Editing Interlingua (section)

=== Form ===
The form of an Interlingua word is considered an ''international prototype'' with respect to the other words. On the one hand, it should be neutral, free from characteristics peculiar to one language. On the other hand, it should maximally capture the characteristics common to all contributing languages. As a result, it can be transformed into any of the contributing variants using only these language-specific characteristics. If the word has any derivatives that occur in the source languages with appropriate parallel meanings, then their [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] connection must remain intact; for example, the Interlingua word for 'time' is spelled {{lang|ia|tempore}} and not {{lang|ia|*tempus}} or {{lang|ia|*tempo}} in order to match it with its derived adjectives, such as {{lang|ia|temporal}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Gode|1971|loc=Introduction}}. See [https://web.archive.org/web/20071227020831/http://www.bowks.net/worldlang/aux/b_IED-intro2.html#series "Forms of international words in derivational series"].</ref>

The language-specific characteristics are closely related to the [[sound law]]s of the individual languages; the resulting words are often close or even identical to the most recent form common to the contributing words. This sometimes corresponds with that of [[Vulgar Latin]]. At other times, it is much more recent or even contemporary. It is never older than the classical period.{{sfn|Stillman|Gode von Aesch|1943}}