WORLD LANGUAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 29

WORLD LANGUAGE

ENGLISH AS BASIS OF NEW ESPERANTO Two more efforts toward a world language are announced. Professor Jespersen, of Copenhagen, has invented a new variety called “Xovial,” and Professor R. J. Zachrissou. holding the chair of English language and literature at Upsala, has now broadcast his own ideas of a new international language over the Swedish j radio. While other inventors combine word stems from the Latin and the Teutonic languages into an artificial : mixture, easily learnt in a couple of ! hours, the Swedish philologist has ra | lionalised the English language to : such an extent that it can be acquired jin a few days. He calls it “World- ! English,” or “Universal English.” For : many years Professor Zachrissou has j been elaborating this idea of develop- | ing English into a universal tongue, and the evolution of English in the United States of America has given him some hints as to what the English of the future will be like. In carrying out these principles he has arrived at a suitable idiom, easy to understand everywhere and, despite its air of artificiality, never losing contact with the present-day tongue of the Anglo-Saxon nations. Dr. Zachrisson’s “auxiliary language” has been examined by at least five prominent Englishmen, who have expressed their sympathy with the project. When the pamphlet setting forth the principles appears in print (it is expected shortly) it will be seen whether or not the British people will like such a projection into the future of Shakespeare's language, and whether the originator has been able to free himself from the tangled ways of English spelling.