ESPERANTO: WHAT IS IT?

Otago Witness, Issue 2738, 5 September 1906, Page 13

ESPERANTO: WHAT IS IT?

By Felix Gollonz, Ph. D., M.A.

A modern, miracle ; nothing less. A language that the "man in the street." the cabman, the railway porter, and the

schoolboy can read and write in one month and can converse in in three months ; a language that brings one ipto relationship, not with the people of one nation, nor. of one tongue, not with Europeans only, but with the inhabitants of every continent, — and all this at the cost of a few months' study, is surely worthy of the name. This Esperanto can oo^ this Esperanto is 'doing every , day. Tens,- nay, hundreds of thousands of Esperantiuts all the world over, literally irgm Japan to Pern, give ample proof of this. ' I found Esperanto very simple. It is aip easy to learn that, having received a grammar and * dictionary of the lanfuage, I could, at the end of two short ours, -read the language fluently." So writes Leo Tolstoi. And Max Muller: "I certainly place Esperanto very hieh above ail its rivals."- For centuries past the question of an international language occupied the -attention of some amongst ''&&£s**}s■'* greatest scholars. Bacon, Paa1 ?^y+&*> vl iUt,, i Bumouf, Grimm, - Muller «nd t others, whose names are landmarks f".'"** 6 *»« tways of the republic of letters, did not deem the serious consideration -of such a problem one unworthy of their great intellects. Scores of attempts world; they have been tried, and ah., Aii, have been found wanting! They Sm? ***»%««** "Kent characteristics which must form the raison d'etre of any international idiom. These vain, though well-meant attempts have lost caste ; but the central idea— that is, the importance nay, the necessity, of a common, neutral langnage-stiU .exists. Esperanto has galvanised this idea into life. It is amongst us, young indeed, but fnll of life Young, but its roots have struck deep down. Silently and almost unnoticed they have spread far and wide. That which was but yesterday a puny plant; shaken by "ni^X 1 f dve^i 6 6torm ' has g™ l ™ gathered strength, and is to-day a stately tree, verdure-crowned, and bearing goodly fruit. In .every principal city of Europe ■Esperanto has its society and ite earnest advocates; Peru, Brazil, ltfontreal, Ottawa, Jttexieo, Boston, Chicago, and Siberia have also their societies or .." groups." In Paris alone there are at this moment 42 classes for the teaching of the language, and no *^2J^* leßß th * n 10 ° students. Upwards of 20 journals in the language are published in .France, England, Germany, Sweden, Holland, and Russia. Perhaps ia no country in the world has the language spread co rapidly as in England When Dr O'Connor, the father and founder of Esperanto in Great Britain, introduced the language into London some three years ago he began with a class of four pupils Esperanto .was a thing practically unknown, until then. Despite apathy and ?PV&&*P**h«. carried on ,the work, and the result, he tells us ."has surpassed my most ambitious anticipations." From that class of four Esperanto has spread • into every, corner of Great Britain. There are to-day 60 societies and groups in England and Scotland. A powerful association — the British Esperanto Association— has sprung into existence; an Esperanto journal, with a large and daily growing circulation, has come to preach and spread and send its message throughout the English-speaking world. To-day in London and its suburbs there are 20 classes for Esperanto pupils, all well attended. And within the past month -has <»me what l)r O'Connor looks upon, as his greatest work in the- propagation of Esperanto— viz., the creation of a Hew society consisting. of teachers from the board ; and- other schools throughout the United Kingdom. This is the result of two years' campaigning, ot lectures, etc., up and down the land. As giving some idea of what Dr O'Connor has done in. that brief period, one fact speaks volumes. During these two years he has fven no les? than -250. lectures on speranto, besides writing innumerable articles for the press and conducting • several, classes.- And let me add one other fact: all this work, all these labours, all this teaching has been given freely, spontaneously, gratuitously. There was no persdnal axe to grind. "For the greater good^ of humanity " : this is the motive power of his great and self-sacrificing work. Looking at the phenomenal success of Esperanto, we ask the question, How has Esperanto accomplished all this 1 Before this question can be answered we must, first of all, see what should be the dominant characteristics of a language which assumes the rele ,of internationality. [ will put them briefly : 1. llts alphabet must be such that the pronunciation of the letters come naturally to all peoplesjp-Europeans, Asiatics, Africans, etc". 2. It must be a phonetic language — that is, there muet be no silent letters, and each' letter must have only one sound value always and everywhere. 3. Its grammar must be simple. There must be no exceptions, no irregular verbs, nor irregular plurals. 4. As far as possible its vocabulary should be international, consisting of words familiar to the people of different nations. . 5. It should be a language, not for the savant, nor the man of letters only; it must be equally adapted for commerce, literature, art, science, for the purposes of every-day correspondence, and as an

easy and simple means of conversation. Esperanto fulfils in the most plenary manner all these essentials. Its alphabet

does not present a shadow of difficulty to the student, no matter which nation he haili from. The Englishman, the Frenchman, the Russian, the Laplander, the Czech, and the Japanese can pronounce each- letter right away. The language is rigidly phonetic ; it is written as read, and read as it is written. Its grammar I can dismiss in a word. Give me a class of •choolboys — say in the Fifth or Sixth Standard — and I guarantee to teach the

essential grammar in one or, at most, in two hours. In Esperanto there is no such thing as an irregular verb nor an irregular plural. And, further, there is not a. single exception to any rule from first to last in the language. Its vocabulary consists of words for the most part familiar to the man of average education. An Englishman knows at the outset fully 50 per cent, of we words, and if he has a moderate knowledge of either Latin, French, Spanish, or Italian he knows over 80 per cent, of them. The language consists of about 3000 root-words. By means of these and with the help of %0 prefixes and suffixes every 'ldea can be fully and logically expressed. Of these root-words onethird are identical with corresponding English words, one-third are easily , recognisable from English synonyms, thus leaving "one-third to Be memorised by the student. The language is adapted for every requirement of modern life. Translations of "Hamlet," "Cain" (Byron), the "Iliad," as well as scientific works by Leibnitz and others have been published. There are, at least, 300 volumes of all kinds of literary works published in the language. For many' years past I have ! been a keen student of the various systems of international language. None of these : reached- my ideal, and I regarded the solution of the problem as hopeless. In Esperanto, however, I have found the full realisation of my topes. Every day convinces me more and more of its simplicity, beauty,-and utility. Perhaps I cannot do better than conclude this article by quoting once more the words of Tolstoi : " I have often thought that there is no more Christian science than the study of languages, that study which permits of 6ur communicating and allying ourselves with an incalculable number of our fellow men, and I have often remarked how people bear themselves as enemies to one another solely because they have no means of intercommunication. ' The study of Esperanto, then, and its diffusion is assuredly a Christian work — a work which hastens the coming of the Kingdom of God — the main, indeed, the only, aim of human life."