Universalglot

Universalglot is an a posteriori international auxiliary language published by the French linguist Jean Pirro in 1868¹ in Tentative d'une langue universelle, Enseignement, grammaire, vocabulaire. Preceding Volapük by a decade and Esperanto by nearly 20 years, Universalglot has been called the first "complete auxiliary-language system based on the common elements in national languages". Pirro gave it more than 7,000 basic words and numerous prefixes, enabling the development of a very extensible vocabulary. In his book describing his own language project Novial, Otto Jespersen praised the language, writing that it is "one to which I constantly recur with the greatest admiration, because it embodies principles which were not recognized till much later". The magazine Cosmoglotta for the auxiliary language Interlingue (then known as Occidental) also praised the language in 1931 for its readability and analysis of international words (in particular the suffix -ion) and regretted that its creator had been forgotten in contrast with the creators of Esperanto and Volapük: Monuments have been erected to the glory of Zamenhof and the name Schleyer has been engraved in marble. Their precursor and master, Pirro, has been honored - with oblivion.

Universalglot is an a posteriori international auxiliary language published by the French linguist Jean Pirro in 1868 in Tentative d'une langue universelle, Enseignement, grammaire, vocabulaire. Preceding Volapük by a decade and Esperanto by nearly 20 years, Universalglot has been called the first "complete auxiliary-language system based on the common elements in national languages". Pirro gave it more than 7,000 basic words and numerous prefixes, enabling the development of a very extensible vocabulary. In his book describing his own language project Novial, Otto Jespersen praised the language, writing that it is "one to which I constantly recur with the greatest admiration, because it embodies principles which were not recognized till much later". The magazine Cosmoglotta for the auxiliary language Interlingue (then known as Occidental) also praised the language in 1931 for its readability and analysis of international words (in particular the suffix -ion) and regretted that its creator had been forgotten in contrast with the creators of Esperanto and Volapük: Monuments have been erected to the glory of Zamenhof and the name Schleyer has been engraved in marble. Their precursor and master, Pirro, has been honored - with oblivion.

Linguistic properties

Word classes

Nouns

Nouns (substantives) are invariable except for the feminine form, which is formed by using suffix -in e.g. kaval - 'horse', kavalin - 'mare'. All words can be used as nouns with the help of an article.

Adjectives

Adjectives like in English and unlike French, are completely invariable e.g. (singular): el old man, el old manin. e.g. (plural): Li old man, Li old manin. An adjective can be formed from any word, by adding suffix -il, e.g. dai 'day', daili 'daily', amen 'to love', amli 'lovable'. If several adjectives are derived from the same root, -li usually indicates something passive. So to mark an action, the ending -iv is used, e.g. akten 'to act', aktli 'doable', aktiv 'active'. 11=undec, 12=dudec, 13=tridec etc. 20=duta, 30=trita, etc. 21=dutaun, 22=dutadu, 23=dutatri etc. cent (100), mil (1000), milion (1,000,000) El prim (the first), el duli (the second), el trili (the third) etc. el ultim (the last) primlit (firstly), dulit (secondly), trilit (thirdly) etc. 1/2 = un midli, 3/4 = tri quatli Neither...nor = non... non, e.g. I habe non brod non vin (I have neither bread nor wine) to need, have to - deben Adjectives usually precede the noun "Of which, of whom; about which, about whom" is rendered as de ke, de kei, or ex ke, ex kei. You can form compound words, in which case the determiner word is always placed before the determined word, e.g. un not de bank/un banknot (a banknote). Lundai, Mardai, Erdai, Jovdai, Vendai, Samdai, Diodai = un septin Li mens (months): Januar, Februar, Mars, April, Mai, Juni, Juli, August, September, October, November, December = un jar

Examples of texts in Universalglot

Leter de grat (thankyou letter)

Konversatsion

Source: Ben dai, Meni senior, i ese inkanted reinkontra evos; i habe videt evos in London, e ditdai nos finde enos in Skotland. dikt me ex ke land vos ese. I habe perkursed el Holland, i habe visited seni principal citad, li Hollander ese molt amatli gent, ili ese mild e vorkli, lor konmerk ese molt extended, on finde Hollander in toti land e pertot ili ese amated e prised. Un ex enos ese ruser e du ese italier e el quatli ese deutsch; ma nos pote toti parlen insamel, den nos parle el universal glot. Si nos vile venten in nor hostel, vos etrai (va mangear) kon enos, vos findrai da un ben tabel e ben knmer, fir e ben bet.

Excerpt from Mamud e sen minister

„Ke Dio adkorde un lang viv ad el sultan Mamud; so lang ke il governe enos, nos manku nonk (nequende) ruined dorf. Ili kontinuated, dikted el visir in terment (in fine), goderant se per el desolatsion, ke, kom ili pretende, propagate se mer e mer jed dai. Ma, kom tu varted, i viled non resten mer lang, den i denked tu poted esen anpatant (impatient) e tu vise (tu save) kom i trepide anplesen (desplacer) te. El stori dikted, ke el sultan esed exmoved per dit fabel, ke il rekonstrukted li citad e dorf; redukted el tribut, ex ke el land esed uperladed (supercargut); e, ex dit temp, il konsulted ei ben de sen popel."

References

External links

Essai d'une langue universelle, par MM. Pirro et L. A. (French; dictionary includes English)

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364150712 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.