astronomy

Universalglot

Universalglot is a astronomy 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 Universalglot rather than just read about it. In short: Universalglot is an a posteriori international auxiliary language published by the French linguist Jean Pirro in 1868 in Tentative d'une langue universelle, Enseignement, grammaire, vocabulaire. Preceding Volapük by a decade and Esperanto by nearly 20 years, Universalglot has been called the first "complete auxiliary-language system based on the common elements in national languages".

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Universalglot is an a posteriori international auxiliary language published by the French linguist Jean Pirro in 1868 in Tentative d'une langue universelle, Enseignement, grammaire, vocabulaire. Preceding Volapük by a decade and Esperanto by nearly 20 years, Universalglot has been called the first "complete auxiliary-language system based on the common elements in national languages". Pirro gave it more than 7,000 basic words and numerous prefixes, enabling the development of a very extensible vocabulary.

In his book describing his own language project Novial, Otto Jespersen praised the language, writing that it is "one to which I constantly recur with the greatest admiration, because it embodies principles which were not recognized till much later". The magazine Cosmoglotta for the auxiliary language Interlingue (then known as Occidental) also praised the language in 1931 for its readability and analysis of international words (in particular the suffix -ion) and regretted that its creator had been forgotten in contrast with the creators of Esperanto and Volapük:Monuments have been erected to the glory of Zamenhof and the name Schleyer has been engraved in marble. Their precursor and master, Pirro, has been honored - with oblivion.

Linguistic properties

Orthography The Universalglot alphabet contains 27 letters. It uses 24 of the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, "w" and "y" are not used, and has three additional letters "œ", "ü" and "σ" which comes from the Greek alphabet.

Word classes

Nouns Nouns (substantives) are invariable except for the feminine form, which is formed by using suffix -in e.g. kaval - 'horse', kavalin - 'mare'. All words can be used as nouns with the help of an article.

Adjectives Adjectives like in English and unlike French, are completely invariable e.g. (singular): el old man, el old manin. e.g. (plural): Li old man, Li old manin. An adjective can be formed from any word, by adding suffix -il, e.g. dai 'day', daili 'daily', amen 'to love', amli 'lovable'. If several adjectives are derived from the same root, -li usually indicates something passive. So to mark an action, the ending -iv is used, e.g. akten 'to act', aktli 'doable', aktiv 'active'.

Articles There are two definite articles:

Singular: el (the) Plural: li (the) And one indefinite:

un (a/an) If a noun doesn't have an article preceding it, it will be considered plural: I hab kaval - I have horses.

Verbs The verbs all share the same easy conjugation:

Transitive verbs, such as loben (to praise) also have passive forms:

esen lobed (to be praised) i ese lobed (I am praised) i esed lobed (I was praised) i esrai lobed (I will be praised) i esrais lobed (I would be praised) i esrai esed lobed (I will have been praised) i esrais esed lobed (I would have been praised) es lobed! (be praised!) Passive verbs use esen for the perfect (have been). All other verbs use haben. And reflexives:

se loben (to praise oneself) i lobe me (I praise myself) i lobed me (I praised myself) i lobrai me (I will praise myself) i lobrais me (I would praise myself)

Adverbs Adverb of place - da 'there', di 'here', fern 'far', pertot 'everywhere', post 'from behind', retro 'backward', sub 'down', up 'up', vo 'where?' Adverbs of manner - alterlit 'otherwise', hastlit 'quickly', insamel 'together', oft 'often', rarlit 'rarely', re 'again', so 'thus/so' Adverbs of mode - certlit 'certainly', ies 'yes', non 'no', potlit 'maybe' (possibly), villit 'gladly' (willingly) Adverbs of time - alor 'so/then', altervolt 'formerly', ankor 'still', bald 'soon', ditdai 'today', heri 'yesterday', jam 'already', kras 'tomorrow', nonk 'never', nun 'now', postdit 'next/then', 'primlit 'first', semper 'always' Adverbs of quantity - admindest 'at least', ben 'well', kom 'how', mal 'badly', mind 'few', molt 'many', prox 'almost/around', quant 'how many', sat 'enough', self 'self/even', talit 'that/so much', tant 'as much', totlit 'immediately', trop 'too', unlit 'only', vix 'scarcely'

Prepositions ad 'to', adkaus 'because of', de 'of', ex 'from', in 'in', inter 'among', kon 'with', kontra 'against', kontravil 'despite', ob 'in front of', per 'by', post 'after / according to', pre 'before', pro 'for', prox 'beside', retro 'behind', sin 'without', sub 'below', til 'until', tra 'across', um 'around', up 'on', uper 'over'

Numerals un (1), du (2), tri (3), quat (4), quint (5), sex (6), sept (7), okt (8), nov (9), dec (10) 11=undec, 12=dudec, 13=tridec etc. 20=duta, 30=trita, etc. 21=dutaun, 22=dutadu, 23=dutatri etc. cent (100), mil (1000), milion (1,000,000) El prim (the first), el duli (the second), el trili (the third) etc. el ultim (the last) primlit (firstly), dulit (secondly), trilit (thirdly) etc. 1/2 = un midli, 3/4 = tri quatli

Pronouns i (I), me (me, object—direct, indirect, of preposition), men (my, mine; pl. meni "meni bibel" my books) tu (you, singular), te (you, singular/object), ten (your(s) singular; pl. teni) il (he/she/it), eil (him/her/it, object), sen (his/her(s)/its; pl. seni) nos (we), enos (us, object) nor (our(s); pl. nori) vos (you, plural), evos (you, plural object), vor (your(s), plural; pl. vori): vor bibel (your (pl.) book), vori bibel (your (pl.) books) ili (they), eili (them, object), lor (their(s); pl. lori) Interrogative and relative pronouns: ke (who(m), what), kei (pl. of ke)

alter, alteri 'another, others' jed 'each' meri 'several' nul, nuli 'none' on 'one/you/they' self, selfi 'oneself, ones selves' tal, tali 'such a one, such ones' tot, toti 'all of it, all of them' un 'one, someone', uni 'some'

Conjunctions e 'and', kar 'because', ma 'but', o 'or' den 'therefore', ed 'also', ferner 'furthermore', finitlit 'finally', indit 'however', kontra 'on the contrary', nonminder 'nonetheless', sekutlit 'consequently', uper 'in addition' alorke 'when' (at that time), benke 'though', exke 'since', inditke 'during', ke 'that', kom 'as', perke 'because', postke 'following, proke 'so that', preke 'preceding', quan 'when' (at which time?), si 'indeed', so 'so that', tilke 'until'

Affixes List of affixes which haven't been mentioned before.

Borrowings from Latin keeps same suffixes, however they are optional, so, one can say administratnes or administratiom

Syntax Pirro provided no specific rules that everyone should follow; he said, "Everyone is free to follow the usages of his own language". However he recommended that:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Universalglot

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Universalglot claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Universalglot 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 Universalglot 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 Universalglot

In research: Universalglot appears in astronomy 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 Universalglot 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: Universalglot is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1868 introductions, Constructed languages, International auxiliary languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Universalglot 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 Universalglot in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Universalglot 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 Universalglot out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Universalglot in simple terms?

Why does Universalglot matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Universalglot?

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 Universalglot.