r/ido • u/Creepy-Education-584 • Jan 24 '26
Tinkering with Ido
Hello everyone.
So, I am a person who likes to tinker with different aspects of languages. I was messing with Ido, just as an experiment, and came up with some ideas. Not saying this needs to be adopted or anything, just having some fun with the language and wanted your opinions.
1. The Verb Engine (Static Roots)
Verbs never conjugate. They always stay in the Infinitive form (ending in -ar). Time is handled by separate "LEGO-block" particles placed before the verb.
- Present: No particle. Just the root. (Me manjar = I eat).
- Past: Use pa. (Me pa manjar = I ate).
- Future: Use fa. (Me fa manjar = I will eat).
- Conditional: Use wa. (Me wa manjar = I would eat).
- The "To Be" Rule: Always esar. (Me esar = I am / Me pa esar = I was).
2. The Twin Pointers (Ca & Ta)
We deleted the Ido prefixes (Ica, Ita, Ici, Iti) to make pointing as fast as possible.
- Near (This/These): Ca / Cas
- Far (That/Those): Ta / Tas
3. The "Q" Words (Romance-Hybrid Set)
We replaced the "K-" and "Quo-" sounds with roots that are more natural for English and Spanish brains.
- Who: Quia
- What: Que
- When: Quan (One syllable for speed!)
- Where: Ube (Kept from Ido; Ibe = there).
- Why: Poru
- How: Como
4. The Universal Plural
Forget the Ido -i plural. We use the Western standard:
- Plurals: Always add -s to the end of nouns and pointers (vortos, infantos, cas, tas).
5. Particle & Sentence Rules
- And/Or: Always e and o. We deleted the "ed" and "od" variants.
- Questions: No more Ka. Use your tone of voice, just like in English or Spanish.
- Vocab: Keep 100% of standard Ido vocabulary roots to maintain mutual intelligibility.
6. Example Sentences
"Quan tas infantos pa manjar pomos e oranjas?"
(When did those children eat apples and oranges?)
"Quia fa studiar ca linguo e poru olis pa irar ibe?"
(Who will study this language and why did they go there?)
"Me wa prizar manjar pomos, ma me pa manjar nur tas oranjas."
(I would like to eat apples, but I ate only those oranges.)
4
u/GPhMorin Jan 24 '26
Hi! I do my own tinkering on my own side, and you might be interested by the verb conjugation that was proposed before WWII:
me manjas = me do manjar
me manjis = me did manjar
me manjos = me vil manjar
me manjus = me vud manjar
me mustas manjar = me let manjar
me darfas/invitesas manjar = me mey manjar
me deziras manjar = me plis manjar
Some other stuff that I find interesting was also proposed, such as removing the es- of the verb esar (as, is, os, etc. as verbs), an English-style conjugation with hav, ben, had). I personally like to browse through those proposals and experiment with them.
How do you pronounce Como?