Utopian language
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| Utopian | ||
|---|---|---|
| Created by: | Peter Giles | |
| Total speakers: | — | |
| Category (purpose): | constructed language Utopian |
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| Writing system: | Utopian alphabet | |
| Category (sources): | Persian, with influence of Greek and Latin | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | Utopia | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | art | |
| ISO 639-3: | –
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The Utopian language is the constructed language of the fictional land of Utopia. It is found in an addendum to Thomas More's Utopia, written by his good friend Peter Giles.
Contents |
[edit] Classification
[edit] Phonology
Utopian seems to be pronounced just like the Latin of Thomas More's time, that is to say, using Ecclesiastical pronunciation.
[edit] Grammar
The grammar of the Utopian language seems to be very similar to that of Latin and Greek.
[edit] Morphology
The available corpus of Utopian texts allows us to identify at least three cases for nouns (nominative, accusative, and ablative), and at least two tenses for verbs (present and past). It is likely, however, that Utopian nouns have all six cases found in Latin, and verbs also have a future tense, if not others as well.
[edit] Syntax
The usual word order is SVO, as in English, and even the Latin of Thomas More's time.
[edit] Writing system
Utopian is written with the Utopian alphabet.
[edit] History
[edit] Examples
The only extant text in Utopian is a quatrain written by Peter Giles in an addendum to Utopia:
- Vtopos ha Boccas peula chama
- polta chamaan
- Bargol he maglomi baccan
- ſoma gymnoſophaon
- Agrama gymnoſophon labarem
- bacha bodamilomin
- Voluala barchin heman la
- lauoluola dramme pagloni
It is translated literally into Latin as:
- Utopus me dux ex non insula fecit insulam.
Una ego terrarum omnium abs-- philosophia
Civitatem philosophicam expressi mortalibus
Libenter impartio mea, non gravatim accipio meliora.[1]
This, in turn, is translated into English as follows:
- The commander Utopus made me, who was once not an island, into an island. I alone of all nations, without philosophy, have portrayed for mortals the philosophical city. Freely I impart my benefits; not unwillingly I accept whatever is better.[2]
Armed with these translations, it is possible to deduce the following vocabulary:
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Vocabulary of the Utopian Language Utopian English agrama city (cf. Sanskrit grāmam, village) baccan of all barchin I impart bargol one, the only boccas commander bodamilomin for the mortals chama island (ablative) chamaan island (accusative) dramme I accept gymnosophaon philosophy (ablative) gymnosophon[3] philosophical (accusative) ha me he I heman (that which is) mine la not lavoluola unwillingly (la + voluala) maglomi of the lands pagloni that which is better; better things peula not (ablative) polta made soma without Utopos Utopus (mythical founder of Utopia) voluala freely, willingly
More's text also contains Utopian "native" terms for Utopian concepts.
[edit] References
- ^ Copied from [1] (page 13).
- ^ More, Thomas (2002). in George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams (eds.): Utopia, Raymond Geuss and Quentin Skinner (series eds.), Revised Edition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 119. ISBN 0-521-81925-3 (hb); ISBN 0-521-52540-3 (pb).
- ^ Strangely enough, gymnosophos (acc. gymnosophon) literally means "knowing nudity" in Greek. Gymnosophist ("naked sophist") was the Greek name for Indian yogis.
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