What is a Constructed Auxiliary Language?

Throughout history, linguists have attempted to invent simplified languages so as to improve intercultural communication. There have been many attempts, some have been successful for a period, others have been forgotten.

The most persistent constructed language, Esperanto, was invented by a Polish physician named Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887. Esperanto caught on among linguists and common people around the world because of its extremely simple grammar. Today, there are active Esperanto unions in almost every country, newspapers and magazines are printed in Esperanto, and original literature has been written in Esperanto. Despite all its laudable success, however, Esperanto was not the first constructed language. More than 150 years earlier, a simplified version of Latin was proposed. It was given the quite dreadful name Carpophorophilus.¹

Carpophorophilus (1734)

Carpophorophilus was invented by a German philosopher.
His real name is not known. This language had a reduced alphabet which excluded the letters p, t, and v,
and also dispensed with c, j, q, w, x, y, and z: thus 16 letters. It was based mostly on Latin,
but incorporated elements from other languages. For example, the plural suffix was borrowed from Hebrew: -im.
Thus the word for “house” was domus (cf. Latin domus), and the word for “houses” was domusim.

Verbs were completely regular. All present tense verbs ended in the suffix -o.
Imperfect verbs ended in -abam (cf. Latin). The imperative was formed with -ade (cf. Latin -ate).
The past participle ended in -adus (cf. Latin -atum).
Other suffixes were used to derive nouns from verbs in a fully regular fashion:

orno = to adorn (verb)
ornanda = ornament (noun describing object)
ornadus = adorned (participle)
ornalis = ornamental (adj)
ornalanda = ornamentation (noun describing action) “

The Lord’s Prayer in Carpophorophilus went like this:
O Baderus noderus ki du esso in seluma,
fakdade sankadus ha nominanda duus,
adfenade ha rennanda duus,
ha folanda duus fiassade felud in seluma,
sik koke in derra.
Ho banisa noderus diessalis dade du nobis in hik diessa;
ed remiddade du nobis ho debandaim noderus,
felud nos remiddo hi debanasaim noderus;
ed non indukade du nobis in dendassanda;
sed liberade nobis e malanda.¹