The Urban Language (Urbslingua) -Phenomenological Method JEL codes: A13, B4, D7, D04, O3, A1 Summary. This manuscript proposes a concept of an urban language, urbslingua, embedded in the urban studies. It is a tool with the use which one can identify spatial phenomena in need of research, and which helps to place the fragment of space under study in the holistic picture of the city. The city has been treated as a spatial message, the urban space being a multilayered spatial text; the text is

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... tten with morphosigns. A morphosign (language equivalent for a grapheme) is an indivisible structural element of the urbanized space. Morphosigns emergent from the urban form (defined by ISUF) denote designates of all types of human activities the spatial reflections of which are situated within the confines of the urban space. The urban space is their synthesis and binder. Morphosigns are bound together by culture which is a navigator of urban spatial order, i.e. a syntax. The Urban Language (Urbslingua) -Phenomenological Method They are types of settlements humans create to adapt a fragment of the available space to fit their needs and to confer spatial characters upon it, to make the space comfortable to be in. Each human settlement, regardless of a historical period, features buildings, streets, squares, roads, sidewalks, greenery, utilities, and means of transportation. It hosts diverse institutions functioning as school, post office, police, surgery, hospital, management office, place for interment of the deceased, eatery, hotel, factory, and exchange and purchase-sale site. Spatial distribution of inhabitants and institutions creates the socio-topography. Spatial systems and cubic elements constructed above-or underground have their own physiognomic characters resulting from materials used for construction and finishing and from the architectural style. The resultant structure is embedded in the local relief, with a due consideration to the local conditions: geology (determining the type of fundaments required), climate (determining the structure of walls, wall openings, roofs, stability of the materials used, and the architectural style), characteristics and demography of the local community. The inhabitants, attending to their needs, move in the streets and perform actions resulting from routine practices. 1 They visit sites, institutions, buildings. Signs direct people to relevant institutions. The street gallery 2 displays graphic, light and written messages. Some have authors while others are anonymous. Interpersonal relations in the public space convey a lot of information about the place in question. The place has its own dialect. A human settlement emits diverse sounds. Each time of the day and night has its own sound. The sound brings information about the time of the day in the city (or in the village). Sounds of conversations carried out by passers-by, of vehicles, and of birds differ in intensity depending on the time of the day. In addition, the content of the sound brings important information as well, e.g. about the street language being used. The place has its smells, emanating mostly from rooms and buildings, but also evidencing the type and quality of vehicles (means of transportation in general), sanitary standards, personal hygiene products and perfumes used. The human settlement The Urban Language (Urbslingua) -Phenomenological Method Communication theory of culture According the Communication Theory of Culture, culture evolves from pre-culture. It consists of biological activities of an individual which serve to satisfy the universal human needs (sleep, movement, communication, mating, learning, defence, feeding, recreation, playing, construction of tools with the use of which it is possible to broaden the scope of one's senses). A human being functioning within a territory has transformed his/her own biological activities (i.e. pre-culture) into culture by shaping them into a most convenient form, compatible with local environmental conditions (Hall, 1987, pp. 184-185). E. Hall operationalized culture and systematized its substances based on its best-known component: the language. While setting off from the anthropological definition of culture 3 he developed its sociological definition stating that "culture is communication and communication is culture" (Hall, 1987, p.184). As a result, he juxtaposed the categories of "language" and "culture". E. Hall identified ten Primary Message Systems (PMS. Hall, 1987, p. 48). As a result, he perceived culture as a system the substance of which is formed by the interlacing PMS. PMS, a notion taken from the communication theory of culture based on linguistic communication models, is a specialized form of interaction. Interaction is a movement; in a multitude of ways, it is related to human existence. A human dwelling place is a site where activities associated with human existence are concentrated. A list of PMS is a system of ten mutually intergrading constants. Their matrix is the map of culture (Table 1 ). An active human being gives the PMS an appropriate form; thus, the PMS constitute the substance of culture, but they also affect the sites of human activities (Figure 1 ).