International Language Part 12

35. Peano-_De Latino sine flexione_ (in _Revue de Mathematique_, vol.

viii., Turin, 1903); _Il Latino quale lingua ausiliare intern.a.z.ionale_ (in _Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino_ 1904); _Vocabulario de Latino Internationale comparato c.u.m Anglo, Franco, Germano, Hispano, Italo, Russo, Graeco, et Sanscrito_ (Turin, 1904). See also the _Formulario mathematico_, vol. v. (Turin, 1906).

36. Hummler, 1904-_Mundelingua_ (Saulgau).

37. Victor Hely, 1905-_Esquisse d'une grammaire de la langue Internationale, 1st part: Les mots et la syntaxe_ (Langres).

38. Max Wald, 1906-_Pankel (Weltsprache), die leichteste und kurzeste Sprache fur den internationalen Verkehr. Grammatik und Worterbuch mit Aufgabe der Wortquelle_ (Gross-Beeren).

39. Greenwood, 1906-_Ekselsiore, the New Universal Language for All Nations: a Simplified, Improved Esperanto_ (London, Miller & Gill); _Ulla, t ulo lingua a otrs_ (The Ulla Society, Bridlington, 1906).

40. Trischen, 1907-_Mondlingvo, provisorische Aufstellung einer internationalen Verkehrssprache_ (Pierson, Dresden).

III

THE EARLIEST BRITISH ATTEMPT

A perusal of the foregoing list shows that in the early days of the search for an international language the British were well to the fore.

Of the British pioneers in this field the first two were Scots-a fact which accords well with the traditional enterprise north of the Tweed, and readiness to look abroad, beyond their own noses, or, in this case, beyond their own tongues. It is likewise remarkable that the British have almost dropped out of the running in recent times, as far as origination is concerned. Is this fact also typical, a small symptom of Jeshurun's general fatness? Does it reflect a lesser degree of nimbleness in moving with the spirit of the times?

Anyhow, in this case the Briton's content with what he has got at home is well grounded. He certainly possesses a first-cla.s.s language. As a curious example of the quaint use of it by a scholar and clever man in the middle of the seventeenth century, the following account of Sir Thomas Urquhart's book may be of some interest.

Sir Thomas is well known as the translator of Rabelais; and evidently something of the curious erudition, polyglotism, and quaintness of conceit of his author stuck to the translator. This book is the rarest of his tracts, all of which are uncommon, and has been hardly more than mentioned by name by the previous writers on the subject.

The t.i.tle-page runs:

LOGOPANDEKTEISION

OR, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, DIGESTED INTO THESE SIX SEVERAL BOOKS

Neaudethaumata Chryseomystes Chrestasebeia Neleodicastes Cleronomaporia Philoponauxesis

By SIR THOMAS URQUHART, of Cromartie, Knight,

Now lately contrived and published both for his own Utilitie, and that of all Pregnant and Ingenious Spirits.

LONDON

Printed and are to be sold by GILES CALVERT at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Paul's, and by RICHARD TOMLINS at the Sun and Bible near Pye Corner. 1653.

In a note at the end of the book he apologizes for haste, saying that the copy was "given out to two several printers, one alone not being fully able to hold his quill a-going."

The book opens with:

"The Epistle Dedicatory to n.o.body."

The first paragraph runs:

"MOST HONOURABLE,

"My non-supponent Lord, and Soveraign Master of contradictions in adjected terms, that unto you I have presumed to tender the dedicacie of this introduction, will not seem strange to those, that know how your concurrence did further me to the accomplishment of that new Language, into the frontispiece whereof it is permitted."

After some preliminary remarks, he says:

"Now to the end the Reader may be more enamoured of the Language, wherein I am to publish a grammar and lexicon, I will here set down some few qualities and advantages peculiar to itself, and which no Language else (although all other concurred with it) is able to reach unto."

There follow sixty-six "qualities and advantages," which contain the only definite information about the language, for the promised grammar and lexicon never appeared. A few may be quoted as typical of the inducements held out to "pregnant and ingenious spirits," to the end they "may be more enamoured of the Language." The good Sir Thomas was plainly an optimist.

"... Sixthly, in the cases of all the declinable parts of speech, it surpa.s.seth all other languages whatsoever: for whilst others have but five or six at most, it hath ten, besides the nominative.

"... Eighthly, every word capable of number is better provided therewith in this language, then [_sic_] by any other: for instead of two or three numbers which others have, this affordeth you four; to wit, the singular, dual, plural, and redual.

"... Tenthly, in this tongue there are eleven genders; wherein likewise it exceedeth all other languages.

"... Eleventhly, Verbs, Mongrels, Participles, and Hybrids have all of them ten tenses, besides the present: which number no language else is able to attain to.

"... Thirteenthly, in lieu of six moods, which other languages have at most, this one enjoyeth seven in its conjugable words."

Sir Thomas evidently believed in giving his clients plenty for their money. He is lavish of "Verbs, Mongrels, Participles, and Hybrids,"

truly a tempting menagerie. He promises, however, a time-reduction on learning a quant.i.ty:

"... Seven and fiftiethly, the greatest wonder of all is that of all the languages in the world it is easiest to learn; a boy of ten years old being able to attain to the knowledge thereof in three months' s.p.a.ce; because there are in it many facilitations for the memory, which no other language hath but itself."

Seventeenth-century boys of tender years must have had a good stomach for "Mongrels and Hybrids," and such-like dainties of the grammatical _menu_; but even if they could swallow a mongrel, it is hard to believe that they would not have strained at ten cases in three months. It might be called "casual labour," but it would certainly have been "three months' hard."

After these examples of grammatical generosity, it is not surprising to read:

"... Fifteenthly, in this language the Verbs and Participles have four voices, although it was never heard that ever any other language had above three."

Note that the former colleagues of the "Verbs and Participles," the "Mongrels and Hybrids," are here dropped out of the category. Perhaps it is as well, seeing the number of voices attributed to each. A four-voiced mongrel would have gone one better than the triple-headed h.e.l.l-hound Cerberus, and created quite a special Hades of its own for schoolboys, to say nothing of light sleepers.

Under "five and twentiethly" we learn that "there is no Hexameter, Elegiack, Saphick, Asclepiad, lambick, or any other kind of Latin or Greek verse, but I will afford you another in this language of the same sort"; which leads up to:

"... Six and twentiethly, as it trotteth easily with metrical feet, so at the end of the career of each line, hath it dexterity, after the manner of our English and other vernaculary tongues, to stop with the closure of a rhyme; in the framing whereof, the well-versed in that language shall have so little labour, that for every word therein he shall be able to furnish at least five hundred several monosyllables of the same termination with it."

A remarkable opportunity for every man to become his own poet!

"... Four and thirtiethly, in this language also words expressive of herbs represent unto us with what degree of cold, moisture, heat, or dryness they are qualified, together with some other property distinguishing them from other herbs."

In this crops out the idea that haunted the minds of mediaeval speculators on the subject: that language could play a more important part than it had hitherto done; that a word, while conveying an idea, could at the same time in some way describe or symbolize the attributes of the thing named. Imagine the charge of thought that could be rammed into a phrase in such a language. Imagine too, you who remember the cold shudder of your childhood, when you heard the elders discussing a prospective dose-intensified by all the horrors of imagination when the discussion was veiled in the "decent obscurity" of French-imagine the grim realism of a language containing _words expressive of herbs_,-and expressive to that extent!

There seems, indeed, to have been something rather cold-blooded about this language:

"... Eight and thirtiethly, in the contexture of nouns, p.r.o.nouns, and preposital articles united together, it administreth many wonderful varieties of Laconick expressions, as in the Grammar thereof shall more at large be made known unto you."