A New Language.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8198, 26 January 1906, Page 7

A New Language.

The English. Universities have begun to show a favourable interest, in Esperanto, the new language designed for international usage, and especially for commercial purposes. Professor Oscar Browning, one of the least conservative of the great English dons, writes a London correspondent, is promoting its introduction at Cambridge, where he wields a very strong influence in modern movements of scholarship. In one of his latest lectures he states that Esperanto is the twenty-eighth language which he has attempted in the course of his long career, and he goes so far as to say that in his opinion it is the most useful of all. He notes its simplicity of construction, and points out that relatively it cannot be said to have any difficulties of pronunciation. It is.estimated that about 1,000,000 persons on the Continent and in Great Britain are able to converse and write more or less accurately in the new language, and the number is increasing at a rate which promises to assure its permanent success. It is now being taught in several commercial schools in this country. Many of the police are learning it voluntarily, and there is some talk of making its study compulsory in the principal city forces. A number of hotel-keepers in Paris, Berlin, and other European cities have Esperantists among their clerks and porters, and their example is being followed by some of the railway companies. English, Australian, and American firms in their future trade with the East may find Esperanto a way of avoiding many of the difiicultics of ordinary business intercourse with the Japanese and Chinese. The Japanese, at least, arc not likely to overlook the practical advantages of the new laneuas(?-