Uropi
Encyclopedia
Uropi is a constructed language
which was created by Joël Landais, a French English teacher. Uropi is a synthesis of European languages, explicitly based on the common Indo-European roots and aims at being used as an auxiliary language for Europe
and thus contributing to building a European identity. Besides, given the spread of Indo-European languages
outside Europe (today half the world population speaks an I-E language), Uropi can also be considered as an international auxiliary language
.
Uropi was initiated in 1983; 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 '90s.
University, then at the Sorbonne
and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris
, Joël Landais obtained the Agrégation
diploma in English. He speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish, German and has a working knowledge of modern Greek and Russian… Today, he teaches English in a Chartres
college. Parallel to his training as a linguist, his travels throughout Europe, Senegal, the Maghreb, Egypt, Mexico, the USSR, Vietnam and the West Indies, together with a passion for languages, led him to create Uropi, on which he has been working for over 30 years.
minus q, x and y, plus the letter ʒ, which comes from the International Phonetic Alphabet
. Each letter corresponds to a sound and each sound to a letter.
All consonants are pronounced as in English except
The vowels a, e, i, o, u are pronounced as in Italian or Spanish: casa, solo, vino, luna, pepe. Stress
normally falls on the main root
. For example in apkebo = to behead, the stress falls on keb = head. However some suffixes (such as -èl indicating an instrument) and the ending -ì for 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.
. 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 is mata (from Indo-European: mātēr*); sun is sol (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. Thus mata corresponds to hindi mata, sol to Spanish and Scandinavian sol.
and Slavic
languages (cf German
lieben and Russian
liubit'), and the -am, from Latin languages (amo, amare, amar); or in mand, hand, the ma- comes from Latin languages and the -and, from Germanic languages. This process is not so artificial as it seems at first sight: It has been observed in natural languages, for example, the French
haut (high) comes from the crossing between old Fr. aut (from Latin altus) and Frankish
hōh. 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 + english), spanglish (US = spanish + english). These "hybrid" words only account for 3% of Uropi vocabulary.
, either combining two roots, or using prefixes and suffixes.
Among the former, we can give the following examples: lucitòr, lighthouse, from luc, light and tor, tower; or, with sopo, to sleep, sopisàk, sleeping-bag, or sopivagòn, sleeper (train).
We can also give numerous examples of compounds built with prefixes or suffixes: for ex. with davo, to give, you can form disdavo, to distribute; with tel, goal, purpose, you can form atelo, end up in, come to; with breko, to break, and us, out, you can form usbreko, to break out; with apel, apple, you can form aplar, apple-tree, and aplaria, apple orchard.
In most cases, it's very easy when you read or hear those compounds to find the roots and thus the meaning of the compound. However, some of those compounds, even if they follow the etymology
of equivalent words in living European languages, have a more obscure, rather metaphorical meaning. Thus, ruspeko, literally to look back, means to respect; or incepo, literally to seize, to grasp inside, means to understand.
, Uropi has a very limited declension
with only two cases
: nominative and genitive in the singular
and the plural
.
Uropi substantives
are divided into three groups: those ending in a consonant
, those ending in -a and those ending in another vowel
.
Among those ending in a consonant
, we find all masculine nouns, 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.
All feminine nouns, i.e. nouns denoting women or female animals end in -a: ʒina: woman; kata: (she)cat. These nouns take an -s in the plural. The -a becomes -u in the genitive singular, -us in 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 ex: tab: table, ment: mind, or teatra: theatre, centra: centre. They correspond to the neuter personal pronoun je = it.
The nouns ending with another vowel are essentially "international" words like: taksì, eurò, menù. They take an -s in the plural, but no specific mark in the genitive.
A few quantitative indefinite adjectives
which are also pronouns take an -e in the plural: mol, mole = much, many, poj, poje = litlle, few, tal, tale = every, all, ek, eke = some, a few.
: nominative, accusative (also used with all prepositions) and dative
. Possessive adjectives are used for the genitive. As in English, there are three pronouns in the third person singular (masculine: he; feminine: ce; neuter
: je) as well as a reflexive pronoun
. For ex: 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.
and conditional
moods, as well as a simple form, a durative (continuous) form and a perfect form.
Ordinal numbers
are formed by adding -i or -j (after a vowel): duj: second; trij: third, kweri: fourth, pini: fifth; the exception is pri: first.
Fractions
are formed by adding -t to numbers: u trit: a third, u kwert: a fourth, a quarter; the exception is mij: half.
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...
which was created by Joël Landais, a French English teacher. Uropi is a synthesis of European languages, explicitly based on the common Indo-European roots and aims at being used as an auxiliary language for Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and thus contributing to building a European identity. Besides, given the spread of Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
outside Europe (today half the world population speaks an I-E language), Uropi can also be considered as an international auxiliary language
International auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language...
.
Uropi was initiated in 1983; 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 '90s.
Author
After studying languages at OrleansOrléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
University, then at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Joël Landais obtained the Agrégation
Agrégation
In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...
diploma in English. He speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish, German and has a working knowledge of modern Greek and Russian… Today, he teaches English in a Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
college. Parallel to his training as a linguist, his travels throughout Europe, Senegal, the Maghreb, Egypt, Mexico, the USSR, Vietnam and the West Indies, together with a passion for languages, led him to create Uropi, on which he has been working for over 30 years.
Pronunciation
The Uropi alphabet has 24 letters, the 26 letters of 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...
minus q, x and y, plus the letter ʒ, which comes from the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
. Each letter corresponds to a sound and each sound to a letter.
All consonants are pronounced as in English except
- c which is always pronounced as sh
- g which is always pronounced as in give
- j which is pronounced as y in you or boy
- ʒ which is pronounced as s in pleasure, measure, leisure
- r which is rolled as in ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
or ScottishScottish EnglishScottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not be considered distinct from the Scots language. It is always considered distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language.... - s which is always pronounced as s in this or ss in boss, and never as z.
The vowels a, e, i, o, u are pronounced as in Italian or Spanish: casa, solo, vino, luna, pepe. Stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
normally falls on the main root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
. For example in apkebo = to behead, the stress falls on keb = head. However some suffixes (such as -èl indicating an instrument) and the ending -ì for 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.
Indo-European Roots
First and foremost Uropi claims to be a way to recreate a unity between Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
. 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 is mata (from Indo-European: mātēr*); sun is sol (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. Thus mata corresponds to hindi mata, sol to Spanish and Scandinavian sol.
"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, in liamo, to love, the li-' comes from GermanicGermanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
and Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
languages (cf German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
lieben and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
liubit'), and the -am, from Latin languages (amo, amare, amar); or in mand, hand, the ma- comes from Latin languages and the -and, from Germanic languages. This process is not so artificial as it seems at first sight: It has been observed in natural languages, for example, the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
haut (high) comes from the crossing between old Fr. aut (from Latin altus) and Frankish
Old Frankish
Old Frankish is an extinct West Germanic language, once spoken by the Franks. It is the parent language of the Franconian languages, of which Dutch and Afrikaans are the most known descendants...
hōh. It has also been deliberately used in languages like English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to form new words: "portmanteau-words", for instance, the famous London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
smog comes from the crossing of smoke and fog. Let us also mention the words 'franglais (Fr = français + anglais), denglisch (Ger. = deutsch + english), 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", like taksì, skol (school), bus, art, matc (match), polìz (police), simfonij (symphony), tabàk (tobacco), etc…Compounds
As many other conlangs, Uropi uses many compoundsCompound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
, either combining two roots, or using prefixes and suffixes.
Among the former, we can give the following examples: lucitòr, lighthouse, from luc, light and tor, tower; or, with sopo, to sleep, sopisàk, sleeping-bag, or sopivagòn, sleeper (train).
We can also give numerous examples of compounds built with prefixes or suffixes: for ex. with davo, to give, you can form disdavo, to distribute; with tel, goal, purpose, you can form atelo, end up in, come to; with breko, to break, and us, out, you can form usbreko, to break out; with apel, apple, you can form aplar, apple-tree, and aplaria, apple orchard.
In most cases, it's very easy when you read or hear those compounds to find the roots and thus the meaning of the compound. However, some of those compounds, even if they follow the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of equivalent words in living European languages, have a more obscure, rather metaphorical meaning. Thus, ruspeko, literally to look back, means to respect; or incepo, literally to seize, to grasp inside, means to understand.
Substantives
Like some modern Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, Uropi has a very limited declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
with only two cases
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
: nominative and genitive in the singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
and the plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
.
Uropi substantives
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
are divided into three groups: those ending in a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
, those ending in -a and those ending in another vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
.
Among those ending in a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
, we find all masculine nouns, 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.
All feminine nouns, i.e. nouns denoting women or female animals end in -a: ʒina: woman; kata: (she)cat. These nouns take an -s in the plural. The -a becomes -u in the genitive singular, -us in 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 ex: tab: table, ment: mind, or teatra: theatre, centra: centre. They correspond to the neuter personal pronoun je = it.
The nouns ending with another vowel are essentially "international" words like: taksì, eurò, menù. They take an -s in the plural, but no specific mark in the genitive.
Adjectives
As in English, qualifying adjectives are 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 quantitative indefinite adjectives
Quantification
Quantification has several distinct senses. In mathematics and empirical science, it is the act of counting and measuring that maps human sense observations and experiences into members of some set of numbers. Quantification in this sense is fundamental to the scientific method.In logic,...
which are also pronouns take an -e in the plural: mol, mole = much, many, poj, poje = litlle, few, tal, tale = every, all, ek, eke = some, a few.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns have three casesGrammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
: nominative, accusative (also used with all prepositions) and dative
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
. Possessive adjectives are used for the genitive. As in English, there are three pronouns in the third person singular (masculine: he; feminine: ce; neuter
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
: je) as well as a reflexive pronoun
Reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent...
. For ex: 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
Uropi verbs have indicative, imperativeImperative 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 :...
and conditional
Conditional mood
In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
moods, as well as a simple form, a durative (continuous) form and a perfect form.
- Except in the imperativeImperative moodThe 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 :...
, the verbal form remains the same whatever the person. - The infinitiveInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
ending is -o : jedo: to eat, sopo: to sleep, avo: to have. - The form of the simple presentPresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
is that of the radical: i jed: I eat, tu sop: you sleep. - The simple pastPreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
is formed by adding a stressed -ì : i jedì: I ate, he avì: he had. - To form the futureFuture tenseIn 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,...
you use the particle ve with the infinitiveInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
: i ve jedo: I'll eat, ve tu sopo?: will you sleep? lu v'ne veno: they won't come. - The conditionalConditional moodIn linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
is formed by adding -ev to the stem: Is i sev fami, i jedev: If I was (lit. would be) hungry, I would eat. - The perfect uses the auxiliary avo: to have and the past participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
ending in -en: i av jeden: I have eaten, ce av venen: she has come. - The durative (continuous) form uses the auxiliary so: to be and the present participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
, ending in -an: i se jedan: I'm eating, se he sopan? is he sleeping?. - The imperativeImperative moodThe 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 :...
: jed, jede, jedem: eat! (singular/plural), let's eat!. - The passivePassive voicePassive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
uses the auxiliaryAuxiliary verbIn linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
vido: to get, to become and the past participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
: 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 numbers
Ordinal number (linguistics)
In linguistics, ordinal numbers are the words representing the rank of a number with respect to some order, in particular order or position . Its use may refer to size, importance, chronology, etc...
are formed by adding -i or -j (after a vowel): duj: second; trij: third, kweri: fourth, pini: fifth; the exception is pri: first.
Fractions
Fraction (mathematics)
A fraction represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, we specify how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, five-eighths and three-quarters.A common or "vulgar" fraction, such as 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, etc., consists...
are formed by adding -t to numbers: u trit: a third, u kwert: a fourth, a quarter; the exception is mij: 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 Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.... |
External links
- Blog by the author of Uropi (in Uropi, French, English and sometimes other languages)
- http://www.auxlang.org/articles/view.php?id=84&action=grammatica-essential-de-uropi-scrit-in-angleseWebsite with an introduction into Uropi grammar and a list of 700 words with translations in a few languages, by a speaker of OccidentalOccidental languageThe language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl and published in 1922....
] - Uropi.wikia.com