286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



represented by th in with, and the surd represented by the same digraph 

 in pith. The accentuation is irregular and perplexing, while the orthog- 

 raphy is hopeless. A half-dozen sounds may be represented by one 

 letter or combination of letters, or one sound may be represented by as 

 many varying signs. 2 



There are irregular verbs, about 175 in number, numerous irregular 

 and defective plurals, and a want of clearness due to the fact that nouns, 

 particles, adjectives, adverbs and verbs may have the same form, and 

 that different tenses of the verb may be identical in form, whether 

 or not identical in sound. There is also a more or less stereotyped and 

 yet elusive word-order. 



Any and all of the national languages are then out of the question, 

 first because none can yet secure adoption even if it were suitable, and 

 second, because none is suitable. To be capable of truly international 

 use a language must be possible of complete acquirement by all, 

 whether linguistically gifted or not, and must be possible of such ac- 

 quirement in such short space of time as can be devoted to this by the 

 majority of the busy citizens of the world. Its acquirement must be 

 an incidental preparation for one's profession or business, not an end 

 in itself, or a matter of higher culture for the few. 



Hence the thought of modifying some one of these languages, or 

 combining them, or in some way forming a neutral language, objection- 

 able to none on political or sentimental grounds, easily mastered by all, 

 and therefore recognized by all nations and races as the accepted 

 medium for international communication. That it must appeal to all 

 sufficiently to be thus accepted is an important item, for, as has been 

 previously intimated, nothing of this kind can be forced into use. It 

 must be such a language that every intelligent citizen of each nation 

 can and will learn it, as the first language to be mastered after his 

 mother-tongue, to be able to read it, speak it and write it, in his capacity 

 as a citizen of the world, and as an intelligent citizen of his own nation. 



Since the days of Descartes this dream has haunted one and 

 another, and plans for such a tongue have been proposed, necessarily 

 crude at first, gaining in value as time went on, and as each author of 

 such a plan profited by the faults in the projects of his predecessors. 

 The earliest attempts were to create a language of philosophical or a 

 priori nature, in which words are reduced to mere formula?, a certain 

 letter of the alphabet indicating the concrete, another vegetable life, 

 another animal life and so on. The idea, although wholly impracti- 

 cable, has not yet entirely disappeared, and a priori schemes are still oc- 

 casionally promulgated. One project, for example, has the following 



2 Note for example the different signs for the one consonant sound in gash, 

 fas/iion, mission, conscious, fetich, naiion, vicious, etc., the different signs for 

 the same sound in raze, raise, rays, tael, gaol, gauge, great, fete, matinee, eh, 

 eight, they; the different sounds given to ch in charm, chasm, chandelier; the 

 interchange of s and % sounds in lose, loose, azure, leisure, raze, race, erase, etc. 



