International Language

P T E ’ AS , PR SE N T ﬁs F U T U R E

WITH SPEC IME N S OF ESPERAN TO

AN D GRAMMAR

C LA R K BY W . J .

M .A . OXO . P H . D. LE Z N , IP IG

c - - R B C HE l R - -DR IT LI CE é izs LE TT E S . A L E EN O P A R I S

L O N D O N

C) P

P R E FAC E

e An artiﬁcial language may be more regular, more p rfect, and — M Ax M LLER a . ﬁ easier to learn th n a natural one .

o l is S nn n fas own the rooves of han e THE w r d pi i g t d g c g .

T ld o r han h Ha l is l n l e h e o dis rde c get . p y it yie di g p ac to i The on ue s a l t mem . It shoul no lon n ew. t g it le ber d ger be allowed to div ide the n ations.

wo h n s s an out i n he sw f han en e h T t i g t d t i t c ge . Sci c wit

s a l The E as all its wo s i s e n to all an s . t led rk pr di g d , by

n is omin nto l n w h the West a a . J p , c g i i e it St an d ardi zati on o f life may ﬁttin gly be accompanied by

n a z a n of l n ua e The eff t ma s t a d rdi tio a g g . ec y be twofold

i n I al P ract cal a d de . c P r acti al. The World has a thousand tongues, Science b ut one They’ll climb up a thousand rungs B b ’ When a el s done .

M I deal. ankind has a thousand F riendship but one Ba z ai n n . then from heart and lu gs F or R S un the ising . w . J . c.

NOTE — The followi ng page s have had the ad vantage

B n k e n b Mr . H. o M a d of n a i n M . o bei g re d S y li gb r udie ,

to him for m n o tions and su est o I am i ndebted a y c rrec gg i ns . iii A N I NTE R N ATI O NAL A UX I LI A R Y LA N GU AGE

“ N OTE — To avoid repeating the cumbrous phrase international

' ” ' u a auxi lzai / It t a xiliary l nguage, the word j is usually omitted . mus “ ” be cle arly understood th at when international or universal auxi li ar language is spoken of, y is also implied.

Introductory The Q uestion of Principle— E conomic Advantage of an International Language

The Question of Practice— An International Language is Possible

ccon ti n u ed — An Th e Question of Practi e ( ) International Language is E asy

Th e con ti n u ed — The V . Question ofPractice ( Introduction of an International Language would not cause Dislocation International Action already taken for the Introduction of an Auxiliary Language C an the International Language b e Latin ? ‘ Can the International Language be Greek ?

C an the International Language b e a M odern Language ?

X Gan E be . the volution of an International Language left to the Process of N atural Selection by F ree m Co petition . ONTENTS

Objections to an Intern ational Langu age on Aesthetic C1 Grounds Will an International Language discourage the Study M be D of odern Languages , and thus etrimental to V Culture — Parallel with the Question of Com pulsory Greek

X Ob u Gr III . jection to an International Lang age on the ound that it will soon split up into Dialects

XIV Ob e u . jection that the Pres nt International Lang age E D ( speranto) is too ogmatic, and refuses to proﬁt b y C riticism

S ummar Ob V y of jections to an International Language .

The Wider Cosmopolitanism— The Coming of Asia

Importance of an International Language for th e Blind [deal Practical Literary Commercial

’ Is an International Language a C rank s Hobby ?

What an International Language is not

What an International Lan guage is

PART II

HISTORICAL

Some E xisting International Languages already in Partial U se Outline of History of the Idea of a U niversal Language

' -List of Schemes proposed

Th e E arliest British Attempt

H — a istory . of Volapuk Warning History of Idiom N eutral vi CONTENTS

C R A P . VI : The Newest Langu ages : a N eo-Latin Group— Grop “ ” ings towards a Pan - E uropean Amalgamated Scheme

l l H of E ﬁ . istory speranto “ m x V II I Present State of E speranto 5 ( a) General ; (a) in E ngland . m m IX I Lesson s be the F H . V to drawn from oregoing istory

PART I I I

THE C LAIMS O F E SPE RANTO TO BE TAKE N SERIOUSLY C ONS IDE RATIONS BASE D O N THE STRUCTURE O F THE LANGUAGE ITSE LF ‘ I E e o S ﬁ ﬁ the . sp rant is cienti cally constructed, and ful ls Natural Tenden cy in E volution of Language

II E a E — It w ill . sper nto from an ducational Point of View aid the learning of other Languages and stimu late Intelligence I I I C T b b . omparative a les illustrating La our saved in learn ing E sperantO 'as contrasted with other Languages (a) Word—building (a) Participles and Auxiliaries I SS

How E be C IV . speranto can used as a ode Language to communicate with Persons who have never learnt it

PART IV

S EC E S OF E S E H G A A AN D P IM N P RANTO, WIT R MM R VOCABULARY N ote Pronunciation Specimens of E speranto I . Parolado M arbord isto 2 . La j N esa a G : Ale orio 3 . g ento g CONTENTS

I II G . rammar

Afﬁ xes IV . List of T b C V . a le of orrelative Words b VI . Voca ulary

APPE N D IX A

b s I II a. R 2 ee . l 00 Pro lems ( Part , ch p in egu ar Language

APPE N D IX B

H m b Dr Z E speranto y n y . amenhof

APPE N DIX C

The Letter cin E speranto

PART I

G E N E R A L

INT R ODU CTORY

IN dealin g with the problem of the introduction of an international u b lang age , we are met on the threshold y two main questions f I . o The question principle .

2 The of . . question practice

By the question of principle is meant , Is it desirable to have n ? for one ? a universal la guage do we wish in short , is there a demand ? of The question practice includes the inquiries, Is such a language possible ? is it easy ? would its introduction be fraught f ? with prohibitive di ﬁculties and the like . or It is clear that , however possible easy it may be to d o a s nless ; thing , there is no ca e for doin it it is wanted therefore um m im m m the q the case before us the question of principle involves many considerations

e i . T aesth tic , political , social , even relig ous hese will be glanced at in their proper place but for ou r present purpose they are all subordinate to the on e great paramount considerati on— the n t e of ff economic o e. In h a airs experience shows that “world , f i given a demand o any k nd whatever, as between an economical of - t method supplying that demand and a non economical me hod , in the long run the economical method will surely prevail . I INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

d for If, then, it can be shown that there is a growing nee a of me ns international communication , and that a unilingual one solution is more economical than a multilingual , there is good ground for thinking that the unilingual method of transacting ff b international a airs will surely prevail . It then ecomes a question of time and method : When will men feel the pressure of the demand su ﬂi cien tly strongly to set about supplying it ? and what means will they adopt ? The ff T time and the method are by no means indi erent . hough b a demand (for what is possi le) is sure , in the long run , to get of itself supplied , a long period wasteful and needless groping may be avoided by a clear- sighted and timely realization of the

z co - demand, and by consequent organi ed operation in supplying it . Intelligent anticipation sometimes helps events to occur . It is the object of this book to call attention to the present state of ff z a airs, and to emphasi e the fact that the time is now ripe for dealing with the question , and the present moment pro The pitious for solving the problem once for all in an orderly way . * merest glance at the list of projects for a universal language and their dates will strengthen the conviction from an historical point of view that the fulness of time is accomplished , while the history of the rise and fall of Volapillz and of the extraordinary ’ of E s er an to are rise p , in spite of its precursor s failure , exceedingly ﬁ signi cant .

One language has been born , come to maturity, and died of f A dissension, and the world stood by indi ferent . nother is now

ﬁ - in the rst full ﬂush of youth and strength . After twenty nine years of daily developing cosmopolitanism— years that have witnessed the rising of a new star in the East and an uninterrupted of h of b he growth interc ange ideas etween t nations of the earth , or whether in politics , literature , science , without a single check

’ to the ever-n sing tide of internationalism— are we again to let the of o r favourable moment pass unused, just for want making up u ? one ﬁ minds At present language holds the eld . It is well

— See 8 8 . pp . 7 7 INTRODUCTORY 3

organi zed ; it has abundant enthu siastic partisans accustomed to b communicate and transact their common usiness in it, and only n ot f too anxious to Show the way to others . If it be o ﬁcially adopted and put under the regulation of a duly constituted inter it or national authority , may wither away split into factions as * Vola iik . p did Or it may continue to grow and ﬂourish , but of ma a h r a is te others its numerous rivals secure d e ndg d p y h g ' '

. T everi worS to its claim his would be e. It is far harder rally a t -o ” r co . m multitude of conflicting rivals in the sam cam than it is to ta e p, n t n ’o l e fl ‘ -or 12 h an d fli cient r a we omo eneou a e volunteer force , g ~ I." . I , W - “ n san M fl u‘ u l l z I s tu o re u lar arr . ega i e ts position , and raise it to the ta s f a g ny x t uestion taken , q will of of ffi z remain in a state chaos , and the lack o cial organi ation of brings a great risk of overlapping , dissension , and creation rival of ff t interests , and generally produces a state a airs calculated o fi postpone inde nitely the supply of the demand . Competition that neither tends to keep down the price nor to improve the of f quality the thing produced is mere dissipation o energy . fi n on n t a word, the e thing needful at present is o a more highly bu t of perfected language to adopt , the adoption the highly perfected one we posses)s By the admission Of experts , no less than by the practical experience of great numbers of persons in using it over a number of years , it has been found adequate . f b Once ound adequate , its a solute utility merely depends upon universal adoption . t of With utility in direct proportion o numbers adherents , every recruit augments its value— a thought which may well encourage waverers to make the slight effort necessary to at any to rate learn read it.

Es e ni z d s and he e are n o p ranto itself i s admirably orga e ( ee p . t r facons o r s m oms of di ssens on But E s e an s s n eed offi ca su o ti y pt i , p r ti t i l pp rt and eco n on r g iti . 4 INTERNAT IONAL LANGUAGE

TH E Q UESTION O F PRINCIPLE — E CONOMIC AD VANTAGE OF AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

A of S stated above , the question principle will be treated here sin ce ractical from a purely economical point of view, ﬁ value , of an d f measured by saving time , money, e fort, must be the ultimate criterion by which the success or failure of so far of a reaching a reform as the introduction an intern tional, be Th e auxiliary language will decided . bearing of such a

r n refo m upon education , culture , race supremacy, etc . , is ot without importance ; but the discussion of these points must

b . be postponed as su sidiar y Q R a educed to its simplest form , the economic l argument is this ( I ) The volume of international intercourse is great and increasing . ( 2 ) This intercourse is at present carried on in many different of d of fﬁ b ut l a la nguages varying egrees di culty, all re atively h rd of acquisition for those who do not know them as a mother tongue . This is uneconomical . (3) It is economically sounder to carry on international intercourse in one easy language than in a large number Of hard ones . (4 ) Therefore in principle an easy international lan guage is d esirablé

Let us glance at these four points a lit more in detail .

I . e No . surely needs no demonstration very year th re is more communication between race and language. e of t And it is not business , in the narrow s nse the term , hat ' i l r ff b of is exclu s ve y o even chieﬂy a ected y diversity language . b Besides the enormous ulk of pleasure travel, international congresses are growing in number and importance) municipal m fraternization is the latest fashion , and many a worthy alder an , THE QU ESTION OF PRINCIPLE 5

’ o e t uring at the rat payers expe nse, must wish that he had some

or . German in Berlin , a little Italian in Milan Indeed , it is at these points of international contact that language is a real bar , actually preventing much intercourse that would otherwise b z have taken place , rather than in usiness , which is organi ed in f T of view o the diffi culty . hen there is the whole realm

scientific and learned literaturefi work of which the accessibility to c of but d all con erned is the first importance, is often hin ered or because a translation into one language does not pay, , if

b . u ar made , only reaches a limited pu lic S ch b s to freedom of interchange cannot be reckoned in money ; but modern z and economics recogni es the personal social factor, and any to obstacle research is certainly a public loss .

But important as are these various spheres of action , an even wider international contact of thought and feeling is springing our e up in days . D mocracy, science , and universal education d of of are pro ucing everywhere similarity institutions , industry, z of of e of the whole organi ation life . Similarity life will bre d

of converse h more community interests , and from this arises real ﬁ give and take in the things that matter, less purely super cial

f - - dealings o the guide book or conversation manual type . “ ” 2 far ( ) Business, meaning commerce , in so as it is inter a be on z nation l, may at present carried mainly in half a do en

of of . the principal languages Western Europe Even so , their of multiplicity is vexatious . But outside the world business ‘ ﬁ other languages are entering the eld , and striving for equal

- rights . The tendency is all towards self assertion on the part of the nationalities that are beginning a new era of national i n Th fﬁ l fe a d importance . e language di culty in the Austrian

E fl r - of r mpire re ects the g owing self consciousness the Magya s . (Everyw here whe re you ng peoples are pushing their rights to o take equal rank am ng the nations of the world , the language question is put in the forefrorLt) The politicians of Ireland and Wale s have realized the importance of language in asserting

ut n - t bu t nationality, b such engineered la guage agita ion offers 6 INTER NATIONAL LANGU AGE a feeble reflex of the vitality of the question in lands where the native language is as much in use for all purposes as is E nglish E T s in ngland . he e lands will fight harder and harder against f the claims to supremacy of a handful o Western intruders . A famous foreign philologistfi in a report on the subject pre of a sented to the Academy Vienna , notes the incre sing tendency of Russian to take rank among the recogn ized languag for b purposes of polite learning . He is well placed to o serve . ith Russia knocking at the door and Hungary waiting to storm the our breach , what tongue may not descendants of the next century i of have to learn , under pa n losing touch with important currents of thought ? It is high time something were done to standardi ze

of . means transmission Owing to political conditions, there are linguistically disintegrating forces at work, which are at of t n n c variance with the integrating forces natural e de yg of m f From an economical point view, a considerable a ount o ff be time , e ort, and money must unreproductively invested in “ ” overcoming the language difﬁculty . In money alone the amount must run into thousands of pounds yearly . Among the unreproductive investments are— the “ employment of foreign correspondence clerks, the time and money spent upon the installation of educational plant for their production , the time and money spent upon translations and interpreters for the of proceedings international conferences and negotiations, the time devoted by professors and other researchers (often non linguists in virtue of their calling) to deciphering special treatises

“ ' and learned periodicals in languages not their own . i

hu char d . Prof. S t 1These are some of the actual visible losses owing to the pr esence of the an ua e d fﬁcu N o one can es ma e th e alue of the osses en a ed b l g g i lty. ti t v l t il y in the absence of fr ee in tercourse d u e to removable l guisticbarriers. P otenti al

but at resen n on - ea ized e en s on of ood wi swi er ro ress an d w d er ( p t r l ) xt i g ll, ft p g , i k nowl edge represent one sid e of their value ; while con sequent n on -realized r a e in u m f u a b u ness e esen s h e a ue i n mone The i nce s vol e o act l si r pr t t ir v l y . negative statement of absen ce of results from intercourse that n ever took place affords n o measure of positi ve results obtainable un der a better system. THE QU E STION OF PR INCIPLE

he of i T tendency those engaged in advancing mater al progress , ’ of which consists in the subjection nature to man s ends , is to adapt more and more quickly their methods to changi ng con

tion s - di . Has the world yet faced in a business like spirit the problem of wiping out wastage on words ? Big industrial concerns scrap machinery while it is yet perfectly of out capable running and turning good work , in order to replace b out it y newer machinery, capable of turning more work in the T ff same time . ime is money . Can the busy world a ord a language di fﬁculty (3 ) The proposition that it is economically sounder to carry on ternational intercourse in on e easy language than in a large number of hard ones rests upon the principle that it does not pay do to a thing a hard way , if the same results can be produced by an easy wag The whole industrial revolution brought about by the invention of machinery depended upon this principle . Since an artiﬁcial of language, like machinery, is a means invented by man furthering n o of his ends, there seems to be abuse analogy in comparing them . When it was found that machinery would turn o ut a hundred

of - pieces cloth while the hand loom turned out one , the hand d loom was doomed , except in so far as it may serve other en s , o r n ot v antiquarian, aesthetic, artistic , which are equally well ser ed by machinery . Similarly , to take another revolution which is going on in ou r own day through a further application of machinery, when it is found that corn can be reaped and threshed b be y machinery , that hay can cut, made , carried, and stacked by r machinery, that man can travel the high road by machinery, soone or ob b later machinery is bound to get the bulk of the j , ecause it produces the same results at greater speed and less cost . So, in of ﬁ the ﬁeld international intercourse , if an easy arti cial language can with equal efficiency and at less cost produce the same results f of a as a multiplicity o natural ones , in many lines hum n activity, and and making all reserves in matters antiquarian , aesthetic, 8 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

i or O' artist c, sooner later the multiplicity will have to g to the

- u be scrap heap as cumbrous and o t of date . It may a hundred years ; it may be ﬁfty it may be even twenty . Almost certainly the irresistible trend of economic pressure will work its will and insist that what has to be done shall be done in the most economical way .

of . So much, then , for the question principle In treating it,

b e. . bo certain large assumptions have een made ; g it is said a ve, “ if an easy artiﬁcial language can with equal effi ciency produce the same results , etc . Here it is assumed that the r ﬁ 1 2 b a ti cial language is ( ) easy, and ( ) that it is possi le for it to produce the same results . Again , however easy and possible , T are its introduction might cost more than it saved. hese i r quest ons of fact, and are treated in the three following chapte s under the heading of Th e Question of Practice .

THE Q UE STION O F PRACTIC E — AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAG E I S POSSIBLE

THE man who says a thing is impossible without troubling to ﬁ nd “ ” out b whether it has een done is merely talking through his hat, to use an Americanism, and we need not waste much time on

. who him Any one, maintains that it is impossible to transact the ordinary business of life and write lucid treatises on scientific b u and other su jects in an artificial lang age, is simply in the fi position of the French engineer, who gave a full scienti c demon stration of the fact that an engine could not possibly travel by steam . The l one fi p ain fact is that not only arti cial language, but

But on of co u se i n hose nes i n h ch an n erna na au a ly, r , t li w i i t tio l xili ry an u can od u e e a r esu Thi c a e c u ood s . s e ud es h ome use l g g pr q lly g lt x l ,

na iona e a u e hi o o scho a s ud of na on a an ua es etc. t l lit r t r , p l l gy, l rly t y ti l l g g ,

10 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

of ﬁ doubts as to the practical nature an arti cial language there, of for good and all , yielded to the logic facts and it may well be that it will some day be rather an outstanding landmark in the

z . history of civili ation A brief description will , therefore, not be out of place . In the little seaport town on the north coast of France had come together men and women of more than twenty different b races . Some were experts , some were eginners ; but all save b a very few must have een alike in this , that they had learnt their ‘ E O speranto at home, and, as far as ral use went , had only been able to speak it (if at all) with members of their own national

— groups that is, with compatriots who had acquired the language

as . under the same conditions to pronunciation , etc , as themselves . E xperts and beginners, those who from practical experience knew b the great possi ilities of the new tongue as a written medium , no less than the neophytes and tentative experimenters who had come to see whether the thing was worth taking seriously , they were now to make the decisive trial— ih the one case to test the b faith that was in them , in the other to set all dou t at rest in one sense or the other for good and all . The town theatre had been generously placed at the disposal of of the Congress, and the author the language, Dr . Zamenhof, had left his eye - patients at Warsaw and come to preside at the coming ’ ou kar a lin w on t of his g , now well in her teens , and about to leave the academic seclusion of scholastic use and emerge S f into the larger phere o social and practical activity . ’ On Saturday evening, August 5 , at eight o clock, the Boulogne The Theatre was packed with a cosmopolitan audience . unique assembly was pervaded by an in d eﬁ nable feeling of expectancy ; b of as in the lull efore the thunderstorm , there was the hush excitement, the tense silence charged with the premonition of some vast force about to be let loose on the world . After a few preliminaries, there was a really dramatic moment when ﬁ Dr . Zamenhof stood up for the rst time to address his world

- ? audience in the world tongue . Would they u nderstand him THE QU ESTION OF PRACTICE I :

h O e to be ﬁ ? or Was their p about justi ed was it all a chimera, such stuff as dreams are made on “ Gesi njor oj ( = Ladies and gentlemen) — the great audience craned forward like one man , straining eyes and ears towards the “ ’ — s r anaa leazcr o mi akce lis la r o onon speaker, g p p p p The crowd drank in the words with an almost pathetic agony

C - f . o anxiety Gradually, as the lear cut sentences poured forth of in a continuous stream perfect lucidity, and the audience realized that they were all listening to and all understanding a really international speech in a really international tongue— a tongue which secured to them , as here in Boulogne so throughout the world , full comprehension and a sense of comradeship and fellow- citizenship on equal terms with all users of it— the anxiety f n gave way to a scene o wild enthusiasm . Men shook ha ds with perfect strangers, and all cheered and cheered again . Zamenhof ﬁ nished with a solemn declamation of one of his hymns (given b as an appendix to this volume, with translation) , em odying the lofty ideal which has inspired him all through and sustained him through the many diffi culties he has had to face . When he came

ﬁ ne b [Vi i n t r to the end , the passage eginning with the words , e ' ”“ popoloj la mar ojn actr zeos ( we shall throw down the walls “ between the and ending amo kaj vcr o ckr cgos su r ”“ ter o ( love and truth shall begin their reign on the whole concourse rose to their feet with prolonged cries of Vivu Zamenhof No doubt this enthusiasm may sound rather forced and unreal C to those who have not attended a congress , and the heers may ring hollow across intervening time and space . Neither would it be or to good for this any movement rely upon facile enthusiasm , T as easily damped as aroused . here is something far more than this in the international language movement . b At the same time, it is impossi le for any one who has not tried

to z — but it reali e the thrill not a weak , sentimental thrill , a reason b able thrill , starting from o jective fact and running down the mar row of things — given by the ﬁrst real contact with an 12 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

t al in ernation language in an international setting . There really of w b is a feeling as a new po er orn into the world .

T G 1 06 hose who were present at the eneva Congress, 9 , will

' “ ” not soon forget the sin ging of the song La E spero at the ’ of The solemn closing the week s proceed ings . organ rolled out

the melody , and when the gathered thousands that thronged the ﬂoor of the hall and packed the galleries tier o n tier to the ceiling took up the Opening phrase

E u la m ond on ven is no a sen o v t , * Tra la m ond o ras for a ok o i t v ,

a of ﬁ t of they me nt every word it . It was a t ing summary the r b of the l imp essions left y the events the week, and what ips

uttered must have been in the hearts and mind s of all . As an ounce of personal experience is worth a pound of

- second hand recital , a brief statement may here be given of the E way in which the present writer came to take up speranto , and of the experiences whi ch soon led him to the conviction of its

absolute practicability and utility .

b r 1 0 b of In Octo e , 9 5 , having just returned from an a sence Far E some years in Canada and the ast, he had his attention turned to Esperanto for the ﬁrst time by reading an account

. of of the Congress of Boulogne He had no previous knowledge ,

or leanings towards, a universal language ; and if he had thought

about it at all , it was only to laugh at the idea as a wild and

. u e l . visionary scheme In short , his attit d was quite norma ﬁ on e of But here was a de nite statement, professing to be

positive accomplished fact . One of two things either the news b pape r account was not true ; or else , the facts eing as represented , h here was a new possibility to be reckoned with . T e only course was to send for the books and test the thing on its merits . not Being somewhat used to languages , he did take long to see r t that this one was good enough in itself. A letter, w it en in

In o the or d has come a new fee n t w l li g,

Through the world goes a mighty call . THE QUESTION O F PRACTICE I 3

’ of s Esperanto, after a few days study the grammar at odd time , E - E l with a halfpenny speranto nglish key enclosed , was fu ly under b was u stood y the addressee, though he ignorant p till then of T the very existence of Espe ranto . his experience has often been since repeated ; indeed , the correspondent will often write back after a few days in Esperanto . Such letters have always been l found intel igible , though in no case did the correspondent know

E . The speranto previously experiment is instructive and amusing, and can be tried by any one for an expenditure of twopence fo r keys and a few hours for studying the sixteen rules and their application . To many minds these are far simpler and more easy to grasp for practical use than the rules for scoring at bridge . ’ or n a After a month two s playing with the language i sp re time , it b out the writer further tested , y sending a ﬂight of postcards to various selected Esperantists ’ addresses in different parts of the

. h b Ru ssian Empire T e addressees ranged from St . Peters urg and to b a Helsingfors through Poland the Caucasus and to far Si eri . e a In nearly very c se answers were received , and in some instances the initial interchange of postcards led to an extremely s intere ting correspondence, throwing much light on the disturbed

of a or of state things in the n tive town province the correspondent . From a Tiﬂis doctor came a graphic account of the state of affairs in the Caucasus ; while a school inspector from the depths of Eastern Siberia painted a vivid picture of the effect of political “ unr est on t”he schools — lockouts and malodorous chemical bs A n lia — out o tructions ( g the schools were stunk ) . Many but writers expressed themselves with great freedom , feared their letters would not pass the censor . Judging by the proportion

' of fﬁ . answers received , the censorship was not at that time e cient ’ no In case was there any difﬁculty in grasping the writer s meaning .

All the answers were in E speranto . T o his was fairly convincing, but still having doubts n the of n i t n question pro unciat on , the writer resolved o atte d the

1 0 6 To Esperanto Congress to be held at Geneva in August 9 . ' 14 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

this end he continued to read E speranto at odd minutes and

' z b took in an Esperanto ga ette . A out three weeks before the congress he got a member of his family to read aloud to him b ‘ E every day as far as possi le a page or two of speranto , in order S to attune his ear . He never had an opportunity of peaking the b language efore the congress , except once for a few minutes , when he travelled some distance to attend a meeting of the

nearest English group . T of hus equipped , he went through the Congress Geneva , and b to of found himself a le follow most the proceedings , and to S w converse freely, though lowly, ith people of the most diverse

nationality . At an early sitting of the congress he found himself Kischin eff b next to a Russian from , who had een through the

ﬁ o r om rst great p g , and a most interesting conversation ensued . Another day the neighbours were an Indian nawab and an abbé

. ﬁ from Madrid Another time it was a Bulgarian . At the rst ﬁ n of cial banquet he sat ext to a Finn , who rejoiced in the name

of bu t C z f Attila, and, for the ivili ing inﬂuence o a universal

language, might have been in the sunny south , like his namesake o f f the ancient world , on a very di ferent errand from his present

one. bb b peaceful Yet here he was, ru ing el ows with Italians, as if there had never been such things as Huns or a sack of Rome by northern barbarians . E During the meal a Frenchman , ﬁnding himself near us nglish “ and some Germans”, proposed a toast to the entente cordiale i n taking Germany, which was honoured with great enthusiasm . This is merely an instance of the small ways in which such i gather ngs make for peace and good will . With all these people it was perfectly easy to converse in the bar common tongue , pronunciation and national idiom being no in practice . And this experience was general throughout the duration of the f congress . Day by day sittings were held for the tr ansaction o all kinds of business and the discussion of the most varied subjects . It was impressive to see people fromhalf the countries of the THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 15 world rise from different corners of the hall and contribute their

- - Da b sh are to the discussion in the most matter of fact way . y y con ressists S b day the g met in ocial functions, de ates , lectures , and sectional groups (chemical , medical , legal, etc . ) for the E regulation of matters touching their special interests . verything

E s eran to . an d was done in p , never was there the slightest hitch or or misunderstanding , failure to give adequate expression to of The ffi Opinions owing to defects language . language di culty a was annihil ted . Perhaps o ne of the most striking demonstrations of this return to pre- Babel conditions was the performance of a three - part comedy by a Frenchman , a Russian , and a Spaniard . Such a thing would in evitably have been grotesque in any national ' on language ; but here they m”et common neutral ground . No ’ of one s accent was foreign , and none the spectators possessed that mother - tongue acquaintance with E speranto that would or lead them to feel slight divergences shocking , even noticeable without extreme attention to the point . Other theatrical per fo mances i al r were g ven at Geneva , as so at Boulogne , where a play of Moliere was performed in E speranto by actors of eight nation alities on e s with rehearsal, and with full succes , f to o ose In the face o these facts it is idle . pp a universal artificial language on the score of impossibility or inadequacy . The theoretical pronunciation diffi culty completely crumbled away before the test of practice . “ ” ‘ Th e - at- - t - a t ur cri m war any price par y , the whole hoggers o (the juxtaposition of the two national idioms lends a certain ff of realism , and heightens the e ect each) , are therefore driven on of Hibernian ism ma back their second line attack, if the y ' “ ” “ be excused . Yes, they say, your language may be possible, ’ an but, after all , why n”ot learn existinglanguage , if you ve got to learn one anyway ?

Now, quite apart from the obvious fact that the nations will never agree to give the preference to the language of one of them of to the prejudice the others, this argument involves th e 16 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE s uggestion that an artiﬁcial language is no easi er to lear n than a natural one . We thus come to the question of ease as a qualiﬁcation .

' THE QUE STION O F PRACTICE (conti n uea) — AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE Is E ASY

PE OPLE smile incredulously at the mention of an artiﬁcial be language , implying that no easy royal road can found to

- language learning of any kind . But the odds are all the other are way, and they heavy odds . The ' b reason for this is quite simple , and may be rieﬂy put as follows : The b of l ua l n o ject ang ge is to express thought and fee i g . Every natural language contains all kinds of complications and i a irregularit es, which are of no use whatever in ttaining this

bu t b to . object, merely exist ecause they happen have grown ’

T a s n el étr e . for heir sole r i o is historical In fact, a language without a history they are u n necessary? Therefore a universal b language , whose only o ject is to supply to every one the simplest possible means of expressing his thoughts and feelings r one in a medium intelligible to eve y else , simply leaves them

out . N ow , it is precisely in these unnecessary complications that a large proportion — certainly more than half— of the T difﬁ culty of learning a foreign language consists . herefore an ‘ ﬁ b out c arti cial language, y merely leavin g them , be omes certainly more than twice as easy to learn as any natural language .

R ead er s whodo n ot ca e abou the easons for th s but d es e conce e r t ‘r i , ir r t

oofs m a sk th e n e few a es and urn in to . 20 ar . 6. pr , y ip xt p g t p , p

' h e d o n ot as si s in a a n n its ob ecas a an ua e. On e uni e sa i e . 1 . t y t tt i i g j t l g g v r l fo min the ura as ense or com a a ve ex resses urali way of r g pl l, p t t , p r ti p pl ty,

as ime or com au 'ison us as e as ﬁf een wa s and w h a dea ess p t t , p j t w ll t y , it l l b trou le.

18 I NTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

b - ( ) Esperanto No new endings at all . Merely the three form of esti be regular active conjugation the verb to , with a passive

. b participle No confusion possi le . b It is just the same with compound tenses , su junctives ,

etC. participles , Making all due allowances , it is quite safe to say

that the Latin verb is fi fty times as hard as the Esperanto verb . The proportion would be about the same in the case of b i b su stantives, Latin hav ng innumera le types . E Comparing modern languages with speranto , the proportion in favour of the latter would not be so high as fifty to one in b the inflection of ver s and nouns , though even here it would be b irre u very great, allowing for su junctives, auxiliaries, g

lariti es . , etc But taking the whole languages , it might well

rise to ten to one . For what are the chief difﬁculties in language- learning ? T fﬁ of hey are mainly either di culties of phonetics , or structure

and vocabulary. Difﬁculties of phonetics are 1 of ( ) Multiplicity sounds to be produced , including many sounds and combinations that do not Occur in the language of

the learner . 2 of of ( ) Variation accent, and sounds expressed by the

same letter .

These difﬁculties are both eliminated in E speranto . 1 ( ) Relatively few sounds are adopted into the language,

and only such as are common to near ly all languages . For i "6 nstance, there are only ﬁve full vowels and three diphthongs, which can be explained to every speaker in terms of his own ’ ” ’ ﬁ u s e s language . All the modi ed vowels , closed and , half

S . tones, longs and horts , open and closed vowels, etc , which

form the chief bugbear in correct pronunciation, and often render b — the foreigner unintelligi le all these disappear . ( 2 ) There is no variation of accent or of sound expressed by

n zZ e an d re are me e s m e o els us consonan a O mitti g the rare e . j f r ly i pl v w pl t l = E n l sh j( g i y ) . THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 5 19

“ The one on e the same letter . principle letter , sound is T b . adhered to a solutely hus , having learned one simple rule b o ne for accent (always on the last sylla le but ) , and the uniform sound Corresponding to each letter, no mistake is possible .

- on e C ontrast this with E nglish . Miss Soames gives twenty ways of writing the same sound . Here they are :

ate great bass e}: pain gaol pay gau ge dali lia champagn e vein campaign they straig/zt

(Compare eye, lie , high , etc . ) ” E b “ In speranto this sound is expressed only and always y e . a In f ct , the language is absolutely and entirely phonetic, as all real language was once . fﬁ of b As regards di culties voca ulary , the same may be said of n as in the case the sounds . Esperanto only adopts the mi imum of - b roots essential , and these are simple , non am iguous , and as

- international as possible . Owing to the device of word building b of f y means a few su fixes and prefixes with fixed meaning, the number of roots necessary is very greatly less than in any natural l anguage . i f of of As for di ficulties structure , some the chief ones are as follows not M u ltiplicity and complex ity of i nflections . This does exist in Esperanto .

The con erse one sound one e e — is also ue e ce ha the v , l tt r tr , x pt t t

e n d . same sound is expressed by cand ts . ( S e Appe ix C )

add a -se ond Lo d R a ! 7 P rof. Skeat s twenty c : r e y F r h 1 M ost o f th ese roo ts are already k n own to ed ucated people. o t e you ng the learn ing of a certai n n umb er o f word s presents pr actically no d ifﬁculty ; it is in the practical applicatio n o f words l earnt that they break “ d o n and h s fa u e is a mos en e d ue to u n necessa d fﬁ cu es . w , t i il r l t tir ly ry i lti 2 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

I r r egular i ties and exceptions of all ki nds. None in Esperanto . lzo r E t lz . Complications of or g ap y . None in speranto D er en t senses o same w or d and d z er en t w or ds used i n same if f , f ” n e . sense. E speranto o word , one meaning

— A r oitr ary and ﬂ u ctuati ng idioms . E speranto none . Common sense and common grammar the only limitation to combination of words .

Complexiti es of syntax . (Think of the use of the subjunctive and inﬁnitive in all languages : of; and mi in Greek ; indirect speech in Latin ; negatives , comparisons, etc . , etc . , in all languages . ) E — speranto none . Common sense the only guide, and no The E b . am iguity in practice perfect limpidity of speranto , with no syntactical rules, is a most i nstructive proof of the con ven tion ality and arbitrariness o f the niceties of syntax in national b languages . After all , the su junctive was made for man and

not . man , for the subjunctive “ But readers will say : It is all very well to Show by a comparison of forms that E speranto oug/zt to”be much easier than a natural language . But we want facts .

Here are some . In the last chapter it was mentioned that the present writer ﬁ E r b 1 0 d rst took up spe anto in Octo er 9 5 , worked at it at o d b times , never spoke it or heard it spoken save once , and was a le to follow the proceedings of the Congress of Geneva in August

1 0 6 . of 9 , and talk to all foreigners From a long experience smattering in many languages and learning a few thoroughly, he is absolutely convinced that this would have been impossible to him in any national language . b E b A lady who egan speranto three weeks efore the congress , an d t b on e s udied it in a grammar y herself hour each day, was

' b a le to talk in it with all peoples on very simple subjects , and to b follow a considera le amount of the lectures , etc. Amongst the British folk who attended the congress were many

an d E clerks commercial people , who had merely learnt speranto or a e by attending a class a loc l group meeting once a week , oft n THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 2 1

for T E not many months . hey had never been out of ngland

b . T efore , nor learnt any other foreign language hey would have been utterly at sea if they had attempted to do what they did on a similar acquaintance with any foreign tongue . But during the

en r ou te ar two days spent in Paris , where the British p ty was feted b E on and shown round y the French sperantists , the journey on to Geneva , which English and French made together, lake

b . i . steam oats, at picnics and d nners , etc , etc , here they were , rattling away with great ease and mutual entertainment . Many of was of these came from the North England , and it a real eye

- - E u opener, over which easy going South nglanders wo ld do well to ponder, to see what results could be produced by a little energy n o and application , building on previous linguistic training . The Northern accent was evidently a help in pronouncing the

- full sounding vowels of Esperanto . l One Englishman , who was ta king away gaily with the French ’ ’ "s f n sanziaeano E o o e . j, was an sperantist year s standing He had happened to be at Boulogne in pursuit of a little combined French

i n f ﬁ 1 0 a d i o . and se s g at the time the rst congress held there, 9 5

One day he got his tongue badly tied up in a café, and was helped out of his linguistic difﬁculties with the waiter by certain com ‘ buttonholes sat patriots , who wore green stars in their , t and at another table conversing in an unknown lingo with a crowd of E foreigners . He made inquiries , and found it was speranto they i were talking . He was so much struck by their fac lity, and the practical way in which they had set his business to rights in a E e ad lzocl minute (the waiter was an sp rantist trained ), that he f T decided to give up French and go in or Esperanto . his man of who on was a real learner French , had spent a long time it , z to and reali ed with disgust his impotence wield it practically . To b judge y his conversation next year at Geneva , he had no ffi b such di culty with Esperanto . He was quite ju ilant over the change .

Te se E s e an o o d a sans of th same d ea i . e . Es eran o . r p r t w r . p rti e i ( p t )

' 1The E speranto badge. 2 2 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

ad n Such examples could be multiplied i fi nitu m. No on e who be attended a congress could fail to convinced . Scientific comparison of the respective diffi culty of E speranto b and other languages , ased on properly collected and tabulated n ot be b ffi results, does seem to yet obtaina le . It is di cult to get

-C - i high lass schools , where language teach ng is a regular and import ﬁ ant part of the curriculum , to give an arti cial language a fair z - trial . Properly organi ed and carried out tests are greatly to be b b desired . If and when they are made , it will pro a ly be found

E r of bu that spe anto is not only very easy acquisition itself, t that * has b ff - it a eneﬁcial e ect upon other language learning . the pre sent writer has carried out one small experi ment in a good secondary school for girls, where French and German are regularly spoken and taught for many hours in the

The - E week . head mistress introduced speranto as a regular b b E school su ject at the eginning of the aster term , January

1 0 of 9 7 . At the end term a test paper was set, consisting of English sentences to be rendered into French and Esperanto i or on e a of without any d ctionary other aid , and short pass ge E nglish prose to be rendered into both languages with any aid T from books that the pupils wished . h e object was to determine ’ how far a few hours teaching of Esperanto would produce results comparable with those obtained in a language learnt for years . T The examinees ranged from fourteen to sixteen years . hey b had een learning French from two to seven years , and had a b daily French lesson , esides speaking French on alternate days in T E the school . hey had learnt speranto for ten weeks , from one

n Takin t/ze a er s all tlzr ou /i o e . to and a half hours per week g p p g , t su l a tlte E sper an o r e ts w er e n e r ly as good as t/ze F r en c/z.

One last experiment may be mentioned . It was made under ﬁ on b 2 1 0 Th b scienti c conditions Septem er 3 , 9 5 . e su ject was an adult , who had learnt French and German for years at school , b but and had since taught French to young oys , was not a linguist r m by training o education, having read athematics at the university .

- See PP~ 145 5 5 . THE QUESTI ON OF PRACTICE 2 3

He had had no lessons in Esperanto , and had never studied the a of l nguage , his sole knowledge it being derived from general con

versation with an enthusiast, who had just returned from the E Geneva Congress . He was disposed to laugh at speranto, but was persuaded to test its possibilities as a language that can be written intelligibly by an educated person merely from dictionary

by a few rules . He was given a page of carefully prepared English to translate E Th e into speranto . following wr itten aids were given

- = 1. T ﬁ v . er n e e l . wenty crude roots ( g. to learn )

2 . fﬁ of One su x, with explanation its use .

- . on e of nt 3 A page complete grammar the Espera o language .

- - E E E . 4 . An Esperanto nglish and an nglish speranto dictionary r of b He p oduced a good page perfectly intelligi le Esperanto ,

quite free from serious grammatical mistake . He admitted that

he could not translate the passage so well into French or German . Such experiments go a good way towards proving the case for an artiﬁcial language . More are urgently needed , especially of two T the last types . hey serve to convince all those who come within range of the experiment that an artiﬁcial language is a

serious project , and may confer great beneﬁts at small cost . Any

one can make them with a little trouble , if he can secure a

victim . A particularly interesting one is to send a letter in to or Esperanto some English foreign correspondent, enclosing Th a penny key . e letter will certainly be understood, and very likely the answer will be in Esperanto . Doubters as to the ease and efﬁ cacy of a universal language are T not asked to believe without trial . hey are merely asked not to condemn or be unfavourable until they have a right to an

on b or m n Opinion the su ject . And they are asked to f an Opinio b y or . personally testing, ”at any rate by weighing actual facts A fair ﬁeld and no favour . The very best way of testing the thing is to study the language The for a few hours and attend a congress . next congress is to

b 1 0 . be held in Cam ridge, England , in August 9 7 2 4 I NTERNATI ONAL LANGUAGE

Nothing is more unscientiﬁcor unintelligent than to scoff at t a thing , while refusing to examine whether here is anything in it .

THE Q U ESTION or PRACTICE (con ti n u ed) — THE INTRODUCTION O F AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE WOULD N OT CAUSE DISLOCATION

I . . N Chapters II , III . , and IV it was sought to prove that a universal language is desirable in principle , that it already exists fﬁ o and is e cient, and that it is very easy . If these propositi ns are true, the only valid argument against introducing it at once would be a demonstration that its introduction is either impracticable or else attended with such disadvantages as to outweigh the beneﬁcial results .

Now, it is quite true that certain schemes tending towards a of i internation l uniformity practice and , therefore , ult mately productive of saving of labour are neve rtheless such that their realization would cause an almost prohibitive dislocation of

present organization . A conspicuous example is the propos ed adoption of the decimal system in coinage and weights and

measures . So great is the loss of time and trouble (and ther efore of money) entailed by using an antiquated and cumbr ous system

instead of a simple and modern one that does the work as well , that the big ﬁ rm Kynochs some months ago introduced the f fﬁ of decimal system , in spite o th e enormous di culty having to t keep a double method going . But hither o , at any rate , the great disturbance to business that the change would cause has prevented

it from being generally made . Both this matter and the curiously ’“ out- of- date system of spelling modern English present a fairly

O ut of da e i t k ee ace w h th e chan e of t , because it has fa led o p p it g n ca on o un . n m ce for re re S e l n i . e. use of r i was ere a d ev pr i ti p l i g, w it g, ly i p sen n to the e e the s o n sound s so ha fai u e to d o his means e in ti g y p ke , t t l r t g tt g u f da p t o te.

2 6 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

To might then be valid . At present it is not . have an easy language that will carry you anywhere and enable you to read

fﬁ . anything, it is su cient to wish for it Only , as we Britons are “ ” being taught to think imperially , so must the nations learn in

a nall this matter to wis/z i n ter n ti o y .

INTERNATIONAL ACTION ALR EADY TAK E N FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF AN AUX ILIARY LANGUAG E .” } ur N I r“ f 1 THE i of i e b i Wl sl'l Internati onall ma n work educat ng ﬁl pu l c to y, ’j fﬁ a the necessary precedent to o cial action, has naturally in the p st been done by the adherents of the various language- schemes of t themselves . An outline of the most important hese movements is given in the second part of this book . But apart from these there is now an international organization that is working for the adoption of an international auxiliary

b b . language, and a rief account of it may e given here During the Paris E xhibition of 19 0 0 a number of international congresses and learned societies, which were holding meetings for of there, appointed delegates the consideration the inter

. T Ou 1 national language question hese delegates met January 7 ,

1 0 1 D A of 9 , and founded a elega”tion for the doption an International Auxiliary Language . They drew up the following declaration , which has been approved by all subsequently elected delegates

D E LEGATION FO R THE ADOPTION OF A N INTE RNATIONAL AU xILIAR v LANGUAG E

D eclar ation

The undersigned, deputed by various Congresses and Societies to study the question of an international auxiliary language, have agreed on the following points PROGRAMME OF DELE GATION 2 7

There is a necessity to choose and to spread the use of an

n ot in ation al language , designed to replace national idioms in of but the individual life each people , to serve in the written and oral relations between persons whose mother - tongues are different} 2 fi ( ) In order to ful l its purpose usefully, an international language must satisfy the following conditions I st Condition : It must fulfil the needs of the ordinary of l of intercourse social ife, commercial communications, and of scientific and philosophic relations 2 n d Condition : It must be easily acquired by every b person of average elementary education , and especially y persons of E uropean civilization 3 rd Condition : It must not be one of the national language s (3) It is desirable to organize a general D E LE GATION repre z of senting all who reali e the necessity , as well as the possibility, an international auxiliary language , and who are interested in its T employment . his Delegation will appoint a Committee of members who can meet during a certain period of time . The fi purpose of this Committee is de ned in the following articles . (4) The choice of the auxiliary language belongs in the first I n ter nati onal A ssociati on o Acad emies or instance to the f , , in case of failure, to the Committee mentioned in Art . 3 . (5 ) Consequently the first duty of the Committee will be to I nter nati onal A ssociation o Academies present to the f , in the required forms, the desires expressed by the constituent Societies

z and Congresses , and to invite it respectfully to reali e the project of an auxiliary language . (6) It will be the duty of the Committee to create a Society for a of propagand , to spread the use the auxiliary lan guage which is

Chosen . The b (7) undersigned , being delegated y various Congresses and Societies, decide to approach all learned bodies , and all societies of business men and tourists , in order to obtain their adhesion to the present project . 2 8 INTERNATI ONAL LANGUAGE

(8) Representatives of regularly constituted Societies which have agreed to the present D eclar ation will be admitted as of E E I members the D L GAT ON .

th D This declaration is the Ofﬁ cial programme of e elegation .

The of Art . 2 rd Con most important point principle to note i”s , 3 It must n ot be one of the national languages . f ib As regards the methods o action prescr ed , no attempt is to be made to bring direct pressure to bear upon any government . It was rightly felt that the adoption of a universal language is a t for mat er private initiative . No government can properly take a fﬁ o up the question , no Ministry of Educ tion can o cially intr duce an auxiliary language into the schools under its control, until the principle has met with a certain amount of general recognition . The result of a direct appeal to any government or governments e b o could only have b en , in the most favoura le case , the app int ment by the government appealed to of a commission to investi r gate and eport on the question . Such a commission would se a b examine experts and witnesses from repre nt tive odies, such as academies , institutes, philological and other learned societies . The of r of best course action , therefore , for the p omoters an b d b n international language is to apply direct to such o ies, to ri g the question before them and try to gain their suppo rt . This is D h what the elegation as done . r z Now, there al eady exists an international organi ation whose object is to represent and focus the opinion of learned societies in T all countries . his is the International Association of Academies , 1 00 formed in 9 for the express purpose , according to its statutes”, of promot ing scientiﬁ c enterprises of internati onal interest . The delegates feel that the adopti on of an internatio nal language comes in the fullest sense withi n the letter and spirit of this of statute . It is, therefore, to this Association that the choice

ﬁ . . language is, in the rst place, left (Art i ll ﬁ The Association meets trim n a y. At its rst meeting (Paris 190 1) the question of international language was brought before ATTITUDE OF L EARNED BODIES 29

eb of too to it by General S ert , the French Institute, but late be T included among the agenda of that meeting . he occasion was important as eliciting an expression of opinion on the part of the é ’ T signatories to General S bert s address . hese included twenty b five mem ers of the French Institute , one of the most fi b distinguished scienti c odies in the world . At the second meeting of the Association (London 19 04) the i ffi Delegat on did not o cially present the question for discussion , but the following paragraph appears in the report of the pro ceedin s of London g the Royal Society , which was the host ( ce 1 0 f 2 R al S o i t . o T 6 w y, 9 4, C Section Letters, hursday, May ,

1 0 9 4. P “ In the course Of the sitting, the chairman (Lord Reay, President of the British Academy) submitted to the me eting ‘ ’ whether the question of the International Auxiliary Language o should be considered, though not included in the agenda . Fr m many quarte rs applications had been made that the subject might

or . Gold ziher be discussed in some form other . Prof and I . e M Perrot spoke against the suggested discussion , th former maintaining that the matter was a general question of international did n ot ﬁ l f communication , and speci ca ly a fect scientiﬁc interests}, the latter announced that he had been commissioned by the cdes I n scr i tions of Acad emi p to Oppo”se the consideration this

The . subject . matter then dropped The third meeting of the Association of Academies was held at M a 1 0 of Vienna at the end of y 9 7 , under the auspices the Vienna T fﬁ Academy of Science . he question was o cially laid before it The for a b . y the Delegation Association declared, form l reasons , "E m et n e that the question did not fall within its co p e c. Up till now only two national academies have shown themselves

a of . favour ble to the scheme , those Vienna and Copenhagen

n the o n as to the ncus on of the ues on in the a end a ei h o es I v ti g i l i q ti g , g t v t n u e an d e e a a ns Th s con i fa u of n rn a ona a a . were cast n vo r i te ti l l g g , tw lv g i t i min o i sho s n ou n ess i n su ch a bod cons d e n sid erable r ty w very e c ragi g progr y, i ri g the newness of the scheme. 30 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

The Vienna Academy commissioned one of its most eminent

. b members , Prof Schuchardt, to watch the movement on its ehalf, on 1 0 and to keep it informed the subject . In 9 4 he presented

n . r a report favourable to an inter ational language He and P of. J espersen are amongst the most famous philologists who support the movement . It is not therefore anti cipated that the Association of Academies b will take up the question and the Delegation , thinking it desira le ﬁ not to wait inde nitely till it is converted, has proceeded to the f o . election a committee , as provided in Art 4 Of the Declaration . of be It consists twelve mem rs , with powers to add to their

1 0 number . It will meet in Paris , October 5 , 9 7 . It is anticipated be E of that the language chosen will speranto ; None the members of this international committee are English , all the

English savants invited having declined . What may be the practical effect of the Choice made by this t Commi tee remains to be seen . In France there is a permanent Parliamentary Commission for the consideration of questions affecting public education . This Commission has for some time had before it a proposal for the introduction of E speranto into of S b of the State schools France, igned by twelve mem ers T Parliament and referred by the House to the Commission . his year the prOposal has been presented again in a different form . The of i text the scheme , wh ch is much more practical than the on e former , is as follows “ Th e study of the international language Esperanto will be included in the curricula of those government schools in which modern languages are already taught . “ b ff This study will e optional , and candidates who O er for the E b various examinations nglish , German, Italian , Spanish , or Ara ic, will be allowed to offer E speranto as an additional subject . They will be entitled to the a”dvantages enjoyed by candidates who offer an additional langu age . At present it is a very usual thing to offer an additional E be on langu age , and if this project passes , speranto will FRANCE LEADS EUROPE AGAI N 3 1

exactly the same footing as other langu ages for this purpose . The project of recogniz ing E speranto as a principal language

b . for examination was entirely impractica le It is far too easy, and would merely have become a “ soft option and a refuge for the destitute . It is said that a majority of the Commission are in favour of i ntroducing an auxiliary language into the schools, when on e has been Chosen by the Delegation or by the Association b or of Academies . It is therefore possi le that in a year two w may be ofﬁ cially recognized in France ; and if this is so, other nations will have to examine the matter seriously . Considering that the French are notoriously bad linguists of o wn and , above all other peoples , devoted to the cult their language and literature, it is somewhat remarkable that the cause of an artiﬁcial lan a e shou ld have made more progress tE n among them elsewhere . It might have been anticipated str uctionist that the @ outcry, raised so freely in all countries by those who imagine that an insidious aftac on taste , culture , and national language and lit i r have been part cularly loud in France . On the cont ary , it is precisely in that country that the movement has made most r b popular prog ess , and that it num ers the most scientists , scholars , and distinguished men among its adherents . Is it that history will on e day have to record another case of France leading Europe in the van of progress E ncouraged by the number of distinguished signatures obtained

1 0 1 in France to their petition in 9 , the Delegation drew up a of D formula assent to their eclaration , which they circulate 1 of 2 b amongst ( ) members academies , ( ) mem ers of universities , in who all countries . They also keep a list of societies of all kinds The have declared their adherence to the scheme . latest lists (February and March 19 0 7 ) Show signatures of academicians

b 2 . b and university mem ers , and 7 3 societies In oth cases the b T most inﬂuential acking is in France . hus among the signatures ﬁgure in Paris alone 32 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

10 professors of the College de France 8 Faculty of Medi cine I 3 Facu lty of Science ; 11 Faculty of Letters ; 12 Ecole Normale 3 7 members of the Academy of Science b h t of esides a ost of o her members various learned bodies . Many of these are members of that august body the Institut

one of fran aise de France , and is a member the Académie g L viss M . a e. It is the same in the other French Universities : Lyons

1 Besan n 1 University, 5 3 professors ; Dijon , 34 ; Caen , 8 ; go , 5 ; M 6 2 6 e on . Grenoble , arseill s , 5 , and so U a m con niversities in other lands make a f ir showing . A erica b U 2 0 ro o tri utes supporters from John Hopkins niversity, p fess rs e of 1 ar Boston Acad my Arts and Sciences , 3 members ; H vard, b U 2 s i 7 professors ; Colum ia niversity, 3 profes ors ; Wash ngton of 1 be Academy Science , 9 mem rs ; Columbus University, Ohio, 2 1 b E . b . professors, etc Du lin and dinburgh both contri ute a few” on e d 2 . England is represented by entry Cambri ge, professors b h Perhaps the Cam ridge Congress will c ange this somewhat. It will be strange if any one can actually witness a congress without having his imagina tion to some extent stirred by the possibilities . A noticeable feature of the action of the Delegation througho ut b S ha has een the scientiﬁc pirit in which it s gone to work , and its absolute impartiality as to the language to be adopted . w It has every here , in its propaganda and circulars , spoken of “ ” r i has b an inte national aux liary language , and een careful not to prejudge in any way the question as to which shall be adopted. It may be news to many that there are several rival languages ﬁ E of E in the eld . ven the enthusiastic partisans speranto are often completely ignorant of the existence of competitors . It was partly with the object of furnishing full information to the

3 4 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

r m f on p esumption that the same mediu will su ﬁce for carrying it . In the Middle Ages the cosmopolitan pu blic was almost entirely

n Th e a learned o e. only people who wanted to communicate with foreigners (except for a certain amount of commerce) were scholars , and the only things they wanted to communicate about e of a were learn d subj ects, mostly a philosophic l or literary nature, w Th e which Latin as adapted to express . educated public was of extremely small, and foreign travel altogether beyond the reach Th e of all but the very few . overwhelming mass the people were l illiterate , and fast tied to their native spot by ack of pence, lack

of . communications, and the general conditions of life N ow can a d that everybody read n write and get about, and all of b the conditions life have changed, the cosmopolitan pu lic, so far from being conﬁned to a handful of scholars and merchants , ‘ extends down to and is largely made up of that terrible m odern “ ” to production , the man in the street . It is quite ridiculous pretend that because an Erasmus or a Casaubon could carry on

z - literary controversies , with ama ing ﬂuency and hard hitting, in

b - b of Ciceronian Latin , therefore the ald headed man at the ack the omnibus can give up the time necessary to obtaining a of ﬁ for of ff i control Latin suf cient the conduct his a a rs , or for hobnobbing with his kind abroad . It Is waste of time to argue with those who do n ot realize that the absolute essentials of any auxiliary language in these days are T al ease of acquirement and accessibility to all . here are actu ly some newspapers published in Latin and dealing with modern all topics . As an amusement for the learned they are very well ; bu t the portentous periphrases to which they are reduced In de

b c Or - b scri ing tramway a cidents motor cars, the rank o scurity of the terms in which advertisements of the most ordinary goods be i out are veiled , ought to enough to drive their illus ons of the heads of the modern champions of Latin for practical purposes . Let these persons take in the Roman Vox Unbis for a month or or Alo ad ae two, get hold of a copy of the London , and see how they feel then . DOG LATIN DAMNE D 3 5

A dim perception of the requirements of the modern world has

inspired the various schemes for a barbarized and simpliﬁed Latin . It is almost incredible that the authors of such schemes cannot see that debased Latin suffers from all the defects alleged against ﬁ b f o wn an arti cial language , plus quite prohi itory ones o its ,

without attaining the corresponding advantages . It is just as ‘ ﬁ as arti cial an entirely new language , without being nearly so easy or (especially to speak) adaptable to modern life . It sins against the cardinal principle that an auxiliary language shall inﬂict no

on e. b damage upon any natural In short, it disgusts oth parties h (scholars and tradesmen) , and satisfies the requirements of neit er. T f ih hose who want an easy language , within the reach o the telligen t person with only an elementary school groundwork of ’ education , don t get it ; and the scholarly party, who treat any fi rtificial language as a Cheap commercial their on b b teeth set edge y unparalleled bar arisms , which ust militate f most seriously against the correct use o classical Latin . of own Such schemes are dead their dogginess . ’ Latin , pure or mongrel , won t do .

CAN THE INTE RNATIO NAL LANGUAG E BE GR E E K ?

THI S chapter might be as short and dogmatic as Mark Twain ’s celebrated chapter upon”snakes in Ireland . It would be enough N o b to merely answer , but that the indefatiga le Mr. Hender r ﬁ f son , after running th ough three arti cial languages o his o wn ,

has come to the conclu sion that Greek is the thing . Certainly,

b - as regards ﬂexi ility and power of word formation , Greek would

b own . be etter than Latin on its merits But it is too hard , and

the scheme has nothing practical about it . 3 6 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

C AN THE INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAG E BE A MODE RN LANGUAGE ?

JINGOE S are not wanting who say that it is unpatriotic of any Englishman to be a party to the introduction o f a neutral a b l langu ge , ecause Eng ish is manifestly destined to be the language of the world . R eader, did you ever indulge in the mild witticism of asking a foreigner where the English are mentioned in the Bible ? The

of l e meek slzall i nlzer it tne car tlz if answer, course, is , . But b ’ the foreigner is igger than you , don t tell him until you have got to a safe distance .

ttitud e of selfe assertion It is this é , coupled with the tacit ’ assumption that the others don t count much , that makes the

English so detested on the Continent . It is well reﬂected in the claim to have their own language adopted as a common means of communication between all other peopl T eliberate his claim is ‘ not put forward in any spirit

" ’ or of insolence , with the intention ignoring other people s feel ings though the very unconsciousness of any arrogance in such on an attitude really renders it more galling, account of the tacit conclusion involved therein . It is merely the outcome of ignorance and of that want of tact which consists of inability to put h oneself at the point of view of others . T e interests of English speaking peoples are enormous, far greater than those of any of b b of other group nations united y a common ond speech . But it is a form of narrow provincial ignorance to refuse on that z C account to recogni e that, compared to the whole bulk of ivili zed E the nglish speakers are in a small minority, and that ty includes many high-Spirited peoples with a strongly of developed sense nationality, and destined to play a very important part in the history of the world.) Any sort of move ment to have E nglish or any other national language adopted ofﬁ cially as a universal auxiliary language would at once entail a BRITISH IMPERIALISM NOT PAN- BR ITONISM 3 7

boycott of the favoured language on the part of a ring of other b powerful nations, who could not d to give a rival the eneﬁt of i this augmented prest ge . An s precisely upon universality of ion that the great use of an international language will

In up : the ignorance of contemporary history and fact displayed in the suggestion of giving the preference to any is national language is only equalled by its futility, for it futile to put forward a scheme that has no chance of even being f a discussed internationally as a matter o practic l politics . A proof is that precisely the same objection to an auxiliary

— language is raised in France namely, that it is unpatriotic,

because it would displace French from that proud position .

The above remarks will be wholly misunderstood if they are taken to imply any spirit of Little E nglan dism on the part of the

writer . On the contrary , he is ardently convinced of the mighty rdle be E that will played among the nations by the British mpire , and has had much good reason in going to and fro in the world n to ponder o its u nique achievement in the past . When fully organized on some terms of partnership as demanded by the

of . growth the Colonies, it will go even farther in the future an But all this has. nothing to do with international language . ,

Howsoever mighty , the British Empire will not swallow up the

— a at not our . n ot e rth any rate, in time And till it does , it is practical politics to expect other peoples to recognize English as the international language as between themselves T here are , in fact, two quite separate questions ( I ) Supposing it is possible for any national language to become b the international one , which has the est claims (2 ) Is it possible for any national language to be adopted as the international on e ? T0 question ( I ) the answer undoubtedly is { English It is of already the language the sea, and to a large extent the medium n s or for transacting business between Europea s and A iatic races, 3 8 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

“ ) e fo r between the Asiatic races themselves Moreov r, except its pronunciation and spelling , it has intrinsically the best claim , as being the furthest advanced along the common line of development of . ” of no Aryan language But the discussion this question has e b 2 more than an acad mic interest, ecause the answer to question ( )

n . is, for political reasons , in the egative

CAN THE E VOLUTION O F AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE BE LE FT To THE PROCE SS O F NATURAL SE LECTION BY FR EE COMPE TITION

“ YOU base your argu ment for an international language mainly on the operation of economical laws . Be consistent, then ; leave the b matter to Nature . By unlimited competition the est language is bound to be e volved and come to the top in the struggle for ’ ”

b E . . ﬁ life Let the ttest survive, and don t bother a out speranto b On a ﬁrst hearing this sounds fairly plausi le , yet it is honeycombed with error .

ﬁ . The I n the rst place , it proves too much same argument could be adduced for the abandonment of effort of all kind whatever to improve upon Nature and her processes . You ’ b b can walk and run and swim . Don t other to invent oats and t b bicycles , rains and aeroplanes , that will ring you more into of touch with other peoples”. Let Nature evolve the best form international locomotion .

N . Again , ature does not tend towards uniformity She produces of out of an inﬁnity variety in the individual , and this variety she selects and evolves certain prevailing types . But these types

Another argument is th at i based on the comparative nu mb ers of people

r n a E u o an an a es as - who speak the p i cip l r pe l gu g their moth er tongue . N o ccu a e s a s cs e s bu t an n erest n es ima e is uo ed b C outurat a r t t ti ti xi t, i t i g t t q t y His de la lan ue u n iver selle h ch u s E n i sh ﬁ w h a o n Leau t. s b u a d ( g ) , w i p t gl r t it t fo o ed at a distance of or b R u an ll w y ssi .

i e ained in Par III . cha . i . . f ]? Thi s s xpl t , p , gm BEARING OF LANGUAGE ON E FFICI E NCY 3 9 differ widely within the limits of the world under varying of b conditions environment . What we are seeking to esta lish is

- of ff of . world wide uniformity , in spite di erence environment

‘ A su b- gain , the argument confuses a characteristic with an

. n ot but on e of organism language is an organism , the characteristics of m ap) After the lapse O f - countless ages there are b ba t b grey horses and lack , y and ches nut , presumably ecause greyness and blackness and the rest are incidental characteristics ne of a horse . N 0 o of them gives him a greater advantage than the others in his struggle for life , or helps him particularly to perform the functions of horsiness . Just in the same way a man may be equally well equipped with u S all the q alities that make for success , whether he peaks English or be or French , Russian Japanese . It cannot shown that language materially helps one people as against ‘another , or even that the best race evolves the best languaged Take the last t men ioned . If there is one people on the face of the globe who

b . rejoice in an impossi le language, it is the Japanese In the early days of foreign intercourse a good Jesuit father reported and that the Japanese were courteous polite to strangers , but e of To their language was plainly the inv ntion the devil . a modern mind the language may have outlived its putative father,

case . but its reputation has not improved , so far as is concerned Yet who will say that it has i mpaired national efficiency ? he of r of aflairs fi fact is , that for purposes t ansaction ordinary one by those who speak it as a mother tongue , language is about or as good as another . Whether it survives spreads depends , not upon its intrinsic qualities as a language , but upon the ” tfi T f success of the race that speaks i l here is , there ore , no

eec h ch was th e be e ace mean n G e en d n befo R ome . r ”w t ow re W i tt r r , i g by better the m ore capable of imposing i ts language an d m an ners on the world ? Y et who d ou bts that Greek was the better language ? x 1A curious phenom enon of our d ay suggests a possible partial e ception . r rm I n Switzerlan d French i s steadily encroachi ng and bea ing back Ge an . I s this owi ng to the i ntrinsicqualities of French l anguage and civilization ?

M a e a the Ge man h the rea e e ansi e owe . t ri lly, r s ave g t r xp v p r 4 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

presumption that the best or the most suitable or the easiest b language will spread over the world y its own merits, or even

that any easy or regular language will be evolved . Printing and education have altogether arrested the natural process of on T evolution of language the lips of men . his is one justiﬁcation for the application of new artiﬁcial reforms to language and

spelling , which tend no longer to move naturally with the times as ﬁ free competition between rival arti cial languages ,

the same considerations hold good . The worse might prevail b just as easily as the etter, because the determining factor is not of but the nature the language , the inﬂuence and general capacity f o the rival backers . Of course a very bad or hard artiﬁcial language would n ot prevail against an easy on e. But beyond a certain point of ease a universal language cannot go (ease ‘ ease of b b b meaning the all) , and that limit has pro a ly been a out reached now . B etween future schemes there will be such a mere b fractional difference in respect of ease, that competition ecomes

- altogether be side the point . The thing is to take an easy one and stick to it.

OBJE CTIONS TO AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE ON AESTH ETIC GROUNDS

ON E of the commonest arguments that advocates of a universal language have to face runs something like this “ Yes , there really does seem to be something in what you say— your language may save time and money and grease the of but t al e b wheels business ; , af er kﬁ are not all usiness men ,

. b nor are we all out after dollars Just think what a dull, dra uniformity your scheme would lay over the lands like a pall . By the artiﬁcial removal of natural barriers you are aiding and b z Y a a etting the vulgari ation of the world . ou are doing wh t

4 2 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

an b asticid e Y ou justiﬁable , or at y rate inevita le , p . cannot eat your cake and have it ; you cannot kill off all the bad things

. z ﬁ and keep all the good ones With sterili ation goes puri cation , i be b z asticd e . p may accompanied y pasteuri ation At any rate , ” ’ the old order changeth , and you ve got to let it change . “ The of whole history the progress of the world , meaning s of often material progres , is eloquent the lesson that is vain The s itu i to set artiﬁcial limits to advancing invention .) u t on ' of cheap m echanical processes of manufacture for hand- work involved untold misery to many , and incidentally led to the partial disappearance of a type of character which the world could ill ff a d W a ord to lose, n which we ould give much to be able to

- - b . Th e old bring ack semi artist craftsman , with hand and eye to really trained up something like their highest level of capacity , d with knowledge not wide , but deep, and all gaine from experience , and not from books or technical education— this type of character

M ﬁ he . is a loss . any, with the gravest reason , are dissatis ed with t h type whic has already largely replaced it, and which will replace or bu t it for good evil , ever more swiftly and surely . But no well judging person proposes on that account to forgo the materi al i of advantages conferred upon mank nd by the invention machinery .

on n b - in If the world rejects , sentimental grou ds , the la our saving v n tion of of e cinternational language , it will be ﬂying in the face economi history, and it will not appreciably retard the disappear of ance the picturesque .

There is another type of argument which may also be classed bu t ff as aesthetic, which di ers somewhat from the one just dis cussed . It emanates chieﬂy from literary men and scholars , and may be presented as follows “ s Language is precious, and worthy of study, ina much as it enshrines the imperishable monuments of the thought and genius Th of the race on whose lips it was born . e study of the words and forms in which a nation clothed its thoughts throws many a o on es of of ray f light phas the evolution the race itself, which N T AN END BU T A E O , M ANS 43

he would otherwise have remained dark . Q history of a language and literature is in some measure an epitome of the history of a of ﬁ people , We miss all these points interest in your arti cial n b la guage, and we shal”l therefore , refuse to study it, and here y commit it to the devil . T of his is a particularly humiliating type answer to receive, on e because it implies that is an ass . I n truth the man who should invent an artiﬁcial language and invite the world to study

- it for itself would be a fool , and a very swell headed fool at that . It seems in vain to point this ou t to persons who use the above argument ; or to explain to them that they would be aided in their study of languages that do repay study by the introduction b of an easy international language , ecause many commentaries , etc b n ot or . , would become accessi le to them , which are so now, only at the expense of deciphering some difﬁcult language in

' commentar its l b which the commentary i s written , the y e f eing of in no sense literature, and its form a matter complete indifference . old on e or Back comes the answer in form another, every varia tion tainted with the heresy that the language is to be studied as a language for itself. Perhaps the least tedious way of giving an idea of this kind of be opposition , and the way in which it may met , is to give some ’ ’

. Th extracts from a scholar s letter , and the writer s answer e letter

fairl / t ical is y yp .

M Y ‘DE AR h on Many t anks for your long letter Esperanto . E b According to the books , speranto can be learnt quickly y n T any o e. { his means that they will forget it quite as rapidly ; has for what is i acquired is soon forgotten . my humble opinion , an Englishman who knows French and much better to devote any extra time at his disposal to the study of own u l his lang age , which , I repeat, is one of the most de icate mediums of communication now in existence . {}I has taken 44 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

centuries to construct, while Esperanto was apparently created ’ ’

. o in a few hours One is G d s handiwork , and the other a man s u toy . Personally, any living lang age interests me more than E but speranto? I am sorry I am such a heretic, I fear my love

for the E nglish language carries me away .

Yours ever, Cl

Th e o ar tiﬁcialit of p ints that rankle are y and lack a history .

M Y DE AR “ ’ I really can t put it any more plainly, so I must just repeat it : we are not trying to introduce a language that has any interest

- for anybody in itself. An international language is a labour saving The fﬁ ? device . question is, Is it an e cient one If so, it must

. h surely be adopted T e world wants to be saved labour . It never

pays permanently to do things a longer way, if the shorter on e

one produces equally good results . No has yet proved, or, in a my Opinion , advanced any decent rgument tending to show, that the results produced by a universal language will not be just as * or man u r oses b a l goodf y p p as those produced y nation l anguages . That the results are more economically produced surely does not

admit of doubt . “ ‘ Personally, any living language interests me more than ’ E . . speranto Of course it does So it does me , and most

sensible people . But what the digamma does it matter to Esperanto whether we are interested in it or not ? It is not The there to interest us . question is, Does it, or not, save us or others unproﬁtable labour on a large scale ? Neither you nor

most san e persons are probably particularly interested in short ~ or hand or Morse codes any signalling systems . Yet they

be ar up .

’ And hose e m or an ones e a e to mans ho e ﬁ e d o t v ry i p t t , r l tiv ly w l l f activity. ’ A SCHOLAR S HERESY 45

a Do try to see that we think there is a cert in felt want, b amongst countless num ers of persons, which is much more f e ﬁciently and economically met by a neutral , easy, international a b on e T l nguage, than y any national . hat is the position you have got to controvert, if you are seriously to weaken the

sa argument in favour of an international language . If you y h b t at it is not a want felt y many people , I can only say , at the of b risk eing dogmatic, that you are wrong . I happen to know * . Th e that it is question then is , Is there an easy way of meeting that want ? And the equally certain and well - grounded answer T is, here is . As to your argument that what is easy is more easily forgotten — it . is true But I think you must see that , neither in practice or for nor in principle , does it should it make choosing the

of . harder way arriving at a given result Chance the forgetting ,

t e- if necessary learning as required , and use the time and effort saved for some more remunerative purpose . ’ ’ ’ One is God s handiwork, the other a man s toy . I should ’ - ee ou . have said the ﬁrst was man s lip work , but I s what y mean ’ It is God working through his creature s natural development . f ’ ‘ ’ The same is equally true o all man s toys . Man moulded his t language in pursuance of his ends under God . U nder he same guidance he moulded the steam engine, the typewriter, shorthand ,

of . the semaphore , and all kinds signals What are the philosophical ’ ' ' ’ a aiﬁerm tz that make Esperanto a toy , and natural language God s E ‘ ’ handiwork ? Apparently the fact that speranto is artiﬁcial,

i b . . e . consciously produced y art If this is the criterion, beware ’ lest you damn man s works wholesale . If this is not the criterion , what is ?

so e es e esen n m an d ffe en I have before me a list of 119 ci ti , r pr ti g y i r t lines of or and a an d man na ons who had al ead i n 1 0 en in he w k pl y y ti , r y 9 3 giv t ir u T chn i a adhesi on to a scheme for an i nternational lang age . e cl terms alone i n s andard z n and an i n e na ( n all d epartments of study) wa t t i i g, t r ti onal The numbe of soce i es is now 1 lan guage afford s the best m ean s . r i t ( 907) o 2 ver 70. ’ 46 INTERNA RIONAL LANGUAGE

An E nglishman who knows French and German would do much better to devote any extra time at his disposal to the study ’ — if of his own language . Yes his object is to qualify as an artist — if in language . No his object is to save time and trouble in communicating with foreigners . You must compare like with like . It is unscientiﬁ c and a confusion of thought to change the subject ’ matter of a man s employment of his time on grounds other than b h those fairly intercompara le . You have dictated as to ow a man should employ his time by changing his object in employing his T r time . his makes the whole discussion ir elevant, in so far as it deals with the comparative advantage of studying one language or the other . ’ T - x ime s up I have missed my after lunch walk, and I e pect only hardened your heart .

And I had

WI LL AN INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE DI SCOURAG E THE STUDY F E ES US BE E E O MOD RN LANGUAG , AND TH D TRIM NTAL TO CULTURE P— PARALLE L WITH THE Q UE STION O F COMPULS ORY GRE E K

E TH R E is a broad , twofold distinction in the aims with which the study of foreig n languages is organized and undertaken . fi It serves rst, purely utilitarian ends, and is a means secon dl e f y@ purposes of culture , and is an end in itsel} An international auxiliary language aims at supplanting the - ’ ‘ ' o f cd fif le tef affd gs fi fi rst type stu y p yf f it claims, with pro t to the The o es students . second type it Q p to leave wholly intact, and disclaims any attempt to interfere with it i n any way . How far b is this possi le 37 0 The answer depends mainly upon the effi ciency of the alter FORCE D POLYGLOTTISM A HANDICAP 4 7 n ative offered by the new-comer in each case as a possible substitute . o Firstly, if it is true that a great porti n of the human race, especially in the big polyglot empires and the smaller states of b ffi Europe, are groaning under the incu us of the language di culty, and have to spend years o n the study of mere words before they can fi t o themselves for an active career, then the abolition f this heavy handicap on due preparation for each man ’s proper b b usiness in life will li erate much time for more profitable studies . It is certain that the majority of mankind are non -linguistic — i e. by nature and inclination rather than linguistic . that the best chance of developing their natural capacities to the utmost and making them useful and agreeable members of society does not lie in making all alike swallow an overdose of foreign

of . languages during the acquisitive years youth By doing so, vast waste is caused , taking the world round . As to the attain b of of ment of the o ject this ﬁrst type language study , not only f b is it as e ﬁciently secured y a single universal language , but far

’ more so . E x lzypot/zesz the object is utilitarian ; the language is a a means . Well, a universal l nguage is a better means than a one— ﬁ rst b b national , ecause , eing universal, it is a means to b b more secondly, ecause, eing easy and one , it is a means that ﬁ more people can grasp and employ . In fact , it is in this eld an

eﬁ ci ent b . su stitute it saves much , without losing anything

or of - [F the second type language study , on the other hand, where the end is culture and the language is studied for itself f and in no wise as an indi ferent means , a universal artiﬁcial language offers no substitute at alD This end is not on its

- programme . Why , then , should any language study that is organi zed in view of culture be given up on its account ? t of be [i may, course , said that the time given to it by those who pursue culture in language will be taken from the time r devoted to more worthy linguistic study , and will the efore ) T f prejudice the learning of other languages. his is a point o

r . T technical pedagogics o psychology here is very good reason , 48 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

of ha from the standpoint these sciences , to believe t t a study of

i ts - ton u e on o a simple gf g would, the c ntrary, pay for itself in increased facility in learning other languages . But this is more

— fully discussed in the chapter for teachers (see pp . 145 5 Th e question , however, is not in reality quite so simple as this . There is no water- tight partition between utilitarian and cultural

- T language study . hey act and react upon each other . (I here for really is some ground anxiety, lest the provision of facilities for learning an easy artiﬁcial language at your door may prevent out l people from going of their way to learn nationa ones , which The f would have awakened scholarly instincts in them . cause o culture would thus sustain some real hufg The question is another phase— a wider and lower- grade phase — of the great compulsory Greek question at Oxford and Cam It f bridge . a fects the masses , whereas the Greek controversy

' afiects the few at the top ; but otherwise the issue at stake is s es entially the same . b of In both cases the edrock the problem is this , Can we ff a ord to put the many through a grind, which is on the whole unprofitable to them and does not attain its object of conferring culture, in order to uphold the traditional system in the interests of the few ? In neither case do the reformers desire to suppress the study of the old culture -giving language ; rather it is hoped that the interests of scholarly and liberal learning will benefit by b f eing freed from the dead weight o grammar grinders, whose mechanical performance and monkey antics are merely a dodge to catch a copper from the examiners . When Greek is no longer bolstered up by the protection of

- - i e . compulsion , some of the present bounty fed ( . compulsion fed) facilities for its study will no doubt disappear from the schools which are at present forced to provide them . With them will be lost some recruits who would have been led by the facilities to

G s . study reek , and would have tudied it to their proﬁt On the be of other hand, the universitywill Open to numbers students b who are at present shut out by the Greek tariff. Another arrier

5 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

one literary language , and when every can read and write , it is all of up with national evolution language , such as has produced all national languages . A gradual change of the phonetic value given

- to the written symbols there may be . This has been pre eminently e th case in England, though even this will now be arrested by r o universal education . But a change of forms o f grammar can

be fi . only inde nitely slight and gradual When it takes place, it reflects a common advance of the literary language, and not local or dialectical variation (t hough the common advance may have one originally spread from locality) . s In the second place , dialect are variations that spring up under the stress of local circumstance in the familiar everyd ay unconscious use of a common mother tongue ' among people of t the same race and inhabi ing the same district . Now, these are the very circumstances in which an auxiliary international langu age The never can , and never will , be used . only exception is the case of people meeting together for the conscious practice of the language or using it in jest . There are no occasions when an international language would be naturally used when any variation from standard usage would not s a be a distinct di advant ge as tending to unintelligibility . I n o f com short, a neutral language consciously learned as a means mu nication or with strangers is not on an equal footing with , u exposed to the same influences as , a mother tong e used by l people every day under ike conditions . E A cardinal point of diflerence is well illustrated by speranto . The of whole foundation the language , vocabulary, grammar, and one b of everything else , is contained in small ook a few pages , ’ u n e t 0 called F d am n o ae E sper an i o. N change can be made in this

b . except y a competent elected international authority Of course, no text - books or grammars will be authori zed for the use of any

u dam n to nation that are not in accordance with the F n e . People of will make mistakes, course , just as they make mistakes in any a ou t foreign l nguage, and they can help themselves with any u words from other lang ages, just as they do now when their DOGMA DISPELS DOUBT

French or German fails them . But the standard is always there, b simple and short, to correct any a erration , and there is no room for any alterations in form or structure to creep in .

OBJ ECTION THAT THE PR E SE NT INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAG E E E Is Too AN D E SES To BY ( SP RANTO) DOGMATIC, R FU PROFIT CRITICISM

I T is true that Esperantists refuse to make any change in their language at present, and this is found irritating by some able ho critics, w wrongly imagine that this attitude amounts to a f for E The claim o perfection speranto . matter may be easily put ﬁght The inadmissi bility of change (even for the better) is purely f b a matter o policy and dictated y practical considerations . E sperantists make no claim to infallibility ; they want to see u their lang age universally adopted , and they want to see it as t perfect as possible . Ac ual and bitter experience shows that the international language which admits change is lost . U niversal E acceptance and present change are incompatible . sperantists , bow b con therefore, to the inevitable and deli erately choose to

es on . a centrate for the pr ent acceptance General accept nce, of t indeed, while it imposes upon the present body Esperantis s

- self restraint in abstaining from change, is in reality the essential h condition of proﬁtable futu re amendment . W en an international language has attained the degree of dissemination already enjoyed E of be by speranto, the only safe kind change that can made is

' ' a aster zon a ri or i . E ff p , not p When speranto has been o icially adopted and comes into wide use , actual experience and consensus of usage amongst its leading writers will indicate the modiﬁcations Th e that are ri pe for offi cial adoption . competent international ofﬁ cial authority will then from time to time duly register such

ffi of . changes , and they will become o cially part the language 5 . INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

T ill then, any change can only cause confusion and alienate

- on e support . No is going to spend time learning a language

one — - which is thing to day and another thing to morrow . When the time comes for change , the authority will only proceed cautiously one step at a time , and its decrees will only set the seal off upon that which actual use has hit . T the of his, the”n , is explanation the famous adjective n etusebla b , applied y Dr . Zamenhof to his language, and so much resented in certain quarters . Surely not only is th is degree of d o rnati sm ' am l ﬁ b g p y justi ed y practical considerations , but it would amount to positive imprudence on the part of E sperantists to act of fﬁ otherwise . If the inventor the language can show su cient

- self restraint, after long years spent in touching and retouching his language, to hold his hand at a given point (and he has declared

- that self restraint is necessary) , surely others need not be hurt at n ot their suggestions being adopted, even though they may in some cases be real improvements .

The F u nd a following extracts , translated from the Preface to ’ mento de E s er am o b of E p (the written asic law speranto) , should set the question in the right light . It will be seen that Dr”. Zamenhof expressly contemplates the “ gradual perfection ’ er ektz aao b (p f g ) of his language, and y no means lays claim to

finality or infallibility . “ ‘ of undamem k Having the character f , the three wor s c reprinted in this volume must be above all inviolable (netufeblaj) . The fundament must remain inviolable even wit/z its er r or s b . Having once lost its strict inviola ility, the work “ would lose its exceptional and necessary character of dogmatic fi fundamentality ; and the user, nding one translation in one edition , and another in another, would have no security that I a o should not make nother change t morrow, and his confidence and support would be lost . To any one who shows me an expression that is not good in b the Fundamental ook , I shall calmly reply Yes, it is an error ; but b b l it must remain inviola le, for it elongs to the fundamenta E NRICHMENT BY ADDITION : No CHANGE 5 3

document, in which no one has the right to make any change .

i n r i ncle how Fu nda I showed, p ip , the strict inviolability of the nt our me o will always preserve the unity of language , without a b h however preventing the langu ge not only from ecoming ric er,

i n r a bu t even from constantly becoming more perfect . But p ctice we (for causes already many times explained) must naturally be ‘ ’ very cautious in the process of perfecting the language : (a)

- b we must not do this light heartedly, but only in case of a solute necessity ; (b) it can only be done (after mature judgment) by

some central institution , having indisputable authority for the E b whole speranto world , and not y any private persons . “ U ntil the time when a central authoritative institution shall decide to augmen t (never to cﬁcmge) the existing fundament by fﬁ or rendering o cial new words rules , everything good, which ’ is F und amen to ae E s er an lo not to be found in the p , is to be l ” regarded not as compu sory, but only as recommended .

SUMMARY OF OBJ ECTIONS TO AN INTE RNATIONAL LANG UAG E

AN attempt has been made in the precedin g chapters to deal with the more important and obvious arguments put forward by those

who will hear nothing of an international language . The objec so tions are , however, numerous , cover such a wide ﬁeld , and in

some cases are so mutually destructive , that it may be instructive ﬁ to present them in an orderly classi cation .

“ F or h e e w e ha e hem all at on e fe s oo t r v t ll w p, Instead of being scattered throu gh the pages ; The s and for h marsha ed i n a han dsome oo y t t ll tr p ,

To meet th e ingenuous youth of future ages . BY R ON .

Let us hope that they will die of exposure , like the famous l on appendix pi loried by Byron, and that the ingenuous e will be able to regard them as literary curiosities . 5 4 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

of If the business an argument is to be unanswerable , the place b of honour certainly elongs to the religious argument . Any one who really believes that an international language is an impious atte mpt to reverse the judgment of Babel will continue ﬁ rm a o f in his faith , though one spe k with the tongues men and of angels .

Here, then, are the objections, classiﬁed according to content .

! /OBJ E CTIONS To AN I NTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

R eli ious . I . g

It is doomed to confusion , because it reverses the judgment of

Babel .

A st/zcticand sen timen tal II . e .

I e of ( ) I t is a cheap commercial schem , unworthy the attention of scholar s .

z ( 2) It vulgari es the world and tends to dull uniformity . (3) It weakens patriotism by diluting national spirit with cosmOpolitanism .

(4) It has no history , no link with the past . ﬁ 5 ) It is arti cial , which is a sin in itself.

I E ( ) It is against nglish [Frenchmen read French interests, as diverting prestige from the national tongue .

2 so ialistic c ( ) It is g and even anarchi al in tendency , and will facilitate the operations of the international disturbers of society .

is iter ar and li n u tic. IV . L y g

I s a ( ) Lacking history and association , it is unpoetic l and ﬁ unsuited to render the ner shades of thought and feeling . It will , therefore , degrade and distort the monuments of national be literatures which may translated into it .

2 ( ) It may even discourage authors, ambitious of a wide public, from writing in their own tongue . Original works in the artiﬁcial A SEA OF TROUBLES 5 5

’ language can never have the ﬁne savour of a master s use of his mother tongu e . (3) Its precisely formal and logical vocabulary and constru ction of T debauches the literary sense for the niceties expression . here if fore, even not used as a substitute for the mother tongue , its c on con urrent use , which will be thrust everybody, will weaken the best work in native idioms .

(4) It will split up into dialects .

(5 ) Pronunciation will vary so as to be unintelligible .

6 i s ﬁ . ( ) It too dogmatic, and refuses to pro t by criticism

d ucat onal and cu ltu r al. V. E i

(I ) It will prejudice the study of modern languages. “ ” 2 ( ) It will provide a soft option for examinees .

’ r o ana a r ticu lar . VI . P e s nal p It is prejudicial to the vested interests of modern language o teachers , foreign corresp ndence clerks , interpreters , multilingual waiters and hotel porters .

ec/zn ical. VII . T This heading includes the criticisms in detail of various

— schemes e. g. it is urged against Esperanto that its accent is monotonous ; that its accusative case is unnecessary ; that its principle of word- formation from roots is not strictly logical ; that its vocabulary is too Romance ; that its vocabulary is not

Romance enough ; and so forth .

P o u lar . VI II . p

1 of who be ( ) It is a wild idea put forth by a set cranks, would better occupied in something else .

( 2 ) It is impossible . I ’ (3) t is too hard life isn t long enough . n ot : (4) It is hard enough lessons will be too quickly done , and will not sink into the mind .

(5 ) It will oust all other languages , and thus destroy each ’ nation s birthright and heritage . 5 6 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

not our of (6) It will come in in time , so the question is no r interest except to ou grandchildren . (7) It is doomed to failure — look at Volapuk

(8 ) There are quite enough languages already. (9 ) You have to learn three or four languages in order to understand E speranto .

( 10) You cannot know it without learning it .

( 11) Y ou have to wear a green star.

Pains have been taken to make this list exhaustive . If any of b reader can think another o jection , he is requested to com mun icate with the author . f Most o the serious arguments have been already dealt with , so

be . . that not many words need said here As regards No VII . T not ( echnical), this is the place to deal with actual criticisms h of the language (Esperanto) that holds the ﬁeld . T e reader be o of r will not in a p sition to judge them till he has lea nt it . ffi be of Su ce it to say that they can all met , and some the points ﬁ a criticised as vices are, in reality, virtues in an arti cial l nguage .

. . . f As for Nos II and IV (Sentimental and Literary) , most o b h of these o jections are due to the old eresy the literary man, that an artiﬁcial language claims to compete with natural languages

a z - as a langu ge. Once reali e that it is primarily a labour saving e i device , and therefore to be judg d like any other modern n ven of tion such as telegraphy or shorthand , and most these objections fall to the ground . A good many of the objections cannot be taken seriously b or (though they have all een seriously made) , refute themselves

. . I bu or . t each other No VIII ( o) sounds like a fake , this was the criticism of a scholar and linguist who had been persuaded E “ to look at speranto . He complained that though he, knowing

Latin , French , Italian , German , and English, could read it without ever having learnt it, ordinary Englishmen could not . It is usual fﬁ to judge an invention by e ciency compared to cost, but if an appliance is to be condemned because it needs some trouble to

s r . ma ter it, then not many inventions will su vive

5 8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

’

. be or not the world There seems to no ground, ethnological of o otherwise , for thinking that the lagging behind Asia in m dern z s civili ation corre ponds to a real inferiority of powers , mental or

i . S physical , in the individual Asiat c Experience hows that under suitable conditions the Asiatic can effi ciently handle all the white ’ man s tools and weapons ; the complete coming up to date is of z and of largely a matter organi ation , education , the possession of f a few really able men at the head af airs . Given these , progress may be astonishingly quick . E uropeans do not yet seem to have grasped at all adequately the real signiﬁcance of the last

ﬁfty years of Japanese history . Do they really think that the a i ? Chinam n is infer or to the Japanese If so , let them ask any a residents in the Far East . C n it be maintained that a generation ago the peasant of Eastern Europe was ahead of the country Chinaman ? But the last few years have shown how swiftly z b E modern civili ation spreads, oth in urope and America, from the comparatively small group of nations which in the main have ou t b worked it to the others, till lately considered ackward and

- semi barbarous . And this is the case not merely with the material of z but products civili ation , the railway and the telegraph , also as regards its divers manifestations in all that concerns the life of the — of people constitutional government with growth representative , elected authorities and democracy ; universal education with universal power of reading and consequent birth of a cheap press rise of industry and consequent growth of towns ; universal ds of military service and discipline, now in force in most lan rise of a moneyed and leisured class and consequent growth sport, and of all kinds of clubs and societies for promoting various o interests, social , sp rting , political , religious , educational , philan

thrO ic . of p , and so forth In fact, the more the material side life “ ” z z of is moderni ed, the more closely do the citi ens all lands one approximate to another in their interests and activities , which ut of ultimately rest upon and grow o their material conditions . Meantime wealth and consequently foreign travel everywhere of increase, fresh facilities communication are constantly pro MODER NITY THE LEVE LLER 5 9 vi ed ff d , men from di erent countries are more and more thrown together, and all this makes for the further strengthening of mutual interests and the growth of fresh ones in common . Now if ( 1) under the stress of modernization life is already S of 2 becoming so imilar in the lands the West, and if ( ) the Asiatic is not fundamentally inferior in mental and physical endowments , then it follows as a certainty that the Asiatic world of will , under the same stress, enter the comity nations, and

- of approximate to the world type interest and activity . It is only of a question time . In economic history nothing is more certain a z fﬁ th n that science, organi ation , cheapness , and e ciency must z ultimately prevail over sporadic, unorgani ed local effort based on on ﬁ of tradition and not scienti c exploitation natural advantages . Thus the East will adopt the material civili zation of the West ; and through the same organi zation of industrial and commercial life and generally similar economic conditions, the same type of f moneyed class will grow up , with the same range o interests on the intellectual and social side, diverse indeed , but in their very

m - diversity conforming more and ore to the world type . Concurrently with this new tendency to uniformity proceeds the weakening of the two most powerful disintegrating inﬂuences of

— primitive humanity religion and tradition . In the earlier stages of society these are the two most powerful agents for binding together into groups men already associated by the ties of locality

- b and common ancestry , and fettering them in the cast iron onds f of custom and ceremonial observance . While the members o each group are thus held together by the ideas which appeal most profoundly to unsophisticated mankind , the various groups are automatically and by the same process held apart by the full force of T those ideas . hus are p roduced castes , with their deadening opposition to all progress ; and thus arise crusades , wars of religion and persecutions . Religion and tradition are then at m once the ightiest integrants within each single community , and ff the mightiest disintegrants as between di erent communities . But this narrow and dissevering spirit of caste dies back before 60 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

f The to the spread o knowledge . tendency regard a man as a r b uncle n o a barbarian, simply ecause he does not believe or ’ b own of ehave as one s people , is merely a product isolation and

ignorance, and disappears with education and the general opening “ The b f up of a country . inquisitor can no longer oast o strained

- on relations strained physically the rack , owing to differences of f i religious opinion . The state o things wh ch made it possible for sepoys to revolt because rifle bullets were greased with the fat of l r a sacred anima , o for yellow men to tear up railway tracks i b of a because the mag c desecrated the tom s their ncestors , is z rapidly passing away, as Orientals reali e the profits to be made fi from scienti c methods. T hus the levelling influence is at work, and the checks upon

The be but on e. T it are diminishing . en d can here will be a gr eater and greater similarity of life and occupation the world l over, and more and more actua and potential international intercourse .

Now, the further we move in this direction , the greater will be the impatience of vexatious restraints upon the freedom of inter course ; and of these restraints the difference of language is one of one of the most vexatious , because it is the easiest to remove . If we devote millions of pounds to annihilating the barr iers of space, can we not devote a few months to the comparatively modest effort necessary to annihilate the barriers of language ?

' cosmO o litan i sm of A real p , in the etymological sense the word , wor ld E z n (and not merely uropean) citi enship, will shift the o us ’ p rooan ai from the supporters of an international language to its “ opponents . It will say to them , It is admitted that you have much intercourse with other peoples it is admitted that diversity of language is an ob stacle i n this in tercouse this obstacle is increasing rather than diminishing as fresh subjects raise th eir old u claims upon the few years of education , and the leis rely type of linguistic education fails more and more to train the bulk of ’ n z the people for life s business, and as the ra ks of the civili ed are swelled by fresh peoples for whom it is harder and harder to learn SECOND S I GHT FOR THE BLI ND 6 1

n I - even o e ndo Germanic tongue, let alone several ; it is proved ’ that this obstacle can be removed at the cost of a few months study this study is not only the most directly remunerative study but in the world , comparing results with cost , it is an admirable mental discipline and a direct help towards further real ling uistic

- i ﬁ culture giv ng studies for those who are t to undertake them . ou f a Show cause, then , why y prefer to su fer under an unnecess ry a f b o of . o stacle , rather than vail yourselves this means removing it ’ It is easi er for the Indo- Germanic peoples to learn each other s — languages Cg . for an Englishman to learn Swedish or Russian than it is for a speaker of one of any of the other families of languages to learn any Indo - Germanic tongue so that some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the task imposed upon the newer converts to Western civilization by the Indo - Germanic

on e or . world , in making them learn more of its national languages

At the same time, it is but just that the peoples who have paid the piper of progress should call the common lingual tune . T ﬁ herefore, what more tting than that they should provide an of essence their allied languages, reduced to its simplest and clearest form ? This they would offer to the rest of the world to be taken over as part of the general progress in civili zation which it has to adopt ; and this it is which is provided in the international

E . language , speranto

XVI I

IMPORTANCE O F AN INT E RNATIONAL LANGUAGE FOR THE BLIND

Now that higher education for the blind is being extended in of every country , owing to the more humanitarian feeling the present age that these afflicted members of the community ought i b of to be g ven a fair chance, the pro lem supplying them with b The of b books is eginning to be felt . process producing ooks b on of c for the lind the Braille system is , course , far more ostly i than ordinary printing, and at the same t me the editions must 62 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

M be . n e . necessarily more or less limited any a ducated blind person is therefore cruelly circumscribed in the range of literature f open to him by the mere physical obstacle of the lack o books . This difﬁculty is accentuated by the fact that three kinds of — E Braille type are in use French , nglish , and American . to of Now, suppose it is desired make the works some good

“ b — we of author accessible to the lind will say the works Milton . b A separate edition has to e done into Braille for the English, a on another sep rate translation for the French , and so for the of f blind each country . In many cases where translations o a d of work o not already exist , as in the case a modern author, the of on e n ot mere cost translation into some language may pay, much less then the preparation of a special Braille edition for the on e limited blind public of that country . But if Braille edition is prepared for the blind of the world in the u niversal auxiliary a of l nguage , a far greater range literature is at once brought

within their grasp . Already there is abundant evidence of the keen appreciation of E on of b speranto the part the lind , and one striking proof is the i Dr fact that the distinguished French scient st and doctor, . Javal, who b b of himself ecame lind during the latter part his life, was ,

1 0 on e of a n until his death in March 9 7 , the foremost p rtisa s and b of E b enefactors speranto . By his liberality much has een rendered possible that could not otherwise have been accom

plished . There are many other devoted workers in the same

ﬁ Fauvart- Bastoul eld , among them Prof. Cart and Mme . in

M r of . of France , and . Rhodes , Keighley , and Mr Adams , H E b b astings, in ngland . A special fund is eing raised to ena le blind E sperantists from various countries to attend the Congress

b 1 0 on e l at Cam ridge in August 9 7 , and the cause is wel worthy

of assistance by all who are interested in the welfare of the blind . The day when a universal language is practically recognised wi ll

be one of the greatest in their annals . E A perfectly phonetic language, as is speranto, is peculiarly

suited to the needs of the blind . Its long , full vowels , slow, I A T Y— BUT I TY T 6 PH L N HROP F F PER CEN . 3

a harmonious intonation , few and simple sounds, and regul r con struction make it very easy to learn through the ear, and to reproduce on any phonetic system of notation ; an d as a matter of fact, blind people are found to enjoy it much . For a blind man to come to an international congress and be able to compare notes with his fellow - blind from all over the world must be a lifting of the veil between him and the outer world, coming next To to receiving his sight . witness this spectacle alone might almost convince a waverer as to the utility of the common language .

XVIII

E o AL ID AL . PRACTIC

FROM the early days of the Esperanto movement there has f T ﬂowed within it a sort o double current . here is the warm and of n genial Gulf Stream Idealism , that raises the temperature o of every shore to which it sets , and calls forth a luxuriant growth

T of . T friendly sentiment . his tends to the enriching life here is of also the cooler current practicality, with a steady drive towards fi material pro t . At present the tide is flowing free , and , taken at the o n flood , may lead to fortune the two currents pursue their way harmoniously within it, without clashing, and sometimes mingling their waters to their mutual benefit . But as the movement is sometimes dismissed contemptuously as a pacifist fad or an unattainable ideal of universal brotherhood , it is as well to set the matter in its true light . It is true that the of of inventor Esperanto, Dr. Zamenhof, Warsaw, is an idealist of in the best sense the word , and that his language was directly inspired by his ardent wish to remove one cause of mi sun d er i n standing his distracted country . He has persistently refused to make any profit out of it, and declined to accept a sum which some enthusiasts collected as a testimonial to his disinterested work . ' 64 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

’ It is equally true that Esperanto seems to possess a rather of of E strange power evoking enthusiasm . Meetings sperantists

b z - are invaria ly characteri ed by great cordiality and good fellowship, and at the international congresses so far these feelings have at f b times risen to fever heat . It is easy to make fun o this y saying

of - n of that the conjunction Sirius, the fever shedding co stellation ‘ the d o of the ancients , with the green star in g days August, when ﬁ ts T the congresses are held, induces hot . hose who have drunk enthusiastic toasts in common , and have rubbed shoulders and compared notes with various foreigners , and gone home having made perhaps lifelong interesting friendships which bring them in touch with other lands, will not undervalue the brotherhood aspect of the common language . E ﬁ On the other hand , the united sperantists at their rst inter national meeting expressly and formally disso ciated their project

m - fro any connection with political , sentimental, or peace making T a schemes . hey did this by drawing up and promulg ting a “ Deklaracio b E n , adopted y the sperantist world, wherei it is ‘‘

on l . declared that Esperanto is a language , and a language y f It is not a league or a society or agency for promoting any object whatsoever other than its own dissemination as a means of com

mu n ication . E Like other tongues , speranto‘may be used for any l purpose whatsoever, and it is dec ared that a man is equally an or Esperantist whether he uses the language to save life to kill , to further his own selﬁsh ends or to labour in any altruistic cause i

Bad e of the E s e an s s g p r ti t .

h v . . 1 f i eca a ion see P ar I I . ca . u 1 FOr e o h s D . 1 t xt t l r t , t , p , p 5 I The non - sectarian n ature o f E speranto i s shown by the fact that the ﬁrst two services in the langu age w ere held o n th e same d ay in Ge n eva according The a e w as cond u ced b an to th e R oman C atholicand Protestant rites . l tt r t y n sh cer man wh ose s ri in sermon on u n t i n s e o f d ers E gli l gy , t k g i y, pit iv ity, i n e n a on n re a on The a can has offica evid ently impressed h s i t r ti al co g g ti . V ti i lly r essed i ts fa ou r owa d s E s eran o an d th e Archb sho of C an erbu r exp v t r p t , i p t y san ned an E s eran o form of th e A n can ser ce h ch be u sed has ctio p t gli vi , w i will ambrid e hi summe C o d a ood was e ressed i n Lond on and C g t s r. r i l g will xp

66 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

send everybody safe home to port to speak Volapiik happily The ever afterwards . moral is , that it is no good to make To m exaggerated claims for a universal language . atte pt to set it on a fully equal footing with national languages as a literary a medium is to court dis ster . The truth seems to be about this . As a potential means of i international commun cation , Esperanto is unsurpassed , and a

long way ahead of any national language . As a literary language , r an n l it is far bette th Chi ook or Pidgin , far worse than Eng ish r o Greek .

n o . A language, more than a man , can serve two masters By attempting to combine within itself this double function an Th international language would cease to attain either object . e reason is simple . Its legitimate and proper sphere demands of it as the first essential that it should be easy and universally accessible . T but his means that the words are to be few, and must have n ar T to or o e cle ly marked sense each . here are be no idioms or set phrases , no words that depend upon their context upon allusion for their full sense . of e On the other hand, among the essentials a lit rary language h are the exact opposites of all these characteristics . T e be be vocabulary must full and plenteous, and there should , a rich variety of synonyms ; there should be delicate half- tones ‘ and nuances ; the words should be not mere counters or symbols f b o fixed value, determina le in each case by a rapid use of the dictionary alone , but must have an atmosphere, a something de an d of pendent upon history , usage , allusion , by virtue which s of t n the whole phra e, in the finer styles wri ing, amou ts to more than the sum of the individual meanings of the words which it contains, becoming a separate entity with an individual f o n To flavour o its w . attempt to create this atmosphere in an bu t artificial lan guage is not only futile, would introduce just the ffi di culties , redundancies, and complications which it is its T ’ chief object to avoid . ake a single instance , Macbeth s LOGIC LIMITS ALLITERATI ON

h s m hand ou d a he Nay, t i y w l r t r mu udino us seas ncarnad ne Th e ltit i i , e r en one red M aki ng th g e .

Here the effect is produced by the contrast between the stately a of march of the long L tin words thundrous sound, and the

- r E . u s short, sha p nglish A labour saving lang age has no busines “ ” “ ” a or with such words as incarn dine multitudinous . I n translating such a passage it will reproduce the sense faithfully if r of s and clearly , necessa y by the combination simple root ; but the bouquet of the original will vanish in the process. This is inevitable , and it is even so far an advantage that it removes all ground from the argument that a universal language will kill

- l scholarly language learning . It wi l be just as necessary as ever l to read works of ﬁne literature in the origina , in order to enjoy their full savour ; and the translation into the common tongue of will n ot prejudice such reading originals more than , or indeed l i - so much as , trans at ons into various mother tongues . of of Again , take the whole question the imitative use

a i nal ~ literatures n t o . language . In many a passage , poetry or i ff b prose , is he ghtened in e ect y assonance , alliteration , a certain b movement or rhythm of phrase . Su tle suggestion slides in sound through the ear and falls with mellowing cadence into o s own to the heart. So thed sen es murmur their music the mind ; the lullaby lilt of the lay swells full the linked sweet ness of the song .

The How plays fostering round the What . Down the liquid stream of lingual melody the dirge drifts dying— dying it echoes

- i back into a ghostly after l fe , as the yet throbbing sense wake s the h - — drowsed mind once more . T e Swan song ﬂoats double song

—~ and shadow ; and in the blend half sensuous , half of thought ’ man s nature tastes fruition . a Now , this verb l artistry, whereby the words set themselves in tune to the thoughts , postulates a varied vocabulary, a rich storehouse wherein a man may li nger and choose among the gem s ‘ 68 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE of sound and sense till he ﬁnd the ﬁtting stone and fashion it to on e of those

e e s ﬁve- ords on j w l w l g, Th at on the stretched foreﬁnger of all Time ar e for e e Sp kl v r.

Brit the word - store of an international tongue must not be a of of i golden treasury art, a repository bigotry and v rtu e . On its orderly rows of shelves must be immediately accessible the for : su erﬂuit right word the right place no p y, no disorder, no

' — “ for eflect . circu”mambient margin Homocea like, it touches the of b spot , and having deadened t”he ache incomprehensi ility, has done its task . No flowers . Naturally some peoples will feel themselves more cramped in a new artificial language than others . French , incomparably neat “ and clear ”within its limits, but possessing the narrowest margin ff for e ect, is less alien in its g enius from Esperanto than is too English , with its twofold harmony, its potentiality ( rarely ex loited of b of e p ) Romance clarity, and its dou le portion G rmanic vigour and feeling . Yet all languages must probably witness the obliteration of some finer native shades in the international tongue . n ot But we must go to the opposite extreme, and deny to of r the universal language all power rendering se ious thought . t b Just how far it can go, and where its inheren limitations egin , T e is a matter of individual taste and judgment . h re are Espe ranto

— — of H amlet Tire Tem est u lius translations and good ones , p , j Caesar Aeneid of of e , the Virgil, parts Moli re and Homer , besides a goodly variety of other literature . These translations r of do succeed in giving a ve y fair idea the originals, as any on e i can test for himself with a little trouble, but, as po nted ut f o , they must come something short in beauty and variety o expression . There is even a certain style in Esperanto itself’ in the hands f of o a good writer, which the dominant notes are simplicity i — be and d rectness two qualities not at all to despised . Further, AN ESPERANTO BIBLE ? the unlimited power of word-building and of forming terse com pounds gives the language an individuality of its own . It contains many expressive self- explanatory words whose meaning can only be conveyed by a periphrasis in most languages} and this causes

on of livi n it to take the manner and feel a g tongue , and makes it something far more than a mere copy or barren extract of storied speech . of b Technically, the fulness its participial system , rivalled y of b Greek alone , and the absence all defective ver s , lend to it of a very great ﬂexibility ; and containing, as it does , a variety specially neat devices borrowed from various tongues, it is in f a sense neater than any o them . One great test of its capacity for literary expression remains T of to be made . his is an adequate translation the Bible . A f of religious society , famed for the variety o its translations the r Scriptures into eve y conceivable language, when approached u on the subject, replied that Esperanto was not a lang age . “ ” not . But Esperantists will let it go at that Besides Dr . ’ f own P r edikanto Zamenho s (Ecclesiastes) , an experiment has who of been made by two Germans , published a translation ’ o not St . Matthew s G spel . It is a success , and further experiments b M acloskie of have j ust been made y Prof. , Princeton, and by E . Metcalfe, M . A . (Oxon) , I cannot say with what result , ‘ not having seen copiesfl one of f From point view, the directness and simplicity o the Bible would seem to lend themselves to an Esperanto dress ; ffi but there are certain great di culties, such as technical ex c b pressions, ar haic diction, and phrases hallowed y association . A meeting of those interested in this great work will take place

= e. . samideano ar ti san of m u g p the sa e ca se or id ea. ’ ‘ ’ w m ova Izn w = an ua e ca ab e of n d e end en orous e s en e p g l g g p l i p t vig xi t c.

' Cf. also now the O d o d e Diservo s eca An can Chu ch se i ce 1 r ( p i l gli r rv ) , selected and translated from Prayer Book an d Bible for use in England by th e

Rev. . C. Rus ob ai nab e fr om the B sh Es eran o Assoca on 1 J t ( t l riti p t i ti , 3 , A unde S ee S ran d ce r l tr t, t , pri 7 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE Q at Cambridge during the Congress (Augu st Experimenters fi r in this eld will there be brought together f om all countries , ss the subject will be thoroughly discussed , and substantial progre may be hoped for. In the field of rendering scientific literature and current of workaday prose, whose matter is more moment than its form , E e won speranto has alr ady its spurs . Its perfect lucidity makes r of i it pa ticularly suitable for this form wr ting . Th e E conclusion then is, that speranto i‘s neither wholly commercial n or yet literary in the full sense in which a grown i language is literary but it does do what it professes to do, ar d it is all the better for not professing the impossible .

’ IS AN INTER NATIONAL LANGUAGE A CRANK S HOBBY ?

THE apostle of a universal lan guage is made to feel pretty plainly a that he is regarded as a crank . He m y console himself with the

' usual defence that a crank is that which makes revoluti ons ; but

r t . fo all hat, it is chilling to be met with a certain smile Let n m a us a alyse that s ile . It v ries in intensity , ranging from the scathing sneer damnatory to the gentle dimple deprecatory . ’ But in any case it belongs to the category of the Smile that won t — i . come off. I know that grin t comes from Cheshire ? What , then, do we mean when we smile at a crank Firstly and generally that we think his ideal i mpracticable . But it has been shown that an international language is not impracticable . This alone ought to go far towards removi ng it from the list of ’ cranks hobbies . uestIOn ls Secondly, we often mean that the ideal in q Opposed — e . to common sense . g when we smile at a man who lives on protein bis”cuits or walks about without a hat. We do not the ie or . impugn the feasibility of his d t apparel , but we think TO O MANY TONGUES SPOIL THE SPORT 7 1 is going out of his way to be peculiar without reaping adequate advantage by his departure”from customary usage . The of advan test of crankiness, then , lies in the adequacy the E tage reaped . A man who learns and uses speranto may at present depart as widely from ordinary usage as a patron of Eustace ’ M iles s restaurant or a member of the hatless brigade ; but is it true that the advantage thereby accruing is equally disputable or t not on a mat er of opinion ? Is it , the contr ry, fairly certain of that the use an auxiliary language , if universal , would open up for many regions from which exclusion is now felt as a hindrance ? T l ake the case of a doctor, scientist, scho ar , researcher in any of who f branch knowledge, desires to keep abreast o the advance of t l n for knowledge in his par icu ar li e . He may have to wait years before a translation of some work he wishes to read is l an pub ished in a tongue he knows , and in ycase all the periodical r of one or lite ature every nation , except the two whose languages

be . The of a he may learn , will closed to him output le rned work

z is increasing very fast in all civili ed countries, and therefore res ults are recorded in an increasing number of languages in s monographs, report , transactions, and the specialist press . A move is being made in the right direction by the proposal to print the publications of the Brussels International Bibliographical I E nstitute in speranto . Take a few examples of the hampering effect upon scholarly of diﬂi ult The ff work the language c y as it already exists . di usion * f al d ifﬁcult . The o learning will , ironic ly enough, increase the y

. T of b late Prof odhunter, Cam ridge, was driven to learning Russian for mathematical purposes . He managed to learn enough to enable him to read mathematical treatises ; but how many mathe ti ians or or ma c scientists ( classical scholars , for that matter) could of do as much And of how much proﬁt was the learning Russian ,

d . T ? gu Russian , to Prof odhunter It only took up time which could have been better spent , as there cannot be anything very f uplifting or cultivating in the language o mathematical Russian .

B mu n the an ua es used y ltiplyi g l g g . 7 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

M Prof. Max uller proposed that all serious scientiﬁc work . should be published in one of the six languages following E nglish , French , German , Italian , Spanish , and Latin . But why should other nations have to produce in these languages ? and why should serious students have to be prepared to read six languages ?

All this was many years ago . The balance of cu lture has since then been gradually bet steadily shifting in favour of Th other peoples . e present writer had occasion to make a ’ of i on special study Byron s nfluence the Conti nent . It turned out that one of the biggest and most important works upon ha the subject was written in Polish . It s therefore remained T of ffi inaccessible . his is only an illustration a di culty that faces many workers . T o of hirdly, there is a g od large portion the British public that regards as a crank anything not British or that does not benefit

. i themselves personally It really s hard for an Englishman , or U Frenchman , German , brought p among a homogeneous f o z z people o ld civili ation , to reali e the extent of the incubus under which the smaller nations of Europe and the polyglot empires further east are groaning . Imagine yourself an educated or of f i or Swiss, Dutchman , a member any o the th rty forty or nationalities that make up the Austrian Russian Empires .

How would you like to have . to learn three or four foreign languages for practical purposes before you could hope to take much of a position in life ? Can any one assert that the kind of grind required , with its heavy taxation of the memory, is in most cases really educative or confers culture ? T u ou hink it o t. What do you really mean when y jeer at an Esperantist

PART II

HI S TORI CA L

SOM E E X ISTING INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE S ALR EADY IN PARTIAL U SE

THOUG H the idea of an artiﬁ cially constructed language to meet the needs of speakers of various tongues seems for some reason to contain something absurd or repellent to the mind of Western t of Europeans, here have, as a matter fact, been various attempts made at different times and places to overcome the obvious diffi culty in the obvious way ; and all have met wi th a large f measure o success . The usual method of procedure has been quite rough and

' or r of ready . Words forms have been taken from a va iety languages, and simply mixed up together, without any scientiﬁc

c- Th attempt at o ordination or simpliﬁcation . e resulting inter l of artiﬁcialit national anguages have varied in their degree y, and in the proportions in which they were consciously or semi or - consciously compiled, else adopted their elements ready made , without conscious adaptation , from existing tongues . But their production , widespread and continuous use, and great practical The utility, showed that they arose in response to a felt want . wonder is that the world should have grown so old without S upplying this want in a more systematic way .

one li n ua r anca of Every has heard of the g f the Levant . In 74 KEY LANGU AGES NECESSARY

Indi a the master-language that carries a man through among a

ff t e Hind us n e or . hundr ed di erent rib s is ta e, Urdu At the outset r i it rep esented a new need of an imperial race . It had its orig n f during the latter half o the sixteenth century under Akbar, an d was born of the sudden extension of conquest and affairs brought about by the great r uler . Round him gathered a cosm r of s opolitan c owd courtiers, soldiers , vassal prince , and f of all s a i ollowers kind , and wider de lings than the ord nary local petty affai rs received a great stimulus . U rdu is a good

of - u m example a mix p language, with a pure Aryan fra ework of of old developed out a dialect the Hindi . In fact, it is to

India very much what Esperanto might be to Europe , only it and is more empirical , and not so consciously scientiﬁcally worked out. to Somewhat analogous Urdu , in that it is a literary language us ed by the educated classes for intercommunication throughout ol ot I a p yg empire, is the Mandarin Chinese . f China is not “ ” ol ot f p yg in the strict technical sense o the term , she is so n i in fact, si ce the dialects used in d fferent provinces are mutually for of incomprehensible the speakers them . Mandarin is the

ffi i master~ lan ua e o c al g g .

of of atois - Rather the nature p are Pidgin English , Chinook, and

l f . Benguela, the anguage used throughout the tribes o the Congo Yet busi ness of great importance and involving large sums of or money is , has been, transacted in them, and they are used over i a w de area. i of m of Pidg n consists a edley words , largely English, but with in a considerable admixture from other tongues, combined the a fr mework of Chinese construction . It is current in ports all over no n The the East, and is by means confined to Chi a . principle a is th t roots , chiefly monosyllabic, are used in their crude form or th e without inflection agglutination, mere juxtaposition (without of w c s any change form) sho ing whether they are verbs , adje tive ,

etc T b . . his is the Chinese contri ution to the language Chin ook is the key- language to dealings wi th the huge number 7 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

A a of different tribes of merican Indians . It contains a l rge of r fi a admixture French words , and was to a g eat extent arti ci lly ’ b f ial put together y the Hudson Bay Company s o fic s, for the purposes of their business . Quite apart from these various more or less consciously con structed mixed languages , there is a much larger artificial element in many national languages than is commonly realized . Take

or . l modern Hungarian, Greek , even Italian Literary Ita ian , as a r t r we know it, is largely an rtificial const uction for li e ary pur b on of poses , made y Dante and others, the basis a vigorous and naturally supple dialect . With modern Greek this is even more u str ikingly the case . As a national lang age it is almost purely of the work a few scholars, who in modern times arbitrarily and artificially revived and modified the ancient Greek . T here seems , then , to be absolutely no foundation in experience for opposing a universal language on the score of artificiality.

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE IDE A OF A UNIVE RSAL LANGUAG E

List of Scﬁcmcs p r oposed

THE story of Babel in the Old Testament reﬂects the popular feeling that confusion of tongues is a hindrance and a curse . Similarly in the New Testament the Pentecostal gift of tongues of is a direct gift God . But apparently it was not till about 3 00 years ago that philosophers began to think seriously about

- a a world l nguage . The earliest attempts were based upon the mediaeval idea that of Th man might attain to a perfect knowledge the universe . e o of he wh le sum things might, it was thought, brought by division To and subdivision within an orderly scheme of class iﬁcation . MEMORY FORBIDS 7 7 any conceivable idea or thing capable of being represented by human Speech might therefore be attached a corresponding

on i . word, like a label , a perfectly regular and log cal system Words would thus be self- explanatory to any person who had or grasped the system , and would serve as an index key to the of things they represented . Langu age thus became a branch f e or philosophy as the men o the time conceiv d it, at all T of events a useful handm”aid. hus arose the idea a “ i ph losophical language .

A very simple illustration will serve to show what is meant. Go i u into a b g library and look up any work in the catalog e . You w fin — I d 0 8 2 . ill a reference number say , 45 , g 3 5 , c . f you learnt fi b the system of classi cation of that li rary, the reference number would explain to you where to find that particular book out of b of l T o any n”um er mi lions . he fact f the number beginning with 0 a would at once place the book in a certain main division , “ ” on g and so with the other numbers , till in that series gave ou r y a fai ly small subdivision . Within that, 3 5 gives you the “ ” of . The number the case, and c the shelf within the case book is soon run to earth .

Just so a word in a philosophical langu age . Suppose the word

or aoo. The 0 The is ﬁnal shows it to be a noun . monosyllabic The i b root shows it to be concrete . init al shows it to be in the animal category . The subsequent letters give subdivisions of the b animal kingdom , till the word is narrowed down y its form to f on b membership o e small class of animals . The other mem ers of the class will be denoted by an ordered sequence of words in T which only the letter denoting the individual is changed . hus , “ ” “ ” oraoo or oco on : or ado if means dog, may be cat, and so ,

or a o or a o . . f , g etc , according to the classiﬁcation set up

Words, then , are reduced to mere formulae ; and grammar, u n i inﬂections, etc . , are similarly laid o t o purely logical, systemat c a lines , without t king any account of existing languages and their r T f st ucture . o langu ages of this type the historians o the

' u universal lang age have given the name of a pr iori languages . 7 8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Directly opposed to these is the other group of artiﬁcial lan

a ost eri or i . T on guages , called p hese are wholly based the principle of borrowing from existing language : their artiﬁciality consists in choice of words and in regularization and simpliﬁ cation

of a . T voc bulary and grammar hey avoid, as far as possible , any of b i elements ar itrary invention , and conﬁne themselves to adapt ng an d making easi er what usage has already sanctioned .

mixed lan ua es Between the two main types come the g g , partaking of of the nature each . The following list is taken from the Histoi r e de la langu e u ni er se ut v lle . C o urat arn , by MM and Le

I . A PRIORI LANGUAGES

I . The D of 162 philosopher escartes , in a letter 9 , forecasts a system (realized in our days by Zamenhof) of a regular universal : fi s afli x s grammar words to be formed with xed root an d e , and to be in every case immediately decipherable from the dictionary “ ” fit for vul ar ' mind s alone . He rejects this scheme as g , and “ ” proceeds to sketch the outline of all subsequent phiIOSOphic T i of languages . hus the great th nker anticipates both types r unive sal language .

— 2 . T U u 16 Lo o and ektezsion Sir homas rq hart, 5 3 g p (see next a ch pter) .

— . I 66 I A r s S i nor u m 3 Dalgarno, g . ‘ D b 16 2 algarno was a Scotchman orn at Aberdeen in 6 . His is on s ﬁ language founded the cla si cation of ideas . Of these there i are seventeen ma n classes , represented by seventeen letters . E t ach le ter is the initial of all the words in its class .

i — . I 66S A n ssa l a 4 Wilk ns, E y towar ds a R ea Char acter and

of ﬁ of ; Wilkins was Bishop Chester, and rst secretary and one

of R o al Socie . the founders the y ty Present members plea se note . ’ His is Dal arn system a development of g o s. LIST OF SCHEMES — A PRIORI 7 9

6— 6 b i 16 1 1 . . z 5 Lei n t , 4 7

itz Leibn thought over this matter all his life , and there are ri on e no va ous passages it scatter d through his works, though l th of On e treatise is devoted to it. He he d that e systems his f predecessors were not philosophical enough . He dreamed o a f b logic o thought applica le to all ideas . All complex ideas are

of - compounds simple ideas, as non primary numbers are of

b i n n ad itum. primary numbers . Num ers can be compounded fi So b ronouncible s if num ers are translated into p words , these word t can be combined so as o represent every possible idea .

— ’ 6 . Delormel 1 P r o et d u ne lan u u ni ver selle. , 795 (An I I I) j g c Delormel was inspired by the humanitarian ideas of the French

v . Re olution He wished to bring mankind together in fraternity . His system rests on a logical classiﬁcati on of ideas on a decimal basis .

Fran ois 181 — an ue mu a e L sicl u niverselle. 7 . Jean g Sudre, 7 g

1i was 1 8 . lan ha e S dre a schoolmaster, born in 7 7 His g g is on founded the seven notes of the scale , and he calls it Solresol .

l 18 6— st2me de a n ue u ni er e/ 8 . rosse in l v s 1c. G , 3 Sy g “ of 1 00 100 A language composed 5 words, called roots , with

x . sufﬁ es, or modifying terminations

— Lan e u ni er selle an ' . 18 u v et a ti ue. 9 Vidal , 44 g b o

r of s b A cu ious combination letter and num ers .

10 18 2 — 18 — Cour s com let dclan e . u uni erse le Letellier, 5 5 5 p g v l , and many subsequent publications .

Letellier was a former schoolmaster and school inspector . “ ” on of a His system is founded the theory langu ge , which is that the word ought to repres ent by its component letters an analysis o f the idea it conveys .

I I . Abbe h 18 2 r Bonifacio Sotos Oc ando, 5 , Mad id . The b a a bé had been a deputy to the Spanish Cortes, Sp nish 80 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

’ s f ma ter to Louis Philippe s children, a university pro essor , and i of e . d rector a polytechnic coll ge in Madrid , etc His language is one a logical , intended for international scientiﬁc use , and chieﬂy for writing . He does not think a spoken language for all purposes possible .

' 1 ci éte ter nationa e 2 . S o i n l de lin u sti ue g i q . First report dated 1 6 8 5 . 1 The object of the society was to carry out a radical reform of h h an d French ort ograp y, to prepare the way for a universa”l language the need of which is beginning to be generally felt . In the report the idea of adopting on e of the most widely spoken The national languages is considered and rejected . previous r are p ojects reviewed , and that of Sotos Ochando is recommended

' T a oster ior i a rior i as the best . he p principle is rejected and the p T deliberately adopted . his is excusable , owing to the fact that

a r ior i The most projects hitherto had been p . philosopher Charles R enouvier gave proof of remarkable prescience by condemning a r i or i I La R evue 18 the p theory n an article in , 5 5 , in which he th a forecasts e poster ior i plan .

— I 18 Lin ualu mina or t/ze Lan ua e o lzt. 3 . Dyer, 7 5 g , g g f n

1 . R einaUX 18 4 , 7 7 .

— M l en t 18 La lan ue natur elle. 1 . a d 5 , 7 7 g

The author was a civil engineer.

1 00 — S okil Nicolas , 9 p .

’ The author is a ship s doctor and former partisan of Volapiik .

— racli e 1 Hilbe I r D ie Z alzlens . 7 . , go p

ns . Based , on numbers which are tra lated by vowels

Volkerver kenrss r acize. 1 . 1 0 2 8 Dietrich , 9 p

Talundber 1 0 — P erio ci ne au Lo i k u nd 19 . Mannus g, 9 4 , f g Welts r aclzc Geddc/ztnisskun st aufgeoau te p .

8 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

— 12 . Bollack 18 La lan u coleue. , 99 g

Aims merely at commercial and Common use . Ingenious, but d f too i ﬁcult for the memory .

S E A E S. III . A PO T RIORI L NGUAG

I i uet I 6 — Lan ue nou elle . Fa g , 7 5 g v .

F i u t a of b his t a g e was tre surer France . He pu lished projec ,

' i n which is a scheme for simplifying grammar, the famous ’ - r eighteenth century encyclopaedia of Diderot and d Alembe t.

2 Schi fer 8 . p , 1 3 9

T two his scheme has an historical interest for reasons . First, the fact that it is founded on French reﬂects the feeling of the “ time that French wa”s , as he says, already to a certain extent The of a universal language . point interest is to compare the date when the projects began to be founded on English . In ’ 18 V ola iik E Schi fer s 79 p took nglish for the base . Secondly, p scheme reﬂects the new consciousness of wider possibilities that were coming into the world with the development of means of Th communication by rail and steamboat . e author recommends “ the utility”of his project by referring to the new way of travelling .

— — - . I 8 S P antos D imon Glossa. 3 De Rudelle, 5

" De Rudelle was a modern - langiiage master in France and b afterwards at the London Polytechnic . His language is ased on e ten natural languages , especially Gr ek, Latin , and the modern derivatives of Latin , with grammatical hints from English ,

R . i German, and ussian It is remarkable for hav ng been the

fi f - rst to embody several principles o the first importance , which ut have since been more fully carried o in other schemes , and are now seen to be indispensable . Among these are ( I ) distinction of the parts of speech by a fi xed form for each ; ( 2 ) suppression of separate verbal forms for each person ; (3 ) formation of derivatives by means of suffi xes with fixed meanings . d — LIST OF . SC HEMES A POSTE RI ORI 83

1 68— sa clze . 8 Unioer ls ra 4 Pirro, p .

e — a Bas d upon ﬁve languages French , Germ n , English , Italian , and Spanish— and containing a large proportion of words from the Latin .

18 — M ono lo tica . t 5 Ferrari , 7 7 g

6 l s r ace . W 18 8 e t lz . Volk and Fuchs, 3 p

Founded on Latin .

' - . 1 8 lai Z imondal 7 Cesare Meriggi , 8 4 B a .

’ — - . n 88 n a al ti e 8 1 La u ter n tion e nco La n . Courton e , 5 g e i n

on n ot Based the modern Romance languages, and therefore ffi su ciently international . A peculiarity is that all roots are Th monosyllabic . e history of this attempt illustrates the weight ‘ of inertia against which any such project has to struggle . It was presented to the Scientiﬁc Society of Nice, which drew up a report and sent it to all the learned societies of Romance n speaking countr ies . Answers were received from three tow s

Pau , Sens , and Nimes . It was then proposed to convene an international neo—Latin congress ; but it is not surprising to f hear that nothing came o it.

— . 18 8 P as li n ua . 9 Steiner, 5 i g

V la ii The A counterblast to o p k . author aims at copying the methods of naturally formed international languages like the l n a - d u r anca or . n an i g f Pidgin English Based o English , French , m E l Ger an ; but the nglish vocabu ary forms the gr oundwork.

I o I 8 8 Welts r aclce. . Eichhorn , 7 p

on of Based Latin . A leading principle is that each part speech ought to be recognizable by its form . Thus nouns have s n e s two syllables ; adjective , three ; pronouns, o ; verbal root , one syllable beginning and ending with a consonant and so on .

— 1 Z E . 1. 18 8 s er anto amenhof, 7 p . (See below , p 48 2; INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

— 12 . a 18 88 Li n ua r an a nu Bernh rd , g f c ova.

A kind of bastard Italian .

— ' 1 18 8 8 R osmos . 3 . Lauda, b Draws all its voca ulary from Latin .

— 1 . 18 8 8 Li n ua 4 Henderson , g .

Latin vocabulary with modern grammar .

— 1 1 0 2 Latinesce. 5 . Henderson , 9 A simpler and m ore practical adaptation of Latin by the same — ﬁ author cg . the present in nitive form does duty for several ﬁ nite tenses, and words are used in their modern senses .

i . H 16 o nix (pseudonym for the same indefatigable Mr . _

8 8 — A n lo- an 1 r ca. Henderson) , 9 g f

of E z A mixture French and nglish . Both this and the barbari ed Lati n schemes are fairly easy and certainly simpler than the real languages, but they are shocking to the ear, and produce the ff f of e ect o mutilation language .

1 18 8 7 . Stempel, 9 f Based on Latin with admixture o other languages .

— 18 18 Commu nia . . Stempel , 94 l ﬁ of . 1 A simp i cation No 7 , with a new name .

— 1 18 o N ov Lati n . 9 . Rosa, 9 ‘ A set of rules for using the Latin dictionary in a certain way as a key to produce something that can be similarly deciphered .

— M n n ue 2 0 . 18 0 u doli Julius Lott, 9 g .

on Founded Latin . Lott started an international society for u a b a niversal language, proposing to build up his l nguage y collaboration of savants thus brought together .

' ’ 2 18 1— M etlrod e r a ide acile et cer tai ne ou r 1. Marini , 9 p , f p constr uir e un idiome u niver se]. LIST OF SCHEMES— A POSTERIORI 8 5

— 2 2 Li ta 18 2 Lan ue catnoli ue. . p y, 9 g g

Based on the theory than an international language already exists (in the words common to many languages) , and has only to be discovered .

' — A nti - Vola ick 2 . 18 . 3 Mill , 93 p A simple universal grammar to be applied to the vocabulary of each national language .

2 Braakman 18 - D er Wer eldtaal E l M u nd oli nco 4 . , 94 ,

r amatico d el M u ndoli nco ro li de Hollando Factor e oordwi k G p (N j ) .

Hoessrich — l u 2 . l Ta novos M onatssclzr t r 5 A bert (date , if f

' die E i n clzr u n u nd Ver br eitu n der all e ei nen V /cr s cﬁe ”ﬁ g g g m er be s p r a Tal b T . (Sonne erg, huringen)

2 H intzeler 18 niversala 6. e , 95 U .

Heintzeler compares the twelve chief artiﬁcial languages already s propo ed, and shows that they have much in common . He to out on suggests a commission work a system an eclectic basis .

— 2 . 18 N ovilati n . 7 Beermann , 95

Latin brought up to date by comparison with six chief modern languages .

2 8 Le Lin uist 18 6- . g , 9 7 .

of A monthly review conducted by a band philologists . It contains many discussions of the principles which should underly an international language , and suggestions, but no complete scheme .

hn r 8 — man 2 . P uc e 1 N u e R o . 9 , 9 7 ov

n Based largely o Spanish , which the author considers the best of the Romance tongues .

— - - 0 . La vest cu r o islz cen tr al dialekt Lasoneor 3 Nilson p , un tr ansit al in vo 18 l l dialekt Centr alia u n com r om ion l g ( 9 7) , p i ss 8 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

' en tr il lingu u niversal de Akademi inter national e la vest-eur opislz centr al-dialekt ( 1899)

1 00— Li n u a Komu n 3 1. Kurschner, 9 g .

Th e author was an Esperantist, but found E speranto n ot scientiﬁc enough . It is almost incredible that a man who knew Esperanto should invent a language with several conjugations of Kiirschner the verb , but this is what has done .

2 I n of 1 0 2 3 . nternatio al Academy Universal Language , 9

l . l diom N eutr a . (See below, p

1 0 2 — Tu ton islc or A n lo- Ger man Union 3 3 . Elias Molce , 9 ; , g e Tutonis/z a Teu ton icI nter national Lan ua e Tongu . g g

n — P an r oman skia de un li n i nter na ziona l 3 4 . Mole aar , g (in on d er M ensclzli ei t E s r ant D ie R eligi , March pe o oder

' P anr oman D as Weltspr aclzep r oolem u nd sei ne ei nfaclzstcLosu ng i er sal Li n —P anr oman M ensclzlzeits Un v g (in ziele, i er sal z P uttman n Gr amatik dcUn v (Leip ig, ,

o— D e Latino sine exionc R evue de M atlzémati ue 3 5 . Pean ﬂ (in o , T i l l Lati no uale li n u a ausiliar e i n ter vol. viii . , ur n , g g

A tti della R . Accademia d elle Sci enze di i nazionale (in Tor no,

Vocabu lari o de Lati no i nter nationale com ar ato cum A n lo 19 04) p g , co Germano His ano I talo R usso Gr aeco et S anscr i o Fr an , , p , , , , t Formulari o mat/zematico vol. v . (Turin , See also the , T i ( ur n ,

— 6 Hummler 1 0 M u ndelin ua . 3 . , 9 4 g (Saulgau)

— ’ 1 0 E s uisse d u ne r ammair e de la lan 3 7 . Victor Hely, 9 5 q g gue ationale I st ar t : Les mots et la s ntaxe i n ter n , p y (Langres) .

— 1 06 P ankel Welts r aclze di e leic/zteste u 3 8 . Max Wald , 9 ( p ) , nd

' r aclce ur d en i nter nationalen Ver ke/z kicr zeste Sp f r . G r ammatik

' orter ouclz mil A u be der Wor t uel e - eer und W fga g l (Gross B en). ' SCOTS TO THE FORE 8 7

— . 1 06 E kselsior e tite N ew Univer sal Lan ua e 3 9 Greenwood , 9 , g g or A ll N ations a S m li ed I m r oved E s er anto f i p ﬁ , p p (London , “ ' Ulla t u lo li n ua ci otr s The U Miller Gill) ; , g ( lla Society , i d Br lington ,

— 0 . T 1 0 M ondli n vo r ovisor isclze A u stellu n ei ner 4 rischen , 9 7 g , p f g i nter nationalen Ver k ss r c elzr a lze D . p (Pierson , resden)

THE EARLIEST BRITISH ATTEMPT

A PE RUSAL of the foregoing list shows that in the early days of

' the search for an international language the British were well to the r the fore . Of British pioneers in this ﬁeld the ﬁ st two were Scots— a fact which accords well with the traditional enter prise of T a e north the weed , and re diness to look abroad , b yond their

own or own . noses, , in this case, beyond their tongues It is like wi se remarkable that the British have almost dropped ou t of the is o running in recent times , as far as origination c ncerned . Is ’ of eshurun s al this fact also typical , a small symptom J gener fatness Does it reﬂect a lesser degree of nimbleness in moving with the spirit of the times ? ’ n s o A yhow, in this ca e the Briton s content with what he has g t

ﬁ rst- at home is well grounded . He certam possesses a class f language . As a curious example of the quaint use o it by a of scholar and clever man in the middle the seventeenth century , ’ th e following account of Sir Thomas Urquhart s book may be of some interest . Sir Thomas is well known as the translator of Rabelais and i a evidently something of the curious erudit on, p olyglotism , nd f T quaintness o conceit of his author stuck to the translator. his of of book is the rarest his tracts , all which are uncommon , and has been hardly more than mentioned by name by the previous wr s on iter the subject . The title-page runs 8 8 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

LO GO PANDE KTE IS ION

R AN To THE VE S U E O , INTRODUCTION UNI R AL LANG AG , DIGESTE D INTO THE SE SIX S E VERAL BOOKS

Neau d ethaumata Chryseomystes Chrestasebeia N eleodicastes Cleronomaporia Philoponauxesis

I R TH UH By S OMAS U RQ ART, of Cromartie, Knight,

Now bl own i lately contrived and pu ished both for his Utilit e ,

an d that of all Pregnant and Ingenious Spirits . LONDON

Printed and are to be sold by GILE S CALVE RT at the Black Spread - Eagle at the West—end ’ of CH T M S Paul s, and by RI ARD O LIN at 16 the Sun and Bible near Pye Corner. 5 3 .

1111 of z f r a note at the end the book he apologi es o haste , “ v n out one l that the copy was gi e to two severa”l printers, a one - not being fully able to hold his quill a going . The book opens with

The Epistle Dedicatory to Nobody .

The ﬁrst paragraph runs

S U A E MO T HONO R BL , “ non -su on ent Soverai n of My pp Lord , and g Master ad ected contradictions in j terms, that unto you I have presumed dicacie n o to tender the d e of this introduction , will t seem strange r furtherw me to those , that know how your concu rence did to of the accomplishment ”that new Language , into the frontispiece whereof it is permitted . l After some pre iminary remarks, he says

Now to the end the Reader may be more enamoured Qf I o the Language , wherein am to publish a grammar and lexic n,

' 90 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

' Seventeenth -centu ry boys of tender years must have had a “ ” h - ti good stomach for Mongrels and Hybrids, and suc like dain es

' of the grammatical men u ; but even if they could swallow a b a i mongrel, it is hard to elieve th t they would not have stra ned

a . be c at ten c ses in three months It might called asual labour, ” “ ’ ” u t a n b it would certainly h ve bee three months hard . of a i is u After these examples gr mmatical generosity , t not s r prising to read

' Fifteenthly, in this langu age the Verbs and Participles ics al have four vo e , though”it was never heard that ever any other o language had ab ve three .

“ ” l of Note that the former co leagu”es the Verbs and Participles, an d are out of . the the Mongrels Hybrids, here dropped the of es category . Perhaps it is as well, seeing number voic

- attributed to each . A four voiced mongrel would have gone one

- - r C e d better than the triple headed hell hound Ce berus , and r ate of its own for o to quite a special Hades scho lboys, say nothing of light sleepers .

' “ ” ’ “ Under ﬁve and twenti ethly we learn - that there i s no

Ele iack Sa hick Iambick or n Hexameter, g , p , Asclepiad , , a y other of or i aff ou kind Latin Greek verse, but I w ll ord y another in this language of the same sort which leads u p to : f

trotteth w Six and twentiethly, as it easily ith metrical of of e feet , so at the end the career each line, hath it d xterity, f an of our E and vern acular a ter the m ner nglish other y tongues, of n to stop with the closure a rhyme ; in the frami g whereof, the

- a r well versed in that langu ge shall have so little labour, that fo to u ﬁ ve every word therein he shall be able f rnish at least . ” hu ndr ed several monosyllables Of the same terminatio n with it .

l 1 '

“ A remarkable Opportunity for every man to become his own poet ! A REALISTIC LANGUAGE 9 1

thi thl Four and rti e y, in this language also words ex of e s f pressive h rb represent unto us with what degree o cold, or n moisture , heat, dry ess they are qualiﬁed, togeth”er with some o bs ther property d istinguishing them from other her .

In this crops out the idea that haunted the minds of mediaeval speculators on the subject : that language could play a more an important part th it had hitherto done ; that a word, while a a conveying an ide , could at the s me time in some way describe or symbolize the attributes of the thing named . Imagine the charge of thought that could be rammed into a phrase in such a

. ou language Imagine too, y who remember the cold shudder of ou your childhood, when y heard the elders discussing a prospective dose — in ten siﬁed by all the horrors of imagination when the “ ” discussion was veiled in the decent obscurity of French “ imagine the grim ”realism of a language contai ning wor ds ﬁer b — ean d to s, expressive that extent !

seems , indeed, to have been something rather cold blooded about this language

thirtiethl i of ro Eight and y, ‘n the contexture nouns, p re osital n t ad ini nouns, and p p articles u ited ogether, it m streth a r of Laconick in m ny wonderful va ieties expressions, as t”he n n Grammar thereof shall more at large be made k ow unto you .

ha e But, after all , it d a human sid

i thl Three and fourt e y, as its interjections are more o i e numerous, s are they more emphatical in their respect v ex i of of press on passions, than that part speech is in any other language whatsoever. ur ethl of Eight and fo ti y, all languages this is the most o t for i compendiou”s in complement, and c nsequently ﬁ test Court ers and Ladies .

Sir Thomas seems to have been a bit of a man of the world 9 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Fiftiethl l of e E acu y, no anguage in matter Pray r and j lations c of s to Almighty God is able , for con iseness expres ion to of for compare with it ; and therefore , all other, the m”ost ﬁt the use of Chur chmen and spirits inclined to devotion .

“ ’ T with its o his there”fore , direct deduction fr m conciseness o f in expression , recalls the lady patroness who chose her u bent cm s for being fast over prayers . She said she could always pick out a parson who read ser vice daily by his time for the

Sunday service . Sir Thomas is perhaps over - sanguine to a modern taste when he concludes

six Besides the sixty and advantages above all other languages , I might have couched thrice as many more of no less consideration but fﬁ than the aforesaid , that these same will su ce to sharpen the longing of the generous R eader after the intrin secal and most researched secrets of the new Grammar and Lexicon which I am u to ev lge .

HI STORY O F VOLAPUK— A WARNING

U of T VOLAP K is the invention a white night . hose who know their Alice i n Wonder land Will perhaps involuntarily conjure up of th e the picture kindly and fantastic White Knight, riding about on a horse covered with mousetraps and other strange i caparisons, which he introduced to all and sundry w th the “ ’ ” own . f unfailing remark, It s my invention Sco fers will not ’ be slow to ﬁnd in V olapii k and the White Knight s inventions — a common characteristic their . fantasticness . Perhaps there really is some analogy in the fact that both inventors had to

t - mount heir hobby horses and ride errant through sundry lands , thru sting their creations on an unwilling world . But the par ticular kind of white night of which Volapii k was born is the

94 INTERNATI ONAL L ANGUAGE

‘ o f 18 8 i ro e di n s which the third , held in Paris in 9, w th p c e g

Vola ii k . entirely in p , was the most important The rapid decline of Volapiik is even more instru ctive than its Th of ze it sensational rise . e congress Paris marked its n h hopes h two was ran high , and success seemed assured. Wit in years it o a a practically dead . N more congresses were held, the p rtis ns i s e dw ndled away , the local clubs dissolved , the new papers fail d, to T e e and the whole movement came an end . here only r main d r a new academy founded by Bishop Schleyer, and he e and there f l "E a group o the faithfu . Th f al e chief reason o this failure was intern dissension . First arose the question of principle : Should Volapiik aim at being a l of e a es a literary language, cap b e expr ssing all the ﬁner sh d of thought and feeling ? or should it conﬁne itself to being a practical means of business communication ? Bishop Schleyer claimed for his invention an equal rank

of . rt among the literary languages the world The practical pa y, Kerckh offs i headed by M . , wished to keep it util tarian and of s practical . With the object increasing its utility, th ey propo ed in certain changes in the language ; and thus there arose , the ff of to s second place, di erences opinion as fundamental point of f structure, such as the nature and origin o the roots to be

. u o adopted Vital questions were th s reopened, and the wh le

- language was thrown back into the melti ng pot. The a 188 ﬁrst congress was held at Friedrichsh fen in August 4, Th and was attended almost exclusively by Germans . e second 18 8 b 2 00 congress, Munich , August 7 , rought together over f V olapii ki sts from different countries . A professor o geology i from Halle U niversity was elected president, and an Internat onal la ii k e Academy of Vo p was found d . Kerckhoffs Then the trouble began . M . was unanimously elected director of the academy, and Bishop Schleyer was made

’

na i a ea s in az S a Vola zi éafled lezenodié . A Volapuk jour l st ll pp r Gr , tiri p o has us March 1 0 e ed and the e eran B sho Sch e er Th e ed it r j t ( 9 7) r tir , v t i p l y ,

- e n ﬁ ve ea s old is ak n u the edi orshi a ai n . now s ve ty y r , t i g p t p g A CASE 1OF . DISPUTED PATERNITY 9 5

- a l fo l r o gran d master (af b r ife . Questions a ose as t the duties of the academy‘and the respective powers of the inventor of the ‘ - k . erch s l language and the academicians M . K off was all a ong

on of . the guiding spirit the . side the academy He was in the a u m to main supported by the Vol p k world , though there see s e s ﬁ rst on of hav been ome tendency , at any rate at , . the part the th is b Germans to back e bishop . It impossi le to go into details

of o . f to the p ints at issue Su ﬁce it say, that eventually the director of the academy carried a resolution giving the inventor three votes to every one of ordinary members in all acad emy

bu t him f . divisions , refusing the right o veto, which he claimed

' Th b Kerchoﬂs e bishop replied y a threat to depose M . k from the

of . The directorship, which course he could not make good constitution of the academy was only binding inasmuch as it had u c been drawn p and adopted by the onstituent members , and it n gave o such powers to the inventor . So her e was a very pretty quarrel as to the ownership of

Vola iik . The l o p bishop said it be onged t him , as he had

invented it : he was its father . The academy said it belonged

. who m to the public, had a right to amend it in the com on

n . T i terest his child, which had newly Opened its eyes and as h n smiled upon the world , and upon which the world w t e ’ smiling back— was it a son domiciled in its father s house and

' fully i n pa tr za potestate ? or a ward in the guardianship of its r out chief promoters ? o an orphan foundling, to be boarded

on the - o scattered home system at the public expen se , and t u ? be bro ght up . to be useful to the community at large A f vexed question o paternity ; and the worst of it was, there ‘ was no s international court competent to try the ca e . n of 1 8 a Mea time the congress 8 9 at Paris came on. Vol puk b o i was o ming everywhere . Left to itself, it ﬂourished l ke a green

a s T b y tree . his meeti ng was to set an ofﬁcial seal upon its

success ; and governments , convinced by this thing done openly ' ‘ ’ ville lu mzer e an? acco l in the , would accept the f mp z and introduce i o e it nt th ir schools. “ “ ‘ ' 9 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

T e c es i n T and hirte n ountries sent repr entat ves , includi g urkey

’ ‘ ' K kh fi A h erc o s cd t . The T e . China great was , ele te presiden ‘ ’ Th e ' p roceedings were in Volapuk . foundling s future was ' canvassed in terms of hi mself by o a cosmopolitan ! board abf ‘ kn r guardians, who did not yet ow what he was . Rathe a T Gilbertian situation . rying a higher ﬂight, we may say, in V b Platonic phrase, that olapuk seemed to be a out midway

’ between being and not - being; It is a far cry from Gilbert md u Plato to Mr . Kipling, but perhaps Volap k , at this juncture, may be most aptly described as a sort of a giddy ’ ’ ” - i f n ot a devil ana ostr ich an a orphan child in on e.

Business done : The congress discusses . The congress passed a resolution that there should be drawn i up a simple norm”al grammar, from wh ch all useless rules 3 be an d e ad e t al t should excluded , proc eded to p a ﬁn consti ution

for the Volapuk Academy . “ Article 15 says : The decisions of the academy must be at has once submitted to the inventor . If the inventor not

within thirty days protested against the decisions , they are

valid . Decisions not approved by the inventor are referred i back if - r d to ”the academy, and are valid carried by a two thi s majority . o f b as The bish p held out for his right o a solute veto, his episco”pal fellows and their colleagues are doing “ in another E Th i place in ngland . e conﬂict presents some analogy w th of th other graver constitutional matters , involving discussion e b respective merits of a solute and suspensive veto, and may there

fore have some interest at present, apart from its great

importance in any scheme for an international language .

The upshot was that dissensions broke ou t within the academy .

The b . of director, una le to carry a complete scheme reformed b n grammar, resigned and the academy, whose usi ess it was

to arrange the next congress and keep the movement going , never

convened a fourth congress . Several academicians set to work on new arti ﬁcial languages of their own ; and what was left of

9 8 INTERNATIONAL LANG UAGE

ﬁ n d fﬁ b s s . it easy, and make no di culty a out its Aryan ba i But, ’ apart from linguistic considerations, Mr . Ellis s practical reasoning

ff : Th e was certainly sound . It was to this e ect main thing is to adopt a language that is already in wide use and shown to be b b adequate . Alterations ring dissension y sticking to what we have already got , imperfections and all , strife is avoided, and the thing is at once reduced to practice .

T - his was a wise counsel , and applies to day with double force of ﬁ E b to the present holder the eld, speranto , which is esides , in b the opinion of experts, a etter language than Volapuk, and far easier to acquire . H on Of owever, the question technical merits, the American b b Philosophical Society was pro a ly right, as against the London

M . E Philological Society represented by r llis . And the proof u — of is that Volap k died primarily, indeed , dissensions among of its partisans , but dissensions superinduced on inherent defects T be b Of principle . hat this is true may seen from the su sequent l ii k T history of the Vo ap movement . his is brieﬂy narrated in the next chapter, under the name of Idiom Neutral .

H I STORY OF IDIOM N E UTRAL

' Kerckh oﬂs WE saw above that M . was succeeded in the director

Of u 18 b M . R b of ship the Volap k Academy , 9 3 , y osen erger , fﬁ a b . his St . Peters urg During term of O ce the ac demy continued The its work of amending and improving the language . method f : The b o procedure was as follows director ela orated proposals , which he embodied in circulars and sent round from time to time “ - to his fellow academicians . They voted Yes or N so that ﬁ b the language, when nished, was approved y them all , and was but the joint product Of the academy it was, in its new form , to

f . . a great extent, the work o the director At the end of his term PAUCITY OF NEUTRALISTS 99 of fﬁ o ce it was practically complete . It had undergone a complete transformation , and was now called Idiom Neutral . 8 8 b 1 . b . . In 9 M Rosen erger was succeeded y Rev A F. Holmes , w h N e a . T e f Of Macedon , York St te members o the academy

or 18 8 vary from time to time , and include ( have included since 9 ) E natives Of America , Belgium , Denmark , ngland, France, Ger

R . many, Holland, Italy, and ussia Dictionaries of Idiom Neutral have been published in English bu t (in America) , German , and Dutch the language hardly seems to be in use except among the members of the academy . These n ot but on do meet , carry their business by means Of circulars , f O . T drawn up , course, in Neutral here are at present only four — of groups Of Neutralists those St . Petersburg, Nuremberg, Th T . Brussels , and San Antonio, exas e famous linguistic club of Nuremberg is remarkable for having gone through the evolution from Volapuk to Idiom Neutral m’d Esperanto ! Besides these four groups , there are isolated Neutralists in certain towns in The Great Britain . academy seems still to have some points to

b . settle , and the work of propaganda has hardly yet egun ' ' l aez l n ter A paper published in Brussels , under the name of n ational , seems to represent the ideas Of scattered Neutralists, and of some partisans of other schemes based on Romance a T voc bulary . hese languages resemble each other greatly, and some sanguine spirits dream that they may be fused together into the ultimate international language . A few even hope for an E of amalgamation with speranto , through the medium a reformed of type Esperanto , which approximates more nearly to these b newer schemes , its vocabulary eing , like theirs , almost entirely ﬁ Romance . A series Of modi cations was published tentatively 18 bu t by Dr . Zamenhof himself in 94 , was suppressed from practical considerations , having regard to the fate that overtook

u of . The Volap k, when once it fell into the hands reformers

- of so called reforms never represented the real ideas Zamenhof, and were rather in the nature Of reluctant concessions to the

T . weaker brethren . hey were never introduced 10 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

The reader may be interested to compare for himself specimens

of V ola ii k . p , Idiom Neutral (its lineal descendant) , and Esperanto T E his speranto is the only one in use, most Esperantists having th e never even heard of reform project, which was at once b dropped , efore the language had entered upon its present ’ e . Th e cosmopolitan xtension _ following versions Of the Lord s ’ M M C ou turat E ller Prayer are taken from . and Lean s y , as are

the facts in the above narratives , with the exception Of the latest details

VOLAPUK

0 binOl su ls aisaludomoz Fat Obas , kel in , p nem Ola Komo mOd a en omOz il as su tal monarg n Ola J v Olik , in siil , i Bodi Obsik Vad eliki givolOs Obes adelo E pard OlOs Obes debis bsik a bs ai ar l o s O d obs b . b in uko s , id p debeles O as E no o is n d O

’ ten ta i aidali lOs en sO in d sod vo obis de bad . J o d

IDIOM NE UTRAL

Nostr patr kel es in sieli ! Ke vott nom es san ktiﬁked ke t re n ia k e t fasied kuale et su vot g veni ; vot volu es , in siel , tale m ter . Dona sid iurne a noi n ostr pan O n idiurn ik e pard ona (a) n ostr kuale et n Oi n ostr d ebtatori noi debiti , pardon a ; e no

in d uka tentasion libriﬁka n oi . noi in , ma da it mal

E SPERANTO

crelo sankta Patro nia, kiu estas en la , estu via nomo ; venu

re eco c ti . g via ; estu volo via, kiel en la ielo , tiel anka sur la tero Panon nian éi utagan donu al n i h od iaii kaj pard onu al n i suld ojn n ia n n i' ankaii ar d on as al suldan to n e kond u ku j , kiel p niaj j; kaj li eri u malbon o nin en tentou , sed b g nin de la .

— The e are two forms of Id om Neu ra ~ one ca ed u e au ho zed b r i t l, ll p r , t ri y

' h h her e in th a e I dez I n t ati on al t e acad emy t e ot us d e p p r er n .

10 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

E Comparing Idiom Neutral with speranto , it will be found that

o Of - the latter admits a larger prop rtion non Romance words . While fully recognizing and doing justice to the accepted principle of E selection , maximum Of internationality, speranto sometimes gives the preference to a non —Romance word in order (0 avoid ambiguity and secure a perfectly distinct root from which to form * T derivatives incapable Of confusion with others . here is always a good reas on for the choice ; bu t it is easier to appreciate this after learning the language . But a mere comparison Of the brief texts given above will bring ut of E — o another point in favour speranto its full vocalic endings .

On the other hand , many words in Idiom Neutral present a mutilated appearance to the eye, and, what is a much greater sin al ff fﬁ in an internation language , O er grave di culties of pronuncia tion to speakers of many nations . Words ending with a double

e . . n ostr atr consonant are very frequent , g p ; and these will be

b e. . unpronouncea le for many nations , g for an Italian or a Japanese . Euphony is one Of the strongest Of the many strong points Of Of Esperanto . In it the principle maximum of internationality

sou nd: or ms has been applied to as well as f , and there are very few sounds that ' will be a stumbling - block to any considerable of number Of speakers . Some its modern rivals seem to forget that a language is to be spoken as well as written . When a language is unfamiliar to the listener, he is greatly aided in understanding it if the vowel~ sou n ds are long and full and the al r l E pronunciation slow, most d aw ing . speranto fulﬁls these requisites in a marked degree . It is far easier to dwell upon

’ two - syllabled words with full vocalic endings like palm m a than

n ostr atr upon awkward words like p . Yet another advantage of E speranto is illustrated in the same

in ﬂexion texts . Owing to its system Of and the possession of an

I t is ob ous too ha E n sh Ge mans and S a s wi be more vi , , t t gli , r , l v ll attracted to a language which borrows som e of its featu res from their own

to ues han o an en ir e R omance an ua e . Th s e a e id e ng , t t t ly l g g i r l tiv ly w r n na on h of Es e an o i ter ti al appeal is an ot er advan tage p r t . U SQ ARING THE CIRCLE 10 3

objective case , it is extremely ﬂexible , and can put the words in a . T lmost any Order, without obscuring the sense hus, in the r i P ater N oster E t anslat on Of the , the speranto text follows the

B w or d or w or d and i n t/ze same or d er atin f . It is Obvious that this ﬂexibility confers great advantages for purposes Of faithful r and spirited t anslation .

THE N E WE ST LANGUAG ES : A N E O - LATIN GROUP— GROPING S “ ” TOWARDS A PA N - E UROP E AN AMALGAMATE D SCH E M E

E R S of 6— 8 A P U AL the list Of schemes proposed (pp . 7 7 ) shows that the last few years have produced quite a crop Of artiﬁcial a l nguages . Now that the main principles necessary to success be z of ff are coming to recogni ed , the points di erence between the rival schemes are narrowing down , and , as mentioned in the last chapter, there is a family likeness between many Of the Th e : newer projects . chief of these are Idiom Neutral ; Pan or U ﬂexione Roman niversal, by Dr . Molenaar ; Latino sine ,

M un dolin u e - by Prof. Peano ; g ; Nuove Roman ; and Lingua

Komun . These have been grouped together by certain adversaries as N eO- Roman bu t their partisans seem to prefer the collective “ ” - T m or term Neo Latin . here are ore less vague hopes that out of them may be evolved a ﬁnal form of international

a a m P an - E u ro ean Un ion-Li n l ngu ge , for which the na es p and g b have een suggested . Dr . Molenaar has declared his willingness

- for own l to keep to his original title , Pan Roman, his anguage , r al if the com posite on e should prefer to be called Un ive s .

Prof. Peano says, in the course Of an article (written in his Own “ lan guage, of course), any fresh solution in the future can only ff or di er from Idiom Neutral , as two medical mathematical b ” treatises dealing with the same su ject . The only deﬁnite scheme for common action put forth up to 104 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

b now seems to be that proposed y Dr . Molenaar . In January 1 0 ' 9 7 he sent round a circular written in French , in which he makes the following propositions All authors and notable partisans of Neo - Latin universal e languages shall meet in a special academy, which will elaborat

- a compromise language . a le As regards the programme, the three fundament l princip s shall be

1 b . . Internationality and comprehensi ility

2 . Simplicity and regularity .

3 . Homogeneity and euphony .

N O. 1 to Of these principles , is take precedence Of No .

N O 2 Of NO . . . 3 The order Of discussion is to be

‘ I . GRAMMAR

b Alpha et .

Articles (necessary or not P) .

Declension .

- r or Plural . P Adjective (invariable or not ) .

b . Adver , etc

II . VOCABULARY

The Of number collaborators is to be limited to about twenty,

h - and t e chairman is to be a non partisan .

r Dr . . b Such , in outline , is the p oposal Of Molenaar An O vious ‘ criticism is that it falls back into the Old mistake Of putting grammar before vocabulary . From a practical point Of View such a composite scheme is not likely to meet with acceptance . It will be very hard for auth ors of languages to be impartial and sacriﬁce their favourite devices

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

there has been no secession Of the pleas. In the early days of E speranto there was indeed an attempt to found an E speranto league ; but when it was seen that the league did little beyond

18 . suggest alterations , it was wisely dissolved in 94 Since then

Esperanto has been run purely on its merits as a language , and ﬁ ' has expressly dissociated itself from any political , paci st , or other

' n — a ﬁ propaganda . Its story is o e Of quiet progress t rst very ﬁ ve slow , but within the last years wonderfully rapid , and still The accelerating . most sensational episode in this peaceful advance was the prohibition of the principal Esperantist organ by SO a the Russian censorship, th t there is little to do, save record

one or two leading facts and dates . The of z inventor Esperanto is a Polish doctor, Ludwig La arus

b 1 . 8 Zamenhof, now living in Warsaw He was orn in 5 9 at Bielostock b , a town which has lately ecome notorious as the scene

. o f one b o r oms b . Of the terri le Russian p g , or interracial utcheries This tragedy was only the culmination of a chronic state Of the misunderstanding, which long ago so impressed young Z b u amenhof that , when still quite a boy , he resolved to la o r for

the removal Of on e cause Of it by facilitating mutual intercourse . He has practically devoted his life ﬁrst to the elaboration of his a a to f language , and Of l ter ye rs the vast amount o business that

b r Of . its extension involves . And it has een a labou love E Zamenhof is an idealist . His action , in all that concerns sper

z b t anto, has been characteri ed throughout y a generosi y and self effacement that well correspond to the humanitarian nature of the

inspiration that produced it . He has renounced all personal

rights in and control Of the Esperanto language , and kept studiously in the background till the ﬁ rst International Congress

two years ago forced him into the open , when he emerged from his retirement to take his rightful place before the eyes of the b peoples whom his invention had rought together .

But he is not merely an idealist : he is a practical idealist . This is shown by his self- re straint and practical wisdom in guiding “ c E a events . One Of the symptoms of cat hing speranto is DR WISDOM OF . ZAMENHOF 10 7

desire to introduce improvements . This morbid propensity to of jejune amateur tinkering, a kind Of measles the mind (mor ons li n n eus or g iﬁ attacks the immature in years judgment . A riper acquaintance with the history and practical aims Of international , language purges it from the system . We have all been through f . For the O it inventor Esperanto, accustomed for SO many years to retouch , modify , and revise, it must require no ordinary degree of - Off self control to keep his hands , and leave the fate of his

ff . o spring to others It grew with his growth , developing with his S experience , and he best knows where the hoe pinches and what

' Of V ola k might yet be done . But he has the fate piI before his eyes . He knows that, having wrought speech for the people , he must leave it to the people , if he wishes them to use and keep using it . Contrast the uncompromising attitude of the inventor of

V ola iik . b p , Bishop Schleyer It will e remembered how he let V la o pii k run upon the rocks rather than relinquish the helm . “ He has been nicknamed the Volapiikist 'Pope — and indeed he made the great and fatal bull Of believing in his own infallibility .

Zamenhof has never pretended to this . When he ﬁrst published

no on . his language, he made claim to ﬁnality its behalf He f r called o criticisms, and contemplated completing and modifying ff his scheme in accordance with them . He even O ered to make t over this task o a duly constituted academy , if people would come forward and throw themselves into the work . Again , some ’ C/zoix d u n e lan ue i n ter nati onale years later, in a pamphlet, g , he proposed a scheme for Obtaining a competent impartial verdict , and declared his willingness to submit to it . At on e time he

b . thought of something in the nature of a ple iscite Later, his of a r ooo renunciation Of the last vestige control , in giving up the p , or offi cial sanction Of books ; his attitude at the international congresses ; his refusal to accept the presidency ; his reluctance

A n expressive ( hom o pathic) name for this malady m ay be coined in

e an o mals li n lr u d ema a: ofﬁcious or n rusi e disease con - E sp r t : ano gw i t v , l i a ua sisting in an itch for coin ng l ng ge. 108 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

to name or inﬂuence the selection Of the members Of the body charged with the control of the language his declaration that his bu t own works have no legislative power , are merely those of an ﬁ f Esperantist nally, his sane conception O the scope and method Of Of future development the language to meet new needs , and of b — b the limits within which it is possi le, all this espeaks the man Of who has a clear idea what he is aiming at, and a shrewd grasp

Of the conditions necessary to ensure success .

The word E speranto is the present participle Of the verb = “ ” es er i b . p to hope , used su stantivally It was under the Dr e pseudonym of . Esperanto that Zamenhof publish d his scheme

8 - in 1 8 7 at Warsaw , and the name has stuck to the language . Before publication it had b een cast and recast many times in the

mind of its author, and it is curious to note that in the course Of its evolution he had himself been through the principal stages exhibited in the history of artiﬁ cial language projects for the last T b d . Of three hundre years hat is to say, he egan with the idea

a ri or i - u b an p language with made p words and ar itrary grammar, and gradually advanced to the conception of an a poster i or i a c langu ge, borrowing its vo abulary from the roots common to several existing languages and presenting in its grammar a

- E simplifi cation of Indo uropean grammar . He began to learn E nglish at a comparatively advanced stage f Of o his education , and the simplicity its grammar and syntax was a revelation to him . It had a powerful influence in helping him to frame his grammar, which underwent a new transformation . Specimens of the language as Zamenhof used to speak it with his school and student friends Show a wide divergence from its d iSa Oin tments present form . He seems to have had cruel pp , and was disillusioned by the falling away of youthful comrades who had promised to fight the battles Of the language they practised with enthusiasm at school . During long years Of depression one work at the language seems to have been almost his resource . Its absolute simpli city is deceptive as to the immense labour it

110 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

language , though the two were remarkably similar . He sup own pressed his scheme altogether, and threw himself heart Of and soul into the work Of Spreading E speranto . In a series

grammars, commentaries , and d ictionaries he expounded the b b language and made it accessi le to num ers who, without his z energy and eal , would never have been interested in it . Among

- e other well known French leaders are General S bert , Of the French

Boirac . Institute , M . , Rector Of the Dijon U niversity , and M Gaston ’ ' of [naeoenaanee B l e. Moch , editor the j e g who In England the pioneer was Mr. Joseph Rhodes , , with

. E e ﬁ K b Mr llis, found d the rst E nglish group at eighley in Novem er Just a year later appeared the ﬁrst E nglish Esperanto

i e E s er an tist i journal , T l p , edited by Mr . H . Bolingbroke Mud e, ire Br ink/z London . Since 19 0 5 it has been incorporated with T E s a ti t fﬁ E er n s of . p , the o cial organ the British speranto Association h e T association was founded in October 19 04 . The ﬁrst international congress was held at Boulogne in 1 August 9 05 . It was organi zed almost entirely by the presi Of M b dent the local group , . Michaux , a leading arrister and

’ brilliant lecturer and propagandist . It was an immense success, and inaugurated a series Of annual congresses , which are doing r g eat work in disseminating the idea Of international language .

The v 1 06 second was held in Gene a, August 9 and the third i — n ces b 10 1 1 0 . u ne w ll be held at Cam ridge, August 7 , 9 7 It is a b s ry to descri e the congresses here, as an account has been

— 12 1 given in an early chapter (see pp . 9 and 4 Within the last three or four years E speranto has spread all i over the world, and fresh societies and newspapers are spring ng ff up on every side . Since the convincing demonstration a orded b z y the Geneva Congress , Swit erland is beginning to take the movement seriously . Many classes and lectures have been held , and the university is also now lending its aid . In the present

The foun d ation of th e Lond on E speranto Club took place at practically the same me and the cub b cam in ti , l e e the h eadquarters of the movement G ea B r t ritain . THE HANDMAID OF SCIENCE 11 1

year ( 19 0 7) an International Esperantist Scientiﬁ c Offi ce has bee n G é founded in eneva , with M . Ren de Saussure as director , and amongst the members Of the auxiliary committee are seventeen professors and eight privat - docents (lecturers) of the Geneva U niversity . Its Object is to secure the recognition of Esperanto for scientiﬁc r To pu poses , and to practically facilitate its use . this end the Offi ce carries on the work Of collecting technical vocabularies of Esperanto, with the aid Of all scientists whose assistance it T may receive . his is perhaps the most practical step yet taken z b towards the standardi ation of technical terms, which is so adly b of f needed in all ranches science . A universal language O fers of b the best solution the vexed question , ecause it starts with a

. b b clean sheet Once a term has een admitted , y the competent b committee for a particular ranch Of science, into the technical E b b b speranto voca ulary Of that science , it ecomes universal, ecause it has no pre - existent rivals ; and its universal recognition in the ’ auxiliary langu age will react upon writers usage in their own language . The Geneva Ofﬁ ce will also aid in editing scientiﬁc Esperantist

on e I n ter naeia Seienea R ev/no reviews and the chief existing , the , b r will henceforth be pu lished in Geneva instead Of in Pa is, as hitherto . The two principal Objects of the Esperantist Scientiﬁc Association are

1. Scientists should always use Esperanto during their inter

national congresses .

2 ' cie iﬁ . S n t cperiodicals should accept articles written in E d o Of E speranto (as they now in the case nglish , French , b E b German, and Italian), and should pu lish in speranto a rief o summary f every article written in a national language . - A few weeks after the Geneva Congress there was a controversy on the subject O f E speranto between two of the best known and most Widely read Swiss and French newspapers — the Paris Figar o ' é Th and the jou r nal ae Gen oe. e respective champions were 112 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

’ d Haussonville of a the Comte . , the Académie Francise , and

M . de Saussure, a member of a highly distinguished Swiss scientiﬁc family ; and the matter caused a good deal of interest o n the Continent . France was , in this case, reactionary and a n ci en r egime : the smaller Republic backed E speranto and

. M . b progress de Saussure rought forward facts, and the count served up the Old arguments about E speranto being unpatriotic Th e and the prejudice it would inﬂict upon literature . whole thing was a good illustration Of a fact that is already becoming prominent in the history of the auxiliary language movement are the scientists much more favourable than the literary men . ,

As regards educational reform , the conservative attitude Of the

. classicists is well known , tho‘ugh there are many exceptions , s especially among real teachers . But it is omewhat remarkable the ro os ed that , when , p p reform deals with language , those whose business it is to know about languages should not take the trouble c b one to examine the s heme properly, efore giving an opinion way or the other . f As this question o the attitude of literary men has , and will v a b f ha e , a vit l earing upon the prospects O international language , and consequently upon its history , this is perhaps the place to remove a misunderstanding . A distinguished literary man objected to the foregoing passage as a stricture u pon men Of

: u letters . His point was Of co r se literary men care less for ﬁ : mu st be SO Esperanto than scienti c men do it , because they n e d i bt e t less . Now this is quite true : there is little dou that _ - b to day science is , perhaps inevita ly, more cosmopolitan than “ b - letters , wh”atever people may say a out the world wide republic E of . letters . But it does not meet the point sperantists do not complai n because men of letters are not interested in E speranto . T o wn b l hey have their interests and occupations, and no ody wou d be so abs urd as to make it a grievance that they will not submit to have thrust upon them a language for which they have no taste or E b use . What sperantists do very strongly O ject to is that some literary men lend the weight of their name and position to

114 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

At the ﬁrst international congress at Boulogne the history Of E speranto was well summed up in a thoughtful speech by b Dr . Bein , Of Poland , himself a considera le Esperantist author, “ ” nom de uer r e using the g Kabe . He pointed Out that we are a still in the ﬁrst or propaganda stage Of international langu ge, in

which it is necessary to hold congresses , and the language is T hO e treated as an end in itself. here is good p that the second be stage may soon be reached , in which the language may

sufﬁ ciently recognized to take its proper place as a means . of E t has b Meantime , the ﬁrst stage speran o been marked y or — three phases periods the Russian period , the French period ,

and the international period . Each has left its mark upon the

language . The Russian period is associated with the names Of Kofman,

b Silesn ov m Z in ov ev Gra owski , j , Ge et, j , and many other writers

of . considerable literary power Being the pioneers , they had to b of prove the capa ilities th e language to the world, and in doing ’ so they took off some Of the rough Of the world s indifference and h ﬁ scepticism . T e language beneﬁted by the fact that the rst

. The S Of authors were Slavs implicity the Slav syntax, the logical

arrangement of the sentences, the perfectly free and natural order

Of the words, passed unconsciously from their native language to new of the one in the hands these writers, and have been imitated

by their successors . The French period is associated chieﬂy with the name Of f Beau r nt . M . de o In Russia, side by side with the good points

b b - named a ove , certain less desira le Slavisms were creeping in ; also there were hitherto no scientiﬁc dictionaries or explanation “ fr n e of . . Beau o t b syntax As Dr Be”in says , de may called the cOdiﬁ er E b o f Of speranto . A goodly and French writers now

took the language in hand , and by their natural power Of b expression and exposition , which seems in orn in a French b man , and y their national passion for lucidity, they have no — doubt strengthened the impulse of E speranto towards clear cut, vigorous style . SWE ET SIMPLICITY 115

b z Possi ly theori ing has been overdone in France for, after all , the strong point Of Esperanto syntax is that there is none to speak of U , common sense being the guide . It is a pity to set p rules or where none are necessary, to do anything that can produce an impression in the minds of the uninitiated that learning Esperanto means anything approaching the memory drudgery necessary in grasping the rules and constructions Of national languages . The Of third period began soon after the turn the century, and is still in full force . Take up any chance number of any Esperanto gazette out Of the numbers that are published all over the world ; you will hardly be able to draw any conclusion as of of to the nationality the writer the article you light upon , save f E perhaps for an occasional turn O an unpractised hand . speranto now has its style it is — lucidity based upon common sense and the rudiments of a minimi zed grammar .

This chapter would not be complete without some account Of th consti tution of b e Esperanto, and the means which have een be adopted to safeguard the purity of the language . It will well . to quote in full the Declaration adopted at Boulogne, in which its aim is set forth , and which forms , as it were , its written Fo r of E constitution . the convenience readers the speranto text and E nglish translation are printed in parallel columns .

DE KLAR AC IO D E CLARATION

Car pri la esenco de E speran Because many have a very tismo multajhavas tre malveran false idea Of the nature of ideon n i su bsk ribinto E , tial j, speranto , therefore we , the E reprezentan toj de la speran undersigned , representing the tismO en diversaj lan d oj de la cause Of E speranto in different

k un en in ta al ~ mondo, v j la I n countries of the world, having tern acia Kongreso E sperantista met together at the Inter

- - trovis E n s I en Boulogne sur Mer, national speranto Co gres n n ecesa i ro on o - - , lai la p p de la Boulogne sur Mer, have thought 1 16 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE atitoro lin vo de la g Esperanto, it necessary, at the suggestion doni la sekvantan klarigon : of the author Of the E speranto

language , to give the following explanation 1 E I E . La sperantismo estas . speranto in its essence penado disvastigi en la tuta is an attempt to diffuse over mondo la uzad on de lin gvo the whole world a language “ n etitrale n en tr b homa, kiu , e u elonging to mankind without “ sin vi von intru d dante en la internan distinction , which , not de la popolojkaj n eniom celante ing upon the internal life of elpu Si la ekz istan tajn lingvojn the peoples and in nowise n acia n al homo ou t j , donus la j aiming to drive ”the existing de malsama n acio e lon j j la b national languages , should give k om ren i adi ovu s ff p g inter si , kiu p to men Of di erent nations the servi kiel paciga lingvo de possibility O f becoming mutually u blika in stitucio tiu lan o p j jen j d j comprehensible , which might kie diversajn aciojbatalas inter serve as a peace- making lan lin vo ka ovu s si pri la g , jen kiu p guage for public institutions in esti publikigatajtiujverkojki uj those lands where different ‘ havas egalan intereson por éiuj nations are involved in strife

o olo . b p p j a out their language , and in which might be published those works which possess an equal

interest for all peoples . Ciu ali a ideo all espero kiun Any other idea or hope which tiu aii alia E speran tisto ligas this or that E sperantist asso kun la E sperantismo estos lia ciates with E speranto will be afero b pure privata , por kiu la his purely personal usiness , E n e E sperantismo respondas . for which speranto is not

responsible .

ar 2 . 2 . C en la nuna tempo Because at the present n eni u esploran to en la tuta time no one who looks out over k e mondo jam dubas pri tio , the whole world any longer lingvo internacia povas esti nur doubts that an international lin vo Car cl éiu e a be a g arta, kaj , jmult l nguage can only an artiﬁci l

1 18 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE nzadi la lingvon por éiaj eblaj and go on using the language cel ; kiel spiritaj mastroj de for any possible Object from tiu Ci lingvo estos Ciam r igar an intellectual point Of view d ataj tinj person oj kinj de la those persons will always be mondo Esperantista estos kon regarded as masters Of this fesataj kiel la plej bonaj kaj langu age who shall be recog la plej talentaj verkistojde tiu nized by the E sperantist world éi lin v g o. as the best and most gifted

writers in this language . ‘ . n en i un E 4 Esperanto havas 4 . speranto has no personal personan legdon an ton kaj de law- giver and depends upon no

. n pendas de nenin aparta homo particular person . All Opi ions Ciuj Opi nioj kaj v erk oj de la and works Of the creator of krein to E E the! de speranto havas , speranto have , like simile al la Opinioj kaj verkoj Opinions and works Of any c E s eran tisto E de iu alia p , karak Other sperantist , an absolutely b rivatan b teron a solute p kaj por private character, and are ind i an h n iu d ev . . T e ne g La sola, unu ing upon nobody sole fojon por ciam d ev iga por éiuj foundation Of the E speranto E s eran tisto n p j, fundame to de language, which is once for all lin vo E a E la g sper nto estas la binding upon all sperantists, verketo F u ndamen to de E sper is the little work F u ndamento an to d e E s er an to on e , en kiu nenin havas la p , in which no n a rajton fari Sangon . Se i de has the right to make ny as d e r ulo ka on e klinig la eg j j mo change . If any departs l on ita v erk o d e ojd jen la dirita , from the rules and models given ‘ i ovas ravi i li n en am p p g sin in the said work, he can never “ per la vortoj tiel d eziras an justify himself with the words “ k on si”las la aiitoro de E sper such is the wish or adv”ice Of

G id eon n e . anto . iun , kiu the author Of Esperanto In povas esti Oportune esprimata the case of any idea which can per tiu materialo kiu trovigas not be conveniently expressed ndamento de E s er an to b of en la F u p , y means that material which ciu havas la rajton esprimi en is contained in the F u nd amen to o E s eranto v E tia maniero kiun li trovas la d p , e ery sperantist “ ESPERANTO IS FOU NDED ON BEDROCK 119

— le p j gusta , tiel same kiel estas has the right to express it in c li farate en iu alia ngvo. Sed such manner as he considers u n ueco lin vo pro plena de la g , most ﬁtting , just as is done in al éiu E s eran tisto j p j estas re the case of every other language . k omend ate imitad i kiel eble But for the sake of perfect unity

le stilon r eco m p j multe tiun kiu tro in the language, it is vigas en la verk ojde la kreinto mended to all Esperantists to E le de speranto , kiu la p jmulte constantly imitate as far as pos laboris or E p kaj en speranto, sible that style which is found kaj la plej bone konas gian i n the works of the creator of iriton s . p Esperanto, who laboured . the most abundantly for and in E b speranto, and who is est

acquainted with the spirit of it .

. s ran tis Th 5 E pe to estas nomata 5 . e name Of E sperantist ciu person o kiu scias kaj u zas is given to every person who lin v on E E la g speranto , tute egale knows and uses the speranto

kia celo in . z . por j j li g u as language , no matter for what artena o l b Ap d a ia aktiva societo ends he uses it . Mem ership Esperantista por Ciu Esperan of some active E speranto society tisto rekomen dind a be estas , sed is to recommended for every n e d evi a g . Esperantist, but this is not

compulsory .

By the wise provision of Article 4 , that the entire grammar and of E of framework speranto , as contained within one small book a b b Of few pages , is a solutely unchangea le, the future the language

T u nd mento is secured . he F a also contains enough root words to express all ordinary ideas . Henceforth the worst thing that can happen to Esperanto by way Of adulteration is that some authors a Th e m y use too many foreign words . only practical check upon

of of . this, course , is the penalty becoming incomprehensible on e But as men are the whole reasonable , and as the only Obj ct of writing in Esperanto presumably is to appeal to an Esperantist e n b s c h u f the int r ational pu lic , thi che k s o ld be su ﬁcient to prevent 1z 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

use of any word that usage is not tending to consecrate . A certain b latitude Of expansion must be allowed to every language , to ena le b it to move with the times ; but eyond this , surely few would have any interest in foisting into their discourse words which their

r hearers o readers would not be likely to understand, and those few would probably belong to the class who do the same thing in

- NO using their mother tongue . special legislation is needed to meet their case . For a few years ( 19 0 1- 19 0 5 ) the publishing house Of Hachette of ffi E had the monopoly O cial speranto publications, and no work published elsewhere could find place in the Kolekto Esperanto a robita D0 p de . Zamenhof. But at the first congress Zamenhof announced that he had given up even this control , and Esperanto n ow is a free language . Th e f O ficial authority , which deals with all matters relating to

Li n ua Komi tata . the language itself, is the g (Language Committee) at ﬁ of It was instituted the rst congress, and consists persons for Th appointed their special competence in linguistic matters . e

- original members numbered ninety nine, 1and represented the

- z following twenty eight countries Austria, Belgium , Bra il,

Bulgaria, Canada, Chili , Denmark , Finland, France , Germany, n Great Britai , Greece, Holland , Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, M exico, Norway, Persia, Peru , Poland , Portugal , Russia, Spain, z Sweden , Swit erland , and the United States .

“ This committee decides upon its own organization and procedure . In practice it selects from among the points sub mitted b to it y Esperantists those worthy of consideration , and o propounds them to its members by means f circulars . It then appoints a competent person or small committee to report upon th e of answers received . Decisions are made upon the result the ’ z voting in the members replies to the circulars , as analy ed and The tabulated in the report . functions Of the committee do not include the making Ofany alteration whatever in the Esperanto part of F u nd amento de E s er anto the p , which is equally sacrosanct for it a f l s be e t nd or al Esperantist , But there is much to done in corr c

I 2 2 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

b b Of of A marked change has een noticea le . late in the press the b leading countries . It is ecoming a rare thing now to see Of m of E speranto treated as a form adness, and the days con m u s S E te t o ilence are passing away . speranto doings are now ir r Of a e o ted . The fairly , fully, and ccurately p tone criticism is b z sometimes favoura le , sometimes patroni ing, sometimes hostile ' t be z bu it is generally serious . It is coming to recogni ed that be off Esperanto is a force to reckoned with it cannot be laughed . T or t . One two rivals , indeed, are get ing a little noisy hey are

on e- On e- mostly man (not to say horse) shows, and they do not like to s ee E speranto going ahead like steam ; High O n the mountain

i n z side they sit cold isolation , and ga e over the rich fertile plains E b Of speranto , rapidly ecoming populous as the immigrants rush ’ ” o ut n - in and stake their claims in the fair O man s land . And

' b ! “ it makes them feel ad, these others Jeshurun waxed fat , “ ” b e b V la k The they cry ; pride goes efore a fall , rem m er o pii ! E b V ola iik sperantists remem er p , close their ranks, and sweep on . b t Another good criterion esides the press is he sale Of books . edi Off Large tions are going everywhere , especially , it would seem , b in America, where the folk have a ha it, once they have struck a

b . usiness propositio”n , of running it for all it is wor”th Let her ! ! “ go give her hell is the word, and the boys are just now getting next to E speranto to beat the band . ‘ ’ The British E speranto Association s accounts Show a very steady increase in the sale Of literature . Considering that it Sells b of ooks at trade prices , that hardly any them are priced at more f w or than a e pence, and none above a shilling two, the sums

z reali ed from sale Of books in some months are astonishing, and represent a large and increasing spread of interest among the b fi on pu lic . Owing to the low prices, the pro t books is of course bu t not great ; , such as it is , it all goes to help the cause . The association is now registered as a non - profit- making society 8 a 1 6 S . under the law Of 7 , with no h re capital and no dividends ffi a b m As regards O ci l recognition , good progress is eing ade in

a ” s u m r o r a a. E s o Nm p . Deklar ci Art °e ‘ p j p a , 3 ( 5 Po BAR TO FR E E TRADE IN PROFESSOR S 12 3

England (see below) ; but if the language is anywhere adopted W ﬁ universally in government schools, it ill certainly be rst in c For of Fran e . ( an account the present state of this question , which is at present before the French Permanent E ducational I . . Dr. Z Commission , see Part , chap vi . , p . amenhof has b F E been decorated y the rench Government, an d speranto is already taught in many French schools . For purposes Of education ’ ' r essor ts d A ademi e France is divided into districts, called e , within each Of which there is a complete educational ladder from the primary schools to the university which is the culmination of each .

The ffi Of Boirac O cial head an important district is Rector , head one f of of the Dijon U niversity . He is O the most distinguished E S the sperantists, and is the leading pirit at the congresses and n Lin va mitato E o the g Ko . He has done much for speranto in of a Of the schools his district, and under the guid nce men of his calibre E speranto is making serious progress in France . (For lists of university professors favourable to an international language , see p .

of men ' of In Germany one the foremost science Of his time, f . z O Prof Ostwald , Of Leip ig, is an ardent advocate the inter u national lang age . He recently was lent for a time to Harvard and while there gave a great impetus to the study Of E speranto . He also spoke in its favour at Aberdeen U last year, on the occasion Of the Opening of the new niversity buildings . Apropos of the interchange between different countries of professors and other teachers , which has to some extent been to already tried between America and Germany, it is curious of note the attitude Prof. Hermann Diels, Rector Of the Berlin Of of i U niversity . He is a great supporter the extension th s interchange , which also has the approbation Of the Kaiser, who attended formally the inaugural lecture of on e of the American professors , to mark his approbation . Prof. Diels commented on the fact that diversity Of language was a grave Obstacle ; but though he seems before to have been a champion of popularized 124 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Latin , he now declares himself strongly against any artificial * of language, and advocates the use English , French , and German . T of Old M ax M his is a modified form the uller proposal, that all serious scientific work should be published in one Of six lan

. t guages It does not seem a very convincing attitude to ake up, because it ignores the facts : ( 1) that the actual trend of the world is the other way— towards inclusion of fresh national

Ku ltur s r ae/zen languages among the p , not towards accentuation of the predominance of these three ; ( 2 ) that the increase of speciali zation and new studies at universities is leaving less and less time for mastering several difﬁ cult languages merely as means b of b to other ranches study . Why should every ody have to learn

English , French , and German ? E l For the rest, speranto is now beginning to take ho d in The Germany . Germans have , as a general rule, Open minds for Of b a b this kind pro lem, and are trained to t ke o jective views in n f The linguistic matters o the scientiﬁc merits o the pase . reason why they have been somewhat backward hitherto in the E speranto movement is no doubt their disappointment at the

Vola iik . failure Of p , which they had done much to promote But i b ﬁ now that , in spite of this spec al draw ack, the rst steps have b been made, and clubs and papers are eginning to spring up o again , everything points to powerful c operation from Germany in the future . In Switzerland progress has been enormous since the Geneva

0 M Congress Of 19 6 . any clubs and classes are already formed of i or in process formation, and univers ty men are supporting one the movement . In respect the Swiss are now in the van of E : the sperantist world they have just started a newspaper,

E s er an to of p , the prospectus which declares that it will no longer r a treat the language as an end in itself, o make propagand ; it will run on the lines of an ordinary weekly, merely using

Herr Diels quai ntly ﬁ nds that Esperan to has on ly one gend er— the fem n n e ure an u a- ha an Obsess on of fem n t is e ha s ome i i S ly ltr S vi i i inity. I p r p s - distinction to out Shaw Bernard Shaw in any line.

12 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

b cl u . Ma oskie in Decem er and Jan ary by Dr . Zamenhof and Prof f o b of . Princeton , and followed them up y courses lessons It E supplies speranto literature to its readers at cost price, and report”s that evidences of interest have been many and multiply daily .

Among university supporters are Profs . Huntington and Morse of B r rh ff . U o e o Harvard, Prof Viles , Ohio State niversity, Prof. g ,

U f. M acloski of n Western Reserve niversity, Pro e Princeto , etc .

Miin sterber of On the other hand , Prof. Hugo g Harvard is a E att cking speranto . His is a good example of the literary ’ of man s uninformed criticism the universal language project , . because it is based upon an Old criticism by a German pro

fessor . m la iIk E (Prof Ha el) of the defunct Vo p . Why speranto r l should be condemned fo the sins of V o apii k is not Obvious . One other useful aspect Of E speranto remains to be mentioned — the establishment of consulships to give linguistic and other

a . E ssistance Many towns have already their speranto consuls , and in ’ a few years there ought to be a haven of refuge for

E sperantists abroad nearly everywhere . The following list of principal E speranto organs will give some f of The idea o the diffusion the language . list makes no pretence f o being complete . Principal general reviews

l n ter nacia Scienca R evu o.

La R ean o bo of (which enjoys the constant colla ration Dr .

Zamenhof) .

M ndo T a Tr a la o . ( his review has recently held , by the coll boration of its readers, an international inquiry into education The o b b in all countries . rep rt is appearing in the Fe ruary num er T f and following . his is a good example of the sort o interna tion al work which can be done for and by readers in every corner of the globe . ) Other organs

s r s l e Br itisit E pe anti t.

Lingvo l n ter nacia (the doyen of Esperanto journals) . SOME REPRESE NTATIVE ORGANS 12 7

’ L E s ér an tiste p (France) . Ger man a E s er antista p . E 30 (Germany) .

E s er an to z p (Swit erland) . u na E s er an tista z j p (Swit erland) . E s er anto p (Hungary) . Hel a Li n o D p gu ( enmark) .

' La S u n o H zs ana p (Spain) . [dealo (Sicily) .

La A l er a S telo : g (Algiers has recently ceased to appear) . l a Bel a S on orilo g (Belgium) . R usland a E s er a t s p n i ta (Russia) . P olo E s er a n t t p is o (Poland) . B u l ar a E s er antisto g p (Bulgaria) . Lor ena E sper an tista E s er a n t sten p i (Sweden) . Caso is Cesk c/z E s er an ista p y p t (Bohemia) . ’ L A mer ika E s era n tisto central sri orted p ( American organ, pp o i a by gr ups in New York , Chicago , Boston , Ph ladelphi , Seattle,

Los Angeles) . [ a Lu mo (Montreal) . ’ A n taic en E sper an ti stoj (Peru) . B razila R evu o

La a ana E n j p sper a tisto (Japan) . La P o i n i r o (India) . E s er o Kat l k p o i a.

E és t a por ju r n lo.

— E sper anta Ligilo (for the blind in Braille) . l eN ew l n ter national R owen/ (Oxford) recently presented a four~ page Esperanto supplement to its subscribers for some months . 12 8 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

(5 ) P r esent State of E sper anto i n E nglan d

The most practical way of spreading Esperanto is to get it b ﬁ taught in the schools, so it will be est to state rst what has been done so far i n this matter . E speranto has been ofﬁ cially accepted by th e local educational M ro authorities in London , Liverpool , anchester, and other p cial b z vi n towns ; that is to say, it has een recogni ed as a subject

fﬁ . to be taught in evening classes , if there is su cient demand At present there are classes under the London County Council ’ : at the following schools Queen s Road , Dalston (Commercial

Centre) Blackheath Road (Commercial Centre) ; Plough Road, e Clapham Junction (Commercial Centre) ; Rutland Street , Mil M rdle r End (Commercial Centre) ; y Street, Comme cial Road ; M d leton d . and Hugh y School , Clerkenwell Other classes held in London are at the Northern Polytechnic, Holloway Road ; ' ’ i of St . Bride s Institute , Br de Lane ; City London College, ’ C o - M White Street ; operative Institute, Plumstead ; Working en s b M College, St . Pancras Stepney Li rary, ile End Road ; and a large

a M oorﬁ elds . cl ss for teachers is held at the Cusack Institute,

of z At Keighley, Yorks , the Board Education has recogni ed

- the language as a grant earning subject . Various local authorities give facilities , some paying the teacher, others supplying a room .

- ou -T T e Among these are Kingston hames ( echnical Institut ) , T b Rochdale , Ipswich ( ech nical School) , Grims y, etc . It does not appear that E speranto is yet taught in any public

fﬁ . elementary school ; educational o cials , inspectors, etc , have b yet to learn a out the language . Many private schools now ’ of b teach it , and at least one private girls school the est type

b . teaches it as a regular su ject, alongside French and German It has been impossible to get any return or ﬁgures as to the extent to which it has penetrated into private and proprietary The of schools . Northern Institute Languages , perhaps the of E most important commercial school in the North ngland,

- held an Esperanto class with sixty three students .

13 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE that there may be something ' in this international language scheme . There are now (May 19 0 7) seventy local Esperanto societies in Great Britain on the list of societies afﬁ liated to the British E e speranto Association , and Often several new on s are formed The in a month . ﬁrst were Keighley and London, founded

1 0 2 1 0 9 . Seven more were formed in 9 3 and since the

- beginning of 19 0 6 no less than thirty six . Besides the members of these there are a great many learners in classes and individual E fﬁ sperantists who belong to no a liated group . Every month one of reads lists lectures given in the most diverse places, very Often b or l or with the note that a local clu c ass resulted, that a large of E l sale speranto literature took p ace . Sometimes the immediate

of : e . . on 2 2 1 0 number converts is surprising g April , 9 7 , after on E T a lecture speranto at the echnical College , Darlington , ’ seventy- eight students entered their names for a week s course of the lessons to be held in college three times a day . There are now Esperanto consuls in the following towns E Bradford, Chester, dinburgh , Harrogate , Hull , Hunslet , w Keighley, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham , Oak orth , Plymouth , ,

a . Rhos, South mpton , and St Helens . Birmingham has within the last few months taken up the cause with its usual energy, and now has a large class . In England the universities have been slow to Show interest in E speranto ; but no w that Cambridge has been selected as the 1 is seat of the Congress in 9 0 7 , the university granting every of facility, as also is the town council, in use rooms and the like, and some professors and other members of the university are

- b n of co t . . o e cordially opera ing Last Octo er Prof Skeat , the f E i fathers o ngl sh philology, took the chair at a preliminary

E . meeting, and made a speech very favourable to speranto “ E He said, I think ”speranto is a very good movement, and I The b of E hope it will succeed . su ject speranto is being well b of put efore the teachers Cambridgeshire, and the railway

’ companies all over the country and abroad are granting special THE VOICE O F . HISTORY 13 1

"6 b fares for the congress . It is proba le that the overwhelming demonstration of the possibilities of this international language of b ff will open the eyes many who have hitherto een indi erent, . and that the movement will enter on a new phase of expansion in E of E ngland , and through the example ngland , which is closely watched abroad , in the world at large .

LESSONS TO BE DRAWN FROM THE FORE GOING HISTORY

THE extent to which more or less artiﬁcial languages are already used in various parts of the world for the transaction of inter b of s racial usiness , and the persistent preoccupation thinker with 2 00 of the idea for the last years, culminating in the production of our own S i s a great number schemes in times, how that there a demand for an international language , more perfect than has b b The of yet een availa le and universally valid . list languages proposed (see Part II . , chap . ii . ) by no means represents all that m has been written and thought upon the subject . Many ore have pr oposed solutions of the question, beginning with such men as Becher Kirchner P orele U pperdorf M illler Lobkowitz Besu ier Solbrig

z The Tabolt afo and continuing down to the present day . Vola iik striking success of p and Esperanto in gaining , within a of b of few years pu lication , many thousands ardent supporters r has also been a evelation . It has proved most conclusively that l there is a demand . If so many people in all ands have been willing to give up time and money to learning and promoting a language from which they could not expect to reap anything like b ﬁ for be full ene t many years, what must its value when ripened

ﬁ i . ? to . e yield full pro ts , when universally adopted

I t is a striking fact that six weeks before the openi ng of the congress i i 7 00 members have already secured th e r t ckets . 13 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

T e The s her are two main obstacles to universal adoption . ﬁr t f — is common to all projects o reform the force of inertia . It is

' ‘ t hard to win practical support for a new thing, even when assen The e i to is freely given in theory to its utility . second is p cul ar of Esperanto, and consists in the discrediting of the cause inter l national language through the failure of Volapuk . Go od examp es Of its Operation are afforded by the slowness of Germany to

z b of . M ii nsterber recogni e Esperanto, and y the criticism Prof g m Of Freibur in b on (for erly g, Germany) America , ased as it is an old of u German criticism Volap k, and transferred at second hand E to speranto . Hence every effort should be made to induce cr itics of Esperanto to examine the language before pronouncing judg — of b f ment to criticise the real thing, instead some ogy o

their imagination. One bogy which has caused much misdirected criticismis “ ” raised by misunderstanding of the word universal in the u ni er a an uae o phrase v s l l ”g g . It is necessary to insist up n the fact that universal means universally adopted and everywhere ” current as an aaxzlzary to the mother—tongue for purposes of

international communication . It does not mean a universal language for home consumption as a substit ute for national

. be language In Baconian lan”guage , this bogy may called an - of . idol the market place , since it rests upon confusion of terms . ﬁ of Pursuing the Baconian classi cation error, we may call the ’ literary man s nightmare of the invasion of literature by the un i “ ” The of c versal language an idol Of the theatre . lesson experien e ' is, that it is well not to alienate the powerful literary interest j ustly concerned in upholding the dignity and purity of national speech by making extravagant claims on behalf of the a uxiliary language . It is capable of conveying matter or conten t in any department of

' human activity with gr eat nicety but where it is a question of repr oducing by actual translation the f or m o r man ner of some of e i t n ot masterpiece national lit rature , will , by nature of its very

13 4 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

of of vaéca w rite Kit/z of to think the masculine , , the Opposite

' or tzs or t star k G Of f , f , the Latin , French , and erman ways “ ” “ ” The expressing to make big and to make small . issue b is hardly dou tful.

Again , the languages upon whose vocabulary and grammar the international language is to be based must be Aryan (Indo

- T a . The n on E European) . his is a pr ctical point ” uropean peoples will consent to learn “ simpliﬁed Aryan just as they

are adopting Aryan civilization ; but the converse is not true . The E uropeans will go without an international language rather

than learn one based to some extent upon Japanese or M ongolian . The only prescription for securing a large ﬁeld is— greatest ease for of greatest number, with a handicap in favour Europeans, to

induce them to enter . PART III

THE CLA I M S OF E S P E RA N TO TO BE TA KE N S E R I O US L Y CON S I DE R A TI ON S BA S E D ON THE S TR UC T URE OF THE LA N G UA GE I TS E LF

ES E I S SC E L E P RANTO I NTIFICAL Y CONSTRUCT D , AND FU LFILS THE NATURAL T E NDE NCY I N E VOLUTION OF LANGUAGE

ALL national languages are full of redundant and overlapping grammatical devices for expressing what could be equally well T expressed by a single uniform device . hey bristle with irregularities and exceptions . Their forms and phrases are of largely the result chance and partial survival, arbitrary usage , a and false analogy . It is obvious th t a perfectly regular artiﬁcial language is far easier to learn . But the point to be insisted

' on h 15 of ere , that artificial simplification language is no fantastic z z of cra e , but merely a perfect reali ation a natural tendency, f which the history o language shows to exist. At first sight this may seem to conflict with what was said in Part chap . x . But there is no real inconsistency . As out t t pointed there , there is no reason to think that Na ure, lef to u or herself, would ever produce a universal lang age, that i a simpler language would win , in a struggle w th more complex

f t . But; n ot ones, on account o its simplici y this does prevent there being a real natural tendency to simpliﬁcation — though in natural languages this tendency is constantly thwarted , and ff can never produce its full e ect . ﬁ the How , then , is this tendency to simpli cation shown in I 3S 13 6 INTERNATIO NAL LANGUAGE

history of Aryan (Indo - European) languages ? For it must be emphasi zed that for the purposes of this discussion history f of language means history o Aryan language . The Aryan group of languages includes Sanskrit and its E descendants in the ast , Greek , Latin , all modern Romance

languages (French , Italian , Spanish , all Germanic lan E guages ( nglish , German , Scandinavian , all Slav languages

— R . in ( ussian , Polish , etc ) fact, all the principal languages Of

E F . The urope, except Hungarian , Basque , and innish mai n of i of e tendency th s group languages has b en, technically of — speaking, to become analytic instead synthetic that is , to abandon complex systems of inﬂection by means of case and b b ver al endings, and to su stitute prepositions and auxiliaries . T of hus , taking Latin as the type Old synthetic Aryan language,

’ its declension Of nouns and conjugation of verbs present an enormously greater complexity of forms than are employed by the of a n a English , most advanced the modern an lytical la gu ges, to expres s the same grammatical relations . For example

me ci mensae b ns . . Nom . a table ta les

m . mensa . Acc . a table tables ’me ae mensar u m of b ns of . . Gen . a table ta les

0 to or for a ' mem ae menu s or Dat . to for tables . table .

' b w1th ' b W1th y, , or y, , or fro mensci menu s Abl . m

b . from a table . { ta les

By the time you have learnt these various Latin case endings

- a - u m —d e - ae a - ae -as -ar u m -zs - zs have l , , , , 7 , , , , ), you on y n l to lear t one ou t of many types of dec ension . Passing on the ' = . mm us m ast r . ao e ou second Latin type or declension , e g , y have

- as - u m - z -o -o to learn a whole fresh set of case endings , , , , ;

- z -os - or u m - zs —zs , , , , ) to express the same grammatical relations , whereas in E nglish you apply the same set of prepositions to “ rm - the word master without change , except for a unifo s in of u the plural . As there are a great many types Latin no n,

'13 8 I NTE RNAT IONAL LANGU AGE

' and articles are concerned . Their pronouns offer the sole u of s rvival declension by case endings . Here France , the r - u triﬂe slow a unner p, is a , in the possession of a real , live d tive ' ' ' E caSe f a les . lu z eu r . o . le l l the pronoun (acc , , dat , ) ngland

b a on e b film Aer i kem . .wins y neck with universal o lique case ( , , ) ‘ This insidious suggestion is not meant to endanger the en tente cor diale even perﬁ dious Albion would not convict the French

' nation of arrested development on the side - issue Of pronominal T atavism . Mark wain says he paid double for a German dog, because he bought it in the dative case ; but no nation need be

cou de am ao. damned for a dative . We have no use for the p j of But consider the article . Here , if anywhere, is a test

' ' ' For the power of a language to move with the times . some reason or other (the real underlyi ng causes of these changes

' in language needs are Obscure) modern ~ life has need Of the z article, though the highly civili ed Romans did very well without

- . 8 0 n it strong is this need that, in the middle ages , whe Latin

' an was used as international language by the learned, a deﬁnite

’ article (leis or 7 6) was foisted into the language . How is it with the modern world ? The Slavs have remained in this matter l s T are article es . at the point of view of the ancient world . hey

- - Germany has a cumbrous three gender, four case article France ‘ ‘ - n e- s rejoices in a two gender, o ca e article with a distinct form

' r T f fo the plural . he ripe product o tendency, the infant heir o f of the eloquent ages, to whose birth the law Aryan evolution u groaned and travailed u ntil b t now, the most useful , if not the “ “ ” b of mightiest, monosyllable ever moulded y the lips man , the “ on e - the , and indeclinable, was born in the Anglo Saxon mouth ,

- and sublimed to its unique simplicity by Anglo Saxon progress . The general law of progress in language could be illustrated equally well from the history of genders as exhibited in various ar e languages . We here only dealing with Aryan languages , but, of be merely by way illustration , it may mentioned that a primi “ ” fricn Oﬂ r or tive A a language e s seven genders, grammatical categories requiring the same kind of concords as genders . In THE SLIM BOE R LEADS 13 9

Eu a e of rope we p ss w stward from the three genders Germany, curving through feminine and masculine France (place aux ames mon o en d ri d to g cBritain . Only linguisti c arbitrary gender ‘ is‘here referred to ; this has nothing to do with suﬂragettes or

defeminization . of : n Again , take agreement adjectives In the ancie t world, or whether Greek , Latin , Gothic, Anglo Saxon, adjectives had to z of b follow nouns through all the ma es case and num er inflection , to and had also agree in gender . In this matter German has a of gone ahe d French , in that its adjectives do not submit to change of form in order to indicate agreement, when they are “ ”“ ” e . r used predicatively ( g. ein gute Mann f; der gute Mann ; “ bu t E fi der Mann ist But nglish has distanced the eld , of old o and was alone in at the death the conc rds, which ’ ou r C it}: moistened hildhood s dry Latin w tears . h d W atever test be applied , the common ten ency towards simplification , from synthesis to analysis, is there ; and in its every manifestation English has gone farthest among the great u lificati on literary languages . It is necessary to add this q a “ — among th e great literary languages because , in this process f and o simplification , English has a very curious rival , possibly a

i i n Too f A a. The super or, the l o Sou th fric curious thing is that a local dialect should have shown itself so progressive, seeing that the distinctive note of most dialects is conservatism, their l ‘I chief characteristics being local surviva s . t is probable that the advanced degree of simpliﬁcation attained by the Taal is the result of deliberate and conscious adaptation of their language by E the original settlers to the needs of the natives . Just as nglish

- so old men speak Pidgin English to c oolies in the East , the trekkers must have removed irregularities and concords from their

Of course a d ifference must be expected between a dialect spoken by a m sce an eous set of se ers in a fo e n and and one in use as an ind genous i ll ‘ ttl r ig l i ' F rench se ers i n n . But the kaoztan ts as the growth from father to so , ttl a ho e the Boers are mai n a as o a and im i e Q uebecare clled , w , lik , ly p t r l pr it v

e le in d an an ua ed orm of F ench h no sini liﬁcati on . p op , have reta e tiq t f r , wit p 140 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

so Katﬁr s u . is is Dutch , that the co ld understand it If this so , it another illustration of the essential feature that an i ntem atipnal

o . E th language must p ssess ven the Boer farmers, under estress n of . practical necessity, grasped the eed of simpliﬁcation The natural tendency towards elimin ation of excepti ons is al so i n of the strongly marked the speech uneducated . Miss Loane ,

who has had life ~ long experience Of nursing work among the ’

lan b t Tﬁ e u een s P oor . 112 poorest classes in Eng d , ta ula es ( Q , p ) the points in which at the present day the language of the poor

’ diflers from that of middle and upper classes . U nder the _ the h eading of grammar she singles out specially superabundance of “ T n t . egatives , and then proceeds O her grammatical errors hese of c cto are nearly all on the lines simplification . It is orre t say ‘ ’ s e . : my elf, hers‘lf, yourself, o‘urselves Very well let us complete the list with hisself and th eir selves . Most verbs are regular : ‘ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ n ot ? e why all Let us say comed and goed, se d and ’ bringed and ”teached . Miss oan e probably exaggerates with h er n earl ll i st i a the ne e ya . For n ance , reg rds u ducat d form “ “ ” of e as to c c on th p t tense of ome, surely come is a omm er “ “ ” “ form ”than corned . Similar ly the illi terate for I did is I d oed ifi . done, not , I , which would be the regular simpl cation i is But the natural tendency is certainly there , and t strong . Precisely the same tendency is observable in the present T all r development of literary languages . hey have inhe ited many ‘ r ar the ast of i regul verbal conjugations from p as , part their s of the s national property , and the e , by the nature case, compri e n s most of the commo est words in the language , because the mo t

used is the most subject to abbreviation and modiﬁcation . But t a e i the . hese irregul r types of inﬂection have long be n dead , n l z in sense that they are fossi i ed survivals , incapable of propagat g their kind . When a new word is admitted into the language , it is

“ — a . T i O I conjug ted regularly hus, though we st ll say I g went ‘ ” ' ru — I e I n ran , b cause we cannot help ourselves, when we are “ ” free to choose we say, I cycle— I cycled ; I wire— I wired ; j ust “ ” - - sa t é an d no oir or t e. as the French y él graphier, t ,

14 2; INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

fail to z - S l natur al is recogni e what an easy, imp e, and thing it , ' and how soon it would pay off all capital sunk in its universal adoption , and be pure proﬁt.

TE NO ,

This seems the best place to deal with a criticism of E sper anto ‘ i i i i u which has anair of plau é b l ty. It s rged that E speranto dOes

' of ﬁ an not carry the process simpli cation far enough, d that in t retro rad e t n d enc wo important points it shows a g . e y to revert of u f b to a more primitivestage lang age, already le t behind y the

' T e are most advanced natural languages . hes points :

' ’ ‘ 1 The of accusative base ( ) possession an . 2 The of v ( ) agreement adjecti es .

be h Now, it must borne in mind that t e busmessof a universal a a n ot cl h l ngu ge is, to adhere pedanti a ly to any p ilological theory, of not to make a fetish principle, not to strive after any theoretical of l of t perfection in the observance certain aws cons ruction ,

- The Of l but Simply to be easy . principle simp iﬁcation is an one admirable , because it furthers this end, and for this reason

. The be only moment it ceases to do so , it must give way fore h a hig er canon , which demands that an international language ff s b f shall o er the greatest ea e , com ined with e ficiency, for the greatest number . The fact that a scientific study of language e a S rev als a strong natural tendency tow rds implification , and that this tendency has in certain languages assumed certain an r al 15 forms, is not in itself a proof that . a tifici language bound to follow the historical lines of evolution in every detail . It so t will follow them just far as , and no farther han , they conduce — s to its paramount end greate t ease for greatest number, plus of ffi n maximum e ciency . In constructing an i ternational language, h the question then becomes , in each case t at comes up for decision : How far does the proposed simplification conduce to ease without sacrificing effi ciency ? Does the cost of retention (reckoned 1n terms of sacrifice of eas e) of the u n simplified form TWO CRITICISMS ANSWERED outweigh the advantages (reckoned in terms of efficiency) it b confers, and which would e lost if it was simplified out of

' ? brieﬂ th existence Let us then examine y e two points criticised , remembering that the main function of the argument from

of a - - history langu ge is , not to deduce therefrom hard and fast of rules for the construction international language , but to remove of the unreasoning prej udice numerous obj ectors, who cannot “ ”i e pardon the international language for being artiﬁcial , . . consciously simpliﬁed .

' ( 1) me A eensatzve Case

- This is formed in Esperanto by adding the letter n . This one for an d form is universal nouns, adjectives , pronouns singular E x and plural .

bona atr o bona atr o Nom . p (good father), plural , / p j. b n atr o n ona atr n ona . Acc . b n p o j p j

- Suppose one were to suppress this n . (a) Cost of retention of u n simpliﬁed form : Remembering to

- add this n . (o) Advantages of retention : The ﬂexibility of the language is enormously increased the words can be put in any order without obscuring or changing the sense . Ex

’ La patr o amas szan ﬁ lon the father loves his son . “ Stan ﬁ lon a mas la patr o (in English his son loves the father has a different

' A mas la atr o sean lon loves p ﬁ the father his son , but

' La patr o sean ﬁ lon amas 1

' S za n ﬁ lon la patro amas it is his son that the father loves) E a In every case the speranto sentence is perfectly cle r, the e aﬂorded meaning is the same , but gr at scope is for emphasis l ' f . and shades o gradation Further, every nation is enab ed to i a arrange the words as suits it best, without becoming less telligible to other nations . Readers of Greek and Latin know For s of the enormous advantage of free word order . purpose 144 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE re ndering the spirit and swing of national works of literature in r Espe anto, and for facilitating the writing Of verse , the accusative is a priceless boon . Is the price too high

— - B. T f N . hose people who are most apt to omit the n o the c n o ac usative, having accusative in their own language, generally ke ec b r ma their meaning perf tly clear without it, ecause they a e

“ accus tomed to indicate the objective case by the order in which they place their words . They make a mistake of Esperanto by

- n is . omitting the , but they are understood, which the essential

(2 ) TbcAgr eemen t of Adjectives

' ' Adjectives in Esperanto agree with their substantives in n E x o at b n n bona a o b . : on a r o ona atro tr um er and case . p , p , j p j, bona n atro n j p j . o r Supp se one were to supp ess agreement of adjectives . (a) Cost of retention of agreement : Remembering to add

- - n j for the plural and for the accusative .

(o) . Ad vantages of retention : Greater clearness conformity with the usage of the majority of languages euphony . i Esperanto has wisely adopted full , vocalic, syllab c endings for

E o - E n d s s o n o bon . oo . words . Contra t p . with French , g g , Germ

u t E g . By this means speranto is not only rendered slower, more of harmonious , and easier comprehension ; it is also able to denote the part s of speech clearly to eye and ear by their form .

-o b -a - e b Thus ﬁ nal espeaks a noun , an adjective , an adver

- i i ﬁ ti . , an n ni ve , etc b -a Now, since all adjectives end in sylla ic , it is much harder to keep them u nin ﬂected than if they ended with a consonant

' ” i E n . . To b oona atr o l ke , the g good talk a out p j would not

. b b w only seem a hideous ar arism to all Latin peoples , hose ’ a E but d oﬂen d l nguages speranto most resembles , it woul also f r i the bulk o Northerners . After a very little p act ce it is really

r bona at The of easier to say banajpat oj than p r oj. assimilation termination tempts the ear and tongue .

146 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

b of French to oys who have no knowledge whatever grammar. Fancy the hopelessness of trying to teach an English boy the construction of a Latin or French sentence when he does not know what a relative or demonstrative pronoun means ! This is the fate of so many a master that quite a number of them resign themselves to giving up a good part of their French o r Latin hour to endeavouring to imbue their ﬂock with some notions of

grammar in general . They naturally try to appeal to their boys

through the medium of their own language . But those who have

- u t u ae incautiously upset their class from the frying pan of g , g , uod ﬁ re of E g , into the nglish demonstrative and relative pronouns

' ' '

of n ot. F aczlzs d escensus A ver z get a foretaste the ﬁre that dieth n . w Happy if they do not lose heart, and step do nward from th e ﬁ re — to ashes reinforced with sackcloth . “ ’ a I contend that th t that that that gen”tleman said was right . “ — This is the abstract and brief chronicle . of their woes some of times , indeed , the epitaph their pedagogical career, if they are too sickened of the Sisiphean task of trying to teach gram mar

on f . or of hard worked insu ﬁcient basis And this use , abuse , the word that is only an extreme case which illustrates the difﬁ culty of b teaching grammar to ba es , through the medium of a language honeycombed with synonyms, homonyms, exceptions, and other pitfalls (can you be honeycombed with a pitfall - a language which seems to take a perverse delight in breaking all its own

off . rules and generally scoring the beginner . And for the dull ? beginner, what language does not seem to conform to this type

Answer : Esperanto . of In other words , it would seem that , for the grinding grammar of a and the advancement sound le rning in the initial stage , there is nothing like an absolutely uniform and regular language} a

r I t ou d ce a n a ea ha for his u r ose Cf. Si Oliver Lodge w l rt i ly pp r t t t p p i e ed uca i e an ua e- ea n n for ch dren the u nﬂeced an cen [. . t v l g g l r i g il ] f lly i t i t languages are best an d most satisfactory ; if they were still more complete an d re u a e E s e an o he ou d be be er s to be n h Sc/tool g l r, lik p r t , t y w l tt till gi wit (

Team n nd clzool R e or m 2 1 cha er on C u cula and M e hod s . i g a S f , p . pt rri t ) BEGI N WITH THE REGU LAR 147

t e ton ue i yp g , someth ng that corresponds in the linguistic hierarchy E ﬁ s to uclid or the r t rules of arithmetic in the mathematical,

- a f something clear, consistent, self evident, nd o universal application ‘ ’ Take our sentence agai”n I contend that that that that that . our be in n er b ﬁ gentleman said was right If _ g has imbi ed his rst of of a notions grammar through the medium a type l nguage , in b which a noun is always a noun , and is stamped as such y its

b - form (this, y the way, is an enormous aid in making the thing clear to children) ; in which an adjective is always an b n r adjective, and is stamped as such y its form land so o th ough s of — a all the other part speech , when the teacher comes to an lyse

the sentence given , he will be able to explain it by reference to

n of - the k own forms the regular key language . He will point out

fi E ke a that of , the thats the rst is the speranto (which is fin l , because ke never means anything else) ; the second is an (at ki n once revealed by its form .to be a demonstrative) , the fourth , “ ” o f for s on . or is and As the third that, which rather hard a to b child to grasp , he will be able make it into a noun in form y “ merely adding - o to the Esperanto equivalent for any that n ot for required . He will be doing violence to the language ; E of speranto consists roots, which habitually do duty as noun, b T ver , adjective , etc . , according to the termination added . hose who know the value of the concrete and tangible in dealing with children will grasp the significance of the new possibilities that are

fo - thus r the ﬁrst time opened up to language teachers . To a i sum up : Natur l languages are all hard, and the beg nner can never go far enough to get a rule ﬁxed soundly in his mind

without meeting exceptions which pu zzle and confuse him . E i speranto is as clear, logical, and consistent as arithmet c, and , h like arithmetic, depends more upon intelligence t an upon E ﬁ memory work . If speranto were adopted as the rst foreign an l guage to be taught in schools, and all grammatical teaching b b were postponed until E speranto had een egun , and then given entirely through the medium of Esperanto until a sound notion of 114 8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

t d gramma ical rules and categories had been instille , it would probably be found that the subsequent task of lear ning natural b r languages would be facilitated and a ridged . From the very sta t it would be possible to prevent certain common errors and confusions, that tend to become engrained in juvenile minds by or of own the fluctuating contradictory usage their language, to their gr eat let and hindrance in the subs equent stages of language learning . The skeleton outline of grammatical theory with concrete examples afforded by E speranto would shield against of vitiating initial mistakes, in much the same way as the use a c s ientific phonetic alphabet , when a foreign language is presented fi r b for the st time to the English eginner in written form , shields him against carrying over his native mixed vowel system to but languages which use the same letters as English, give quite a d iflerent of value to them . In both cases the essentials the new instrument of learning are the same— that it be of universal

' a ffi diﬂeren t -tOn u e applic tion , that it be su ciently from the mother g

' al b ass ciatio of or pha et to prevent confusion by o n ideas , that each of the new forms or letters convey only one idea or sound or S w respectively , and that this idea ound be al ays and only conveyed by that form or letter . (2 ) From a psychological point o f view Esperanto would be a f for rewarding subject o study children .

The above remarks on sequence of languages Show that, by e 1 placing Esperanto ﬁrst in the language curriculum , justice is don r to the psychological maxim from the easier to the ha der, from r r u a the regular to the excepti onal . It may furthe be a g ed ( ) that

i e. b E speranto is educative in the real sense of the word, . suita le for drawing out and developing the reasoning powers (e) that it

a ' b o f would act as stimulus , and y its ease set a higher standard

- attainment in language learning .

' ' “ (a) Amidst all the discussion of educationists about f r s meth ods, curricula , sequence o studies , and the e t, one

m an d s en ﬁc e u ar hone c e . i iﬁ e ar e ram a c i . scent cr gul typ g r i ti r g l p ti

' l habe a p t .

15 0 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

intellectual things in general . This is the result of early drudging in at a subject which progress is very slow, and which by its nature al The b is uncongeni . great desideratum is a linguistic su ject which shall at once inculcate a feeling for language (German

' S r aclz e ulzl be p gj ) , and yet easy enough to admit Of rapid progress . Nothing keeps alive the quickening zest that makes learning of r fruitful like the consciousness making rapid prog ess . Hitherto arithmetic and E uclid have been the ideal subjects for providing the kind of problem required— o n e that can be worked of of out with certainty by the aid rule and use brain , without for calling knowledge or experience that the child cannot have.

The - facts are self evident , and follow from principles , without or involving any extraneous acquaintance with life literature, and no deadening memory work is required . If only there were some analogous subject on the lit erary side, to give a general ’ arbitrar elemen t grip of principles, uncomplicated by any y , what a boon it would be ! and what a sound preparation for real and more advanced linguistic study for those who showed aptitude for this line ! Ar ithmetic and E uclid both really depend upon . ‘ but b n ature and common sense ; partly owing to their a stract ”, artly because they are always classed as “ mathematics, they p ‘ seem to contain something repellent to many literary or linguistic f types o mind . With the invention of a pe rfectly regular and logically con b e structed language, a concrete em odim nt of the chief principles f r f t o language st ucture , we have o fered us for the ﬁrst ime the of or E hitherto missing linguistic equivalent arithmetic uclid . b t b u In a regular language, just ecause every hing goes y r le; problems can be set and worked out analogous to sums in ‘ arithmetic and riders in E uclid . Given the necessary roots and b rules , the learner can manufacture the necessary voca ulary and produce the answer with the same logical inevitability ; and he b has to use his rains to apply his rules , instead of merely copying of c e me for words out a di tionary, or dep nding upon his mory ' t ' 1 i 1 , l them . FORMATION OF FEELING FOR LANGUAGE 15 1

In this way all that part of language - study which tends to be one S dead weight in teaching the young is got rid of in fell woop , and this though the language taught and learnt is a highly for developed instrument reading, writing, speaking, and literary

expression . This dead weight includes most of the unintelligent z o of memori ing, all exceptions, all c mplicated systems declension of and conjugation , all irregular comparison adjectives and f b . o adverbs, all syntactical su tleties (cf the sequence tenses, of in L oratio obliqua, the syntax subordinate clauses, atin ; and i the famous conditional sentences , w th the no less notorious

of) un s of and j ;in Greek) , all conﬂicting and illogical use auxiliaries etr e avoir sein ﬁaoen (cf. and in French , and and in German) , of f besides a host of other old enemies . Some these things o a course are not wholly memory work , especially the synt x, which

involves a real feeling for language . But these would be much better postponed until one easy foreign language has been learnt i thoroughly . Every multilinguist knows that each fore gn language

is easier to learn than the last . With a perfectly regular artiﬁcial language yOu can make so much progress in a short time that

you can use it freely for practical purposes . Yet it does not come — mani u lation of . T/zis r ee o a itself, like the mother tongue f p f r in r consciously acquir ed language is tlze very best t ai n g f o for mi ng a feeli ng f or language— far better than weary stumbling over the ou baby stages of a hard language . When y can read , write, and

speak on e very easy artificial language, which you have had to learn as a foreign one, then is the time when you can profitably n i tackle the difficulties of natural language , appreciating the icet es of z syntax, and reali ing, by comparison with your normal key la language, in what points natural nguages are merely arbitrary T who and have to be learnt by heart . hose have early conquered to the grammar and syntax of any foreign language, but have had d put in years of hard (largely memory) work before they coul or e. l , write or speak, g , Latin Latin , French French German ' z eflected t German , will reali e the saving , when they are hat . told T e comb1na 10n s no m n o r u . h t of Esperanto ha idio , arbitra y sage 15 2 INTE RNATIONAL LANGU AGE

d not n s b wor s is governed , as in natural la guage , y tradition d of (which tra ition has to be assimilated in the sweat the brow), but l e m n is free , the only imits being common s nse, com o grammar, and lucidity . To those who do not know Esperanto it may seem a dark saying that language riders can be worked ou t in the same way as a geometrical ones . To underst nd this some knowledge of the language is necessary (for sample problems see Appendix A, f p . But for the sake o making the argument intelligible

be of - it may here stated that one the labour saving, vocabulary saving devices of E speranto is the employment of a number of u f s be T s ﬁxe with ﬁxed meaning, that can added to any root . hus

° Th e ﬁ - suf x e; denotes place .

-il instrument .

- z g causation .

- Final o den otes a noun .

‘ s san . . sanus contai mn the Given this and the root (cf Lat ) , g idea “ al so n - z —i be of he th, form word”s for to heal ( g to cause to well) medicine (san -zg- il- o instrument of healing) “ ” - - i ce f sa n z e a la o . hospital ( g j p healing) , etc The n Thi s is merely an example . combi ations and permutations are ive a o - i nﬁnite ; they g healthy knowledge f word building, and be a of d can .used in putting whole p ges carefully prepared i iomatic

s t . English into E peran o Practical experience shows that, given t e ssar a fﬁ - h nece y crude roots, the necess ry su xes, and a one page n grammar of the Esperanto la guage, an intelligent person can E l produce in Esperanto a translation of a page of idiomatic ng ish,

llen dor n h it/tout leavin lear n t E s er anto. not O ﬁa p rase s, w g p (5 ) Experience also shows that the intelligent on e thoroughly r enjoys himself while doing so and having done so, expe iences a thrill of exhilarati on almost amounting to awe at havin g made a better translation into a language he has never learnt than he r , could make into a , national language that he has learnt for yea s

e. L n or . g. ati , French, German

15 4 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

d to u tout en nzar c/zant i accor ing logical r le , it is impossible to avoid

thinking, at each moment, exactly what you do mean . Where

a b r - there is no idiom , no r it ary usage , no ready made phrase, ‘ to there is also far less danger of yielding a fatal facility.

Take an instance or two . In the Prayer Book occurs the “ i ” ﬁ our . u phrase Ful l , O Lord, des res and petitions At S nday

lunch a mixed party of people, after attending morning service , were asked how they would render into E speranto the word “ ” T dezir a o. desires . hey nearly all plumped for j Now, the “ Esperanto root for desire is d ezi r By adding -o it becomes

fﬁ -a a noun the act of desiring, a desire . By adding the su x },

- i e. d and then o, it becomes concrete a desire ( . desire ) thing, i a desire . A reference to the dict onary showed that the English of word desire has both these meanings, but none these people

' had a suﬂi ciently accurate idea of the use of language to realize

this . It was only when a gentleman passed his plate for a second of be ﬁ ; helping beef, and was asked which he expected to ful lled for — m the beef, or his aspiration beef that he , under the sti ulus

of d esir - o v hunger, adopted the rendering , thereby sa ing at once

his bacon and his additional beef. It Is not of course necessary for people to deﬁne pedantically

to themselves the meaning of every word they use , but surely it l must conduce to clear thinking to use a language in which you

are perpetually called upon, if you are writing seriously, to make

just the mental effort necessary to think what you do mean . n of T Agai , consider the use prepositions . his i s, in nearly all n T a d a b . national languages, extremely fluctuating r itrary a”ke a few English phrases showing the use of the prepositions at and ”“ ’ “ with . At seven o clock at any price at all times “ ”“ ” ” at the worst ; let it go at that , I should say at a guess , “ ’ etc. Come with me write with a pen he came with a ” ' ” ' rush are d ifleren t with us ; with a twinkle in his b r ese eye with God all things are possi le , etc . T y to turn th phrases into any language you think you know; the odds are that you ' ' “ ' l nd u t rett badl . he a wi l fi yourself p agains it p y y T fact is, th t TRA INING IN CLEAR THOUGHT 15 5

are on l n prepositions very frequently used no logical p an , ot at all according to any ﬁxed or universal meaning all that can be said about them in a given phrase is that they are used there because To they are used . remember their equivalents in other languages

- hard memory work and much phrase learning is necessary . In b Esperanto all that is necessary is : ﬁrst, to ecome clear as to the to exact meaning ; secondly, pick the preposition that conveys it . E There is no doubt, as the speranto prepositions are ﬁxed in “ on on e one . Th sense , the word meaning plan e po int is, that for there is no memory searching, often so utterly vain, there are few people indeed who can write a few pages of the most familiar

foreign languages without getting their prepositions all wrong, “ ff and having foreigner stamped large all across their e orts . In i ou Esperanto, prov ded y have a clear mind and know your

ou are r i /i t. a u ff s grammar , y g No arbitr ry usage defeats yo r e ort of s and makes discouragingjargon your literary attempt . ﬁ This training in clear thought, the rst requisite for all good i ou writing, is surely sound pract cal pedagogics . By the time y

- can give up conscious word building in Esperanto , and use words s u and phra es by rote , yo have done enough bracing thinking to teach you caution in the use of the ready-made phrase and horror of the vague word .

Fools make phrases, and wise men shun them . Here is a phrase - free language : need we shun it ?

COMPARATI VE TABLES ILLUSTRATING LABOUR SAVE D IN LEARNING ES PERANTO AS CONTRASTE D WITH OTH E R LANGUAG ES

(a) WORD - BUILDING

THE following tables are meant to give some idea of the number l and variety of different ideas that can be expressed by a sing e

ffi fi suflixes . E speranto root, with the addition of a xes (pre xes and ) r an columhs n By reading the English, French , and Ge m dow wards , T TI L lIN ERNA ONA LANGU AGE

Esperanto French M l l I bien portant malade unwell (un peu) souf frant gu érir salutary ~ salutaire

restorative restaurant ,

to beconval escent

re—samig- a getting well gend send again

malsan —ig—a s

malsan - ig- a sickening (intransitive) t doc or , , hospital

i - — mal sah ul o invalid

(in al) - san - ig (in)curable (in)curable (un)heilbar ebl—a

- - ul 1n e mal san hospital G samtheit der . ar-o mates Kranken f ' ge- mal- san -ul all the men die Kranken (both sexes) ar-o and women beider Ge

i patients schlechter

san - ig- ist - in - Q a lady doctor Arzti n

’ san- ig- ist -cdl a doctor s Frau des Arztes in - o wife

15 8 I NTER NATIONAL LANGUAGE ,

the reader will see how many different roots and pe riphrases

these languages employ in order to express the same ideas . fﬁ ﬁ to As the a xes have xed meanings, they onlyhave be

f l - m r e or al of e. w t learnt once , and many them ( g. , , are be already familiar . When once acquired, they can used in ‘ unending permu tation an d combination with different roots and

' ’ eachr o h r Th e b e b s t e . ta l s elow are by no means exhau tive of what can be done with the roots sa n and Zem They are merely

- t b fﬁ on . 1 1 2 illus rative . By referring to the full ta le of a xes pp 9 ,

' ' the reader can go on forming new compounds ad lzbztu m : e . g.

i - o -a - e - i san eco sanilo sanulo sar , san , san , san , , , , malsane , malsani , san eti malsan eti ek san i ek sani i saninda sanind i , , sanadi , , g , , , sanin d ulo san a o ana ero san ilo san i ilo san i ile o san i ilu o , j , s j , , g , g j , g j , san i ilisto malsan emeco remalsano remalsan i o san ila g , , , g , , mal l sanistinedzo s ni i n o san i estro san i estrin o san i ema samu ino , , a l g , g , g , g , sane a san i e a esananto san i on to sani istid o sani e an o g , g g , g j, g j, g , g j

and so on (kaj ti el plu) .

(b) PARTICIPLE S AND AUX ILIARI E S

. T he e se 160 following tabl ( ep . ) illustrates the perfect simplicity

and terseness of the Esperanto verb . e is n éver Every ‘t nse , active and passive, formed with more wo wor s of t d h than Every shade meaning (continued, potential ,

. b of on e etc , action) is expressed y these two words, which is esti The b the single auxiliary (itself conjugated regularly) . dou le ‘ ” “ auxiliary - J to be and to have — which infests most modern of languages, with all its train confusing and often illogical dis ’ " ti cti n s s a b a n o e uzy lle u t z mu m . (cf. French j , j ) , disappears Contrast the simplicity of a mota with the cumbersome periphrasis abou t to ﬁe loved ; or the perfect ease and clearness of w estu: amzta ’ ’ ' zi with the treble barrelled German 5 113 w r aen gelzebt w ar den wi n . This simplicity of the E speranto verb is entir ely due to its T full participial system . here are six participles , present, past , n The and future active and passive , each complete in o e word . THE E SPE RANTO VE RB A MASTERPI ECE £ 5 9

only natural Aryan lan guage (of those commonly studied) that compares with Esperanto in this respect is Greek ; and it is precisely the fulness of the Greek participial system that lends to the language a great part of that ﬂexibility which all ages have

- agreed in admiring in it pre eminently . Take a page of Plato or

any other Greek author, and count the number of participles T and note their use . hey will be found more numerous and ff more delicately e ective than in other languages . E speranto can do all this ; and it can do it without any of the complexity of form and irregularity that makes the learning of Greek verbs

such a hard task . Bearing in mind the three characteristi c

' of — -a -z -0 vowels the three tenses present , past , future (common - b to ﬁnite tenses and participles) the prover ial schoolboy, and

the dullest at that , could hardly make the learning of the

Esperanto participles last him half an hour .

It would be easy to go on ﬁlling page after page with the ﬁ ff E bu t w simpli cations e ected by speranto, these ill not fail to strike the learner after a very brief acquaintance with the

language . But attention ought to be drawn to one more — f particularly clever device the form o asking questions . An E speranto statement is converted into a question wi thout any of or inversion subject and verb any change at all, except the E n addition of the interrogative particle 2a . In this spera to ka agrees with Japanese . But whereas Japanese adds its particle at of 2a the end the sentence, the Esperanto stands ﬁrst in its

clause . Thus when , speaking Esperanto , you wish to ask a

ou t Eu t question , you begin by shouting , an admirably dis inctive monosyllable which cannot be confused with any other word in the language . By this means you get your interlocutor prepared and attending , and you can then frame your question at leisure . Contrast Esperanto and English in the ease with which they respectively convert a statement into a question . E nglish : You went— did yo u go ? Esperanto : Vi ir is— cu vi iris ? 160 ' I NTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

I ' l l l = m O m 5

“ 9 m 9 2 0 a 3 3 m 5 . a cE a n o o n o m g E m o s a w : E m

u w h n o s o e w o w w

I 6 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

of a few ie - or , pages , it can be easily carr d in the pocket book

waistcoat pocket . T E hus , while to the educated person Of Aryan speech speranto o presents the natural appearance f an ordinary inﬂected language , n b u or o e who elongs by speech to another ling al family , any one of E i who has never heard speranto, can regard every nﬂected of word as a compound invariable elements . By turning over very few pages he can determine the meaning and use of each b element, and therefore, y putting them together, he can arrive

- f . o . e at the sense the compound word . g Look “ ” ’ law out - zri out , and you ﬁnd wash ; look , and you ﬁnd

' - zn it expresses the person who does an action ; look out , and

ﬁ n d out - o an d ﬁ n d you it expresses the feminine ; look , you “ it denotes a noun . Put the w”hole together, and you get female who does washing, laundress . on Suppose you are going an ocean voyage, and you expect to be shut up for weeks in a ship with persons Of many Y ou E nationalities . take with you keys to speranto, price one halfpenny each , in various languages . You wish to tackle R E a ussian . Write your speranto sentence clearly and put the

paper in his hand . At the same time hand him a Russian

key to Esperanto , pointing to the following paragraph (in Russian) on the outside “ Everything written in the international langu age can be

translated by the help of this vocabulary . If several words bu t one together express a single idea, they are written in word ,

e. . but separated by apostrophes ; g though a single idea, is yet composed of three ”words, which must be looked for a b a sep rately in the voca ul ry .

After he has got over his shock Of surprise, your Russian , n out if a man of ordi ary education, will make your sentence

in a very short time by using the key .

an Dr. l As example Zamenhof gives the‘ fol owing sentence ‘ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ' Mi n e sci as kie mi las is la baston o n : cu vi gi n n e vid is ?

: With the vocabulary this sentence . will work out as follows E T SPERAN O DECIPHERABLE AS A CODE 163 mi I me n ot sci know as sign of present tense kie where

’ mz I [as leave i s sign of past tense la the baston stick 0 sign Of a noun n sign of objective case 224 whether, sign Of question whether ‘ m you you gr it It 7: Si gn of Objective case m not vid = see have seen ? zs sign of past tense It is obvious that no natural language can be used in the same

as a code to be deciphered with a small key .

German French I white not Where I

stick dispassionate property to have

she, they, you ,

n ot i‘ r 64 INTERNATI ONAL LANGUAGE

I f your Russian wishes to reply, hand him a Russian

Esperanto vocabulary, pointing to the following paragraph on the outside “ To o express anything by means of this v cabulary, in the i nternational language , look for the words required in the vocabulary itself ; and for the terminations necessary to distin ma guish the gram tical forms, look in the grammatical appendix, under the respecti”ve headings of the parts of speech which you desire to express . The whole Of the grammatical structure is explained in a few be ou t lines in this appendix, so the grammar can looked as easily as the root words .

166 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

PRONUNCIATION

TH E E R are no long and short , Open and closed , vowels : just

- S . ﬁve simple , full sounding vowels, always pronounced the ame English people must be particularly careful to make them sufﬁciently full . “ a a E . as in ngl father . “ ” e e y they .

' z (3 6 eel . “ o o to o in . . hole , inclining Engl more (English speakers ﬁ nd it hard to pronounce a true u ao moon .

In short, the vowels are as in Italian .

’ D zp/zt/zongs

“ aj as eye in E ngl . eye .

boy .

cow .

get w et this sound does not Often occur . )

Conson ants

T hese are pronounced as in E nglish , except the following “ o as i s in E ngl . bits 2° clx u ch rc”h . g g give . 7 5 g gentle . “ ” “ 5 d z or . Scotch loc”h , German ich j , , y Engl . yes . j ” pleasure”. 3 sh . ”, shilli”ng z? w cow (only occurs in the diphthongs m? and PAROLADO 16 7

Accen t

Always upon the last syllable but one.

E xample

The ﬁrst few lines of piece I in the following specimens may be t hus ﬁgured for English readers : Ga seen ér — y y oy mee noon déeros ahl vee kaylkine v6rtoyn A s r a ahn ta . kra d ahs Owd os A s a rahnto y p y y Mee y kay vee , kay y p y a stahs ' fahtséelah ki ls y tray bay Onah léengv o . B — “ . Th N . e precise sound of e is between a in bale and e “ e in b ll .

SPE CIM ENS O F E SPE RANTO

- - 1. PAROL AD O

- — - - GE - SIN OR O- di r- os al vi - a- n O- - n E s er — J J mi nun kelk j vort j p an t e .

- k e and - Os ke E s eran t- O - -a Mi kred as vi , p est as tre facil kaj

- lin - - e i - - - i - a v O . a a s m l a bel son g Ver , g est as tiel facil , sonor kaj p ,

' k oni -e n - - - ec- —n -i i- e tut e hav as mal facil o por lern g n . La

- - o- - - e kOm ren- i - i b- i - i lern ant j pov as ordinar p , leg , skri kaj parol

------gin en tre mal long a temp O . La fakt O ke E speran t o en hav as

— -a- - n -a- -n - o- - n ke - o- - tre mal mult j , vokal j son j , kaj la vokal j est as

- = - éiu — a- len son-a- - i in - e - a 01 jlong j kaj p j, est g as g mult pli facil la

- a- lin v- O - c aii d - i c el- ali j g j, u por , u por parol

------Mi kred as ke mal longo a lern ad O est os suﬁé a por vi n kom ren - i -i k e - o- éiu- -o - ov- - a -i p g , la hom j de j naci j p as inter p rol

- - - - E speran t e sen mal facil cco .

------M i m n e . in e os e de ten os vi pli long F ant , mi las kun vi

fraz - et- o- - n : - e - -o- - eel- d u j unu , por la ideal ist j, kiu j as unu

- c- o- n o Ol- O- c -o 1a E s eran tn -n frat e inter la p p j de iu land , p ' ” f ‘ z—o—n — Dum u i - - : d u-e hom-O - devi spir as ni esper as , por la ” j ------t- - praktik a jla praktik a n konsil o n Lern u Esperan o n . 168 INTERNATIONAL LA NGU AGE

2 LA M AR - - IST- - A LE R I- - . BORD O J : GO E T o

- - - - v- - - - - Cirkau grand a mez ter a mar o Vi is mult a j pOpol o j. Ili

------f - hav is mult a n inter a n komercO n . Car la mar o est is o t e

— - - - trankvil-a mal- - a - n si - o- - n vetur mal kaj ili hav is nur grand j p j , ili is

- - - - - ~ ~ ~ - ﬁ e o neniam l . la long la mar bord , perd ant e la te r o n e la vid o

- — - - - - - i - - a o el si o n va or o . Cert hom pens is p , kiu ir is per p Li dir is “ al 1a - o — -o - : ui met—u ni-a- n -o -n ku n—e mar b rd ist j Jen, mon , kaj

------r r k — u i k onstru u grand a jn vapor sip o jn . Tiel u i vetu b s e t e trans la mar- o unu al ali - a-n kaj u i far-OS pli da komerc-o en ” ‘ — ------ir ii - -i mal pli da temp O . Sed la mar bord ist O j pli am is cka ir

— - - - a- si -o ~ kutim- el- o ne en mal grand j p j, kiel ili is . La pens int

- suﬁc- e -O konstru- i -a- n - si -O—n hav is da mon por grand vapor p , kiu tre mult- e en - havos kaj tre rapid-e vojag- Os tial li devis vetu r- ad - i ’ - m - n - a Va - si - o tamen almen aiI rekt- e - en si a ez gra d por p , kiu ir is ' ’ ------O daiIr i i i éirkaiI e. cie n . Sed la mar bord ist j g is rem kaj vel

“ ES AGA E AN U NWISE R ACE 3 . N G NTO ALEGOR IO AN ALLE GORY

’ 3 roksime n ekonata M alp , en Far away , in an unknown

is sova a . Ili lo . 1ando, viv g gento land , there lived a savage race mz ebena o T is en la e o de vasta j , hey dwelt in the midst Of a g ” 4 5 k tera 06 izolata de la e s mondo . vast plain, cut from the outer 6 on e U nuﬂanken homo dek tagojn world . Towards side a man

e se sa a m not. U nwis . Wi g ' ' ‘ - r kszmz. N ea r okszm e e ad e b a endin . To be n ea o Far. r p ( v r i l g) r p

M al is a preﬁx d enoting th e Opposite. ’ - . To k n o kon z. P es. ar . ass. ai N e a e na U nkn own . w r p t p g tiv n ot ood (bone good ; malbona bad ; nebon a g . ) - m h n m ad e om or a com a. a i s a sufﬁ d eno n so e Plain . Fl t } x ti g t i g fr f possessing th e quality o . 5 n ad c e. u sid e e osi on ekster . a d eno es a e Ou ter. O t (pr p ti ) t j tiv

id u ank -o e d eno es an ad e b ané e e . Tow”ard s on e sid e. S ﬂ t v r ; ﬁ sid el i . e. at the s d e. n den otes m ot on o ards. y, i i t w

170 INTE RNATIONAL LANGUAGE

1 ki a o on e s en ilia lando unu j , kaj land thing was lacking, and 2 pro ti u ci manko ili multe for lack of this they suffered 3 4 suferis : en la tuta lando greatly : there was no shelter éeestis sirmilo c nenia , u kon in all the land, whether against trau la c i n or . 5 suno en somero, u the sun summer, to keep 5 or vintra n vento n p forteni la j j . Off the winter winds . On every Ciuﬂank e la tero estis plata side the ground was ﬂat ; and 6 kaj kvan kam la greno kaj although corn and all kinds Of éius eca le omo kreskis r p j g j vegetables grew well , t ees were

arbo n ekonata . . t bone , j estis j unknown Even the dis ant E6 la malprok sima mon taro mountains stood all bare ; and staris tu tnu da kaj kiam la when the winds blew str on g from 7 vento blovis el ia j forte g j amidst their snows , the poor folk n e o mizerulo tremetis n g j, la j shivered for cold , and could ot 8 malvarmeco ne ovis b pro , kaj p get comforta le even in their sia d ometo komforti i eé en j j g, cottages , for the penetrating 9 car la ' pen etran ta en ﬂuo de ! draught Of the cold air crept i malvarma aero stele en iris gs right in to the family ﬁreside . m n la familiam ka e on . okazis ke knabo Nu certa , Now, it happened that a certain 1° en sema sia aro b p preter j j j, boy , thoughtful eyond his years,

The - conce e sufﬁ -a b sel m a be used to e ress O n”e thing. r t x ] y it f y xp hi n cou se a es the sub s an a endin 0. t g. Of r it t k t tiv l g 2 Fo Es e an o is abso u e recise i n th e use of e os ons r lack. p r t l t ly p pr p iti

ccord n o sense . N o di om . I n h s diffe s fr om all o he an ua es. a i g t i ”t i it r t r l g g b e son f Here for means y r a o . ’ - h E st i to be 2c at teestz to be esen . T ere was. pr t

' ' - To sh elter szr m z i! i s a sufﬁ x expressing instr ument.

- e To h o d te i a a or . Ke p Off. l n w y f

3 - ctival end n . K n d s eco all ti u . a is ad e All kind s of. i p j i g ’ ' h se snows ? Th mou n ains . The efo e va refe n Their snows. W o e t r r g j, rri g “ ” n tar o If he efe ed to nd s ou d be si a . to mo . t ir r rr wi , it w l j m - a suf z d eno es 1 omfo t ab e ko or t o . Get comfortabl e. C r ( l ) f ( ) ; ? t i becom ng. ' - - re in To s ea stel z e ma es an ad e b . C pt . t l k it v r

- suf m d en o es o ens . Thou h fu To h n ens i . g t l . t i k p t pr p ity NESAGA GENTO 17 : komen cis pripensi tiun ci began to think over this wretched

z . mi eran staton Li vivis kun state of things . He lived with 1 vid vin a wh sia patrino , kiu havis his widowed mother, o had d u in fanetojn krom Namezo two little children besides Namezo ’ n mi is kn (tiel o g la abo) . Ili (this was the lad s name They malriéa estis tre j, kaj devis were very poor, and were obliged senéese labori por nutri sin to work hard without stopping to i fa mem kaj la n nojn . La get food for themselves and the vino ne ol kvard ek Th vid havis pli children . e widow was not

aro n Namezo rimarkis bu a j j , sed more than forty, t N mezo ke a of vespere , post la t ga laboro , noticed that an evening, after ’ sa nis lace a si j tute g , kaj the day s work, she seemed quite 3 ‘ k lka n aro n out a e j j j post la morto tired , and a few years fter ’ de sia edzo si ekmaljun igi s. her husband s death she grew Old 5 knabo diris al si ke si . bo Ofte la , all at once Often the y told e u s ri ozi éiumatene to d v pli p , sed her she ought take more rest, 6 post la nokto si havis mienon but every morning she had the tiel same lacegan kiel vespere ; same worn - out look as in the kaj si plendis ke la trablovaj evening ; and she complained ven toj suferigis sin nokte that the winds blowing through 7 3 r ii matisma d oloro per e j j, kaj Of a night plagued her with vis somere si n e po dormi pro rheumatic pains, and in summer T knabo b a varmeco . iam la she could not sleep ec use of T bo turnis la okulojn ekster sia the heat . hen the y turned

he i . e his own sia. With hi s wid owed mot r, .

2 - T name nem i h suf. a to et named This was his name. o ; wit ? g ,

ed 0 to be call .

- - t T ed laca suf. e d eno es n ensi . Tired ou . ir g t i t ty

cusa i e of ime. A few years. Ac t v t

= - o nc Youn u n a old mal uu a suf. i She grew old all at o e. g j ; j ; ?

ﬁ eé d eno es be nn n or sudden acon . d enotes becoming ; pre x t gi i g, ti

' Z u ma/en e The ho e mo n n ou d be 1a tu tan Every morning z . w l r i g w l

matm on . ‘ — 4 is causa e su en i to cause to To suffe su ar z suf. Plagued . r j 1g tiv f jg suffer . “ ” se W h b means of. n Th n of the sen . With pai s. i k it y 17 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

h m ri ardi s éirkaii en o ar ej o kaj g . his eyes utw ds from his home i is ke éiuﬂanke o s a Li v d estis tiel and lo ked around him . He w

same : la . geviroj frue mal that on every sid e it was the l 2 f ri same z m n ~ n junigi s kaj multe su e s. Li e a d women grew “ Baldaii al an d ff h pensis , estos mi old early su ered muc . He “ ' a ati un eco it be nk simile la j estas thought , Soon will the 3 o a t mallonga kaj lab ra , kaj l”a s me with me ; you h is short v v ca rena. i o estas longa kaj g and full of work , an”d life is long i mal a adis of u F ne li g j . and full tro ble . At last he o 4 became gloomy alt gether . Vin tro for asis al a r p , somero Winter p ssed away , summe

U nu n okton k nabo . the vanis . la came on One night boy estis k u santa en sia lito : li was lying in his bed : he had 5 labore in ta kam o ﬁ estis g en la p j, been working hard in the elds, mo kaj estis tre laca, sed ju pli li and was verytired , but the re 6 ekd ormi to penis , des pli li obstine he tried go to sleep the wider

i fa ran . All vek gadis . La tutan j awake he grew through the tagon la suno estis malsupren long ﬁery day the sun had been 7 brilin ta sur la tegmenton de beating down on the roof Of th e d ometo ke ku se o r a la , tiel la j co t ge, so that the sleeping 8 forn on . Namezo now nun similis place was like an oven .

ka turni is retu rn i is Namezo . pensis j g , g thought and tossed ,

re en i en o an d ' thou ht kaj p s s la samaj p s j, tossed g again ; the

c . revenan ta i iam ronde j, igs same thoughts , always coming 9 m n k rm tis tur e to. e d o e Fine li , round in a circle, became a

- n a u he ad rb a m in e. It w as the same . Imperso l : se t ve i l for 2 no es bo h se e M en an d wom en . P ref. ge d e t t x s.

2 = - - ccd en o es abstrac. Y ou h Y oun u n a suf. t . g j ; t t ' - - me oom o e he Ga a a oom mal a suf. ad Beca gl y alt g t r. y g j ; gl y gq ; d en es on in uance ot c t .

: h c lit. he as a in o ed . He had or n hard . P u e fe w been w ki g l p r t, v g w rk

- f e d en o es n en . Su . g t i t sity

- be n n n s e rm i e . ek d eno es . To go to sl eep . To l e p do pr f t gi i g

7 - D o n Abo e su r e b e o malsu r e n d eno es mo ion . w . v p ; l w p t t

9 - - - ce . ee in ac To lie Ami i su f. e d eno es a Sl p g pl e . ; j t pl

Be me uf 4 n om he e used as a se ara e e b . ca . S . } d e otes bec ing r p t v r

l 74 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

1 fali an te birdo, g en lian manon dropping a seed into his hand “ “ el bek O renu semon sia , p from its beak, take this seed :

c in : tiun i semon metu g en la put it in the ground care for it, i i rizor u n fle u n . teron p g g , g g , tend it, and keep tending it In 2 kaj flegad u gin . Post tempo the fulness Of time there will rise 4 “ plen igota levigos el tiu ci semo from this seed such a growth 4 “ kreska o via is j tia , kian la j g as your people never yet saw. m i is. ho o nun n e v d La aliaj j Other peoples call it a tr ee. It Ci i “ nomas gin ar oon . estos will be b g ; and in future v enon ta e granda ; kaj en la j years , if it is duly tend d , there 7 aro in fle os o j j, se oni deve g g , will spring from it gr ves , a ki s el i arbaro n s go g j, kinj which will give shelter to men i il o r h omaro estos s rm o p la , and women , and will be useful

l a : celo for kaj por m u t j aliaj j many other ends . But tended ’ utilos ﬂe i in . Sed g g Oni it must be , for without man s c out devos, ar sen homa pen”ado strivi”ng nothing turns well for nenio al homojprosperas . men . ‘ Namezo Namezo was volis respondi , sed about to reply, dum Ii levis la manon por but as he raised his hand to look ' “ ri ardi S al g la emon , estis li at the seed, he seemed to turn k vazaii turn i is a : li g , la k po mal head downwards the mountain “ r mala eris sup en : la monto p , disappeared , and he fell l fe l fell . i Tiam li estis demove veka Then he was awake again in 10 m d ometo sed - en la fo a , li the oven like hut, but he could

' ’ a - - D o n To fa I z suf. z d eno es causin to fal r ppi g . ll ﬁ g t g l . 2 - ? R se. To rai se loo i suf. 4 ma es n ransi e i 3 k it i t tiv . ‘ - - A ro h To r o kr eskz row thin kr esk a . g wt . g w g g j o

’ ' ’

h Tza kza La in talzs ualis . Suc as. t g ) See table of corre a es 1 l tiv , p . 93 . - Y ou e You vi a ma es an ad . r peopl . ; k it j c f wen - i bou o come F u F u ure a c e a o a t . ture. t p rti ipl tive t G ar - suf -ar d no e a o e ci n of r c o ees. o es T e oo . e s r v . re t ll t t

- T i e su f 4 mak es n rans i e. o u n Tu r n i is rans . t r . t it v 2? it i t it v

' 2 - i a ar To a ear a er z r ef. mal d eno es o osi e. D s ppe ed . pp p p t pp t 1° - - n n -a ma s i an ad ecive Oven like. Oven for n o ; e di g ke t j t . NESAGA GENTO I 7 S

2 he ovis malhel i ri ardi 1 p sin p , g not refrain from looking at his or : i c sian manon , p v di u la hand , to see if the seed was in m nestis n e sti e e s : . se o . Semo it There was no seed ; and the kaj la pen soj rek omen cis thoughts began to roll through ruladi tra lia cerbo — famen his brain again— yet no longer ’I me la an taii a turmenti a old plu j g j the worrying thoughts, but en so es er len a p j, sed novaj p p j new thoughts full of hope , for he enso c k red is , ar li , pasie , b p j believed passionately elieved‘, k red is k e a vera o , estas j ia j that there was indeed some truth en lia songo . in his dream . ’ Kaj nun la morgaii a tago And now the new day began

eklu mi is levi is to . g . Li g kaj iris dawn He got up and went al b c sia la oro , kaj tiun i tagon about his work , and this day and kaj multajn sekvan tajn tagojn many succeeding days he went la orad is k li b kiel kutime, paro on working as usual , spea ing to lante al nenin pri la sema no on e about his dream of the

s d . songo . ee Sed kiam la tempo de rikolto But when harvest - time was “ for asis aéetis d udekta an p , li g over, he bought food enough n utrajon kaj donis al la patrino for twenty days and gave his “ sian restan sparajon el la mother the rest of his harvest ’ éar vi rikolta tempo ( scias , tide savings (for you know that k e en la sezono de rikolto in the harvest season a good “ bona laboristo gainas pli 01 workman earns more than at

' he hel - i to h nd e mallze z to hi nd e h mself R efrain . To lp p i r lp ; r i

' mallzelp z si n . 2 n I n Es e an o u se the s m es cons uci on ossi ble R efrain from looki g . p r t i pl t tr t p ,

’ “ The s m e n ﬁn e n o r dz is cea af er ﬁnalize/ t si n . as long as i t i s clear . i pl i itiv g l r t p - an ad ci ve Befo e an tral end n a mak es e . The old thoughts. r i g it ” j t - of the sense . Here u h ue h n so use suf. « 7. Truth . Think tr t tr t i g, 5 ec Truth abstract vi rtue oer o.

2 - - o feed m ar i suf. a deno es s uff. Food . T j t t T es rest -o end n -a ma es it an ad eci e The rest of. he r t i g k j t v remai n ing . - 7 - - - i ed thin . o sa e u s ar i s ar a o sa e h n . e. sa ) Savings . T v p p p j v t i g ( v g ’ - - deno es the a en . o o labor i suf. zst Workman . T w rk ; t g t 17 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE alitem e dirante ke i 1 p ) , li devos other times) , say ng that he must vo a i forestos e o on 1 jg , kaj dud k g a journey, and would n a mir i ta o . L e s be for g j patrino g , away twenty days. His c n eniam antaii e for ar li estis mother wondered greatly, he las inta sin ccunu tagon sed had never left 2 her before even si li estis bona ﬁlo, kaj kon for a single day ; bu t he was a traii staris nenio . n lin en good son to her, and she did ot

thwart him in anything. forv o a is SO Li jg do, kaj post he journeyed forth , and in kvin tagojli ekvidis malprok ﬁ ve days he began to see far off

la h orizonto bl on z sime sur ankan the hori on a white cloud, “ nu bon m or aii a ut , kiu dum la g which turned o in the course tago montrigis kiel monta of the next day to be a mountain m o . Na ez salutis in Namezo a pinto g , peak. s luted it, and h kaj de tiu momento, sen ia from t at moment, without any 4 d rektis i i b dubo, i s an ron tra la dou t, bent his course across eben a o c al i . j iam g the plain constantly towards it . “ Kiam li alven is pied on de When he came to the foot of “ monto s la j, la deka tago jam the mountain , the tenth day kt i ve i i E fe e . ﬁ n gs. li estis grave was alr ady drawing to an end i inta l di stan co mezo e trom . a p g pri a Indeed , N had b en greatly ’ iam antaii e li vidis s N en monton , mistaken in the di tance . He ia ekvidis la b kaj tial , k m li had never seen a mountain efore , u z vo a o -so cau ht of pinto me e de la j g , li and , when be g sight is ke u s alvenas - kred li j , kaj the peak half way, he thought he

w c mu st o and ou ld be a a . E s e an o s n a is e fe He g , w y p r t y t x p r tly le us use the ense hich the s ea e ould use here the fu u e or simp . J t t w p k r w , t r ;

en se so on as the m eanin i s clear . any t , l g g “ 2 f c he was ha n e sti h ar He had e . P u e e f e w as . l ft l p r t vi g l t”, it p t p t t Li esti s lasita ou d mean he had been eft . acive. w l l

montr 4 - o be. To show s f montr z i to Turn ed out t u . g, g m h h se f to beco e s o n . s ow it l , w ' ‘ - - urse To o zr z endi n o mak es a subs an i e a oin . His co . g g it t t v g g

- M o on use the n case. To the foot . ti ; Ten den o form the ordina numb ers add -a to the ca dina Tenth. t l r l .

- 7 To de ce e tr am i suf. 1 ma es n ans e. Mistaken . iv p 7 3 k it i tr itiv

178 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE u i r z 1 z sian restan p ovi ajon . sparing in the use Of his remain L d ekd ua a tago estis tre ing stores . The twelfth day was 2 d olori a. fari is h g La monto g very painful . T e mountain kruta li devis rapidi kaj li grew 3 steep “he had to press on malsatis b 4 terure pro ekman and he was terri ly hungry , as a a kant m n gajo. M algraﬁ cio the food was beginning to give alven i mon t in t s on e out . S of li p j la In pite all , he reached “ n okti o . b ek scito The g La su ita , the top at nightfall . sudden ‘ laceco k a kune kun la j mal excitement , with his weariness : sato, estis tro en la momento and hunger, was too much : in de sukceso li falis en sveno the moment of success he fell to sur la teron . the ground in a swoon . ku srs senkon scie 10 ! Jen , dum li , And as he lay unconscious,

' aperis la duan fojon la sama there appeared to him for the “ ida o. b alﬂu i v s . j Birdo lanka g , second time the same vision A b s metis en lian manon semon , white ird ﬂew up, put a eed

diris sama n vorto n . nt kaj la j j i o his hand , and said the same

Den ove - s li levis la manon , kaj words . Again he rai ed his d en ove sa ni s renversi i li j g , kaj hand, and again he seemed to falis falis falis . turn over, and fell fell

fell . 7 R ekon scii inte trovis g , li sin When he came to himself, ku éanta trank vile apud la loko he was lying quietly in the ki enteri is t e b mem , e li g sian very place where he had uried turnan prOVIzajon antaii la his food for the home jo urney i r n iro. ku s s oléa b s sup e Li sur d efore the a cent . He was lying

' - - S ari n . To sa e i ar z suf. em d eno es o ens . p g v j t , pr p ity 2 fu a n d - ca sa i on endin -a ma es it P a n . P lor o uf ﬁ d eno es u i l i o s . g t t ; g k an adj ective. 2 ' = - . ma ar z f n be n made ro i n . Gre To e su . de o es com w. k f ; fg t i g , g w g

- n at sﬁ sat a ef. mal d en s the o os te . To be Hu gry. S i ed ; pr ote pp i

' - - hungry mal sat z.

5 - h f i h f com n . N a N neat o su . 4 d eno es be ig t ll . g t ? t i g

’ ' - - - si on See n h n md z to see i h suffi a . Vi . ( ) t i g w t x j 7 When he cam o mse C on ous konrei -a efi r e d eno es bac e t hi lf. sci pr x t k n -z e e min agai sufli x g d en ot s b co g. E N SAGA GENTO 179 herbo on r , kaj sentis sin korpe soft g ass , and his body felt mallaci ata 1 tute g , kaj granda free from its tiredness, and in

. Tu paco regis en lia animo j his soul reigned a great peace . 2 malfermis ok ulo n es kiam li la j , As soon as he opened his ey , ri ard is li g en sian manon, kaj he looked in his hand , and this éi fo on enesti tiun j la semo s . . ‘ time the seed was there o b reskaii L nga, la ora kaj p A long, laborious descent from sen nutra malsupren iro de la the mountain -top almost without mon t in to n e n ecesis p jam , kaj food was now no longer needful , la hejmvojago trans la ebenajo and on the home journey across ros eris k p p , tiel e Namezo so ‘ the plain all went well , that staris bald aii ree en la patrina Namezo soon stood again in his ’ 3 d ometo. la n La vi ga oj kun mother s cottage . ‘The villagers ven is amase kaj multe de ﬂocked in crowds and ask ed vo a o c b mandis pri lia jg , ar many questions a out his journey , nen iu el ili estis iam tiel for none of them had ever been a malproksimen foririnta de la so far from home . N mezo told

he mo. amezo c rakontis j N ion , them everything, and showed the montris kaj la semon kiun li seed which he was to plant. At n a baro ﬁ devos planti . La j j rst the neighbours thought he ‘5 komence kredis ke , li volas was trying to astonish them , as miri i i vo a isto to and g il n , kiel la jg j travellers are wont do ,

ridis . amas fari , kaj ili pri liaj they laughed at his tales But

r nta o . ako j j Sed, kiam ili when they saw that he was in 6 serioza n ot an d vidi s ke li estis , ili ear est, they g in a rage, ekkolerigis kaj volis forpreni wanted to take away his seed and ‘ tree . in . lian semon kaj d etrui g . destroy it A is foolish

lac-a maI d eno es o os e 4 d eno es Free fr om tired ness . Tired t pp it ; ? t causing to be . ’

2 ’ d To shu er m z to o en mal er mi . O pene . t f p f ’ ' - - fem nin e endin -a ma es e s Fa he atr a suf. zn den o es M oth r . t r p t i g k it an adj ective.

amar -o endi n ma es an ad e b . I n crowds . C rowd g k it v r

~ i h To onde mi r i suf. 4 mak es ran s e . Aston is . w r g it t it v

- i uf. 4 A n e koler o ref. ek d eno es be nn n s Got in a rage . g r ; p t gi g ; ? n d enotes becomi g. 180 I NTERNATI ONAL LANGUAGE

’ ” ”1 “ A r bo sen sen ca o estas j , ness , they said ; no other d iris me ovas ekzisti ili p plant can exist, except the crops

k reska o rikolto an d ve etables ou alia j , krom la j g that we and r om kiu n n i kaj la leg oj j kaj fathers have always grown . It is niaj patrojjam ciam kreskigis. impossible for anything else to 2 Estas neeble k e io alia”kresku grow and become bigger than

i u . k aj g pli granda Kaj they . And some said that he u n iris ke uj d li estas vana was an idle dreamer, and others k son isto e . g , kaj aliaj li that he was mad But his

f n ezas . re . Sed lia patrino mother encouraged him i k uragig s lin . Kaj Namezo timis por sia And Namezo feared for his ri en si s h ow semo, kaj p p kiel li seed , and thought he could povos savi gin de la najbaroj save it from the neighbours when

i ekkreskos. kiam g Kaj li it began to grow up . And he eliris el vila o of b la g nokte , kaj went out the village y night, plantis gin malprok sim e de and planted it far away from all éiu d omo rivereto b j j, apud en the houses , y a little stream in 3 m allevi o on i of g de la tero, kie a hollow the ground , where gin n e vidos gis gi estos tre it would not be seen till it grew k me bi ﬁ o nce . granda . Kaj li iris very g And at rst he went c n e b tien nur nokte sed , ar li there only y night ; but, as he arolis p plu pri sia semo, la said no more about his seed, the vila ano for esis aferon g j g la , villagers forgot the matter, so tiel ke li povis eliri el Ia vilago that he could go out of the vespere post sia taglaboro village in the evenings after his ’ li v lis m h zor i kiam o , kaj e iu g s day s work whenever he liked, m b . e pri tio, kien li iras Sed li and nobody trou led about where 4 kuragis gin transplanti apud he was gomg. But he did not

- = ~ n u f -a u - - shn . ens r o e s ho sense s uff. Fooli ess S e em o with ut s . ] wit t t 2 come . uf. a h r u alon as a e b to be Become. S ? is e e sed e v r

- mal . 4 m ak es n ans e ef. A hollow To raise lea i suf. ? it i tr itiv ; pr - u n d en otes the O pposite end ing 0 makes it a n o . “ ” “ ” here he was o n he e he e wh the herefo e add - n W g i g. W r r i r, t r , h h d en s m i on w ic ote ot . r 8 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

senéese enadis cn vorte, li p , di in short, he toiled ceaselessly, o 1 versigante konstante 1a kon stan tly varying the condi tions till bi ff n is . t o di éoj g li guste trafos he should the right thing . k li ha Fine , iam jam de longe At last, when he d long come ’ len a a d eziro lenu be h estis p g , lia p to a grown man, is desire 3 i is : Ia rivereto fi : m g tie, apud was ful lled there beside the

lkreska ar éo. staris granda be stream stood a ﬁ ne big tr ee. a folio ul En somero, ki m la j In summer, when it was in f l lena kond ukis an d estis p j, li tien leaf, he took his friends there, amik o n o is kelkajn j , kaj ili g j they rejoiced sitting in the cool sub s sidantaj vespere la fre a shade at evening . In autumn E n aﬁtun o 4 ombro . ili kolek they collected the pods, took semu o n and tis 1a jj , portis ilin en them to the village , tried to i on d ecidi i e la v lag , kaj penis g get the villagers to plant the s ed a an n semaron t la vil g oj planti la by their homes , to give hem

d ometo . l apud siaj j, por havi shelter But the vi lager s would

vila an o ne . sirmilon . Sed la g j not have them volis . “ “ diris a im os Unu , Arbo est s One said, A tree is p ” ”5 . n eebla. sible “ z res ondis Namezo Kaj Name o p , And answered, A

k i . . Arbo e z stas Venu kun tree exists Come with me, ” 6 vidi os . . mi , kaj mi g vin and I will show you i i “ “ im Sed li d r s, Arbo estas But he said, A tree is ‘ ”

b . n eebla. possi le “ zo d iris Namezo Ree Name , Se vi Again said, If you

- D e se di ver s a suf. to ende d e se. Varying. iv r ; { g r r iv r

- - - e a o u lan a end n a d eno es ad . A grown man. Ag f ; f ll p i g t j - d To fu ﬁl len u m i 4 d eno es becom n . Was fulﬁlle . l p ; ? t i g

- - d n ha wh ch con ain s . rem o suf. u e o es P od s. Seed j t t t i t - b i and can i e all suﬁi x u f. ebl d en o es oss es be I mpossible. S t p i il ty, , l k ,

- - N a ebI a n ot oss b e. u sed by itself. p i l - cause to see To see aid i i h suf. 4 to . Show . w t 2g

ob econs of the i a e s com a e Pa I. For this and th e following j ti v ll g r , p r rt ,

- 6. chap . xv. , pp. 5 4 N ESAGA GENTO 13 3

da nur tiom peno faros , kiom will only take as much trouble l n ecesas or el vila o p eliri la g , as is necessary to go out of the mon tros al b mi vi ar on , sub village, I will show you a tree , kiu miaj amikoj kaj mi sir under which my friends and I i é uves ere. migas p Venu nur take shelter every evening . Only kaj p”rovu se gi plaéo s ankaii just come and try whether it al . vi pleases you also . “ ne not Sed li dirls , Mi v”olas But he said , I will ” go i . b n bla t . b A ee . ou el ri r o estas A tree is impossi le . “ “ d iri s vidi s i have Alia , Mi v an Another said , I seen in arbon , ka”j mi trovas g tute your tree , and I consider it per sen utila . f tl ecy useless . Namezo res ondis Namezo d Kaj p , And answere , Kial ? Why P di ris atro i Kaj li , Niaj p j And h”e sa d, Our fathers had

n e . havis arbon . no trees Namezo d iris atro Namezo s , Niaj p ”j said , Our fath”er suf

of . suferis pro manko d e sirmad o . fet ed from want shelter “ ’ “ dir is T ankaii T too Kaj l”i , ial mi And he ”said , herefore I f f ros . su e . will su fer “ “ Alia d iris s a , Ni hava j Another said , We have enough

kr ska a . 0 suﬁée da e joj. Niaj pl nts Our cr ps and vegetables ikol o le o o rovizas our r t j kaj g m j p provide food, and gay ﬂowers

nutra on b ﬂoro . j , kaj la elaj j charm the eye Another gr”owing carmas la okulon . Alia kres thing would be superﬂuous .

kajo estus superﬂua. “ ame res ndis Namezo . Kaj N zo po , And answered , Good ’ i he n Bone . Niaj g snunaj kres T pla ts we have already

kajojplenumas la éefajn be zo fulﬁl the chief needs of mankind . aro n noj u de la hom . Mango kaj Food and some or ament are a sa o necessities for a a u certa ornamo estas nece jj hum n n t re , r naturo ka for h po la homa , j and these uses we ave the

- — d 0 ma es a subs an i e r i n effo t. Trouble. To en ing k it t t v t y g, r 2 - h d Lit. our l now an s . The plants we ave alrea y. ti l pl t

- < necessa hin s. wi h suf. Necessities. N ecessary mu s a : t 0 ry t g 184 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

i c u z i por t uj i oj u havas ri crops and ﬂowers . But life would ﬂ r n be s b koltojn kaj o oj . Sed la plea anter if we were etter 1 vivo estus pli plezura se ui sheltered . This special service i mata T b b s r . estus pli one j iun is done y the trees , and we can ci apartan servon prezentas la enjoy it without foregoing the

arbo u i ui in a an d . j, kaj povos g g sen advant ge of flower crop ford on i rofiton floro la p de kaj Nay, more, our crops , sheltered ikolto lt . r i w riko o Ne , plue , niaj j, from the w nds that blo from 2 rma vento si tajde la montaj j, the mountains, will ripen more pli facile maturigos : tiel u i easily : thus we shall have more havos pli da tempo por la time for the work that brings 3 lezuri a laboro floro p g j j, kaj la j pleasure, and the flowers will ' ” estos ankoraii pli belaj . be even more lovely .

- ‘ li diris Ta meze he Kaj , g , And said, At noon , when 1a brilas k usas kiam suno , mi the sun shines warm , I lie amidst

r n Tiu . inter 1a altstar an ta g e o. the deep standing corn This

c r u ﬁéas . i si milo s Ni havas shelter is enough . We have suﬁée da kresk ajoj. Arbo plants enough . A tree is not a kreska o i a ne estas j ; g estas plant ; it ”is monster. Go to d iablon ! monstro . Iru the devil am zo al amezo Kaj N e iris la diablo, And N went to the devil , c a u for ar li estis preta iri kien j , he was ready to go anywhere, plivole ol d aii rigi paroli kun rather than continue to talk to i la vilagan oj. the v llagers . iris d iabla s Li d , Via Mo to, He said, Your devilish Majesty , 5 vila an o m ti z la g j a adas min, the villagers make me sick, and 6 of . kaj mi estas laca je mia”vivo . I am tired ”my life Do with Faru el mi kion vi volas . me as you will .

- - Ser ce . To se e rem i en din 0 mak es a subs an i e vi rv g it t t v . 2 — matur a su f. 4 d en o es . R e becom n Ri pen ip ; ? t i g .

= - r h a br n s easu e. P easu e 1ezu r o 4 d W o k t t i g pl r l r p ; suf. ? enotes causing

to be .

- - - N oon . Da ta o midd e mes o end n e i s ad e b a y g l i g v r i l . ' 5 e ic nazi z- z -ad a e m e s c. To ma s d eno es con n M k i k k k t ti uati on.

T ed of. The e os i on e is used hen no o he e os i on e ac ﬁ s ir pr p it j w t r pr p it x tly t .

186 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE trudos sin en la kampojn kaj encroach upon the fields and florbed o n ka el usos flower- b an d en la j , j p upon the eds, ”will la alia n kreska o n . out j j j drive the other plants . “ Sed vi tute n e devos planti But you must not plant the la arbojn en la kampoj kaj trees in the fields and flower ” “ florbedo iris amez N m z T d N o. a e o. j, La beds , said rees arb oj havas u tilon diferen can have a different use from other a kreska o be de la ali j jj kaj oni plants , and they will planted l ' an tos . p ilin en aparta loko . in quite separate places If by Se okaze arbo altrud os sin chance a tree pushes itself in 1a rikolto n oni elrad inter j , amongst the crops, it will be in an taii ol i out b ikos g tuj , g rooted at once , efore it gets i gran digos. b g “ Ne , arbo estas dangera , No, trees are dangerous , 1 km s hakilisto amezo la j kaj N cried the men with the axes , and devis alvoki siajn amikojn por Namezo had to call up his friends defendi la arbon . to defend the tree . Poste Namezo iris hejmen After this Namezo went home kaj en fermis sin en sia d ometo. and shut himself up in his cottage . Lia patrino estis jam de longe His mother was by this time long 2 efrato b morta, kaj la g j jam dead , and his rot‘her and sister i i n w edzi s viva s . o g , kaj li d sole were married, and he lived n e ovis eé n ow not Sed li nun p resti all alone . But he could

. V nis sa l The sola e la gu oj de la even remain alone . wise vila o kria is of a g , kaj ili d tra la men the village c me along, “ fen estro n , Arbo estas bona and they kept shouti g through kreski is T ideo, sed vi g vian the window, rees are a good mal r v a e. arbon p Lasu nin idea, but you have grown your ﬂ i i e n ii r . So do g g la nia bont ovo, tree the wrong way let us ’ ui u liboni os in ﬁt kaj balda p g g , look after it as we see , and we ll

1 ° ' ' The men h he a s To h ew fl ak-3 -zl d no es ins rumen - zst wit t xe . e t t t ; deno es a n t ge t . 2 Bro h er and s s P eﬁ d eno es bo se s. t i ter . r x ge t th xe

e e ma d fe i n -o u 4 d eno e W r rried . Husban (wi ) cafe ( ) s fﬁx ? t s m n beco i g. NESAGA GENTO 18 7

ke i es al renin da 1 tiel g tos vere p soon improve it, so that it shall be ” ”5 o . arb a tree really ﬁt for us to take to . Kaj al ili Namezo respon dis And to these Namezo answered nenion . sciis ke Li li estis nothing . He knew that he had d on inta grandan parton de sia given a great part of his life to vivo por ek sperimenti kaj estis making experiment and had pro

rod uktinta belkreskan b d uced - w p ar on , a well gro n tree , while the dum la lertuloj nun estis vi clever men were now seeing a tree u b e for ﬁ l da taj ar on j la unua fojo , the rst time , and were whol y kaj tute malsciis la malfacil ignorant of the difﬁ culties that eco n kiu n oni j j devas venki, had to be overcome, and did kaj ccne kompren is la de not even understand the question en tre renis mandon kiun ili p they were undertaking to solve .

' ankafi ke to solvi . Sed li scus But he also knew that clever tiela k onsid ero estas por men such a consideration is less lertulo mal li l n ni to j p o e o. Estis than nothing . It was no good malutile ar umenti c g kun ili , ar argue with them , for they did not ili ne sciis ke n e not ili scias , kaj know that they did know, tio c le malfacila the to i estas p j lerni . and this is hardest thing

T aroladi . So on ial li lasis ilin p , kaj learn he let them keep ’ fie is e an taii e t e as g sian arbon ki l . talking , and tended his r e “ ” “ ” r iris al For to Ca d . , li si mem , before , said he him “ b isvasti s r a kiam la ar o estos d self, when the tree has p e d ginta kaj multobliginta lau and multiplied after its kind u spece tra la lando , per la grada thro ghout the land , from many ’ spet to de multajhomojfarigos men s gradual experience there b scienco n i of t an d ar a , kaj tial fine will arise a science rees , ellernos la lej bo nan fleg thus we shall in the end find out ”p ‘ ” h e b of . man ieron . ti t Anka li pensis , est way tending them “ “ ab l The La di lo estis prava : la A so he thought , devil : r diablo estas lertulo. was r”ight the devil is a cleve man . I lven is a om poste a en la Now, some time fter there

' - - I n a more li z d eno es causa on . mprove. Good bo p ; g t ti - Fit to To ak e r on i to al J ud deno es or h . take to. t p 3 t w t y 18 8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

ila on homo el loko v g j aliaj j, arrived in the village men from mo n w ku n ortanta d iversa n se . p j j j other places, bringing ith them ’ r r n a of Ciu el ili laii dis sian p op a various seeds . E ch them irante k e l semon , d li estas praised his own seed , tel ing kreskiginta belan arbon el tia how he had grown a ﬁne tree k e semo, kaj postulante la from such seed , and urging the a vilagan oj plan tu nur li jn villagers to plant his seeds only . sem o n T i n diris T of ai j . iam j , Ni hen certain them s d , Let metu éiujn la d iversajn semojn us put all the divers seeds to u i kreski u el kunen , kaj ”g ili gether , and let us grow from them Ka tiu on e . unu bonan arbon . j j good tree And these 1 ci petis Namezon ke li n eniigu begged Namezo to destroy his sian arbon kaj pistu giajn own tree and pound its seeds and semojn kaj almiksu ilin en la stir them into the compound kun metatan sema on ke seedstuff o ne j , por , that good tree b elkresk u t f b . ou o unu ona ar o might grow it . Tiel ili babiladis kaj batal Thus they babbled and kept adi s inter si ; kaj ili éirkafi quarrelling among themselves ; vila o mon tran te iradis en la g , and they went round about in the mod elojn de siaj arboj kaj village showing models of their ruvante c k e r p , iu la sia estas la trees and p oving each that his

own b . plej bona . Kaj ﬁne la vil was the est And at last an o en u i is d en ove of ag j g kaj the villagers grew weary it, and vo lis d ehaki crun kaj cies wanted again to hew down ever y arbon . tree , no matter to whom it "0 belonged . Sed Namezo kaj liaj amikoj But Namezo and his friends havis jam d u ah tre gr an dajn had by this time two or three big r o n is ros eris a b j , kaj g nun p p trees , and up to this day they al ili defendi ilin k on traii la have succeeded in defending ’ atak oj de la vilagan oj. Kaj them against the villagers attacks . c iam , kiam la vetero estas And always , when the weather is arme a sub arbo v g , ili sidas la j very hot, they sit under their trees

1 ' - - Des ro . N o hin um o suf z d en o es causa on . t y t g i ; . g t ti 2 ’ N o ma e to hom belon ed Lit e e on e s. tt r w it g . . v ry

19 0 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

s Also a reﬂexive pronoun , i, which always refers to the subject of its own clause .

- All these pronouns form the accusative case by adding 7z.

Th e as e or b . 8 . verb h no separate nding for person num er

- a E x mi amd r . The s . present ends in . I love

' ' - ms . zs E x. vi ar The past ends in . you loved

’ - h 05 E x. lz amos . T e future ends in . he will love ' ’ - Th e as . E x. m amus conditional ends in we should love .

’ - m: Th e u E x. amu ! m a imperative ends in . love r let us

’

. T E x. D zo or donas love his form also serves for subjunctive .

' ’ n kcm mm m m la alzan God commands us to love o e another .

' ’ - The ﬁ . m z. a z in nitive ends in Ex to love . T here are three active participles .

Th « t . amanta e present participle active is formed by w . Ex a n a loving ; ma i a lover .

' Th - z t ami nta e past participle active is formed by n . Ex. having

’ ' loved ; la skr zbzn to the author (lit . the man who has wr itten) . - n The future participle active is formed by ont . Ex . amo ta being about to love . T here are three passive participles .

- The . amata present participle passive is formed by at. Ex being loved .

' ' - The b zt . amzta past participle passive is formed y . Ex having been loved .

- The b ot . amota future participle passive is formed y . Ex b being a out to be loved . o All comp und tenses, as well as the passive voice , are formed b es t by the ver ti (to be) with a participle . Compound enses are

’ E mz employed only when the simple forms are inadequate . x.

’ estas amznfa li vi estis I have loved ( t . I am having loved) ; ' ‘ ' ' amzma ou ou zlz estas y had loved (lit . y were having loved) ;

' a mataj they are loved ; i i estas amzta she has been loved ;

’ ' ’ ’ ' m estis amztaj we had been loved zlz estas amzn taj they will

' ’ have loved ; fz estas amzn fa she would have loved ; mi estu:

’ amzta I should have been loved . PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES 19 :

LI ST O F AFFI XES

P es l . r eﬁ x

bo b o atr o - in - denotes relation y marriage b p father law.

’ ' ’ d zs : dzr etz = to denotes dissemination , division m put apart , about , in pieces .

' ek denotes sudden action or beginning : ekdor mz to fall

' ekir z asleep to start . ge denotes both sexes gepafr oj parents gevir oj men and women .

mal n denotes the opposite : bo a good malbona bad .

' ' r e : r e a z r eko ena denotes back, again p g to repay ; m to begin again .

u I ] . S ﬁ x es

’ ’ ’ -aa a : m aaz n t denotes continu tion p to keep strivi g, o make ff continued e ort .

-a f or ] denotes something concrete , made o the material, possessmg the qualities of the root to which it is attached bow

’ ova o b abuzz okaz o ox; b j eef ; to happen ﬂ j happenings, " For E or events . ( nglish speakers a good rule is to add thing “ ’ E r o r a ro r a o stuff to the nglish word ; p p one s own , p p j

- - - ab own thing , property ; see worthy things , not le sights .

B : - a ba er has N . . j added to transitive ver l stems gen ally a ’ ' ’ tanaz tonaa o - t passive sense to clip , j clipped hing , clippings

’ ’ - l . f s ex whereas tonai o clipping thing, shears ) See Zamenho

- - - 8 . . of a 13a R evuo . . planation j, , Vol I No (April) , pp 3 74 5

- b or a a : u r ba no an denotes an inha itant, member, p rtis n a

' ' - town dweller r zstano a Christian . - ar denotes a collecti on : var tar a a dictionary ; ar bam a forest ; ﬁamar o mankind . - 2j denotes masculine affectionate di minutives : pazjo dad dy

A r tjo Arthur . 192 INTERNATIONAL LANGU AGE

' - kr eaebla ebl denotes possibility : credible . - 5 0 ccdenotes abstract quality mm goodness . - eg denotes great size or intensity : gr andega enormous ;

varmega intensely hot .

’ - Zer ne o - ey denotes place j a learn place, a school . ’ - em denotes propensity to : Zer nema studious ; kr eaema

credulous . - notes n e of or of : aéler o er d e e out many , a unit a mass s a

a r r o grain of sand f j e a spark .

’ - r le s csfr denotes a ch ief o leader r mye tr o a head master .

' - et denotes diminution : znfaneto a little child ; var meta

warmish . ° ' - of za denotes the young , descendant of (30a 0 a calf.

' - z : bom z 5 113 0721 1 : to gj denotes causation g , 1 3 to make good,

' mor tz z = vem z improve ; g to kill ; g to cause to come , to

send for .

' 4 : sam i ? denotes becoming, and has a passive signiﬁcation g ,

= : r eramigz to get well (again) ; p al /491 to gr ow pale trot/igi be to found, occur .

' ' - z1 r azzlo z denotes an instrument a ra or .

' ' - atri no tu denotes feminine : p mother ; bow ﬂ o cow . ' ’ ' ’ - znd t : lazi aznaa . deno es worthiness laudable , praiseworthy ' ’ ' ' -zng denotes a holder kana elzngo a candlestick glawngo

scabbard .

’ ' - z5 t denotes profession or occupation man sz’o a sailor ;

’ bon ar zrto f a benefactor . - nj denotes femi nine affectionate diminutives : M anjh Polly ;

' atr zn o or an b p j ( p / ) mamma .

' -u s or : zrzku o j denote containing , producing j inkpot

' A n lu o E g j ngland.

’ - u l denotes characteristic : tzmulo a coward : avarulo

a miser . [The SUfﬁX -a 2 (not in the F u ndamen to) is coming into use as ' ’ = ' ’ ' a pejorative Italian r zrzz to laugh ; r zaaZz to

grin , sneer . ]

I NTERNATI ONAL LANGUAGE

VOCABULA RY

5 6112 b t A , ﬁne , eau iful .

- - dezan o a of , need . , termination adjectives . Han - - k a aZet i , white . , to buy .

' - ban a . - ao suﬂi x , good , denoting continued bar d - o , e , . action . dge shore

- — bril i . aer o , to shine , air . bur on - o - g , bud . a i . g , to act - a f ], su ﬁx denoting concrete C substance .

“L0 b . a n ki u a n : o j e t, aim j , (what)ever ; j , who c - cer b o i . , bra n ever . - cer t a i . a1 , certa n , to . a li -a , other . C ‘’ a lm enazz . , at least ca r en -o b aIi a g , trou le . high 0 ’ tar a ni - z , for, because . , to love . ti ma - s 0 . , crowd; mass ‘’ Zer - i e , to c ase . a n azz . k , also 22 m ti u ankor azi’ s , added to de onstrative , , till. r : am tataii of expresses nea er connexion , instead . ti u iu = ‘ t Zi . - am r that this , p esent participle active . ‘ 21772 21 . an tazz , always , before (time and place) i f e . - , everywhere a ar t a . p , special ’ ‘

h r kazi . , around

Zia r . -ar f t , all, each , eve y , su ﬁx denoting a collec ion

221 . - , interrogative particle ar b o . , tree

-as f , ending o present tense . ‘ D - azid i . , to hear dd ft of u , used a er words q antity

E x. u te m m l da ai , much wine .

- d aii r i as . soon . , to l t, continue

- - f . bed r . d e o o, ﬂowe bed , , from , by (with passive) VOCABULARY 195

’ o er - , u ci f i comparative particle ; j , su ﬁx denot ng little . ’ o r — e , : etend i to the the , stretch .

. u li dc: libon e Ex j p p , the F more the better . aa l- a d ev - i f , easy , to owe , to be obliged

to . akt- o d evis - o f , fact . , device , motto . ' ’ ar - i ai ekt- z f , to do . f , to spoil . ’ ' m rtr —o ai r - z fi , window . , to say . ar m- i d am - o f , to shut . , house . l- o d on - i fi , son . , to give . i n -o n y , e d d a . , two ank- 0 . d ub- i fl , side , to doubt . la - i f g , to tend . d u m . , whilst u-i fl , to flow .

a -i to E ﬂ g , ﬂy .

- e c. , ending of adverbs . twi e

- - o/i o . ( ban a f , leaf , ﬂat , level .

ar . cbl fﬁ , away , su x denoting possibility. f

- or a o . er fﬁ b f , , su x denoting a stract oven

- r ato bon ec- o f , brother . quality , goodness .

- r as o . e2 . , sentence , even f

' - r enez o a . edz zn -o f , m dness { ) , husband (wife) . r u -a -e sufii x z f , early. g, denoting great si e . kt- r u o . -e fi a f , fruit j, suf x denoting pl ce . ab fi , pre x denoting beginning. G ekster OU t 1 , 5 de e t n g prefix deno i g both sexes . cl f , out . - ent o . o ' g , race, tribe m uffi en o m i t , x d t g propens y . r and a bi r a . g , g, g e t :n i:

- en tr e r en i . p , to undertake G

- .en u i . , to weary, bore

- es er i . p , to hope E E s er anto . p , speranto

- est i be. , to 196 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

[lav- ka i . , to have j, and .

- - lze m o kamen o e . j , home. , ﬁr place

- - to . kam o . day p , ﬁeld

- item o ka o . , man (mortal ; no p , head

c . f . k tinction o sex) , that (conjunction)

balk-a , some .

ki am . I , when ki el how , , as . - i of i v . , ending infinit e ki u , who, which . - a . ide l o, ideal k naé- o bo , y. - i f a . g, su fix denoting caus tion - k amer e . o, commerce 4 f . g, su fix denoting becoming — kom at o t . p , sympathy, pi y - il . , suffix denoting instrument - kom r en i . p , to understand ili . , they - ken i . , — to know n t . i , past participle active - kansi i . l , to counsel i nter b . , etween , among - k nstr u i . o , to build - i r i o . , to g kontr azi . l , against ir of . , ending past tense - ' fir ed i b . , to elieve - zst ffi . , su x denoting agent - kr esk i . , to grow a on e i , some . m . k ro , besides

t-a [am , steep . I k u n . , with

’ - - of . k ui z . j, ending plural , to lie

- am . ku tim i . j , already , to be accustomed

- ar o . ankam . j , year kv , although

en kvar . j , here is, here are (French , four ‘

void . azazi . ) kv , as if

u . kvi n . j , comparative particle See , ﬁve ’

oer .

- u n a . j , young

us n ow. j , just

19 8 I NTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE R

- oo o . , peace p m eant- to a i . , n rrate et r ol- i : p , to speak r am -i p , to crawl , climb . - en i to . , try p - r a id a . p , quick - ens i . , to think p - r eki a . , straight

er . p , by means Of - r em i . , to row - er d i . p , to lose - r en koni i . , to meet - ez o . p , heavy en er -i u r v s e . , to ps t, overthrow - ied o . p , foot lt— r iko o . , crop i n t- o p , point, peak .

’ ’ — zst z . p , to pound S lat—i p , to please .

- - lat a . sat a s p , ﬂat , atisﬁed, full ,

- ci . l . s i p ej, most , to know

- d ut e b . i en a . s p , full ,

- - lend i sek a dr . p , to complain . , y

- - len u m i to seko i . p , fulﬁl . , to follow

m- o li re . p , more . , seed lu sen p , more, further, farther . , without .

- - i lu i . sen t . p g , to plough , to feel

- o ol o si . p p , people, race . , self, reﬂexive pronoun

- or rid i . f , for. , to sit

— r é i n or M r l . a o s o . p , door . j , sir, , gent eman

- ost sé r ioi . p , after, behind (time and , to write

- sol a . place) . , alone , only

- - oo i to be b . son o . p , a le , sound

r o - son - o p , original , great (grand g , dream .

- . sonar a . father) , sonorous

— - co . r av a . s e p , right p , kind , sort

— - r en i s or t o . p , to take . p , experience

— r eskaii . s i r i b . p , almost p , to reathe

— - r ef a . star i . p , ready , to stand

- r efer b . star k o . p , beyond , y , manure

- i b . a r m oit . p , a out, concerning , sudden

- r o on . su Z a . p , account of ﬁ , sufﬁcient VOCABULARY 199

- su r a . p , upper, superior U

- w en i o . - - , to swo n u of r i , ending impe at ve sub t junc ive .

u fﬁx . j, su denoting holder u l uf x n a , s ﬁ denoti g ch racter

- i d u i to s . f , eem istic.

- rar e i to . u nu on e. , joke ,

- i i o . p , ship

- fir m z, to shelter . s ar - i z . p , to save up, economi e a or 0 v p ’ steam - ti el z to a . , ste l k- i oa , to wake (trans ) — al o a . v , s il

- an i to . v , come

- ank i . w , to conquer s . tamen et, neverthele s , y — ent o . v , wind - ment o . ﬁ g , roof - ar a . v , true tem o . p , time er em v . o p , e ening - n . te i, to hold , keep -i to t v i mtar , ravel by eh cle - tor o . , e rth a r o (train , car iage , b at, al . ti , therefore i ou . o , y so. tiel, thus , ‘ - see. aid i , to tiom so h so . , muc , many - M . mow( M, widow(er)

oi r man (woman) . r a . t , through - i to . vie , live - tr a i to ma . f , hit the rk l o . voj , way r ans . t , across a -o a o rn . ooj g , voy ge , j u ey e . tr , very - a o . vok l , vowel - tr em i , to tremble . o - i . v l , to wish tr o . , too much - be s . vow i , to vomit, ick i . i r om , to deceive p - vori o, word . - i ﬁ rid . tr ov , to

- to u . tr ad i, shove, thr st

. tuj, immediately - r o : a . - so g c re a . tut , all INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

APPENDIX A ‘ SAMPLE PROBLE M S I N R EGULAR LANGUAGE

- WORD BUILDING can be made quite an amusing game for children .

For a f - e - i1 inst nce, give them the su ﬁxes j (denoting place) and ” n for (denoti g instrument), and set them to form words school , ”“ ”“ ”“ ” “ - church , factory, knife , warming pan , etc.

r e o abr ike o tr anet/o var mi i ﬁo p gq , f j , , g ) But since the language is perfectly regular in form and con: can stru ction, and the learner therefore argue from case to case, it is a useful instru ment for instillin g clear ideas of grammatical T i v t categories . hus g e the roo s

vio- z to live ran - a healthy kom- o man long-a long sag- a wise D i-o God d on -i to give and set such sentences as the following to be worked ou t ”“ ”“ He lives long A long life is a gift of God ; It is wise ”“ God to live heal”thily is divine , man is human ; Human life is short, etc .

The n -o -a or - e a n same roots consta tly recur with an , , t cked o t out a and the practice in sor ing the endings , and att ching them b n s a like la els to nou s , adjectives, verbs, and adverb , soon m rks ’ ff i n o the corresponding ideas clearly the learner s mind . Analogous to simple sums an d conducive to clear thinking f r h v are such sentences as the following, o rat er more ad anced pupils Given

- = - - = t r az i to shave sero i to serve ran a ‘heal hy akr —a sharp mar t-i to di e oen - i to come as - i to use flak - i to hew h m with sen t-i to feel

1 1 and the table of afﬁxes (pp. 9

2 0 2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

APP ENDIX B

E E DR Z A E O F SP RANTO HYMN BY . M NH

La E rper o

E mOndon n is N la ve nova sento,

' Tra la rnon do iras forta voko ; Per ﬂugiloj de facila vento u Nun de loko ﬂ gu gi al loko . Ne al glavo sangon soifan ta Gi 1a homan tiras familion : ’ A] la mond eterne militanta .

Gi promesas sanktan harmoniOn . ’ Sub la sankta signo de l espero Kol kti as batalanto e g pacaj j, " Kaj rapide kreskas la afero Per b es ranto la oro de la pe j. Forte staras muroj de miljaroj Inter la pOpOloj d ividitaj; dissal os obstina barO Sed t la j J, i i Per la sankta amo d sbat taj. ‘ Sur neii tra a li n va l g fundamento, Kom renante p unu la alian, La popoloj faros en kon sen to

~ f mili Unu grandau rondon a an . Nia -d iligen ta kolegaro b n laci os En la oro paca e g , ' ’ 015 la bela songo de l h omaro ' ' ’ Por eterna ben efektivigos. THE E SPERANTO HYMN 2 03

LITE RAL TRAN SLATION

Hope

Into the world has come a new feeling , Through the world goes a mighty call ; On light wind- wings Now to ac may it ﬂy from place pl e . Not to the sword thir sting for blood Does it draw the human family To the world eternally at war

It promises holy harmony . Beneath the holy banner of hope Throng the soldiers of peace; And swiftly spreads the Cause T of the hrough th e labour hopeful . Strong stand the walls of a thousand years Between the sundered peoples ; ut a a B the stubborn b rs shall . leap ap rt ,

Battered to pieces by holy love . of On the fair foundation common speech , one Understanding another , The peoples in concord shall make up

One great family circle . Our busy band of comrades of Shall never weary in the work peace , ’ Till humanity s grand dream

Shall become th e truth Of eternal blessing. 2 04 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

APPEND IX C

THE LETTE R C IN E SPE RANTO

“ e ts in English bits .

This has given rise to much criticism . The same sound is also expressed by the letters ts. W”hy depart from the Esperanto one one e principle, sound, letter, and have two symbols ( and ts) for the same sound ? A standing difﬁ culty of an international langu age is : What equivalent shall be adopted for the e of national languages ? Th e difﬁculty arises owing to the diversity of value and history of the e l who f in diverse tongues . Phi ologists, know the history o the e l Latin hard and its various descendants in modern anguages , will appreciate this . 1 e or e ? ( ) Shall be adopted in the international language , omitt d e If it is omitted, many us ful words, which it is desirable to adopt e and which are ordinarily spelt with a , will have to be arbitrarily i u deformed, and th s deformation may amount to act al obscuring

. ca . E nto centr o eer oo of their sense g. hundred ; centre ; brain certa certain ei r komtaneo circumstance eioila z civil, etc . Such words would become almost unrecogni able for

’ m kanto sento sen to trem . any in the forms , , , o, etc " 2 6 ? Th ( ) If, then , is retained, what value is to be given to it e “ ” a of i 5 h rd a”nd soft sounds the Engl sh (as in English cat, civil ) are already represented by k and s. Neither of these letters can be dispensed with in the international language ; and it is undesirable to confuse orthographically or phonetically e- or k - T be roots with s roots . herefore another value must f The r ound for the symbol c. choice is p actica”lly narrowed down l a ( b to the Ita i n soft 1: , as in English church , and the German “ ” e = ts cl: in English bits . Now is a useful and distinctive E s ound, and has been adopted in speranto with a symbol of its

r ts . own : 6. The efore remains

Also late Latin and ear ly N orman French .