136 BROOM ALL : 



not be universal in the proper sense. The domain of thought 

 and life as far as expressed in the vernacular would be omitted 

 from the universal language. Such a universal language 

 would occupy a position not unlike the jargons of trade or the 

 classic tongue common to scholars : each speaker of them 

 still expresses his real personality, his essential ideas, in a 

 vernacular. The really universal language must be exclusive 

 of all others : it must be substituted for the present languages 

 of the earth, not simply added to them and universal only 

 throughout certain limited lines of action and thought. It 

 nuist be universal for all human expressions. Only such uni- 

 versality would be worth while. 



After the vernacular is mastered the child gets beyond 

 the family circle and into the larger circles of the society 

 about him, scholastic, commercial and political. These larger 

 circles often bring him into contact with other tongues. In 

 scholastic circles a classic or foreign tongue is regularly 

 taught. Commerce and politics necessitate more or less 

 knowledge of other languages than his own. L,angiiages of 

 this status in a community may be called secondary languages, 

 the term referring to their distinct position as added over and 

 upon the vernacular, not substituted for it. They are learned 

 by and through the vernacular. The French teacher does not 

 bring us a horse and say chcval : he does not find us a dying 

 animal and say // mart : he simply recalls our own vernacular 

 sounds horse and lie dies and gives us the French equivalent. 



These secondary languages, superposed upon the vernacu- 

 lars, deserve a moment's fuller consideration because they are 

 often put forth as candidates for universality. They are 

 ac(|uired by their users under conditions that may be termed 

 scholastic, such as the classic and foreign languages of our 

 schools, artificial, such as Volapiik and Esperanto, or natural, 

 such as trade jargons, Pidgin-I^nglish and the Lingua F'ranca 

 of the Orient. 



No man uses any of these as his only tongue. Scholar 

 mav meet scholar in Latin and (rreek : traveler mav aid trav- 



