The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-22
A NEW LANGUAGE.
Esperanto, Like VOIapuk, Is n Uni
VersaI Tongue.

VersaI Tongue.
James Charles. O,Cyonnor waxas a,o-
quent in T. P Weekly over Esperan-
~, the new international language.
Here are his remarks in full.
A modern miracle, nothing else
language that the imam in the street"
the caDlnan, the railway porter ana
the board school boy can read ana
write IN one month, and can converse
IN IN three weeks; a language thai
brings one into relationship, not with
tne people OF one nation, nor of one
tongue, not with Europeans only, h,1t
with the inhabitants of every CONT
nent, and all this at a cost of a few
months study is surely worthy of this
name. IhIs Esperanto can do. this
Esperanto is doing to-day. Tens IF
thousands of Esperantists all the world
over, literally from Japan to Peru. give
ample proof of this.
1 found Esperanto very simple. IF is
SO easy TO learn that having received
grammar and dictionary of the Ian
guage, could at the end of two short
nours' II not write, at least read the
language fuently." So writes ,eo ToI~
stoy: And Max Mueller: Il should GER
tainly place Esperanto very high above
all its rivals" '''oFe
In Paris alone there are at this mo
NiaSoC6 lOI the teAchino
of the language, and no cIoss i LIE,
less than 100 students. In MANY Of the
schools OF France and Sweden if Is a
special subject. Upward of a do7ar
Journals are published in France Ger
many sweden, Holland, Bulgaria Pms
sla, canada and elsewhere Within the
past rev months England has fallen in
~ me. societies are now established
IN London Keighley, Hundersdeld
Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth and
bournemouth. Other societies are in
process OF formation in Birmingham
Liverpool, Brighton, Leeds and Wake
neid. In Ireland and Scotland societies
have been founded. How has Esperan-
to accomplished this?
Before these questions can be an
sWered we must first of all see what
are, or rather what should be. the
dominant characteristics of a language
which assumes the role of information
allty / will put them briefly:
First. Its alphabet must be such that
the pronunciation of the letters comes
naturally to all people-Europeans AS
iatics, Africans, etc.
Second 1t must be phonetic Ian
guage-that is. there must be no silent
letters, and each letter must have one
lmmutable sound-one letter, one sound
always and everywhere.
Third. Its grammar must be sim
PIE tnere must be no EXCEPTIONS no
irregular verbs, no irregular plurals.
Fourth. AS far as possible its vo-
cabulary should consist of words IA
miliar to the people of different ma
tons. The greatest good of the great
est number should be the principle OF
selection.
Fifth. 1t should be a language. not
Tor the savant nor the man of letters
only; 1t must be equally adapted for
"a.
the purpose of everyday correspondence
and as an easy and simple means OF
conversati ton.
Esperanto has succeeded because IL
fulfills i'm the most plenary manner ali
of these essentials. Its alphabet does
not represent a shadow of difficult 10
the student, no matter what nation he
halls from. The Englishman. the
Frenchman the Russian, the Lapland-
err, the Czech and the japanese can
master and pronounce every letter right
off at reading. The language is essen
TALLY phonetic. Il is written as read
and read as written. Its grammar I
can dismiss in a word. Give me a
class of board school boys-say In the
sixth standard-and | guarantee to
teach them the grammar In one hour.
In Esperanto there is no such thing
as an irregular verb nor an irregular
plural Nor Is there a single excep-
tion 10 any rule from beginning 10 end.
It's vocabulary consists Of words for
the most part familiar 10 the man OF
average. education. An Engiishman
knows al the very outset 30 per cent. Of
the words. and II he has moderate
knowledge ~ either Latin. French.
Spanish or Italian. he knows over so
per cent. ~ them. The language con-
siFts Of about 900 root words. BY /
means ~ these and with the heip on /
thirty prehxes and Ankles. every idea /