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INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
PAST, PRESENTS FUTURE
WITH SPECIMENS OF ESPERANTO AND GRAMMAR
BY W. J. CLARK
M.A. OXON., PH.D. LEIPZIG
LICENCIE-ES-LETTRES, BACHELIER-EN-DROIT PARIS
LONDON J. M. DENT & COMPANY
1907
APR 1 '
PRINTED BY
UAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
PREFACE
An artificial language may be more regular, more perfect, and easier to learn than a natural one. — MAX MULLER.
THE world is spinning fast down the grooves of change. The old disorder changeth. Haply it is yielding place to new. The tongue is a little member. It should no longer be allowed to divide the nations.
Two things stand out in the swift change. Science with all its works is spreading to all lands. The East, led by Japan, is coming into line with the West.
Standardization of life may fittingly be accompanied by standardization of language. The effect may be twofold — Practical and Ideal.
Practical, The World has a thousand tongues,
Science but one :
They'll climb up a thousand rungs When Babel's done.
Ideal. Mankind has a thousand tongues,
Friendship but one : Banzai! then from heart and lungs For the Rising Sun.
W. J. C.
NOTE. — The following pages have had the advantage of being read in MS. by Mr. H. Bolingbroke Mudie, and I am indebted to him for many corrections and suggestions.
AN INTERNATIONAL AUXILIARY LANGUAGE
NOTE. — To avoid repeating the cumbrous phrase "international auxiliary language," the word auxiliary is usually omitted. It must be clearly understood that when "international" or "universal" language is spoken of, auxiliary is also implied.
CHAP. PAGE
I. Introductory I
II. The Question of Principle — Economic Advantage of
an International Language ..... 4
III. The Question of Practice — An International Language
is Possible 8
IV. The Question of Practice (continued) — An International
Language is Easy A 6.
V. The Question of Practice (continued} — The Introduction of an International Language would not cause Dislocation 24
VI. International Action already taken for the Introduction
of an Auxiliary Language 26
VII. Can the International Language be Latin? ... 33 VIII. Can the International Language be Greek ? . . 35
IX. Can the International Language be a Modern
Language? 36
X. Can the Evolution of an International Language be left to the Process of Natural Selection by Free Competition? , .38
CONTENTS v
CHAP. PAGE
XI. Objections to an International Language on Aesthetic
Grounds ........ 40
XII. Will an International Language discourage the Study of Modern Languages, and thus be Detrimental to Culture ?— Parallel with the Question of Com- pulsory Greek 46
XIII. Objection to an International Language on the Ground
that it will soon split up into Dialects ... 49
XIV. Objection that the Present International Language
(Esperanto) is too Dogmatic, and refuses to
profit by Criticism 51
XV. Summary of Objections to an International Language. 53
XVI. The Wider Cosmopolitanism — The Coming of Asia . 57
XVII. Importance of an International Language for the Blind 61
XVIII. Ideal v. Practical 63
XIX. Literary v. Commercial 65
XX. Is an International Language a Crank's Hobby ? . .70
XXI. What an International Language is not ... 73
XXII. What an International Language is .... (73)
PART II HISTORICAL
I. Some Existing International Languages already in
Partial Use 74
II. Outline of History of the Idea of a Universal Language
— List of Schemes proposed .... 76
III. The Earliest British Attempt . . . . . 87
IV. History of Volapiik — a Warning 92
V, History of Idiom Neutral 98
vi CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
VI. The Newest Languages: a Neo-Latin Group— Grop- ings towards a "Pan-European" Amalgamated
Scheme 103
__^— VII. History of Esperanto f™$
Present State of Esperanto: (a) General ; (£) in England 121 IX. Lessons to be drawn from the Foregoing History . 131
PART III
THE CLAIMS OF ESPERANTO TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY : CONSIDERATIONS BASED ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE ITSELF
* I. Esperanto is scientifically constructed, and fulfils the
Natural Tendency in Evolution of Language 135
II. Esperanto from an Educational Point of View — It will aid the learning of other Languages and stimu- late Intelligence
III. Comparative Tables illustrating Labour saved in learn-
ing Esperanto as contrasted with other Languages :
(a) Word-building ; (£) Participles and Auxiliaries 155
IV. How Esperanto can be used as a Code Language to
communicate with Persons who have never learnt it 161
PART IV
SPECIMENS OF ESPERANTO, WITH GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY
Note 165
I. Pronunciation 166
1 1 . Specimens of Esperanto :
1. Parolado 167
2. La Marbordistoj 168
3. Nesaga Gento : Alegorio , f . , .168
CONTENTS vii
CHAP. PAGE
III. Grammar 189
IV. List of Affixes 191-
V. Table of Correlative Words 193 .
VI. Vocabulary 194
APPENDIX A
Sample Problems (see Part III., chap, ii.) in Regular Language 200
APPENDIX B
Esperanto Hymn by Dr. Zamenhof 202
APPENDIX C
The Letter c in Esperanto 204
PART I
GENERAL
I INTRODUCTORY
IN dealing with the problem of the introduction of an international language, we are met on the threshold by two main questions :
1. The question of principle.
2. The question of practice.
By the question of principle is meant, Is it desirable to have a universal language ? do we wish for one ? in short, is there a demand ?
The question of practice includes the inquiries, Is such a language possible ? is it easy ? would its introduction be fraught with prohibitive difficulties ? and the like.
It is clear that, however possible or easy it may be to do a thing, there is no case for doing it unless it is wanted ; therefore the question of principle must be taken first. In the case before us the question of principle involves many considerations — aesthetic, political, social, even religious. These will be glanced at in their proper place ; but for our present purpose they are all subordinate to the one great paramount consideration — the economic one. In the world of affairs experience shows that, given a demand of any kind whatever, as between an economical method of supplying that demand and a non-economical method, in the long run the economical method will surely prevail.
i
2 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
If, then, it can be shown that there is a growing need for means of international communication, and that a unilingual solution is more economical than a multilingual one, there is good ground for thinking that the unilingual method of transacting international affairs will surely prevail. It then becomes a question of time and method : When will men feel the pressure of the demand sufficiently strongly to set about supplying it ? and what means will they adopt ?
The time and the method are by no means indifferent. Though a demand (for what is possible) is sure, in the long run, to get itself supplied, a long period of wasteful and needless groping may be avoided by a clear-sighted and timely realization of the demand, and by consequent organized co-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 affairs, and to emphasize the fact that the time is now ripe for dealing with the question, and the present moment pro- pitious for solving the problem once for all in an orderly way. The 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 Volapiik and of the extraordinary rise of Esperanto, in spite of its precursor's failure, are exceedingly significant.
One language has been born, come to maturity, and died of dissension, and the world stood by indifferent. Another is now in the first 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 growth of interchange of ideas between the nations of the earth, whether in politics, literature, or science, without a single check to the ever-rising tide of internationalism — are we again to let the favourable moment pass unused, just for want of making up our minds ? At present one language holds the field. It is well * See pp. 78-87.
INTRODUCTORY 3
organized ; it has abundant enthusiastic partisans accustomed to communicate and transact their common business in it, and only too anxious to show the way to others. If it be not officially adopted and put under the regulation of a duly constituted inter- national authority, it may wither away or split into factions as Volapiik did.* Or it may continue to grow and flourish, but others of its numerous rivals maj^gcure^ adherents and dispute its claim. This would be even worse. It is farjiarder tp_ rally a multitude of conflicting rivals in^he same camp, than it is to take- over a well-organized, homogeneous, and efficient volunteer force, legalize its position, and raise it to the status of a regular army. In any case, if ho concerted action be taken, the question will remain in a state of chaos, and the lack of official organization brings a great risk of overlapping, dissension, and creation of rival interests, and generally produces a state of affairs calculated to postpone indefinitely the supply of the demand. Competition that neither tends to keep down the price nor to improve the quality of the thing produced is mere dissipation of energy. vln a word, the one thing needful at present is not a more highly perfected language to adopt, but the adoption of the highly perfected one we possess) 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. Once found adequate, its absolute utility merely depends upon universal adoption.
With utility in direct proportion to numbers of adherents, every recruit augments its value — a thought which may well encourage waverers to make the slight effort necessary to at any rate learn to read it.
* Esperanto itself is admirably organized (see p. 119), and there are no factions or symptoms of dissension. But Esperantists need official support and recognition.
4 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
II
THE QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE — ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
As stated above, the question of principle will be treated here from a purely economical point of view, sincefpractical value, measured by saving of time, money, and effort, must be the ultimate criterion by which the success or failure of so far- reaching a reform as the introduction of an international, auxiliary language will be decided. The bearing of such a reform upon education, culture, race supremacy, etc., is not without importance ; but the discussion of these points must be postponed as subsidiary. >
Reduced to its simplest form, the economical argument is this:
(1) The volume of international intercourse is great and increasing.
(2) This intercourse is at present carried on in many different languages of varying degrees of difficulty, but all relatively hard 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 language is desirable/
Let us glance at these four points a little more in detail.
No. i surely needs no demonstration. (Every year there is more communication between men of different race and language. And it is not business, in the narrow sense of the term, that is exclusively or even chiefly affected by diversity of language. Besides the enormous bulk of pleasure travel, international congresses are growing in number and importance') municipal fraternization is the latest fashion, and many a worthy alderman,
THE QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE 5
touring at the ratepayers' expense, must wish that he had some German in Berlin, or 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 have taken place, rather than in business, which is organized in view of the difficulty. Then there is the whole realm of scientific and learned literature — work of which the accessibility to all concerned is of the first importance, but is often hindered because a translation into one language does not pay, or, if made, only reaches a limited public. Such bars to freedom of interchange cannot be reckoned in money; but modern economics recognizes the personal and social factor, and any obstacle to 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 up in our days. Democracy, science, and universal education are producing everywhere similarity of institutions, of industry, of the whole organization of life. Similarity of life will breed community of interests, and from this arises real converse—more give and take in the things that matter, less purely superficial dealings of the guide-book or conversation-manual type.
(2) " Business," meaning commerce, in so far as it is inter- national, may at present be carried on mainly in half a dozen of the principal languages of Western Europe. Even so, their multiplicity is vexatious. But outside the world of business other languages are entering the field, 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 life and importance. The language difficulty in the Austrian Empire reflects the growing self-consciousness of the Magyars. ^Everywhere where young peoples are pushing their rights to take equal rank among the nations of the world, the language question is put in the forefront) The politicians of Ireland and Wales have realized the importance of language in asserting nationality, but such engineered language-agitation offers but
6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
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 English in England. These lands will fight harder and harder against the claims to supremacy of a handful of Western intruders. A famous foreign philologist,* in a report on the subject pre- sented to the Academy of Vienna, notes the increasing tendency of Russian to take rank among the recognized languages for purposes of polite learning. He is well placed to observe. tWith Russia knocking at the door and Hungary waiting to storm the breach, what tongue may not our descendants of the next century have to learn, under pain of losing touch with important currents of thought ? It is high time something were done to standardize means of transmission. Owing to political conditions, there are linguistically disintegrating forces at work, which are at variance with the integrating forces of natural tendency!
From an economical point of view, a considerable amount of time, effort, and money must be 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 proceedings of 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.t
* Prof. Shuchardt.
f These are some of the actual visible losses owing to the presence of the language difficulty. No one can estimate the value of the losses entailed by the absence of free intercourse due to removable linguistic barriers. Potential (but at present non-realized) extension of goodwill, swifter progress, and wider knowledge represent one side of their value ; while consequent non-realized increase in volume of actual business represents their value in money. The negative statement of absence of results from intercourse that never took place affords no measure of positive results obtainable under a better system.
THE QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE 7
The tendency of those engaged in advancing material progress, which consists in the subjection of nature to man's ends, is to adapt more and more quickly their methods to changing con- ditions. 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 capable of running and turning out good work, in order to replace it by newer machinery, capable of turning out more work in the same time. Time is money. Can the busy world afford a language difficulty ?
(3) The proposition that it is economically sounder to carry on
(international intercourse in one easy language than in a large
number of hard ones rests upon the principle that it does not pay
to do a thing a hard way, if the same results can be produced by
an easy way;)
The whole industrial revolution brought about by the invention of machinery depended upon this principle. Since an artificial language, like machinery, is a means invented by man of furthering his ends, there seems to be no abuse of analogy in comparing them.
When it was found that machinery would turn out a hundred pieces of cloth while the hand-loom turned out one, the hand- loom was doomed, except in so far as it may serve other ends, antiquarian, aesthetic, or artistic, which are not equally well served by machinery. Similarly, to take another revolution which is going on in our own day through a further application of machinery, when it is found that corn can be reaped and threshed by machinery, that hay can be cut, made, carried, and stacked by machinery, that man can travel the high road by machinery, sooner or later machinery is bound to get the bulk of the job, because it produces the same results at greater speed and less cost. So, in the field of international intercourse, if an easy artificial language can with equal efficiency and at less cost produce the same results as a multiplicity of natural ones, in many lines of human activity, and making all reserves in matters antiquarian, aesthetic, and
8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
artistic, sooner or later the multiplicity will have to go to the scrap-heap * as cumbrous and out of date. It may be 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.
So much, then, for the question of principle. In treating it, certain large assumptions have been made ; e.g. it is said above, " if an easy artificial language can with equal efficiency . . . produce the same results," etc. Here it is assumed that the artificial language is (i) easy, and (2) that it is possible for it to produce the same results. Again, however easy and possible, its introduction might cost more than it saved. These are questions of fact, and are treated in the three following chapters under the heading of " The Question of Practice."
Ill
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE — AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IS
POSSIBLE
THE man who says a thing is impossible without troubling to find out whether it has been done is merely "talking through his hat," to use an Americanism, and we need not waste much time on him. Any one, who maintains that it is impossible to transact the ordinary business of life and write lucid treatises on scientific and other subjects in an artificial language, is simply in the position of the French engineer, who gave a full scientific demon- stration of the fact that an engine could not possibly travel by steam.
The plain fact is that not only one artificial language, but
* But only, of course, in those lines in which an international auxiliary language can produce equally good results. This excludes home use, national literature, philology, scholarly study of national languages, etc.
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 9
several, already exist, which not only can express, but already have expressed all the ideas current in social intercourse, business, and serious exposition. It is only necessary to state the facts briefly.
First — Volapiik.
Three congresses were held in all for the promotion of this language. The third (Paris, 1889) was the most important. It was attended by Volapiikists from many different nations, who carried on all their business in Volapiik, and found no difficulty in understanding one another. Besides this, there were a great many newspapers published in Volapiik, which treated of all kinds of subjects.
Secondly — Idiom Neutral, the lineal descendant of Volapiik.
It is regulated by an international academy, which sends round circulars and does all its business in Idiom Neutral.
Thirdly — Esperanto*
jSince the publication of the language in 1887 it has had a gradually increasing number of adherents, who have used it for all ordinary purposes of communication. A great number of newspapers and reviews of all kinds are now published regularly in Esperanto in a great variety of countries^ I take up a chance number of the Internada Scienca Revuo, which happens to be on my table, and find the following subjects among the contents of the month : " Role of living beings in the general physiology of the earth," "The carnivorous animals of Sweden," "The part played by heredity in the etiology of chronic nephritis," " The migration of the lemings," " Notices of books," " Notes and correspondence," etc. In fact, the Review has all the appearance of an ordinary scientific periodical, and the articles are as clearly expressed and as easy to read as those in any similar review in a national language.
Even more convincing perhaps, for the uninitiated, is the evidence afforded by the International Congresses of Esper- antists. The first was held at Boulogne in August 1905. It marked an epoch in the lives of many of the participants, whose
io INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
doubts as to the practical nature of an artificial language there, for good and all, yielded to the logic of facts ; and it may well be that it will some day be rather an outstanding landmark in the history of civilization. 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 races. Some were experts, some were beginners ; but all save a very few must have been alike in this, that they had learnt their Esperanto at home, and, as far as oral 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 under the same conditions as to pronunciation, etc., as themselves. Experts and beginners, those who from practical experience knew the great possibilities 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 — in the one case to test the faith that was in them, in the other to set all doubt at rest in one sense or the other for good and all.
The town theatre had been generously placed at the disposal of the Congress, and the author of the language, Dr. Zamenhof, had left his eye-patients at Warsaw and come to preside at the coming out of his kara lingvo, now well on in her 'teens, and about to leave the academic seclusion of scholastic use and emerge into the larger sphere of social and practical activity.
On Saturday evening, August 5, at eight o'clock, the Boulogne Theatre was packed with a cosmopolitan audience. The unique assembly was pervaded by an indefinable feeling of expectancy ; as in the lull before the thunderstorm, there was the hush of 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 Dr. Zamenhof stood up for the first time to address his world- audience in the world-tongue. Would they understand him ?
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE n
Was their hope about to be justified ? or was it all a chimera, " such stuff as dreams are made on " ?
" Gesinjoroj " ( = Ladies and gentlemen) — the great audience craned forward like one man, straining eyes and ears towards the speaker, — " Kun granda plezuro mi akceptis la proponon ..." The crowd drank in the words with an almost pathetic agony of anxiety. Gradually, as the clear-cut sentences poured forth in a continuous stream of 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 gave way to a scene of wild enthusiasm. Men shook hands with perfect strangers, and all cheered and cheered again. Zamenhof finished with a solemn declamation of one of his hymns (given as an appendix to this volume, with translation), embodying the lofty ideal which has inspired him all through and sustained him through the many difficulties he has had to face. When he came to the end, the fine passage beginning with the words, " Ni inter popoloj la murojn detruos " (" we shall throw down the walls between the peoples "), and ending " amo kaj vero ekregos sur tero " (" love and truth shall begin their reign on earth "), the whole concourse rose to their feet with prolonged cries of " Vivu Zamenhof ! "
No doubt this enthusiasm may sound rather forced and unreal to those who have not attended a congress, and the cheers may ring hollow across intervening time and space. Neither would it be good for this or any movement to rely upon facile enthusiasm, as easily damped as aroused. There is something far more than this in the international language movement.
At the same time, it is impossible for any one who has not tried it to realize the thrill — not a weak, sentimental thrill, but a reason- able thrill, starting from objective fact and running down the marrow of things — given by the first real contact with an
12 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
international language in an international setting. There really is a feeling as of a new power born into the world.
Those who were present at the Geneva Congress, 1906, will not soon forget the singing of the song "La Espero " at the solemn closing of the week's proceedings. The organ rolled out the melody, and when the gathered thousands that thronged the floor of the hall and packed the galleries tier on tier to the ceiling took up the opening phrase —
En la mondon venis nova sento, Tra la mondo iras forta voko,*
they meant every word of it. It was a fitting summary of the impressions left by the events of the week, and what the lips uttered must have been in the hearts and minds 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 way in which the present writer came to take up Esperanto, and of the experiences which soon led him to the conviction of its absolute practicability and utility.
In October, 1905, having just returned from an absence of some years in Canada and the Far East, he had his attention turned to Esperanto for the first time by reading an account of the Congress of Boulogne. He had no previous knowledge of, 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 visionary scheme. In short, his attitude was quite normal.
But here was a definite statement, professing to be one of positive accomplished fact. One of two things : either the news- paper account was not true ; or else, the facts being as represented, here was a new possibility to be reckoned with. The only course was to send for the books and test the thing on its merits. Being somewhat used to languages, he did not take long to see that this one was good enough in itself. A letter, written in
* Into the world has come a new feeling, Through the world goes a mighty call.
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 13
Esperanto, after a few days' study of the grammar at odd times, with a halfpenny Esperanto-English key enclosed, was fully under- stood by the addressee, though he was ignorant up till then of the very existence of Esperanto. This experience has often been since repeated ; indeed, the correspondent will often write back after a few days in Esperanto. Such letters have always been found intelligible, though in no case did the correspondent know Esperanto previously. The experiment is instructive and amusing, and can be tried by any one for an expenditure of twopence for 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.
After a month or two's playing with the language in spare time, the writer further tested it, by sending out a flight of postcards to various selected Esperantists' addresses in different parts of the Russian Empire. The addressees ranged from St. Petersburg and Helsingfors through Poland to the Caucasus and to far Siberia. In nearly every case answers were received, and in some instances the initial interchange of postcards led to an extremely interesting correspondence, throwing much light on the disturbed state of things in the native town or province of 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 unrest on the schools — lockouts and "malodorous chemical obstructions" (Anglice — the schools were stunk out). Many writers expressed themselves with great freedom, but feared their letters would not pass the censor. Judging by the proportion of answers received, the censorship was not at that time efficient. In no case was there any difficulty in grasping the writer's meaning. All the answers were in Esperanto.
This was fairly convincing, but still having doubts on the question of pronunciation, the writer resolved to attend the Esperanto Congress to be held at Geneva in August 1906. To
14 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
this end he continued to read Esperanto at odd minutes and took in an Esperanto gazette. About three weeks before the congress he got a member of his family to read aloud to him every day as far as possible a page or two of Esperanto, in order to attune his ear. He never had an opportunity of speaking the language before the congress, except once for a few minutes, when he travelled some distance to attend a meeting of the nearest English group.
Thus equipped, he went through the Congress of Geneva, and found himself able to follow most of the proceedings, and to converse freely, though slowly, with people of the most diverse nationality. At an early sitting of the congress he found himself next to a Russian from Kischineff, who had been through the first great pogrom, and a most interesting conversation ensued. Another day the neighbours were an Indian nawab and an abbe from Madrid. Another time it was a Bulgarian. At the first official banquet he sat next to a Finn, who rejoiced in the name of Attila, and, but for the civilizing influence of a universal language, might have been in the sunny south, like his namesake of the ancient world, on a very different errand from his present peaceful one. Yet here he was, rubbing elbows with Italians, as if there had never been such things as Huns or a sack of Rome by northern barbarians.
During the meal a Frenchman, finding himself near us English and some Germans, proposed a toast to the " entente cordiale taking in Germany," which was honoured with great enthusiasm. This is merely an instance of the small ways in which such gatherings make for peace and good will.
With all these people it was perfectly easy to converse in the common tongue, pronunciation and national idiom being no bar in practice.
And this experience was general throughout the duration of the congress. Day by day sittings were held for the transaction of all kinds of business and the discussion of the most varied subjects. It was impressive to see people from half the countries of the
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 15
world rise from different corners of the hall and contribute their share to the discussion in the most matter-of-fact way. Day by day the congressists met in social functions, debates, lectures, and sectional groups (chemical, medical, legal, etc.) for the regulation of matters touching their special interests. Everything was done in Esperanto, and never was there the slightest hitch or misunderstanding, or failure to give adequate expression to opinions owing to defects of language. The language difficulty was annihilated.
Perhaps one 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 inevitably have been grotesque in any national language ; but here they met on common neutral ground. No one's accent was " foreign," and none of the spectators possessed that mother-tongue acquaintance with Esperanto that would lead them to feel slight divergences shocking, or even noticeable without extreme attention to the point. Other theatrical per- formances were given at Geneva, as also at Boulogne, where a play of Moliere was performed in Esperanto by actors of eight nation- alities with one rehearsal, and with full success.
In the face of these facts it is idle to oppose a universal artificial language on the score of impossibility or inadequacy. The theoretical pronunciation difficulty completely crumbled away before the test of practice.
The " war-at-any-price party," the whole-hoggers d tous crins (the juxtaposition of the two national idioms lends a certain realism, and heightens the effect of each), are therefore driven back on their second line of attack, if the Hibernianism may be excused. "Yes," they say, "your language may be possible, but, after all, why not learn an existing language, 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 to the prejudice of the others, this argument involves the
1 6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
suggestion that an artificial language is no easier to learn than a natural one. We thus come to the question of ease as a qualification.
IV
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE (continued) — AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IS EASY *
PEOPLE smile incredulously at the mention of an artificial language, implying that no easy royal road can be found to language-learning of any kind. But the odds are all the other way, and they are heavy odds.
The reason for this is quite simple, and may be briefly put as follows :
The object of language is to express thought and feeling. Every natural language contains all kinds of complications and irregularities, which are of no use whatever in attaining this object, but merely exist because they happen to have grown. Their sole raison d'etre is historical. In fact, for a language without a history they are unnecessary.^ Therefore a universal language, whose only object is to supply to every one the simplest possible means of expressing his thoughts and feelings in a medium intelligible to every one else, simply leaves them out. Now, it is precisely in these " unnecessary " complications that a large proportion — certainly more than half — of the difficulty of learning a foreign language consists. Therefore an artificial language, by merely leaving them out, becomes certainly more than twice as easy to learn as any natural language.
* Readers who do not care about the reasons for this, but desire concrete proofs, may skip the next few pages and turn in to p. 20, par. 6.
f i.e. they do not assist in attaining its object as a language. One universal way of forming the plural, past tense, or comparative expresses plurality, past time, or comparison just as well as fifteen ways, and with a deal less trouble.
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 17
A little reflection will make this truth so absurdly obvious, that the only wonder is, not that it is now beginning to be recognized, but that any one could have ever derided it.
That the "unnecessary" difficulties of a natural language are more than one-half of the whole is certainly an under-estimate; for some languages the proportion would be more like 3 : 4 or 5 : 6. Compared with these, the artificial language would be three times to five times as easy.
Take an illustration. Compare the work to be done by the learner of (a) Latin, (b] Esperanto, in expressing past, present, and future action.
(a) Latin :
Present tense active is expressed by —
6 endings in the ist regular conjugation. 6 „ 2nd „
6 „ 3rd »
6 „ 4th „
Total regular endings : 24.
To these must be added a vast number of quite different and varying forms for irregular verbs. (&) Esperanto : Present tense active is expressed by —
i ending for every verb in the language.
Total regular and irregular endings : i.
It is exactly the same for the past and future.
Total endings for the 3 tenses active :
(a) Latin : 72 regular forms, plus a very large number of irregular and defective verbs.
(b] Esperanto : 3 forms.
Turning to the passive voice, we get —
(a) Latin : A complete set of different endings, some of them puzzling in form and liable to confusion with other parts of the verb.
i8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
(b) Esperanto : No new endings at all. Merely the three-form regular active conjugation of the verb esti = to be, with a passive participle. No confusion possible.
It is just the same with compound tenses, subjunctives, participles, etc. Making all due allowances, it is quite safe to say that the Latin verb is fifty times as hard as the Esperanto verb.
The proportion would be about the same in the case of substantives, Latin having innumerable types.
Comparing modern languages with Esperanto, the proportion in favour of the latter would not be so high as fifty to one in the inflection of verbs and nouns, though even here it would be very great, allowing for subjunctives, auxiliaries, irregu- larities, etc. But taking the whole languages, it might well rise to ten to one.
For what are the chief difficulties in language-learning ?
They are mainly either difficulties of phonetics, or of structure and vocabulary.
Difficulties of phonetics are :
(1) Multiplicity of sounds to be produced, including many sounds and combinations that do not occur in the language of the learner.
(2) Variation of accent, and of sounds expressed by the same letter.
These difficulties are both eliminated in Esperanto.
(1) Relatively few sounds are adopted into the language, and only such as are common to nearly all languages. For instance, there are only five full vowels and three * diphthongs, which can be explained to every speaker in terms of his own language. All the modified vowels, closed "u's" and "e's," half tones, longs and shorts, open and closed vowels, etc., which form the chief bugbear in correct pronunciation, and often render the foreigner unintelligible — all these disappear.
(2) There is no variation of accent or of sound expressed by
* Omitting the rare eu. ej and uj are merely simple vowels plus consonantal ; ( = English y).
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE ig
the same letter. The principle " one letter, one sound " * is adhered to absolutely. Thus, having learned one simple rule for accent (always on the last syllable but one), and the uniform sound borresponding to each letter, no mistake is possible. Contrast this with English. Miss Soames gives twenty-one ways of writing the same sound. Here they are :
ate great feign
bass eh ! weigh
pain gaol aye
pay gauge obeyed
dahlia champagne weighed
vein campaign trait
they straight half 'penny t
(Compare eye, lie, high, etc.)
In Esperanto this sound is expressed only and always by "e." In fact, the language is absolutely and entirely phonetic, as all real language was once.
As regards difficulties of vocabulary, the same may be said as in the case of the sounds. Esperanto only adopts the minimum of roots essential, and these are simple, non-ambiguous, and as international as possible. Owing to the device of word-building by means of a few suffixes and prefixes with fixed meaning, the number of roots necessary is very greatly less than in any natural language, j
As for difficulties of structure, some of the chief ones are as follows :
Multiplicity and complexity of inflections. This does not exist in Esperanto.
* The converse — "one sound, one letter" — is also true, except that the same sound is expressed by c and ts. (See Appendix C.)
f Prof. Skeat adds a twenty-second : Lord Reay !
\ Most of these roots are already known to educated people. For the young the learning of a certain number of words presents practically no difficulty ; it is in the practical application of words learnt that they break down, and this failure is almost entirely due to " unnecessary " difficulties.
20 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Irregularities and exceptions of all kinds. None in Esperanto.
Complications of orthography. None in Esperanto.
Different senses of same word, and different words used in same sense. Esperanto — " one word, one meaning."
Arbitrary and fluctuating idioms. Esperanto — none. Common sense and common grammar the only limitation to combination of words.
Complexities of syntax. (Think of the use of the subjunctive and infinitive in all languages : ou and /x^ in Greek ; indirect speech in Latin; negatives, comparisons, etc., etc., in all languages.) Esperanto — none. Common sense the only guide, and no ambiguity in practice. The perfect limpidity of Esperanto, with no syntactical rules, is a most instructive proof of the con- ventionality and arbitrariness of the niceties of syntax in national languages. After all, the subjunctive 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 Esperanto ought 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 first took up Esperanto in October 1905, worked at it at odd times, never spoke it or heard it spoken save once, and was able to follow the proceedings of the Congress of Geneva in August 1906, and talk to all foreigners. From a long experience of 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.
A lady who began Esperanto three weeks before the congress, and studied it in a grammar by herself one hour each day, was able to talk in it with all peoples on very simple subjects, and to follow a considerable amount of the lectures, etc.
Amongst the British folk who attended the congress were many clerks and commercial people, who had merely learnt Esperanto by attending a class or a local group meeting once a week, often
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 21
for not many months. They had never been out of England before, nor learnt any other foreign language. They 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 two days spent en route in Paris, where the British party was feted and shown round by the French Esperantists, on the journey to Geneva, which English and French made together, on lake steamboats, at picnics and dinners, etc., etc., here they were, rattling away with great ease and mutual entertainment. Many of these came from the North of England, and it was a real eye- opener, over which easy-going South-Englanders would do well to ponder, to see what results could be produced by a little energy and application, building on no previous linguistic training. The Northern accent was evidently a help in pronouncing the full-sounding vowels of Esperanto.
One Englishman, who was talking away gaily with the French samideanoj * was an Esperantist of one year's standing. He had happened to be at Boulogne in pursuit of a little combined French and seasiding at the time of the first congress held there, 1905. One day he got his tongue badly tied up in a cafe, and was helped out of his linguistic difficulties with the waiter by certain com- patriots, who wore green stars in their buttonholes,t and sat at another table conversing in an unknown lingo with a crowd of foreigners. He made inquiries, and found it was Esperanto they were talking. He was so much struck by their facility, and the practical way in which they had set his business to rights in a minute (the waiter was an Esperantist trained ad hoc !), that he decided to give up French and go in for Esperanto. This man was a real learner of French, who had spent a long time on it, and realized with disgust his impotence to wield it practically. To judge by his conversation next year at Geneva, he had no such difficulty with Esperanto. He was quite jubilant over the change.
* Terse Esperanto word. = partisans of the same idea (i.e. Esperanto), f The Esperanto badge.
22 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Such examples could be multiplied ad infinitum. No one who attended a congress could fail to be convinced.
Scientific comparison of the respective difficulty of Esperanto and other languages, based on properly collected and tabulated results, does not seem to be yet obtainable. It is difficult to get high-class schools, where language-teaching is a regular and import- ant part of the curriculum, to give an artificial language a fair trial. Properly organized and carried-out tests are greatly to be desired. If and when they are made, it will probably be found that Esperanto is not only very easy of acquisition itself, but that it has a beneficial effect upon other language-learning.*
Meantime, the present 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 week. The head-mistress introduced Esperanto as a regular school subject at the beginning of the Easter term, January 1907. At the end of term a test paper was set, consisting of English sentences to be rendered into French and Esperanto without any dictionary or other aid, and one short passage of English prose to be rendered into both languages with any aid from books that the pupils wished. The 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.
The examinees ranged from fourteen to sixteen years. They had been learning French from two to seven years, and had a daily French lesson, besides speaking French on alternate days in the school. They had learnt Esperanto for ten weeks, from one to one and a half hours per week. Taking the papers all through, the Esperanto results were nearly as good as the French.
One last experiment may be mentioned. It was made under scientific conditions on September 23, 1905. The subject was an adult, who had learnt French and German for years at school, and had since taught French to young boys, but was not a linguist by training or education, having read mathematics at the university. * See pp. I4S-SS-
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 23
He had had no lessons in Esperanto, and had never studied the language, his sole knowledge of it being derived from general con- versation with an enthusiast, who had just returned from the Geneva Congress. He was disposed to laugh at Esperanto, 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 into Esperanto. The following written aids were given :
1. Twenty-five crude roots (e.g. lern- =to learn.)
2. One suffix, with explanation of its use.
3. A one-page complete grammar of the Esperanto language.
4. An Esperanto-English and an English-Esperanto dictionary. He produced a good page of perfectly intelligible 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 the last two types. They 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 Esperanto to some English or foreign correspondent, enclosing a penny key. The letter will certainly be understood, and very likely the answer will be in Esperanto.
Doubters as to the ease and efficacy of a universal language are not asked to believe without trial. They are merely asked not to condemn or be unfavourable until they have a right to an opinion on the subject. And they are asked to form an opinion by personally testing, or 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 for a few hours and attend a congress. The next congress is to be held in Cambridge, England, in August 1907.
24 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Nothing is more unscientific or unintelligent than to scoff at a thing, while refusing to examine whether there is anything in it.
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE (continued} — THE INTRODUCTION OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE WOULD NOT CAUSE DISLOCATION
IN Chapters II., III., and IV. it was sought to prove that a universal language is desirable in principle, that it already exists and is efficient, and that it is very easy. If these propositions 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 international uniformity of practice and, therefore, ultimately productive of saving of labour are nevertheless such that their realization would cause an almost prohibitive dislocation of present organization. A conspicuous example is the proposed adoption of the decimal system in coinage and weights and measures. So great is the loss of time and trouble (and therefore of money) entailed by using an antiquated and cumbrous system instead of a simple and modern one that does the work as well, that the big firm Kynochs some months ago introduced the decimal system, in spite of the enormous difficulty of having to keep a double method going. But hitherto, 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
* Out of date, because it has failed to keep pace with the change of pronunciation. Spelling, i.e. use of writing, was merely a device for repre- senting to the eye the spoken sounds, so that failure to do this means getting out of date.
THE QUESTION OF PRACTICE 25
close analogy to the multilingual system of international intercourse, as regards unprofitable expenditure of time and trouble.
But where the analogy breaks down altogether is in the matter of obstacles to reform.
Supposing that all the ministries of education in the world issued orders, that as from January i, 1909, an auxiliary language should be taught in every government school ; supposing that merchants took to doing foreign business wholesale in an auxiliary language, or that men of science took to issuing all their books and treatises in it ; whose business would be dislocated ? What literature or books would become obsolete ? Who, except foreign correspondence clerks and interpreters, would be a penny the worse ? Surely a useful reform need not be delayed or refused in the interests of interpreters and correspondence clerks. Even these would only be eliminated gradually as the reform spread. There would be absolutely no general confusion analogous to that following on a sudden change to phonetic spelling or the metric system, because nothing would be displaced.
Look at the precedents — the adoption of an international maritime code, and of an international system of cataloguing which puts bibliography on an equal footing all over the world by means of a common system of classification. Did any confusion or dislocation follow on these reforms ? Quite the contrary. It was enough for England and France to agree on the use of the maritime code, and the rest of the nations had to come into line. It would be the same with the official recognition by a group of powerful nations of an auxiliary language. As soon as the world recognizes that it is a labour-saving device on a large scale, and a matter of public convenience on the same plane as codes, telegraphy, or shorthand, it will no doubt be introduced. But why wait until there are rival schemes with large followings and vested interests — in short, until the same obstacles arise to the choice of an international, artificial, and neutral language, as now prevent the elevation of any national language into a universal medium ? The plea of impracticability on the score of dislocation
26 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
might then be valid. At present it is not. To have an easy language that will carry you anywhere and enable you to read anything, it is sufficient to wish for it. Only, as we Britons are being taught to "think imperially," so must the nations learn in this matter to wish internationally.
VI
INTERNATIONAL ACTION ALREADY TAKEN FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF AN AUXILIARY LANGUAGE *"* l~ *
THE main work of educating £he public to " wish internationally," the necessary precedent to official action, has naturally in the past been done by the adherents of the various language-schemes themselves. An outline of the most important of these 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 language, and a brief account of it may be given here.
During the Paris Exhibition of 1900 a number of international congresses and learned societies, which were holding meetings there, appointed delegates for the consideration of the inter- national language question. These delegates met on January 17, 1901, and founded a "Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language." They drew up the following declaration, which has been approved by all subsequently elected delegates :
DELEGATION FOR THE ADOPTION OF AN INTERNATIONAL AUXILIARY LANGUAGE
Declaration
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 DELEGATION 27
HI) There is a necessity to choose and to spread the use of an international language, designed not to replace national idioms in the individual life of each people, but to serve in the written and oral relations between persons whose mother-tongues are different),
(2) In order to fulfil its purpose usefully, an international language must satisfy the following conditions :
ist Condition : It must fulfil the needs of the ordinary intercourse of social life, of commercial communications, and of scientific and philosophic relations ;
2nd Condition : It must be easily acquired by every person of average elementary education, and especially by persons of European civilization :
3rd Condition : It must not be one of the national languages.
(3) It is desirable to organize a general DELEGATION repre- senting all who realize the necessity, as well as the possibility, of an international auxiliary language, and who are interested in its employment. This Delegation will appoint a Committee of members who can meet during a certain period of time. The purpose of this Committee is defined in the following articles.
(4) The choice of the auxiliary language belongs in the first instance to the International Association of Academies, or, in case of failure, to the Committee mentioned in Art. 3.
(5) Consequently the first duty of the Committee will be to present to the International Association of Academies, in the required forms, the desires expressed by the constituent Societies and Congresses, and to invite it respectfully to realize the project of an auxiliary language.
(6) It will be the duty of the Committee to create a Society for propaganda, to spread the use of the auxiliary language which is chosen.
(7) The undersigned, being delegated by 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.
28 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
(8) Representatives of regularly constituted Societies which have agreed to the present Declaration will be admitted as members of the DELEGATION. •
This declaration is the official programme of the Delegation. The most important point of principle to note is Art. 2, 3rd Con. : 41 It must not be one of the national languages."
As regards the methods of action prescribed, 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 matter for private initiative. No government can properly take up the question, no Ministry of Education can officially introduce 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 could only have been, in the most favourable case, the appoint- ment by the government appealed to of a commission to investi- gate and report on the question. Such a commission would examine experts and witnesses from representative bodies, such as academies, institutes, philological and other learned societies. The best course of action, therefore, for the promoters of an international language is to apply direct to such bodies, to bring the question before them and try to gain their support. This is what the Delegation has done.
Now, there already exists an international organization whose object is to represent and focus the opinion of learned societies in all countries. This is the International Association of Academies, formed in 1900 for the express purpose, according to its statutes, of promoting " scientific enterprises of international interest." The delegates feel that the adoption of an international language comes in the fullest sense within the letter and spirit of this statute. It is, therefore, to this Association that the choice of language is, in the first place, left. (Art. 4.)
The Association meets triennially. At its first meeting (Paris 1901) the question of international language was brought before
ATTITUDE OF LEARNED BODIES 29
it by General Se"bert, of the French Institute, but too late to be included among the agenda of that meeting. The occasion was important as eliciting an expression of opinion on the part of the signatories to General Sebert's address. These included twenty- five members of the French Institute, one of the most distinguished scientific bodies in the world.
At the second meeting of the Association (London 1904) the Delegation did not officially present the question for discussion, but the following paragraph appears in the report of the pro- ceedings of the Royal Society, which was the host {London Royal Society, 1904, C. Section of Letters, Thursday, May 26, 1904, p. 33) :
"In the course of the sitting, the chairman (Lord Reay, President of the British Academy) submitted to the meeting whether the question of the ' International Auxiliary Language ' should be considered, though not included in the agenda. From many quarters applications had been made that the subject might be discussed in some form or other. Prof. Goldziher and M. Perrot spoke against the suggested discussion, the former maintaining that the matter was a general question of international communication, and did not specifically affect scientific interests ;. the latter announced that he had been commissioned by the Acadlmie des Inscriptions to oppose the consideration of this subject. The matter then dropped."
The third meeting of the Association of Academies was held at Vienna at the end of May 1907, under the auspices of the Vienna Academy of Science. The question was officially laid before it by the Delegation. The Association declared, for formal reasons, that the question did not fall within its competence.*
Up till now only two national academies have shown themselves favourable to the scheme, those of Vienna and Copenhagen.
* In the voting as to the inclusion of the question in the agenda, eight votes were cast in favour of international language, and twelve against. This con- siderable minority shows very encouraging progress in such a body, considering the newness of the scheme.
30 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
The Vienna Academy commissioned one of its most eminent members, Prof. Schuchardt, to watch the movement on its behalf, and to keep it informed on the subject. In 1904 he presented a report favourable to an international language. He and Prof. Jespersen are amongst the most famous philologists who support the movement.
It is not therefore anticipated that the Association of Academies will take up the question ; and the Delegation, thinking it desirable not to wait indefinitely till it is converted, has proceeded to the election of a committee, as provided in Art. 4 of the Declaration. It consists of twelve members, with powers to add to their number. It will meet in Paris, October 5, 1907. It is anticipated that the language chosen will be Esperanto. None of 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 Committee 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 Esperanto into the State schools of France, signed by twelve members of Parliament and referred by the House to the Commission. This year the proposal has been presented again in a different form. The text of the scheme, which is much more practical than the former one, is as follows :
"The study of the international language Esperanto will be included in the curricula of those government schools in which modern languages are already taught.
" This study will be optional, and candidates who offer for the various examinations English, German, Italian, Spanish, or Arabic, will be allowed to offer Esperanto as an additional subject.
" They will be entitled to the advantages enjoyed by candidates who offer an additional language."
At present it is a very usual thing to offer an additional language, and if this project passes, Esperanto will be on
FRANCE LEADS EUROPE AGAIN 31
exactly the same footing as other languages for this purpose. The project of recognizing Esperanto as a principal language for examination was entirely impracticable. 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 introducing an auxiliary language into the schools, when one has been chosen by the Delegation or by the Association of Academies. It is therefore possible that in a year or two Esperanto may be officially 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 and, above all other peoples, devoted to the cult of their own language and literature, it is somewhat remarkable that the cause of an artificial language should have made more progress
Mtag^Mjp^^MMpPV^^^MB
among them than elsewhere. It might have been anticipated that the Obstructionist outcry, raised so freely in all countries by those who imagine that an insidious attack is being made on taste, culture, and national language and literature^ would have been particularly loud in France. On the contrary, it is precisely in that country that the movement has made most popular progress, and that it numbers the most scientists, scholars, and distinguished men among its adherents. Is it that history will one day have to record another case of France leading Europe in the van of progress ?
Encouraged by the number of distinguished signatures obtained in France to their petition in 1901, the Delegation drew up a formula of assent to their Declaration, which they circulate amongst (i) members of academies, (2) members of universities, in all countries. They also keep a list of societies of all kinds who have declared their adherence to the scheme. The latest lists (February and March 1907) show 1,060 signatures of academicians and university members, and 273 societies. In both cases the most influential backing is in France. Thus among the signatures figure in Paris alone :
10 professors of the College de France ;
8 „ „ „ Faculty of Medicine ; 13 „ „ „ Faculty of Science ;
11 „ „ „ Faculty of Letters ;
12 „ „ „ Ecole Normale ;
37 members of the Academy of Science ;
besides a host of other members of various learned bodies. Many of these are members of that august body the Institut de France, and one is a member of the Academic fran9aise — M. Lavisse,
It is the same in the other French Universities : Lyons University, 53 professors; Dijon, 34; Caen, 18; Besangon, 15; Grenoble, 26 ; Marseilles, 56, and so on.
Universities in other lands make a fair showing. America con- tributes supporters from John Hopkins University, 20 professors ; Boston Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 members ; Harvard, 7 professors; Columbia University, 23 professors; Washington Academy of Science, 19 members ; Columbus University, Ohio, 21 professors, etc. Dublin and Edinburgh both contribute a few. England is represented by one entry : "Cambridge, 2 professors." Perhaps the Cambridge Congress will change this somewhat. It will be strange if any one can actually witness a congress without having his imagination to some extent stirred by the possibilities.
A noticeable feature of the action of the Delegation throughout has been the scientific spirit in which it has gone to work, and its absolute impartiality as to the language to be adopted. It has everywhere, in its propaganda and circulars, spoken of "an international auxiliary language," and has been 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 in the field. Even the enthusiastic partisans of Esperanto are often completely ignorant of the existence of competitors. It was partly with the object of furnishing full information to the
IMPARTIALITY OF THE DELEGATION 33
Delegates who are to make the choice, that MM. Couturat and Leau composed their admirable Histoire de la langue universelle. It contains a brief but scientific account of each language mentioned, the leading principles of its construction, and an excellent critique. The main principles are disengaged by the authors with a masterly clearness and precision of analysis from the mass of material before them. Though they are careful to express no personal preference, and let fall nothing which might unfairly prejudice the delegates in favour of any scheme, it is not difficult to judge, by a comparison of the scientific critiques, which of the competing schemes analysed most fully carries out the principles which experience now shows to be essential to success for any artificial language.
The impression left is, that whether judged by the test of conformity to necessary principles, or by the old maxim " possession is nine points of the law," Esperanto has no serious rival.
VII
CAN THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE BE LATIN ?
THERE are some who fully admit the desirability of an inter- national language, but say that we have no need to invent one, as we have Latin. This tends to be the argument of literary persons.* They back it up by pointing out that Latin has already done duty in the Middle Ages as a common medium, and therefore, they say, what it has once done with success it can do again.
It is hard to argue with such persons, because they have not grasped the fact that the nature of international communication has undergone a complete change, and that therefore there is no
* It has even cropped up again in the able articles in The Times on the reformed pronunciation of Latin (April 1907).
3
34 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
presumption that the same medium will suffice for carrying it on. In the Middle Ages the cosmopolitan public was almost entirely a learned one. The 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 were learned subjects, mostly of a philosophical or literary nature, which Latin was adapted to express. The educated public was extremely small, and foreign travel altogether beyond the reach of all but the very few. The overwhelming mass of the people were illiterate, and fast tied to their native spot by lack of pence, lack of communications, and the general conditions of life.
Now that everybody can read and write and get about, and all the conditions of life have changed, the cosmopolitan public, so far from being confined to a handful of scholars and merchants, extends down to and is largely made up of that terrible modern production, "the man in the street." It is quite ridiculous to pretend that because an Erasmus or a Casaubon could carry on literary controversies, with amazing fluency and hard-hitting, in Ciceronian Latin, therefore " the bald-headed man at the back of the omnibus " can give up the time necessary to obtaining a control of Latin sufficient for the conduct of his affairs, or for hobnobbing with his kind abroad.
It is waste of time to argue with those who do not realize that the absolute essentials of any auxiliary language in these days are ease of acquirement and accessibility to all. There are actually some newspapers published in Latin and dealing with modern topics. As an amusement for the learned they are all very well; but the portentous periphrases to which they are reduced in de- scribing tramway accidents or motor-cars, the rank obscurity of the terms in which advertisements of the most ordinary goods are veiled, ought to be enough to drive their illusions out of the heads of the modern champions of Latin for practical purposes. Let these persons take in the Roman Vox Urbis for a month or two, or get hold of a copy of the London Alaudae, and see how they feel then.
DOG LATIN DAMNED 35
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 an artificial language, plus quite prohibitory ones of its own, without attaining the corresponding advantages. It is just as artificial as an entirely new language, without being nearly so easy (especially to speak) or adaptable to modern life. It sins against the cardinal principle that an auxiliary language shall inflict no damage upon any natural one. In short, it disgusts both parties (scholars and tradesmen), and satisfies the requirements of neither. Those who want an easy language, within the reach of the in- telligent person with only an elementary school groundwork of education, don't get it ; and the scholarly party, who treat any Artificial language as a cheap commercial schemeT'Jhave their teeth set on edge by unparalleled barbarisms, which must militate most seriously against the correct use of classical Latin.
Such schemes are dead of their own dogginess.
Latin, pure or mongrel, won't do.
VIII
CAN THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE BE GREEK ?
THIS chapter might be as short and dogmatic as Mark Twain's celebrated chapter upon snakes in Ireland. It would be enough to merely answer " No," but that the indefatigable Mr. Hender- son, after running through three artificial languages of his own, has come to the conclusion that Greek is the thing. Certainly, as regards flexibility and power of word-formation, Greek would be better than Latin on its own merits. But it is too hard, and the scheme has nothing practical about it,
36 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
IX
CAN THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE BE A MODERN LANGUAGE?
JINGOES are not wanting who say that it is unpatriotic of any Englishman to be a party to the introduction of a neutral language, because English is manifestly destined to be the language of the world.
Reader, did you ever indulge in the mild witticism of asking a foreigner where the English are mentioned in the Bible ? The answer, of course, is, The meek shall inherit the earth. But if the foreigner is bigger than you, don't tell him until you have got to a safe distance.
It is this (attitude of self-assertion, 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 peoples/i
This claim is not put forward in any spirit of deliberate insolence, or with the intention of ignoring other people's feel- ings ; though the very unconsciousness of any arrogance in such an attitude really renders it more galling, on 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 oneself at the point of view of others. The interests of English- speaking peoples are enormous, far greater than those of any other group of nations united by a common bond of speech. But it is a form of narrow provincial ignorance to refuse on that account to recognize that, compared to the whole bulk of civilized people, the English speakers are in a small minority, and that the majority includes many high-spirited peoples with a strongly developed sense of nationality, and destined to play a very important part in the history of the worfdJ Any sort of move- ment to have English or any other national language adopted officially as a universal auxiliary language would at once entail a
BRITISH IMPERIALISM NOT PAN-BRITONISM 37
boycott of the favoured language on the part of a ring of other powerful nations, who could not afford to give a rival the benefit of this augmented prestige. Andui is precisely upon universality of adoption that the great use of an international language will dependy
To sum up : the ignorance of contemporary history and fact displayed in the suggestion of giving the preference to any national language is only equalled by its futility, for it is futile to put forward a scheme that has no chance of even being discussed internationally as a matter of practical 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 Englandism on the part of the writer. On the contrary, he is ardently convinced of the mighty role that will be played among the nations by the British Empire, and has had much good reason in going to and fro in the world to ponder on its unique achievement in the past. When fully organized on some terms of partnership as demanded by the growth of the Colonies, it will go even farther in the future. But all this has nothing to do with an international language. Howsoever mighty, the British Empire will not swallow up the earth — at any rate, not in our time. And till it does, it is not practical politics to expect other peoples to recognize English as the international language as between themselves.
There are, in fact, two quite separate questions :
(1) Supposing it is possible for any national language to become the international one, which has the best claims ?
(2) Is it possible for any national language to be adopted as the international one ?
To question (i) the answer undoubtedly is ''English." It is already the language of the sea, and to a large extent the medium for transacting business between Europeans and Asiatic races, or
38 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
between the Asiatic races themselves.* Moreover, except for its pronunciation and spelling, it has intrinsically the best claim, as being the furthest advanced along the common line of development of Aryan language.t.. But the discussion of this question has no more than an academic interest, because the answer to question (2) is, for political reasons, in the negative.
CAN THE EVOLUTION OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE BE LEFT TO THE PROCESS OF NATURAL SELECTION BY FREE COMPETITION ?
"You base your argument for an international language mainly on the operation of economical laws. Be consistent, then ; leave the matter to Nature. By unlimited competition the best language is bound to be evolved and come to the top in the struggle for life. Let the fittest survive, and don't bother about Esperanto."
On a first hearing this sounds fairly plausible, yet it is honeycombed with error.
In the first place, it proves too much. The same argument could be adduced for the abandonment of effort of all kind whatever to improve upon Nature and her processes. " You can walk and run and swim. Don't bother to invent boats and bicycles, trains and aeroplanes, that will bring you more into touch with other peoples. Let Nature evolve the best form of international locomotion."
Again, Nature does not tend towards uniformity. She produces an infinity of variety in the individual, and out of this variety she selects and evolves certain prevailing types. But these types
* Another argument is that (based on the comparative numbers of people who speak the principal European languages as their mother-tongue. No accurate statistics exist, but an interesting estimate is quoted by Couturat and Leau (Hist, de la langue universelle), which puts English first with about 120,000,000, followed at a distance of 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 by Russian.
f This is explained in Part III., chap, i., q.v.
39
differ widely within the limits of the world under varying conditions of environment. What we are seeking to establish is world-wide uniformity, in spite of difference of environment.
Again, the argument confuses a sub- characteristic with an organism. ^A. language is not an organism, but one of the characteristics of man?) After the lapse of countless ages there are grey horses and black, bay and chestnut, presumably because greyness and blackness and the rest are incidental characteristics of a horse. No one 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 all the qualities that make for success, whether he speaks English or French, Russian or Japanese. It cannot be shown that language materially helps one people as against another, or even that the best race evolves the best language.* Take the last mentioned. If there is one people on the face of the globe who rejoice in an impossible language, it is the Japanese. In the early days of foreign intercourse a good Jesuit father reported that the Japanese were courteous and polite to strangers, but their language was plainly the invention of the devil. To a modern mind the language may have outlived its putative father, but its reputation has not improved, so far as ease is concerned. Yet who will say that it has impaired national efficiency ?
C£he fact is, that for purposes of transaction of ordinary affairs by those who speak it as a mother tongue, one language is about as good as another. Whether it survives or spreads depends, not upon its intrinsic qualities as a language, but upon the success of the race that speaks it.t There is, therefore, no
* Greece went down before Rome. Which was the better race, meaning by " better" the more capable of imposing its language and manners on the world ? Yet who doubts that Greek was the better language f
f A curious phenomenon of our day suggests a possible partial exception. In Switzerland French is steadily encroaching and bearing back German. Is this owing to the intrinsic qualities of French language and civilization ? Materially, the Germans have the greater expansive power.
40 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
presumption that the best or the most suitable or the easiest language will spread over the world by its own merits, or even that any easy or regular language will be evolved. Printing and education have altogether arrested the natural process of evolution of language on the lips of men. This 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 heretofore")
As regards free competition between rival artificial languages, the same considerations hold good. The worse might prevail just as easily as the better, because the determining factor is not the nature of the language, but the influence and general capacity of the rival backers. Of course a very bad or hard artificial language would not prevail against an easy one. But beyond a certain point of ease a universal language cannot go (ease meaning the ease of all), and that limit has probably been about reached now. Between future schemes there will be such a mere fractional difference in respect of ease, that competition becomes altogether beside the point. The thing is to take an easy one and stick to it.
XI
OBJECTIONS TO AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ON AESTHETIC
GROtJNDS
ONE 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 wheels of business ; but, after all,^we are not all business men, nor are we all out after dollars. Just think what a dull, drab uniformity your scheme would lay over the lands like a pall. By the artificial removal of natural barriers you are aiding and abetting the vulgarization of the world. You are doing what
WHO IS THE VANDALIZER? 41
in you lies to eliminate the racy, the local, the picturesque. The tongues of men are as stately trees, set deep in the black, mouldering soil of the past, and rich with its secular decay. The leaves are the words of the people, old yet ever new, and the flowers are the nation's poems, drawing their life from the thousand tiny roots that twist and twine unseen about the lives and struggles of bygone men. You are calling to us to come forth from the cool seclusion of these trees' shade, to leave their delights and toil in the glare of the world at raising a mushroom growth on a dull, featureless plain that reaches everywhither.} Modern Macbeths, sophisticated by your modernity and adding perverted instinct to crime, you are murdering not sleep, but dreams — dreams that haunt about the mouldering lodges of the past, and soften the contact with reality by lending their own colouring atmosphere. You are hammering the last nail into the coffin of the old leisurely past, the past that raised the cathedrals, to which taste and feeling were of supreme moment, and when man put something of himself into his every work."
\The man must be indeed dull of soul who cannot join in a dirge for the beauty of the vanishing past. Turn where we may now, we find the same railways, the same trams, music-halls, coats and trousers. The mad rush of modernity with its level- ling tendency really is killing off what is quaint, out of the way, and racy of the soil. But why visit the sins of modernity upon an international language ? The last sentence of the indictment itself suggests the line of defence. " You are hammering the last nail into the coffin of the old, leisurely past. . . ty
Quite so, you are.
The universal ability to use an auxiliary language on occasion rounds off and completes the levelling process. But the old leisurely past will not be any the less dead, or any the less effectually buried, if one nail is not driven home in the coffin. The slayer is modernity at large, made up of science, steam, democracy, universal education, and many other things — but especially universal education. And the verdict can be, at the most,
42 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
justifiable, or at any rate inevitable, pasticide. You cannot eat your cake and have it ; you cannot kill off all the bad things and keep all the good ones. With sterilization goes purification, pasticide may be accompanied by pasteurization. At any rate, "the old order changeth," and you've got to let it change.
The whole history of the "progress" of the world, meaning often material progress, is eloquent of the lesson that ft is vain to set artificial limits to advancing invention.") The substitution of cheap mechanical processes of manufacYure 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 afford to lose, and which we would give much to be able to bring back. The old semi-artist-craftsman, with hand and eye really trained up to something like their highest level of capacity, with knowledge not wide, but deep, and all gained from experience, and not from books or technical education — this type of character is a loss. Many, with the gravest reason, are dissatisfied with the type which has already largely replaced it, and which will replace it for good or evil, but ever more swiftly and surely. But no well- judging person proposes on that account to forgo the material advantages conferred upon mankind by the invention of machinery. If the world rejects, on sentimental grounds, the labour-saving in- vention of international language, it will be flying in the face of economic history, and it will not appreciably retard the disappear- ance of the picturesque.
There is another type of argument which may also be classed as aesthetic, but which differs somewhat from the one just dis- cussed. It emanates chiefly from literary men and scholars, and may be presented as follows :
" Language is precious, and worthy of study, inasmuch as it enshrines the imperishable monuments of the thought and genius of the race on whose lips it was born. The study of the words and forms in which a nation clothed its thoughts throws many a ray of light on phases of the evolution of the race itself, which
NOT AN END, BUT A MEANS 43
would otherwise have remained dark. ^The history of a language and literature is in some measure an epitome of the history of a people. We miss all these points of interest in your artificial language, and we shall, therefore, refuse to study it, and hereby commit it to the devil/y
This is a particularly humiliating type of answer to receive, because it implies that one is an ass. In 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 out 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 of an easy international language, because many commentaries, etc., would become accessible to them, which are not so now, or only at the expense of deciphering some difficult language in which the commentary is written, the commentary itself being in no sense literature, and its form a matter of complete indifference.
Back comes the old answer in one form or 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 opposition, and the way in which it may be met, is to give some extracts from a scholar's letter, and the writer's answer. The letter is fairly typical.
\1
" MY DEAR - , /T
" Many thanks for your long letter on Esperanto. . . . According to the books, Esperanto can be learnt quickly by any one. VThis means that they will forget it quite as rapidly ; for what is easily acquired is soon forgotten. . . Tj In my humble opinion, an Englishman who knows French and German would do much better to devote any extra time at his disposal to the study of his own language, which, I repeat, is one of the most delicate mediums of communication now in existence. ^It has taken
44 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
centuries to construct, while Esperanto was apparently created in a few hours. One is God's handiwork, and the other a man's toy. Personally, any living language interests me more than Esperanto"'? I am sorry I am such a heretic, but I fear my love for the English language carries me away. . . .
" Yours ever,
The points that rankle are artificiality and lack of a history.
MY DEAR
"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 device. The question is, Is it an efficient one ? If so, it must surely be adopted. The world wants to be saved labour. It never pays permanently to do things a longer way, if the shorter one produces equally good results. No one has yet proved, or, in my opinion, advanced any decent argument tending to show, that the results produced by a universal language will not be just as good for many purposes* as those produced by national languages. That the results are more economically produced surely does not admit of doubt.
" ' Personally, any living language interests me more than Esperanto.' 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 there to interest us. The question is, Does it, or not, save us or others unprofitable labour on a large scale ? Neither you nor most sane persons are probably particularly interested in short- hand or Morse codes or any signalling systems. Yet they bear up.
* And those very important ones, relatively to man's whole field of activity.
A SCHOLAR'S HERESY 45
"Do try to see that we think there is a certain felt want, amongst countless numbers of persons, which is much more efficiently and economically met by a neutral, easy, international language, than by any national one. That is the position you have got to controvert, if you are seriously to weaken the argument in favour of an international language. If you say that it is not a want felt by many people, I can only say, at the risk of being dogmatic, that you are wrong. I happen to know that it is.* The question then is, Is there an easy way of meeting that want? And the equally certain and well-grounded answer is, There 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 nor in principle, does it or should it make for choosing the harder way of arriving at a given result. Chance the forgetting, if necessary re-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 have said the first was man's lip-work, but I see what you mean. It is God working through his creature's natural development. The same is equally true of all man's ' toys.' Man moulded his language in pursuance of his ends under God. Under the same guidance he moulded the steam engine, the typewriter, shorthand, the semaphore, and all kinds of signals. What are the philosophical differentia that make Esperanto a toy, and natural language God's handiwork? Apparently the fact that Esperanto is 'artificial,' i.e. consciously produced by art. If this is the criterion, beware lest you damn man's works wholesale. If this is not the criterion, what is ?
* I have before me a list of 119 societies, representing many different lines of work and play and many nations, who had already in 1903 given in their adhesion to a scheme for an international language. Technical terms alone (in all departments of study) want standardizing, and an international language affords the best means. The number of societies is now (1907) over 270.
46
" ' An Englishman who knows French and German would do much better to devote any extra time at his disposal to the study of his own language.' Yes — if his object is to qualify as an artist in language. No — if his object is to save time and trouble in communicating with foreigners. You must compare like with like. It is unscientific and a confusion of thought to change the subject- matter of a man's employment of his time on grounds other than those fairly intercomparable. You have dictated as to how a man should employ his time by changing his object in employing his time. This makes the whole discussion irrelevant, in so far as it deals with the comparative advantage of studying one language or the other.
" Time's up ! I have missed my after-lunch walk, and I expect only hardened your heart.
" Yours,
And I had !
XII
WILL AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE DISCOURAGE THE STUDY OF MODERN LANGUAGES, AND THUS BE DETRIMENTAL TO CULTURE ? — PARALLEL WITH THE QUESTION OF COMPULSORY GREEK
THERE is a broad, twofold distinction in the aims with which the study of foreign languages is organized and undertaken.
It serves : first, purely utilitarian ends, and is a means ; secondly/fthe purposes of culture, and is an end in itselfo
An international auxiliary language aims at supplanting the first type of study completely, and, as it claims, with profit to the students. The second type it (hopes to leave wholly intact, and disclaims any attempt to interfere with it in any way. How far is this possible fj
The answer depends mainly upon the efficiency of the alter-
FORCED POLYGLOTTISM A HANDICAP 47
native offered by the new-comer in each case as a possible substitute.
Firstly, if it is true that a great portion of the human race, especially in the big polyglot empires and the smaller states of Europe, are groaning under the incubus of the language difficulty, and have to spend years on the study of mere words before they can fit themselves for an active career, then the abolition of this heavy handicap on due preparation for each man's proper business in life will liberate much time for more profitable studies. It is certain that the majority of mankind are non-linguistic by nature and inclination rather than linguistic — i.e. 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 languages during the acquisitive years of youth. By doing so, vast waste is caused, taking the world round. As to the attain- ment of the object of this first type of language study, not only is it as efficiently secured by a single universal language, but far more so. Ex hypothesi the object is utilitarian ; the language is a means. Well, a universal language is a better means than a national one — first, because, being universal, it is a means to more ; secondly, because, being easy and one, it is a means that more people can grasp and employ. In fact, it is in this field an efficient substitute ; it saves much, without losing anything.
{For the second type of language-study, on the other hand, where the end is culture and the language is studied for itself and in no wise as an indifferent means, a universal artificial language offers no substitute at aly This end is not on its programme. Why, then, should any language-study that is organized in view of culture be given up on its account ?
£Jt may, of course, be said that the time given to it by those who pursue culture in language will be taken from the time devoted to more worthy linguistic study, and will therefore prejudice the learning of other languages^) This is a point of technical pedagogics or psychology. There is very good reason,
48 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
from the standpoint of these sciences, to believe that a study of a simple type-tongue would, on the contrary, pay for itself in increased facility in learning other languages. But this is more fully discussed in the chapter for teachers (see pp. 145-55).
The question, however, is not in reality quite so simple as this. There is no water-tight partition between utilitarian and cultural language-study. They act and react upon each other. (There really is some ground for anxiety, lest the provision of facilities for learning an easy artificial language at your door may prevent people from going out of their way to learn national ones, which would have awakened scholarly instincts^ in them. The cause of culture would thus sustain some real hurt/
The question is another phase — a wider and lower-grade phase — of the great compulsory Greek question at Oxford and Cam- bridge. It affects the masses, whereas the Greek controversy affects the few at the top; but otherwise the issue at stake is essentially the same.
In both cases the bedrock of the problem is this, Can we afford 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 being freed from the dead weight of 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 compulsion, some of the present bounty-fed (i.e. 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 study Greek, and would have studied it to their profit. On the other hand, the university will be open to numbers of students who are at present shut out by the Greek tariff. Another barrier
REFUTED BY PHILOLOGY 49
against modernity will go down, and democracy make another step out of the proverbial gutter towards the university.
Similarly, the possession of a universally understood medium of communication will in some cases deter people from making the effort to study real language, with all the treasures of original literature to which it is the key.
'Tis true, 'tis pity ; and pity 'tis, 'tis true.
But — and this is the great point — it will open the cosmopolitan outlook to countless thousands who could never hope to grapple successfully with even one national language. This cannot be a small gain.
It all comes back to this — you cannot eat your cake and have it too. II faut souffrir pour lire belle. The international language has the defects of its qualities. But then its qualities are great, and the world is their sphere of utility.
XIII
OBJECTION TO AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ON THE GROUND THAT IT WILL SOON SPLIT UP INTO DIALECTS
THIS is a particularly unfortunate objection, because it displays a radical ignorance of the history of language, and of the conditions under which it develops.
In the first place, the whole tendency of language in the modern world is towards disappearance of local dialects, and their absorption into a uniform literary language. The dialects of England are almost dead before the onset of universal education, and the great work of Dr. Wright was only just in time to rescue them from oblivion. Even one generation hence it will be impossible to collect much of the local speech recorded in his dictionary. It is the same in Germany and everywhere, though, of course, all countries are not equally advanced in this respect. A standard form of words and grammar is fixed by print for the
4
50 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
literary language, and when every one can read and write, it is all up with national evolution of 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 the case in England, though even this will now be arrested by universal education. But a change of forms or of grammar can only be indefinitely slight and gradual. When it takes place, it reflects a common advance of the literary language, and not local or dialectical variation (though the common advance may have originally spread from one locality).
In the second place, dialects are variations that spring up under the stress of local circumstance in the familiar every-day unconscious use of a common mother tongue among people of the same race and inhabiting the same district. Now, these are the very circumstances in which an auxiliary international language never can, and never will, be used. The 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 be a distinct disadvantage as tending to unintelligibility. In short, a neutral language consciously learned as a means of com- munication with strangers is not on an equal footing with, or exposed to the same influences as, a mother tongue used by people every day under like conditions.
A cardinal point of difference is well illustrated by Esperanto. The whole foundation of the language, vocabulary, grammar, and everything else, is contained in one small book of a few pages, called Fundamento de Esperanto, No change can be made in this except by a competent elected international authority. Of course, no text-books or grammars will be authorized for the use of any nation that are not in accordance with the Fundamento. People will make mistakes, of course, just as they make mistakes in any foreign language, and they can help themselves out with any words from other languages, just as they do now when their
DOGMA DISPELS DOUBT 51
French or German fails them. But the standard is always there, simple and short, to correct any aberration, and there is no room for any alterations in form or structure to creep in.
XIV
OBJECTION THAT THE PRESENT INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
(ESPERANTO) is TOO DOGMATIC. AND REFUSES TO PROFIT BY CRITICISM
IT is true that Esperantists refuse to make any change in their language at present, and this is found irritating by some able critics, who wrongly imagine that this attitude amounts to a claim of perfection for Esperanto. The matter may be easily put right.
The inadmissibility of change (even for the better) is purely a matter of policy and dictated by practical considerations. Esperantists make no claim to infallibility ; they want to see their language universally adopted, and they want to see it as perfect as possible. Actual and bitter experience shows that the international language which admits change is lost. Universal acceptance and present change are incompatible. Esperantists, therefore, bow to the inevitable and deliberately choose to con- centrate for the present on acceptance. General acceptance, indeed, while it imposes upon the present body of Esperantists self-restraint in abstaining from change, is in reality the essential condition of profitable future amendment. When an international language has attained the degree of dissemination already enjoyed by Esperanto, the only safe kind of change that can be made is a posteriori, not a priori. When Esperanto has been officially adopted and comes into wide use, actual experience and consensus of usage amongst its leading writers will indicate the modifications that are ripe for official adoption. The competent international official authority will then from time to time duly register such changes, and they will become officially part of the language.
52 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Till then, any change can only cause confusion and alienate support. No one is going to spend time learning a language which is one 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 upon that which actual use has hit off.
This, then, is the explanation of the famous adjective " netusebla," applied by Dr. Zamenhof to his language, and so much resented in certain quarters. Surely not only is this degree of dogmatism amply justified by practical considerations, but it would amount to positive imprudence on the part of Esperantists to act otherwise. If the inventor of the language can show sufficient 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 their suggestions not being adopted, even though they may in some cases be real improvements.
The following extracts, translated from the Preface to Funda- mento de Esperanto (the written basic law of Esperanto), should set the question in the right light. It will be seen that Dr. Zamenhof expressly contemplates the " gradual perfection " (perfektigado) of his language, and by no means lays claim to finality or infallibility.
"Having the character of fundament, the three works reprinted in this volume must be above all inviolable (netuseblaj}. . . , The fundament must remain inviolable even with its errors. . . . Having once lost its strict inviolability, the work would lose its exceptional and necessary character of dogmatic fundamentality ; and the user, finding one translation in one edition, and another in another, would have no security that I should not make another change to-morrow, and his confidence and support would be lost.
"To any one who shows me an expression that is not good in the Fundamental book, I shall calmly reply : Yes, it is an error ; but it must remain inviolable, for it belongs to the fundamental
ENRICHMENT BY ADDITION: NO CHANGE 53
document, in which no one has the right to make any change. . . . I showed, in principle, how the strict inviolability of the Funda- mento will always preserve the unity of our language, without however preventing the language not only from becoming richer, but even from constantly becoming more perfect. But in practice we (for causes already many times explained) must naturally be very cautious in the process of ' perfecting ' the language : (a) we must not do this light-heartedly, but only in case of absolute necessity ; (b) it can only be done (after mature judgment) by some central institution, having indisputable authority for the whole Esperanto world, and not by any private persons. . . .
" Until the time when a central authoritative institution shall decide to augment (never to change) the existing fundament by rendering official new words or rules, everything good, which is not to be found in the Fundamento de Esperanto, is to be regarded not as compulsory, but only as recommended."
XV
SUMMARY OF OBJECTIONS TO AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
AN attempt has been made in the preceding chapters to deal with the more important and obvious arguments put forward by those who will hear nothing of an international language. The objec- tions are, however, so numerous, cover such a wide field, and in some cases are so mutually destructive, that it may be instructive to present them in an orderly classification.
For there we have them all "at one fell swoop," Instead of being scattered through the pages ;
They stand forth marshalled in a handsome troop, To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages.
BYRON.
Let us hope that they will die of exposure, like the famous appendix pilloried by Byron, and that the ingenuous one will be able to regard them as literary curiosities.
54 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
If the business of an argument is to be unanswerable, the place of honour certainly belongs to the religious argument. Any one who really believes that an international language is an impious attempt to reverse the judgment of Babel will continue firm in his faith, though one speak with the tongues of men and of angels.
Here, then, are the objections, classified according to content.
J
OBJECTIONS TO AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
I. Religious.
It is doomed to confusion, because it reverses the judgment of Babel.
II. Aesthetic and sentimental.
(1) It is a cheap commercial scheme, unworthy of the attention of scholars.
(2) It vulgarizes 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.
(5) It is artificial, which is a sin in itself.
III. Political.
(1) It is against English [Frenchmen read "French"] interests, as diverting prestige from the national tongue.
(2) It is socialistic and even anarchical in tendency, and will facilitate the operations of the international disturbers of society.
IV. Literary and linguistic.
(1) Lacking history and associations, it is unpoetical and unsuited to render the finer shades of thought and feeling. It will, therefore, degrade and distort the monuments of national literatures which may be 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 55
language can never have the fine savour of a master's use of his mother tongue.
(3) Its precisely formal and logical vocabulary and construction debauches the literary sense for the niceties of expression. There- fore, even if not used as a substitute for the mother tongue, its concurrent use, which will be thrust on 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) It is too dogmatic, and refuses to profit by criticism.
V. Educational and cultural.
(1) It will prejudice the study of modern languages.
(2) It will provide a " soft option " for examinees.
VI. Personal and particular.
It is prejudicial to the vested interests of modern language teachers, foreign correspondence clerks, interpreters, multilingual waiters and hotel porters.
VII. Technical.
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.
VIII. Popular.
(1) It is a wild idea put forth by a set of cranks, who would be better occupied in something else.
(2) It is impossible.
(3) It is too hard : life isn't long enough.
(4) It is not 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.
56 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
(6) It will not come in in our time, so the question is of no interest except to our grandchildren.
(7) It is doomed to failure — look at Volapiik !
(8) There are quite enough languages already.
(9) You have to learn three or four languages in order to understand Esperanto.
(10) You cannot know it without learning it. (n) You have to wear a green star.
Pains have been taken to make this list exhaustive. If any reader can think of another objection, he is requested to com- municate with the author.
Most of the serious arguments have been already dealt with, so that not many words need be said here. As regards No. VII. (Technical), this is not the place to deal with actual criticisms of the language (Esperanto) that holds the field. The reader will not be in a position to judge of them till he has learnt it. Suffice it to say that they can all be met, and some of the points criticised as vices are, in reality, virtues in an artificial language.
As for Nos. II. and IV. (Sentimental and Literary), most of these objections are due to the old heresy of the literary man, that an artificial language claims to compete with natural languages as a language. Once realize that it is primarily a labour-saving device, and therefore to be judged like any other modern inven- tion such as telegraphy or shorthand, and most of these objections fall to the ground.
A good many of the objections cannot be taken seriously (though they have all been seriously made), or refute themselves or each other. No. VIII. (10) sounds like a fake, but this was the criticism of a scholar and linguist who had been persuaded to look at Esperanto. 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 to judge an invention by efficiency compared to cost, but if an appliance is to be condemned because it needs some trouble to master it, then not many inventions will survive.
STILL AT SEA 57
No. VIII. (9) is of course a mistake. It is like saying that you must practice looping the loop or circus-riding in order to keep your balance on a bicycle. The greater, of course, includes the less ; but it is better in both cases to begin with the less. It is much more reasonable to reverse the argument and say : If you begin by learning Esperanto, you will possess a valuable aid towards learning three or four national languages.
No. VIII. (5) is absurd. It is the hardest thing in the world to extirpate a national language ; and all the forces of organized repression (e.g. in unhappy Poland) are finding the task too much for them. What inducement have the common people, who form the bulk of the population in every land, to substitute in their home intercourse for their own language one that they have to learn, if at all, artificially at school ? Only those who have much international intercourse will ever become really at home in international language — i.e. sufficiently at home to make it possible to use it indifferently as a substitute for their mother-tongue; and people who engage in prolonged and continuous international intercourse, though numerous, will always be in a minority.
XVI
THE WIDER COSMOPOLITANISM — THE COMING OF ASIA
IN the civilized West, where pleasure, business, and science are daily forging new ties of common interests between the nations, those engaged in such pursuits have clearly much to gain from the simplification of their pursuits by a common language. But let us look ahead a little further still. It may well be that the outstanding feature of the twentieth century in history will be the coming into line of the peoples of Asia with their pioneer brethren of the West. Look where you will, everywhere the symptoms are plain for those who can read them. Japan has led the way. China is following, and will not be far behind ; eventually, as the Japanese themselves foresee, she will probably outstrip Japan, if
58 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
not the world. There seems to be no ground, ethnological or otherwise, for thinking that the lagging behind of Asia in modern civilization corresponds to a real inferiority of powers, mental or physical, in the individual Asiatic. Experience shows that under suitable conditions the Asiatic can efficiently handle all the white man's tools and weapons ; the complete coming up to date is largely a matter of organization, education, and the possession of a few really able men at the head of affairs. Given these, progress may be astonishingly quick. Europeans 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 Chinaman is inferior to the Japanese ? If so, let them ask any residents in the Far East. Can 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 modern civilization spreads, both in Europe and America, from the comparatively small group of nations which in the main have worked it out to the others, till lately considered backward and semi-barbarous. And this is the case not merely with the material products of civilization, the railway and the telegraph, but also as regards its divers manifestations in all that concerns the life of the people — constitutional government with growth of 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 military service and discipline, now in force in most lands ; rise of a moneyed and leisured class and consequent growth of sport, and of all kinds of clubs and societies for promoting various interests, social, sporting, political, religious, educational, philan- thropic, and so forth. In fact, the more the material side of life is " modernized," the more closely do the citizens of all lands approximate to one another in their interests and activities, which ultimately rest upon and grow out of their material conditions. Meantime wealth and consequently foreign travel everywhere increase, fresh facilities of communication are constantly pro-
MODERNITY THE LEVELLER 59
vided, men from different 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 (i) under the stress of "modernization" life is already becoming so similar in the lands of the West, and if (2) the Asiatic is not fundamentally inferior in mental and physical endowments, then it follows as a certainty that the Asiatic world will, under the same stress, enter the comity of nations, and approximate to the world-type of interest and activity. It is only a question of time. In economic history nothing is more certain than that science, organization, cheapness, and efficiency must ultimately prevail over sporadic, unorganized local effort based on tradition and not on scientific exploitation of natural advantages. Thus the East will adopt the material civilization of the West ; and through the same organization of industrial and commercial life and generally similar economic conditions, the same type of moneyed class will grow up, with the same range of interests on the intellectual and social side, diverse indeed, but in their very diversity conforming more and more 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 and common ancestry, and fettering them in the cast-iron bonds of custom and ceremonial observance. While the members of 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 those ideas. Thus are produced castes, with their deadening opposition to all progress; and thus arise crusades, wars of religion and persecutions. Religion and tradition are then at once the mightiest integrants within each single community, and the mightiest disintegrants as between different communities.
But this narrow and dissevering spirit of caste dies back before
60 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
the spread of knowledge. The tendency to regard a man unclean or a barbarian, simply because he does not believe or behave as one's own people, is merely a product of isolation and ignorance, and disappears with education and the general opening up of a country. The inquisitor can no longer boast of " strained relations " — strained physically on the rack, owing to differences of religious opinion. The state of things which made it possible for sepoys to revolt because rifle bullets were greased with the fat of a sacred animal, or for yellow men to tear up railway tracks because the magic desecrated the tombs of their ancestors, is rapidly passing away, as Orientals realize the profits to be made from scientific methods.
Thus the levelling influence is at work, and the checks upon it are diminishing. The end can be but one. There will be a greater and greater similarity of life and occupation the world over, and more and more actual 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 the most vexatious, because it is one of the easiest to remove. If we devote millions of pounds to annihilating the barriers of space, can we not devote a few months to the comparatively modest effort necessary to annihilate the barriers of language ?
A real cosmopolitanism, in the etymological sense of the word, world (and not merely European) citizenship, will shift the onus probandi 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 obstacle in this intercouse ; this obstacle is increasing rather than diminishing as fresh subjects raise their claims upon the few years of education, and the old leisurely type of linguistic education fails more and more to train the bulk of the people for life's business, and as the ranks of the civilized are swelled by fresh peoples for whom it is harder and harder to learn
SECOND SIGHT FOR THE BLIND 61
even one Indo-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 in the world, comparing results with cost, but it is an admirable mental discipline and a direct help towards further real linguistic culture-giving studies for those who are fit to undertake them. Show cause, then, why you prefer to suffer under an unnecessary obstacle, rather than avail yourselves of this means of removing it." It is easier for the Indo-Germanic peoples to learn each other's languages — e.g. 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 world, in making them learn one or 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. Therefore, what more fitting than that they should provide an essence of 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 civilization which it has to adopt ; and this it is which is provided in the international language, Esperanto.
XVII
IMPORTANCE OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE FOR THE BLIND
Now that higher education for the blind is being extended in every country, owing to the more humanitarian feeling of the present age that these afflicted members of the community ought to be given a fair chance, the problem of supplying them with books is beginning to be felt. The process of producing books for the blind on the Braille system is, of course, far more costly than ordinary printing, and at the same time the editions must
62 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
be necessarily more or less limited. Many an educated blind person is therefore cruelly circumscribed in the range of literature open to him by the mere physical obstacle of the lack of books. This difficulty is accentuated by the fact that three kinds of Braille type are in use — French, English, and American.
Now, suppose it is desired to make the works of some good author accessible to the blind — we will say the works of Milton. A separate edition has to be done into Braille for the English, another separate translation for the French, and so on for the blind of each country. In many cases where translations of a work do not already exist, as in the case of a modern author, the mere cost of translation into some one language may not pay, much less then the preparation of a special Braille edition for the limited blind public of that country. But if one Braille edition is prepared for the blind of the world in the universal auxiliary language, a far greater range of literature is at once brought within their grasp.
Already there is abundant evidence of the keen appreciation of Esperanto on the part of the blind, and one striking proof is the fact that the distinguished French scientist and doctor, Dr. Javal, who himself became blind during the latter part of his life, was, until his death in March 1907, one of the foremost partisans and benefactors of Esperanto. By his liberality much has been rendered possible that could not otherwise have been accom- plished. There are many other devoted workers in the same field, among them Prof. Cart and Mme. Fauvart-Bastoul in France, and Mr. Rhodes, of Keighley, and Mr. Adams, of Hastings, in England. A special fund is being raised to enable blind Esperantists from various countries to attend the Congress at Cambridge in August 1907, and the cause is one well worthy of assistance by all who are interested in the welfare of the blind. The day when a universal language is practically recognised will be one of the greatest in their annals.
A perfectly phonetic language, as is Esperanto, is peculiarly suited to the needs of the blind. Its long, full vowels, slow,
PHILANTHROPY— BUT FIFTY PER CENT. 63
harmonious intonation, few and simple sounds, and regular con- struction make it very easy to learn through the ear, and to reproduce on any phonetic system of notation ; and 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 receiving his sight. To witness this spectacle alone might almost convince a waverer as to the utility of the common language.
XVIII
IDEAL V. PRACTICAL
FROM the early days of the Esperanto movement there has flowed within it a sort of double current. There is the warm and genial Gulf Stream of Idealism, that raises the temperature on every shore to which it sets, and calls forth a luxuriant growth of friendly sentiment. This tends to the enriching of life. There is also the cooler current of practicality, with a steady drive towards material profit. At present the tide is flowing free, and, taken at the flood, may lead on 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 inventor of Esperanto, Dr. Zamenhof, of Warsaw, is an idealist in the best sense of the word, and that his language was directly inspired by his ardent wish to remove one cause of misunder- standing in 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 strange power of evoking enthusiasm. Meetings of Esperantists are invariably characterized by great cordiality and good-fellowship, and at the international congresses so far these feelings have at times risen to fever heat. It is easy to make fun of this by saying that the conjunction of Sirius, the fever-shedding constellation of the ancients, with the green star * in the dog days of August, when the congresses are held, induces hot fits. Those 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.
On the other hand, the united Esperantists at their first inter- national meeting expressly and formally dissociated their project from any connection with political, sentimental, or peace-making schemes. They did this by drawing up and promulgating a " Deklaracio," adopted by the Esperantist world, wherein it is declared that Esperanto is a language, and a language only.t 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- munication. Like other tongues, Esperanto may be used for any purpose whatsoever, and it is declared that a man is equally an Esperantist whether he uses the language to save life or to kill, to further his own selfish ends or to labour in any altruistic cause. J
* Badge of the Esperantists.
f For text of this Declaration, see Part II., chap, vii., p. 115.
J The non-sectarian nature of Esperanto is shown by the fact that the first two services in the language were held on the same day in Geneva according to the Roman Catholic and Protestant rites. The latter was conducted by an English clergyman, whose striking sermon on unity, in spite of diversity, evidently impressed his international congregation. The Vatican has officially expressed its favour towards Esperanto, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has sanctioned an Esperanto form of the Anglican service, which will be used in London and Cambridge this summer. Cordial goodwill was expressed
BLOOD FOR WORDS 65
The practical nature of the scheme which Esperantists are labouring to induce the world to adopt is thus sufficiently clearly defined. Dr. Zamenhof himself, speaking at the Geneva Congress with all the vivid poignancy attaching to the words of a man fresh from the butcheries at that moment rife in the Russian Empire,* declared that neither he nor other Esperantists were naifs enough to believe that the adoption of their language would put an end to such scenes. But he had seen men at each other's throats, beating each other's brains out with bludgeons — men who had no personal enmity and had never seen each other before, but were let loose on each other by pure race prejudice. He did claim that mutual incomprehensibility amongst men who thus dwell side by side and should be taking part in a common civic life was one powerful influence in keeping up cliques and divisions, and artificially holding asunder those whom common interests should be joining together. It is hard to refuse credence to this power of language, thus moderately stated.
XIX
LITERARY V. COMMERCIAL
ANOTHER vexed question is whether it is advisable to run an international language on a literary or a commercial ticket. On this rock Volapiik split —
A brave vessel,
That had no doubt some noble creature in her, Dashed all to pieces ; \
and there was no Prospero to conjure away the tempest and
towards the Vatican, on receipt of its message at Geneva, by speakers who avowed themselves agnostics, but welcomed any advance towards abolition of barriers.
* There were bad massacres about that time in Warsaw, where Dr. Zamenhof lives. During the Congress news came of the assassination of one of the chief civic officials of Warsaw.
t Shakespeare, The Tempest.
5
66 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
send everybody safe home to port to speak Volapiik happily ever afterwards. The moral is, that it is no good to make exaggerated claims for a universal language. To attempt to set it on a fully equal footing with national languages as a literary medium is to court disaster.
The truth seems to be about this. As a potential means of international communication, Esperanto is unsurpassed, and a long way ahead of any national language. As a literary language, it is far better than Chinook or Pidgin, far worse than English or Greek.
A language, no more than a man, can serve two masters. By attempting to combine within itself this double function an international language would cease to attain either object. The reason is simple.
Its legitimate and proper sphere demands of it as the first essential that it should be easy and universally accessible. This means that the words are to be few, and must have but one clearly marked sense each. There are to be no idioms or set phrases, no words that depend upon their context or upon allusion for their full sense.
On the other hand, among the essentials of a literary language are the exact opposites of all these characteristics. The vocabulary must be full and plenteous, and there should be a rich variety of synonyms ; there should be delicate half-tones and nuances ; the words should be not mere counters or symbols of fixed value, determinable in each case by a rapid use of the dictionary alone, but must have an atmosphere, a something de- pendent upon history, usage, and allusion, by virtue of which the whole phrase, in the finer styles of writing, amounts to more than the sum of the individual meanings of the words which it contains, becoming a separate entity with an individual flavour of its own. To attempt to create this atmosphere in an artificial language is not only futile, but would introduce just the difficulties, redundancies, and complications which it is its chief object to avoid. Take a single instance, Macbeth's —
LOGIC LIMITS ALLITERATION 67
Nay, this my hand would rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.
Here the effect is produced by the contrast between the stately march of the long Latin words of thundrous sound, and the short, sharp English. A labour-saving language has no business with such words as " incarnadine " or " multitudinous." In translating such a passage it will reproduce the sense faithfully and clearly, if necessary by the combination of simple roots ; 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 scholarly language-learning. It will be just as necessary as ever to read works of fine literature in the original, in order to enjoy their full savour ; and the translation into the common tongue will not prejudice such reading of originals more than, or indeed so much as, translations into various mother-tongues.
Again, take the whole question of the imitative use of language. In national literatures many a passage, poetry or prose, is heightened in effect by assonance, alliteration, a certain movement or rhythm of phrase. Subtle suggestion slides in sound through the ear and falls with mellowing cadence into the heart. Soothed senses murmur their own music to the mind ; the lullaby lilt of the lay swells full the linked sweetness of the song.
The How plays fostering round the What. Down the liquid stream of lingual melody the dirge drifts dying — dying it echoes back into a ghostly after-life, as the yet throbbing sense wakes the drowsed mind once more. The Swan-song floats double — song and shadow ; and in the blend — half sensuous, half of thought — man's nature tastes fruition.
Now, this verbal artistry, whereby the words set themselves in tune to the thoughts, postulates a varied vocabulary, a rich storehouse wherein a man may linger and choose among the gems
68 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
of sound and sense till he find the fitting stone and fashion it to one of those —
jewels five- words long,
That on the stretched forefinger of all Time
Sparkle for ever.
But the word-store of an international tongue must not be a golden treasury of art, a repository of " bigotry and virtue." On its orderly rows of shelves must be immediately accessible the right word for the right place : no superfluity, no disorder, no circumambient margin for effect. Homocea-like, it "touches the spot," and having deadened the ache of incomprehensibility, 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 for effect," is less alien in its genius from Esperanto than is English, with its twofold harmony, its potentiality (too rarely ex- ploited) of Romance clarity, and its double portion of Germanic vigour and feeling. Yet all languages must probably witness the obliteration of some finer native shades in the international tongue.
But we must not go to the opposite extreme, and deny to the universal language all power of rendering serious thought. Just how far it can go, and where its inherent limitations begin, is a matter of individual taste and judgment. There are Esperanto translations — and good ones — of Hamlet^ The Tempest^ Julius Caesar, the Aeneid of Virgil, parts of Moliere and Homer, besides a goodly variety of other literature. These translations do succeed in giving a very fair idea of the originals, as any one can test for himself with a little trouble, but, as pointed out, they must come something short in beauty and variety of expression.
There is even a certain style in Esperanto itself in the hands of a good writer, of which the dominant notes are simplicity and directness — two qualities not at all to be despised. Further,
AN ESPERANTO BIBLE? 69
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 it to take on the manner and feel of a living tongue, and makes it something far more than a mere copy or barren extract of storied speech.
Technically, the fulness of its participial system, rivalled by Greek alone, and the absence of all defective verbs, lend to it a very great flexibility ; and containing, as it does, a variety of specially neat devices borrowed from various tongues, it is in a sense neater than any of them.
One great test of its capacity for literary expression remains to be made. This is an adequate translation of the Bible. A religious society, famed for the variety of its translations of the Scriptures into every conceivable language, when approached on the subject, replied that Esperanto was not a language. But Esperantists will not "let it go at that." Besides Dr. Zamenhofs own Predikanto (Ecclesiastes), an experiment has been made by two Germans, who published a translation of St. Matthew's Gospel. It is not a success, and further experiments have just been made by Prof. Macloskie, of Princeton, U.S.A., and by E. Metcalfe, M.A. (Oxon), I cannot say with what result, not having seen copies.t
From one point of view, the directness and simplicity of the Bible would seem to lend themselves to an Esperanto dress ; but there are certain great difficulties, such as technical ex- pressions, archaic diction, and phrases hallowed by association. A meeting of those interested in this great work will take place
* e.g. samideano = partisan of the same cause or idea.
vivipova lingvo = language capable of independent vigorous existence.
f Cf. also now the " Ordo de Diservo " (special Anglican Church service), selected and translated from Prayer Book and Bible for use in England by the Rev. J. C. Rust (obtainable from the British Esperanto Association, 13, Arundel Street, Strand, price 7</.).
70 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE ,
at Cambridge during the Congress (August 1907). Experimenters in this field will there be brought together from all countries, the subject will be thoroughly discussed, and substantial progress may be hoped for.
In the field of rendering scientific literature and current workaday prose, whose matter is of more moment than its form, Esperanto has already won its spurs. Its perfect lucidity makes it particularly suitable for this form of writing.
The conclusion then is, that Esperanto is neither wholly commercial nor yet literary in the full sense 'in which a grown language is literary ; but it does do what it professes to do, and it is all the better for not professing the impossible.
XX
IS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE A CRANK'S HOBBY ?
THE apostle of a universal language is made to feel pretty plainly that he is regarded as a crank. He may console himself with the usual defence that a crank is that which makes revolutions ; but for all that, it is chilling to be met with a certain smile.
Let us analyse that smile. It varies 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 come off. I know that grin — it comes from Cheshire.
What, then, do we mean when we smile at a crank? Firstly and generally that we think his ideal impracticable. But it has been shown that an international language is not impracticable. This alone ought to go far towards removing it from the list of cranks' hobbies.
Secondly, we often mean that the ideal in question is opposed to common sense — e.g. when we smile at a man who lives on protein biscuits or walks about without a hat. We do not impugn the feasibility of his diet or apparel, but we think he
TOO MANY TONGUES SPOIL THE SPORT 71
is going out of his way to be peculiar without reaping adequate advantage by his departure from customary usage.
The test of " crankiness," then, lies in the adequacy of the advan- tage reaped. A man who learns and uses Esperanto may at present depart as widely from ordinary usage as a patron of Eustace Miles's restaurant or a member of the hatless brigade ; but is it true that the advantage thereby accruing is equally disputable or matter of opinion ? Is it not, on the contrary, fairly certain that the use of an auxiliary language, if universal, would open up for many regions from which exclusion is now felt as a hindrance ?
Take the case of a doctor, scientist, scholar, researcher in any branch of knowledge, who desires to keep abreast of the advance of knowledge in his particular line. He may have to wait for years before a translation of some work he wishes to read is published in a tongue he knows, and in any case all the periodical literature of every nation, except the one or two whose languages he may learn, will be closed to him. The output of learned work is increasing very fast in all civilized countries, and therefore results are recorded in an increasing number of languages in monographs, reports, 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 Institute in Esperanto.
Take a few examples of the hampering effect upon scholarly work of the language difficulty as it already exists. The diffusion of learning will, ironically enough, increase the difficulty.* The late Prof. Todhunter, of Cambridge, was driven to learning Russian for mathematical purposes. He managed to learn enough to enable him to read mathematical treatises ; but how many mathe- maticians or scientists (or classical scholars, for that matter) could do as much ? And of how much profit was the learning of Russian, quA Russian, to Prof. Todhunter ? It only took up time which could have been better spent, as there cannot be anything very uplifting or cultivating in the language of mathematical Russian. * By multiplying the languages used.
72 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Prof. Max Miiller proposed that all serious scientific work should be published in one of the six languages following — English, 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 culture has since then been gradually b*t steadily shifting in favour of other peoples. The present writer had occasion to make a special study of Byron's influence on the Continent. It turned out that one of the biggest and most important works upon the subject was written in Polish. It has therefore remained inaccessible. This is only an illustration of a difficulty that faces many workers.
Thirdly, there is a good large portion of the British public that regards as a crank anything not British or that does not benefit themselves personally. It really is hard for an Englishman, Frenchman, or German, brought up among a homogeneous people of old civilization, to realize the extent of the incubus under which the smaller nations of Europe and the polyglot empires further east are groaning. Imagine yourself an educated Swiss, Dutchman, or a member of any of the thirty or forty nationalities that make up the Austrian or 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 ?
Think it out. What do you really mean when you jeer at an Esperantist ?
TO BE OR NOT TO BE? 73 XXI
WHAT AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IS NOT
An international language is not an attempt to replace or damage in any way any existing language or literature^
XXII
WHAT AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IS
An international language is an attempt to save the greatest amount of labour and open the widest fields of thought and action to the greatest number.^
PART II
HISTORICAL
SOME EXISTING INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES ALREADY IN PARTIAL USE
THOUGH the idea of an artificially 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 Europeans, there have, as a matter of fact, been various attempts made at different times and places to overcome the obvious difficulty in the obvious way; and all have met with a large measure of success.
The usual method of procedure has been quite rough and ready. Words or forms have been taken from a variety of languages, and simply mixed up together, without any scientific attempt at co-ordination or simplification. The resulting inter- national languages have varied in their degree of artificiality, and in the proportions in which they were consciously or semi- consciously compiled, or else adopted their elements ready-made, without conscious adaptation, from existing tongues. But their production, widespread and continuous use, and great practical utility, showed that they arose in response to a felt want. The wonder is that the world should have grown so old without supplying this want in a more systematic way.
Every one has heard of the lingua franca of the Levant. In
74
KEY LANGUAGES NECESSARY 75
India the master-language that carries a man through among a hundred different tribes is Hindustanee, or Urdu. At the outset it represented a new need of an imperial race. It had its origin during the latter half of the sixteenth century under Akbar, and was born of the sudden extension of conquest and affairs brought about by the great .ruler. Round him gathered a cosmopolitan crowd of courtiers, soldiers, vassal princes, and followers of all kinds, and wider dealings than the ordinary local petty affairs received a great stimulus. Urdu is a good example of a mix-up language, with a pure Aryan framework developed out of a dialect of the old Hindi. In fact, it is to India very much what Esperanto might be to Europe, only it is more empirical, and not so consciously and scientifically worked out.
Somewhat analogous to Urdu, in that it is a literary language used by the educated classes for intercommunication throughout a polygot empire, is the Mandarin Chinese. If China is not "polygot" in the strict technical sense of the term, she is so in fact, since the dialects used in different provinces are mutually incomprehensible for the speakers of them. Mandarin is the official master-language.
Rather of the nature si patois are Pidgin-English, Chinook, and Benguela, the language used throughout the tribes of the Congo. Yet business of great importance and involving large sums of money is, or has been, transacted in them, and they are used over a wide area.
Pidgin consists of a medley of words, largely English, but with a considerable admixture from other tongues, combined in the framework of Chinese construction. It is current in ports all over the East, and is by no means confined to China. The principle is that roots, chiefly monosyllabic, are used in their crude form without inflection or agglutination, the mere juxtaposition (without any change of form) showing whether they are verbs, adjectives, etc. This is the Chinese contribution to the language.
Chinook is the key-language to dealings with the huge number
76 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
of different tribes of American Indians. It contains a large admixture of French words, and was to a great extent artificial!) put together by the Hudson Bay Company's officials, 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 modern Hungarian, Greek, or even Italian. Literary Italian, we know it, is largely an artificial construction for literary pur- poses, made by Dante and others, on the basis of a vigorous and naturally supple dialect. With modern Greek this is even more strikingly the case. As a national language it is almost purely the work of a few scholars, who in modern times arbitrarily and artificially revived and modified the ancient Greek.
There seems, then, to be absolutely no foundation in experience for opposing a universal language on the score of artificiality.
II
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
List of Schemes proposed
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 is a direct gift of God. But apparently it was not till about 300 years ago that philosophers began to think seriously about a world-language.
The earliest attempts were based upon the mediaeval idea that man might attain to a perfect knowledge of the universe. The whole sum of things might, it was thought, be brought by division and subdivision within an orderly scheme of classification. To
MEMORY FORBIDS 77
any conceivable idea or thing capable of being represented by human speech might therefore be attached a corresponding word, like a label, on a perfectly regular and logical system. Words would thus be self-explanatory to any person who had grasped the system, and would serve as an index or key to the things they represented. Language thus became a branch of philosophy as the men of the time conceived it, or at all events a useful handmaid. Thus arose the idea of a "philosophical language."
A very simple illustration will serve to show what is meant. Go into a big library and look up any work in the catalogue. You will find a reference number — say. 04582, g. 35, c. If you learnt the system of classification of that library, the reference number would explain to you where to find that particular book out of any number of millions. The fact of the number beginning with a " o " would at once place the book in a certain main division, and so on with the other numbers, till " g " in that series gave you a fairly small subdivision. Within that, " 35 " gives you the number of the case, and " c " the shelf within the case. The book is soon run to earth.
Just so a word in a philosophical language. Suppose the word is brabo. The final o shows it to be a noun. The monosyllabic root shows it to be concrete. The initial b shows it to be in the animal category. The subsequent letters give subdivisions of the animal kingdom, till the word is narrowed down by its form to membership of one small class of animals. The other members of the class will be denoted by an ordered sequence of words in which only the letter denoting the individual is changed. Thus, if brabo means " dog," braco may be " cat," and so on : brado, brafo, brago . . . etc., according to the classification set up.
Words, then, are reduced to mere formulae; and grammar, inflections, etc., are similarly laid out on purely logical, systematic lines, without taking any account of existing languages and their structure. To languages of this type the historians of the universal language have given the name of a priori languages.
78 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Directly opposed to these is the other group of artificial lan- guages, called a posteriori. These are wholly based on the principle of borrowing from existing language : their artificiality consists in choice of words and in regularization and simplification of vocabulary and grammar. They avoid, as far as possible, any elements of arbitrary invention, and confine themselves to adapting and making easier what usage has already sanctioned.
Between the two main types come the mixed languages, partaking of the nature of each.
The following list is taken from the Histoire de la langue universelle, by MM. Couturat and Leau :
I. A PRIORI LANGUAGES
1. The philosopher Descartes, in a letter of 1629, forecasts a system (realized in our days by Zamenhof) of a regular universal grammar : words to be formed with fixed roots and affixes, and to be in every case immediately decipherable from the dictionary alone. He rejects this scheme as fit "for vulgar minds," and proceeds to sketch the outline of all subsequent "philosophic" languages. Thus the great thinker anticipates both types of universal language.
2. Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1653 — Logopandekteision (see next chapter).
3. Dalgarno, 1661 — Ars Signorum.
Dalgarno was a Scotchman born at Aberdeen in 1626. His language is founded on the classification of ideas. Of these there are seventeen main classes, represented by seventeen letters. Each letter is the initial of all the words in its class.
4. Wilkins, 1668 — An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language.
Wilkins was Bishop of Chester, and first secretary and one of the founders of the Royal Society. Present members please note. His system is a development of Dalgarno's.
LIST OF SCHEMES— A PRIORI 79
5. Leibnitz, 1646-1716.
Leibnitz thought over this matter all his life, and there are various passages on it scattered through his works, though no one treatise is devoted to it. He held that the systems of his predecessors were not philosophical enough. He dreamed of a logic of thought applicable to all ideas. All complex ideas are compounds of simple ideas, as non-primary numbers are of primary numbers. Numbers can be compounded ad infinitum. So if numbers are translated into pronouncible words, these words can be combined so as to represent every possible idea.
6. Delormel, 1795 (An III) — Projet d'une langue universelle. Delormel was inspired by the humanitarian ideas of the French
Revolution. He wished to bring mankind together in fraternity. His system rests on a logical classification of ideas on a decimal basis.
7. Jean Francois Sudre, 1817 — Langue musicale universelle. Sudre was a schoolmaster, born in 1787. His language is
founded on the seven notes of the scale, and he calls it Solr£sol.
8. Grosselin, 1836 — Systcme de langue universelle.
A language composed of 1500 words, called "roots," with 100 suffixes, or modifying terminations.
9. Vidal, 1844 — Langue universelle et analytique. A curious combination of letters and numbers.
TO. Letellier, 1852-1855 — Cours complet de langue universelle, and many subsequent publications.
Letellier was a former schoolmaster and school inspector. His system is founded on the "theory of language," which is that the word ought to represent by its component letters an analysis of the idea it conveys.
ii. Abbe" Bonifacio Sotos Ochando, 1852, Madrid.
The abbe had been a deputy to the Spanish Cortes, Spanish
8o INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
master to Louis Philippe's children, a university professor, and director of a polytechnic college in Madrid, etc. His language is a logical one, intended for international scientific use, and chiefly for writing. He does not think a spoken language for all purposes possible.
12. Societe" Internationale de linguistique. First report dated 1856. f
The object of the society was to carry out a radical reform of French orthography, and to prepare the way for a universal language — " the need of which is beginning to be generally felt." In the report the idea of adopting one of the most widely spoken national languages is considered and rejected. The previous projects are reviewed, and that of Sotos Ochando is recommended as the best. The a posteriori principle is rejected and the a priori deliberately adopted. This is excusable, owing to the fact that most projects hitherto had been a priori. The philosopher Charles Renouvier gave proof of remarkable prescience by condemning the a priori theory in an article in La Itevue, 1855, in which he forecasts the a posteriori plan.
13. Dyer, 1875 — Lingitalumina ; or, the Language of Light.
14. Reinaux, 1877.
15. Maldent, 1877 — La langue naturelle. The author was a civil engineer.
1 6. Nicolas, 1900 — Spokil.
The author is a ship's doctor and former partisan of Volapiik.
17. Hilbe, 1901 — Die Zahlensprache.
Based on numbers which are translated by vowels.
1 8. Dietrich, 1902 — Volkerverkehrssprache.
19. Mannus Talundberg, 1904 — Perio, eine auf Logik und Gedachtnisskunst aufgebaute Weltsprache.
LIST OF SCHEMES— MIXED 81
II. MIXED LANGUAGES
These are chiefly Volapiik and its derivates.
1. August Theodor von Grimm, state councillor of the Russian Empire, worked out a " programme for the formation of a universal language," which contains some a priori elements, as well as nearly all the principles which subsequent authors of a posteriori languages have realized.
This Grimm is not to be confused with the famous philologist Jacob von Grimm, though he wrote about the same time.
2. Schleyer, 1879 — Volapiik. (See below, p. 92.)
3. Verheggen, 1886 — Nal Bino.
4. Menet, 1886 — Langue universelle. An imitation of Volapiik.
5. Bauer, 1886 — Spelin.
A development of Volapiik with more words taken from neutral languages.
6. St. de Max, iB^—Bopal. An imitation of Volapiik.
7. Dormoy, 1887 — Balta. A simplification of Volapiik.
8. Fieweger, 1893 — Dil.
An exaggeration of Volapiik for good and ill.
9. Guardiola, 1893 — Orba. A fantastic language.
10. W. von Arnim, 1896 — Veltparl. A derivative of Volapiik.
11. Marchand, 1898 — Dilpok. Simplified Volapiik.
6
82 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
12. Bollack, 1899 — La langue bltue.
Aims merely at commercial and common use. Ingenious, but too difficult for the memory.
III. A POSTERIORI LANGUAGES.
1. Faiguet, 1765 — Langue nouvelle.
Faiguet was treasurer of France. He published his project, which is a scheme for simplifying grammar, in the famous eighteenth-century encyclopaedia of Diderot and d'Alembert.
2. Schipfer, 1839 — Communicationssprache.
This scheme has an historical interest for two reasons. First, the fact that it is founded on French reflects the feeling of the time that French was, as he says, "already to a certain extent a universal language." The point of interest is to compare the date when the projects began to be founded on English. In 1879 Volapiik took English for the base. Secondly, Schipfer's scheme reflects the new consciousness of wider possibilities that were coming into the world with the development of means of communication by rail and steamboat. The author recommends the utility of his project by referring to " the new way of travelling."
3. De Rudelle, 1858 — Pantos-Dimon-Glossa.
De Rudelle was a modern-language master in France and afterwards at the London Polytechnic. His language is based on ten natural languages, especially Greek, Latin, and the modern derivatives of Latin, with grammatical hints from English, German, and Russian. It is remarkable for having been the first to embody several principles of the first importance, which have since been more fully carried out in other schemes, and are now seen to be indispensable. Among these are : (i) distinction of the parts of speech by a fixed form for each ; (2) suppression of separate verbal forms for each person ; (3) formation of derivatives by means of suffixes with fixed meanings.
LIST OF SCHEMES— A POSTERIORI 83
4. Pirro, 1868 — Universalsprache.
Based upon five languages — French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish — and containing a large proportion of words from the Latin.
5. Ferrari, 1877 — Monoglottica (?).
6. Volk and Fuchs, \^^—Weltsprache. Founded on Latin.
7. Cesare Meriggi, 1884 — Blaia Zimondal,
8. Courtonne, 1885 — Langue Internationale nlo-Latine. Based on the modern Romance languages, and therefore not
sufficiently international. A peculiarity is that all roots are monosyllabic. The 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- speaking countries. Answers were received from three towns — Pau, Sens, and Nimes. It was then proposed to convene an international neo-Latin congress; but it is not surprising to hear that nothing came of it.
9. Steiner, 1885 — Pasilingua.
A counterblast to Volapiik. The author aims at copying the methods of naturally formed international languages like the lingua franca or Pidgin-English. Based on English, French, and German ; but the English vocabulary forms the groundwork.
10. Eichhorn, 1887 — Weltsprache.
Based on Latin. A leading principle is that each part of speech ought to be recognizable by its form. Thus nouns have two syllables ; adjectives, three ; pronouns, one ; verbal roots, one syllable beginning and ending with a consonant ; and so on.
n. Zamenhof, 1887 — Esperanto. (See below, p. 105.)
84 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
12. Bernhard, 1888 — Lingua franca nuova. A kind of bastard Italian.
13. Lauda, 1888 — Kosmos. Draws all its vocabulary from Latin.
14. Henderson, 1888 — Lingua.
Latin vocabulary with modern grammar.
15. Henderson, 1902 — Latinesce.
A simpler and more practical adaptation of Latin by the same author — e.g. the present infinitive form does duty for several finite tenses, and words are used in their modern senses.
1 6. Hoinix (pseudonym for the same indefatigable Mr. Henderson), 1889 — Anglo-franca.
A mixture of French and English. Both this and the barbarized Latin schemes are fairly easy and certainly simpler than the real languages, but they are shocking to the ear, and produce the effect of mutilation of language.
17. Stempel, 1889 — Myrana.
Based on Latin with admixture of other languages.
1 8. Stempel, 1894 — Communia.
A simplification of No. 17, with a new name.
19. Rosa, 1890 — Nov Latin.
A set of rules for using the Latin dictionary in a certain way as a key to produce something that can be similarly deciphered.
20. Julius Lott, 1890 — Mundolingue.
Founded on Latin. Lott started an international society for a universal language, proposing to build up his language by collaboration of savants thus brought together.
21. Marini, 1891 — Mtthode rapide, facile et certaine pour construire un idiome universe?.
LIST OF SCHEMES— A POSTERIORI 85
22. Liptay, 1892 — Langue catholique.
Based on the theory than an international language already exists (in the words common to many languages), and has only to be discovered.
23. Mill, 1893 — Anti-Volapiik.
A simple universal grammar to be applied to the vocabulary of each national language.
24. Braakman, 1894 — Der Wereldtaal "El Mundolinco? Gramatico del Mundolinco pro li de Hollando Factore (Noordwijk).
25. Albert Hoessrich (date ?) — Talnovos, Monatsschrift fur die Einfuhrung und Verbreitung der allgemeinen Verkehrssprache " Tal" (Sonneberg, Thuringen).
26. Heintzeler, 1895 — Universala.
Heintzeler compares the twelve chief artificial languages already proposed, and shows that they have much in common. He suggests a commission to work out a system on an eclectic basis.
27. Beermann, 1895 — Novilatin.
Latin brought up to date by comparison with six chief modern languages.
28. Le Linguist, 1896-7.
A monthly review conducted by a band of philologists. It contains many discussions of the principles which should underly an international language, and suggestions, but no complete scheme.
29. Puchner, 1897 — Nuove Roman.
Based largely on Spanish, which the author considers the best of the Romance tongues.
30. Nilson — La vest-europish central-dialekt (1890); Lasonebr, un transitional lingvo (1897); II dialekt Centralia, un compromiss
86 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
entr il lingu universal de Akademi international e la vest-europish central-dialekt (1899).
31. Kiirschner, 1900 — Lingua Komun.
The author was an Esperantist, but found Esperanto not scientific enough. It is almost incredible that a man who knew Esperanto should invent a language with several conjugations of the verb, but this is what Kiirschner has done.
32. International Academy of Universal Language, 1902 — Idiom Neutral. (See below, p. 98.)
33. Elias Molee, 1902 — Tutonish ; or, Anglo-German Union Tongue. Tutonish; a Teutonic International Language (1904).
34. Molenaar — Panroman, skiz de un ling internazional (in Die Religion der Menschheit, March 1903) ; Esperanto oder Panroman ? Das Weltsprache-problem und seine einfachste Ldsung (1906); Universal Ling-Panroman (in Menschheitsziele, 1906); Gramatik de Universal (Leipzig, Puttmann, 1906).
35. Peano — De Latino sineflexione (in Revue de Math'ematique, vol. viii., Turin, 1903) ; // Latino quale lingua ausiliare inter- nazionale (in Atti della R> Accademia delle Scienze di Torino^ 1904) ; Vocabulario de Latino Internationale comparato cum Anglo, franco, Germano, Hispano, Italo, Russo, Graeco, et Sanscrito (Turin> 1904). See also the Formulario mathematico, vol. v. (Turin, 1906).
36. Hummler, 1904 — Mundelingua (Saulgau).
37. Victor Hely, 1905 — Esquisse d'une grammaire de la langue Internationale, \st part : Les mots et la syntaxe (Langres).
38. Max Wald, 1906 — Pankel ( Weltsprache), die leichteste und kiirzeste Sprache fur den internationalen Verkehr. Grammatik und Worterbuch mit Aufgabe der Wortquelle (Gross-Beeren).
SCOTS TO THE FORE 87
39. Greenwood, 1906 — Ekselsiore^ the New Universal Language for All Nations : a Simplified, Improved Esperanto (London,
Miller & Gill); Vila, t ulo lingua a otrs (The Ulla Society, Bridlington, 1906).
40. Trischen, 1907 — Mondlingvo, provisorische Aufstellung eine r internationalen Verkehrssprache (Pierson, Dresden).
Ill
THE EARLIEST BRITISH ATTEMPT
A PERUSAL of the foregoing list shows that in the early days of the search for an international language the British were well to the fore. Of the British pioneers in this field the first two were Scots — a fact which accords well with the traditional enterprise north of the Tweed, and readiness to look abroad, beyond their own noses, or, in this case, beyond their own tongues. It is like- wise remarkable that the British have almost dropped out of the running in recent times, as far as origination is concerned. Is this fact also typical, a small symptom of Jeshurun's general fatness ? Does it reflect a lesser degree of nimbleness in moving with the spirit of the times ?
Anyhow, in this case the Briton's content with what he has got at home is well grounded. He certainly possesses a first-class language. As a curious example of the quaint use of it by a scholar and clever man in the middle of the seventeenth century, the following account of Sir Thomas Urquhart's book may be of some interest.
Sir Thomas is well known as the translator of Rabelais ; and evidently something of the curious erudition, polyglotism, and quaintness of conceit of his author stuck to the translator. This book is the rarest of his tracts, all of which are uncommon, and has been hardly more than mentioned by name by the previous writers on the subject.
The title-page runs :
88 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
LOGOPANDEKTEISION
OR, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, DIGESTED INTO THESE SlX SEVERAL BOOKS
Neaudethaumata Chryseomystes
Chrestasebeia Neleodicastes
Cleronomaporia Philoponauxesis
By SIR THOMAS URQUHART, of Cromartie, Knight,
Now lately contrived and published both for his own Utilitie, and that of all Pregnant and Ingenious Spirits.
LONDON
Printed and are to be sold by GILES CALVERT at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Paul's, and by RICHARD TOMLINS at the Sun and Bible near Pye Corner. 1653.
In a note at the end of the book he apologizes for haste, saying that the copy was " given out to two several printers, one alone not being fully able to hold his quill a-going."
The book opens with :
" The Epistle Dedicatory to Nobody." The first paragraph runs :
"MOST HONOURABLE,
"My non-supponent Lord, and Soveraign Master of contradictions in adjected terms, that unto you I have presumed to tender the dedicacie of this introduction, will not seem strange to those, that know how your concurrence did further me to the accomplishment of that new Language, into the frontispiece whereof it is permitted."
After some preliminary remarks, he says :
"Now to the end the Reader may be more enamoured of the Language, wherein I am to publish a grammar and lexicon,
MONGRELS AND HYBRIDS 89
I will here set down some few qualities and advantages peculiar to itself, and which no Language else (although all other concurred with it) is able to reach unto."
There follow sixty-six "qualities and advantages," which contain the only definite information about the language, for the promised grammar and lexicon never appeared. A few may be quoted as typical of the inducements held out to " pregnant and ingenious spirits," to the end they " may be more enamoured of the Language." The good Sir Thomas was plainly an optimist.
"... Sixthly, in the cases of all the declinable parts of speech, it surpasseth all other languages whatsoever : for whilst others have but five or six at most, it hath ten, besides the nominative.
"... Eighthly, every word capable of number is better pro- vided therewith in this language, then [sic] by any other : for instead of two or three numbers which others have, this affordeth you four ; to wit, the singular, dual, plural, and redual.
"... Tenthly, in this tongue there are eleven genders ; wherein likewise it exceedeth all other languages.
"... Eleventhly, Verbs, Mongrels, Participles, and Hybrids have all of them ten tenses, besides the present : which number no language else is able to attain to.
"... Thirteenthly, in lieu of six moods, which other languages have at most, this one enjoyeth seven in its conjugable words."
Sir Thomas evidently believed in giving his clients plenty for their money. He is lavish of " Verbs, Mongrels, Participles, and Hybrids," truly a tempting menagerie. He promises, however, a time-reduction on learning a quantity :
"... Seven and fiftiethly, the greatest wonder of all is that of all the languages in the world it is easiest to learn; a boy of ten years old being able to attain to the knowledge thereof in three months' space; because there are in it many facilitations for the memory, which no other language hath but itself."
90 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Seventeenth-century boys of tender years must have had a good stomach for " Mongrels and Hybrids," and such-like dainties of the grammatical menu; but even if they could swallow a mongrel, it is hard to believe that they would not have strained at ten cases in three months. It might be called " casual labour," but it would certainly have been "three months' hard."
After these examples of grammatical generosity, it is not sur- prising to read :
"... Fifteenthly, in this language the Verbs and Participles have four voices, although it was never heard that ever any other language had above three."
Note that the former colleagues of the " Verbs and Participles," the " Mongrels and Hybrids," are here dropped out of the category. Perhaps it is as well, seeing the number of voices attributed to each. A four-voiced mongrel would have gone one better than the triple-headed hell-hound Cerberus, and created quite a special Hades of its own for schoolboys, to say nothing of light sleepers.
Under "five and twentiethly" we learn that "there is no Hexameter, Elegiack, Saphick, Asclepiad, lambick, or any other kind of Latin or Greek verse, but I will afford you another in this language of the same sort " ; which leads up to :
"... Six and twentiethly, as it trotteth easily with metrical feet, so at the end of the career of each line, hath it dexterity, after the manner of our English and other vernaculary tongues, to stop with the closure of a rhyme ; in the framing whereof, the well-versed in that language shall have so little labour, that for every word therein he shall be able to furnish at least five hundred several monosyllables of the same termination with it."
A remarkable opportunity for every man to become his own poet !
A REALISTIC LANGUAGE 91
"... Four and thirtiethly, in this language also words ex- pressive of herbs represent unto us with what degree of cold, moisture, heat, or dryness they are qualified, together with some other property distinguishing them from other herbs."
In this crops out the idea that haunted the minds of mediaeval speculators on the subject: that language could play a more important part than it had hitherto done; that a word, while conveying an idea, could at the same 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 language. Imagine too, you who remember the cold shudder of your childhood, when you heard the elders discussing a prospective dose — intensified by all the horrors of imagination when the discussion was veiled in the "decent obscurity" of French — imagine the grim realism of a language containing "words expressive of herbs" — and expressive to that extent !
There seems, indeed, to have been something rather cold- blooded about this language :
"... Eight and thirtiethly, in the contexture of nouns, pro- nouns, and preposital articles united together, it administreth many wonderful varieties of Laconick expressions, as in the Grammar thereof shall more at large be made known unto you."
But, after all, it had a human side :
"... Three and fourtiethly, as its interjections are more numerous, so are they more emphatical in their respective ex- pression of passions, than that part of speech is in any other language whatsoever.
"... Eight and fourtiethly, of all languages this is the most compendious in complement, and consequently fittest for Courtiers
and Ladies."
*
Sir Thomas seems to have been a bit of a man of the world too.
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"... Fiftiethly, no language in matter of Prayer and Ejacu- lations to Almighty God is able, for conciseness of expression to compare with it ; and therefore, of all other, the most fit for the use of Churchmen and spirits inclined to devotion."
This " therefore," with its direct deduction from " conciseness of expression," recalls the lady patroness who chose her in- cumbents for being fast over prayers. She said she could always pick out a parson who read service daily by his time for the Sunday service.
Sir Thomas is perhaps over-sanguine to a modern taste when he concludes :
" Besides the sixty and six advantages above all other languages, I might have couched thrice as many more of no less consideration than the aforesaid, but that these same will suffice to sharpen the longing of the generous Reader after the intrinsecal and most researched secrets of the new Grammar and Lexicon which I am to evulge."
HISTORY OF VOLAPUK — A WARNING
VOLAPUK is the invention of a " white night." Those who know their Alice in Wonderland will perhaps involuntarily conjure up the picture of the kindly and fantastic White Knight, riding about on a horse covered with mousetraps and other strange caparisons, which he introduced to all and sundry with the unfailing remark, " It's my own invention." Scoffers will not be slow to find in Volapiik 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 mount their hobby-horses and ride errant through sundry lands, thrusting their creations on an unwilling world. But the par- ticular kind of white night of which Volapiik was born is the
THE BOOM IN VOLAPUK 93
nuit blanche, literally = " white night," but idiomatically = " night of insomnia."
On the night of March 31, 1879, the good Roman Catholic Bishop Schleyer, cur6 of Litzelstetten, near Constance, could not get to sleep. From his over-active brain, charged with a know- ledge of more than fifty languages, sprang the world-speech, as Athene sprang fully armed from the brain of Zeus. At any rate, this is the legend of the origin of Volapiik.
As for the name, an Englishman will hardly appreciate the fact that the word " Volapiik " is derived from the two English words " world " and " speech." This transformation of " world " into vol and " speech " into puk is a good illustration of the manner in which Volapiik is based on English, and suggests at once a criticism of that all-important point in an artificial language, the vocabulary. It is too arbitrary.
Published in 1880, Volapiik spread first in South Germany, and then in France, where its chief apostle was M. Kerckhoffs, modern-language master in the principal school of commerce in Paris. He founded a society for its propagation, which soon numbered among its members several well-known men of science and letters. The great Magasins du Printemps — a sort of French Whiteley's, and familiar to all who have shopped in Paris — started a class, attended by over a hundred of its employees ; and altogether fourteen different classes were opened in Paris, and the pupils were of a good stamp.
Progress was extraordinarily rapid in other European countries, and by 1889, only nine years after the publication of Volapiik, there were 283 Volapiik societies, distributed throughout Europe, America, and the British Colonies. Instruction books were published in twenty-five languages, including Volapiik itself ; numerous newspapers, in and about Volapiik, sprang up all over the world ; the number of Volapukists was estimated at a million. This extraordinarily rapid success is very striking, and seems to afford proof that there is a widely felt want for an international language. Three Volapiik congresses were held,
94 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
of which the third, held in Paris in 1889, with proceedings entirely in Volapiik, was the most important.
The rapid decline of Volapiik is even more instructive than its sensational rise. The congress of Paris marked its zenith : hopes ran high, and success seemed assured. Within two years it was practically dead. No more congresses were held, the partisans dwindled away, the local clubs dissolved, the newspapers failed, and the whole movement came to an end. There only remained a new academy founded by Bishop Schleyer, and here and there a group of the faithful.*
The chief reason of this failure was internal dissension. First arose the question of principle : Should Volapiik aim at being a literary language, capable of expressing all the finer shades 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 among the literary languages of the world. The practical party, headed by M. Kerckhoffs, wished to keep it utilitarian and practical. With the object of increasing its utility, they proposed certain changes in the language ; and thus there arose, in the second place, differences of opinion as to fundamental points of structure, such as the nature and origin of the roots to be adopted. Vital questions were thus reopened, and the whole language was thrown back into the melting-pot.
The first congress was held at Friedrichshafen in August 1884, and was attended almost exclusively by Germans. The second congress, Munich, August 1887, brought together over 200 Volapiikists from different countries. A professor of geology from Halle University was elected president, and an International Academy of Volapiik was founded.
Then the trouble began. M. Kerckhoffs was unanimously elected director of the academy, and Bishop Schleyer was made
* A Volapiik journal still appears in Graz, Stiria — Volapukabled lezenodik. The editor has just (March 1907) retired, and the veteran Bishop Schleyer, now seventy-five years old, is taking up the editorship again.
A CASE OF DISPUTED PATERNITY 95
grand-master (cifaf) for life. Questions arose as to the duties of the academy and the respective powers of the inventor of the language and the academicians. M. Kerckhoffs was all along the guiding spirit on the side of the academy. He was in the main supported by the Volapiik world, though there seems to have been some tendency, at any rate at first, on the part of the Germans to back the bishop. It is impossible to go into details of the points at issue. Suffice it to say, that eventually the director of the academy carried a resolution giving the inventor three votes to every one of ordinary members in all academy divisions, but refusing him the right of veto, which he claimed. The bishop replied by a threat to depose M. Kerckhoffs from the directorship, which of course he could not make good. The constitution of the academy was only binding inasmuch as it had been drawn up and adopted by the constituent members, and it gave no such powers to the inventor.
So here was a very pretty quarrel as to the ownership of Volapiik. The bishop said it belonged to him, as he had invented it : he was its father. The academy said it belonged to the public, who had a right to amend it in the common interest. This child, which had newly opened its eyes and smiled upon the world, and upon which the world was then smiling back — was it a son domiciled in its father's house and fully in patria potestatet or a ward in the guardianship of its chief promoters ? or an orphan foundling, to be boarded out on the scattered-home system at the public expense, and to be brought up to be useful to the community at large ? A vexed question of paternity ; and the worst of it was, there was no international court competent to try the case.
Meantime the congress of 1889 at Paris came on. Volapiik was booming everywhere. Left to itself, it flourished like a green bay-tree. This meeting was to set an official seal upon its success ; and governments, convinced by this thing done openly in the ville lumtire, would accept the fait accompli and introduce it into their schools.
96 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
Thirteen countries sent representatives, including Turkey and China. The great Kerckhoffs was elected president. The proceedings were in Volapiik. The foundling's future was canvassed in terms of himself by a cosmopolitan board of guardians, who did not yet know what he was. Rather a Gilbertian situation. Trying a higher flight, we may say, in Platonic phrase, that Volapiik seemed to be about midway between being and not-being. It is a far cry from Gilbert vid Plato to Mr. Kipling, but perhaps Volapiik, at this juncture, may be most aptly described as a " sort of a giddy harumphrodite," if not " a devil an' a ostrich an' a orphan-child in one."
Business done : The congress discusses.
The congress passed a resolution that there should be drawn up " a simple normal grammar, from which all useless rules should be excluded," and proceeded to adopt a final constitution for the Volapiik Academy.
Article 15 says: "The decisions of the academy must be at once submitted to the inventor. If the inventor has not within thirty days protested against the decisions, they are valid. Decisions not approved by the inventor are referred back to the academy, and are valid if carried by a two-thirds majority."
The bishop held out for his right of absolute veto, as his episcopal fellows and their colleagues are doing " in another place " in England. The conflict presents some analogy with other graver constitutional matters, involving discussion of the respective merits of absolute 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 out within the academy. The director, unable to .carry a complete scheme of reformed grammar, resigned (1891), and the academy, whose business it was to arrange the next congress and keep the movement going, never convened a fourth congress. Several academicians set to work on new artificial languages of their own ; and what was left of
ENGLISH SCHOLARS VERSUS AMERICAN 97
the Academy of Volapiik, under a new director, M. Rosenberger, a St. Petersburg railway engineer, elected 1893, subsequently turned its attention to working out a new language, to which was given the name Idiom Neutral (see next chapter).
It is interesting to note that, when Volapiik was nearing its high-water mark, the American Philosophical Society appointed a committee (October 1887) to inquire into its scientific value.
This committee reported in November 1887. The report states that the creation of an international language is in conformity with the general tendency of modern civilization, and is not merely desirable, but " will certainly be realized." It goes on to reject Volapiik as the solution of the problem, as being on the whole retrogade in tendency. It is too arbitrary in construction, and not international enough in vocabulary ; nor does it correspond to the general trend of development of language, which is away from a synthetic grammar (inflection by means of terminations, as in Latin and Greek) and towards an analytic one (inflection by termination replaced by prepositions and auxiliaries).
But the committee was so fully convinced of the importance of an international language, that it proposed to the Philosophical Society that it should invite all the learned societies of the world to co-operate in the production of a universal language. A resolution embodying this recommendation was adopted by the society, and the invitations were sent out. About twenty societies accepted — among them the University of Edinburgh. The Scots again !
The London Philological Society commissioned Mr. Ellis to investigate the subject, and upon his report declined to co-operate. Mr. Ellis was a believer in Volapiik, and furthermore did not agree with the American Philosophical Society's conclusion that an international language ought to be founded on an Indo- Germanic (Aryan) basis. In this Mr. Ellis was almost certainly wrong, as subsequent experience is tending to show. The Japanese, among others, are taking up Esperanto with enthusiasm,
7
98 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
find it easy, and make no difficulty about its Aryan basis. But, apart from linguistic considerations, Mr. Ellis's practical reasoning was certainly sound. It was to this effect : The main thing is to adopt a language that is already in wide use and shown to be adequate. Alterations bring dissension ; by sticking to what we have already got, imperfections and all, strife is avoided, and the thing is at once reduced to practice.
This was a wise counsel, and applies to-day with double force to the present holder of the field, Esperanto, which is besides, in the opinion of experts, a better language than Volapiik, and far easier to acquire.
However, on the question of technical merits, the American Philosophical Society was probably right, as against the London Philological Society represented by Mr. Ellis. And the proof is that Volapiik died — primarily, indeed, of dissensions among its partisans, but of dissensions superinduced on inherent defects of principle. That this is true may be seen from the subsequent history of the Volapiik movement. This is briefly narrated in the next chapter, under the name of Idiom Neutral.
HISTORY OF IDIOM NEUTRAL
WE saw above that M. Kerckhoffs was succeeded in the director- ship of the Volapiik Academy, 1893, by M. Rosenberger, of St. Petersburg. During his term of office the academy continued its work of amending and improving the language. The method of procedure was as follows : The director elaborated proposals, which he embodied in circulars and sent round from time to time to his fellow-academicians. They voted " Yes " or " No," so that the language, when finished, was approved by them all, and was the joint product of the academy ; but it was, in its new form, to a great extent, the work of the director. At the end of his term
PAUCITY OF NEUTRALISTS 99
of office it was practically complete. It had undergone a complete transformation, and was now called Idiom Neutral.
In 1898 M. Rosenberger was succeeded by Rev. A. F. Holmes, of Macedon, New York State. The members of the academy vary from time to time, and include (or have included since 1898) natives of America, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Ger- many, Holland, Italy, and Russia.
Dictionaries of Idiom Neutral have been published in English (in America), German, and Dutch ; but the language hardly seems to be in use except among the members of the academy. These do not meet, but carry on their business by means of circulars, drawn up, of course, in Neutral. There are at present only four groups of Neutralists — those of St. Petersburg, Nuremberg, Brussels, and San Antonio, Texas. The famous linguistic club of Nuremberg is remarkable for having gone through the evolution from Volapiik to Idiom Neutral vid Esperanto ! Besides these four groups, there are isolated Neutralists in certain towns in Great Britain. The academy seems still to have some points to settle, and the work of propaganda has hardly yet begun.
A paper published in Brussels, under the name of Idei Inter- national, seems to represent the ideas of scattered Neutralists, and of some partisans of other schemes based on Romance vocabulary. These 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 amalgamation with Esperanto, through the medium of a reformed type of Esperanto, which approximates more nearly to these newer schemes, its vocabulary being, like theirs, almost entirely Romance. A series of modifications was published tentatively by Dr. Zamenhof himself in 1894, but was suppressed from practical considerations, having regard to the fate that overtook Volapiik, when once it fell into the hands of reformers. The so-called reforms never represented the real ideas of Zamenhof, and were rather in the nature of reluctant concessions to the weaker brethren. They were never introduced.
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The reader may be interested to compare for himself specimens of Volapiik, Idiom Neutral (its lineal descendant), and Esperanto. This Esperanto is the only one in use, most Esperantists having never even heard of the reform project, which was at once dropped, before the language had entered upon its present cosmopolitan extension. The following versions of the Lord's Prayer are taken from MM. Couturat and Leau's History, as are the facts in the above narratives, with the exception of the latest details :
VOLAPUK
O Fat obas, kel binol in siils, paisaludomoz nem ola ! Komo- mod monargan ola ! Jenomoz vil olik, as in siil, i su tal ! Bodi obsik vadeliki givolos obes adelo ! E pardolos obes debis obsik, as id obs aipardobs debeles obas. E no obis nindukolos in tentadi ; sod aidalivolos obis de bad. Jenosod !
IDIOM NEUTRAL*
Nostr patr kel es in sieli ! Ke votr nom es sanktifiked ; ke votr regnia veni ; ke votr volu es fasied, kuale in siel, tale et su ter. Dona sidiurne a noi nostr pan omnidiurnik ; e pardona (a) noi nostr debiti, kuale et noi pardon a nostr debtatori ; e no induka noi in tentasion, ma librifika noi da it mal.
ESPERANTO
Patro nia, kiu estas en la cielo, sankta estu via nomo ; venu regeco via ; estu volo via, kiel en la cielo, tiel ankau sur la tero. Panon nian ciutagan donu al ni hodiau ; kaj pardonu al ni suldojn niajn, kiel ni- ankau pardonas al niaj suldantoj ; kaj ne konduku nin en tenton, sed liberigu nin de la malbono.
* There are two forms of Idiom Neutral, — one called " pure," authorized by the academy ; the other used in the paper Idei International.
SUPERIORITY OF ESPERANTO 101
Comparing Volapiik with Idiom Neutral, even this brief speci- men is enough to show the main line of improvement. The framers of the latter had realized the fact that the vocabulary is the first and paramount consideration for an artificial language. It is hopeless to expect people to learn strings of words of arbitrary formation and like nothing they ever saw. Accordingly Idiom Neutral borrows its vocabulary from natural speech, and thereby abandons a regularity which may be theoretically more perfect, but which by arbitrary disfigurement of familiar words overreaches itself, and does more harm than good.
It is very instructive to note that a body of international language specialists were brought little by little to adopt an almost exclusively Romance vocabulary, and this in spite of the fact that they started from Volapuk, whose vocabulary is constructed on quite other lines. In other points their language suffers from being too exclusively inspired by Volapiikist principles, so that their recognition of the necessity of an a posteriori vocabulary is the more convincing.
Given, then, that vocabulary is to be borrowed and not created anew, it is obvious that the principle of borrowing must be maximum of internationality of roots — i.e. those words will be adopted by preference which are already common to the greatest number of chief languages. Now, by far the greater number of such international words (which are far more numerous than was thought before a special study was made of the subject) are Romance, being of Latin origin. This i& the justification of the prevalence of the Romance element in any modern artificial language. It has been frequently made a reproach against Esperanto that it is a Romance language ; but the unanimous verdict of the competent linguists who composed the academy for the emendation of Volapuk may be taken as final. They threshed the question out once for all, and their conclusion derives added force from the fact that it is the result of conversion.
But it may be doubted whether they have not gone rather far in this direction and overshot the mark.
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Comparing Idiom Neutral with Esperanto, it will be found that the latter admits a larger proportion of non-Romance words. While fully recognizing and doing justice to the accepted principle of selection, maximum of internationality, Esperanto sometimes gives the preference to a non-Romance word in order to avoid ambiguity and secure a perfectly distinct root from which to form derivatives incapable of confusion with others.* There is always a good reason for the choice ; but it is easier to appreciate this after learning the language.
But a mere comparison of the brief texts given above will bring out another point in favour of Esperanto — 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 in an international language, offer grave difficulties of pronuncia- tion to speakers of many nations. Words ending with a double consonant are very frequent, e.g. nostr pair ; and these will be unpronounceable for many nations, e.g. for an Italian or a Japanese. Euphony is one of the strongest of the many strong points of Esperanto. In it the principle of maximum of internationality has been applied to sounds as well as forms, and there are very few sounds that will be a stumbling-block to any considerable number of speakers. Some of 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-sounds are long and full and the pronunciation slow, almost drawling. Esperanto fulfils these requisites in a marked degree. It is far easier to dwell upon two-syllabled words with full vocalic endings like patro nia than upon awkward words like nostr pair.
Yet another advantage of Esperanto is illustrated in the same texts. Owing to its system of inflexion and the possession of an
* It is obvious, too, that English, Germans, and Slavs will be more attracted to a language which borrows some of its features from their own tongues, than to an entirely Romance language. This relatively wider international appeal is another advantage of Esperanto.
SQUARING THE CIRCLE 103
objective case, it is extremely flexible, and can put the words in j.lmost any order, without obscuring the sense. Thus, in the translation of the Pater Noster, the Esperanto text follows the Latin word for word and in the same order. It is obvious that this flexibility confers great advantages for purposes of faithful and spirited translation.
VI
THE NEWEST LANGUAGES: A NEO-LATIN GROUP— GROPINGS TOWARDS A " PAN-EUROPEAN " AMALGAMATED SCHEME
A PERUSAL of the list of schemes proposed (pp. 76-87) shows that the last few years have produced quite a crop of artificial languages. Now that the main principles necessary to success are coming to be recognized, the points of difference between the rival schemes are narrowing down, and, as mentioned in the last chapter, there is a family likeness between many of the newer projects. The chief of these are : Idiom Neutral ; Pan- Roman or Universal, by Dr. Molenaar; Latino sine flexione, by Prof. Peano ; Mundolingue ; Nuove- Roman ; and Lingua Komun.
These have been grouped together by certain adversaries as " Neo- Roman " ; but their partisans seem to prefer the collective term "Neo-Latin." There are more or less vague hopes that out of them may be evolved a final form of international language, for which the names Pan-European and Union-Ling have been suggested. Dr. Molenaar has declared his willingness to keep to his original title, Pan-Roman, for his own language, if the composite one should prefer to be called Universal. Prof. Peano says, in the course of an article (written in his own language, of course), " any fresh solution in the future can only differ from Idiom Neutral, as two medical or mathematical treatises dealing with the same subject."
The only definite scheme for common action put forth up to
io4 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
now seems to be that proposed by Dr. Molenaar. In January 1907 he sent round a circular written in French, in which he makes the following propositions :
All authors and notable partisans of Neo-Latin universal languages shall meet in a special academy, which will elaborate a compromise-language.
As regards the programme, the three fundamental principles shall be :
1. Internationally and comprehensibility.
2. Simplicity and regularity.
3. Homogeneity and euphony.
Of these principles, No. i is to take precedence of No. 2, and No. 2 of No. 3. The order of discussion is to be :
I. GRAMMAR
(a) Alphabet.
(If) Articles (necessary or not ?).
(r) Declension.
(d) Plural (-s or -/?).
(e) Adjective (invariable or not ?). (/) Adverb, etc.
II. VOCABULARY
The number of collaborators is to be limited to about twenty, and the chairman is to be a non-partisan.
Such, in outline, is the proposal of Dr. Molenaar. An obvious 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 authors of languages to be impartial and sacrifice their favourite devices
PACIFIC PENETRATION 105
to the common opinion. M. Bollack, author of the Langue bleue, has already refused the chairmanship. He does not see the use of founding a fresh academy, and thinks Dr. Molenaar would do better to join forces with the Neutralists.
There exists indeed already an " Akademi International de Lingu Universal," which has produced Idiom Neutral, and of which Mr. Holmes is still director, now in his second term (see preceding chapter). This academy is said to be too one-sided in its composition, and not scientific. But it is hard to see how it will abdicate in favour of a new one.
Meantime, the victorious Esperantists, at present in possession of the field, poke fun at these new-fangled schemes. A parody in Esperanto verse, entitled Lingvo de Molenaar, and sung to the tune of the American song Riding down from Bangor^ narrates the fickleness of Pan-Roman and how it changed into Universal. It is said that a group of Continental Esperantists, at a convivial sitting, burnt the apostate Idiom Neutral in effigy by making a bonfire of Neutral literature. On the other side amenities are not wanting. It is now the fashion to sling mud at a rival language by calling it " arbitrary " and " fantastic " ; and these epithets are freely applied to Esperanto. Strong in their cause, the Esperantists are peacefully preparing the Congress of Cambridge.
VII
HISTORY OF ESPERANTO
HAPPY is the nation that has no history, — still happier the inter- national language ; for a policy of " pacific penetration " offers few picturesque incidents to furnish forth a readable narrative. In the case of Esperanto there have been no splits or factions ; no narrow ring of oligarchs has cornered the language for its own purposes, or insisted upon its aristocratic and non-popular side in the supposed interests of culture or literary taste ; consequently
io6 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
there has been no secession of the plebs. In the early days of Esperanto there was indeed an attempt to found an Esperanto league; but when it was seen that the league did little beyond suggest alterations, it was wisely dissolved in 1894. Since then Esperanto has been run purely on its merits as a language, and has expressly dissociated itself from any political, pacifist, or other propaganda. Its story is one of quiet progress — at first very slow, but within the last five years wonderfully rapid, and still accelerating. The most sensational episode in this peaceful advance was the prohibition of the principal Esperantist organ by the Russian censorship, so that there is little to do, save record one or two leading facts and dates.
The inventor of Esperanto is a Polish doctor, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, now living in Warsaw. He was born in 1859 at Bielostock, a town which has lately become notorious as the scene of one of the terrible Russian pogroms, or interracial butcheries. This tragedy was only the culmination of a chronic state of misunderstanding, which long ago so impressed thfr young Zamenhof that, when still quite a boy, he resolved to labour for the removal of one cause of it by facilitating mutual intercourse. He has practically devoted his life first to the elaboration of his language, and of later years to the vast amount of business that its extension involves. And it has been a labour of love. Zamenhof is an idealist. His action, in all that concerns Esper- anto, has been characterized throughout by a generosity 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 first 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 peoples whom his invention had brought together.
But he is not merely an idealist : he is a practical idealist. This is shown by his self-restraint and practical wisdom in guiding events. One of the symptoms of "catching Esperanto" is a
WISDOM OF DR. ZAMENHOF 107
desire to introduce improvements. This morbid propensity to jejune amateur tinkering, a kind of measles of the mind (inorbus linguificus*} attacks the immature in years or judgment. A riper acquaintance with the history and practical aims of international language purges it from the system. We have all been through it. For the inventor of Esperanto, accustomed for so many years to retouch, modify, and revise, it must require no ordinary degree of self-control to keep his hands off, and leave the fate of his offspring to others. It grew with his growth, developing with his experience, and he best knows where the shoe pinches and what might yet be done. But he has the fate of Volapiik 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 Volapiik, Bishop Schleyer. It will be remembered how he let Volapiik run upon the rocks rather than relinquish the helm. He has been nicknamed " the Volapukist 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 his language, he made no claim to finality on its behalf. He called for criticisms, and contemplated completing and modifying his scheme in accordance with them. He even offered to make over this task to a duly constituted academy, if people would come forward and throw themselves into the work. Again, some years later, in a pamphlet, Choix d'une langue Internationale, he proposed a scheme for obtaining a competent impartial verdict, and declared his willingness to submit to it. At one time he thought of something in the nature of a plebiscite. Later, his renunciation of the last vestige of control, in giving up the aprobo, or official sanction of books ; his attitude at the international congresses ; his refusal to accept the presidency ; his reluctance
* An expressive (homoeopathic) name for this malady may be coined in Esperanto : malsano lingvotrudema =» officious or intrusive disease, con- sisting in an itch for coining language.
io8 INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
to name or influence the selection of the members of the body charged with the control of the language ; his declaration that his own works have no legislative power, but are merely those of an Esperantist ; finally, his sane conception of the scope and method of future development of the language to meet new needs, and of the limits within which it is possible, — all this bespeaks the man who has a clear idea of what he is aiming at, and a shrewd grasp of the conditions necessary to ensure success.
The word Esperanto is the present participle of the verb esperi — " to hope," used substantially. It was under the pseudonym of Dr. Esperanto that Zamenhof published his scheme in 1887 at Warsaw, and the name has stuck to the language. Before publication it had been 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 artificial language projects for the last three hundred years. That is to say, he began with the idea of an a priori language with made-up words and arbitrary grammar, and gradually advanced to the conception of an a posteriori language, borrowing its vocabulary from the roots common to several existing languages and presenting in its grammar a simplification of Indo-European grammar.
He began to learn English at a comparatively advanced stage of his education, and the simplicity of 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 present form. He seems to have had cruel disappointments, 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 work at the language seems to have been almost his one resource. Its absolute simplicity is deceptive as to the immense labour it
AN ARDENT APOSTLE 109
must have cost a single man to work it out. This is only fully to be appreciated by one who has some knowledge of former attempts. Zamenhof himself admits that, if he had known earlier of the existence of Volapuk, he would never have had the courage to continue his task, though he was conscious of the superiority of his own solution. When, after long hesitation, he made up his mind to try his luck and give his language to the world, Volapuk was strong, but already involved in internal strife.
Zamenhofs book appeared first in Russian, and the same year (1887) French and German editions appeared at Warsaw. The first instruction book in English appeared in the following year. The only name on the title-page is " St. J.," and it passed quite unnoticed.
Progress was at first very slow. The firs); flgpejantn sncip.tv was founded in St. Petersburg, 1892, under the name of La Espero. "As early as 1889 the pioneer Esperanto newspaper, La Esperan- fisio* conducted chiefly by Russians and circulated mainly in Russia, began to appear in Nuremberg, where there was already a distinguished Volapuk club, afterwards converted to Esperanto. Since then Nuremberg has continued to be a centre of light in the movement for an international language. The other pioneer newspapers were L' Esptrantiste, founded in 1898 at Epernay by the Marquis de Beaufront, and La Lttmo of Montreal.
In Germany in the early days of Esperanto the great apostles were Einstein and