Universal (Esperantido)
Encyclopedia
Universal is an Esperantido
, a constructed language
based on Esperanto
. Grammatically, it is one of the more interesting: It has inclusive and exclusive pronouns
, uses partial reduplication
for the plural (tablo "table", tatablo "tables"), and inversion for antonym
s (mega "big", gema "little"; donu "give", nodu "receive"; tela "far", leta "near"). Inversion can be seen in,
The antonyms are the pronouns al "he" and la "she", the ge- (completive) and eg- (inchoative) aspects, the verbs fin- "to finish" and nif- "to begin", and the verbs graf- "to write" and farg- "to read".
The Universal reduplicated plural and inverted antonyms are reminiscent of the musical language Solresol
.
is used with IPA values, with four additional IPA letters: ə, ʃ, ʒ, ŋ. The affricates are written ts, dz, tʃ,dʒ. The schwa <ə> is used to break up consonant clusters in compound words and the like.
A palatalized consonant
is marked with a hacek, a nasalized vowel with a tilde
: ã (among other things, nasalization marks the accusative case
; a long vowel by a circumflex
: â
If stress is not marked, it falls on the last non-schwa vowel preceding the last consonant of the word. Otherwise it is marked by an acute accent
: á.
As in Japanese, adjectives and verbs are a single part of speech in Universal. They have two forms, an attributive
form when they modify a noun like an adjective, and a predicative
form when they stand on their own to form a clause like a verb.
The predicative form is marked by the suffix -u: urbo megu "(the) city is big", lampo pendu "(the) lamp is hanging". On its own before a noun, this u is a copula: formiko u insekto "(the) ant is an insect". Tenses are optional. (See below.)
As in Esperanto, the attributive form is marked by the suffix -a: mega urbo "big city", penda lampo "hanging lamp". This a on its own is a preposition: podo a tablo "leg of a table", luso a deno "light of day, daylight". Nouns may instead be converted directly into attributives with the suffix -j-: denja luso "daylight".
Personal pronominal roots end in i, as in Esperanto, but inflect for number and gender as do nouns. (See below.) Possessives take the -j- that converts nominals to verbals as well as the attributive -a: mi "I", mija "my, mine"; vi "you", vija "your, yours"; al "he", alja "his"; la "she", laja "her, hers"; lo "it", loja "its", etc.
may be shown through reduplication
, usually partial: tatablo (or tablo-tablo) "tables", dendeno or dedeno "days", kloklora "of many colours", marmarʃu "walk repeatedly".
Tense is also optional, and may be used with verbs or nouns. The affix e indicates past tense
when prefixed (ebela "formerly beautiful", eʃefo "ex-boss"), but future tense
when suffixed and stressed (sanéa "healthy-to-be", urbéo "city-to-be"). The imperative
is marked by the prefix ʒ-, which often requires a schwa to break up consonant clusters: ʒədonu "give!", ʒəluso "let there be light".
Oblique case
(direct and indirect objects) may be marked by nasalisation of the final vowel of the noun and also of any attributives: ʒədonu zeã librõ "give this book!". This includes the conjunction o: ʒənifu õ grafu "start writing!".
Gender is optionally indicated by the prefixes al- for masculine (altigro "he-tiger", al-Dʒonson "Mr Johnson"), and la- for feminine (latigro "she-tiger", la-Dʒonson "Ms Johnso"). In a few words gender is marked by a, infix
ed before the last consonant for the masculine (tigar or tigaro "male tiger"), suffixed and stressed for the feminine (tigrá or tigráo "tigress"). Even verbs can be marked for gender, with the meaning of performing the action in a masculine or feminine way.
Personal pronouns take gender in a, and may drop their characteristic i ending when they do, just as nouns may drop their o:
and similarly with formal vi, av(i), va(i);
The latter forms use reduplication for plurality: alali "they" (masc.), lalai "they" (fem.).
As in the Semitic languages
, vocalic ablaut derives roots with related meanings, such as lina "long", lana "wide", and lona "tall", or valdo "forest", veldo "savannah", and vildo "steppe".
Inversion is used to create antonym
s, and is so characteristic of Universal that one of its creators jested that the language should be called "Inversal".
As in Esperanto, extensive compounding keeps the number of roots low; cf. simpatu "sympathise" and is partial inversion mispatu "be hostile". However, a number of frequent compounds are contracted into new roots: dennedo → dendo "day and night", evdeno → evdo "morning", evnedo → evno "evening", evzaro → evzo "spring", evrazo → evro "autumn".
The personal pronouns have somewhat irregular morphology. The bare roots are all singular:
The plurals are based on Esperanto ili "they":
Compounds are used to specify clusivity
:
(The base (singular) form of the second-person pronoun appears to be used in the compounds timi and vimi regardless of number. That is, no dual
–plural distinction is attested.)
Esperantido
Esperantido is the term used within the Esperanto and constructed language communities to describe a language project based on or inspired by Esperanto. Esperantido originally referred to the language of that name, which later came to be known as Ido. The word Esperantido is derived from Esperanto...
, a constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
based on Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
. Grammatically, it is one of the more interesting: It has inclusive and exclusive pronouns
Clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
, uses partial reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
for the plural (tablo "table", tatablo "tables"), and inversion for antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
s (mega "big", gema "little"; donu "give", nodu "receive"; tela "far", leta "near"). Inversion can be seen in,
-
- Al gefinu o fargu kaj la egnifu o grafu.
-
- He finished reading [lit. 'to read'] and she started to write.
The antonyms are the pronouns al "he" and la "she", the ge- (completive) and eg- (inchoative) aspects, the verbs fin- "to finish" and nif- "to begin", and the verbs graf- "to write" and farg- "to read".
The Universal reduplicated plural and inverted antonyms are reminiscent of the musical language Solresol
Solresol
Solresol is an artificial language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. He published his major book on it, Langue musicale universelle, in 1866, though he had already been publicizing it for some years...
.
Orthography
The Latin alphabetLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
is used with IPA values, with four additional IPA letters: ə, ʃ, ʒ, ŋ. The affricates are written ts, dz, tʃ,dʒ. The schwa <ə> is used to break up consonant clusters in compound words and the like.
A palatalized consonant
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
is marked with a hacek, a nasalized vowel with a tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
: ã (among other things, nasalization marks the accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
; a long vowel by a circumflex
Circumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
: â
If stress is not marked, it falls on the last non-schwa vowel preceding the last consonant of the word. Otherwise it is marked by an acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
: á.
Inflectional morphology
As in Esperanto, Universal nouns are marked by the suffix -o, which is elidable in certain cases. O by itself is a subordinating conjunction:- al gefinu o fargu kaj egnifu o grafu
- "he has finished reading and is beginning to write."
As in Japanese, adjectives and verbs are a single part of speech in Universal. They have two forms, an attributive
Attributive
In grammar, an attributive is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an:* attributive adjective* attributive noun* attributive verbor other part of speech....
form when they modify a noun like an adjective, and a predicative
Predicative
Predicative may mean:* Predicative * Predicative * Lacking impredicativity...
form when they stand on their own to form a clause like a verb.
The predicative form is marked by the suffix -u: urbo megu "(the) city is big", lampo pendu "(the) lamp is hanging". On its own before a noun, this u is a copula: formiko u insekto "(the) ant is an insect". Tenses are optional. (See below.)
As in Esperanto, the attributive form is marked by the suffix -a: mega urbo "big city", penda lampo "hanging lamp". This a on its own is a preposition: podo a tablo "leg of a table", luso a deno "light of day, daylight". Nouns may instead be converted directly into attributives with the suffix -j-: denja luso "daylight".
Personal pronominal roots end in i, as in Esperanto, but inflect for number and gender as do nouns. (See below.) Possessives take the -j- that converts nominals to verbals as well as the attributive -a: mi "I", mija "my, mine"; vi "you", vija "your, yours"; al "he", alja "his"; la "she", laja "her, hers"; lo "it", loja "its", etc.
Optional inflection
Plurality and pluractionalityPluractionality
Pluractionality, or verbal number, is a grammatical device that indicates that the action or participants of a verb are plural. This differs from frequentive or iterative aspects in that the latter have no implication for the number of participants of the verb.Often a pluractional transitive verb...
may be shown through reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
, usually partial: tatablo (or tablo-tablo) "tables", dendeno or dedeno "days", kloklora "of many colours", marmarʃu "walk repeatedly".
Tense is also optional, and may be used with verbs or nouns. The affix e indicates past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
when prefixed (ebela "formerly beautiful", eʃefo "ex-boss"), but future tense
Future tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
when suffixed and stressed (sanéa "healthy-to-be", urbéo "city-to-be"). The imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
is marked by the prefix ʒ-, which often requires a schwa to break up consonant clusters: ʒədonu "give!", ʒəluso "let there be light".
Oblique case
Oblique case
An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition...
(direct and indirect objects) may be marked by nasalisation of the final vowel of the noun and also of any attributives: ʒədonu zeã librõ "give this book!". This includes the conjunction o: ʒənifu õ grafu "start writing!".
Gender is optionally indicated by the prefixes al- for masculine (altigro "he-tiger", al-Dʒonson "Mr Johnson"), and la- for feminine (latigro "she-tiger", la-Dʒonson "Ms Johnso"). In a few words gender is marked by a, infix
Infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...
ed before the last consonant for the masculine (tigar or tigaro "male tiger"), suffixed and stressed for the feminine (tigrá or tigráo "tigress"). Even verbs can be marked for gender, with the meaning of performing the action in a masculine or feminine way.
Personal pronouns take gender in a, and may drop their characteristic i ending when they do, just as nouns may drop their o:
and similarly with formal vi, av(i), va(i);
The latter forms use reduplication for plurality: alali "they" (masc.), lalai "they" (fem.).
Derivational morphology
Some of the structure of Universal words is apparent at a glance, but cannot be easily extended to create new vocabulary.As in the Semitic languages
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
, vocalic ablaut derives roots with related meanings, such as lina "long", lana "wide", and lona "tall", or valdo "forest", veldo "savannah", and vildo "steppe".
Inversion is used to create antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
s, and is so characteristic of Universal that one of its creators jested that the language should be called "Inversal".
| mega | "big, great" | gema | "small" |
| donu | "give" | nodu | "receive" |
| za | "the" | az | "a, an" |
| tela | "far, distant" | leta | "near, close" |
| ponu | "put" | nopu | "take" |
| jen | "yes" | nej | "no" |
| bona | "good" | noba | "bad" |
| lisu | "speak" | silu | "be silent" |
| se | "if" | es | "unconditionally" |
| bela | "beautiful" | leba | "ugly" |
| ploru | "cry, weep" | lorpu | "laugh" |
| kon | "with" | nok' | "without" |
| masa | "mass, amassed" | sama | "lone, single" |
| grafu | "write" | fargu | "read" |
| do | "to, towards, till" | od | "from" |
| meza | "middle" | zema | "marginal" |
| merku | "sell" | kremu | "buy" |
| kaj | "likewise, and" | jak | "contrariwise, but" |
| nera | "black" | rena | "white" |
| produ | "produce" | dorpu | "consume" |
| al | (masculine) | la | (feminine) |
| stroju | "build" | jortsu | "destroy" |
| un | "one", singular | nu | "several", plural |
| zea | "this" | eza | "that" |
| deno | "day" | nedo | "night" |
| fino | "end" | nifo | "beginning" |
| zena | "the same" | neza | "other, another" |
| kozo | "reason, cause" | zoko | "consequence" |
| medo | "means" | demo | "goal" |
As in Esperanto, extensive compounding keeps the number of roots low; cf. simpatu "sympathise" and is partial inversion mispatu "be hostile". However, a number of frequent compounds are contracted into new roots: dennedo → dendo "day and night", evdeno → evdo "morning", evnedo → evno "evening", evzaro → evzo "spring", evrazo → evro "autumn".
The personal pronouns have somewhat irregular morphology. The bare roots are all singular:
- mi "I", ti "thou" (informal "you"), vi "you" (formal or honorific), li "he/she", and—through ablaut—lo "it" (inanimate).
The plurals are based on Esperanto ili "they":
- imi "we", iti "ye" (informal), ivi "you" (formal), ili "they".
Compounds are used to specify clusivity
Clusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
:
- mimi "we" (exclusive), timi "we" (inclusive informal: thou/ye & I), vimi "we" (inclusive formal: you & I).
(The base (singular) form of the second-person pronoun appears to be used in the compounds timi and vimi regardless of number. That is, no dual
Dual number
In linear algebra, the dual numbers extend the real numbers by adjoining one new element ε with the property ε2 = 0 . The collection of dual numbers forms a particular two-dimensional commutative unital associative algebra over the real numbers. Every dual number has the form z = a + bε with a and...
–plural distinction is attested.)