The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-08-07
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.
Opinion Of German Scholar That
It will Be English.

The Germans not only look upon
their language as an integral and es-
sential part of the national life, but
the more cultivated classes revere it
with an almost idolatrous venera-
ton. Notwithstanding the difficult
ties presented by its indistinct and
Grabbed type, its intricate and half
illegible script, its arbitrary genders,
its highly artificial inaectional sys-
tenn, and it's illogical syntax, its
study is extolled not only as means
of mental culture and discipline, but
as an impulse to originality of
thought and expression. These facts
render all the more noteworthy the
leading article in the most recent
number issued of Professor Hans
Delbruck's "Preussiche Jahrbucher,"
perhaps the most prominent of
German literary reviews 1t is from
the pen OF DR.. A. Schroer, professor
of philology at the University of
Freiburg, and it's subject is the i'm
portance of introducing into the
schools the study OF universal Ian
guage.
The writer begins by condemning
all attempts, however scientific, to
construct an artificial language like
Volapuk. No language which pos
sesses neither literature, historical
developments nor linguistic relations
can ever serve as medium of gen.
eral communication, for the reason
that no one will take the trouble to
acquire it, merely as tool of trade,
until it becomes universal; therefore
it never can become universal. Such
attempts, however, are not only idle
and aimless, because they can never
obi ain the general consent of man
kind, but they are useless, for says
Professor Schroer, there exists al
ready universal language i.e., a
language which, by it's spread over
the whole earth, and by the ease
with which it may be learned, has
already gained such long step in
advance that neither natural nor
artificial means can deprive it of it's
assured position as the future me-
dunn of international intercourse.
And this language is the English.
1t is interesting to find this fact
acknowledge and promulgated by
one of the foremost of German
periodicals. During the present CEN
fury the English speaking popula-
ton of the world has increased FIVE
fold-from possibly 25,OOO,OOO at its
commencement to at least 125,OOO,-
600 at it's close. No other language
has ever been SO rapidly developed;
no fact in civil history is more signi-
ficant than this. In all quarters OF
the world the English language is
the conquering tongue; the wide
spread Of the English colonial sys-
tenn, the marvellous growth of the
United States and the facility with
which it absorbs every foreign ele-
ment bear witness to this great fact.
Therefore, Professor Schroer advo-
Gates making the study of the Eng
fish obligatory, not necessarily to the
exclusion of Latin and Greek, but at
least in conjunction with them.
This" says he, lis not question OF
taste or of rivalry between the
'moderns and the ancients;' it
is simply a historical necessity
Professor Schroer is careful to warn
his readers not to set their aim too
high, for to learn to speak and write
fluently and correctly a language
which holds so high a place in the
scale of culture and refinement as
the English is "monstrously diff
cult" but for the average man this
is not necessary, for even the aver
age Englishman has but limited
command of his mother tongue, and
the daily intercourse of life requires
but small and easily acquired
vocabulary.
This is true of every languages; but
the absence of puzzling genders and
infections and syntactical forms rem.
ders the English easy in comparison
with others.
'The English" concludes PROBES,
sor Schroer, sis the world speech
and will, to all appearance, become
more and more so every year."