Poliespo
Poliespo (Polisinteza Esperanto, "Polysynthetic Esperanto"), also referred to as Po, is an international auxiliary language created by Billy Ray Waldon, also known as Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah,[1] a Native American Movement activist and Esperantist on death row.[1][2]
| Poliespo | |
|---|---|
| Èoperespo | |
| Created by | Billy Ray Waldon |
| Date | Likely began in the 1950s or 1960s |
| Users | Unknown, at least one |
| Purpose | |
| Latin | |
| Sources | Phonology derived from Esperanto, vocabulary mostly from Esperanto, but also partially English and Spanish, plus two words from Cherokee, grammar from Esperanto and Cherokee. |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Goals
The principle of creation for Poliespo was Nvwtohiyada's belief that certain languages contain words that made communication quicker, which he referred to as "lightning bolts" or "lightning words", and the goal was to combine as many of these as possible into one language. The language was originally referred to as Anagalisgi, the romanized form of Cherokee word for lightning. Most of Poliespo comes from Cherokee, English, Esperanto, and Spanish, the languages that Nvwtohiyada could speak.
The philosophy behind the language is reminiscent of sound symbolism, and therefore radically differs from the principles of Esperanto.
Nvwtohiyada also claimed that learning Poliespo is a golden opportunity to acquire an "Iroquoian spirit." In his words, "When one gains a new language, one gains a new soul. Po is your golden chance to acquire an Iroquoian spirit."[3]
Phonology
Poliespo is believed to have 32 consonants, including the glottal stop, in addition to 22 vowels: 10 oral vowels, 2 of which are distinguished by vowel length, and 9 nasal vowels, 1 of which is distinguished by vowel length. Poliespo is also a tonal language, having 3 or 4 tones. The rising tone is the only tone that is marked, using an acute accent.[4]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i: /iː/ | ĭ: /ɪː/ | u | |||
| Mid | e | x /ə/ | q /ɜ~ɝ/ | o | ||
| Open | ⱥ /æ/ | a | w /ɔ/ | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | î /ɪ̃/ | î: /ɪ̃ː/ | û /ũ/ | |||
| Mid | ê /ẽ/ | 2 /ə̃/ | q̂ /ɜ̃~ɝ̃/ | ô /õ/ | ||
| Open | ⱥ̂ /æ̃/ | â /ã/ | ŵ /ɔ̃/ | |||
Orthography
Poliespo's alphabet consists of 54 letters: a, â, ⱥ, ⱥ̂, b, b̆, c, ĉ, d, e, ê, f, g, ĝ, h, ĥ, i, ĭ, ĭ:, ĭ́, î, î:, î́, j, ĵ, k, k̆, l, m, m̆, n, n̆, o, ô, p, pw , s, ŝ, t, t̂, tͮ, u, û, ŭ, v, z, ẑ, z̆, q, q́, q̂, q̂́, w, ẃ, ŵ, ŵ́, x, x́, y, 2, 2́. In addition, the consonant ẑ represents /kts/, while the consonant z̆ represents /gdz/. pw is p overstruck with w, and tͮ is t overstruck with v.[5][3]
Grammar
The structure is more similar to Ido than to Esperanto, since radicals are inflected; therefore, the language is not perfectly agglutinative.[3] Unlike Ido, it has only one prefix in addition to those of Esperanto: pe-, which is used to indicate the "neutral" gender. Besides the accusative, there is also a subject suffix, as in Korean and Japanese. In Poliespo, there are two forms of oral speech. If one does not understand what you say in Poliespo, referred to as Idpo, one should repeat themselves in Esperanto, referred to as Zaespo.[3]
banant̂ⱥn2plaĉqlx! banana-PL.SING-like-DAT-HAB "I don't like bananas!"
References
- Wallace, Amy (30 June 1991). "Making a Case for Providing Own Defense". Los Angeles Times.
- "Human Rights Advocates" (PDF). 42. Winter 2003–2004. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - https://www.oocities.org/raiu_harrison/conlang/conl9308.txt
- "SAN DIEGO : Billy Ray Waldon Gets Death Sentence". Los Angeles Times. 1992-02-29.
- "Poliespo: A Cherokee Esperanto". Archived from the original on 2005-02-05.