Universalglot is an a posterioriinternational 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". 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". Pirro gave it more than 7,000 basic words and numerous prefixes, enabling the development of a very extensible vocabulary.
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", "σ" and "ü".
Nouns are invariable except for the feminine form, which ends in "in". Adjectives are completely invariable E.g. : El old man, el old manin. E.g. 2 : Li old man, Li old manin. All words can be used as nouns with the help of an article.
Articles
Only articles and pronouns have separate singular and plural forms, as follows: Singular: el, un Plural: li Unmarked nouns will be considered plural: I hab kaval = I have horses.
Verbs
The verbs all share the same easy conjugation: Infinitive : esen: to be Present tense : ese Past tense : esed Future tense : esrai Conditional : esrais Imperative : es! Present participle : esant Past Participle : esed Transitive verbs, such as loben also have passive forms: esen lobed i ese lobed i esed lobed i esrai lobed i esrais lobed i esrai esed lobed i esrais esed lobed es lobed! Passive verbs use esen, not haben, for the perfect. All other verbs use haben. And reflexives: se loben i lobe me i lobed me i lobrai me i lobrais me
Adverbs
da, di, fern, pertot, post, retro, sub, up, vo, pre, alterlit, hastlit, insamel, oft, rarlit, re, so, certlit, ies, non, potlit, villit, alor, altervolt, ankor, bald, ditdai, heri, jam, kras, mai, nun, postdit, primlit, semper, admindest, vix, ben, kom, mal, mind, molt, prox, quant, sat, self, talit, tant, totlit, trop, unlit.
Prepositions
ad, adkaus, de, ex, in, inter, kon, kontra, kontravil, ob, per, post, pre, pro, prox, retro, sin, sub, til, tra, um, up, uper.
Prefixes
an-, de-, di-, dis-, ab-, mis-, mal, ob-, re- and the prepositions.
Numerals
un, du, tri, quat, quint, sex, sept, okt, nov, dec 11=undec, 12=dudec, 13=tridec etc. 20=duta, 30=trita, etc. 21=dutaun, 22=dutadu, 23=dutatri etc. cent, mil, milion El prim, el duli, el trili etc. el ultim primlit, dulit, trilit etc. 1/2 = un midli, 3/4 = tri quatli
Pronouns
i, me, men tu, te, ten il, eil, sen nos, enos nor vos, evos, vor : vor bibel, vori bibel ili, eili, lor Interrogative and relative pronouns: ke, kei alter, alteri; jed; nul, nuli; on; self, selfi; tal, tali; tot, toti; un, uni
septin : Lundai, Mardai, Erdai, Jovdai, Vendai, Samdai, Diodai = un septin Li mens : Januar, Februar, Mars, April, Mai, Juni, Juli, August, September, October, November, December = un jar
Examples of texts in Universalglot
Leter de grat (thank letter)
Men senior, I grate vos pro el servnes ke vos habe donated ad me. Kred, men senior, ke in un simli fal vos pote konten up me. Adcept el adsekurantnes de men kordli amiknes.
Konversatsion
Ben dai, Meni senior, i ese inkanted reinkontra evos; i habe videt evos in London, e ditdai nos finde enos in Skotland. dikt me ex ke land vos ese. I habe perkursed el Holland, i habe visited seni principal citad, li Hollander ese molt amatli gent, ili ese mild e vorkli, lor konmerk ese molt extended, on finde Hollander in toti land e pertot ili ese amated e prised. Un ex enos ese ruser e du ese italier e el quatli ese deutsch; ma nos pote toti parlen insamel, den nos parle el universal glot. Si nos vile venten in nor hostel, vos etrai kon enos, vos findrai da un ben tabel e ben knmer, fir e ben bet.
Excerpt from Mamud e sen minister
„Ke Dio adkorde un lang viv ad el sultan Mamud; so lang ke il governe enos, nos manku nonk ruined dorf. Ili kontinuated, dikted el visir in terment, goderant se per el desolatsion, ke, kom ili pretende, propagate se mer e mer jed dai. Ma, kom tu varted, i viled non resten mer lang, den i denked tu poted esen anpatant e tu vise kom i trepide anplesen te. El stori dikted, ke el sultan esed exmoved per dit fabel, ke il rekonstrukted li citad e dorf; redukted el tribut, ex ke el land esed uperladed ; e, ex dit temp, il konsulted ei ben de sen popel."
