> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Antonielly
Garcia Rodrigues

> > (1) All of the words quoted by Antonielly and Kjell are
adjectives
> > (though an educated English speaker, seeing "pedestre" and 
> "equestre"
> > -- the other four words quoted here will mean nothing to
him, except
> > that "silvestre" looks like the name of a cartoon cat --
will think
> > of nouns).
> 
> The passive recognizability properties of Interlingua
certainly work
> better for Romance language speakers. For English speakers,
the
> passive recognizability is smaller. I have no doubt of that.

I-a is definitely not too recognizable for English speakers.
*I* can usually make out what an interlingua text says, but its
only because I have some knowledge of Romance languages like
French and Spanish.  Without that knowledge, it would be mostly
unintelligible.


> By the way, all of those words are exactly the same in
Portuguese, so
> educated Portuguese language speakers would comprehend them


> automagically.

(cringe) I hate that word.


> > ...

> > _Is_ there some specific meaning for -estre that would make
it
> > possible to use it productively?
> 
> I see "-estre" as meaning "relative to". So, "pedestre" is
"relative
> to feet", "campestre" is "relative to the field / to the rural
areas",
> etc.

"Pedestre" is close enough to the English "pedestrian" to make
it recognizable, but knowing that the components are
"ped"+"estre" how can we be sure that "ped-" doesn't stand for
"child" as in "pediatrics"?


> > ...

> I believe the practical restriction I mentioned would prevent
the
> successful comprehension of "autestre" for most language users
> (although it would not prevent its creation and its legitimacy
as a
> possibly valid word in Interlingua which is not currently
registered
> in a dictionary). If you mentioned that word to me without
mentioning
> about automobiles, I would wonder "What does 'relative to
auto' means?
> What is an 'auto'? A 'robot' or something 'automatic'?".

That would be "automotive", wouldn't it?


> ...
> > (2) At first thought, "equestre" seemed unusual to me, 
> given that the
> > word for "horse" in Interlingua really ought to be "caballo"
or
> > "cavallo" or even "chevalo" (Fr. "cheval", Sp. "caballo",
It.
> > "cavallo", supported by English "cavalier" and "chivalry"),
and that
> > "equo" would be a pure Latinism.

"cavalo" for "horse" would be more supported by "cavalry", but
we do also have support for "equ-" with words like "equestrian".


> ...