Utopian language

The Utopian language is the constructed language of the fictional land of Utopia. It is found in an addendum to Thomas More's Utopia, written by his good friend Peter Giles.

Classification

Phonology

Utopian seems to be pronounced just like the Latin of Thomas More's time, that is to say, using Ecclesiastical pronunciation.

Grammar

The grammar of the Utopian language seems to be very similar to that of Latin and Greek.

Morphology

The available corpus of Utopian texts allows us to identify at least three cases for nouns (nominative, accusative, and ablative), and at least two tenses for verbs (present and past). It is likely, however, that Utopian nouns have all six cases found in Latin, and verbs also have a future tense, if not others as well.

Syntax

The usual word order is SVO, as in English, and even the Latin of Thomas More's time.

Writing system

Utopian is written with the Utopian alphabet.

History

Examples

The only extant text in Utopian is a quatrain written by Peter Giles in an addendum to Utopia:

Vtopos ha Boccas peula chama

polta chamaan

Bargol he maglomi baccan

ſoma gymnoſophaon

Agrama gymnoſophon labarem

bacha bodamilomin

Voluala barchin heman la

lauoluola dramme pagloni

It is translated literally into Latin as:

Utopus me dux ex non insula fecit insulam.
Una ego terrarum omnium abs-- philosophia
Civitatem philosophicam expressi mortalibus
Libenter impartio mea, non gravatim accipio meliora.

This, in turn, is translated into English as follows:

The commander Utopus made me, who was once not an island, into an 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.

Armed with these translations, it is possible to deduce the following vocabulary:

Vocabulary of the Utopian Language
Utopian	English
agrama	city (cf. Sanskrit grāmam, village)
baccan	of all
barchin	I impart
bargol	one, the only
boccas	commander
bodamilomin	for the mortals
chama	island (ablative)
chamaan	island (accusative)
dramme	I accept
gymnosophaon	philosophy (ablative)
gymnosophon	philosophical (accusative)
ha	me
he	I
heman	(that which is) mine
la	not
lavoluola	unwillingly (la + voluala)
maglomi	of the lands
pagloni	that which is better; better things
peula	not (ablative)
polta	made
soma	without
Utopos	Utopus (mythical founder of Utopia)
voluala	freely, willingly