November 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



an 



be held more blamable by reason of our better 

 realization of the remedies available. 



Theo. B. Comstock 



Los AXGELES, CaL., 



October 15, 1909 



INTERNATIOXAL LANGUAGE 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science for 

 October 22 Mr. J. D. Hailman has set forth 

 with admirable clearness some of the reasons 

 why scientists should adopt an artificial inter- 

 national language. Tour readers will be in- 

 terested to know that the whole question has 

 recently been thoroughly discussed in a book 

 called " Weltsprache und Wissenschaft," pub- 

 lished by Fischer in Jena. This book, which 

 is in itself an interesting sign of the inter- 

 nationality of present-day science, written as 

 it is by five university professors belonging to 

 five different countries: Couturat (France), 

 Jespersen (Denmark), Lorenz (Switzerland), 

 Ostwald (Germany) and Pfaundler (Austria), 

 contains also an account of the most recent 

 development of the international language 

 movement, with which Mr. Hailman does not 

 seem to be familiar and which you will there- 

 fore allow me to sum up here. 



In October, 1907, an international scientific 

 committee, elected by some 300 societies of 

 various countries and presided over by the 

 famous chemist Ostwald, met in Paris to de- 

 cide which of the many proposed artificial 

 languages would be best for international com- 

 munications. After a careful investigation 

 of Esperanto, Neutral, Universal, Novilatin, 

 Langue Bleue and several other systems, the 

 result was unanimously arrived at that none 

 of these languages was quite good enough, but 

 that Esperanto might serve as a basis, pro- 

 vided it were thoroughly modified and im- 

 proved on certain specially indicated points. 

 A smaller committee was selected to work out 

 the details of this language, which is now be- 

 fore the public in the shape of dictionaries, 

 grammars and readers in eight or nine differ- 

 ent languages; the English ones may be had 

 at Brentano's, New York. In spite of the 

 short time this interlanguage (generally called 

 Ido) has existed, it has already gained a great 



many adherents among Esperantists as well as 

 among those who had been deterred by many 

 of the forbidding features of that language. 

 Propaganda clubs have sprung up in a great 

 many cities, some old Esperanto periodicals 

 have adopted the new language, and new 

 periodicals have come into existence, while a 

 duly elected academy has charge of the 

 further development of the language. 



This may be described as a purified Es- 

 peranto, freed from all the arbitrary word- 

 coinages and word-clippings of that language, 

 freed also from its illogical and insufficient 

 rules of word-formation, and last, but not least, 

 from its clumsy alphabet with circumfle.xes 

 over c, s, g and other letters. (Fancy an in- 

 ternational language that can neither be tele- 

 graphed, nor printed in every printing office!) 

 From another point of view Ido may be de- 

 scribed as a systematic turning to account of 

 everything that is already international in 

 words, derivative endings, etc. Every one can 

 easily master such a language because it is 

 nothing but what has well been termed the 

 " quintessence of European languages." A 

 few lines will enable the reader to compare 

 Esperanto and Ido and to judge for himself 

 with regard to their general character. (In 

 the Esperanto specimen the circumflexed let- 

 lers have been printed as ch, sh, etc., according 

 to a practise allowed by Dr. Zamenhof.) 



ESPEBANTO 



Kiam chiuj tiuj, kiuj volas la sukceson de la 

 ling^'0 internaeia, konos chiujn kondiohojn de la 

 problemo, tiam oni konstatos, ke malgrau siaj 

 bonaj ecoj, Esperanto devas ricevi shanghojn, char 

 mankas en ghi multaj radikoj, ne sole per la 

 scienooj, la artoj, la profesioj, sed ech per la 

 simplaj bezonoj kaj ideoj de la vivo ordinara. 



IDO 



Kande omni ti qui volas la sueeso di la linguo 

 internaciona, konocos omna kondicioni di 1' prob- 

 lemo, lor on konstatos ke malgre sa bona qualesi 

 Esperanto devas ricevar chanji, pro ke mankas 

 en ol multa radiki, ne sole per la cienci, la arti, 

 la profesioni, ma mem por la simpla bezoni ed 

 idei di la vivo ordinara. 



Otto Jespersen, 

 Exchange professor, 



Columbia University 



