494 



NATURE 



[April 15, 1922 



work in bringing it to as high a state of perfection as 

 possible. Very many Ido clubs and societies have 

 been formed in all parts of the world, and already a 

 very considerable literature exists. We may say 

 that the Ido, like the Esperanto, movement, has 

 done immense service in famiUarising the world with 

 the practicabiUty of an international auxiUary 

 language. Both these great linguistic experiments 

 are of profound interest and importance. 



I must now lead your thoughts away from 

 Esperanto and Ido and back to the International 

 Academy for a Universal Language, which was 

 founded by the two international Volapiik Congresses 

 of 1887 and 1889. This Academy continued to 

 exist, and set itself to the task of reforming Volapiik. 

 Very important and scholarly work was done by 

 Mr. Rosenberger, a Russian engineer, and his col- 

 laborators (Rosenberger was Director of the Academy 

 from 1893 to 1898). They produced a vocabulary 

 of root-words based on the principle of maximum 

 internationality. The greater part of these roots 

 are common to at least four of the seven chief 

 languages — German, English, French, Italian, 

 Russian, Spanish, and Latin. Largely as a conse- 

 quence of the inclusion of Latin, the result was an 

 almost exclusively Neo-Latin vocabulary — one much 

 more Romanic than that of Esperanto. A very 

 simple grammar and a regular system of word- 

 derivation by means of derivative affixes were 

 introduced. But autonomous word formation was 

 not allowed to exclude international derivatives. 



Thus was produced about 1903 the Language 

 " Idiom Neutral," the descendant of Volapiik, though 

 scarcely any trace of the parental features remained. 



Idiom Neutral has not achieved the practical success 

 of Esperanto and Ido. This may be because it 

 came too late. It appeals to educated people more 

 than Esperanto and Ido on account of its more 

 homogeneous vocabulary, which is practically ex- 

 clusively Romanic. But it has not been so fully 

 developed as Esperanto and Ido. As a separate and 

 independent project, it may be said to have dis- 

 appeared with the death of Mr. Rosenberger in 191 8. 



A language of the Neo-Latin type, somewhat similar 

 to Neutral Idiom, is the " Panroman "(or " Universal ") 

 of the German positivist and pacifist. Dr. H. Molenaar. 

 Various attempts, such as those of Mr. Henderson 

 and of Dr. Rosa, have been made to introduce a sort 

 of simplified Latin. But the man who has defined 

 most clearly the Neo-Latin principle, and who has 

 worked not only the hardest in this field but has also 

 grouped and organised many isolated workers of 

 kindred views and affinities, is Dr. Giuseppe Peano, 

 professor of mathematics in the university of Turin. 

 In 1908 he became Director of the International 

 Language Academy. In the " Discussiones " of 

 that body he has published from year to year the 

 work of himself and many collaborators. A very 

 large amount of scholarly work has been done in the 

 discovery of the international vocabulary common to 

 Latin, Italian, French, English, and German. The 

 result of this etymological study may be seen in 

 Professor Peano's important " Vocabulario Com- 

 mune," the second edition of which appeared in 

 1915. Following the indication given by Leibniz, 

 Peano has built on an exclusively Neo-Latin basis 

 so far as the main vocabulary is concerned, though 

 modern words acquiring international usage may be 

 accepted. 



For many scientific purposes Peano's flexionless 

 Latin is ready for use. He has himself employed it 

 for many years in his own journal. The Mathematical 

 Review. 



The true solution of the problem may consist in 

 selecting the most international roots according to the 



NO. 2737, VOL. 109] 



fashion of Peano, but also the most international 

 affixes of derivation. With these natural elements, 

 derivatives and compounds will then be formed 

 according to simple and invariable rules. Thus the 

 advantages of the Neo-Latin or Anglo-Latin vocabu- 

 lary of stems will be combined with the regular and 

 autonomous word-derivation of Ido. This is the 

 view held by Prof. Guerard, who has just published a 

 most valuable book entitled " A Short History of the 

 International Language Movement " (Fisher Unwin, 

 1922). As Prof. Guerard points out, the.se two sets 

 of fundamental ideas are embodied in the language 

 project of M. Albert Michaux, entitled " Romanal." 



Needless to say, Romanal is not the last word on 

 the subject, nor is it free from debateable points. But 

 it represents the combination of an " etymological 

 Anglo-Latin " root vocabulary with regularity of 

 word-derivation and simplicity of grammar. 



In the preceding discussion I have endeavoured to 

 give a very brief account of some of the principal 

 efforts to solve the problem. The large amount of 

 research work already done and the practical success 

 of Esperanto and Ido prove that the problem is not 

 an insoluble one. At first one might be inclined to 

 think that the production of an international auxiliary 

 language is a sort of parlour game, or at best a pure 

 matter of caprice. Attentive study of the problem 

 shows that this is quite a false view. Whatever may 

 be the final solution, it is already clear that some of 

 the fundamental principles have been elucidated. 

 There does exist a science of synthetic linguistics, 

 compounded of logic, psychology, and philology. It 

 has been argued that the field hitherto traversed, at 

 all events in the later systems, is too narrow ; that the 

 so-called international vocabularies are not really 

 international and apply at best only to two groups of 

 existing languages. What comfort, it is argued, can 

 a word such as " amico " bring to the Basques, Finns, 

 Hungarians, Turks, Japanese, Chinese, etc. ? What 

 special comfort, I would then ask, does the learning 

 of English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, 

 Swedish, and Russian bring to a young Japanese 

 gentleman ? Are we then to go back to Sotos 

 Ochando and bring comfort to nobody ? I think not. 

 But the objection is not one to be passed over lightly. 

 It may be that the world will require more than 

 one auxiliary language. Two, or even three, would 

 be better than the necessity of having to learn a. 

 hundred living languages. Only time and prolonged 

 study and investigation can settle questions of this 

 order. The whole civilised world must collaborate 

 in this investigation. There is plenty of time. We 

 have been using an alphabet for, say, eight or ten 

 thousand years at most, and as this planet is reckoned 

 to be over a thousand million years old, it will 

 probably continue to be habitable for some consider- 

 able time. 



Meanwhile the problem is a very pressing one. 

 Those who have to do with science, industry, and 

 commerce feel this very acutely. Before the war I 

 attended several international scientific congresses. 

 On these occasions it was open to any one to speak in 

 English, French, German, or Itahan. When the 

 language of the speaker or lecturer changed, one half 

 of the audience usually adjourned to the refreshment 

 bar. I could follow German, but when it was a case 

 of Italian or Parisian French I also used to get 

 thirsty. I am going to an international scientific 

 congress in June of this year. The representatives 

 of at least thirteen different nations will be present, 

 and I expect at least four languages will be used. As 

 the language of the country where the congress is to 

 be held is not one of these, one ought really to know 

 five languages. I am glad to say that the civihsed 

 world is at last beginning to take a real interest in this 



