Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-01-13

Washington, Jan. l2.-Pcop1e are
asking II some of the delegates and
officials at the disarmament confer
ence are not Handicapped by the use |
OF language unfamiliar TO them. Eng
lish and French are the oficial lam !
guages OF the conference. English |
was decided upon FIRST. and then |
French WAS added out Of consders-
ton for the French delegation and
because French has so long been the
accepted isnguaEe OF diplomacy.
This means that the delegates have
to do their own translating or have the
speeches translated for them when
ever any tongue except their own il
being used. II is often impossible 10
carry over into a translation exact
shades OF meaning. and therefore the
question Of an international language
Ia again raised. Would not an arti-
ncisl language, Esperanto for in
stance, solve this problem
Considering the diplomatic attitude
toward language, il probably would
not. The diplomat knows that much
OF his conversation can be interpreted
In half n dozen ways. He intends 1t 10
be 20. TO show his cards before guag-
ling carefully the other players hands
and being absolutely sure Of his own
is generally fatal. As 1t isn't often IN
the game that all of the cards are on
the table. so IL isn't often that the
diplomat speaks unreservedly.
This is where the MANUFACTURED
Language is inadequate for diplomacy
professor OF philoiogy points out To
US. He says that In a language like
Esperanto or valapuk It is practically
Impossible to hedge or to veil mean
ing.
In a manufactured language there
are equivalents for ordinary English
words, but the vocabulary is limited
If Esperanto had a wealth OF
synonyms, such as we have in English
half the simplicity of the artificial
language would be lost. so, only whcr
diplomats talk straight from ths
: shoulder will artificial language be VI
any use TO them, he says.
Another objection to a universe
F. langu se made by the same languag'
scholar is that RECOMMENDATIONS diffel
!, so that. the exact words spoken by az
Italian, Swede, and an American
would not sound at all alike.
e Difficulties Of Esperanto.
Even leaving out the question o
foreign accents this difference j
= notable. A in Esperanto is Away
/" broad, as in ahh, but an American use
I IN lzsa 80 her 40
:, be apt to produce kampo, field. quit
= differently from the way given in tn
:, book. The foreigner. not allowing 70
the influence Of local pronunciation.
~ J. sht not understand the word at al
= The endings, for a noun, a for a
I" adjective, and for an ad4erb. whic
VI make reading Of Esperanto easy. ar
another source OF confusion in con
~ versation, as they tend TO be obscure
in T..pid talk. So that, from his ex
periments with artificial Language
= this professor doubts whether diplomat
u could understand one another as we
- in Esperanto az in English or French
and the obscurities which would arts
oi might not come where the diplomat
intended.
w. The endinRs of words in Esperani
L. have been quite a bone OF contention
They are designed to simplify III
ia grammar. But some language ST,
rs dents hold that in practice, extreme
~ simple grammar is a weakness TIL
has been pointed out by Hugo Mum
= terberg, the psychologist. He fin,
that our complicated system of havir
. a plural noun and a special form
the verb to go with it is wise.
If we used run for all forms
the verb. for instance, and depend
on the noun to show plurals we won
have. "the boy rum the boys run
This sort of thing might make Z
language easier TO learn. but Munste
berg shows that it would be fal
economy
I'VE should need an excessive stra
:, of attention, and reading and liste
ing would become an exhaust
labor he says. Having several sig
posts in one sentence to point out I
same meaning makes conversation
less exacting.
nr Because of the controversies o,
Esperanto and similar inventions tn
us have never achieved the widespre
use that their advocates hoped for
dications point now 10 English as
popular medium of intercourse
tween nations officially and in trade
or- well.
Once, German, French and Engl
were the three contestants for int
national recognition. Now. Germ
has lost much OF its popularity W
other countries.
The advance of French has b,
restricted because French has had
share with the Spanish in popular
among foreigners. Many students, a
to take only one OF the two languas
ns . have chosen Spanish because of
predicted Importance. SO far as CO
munication in South America is c.
cerned. Spanish is important. Am,
cans are said to have caused rese
ment In some cases because q
came 10 sell goods in South Am,
can countries and expected every
to talk English with them. Spanish
not making rapid progress, howe
as an international language.
The Spread OF English.
English is making progress. TIL
are more fhan l50.0oo.00o native e
lish- speaking people today. AT
100 100000 speak German, and {
come Russian and French with 600
600 and 100000 respectively.
Not only is English spoken re