The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-25
81, 700 a Year Z. S. Embloye
Able to Speak 80 Languages
Translator, Only Federal
Worker Ever Refused the
Right to Resign, Can Use
100000 Words.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER
BY United Press

most remarkable, interesting and
valuable men In Washington, re-
ceives a government salary Of s2,7o0
year as a principal translator IN
the department of state.
Stevens knows thirty languages
and has invented two more Ian
guages Of his own. He is said to
be the only man who ever resigned
from the government service whose
resignation was not accepted.
He rides to work every day on a
bicycle, lives largely on the fruit
known as the pawpaw, thrives on
a diet which costs Is cents day
and has become an accomplished
horticulturist while carrying around
at least 100000 words in his head.
This is more than woodrow Wilson
knew, for his vocabulary has been
estimated at $1,000.
Words Are Confusing
Once. when he was asked If he
never got the words of one language
mixed up with those Of another, he
admitted:
After learning the first couple
of dozen languages, I sometimes
did"
The thirty languages at Mr.. Stew
ems command. several Of which he
speaks with the greatest f1uency,
are English, French, Spanish, 1tal-
ian, Portuguese, Rumanian, Ger
man, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian,
Dutch, Sioux, Russian, Polish, b.
hemian, Serbo- Croatian, Slovenian,
Slovak, Bulgarian, Greek, Hunga-
rian, Finnish, Latvian, Armenian,
Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Esperanto,
Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and
Latin.
Once he spent fifteen years In
devising a universal language called
Ufano. Then he decided it wasn't
good eonugh and he threw away the
whole thing, with its elaborate
framework and immense vocabu-
larry.
Invented New Alphabet
He has invented an entirely new
alphabet TO carry the language
which he most recently has de-
veloped.
In our own alphabet. the name
of that language sounds most like
"Zhoeylong." with the last syllable
accented, That means Petty eye"
in English, the name of the pet
woodthrush which partially in
spired him in developing the new
universal language.
Stevens looks his distinction. His
face Is darby tanned and fringed
with brown beard. He is rather thin.
The bridge Of his gold-rimmed
spectacles rests half an inch from
the tip Of his nose. He wears dark
brown or black flannel shirts and
maroon silk neckties.
Became Proofreader
He was born in Shakopee.
Mimi, in May, 1874, and got the
idea of learning languages at the
age of 10.
He began following Germans,
Frenchmen and italians around and
made them talk to him.
He learned the language of the
Dakota Sioux Indians-and many
years later found a striking SINH
larity between that and japanese.
No college Or university taught him
anything.
He knew German and the ro-
mantle languages when he arrived
in Washington to become a proof
reader in the government print
ing Office.
At that time he started on the
Slavonic languages and within three
months had a good knowledge of
Russian. After studying Portuguese
for few months he did some i'm
portant special translating for the
Brazilian embassy.
Finds Learning Different
He jumped to the Monaghan and
Semitic languages and soon after
ward was writing an English
Chinese-Japanese dictionary and
carrying on conversations in Greek.
Chinese is the nearest perfect of
all languages, according to Stevens,
and "Zhoey-long" is based prin-
cipally on Chinese.
He says it's really difficult for him
to learn a language. In doing SO he
reads books and newspapers printed
in the language he is studying. ex-
tracing root words and cataloguing
them on large sheets of foolscap pa
per until he has indexed the main
elements of the language.
Naturally, he has an amazingly
good memory; he also is probably
one of the worlds most expert pho
neticiStS.