The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1901-07-12
4 IA d a Is
PUSHING CLAIMS or EsPERAN-$
&, TO WITH ENTHUSIASM.

Lssrnsd Ia : Few Hours Ciyllizaslon
Demands N E.sy medium OF Com
Il nunte.sion Bstw son Din.rsnt Psopiss:
Philolosists Asksd TO Give Aid. B ., sss
"A determined attempt is now being
made IN Paris to, spread the use Of
an international or auxiliary lam
guage" in order to aid travellers, mer-
chants. scientists and other persons
who find themselves placed ,temporar-
lily in country where they do not
understand the national speech. This
attempt recalls that made some years
ago tn favor OF 'svolapuk," which still
has its advocates, but which has, on
the whole, proved an ignominious fall
ure on account Of it's completely. Some
have thought that the English Ian
guage would become the common
tongue Of the world, but it is q we'll
known fact that the so-called Eng
lish language Is a mixture of many
languages. The auxiliary language
now being pushed forward in the
French Academic des Sciences and by
other organizations which are con-
WINGED of it's practicability and event.
ual efficacy, is called Esperanto (the
corrupted gerundfve limiting at its de.
stability, and is the invention Of a
Russian, DR.. Zamenhoff, who says
that the language is so simply con-
structed as to be readily UNDERSTOOD
with only dictionary to aid the stu-
dent. That is-Esperanto has no
grammar. a fact which, to begin with,
can hardly be considered as anything
but an undiIuted blessing. The Mar
quis de Beaufront, who has spent the
last ten years in trying to further the
interest of the language, Is now ex-
planning them twice week to audi
ences composed of the members Of the
Touring Club de France" which
claims to be the most extensive cyc1-
ing organization in the world, and
which includes some 800 Americans in
its membership. Learning English,
German or Italian is the work, more
or less, of lifetime; learning Es-
peranto is the effort Of half day. NJ
Couturat, a well-known young philol-
ogist and philosopher at Paris has in
terested himself greatly in the scheme,
and is, the head Of delegation
which has Just presented an address
to the president of the Academic des;
Sciences asking that this body DELHI
crate with all gravity and seriousness
on the question of lending its weight
and authority to the spread Of the
common language: NJ. Coutrat said:
Civilization demands the existence of
such a common and easy medium of
communication between different
peoples. All philosophers, includ-
ing Bacon, Pascal, Descartes,
Leibnitz, Locke, Condillac,. Dide-.
rot, Volney and Ampere,. have
agreed that this is so, and some
of them, for example, Leibnitz, have,
tried to supply the need, when Latin
grew out of the question on account
of the time required to learn it and its
natural inhexibility for the practical
purposes of our age. Volapuk misera-
bly, failed dozen years ago. 1t was not
constructed scientifically. Esperanto
on the contrary, has not had to be Sin
vented at all. It has grown gradually
out of the growth of modern Ian
guages. There are already a multi
plicity of scientific terms and others
common now to so many languages
that an international vocabulary may
already be said to exist. Other words,
are common to three languages; still
others to only two; all these words
then, will furnish the kernel or start
ing point of the new language; their
number grows greater all the time
Compound and derived words will be:
formed according to the most simple
rules, and the, spelling will be rigor.
ously phonetic: Similarities of pronun-
citation between different words will
be avoided with great care Great terse-.
ness and brevity will be- secured by
abolishing long endings. For instance
take the word Joy" This, is; the. in
ternational Esperanto is 'gojo.' Joy.
GUS is made by changing the vowel
ending 'goja' 'Joyously' is 'goje' tic
rejoice is 'goji' Verbs are not infect.
ed; only the pronoun changes. This is
of infantile. simplicity and one easily
understands Tolstoi's statement that
after two hours found could easily
read EsperantU. After four hours I
wrote it with ease;. it is % great dis
covery.'" To spread the language sew,
erM American organizations are to
be communicated with, and philolo-
gists of the United States are to be-
asked to lend their aid I'm the project.
Around tho World ON Foot.