FOR THE WORLD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 19, 30 October 1942, Page 5

FOR THE WORLD

COMMON LANGUAGE NEEDED "The subject of propaganda raises the question of language and oi linguistic communication in an internalised world," said Dr. L. L. G. Sutherland in a lecture to the Workers Educational Association, Chrislcluirch, on the psychology of international relations. "Babel now exists. About, 1 000 languages are at present spoken by the 2,000,000,000 peoples in the world. Seven of these languages account for half of the total population of the world, and. in the order of their 'extent of use they are: English, Chinese, Russian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Bengali. To about one person out. of every three throughout the world English is the administrative if not the natural language. For several centuries thoughtful men have seen the need lor some form of international speech. Much more likely than the spread of peranto would seem to be the simplification of an existing language and, natural prejudice apart, English seems to> be the obvious language for this purpose. It has already become the main second language of foreigners of many nations. "There is a movement to make a simplified form of English, lcnoAvn as basic English, the international auxiliary language. The vocabulary consists of 850 words, and by the use of these, according to simple rule, everything can be said lor all the purposes.