40 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 260 



and the Creed. The signs for the ideas ' heaven ' and ' earth ' are 

 thus explained : — 



" [Heaven] This Generical Character is assigned to signifie 

 World, the right angled affix on the left side, denoting the second 

 Difference under that Genus, namely Heaven ; and because there is 

 no affix at the other end, therefore doth it signifie the Difiference it- 

 self, and not any Species." 



" [Earth] The same Generical Character signifying World, the 

 affix making a right Angle, doth denote the second difference un- 

 der that Genus, namely the Celestial parts of it in general, amongst 

 which, this Globe of Sea and Land whereon we live, is reckoned as 

 the seventh Species, denoted by the affix at the other end." 



These examples suffice to show the nature of the ' real character,' 

 which is obviously adapted for universal writing, because the ideas 

 expressed by the signs are translatable into the words of any lan- 

 guage. 



The Roman alphabet (with additional letters) is also made use 

 of in application of the system to individual languages. The same 

 forty ' genuses ' are expressed by simple syllables, such as ba, be, bi, 

 etc. ; the differences under each genus being denoted by sequent 

 consonants, as in bab, bag, bad, etc. ; and the species by putting a 

 vowel after the consonant, as in deba, deta,gade,pida, etc. 



A few words may be quoted to show the nature of the verbal 

 forms in this ' philosophical language : ' — 



al = ' the ■ 



/a/ = ' from 



• 



odab = ' body ' 



coba = ' father ' 



la ='at' 





odad = ' hell ' 



cobas = ' son ' 



jne = ' as ' 





poio = ' day ' 



Dab = ' God ' 



mz = ' no ' 





Saba = ' Lord ' 



dad = ' heaven ' 



na = ' and ' 





salba — ' kingdom 



e = ' he ' 



nz7 = ' but ' 





tado = ' power ' 



he = ' his ' 



nor = ' for ' 





velco = ' lead ' 





ve/p! = ' 



give' 





The principle on which these words are constructed may be un- 

 derstood from the author's explanation of the four following : — 



" [Coba] Co doth denote the Genus of Oeconomical Relation ; 

 the letter [b] signifying the first difference under that Genus, which 

 is Relation of Consanguinity; the vowel [a] the second Species, 

 which is direct ascending ; namely. Parent." 



" [Cobas] The syllable [co] is assigned to the Genus of Oeco- 

 nomical Relation, the letter [b] to the first difference, and the 

 vowel [a] for the second species, the Letter [s] denoting the word 

 hereby signified, to be an Opposite, viz. Son." 



" [Dad] Da the Genus of World, and [d] the second difference, 

 which is Heaven." 



" [Odad] [Da] is the Genus of world, [d] is the second differ- 

 ence, which is Heaven, the vowel [o] which is opposite to [a] being 

 prefixt, denotes this to be the word opposite to Heaven, viz. Hell." 



In this way all thoughts find expression in fit words deduced 

 from the associated meanings of their component letters. " Every 

 Word being a description of the thing signified by it ; Every Letter 

 being significant, either as to the Nature of the Thing, or the 

 Grammatical Variations of the Word ; besides the constant Anal- 

 ogy observed in all kinds of Derivations and Inflexions." With 

 all these advantages, however, the philosophical language would 

 need a philosopher to use it. 



Another part of Bishop Wilkins's work ought not to pass un- 

 noticed ; namely, his analysis of English sounds. This is far 

 superior to that of any preceding writer, and also more complete 

 than the schemes of the majority of subsequent phoneticians. If 

 the bishop's scheme for a universal language must be set aside as 

 being beyond the ability of average learners, the logical, grammati- 

 cal, and phonetic principles evolved in its development must always 

 command the admiration of students. 



The new claimant for adoption as an international language pro- 

 ceeds on the principle of selecting roots of words from the vocables 

 of existing languages ; but the relation of the Volapiik words to the 

 English, German, French, and other words from which they are 

 derived, is so far from obvious, that the learner is not assisted by it 

 to remember the meanings associated with the roots. English is 

 said to have furnished about forty per cent of the adopted roots, 

 yet, in a vocabulary extending over upwards of forty pages, only 

 twelve of the roots exactly correspond with their English proto- 



types. The roots might, indeed, just as well have been entirely ar- 

 bitrary as to have been arbitrarily chosen in this fashion from exist- 

 ing words. The method of rooX-bitilding proposed by Bishop Wil- 

 kins seems greatly preferable. 



Root-words having been selected, they are provided with a very 

 complete and on the whole simple category of definitive letters and 

 syllables, for prefixing or suffixing, to show number, gender, case, 

 tense, mood, etc. The simple grammar of English has not been 

 taken as the model in this department, but the complex arrange- 

 ments of highly inflected languages. This is unfortunate ; for we 

 may safely assume that the universal language to be some time 

 adopted will express all verbal relations by separate words, and not 

 by root-inflection. The student will then need only to memorize 

 words, and he will not require to know any thing of case-endings 

 and other grammatical subtleties. On the other hand, if these 

 matters are considered essentials of a language, the inflective 

 scheme of Volapiik could hardly be improved on. For example : 

 all plurals end in s; final -a denotes the possessive case, final -i? 

 the dative, and final -i the objective ; masculine genders end in om, 

 and feminine inyV (pronounced ' she') ; adjective terminations are 

 ik and id, adverbial o and na, degrees of comparison being /</« un, 

 and iimo iiJio ; active and passive verbs have their appropriate 

 signs, as have also all persons, tenses, and moods ; prepositions 

 end in ii, interjections in o, etc. The grammatical particulars to be 

 attended to are very numerous, but the rules have the advantage of 

 being absolute, and unburdened with exceptions. The inflective 

 feature of the language must, however, present an unsurmountable 

 obstacle to its popular employment. 



We cannot think that Volapiik solves the problem of a universal 

 language. The system will naturally meet with the largest accept- 

 ance in countries which already possess an inflected language ; for 

 the manifest superiority of the VolapUk inflections, in regularity and 

 simplicity, cannot but impress those accustomed to the complexi- 

 ties and anomalies of inflection. Speakers of English are happily 

 free from this source of difficulty, and to them Volapiik cannot be 

 acceptable. The English language is itself reaching out towards 

 universality, under the influence of commercial and social necessi- 

 ties. The present form of the language may be considered as 

 classical, and must be allowed to remain substantially what it is. 

 But English is undoubtedly susceptible of modifying simplifications 

 which would easily and perfectly fit it for international use. Let a 

 committee be appointed, consisting of one British and one Ameri- 

 can member, to investigate the subject, and suggest such changes 

 as would remove anomalies, and I feel convinced that they would 

 readily create a new and simple tongue in the form of what may 

 be called ' world English.' This seems to be the most hopeful 

 direction in which to look for universal language. 



Alex. Melville Bell. 



THE PEOPLES OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE. 



At the present time, when the idea of ' nationality ' rules the fates 

 of Europe, those states have to pass through the severest struggles 

 which have the most heterogeneous population, the parts of which 

 gravitate to different centres. This is particularly the case in Aus- 

 tria, and was the case in .Turkey. The latter, however, has disin- 

 tegrated to such an extent that many of the peoples formerly in- 

 cluded in its territory have gained their independence. 



The accompanying map shows the distribution of the peoples 

 and the boundaries of the states of south-eastern Europe. At the 

 present time, when the struggles of the Bulgarians for independence 

 and unity excite so much interest, a description of their distribu- 

 tion is of particular importance. The map shows that they in- 

 habit the greater part of Bulgaria, while in the eastern part Turks 

 are intermingled with them. Eastern Roumelia, which by the up- 

 rise of 1886 joined Bulgaria, has a Bulgarian population in its west- 

 ern half, while numerous Turks inhabit the east, and Greeks occupy 

 the coast. But the territory of the Bulgarians is not confined to 

 these two districts, which practically form one state. The south- 

 eastern portion of Servia and ancient Macedonia is inhabited by 

 them, and their territory extends northward to Ochrida. Their 

 western neighbors are the Servians, of whom the Croatians and 

 Slovenians form a branch. The map shgws that they occupy the 



