Ro

by Rick Harrison

Ro was an a priori 'philosophical language,' meaning you can guess what category of meaning a word falls into merely by looking at the first letters. For example, bofoc means red, bofod means orange, and bofof means yellow. It was created by the Reverend Edward Powell Foster (1853-1937).

"Ro did not begin with attempting to rival or supplant any other language whatever, either natural or artificial, nor was it suggested by any of them," Foster wrote. "Unexpectedly came the thought: `How strange it is that there is nothing in the appearance of a written or printed word that gives the slightest hint of its meaning. Why should a word not be a picture? A new word, never seen before would then, like a painting seen for the first time, convey at least some of the meaning to the eye.'"

Foster reported being completely absorbed by the idea. "That was early in the year 1904. The thought had startling force. It was like the sudden lifting of a curtain to reveal a world that I had never dreamed was in existence. It filled me with amazement that people could rest content with words purely arbitrary and in themselves utterly meaningless, when they might be constructed scientifically and thus made self-interpreting. It seemed plain that a language of that description would easily more than double the capacity of mankind for the acquisition of knowledge. The vivid impression took instant and complete possession of me, and brought the quick resolution to tell to others what I had seen.

"After two years' study of the problem faint outlines of system emerged from chaos and in 1906 the first Ro publication, an 8-page leaflet with a few prospective Ro words, was printed.

"Soon my wife joined in the work with enthusiasm. She has a remarkable linguistic gift amounting almost to absolute genius in her ability to discriminate between closely allied synonyms and to select the word that exactly fits the place to be filled. She has now prepared an English-Ro dictionary of about 16,000 Ro words, and can turn any word that can be defined from any language into a self-interpreting Ro word. We expect to print her dictionary as soon as we can get the means to do so.

"...Ro adopts the alphabet that it finds ready-made, and approved by centuries of use, with the existing form of letters and order of sequence. They already symbolize elementary SOUNDS. Ro makes of them its ideograms. That is, Ro uses them as symbols of elementary IDEAS. Grammarians have already classified words into what they call 'Parts of Speech.' This is but another expression for ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE. It is doubtful if any human being ever possessed a brain that was superior in intellectual power to that of Aristotle. He gives as the ten categories of human thought: Substance, Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Position, Possession, Action, Passivity. Ro classifies words under categories like these, using consonants as symbols, for example, letting B stand for Substance or Existence, C for Quantity, D for Place, G for Quality, J for Relation, etc. One of the five vowels added to these initial consonants divides its general signification into five classes, headed by a two-letter syllable, consonant and vowel, and one of the 20 consonants (21 in fact) of the alphabet added to this, gives more than 2000 three-letter syllables, Consonant, Vowel, Consonant, which are the stemwords of Ro as a language.

"Besides this, Ro uses five vowels as initials, A to denote Pronouns, E for verb inflections, Tense, Mood, etc., I and O for Prepositions, opposite to each other in meaning, and U for Conjunctions. This gives 100 two-letter syllables, Vowel and Consonant, for the frequent Particles of speech that occur in almost every sentence.

"The other Parts of Speech, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs, that compose the bulk of every Dictionary, Ro indicates by the final vowel of each word. The first vowel in Ro words belongs to the stem, and is unchangeable. The last vowel A indicates Concrete Nouns; if E, Verb; if I, Adverb; if O, Adjective; if U, Abstract Noun.

"If these classifications are correctly made, we shall have all the words of human language grouped according to their signification, exactly parallel with their alphabetic arrangement, and you can find the Ro word that you may wish to use, as readily as you can find a person in a city when you know the street on which he lives and the number of his house.

"I have now been 24 years at this task. If I have not succeeded in constructing a language that the world will adopt, I can only say that my conviction is clear that Ro is on the right track, and my conscience is clear that I have done the best I could."

The categories of Ro's vocabulary are presented here:


  categories                        examples

  ----------                        --------

a   (pronouns)                   ab - I

ba  thing                        babnac - oxygen

be  forms of matter              becaf - foam

bi  sky, weather                 bidlab - whirlwind

bo  "sense-affecting matter"     bocet - flash

bu  geographical words           Budval - United States

ca  quantity                     cafab - amount

ce  part                         cebac - piece

ci  comparative quantity         cifod - huge

co  conjunctive quantity         codef - attach

cu  whole                        cudi - totally

da  place                        dabag - position

de  space                        debab - line

di  clothing                     dirab - skirt

do  furnishings                  dodab - bed

du  building                     dubal - house

e   (verbs)                      eba - to be

fa  form                         facaq - structure

fe  aesthetics                   fepkac - baseball

fi  desireable things            fibac - reward

fo  "words of logic"             focap - disputation

fu  "words of geometry"          fudad - triangle

ga  quality                      gabak - nature

ge  measurement                  gebrac - inch

gi  (length, expansion)          gibel - elongate

go  "opposite gi"                godod - little

gu  "opposite ci"                guboc - unequal

ha  having                       hab - to have

he  getting                      hec - acquire

hi  want possession of           hiv - to covet

ho  transfer property            hob - give

hu  lose possession of           hum - discard

i   (prepositions)               in - in

ja  relation                     jabefu - reference

je  beginning                    jeb - begin

ji  middle                       jifob - central

jo  end                          jobed - conclude

ju  of orderliness               jubuf - uniformity

ka  "verbs of force"             kaf - throw

ke  locomotion                   kecev - walk

ki  "k plus i- prepositions"     kidjeb - approach

ko  "opposite ki"                kobec - retreat

ku  change                       kubed - alter

la  positive                     labic - actually

le  vegetable anatomy            lecag - rhizome

li  life                         libo - alive

lo  "opposite li"                lobod - dead

lu  plant names                  lugacan - watermelon

ma  "opposite to la"             mabob - unreal

me  animal anatomy               mebac - body

mi  voice, cry                   mibex - quack

mo  expressive act               mokef - complain

mu  animal kingdom               mugsaf - moth

n   (negative, opposite)         nau - nothingness

o   "opposite to i"              obo - backward

pa  instrument, tool             paltaf - scissors

pe  receptacles                  pefal - bottle

pi  vehicles                     pibwad - wheelbarrow

po  food                         pojag - gravy

pu  waste matter                 pucag - garbage

ra  person                       radac - boy

re  "get ideas"                  rebec - think

ri  retain ideas                 ribec - remember

ro  tell, say                    rofad - vowel

ru  writing, print               rucag - document

sa  "feelings in general"        sabap - mood

se  personal feelings            sedab - contentment

si  mutual feelings              sibra - friend

so  moral, ethical, legal        soled - deserve

su  superhuman                   Suva - God

ta  time                         tam - season

te  duration                     telob - sudden

ti  point of time                tim - next

to  slow time, rest, stop        tokeb - cease

tu  brief time                   tubot - temporary

u   (conjunctions)               ud - and, ur - or, ut - that

va  volition, the will           vadis - willingly

ve  prospective volition         veber - plan

vi  "the will at work"           videl - control

vo  collective will              vobza - democracy

vu  mutual will                  vudife - offer

w   (interrogation)              wabek - ask

y   (affirmation)                yum - must

za  number                       zac - two, zakic - doubly

ze  collective number            zedac - crowd

zi  re-, again                   zibec - repeat

zo  printed list                 zobac - catalog

zu  continuance                  zubolo - established

Specimen (the Paternoster): Abze radap av el in suda, ace rokab eco sugem, ace rajda ec kep, ace va eco, uz in suda asi in buba.

Ro grammar

In Foster's own words...

The Alphabet

Ro adopts as its alphabet the 26 letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z, in the order here given, and without accents or diacritical marks. This is the Latin alphabet, with 'w' added.

Of these letters, a e i o and u are vowels; the others, consonants.

The vowels are pronounced as in Italian or German, or in the English words far, they, pique, no, truth. They may be either long or short, but each vowel should make a distinct syllable, and they should never be mixed as in diphthongs or triphthongs.

The letters b, d, f, g (hard as in get, go,) h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s (sharp, as in see,) t, v, w, y and z, are pronounced as in English.

C is a simple sound as English sh, French ch, or German sch. Ch as in English 'church' is a double sound, and not used in Ro.

Dh is a single sound as in English 'the' but is very infrequent in Ro.

J is pronounced as in French, as 'z' in 'azure.' English 'J' is a double sound.

Q is like 'ng' in 'ringing.' It is a single sound.

X in English is 'ks' or 'gz.' Ro permits this sound for X, but prefers the Greek X, German CH or Celtic GH.

English 'long I' as 'Y' in 'MY' is 'AY' in Ro.

Ro uses 'th' as in English 'thick' but very seldom.

Accent

There is no rule of accent in Ro words other than the natural one of emphasizing the distinctive syllable. Thus: 'Ag wela RADac ur RAFac?' = 'Is it a boy or a girl?' 'Is he a boy or a man?' = 'Ad wela radAC ur radAL?'

Case

In Ro the designation of case follows the example set by English. The Subject or Nominative case is indicated by its position before the verb, and the Accusative or Objective case by its position after the verb. The Possessive or Genitive case is denoted by an 'e' following the noun or pronoun, with or without an apostrophe preceding it as in the 's of the English possessive. Thus: Abe radap'e radat'e rukab. 'My father's brother's book.'

Number

The Plural number is denoted by the final Z. This is taken from the English plural sign S which is usually pronounced like Z.

Ro's creator did an excellent job of publicizing his language, but there is little evidence that he persuaded anyone other than his wife to actually use it. Foster acknowledged the many people who assisted him: "One of those to whom Ro is indebted is William W. Mills, President of the First National Bank of Marietta, Ohio. For a number of years his generous cheque has come regularly each month, enabling the authors of Ro to devote their time to its construction... Vice-President Charles G. Dawes, unsolicited, contributed one hundred dollars to the support of Ro. Hon. George White, former Democratic national chairman, when a member of Congress, brought Ro before Congress and secured mention of it in the Congressional Record, and gave also financial aid. Mr. B. B. Putnam, treasurer of the Universal Language Society, Mrs. Dave H. Morris, of the International Auxiliary Language Association, and Dr. Melvil Dewey, whose name is known internationally thru his Decimal Classification for libraries, have all contributed both financially and sympathetically to the cause of Ro. The New York World Almanac has for several years made mention of Ro in its 'Languages of the World.' Leading journals and publications in the United States and in other countries have given notices to Ro, frequently with generous praise, and to more individuals than there is room to mention, Ro acknowledges with gratitude its indebtedness, and hopes to reciprocate in turn by its contribution to human progress and enlightenment."

bibliography:

Foster, Edward Powell (1853-1937)
Ro
Cincinnatti: 1908 (8 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Ro, an international language based on the classification of ideas
Cincinnati: The Ro Company, 1910 (39 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Ru ro, outline of the universal language
Marietta, Ohio: World-Speech Press, 1913 (96 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Dictionary of Ro the world language
Marietta, Ohio: World-Speech Press, 1919 (72 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Roap, English key to Ro
Waverly, West Virginia: Ro Language Society, 1921 (32 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Alphabet of ideas, or dictionary of Ro the world language
Waverly, West Virginia: Roia, 1928 (160 p.)
PM 8751.F5

Foster, Edward P.
Ro-Latin-English vocabularium dictionary
Waverly, West Virginia: Roia, 1931
PM 8751.F31

Foster, Edward P.
English-Ro dictionary
Waverly: Ro Language Society, 1932 (64 p.)

periodicals edited by Foster:

World-Speech
Marietta, Ohio
monthly, 1912-1919

Roia
Waverly, Virginia
1923-1931

Thanatopsis

by William Cullen Bryant

translated to Ro by the Reverend E. Foster
Ro text copied from the Library Of Congress by Paul O. Bartlett

Id ad av, in siku ov Bikab, had
To him who in the love of nature holds
Sical ir afe reluo faz, af rom
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
Kubov roa: is sedmor-cik tadaz
A various language; for his gayer hours
Af hab rolab ov sebgu, ud modac
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
Ud romal ov lafuf; ud af kelseg
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
Il ade cavos rebsaz ir samoc
Into his darker musings, with a mild
Ud licob siqab av hel odh agze
And healing sympathy that steals away
Bekuf, ik ad resed. Avit rebaz
Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts
Ov jobof cavob tad kep iqk visna
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Ig ace sabak, ud cavos fagabz
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Ov vocot sebnat, lotcad ud lotcal,
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
Ud liqnob bosna, ud gocob dubal,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Ep ac momer ud loco idh mepac,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart; --
Ket ib og gikob biba, ud remev
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
Id Bikab'e rovabz, uct od cub oc --
To Nature's teachings, while from all around --
Buba, bedcaz, ud giqabz ov bebar --
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air --
Kep samor rolab: Ubye gozob tafz,
Comes a still voice. Yet a few days, and thee
Ud bisa av rel zuc, en em rel ac
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In cub kebak; urni gomic budbaf
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Avid ac eko da, gizib menafz,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Urni in silam ov bucab, em eyb
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Aca. Buba av ek pob, em sobej
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Ace cigab, ebo buba udge;
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
Ud, eg hub ak muyo rucaf, er hoj
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Ace rabol eya, aca em ket
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
Eb cofem zufi ir bubo babaz;
To mix forever with the elements,
Eb ey radat id san bacak, ud id
To be a brother to the insensible rock
Bemfof dedag, av dalabo radjam
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Kavej palig ud kebet if. Ludak
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Em kas lecabz ud kic ace budbap.
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.

Ubyi en id ace zuto tobab
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Em ac kobef zenob,--nur yuk ac va
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Dodac cik lafor. Ac em mob oj
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
Ir radapsaz ov ragob bubar, -- ir
With patriarchs of the infant world -- with kings,
Rajadz, lidofz ov bub,--rosokz, giyoz,
The powerful of the earth -- the wise, the good,
Lafo faz, ud bodok reliarz tecof,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
Zuc in zab cif lotmad. Bulafz, bacik
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Megofo, ud tecof uz bisa; ix,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, -- the vales
Bumabz, er bepec in reboj samur;
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
Socuda legagaz; buraz av keb
The venerable woods -- rivers that move
Lafyil, ud er mokef bupabz av ep
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
Bujarz bofog; ud, bigjofo oc zuc,
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Matof bucob bodog ud gojawol
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste, --
Bunac, -- el canib sevlod febakz zuc
Are but the solemn decorations all
Ov gidor lotmab ov muyab! Babgos
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
Bisa, biraz, zudob zegat biboc,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
El bos if sebnog dagabz ov lobu,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death
Ic minos tetal of tefbaz. Zuc av
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
Kebet bubaf el zenib mefob ca
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
Id rackabz av lomed in age jimad.
That slumber in its bosom. -- Take the wings
Hek meblaqz ov tagab, kiceb Barcan
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Bunal, ur hub ac in zukod legagz
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Avid at Oregon kevef, ud rem ana
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Oz adaqe kagakz,--ubye lobaz amid!
Save his own dashings -- yet the dead are there:
Ud zazabz in amo bunafz, ot kef
And millions in those solitudes, since first
Ov taqz ek jeb zapib, ef mobem aqz
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In jobof lom, -- amid lobaz zenoc!
In their last sleep -- the dead reign there alone.

Asi ac em tobeb; ud uf ac cek
So shalt thou rest -- and what if thou withdraw
In minu od libaz; ud no sibra
In silence from the living, and no friend
Rebeb ace kodab? Zuc av liqeb
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Em hag ace vacad. Sedmarz em mod
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
Uz ac ef ket, sevlod zemar osmob
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Vaked if, ud ak ra, uz ik, em ved
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
Valoc sujrat; ubye zuc alz em huv
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Agze sedmac ud vevadz ud em kep
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
Ud ep dodab ir ac. Uz gib piral
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Ov tefaz kelseg odh, radsaz ov raz --
Of ages glides away, the sons of men --
Radaj tamib ov lib, ud ad av ket
The youth in life's fresh spring, and he who goes
In gis lidub ov taqz, rafam, rafak,
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
Bolof ragab, bodig mebodo ra --
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man --
Emo ak zebeg id ace dejab
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
Ip amz av in kevab em kokel atz.
By those, who in their turn, shall follow them.

Asi lib, ut avit ace vodas,
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
Em kep eb cok zudod pibaf av keb
The innumerable caravan, which moves
Id bofwo dacagz ov bocnap, avid
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
Ak hek dugac in dufalz ov lobu
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Ac en ket iqk futoq rambar taji,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Paksolo id datag, ub, poboso
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
Ip en mojop rigam, kidjeb lotmag
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Iqk ra av dimgef doqab ov dodac
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
Ip ad, ud mobem id lastom rivalz.
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

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