Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-04-09
ap Maz-4A
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.
Editor Times Republican:
Mr. Editor:
Having seen no mention OF Esper-
anto in the best newspapers IN Iowa,
thought your readers might be inter
ested in short article about It,
1t is evidently a great waste of time
for one to have to learn several for
eign languages to fit himself for travel
commerce, diplomacy or polite social
duties. 1T takes several years to ac-
quire a. good knowledge OF any one OF
the numerous natural languages
Therefore, 1t is generally conceded that
il a very simple, easily learned Ian
guage could be found. which people OF
all countries might learn In addition ito
their own, there would be no necessity
of this waste of time and labor.
Volapuk, invented in 1884, and other
lattempt to fill this long felt need for a
means OF universal communication
proved abortive. They were scientific
but not simple. Finally. however, a
language has been constructed which
is both. 1t Is Esperanto.
France, Russia, Sweden, Germany and
England are speaking It, and IL is now
making its way into the United States
Several of our leading magazines and
papers are publishing courses Of in
struction in their columns at the pres
emit time.
The extreme simplicity OF Esperanto
must appeal to everybody. It's vocab-
ulary contains only about 900 words
but the language has a wonderful sys-
TEN of afflxes by which words can be
formed without the necessity of mem
oriZing. Thus nearly any thought can
be expressed as accurately as in Eng
lish with its 100000 words!
To illustrate: The prefix NAL
means opposite; the sufflx II means in
strument Now, If granda means
large. malgranda is small; bona sig
nifies good, malbona bad alta high
malalta low. and SO on with all words
Razi means to shave, razilo Is razor:
levi Is ITO lift. levilo is lever, and SO
Oh.
Moreover. the 900 words composing
the vocabulary are selected for the
most part from English, Latin and
SSA ~ tihC ally SddSdlSd pcISoI
knows nearly all of them without fur
Their study.
The language has no exception to Its
rules! Every letter has but one sound
and is never silent Every word Is ac-
cented on next to the last syllable
Nobody ever has to be in doubt as tc
word All nouns terminate in O, adj
jectives In a, and adverbs in e. All
plurals are formed by adding ] (pro-
nounced like English " to the singu.
lar.
Thus, patro means father; patrol
fathers; patra. fatherly; patre, in 9
fatherly manner. The suffix in shows
feminine gender; them patrino, mother;
patrinoj, mothers; patrina, motherly;
patrine, in a motherly manner. Frate
means brother. BY analogy, anybody
even If he has never seen the word
before. can write the words for broth
ers, brotherly, in a brotherly manner
sister, sisters, sisterly, and in sisterly
manner. BY learning single wore
many others are thus learned without
further effort
All verbs have the same conjugation
Havi means to have; hava, does have
havis, had; havos, will have. Know.
ing these facts and learning that don
means to give, anybody would know
the words for does give, gave and viii
give. Pentri, to paint; resti, to rest
viv, to live. and all other verbs are in
fected the same way
The language is so remarkably sim
ply one can learn it in a few days
learned to translate in few hour.
and could read Esperanto easily in two
weeks. Many have done better thai
that. In fact, one can almost, read /
without study, as the following trans
| lation of the Lords prayer will show
"Patro mia, kin estas en- la cielo
sankta estu homo via, venu regeco via
farign volo via, kiel en- la cielo, tie
ankau sur la tero. Panon ciutaga1
MAN donu al nj hodiau kaj pardonu a
nj suldojn main, kiel nj ankan pardona.
al Maj suldantoj; ne konduku min Ell
tenton, sed lfberign min de la malbona
| car via estas la regads, la forto kaj IL
gloro eterne. Amen
Esperanto deserves and should re-
ceive the earnest support of business
men as well as of educators and socia
organizations. Every town ought t.
have it's Esperanto club. Public school:
might prof1tably devote a year of theil
language course to it. The pupils ac.
quire fluent speaking knowledge ane
much drill on the derivation of Englist
words-lnore than is usually accom-
plished in a four years. course in Latin
When few days study enables any.
body to learn the language, there is ne
good reason why it should not becom.
a clearing house of all literatures, AM
medium for international communi
cation, both diplomatic and CONNER
cial. 1t may have thus become al
ameliorator of the race and a promote
Of the universal brotherhood of man
j. e. q. TURNKEY.
Toledo. Iowa.