interlinguistics

Interlinguistics is the interdisciplinary study of international communication through language, examining how languages interact, how mediation between languages is achieved, and how linguistic tools shape cross-cultural understanding. It encompasses the design and evaluation of international auxiliary languages, translation and interpretation processes, and language planning and policy, together with the study of pidgins, creoles, and other contact phenomena.

Historically, interlinguistics grew from debates about universal languages for international discourse. It is closely associated with constructed languages such as Esperanto and Ido, but also analyzes natural interlanguages, pidgins, and creoles as real mediation systems. In recent decades the field has expanded to computational approaches, machine translation, terminology management, and representation schemes used in multilingual information processing.

Key subfields include design and evaluation of auxiliary languages; translation and interpretation studies; terminology engineering; language planning and policy; and computational interlinguistics, including multilingual NLP and machine translation. Methodologically, the field uses typology, corpus linguistics, experimental psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistic inquiry to study how speakers negotiate meaning across languages, how mediating languages influence learning and use, and how policy shapes language choices.

Applications include language policy planning, multilingual education, international diplomacy, localization and translation industries, and the design of information systems for cross-language communication. Debates focus on the practicality and desirability of international auxiliary languages versus multilingualism and translation technologies, as well as questions of accessibility, standardization, and cultural neutrality.