48 INTEENATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 



are too irregular. Sometimes the same affix has several 

 different meanings ; sometimes the same relationship is 

 expressed lay different affixes. In virtue of the principle of 

 uniqueness, it is necessary to unify and regularise the mean- 

 ing and employment of the affixes, assigning to each one a 

 perfectly definite significance and function. Undoubtedly 

 one must endeavour to adopt for the affixes forms which are 

 international (as much as possible), or at least known in 

 some language (like the suffix -in of the feminine, borrowed 

 from the German, e.g.. konigin, and the prefix mal-, denoting 

 " a contrary," borrowed from the French, e.g., malheureux), 

 so as to reproduce as much as possible international deriva- 

 tives. But it is chimerical to endeavour to reproduce them 

 all, since they are irregular and consequently incompatible 

 with that logical regularity of the language on which is based 

 not only its fertility, but also its simplicity in practical use 

 and its facility for all nationalities (even for non-European 

 peoples who are not familiar with the anomalies and caprices 

 of European languages). The international language must 

 be autonomous in its formation of words ; when the elements 

 which it borrows from our languages have been once chosen 

 (in the best possible manner), it must combine them freely 

 according to its own rules, preserving their form and sense 

 rigorously invariable. It is by virtue of this condition that 

 it becomes a true language, richer in certain respects than 

 our own, since it can form all the useful derivatives which 

 are often wanting in one or the other, and not merely a 

 simple imitation or copy of our languages, which would be 

 as difficult as they, and which would require a previous 

 knowledge of them. 



AVe shall not explain here all the forms of indirect 

 derivation, or enumerate the forty-seven affixes used for 

 this purpose. We shall quote only a few of them for the 

 sake of example, in order to show the application of the 

 principles enunciated above. If there is one suffix which 



