A naturalistic auxiliary language compiled in 1951 from the shared Romance and Latinate vocabulary of major European languages — readable on first sight by their speakers.
Where it’s spoken
Interlingua was published by the International Auxiliary Language Association after decades of linguistic work. Unlike Esperanto, which engineers regularity, Interlingua extracts the shared core vocabulary of English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Speakers of any of those languages can typically read it without instruction. Active community concentrates in northern Europe and Brazil.
What it sounds like
Phonologically close to Italian or Spanish — five clear vowels, no exotic consonants. Stress falls on the syllable before the final consonant, mostly. Grammar is deliberately minimalist: no grammatical gender, no verb conjugation by person.
How it’s written
The Latin alphabet, no diacritics. Spelling deliberately follows the etymological forms of the source languages rather than a phonetic rewrite.
Find more languages by letter
Interlingua starts with I and ends with A. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Interlingua":