LANGUAGE OF DIPLOMACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1928, Page 6

LANGUAGE OF DIPLOMACY.

In the babel of many languages there has been need for some one which might act as a universal solvent. Artificial languages, such as Esperanto, have been developed to clear up the difficulty of intercourse between nations. But none has attained wide usage. As the official language of the Roman Empire and the Church, Latin was universally used as the medium of diplomatic communication through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But even Latin came to have its difficulties. Erasmus tells of an assembly at the court of the Emperor Maximilian where several ambassadors delivered speeches in Latin. Exeiyone present thought that each was speaking in his native tongue, so varied were pronunciations.

At first French had no importance except as a spoken language, more generally known in international assemblies than Latin. Later it came to be used in documents of particular value and in translations of treaties. In 1714 at Rastadt it was first used as the original language of a treaty, between France and the Holy Roman Empire. This was done simply to save time, and it was expressly stated that it should not be considered to set a precedent. Soon after, however, all the great international treaties were’ written in French, always with the reservation that such action was exceptional. Finally this clause was no longer inserted, and French was used without conditions or stipulations. The French language achieved this position of eminence chiefly because of the political importance which France, as a great and unified State, had attained in the seventeenth century. The glory of her conquests naturally excited the admiration of other countries for her customs and her speech. The high quality of French literature added prestige to the language. As the social language par excellence it came to be the language of the court, not only at Paris but in foreign capitals. It is interesting to note that the diffusion of French language and French culture is attributed in some degree to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Religious exiles to Holland, England and Germany took with them the language of the country they had fled. As for the traditional belief that French came to be internationally used because it is clear, precise and definite where other languages are foggy, there is little in this theory, and it was advanced after French had already gained its outstanding position. During the past century English has come more and more to be used in international relations, and bids fair now to displace French, just as French displaced Latin. Since 1900 this has been particularly true, both English and French being used in international conferences and documents, with the tendency for English to predominate. At the conferences in Paris in ]919 French and English were the official languages. English predominated in discussions because Clemenceau spoke English better than Lloyd George and Wilson spoke French. The present importance of English is attributed to the political preponderance of England and the United States, and to the wide use of the language in commerce and industry. Generally speaking, the importance of a language in foreign countries follows very closely the political eminence of the nation that speaks it.