alternatehistory.com
Rebuilding the Tower of Babel, Pt. 1
Reader Submission #1
Rebuilding The Tower of Babel: Part One
Excerpt From "A Brief History of Unitarianism"
The Unitarian Language is interesting to say the least.
It's vocabulary is a messy mixture of all the various languages of the world.
Almost contradictory to that fact, it's grammar is mostly of Slavic origin (to the chagrin of non Slavic Unitarians everywhere).
Many wonder how an artificial language works at all, much less unites Unitarians all over the world in common understanding.
How did the the life's work of a single Slavonian Linguist become one of the most widely spoken tongues on earth?
Let us find out.
The birth of the Unitarian language began in 1849, in the quaint West Slavonian city of Zagreb.
It was then and there that the father of the Unitarian Language, Marijo Vuković was born into a wealthy bourgeoisie family.
Even as a child Vuković was gifted in linguistics, he of course learned Slavonian from his family, along with Hungarian in his primary school years.
In his teenage years he attended a military school in Krakau, where he personally opted to be tutored in the local language.
Vuković made it a personal goal to learn all of the languages of of his country, showing that even at a young age held the idea Visegradism to heart.
In 1869, at the age of 20 and in pursuit of the Bohemian language, he attended the University of Prag.
View attachment 346374
Vukovic during his first year of University
Vuković's time in Bohemia marked a turning point in the evolution of his political thought.
His mother and father were very Protectionist, and these ideas were imparted on their son.
Crucially though, he also became familiar with the works of Weber during this time.
He joined a Unitarian political club in 1871 and for a time was a devout convert to the ideology, working to organize the laborers of Prag.
Eventually though, he became of the opinion that although Unitarianism had many good ideas, it's overarching goal of a divsionless world government was contradictory to human nature.
As he wrote in the foreword to his book, One Language For One Nation, "Unitarianism, if ever implemented, will only rob men and nations of the predatory instinct that is the soul, dragging us all down to mediocrity".
Divorced from Unitarianism, he returned to Protectionist and Visegradist politics, this time, applying a Unitarian lens to the topics.
He reasoned that the differences in languages and distinctions between nationalities, far more than class was what divided the people of Visegrad.
In his view, language barriers and federalism prevented Visegrad from assuming it's 'rightful role' as the undisputed hegemon of Europe.
The idea of a Europe united by Visegrad was very common idea in Visegradian Ultranationalist circles at the time.
More concerning, he also stated many times in his later years that it was unrepresented nations such as Slovaks and Romanians that were keeping Visegrad from greatness.
Yes, as shocking as it may sound, the father of the Unitarian Language, employed by Revolutionary Unitarians all over the world, was in fact an ideological forebear to Purple Unitarianism.
It dawned on Vuković that few people were as well suited to smash through Visegrad's language barriers as him.
Fluent in the languages of all the nations he could easily combine them into a language that would suit all.
In over two years of arduous writing, that is what he started to do.
The first volume of One Language For One Nation, was printed in 1876.
It contained fully realized grammar rules for his new language, simply called Visegradian.
Visegradian was designed to be as simplistic and easy to learn as possible, notable among languages for having absolutely no exceptions to it's grammatical rules.
Unfortunately, most of Vuković's time was spent creating grammar for Visgradian, thus One Language For One Nation had only 500 words for a vocabulary.
His intention was to flesh out the vocabulary with later additions of One Language For One Nation but his dream would unfortunately never come to pass.
Vuković died suddenly of appendicitis only five months after volume one of his book was published.
The popularity of his work however, would outlive Vuković by a great deal.
Reader Submission #1
Rebuilding The Tower of Babel: Part One
Excerpt From "A Brief History of Unitarianism"
The Unitarian Language is interesting to say the least.
It's vocabulary is a messy mixture of all the various languages of the world.
Almost contradictory to that fact, it's grammar is mostly of Slavic origin (to the chagrin of non Slavic Unitarians everywhere).
Many wonder how an artificial language works at all, much less unites Unitarians all over the world in common understanding.
How did the the life's work of a single Slavonian Linguist become one of the most widely spoken tongues on earth?
Let us find out.
The birth of the Unitarian language began in 1849, in the quaint West Slavonian city of Zagreb.
It was then and there that the father of the Unitarian Language, Marijo Vuković was born into a wealthy bourgeoisie family.
Even as a child Vuković was gifted in linguistics, he of course learned Slavonian from his family, along with Hungarian in his primary school years.
In his teenage years he attended a military school in Krakau, where he personally opted to be tutored in the local language.
Vuković made it a personal goal to learn all of the languages of of his country, showing that even at a young age held the idea Visegradism to heart.
In 1869, at the age of 20 and in pursuit of the Bohemian language, he attended the University of Prag.
View attachment 346374
Vukovic during his first year of University
Vuković's time in Bohemia marked a turning point in the evolution of his political thought.
His mother and father were very Protectionist, and these ideas were imparted on their son.
Crucially though, he also became familiar with the works of Weber during this time.
He joined a Unitarian political club in 1871 and for a time was a devout convert to the ideology, working to organize the laborers of Prag.
Eventually though, he became of the opinion that although Unitarianism had many good ideas, it's overarching goal of a divsionless world government was contradictory to human nature.
As he wrote in the foreword to his book, One Language For One Nation, "Unitarianism, if ever implemented, will only rob men and nations of the predatory instinct that is the soul, dragging us all down to mediocrity".
Divorced from Unitarianism, he returned to Protectionist and Visegradist politics, this time, applying a Unitarian lens to the topics.
He reasoned that the differences in languages and distinctions between nationalities, far more than class was what divided the people of Visegrad.
In his view, language barriers and federalism prevented Visegrad from assuming it's 'rightful role' as the undisputed hegemon of Europe.
The idea of a Europe united by Visegrad was very common idea in Visegradian Ultranationalist circles at the time.
More concerning, he also stated many times in his later years that it was unrepresented nations such as Slovaks and Romanians that were keeping Visegrad from greatness.
Yes, as shocking as it may sound, the father of the Unitarian Language, employed by Revolutionary Unitarians all over the world, was in fact an ideological forebear to Purple Unitarianism.
It dawned on Vuković that few people were as well suited to smash through Visegrad's language barriers as him.
Fluent in the languages of all the nations he could easily combine them into a language that would suit all.
In over two years of arduous writing, that is what he started to do.
The first volume of One Language For One Nation, was printed in 1876.
It contained fully realized grammar rules for his new language, simply called Visegradian.
Visegradian was designed to be as simplistic and easy to learn as possible, notable among languages for having absolutely no exceptions to it's grammatical rules.
Unfortunately, most of Vuković's time was spent creating grammar for Visgradian, thus One Language For One Nation had only 500 words for a vocabulary.
His intention was to flesh out the vocabulary with later additions of One Language For One Nation but his dream would unfortunately never come to pass.
Vuković died suddenly of appendicitis only five months after volume one of his book was published.
The popularity of his work however, would outlive Vuković by a great deal.
- Pyramus
- Word Count: 700