aUI, also known as "the language of space" is an auxlang created in the 1960s by John W. Weilgart, "an Austrian-born Iowa psychiatrist who claimed to have learned the language as a young boy from a little green elf-like humanoid from outer space."(1) That story was apparently tongue-in-cheek, as Weilgart elsewhere admits that he invented the language himself during his childhood.(2)
Classification: aUI is a prime example of an oligosynthetic conlang. If this language were supposedly used by "aliens", as some have claimed the author stated, this would qualify aUI as an exolang. The language is an engelang and loglang due to its complex internal structure (a hint of which can be given by examining just a few words from the vocabulary list):
- "animal" is os "life-thing"
- "domestic animal" is bos "together-life-thing"
- "dog" is waubos "power-space-human-together-life-thing
- "cat" is bo*zvos "together-five-part-active-life-thing" (1)
aUI is documented in a hardcopy book: aUI, The Language of Space, ISBN 978-0-912038-08-7, and a newsletter was published sporadically during the 1980s and 1990s. Although Weilgart died in 1981, his daughter continues to use and promote the language.
(2) - article by Weilgart, "A Psycho-Symbolic Language of Semantic Therapy" in International Language Review, vol. 4 no.11
- aUI discussion forum on Reddit
- part of an article by Weilgart describing the use of aUI in psychotherapy
- some pages from a 1986 aUI newsletter
- Wikipedia article
- aUI at LangMaker (archived)
- An article which examines the language (archived)
- aUI's home page on the web (archived)