Uropi

Uropi
Created by	Joël Landais
Setting and usage	International auxiliary language
Purpose	Constructed language International auxiliary language A posteriori language naturalistic planned language(?) Uropi
Sources	based onIndo-European languages
Official status
Regulated by	Joël LandaisOfficial website
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None(mis)
Glottolog	None
IETF	art-x-uropi

Uropiis aconstructed languagewhich was created by Joël Landais, a French English teacher. Uropi is a synthesis of European languages, explicitly based on the commonIndo-European rootsand aims at being used as aninternational auxiliary languagefor Europe and thus contributing to building a European identity.

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.

Creator

Joël Landais,Uropi Kreator,creator of the auxlang Uropi.

After studying languages at theUniversity of Orléans,then at theSorbonneand at theÉcole Normale Supérieurein Paris, Joël Landais obtained theAgrégationdiploma in English. He speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish, German and has a working knowledge of modern Greek and Russian. Today, he teaches English in aChartrescollege. 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

Uropi Alpha bet

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
IPAphonemes	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 Alpha bet has 26 letters, the 26 letters of theISO Basic Latin Alpha betminus q, plus the letter ʒ, which comes from theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.Each letter corresponds to a sound and each sound to a letter.

All consonants are pronounced as in English except

• c =[ʃ],which is always pronounced assh
• 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 assin "pleasure, measure, leisure"
• r =[r],which is rolled as in Italian, Spanish orScottish
• s =[s],which is always pronounced assin "this" orssin "Boss '", and never asz.
• x =[x],used in foreign names,[1]
• y =[y],used in foreign names,[2]

Thevowelsa, e, i, o, uare pronounced as in Italian or Spanish:casa, solo, vino, luna, pepe.Stressnormally falls on themain root.For example, inapkebo= to behead, the stress falls onkeb= head. However some suffixes (such as-èlindicating an instrument) and the ending-ìfor the past are always stressed; when two or more suffixes are combined, the stress always falls on the penultimate suffix (the last but one). The stress is marked with a written accent (à è ì ò ù) on the stressed vowel when it falls on the last syllable. For example:kotèl, perì, fotò, menù= "knife, carried, photo, menu".

Vocabulary

Roots

Uropirootscan be divided into three categories:

Indo-European roots

First and foremost Uropi claims to be a way to recreate a unity betweenIndo-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 ismata(from Indo-European:mātēr*); sun issol(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. Thusmatacorresponds to Hindimata, solto Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Icelandic, and Scandinaviansol.

"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, inliamo,to love, theli-comes fromGermanicandSlaviclanguages (cfGermanliebenandRussianliubit), and the-am,fromLatin languages(amo, amare, amar); or inmand,hand, the ma- comes fromLatin languagesand the -and, fromGermanic languages(cfLatinmanusandGermanhand) This process is not so artificial as it seems at first sight: It has been observed in natural languages, for example, theFrenchhaut(high) comes from the crossing between old Fr.aut(from Latinaltus) andFrankishhōh.Likewise, the Englishislandcomes from the crossing of Old Englishīeġland(from Proto-Germanic*awjōlandą) and Old Frenchisle(from Latininsula).It has also been deliberately used in languages like English to form new words: "portmanteau-words ", for instance, the famous London" smog "comes from the crossing of '" smoke "and" fog ". Let us also mention the words 'franglais(Fr =français+anglais),denglisch(Ger. =Deutsch+Englisch),spanglish(US = Spanish + English). These "hybrid" words only account for 3% of Uropi vocabulary.

International words

Uropi also uses many words which are already "international", liketaksì, skol(school),bus, art, matc(match),polìz(police),simfonij(symphony), andtabàk(tobacco).

Compounds

As many otherconlangs,Uropi uses manycompounds,either combining two roots, or usingprefixesandsuffixes. Among the former, there are the following examples:lucitòr,"lighthouse", fromluc,"light" andtor,"tower"; or, withsopo,"to sleep",sopisàk,"sleeping-bag", orsopivagòn,"sleeper" (train).

There are also numerous examples of compounds built with prefixes or suffixes: for example withdavo,"to give",disdavo,"to distribute", can be formed; withtel,"goal, purpose",atelo,"end up in, come to", can be formed; withbreko,"to break", andus,"out",usbreko,"to break out", can be formed; withapel,"apple",aplar,"apple tree", andaplaria,"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 theetymologyof equivalent words in living European languages, have a more obscure, rather metaphorical meaning. Thus,ruspeko,literally "to look back", means "to respect"; orincepo,literally "to seize, to grasp inside", means "to understand" (reminiscent of "to grasp (a concept)" ).

Grammar

Substantives

Like some modernIndo-European languages,Uropi has a very limiteddeclensionwith only twocases:nominativeandgenitivein thesingularand theplural. Uropisubstantivesare divided into three groups: those ending in aconsonant,those ending in-aand those ending in anothervowel.

Among those ending in a consonant are allmasculinenouns,i.e.,nouns denoting men or male animals:man:"man";kat:"(tom)cat".

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".

Allfemininenouns,i.e.,nouns denoting women or female animals end in-a:ʒina:"woman";kata:"(she)cat". These nouns take an-sin the plural. The-abecomes-uin the genitive singular,-usin the genitive plural:gala, galas, galu, galus= "hen, hens, hen's, hens'".

All the other substantives are neuter: they can equally end with a consonant or with an-a:for example,tab:"table",ment:"mind", orteatra:"theatre",centra:"centre". They correspond to the neuter personal pronounje= "it".

The nouns ending with another vowel are essentially "international" words liketaksì, eurò, menù.They take an-sin the plural, but no specific mark in the genitive.

Adjectives

As in English, qualifyingadjectivesare invariable. They are placed before the noun they qualify. Some are "pure" adjectives:bun:"good";glen:"green",kurti:"short", others are derived from nouns. In this case, their form is identical to that of the genitive singular:mani:"manly, man's";ʒinu:feminine, "woman's".

A few quantitativeindefinite adjectiveswhich are alsopronounstake an-ein the plural:mol, mole= "much, many",poj, poje= "little, few",tal, tale= "every, all",ek, eke= "some, a few".

Pronouns

Personal pronounshave threecases:nominative,accusative(also used with allprepositions) anddative.Possessive adjectivesare used for thegenitive.As in English, there are three pronouns in the third person singular (masculine:he;feminine:ce;neuter:je) as well as areflexive pronoun.For example:i= "I" (nominative),ma= "me" (accusative),mo= "to me" (dative),tu, ta, to= "you", etc.

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

Uropiverbshaveindicative,imperativeandconditionalmoods, as well as a simple form, adurative(continuous) form and aperfectform.

• Except in theimperative,the verbal form remains the same whatever the person.
• Theinfinitiveending is-o:jedo:"to eat",sopo:"to sleep",avo:"to have".
• The form of thesimple presentis that of the radical:i jed:"I eat",tu sop:"you sleep".
• Thesimple pastis formed by adding a stressed-ì:i jedì:"I ate",he avì:"he had".
• To form thefutureyou use the particlevewith theinfinitive:i ve jedo:"I'll eat",ve tu sopo?:"will you sleep?"lu v'ne veno:"they won't come".
• Theconditionalis formed by adding-evto the stem:Is i sev fami, i jedev:"If I was (lit. would be) hungry, I would eat".
• Theperfectuses the auxiliaryavo:"to have" and the pastparticipleending in-en:i av jeden:I have eaten,ce av venen:"she has come".
• Thedurative(continuous) form uses the auxiliaryso:"to be" and the presentparticiple,ending in-an:i se jedan:"I'm eating",se he sopan?:"is he sleeping?'"
• Theimperative:jed, jede, jedem:"eat!" (singular/plural), "let's eat!"
• Thepassiveuses theauxiliaryvido:"to get, to become" and the pastparticiple: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. Ordinal numbersare formed by adding-ior-j(after a vowel):duj:"second";trij:"third",kweri:"fourth",pini:"fifth"; the exception ispri:"first".

Fractionsare formed by adding-tto numbers:u trit:"a third",u kwert:"a fourth, a quarter"; the exception ismij:"half".

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. Robert Louis Stevenson

See also

• Swadesh lists for auxlang(ru)

External links

• Official website
• Blog by the author of Uropi (in Uropi, French, English and sometimes other languages)
• Uropi featuresin theConlang Atlas of Language Structures.