392 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC, 
1. Standard of Meaning.—When any doubt arises as to the meaning in which a 
Latin word is used, a Latin dictionary, even a small one, will quickly show how the 
word is used by the standard authors in actually existing books. The same is true 
of any real modern languages which possess a literature and dictionaries competently 
written. But it is not true of any artificial language. Putting aside the names of 
concrete things and persons, which a mere vocabulary can provide without ambiguity, 
suchas chair, railway, wine, or king, soldier, mother—there can be no certain guide to 
the meaning of any term—especially of words denoting more abstract ideas, which 
are often of great importance, such as to compensate, to compromise—except in an express 
declaration from the inventor of the language. Even if he is supposed omniscient, he 
cannot be always and everywhere accessible; even if he were both, he cannot be 
immortal. 
Few of those who are familiar from actual study with the complex conditions and 
stages by which a word is created, develops new meanings, or passes out of use, will 
believe that an artificial language can serve any but limited purposes or be maintained 
beyond a limited time. Applied to serious use in business, it may always involve 
dangerous and costly ambiguities. In Latin, just because it is no longer in colloquial 
use, the meaning of a word is fixed and cannot be altered. 
2. Brevity.—The inflexions of Latin make it possible to express any given meaning 
in fewer words than in any modern language. ‘Two examples will suffice. 
English. French. Latin. 
At what price did you Combien l’avez vous Quanti emisti? 
buy it ? payé? (or quanti emistis ? accord- 
ing as you is sing. or pl. ; 
so we escape another 
ambiguity). 
Who made profit out Quien a tiréle profit? | Cui bono fuit ? 
of it? 
It is to be observed in the second case that the French version involves an 
idiomatic use of one of the pronomina: adverbs, whose meaning and position are 
well-known stumbling blocks to all who learn to write French. 
3. Phonetic Spelling.—In the restored pronunciation now adopted in all English 
schools (except Eton and Westminster), Latin spelling offers no difficulty since it 
is entirely phonetic. This is a very great advantage as compared with all living 
languages, especially with English. 
4. Ease of Acquirement.—It is important that the I.A.L. should be one whose 
vocabulary carries its own meaning to the speakers of as many languages as possible. 
As the parent of all the Romance languages, of a great part of English, especially 
English that is written, and of a considerable part of German, Latin has great advan- 
tages over any other language. The speakers of English and of the Romance languages 
easily recognise in Latin the originals of their own derivatives ; whereas they do not 
so easily recognise the parallel equivalents in the other modern languages. The Latin 
via is more intelligible both to English and Italians and Spaniards than the French 
voie, and no more difficult to the French than either the Italian or the Spanish and 
English via. Similarly every Englishman and Frenchman understands the Latin 
word includere because of the English words include and inclusive, and the French © 
enclos, inclusion ; but he would not so easily recognise the Italian words beginning 
with inchiu- ; on the other hand, Italians who knew any European language other than 
their own would recognise the Latin at once because they will have inevitably become 
familiar with the change of the sound cl which has taken place in Italian. Similarly 
the Latin facere is more recognisable than the Spanish hacer or the French faire. The 
following are other examples, and these could be multiplied indefinitely :-— 
English. Spanish. Italian. French. German. Latin. 
faith fe fede foi Vertrauen fides 
leaf hoja folio feuille Seite. Blatt folium 
iron hierro ferro fer Eisen ferrum 
strong fuerte forte fort stark fortis 
middle medio mezzo muiueu mitten medium 
In one or two of these cases, though the actuai words in English and German are 
totally unlike the Latin word, so that the English or German form does not suggest 
its meaning to the speaker of any Romance language, yet there are derivatives in 
