ESPERANTO BULLETIN StiHscKiPTiOH Tkn Cfnts a Yf\r Five to Onk Address 25 Cents Ten, Yearly One Address, S.50 100, Y'early One Address, $,1.50 Fstr.l PostaeViil Cllic'aiJo sad Canada. 12 cents e'-r year lor 1 to 20 conies. Foreign postage. 12 cents per year for 1 to 10 copies Entered as second-elass matter October gntl), 1008, at the post oilier at Chirac". Illinois, under the Aft of March ii, 1370. Monthly American Esperantist Co., 235 East Fortieth St., Chicago May 1909 Volume 1 Number g THE ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE IIEIUTERT St. SCOTT. Editor's Note.—The following article by Mr. Herbert M. Scott, Councilor for the Ohio Division, Esperanto Association of North America, is released for general publication on and after May 9th. Esperantists should present it to their local editors as early as possible, with an urgent request for republication in Sunday editions, May Kith. Extra copies are available on the usual conditions. Credit to the Bulletin on such re- publication is not demanded. In view of the growing popularity of the interna tional auxiliary language, Esperanto, despiteithey'aea- demie distrust expressed by certain personsifin high intellectual places, it might be well for us to enter somewhat into the nature of artificial language in general, and thus clear up certain prejudices we may have entertained on the subject. Candidates for tbe role of international language fall into three categories: (1) the national tongues iiL*Jise at the present day, (2) the dead languages, (8) an artificial language. In the Century we find an article from the pen of Brander Matthews, "English as a World-Language,"' which very justly estimates the chances of a national u.ngiie becoming universal. He says that falter the fall of Latin) French became quite generally used as a second language of the educated. This tins owing to n century's precedence of the French people. When the Hermans and Anglo-Saxons came to the front, their language came with them, and French no longer has a lien on the role of international language. Tn other words, as the writer says, "The spread of a (national) language and its general acceptance depend . . . very largely upon the qualities of the race that lias it for a mother-tongue, and upon the commanding position this race holds in the struggle for economic mastery." The chances of English are held to be greater than that of any other tongue at the present day, because it is expected that the Anglo-Saxon race will "swallow the earth." Till that remote and highly problematic date, then, the writer feels there can ho no international lan- guage. Tt is needless to take time to discuss the feasibility of the resurrection of Latin, or any other of the dead languages. No practical person can deny for a moment that their day is done. The only definite solution of the pressing problem of international speech, then, devolves upon the arti- ficial language. Tf "the futility of any artificial tongue is (so very) evident," as Mr. Brandon Matthews seems to think, we must give up the whole ad'air as an "idle dream of an idle day." . *ow in all candor be it asked, what is there so pre- pok >rous about an artificial language in general? Rea- soi has been enthroned in a thousand lesser fields of human activity".—how long shall language, the founda- tion of all civilization, he left to the blind growth of nature? The materials were at hand. The Aryan races rule the world: the languages of the Aryan races come from one primal source—from a single parent language. The artificial international language merely aims to elimin- ate divergencies and get back as closely as possible to the spirit of mother Aryan—to the heart of Aryan civ- ilisation. The wonder is not that Esperanto is abroad tndnv. hut that it was not thought of earlier. But the simplest things arc generally the longest arrived at. and it takes devoted genius to evolve them. Let us examine now, in further detail, how this lias been accomplished. The nearest approach to a lingua franca was Latin. Latin would be the natural basis of the artificial inter- national language. And Latin is the basis of Esper- anto-—not, indeed, in difficulty and in inadequacy to modern needs, hut for root ideas and root grammatical principles. But if Latin was international,' Esperanto is in- comparable more so, for its first principle is interna tionality". The first clause of Dr. Zamenhof's Fifteenth Rule reads: "The so-called foreign words, i. e., those which the majority of languages have adopted from one and the same source, are used in Esperanto without change, merely conforming to the orthography of that language." And it is surprising how many words are 'international. It is said that of the words in Esper- anto, the Frenchman recognizes 80 per cent, the Dutch- man 70 per cent, the Italian 60 per cent, the Spaniard 42 per cent, the German 40 per cent, and the Slav at least 20 per cent. Most technical terms are inlcni.i- tional, and the growing number» of international -ici tific assoeiations and congresses, insure us the! i!w proportion of international technical terms will lie m - ereasingly greater. On failure to find an international word, Dr. Zauan hof fell back first on approximation. He either look words common to two or more chief European l.r: gunge», or he adopted words that belong to a sin-.:1'' language, hut are nlo popularly used among the, nt r languages; or else, where the given idea was expressed differently in every language, he strove to find a word which, perhaps, bore a merely approximate meaning, or had a quite infrequent use, yet would he more or less easily recognized by every educated person. To illus- trate the first class of words just mentioned, take the root "fenestr," window, which is common to French and German, and "nokt," night, which is common to Span- ish and Latin. Examples of the second class of words may he found in our so-called unnaturalized foreign words, such as eclat, depot, corral, saner-kraut, con- fetti, etc. Apropos of the third class, take the Latin root "proxim." This root is common property of the European languages. In Latin it meant "next." It has in the various modern tongues divergent meanings and more or less frequent use. So the Esperanto word "proksima," near, is more or less intelligible to all European nations, although the common word for "near" differs in all European languages. When the more direct methods failed. Dr. Zamenhof drew ordinarily; from the Latin. Most, botanical, zo- ological, and geological names are Latin. As stated previously, fundamental words are largely Latin, whether they be prepositions, eonjunctions. primary adverbs, or such common terms as "father," "hand," "house." etc. Occasionally it was impracticable to draw from Latin: there were homonyms to he avoided, the orthography to be simplified, or, perhaps, some adjunct of modern life had no Latin name at- all, because not extant in the age when Latin flourished. Tn such cases there was need to adopt words from other languages. The above scientific processes, with other lesser ones, were followed word by word, till, in the course of years, the fundamental vocabulary of the language was built up. Tn illustration of the painstaking manner in which words received adoption, take a single example, the word "inko," ink. The idea "ink" has a more interna- tional representative in the root "tint," which is com- mon to Spanish and German. But Esperanto most ESPERANTO BULLETIN May ig«g carefully avoids homonyms: the root "tint" means, in Esperanto, "to jingle," hence the word for ink must be something else. One could not appeal to Latin, since it has no word for ink as we understand it today. The only alternative was to adopt a national word. The French word, "encre," could not be used, for its sound would conflict with the Esperanto for anchor "ankro." Choice thus practically narrowed down to the English word for ink, which it accordingly adopted. With fundamental words chosen with such care, and the principles of scientific selection laid down, the future enrichment of the language has been and will be a comparatively easy matter, in fact, will follow in es- sentially the same lines as in the case of the national languages. Practically the only "hand-made" work about Es- peranto is its grammatical structure and system of word-building. The effort lias here been to reduce things to the utmost possible simplicity. It is said that the tendency of modern European languages is away from inflection. From the fact that Esperanto has an ac- cusative case and agreement of adjectives, it might seem at first glance that it were a somewhat highly in- flected tongue. We reply that Esperanto is "not an inflected tongue at all, but an agglutinative one. Every element in it (the grammatical endings are accounted independent words) is absolutely invariable. But any word in it may be joined with any other word, or series of words, provided the sense is unmistakable. We have, then, all the flexibility of the inflectional languages, to- gether with a clarity, simplicity, and potential per- fection that appartain only to a model agglutinative tongue. From this theoretical consideration of the artificial language we can easily see that Esperanto is the most natural thing in the world at the present day. There can he no objection to it whatever in principle. Now as the artificial language is the only solution to world-speech in sight, let us examine a few demurs that have just been lodged against Esperanto on the practical side, and determine whether there is any room for them. We refer in particular to the article of Mr. Brander Matthews already quoted above. In the first place, Mr. Matthews easts doubt on the liability of any formal decision of a "delegation" or academy being able to decide the question and bringing the international language into general use. He con- tends that people in general will never learn a language for its own sake. We heartily agree with him thus far. The formal choice of the Delegation for the Choice of an International Language has had no hearing what- ever on the Esperanto propaganda: since this choice was rendered but recently, and Esperanto has bean a practical thing for twenty years. It is quite true, peo- ple will not learn a language for its own sake. Es- peranto does not compete with any language as a lanpuaac. It simply steps into a place no other lan- guage can fill. Mr. Matthews states that a language, without a literature of its own is sadly handicapped, and says that, people will naturally write in their mother-tongue, poetry in particular. Now it seems to us that the writer's whole argument is weakened by an undue stress on but one eompnritively minor function of a second language. Of course, Mr. Matthews is wrong when lie says Esperanto has no literature: more than fifty periodicals published all over the world, thousands (if works, both original, and excellent translations from Homer, Vergil, Shakespeare. Goethe. Schiller. Moliero, Bunyau, the Grim Brothers, the Bible, etc. But the. urgent demand for an international language is in the practical fields of travel, diplomacy, corre- spondence, science, commerce, and world congresses, and in every field (but diplomacy), Esperanto has long since proved its practical worth, and stands unrivalled! Mr. Matthews does not touch on these ail-important phases of international life. One last fallacy of Mr. Matthews' argument we must point out. He sets it down as a historical principle, that language does not extend its ground on its own merits, but by virtue of the "nationality" that hacks them. This is unquestionably true with regard to na- tional tongues, which spread abroad through the mili- tary prowess or commercial ability of the respective peoples which speak them. But "nationality" is the last tiling we want back of a neutral language. A neutral language belongs to no race in particular, hence has no rivals, and its inarch is unhampered—save through temporary ignorance and prejudice, which de- feats its own end. Where there is "nationality" back of a language aiming at world use, there will he op- position on the part of every other "nationality," and there can be no success. "Nationality" is the very thing the international language must be 'without. The arti- ficial language alone is neutral, and hence the wise of all lands will hail it as the sole satisfactory solution of the question of an international language. Mr. Matthews may deny that an artificial language is feasible. And yet whether he may realize it or not, it already is. He may say it is impossible. But it already exists. Merely look at the facts. At least a million people are using it today for every function an international language could be called upon to perform. There are nearly a thousand organized societies in the world today. There are more than fifty .journals pub- lished in Esperanto, including commercial, literary, scientific, pacifistic, social, and religious. The London Chamber of Commerce holds regularly examinations in the languages. It tins been officially approved by the World Peace Congress, the Good Templars, the United Societies of Christian Endeavor, the Bed Cross, the Pan American Scientific Congress. Four world congresses have now been held in the language, with ail nations represented therein, all business being conducted with perfect facility. One can today go from one end of Europe to the other, speaking no language but Esperan- to. What is more, owing to the structure of the lan- guage, its essentia] vocabulary may be compressed into a penny key, which alone may he used for communication with a person absolutely ignorant of the language. Thus practice refutes what in its very theory is a fallacy. In considering artificial language, we must rid ourselves of all ancient prejudices, and regard it simply as a necessary step in the onward progress of the race. The artificial language has come, just as development after development of incomparably less moment. We may, by our personal attitude, hasten its progress, or we may fail to hasten it; but the artificial language will be the international auxiliary language of future generations. WOULD PROGRESS OF ESPERANTO. An Esperanto exhibit will he a feature of the Alaska- Ynkon-Bacilic Exposition at Seattle this summer. The World Association of Esperantist Phvsicians has issued a year-book of OS pages reporting the work of the Association and containing a directory of tin: mem- bers. Just now the medical profession seems to be lead- ing all others in the practical use of Esperanto. The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, which is rend each month by 50,000 English-speaking physi- cians, is now publishing lessons in Esperanto to facili- tate-communication with physicians of other languages. The Fifth International Congress of Espernntists will meet at Barcelona, in Spain, September 5 to 11, 1000. Practically every nation of the. world will be represented in this congress. The Second Esperanto Congress of North America will meet at Chautauqua, New York. August 0 to 14. A few prominent Esporantists from Europe will attend and it is hoped to secure the international congress for America in 1010. The government of Brazil awarded the. recent Esper- anto congress in that country a special franking priv- ilege for their mail. A special train carried the Espor- antists of Rio de Janeiro to the convention at San Paulo. Three small European nations—Roumania, Bulgaria, and Servia—will hold an Esperanto convention in ESPERANTO BULLETIN May igog Bucharest this summer. Jerusalem has two Esperanto societies. There are three Esperanto journals in Spain, and forty-six classes are being taught in Barcelona, where the world congress is to be held in September. The German Esperanto Society doubled its member- ship during the last year. In Saxony alone there are 3,000 Esperantists. Even Portugal now has an Esperanto periodical. The commercial society of Warsaw has formed an Esperanto section. There are over two thousand Esperantists in the city of Paris, and 213 societies in France. Esperanto has six "accented" or supersigned ietters. Some have objected to them, others have called them the "beautiful supersigns." LTntil two or three years ago the type was difficult to procure. It is now made by all leading founders, one in Paris publishing a catalogue of 89 sizes and faces of Esperanto typo. The Austrian Esperantists are urging on the minis- try of government railways to print time-tables in Esperanto and to require all train officials who come in contact with foreign people to learn the language. The Esperanto society of Bologna, Italy, is conducting much foreign correspondence for the international ex- position soon to be held in that city. SYNOPSIS OF ESPERANTO GRAMMAR EXHIBIT YOUR CORRESPONDENCE. Every Esperantist who receives a sufficient amount of foreign correspondence in the language should make a public exhibition of it. It is still sufficiently a novelty to make a welcome adjunct or special attraction for the show-window of many high-class stores. Exhibitions carefully labelled, framed and hung in hotel, hank or post office are not only a good advertisement in them- selves hut freely call for a paragraph in the local paper, like the following from the Idaho Springs (Colorado) Mining Garotte,: "Mr. James Underbill has on exhibition in his wind- ow a fine collection of post cards representing his cor- respondence in Esperanto, the new universal language. The collection fills three windows and bears post marks of all the principal countries of Europe, Africa and South America, and forms an exhibition of unusual interest in relation to the wide spread interest which the study of the language has excited. Mr. Underbill is one of the leaders of the movement and is in regular con sulfation with the leaders in all sections. A class has been working in Idaho Springs for several months and has attained considerable proficiency and they desire that others may take up the work so that a sufficient company may he had to lend interest. The future suc- cess of the language in scientific and commercial work seems assured." CONSTANT AND RAPID GROWTH. Esperanto is probably making more rapid, firm and healthy growth at present than at any previous per- iod. Although six other periodicals have appeared in the last year In America alone. Amcrika Esperantista still inereasps in circulation and influence. L. M. Fisher, superintendent of the mailing department of this pub- lication, says: "We installed a new automatic address- ing maching in February, with enniurh auxiliary equip- ment to cover, as we thought, all increases of circula- tion for at least six months. It is now evident that we must provide further equipment by "May 1st." STREET CAR ADVERTISING. Esperanto meetings have become so important a fea tore in Pittsburgh that the street car companies permit the display of advertising bulletins on the front of the cars. Thus at one leap Esperanto rises to the commercial dignity of hall games and amusement parks! not THE ALPHABET con- sists of twenty-eight letters: abcĉdefgĝhĥijĵkl mnoprsŝtuŭvz. The sounds are as follows: a is like a in father. c is like ts in hal.s-. ĉ is like ch in church. e is like a in fate, but so long. g is like g in^et. ĝ is like,,»- intern. ĥ is like ch in loch. i is like ce in see. j is like y in yet, boy. ĵ is like z in seizure. o is like o in roll. s is like A- in so. Ŝ is like sh in show. u is like oo in soon. ŭ is like zu in horo. z is like z in zone, seize. r is slightly rolled or trilled. The remaining letters are pronounced exactly as in English: bdfhklmnp t v. PRONUNCIATION Every word is pronounced exactly as spelled, and no letter is ever silent. The Accent, stress or em- phasis is placed on the syl- lable next to the last: BA-lo; ne-HE-la; di-li-GEN-ta. Every vowel (a, e, i, o, u) adds a syllable: zo-o-lo-gi-o; tre-eg-e. GRAMMATICAL SIGNS 0 the sign of the noun . . amo=love A sign of the adjective . avaa=atfectionate E adverb ...... ame-—affectionately 1 verb infinitive .... skribi=fo write AS verb present indicative skribas=:zo>-zV<:.9 IS verb piist.....skribis=toro*!ff OS verb future .... skribos=r«7/ write U verb imperative . . . skribu==zcrz7e US verb conditional . . s\tfdous=might -write ANT participle, present act. skribanta=zo»vVz're,!g INT participle past active skribinta=Aaz'/«,r>- written ONT participle future active skribonta--«A««r: to write AT participle preseut passive skribata==fv/«,g -written IT participle past passive skribita=6ce» written OT participle future passive skribota=«Oo«/' to be. written J, final, indicates plural in nouns and adjectives N, objective case PREFIXES Esperanto is equipped with a system of prefixes and suffixes, giving a wide range of expression to a very small vocabulary. Tak- ing a root for the central thought, these are used to express trie variations of the central idea. In Exercise 42, American Esperanto Book, there are shown 53 words thus formed from one root. The only limit to such combinations is clearness. BO relationship by marriage; bopatro=father-in-law ĈEF chief or principal; ĉefkuiristo==Amaf cook DE means from ; depreni~-7o take from DIS dismemberment or separation; disŝiri=zo tear- apart EK to begin suddenly; ekkrii—A; cry out EKS same as English ex; eksyreziuzoTAo—ex-p?-esident EL out; ellabori==/o -work out; elpensi=zo think out FOR away ; foriri=7« go trway GE both sexes ; gepatroj==A,«v«/.s MAL the direct opposite; bona—good; ttialbona=6an? NE not, neutral; nebela=//o7 beautiful, plain RE to repeat or reverse; tehi—to go back; rediri=rc/>z-ai! SEN without, -less ; sonhura.--—bald SUFFIXES AD continued action ; kanto=« song ; kantado=xz«,.gz«.y- Aĵ the concrete ; bela=a -id if id; bela}o=a beautiful thing AR collection or group ; vortaro=« dictionary ĈJ diminutive for masculine names; Vilĉjo= Willie AN inhabitant, partisan ; kristano=a Christian EBL possibility; vidi=/o see; videbla=z'isible EC abstract quality; tela.—-beautiful; beleco=beauty EG increased degree or size; grandega—immense EJ place of action; lerni=7o learn; leme)0—school EM tendency, inclination; laborema= industrious ER a unit of a collection ; mono—money; monero—« coin ESTR a leader or head ; urbo—city; urbestro=mayor ET diminution of size or degree; vireto= a tiny man ID offspring; kato -a cat, katido—a kitten IG to cause to become; Tite.~rich; riĉigk to enrich Iĝ to become; riĉiĝi---to "get rich" IL tool, means, instrument; kudri=.s-czo,- kudrilo=a needle IN the feminine; hato—/»-ot/ter; fratino—--sister IND denotes worthiness; kredinda==zcw7/n' of belief ING holder for single article ; cigaiingo—cigar-holder 1ST a person occupied with ; kantisto= a singer NJ diminutive for feminine names; -pan)o=mamma UJ that which contains; kremujo=« cream pitcher UL one having the quality of; grandulo=« large person ESPERANTO BULLETIN May jg0g Text-Book and Magazine THE AMERICAN ESPERANTO BOOK Is probably the best-known of more than twenty English text- books of Esperanto. Prepared especially for home study, it is also used by many clubs and classes. Contains grammar, lessons, exercises and large vocabularies. Cloth, 320 pages, $1.00. A copy in paper cover free with subscription to the magazine, Cloth-bound copy, with magazine a year, $1.50. AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO Is a monthly magazine in Es- peranto and English, devoted to news and propaganda of the Esperanto movement, with a department of help and criti- cisms, literature, etc. Organ of the Esperanto Association of North America. Per year, one dollar, with free premium copy of American Esperanto Book. One year, with book in cloth binding, $1.50. THE AMERICAN ESPERANTIST Publishers and Importers of Esperanto Books COMPANY CHICAGO 235 E. Fortieth St. ESPERANTO AND MEDICINE. In a preface to the Year-Book of the World Associa- tion of Esperanto Physicians, Dr. Zamenhof, author of the language and himself a member of the profession, says: "Medicine belongs to those sciences and professions which, more than all others, have a character purely 'human.' The doctor has before him always only a human being who needs his help, the tribe or race to which the patient belongs does not interest him. Not only foreigners, but often the direct military enemies of his nation turn with confidence to the physician, and he has no right to refuse or even to apportion his help according to any national sympathy or antipathy. "Therefore in no other class of men, ordinarily, do the purely humanitarian ideals find so many parti- sans as among the physicians. And the most funda- mental of those ideals, a reciprocal comprehension among mankind, finds always many friends among the physi- cians. "Many patients have themselves often felt how im- portant it is that medical help should know no lin guistic harriers. The removal of those barriers is the aim of the World Association of Esperantist Phy- sicians. (Tutmonda Esperanto, Kuracista A socio). The Association will bring great help to the medical science, to doctors and to patients." INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE. An incalculable amount of international correspond- ence on all sorts of subjects is carried on in Esperanto. Amerika Espera.ntisto, official organ of the Esperanto Association of North America, publishes each month a list of addresses of Europeans and others who wish to exchange letters and post cards. Esperantists who live in foreign countries sav that they are overwhelmed with correspondence from America when their addresses have appeared in this magazine. One Japanese student wrote that it cost him fifty yen for stamps along to reply to mail received. Only one foreign Esperantist has yet been discovered who could "get away" with such a mass of American letters and cards. Prof. Louis Sepulvedn Cuadra, Casilla 1670. Santiago. Chile. has never yet flown the signal of distress. He has probably answered over 20,000 communications in Es- peranto. PHILATELIC ESPERANTO. Mr. Julian Park, of Williamstown, Mass., is the pub- lisher of a journal in Esperanto and English, "Phila- telic Esperanto," devoted to the interests of collectors of stamps, illustrated cards, etc. This little journal possesses a real literary value and is doing a good work for Esperanto in its particular field. Subscriptions are not accepted, it being published for free distribution among the members of the "Esperantistaj Kolektantoj de la Mondo," of which organization it is the official organ. This organization which was founded in July', 1905, has as its objects the propaganda of Esperanto among collectors and furtherance of their interests by means of the international language. Thanks to the energy and devotion of Mr. Park, it has acquired a large membership, many countries being represented. Negotiations are now in progress for the adoption of "Tra la Eilatelio," a collectors' journal published en- tirely in Esperanto, as the official organ, and it is ex- pected that this step will add greatly to the strength and prestige of the society. The chief features of Philatelic Esperanto are the literary contributions of Mr. Park, in prose anu verse, some of which have had the honor of being copied and highly praised in other journals. These prove that Mr. Park is a writer of ability. One of the results of the work of this association is the formation of a large class in Esperanto among the members of the Chicago Philatelic Society. The "Col- lectors' Journal," one of the leading publications of this country devoted to collecting, publishes a regular Esperanto department and is doing much to interest collectors in "la afero." "Mekeel's AVeekly Stamp News," a prominent collectors' weekly, was one of the first publications in America to give publicity to Esper- anto, giving space to a series of articles by Mr. R. H. Geoghegan, the pioneer of Esperanto in England and this country. Esperanto offers more real and immediate advantages to collectors than to perhaps any other class, and as a rule they are quick to recognize this. The active propa- ganda now carried on in their ranks is doing good work for Esperanto. Mi'. Park's work among collectors is of great value to the Esperanto movement and is worthy of encourage- ment by Esperantists.