1922] on Auxiliary International Languages 541 



the " Delegation for the Adoption of an Auxiliary Language " Avas 

 founded. After a great deal of preliminary work on the subject, 

 the matter was submitted, through the kind offices of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences at Vienna, to the International Association of 

 Academies, which on May 29th, 1907, declared itself incompetent to 

 deal with the question. The Delegation then proceeded itself to 

 elect a special Committee to study the problem. This Committee 

 embraced a number of distinguished authorities on science and 

 linguistics, and included the two secretaries, Professors Couturat and 

 Leau. After eighteen sittings, held at the College de France, the 

 following decision was arrived at : — 



"None of the proposed languages can be adopted in toto and 

 without modification. The Committee have decided to adopt in 

 principle Esperanto, on account of its relative perfection and of the 

 many and varied applications which have been made of it ; provided 

 that certain modifications be executed by the Permanent Commission, 

 on the lines- indicated by the conclusion of the .Report of the Secre- 

 taries and by the project of Ido, if possible in agreement with the 

 Esperantist Linguistic Committee." 



It appeared later that the "project of Ido" was an anonymous 

 pamphlet proposing a number of reforms in Esperanto, whose real 

 author was the Marquis de Beaufront, up to that time the most 

 eminent supporter of Esperanto in the world. Messieurs Couturat 

 and Leau had made a most exhaustive and scholarly study of all 

 known auxiliary languages, their labours being embodied in a masterly 

 book entitled " Histoire de la Langue Universelle," and also in 

 another one entitled " Les Nouvelles Langues Internationales." 

 Their Report to the Committee indicated very clearly the lines along 

 which Esperanto could be improved. As the Esperanto Linguistic 

 Committee declined to collaborate, the Committee of the Delegation 

 appointed a Permanent Commission to carry out the reforms which 

 they had in view, and as they were unable to use the name Esperanto 

 the reformed Esperanto was called Ido. Thus was born the 



Ling-uo Inteenaciona Ido. 



The principal part in this work was taken by Couturat, who was 

 well-known for his studies in logic and his work on Leibniz. The 

 changes effected dealt principally with the following points : — 



1. The elimination of Zamenhof's accented letters, and the choice 

 of a phonetic alphabet which would be better adapted to the inter- 

 national recognition of the root-words. 



2. The elimination as far as possible of the arbitrary a priori 

 elements in Esperanto. 



3. The application of a definite and systematic method in the 

 choosing of the internationally existing roots. 



4. The carrying out of a more logical method of word-derivation 



