BASIC ENGLISH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21100, 6 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

BASIC ENGLISH.

BY W. It. KINGSTON.

A NEW WORLD LANGUAGE.

Every traveller who has suffered from . the curse of Babel agrees that something should be done about it. No lonely tourist in cafe or train feels the bar of foreign tongues more keenly than scholar or scientist hindered in his studies, or business man with difficulties in translated commercial correspondence. But to-day the problem is suddenly more acute, and brought home to all the people throughout the world by three significant inventions: radio broadcasting, talkies and the world telephone. Two distinct possibilities have, however, to be considered—whether we shall use one of the existing languages, such as French, or Spanish, or English, or whether we shall construct a new artificial auxiliary language, for use only aa a substitute when persons ignorant of one another' 3 language have occasion to write or talk. It is an interesting point that since the 17th century all the suggestions to overcome the curse of Babel have turned to the construction of an " ideal" constructive language. From the sensational success of Volapuk in tha 1380's, when great congresses were held and there were a million adherents, to the slower growth of Esperanto in our own time, to Idiom | Neutral, an improvement on "Volapuk, and i Ido, an important improvement on Esper- ] anto, and Novial, an improvement on Ido, | artificial languages make their fascinating j way. The number and variety of these j schemes has naturally made any important i scientific or interuational body hesitate to commit itself to a particular language which might in a few years be abandoned. Yet the advocates for these various languages have insisted, and no one has questioned their theory, that national jealousies would prevent the universal adoption of any one of the existing European languages as a second tongue to all. And in the welter of conflict, the urgently necessary step forward has not been taken. The Problem Settling Itself. Meantime, the problem is settling itself through the extraordinary development in the growth of English throughout tha world. A century ago it was spoken by not quite twenty million people; to-day it is the mother tongue of two hundred millions. and it is the natural or administrative language of over five hundred million people. No other European language can advance such claim to be universal. There is no part of the world where English is not spoken, and it is increasingly apparent that it is becoming, of sheer necessity, a real world language. In addition to the natural growth, however, there ia now a definite demand that it I become a world language, a demand which t emanates from neariy every country on the globe. 1 Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder o£ the Pan-European Union, states in his famous book: " All European States j should resolve to make the English language a compulsory snbject, first in their secondary, then in their primary schools. For the world outside of Europe, the development of English as the medium of international intercourse is one which can be stayed no longer: it would be shrewd if Europeans followed the example set by the Japanese and the Chinese. The rivalry between European languages would cease, and international understanding would be materially promoted if every European knew English as an auxiliary language, in addition to hi 3 own national tongue." Dr. Lim Boon Keng, President of Amoy University, said recently: " In China we have practically adopted English." Profassor R. E. Danferth, University of Porto Rico, has written: " A World English, alongside Standard English and other languages, seems the truly practical solution of the difficulties in launching a world language." An Adequate Medium. Then, in 1929, the English-speaking world was surprised to learn that the Swedish Riksdag, after a lengthy discussion on the problems of an auxiliary language, had decided against any artificial system on the ground that English already provided an adequate medium. In IS3O the suggestions for a simplification of English spelling in the interests of international communication were crystallised by Professor Zachrisson, of Upsala, the title " Anglic" being chosen to designate the new movement. With considerable support from sympathisers throughout Europe, an educational journal and a number of language classes were started, and in due course the press of the entire world was drawing attention to the experiment. " Anglic" can be learnt quickly, and in conversation sounds like English, but when printed it looks more like Dutch, as the following example shows: " It ia shunrly a nashonal diagraes to ua to fiend." sed Prof. Skeat. as urly as IS6O, " that the wieldest arsuementa kensurning English speling and etimolojy ar konatently being uest eevn by wel edukaeted puranz, whose irgorens of Urly English pronun3iaeshon and of modern English fonetiks ia soe kompleet that they have noe suspishon whatevr of the amaezing wurthlesne3 of their luudikrua uterens|z." In Stockholm to-day, every fourth person is able, through the use of Anglic, to understand and speak English. What is worth noting ia that this attempt _at Universal English comes from a foreign source—a startling reply to the Esperantists and others who have said that a new artificial language must be created rather than a modern existing one used. Recently, however, English philologists and phoneticians have set to work on the problem and evolved " Basic English," the most successful scheme yet produced, a brilliant condensation of our ordinary English language to cut out all that is superfluous in both words and grammar. A Second String. Basic English is an attempt to give everyone a "second or international language which will take as little of the learner's time as possible. It ia a system in which everything which may be said for all tha purposes of everyday existence; the common interests of men and women, general talk, news, trade, radio, science. There are only eight hundred and fifty worda in the complete list, which may be cieiurlv printed on one side of a piece of notepaper. Simple rules are given for making other worda with the help of those in the list, such as designer, designing and designed from design. The word order is fixed by other short rules, which make it clear from an example, such aa " I will put the record on the machine now," what is the right and natural place for every sort of word. Whatever is doing the act comes first; then the time word such aa will; then the act or operation, put; then the thing to which something is done, and so on. It ia an English in which eight hundred and fifty words do all the work of twenty thousand, and haa been formed by taking out everything which is not necessary to the sense. " Diskmlwlc," for example, is broken up into " get, off a ship;" "I am able" takes the place of "I can;" "shape" is covered by the more general word "form;" and " difficult" by the use of " hard." By putting together the namea of simple operations, such as send, go, come, with the words for direction, like " in," " over" and the rest, two or three thousand complex ideas (like " insert," which becomes " put in") are made part of the learner's store. Finally, Basic looks, reads, sounds and is spelt" like ordinary English. As an example I have written the last two paragraphs in Basic English.''