Uropi

Creator

After studying languages at the University of Orléans, then at the Sorbonne 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, the USSR, Vietnam and the West Indies, together with a passion for languages, led him to create Uropi.

Phonology

The Uropi alphabet has 24 letters, the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet 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".

Roots

Uropi roots 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. 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 Germanic 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.

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 and suffixes. 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 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 languages, 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 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 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 (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 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 have indicative, imperative and conditional moods, as well as a simple form, a durative (continuous) form and a perfect form.

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 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".