Universal

The UNL is supposed to be a "universal" language, but it should be emphasized that "universal" here means "capable of being used and understood by all" (as in "Coordinated Universal Time", or UTC), rather than "common to all" (as in "Universal Grammar").

Universality

The idea of "universality" in UNL is closely related to the idea of "internationality". The UNL intends to play a role similar to the linguae francae. It is expected to be a working language, a bridge language, a vehicular language, i.e., a non-vernacular language used for communication between communities not sharing a mother tongue. However, differently from other international auxiliary languages (such as Esperanto, Volapuk, Interlingua and others), the UNL is not intended to be a human language, but a language for computers.