Utopian language

Utopian
Utopian
Created by	Thomas More, Peter Giles
Date	1516
Setting and usage	Utopia (book)
Purpose	Constructed language Utopian;
Writing system	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)

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, 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

The Utopian quatrain and its Latin translation in the 1518 edition of *Utopia*

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]

References

^ ^a ^b Bettencourt, Rebecca G. "ConLang Code Registry". www.kreativekorp.com. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
^ Page 13 of the Basel 1518 edition of Utopia.
^ Word divisions are taken from the 1st edition of 1516.[1] 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.
^ Copied from [2] (page 13).
^ More, Thomas (2002). George M. Logan; Robert M. Adams; Raymond Geuss; Quentin Skinner (eds.). Utopia (Revised ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 119. ISBN 0-521-81925-3.
^ 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. [3]
^ Gymnosophos (γυμνόσοφος) is an unattested Greek adjective meaning "naked (and) wise." Gymnosophist was the Greek name for Indian yogis.