What is Salveto?

What is Salveto?

Salveto is a constructed language with a vocabulary based on Latin and modern Romance languages. Like Esperanto, it is designed to bring people together from all over the world by providing a common language that's easy to learn.

Where does the name "Salveto" come from?

The word "Salveto" is taken directly from Latin: it is an imperative form of the word for "hello" or "welcome". In Latin, the common expression for hello was "Salve!". Salveto is an alternate form, as illustrated in this sentence from Plautus' Rudens, 416:

Et tu multum salveto, adulescentula. (And a hearty greeting to you, young lady!)

What are the main goals of Salveto?

• The first and foremost goal is to make Salveto an attractive candidate for an international auxilliary language (auxlang) and/or an auxilliary EU language. If there is ever to be such a thing, it will almost certainly never be one of the existing ones, because of competing senses of national pride. That is why an independent language is needed. It is a complex goal, split into several sub-goals:

  • To make Salveto's vocabulary as easy as possible to learn for Europeans. This means using Romance roots for the vocabulary, since the great majority of Western European speakers are acquainted with at least one Romance language.

  • To maximize the value of learning the vocabulary for those coming from a non-Romance language. Utilizing Romance roots ensures that learning Salveto's vocabulary will provide a useful stepping stone toward learning an existing Romance language.

  • To use a simplified system of grammar that will make the language as easy to use as possible, regardless of one's native tongue.

  • To use a simplified pronunciation system that will not only make the language easier to speak but also to understand.

  • To make Salveto sound as pleasant and natural as possible to the European ear, especially to those who already speak a Romance language.

• Easy to learn to understand and speak. The goal of Esperanto, for instance, is to be easy to understand and read, but its focus on precision and elegance of expression often makes it more difficult to put one's own sentences together correctly. Salveto has a simpler grammar, requiring less thought from the speaker/writer and perhaps a little more from the listener/reader.

• Simple, predictable pronunciation and spelling.

• Should be able to express any thought, and support the creation of literary works.