Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-22
FRENCH UNIVERSAL TONGUE?
That is What Parisians Will Tell
You. Anyway.
NAPOLEON LIVES THERE TODAY
To the French the Great Military
Genius sim Breathths the In
spiration of n National
Life.

-
PARIS, Nov. n.-FrencLmen take rather
calmly the editorial echoes that are COM
ing back from abroad. from the United
States and elsewhere. of the discussion
annually renewed by the publication Of
the statistics Of Frances falling birth rate.
They talk freely of It. as they do of most
things. Indeed Parisians are told frankly
by some of their fellow townsmen that the
reason for the present estate of French
men is to be found in the Napoleonic wars.
on the theory that the emperor took away
and spent the best blood of France and
that modern Frenchmen are the descend
ants of those who were too weak for the
emperor's uses.
1t c~onfuses a foreigner here sometimes
the way the French speak Of Napoleon, as
though he still persisted and were con-
te-mporaneous as we'll as historic, as though
they were speaking of a living man. He Is
truly ever present to this people.
But when one speaks Of ~depopulation an
other says that France has invigorated
ether nations. civilized Europe, taught 1t
refined enjoyment, and that It is now en-
titled to enjoy itself and that intellectual
eminence will secure It its work and its
glory In respect and Influence for countless
time. The English speaking peoples are
not the only ones who harbor dreams that
their tongue may some day be the Ian
guage of practically universal use.
Armed with Vital StatiatIcs.
And while some of the dubious here,
alarmed by the tables of vital statistics,
fear for the future. others encourage them
selves not only by their own hopes and
confidence. but with the observations Of
foreign students who see great things In
49,. g. 49,. I.-a - gNa - % 80
pie. A recent comforter has appeared from
Russia, M. Novicow, former president OF
the international Institute of Sociology and
distinguished among Russian men Of LET.
tiers tor his studies and for his publication,
of works in several languages.
He has what the French call a mind with
the quality of the universal, and he is a
polyglot, as are so many gifted Russians.
Looking forward to the close of the GEN.
fury, NJ. Novicow tells the French that
their tongue will be spoken in the year 1000
by 220,O00,000 men.
Novicow points out that human languages
have at one and the same time a tendency
to diversity themselves and a tendency to
unite themselves or resolve themselves into
a commo medium. If social groups isolate
themselves the idioms are differentiated;
by frequent communication local peculiari-
ties disappear and a common medium be-
comes dominant.
The selection of the dominant factor de-
Ponds upon four conditions-geographical
situation, economic facts, intellectual and
ethical considerations. To furnish the DOM
inant tongue a locality must be central, an
important market, a center of light and a
place of pleasures which attract and arouse
the sympathies. These things in Greece
ond In Ifo1y YaaAn Nkn Aftlo aud fhn Me
can dialect the dominant and literary Ian
guages of those countries.
Four Great Literary Tongues. ,
NJ. Novicow treats modern Europe as
presenting equivalent conditions to those
which led to the formation and preponder-
ance OF the Greek and Italian languages
In their respective territories. Europe has
four great literary tongues, of which NJ.
Novicow names English first in his emu
meration, the others being French. German
and Italian. The situation between them is
the same as that just outlined, only on a
larger scale. And he says that of these
there is no doubt that the French has the
best chance of becoming the accepted
tongue.
Not only are his four conditions fulfilled
by the French, but a still more potent fac
tor is working for 1t in the preference
shown, for it is an auxiliary language
among the people of all the other groups
of the four. 1t should be said that he in
cludes the two Americas and Australia in
this grouping as Uppertaining to the mother
groups.
He counts 175,0OO,CO of Latins, 10000, OOO
Of Slavs. 14O,O 1900 of Anglo-Saxons and S.
100000 of Germans, a total of SAC, 1000.
Latins and Slavs leah to the French, giving
q cn,,p Of OK nOa nnn aa,og,.t DOE ~ nNa l,4
he says that even the Germans prefer
French to English, giving the French 4OO,-
as against 14O,OOO,OOO Finally, the
necessity of the Anglo-saxons to talk
French as an auxiliary language will make
the victory of the French complete.
Eighteen Millions In 1900.
Estimating the population of Europe in
the year 1000 and figuring that in that
happy stage OF the worlds progress one
person in fifty will nave the means and the
desire to acquire the International and
auxiliary tongue he forsees a body Of 49,
100000 Europeans outside of France speak
ing this common language and by reason
Of their culture and ability at intercom-
municalon forming the elite of society and
exercising thus an influence proportionately
greater than their numbers. He reaches
Ai9 OhoAi " AAbulO u N1VtNVytvvJ VI ChCh
speaking people in that Year by adding
not only the estimated populaJon of the
mother country-even II it remains sta
tionary, he ~says-but that of Frances col
onies, which he says will make the speech
Of France their own just as the indigenes
in so large a part of the Americas made
the Spanish their language.
Speaking Of Napoleon and Of the national
habit of mentioning him as though he still
lived the public walls at this time OF year
bear curious trace of his persistence In the
life of France. For it's the season OF hunt
ing, and all the projects In the land in
posting the rules OF the chase name birds
not one OF which is to be found in the
France Of today.
Blu 1t was different when Napoleon had
spread his sway over far countries, where
some of these birds were to be found. So
! an tho nalffa langnaga Of this naonla vO,,