Uropi is a

constructed language A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...

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 An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primarily a ...

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 The University of Orléans () is a French university, in the Academy of Orléans and Tours. As of July 2015 it is a member of the regional university association Leonardo da Vinci consolidated University. History In 1230, when for a time the ...

, then at the Sorbonne and at the ''École Normale Supérieure'' in Paris, Joël Landais obtained the

Agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

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 () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

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 u ...

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 standard written 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 speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

''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".

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 focusin ...

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 northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

. 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 ''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 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, ...

s (cf

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''manus'' and German ''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 ''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 In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

-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'' + ''Englisch''), ''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 A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

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 and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

. 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 ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

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 an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...

with only two cases:

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...

and

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

in the

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...

and the

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

. 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, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

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

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

. Among those ending in a consonant are all

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some beh ...

nouns In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an object or subject within a phrase, clause, or sentence.Example n ...

, ''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 Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

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 An adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, ...

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 In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...

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 Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different for ...

have three cases:

accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive 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", " ...

(also used with all

prepositions Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...

) and

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...

. Possessive adjectives are used for the

. 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 that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic fo ...

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 sentence Dec ...

, imperative and conditional moods, as well as a simple form, a durative (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 that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...

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 addit ...

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

simple past The simple past, past simple, or past indefinite, in English equivalent to 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 E ...

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

future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ex ...

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 (; abbr. ) 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 a verb and used as an adject ...

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

, 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 ...

uses the

auxiliary Auxiliary may refer to: In language * Auxiliary language (disambiguation) * Auxiliary verb In military and law enforcement * Auxiliary police * Auxiliaries, civilians or quasi-military personnel who provide support of some kind to a military se ...

''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 leas ...

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 , "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-fifths, thre ...

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