive and natural for them.

1.4       The main features of Algilez:

• Algilez follows the word order convention of English, Chinese etc (i.e. Subject, Verb, Object) but with a simpler grammar and vocabulary.

• The vocabulary is based on 'condensed' English, providing maximum familiarisation for those people who have some knowledge of English as a first or second language and short simple words to learn for those who don't.

• The whole vocabulary is logically categorised by the meaning of the words.

• There is a single meaning for each word.

• Words are pronounced as they are spelt.

• The grammar is 'logical', in that qualifiers (adjectives & adverbs) follow the word they are qualifying, enabling the listener to begin to understand the meaning of each sentence as it is spoken or read, rather than having to wait until the end.

• International conventions for numbers and Latin based plant & animal genus names are retained (but transcribed into phonetic Algilez words).

• The optional Algilez alphabet, using a single symbol matched to each sound, overcomes many of the difficulties associated with the well used, but far from uniform, Roman alphabet.  See Algilez Alphabet.