Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-20
A WORLD TONGUE
IN ESPERANTO
EDITORIAL FOR WOMEN
BY A WOMAN
BY PEARL J, PARKER
revocRtionai expert and inttoducer OF Es
pernnto to the utrl Scouts OF
phtladelDhia.

ILTAsHINGTON liberated America
w through war. Esperanto will Iibtr-
ate the world from war.
/ wonder how many people know that
Esperanto is the name Of a great Inter
national language which has been In
use In many parts Of tho world for more
than thirty years. Some think II is a
new kind Of breakfast food others that
IL is a patent medicine or shoe polish
or an opera. as clerk asked the other
day when inquired II he had any Es-
reranto records wanted La Espero,"
which we Espcrant.sts term THE Ma
, tional Hymn Of Esperanto Land" C'ba
nacIa himmo de EsperantlandoD.
Esperanto is not new. 1t was discov-
cred by Dr. L. l.. Zamenhof, OF warsaw
Russia Thinking people for hundreds
of years have realized che importance
Of one language for all. a second Ian
guage to he taught to every child besides
It's mother tongue. History shows that
many have tried to create such IAN
suage, hue Esperanto is the first one that
could survive the test Of practical use
II has been tried in every conceivable
way by the best linguists of the present
age and has never failed to meet every
Requirements
In the little village where Doctor "a
menhof wns born there were four dlsunct
nationalities, each speaking a dinereht
tongue. He discovered very early that
a Ireaa deal of their boyhood trouble
arose from the fact they could not under
stand each other and with his philosophle
mind he began to plan to create an inter-
national language. with chts Object III
view he took up the study or the most
important languages In use, as well as
Greek and Latin He had mastered sew
eral before ne finished high school In
his early college days ho began the reaI
work of creating new ;ongue' When
he was about nineteen. teeling that ne
had it az nearly perfect as ne Couio
make II alone, he sent out sample sheets
10 the bes., linguists In the world.
RIdicule from his associates caused
Doctor Zamenhof to sign pen name
"T;speranto" IN his language meant one
who hopcd," 20 he signed himself DOC
TOR Esperanto," That Is how the name
originated. These learned men recog-
nized It's worth and gave him NaIuauIe
assistance, on account OF his youth no
vas advised to wait few years belore
nrosentinR Il 10 the world. Inc nrsc
hook. published in 1878. met with puohc
approval Immediately and II Is growing
more valuable every day -,,.,.
There are many expert Esperantists
T., ,ha limited states, but the Philadel"
nbia Girl Scouts organization was the
Ara, 10 take 1t up. The Boy Scouts tol-
loved l have no doubt that In a rev
months one will hear more Esperanto
than English In many scout meetings
Truly speaking, Esperanto was not In
| vented but discovered. IL IL the bes'
taken from many languages II Is com-
posed OF roots prefixes and sutnxes
| with a knowledge of these and only
sixteen rules and no exceptions one IL
enabled to create any word needeo 20
express an idea. No dictionary could
he made large enough to contain all Es-
peranto words In fact. there is no need
| for one. For example, the SUNK ct
means "little" or small" no do means
dog" so "a little dog would be hum
deto." All names and nouns end In o.
| IL one wanted to say "a httle tenlale
dog" he would use another SUNK, IN,
which indicates the feminine ana wouIa
| saw "hundineto." To say IA young
dog" puppy" one would use the suftix
| I'D" which signifies the young OF "hund-
id-o," and so on.
| One of the wonderful things about II
| is that 1t is clear and definite; II says
! just what II means, and nothing else.
| In English we say many things we 90
not mean at all For instance. we say
we took the street car" while In Es-
peranto we say we put ourselves into
the street car"-quite a difference. This
| is only one illustration.
Many educated persons have mastered
| Esperanto In a few weeks without a
| teacher Tolstoi is said to have been
able to read and write II after two
hours study; but there are few minds
like his. The average person can easily
learn it in spare time in few months
should like to tell more about 1t.
but--Gis In revdo (until we meet
agaln),
! sa -