The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-12
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKN, Director.
VEashIngton, D. Q.
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.


| English and French are the official
languages of the conference. English
was decided upon first, and then
French was added out of consideration
for the French delegation and because
French has so long been the accepted
language Of diplomacy.
This means that the delegates have
! to do their own translating or have
| the speeches translated for them
| whenever any tongue except their own
is being used. 1t is otter impossible
| shades of meaning, and therefore the
question of an international language
is again raised. Would not an arti-
ficiaI language, Esperanto for in
stance, solve this problem?
| Considering the diplomatic attitude
! toward language, it probably would
not. The diplomat knows that much
of his conversation can be interpreted
in half a dozen ways. He intends it
to be so. To show his cards before
| gauging carefully the other players
| hands and being absolutely sure of his
| own is generally fatal. AS it isn't
often in the game that all of the cards
are on the table, SO it isn't often that
the diplomat speaks unreservedly.
This is where the manufactured lam
guage is inadequate for diplomacy, a
| professor of philology points out to
| US. He says that in a language like
Esperanto or Volapuk it is practically
| impossible to hedge or to veil a mean
| ing.
In a manufactured language there
| are equivalents for ordinary English
words, but the vocabulary is limited.
| If Esperanto had wealth of syn
onyms. such as we have in English,
half the simplicity of the artificial
| language would be lost So, only when
II vnlr rfc col T. e-%v-e frrilf
shoulder will artificial language be of
any use to them. he says.
Another objection to a universal
language made by the same language
| scholar IS that recommendations differ
so that the exact words spoken by an
Italian, a Swede, and an American
would not sound at all alike.
Difficulties of Esperanto.
Even leaving out the question of
foreign accents this difference is
notable. A in Esperanto is always
broad, as in ah, but an American used
to sounding his as rather flat would
be apt to produce kampo, field, quite
differently from the way given in the
book. The foreigner, not allowing for
the influence of local pronunciations
might not understand the word at all.
The endings, for a noun, for an
adjective, and for an adverb, which
make reading of Esperanto easy, are
Versation, as they tend to be obscured
in rapid talk. So that, from his ex-
periments with artificial languages,
this professor doubts whether diplo-
mats could understand one another as
we'll in Esperanto as in English or
French, and the obscurities which.
would arise might not come where the
diplomats intended. 4
The endings of words in Esperanto
have been quite a bone of contention-
They are designed to simplify the
grammar. But some language stu
dents hold that in practice, extremely
simple grammar is a weakness. This
has been pointed out by Hugo Mum
sterberg, the psychologist. He finds
that our complicated system of hav-
ing plural noun and a special form
of the vero to go with it is wise.
If we used run" for all forms of
the verb, for instance, and depended
on the noun to show plurals We would
have, 1.-The boy run 1.-THE boys rum
This sort of thing might make the
language easier to learn, but Munster
berg shows that it would be false
economy.
1--WE should need an excessive strain
of attention, and reading and listen
ing would become an exhaustive la
bor," he says. Having several sign
posts in one sentence to point out the
same meaning makes conversation far
less exacting.
Because. of the controversies over
Esperanto and similar inventions they
have never achieved the widespread
use that their advocates hoped for.
Indications point now to English as
the popular medium of Intercourse
between nations officially and in trade
as well.
Once, German. French and English
were the three contestants for interna-
tional recognition. Now, German has
lost much of it's popularity with other
countries.
The advance of French has been re-
stricted because French has had to
share with the Spanish in popularity
among foreigners. Many students,
able to take only one of the two Ian
guages, have chosen Spanish because
of its predicted importance. So far
as communication in South America
is concerned Spanish is important.
Americans are said to have caused
resentment in some cases because they
came to sell goods in South American
countries and expected everyone to
talk English with them. Spanish is
not making rapid progress, however,
as an international language.
The Spread of English.
English is making progress. There
are more than $50, 900, 600 native Eng
ISL SpSohAh6 p6Op1S lOUdSs ABOUT
12o,000,000 speak German, and then
come Russian and French with co.
100000 and and 10000. 900 --respec-
lively.
Not only is English spoken regular
ly by more people than any other
tongue, but it is also widely spoken
as secondary language. The Ameri-
cans and English are not specialists in
languages. The proportion of English
people who master any language other
than their own is small. The COM
placent American refuses to spend
time on languages, figuring that the
foreigners will learn English.
Because the English-s speaking coun-
tries are SO important we have been
able generally to get away with it,
English has become almost a neces-
sity to the foreigner. Whether he is
interested in foreign trade, or lives in
a little village thru which tourists
pass, he finds a smattering of Eng
lish necessary.