Portal:Constructed languages/Language of the month/July 2008

Europanto is a linguistic jest presented as a "constructed language" with a hodge-podge vocabulary from many European languages. It was created in 1996 by Diego Marani, a journalist, author and translator for the European Council of Ministers in Brussels. Marani created it in response to the perceived dominance of the English language; it is an emulation of the effect that non-native speakers struggling to learn a language typically add words and phrases from their native language to express their meanings clearly.

The main feature of Europanto is that there are no fixed rules - merely a set of suggestions. This means that anybody can start to speak Europanto immediately; on the other hand, it is the speaker's responsibility to draw on an assumed common vocabulary and grammar between himself and the audience and to make himself understood. Find out more...