Utopian language
Fictional language in Thomas More's book
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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 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.
- Utopian
| Utopian | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Thomas More, Pieter Gillis |
| Date | 1516 |
| Setting and usage | Utopia (book) |
| Purpose | Constructed language
|
| Utopian alphabet | |
| Sources | Influenced by Greek, Latin, and Hebrew |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Utopia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | art-x-utopian (unofficial)[1] |
Grammar
Although some words in Utopian show different forms corresponding to different cases in the Latin translation, there is no evidence of a consistent relationship between form and meaning, as can be seen from the following comparison of the nominal, pronominal, and adjectival case forms:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Vtopos, Boccas, bargol, he Ūtopus, dux, ūna, ego | |
| Accusative | hā, chamāan, āgrama, gymnosophon mē, insulam, civitātem, philosophicam | heman, paglōni mea, meliōra |
| Ablative | chama, gymnosophāon insulā, philosophiā | |
| Dative | bōdamilōmin mortālibus | |
| Genitive | māglōmi, baccan terrārum, omnium |
There are only four verbs in the Utopian poem, and these also show no evidence of a correspondence between form and function:
| 1st person | 3rd person | |
|---|---|---|
| Present | barchin, dramme impartiō, accipiō | |
| Perfect | labarembacha expressī | polta fēcit |
Writing system
Utopian has its own 22-letter alphabet, with letters based on the shapes of the circle, square, and triangle.[2] These correspond almost exactly to the 23-letter Roman alphabet used in the 16th century, lacking only z. The letters f, k, q, and x, though assigned Utopian equivalents, do not occur in the given text. There are several errors in the text (for example, the first word is given as utopos in Latin script, but as similar-looking stoqos in Utopian script).
Examples
The only extant text in Utopian is a quatrain written by Peter Giles in an addendum to Utopia:
- Vtopos ha Boccas peu la chama polta chamaan.
Bargol he maglomi baccan ſoma gymno ſophaon.
Agrama gymnoſophon labarembacha bodamilomin.
Voluala barchin heman la lauoluola dramme pagloni.[3]
It is translated literally into Latin as:
- Vtopus me dux ex non insula fecit insulam.
Vna ego terrarum omnium absque philosophia
Ciuitatem philosophicam expressi mortalibus
Libenter impartio mea, non grauatim accipio meliora.[4]
This, in turn, is translated into English as follows:
- The commander Utopus made me into an island out of a non-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.[5][6]
Armed with these translations, it is possible to deduce the following vocabulary:
Vocabulary of the Utopian Language Utopian Latin English agrama ciuitatem city (accusative; cf. Sanskrit grāmam, village) baccan omnium of all barchin impartio I impart bargol una one, the only boccas dux commander bodamilomin mortalibus for the mortals chama insulā from (the/an) island (ablative) chamaan insulam island (accusative) dramme accipio I receive gymnosophaon philosophiā from philosophy (ablative) gymnosophon[7] philosophicam philosophical (accusative) ha me me he ego I heman mea (those which are) mine la non not larembacha expressi I have represented (perfect) lauoluola grauatim unwillingly (la + voluala) maglomi terrarum of the lands pagloni meliora those which are better; better things peu ex from, out of polta fecit (he) has made (perfect) soma absque without uoluala libenter freely, willingly Vtopos Vtopus Utopus (mythical founder of Utopia)
In accordance with 16th-century typographical custom, the letters V and u are a casing pair, not distinct letters: V was the capital form and u the lower case. V~u represented a consonant or vowel depending on position, similar to y in modern English (e.g. nymph vs yellow). Analysis of the metre of the verse shows that the reader was expected to read Vtopos as 'Utopos', uoluala as 'volvala' and lauoluola as 'lavolvola'.
More's text also contains Utopian "native" terms for Utopian concepts.
Utopian has been assigned the codes qto and art-x-utopian in the ConLang Code Registry.[1]