CORRESPONDENCE 



To THE Editor of " Science Progress " 



AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE 



From Alexander J. Smith 



Dear Sir, — The letter by the Secretary of the British Esperanto Society 

 purporting to prove the superiority of Esperanto over Ido is not altogether 

 convincing. In my opinion Ido is greatly superior to Esperanto as a neutral 

 international language for the following reasons : 



(i) Ido is not a one-man creation, but was evolved from Esperanto by 

 an International Committee of eminent scientists and linguists, who rejected 

 Esperanto as unsuitable, and whose object was to give the world a perfect 

 and final International Language, retaining the good points of Esperanto 

 and eliminating its defects. 



(2) In Ido the special circumflexed letters, which constitute one of the 

 chief defects of Esperanto, have been done away with, and Ido can there- 

 fore be printed, type-written, or telegraphed anywhere. 



(3) In Ido certain useless grammatical rules found in Esperanto are 

 suppressed, such as agreement of the adjective, and accusative, except 

 where the accusative is required to avoid ambiguity. Even English is 

 superior to Esperanto in these details of grammar. 



(4) In Ido all combinations of consonants difficult for some nations to 

 pronounce, though perhaps easy enough for a Russian or Pole Uke Dr. 

 Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, have been eliminated, and another 

 serious defect of Esperanto removed. 



(5) In Ido the ugly a priori words and phrases which Zamenhof simply 

 invented, and which make an Esperanto text look so barbaric, have been 

 replaced by international expressions. To take one example, the phrase 

 " all those who " is rendered in Esperanto by " chiuj tiuj kiuj." In Ido 

 it is rendered by " omna ti qui." 



(6) Another ocular defect of Esperanto, the ever-recurring " aj " and 

 " oj " endings of plural adjectives and nouns, has been suppressed in Ido, 

 for plural nouns in Ido end in " i " and there is no agreement of the adjective. 



(7) In Ido the derivation is made regular and logical throughout. This 

 is necessary for preventing idioms, and for providing a foundation for a 

 complete scientific and technical vocabulary ; because a perfect inter- 

 national language must meet the requirements of science and philosophy, 

 as well as of commerce and ordinary life. 



(8) In Ido the roots are chosen according to the principle of maximum 

 internationality. Such a formidable task could only be accomplished 

 internationally by eminent linguists, and consequently Ido is more inter- 

 national than Esperanto, and is already known by every educated European. 

 Further, as Ido has no useless rules, no exceptions, and no idioms, it is far 

 easier to learn than any national language. 



In a word, Ido is the fruit of evolution and the final solution of the inter- 

 national language problem, for in addition to its other excellences it is as 

 harmonious as Italian. 



The one drawback of Ido is that it is a comparative new-comer, and 



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