Junior philosophers

In his 1676 parody, La Terre australe connue , Gabriel de Foigny describes the rationality and simplification of the Austral language, which works somewhat like chemical formula. All words are monosyllabic, and each letter is associated with either a substance (the vowels, which match the four classical elements, plus salt!) or a quality (the consonants), so words can be formed from simple combinations of letters. Man is Uel – earth (u), air (e) and wetness (l), since his substance is “partly aerial, partly terrestrial, accompanied by wetness.”

The advantages of the language are great: By speaking it, “you become philosophers, learning the prime elements.” As soon as Austral children learn to read, “as they always do by the age of three, they understand at the same time all the characteristics of all beings.”