The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1904-12-02
NEW LANGUAGE EASY
PUSHING CLAIMS OF EsPERAN-
TO WITH ENTHUSIASM.
Learned In a Few Hours Civilization
Demands an Easy Medium OF Conn
munIcatIon Between Different Peoples
-Philoiogists Asked to Give Aid.

municatIon Between Different Peoples
-PhiloIogists Asked to Give Aid.
A determined attempt is now being
made in Paris to spread the use OF
an international or auxiliary Ian
guage" in order to aid travellers. mer-
chants, scientists and other persons
who find themselves placed temporar-
lily in a country where they do not
understand the national speech. This
attempt recalls that made some years
ago in favor Of 'Volapuk." which still
has its advocates, but which has, on
the whole, proved an ignominious fail
ure on account Of its complexity Some
have thought that the English lam
guage would become the common
tongue of the world, but it is a 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-
vinced of its practicability and event
ual efficacy, is called Esperanto" (the
corrupted gerundlve 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 a dictionary to aid the stu
dent That is-Esperanto has no
grammar, fact which. to begin with,
can hardly be considered as anything
but an undiluted blessing. The Mar
quis de Beaufront. who has spent the
last tec years in trying to further the
interest Of the language, is now ex-
planning them twice a week to audi
ences composed of the members OF the
Touring Club de France" which
claims to be the most extensive cycl-
ing organization in the world, and
which includes some 500 Americans in
its membership. Learning English,
German or italian is the work, more
or less, of a 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 delib-
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 common and easy medium of
communication between different
peoples. All philosophers, includ-
ing bacon, Pascal. Descartes,
Lelbnitz, 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 infexibility for the practical
purposes of our age. Volapuk misera-
bly, failed a dozen years ago. 1t was not
constructed scientifically Esperanto
on the contrary. has not had to be lin
vented at all 1t has grown gradually
out of the growth of modern lam
guages. There are already 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 VIII be rigor-
ously phonetic. SimilaTities 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 goia. 'Joyously' is goje; to
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 l could easily
read Esperanto. After four hours
wrote it with ease; it is a great dis
covery.' To spread the language sew
eral American organizations are to
be communicated with. and philolo-
gists of the United States are to be
asked to lend their aid in the project.