Uropi is a

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...

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 international auxiliary language for 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

After studying languages at the University of Orléans, then at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and at the ''École 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, former USSR, Vietnam and the West Indies, together with a passion for languages, led him to create Uropi.

Orthography and phonology

The Uropi alphabet has 26 letters, the 26 letters of the

ISO Basic Latin alphabet The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard (beginning with ISO/IEC 646) for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets (uppercase and lowercase) of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and ...

minus q, plus the letter ʒ, which comes from the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

. 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 Italian, Spanish or Scottish * s = , which is always pronounced as ''s'' in "this" or ''ss'' in "boss'", and never as ''z''. * x = , used in foreign names

* y = , used in foreign names

The

vowels A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

''a, e, i, o, u'' are pronounced as in Italian or Spanish: ''casa, solo, vino, luna, pepe''.

Stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

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".

Vocabulary

Roots

Uropi

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

can be divided into three categories:

Indo-European roots

First and foremost Uropi claims to be a way to recreate a unity between

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

. 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, Portuguese, Galician, Icelandic, 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 Germanic and Slavic languages (cf

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

''lieben'' and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

''liubit''), and the ''-am'', from

Latin languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

(''amo, amare, amar''); or in ''mand'', hand, the ma- comes from

and the -and, from

Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

s (cf

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''manus'' and

''hand'') 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 Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

''hōh''. Likewise, the English ''island'' comes from the crossing of Old English ''īeġland'' (from Proto-Germanic ''*awjōlandą'') and Old French ''isle'' (from Latin ''insula'')''.'' It has also been deliberately used in languages like English to form new words: "

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

International words

Uropi also uses many words which are already "international", like ''taksì, skol'' (school), ''bus, art, matc'' (match), ''polìz'' (police), ''simfonij'' (symphony), and ''tabàk'' (tobacco).

Compounds

As many other conlangs, Uropi uses many compounds, either combining two roots, or using

prefixes A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

and

suffixes In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...

. Among the former, there are the following examples: ''lucitòr'', "lighthouse", from ''luc'', "light" and ''tor'', "tower"; or, with ''sopo'', "to sleep", ''sopisàk'', "sleeping-bag", or ''sopivagòn'', "sleeper" (train). There are also numerous examples of compounds built with prefixes or suffixes: for example with ''davo'', "to give", ''disdavo'', "to distribute", can be formed; with ''tel'', "goal, purpose", ''atelo'', "end up in, come to", can be formed; with ''breko'', "to break", and ''us'', "out", ''usbreko'', "to break out", can be formed; with ''apel'', "apple", ''aplar'', "apple tree", and ''aplaria'', "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 the

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

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" (reminiscent of "to grasp (a concept)").

Grammar

Substantives

Like some modern

, Uropi has a very limited

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...

with only two cases: nominative and genitive in the singular and the

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

. Uropi substantives are divided into three groups: those ending in a

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

, those ending in ''-a'' and those ending in another

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

. Among those ending in a consonant are all masculine

nouns A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

, ''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 example, ''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 In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...

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 which are also pronouns take an ''-e'' in the plural: ''mol, mole'' = "much, many", ''poj, poje'' = "little, few", ''tal, tale'' = "every, all", ''ek, eke'' = "some, a few".

Pronouns

Personal pronouns have three cases: nominative,

accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...

(also used with all

prepositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

) and dative.

Possessive adjectives Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...

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 A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence. In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...

. 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

Uropi

verbs A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...

have

indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...

, imperative and conditional moods, as well as a simple form, a

durative The delimitative aspect is a grammatical aspect that indicates that a situation lasts only a certain amount of time.Stephen Dickey. 2007. "A prototype account of the development of delimitative ''po-'' in Russian". In Dagmar Divjak and Agata Kochań ...

(continuous) form and a perfect form. * Except in the imperative, the verbal form remains the same whatever the person. * The

infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...

ending is ''-o'': ''jedo'': "to eat", ''sopo'': "to sleep", ''avo'': "to have". * The form of the

simple present The simple present, present simple or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes certain information about aspect in addition ...

is that of the radical: ''i jed'': "I eat", ''tu sop'': "you sleep". * The

simple past The simple past, past simple or past indefinite, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular English ...

is formed by adding a stressed ''-ì'': ''i jedì'': "I ate", ''he avì'': "he had". * To form the future you use the particle ''ve'' with the

: ''i ve jedo'': "I'll eat", ''ve tu sopo?'': "will you sleep?" ''lu v'ne veno'': "they won't come". * The conditional 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

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

ending in ''-en'': ''i av jeden'': I have eaten, ''ce av venen'': "she has come". * The

(''continuous'') form uses the auxiliary ''so'': "to be" and the present

, ending in ''-an'': ''i se jedan'': "I'm eating", ''se he sopan?'': "is he sleeping?'" * The imperative: ''jed, jede, jedem'': "eat!" (singular/plural), "let's eat!" * The

passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...

uses the

auxiliary Auxiliary may refer to: * A backup site or system In language * Auxiliary language (disambiguation) * Auxiliary verb In military and law enforcement * Auxiliary police * Auxiliaries, civilians or quasi-military personnel who provide support of ...

''vido'': "to get, to become" and the past

: ''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 In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is a generalization of ordinal numerals (first, second, th, etc.) aimed to extend enumeration to infinite sets. A finite set can be enumerated by successively labeling each element with the least ...

are formed by adding ''-i'' or ''-j'' (after a vowel): ''duj'': "second"; ''trij'': "third", ''kweri'': "fourth", ''pini'': "fifth"; the exception is ''pri'': "first".

Fractions A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...

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

References

External links

*
Blog by the author of Uropi (in Uropi, French, English and sometimes other languages)

Uropi features
in the

Conlang Atlas of Language Structures A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

. {{Constructed languages International auxiliary languages Constructed languages introduced in the 1980s 1986 introductions Constructed languages