Welcome!

Hi everyone!

So this is the first post of this new auxlang called Atlas.

Atlas is a new auxiliary language intended to be used as an international language.
Its vocabulary is taken following these two rules:

• 10 most spoken languages (L1+L2) in the World: English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, Indonesian-Malayan, Portuguese and Arabic.

• Apart from these ones, the 2 most spoken languages in each continent, provided that they are spoken by at least 1% of the population: German and Italian for Europe, Iranian* and Japanese for Asia, Swahili and Hausa for Africa. Languages from other continents did not meet the 1% (basically because the top 10 languages are widely spoken).

*Iranian languages is a family of languaes widely spoken in Western Asia, including Kurdish, Farsi and Pashto. Chosen as a group because it is believed to have around 200 milion speakers, and because it represents another part of Asia. Other languages have more speakers than Kurdish alone for instance, but they are spoken where other languages are already largely spoken. India for instance has got many languages with many speakers, but the region is already well represented by Hindi and Bengali.
Atlas is formed by roots, and we add morphemes to these roots in order to form words. So for instance we have the root "denk", from which we form "denke" (thought), "denkes" (think), etc.

Only over 500 roots are found in Atlas, so its vocabulary is extremely simple. All other words are derived from them. For instance, taking the root vais ("show"), we can form:

artvaise (exposition), axtvaisu (showcase), anvaise (publication), vervaise (prove, confirmation), vindvaise (advertisement), dovaise (symptom), platvaise (sponsorship)...

These 500 roots are more or less equally distributed amongst languages, each one taking around 30 roots (some a bit more, some a bit less).

Phonetics are extremely easy too. Only 5 vowels with their IPA sounds (a,e,i,o,u) and 18 consonantic sounds, using the roman alphabet, without letters "f", "j" and "y". All sounds included are designed to be easy to learn or already included in many languages. Some of them have not an exact equivalent amongst languages, although very similar sounds are found and some degree of freedom in usage for Atlas is accepted (for instance, sounds /ɕ/ and /ʃ/ are similar, and even /ʒ/). 

Grammar is very easy too, main highlights:

• no exceptions

• no declensions

• 3+1 grammar persons (3 traditional + 1 meaning "one").

• no agreement between nouns and adjectives or verbs.

• gender neutral, although possibility of specifying gender.

• no infinitive, no participle, no gerund.

• easy verbs, no complex forms. 3 moods and 3 tenses only as morphemes. No variation for person or gender.

• complex sentences made easy by usage of particles "de/ke/no".

• each word category with one specific ending, so they are easy recognizable.

• logical prepositions with one meaning only for each.

 So everything you need in order to learn Atlas is here (grammar and dictionary), and regularly you will see new posts with:

• translated news or texts.

• videos, in order to see how it sounds.

• grammar updates or explanations.

I hope you like it! 

Let me copy  a fragment of "Ali Baba and the 40 thieves", so that you can have an idea of how it looks like:

I villu i Iran heiit baiak, ek neimi Kassim, andar Ali Baba. Kassim esit bersami de riki qenata ta zeek diamit w multar vexen. Weqoz Ali Baba houterit qena de ze ta benan de ze, ta ze xnaidit holzu i mederi direbzuu, ta ze vindit ez hou i al-villu.

Dine, Ali Baba zaiat i direbzuu u xen, ze viset zue vo itsan i varasa, zu ze w nuaqu de zangu. Ze denket, zeen eset ruban. Ze seiveset direbo ki anzene. Zeen kommet u xenu ta zeen quvenet, ze xetet ekdas ruban. Zeen derbersamet al-varasa i direbon.

Du-itsa zui bei de Ali Baba denket de ese toa de zeen veset tra hinekar buiso, ta ze dizet: “zabibgrenu vedakaies!”, hen vahimhesani, Ali Baba hiaret ez.

Vermu zedakaiet li dutsun, ta al-toa zelet de livese al-ruba. Al-vermu vermet det zeen. Zeen zaiet li li langi zaite. Ali Baba zoret, ze webenaitet, iesli ze wequveset al-direbo, qa ze zaiet sei. Wanex al-vermu zedakaiet dahi, ta Ekdas Ruba weiveset. Al-toa weiveset letzi, ta dukar al-ruban passet vo ze. Ze hou vermet al-vermu: “zabibgrenu vevermes!”.