Arturo Alfandari (8 June 1888 – 1 May 1969) was a Belgian diplomat, known as the creator of the

constructed language A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...

Neo.

Life

Originally from Italy, Arturo Alfandari served in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as a cipher officer for the Italian High Command. After the war he settled in Belgium, where he worked as an exporter before eventually becoming a diplomat for the Belgian state. Apart from Neo, he spoke seven languages.

Neo

His proposal for Neo, an international auxiliary language, was developed in the 1930s and first presented in 1961. As with Ido and some other constructed languages of the time, Alfandari's own was based on

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

, although he added elements from English, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. However, he took some further steps, reducing the use of initial and final syllables, and devising a built-in vocabulary. Root words were made as short as possible, thus emphasizing rhythm and articulation, but sometimes, as with

Volapük Volapük (; , 'Language of the World', or lit. 'World Speak') is a constructed language created in 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God told him to create an international lang ...

, at the expense of easy recognition of word meanings. War veteran Paul Rasquin, from Geraardsbergen, Belgium,Chris Cordner,
Six people may hold the key to a Belgian man's Hartlepool quest
, 9 September 2016, ''Hartlepool Mail''. Accessed 1 February 2017. described Alfandari's language as "the natural and inevitable further development of

",Michael Everson,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Neo
. March 21, 2013. Accessed 1 February 2017. whilst Aldo Lavagnini considered it as "a radical and satisfying way for a reform of Esperanto, which could have been accepted by

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

s even as a simplification of their language." “After 25 years of research,“ a feature article in ''Life'' magazine stated, Alfandari had presented “a 1,300-page volume containing the complete grammar and 60,000-word vocabulary of his new universal language, Neo. Using Latin for many roots of words, Italian for phonetics, a vocabulary range inspired by French, adverbs and conjunctions from German and grammar from English and Russian, he claims to have welded them into a clearer and more fluent mixture than Esperanto, from which he also borrowed some structure.” He said he'd put so much effort into it because “whether you are

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

or Walloon, white or black, American or Russian, you all want peace, to make an attempt to understand and support each other.” Despite those efforts, however, Neo became largely forgotten shortly after the death of its creator, similarly to many other constructed auxiliary languages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfandari 1888 births 1969 deaths Constructed language creators Speakers of international auxiliary languages Linguists from Belgium Linguists from Italy Diplomats for Belgium Italian emigrants to Belgium 20th-century linguists