Rapid method of Neo

No auxiliary language aspires to be more than a “second language” —one that is used for communication when the two mother languages differ too greatly for mutual comprehension. In each country the national language is sovereign, having nothing to fear from the rise of a “second language” such as NEO.

Far from constituting any threat to English, the auxiliary language is a positive safeguard, since it preserves the essential integrity by sheltering it from the flood of neologisms that derive from different languages, and which would reduce English to an impoverished „business Pidgin” such as that spoken in Melanesia.

REQUEST TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

The present work is priced $ 3,00 or sh. 22/- (postage free).

Many friends and correspondents will receive a complimentary copy; they are under no obligation to pay. But there will no doubt be many of them who will desire to share in the financing of this work and to encourage the movement by joining the „Friends of Neo”, nonprofit legally incorporated Society.

Membership fees are as follows:

Active Membership $ 2.— sh. 15/- a year

Student Membership $ 0.60 sh. 4/- a year

Goodwill Membership (symbolic) $ 0.50 sh. Зуб a year

Life Active Membership (single payment) …. $ 12.— $ 4/6/-

Cheques and Money-Orders should be sent to “Friends of Neo”, 36, avenue Emile Duray, Brussels 5, Belgium; Postal Money-Orders or Giros to “Friends of Neo”, Postal Account № 674.59, Brussels, Belgium.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

adjective abbreviation adverb agriculture all senses

Auxiliary Language

Americanism

anatomy

architecture

in the arts

astronomy

auxiliary

Bible, biblical

biology

botany

chemistry

cinema

classical

colloquial

collective

commerce, -cial

comparative

complement

conjunction

contraction

cooking, cuisine

dialect

diminutive

English

ecclesiastical

electricity

except, -ion

exclamation, -atory

feminine

figurative, -ly

finance, -ial

French

future

German

generally

geography

Greek

grammar

history

intransitive

id est, that is, i.e.

International

Language

including

infinitive

interrogative

ironical

Italian

juridical

Latin

SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

The English edition of the “M6thode Rapide de Neo,f (Brussels, 1965) needed much more preparation and time than we had expected ; the work of translating the dictionary from French-Neo to English-Neo proved to be particularly arduous; no doubt there are many imperfections; for there is seldom an exact match between a term in one language and a term in another; we hope readers will bring to our attention the errors they happen to notice. The coverage is considerably greater than for the M6thode Rapide, and we estimate the present size at about 20,000 words for either part.

The delay in publication of the English edition has provided the opportunity of amending a few NEO words and grammatical usages — without impairing the essential structure of the language. Language has to adapt itself to the needs of the day and to take account of advances in technology; otherwise it runs the risk of being discarded like the Latin that was left behind by its all too prolific progeny. We would have liked to express our thanks to Mr. Douglas S. Blacklock who gave freely of his time for the early publication of this Rapid Method; but he too is well aware of the imperfections that must attend any such compilation — and of the great debt which all linguistic engineers owe to those who have toiled in the same field before their time. So perhaps it would be invidious to single out Mr. Blacklock or any other individual; all we can say is that without him the book could not have been published in the year after International Cooperation Year.

We wish to express to Mr. N. H. Divall, 5, Cliveden Road, London S. W. 19, our warmest thanks for his help in the correction of the printing proofs.

NEO GRAMMAR IN TWO PAGES

PRONUNCIATION. Neo, like Spanish, is pronounced exactly as it is spelt. No letter is silent. Every letter has one sound,always the same.

VOWELS. There are 5 vowels : a, e, i, o, u ; they may v^ary in length and are indifferently short or long. They are pronounced as follows : a like palm, father; e like bet, bay, late, leather; i like bit, beet, in, if, easy; о like on, off, go, low; u like foot, rule, moon.

CONSONANTS : с and ch are pronounced like church, China; g like go, get, gun; j like jet, John; г like red, rag, round, rat; s like sit, sue, son, summer; z like zoo; x like axe, box, excited (never gz like example). All other letters same as in English.

Definite article lo : the.

Ending о may be dropped before words beginning with a vowel: l’arbo, 1’arbos the tree, the trees ;

in the plural, when preceding an invariable word, ending s may be added : los Smith, los Nelson the Smiths, the Nelsons; it may be added also when suggested by a want of clearness or euphony.

INDEFINITE ARTICLE un : a, an.

The ADJECTIVE ends with the letter a : bona good; loria strong.

the ADVERB deriving from an adjective ends with the letter e : lorie strongly.