ESPERANTO, THE WONDERFUL NEW LANGUAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2110, 8 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

ESPERANTO, THE WONDERFUL NEW LANGUAGE.

REMARKA RLE PROGRESS OF INTERNATIONAL LANG TAG li.

•WILL ESPERANTO SUCCEED >N ESTABLISH INC ITSELF ASA PRACTICAL .MEANS 01- COM - MUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT RACES AND -W"\ TONGUES?

(By D. 0. S. Lowell iu ••Munsejv’.") I esteemed, it a great privilege to bo one of the fourteen hundred people who attended the Third international Esperanto Congress, last August, in Cambridge., England. 1 had heard members oi the t- irst Congress, at Boulogne-su r-.Uer, in InOS, and of the Second Congress, at Geneva, in 1906, tell of the usefulness of the new language; but at the close of the Cambridge congress, 1 was ready to exclaim, as did the Queen of Sheba on leaving King Solomon- and his glory—the half had not been told 1 During the congress 1 saw representatives of thirty-four different lands —who naturally speak twentytwo different languages and dialects • —meeting upon the bash of a common speech, and not only comprehending each other’s words, but experiencing a thrill of fellowship such as only a mutual understanding can produce. As one of the speakers put it:

if ‘‘The man from Archangel uses - the nine language as the man from Rio do Janeiro, and there is no less difference in their pronunciation,,than between mine and yours." He was a Yorkshireman, speaking .with a slight northern accent to Londonrrs. Twice during the past year I have held a public discussion with a very learne dlinguist who is a foe of .Esperanto, and each time lie averred / that the devotees o; the language m different countries will never speak to that they can understand one another. As lie graphically put the cue: “The man from Russia will be «b----solutely Run intelligible to the man froei-,Nebraska." Now, I had no faith m the argument. of my opponent, but 1 comd only deh>* it upon hearsay; so I wi iu to 'the Cambridge congress to listen for myself. Luckily the man from Russia and the man from Nebraska were both there. They understood each other, 1 understood them, and they understood me. In fact, after dining in the great hall with n:ne hundred and ninety-nine other E-spo-rantists, and chatting with those at tho right of me, those at the left of me, and others in front of me, I observed to an Englishman: “It is the veritable truth that I do not have much difficulty in talking with a foreigner who speaks Esperanto as in understanding some of your English servants;’’ and he confessed the same himself. A PRACTICAL TEST OF ESPERANTO. My memoranda show that during the congress I actually talked Kv - peranto with men and women « . only from England, Scotland, inland, Wales, and the United States, but also from France. Germany, . Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Siberia, Venezuela, Tunis. Italy, Ir.d a, and Poland —people from twenty countries, speaking _at least sixteen languages by nature; but Esperanto wa sthe leas common multiple of all. Moreover, except in two instances, I do not recall any difficulty in understanding what they said. One Russian and one Spaniard sop Ice. with careless enunciation- and extreme rapidity, and either my ear or my bra'n was laggard, so that I lost some nug-.-gets of exnression ; but on reflection I wa.s~yomfort( d with the thought that, a few days before, I had met an American woman with the same speed, and that I had had nearly as much difficulty in understanding what she said to me, though she spoke excellent Englnh. A slight knowledge of the prmciI. pies of Esperanto is enough to conwince most unprejudiced thinkers of pfpi its practical value. Every one woo has studied another language than' ..Ngw met with - difficulties .in pronunciation that are I ' j* , but needle :-.. “qi.shness is barred out of >N° letter has more tlian ' <p\ % vxC xA 50 the language spells . it is once pronounced. * always falls on tne. last / ' one, if the word lias 'vNys one syllable; so the _lu.ii- ■ Nnounces itself when it is *Rwl. There are only two j By distinguished, and the on of gender for genderless / : i aliolislied. Sixteen short iprise all the grammar, and once learned is lea rend for/p . there are no exceptions. A <; 3 the same difference be- / his language and a language 7 5 come into being “naturally .ere is between' the ‘treets «.r old Prague, or lower New fnd -the- streets of upper New new Paris, and Washington. «j. w - first follow original cow-pa Us,a. or are laid out by accident; the last conform to system and rule, the first are like trees that soring up by chance in a forest, racked, by ic winds, bent by rude circumstances, gnarled, • twisted, and unarranged ; . .the last are like trees m a landscape pruned, protected, and artanged \\i-h on ■ ovp, to both' use and beauty. an INTRODUCTION TO OTHER V TONGUES. ► rl heard an accomplished linguist, ; ’ director of public education, sav at the congress —speaking m Espci . an to—that this licw international language is the most natural mtroiniion to other languages; that n he were permitted to do so by the ; saaHl! g. sstrS.rT f.Sit »«ii?» +lie United States I should make a r le that for -the next- twenty years S child should . study any language • v.ol«h in the nublic .school* Thf Uo had (first studied Esperanto. II .a student of other langpag . ‘. ntru"<de with declensions, ponjuga iionsT exceptions, and Jrregn e Of the first two in Esperanto, t ■ iiro a single declension of two cases, «nd -a single conjugation «'* , angs; of the last two there are none. ii-V WHAT TOLSTOY SA\m 01 ESPERANTOHere is Tolstoy’s opinion of Jtspe- • Ta “lt'is easily acquired that, having received an Esperanto grammar, . rocalbulary, and some Esperanto literature, after not more fc> ia ’ Lours’ study I found myself nM , « not to write tho language, at * to read it readily. The sacrifice ' - everv man of the European ' would make in devoting .w time •to the learning of this would be so lnsigmficent, and Hit it suits, if all Europeans and Atnencans would take it up. would be to V eat, that one cannot but make the * r Of course, the student cannot cxpoet to become Huent m Espci an working •upon it tor r c - > +l P ,| lo l[ -• T&hk. He, can easily master its short jaiid simple in that tmu , but ho will Ntill have to a dictionary foi-Vthe "°U r n ’,, ic,u : THE HISTORY OF JHE NEW LANGUAGE. „ Tho world first-- heard of LspeTanto Just twenty\yoars ago. Dr L. L. ZamenhoL a physician in Warsaw, published \ book mulnnng its princioles. Though he nas the tpiito a young mart not yet tliirtj, lio had spent <?r moie in

perfecting his new language. A Vrenclnnan. the Mlarquus <le -Beaufront, had been at work simultaneouslv upon a project ot tho same sort, and was almost ready to make lbs invention public when the l olisli doctor’s book fell into bis bands. Struck with its merits, the marnuis dropped his own scheme to become the chief agent in promoting Esperanto. This created two centers for the spread of Hie new language —iu France ami iu Poland: ami from these it made its way, slowly at first, and rapidly later on, over the continent of Europe. Twenty nations were represented in tho convention that met at lioulogue-sur-.Mer in 1 <10A; and the second gathering of Espernnfists, held at Geneva in the following year, was still larger and more successful. At last summer's remarkable congress iu the old English university town more than four hundred ol the names enrolled were those of .(‘ranchmen; the other members came literally from Siberia and M eiiezuela. Calcutta and Chicago, Iceland and Uruguay, and all the lands hetweeen. At the business meetings held each morning in the crowded hall, there wore more speakers petitioning to ho heard than could possibly find place. They spoke for the most part impromptu, rapidly, earnestly, . and even eloquently; and the audience was one of the most responsive I ever taw. The latest official statement (June 30, 1907) reports six hundred and fhirty-nine Esperanto societies—five hundred and forty-two iu Europe, fifty-two in North America, and the rest scattered all over the globe. The number had more than doubled since January, 190(5, when only three hundred and six societies wore in existence. Thirteen monthly journals are now issued wholly in Esperanto, while twenty-four others are printed partly in Esperanto -and partly in tho language' of their respective countries. TwcT of these are published in the United States—the American Esperanto Journal, of Boston;, and Amerika Esperantisto, of Chicago. Since *1902 eleven national or international congresses have pronounced in favor of Esperanto, including the United Societies of Christian Endeavor at Geneva in 1900. Twenty-six non-commercial societies are already conducting an Esperanto coiiespondetice in foreign lands. More than one-half of these are working directly in the interests of universal peace, looking hopefully towards the tune when —

Xo longer from i. 3 brazen portals The blurt, of war’s great organ slihkee the skies)" But beautiful as songs of tlie immortals, ■ The holy melodies of love shall rise.'