Uropi
Uropi | |
---|---|
Created by | Joël Landais |
Setting and usage | International auxiliary language |
Purpose | Constructed language
|
Sources | based on Indo-European languages |
Official status | |
Regulated by | Joël Landais Official website |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog | None |
IETF | art-x-uropi |
Uropi is a
Uropi was begun in 1986; since then, it has undergone certain modifications; its vocabulary keeps growing (the French-Uropi dictionary has over 10,000 words).
Uropi became known in Europe in the early 1990s.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Creator
After studying languages at the University of Orléans, then at the Sorbonne and at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Joël Landais obtained the Agrégation diploma in English. He speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish, German and has a working knowledge of modern Greek and Russian. Today, he teaches English in a Chartres college. Parallel to his training as a linguist, his travels throughout Europe, Senegal, the Maghreb, Egypt, Mexico, former USSR, Vietnam and the West Indies, together with a passion for languages, led him to create Uropi.
Orthography and phonology
Upper case
|
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Ʒ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lower case
|
a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | ʒ |
phonemes
|
a | b | ʃ | d
|
e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l
|
m | n
|
o | p | r
|
s | t
|
u | v | w | x | y | z | ʒ |
The Uropi alphabet has 26 letters, the 26 letters of the
All consonants are pronounced as in English except
- c = [ʃ], which is always pronounced as sh
- g = [g], which is always pronounced as in "give"
- j = [j], which is pronounced as y in "you" or "boy"
- ʒ = [ʒ] which is pronounced as s in "pleasure, measure, leisure"
- r = [r], which is rolled as in Italian, Spanish or Scottish
- s = [s], which is always pronounced as s in "this" or ss in "boss'", and never as z.
- x = [x], used in foreign names, [1]
- y = [y], used in foreign names, [2]
The
Vocabulary
Roots
Uropi roots can be divided into three categories:
Indo-European roots
First and foremost Uropi claims to be a way to recreate a unity between Indo-European languages. With this aim, a great many Uropi roots correspond to common Indo-European roots which have been simplified, in their pronunciation and length (very often Uropi roots have one or two syllables). Thus, mother is mata (from Indo-European: mātēr*); sun is sol (from Indo-European: sāwel*). This simplification corresponds to the natural evolution of Indo-European roots which have given birth to the words which are used today in modern I-E languages. Thus mata corresponds to Hindi mata, sol to Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Icelandic, and Scandinavian sol.
"Hybrid" roots
When there is no common Indo-European root or when there are several roots to express the same reality in various languages, Uropi may use "hybrid" words, crossing two different roots taken from different languages so as to create the most easily recognizable term for speakers of the greatest number of Indo-European languages. Thus, in liamo, to love, the li- comes from
International words
Uropi also uses many words which are already "international", like taksì, skol (school), bus, art, matc (match), polìz (police), simfonij (symphony), and tabàk (tobacco).
Compounds
As many other
There are also numerous examples of compounds built with prefixes or suffixes: for example with davo, "to give", disdavo, "to distribute", can be formed; with tel, "goal, purpose", atelo, "end up in, come to", can be formed; with breko, "to break", and us, "out", usbreko, "to break out", can be formed; with apel, "apple", aplar, "apple tree", and aplaria, "apple orchard", can be formed.
In most cases, those compounds reveal the roots and thus the meaning of the compound. However, some of those compounds, even if they follow the etymology of equivalent words in living European languages, have a more obscure, rather metaphorical meaning. Thus, ruspeko, literally "to look back", means "to respect"; or incepo, literally "to seize, to grasp inside", means "to understand" (reminiscent of "to grasp (a concept)").
Grammar
Substantives
Like some modern
. Uropi substantives are divided into three groups: those ending in a consonant, those ending in -a and those ending in another vowel.Among those ending in a consonant are all
Those nouns take an -e in the plural; the genitive singular is marked with an -i, and the genitive plural with -is: man, mane, mani, manis = "man, men, man's, men's".
All
All the other substantives are neuter: they can equally end with a consonant or with an -a: for example, tab: "table", ment: "mind", or teatra: "theatre", centra: "centre". They correspond to the neuter personal pronoun je = "it".
The nouns ending with another vowel are essentially "international" words like taksì, eurò, menù. They take an -s in the plural, but no specific mark in the genitive.
Adjectives
As in English, qualifying
A few quantitative
Pronouns
List of personal pronouns: i, tu, he, ce, je, nu, vu, lu = "I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural & polite form), they". Reflexive pronoun: sia = "oneself".
Verbs
Uropi
- Except in the imperative, the verbal form remains the same whatever the person.
- The infinitive ending is -o: jedo: "to eat", sopo: "to sleep", avo: "to have".
- The form of the simple present is that of the radical: i jed: "I eat", tu sop: "you sleep".
- The simple past is formed by adding a stressed -ì: i jedì: "I ate", he avì: "he had".
- To form the future you use the particle ve with the infinitive: i ve jedo: "I'll eat", ve tu sopo?: "will you sleep?" lu v'ne veno: "they won't come".
- The conditional is formed by adding -ev to the stem: Is i sev fami, i jedev: "If I was (lit. would be) hungry, I would eat".
- The perfect uses the auxiliary avo: "to have" and the past participle ending in -en: i av jeden: I have eaten, ce av venen: "she has come".
- The durative (continuous) form uses the auxiliary so: "to be" and the present participle, ending in -an: i se jedan: "I'm eating", se he sopan?: "is he sleeping?'"
- The imperative: jed, jede, jedem: "eat!" (singular/plural), "let's eat!"
- The passive uses the auxiliary vido: "to get, to become" and the past participle: De mus vid jeden pa de kat: "The mouse is eaten by the cat".
Numbers
1: un; 2: du; 3: tri; 4: kwer; 5: pin; 6: ses; 7: sep; 8: oc; 9: nev; 10: des; 100: sunte; 1000: tilie. 357: trisunte pindes-sep.
Example: "A Child's Thought", by R. L. Stevenson
U Men Kidi | A Child's Thought |
---|---|
Be sep, wan i it a led,
I find sul’ imaʒe in mi ment, Ki dragone valgan aròn kastele, Gardine wo un find maʒiki frute; Lovi damas in u tor inkarsen, O perlasen in u fost insaren; Wo galan kwalore rait su ber rijis We se de frontias da landi soinis. I find ja, sa klarim in mi ment Be sep, wan i it a led. Be sep, revos ma vekan De maʒiki land i cek in van; U sel se stan za wo stì de kastèl, De gardini bod wen u tapìz cel. Nun feja se vadan tra de plor, Bote, ne kwalore, se stan ner de dor, Id wo de blu rije sì flujan ki rikle Num u banar id vodikrùg je ste; I cek de maʒiki land in van Be sep, revos ma vekan. |
At seven, when I go to bed, I find such pictures in my head: Castles with dragons prowling round, Gardens where magic fruits are found; Fair ladies prisoned in a tower, Or lost in an enchanted bower; While gallant horsemen ride by streams That border all this land of dreams I find, so clearly in my head At seven, when I go to bed. At seven, when I wake again, The magic land I seek in vain; A chair stands where the castle frowned, The carpet hides the garden ground, No fairies trip across the floor, Boots, and not horsemen, flank the door, And where the blue streams rippling ran Is now a bath and water-can; I seek the magic land in vain At seven, when I wake again. |
See also
References
- ^ Ducos, Étienne, «Joël Landais invente la 251e langue», in Libération, October 16, 1986
- ^ Bremer, Hans-Hagen, «Vok vu Uropi: Ein Lehrer träumt nachts auf europäisch» in Frankfurter Rundschau, November 24, 1986
- ^ Долгополов, Николай, «Уроки Уропи» in Комсомольская Правда, November 21, 1987
- ^ Étienne Ducos, «Des lettres russes arrivent par centaines chez Joël Landais», in L'Écho républicain, December 15, 1987
- ^ Webster, Paul, «Uropi, the new lingua franca», in The Guardian Weekly, week of January 15, 1989
- ^ Singer, Enrico, «Uropi, una nuova lingua per l'Europa», in La Stampa, February 24, 1989
- ^ Tabone, Bénédicte, «L'Uropi n'est pas une utopie», in La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest, July 2, 1989
- ^ Author not mentioned, «Uropi, mehr als eine private Geheimsprache - Ein Chance in Europa» in Tagespost, October 28–29, 1989
- ^ Долгополов, Николай, «Мы снова говорим на разных языках» in Комсомольская Правда, April 29, 1990
- ^ Hrabovský, Jiří, «Vok vu Uròpi? Hovoříte po Evropsku?» in Svět v Obrazech, November 29, 1990
- ^ Tribout, Carole, «Les Suisses se penchent sur l'Uropi», in République du Centre, October 23, 1991
- ^ "1 - Generalities - Uropi Vordar id Gramatik". sites.google.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-09.
- ^ "island | Etymology, origin and meaning of island by etymonline". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2022-02-25.