MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE TO OFFER COURSE IN ESPERANTO^ WHILE E.L.N.A. CONGRESS MEETS THERE A graduate level, 3-credit course in Esperanto will be given at the North Adams (Mass.) State College July 7 to 25. During part of this time, the annual Congress of the Esperanto League for North America will also be in session at the college. Duncan Charters of the Indiana University language faculty will be in charge, using the Modern Esperanto course materials he has developed. Three sorts of students will profit from the course: 1) Teachers who have had no previous experience with Esperanto; 2) Esperanto teachers interested in new methods of instruction; 3) Students of Esperanto who want to improve their oral comprehension, speaking, reading and writing ability. For a more complete description of the course and for details on books, fees, etc., see Page 6 and the inquiry blank on Page 7. Posters are available to advertise the course. Details of E.L.N.A. Congress fees and housing costs for July 17-20 have yet to be settled with the college authorities, but information on these items and on transportation will be sent E.L.N.A. members as soon as possible. The Local Congress Committee, according to its chairman, Allan Boschen of Pittsfield, is hopeful that the combination of the scenic Berkshire country, the proximity to the Tanglewood music center and the presence of the college course group will result in a large attendance at the Congress. -o- PEI-PAC-ELNA PAMPHLET OUT IN MAY "Wanted: A World Language," a pamphlet written by Dr. Mario Pei and pub- lished by the Public Affairs Committee, will be ready for distribution in April or May. E.L.N.A. has underwritten the pamphlet by buying 25,000 copies. Dr. Pei, author of many books on language, is professor of Romance Phil- ology at Columbia University. P.A.C. is outstanding in the pamphlet publish- ing field, having issued over 47 million copies. The pamphlet admirably serves its purpose - to explain the need for a com- mon language for world communication to people who seldom experience such a need personally, living in America's vast continental area where one language pre- dominates. Describing the great increase in travel and correspondence on the part of business men, scientists and technicians, government representatives and stu- dents, agricultural and industrial workers, Dr. Pei says, "An international language for world-wide use. . . is no longer a luxury or an academic ideal. It is a necessity that becomes more imperative day by day." -2- KL 2/69 The real difficulty is which language should be chosen for international use. Dr. Pei points out the objections to the adoption of existing languages - apart from difficulties in learning them - both on the part of nations whose language was not chosen and on the part of nations using the chosen lan- guage who would have to relearn a standardized version. Four qualities make a constructed language superior to natural ones: Neu- trality, standardization, phonetization, and simplicity of grammatical struc- ture and word formation. "Esperanto combines these qualities to a superior degree," Dr. Pei asserts. "The outstanding advantage of Esperanto . . . lies in the fact that it has been tested and tried, in both spoken and written form, and found to work to a highly satisfactory extent for all sorts of people, not merely language scholars; and that it alone boasts of ... a true speaking population." The last quarter of the 28-page pamphlet is devoted to the structure of Esperanto. The entire manuscript was carefully read by half a dozen Esper- anto experts; both author and publisher were receptive to their ideas. All in all, E.L.N.A. will now have in "Wanted: A World Language" a well written and attractively printed pamphlet that has long been needed for distribution to the general public, to civic groups, schools, libraries, and bookshops, and for background material in Esperanto classes. Its modest price of 25 cents makes it an easy seller. P.A.C. (Public Affairs Committee) has a dis- tribution list of 10,000 paid subscribers, most of whom would not be reached by Esperanto agencies. "Many people deserve credit for making this pamphlet possible," said Mark Starr, who first brought the idea to Dr. pei and P.A.C. "Thanks are due first of all to our anonymous 'angel' who, though not an Esperantist, put up an ini- tial $1000 for the project; then to the 25 E.L.N.A. leaders and members who quickly and generously contributed the remaining $1750 while the venture was still in the realm of 'things hoped for*; and to the manuscript readers whose acute and sometimes conflicting observations made this the best-read manu- script in P.A.C. history. Now it is up to all our membership to see that the pamphlet gets the widest possible readership." -o- TOO GOOD A CHANCE TO MISS The administration of the State College at North Adams, Mass., has been persuaded by Allan Boschen to offer an Esperanto course on a graduate credit level in its summer curriculum. It now behooves Esperanto groups and indi- viduals to spread the news of this opportunity among teachers and students who might take advantage of it. Local groups can assist by scholarships covering all or part of the tuition and living expenses for one of their pro- mising members. A small enrolment for a course like this under Duncan Char- ters would be a tragic waste of opportunity. — M.S. -o- "U.N grows more polyglot for official business" was the Christian Science Monitor's headline on a story of the vote to add Russian and Spanish to French and English as working languages in the Security Council. The new u. S. Am- bassador to the United Nations, Charles Yost, voted for the motion. Estimates of the additional cost of the two new languages vary from $400,000 to $1 mil- lion? at one discussion a possible $2.4 million was mentioned. -3- NL 2/69 AMERICAN INVENTED UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE 140 YEARS AGO Browsing through a second-hand bookshop some years ago, Charles Chomette of Los Angeles came upon a book published in 1829 entitled "A Universal Lan- guage, " by James Ruggles, printed in Cincinnati. At least one other copy is in existence, in the New York Public Library. Antedating Esperanto by some 60 years, the 175-page book sets forth Ruggles' version of a language "founded on philosophical and analogical principles, having claims - founded on the clear- ness of its combinations, the simplicity of its construction, the uniformity and invariableness of its rules, and especially the facility and speed with which it can be acquired - of being universally adopted by the civilized world." Despite the author's laudable ambition, the grammar is very complicated compared to Zamenhof's Esperanto. The extremely agglutinative character of the language is indicated by a word like "gogsilspegazdxrs," meaning "regular- ities of times and seasons." For comparison, here are some of Ruggles' words and their Esperanto equivalents: Bonedsztxn! (Bonan tagoni); Honpix hip dom- stur (Mi estas in domo); Salhonpix (Mi estas sana). If anyone has a copy of this book, it might be placed in the Esperanto Archives, (see Page 5.) -o- Foreign Mail Held Up An almost total blockade of foreign surface mail, both incoming and out- going, is one of the results of the nation-wide Longshoremen's strike, which began in December. So if your copies of Esperanto journals and the new Monda LinqfroProblemo failed to appear, they are probably tied up at the docks some- where. The New York post office has been turning back third class mail ad- dressed to other countries - "Service temporarily suspended." Some surface mail has come through, perhaps because mailbags may be removed in certain cir- cumstances but not containerized shipments, or because ships are being di- verted to Canadian ports. Esperanto book services are gnashing their teeth over the non-arrival of orders from abroad. -o- LEGACY FOR ESPERANTO INSTRUCTION AT PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE A bequest of $15,000 to maintain Esperanto instruction at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pa., was included in the will of Mrs. Emma Lan- des, who died in 1950. The course, offered every other year, was taught by Prof. Frederick c. Neuman until his death in 1963 and since that time by William P. Simpson of Harrisburg, a member of E.L.N.A.'s board of directors. The college was founded in 1899 as a denominational school. Dr. Humphrey Tonkin of the University of Pennsylvania's English depart- ment, addressed 300 members of the Elizabethtown student body recently on "International Communication." He also appeared with Mr. Simpson in an inter- view on Station WKBO at Harrisburg and answered questions phoned in by listen- ers. Professor Tonkin is secretary of T.E.J.O., the international Esperanto youth organization, and on the J.E.N, board of directors. -o- A Christmas service entirely in Esperanto was conducted by the Rev. Wayne Duffield at Intersession House in St. Petersburg,Fla. -4- NL 2/69 PRINTING OF ESPERANTO DICTIONARY UNDER WAY Payments for 171 copies of Plena Ilustrita Vortaro at the pre-publication price of $19 were sent to Mark Starr of Long Island City, N.Y., who served as collector for the western hemisphere. The pre-publication offer is now closed and the regular price will be considerably higher. Typesetting of the 1580-page illustrated Esperanto dictionary was begun in November by the Blackburn Times Press which produced Butler's Esperanto- English Dictionary in England in 1967. Prof. G. Waringhien, editor-in-chief of the dictionary, which is being published by S.A.T. (Sennacia Asocio Tut- monda), went over to England from Paris in October to deliver the manuscript and professed himself entirely satisfied that the technical requirements of production would be met at Blackburn. No date has been set for the appearance of the dictionary, or at least no word has come through the general blockage of mail occasioned by the Longshore- men's nation-wide strike, but considering the immense amount of exacting proof- reading and correction such a dictionary entails, it may be too soon to set even a tentative date. Meanwhile, payments have been sent to the accredited S.A.T. agent in Eng- land, and the list of all those who paid has been sent to the S.A.T. office in Paris. (Since the collectors served without compensation or postage allowances, individual receipts could not be sent to the payees.) Henceforth, correspondence should be directed to S.A.T. at 67 Avenue de Gambetta, Paris 20, France. Any change of address should be reported to S.A.T. -o- Station KNEW, Oakland, Calif., donated radio time for 25 spot announce- ments about Esperanto, each 40 seconds ^long, during a 10-day period in Jan- uary. William Schulze of the West Coast Esperanto Information Center made the broadcasts. Commercial value of the free time was estimated at $780. -o- Ken Thompson and Ed Lacy have been leading a class for beginners in the Experimental College of the University of Houston, Tex. -o- E. Rytenberg of Upsala, Sweden, an electronics expert in the United States to interest universities in electronic equipment, looked up fellow Esperantists in the San Francisco Bay area recently. His schedule includes Denver and Boulder in Colorado, Austin and Houston in Texas, Dayton, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Nutley, N.j., and Boston. -o- U.N. staff members will have a chance to study Esperanto under Thea Kohn for 10 periods beginning March 4. Beginners will meet on Tuesday from 12 to 1:00; intermediates from 1:00 to 2:00. Mrs. Kohn will also conduct a 10-ses- sion course at E.I.C. headquarters beginning February 17.. -o- The death of Upton Sinclair in November was noted in the January issue of Esperanto, official U.E.A. journal. Sinclair was a signer of the Esperanto proposal presented at the United Nations in 1966. At least two of his books were translated into the international language - "Oil" and "Jimmie Higgins." -5- NL 2/69 ANY ARCHIVES IN YOUR ATTIC? Today's mementoes are tomorrow's history. Dig out those boxes where you put the programs, group photos and clippings from Esperanto congresses and conferences, those odd copies of pamphlets and books, those letters with fam- ous signatures. Then ask yourself whether such items don't really belong in the Esperanto archives. E.L.N.A.'s archivist, Dr. B. J. Balcar of Monterey, Calif., makes a plea for material: "Of particular interest to us, in addition to American publica- tions, are C.E.D. publications, congress books, catalogs of the Esperanto mu- seum in Vienna, letters written or signed by outstanding Esperantists, con- gress seals, official flags, songbooks, and clippings from the press." Periodicals: Copies, of the North American Esperanto Review prior to 1959 are wanted, and also state and local journals like the Texas Esperantist that flourished for a brief period in the 1930's; likewise bulletins of the U.S.I.E. No's 1 - 4, 6, 7, and 9. Books: Enciklopedio de Esperanto - Sirjaev, Kalocsay; Plena Gramatiko - Kalocsay and Waringhien; anthologies from whatever country including those published by Stafeto; and, coming down to the present, the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro and Boulton's Zamenhof. And remembering that tomorrow's history is going on right now, be sure that Dr. Balcar gets programs and clippings on current conferences, local news- letters, etc. The mailing address - E.L.N.A. Archives, c/o Dr. B. J. Balcar, 62 Via Castanada, Monterey, Calif. 93940. Ask your postmaster about special postal rates for libraries, or failing that, rates for educational material. -o- The Canadian Esperanto Congress will meet June 27-29, using the facil- ities of Brock University at St. Catherines, Ontario. U. S. visitors are warmly invited. For details write Joseph Pochmursky,, 23 Trapnell St., St. Catherines. An intensive 5-day course in the international language will preceed the Congress, taught by Duncan Charters of Indiana University and Edmund Brent of Cornell University, using the Modern Esperanto materials and techniques de- veloped by Mr. Charters. For information about the course, write to its or- ganizer, Edmund Brent, 47-J Hasbrouck Apartments, Ithaca, N.Y. 14851. -o- Book on Electroplating Published in Esperanto An Esperanto translation of a technical book, "Fundamentals of Electro- chemistry and Electrodeposition," by Samuel Glasstone has been published by Interparl of Monroeville, Pa. The 124-page book, with English-Esperanto and Esperanto-English vocabularies at the end, sells for $3.20. According to John A. McCarthy, Interparl director, the Esperanto text was checked by the head of the I.S.A.E. terminology center in Germany and a Japan- ese chemistry graduate as well as by Karl Nell of Rochester, N.Y., a pro- fessional plating chemist and long time member of E.L.N.A., and by Alberto Barrocas of Uruguay, editor of Kemio Internacia. The latter supervised the printing of the book in Montevideo. Interparl will distribute the book in North America and Kemio Internacia in the rest of the world. -6- tfL 2/69 A COURSE IN ESPERANTO North Adams State College, North Adams, Massachusetts In the Summer Program July 7-25, 1969 THREE CREDITS, GRADUATE LEVEL Instructor: Duncan Charters, M.A., Preceptor (Assistant Supervisor) in Language Instruction, Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese, Indiana University. [Bloomington, Indiana] Author, MODERN ESPERANTO course materials. The course is planned to coincide with the national convention of the ESPERANTO LEAGUE FOR NORTH AMERICA [ELNAj, July 17-20, 19Ĉ9, and students will have an opportunity to participate in the activities. Level: Material: Class work: Clajses & credits; The course is basically designed for teachers with no previous knowledge of Esperanto. It will however be suitable for Esperanto teachers who wish to gain insights into contemporary second-language teaching methodology, as well as for students of Esperanto who wish to improve their listening/comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing ability. Through the thorough presentation of the 12 instructional units of MODERN ESPERANTO, the course will present the international language in its structural unity, and will emphasize an active command of the language on the part of the students. The texts will be: (a) For all students: MODERN ESPERANTO, Parts I & II. (Course text) MODERN ESPERANTO, Workbook. (b) For teachers: MODERN ESPERANTO, Instructor's Manual Do's and Don'ts of Audio-lingual Teaching, Quilter. These materials may be ordered prior to the course from MODERN ESPERANTO, and will also be available at North Adams. Language lab practice tapes will be available for use and purchase. These may also be pre-ordered. Students should be prepared to work hard both in and out of class. Although exposure to the language will be of necessity limited [40-50 classroom hours], in some areas (e.g. knowledge of language structure, fluency in controlled comprehension (listening and reading) and speaking situations ) the student's ability to handle the language at the end of the course will approach that of a foreign language student after 14 hours of course work. Classes will probably be held from 9-12 a.m. There will be oral, lab, and written assignments. The three graduate credits will cost $25 per credit ($75) for non-residents of Massachusetts, and $11 per credit ($33) for audit. -7" NL 2/69 STOP-SIGN: Please hold orders for "Winnie-the-Pooh" pending further instructions -o- Postcards showing pictures of Esperanto stamps issued by various cities throughout the world are available from Jozefo Stanislao Bocarino, Corso Vittorio 92, Ragusa 1-9700, Sicily. These cards are big enough for display (4"x6") yet small enough to send through the U.S. mail; 27 cards for $2.50. Write in Esperanto. (But always put the name of the country in English; other- wise you run the risk of having your mail returned for a better address.) -o- Are you a postage stamp enthusiast? Send your name and address on a card to E.L.N.A. Secretary Conrad Fisher, R.F.D. 1, Meadville 16335; he is com- piling a list of Esperanto philatelists. -o- Want some Esperanto money? Coins are available from J. J. De Groot, Niasstrat 83/111, Amsterdam-0, the Netherlands; in the following denomina- tions: (The Dutch guilder is about 30 cents)-. 1 stelo (bronze, lh$) .025 G; 5 steloj (copper, 37*2$) 1-25 G. ; 10 steloj (nickel, 75