Utopian language

Utopian
Created by Thomas More, Peter Giles
Date created 1516
Category (purpose)
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 639-3 –

The Utopian language is the language of the fictional land of Utopia, as described in Thomas More's Utopia. A brief sample of the constructed language is found in an addendum to More's book, written by his good friend Peter Giles. Pretending to be factual, the book does not name the creator of the language; both More and Giles have been alternately credited, with Giles often thought to have designed the alphabet.

Contents

Classification

Phonology

Utopian seems to be pronounced just like Ecclesiastical Latin (the dominant form of Latin in Thomas More's time).

Grammar

The grammar of the Utopian language seems to be very similar to that of Latin and Greek.

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.

Syntax

The usual word order is SVO, as in English and generally in Ecclesiastical Latin.

Writing system

Utopian has its own alphabet, with vaguely geometrical letters.[1]

History

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.[2]

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.[3]

Armed with these translations, it is possible to deduce the following vocabulary:

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[4] 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.

References

  1. ^ Page 13 of the Basel 1518 edition of Utopia.
  2. ^ Copied from [1] (page 13).
  3. ^ More, Thomas (2002). George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams (eds.). ed. Utopia. Raymond Geuss and Quentin Skinner (series eds.) (Revised Edition ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 119. ISBN 0-521-81925-3 (hb); ISBN 0-521-52540-3 (pb). 
  4. ^ Strangely enough, gymnosophos (acc. gymnosophon) literally means "knowing nudity" in Greek. Gymnosophist ("naked sophist") was the Greek name for Indian yogis.

External links