Editing Interlingua (section)

== Overview ==
Interlingua focuses on common vocabulary shared by Western European languages, which are often descended from or heavily influenced by the [[Latin language]] (such as the [[Romance languages]]) and [[Greek language]].  Interlingua organizers have four "primary control languages" where, by default, a word (or variant thereof) is expected to appear in at least three of them to qualify for inclusion in Interlingua.  These are [[English language|English]]; [[French language|French]]; [[Italian language|Italian]]; and a combination of [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] which are treated as a single mega-language for Interlingua purposes.  Additionally, [[German language|German]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] have been dubbed "secondary control languages".{{sfn|Gode|1971|loc=Introduction}}  While the result is often akin to [[Neo-Latin]] as the most frequent source of commonality, Interlingua words can have origins in any language, as long as they have drifted into the primary control languages as [[loanword]]s.  For example, the [[Japanese language|Japanese]] words ''[[geisha]]'' and ''[[samurai]]'' and the [[Finnish language|Finnish]] word ''[[sauna]]'' are used in most Western European languages, and therefore in Interlingua as well; similarly, the [[Guugu Yimithirr language|Guugu Yimithirr]] word ''gangurru'' is used in [[Latinisation of names|latinized]] form (Interlingua: {{Lang|ia|kanguru}}, English: ''[[kangaroo]]'').{{sfn|Gode|1971|loc=Introduction}}

The maintainers of Interlingua attempt to keep the grammar simple and word formation regular, and use only a small number of [[root (linguistics)|roots]] and [[affix]]es. This is intended to make the language quicker to learn.{{sfn|Morris|1945}}