1888.] 15 [Volapuk. 
the progress of language, linguistic evolution, means the rejection of 
all paradigms and inflections, and the specialization of the process of 
placement. 
Professor Easton maintains that this method (that of placement) 
‘introduces an element of great difficulty into the language, and also 
doubts the acceptance of the logical order stated in the Report. 
To the first of these objections the obvious answer is that the method 
of placement is that uniformly adopted in ali jargons and mixed tongues, 
which is positive proof that it is the least difficult of any method of ex- 
pressing relation. As to the logical order referred to by the Committee, 
it is surprising that any exception should be taken to it, as it is that 
stated in the common classical text-books. 
Some related minor points remain to be noticed. In opposing vocal 
inflection signs and accents, on p. 5 of the Report, the Committee re- 
ferred only to the written, not to the spoken language. The phonetic 
formation proposed is insisted upon only to the extent that no sound 
should be introduced which would be strange to the six leading Aryan 
languages. The substitution of placement for prepositions, recommended 
on page 9, was meant asillustrative merely. The particular statement 
that the Berlin dialect (of the lower class) has but one termination for 
both genitive and dative is upon the authority of Dr. and Mrs. Seler, 
of Berlin, the former a professed linguist, the latter born and raised in 
that city. The question whether in the German expression, sechs Uhr 
Abends, the word Uhr is asingular form with a plural meaning, is con- 
tradicted by Professor Seidensticker; but in view of the strictly analo- 
gous Spanish expression, las seis horas de la tarde, the Committee 
maintains its original opinion. 
Passing from these specific animadversions, there were some general 
objections which should be answered. Various speakers maintained 
that the project of an international language is impossible of realiza- 
tion ; others asserted that it was unnecessary ; others that even if real- 
ized, such a tongue could have no figurative or artistic wealth of re- 
sources. 
To these strictures it is replied that within eight years Volapiik is 
claimed to have acquired one hundred thousand students; within a 
month it has attracted attention all over the United States; within a 
week a number of German merchants have announced to their foreign 
correspondents that in future it will be used in their business communi- 
cations. If this is the case with so imperfect a language, backed by no 
State, no learned body, not even by the name of any distinguished 
scholar, what would be the progress of # tongue perfect in adaptation, 
and pipported by all these aids to its introduction? In a decade it 
would be current among ten million people. That it would be barren 
in figurative meanings, or sterile in the expression of the loftier senti- 
ments, is inconceivable, because, formed, though it would be , of de- 
liberate purpose, the inherent, ever-active, linguistic faculty of the 
