Editing Universal language (section)

== Early modern history ==
{{further|Philosophical language}}
{{No references|1=section|date=May 2023}}
Recognizable strands in the contemporary ideas on universal languages took form only in [[Early Modern]] Europe. In the early 17th century, some believed that a universal language would facilitate greater unity among mankind largely due to the subsequent spread of religion, specifically Christianity, as espoused in the works of [[John Amos Comenius|Comenius]]. But there were ideas of a universal language apart from religion as well. A ''[[lingua franca]]'' or trade language was nothing very new; but an [[international auxiliary language]] was a natural wish in light of the gradual decline of Latin. Literature in vernacular languages became more prominent with the [[Renaissance]]. Over the course of the 18th century, learned works largely ceased to be written in [[Latin]]. According to Colton Booth (''Origin and Authority in Seventeenth-Century England'' (1994) p. 174) "The Renaissance had no single view of Adamic language and its relation to human understanding." The question was more exactly posed in the work of [[Francis Bacon]].

In the vast writings of [[Gottfried Leibniz]] can be found many elements relating to a possible universal language, specifically a [[constructed language]], a concept that gradually came to replace that of a rationalized Latin as the natural basis for a projected universal language. Leibniz conceived of a ''[[characteristica universalis]]'' (also see ''[[mathesis universalis]]''), an "algebra" capable of expressing all conceptual thought. This algebra would include rules for symbolic manipulation, what he called a ''[[calculus ratiocinator]]''. His goal was to put [[reasoning]] on a firmer basis by reducing much of it to a matter of calculation that many could grasp. The ''characteristica'' would build on an [[alphabet of human thought]].

Leibniz's work is bracketed by some earlier mathematical ideas of [[René Descartes]], and the satirical attack of [[Voltaire]] on [[Panglossianism]]. Descartes's ambitions were far more modest than Leibniz's, and also far more successful, as shown by his wedding of [[algebra]] and [[geometry]] to yield what we now know as [[analytic geometry]]. Decades of research on [[symbolic artificial intelligence]] have not brought Leibniz's dream of a ''characteristica'' any closer to fruition.

Other 17th-century proposals for a 'philosophical' (i.e. universal) language include those by [[Francis Lodwick]], [[Thomas Urquhart]] (possibly parodic), [[George Dalgarno]] (''Ars signorum'', 1661), and [[John Wilkins]] (''[[An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language]]'', 1668). The classification scheme in [[Peter Mark Roget|Roget]]'s [[Thesaurus]] ultimately derives from Wilkins's ''Essay''.

''[[Candide]]'', a [[satire]] written by [[Voltaire]], took aim at Leibniz as [[Dr. Pangloss]], with the choice of name clearly putting universal language in his sights, but satirizing mainly the [[optimism]] of the projector as much as the project. The argument takes the universal language itself no more seriously than the ideas  of the speculative scientists and ''virtuosi'' of [[Jonathan Swift]]'s [[Gulliver's Travels#Part_III:_A_Voyage_to_Laputa,_Balnibarbi,_Luggnagg,_Glubbdubdrib_and_Japan|Laputa]]. For the like-minded of Voltaire's generation, universal language was tarred as [[fool's gold]] with the same brush as [[philology]] with little [[intellectual rigour]], and universal [[mythography]], as futile and arid directions.

In the 18th century, some rationalist natural philosophers sought to recover a supposed [[Edenic language]]. It was assumed that education inevitably took people away from an innate state of goodness they possessed, and therefore there was an attempt to see what language a human child brought up in utter silence would speak. This was assumed to be the Edenic tongue, or at least the [[lapsarian]] tongue.

Others attempted to find a common linguistic ancestor to all tongues; there were, therefore, multiple attempts to relate esoteric languages to [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] (e.g. [[Basque language|Basque]] and [[Irish language|Irish]]), as well as the beginnings of [[comparative linguistics]].