Logopandecteision

Logopandecteision is a 1653 parodic book by Sir Thomas Urquhart, detailing his plans for the creation of an artificial language by that name.

The book is written in a similar style to the extensive and intricate taxonomic structures of other philosophical languages, and to the baroque grammar of later projects such as Volapük. Urquhart promises twelve parts of speech: each declinable in eleven cases, four numbers, eleven genders (including god, goddess, man, woman, animal, etc.); and conjugable in eleven tenses, seven moods, and four voices. He claimed that the language could be used in translating verses from any vernacular language, citing Italian, French, Spanish, Slavonian, Dutch, Irish, and English as specific examples. Urquhart devotes sections of the book to polemics against the foes who prevented him from publishing his linguistic works, primarily his creditors and the Church of Scotland.