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'''''An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language''''' (London, 1668) is the best-remembered of the numerous works of [[John Wilkins]], in which he expounds a new [[universal language]], meant primarily to facilitate international communication among scholars, but envisioned for use by diplomats, travelers, and merchants as well. Unlike many universal language schemes of the period, it was meant merely as an [[International auxiliary language|auxiliary]] to—not a replacement of—existing natural languages.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

[[File:Wilkins An Essay towards a real.jpg|thumb|300px|The first edition cover page]]

==Background==
One of the aims of the ''Essay'' was to provide a replacement for the [[Latin language]], which had been the international language of scholars in Western Europe by then for 1000 years.<ref>{{cite book|first=Ute |last=Dons|title=Descriptive adequacy of early modern English grammars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7ffwL7Gs14C&pg=PA21|access-date=28 March 2012|year=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-018193-7|page=21}}</ref> [[John Amos Comenius|Comenius]] and others interested in international languages had criticisms of the arbitrary features of Latin that made it harder to learn, and Wilkins also made such points.<ref>{{cite book |first=Françoise |last=Waquet |translator-first=John |translator-last=Howe |title=Latin, or the Empire of a Sign |date=2001 |publisher=Verso |isbn=1859846157 |page=238}}</ref> A scheme for a ''[[lingua franca]]'' based on numerical values had been published by [[John Pell]] (1630); and in his 1640 work ''Mercury or the Secret Messenger'' (1640) Wilkins had mentioned the possibility of developing a [[trade language]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Murphy |title=Comenius: a critical reassessment of his life and work |date=1995 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |pages=209–10 |isbn=0716525372}}</ref>

[[Seth Ward (bishop)|Seth Ward]] was author with Wilkins of ''Vindiciae academiarum'' (1654), a defence of the Commonwealth period of the [[Oxbridge]] university system against outsider reformers. In it Ward put forward a related language scheme, though differing from the ''Essay'' of Wilkins in some significant ways.<ref name="Wilkins1984">{{cite book|first=John |last=Wilkins|title=Mercury, or, The secret and swift messenger: shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance ; together with an abstract of Dr. Wilkins's Essays towards a real character and a philosophical language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lc38yWFv3p8C&pg=PR29|access-date=28 March 2012|year=1984|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=978-90-272-3276-2|page=29}}</ref> Ward's ideas derived from a number of sources, such as [[Cyprian Kinner]] who was a follower of Comenius, [[Ramon Lull]], and [[Georg Ritschel]]. They went on to influence [[George Dalgarno]] as well as Wilkins.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=28706|title=Ward, Seth|first=John|last=Henry}}</ref>

There was immediate interest in the ''Essay''; Wilkins is said to have regarded his work only in terms of a [[proof of concept]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Henry G. |last=Van Leeuwen|title=The problem of certainty in English thought, 1630–1690|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQXjQyIqVjcC&pg=PA56|access-date=28 March 2012|year=1970|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-90-247-0179-7|page=56}}</ref> But in the medium term enthusiasm for this kind of constructed language declined. The problem of a [[universal language]] remained as a topic of debate.<ref name="Wilkins1984"/>

==Composition and influences==
The stimulus for Wilkins to write the ''Essay'' came from the Council of the Royal Society, in 1662. The work was delayed by the [[Great Fire of London]] of 1666, which destroyed some of it in draft.<ref>{{cite book|first=Joseph L. |last=Subbiondo|title=John Wilkins and 17th-century British linguistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pP2LoB9eJkC&pg=PA144|access-date=28 March 2012|year=1992|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=978-90-272-4554-0|page=144 note 34}}</ref>

The book was written by Wilkins, assisted by [[John Ray]], [[Francis Willughby]], and others. An influence was the ''Ars Signorum'' of George Dalgarno.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Wilkins, John|display=Wilkins, John}}</ref> Also influential, as Wilkins acknowledged, was ''The Ground-Work or Foundation Laid ... for the Framing of a New Perfect Language'' (1652) by [[Francis Lodwick]].<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=37684|title=Lodwick, Francis|first=Vivian|last=Salmon}}</ref>

==Structure==
The work is in five parts, of which the fourth contains the discussion of the "real character" and "[[philosophical language]]". The third deals with "philosophical grammar" ([[universal grammar]]). The last part is the "alphabetical dictionary".<ref>{{cite book|first=John P. |last=Considine|title=Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the Making of Heritage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqBkQFiTbX4C&pg=PA298|access-date=28 March 2012|date=27 March 2008|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-88674-1|page=298}}</ref> It was compiled by [[William Lloyd (bishop of Worcester)|William Lloyd]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Lloyd, William (1627-1717)|display=Lloyd, William (1627–1717)}}</ref>

==Wilkins' scheme==
[[File:Wilkins Essay Lord's Prayer.jpg|thumb|Sample of the "real character" from the ''Essay''. [[Joseph Moxon]] created the symbols for the printing of the book.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=19466|title=Moxon, Joseph|first=D. J.|last=Bryden}}</ref>]]

Wilkin's "Real Character" is a constructed family of symbols, corresponding to a [[classification scheme]] developed by Wilkins and his colleagues. It was intended as a [[pasigraphy]], in other words, to provide elementary building blocks from which could be constructed the universe's every possible thing and notion. The Real Character is not an [[orthography]]: i.e. it is not a written representation of [[spoken language]]. Instead, each symbol represents a concept directly, without (at least in the early parts of the ''Essay's'' presentation) there being any way of vocalizing it. Inspiration for this approach came in part from contemporary European accounts of the [[Chinese writing system]], which were somewhat mistaken.

Later in the ''Essay'' Wilkins introduces his "Philosophical Language", which assigns phonetic values to the Real Characters. For convenience, the following discussion blurs the distinction between Wilkins' Character and his Language.

Concepts are divided into forty main ''Genera'', each of which gives the first, two-letter syllable of the word; a Genus is divided into ''Differences'', each of which adds another letter; and Differences are divided into ''Species'', which add a fourth letter. For instance, ''Zi'' identifies the Genus of "beasts" (mammals); ''Zit'' gives the Difference of "rapacious beasts of the dog kind"; ''Zitα'' gives the Species of dogs. (Sometimes the first letter indicates a supercategory—e.g. Z always indicates an animal—but this does not always hold.) The resulting Character, and its vocalization, for a given concept thus captures, to some extent, the concept's [[semantics]].

The ''Essay'' also proposed ideas on weights and measure similar to those later found in the [[metric system]].{{cn|date=June 2020}}
The botanical section of the essay was contributed by [[John Ray]];
[[Robert Morison]]'s criticism of Ray's work began a prolonged dispute between the two men.<ref name="Vines 1913">{{cite book | first=Sydney Howard |last=Vines |author-link=Sydney Howard Vines | year = 1913 | chapter = Robert Morison 1620–1683 and John Ray 1627–1705 | editor-first = Francis Wall |editor-last = Oliver |editor-link=Francis Wall Oliver | title = Makers of British Botany | url=https://archive.org/details/makersofbritishb00olivuoft | publisher = Cambridge University Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/makersofbritishb00olivuoft/page/21 21]}}</ref>

==Related efforts, discussions, and literary references==
The ''Essay'' has received a certain amount of academic and literary attention,{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} usually casting it as brilliant but hopeless.

One criticism (among many) is that "words expressing closely related ideas have almost the same form, differing perhaps by their last letter only...[I]t would be exceedingly difficult to remember all these minute distinctions, and confusion would arise, in rapid reading and particularly in conversation."<ref>{{cite book |last=Guérard|first=Albert Léon |author-link=Albert Léon Guérard |title=A Short History of the International Language Movement |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofin00guuoft|year=1921 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofin00guuoft/page/90 90]–92}} </ref>
([[Umberto Eco]] notes<ref>{{cite book |last=Eco |first=Umberto |year=1995 |title=The Search for the Perfect Language |trans-title=Ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford |isbn=0-631-17465-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/searchforperfect00ecou }}</ref> that Wilkins himself made such a mistake in the ''Essay,'' using ''Gαde'' (barley) where apparently ''Gαpe'' (tulip) was meant.)

[[George Edmonds (lawyer)|George Edmonds]] sought to improve Wilkins' Philosophical Language by reorganizing its grammar and orthography while keeping its taxonomy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Edmonds |first=George |year=1856 |title=A Universal Alphabet, Grammar, and Language, Comprising a Scientific Classification of the Radical Elements of Discourse: and Illustrative Translations from the Holy Scriptures and the Principal British Classics: to which is Added, A Dictionary of the Language |url=https://archive.org/details/universalalphabe00edmo |access-date=10 November 2016}}</ref>
More recent ''a priori'' languages (among many others) are [[Solresol]] and [[Ro (language)|Ro]]. 

[[Jorge Luis Borges]] discusses Wilkins' philosophical language in his essay ''El idioma analítico de John Wilkins'' (''The Analytical Language of John Wilkins''), comparing Wilkins’ classification to the fictitious Chinese encyclopedia ''[[Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy|Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge]]'' and expressing doubts about any attempt at a universal classification.

In [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[Quicksilver (novel)|Quicksilver]]'', character [[Daniel Waterhouse]] spends considerable time supporting the development of Wilkins' classification system. 

==See also==
{{commonscat}}
*[[Oligosynthesis]]
*[[Philosophical language]]
*[[Semantic primitives]]
*[[Menace from the Moon (1925 novel)]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal|first = Edward Neville da Costa |last= Andrade| author-link=Edward Andrade| title = The real character of bishop Wilkins |journal = [[Annals of Science]]| volume = 1|issue = 1| year = 1936| pages=4–12| doi=10.1080/00033793600200021}}
*Lewis, Rhodri. ''Language, Mind and Nature. Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to Locke'', 2012 CUP, Cambridge {{ISBN|9780521294133}}
*Pinker, Steven. ''Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language'', 2000 

==External links==
* {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/AnEssayTowardsARealCharacterAndAPhilosophicalLanguage|title=An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language|last=Wilkins|first=John|publisher=archive.org|year=1668|location=London}} (page images)
* {{Cite book|url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66045.0001.001|title=An essay towards a real character, and a philosophical language by John Wilkins|last=Wilkins|first=John|publisher=Early English Books Online: Text Creation Partnership. U of Michigan Library|year=1668}} (transcription)
* [https://www.onb.ac.at/forschung/forschungsblog/artikel/john-wilkins-s-artificial-language John Wilkins's Artificial Language, Austrian National Library, research blog]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140320023216/http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/wilkins.html The Analytical Language of John Wilkins, by Jorge Luis Borges]

[[Category:Engineered languages]]
[[Category:Philosophical languages]]
[[Category:A priori]]

An Essay towards a Real Character - Revision history

Nicomega: Created page with "'''''An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language''''' (London, 1668) is the best-remembered of the numerous works of John Wilkins, in which he expounds..."