About aUI

Andrea Weilgart Patten

Director

As my father’s older daughter, I’ve always felt I inherited this luminous–but languishing–linguistic legacy to carry forward. Growing up, it was a heavy perceived responsibility, and one I didn’t necessarily welcome. But after years of doing my own thing, it feels like a unique, incredible opportunity.

Now, I’m grateful for all the times my sister Lindy and I were expected to attend my father’s Monday night seminar in the ‘Psychology of Communication’ (aka, The Language of Space). It seemed embarrassingly radical and far-out to me. But it was the late 60s and early 70s, after all, so I could have spared myself the uneasiness with our image. The class began as meetings in our humble, 2-bedroom home, with the two of us as the symbol-savvy chalk-board champs! My favorite part was playing the aUI-English word creation-guessing game with the grown-up students (two of them who are with me now on the Board of Cosmic Communication Foundation). It was fun coming up with original aUI combos, especially when they were actually understood. Years later, I see those meetings as ‘radical’ in its other definition — referring to the root, as in the root meaning. Now I see it as our search for that elusive fundamental meaning — getting back to the roots of linguistic meaning, which we share, who knows…..with most all other human languages? Could human cultures have in common some set of root concepts — the essential elements that allow us as rational beings to formulate our inexorable thoughts into words?

Another part of the classes I remember enjoying was the guided meditation my father often lead at the conclusion of the class. In a way, it allowed us to sense an existence that transcended this one, at least one that freed us from the constraints of any human communication. Perhaps aUI would lend itself best as a vehicle for spiritual truth.

At 14, I learned the German/English shorthand which my father used for all his envelope notes and writing. There were dozens of manuscript filled three-ring binders that initially my mother, then I, and eventually my sister were to type. My mother was busy enough taking care of the book work and mail-order business.

In 2001 I attended the Linguistics Society of America’s summer institute and took three upper level and graduate classes in semantics. One was specifically in ‘cognitive lexical semantics’ – the closest linguistic area of study I could find related to the structure of aUI. In an essay for this class, I gave a comparison of ‘Natural Semantic Meta-language’ explications of the German adjective gemütlich with formulations in aUI. I concluded, “Perhaps the Language of Space, even in its current simple form, may make possible the separation and exposition of semantic molecules within a word’s meaning. The use of ideographic morphemes facilitates the manipulation of semantic units.” This is as opposed to what I found to be the quite cumbersome, but popular, NSM method. I don’t think the professor was amused.

Over the years, I’ve had a complicated relationship to my father’s constructed language, but I believe now that there is much to learn from it — most especially the possibilities it gives us for delving into the mystery of meaning at its essence, embarking on an experimental venture to see how far the simplest of semantic forms can take us in the creation of a new vehicle of communication….and therefore of thought. I hope you will enjoy your explorations!

Philipp Shary

Expert Linguist Consultant (PhD in Comparative Linguistics)

It is purely through serendipity that I met Andrea and John in 2020 and started working on aUI, but I am infinitely grateful that it happened. My interest in constructed languages started when I was doing my master’s degree and attended lectures of a visiting professor, a prominent Esperantist. He told us of dozens of completely different languages we never knew existed and showed how exciting the world of conlangs can be.

Since I was writing a thesis on synesthesia back then, I was especially interested in Solresol, a language of colors and music. After getting some experience in promoting Solresol and essentially becoming its ambassador thanks to the popularity of the Solresol software I made in Unreal Engine 4, I also became a part of conlang communities on reddit and Facebook. While browsing one of the conlang Facebook groups, I saw Andrea’s message saying that she was looking for somebody who would help her to rebuild the aUI Language website.

I hadn’t heard of aUI back then, but the Language of Space definitely sparked my interest – as somebody who grew up reading science fiction and being obsessed with the space theme, I immediately took a liking to the Elements of Meaning. In my opinion, their system represents a perfect combination of intuitive minimalism and an elaborate toolset for communication and self-expression.

The more I was learning about aUI, the more I realized how logical and well-developed its system is. I understood that Dr Weilgart’s vision and mission were even deeper than what we can see in other conlangs – not only was aUI designed to be an international, or even interstellar auxiliary language, but it also addresses the inherent flaw of natural languages with their ambiguity that creates misunderstanding and makes it too easy to manipulate the audience.

I started to closely work on aUI in 2020, when the world was incredibly divided, yet somehow united at the same time; the online meetings with Andrea and John helped me to open the window to the outside world during the lockdown and travel restrictions – we would have deep and engaging conversations about languages, culture, psychology and much more in the evenings. As somebody who was able to provide linguistic expertise, I first started to delve into aUI by examining the semantic conditioning experiment that served as one of the foundations for Dr Weilgart’s theory behind the language. That research expanded into the exploration of the phonological and semantic brain processing theory. Now I am working on the content for the aUI website, events, social media, the learning management system and more. The Language of Space has become an important part of my life and it feels really rewarding to be able to contribute to it.

Robert Zumberge

Director of Marketing

I first met Dr. Weilgart at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, during an evening class in 1970. Dr. Weilgart was compelling in his discussion of how political rulers used language and slogans to inflame the passion of their followers, how ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were use to keep the common man “in the dark” and how so many wars have been started simply from misunderstanding of words between rulers. During this first class I learned the basic elements of meaning, aUI or Space Language. I used these symbols in artwork to help me understand my thoughts and feelings. I found great satisfaction in reading the books and studying more about aUI over the years. I became a friend to Dr. Weigart’s family, including Andrea, during the ’70’s and am very pleased to be part of the Cosmic Communication Foundation. We look forward to adding rich content from the past and delivering new and beautiful content from new minds that are inspired by aUI in the future.

In Memoriam: John T. Matthias (1950-2023)

Formerly, Director of Language Learning

It is with profound sadness that we announce the sudden passing of John on August 1, 2023, due to a serious illness. This is a significant loss to the aUI mission.

John played an integral role in planning the structure of our aUI outreach since 2012. It was John’s re-establishing contact that gave Andrea Weilgart Patten the courage to begin working with aUI in a more systematic way. He compiled 60 pages of aUI sentences to aid in vocabulary learning, suggested aUI dialogues, and practiced speaking aUI during weekly video chats. In recent years, he generously provided vital editing for the Ersatz Academy manuscript, offering weekly feedback over several years. His loyal, affirming, and informative support sustained Andrea through times of doubt. His last words expressed deep regret for not being able to fulfill all their website plans and achieve fluency in aUI.

– Andrea Weilgart Patten

Remembering Dr. Weilgart and the Beginnings (by John T. Matthias)

I first encountered Dr. Weilgart at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, during his interim class, “The Language of Space,” in January 1968, shortly after his book’s first edition was published. A small group, including myself, met weekly at the Weilgart home to study aUI. He was always warm, gracious, and passionate about aUI and the broader uses of language.

Influenced by him, I majored in psychology, pursued graduate studies in linguistics, and earned a degree in Mandarin Chinese. Later, I worked in computer programming, practiced law, and now consult in court management. These seemingly diverse experiences are united by a deep love for language and its structural analysis.

Recently, I reconnected with Andrea Weilgart Patten, and together with Robert Zumberge, we formed the Cosmic Communication Foundation. Our mission is to share aUI, support creative endeavors based on aUI, and promote what Dr. Weilgart called “a common tongue of semantic communication…a creative play educating to the essence.”