Earth Language in Brief

Keystone
Expected Effects
The EL System
How EL was started
The present condition of EL

The Keystone

In this globalized world, don’t you wish for a new auxiliary language that
can help all kinds of communications, which your mother language can’t work for,
being easy to learn and convenient for your personal information management?
Earth Language (EL) is for that.

EL is a thinking method based on visual symbols for common elements of
human senses and nature, not for particular cultures.
Each basis corresponds with various kinds of signs using your hand,
whole body, eyeballs or voice, without extra effort to learn.
EL supports a communication what ever the condition is.
It works as the extension of all native languages, read in one’s mother tongue
as “1+2=3” is read.

The aim of EL is to support cooperation and coexistence for a sustainable world,
instead of supporting competitions to win by arms.

Expected Effects

# Protecting and raising traditional languages and cultures from lapse.

# Integrating world communication, sweeping away walls among languages and signs.

# Developing new consciousness:

• Children become conscious of being both local and global, learning their own languages using EL.
• EL lights up different points between cultures, when one uses it for studying a foreign language.
• EL users always get another perspective besides their own tradition.
• The user’s integral view becomes widened arranging information in the EL way.

# Developing creativity:
Stimulating by a new combination of concepts, and by the ability of common icons
and those various expression ways, inventions and various kinds of new art can be developed with EL.

The EL System

EL uses 91 simply shaped bases for general meanings, phonetics,
numerals and marks for grammar and information management.
Compounding some bases on top of each other, picture-like or
abstract single symbols are made as many as needed.

50 bases among them are used for both meanings and phonetics,
simply distinguishing the purpose.

Ideograms:
Fundamental ideograms are like hieroglyphics, and a complex ideogram is shown
as the combination of the bases meanings in it.

E.g.
Ideogram Bases:
(nature) (water) (plant) (way)
(the bracket to classify the concept of the following character(s),
putting this on the left of some name or abbreviation)

Compounded-characters (c-cs) formed by the above bases:
(rain) (tree) (stem) (trunk) (bulb) (water supply route)
(the symbol to show that the next character(s) is a name of 'tree')

Fundamental characters are easily understood by little children and illiterate people.
More examples of C-cs with illustrations are here.

Phonetics:
The bases are simplified vocal organ shapes or abstract marks for functions.
A complex phoneme is shown by a compounded symbol;
and phonemes are arranged chronologically to show how to pronounce
vocal sounds. E.g.

Phonetic Bases:
(the lips shape; [p]: bilabial plosive) (the flat tongue shape; [t]: alveolar plosive)
(symbolizing the air directly going up; nasal sound), (fricative), (glottalic ingressive)

Compounded-phoneme symbols formed by the above bases:
[m]: bilabial nasal, [n]: alveolar nasal, : voiceless alveolar fricative (th sound of "throw"),
: bilabial/[p]-lips fricative, : bilabial glottalic ingressive, : alveola glottalic ingressive

The grammar and information arrangements (more details)
1) simple, 
2) clear and 
3) free for sequencing of the parts of a sentence
are the motto, using the grammatical symbols.

There are brackets to distinguish meaning or phonetics, names and classification of names;
rationally to create abbreviations and logos, and to create new temporary symbols, etc.

The EL multi-method
The vocal symbol: a single-syllable name of each basis,
the hand signs: shaping the hand as a basis, or drawing a base in the air,
and there are more applicable expression methods, which can help holding
the bases memory and work for an emergency communication.

How EL was started

In 1988, the idea struck into Yoshiko McFarland like a lightning bolt
and has changed her life completely from a batik painter.
It was a year after her immigration to the U.S. without preparing English.
The idea came up from her minority experience in the U.S. and her
former life through ancient Japanese culture also many more background together.
For more details, see the founder's page

The present condition of EL

EL has been raised mainly by Yoshiko alone, with the help of linguists,
scientists and a phonetic mania through the Internet,
being supported by her family and friends.

EL is now used or being tested for linguistic education of children and students,
as icons among coworkers in different cultures, stenography in mind-maps,
graphic designs, sharing haiku images, communication with extraterrestrial intelligences and so on.
Now “org” of earthlanguage.org is like wild organics freely growing
and spreading worldwide, and not officially organized yet. (July 2005)