International Auxiliary Language Association

The International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) was an organization founded in 1924 to develop a universal human language that could be easy to learn and promote global understanding. Its goal was to create an auxiliary language—an international second language—that would facilitate communication across different native languages, especially for science, diplomacy, and international relations. In 1951, IALA's work culminated in the publication of Interlingua, a language designed to be immediately understandable to speakers of Romance languages and somewhat accessible to others. The organization played a key role in the history of constructed international languages.