THE NEW LANGUAGE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1906, Page 4

THE NEW LANGUAGE.

THE SPREAD OF ESPERANTO

"Esperanto" was the subject ot a discourse by Mr C. R. Hampton in the presence of sixty or seventy persons at the Christchurch Normal School one evening last week. The M»yttp (Mr C. M. Gray, M.H.R.) presided, Mr Hampton, explaining the origin of "Esperanto," said that its founder, Dr. Zamenhof, had devoted years to the work of framing a language which would serve as a medium or communication among the nations of the world. The aim fed been to have the simplest possible grammatical system, and consequently, afcput 2000 roots, with a regular arrangement or affixes flnd suffixes, sufficed to enable students of the language to convey their thoughts to one another. lor a lengthy period i)r. had been-unable to induce any ##bhsher to undertake the responsibility of issuing a textbook of the new language, and eventually had to bring the work out under a pseudonym, ."Dr. Esperanto," that was, "Dr. Hope," for " Esperanto " was the equivalent of the English "hope." Esperanto had been in use in England for only about three years. Though it had made rapid strides in-France, it had practically stopped there for a long time. Tfc was through Canada, where Esperanto flourished, that England received the language, and Britain had.nOvr a couple £>f magazines in the iiew tongue and a library, containing two or three hundred ypjiumes. Standard works had been translated into Esperanto ,and there was ta& .now f*f rendering the Bible into this world language. Discussing the construction of the language, Mr Hampton said that the noun always ended in " o," the plural in " j;" and fte objective m "n." The adverb always finished with "c," the adjective with ff &," The present tense of verbs always elided in "as," the past in " is," .tbe<futine in "os " Thus " skribi " .meant "to write," v'.slTibas" "(I) wrote," and " skribos '* '" (I) shall write." "Patro" meant "father/ and " patrmo" stood for mother," the ■jn always indicating the feminine geiutar, Thus " knabo " was " boy " and " k«apin.o" was "girl," " filo " was "son," and "filiijo" was "daughter." Showing the application of prefixes Mr Hampton said that " varnifi " was " warm," and " lnalvarma '■' wu« "cold." " Amigo " was "friend/ 5 and " malamigo" was "enemy." ftJ."st" always showed a profession. Thus ■" drogo" was a "drug," and " drogist" was a "druggist." "Boto" was a " boot," and " botista " was a " bootmaker.'" After detailing the significance of various affixes.and suffixes, he went on to state tfefit there was no indefinite article in Espw-uijto. Thus " mi liavs poinon " meant '• i Jjavo an apple ;' ; but there was a definite article nLn ;: for "the." In conclusion, he assured iiis hearers that the language was very .easy to learn. He had been told that some mt;ii hail mastered it in two or three hours, and he know that ordinary persons could acquire a working knowledge of it in two or. three hours. He finished with an exhortation in Esperanto. Mr C. R. White said that Esperanto was exciting considerable interest throughout the world. Already, mawur'acturers' catalogues wore being issued jj ; i the new language. Referring +o the progress that had been made in the popularising of Esperanto, he said that in 1200 there had been itrn Esperanto societies, mid in 1004 this number had increased to sixty. Even Japan, had her Esperanto societies. He ■suggested that an Esperanto congress migTtt, with advantage, be held at Christchurch during the time of the Exhibition.