Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-26
L|NGU|ST INvENTS
MAGIC ALPHABET"
WiIfred Stevens Creates Ian.
guage Urged as Medium
for Universal Use.
BY REX COLLIER.


of civilization, when man first learned
to converse in monosyllabic jargon.
The new language, resembling CHI
nese in its sing-song flow OF meloolouS
monosyllables, was designed not only
as a medium of international communi-
cation but as possible substitute even
tually for every known tongue.
Recognized as the outstanding lngulst
of the Government, II not Of the world.
Mr.. Stevens is reputed to have a "schol-
arly command" of Chinese, Japanese,
French, Polish and several other Ian
claees, in addition to what he modestly
terms a "tranSlator's knowledge" OF
many others, ancient and modern.
Ali his spare time is devoted to the
study of languages, and 1t was curing
Leisure moments" that he created his
new universal speech, invented new
magic alphabet" as a written vehicle
and translated Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary into the new cave man
dialect. The alphabet is applicable also
to existing languages. Mr.. Stevens as
serts, and will render all existing IAN
guages mutually pronounceable" and
shorten sentences materially.
Describes New Language.
In an interview Mr.. Stevens described
the new language and It's origin.
After studying thoroughly all the
most important forms Of polysyllabic
SPEECH" he said, II took up the worlds
principal monosyllabic language. Chi
nese. and was delighted to discover
that, although suffering from the de-
fectS inherent in natural speech IN gen.
ersl. Il was nevertheless capable OF ex-
pressing all human thought with re-
Yr1arkable decree of precision without
the aid Of any so-called 'accidence.
BY that I mean without its words un-
dergoing any change OF form or adding
any sufdxes or pref1xes.
IT gradually conceived the audacious
idea Of molding all modern speech on
the pattern Of this most ancient rep
resentative Of what in all likelihood was
the original form Of thought NANTES
tation Of mankind after emerging from
MonosyIIabic Language Best.
The advantages Of a monoSyllabic
language were, realized, so prepon.
derant as to justify the preference OF
such q form Of speech to any other
provided q sufhcient number of single
syllableS could be found to express all
the shades Of modern thought. TIC
obtain such O number I was obliged to
combine every possible vowel or diph-
thong with every utterable consonant
or combination thereof, while taking
care to have each syllable begin con-
sonantly and end vocally, for the sake
Of q euphonious and unobstructed flow
Having then found that the num-
Der of syllables thus obtained was still
INADEQUATE, took the tones used in
Chinese as guide, and, finding that
the maximum number Of easily utter
able tones and infections was about
10, multiplied my syllabary by this
number, the product yielding the req
uisite grand syllabary Of, say, 100000
units Enthusiastically distinguishable by
both eye and ear. whether standing
alone or In context.
Whereas In Chinese the tones and
infections Of the voice are utilized solely
to differentiate homophones-spoken
words which sound alike but have Diff
ferent Neutrality-suspicious. possessing
any grammatical or other significance
whatever, concluded that such an
airnless arrangement would only in
crease the bewilderment Of the learner.
The tones and infections, decided.
should be made to serve some serious
purpose.
Consequently, laid down the rule
that three fundamental tones should
be used (mi do. soI, TIE upper to in
dicate verbs, the middle adjectives and
the lower tone nouns, these being the
only three parts Of speech necessary in
Q monosyllabic language"
Mr.. Stevens was asked to explain the
source of sounds used for expressing
words or ideas in the new language.
Source of Sounds Used.
I'm assigning meanings to my syl-
lables," he said, II endeavored to be
rational by using the pleasant-sounding
syllables for pleasant and the harsh
sounding syllables for harsh things.
"Etymologically, gave a general
preference to French words as a source
Ct derivation. owing to their superior
phonetic beauty. However, the words
are taken about evenly from English
French. German and other better known
European languages.
BY carefully thought-out system OF
tonic Formulation I have provided that
every sentence utterable in the language
must be perfect melody. In toiline
to attain my ideal was constantly
spurred on to a more intense creative
eGort by the fond delusion that the
singing Of such uniform concordance
Of musical notes might tend TO foster
international understanding and obliter-
ate from the human soul all yearnins
fo- war"
Pressed for a further explanation Of
his preference for monosyllables, tbs
Federal translator was outspoken in hi,
criticism Of present polysyllabic form,
OF speech.
TO my knowledge" he declared
"mcst international Languages hitherto
constructed have been based on Latir
or 1ndo-European or inflectional cate.
gories of languages.
According to Max Muller, the orig.
inal form Of speech vas the monosyl.
~
certainly stands TO reason that tn,
primitive form Of utterance to express
any given idea must have been but 9
single syllable, for there is no real sens,
in using two syllables to represent {
single concept.
When portions of the civilized
monosyllabic peoples broke away anS
became barbarous nomsd die tribes, ridinI
over the plains Of Asia on horse back
they found 1t difficult TO communicat,
orally with each other at long range II
monosylla bles, so began TO combine sew
eral together to render them NOR
readily recognizable.
When Words Grew Longer.
THE result was that these wore
groups, or phrases, were finally adopted
as single words Of several syllables, ant
this accounts for the high degree o
polysyllabicity Of the so-called agglu
tinative languages of Asia and other
continents.
When certain groups of these bar
barous nomads eventually reconcen
trated into closer communities the,
again felt the need of shorter, NOR
civilized forms Of words. and then begaI
a process OF word compression which
resulted in the Irregular, cacsphonous
dificultly pronounceable, most Immature
of all word forms found in the so-calle'
inf1ectional languages. which really rep
resent the second or retroactive stage o
corruption Of the original monosyllable,
"One example will serve to illustrat
the compression or 'telescoptng' OF
polysyllable into a monosyllable TIL
(.reak word nep-tp -co-Sta q cynooth ~