Utopian language

Infobox Language
name=Utopian
region=New World
familycolor=#000000
script=Utopian alphabet
nation=Utopia
creator=Peter Giles
date=
setting=Utopia (book)
posteriori=Persian, with influence of Greek and Latin
notice=nonotice

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.

Classification

Phonology

Utopian seems to be pronounced just like the Latin of Thomas More's time, that is to say, using Ecclesiastical pronunciation.

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.

yntax

The usual word order is SVO, as in English, and even the Latin of Thomas More's time.

Writing system

Utopian is written with the Utopian alphabet.

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." [Copied from [http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/more/utopia/] (page 13).]

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. [cite book|last=More|first=Thomas|editor=George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams (eds.)|others=Raymond Geuss and Quentin Skinner (series eds.)|title=Utopia|edition=Revised Edition|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|pages=119|id=ISBN 0-521-81925-3 (hb); ISBN 0-521-52540-3 (pb)]

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

More's text also contains Utopian "native" terms for Utopian concepts.

References