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User:IJzeren Jan

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Wikipedia:Babel
nlDeze gebruiker heeft het Nederlands als moedertaal.
pl-4Ten użytkownik posługuje się językiem polskim prawie jak językiem ojczystym.
en-4This user can contribute with a near-native level of English.
isv-3Tutoj upotrěbitelj posluživaje se medžuslovjanskym na vysokom uravnju.
Тутој употрєбитељ послуживаје се меджусловјанскым на высоком уравњу.
Wdk-3Ił wcielzatórz pocie kotrzybytar en lęgwie wenedczej sur niwiół owęcaty i przeście włydy.
de-3Dieser Benutzer hat sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse.
fr-2Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.
la-2Hic usor media latinitate contribuere potest.
ru-2Этот участник неплохо знает русский язык.
af-2Hierdie gebruiker het 'n gemiddelde begrip van Afrikaans.
pap-2 This user is able to communicate with parrots on a moderate level.
vo-2At pösod zenodiko pükon Volapüki.
uk-1Користувач може робити внесок українською мовою на початковому рівні.
grc-1Ὅδε ὁ χρήστης δύναται συμβάλλεσθαι ὀλίγῃ γνώσει τῆς ἀρχαίας ἑλληνικῆς.
...This user would like to be able to speak some more languages.
Conlang WikiProject
This user is a member of WikiProject Constructed languages.
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Ill Bethisad Project
This user has created a global account. IJzeren Jan's main account is on Wikipedia (in Dutch).
Free political prisoners!

Subpage: User:IJzeren Jan/List Of Conlang-Related Articles

Welcome!

I'm not a person who likes talking about himself, so I will limit myself to the necessary. My real name is Jan van Steenbergen, I was born on June 3, 1970 (on the same day when Hjalmar Schacht died), and I live in Zaandam, near Amsterdam. Educated as a specialist on Eastern Europe, mainly Poland, I've worked as a journalist, as a translator, and (currently) as a software engineer in a bank. My main interests are: Poland and Ukraine; language, particularly constructed languages; Classical music; history. I am mostly active in the Dutch Wikipedia, under user name IJzeren Jan. Here I will probably mostly be dealing with interwiki links, and perhaps small modifications of existing articles. Also, I might dig up interesting stuff to translate into Dutch or Polish.

My user name, IJzeren Jan literally means Iron Jan. How so? Well, during my student years I used to play computer games from time to time, and "IJzeren Jan" was one of my favourite nicknames I used in highscores. Later I almost automatically used it in my e-mail address, and now as my Wikipedia user name. Only much later I learnt that IJzeren Jan was also the nickname of my famous countryman Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who also happens to be the symbol of my native town Hoorn.

I am the author of several constructed languages, two of which, Wenedyk and Interslavic, are listed in the English wiki. More about this and other things can be found on my home page, http://steen.free.fr/ .


Best regards,

Jan



Portal:Constructed languages
Today's language
Leibniz's diagrammatic reasoning
Leibniz's diagrammatic reasoning

The Latin term characteristica universalis, commonly interpreted as universal characteristic, or universal character in English, is a universal and formal language imagined by the German polymathic genius, mathematician, scientist and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz able to express mathematical, scientific, and metaphysical concepts. Leibniz thus hoped to create a language usable within the framework of a universal logical calculation or calculus ratiocinator. The characteristica universalis is a recurring concept in the writings of Leibniz. When writing in French, he sometimes employed the phrase spécieuse générale to the same effect. The concept is sometimes paired with his notion of a calculus ratiocinator and with his plans for an encyclopaedia as a compendium of all human knowledge.

Many Leibniz scholars writing in English seem to agree that he intended his characteristica universalis or "universal character" to be a form of pasigraphy, or ideographic language. This was to be based on a rationalised version of the 'principles' of Chinese characters, as Europeans understood these characters in the seventeenth century. From this perspective it is common to find the characteristica universalis associated with contemporary universal language projects like Esperanto, auxiliary languages like Interlingua, and formal logic projects like Frege's Begriffsschrift. The global expansion of European commerce in Leibniz's time provided mercantilist motivations for a universal language of trade so that traders could communicate with any natural language. Find out more...