science

Tutonish

Tutonish is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tutonish rather than just read about it. In short: Tutonish (also called Teutonish, Teutonik, Allteutonish, Altutonish, Alteutonik, Nu Teutonish, Niu Teutonish, or Neuteutonish) is a constructed language created by Elias Molee. He worked on it for several years, and he reformed it multiple times, in 1906 under the name nu teutonish, in 1911 under the name altutonish and in 1915 under the name alteutonik.

Key takeaways

Tutonish belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tutonish to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tutonish from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tutonish (also called Teutonish, Teutonik, Allteutonish, Altutonish, Alteutonik, Nu Teutonish, Niu Teutonish, or Neuteutonish) is a constructed language created by Elias Molee. He worked on it for several years, and he reformed it multiple times, in 1906 under the name nu teutonish, in 1911 under the name altutonish and in 1915 under the name alteutonik. It is known to be the first Pan-Germanic language. In creating it, Molee was clearly influenced by Giuseppe Peano but chose to create a language for people based on Germanic roots instead of Romance ones. However, he created an "inter-Romance" version of his language to be used among Romance-speaking people as well.

The Four Fundamental Principles (Alteutonik, 1915) Molee's points to several principles his work is based on.

1st principle The ease of the suggestive action is as strong in proportion to the number of times the words and ideas have been associated in consciousness. (Herbert Spencer); All teutonic children have heard of the homogeneous words arm and bone; hence armbone would be more suggestive than the Latin heterogeneous humerus.

2nd principle The more mental energy required to master the words, the less mental energy is left for the ideas contained.

3rd principle Language should proceed from the known to the unknown.

4th principle Language should proceed from the simple to the complex. Inside his works Molee often reclaims that zonal constructed language strictly should be "selvklar" (self-explanatory) and homogeneous.

Characteristics Tutonish had a simple phonetic pronunciation, a simple grammar based on the English grammar ("Fifteen rules") and a simple orthography, without majuscule. The "Germanic" version's vocabulary was built on roots taken from English, Dutch, German and Scandinavian languages, while the "Romance" version's vocabulary was mostly built on Latin and Romance languages.

Copyleft Alteutonik, 1915, page 38, mentioned copyleft "kein ferfasero rekt"; "nur to erwana e ferfasr" (only author needs to be mentioned).

Criticism Louis Couturat and Léopold Leau wrote, in their Histoire de la langue universelle, not very enthusiastically about Tutonish:

Without criticizing the project of Monsieur Molee, he must permit as to note that he is inspired by motives absolutely opposite to human and civilization scopes of international language and to neutrality postulated in it.

Examples

The Germanic version (Tutonish 1901, N(i)u Teutonish 1906, Alteutonik c. 1915) of the Lord's Prayer

vio fadr hu bi in himl; holirn be dauo nam; dauo reich kom; dauo vil be dun an erd, als it bi in himl; giv vi dis dag vio dagli bred; en fergiv vi vio shulds, als vi fergiv vio shulders; en lied vi nit inzu fersieku but frie vi fon ievl. let so bi.

The Romance version of the Lord's Prayer

Nuo padr, ki bi in siel, sanktirn bi tuo nom, tuo regnu ven, tuo vol bi fasn sur ter kom in siel; don nu hoy nuo diali pan; et pardon nu nuo debits, kom nu pardon nuo debitors; et induk nu non in tentu ma delivr nu de mal.

Numbers from one to ten (according to Alteutonik, 1915)

The origins of Tutonish – e urspringe ov teutonik

elias molee, e ferfasr ov teutonik isn (war) gebärn 3a einam (januari) 1845 ov eltera, wer komen fon norvegia to 1 platz 30 kilometra fon e stad ov milwaukee ... ale nakbara havn file kinda, wer kanen nur spreka sine eigena teutonike moderspraka. Elias Molee, the author of tutonish, was born on January 3, 1845, to parents who emigrated from Norway, in a place 30 kilometers from Milwaukee ... in the entire neighborhood there was a lot of other children who only spoke their own Germanic mother tongues.

Some sentences

dau shal not baer falsh vitnesu gegn dauo nabor. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." ein union spiek, makn up ov deuch, english, skandinavish and hollandi, for to agenfererein al tutonish folka into ein spiek mitin feivti jiera.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tutonish

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tutonish claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tutonish before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tutonish ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tutonish

In research: Tutonish appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tutonish in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tutonish is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1901 introductions, Constructed languages introduced in the 1900s, Germanic languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tutonish outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tutonish in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tutonish means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tutonish out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tutonish in simple terms?

Why does Tutonish matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tutonish?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tutonish.