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.
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, heŪtopus, dux, ūna, ego Accusative hā, chamāan, āgrama, gymnosophonmē, insulam, civitātem, philosophicam heman, paglōnimea, meliōra Ablative chama, gymnosophāoninsulā, philosophiā Dative bōdamilōminmortālibus Genitive māglōmi, baccanterrārum, 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, drammeimpartiō, accipiō Perfect labarembachaexpressī poltafēcit
Writing system Utopian has its own 22-letter alphabet, with letters based on the shapes of the circle, square, and triangle.Page 13 of the Basel 1518 edition of Utopia. 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: Word divisions are taken from the 1st edition of 1516. The 2nd edition of 1518 merges peu and la together as well as gymno and sophaon (in the latter case certainly correctly); it also separates labarembacha into labarem and bacha. The text in Utopian letters in the 1516 edition writes cama, camaan, and pafloni in place of chama, chamaan, and pagloni. These discrepancies were corrected in the 1518 edition; however, new errors were introduced, e.g. utoqos for utopos and spma for soma.
It is translated literally into Latin as: Copied from (page 13).
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.Ralph Robinson, a 16th-century translator, rendered the passage into English as follows (modernized spelling):
My king and conqueror Utopus by name A prince of much renown and immortal fame Hath made me an isle that erst no island was Full fraught with worldly wealth, with pleasure, and solace. I one of all other without philosophy Have shaped for man a philosophical city. As mine I am nothing dangerous to impart, So better to receive I am ready with all my heart.
Armed with these translations, it is possible to deduce the following vocabulary: {| class="wikitable" |+ 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 () is an unattested Greek adjective meaning "naked (and) wise." Gymnosophist was the Greek name for Indian yogis. || 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 and in the ConLang Code Registry.
References
External links ZX-Utopian - Free font with Utopian alphabet.