The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-08-13
YANKEE SLANG
MAY Be GENERAL
American Lingo May Be
come the Language of
World Diplomacy
Nv HEHnEnT w. DAvIDqOy

By HERBERT ". DAVIDSON
PARiS, Aug. ~. - ColloquinI
English -- perhaps American slang
probably viii be- the future uni.
Vcrsal language. the speech of tho
elite, tho tongue Of diplomacy.
In q not distant decade. perhaps
The French premier may cable the
secretary of state Of the United
states. Say put me straight on
this Pacific business what's ia
pans idea ?"
And the secretary win cable the
Japanese premier. II you can give
trnncc the info shoot II across"
Sooner or later We have with
ner formula at international ban.
gucts from Indo-Chlna 10 Hcllgo.
land
Eventually "Teu 1t to Sweeney"
or Tie It outside" Will replace the
pollter forms OF rcpudlatlon cur
rent In cosmopolitan social circles.
All ~ this French scholars are
fhuddcrinElt proguostlCatlng II
French is not retained as the inter
national language, and II Esperanto
" not pushed ~ an auxiliary and
subsidiary universal tongue Once
give English n look-in. they insist,
and slang will become tho table
talk of statesmen and princes
Esperanto Sinrtcd Trouble.
Tho trouble all began because OF
Esperanto.
Somcha d. perhaps an agent Of
police heard b,whiskcrod indi.
vlduol wearing horn trimmed
glasses. Whispering In Esperanto
TO wrlnkle-browed person, with
IA "A fatf IA tft Ia lI
curious person, he was annoyed be-
cause he could not understand a
word.
somebody-perhaps the agent OF
police-started the story that Es-
pernnto was becoming the lam
guage OF bolshevlsm. Whenever O
dark-browed Russian wanted to in
oculate an Innocent young French
man with the Idea that n soviet
was n respectable form OF govern
mcnt he said II In Esperanto. The
police. however disguised. were
follcd
Finally persons in authority one
way and another became con.
vinced that Esperanto was being
used to further the spread Of com
munistic doctrines
An appeal was sent To school
authorities throughout France to do
all they could to prevent the theo-
retcnl world Language from being
taught or spread.
Esperanto Opposed.
Interviews against Esperanto np-
pearcd In the newspapers. "ES-
pcrnnto Injuries the intellectual de-
velopmcnt Of youth" urged Alfred
Cnpus, interviewed by Lc MatIn,
at Is language without finer
shapes, incapable OF expressing
anything but the Crudest ideas. II
would be- impossible to conduct an
argument against communism In
Esperanto. Communicate ideas are
primitive tho language suits
them"
hut the reaction was inevitable.
A row cnsucd. Sudden interest was
manifested I'm Esperanto. Faddists
who were busily studying Arabian
or Sanscrit or medieval Chinese
fired their teachers and hired Fs-
perantists with the proper interna-
speak universally After Russian
Esperanto became thu most popu-
lar language to take up" in
study groups"
For every sober authority who
denounced Esperanto a man OF let
ters has been found TO support II.
The president " the examining
board of the Polytechnic asgocia-
tion, quoted by lie Matin, asserts
that TO say that Esperanto Is n
vehicle for holshcvism Is profoundly
uniust--a language belongs to any
body who cares To use It," lie az
serted that Espcrantists In Paris
were being prosecuted.
Nulard Explains.
But II was Professor A. Aulard,
OF the Sorhonne, who hit upon the
really picturesque reason ms to why
FreuChmcn should tolerate II no:
support Esperanto.
French Is too difficult TO re-
main the International language"
he wrote lie MatIn, But shall II
continue as the language OF good
socicty2"
lie implied that II should. And
to obtain that end he urged French
educators to facilitate the dlffu-
sion Of Esperanto.
otherwise" he threatened. III
there Is no artificial language, Eng
ush will become the international
language OF all the peoples of the
earth, just as II liz already the in
ternational language of the yellow
races.
But It will not be n pure Eng
Uish. 1t will be a denaturcd Eng
lish---simplified by barbarisms.
Against that fate for the world
let us oppose our own language for
the elite and Esperanto for the
DOpulaCc,"