The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-06
GROWS IN GENERAL FAVOR Universal Language Seems to
 Have Appeared SPREADING VERY RAPIDLY Many European Societies Use It Ex- clusively and 1t Is Gaining In
 America-Noted for It's
 Simplicity
SPREADING VERY RAPIDLY
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.
 inc favor with which the Esnera nto language Is being received in the United states IS a noteworthy indication of the broadening of American interests, and the increasing necessity of our people being able to speak some language other than their own. While it is true that the American living in the interior of the country seldom has use for anything put his mother tongue, the large foreign element we are continually receiving Into out population, and the rapid increase in the volume of American travel abroad gives rise to much awkwardness which can only be relieved by common meth cd of expression. The earths population numbers almost 150O, o0o represent in; 124 different countries whose people speak hundreds of distinct languages and dialects Communica- ton between them Is a ponderous task, involving the knowledge of many lan- suages and too often a dependence on interpreters. To obviate this difficulty experiments have been made time and again to perfect a common or universal Language and In Esperanto the problem has probably been solved.
 About thirty years ago Dr. Louis Zam- enhof of Warsaw, Poland, compiled a new universal language that critics be- lieve will answer the needs of all per sons who wish to communicate with those of other tongues. He signed himself "Dr. Esperanto' when he first published his work, and he has become known as the i-oper' to his friends, while the language he compiled has been compllmented with the same name. Dr. Zamenhof denies that he has invented a new language It is based on the leading European lan- guages and contains all of their good elements and none of the bad
 This studlous physician planned lan- guage that is said by critics and hilolo- gists the world over to be the height of simplicity and ease. He proceeded after a most logical fashion to choose the words that are common to the lead ing languages of Europe. He then chose many words common to the majority of the languages. These being insufficient, he added characteristic ones from all languages, preferably the Latin, and spell ing these theoretically, placed them aside hp pt QStu dS IOOl-WOTuS III Ine COIn- pilation of the universal lexicon. There are 2001 root-words. He eliminated all so -nds that are peculiar to any one lan- guage and cut out all double letters For example, the diphthong "th'' and the let ter w of the English language are not common to French and German, so they were eliminated from his list. The French nasais and the German "u'' with the diae- resis above, the Spanish n" that incor- porates the sound of ''y' the Spanish "j" and the German 'oh" also went the way of the outcasts< He kept however two sounds for c, two for E, h, j. S and Il. American critics believe some of these may be eliminated or exchanged for smoother sounds as some bring a Russian accent that is dificuit for Anglo-saxon and Gallic tongues. The duplicate let ters are written with a circumflex &C., cent that makes them difficult for or di.--ry presses of this country to print. but aside from this American critics have discussed Esperanto with great fa- Vor and friendliness
 The strength of Esperanto rests on two foundations: The regularity and sirnpliei- ty or it, grammar and It's wonderful sys. tenn Of wordbulding It is said that in those respects 1t surpasses all other lan- guages, ancient or modern. that the world has. ever known. Evolution by artificial selection," Is the name given Dr. Zam-
 
 a. other Inventions and works of great genuises. the new language strikes one with its simplicity and every student rises at once with the surprised query, Why didn't think of that? It is so easyi"
 Parts of speech in Esperanto are reeog- iized by their endinss. The letter "o' used as an ending always indicates a noun. Adjectives end In a. verbs in t adverbs made from other words in "e,' and so on. The plural of a noun is formed by adding 'j," pronounced "y' to the singular. Floro is flower in Esperan- to; floroj Is flowers. There are no irreg- ular verbs, and every word is accented on next to the last syllable. Gender is not matter of opinions or rules or acci- dents as in the general languages but is based on reason and common sense, the feminine being formed from the mascu- line by adding "in" to the root. "Knabe" is boy. 'I<nabno' Is girl.
 It is flexible language On the 2G0 root words as extensive a vocabulary IS one needs can be built. This seems in- credible. when one recalls the fact that the dictionary compiled by the French academy contains 32.000 words, the Eng fish and German dictionaries from 45,00 to