Editing Interlingua (section)

{{Short description|Constructed language}}
{{About}}
{{Distinguish|Interlingue|Interlanguage|ApI Interlingua|Interlingual machine translation}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=December 2010}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Interlingua
| nativename       = {{lang|ia|interlingua}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|ia|inteɾˈliŋɡwa|}}
| speakers         = A few hundred
| date             = 2007
| ref              = {{sfn|Fiedler|2007}}
| familycolor      = 
| fam1             = [[International auxiliary language]]
| creator          = [[International Auxiliary Language Association]]
| created          = 1951
| setting          = Scientific registration of international vocabulary; [[international auxiliary language]]
| posteriori       = '''Source languages''': [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], and [[Spanish language|Spanish]].
| script           = [[Latin script]]
| agency           = No regulating body
| iso1             = ia
| iso2             = ina
| iso3             = ina
| image            = Flag of Interlingua.svg
| imagescale       = 
| imagecaption     = Logo
| notice           = IPA
| glotto           = inte1239
| glottorefname    = Interlingua (International Auxiliary Language Association)
}}

'''Interlingua''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|n|t|ər|ˈ|l|ɪ|ŋ|ɡ|w|ə}}, {{IPA|ia|inteɾˈliŋɡwa|lang}}) is an [[international auxiliary language]] (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American [[International Auxiliary Language Association]] (IALA). It is a [[constructed language]] of the "naturalistic" variety, whose vocabulary, grammar, and other characteristics are derived from [[natural language]]s. Interlingua literature maintains that (written) Interlingua is comprehensible to the billions of people who speak [[Romance languages]],{{sfn|Yeager|1991a}} though it is actively spoken by only a few hundred.{{sfn|Fiedler|2007}}

Interlingua was developed to combine a simple, mostly regular grammar with a vocabulary common to a wide range of western European languages, making it easy to learn for those whose native languages were sources of Interlingua's [[vocabulary]] and grammar.{{sfn|Gode|1971|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|Breinstrup|2006a|loc=Preface}}

The name Interlingua comes from the Latin words ''{{Wikt-lang|la|inter}}'', meaning 'between', and ''{{Wikt-lang|la|lingua}}'', meaning 'tongue' or 'language'. These [[morpheme]]s are the same in Interlingua; thus, ''Interlingua'' would mean 'between language'.