May, 1923 Page The Wellesley College Danish-Esperanto Experiment 1 Dr. Christian A. Ruckmick Notes and News La Legendo pri la Postlasaĵo de la Maŭro E. J. Meriam 14 Dr. Louis Allen IS V X AMERICA ESPERANTISTQ OFFICIAL ORGAN o/ The Esperanto Association of North America, Inc. • propaganda organization for the furtherance of the study and use of the International Auxiliary Language, Esperanto. Yearly Memberships: Regular »1.00: Contributing »3.00: Sustaicirj »10.00: Life Member! »100. CLUB DIRECTORY This department is conducted solely for the benefit of our organized groups throughout the country. It furnishes a means of keeping in close touch with the work in other cities, for the exchange of ideas and helpful sugges- tions, and for the formation of valuable friend- ships in a united field of endeavor. BERKELEY, CALIF. Berkeleya Esperanta Rondo.—Vinton Smith, Secy., 586 Lake Park Ave., Oakland, Calif. OAKLAND, CALIF. Oakland Esperanta-Rondo.—L. D. Stockton, Secretary, 420 15th St. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. Esperanto Association of California, Inc.— Meets first Tuesday evenings, Room 121 Chronicle Bldg., San Francisco. M. D. Van Sloun, Secretary, 946 Central Ave. MONTREAL, CANADA. Montreal Esperanto Association.—Meets each Monday evening at 8 in Room 12, The Tooke Bldg. Sec, Miss E. Strachan. TORONTO, CANADA. The Toronto Esperanto Club.—Meets every Thursday at 8.30 P.M., at the Friend's Meeting House, cor. Maitland & Jarvis Sts. Sec, A. P. H. Rollason, Box 123, Terminal A, Toronto. WASHINGTON, D. C. La Kabea Esperanto Klubo,—Meets every Wednesday, at 8.30 P. M., at the Thomson School, XHth and L Sts., N. W. Sin turnu al B. P. M., 1918 Sunderland Place. Kolumbia Esperanto Asocio,—Public meeting third Wednesday of each month, 8.30 P. M., XHth and L Sts., N. W. Free class at 7.30 P. M. every Wednesday, same address. CHICAGO, ILLS. La Gradata Esperanto-Sodeto, Dvorak Park. —Jaroslav Sobehrad, Secretary, 5625 23rd Rd., Cicero, 111. La Esperanto Oficejo, 1669 Blue Island Ave.— Kunvenas 2an kaj 4an sab. ĉiumonate. ROCKFORD, ILLS. Scandinavian Esperanto Institute, 1217 7th Ave. BOSTON, MASS. Boston Esperanto Society, 507 Pierce Bldg., Copley Sq.—Meets Tuesdays, 7 P. M. M. Marootian, Secretary. WORCESTER, MASS. Worcester County Esperanto Society.—Busi- ness Institute, every Friday, 8 P. M. BALTIMORE, MD. La Baltimore, Md., Esperanta Rondeto meets 1st and 3rd Wednesday evenings in month at Md. Academy of Sciences. PORTLAND, ME. Portland Esperanto Society.- Secretary, 16 Sherman St. -Mrs. E. C Flint, DETROIT, MICH. Detroit Esperanto Office, 607 Breitmeyer Bldg.—Open daily. Library at disposal ol everybody daily, 7 A. M.-9 P. M., except Tues. and Fri. Classes meet Tues. and Fri.. 8.16 P.M. La Pola Esperanto Asocio, 1507 E. Canfielo. Ave,—B. Lendo, Sek., 3596 29th St. Groups are listed for 12 issues of the maga- zine, at a cost of only 25 cents for the two- line insertion. Extra lines are 10 cents each additional. The heading,—name of city or town—is inserted free. This matter warrants the immediate attention of every club secre- tary. Group Charter—»1.00. TOPEKA, KANSAS Esperanto Association. Prez. Capt. Geo. P. Morehouse. Sek-iino, S-ino Lida R. Hardy, 1731 Lane St. Kores-Sek-iino, F-ino Leone Newell, 635 Watson St. NEW YORK CITY, N. Y. The New York Esperanto Society.—Miss L- F. Stoeppler, Sec, 105 West 94th St. The Barĉo, or Esperanto Supper, is held on the first Saturday of each month-, 6.45 P. M-. at Hotel Endicott, 81st St. and Columbus Ave. La dimanĉa kunveno, al kiu ĉiuj estas bon- venaj, okazas je la tria horo, posttagmeze, ĉiun dimanĉon, ĉe la Ioĝejo de S-ro Joseph Silbernik, 229 East 18th St., Manhattan. WEEHAWKEN, N. J. Hudson County Esperanto Society, Box 32, Weehawken, N. J. Headquarters: Room 307 Dispatch Building, Union Hill, N. J. Meet- ings: The second Tuesday of month. Sec- retary: Mr. O'Brien, 6 Hageman Place, West New York, N. J. Literatura Klaso, under direction of J. I. Sussmuth, every Tuesday ex- cept second, Room 307 Dispatch Building, Union Hill, N. J. CLEVELAND, OHIO. La Zamenhofa Klubo.—S. Kozminski, Sek., 3406 Meyer Ave. OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. La Oklahoma City Esperantista Societo kun- venas dimanĉe. R.E. Dooley, instruisto, 527 North Durland. Ni alte estimus korespondad- on pri metodoj de propagando, klasorganizo, kaj studado. C.R.D.S. Oakford, prez., H. Bar- ton, sek. ERIE, PA. La Pola Studenta Societo, Prof. E. Bobrowskl, inĝ., St. John Kanty College eldonas pi-jaran jurnalon, "La Studento," jara abono »1.00. PHILADELPHIA, PA. Philadelphia Esperanto Society, Henry W. Hetzel, Sec'y, West Phila. High School fot Boys. Barĉo and monthly meetings on third Tuesdays at Hotel Hanover, 12th and Arch Sts. (Barĉo 6.45; business meeting 7.45 P.M.) Centra Loka Oficejo, 133 N. 13th St. (Libro- vendejo de Peter Reilly, Vic-Delegito de U. E. A.) Rondeto de Litovaj Esperantistoj, 2833 Liv- ingston St. Esperanto Stelo de Polujo.—Sekr., S. Zyslc Kunvenas mardon vespere inter 8-10 h., 50> N. York Ave. PITTSBURGH, PA. Esperanto Sec, Academy of Science and Art, —J. D. Hailman, Sec, 310 S. Lang Aye. Fridays, 8 P. M. MILWAUKEE, WISC. Hesperus Esperantista.—S-ino B. H. Kerner Sek,, 629 Summit Ave., 3rd Tuesdays, I P. id Amerika Esperantisto ORGANO de la ESPERANTA ASOCIO DE NORDA AMERIKO 507 Pierce Bldg., Copley Square Boston 17, Mass., U. S. A. Vol. 31. Majo, 1923. No. S. The Wellesley College Danish-Esperanto Experiment By Christian A. Ruckmick, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, Wellesley College In the autumn of 1922 the Department of Psychology at Wellesley College decided to try a language experi- ment, and determine whether the international language Esperanto is as easy to learn as ordinary modern lan- guages. They gave a careful and scientific comparison without bias or prejudice, hence the report of the experi- ment is not merely of interest but of great value. We present herewith the complete report. The sub-titles are ours inserted for editorial purposes. We trust our readers will examine this report care- fully. 1. Are the Following Claims True? One of the advantages claimed by the proponents of the syn- thetic languages is that they are learned more quickly and easi- ly than the ethnic languages. Statements to this effect show a variety of comparisons and come from many sources, as the fol- lowing will indicate: "It is almost incredible that the whole essential grammar of a lan- guage can be given in a paragraph, but it is nevertheless true. It is pretty certain that an English child could learn Esperanto in, at most, six months, so as to be aide to read, speak, and write it." —The late Sir William Ramsay, O. M., K. C. B. "That a skilfully constructed language like Esperanto is easier to learn than any natural language can hardly be contested." —Report of the Modern Languages Committee to the British Prime Minister, April 1918. "....The present writer first took up Esperanto in October 1905, worked at it at odd times, never spoke it or heard it spoken save once, and was able to follow the proceedings of the Congress of Gen- eva in August 1906, and talk to all foreigners. From a long experience of smattering in many languages and learning a few thoroughly, he Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO is absolutely convinced that this would have been impossible to him in any national language." W. J. Clark, in "International Language, Past, Present, and Future," London, 1912 (2nd Ed.). "I visited the school after the experiment had been going on for rather more than three months. The progress made was astonishing. The children could now converse with a very good degree of con- fidence and fluency, both with their teacher and with each other." —Report of C. L. J. M. Parkinson, M. A. Oxon., His Majesty' Inspector of Schools, after a visit to the Green Lane Council School, Patricroft, Lancashire, England, where 200 children received instruction in an experiment conducted by the Eccles Education Committee. "Some Esperantists make the mistake of exaggerating the easiness of the language. It may, however, be stated with perfect truth that Esperanto is eight or ten times easier than any foreign language and that it is possible to learn to speak it perfectly without leaving one's own country. That in itself is a very appreciable result." —Report of the General Secretariat of the League of Nations, 1922. "The easiness of its acquirement is such that, having obtained an Esperanto grammar, vocabulary and articles written in this language, I had, after not more than two hours of application, the power, if not to write, at least to freely read in this language. In any case, the sacrifices which every person of our European world will make by de- voting some time to the acquirement of this language are so insig- nificant, and the results which may accrue, if all, at least Europeans and Americans, will attach this language to themselves, are so enor- mous, that it is impossible to refrain from the attempt." —The late Count Leo Tolstoi While quotations like these are not difficult to find and while personal experiences in the learning of some one of the several international auxiliary languages are often cited, very few ob- jective tests of this important point in the list of claims seem to have been made. In a sense, of course, each individual trial is a test, but it is not necessarily objective in character. The teacher or the pupil is almost always an enthusiast with all that may mean in terms of heightened attention, interest, and emo- tion. The novelty of the scheme has its peculiar appeal and is not sufficiently taken into account. Often, too, the comparison between the ethnic and synthetic laguages are inaccurate, for the learning of the ethnic language is not carried on side by side with the synthetic and the experiences with the former are there- fore weakened or exaggerated in memory. Several experiments are recorded by W. J. Clark*. One was conducted by a head-mistress "in a secondary school for girls, where French and German are regularly spoken and taught for many hours in the week." The head-mistress introduced Es- peranto as a regular school subject at the beginning of the Easter term, January, 1907. At the end of the term a test paper was *Op. Cit., 22, 23 Digitized by VjOOQIC AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO set, consisting of English sentences to be rendered into French and Esperanto without any dictionary or other aid, and one short passage of English prose to be rendered into both languages with any aid from books that the pupils wished. The object was to determine how far a few hours' teaching of Esperanto would produce results comparable with those obtained in a language learnt for years. The examinees ranged from fourteen to six- teen years. They had been learning French from two to seven years, and had a daily French lesson, besides speaking French on alternate days in the school. They had learnt Esperanto for ten weeks, from one to one and a half hours per week. Taking the papers all through, the Esperanto results were nearly as good as the French. "One last experiment may be mentioned. It was made under scientific conditions on September 23, 1905. The subject was au adult, who had learnt French and German for years at school, and had since taught French to young boys, but not a linguist by training or education, and had never studied the language, his sole knowledge of it being derived from general conversation with an enthusiast, who had just returned from the Geneva Con- gress. He was disposed to laugh at Esperanto, but was per- suaded to test its possibilities as a language that can be written intelligibly by an educated person merely from dictionary by a few rules. He was given a page of carefully prepared English to translate into Esperanto. The following aids were given: 1. Twenty-five crude roots (e. g., lern- - to learn) 2. One suffix, with explanation of its use. 3. A one-page complete grammar of the Esperanto language. 4. An Esperanto-English and an English-Esperanto dic- tionary. He produced a good page of perfectly intelligible Esperanto, quite free from serious grammatical mistake. He admitted that he could not translate the passage so well into French or Ger- man." Clark proceeds to emphasize the need of more experi- ments in connection with artificial languages. 2. Wellesley College in Search of an I A L: It was in the spirit of impartial investigation that the commit- tee on International Auxiliary Language of the International Research Council through its Chairman, Dr. F. G. Cottrell, en- listed the aid of scientists in this country. Our aim at Welles- ley College was to cooperate in this worthy enterprise and to contribute our small share towards the sum total of studies which the Committee may scrutinize for its report. It seemed to us that a test of this facility of learning, conducted under the best conditions that psychologists and linguists could devise, might not only be such a contribution, but thorough criticism and discussion might lead to further and better investigations Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO and so to help the movement along. (2) The cause which we attempted to aid, let it be clearly understood, was not any one project, no one of the specific international languages that have been proposed, but the larger cause of the gradual adoption of some auxiliary synthetic language. Why Esperanto was chosen as an example of the type will be explained in what follows. The work of organizing and planning the material and of con- ducting the experiment at Wellesley College was creditably shared with the writer by Miss Myra Shimberg, a graduate stu- dent and assistant in the Department of Philosophy and Psycholo- gy, who undertook the problem as part of her laboratory research. She is carrying on the investigation with a modified procedure this semester in the hope of obtaining some clue as to the man- ner in which meaning attaches to words that are at first insig- nificant. 3. Why Danish and Esperanto were Compared: Our first task was to decide on the two languages, one ethnic, the other synthetic, that were to be compared. In all conceivable ways we tried to be as fair as possible; (1) the languages were to be typical of the groups represented; (2) they were to have equal places at the start of the contest; (3) they were to have equal coaching during the contest; and (4) they must have a fair trial at the end. After considering several other foreign languages, we dis- missed them for the reason that they were too closely allied to the Latin or romance languages with which many of our students are familiar, or because their orthography was too com- plicated or strange, or because for other reasons they appeared either too difficult or too easy*. Danish-Norwegian was finally selected because its affiliation to the Teutonic group which was in disfavor during the period of secondary preparation of our students gave it no anticipatory advantage over an absolutely new language and because it was a typical, highly inflected lan- guage with its full quota or strong and weak declensions and (2) Apropos of this point it might be of interest to quote the first section of the resolution adopted by the Committee of the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science on an International Auxiliary Language at its Toronto (1921) meeting: "Now therefore be it resolved that the American Association for the Advancement of Science (a) Recognizes the need and timeliness of fundamental research on the scientific principles which must underlie the formation, standardization and intro- duction of an international auxiliary language, and recommends to its members and affiliated societies that they give serious consideration to the general aspects of this problem as well as direct technical study and help in their own special fields wherever possible.'" * As nearly as possible the group of natural foreign languages were to be represented. Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO conjugations, and with the manifold exceptions to its rules so commonly encountered. The idiomatic expressions did not both- er us because for lack of time we did not progress far enough to make them count. Interest in the language was futhermore created through a concert given at the college by Reinald Wer- renrath who sang a group of songs in Danish after translating them into English. As a representative of the group of international synthetic languages we chose Esperanto. We were early referred to the Boston office of the Esperanto Society by the International Aux- iliary Language Committee of the International Research Coun- cil and received from this office from time to time the heartiest and ablest cooperation. It was fortunate in our work that there were several hundred copies of a standard text-book available at short notice and that we had at our call the excellent services of Miss E. J. Meriam, Secretary of the Esperanto Association of North America, Dr. D. O. S. Lowell formerly President of the Boston Society, and Mr. G. Winthrop Lee, President of the Boston Society and Chairman of the Publications Committee of the North American Association. To balance the interest created by Werrenrath in the Danish language, we invited Doctor Lowell to lecture on Esperanto at Wellesley College and to give the audience illustrations of it by talking in the language. His recitation from memory of the well-known poem by L. Zamenhof. the founder of the language, entitled "La Vojo," created considerable enthusiasm. We were impressed with Esperanto as suitable for our purposes because (1) it was fairly representative of that group of international auxiliary languages, which includes Ido and Esperantide, in its principles of construction and in its principles of pronunciation; because (2) a favorable report of it had just been made by the secretariat of the League of Nations; and because (3) we were in full sympathy with the attitude of Professor A. L. Guerard in his recent book, "A Short History of the International Language Movement," in which he states that we should concentrate for the time being on Esperanto. We should not accept uncon- ditionally or without possibility of improvement from within; but above all we should avoid the very frame of mind that we are so stoutly condemning as conducting to world strife: we should cooperate, not antagonize. In his own words, " .. Esperanto should secure the provisional allegiance of all believers in the cause." Especially significant after his careful and non-partisan review of all separate attempts at the same goa^ is the follow- ing extract: "...If primitive Esperanto is a trifle more difficult than some of its rivals, it is infinitely easier than any of the national languages. Whatever may seem to us strange and crude about it would become mellow un- Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO der the gentle influence of time. The mass of man- kind is not likely to be much more exacting, in matters of linguistic perfection, than Romaine Rolland or Gil- bert Murray. No one can dispute that with Esperanto, even unreformed, the world would be better off than in its present chaos..... Four-fifths of the problem will gradually be settled through the research of schol- ars ; the balance, by including the conventional frame- work of grammar, may be seriously influenced by the practical success of Esperanto." 4. Standing Room Only Miss Shimberg, who planned many of the details of the ex- periment with .the writer and who was conversant with local conditions through her previous experiences as an undergradu- ate student at Wellesley, was next consulted about the number of students whom we should hope to get into our trial class. Our students are not as a rule able to give up an hour or more on several nights a week for almost two months at a time of the year when schedules are fairly well arranged and with many additional lectures and concerts to attract them. We agreed to arrange for a class of about twenty-five. When the enrollment lists came in, we were utterly amazed at the size of our volun- teer class. Fully three hundred and fifty were crowded into the largest class-room the college possesses; every seat was taken well before the hour when the class was scheduled to begin and when the writer entered every square foot of floor space was covered with squatting or standing students. * As soon as arrangements could be made, the college authorities allowed us the use of the Chapel on evenings when other events did not take place there. Several opportunities were given the girls to with- draw from the class, but about three hundred remained to the end, and two hundred and six took the final examination. The interest in the international language movement appeared to be the prime motive; an interest that was again manifest when the writer recently addressed a group of students at Boston Univer- sity. There was many applications for more literature as well as requests for a more substantial course. After consulation with several authorities in language training and philology, we decided that a five week's course with two In the interests of the class it should be said that no material rewards were offered to those who enrolled, but after the class was assembled it was announced that those who stayed through the experimental period would be relieved of a corresponding number of hours' required work in other courses in the depart- ment. This was done chiefly to avoid criticism as regards the amount of extra time which we requested of the students for our experimental work. Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO periods of forty-five minutes length per week would fill our re- quirements. Accordingly the class met on Monday and Friday evenings at seven o'clock beginning November 13th, and ending December 15th, 1922. The examination was held on December 19th. On the first evening the alphabets of both languages were given, since our txet-books were not yet available, and on the lass class day we devoted an equally divided time to the review of both languages. On other evenings the languages were alter- nately presented: one evening was devoted to Danish, and the next to Esperanto, with the exception of the first two evenings after the alphabets had been given when instruction was held in Esperanto because the requisite number of Danish books had not yet been procurable. This was remedied later, of course, when there were two consecutive "Danish" evenings. Naturally it was very difficult to find approximately equiva- lent text-books in the two languages. At first we thought that the type of text-book which contains indexed pictures would offer comparable results. Such a book is Professor Ditterle's "Bildotabuloj por la Instruado de Esperanto." Similar books are available for French, English, Italian and German. There were two serious objections, however, to these works; (1) the presentation was in reality too simple for college students who were accustomed to the "paradigm" method of instruction, and (2) the languages in which these books were available were un- suitable to our needs. We therefore selected Thimm's "Nor- wegian Self-Taught," revised and enlarged by Hanssen, 5th edi- tion, and Fryer's "The Esperanto Teacher," 10th edition. Dan- ish, it should be said, was until recently the official language of Norway (see Professor Guerard's article, "The Battle-line of Languages in Western Europe," in the National Geographic Magazine, February, 1923, pp. 167-171) hence the use of the "Norwegian" grammar. In addition to this book a collection of short stories by W. W. Jacobs "Selected Stories" (Brentanos) was used to supply the reading material that the grammar lacked. While the two grammars, the Esperanto and the Norwegian (Danish), presented the material in somewhat different order and manner, the lessons were so assigned as to make the presen- tation actually as much alike as possible. The author of this article led the class in all but two of its meetings when Miss Shimberg took his place, but it was arranged that one of these was an "Esperanto" and the other a "Danish" evening. Our aim was to keep ourselves about equally prepared for our classes in respect to the two languages. As a matter of fact we purposely kept ourselves at about a lesson's distance from the class, although we had opportunity to get considerably more ahead of the class than that in Esperanto; but the condi- tions of equality had to be maintained. In the author's case Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO whatever advantage he possessed by virtue of advanced reading of the Esperanto was matched by the knowledge he had of Teu- tonic roots in the Danish. Besides, when it would have been easy to make obvious comments at many points on the clever- ness or simplicity of the synthetic language, we purposely re- frained from doing so. Both of us confess the temptation to wax enthusiastic on occasion, but were reminded of the objective character of the test in time to check the impulse. On the side of the students uneven preparation for the lan- guages was also guarded against as much as possible by requir- ing the students to leave their texts in class and by urging them not to discuss the material outside of class. It was surprising even then,—surprising because it is just contrary to a teacher's usual experience,—to find that a few of them secretly took notes in class in order to study the material better at home! We are inclined to think, however, that these exceptions to our rule were extremely rare. In order to save time as much as possible for the discussion of the languages but also to keep an accurate record of the at- tendance, we seated the students in accordance with a "seating plan" which was checked over at every session of the class and also checked up from the absences indicated on the examination papers at the end. 5. How the Lessons were Taught The typical procedure at each session was to begin with a brief review of the previous lesson; then the new grammatical rules and examples were taken up; this was followed by the presentation of the new vocabulary with the instruction to image mentally so far as possible the concrete object or condi- tion which each word described; then came the exercises in translation from the foreign language to English and the reverse with the pronunciation of the foreign language by the various students who were called upon to recite. Conditions prohibited any marking of such individual recitations, since we could not call upon every member of the class and since such a method of grading is in itself extremely variable in effect. By such reci- tations, however, as we did have the class was kept constantly alert, so much so that the slightest error on the part of the teacher was at once detected by a number of sudents who would then volunteer the corrections. On the whole it must be said as a compliment to the experimental class that the writer has never witnessed better class spirit and responsiveness. The final examination was written in accordance with certain "mental test" forms, as will be seen from the following copy: Digitized by Google AMERTKA ESPERANTISTO EXAMINATION PAPERS DANISH-ESPERANTO EXAMINATION Coraplete following statement by underlining correct numeral: I have been absent from class 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, times. Time limit for each section 'A', 'B' in each questioTv==2.5 mm. I. A. Give the English equivalents for the following Esperan- to words: 1. apartenas .............. 11. ĉu ..................... 2. semajno................ 12. horloĝo .............. 3. jam ne................. 13. pTi..................... 4. kiam................... 14. sana................... 5. atingas................. 15. ĉiam ................... 6. hodiaŭ.................. 16. bnŝo................... 7. ok ..................... 17. forno .................. 8. flngas ................ 18. ĝis .................... 9. ankoraŭ ............... 19. ĵaŭdo ................. 10. tranĉilo ................ 20. konas .................. B. Give the English equivalents for the following Danish words: 1. abehaanden ............. 11. hoi .................... 2. dem.................... 12. dame.................. 3. da ...................... 13. bedst .................. 4. blive.................... 14. edes................... 5. som .................... 16. hun.................... 6. var ..................... 17. kaptajnen .............. 7. sagde ................... 18. sejlprammen............ 8. i......................... 19. gik .................... 9. hinanden ................ 20. vaere .................. 11. A. Fill in the blank in each of the following sentences with the appropriate Danish word: 1. Mother is to daughter as fader is to............ 2. Meget is to mere as god is to............ 3. Shall is to will as skal is to............ 4. King is to kings as komge is to............ 5. Now is to then as nu is to............ 6. Saadd is to saar as rost is to............ B. Fill in the blank in each of the following sentences the appropriate Esperanto word: 1. Husband is to man as............is to virino 2. More is to less as pli is to............ 3. Tago is to nokto as vekas is to............ 4. Present is to past as as (ending) is to.......... 5. Birdo is to flugas as viro is to............ 6. Ses is to dekdu as kvindek is to.............. Digitized by Googk 1(5 AMERIKA ESPERANTTSTO It will be noticed that no attention was paid in this exami- nation to the matter of pronunciation. Several of my Danish friends have furthermore commented on the extreme ease of the Danish divisions of the examination. It was our aim of course to make the two divisions equal, but there were practical diffi- culties in our way. Within our allotted time we had covered much more ground in the Esperanto and could make a much wider selection of our material for the examination; the Danish division consequently covered very nearly everything we had gone over. In terms of number of words learned, for example, the count would stand about three times as many Esperanto Words as Danish words. Again, we studiously avoided the use of Esperanto words which literally suggested their English equivalents. That is of course somewhat unfair to Esperanto which has a considerable number of such derivatives. The results, even under these conditions, are all distinctly in favor of the synthetic language. The highest possible score for the time allowed was 75. Of the 112 girls who were never absent from the class the average attained for Esperanto was 57.856; for Danish 45.534. The scores which follow indicate the ratings obtained from all the papers including those from students who were not regularly in attendance at class. The decimal values in the "absence" column arise from the absences on evenings when we devoted half time to one language and half to the other. "D" denotes "Danish;" and "E" denotes "Esperanto." 6. Table of Results; ESPERANTO TRIUMFANTO No times No Papers Average Average Difference Absent. Graded DANISH ESPERANTO in favor of Grade Grade ESPERANTO Equally Divided 0 112 45.534 57.856 +12.322 •5 D 13 40.306 56.768 +16.462 .5 E 1. D l- E 4 39.0 57.0 +18.0 2. D 2. E 1 24.0 40.0 +18.0 130 44.644 57,583 +12.939 Digitized by Googk AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO 11 In favor of D .5 D 1.5 E 1 20.0 50.0 4-30.0 1. E 13 43.538 53.076 4- 9.538 1. D 2. E I 48.0 48.0 0 .5 D 2.5 E 1 16 30.00 46.0 -4-16.0 41.499 52.124 4-10.625 In favor of E 1 D 46 44.694 60.304 4-15,610 .5 E 1.5 D 8 37.0 55.230 4-18.230 1. E 2. D 1 30.0 50.0 4-20.0 .5 E 2.5 D 2 31.0 49.0 4-18.0 2 D 2 42.0 49.0 4- 7.0 3 D 1 60 44.0 70.0 4-26.0 42.865 58.863 4-15.998 206 43.882 56.561 4-12.679 Totals and grand totals are shown in Boldface. Averages are not percentages but scores on the basis of a maximum of 75. Percentage comparisons may therefore be obtained by multi- plying the scores by 1.33. The table shows then, that all the differences are decidedly in favor of Esperanto. For those who had had an equal number of Danish and Esperanto lessons, tbe average score was 12.939 higher foT Esperanto than for Danish. Converted on the basis of a maximum obtainable score of 75 under our time limits, the percentage would he 16.811. Even when the number of absences on "Esperanto" evenings exceeded the number of absences on ■"Danish" evenings, the score for Esperanto, with one exception where it was equal, was higher than the score for Danish; in fact one of the highest differential scores was obtained by a student who had one less lesson in Esperanto than in Danish. Another student missed two lessons in Esperanto but obtained a higher score by 16 points in Esperanto. In other words all Digitized by Google . 12 AMFTRIKA ESPERANTTSTO students did better in Esperanto even if they had had fewer lessons in Esperanto than in Danish. An attempt was made to allow for absences from class on the basis of increasing or decreasing the difference in the scores in proportion to the attendance. If a student had attended one more class in Esperanto than in Danish it was assumed that her grade was actually 20% lower in Danish than it would have been if she had an equal number of lessons in each language, since the complete number of lessons in each language was five. With this assumption all the scores of student's papers which were conditioned by an unequal number of absences were adjus- ted and then the resultant average difference was converted into percentages with the following results: Average Difference in Favor of ESPERANTO No. Papers Converted Graded Orig. Score Adj. for Abs. into %, Equally Divided 130 12.939 12.939 16.811 In Favor of D 16 10.625 2Ij686 28.192 In Favor of E 60 15.998 6l626 8j614 Total 206 12.679 11.514 15.307 On these assumptions, then, the most conservative numerical result which emerges from our calculations is the advantage of 15.307% in favor of Esperanto, representing the group of syn- thetic vs. ethnic languages. In addition to these statistics it is only fair to enumerate some of the results that could not be reduced to figures. In a sense these results may be considered even more significant. 7. The Appeal of an I A L: "Loss and Danger in Delay" First of all, as mentioned before, our college students were intensely interested in the idea of an international auxiliary lan- guage because of its world-wide scope and possibilities of usage. All reports that we have to date emphasize the firm hold this type of language, especially Esperanto, has taken on the minds of the comparatively uneducated people of the world. Academ- ically trained people as a class have been slow to accept even the idea of it, to say nothing of any particular language. There is both loss and danger in this delay: loss for want of proper intellectual criticism of a constructive sort, and danger lest the language become a tool of class divisions or reactionary political parties, as indeed it has become in certain sections of the world. Any lasting interest among college or university folk that we can create or foster after it is created will help the cause of fellow- ship and peace on earth. Digitized by Google AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO 13 Then there was the appeal of simplicity. College students who have labored long with intricate and contradictory rules of gram- mar in several foreign ethnic languages highly appreciate the simple and invariable rules of these artificial languages. Besides they appreciate intellectually the cleverness in the combination of words and the formation of words from other words where the process has been the result of reasoning rather than of acci- dence through usage. The purpose and the designs are much clearer to fathom and to explain. There is a logic behind the language that is convincing, so that reason comes as an aid to memory in the learning process. The freedom, then, of the language in its world-wide horizon versus the narrowness of national boundaries of experience and expression, coupled with the possibility of expressing all shades of human emotion, imagination and thought in the simplest of linguistic devices that man's mind has been able to invent, had its undoubted effect on our undertaking. It added the keen inter- est in the subject which many a teacher often longs for and seldom gets. While we did our best as scientists not to give expression to such evaluations we could not very well police the minds of our students. Our results then show, to our thinking, that the synthetic language was easier to learn than the ethnic language both because of its internal structure and because of the interest and enthusiasm it creates in the learning mind. In short, it is both easier linguistically and psychologically. Num- erous introspective accounts of the learning process from our students corroborate our statement, but space forbids their in- clusion in this report. We have said little of pronunciation since, again, we had no adequate statistical test at hand for this important feature of the synthetic language; but it was so obvious to the instructors that they exceedingly regret their inability to give more than their word for the rapidity with which students learned to speak the synthetic language in class by uttering simple statements. Of course little could be accomplished in so short a period, but the comparison with the ethnic language on this point left no doubt in the minds of the teachers in regard to the superiority of the synthetic language. It is also regretted that we had no other count of the extent of ground covered save the number of words learned in the vocabularies of the respective languages, which was 212 for the Esperanto and 78 for the Danish. This investigation did not bear all the characteristics of a thorough-going psychological experiment: the number of sub- jects was too great and the mental conditions too variable to control rigorously after the fashion of empirical studies in the laboratory. But we did aim to guard against many of the mental factors that unmake other tests. So far as we were able we did Digitized by Google 14 AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO present the material in a uniform way on both sides and as nearly as possible with the material thus presented as our only unequal quantity we gave a final test of ability that was fair to both sides. We are now engaged on further problems on the meaning of Esperanto words and the relative ease of learning different com- binations with individual students in the laboratory. Reaction times and introspections are being taken in the hope of contrib- uting to the general problem of meaning, a subject which is being widely discussed and has important theoretical bearings in psy- chology. Notes and News from the Central Office Under the leadership of Mr. Sussmuth, the Hudson County Esperanto Society is fast maturing its plans for the 16th annual congress at North Hudson, in July. The local papers aire already giving notice of the event. A mammoth propaganda meeting is scheduled, with not only the best talent among Esper- antists on the program, but musical and other entertainment as well. Copies of the Congress circular upon request; ask your local papers to publish announcement of the Congress. Will Club sercetaries send in membership dues, and renewals of subscriptions to Amerika Esperantisto before July 1st; also reports of their work during the past season. Inquiries continue to come in from the paragraph about Es- peranto in the "Pathfinder;" the two hundred inquiries reported last month have been increased to over three hundred. An article on Esperanto, its history, aims, etc., appeared in The Open Road for May, by Dr. D. O. S. Lowell with attractive illustrations. This has brought many inquiries as well as favor- able comment,—Among them is this: "This is certainly the best account of the language yet given any broadcasting." Re- prints are being prepared in the form of a convenient folder; price will be announced in the next issue. President Allen of the Perkins Institution for the Blind (Wat- ertown) has taken a keen interest in the course of lessons which Dr. Lowell is giving, and plans for a regular course in Esperanto in the fall. As many as forty teachers and pupils have attended some of the lectures. At least four short outline courses in Esperanto in as many different schools are in progress in New York this month, as one of the many results of the meetings in March in the interest of an IAL, with courses in prospect for next season. Remember the Congress date: July 11-14; plan to come if you possibly can. There will be much to hear of the progress of the movement during the past year both in America and abroad; incidentally it will make a delightful vacation trip. Digitized by VjOOQIC AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO 15 La Legendo pri la Postlasaĵo de la Mauro Rakonto de Washington Irving (daŭrigo) Tradukita de D-ro Louis Allen, University of Toronto (Daŭrigo) La alkaldo direktis sur Peregil unu el siaj plej teruraj rigardoj. "Aŭskultu, fripono!" li tondris, per voĉo, kiu tremigis ĉiujn mem- brojn de la Galicianeto—"aŭskultu, fripono: estas senutile nei vian kulpon, mi jam scias ĉion, La pendingo estas la konvena rekompenco por la krimo, kiun vi faris, sed mi estas kompatema kaj preta aŭskulti taŭgan arumenton. La homo, kiun vi mor- tigis en via domo, estis Maŭro, malfidelulo, malamiko de nia sankta religio. Estis sendube dum momento de religia fervoro, ke vi lin mortigis. Tial mi estos indulgema; transdonu al mi la riĉaĵojn, kiujn vi rabis al li, kaj ni senbrue lasos la aferon." La mizera portisto de akvo alvokis ĉiujn sanktulojn kiel atest- antojn pri sia senkulpeco, sed ho ve! aperis neniu, kaj eĉ se ili aperus, la alkaldo ne kredus la tutan kalendaron. La portisto de akvo rakontis la tutan historion pri la morto de la Maŭro kun la honesta simpleco de la vero, sed ĉio estis vana. "Cu vi obsti- nas diri," demandis la juĝisto, "ke ĉi tiu musulmano havis nek oro nek juvelojn, kiuj incitis vian deziron?" "Mia animo iru en la inferon, via moŝto," respondis la portisto de akvo, "se li havis ion alian krom skatoleto el santalo, kiun li donacis al mi kiel rekompencon por mia peno." "Santala skatoleto!" ekkriis la alkaldo, kaj liaj okuloj brilis ĉe la penso pri la multekostaj juveloj. "Kaj kie estas ĉi tiu ska- toleto? Kie vi ĝin kaŝis?" "Kun la permeso de via moŝto," respondis la portisto de akvo, "ĝi estas en unu el la korboj de mia mulo, kap tute je la dispono de via moŝto." Apenaŭ li elparolis la vortojn la vigla algŭazilo forkuris kaj post momento reaperis kun la mistera skatoleto el santalo. La alkaldo ĝin malfermis per avida kaj tremanta mano, kaj ĉiuj alpremiĝis por rigardi la trezoron, kiun oni supozas ke ĝi enna- vas, sed ilia espero trompiĝas, car en ĝi troviĝas nenio krom per- gamena ruleto kovrita per arabaj literoj, kaj peco de vaksa kan- deleto. Kiam la kondamno de arestito donus nenian profiton, la juĝa- do estas ofte, eĉ en Hispanujo, sufiĉe senpartia afero. Kiam la alkaldo iomete konsoliĝis je sia trompita espero, kaj konvinki- ĝis je sia trompita espero, kaj konvinkiĝis, ke el la afero li povas atendi nenian, li aŭskultis sufiĉe pacience la klarigojn de la port- isto de akvo, kaj ankaŭ la historion de lia edzino. Konstatinte la senkulpecon de la Galicianeto, li liberigis lin, kaj eĉ permesis al li forporti kun si la postlasajon de la Maŭro, la santalan ska- toleton kun ĝia enhavo, kiujn li povis konservi kiel merititan Digitized by Googk 16 AMERIKA ESPERANTISTO rekompencon por sia humaneco; la azenon tamen oni retenis por pagi la juĝadajn kostojn. Tiamaniere la malfeliĉa Peregil sin vidis denove devigata por- tadi mem sian ŝarĝon kaj pene supreniradi al la puto de la Al- hambro kun granda akvovazo sur la sultro. Kelkfoje dum li lace grimpadis ĝis la puto en la varmego de somera tagmezo, lia kutima bona humoro subite forlasadis lin. "Kanajla alkaldo!" li kriadis, "vi ŝtelas de malriĉulo Han solan vivrimedon, kaj la plej bonan amikon, kiun li havis en la mondo I" Kaj tiam je rememoro pri la amata kamarado li donadis liberan esprimon al la tuta boneco de sia koro. "Ho azeneto de animoL" li diradis, mallevante sian ŝargon sur ŝtonon kaj viŝante la sviton de sia frunto—"Ho azeneto de mia animo! Mi vetas, ke vi pensas pri via antaŭa mastro! Vi certe sopiras al la akvovazoj, ho mia kompatinda azeneto!" Por plimaldolĉigi Han doloron. kiam li revenadis hejmen, Ha edzino lin renkontadis kun plendoj. Ŝiaj riproĉoj havis sendu- ban pravigon, car ŝi ja malkonsilis al sia edzo entrepreni tiun eksterordinaran agon de gastameco, kiu alportis al ili tiom da malfeliĉo; kaj estante sagaca virino, si preterlasis nenian okazon rememorigi al li sian propran superecon. Se la Infanoj ne havis manĝaĵon, aŭ bezonis novan veston, ŝi ĉiam moke diradis: "Petu vian patron—li estas heredanto de la reĝo Chiko de la Alhambro; li donos al vi monon el la forta kofro de la Maŭro." ĉu iam mizera homarano estis tiel severe punita pro bona ago ? La malfeliĉa Peregil suferadis korpe kaj anime, sed li humile elportadis la mokadon de la edizino. Fine tamen, kiam en unu vespero, post la laborado de varmego tago, ŝi faris al li la kuti- majn riproĉojn, li perdis paciencon. Li ne kuraĝis disputi kun si, sed lia okulo trafis la santalan skatoleton, kiu kuŝis malfermita sur breto, kaj ŝajnis ridi je liaj turmentoj. Kaptinte ĝin, li kol- ere ĵetis ĝin sur la plankon: "Alalbenita estu la tago, en kiu mi vidis vin," li ekkriis, "kaj en kiu mi akceptis sub mia tegmenta vian mastron 1" (Daŭrigota) THE "EDINBURGH" Esperanto Pocket Dictionary Esp.-Eng. & Eng.-Esp. Cloth Binding $0.75 Leather $1.75 On sale at Esperanto Office or at leading Booksellers. T. Nelson & Sons, Ltd., Toronto Digitized by Googk