The Washington herald., 1907-07-06
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

4
The favor with which the Esperanto
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 1t is true that the
American living in the interior Of the
country seldom has use for anything but
his mother tongue, the large foreign ele-
ment we are continually receiving into
our population. and the rapid increase in
the volume of American travel abroad.
gives rise to much awkwardness which
can only be relieved by common method
of expression. The earth's population
numbers almost 1.50o,000O00, representing
one hundred and twenty-four different
countries, whose people speak hundreds
Of distinct languages and dialects. Com
municatiOn between them is a pOnderOus
task, involving the knowledge Of many
languages, and too often a dependence on
Interpreters. To obviate this difficulty
experiments have been made time and
again 70 uarfect a common or universal
language. and in Esperanto the problem
has probably been solved.
About thirty years ago DR.. Louis Ia
menhof of Warsaw. Poland. compiled a
new universal language that critics be-
heve 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
hopper 70 his friends, while the language
he compiled has been cOmpiiinented with
the same name. DR.. Zamennof denies
that he has invented Il new language. Ii
is based on the leading European Ian
guages and contains all of their good
elements and none of the bad.
This studous physician planned a Ian
guage that is said by critics and philolo-
gist5 the world over to be the height of
simplicity and ease. He proceeded a.ter a
most logical fashion % choose the words
that are common 10 the leading languages
Of Europe He then chose many words
common to the majority of the languages
These being insufficient. he added charac-
teristic ones from all languages. prefer
ably the Latin. and spelling these pho
netiCally placed them aside 10 be used as
TCOt-wOrds in the compilation of the uni
versal lexicon. There are 2,000 root-words
He eliminated all sounds that are pccu-
liar TO any one language. and cut out all
double letters. For example the diph-
thong 'th" and the letter W. Of the Eng
Hsh language are not common 20 French
and German so they were eliminated
from his list. The French nasals and the
German Gu with the dIaeresis above, the
Spanish IN" that incorporates the sound
of "" the Spanish 'j' and the German
"ch' also went the way of the outcasts.
He kept. however, two sounds for C, two
fer e. h, j. s. and u. American critics be-
Eeve some Of these may be eliminated or
exchanged for smoother sounds. as some
bring "a Russian accent that is difficult
for Anglo-Saxon and Gallic tongues, The
duplicate letters are written with cir
CumfeN accent that makes them difficult
fer ordinary presses Of this country 10
print. but aside from this. American
critics have discussed Esperanto with
great favor and friendliness.
The strength Of Esperanto rests on two
foundations: the regularity and simplicity
of It's grammar and its wonderful system |
Of word building It is said that in these !
respects 10 surpasses all other languages /
ancient or modern, that the world has
ever known Evolution by artificial Sc
lection is the name given Dr. Zameu-
hof s. work by a recent writer. Like all
other inventions and works Of great geHi-
Ia vt-lfl ln
its simplicity. and every student rises at
once with the surprised query, Why
didn't ! think of that2 Il is so easy"
Parts OF speech in Esperanto are recOg-
nized by their eudings The letter 90
used as sn ending always indicates a
noun. Adiectives end in "a" verbs In
IL adverbs made from other words IN
&C. and So on. The plural of noun
is formed by adding 'j. pronounced ~,
10 the singular Floro Is flower in Is
peranto. fior0i is flowers. There are no
irregular verbs, and every word Is ac-
Cented on next 10 the last syllable. Cen
der is not a matter Of opinions or rules
or accidents. as in the general languages. /
but is based on reason and common sense. /
the feminine being formed from the mas
culiEe 10y adding in 20 the root. "Kna-
bo' is boy. "EnahnO' is girl.
1t is a flexible language. On the 1000
rOot-wOrds rs extensive a vocabulary as
one needs can be built This seems in /
credible when one recalls the fact that /
the dictionary compiled by the French /
Academy contains 5000 words the Eng
lish and German dictionaries from $500 /
to 10000. according TO the author. and !
Webster's the American authority. be- /
tween ll1g0 and llsC10 words As a test /
Hamlet las been translated into Is /
perant0. Since Shakespeare had a known 1
vocabulary of 1000 words. and the fexi- /
bility Of his play was unharmed. the I
proof stood. Further proof was found /
in the translation Of some Of Dickens
works Of Enclids geometry, and various /
French plays Renan once said that q /
good vocabulary could be based on SEQ 1
rOot-wOrdS and their derivations, and /
with its 2.ooo root-Words Esperanto ex-
poets 10 stand the test still further. i
It is claimed that with a key in ones |
own language and the vest-pocket edf- /
ton Of a combined grammer and vocabu- |
larry in Esperanto. that any person can
now travel over Europe I'm any section to /
which Esperanto has found its way. Il |
4''' '-O" u4Ju ~ dHAiuuH persons anC |
proved true. Some Frenchmen went 10 /
Folkstone, EnglGnd They could speak no /
English. and their neighbors could speak /
no French. Some one secured a key TO
Esperanto and In n few days a means Of |
communication had been set up and social |
and business life was moving along har-
moniously. Not long ago party Of /
Swedes went On a mission 10 Odessa. /
Russia, and speaking only Swedish. were
20 the Russian reporters for
the various newspapers. They had, how
ever, key to Esperanto. and some
lEnnMlnfva of The fnnplln sn IN nrtnrr,-i-