International Language of the Delegation COMPLETE MANUAL OF THE AUXILIARY LANGUAGE GRAMMAR, GRAMMATICAL EXERCISES, KEY IDO-ENGLISH E ENGLISH-ID0 VOCABULARIES Revised by L. DE BEAUFRONT (President of the French ldistic Society). In wnformitr with the decisions of the Ido Academy LONDON : SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS. LTD., Publishers, I, AMEN CORNER.- E.C.4. 1919 CONTENTS. PAGE. Foreword ............ ... v . Introduction ............ ... vii . The Grammar of Ido ......... ... 3 English Idioms and Ido ...... ... 20 Grammatical Terminations and Affixes ... 41 Exercaro ............... ... 45 English Translation of Exercaro ... ... 67 Ido-English Vocabulary ......... ... 89 English-Ido Vocabulary ......... ... 129 List of Geographical Names ...... ... 185 VISCOUNT NORTHCLIFFE AND ID0 LETTERFROM VISCOUNTNORTHCLIFPE TO M. DB BEAUFRONT, THE CHIEF ORIGINATOR OF IDO. (Printed by special permission.) Dear iZlarquis de Beaufront, I thank you for yotrr letter. I am bplensed to assist your work in Propagating Ido by giving the new inter- national language Pz~blicity in tny news- papers. Believing Ido to be a practicul auxiliary tolcgue and a valuable time- saver to nations adopti~zg it, I trust you will realize your ideal that it may further a still closer entente between tlte Britislt Elnpire and France, and indeed betweett the Allies gen~rally. Youvs tvuly, (sgd.) NORTHCLIFFE. 27th May, 1917. FOREWORD. The present volunle has been issued to meet the widespread demand for an up-to-date text-book of Ido. In all countries interest in the international language, which had abated in the early part of the world-war, is awakening anew, and from all quarters enquiries about Ido are being received. To the individual we can recommend Ido : (1) as alanguage which one can easily, quickly and pleasantly acquire ; (2) as a language which constitutes an attractive and unique personal possession : and (3) a5 a language which will probably bestow im- portant advantages on its experts. Apart from its obvious advantages as a medium for international communication, Ido will play a great part in language study. It is a well-known fact that the first foreign language learnt, whichever it may be, is always the most difficult, for the student has to learn to discard the limits of his mother tongue when thinking. Once this is done, the learning of subsequent languages is easier. Ido is regular and logical in its construction and the simplest language ever devised. Make Ido the first foreign language to be learnt and many of the initial troubles of language students can be avoided. It is quite possible to learn Ido and follow on with French or another European language and make better progress than could be obtained by applying oneself directly to the national language with all its idioms and irregularities. In a sense the Complete Manual is not a new work, though it has never appeared before in the present form. The grammatical section is substantially the Practical Grammar as revised by our lamented colleague, Dr. J. L. Moore, of Bristol University, shortly before his death. No apology is needed for including M. de Beaufront's Exevcaro, the standard international set of exercises in Ido. The English key to the Exercaro has been supplied by Mr. L. H. Dyer v. of Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., and should be of considerable assistance to the student. The vocabularies, while not claiming to be exhaustive, are in advance of any which have appeared for English-speaking students. For the lists of geographical names we are once more indebted to M. de Beaufront, To the great number of friends who have extended their counsel and assistance to us in the preparation of this book we tender our cordial thanks. The kindness of M. de Beaufront in revising and augmenting the vocabularies during a time of great stress, if not actual danger, must not be left without mention. Our colleague's residence was destroyed during the German advance of March, 1918, and that unfortunate circumstance will have the effect of still further delaying the production of the greater English-Ido and Ido-English dictionaries. Undei the circumstances we must consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have secured M. de Beaufront's co-operation in this more modest work. INTRODUCTION. N international auxiliary language is not meant to replace the natural languages, but to help everyone, A including people possessing only an average elementary education, to speak and write to citizens of foreign countries, The need of an international language, to be learnt in all countries, by all people interested in communicating their thoughts and needs to one another, is to-day universally recognised. Opinions are, however, divided as to whether this role should devolve upon one of the existing natural languages, such as English or French, or whether a specially formed artificial language should be preferred. There are many obstacles that prevent any natural language being used for the international medium of expression. There are difficulties of grammar, idioms, exceptions and irregularities, and English-whose grammar is the simplest of all, possesses an additional difficulty in its pronunciation which follows rather custom than spelling. Another obstacle is the national pride and national interest of the other nations who would fear to see the prestige and the influence of the favoured nation grow to proportions menacing to them. The use of a neutral language, on the other hand, spares all susceptibilities and not only does each people discover in it something of the essence of its own speech, but it is a hundred times easier to learn than even the simplest natural language. The idea of an international language is by no means recent. Already in 1629 Descartes had defined the two principal systems of international language. Firstly, the a prior; system of the so-called philosophical languages, consisting of arbitrarily selected letters, syllables or words indicating an idea or a group of ideas in accordance with a determined vii. classification and based in no way upon any natural language. Secondly, the a posteriori system based on roots already existing in the natural languages with a grammar reduced to its most simple explession and comprising neither irregu- larity nor exception.* Reason and experience have proved that a priori auxiliary languages are interesting only as curiosities evolved by the human intellect. To return to the a posteriori system, Descartes even foresaw the possibility of modifying the meaning of primitive roots by means of affixes and thus of unburdening the memory to a very great extent; for instance, 5,000 roots, modified in their meanings by five different affixes, represent 30,000 ideas, viz., 5,000 simple conceptions and 25,000 derived ideas. From the time of Cromwell to our days dozens of projects for an international language of both the a priori and the a posteriori, as well as of mixed systems, have been produced. Worthy of mention are the a priori systems of Sir Thomas Urquhart (1653), George Dalgarno (1661), John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester (1668), Liebnitz (1679)) Delormel (17g5), Sudre (1817)~Grosselier (1836), Letellier (1852), Dr. Nicolas (1900) ; the mixed systems of Monseigneur Schleyer (Volapiik, 1879) and of Bollac (La langue bleue, 1899) ; also various a posteriori systems based upon Latin, German, Anglo-French, Italian and other languages. None of the a priori languages had any vogue. Volapiik was a mixed system, invented in 1879 by the Abbe Schleyer, who is supposed to have possessed a knowledge of more than fifty natural languages. It was welcomed and learnt in a number of countries. Within nine years it was spoken by one million people. Instruction books were printed in twenty-five languages, and there were nearly 300 Volapiik Societies distributed throughout Europe, America and the British Colonies. This progress was achieved entirely without * An example of an a priori language is the system of Letellier of Caen,in whifh, for instance, the letter a=animal ; ab =mammal ; abo=camivorous ; aboj=feline ; abojc=cat. In the same manner abo&=dog, because the dog is an animal (a), a mammal (b), carnivorous (c), of the camne genus (d),and of the dog specles (c). Such a system is veritably a linguistic algebra. any governmental aid, and so sensational a success shows how widely felt is the need of an international language. The printed appearance of Volapiik is outlandish, and although the vocabulary is supposed to be based mainly upon the English language, the words are built in so arbitrary a fashion that they bear no resemblance whatever to the English ones which are supposed to have suggested them. The word Volapuk, for instance, is stated to be based on the English words " world " and " speak " ! The language and grammar are quite ingenious. Volapuk fell rapidly from favour because its disadvantages were so obvious that groups arose in different localities, each desirous of reforming the language. Bishop Schleyer would not consent to a reform, and sections of his " followers " proceeded to introduce changes. It was this schism, together with the difficulty of the language, which caused it to fall from favour. No one knew which to learn of the several different kinds of Volapiik in existence. After Volapuk had quickened the interest in a universal language, numbers of other systems made their appearance, several of them almost practical, Esperanto, invented by Dr. Zamenhof, and published in 1887, presenting the maxi- mum of internationality until 1907, when Ido appeared and offered to the world a simple and efficient means of international communication. These are the circumstances in which Ido originated. At the time of the Paris Exhibition in 1900, when so many International Congresses met in the French capital, the necessity of adopting a language for international use seems more than ever to have been felt, because, as is customary, although authorities from all countries found themselves in the presence one of the other, they were practically tongue- tied ! A number of these Congresses and learned Societies, there- fore, appointed Delegates for the consideration of the inter- national language question.