Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-10
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
English IS Spoken by About 10000.
900 People. .....
ESPERANTO VERY MUCH DISCUSSED
There 10 Considerable Objection to A
Universal Language Although Need
Becomes Greater Every Day-lntef-
estins Discussion of interesting Sub

0hiNeTSdt EdUSudSe FNtUou9H NeSo
Becomes Greater Every Day-lntef-
esting Discussion of interesting Sub
ject. ....
BY Frederick J. Haskin.
Washington, d. C.-Peop1e are ask.
ing IL some Of the delegates and Off
cials at the disarmament conference
are not handicapped by the use Of Ian
guages unfamiliar to them. English
and French are the official languages
of the conference. English was de-
cided upon first, and then French was
added out of consideration for the
French delegation and because French
has so long been the accepted Ian
guage 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 often impos-
sible to carry over into translation
exact shades of meaning and, there
fore the question of on international
language is again raised. Would not
an artificial language Esperanto, for
instance. 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 1t to
be so. To show his cards before gaug-
ing 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 1t isn't often that the dip
lomat speaks unreservedly.
This is where the manufactured lam
guage is inadequate for diplomacy.
professor of philology points out to
us. He says that in. O language like
Esperanto or Volapuk 1t Is practically
impossible to hedge or to veil mean
ing.
In manufactured language there
are equivalents for ordinary English
words, but the vocabulary is limited.
II Esperanto had a wealth Of syno-
nyms, such ,as we have in English,
half the simplicity Of the artificial Ian
guage would be lost. SO, only when
diplomats talk straight from the
shoulder will artificial language be of
any use TO them, he says. .,
Another objection to universal
language made by the same language
scholar is that pronunciations 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 no..
table. A in Esperanto is always
broad. as in ah, but an American used
to sounding his as rather fat would
be apt to produce kampo, field, quite
differently from the ways 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
another source Of confusion In con-
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
well In Esperanto as in English or
French, and the obscurities which
would arise might not come where the
diplomats intended. r..
The endings OF words in Esperanto
have been quite 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 a plural noun and a special form
of the verb 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 rum" "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
listening would become an exhaus-
tive labor" he says. Having several
signposts 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 In
dications point now to English as the
popular medium of intercourse be-
tween nations officially and in trade
as we'll.
Once, German, French and English
were the three contestants for inter-
national recognition. Now, German
has lost much of its popularity with
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