Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1888-02-16
A UNIVERSAL LANGCAGE.

. A UNIVERSAL LANGCAGE.
The inventive genius of man has
5 wrought so many changes in the con
: ditions of life during the past hal
3 century by evolving scientific princi
pies and applying them to every day
business affairs as to have proved
that there is no limit to his powers
By means of railroad locomotion
electricity and other inventions, dis
coveries and applied sciences the
various peoples and nations of the
earth SO widely scattered apart geo
graphically and so distinct by man
ners, customs and laws, are atlength
practically one nation and one peo-
pie, and their interests promise to be-
come still more allied and mutual so
soon as other great scientific dis
coveries and other great inventions
shall bring them nearer together in
manners, customs and business pur-
suits. 1t is this growing inter-de
pendence, mutually of interests and
reciprocity of trade that has given
origin to the attempt to build up
and establish a universal language.
1t remains to be seen what success
it will meet with. The BANNER is of
the opinion that it will prove fail
ure. A few persons may possibly
by dint of hard study for years sue
coed in mastering it sufficiently to
enable them to carry on business
correspondence in some sort, but to
the world at large they will appear
as jabbering idiots. A language
built up on no fixed principle of
steady growth, which has no his
tory and no derivative origin, can
not become a success. And, be-
sides, as everybody knows, language
is affected by climatic influences to
such an extent that people of one ma
ton practically speak many tongues.
In that small boot-shaped country,
Italy, there used to exist diversified
with dialects almost unintelligible one
another in conversation. In Great
Britain to this day exist the Glas-
gov twang, the London cockney, the
brogue, the Irish brogue
and a number of others peculiar
and distinct to themselves. Imagine
a Frenchman and a German,
Or to draw a more vivid picture, an
American and an Asiatic or two per-
sons of any other nations or people
widely separated geographically and
BY custom, surroundings and
climatic conditions, trying to con-
verse together in a tongue foreign
20 both. 1t makes no difference
now strict the rules of construction,
pronunciation and syntax may be, it {
viii be almost impossible for them t
% give the language the same &C l
,entuation or to speak so as to I'M
lerstand each other But, if uni
'ersal language is practicable, why !
10 the learned men who have taken
he lead in inventing one take the
English language merely as a basis a
nd mutilate and butcher it up in |
IN unrecognizable shape! Why {
lot adopt it outright 1t is now :
poken in Great Britain, the great
5land of Australia, the United $
states, which is destined to be the t
-reatest power ON the face of the s
arth, New Zealand, British Ameri c
n, the vast empire of India, and 6
many other quarters OF the globe,
nd is destined to be the language .
f the commercial world. With sc ii
nary people speaking it already, il
'ith.its history, philology, lu1uriant
nd diversified growth, built from
ATTN, Greek and Anglo-Saxon, con- =
aiming many words with common :.
rigin and familiar to other nations. =
would be much easier and more [
racticable to adopt it as a universal d
lnguaSe than to establish one by n
rbitrary rules. And it is strange :
nat this patent and common-sense +
lew did not appear to the learned d
len who have undertaken the task. Ct
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