The history is that since 1951 about 800 people now use interlingua. So, Paul is asking that we follow the usage of these 800 people as opposed to the usage of 600 million or so who use the romance languages. We are talking about grammatical particles. The method of prototypes is based on common forms in languages spoken by hundreds of millions of people. And the romance languages take in about 600-700 million (correct me if I am wrong). But it is hundreds of millions. So Paul's reasons to use forms spoken by only 800-1000 people are not very persuasive. Besides, I don't think that figure represents the actual number who use interlingua, write and read, frequently. And their usage is not as uniform as he suggests. Stan -- Pro leger le archivos e pro modificar o cancellar le subscription: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/interlng.html