Ido | |
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Ido | |
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Pronunciation | IPA: [ˈido] |
Created by | Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language |
Date | 1907 |
Setting and usage | International auxiliary language |
Users | 100–200 (2000)[1] 26 Native speakers in Finland (2022)[2] |
Purpose | |
Latin script | |
Sources | based on the 1894 Esperanto reform project |
Official status | |
Regulated by | Uniono por la Linguo Internaciona Ido |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | io |
ISO 639-2 | ido |
ISO 639-3 | ido |
Glottolog | idoo1234 |
Linguasphere | 51-AAB-db |
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Ido is a constructed language derived from a reformed version of Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective international auxiliary language, Ido was specifically designed to be grammatically, orthographically, and lexicographically regular (and, above all, easy to learn and use). It is the most successful of the many Esperanto derivatives, called Esperantidoj.
Ido was created in 1907 out of a desire to reform perceived flaws in Esperanto, a language that had been created 20 years earlier to facilitate international communication. The name comes from the Esperanto word ido, meaning "offspring",[3] since the language is a "descendant" of Esperanto. After its inception, Ido gained support from some in the Esperanto community. A setback occurred with the sudden death in 1914 of one of its most influential proponents, Louis Couturat. In 1928, leader Otto Jespersen left the movement for his own language Novial.
Ido declined in popularity for two reasons: the emergence of further schisms arising from competing reform projects, and a general lack of awareness of Ido as a candidate for an international language. These obstacles weakened the movement and it was not until the rise of the Internet that it began to regain momentum.
Ido uses the same 26 letters as the English (Latin) alphabet, with no diacritics. It draws its vocabulary from English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, and is largely intelligible to those who have studied Esperanto.
Several works of literature have been translated into Ido,[4] including The Little Prince,[5] the Book of Psalms, and the Gospel of Luke.[6] As of the year 2000, there were approximately 100–200 Ido speakers in the world.[1] As of 2022, Ido has 26 native speakers in Finland.[2]