Mr. TOWNER. So you could not distinguish from the form between a verb
and an adverb, could you?
Prof. CHRISTEN. Perfectly. The adverb ends in "e" and the infinitive
ends in "i."
Mr. RIPLEY. It is your contention that children will do better in
English if they acquire a knowledge of Esperanto?
Prof. CHRISTEN. Undoubtedly; this is a statement I make in my lectures:
If you gentlemen will give me a number of children aged 4 or 5 years
I will give them a quarter of an hour's pleasant explanation about
grammar, that is Esperanto grammar, and they will understand it after a
quarter of an hour's explanation; then I will jumble together a number
of blocks, with various words on these blocks, and I will say to these
children "pick out every noun," and they will be able to do it--that is,
pick the nouns from the adjectives--and so with every part of speech.
The CHAIRMAN. Because they will know to a certainty?
Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes; every word tells its own tale on account of its
distinctive ending. Now, that is a thing you can not do in English; that
nobody can do in English, because we can not tell the parts of speech
simply by the appearance of the words; we can only know from the context
and that is not always easy!
The CHAIRMAN. How does that apply to other languages?
Prof. CHRISTEN. The same thing applies more or less to all, because they
are all irregular; they were not formed; they have "growd" like Topsy.
Mr. TOWNER. The Latin language is more regular?
Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes: but it does not begin to compare with Esperanto.
Now, we have had these four words, and I want to proceed a little
further, and I will take up something that will help me to answer your
questions. If I had to teach you gentlemen French I would have to make
you commit to memory 2,667 endings and contractions for the verb alone;
it would take you months and months to learn that alone. The same
absurdities and even worse occur in Italian, in Spanish, in German, in
English, and in all so-called natural languages.
Mr. TOWNER. And we never could learn these irregularities and
exceptions.
Prof. CHRISTEN. Well, if you did learn them you would never remember
them at the right time because the whole scheme is so complicated.
This is only one of the many reasons which make us so shy at speaking
foreign languages. Now, the same thing is true of German, and of all
other languages, but it is not true of Esperanto. I will teach you the
whole Esperanto conjugation in five minutes and you will never forget
it, because there is nothing to remember. You already know that a noun
ends in "o" and that the infinitive ends in "i," and so on: there is
absolutely no difficulty whatever. (9) Now, I am sorry I have to speak
so rapidly, because I would like to give you more information.
The CHAIRMAN. We would be glad to have you add to your remarks.
Mr. TOWNER. You can extend your remarks.
Prof. CHRISTEN. Since my time is up and, indeed, far exceeded, I will
be very glad to do so. But before I leave you, let me read one or two
items, which will only take two minutes more. Here is a quotation
from the British Esperantist, of November, 1913, showing the progress
Esperanto is making:
The central Esperanto bureau, of Paris, gives the following
statistics: In 1889, there had been published 29 books in
Esperanto; in 1899, 128; in 1910, 1,554; in 1912 (to August
30), 1,837. Enough already to keep most readers going for
full five years of Sundays, and the output, both of bookshop
and of press, is increasing daily.
Mr. TOWNER. In a general way, what is the character of this literature?
Prof. CHRISTEN. Up to now chiefly textbooks for learning Esperanto,
such as this little book [indicating], which can be purchased for 10
cents. You can learn the whole mechanism of the language from one of
these little books. Then there are a great many other publications,
translations, scientific articles, etc., and we have already several
novels originally written in the new language.
Mrs. CRAFTS. May I say a word right here? I hold in my hand the New
Testament, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society together
with the Scotch Bible Society. It is a translation from Nestle's Greek
Testament, and the Old Testament is now being translated by one of the
most eminent Hebrew scholars in the world.
Prof. CHRISTEN. Here is the next item, which I would like to read to
you:
Evening classes for the study of Esperanto under the auspices of
the L.C.C. (London county council) are being held at the Halstow
Road Nonvocational Institute, Greenwich, S.E., on Thursday,
7.30-9.30 p.m., and at Bloomfield Road Commercial Institute,
Plumstead, S.E., on Fridays, 7.20-10.50 p. m. Instructor Mr.
William H. Dennis, B.D.E.A., 108, Eglinton Road, Plumstead,
S.E., from whom any information may be obtained. These classes
are designed especially to meet the requirements of the serious
student, beginner or advanced. (10)
That is from London. Then I have another quotation which I want to read
from Edinburgh:
The chief constable of Edinburgh has interested himself in Esperanto,
especially in view of the 1915 congress. The chief constable has
ordered a copy of "Esperanto For All," to be sent to the 650 members
of the Edinburgh police force, with a recommendation that the police
learn the language. A class for policemen is being arranged, for
which 14 names have been received.
Esperanto classes for policemen have been conducted for several years
in several towns in Germany, in France, in Spain, etc., and even during
their hours of duty classes are going on in Esperanto so that policemen
may learn Esperanto without the loss of their own personal time. I thank
you, gentlemen, for bearing with me so long.
Mr. BARTHOLDT. I should like to have an opportunity, if possible, at
some future time to have you give us about 10 or 15 minutes to hear Mrs.
Crafts.
The CHAIRMAN. We shall be very glad indeed to give you that time.
(The additional matter submitted by Prof. Christen follows:)
(1) We are apt to lose sight of the fact that the whole world's
business is daily becoming more and more internationalized and that
what in former centuries was done parochially is now more and more
done internationally.
The first public international convention ever held took place
less than 75 years ago; it is a significant fact that this was a
peace convention. To-day there are over 300 societies: Commercial,
scientific, religious, sociological, industrial, sporting, etc.,
organized internationally. During those seventy-odd years over
2,000 international congresses of one kind or another have actually
taken place, and now a days not one year passes without several
scores being added to the total. An incomplete list for 1914 gives
49 such prospective international gatherings and over one score of
exhibitions, fairs, and festivals of an international character.
What lamentable and foolish and provoking situation at such gatherings
is due to the multitude of tongues only those know who have wasted
time and money in attending them. Usually three or more languages are
officially accepted and most of the time is irretrievably lost in
misunderstandings and more or less inadequate translations.
Compare with this the nine yearly international Esperanto congresses
held at Boulogne, Geneva, Cambridge, Dresden, Barcelona, Washington,
Cracow, Antwerp, and Berne, at which from 800 to 1,500 delegates from
20 to 30 different countries spent a week in complete communion through
this wonderful language. Orations, discussions, sermons, concerts,
theatrical performances, and general fellowship among the members being
freely enjoyed by all, and often by individuals who had only had a few
weeks of acquaintance with the language.
An international language of some sort has become an absolute necessity
of our new era of universal solidarity.
A hopeful sign of progress is that many international organizations have
already declared in favor of Esperanto for their future meetings.
(2) The impossibility of ever making any national language international
will at once become clear if we imagine the whole youth of the United
States condemned to become proficient in French or Spanish or German.
Say we take the easiest of them, Spanish: does anyone dream the thing
possible? Only an infinitesimal fraction of our young people could
attain even a smattering, and that at the cost of from two to three
years' study; and even then it is quite unlikely that other nations
would adopt the same language. But if they all did this impossible
thing the Spanish speaking peoples would still have the pull on them
all because they grow up with the language and have not to acquire it
artificially.
What holds good for Spanish holds good for even other so called natural
language, including English, and more with English than any other on
account of its barbarous spelling and pronunciation.
None of these objections, neither structural nor national, apply to
Esperanto, which is entirely neutral and ideally simple.
(3) The U.E.A. (Universala Esperanto Asocio) has its central office
at 10 Rue de la Bourse, Geneva, Switzerland. Yearly dues 50 cents for
private members, $2.50 for business firms. These contributions entitle
the members to use the machinery of the association for the acquisition
of information--free of cost, except postage--on any subject whatever
(except confidential matters), the only condition being that the request
be written in Esperanto. A sufficient amount of Esperanto for this
purpose can be acquired by anyone in a few days, or even in a few
hours. It is not even necessary to have a teacher, the textbooks being
very easy to master. In America, if local booksellers do not yet stock
Esperanto literature, the would-be student may apply to Peter Reilly,
Esperanto bookseller, 133 North Thirteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
A growing number of Esperantists all over the world are using the
services of the U.E.A., not only in correspondence, but actually
traveling through many countries for pleasure or profit by means of
Esperanto alone, and finding everywhere helpful hints and congenial
surroundings in the local Esperanto groups.
In addition to the U.E.A. there is an international Esperanto society
for the propaganda of the language; this has its world center at 51 Rue
de Clichy, Paris, France, and powerful national societies in France (240
branches), in England (118 branches), in Germany (over 250 branches),
etc.
(4) I should, however, add, in justice to the American people,
that wherever Esperanto has been brought to their notice by press
or platform it has been well received. I have myself lectured to
large and sympathetic audiences in Chautauqua, Buffalo, New York,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Public schools, high schools,
and universities have frequently opened their doors to Esperanto, and
in my own case the University of Pennsylvania and the University of
Columbia have shown their open-mindedness to the extent of engaging a
paid lecturer for a prolonged course.
So has the Department of Education of the city of New York.
In the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., a considerable number of
scientists have declared in favor of Esperanto, and are adepts of the
language.
My experience is that in this country the informed public warmly
approves of Esperanto and the ideals it stands for, but expects
the spread of the language to come through the schools. There is
consequently in this country a special inertia in this matter, in spite
of approval; this makes organised propaganda extremely difficult in such
a vast territory.
Accordingly the national organization, the E.A.N.A. (Esperanto
Association of North America), central offices, Newton Center, Mass.,
has so far had but a checkered and precarious existence.
A rival society, the U.S.E.A. (United States Esperanto Association) has
its headquarters at Shaller, Iowa.
(5) If I were asked how Esperanto could best be introduced into the
schools, I should suggest that a limited course of lecture lessons,
say, from 6 to 12, to the teachers would suffice to give them all that
is necessary to enable them to practice the language until complete
proficiency is attained. In many places there is even now a supply of
local Esperantists ready to cooperate with the schools.
After a month's study any teacher should be able to teach others and
perfect himself in the process. At that I would teach the language only
to the pupils in their last year of school; many of them could make
immediate use of Esperanto on entering business; most of them would
probably get enough of the language during the last session at school
to engage them to keep up the practice afterwards according to local
opportunities.
Please do not judge of this probability by your experience with other
languages, which most students drop as soon as possible. Their endless
complications make the study and practice irksome and futile, while
Esperanto is positively fascinating.
In my opinion two lessons of 45 minutes a week would amply suffice to
secure practical results never dreamed of in the French, German, or
Spanish classes. After a very short course of study, the boys and girls
would get an opportunity to correspond with scholars of their own age
and station in many lands. There are even now hundreds of school boys
and girls in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and even in China and
Japan eager for such interchange of thoughts by means of Esperanto.
The hour or hour and a half spent weekly on this subject would be amply
repaid by the increased intelligence and linguistic feeling of the
pupils, and ultimately the subject could be taught with great benefit to
the whole school, doing away with the necessity of ineffectual attempts
at teaching foreign languages to all and sundry, regardless of taste and
capacity.
(6) Perhaps a few remarks may be in place here to substantiate still
more clearly the postulate that Esperanto fulfills absolutely the ideal
requirement of a language that means to be introduced throughout the
world as a secondary or auxiliary language: Facility of acquirement to
all nations.
(a) There is not one difficult sound, such as our th, our obscure
vowels, the French nasals, the German ä, ö, ü, etc. The vowels are a,
e, i, o, and u. Each has but one sound value, and that long and full,
approximately as in the phrase: "Pa may we go, too?"
(b) The tonic accent, an insuperable difficulty in English, on account
of its irregularity and elusiveness, is in Esperanto invariably on the
last vowel but one.
(c) The grammar is reduced to a minimum, the whole mechanism of
Esperanto being compassed within 16 rules which any one can grasp and
assimilate inside one hour.
(d) The vocabulary is extremely small, less than 1,000 roots, mostly
common to every Aryan tongue, being sufficient for all ordinary purposes
of language.
This is due to the marvelously ingenious system of word building, which
enables anyone to derive from a dozen to one hundred and more words from
every root, there being to this derivation no limit but that of common
sense.
Of course, the vocabulary for science and technology is considerably
larger, but equally flexible.
(e) There are no troublesome genders; sex is expressed by the insertion
of "in" before the "o" ending of nouns, and of course only in the case
of animate creation. For instance, "viro" is man, "virino" woman,
"frato" brother, "fratino" sister, "kuzo" male cousin, "kuzino" female
cousin, etc. And here Esperanto has over all other languages not only
the signal advantage that there are no irregularities, but the far
more important advantage that the scheme is applicable to all cases.
For instance, although we have in English from 30 to 40 different
ways of forming the feminine such as father, mother; brother, sister;
uncle, aunt; bull, cow; stallion, mare; fox, vixen; etc., yet in most
cases we possess no decent or sensible way to indicate the sex of the
individuals; as, for instance, in the cases of teacher, doctor, friend,
cousin, neighbor, witness, elephant, camel, goat, typist, stenographer,
companion, president, chairman, etc.
Last, but not least, every word parses itself by its distinctive ending.
(7) The stupendous flexibility of Esperanto will be still better
understood if I state here that it possesses some 30 particles (prefixes
and suffixes), each with a definite meaning and each available whenever
you want to attach that particular meaning to any word.
We have already seen that the suffix "in" expresses the female sex
whenever it may be desirable to give it expression. So "id" denotes
the offspring, "il" the tool or instrument, "isto" the profession,
"ul" the person or individual, "ec" the quality (abstract), "ajx"
the concrete thing, product, or result, "eg" means large, and "et"
small, etc. Now, let us see how this works out in practice. Bovo is
bull; bovino, cow; bovido, calf; bovajxo, beef; bovidino, female
calf. And you may say bovego, boveto, bovinego, bovineto, bovidego,
bovideto, bovidinego, and bovidineto if you wish to add the idea of size
or smallness to the original or to the derived word.
Again: "Lern" is the root for learning. We first get lerni, to learn;
lerna, learned; lerne, learnedly; learno, learning. Next, using a few of
the particles we can make: lernebla, capable of being learned; lernema,
inclined to learn (studious); lerninda, worth learning; lernilo, a
text book (a tool); lernisto (a professional learner), a student;
lernulo, a learned person, a scholar; lerneco, learning in the abstract;
lernajxo, the matter to be learned (concrete), etc. And once more
note that what you can do with one root you can do with every root
in the vocabulary. So that the originally available number of words
is multiplied ten and hundred fold. Which simply means a tremendous
saving of labor in learning words and forms and yet secures a range of
expression and a degree of precision undreamed of in any other language.
(8) On the possible rivals, past, present, or future, to Esperanto see
closing remarks.
(9) To complete what I said on the verb during the hearing I give here
the entire paradigm of the verb in Esperanto.
Paroli, to speak; parolanta, speaking; parolata, spoken.
Present, I speak, etc.: Mi parolas, vi parolas, li parolas, sxi parolas,
ni parolas, vi parolas, ili parolas, oni (one) parolas, gxi (it)
parolas.
There a thus only one ending "as" for the present of every verb and the
same for every person.
In the past the ending is "is": mi parolis, I spoke, etc.
In the future "os" mi parolos, I shall speak, etc. In the conditional
"us": mi parolus, I should speak, etc. In the subjunctive "u": ke
mi parolu, that I may or might speak, the tense being sufficiently
indicated by the antecedent verb.
For the imperative we use the subjunctive without conjunction and
generally without subject.
The participle has a most ingenious flexbility, it having three forms,
anta, inta, onta for the active, and ata, ita, ota for the passive;
parolanta, speaking now; parolinta, having spoken; parolonta, about to
be speaking; parolata, being spoken now; parolita, spoken formerly;
parolota, to be spoken later.
Only practice can reveal the wonderful usefulness of this scheme, again,
of course, applicable to all verbs.
One interesting sequel is, that as every word can be turned into a
noun--if sense demands it--by simply changing the ending into o, we
therefore get: parolanto, the present speaker; parolinto, the past
speaker; parolonto, the future speaker.
Let no one say that such richness and possibility of precision is of
no importance; many a life's jeopardy has turned on less. Nor can it
be said that this unlimited capacity of expression makes the mechanism
of the language cumbersome, for the whole scheme of Esperanto can be
thoroughly mastered in a few hours.
(10) In England Esperanto has been on the school rates for several
years; any technical or continuation school can apply to the board of
education for permission to put Esperanto on its program. In 1909 it was
already thus taught in 33 centers.
The London Chamber of Commerce holds examinations in Esperanto every
year, and has done so since 1907. The United Kingdom Association of
Teachers prepares for the certificate of proficiency in Esperanto.
In the town of Lille, France, Esperanto has been taught in the high
schools for at least nine years; about 1,500 pupils benefiting yearly
from this. The same is true of Rio de Janeiro, in Brasil.
In conclusion, I wish to register my opinion as an unbiased student of
the whole movement for the adoption of an international language that
Esperanto has nothing to fear from any rival scheme--present, past, or
future.
Of upward of 150 different projects that have seen the light since the
seventeenth century, not one was born with a life worth saving but
Esperanto; not one has ever attained one-hundredth part the power and
vogue and vitality that Esperanto has achieved.
One only of all these schemes has ever come prominently before the
public before Esperanto came into the field, Volapük, and this failed of
its own defects.
One only among some 20 or 30 imitations of Esperanto, namely, Ido,
succeeded for a time in creating a diversion in the Esperanto camp.
If Volapük died of its defects, it is permissible to say that Ido
never lived on account of its numerous authors' everlasting chase
after theoretical perfection, each one having a different opinion--and
changing the same with every wind--as to what constitutes perfection
in every one of a thousand features of a human language. Accordingly,
the Idoists have altered their mock Esperanto a hundred times in six
years, so that no one has been able to keep track of the changes, and
the adherents of the secession themselves have never been able to learn,
speak, and use the language.
During these six years Esperanto has succeeded in establishing itself
and getting a firm hold in every civilized country from China to Peru
and from Greenland to Zanzibar, because it is a live and growing
language, perfect in so far that it is endowed from the start with all
the power of evolution without the need of any internal changes in its
wonderfully simple structure.
Here are a few quotations from great thinkers as to the need for an
auxiliary language:
The diversity of languages is fatal for genius and progress. If
there were a universal language, we should save a third of life.
(Leibnitz.)
The interrelationships of the peoples are so great that they most
certainly need a universal language. (Montesquieu.)
One of the greatest torments of life is the diversity of language.
(Voltaire.)
What an immeasurable profit it would be for the human race if we were
able to intercommunicate by means of one language. (Volney.)
It seems to me quite possible--probable even--than an artificial
language to be universally used will be greed upon. (Herbert
Spencer.)
The learning of many languages fills the memory with words instead of
facts and thoughts, and this is a vessel which, with every person,
can only contain certain limited amount of records. Therefore the
learning of many languages is injudicious, inasmuch as it arouses
the belief in the possession of dexterity, and, as a matter of
fact, it lends a kind of delusive importance to social intercourse.
It is also injurious in that it opposes the acquirement of solid
knowledge and the intention to win the respect of men in an honest
way. Finally, it is the ax which is laid at the root of a delicate
sense of language in our mother tongue, which thereby is incurably
injured and destroyed. The two nations which have produced the
greatest stylists, the Greeks and the French, learned no foreign
languages; but as human intercourse grows more cosmopolitan, and
as, for instance, a good merchant in London must now be able to
read and write eight languages, the learning of many tongues has
certainly become a necessary evil; but which, when finally carried
to an extreme, will compel mankind to find a remedy, and in some far
off future there will be a new language used at first as a language
of commerce, then as a language of intellectual intercourse, then
for all, as surely as some time or other there will be aviation. Why
else should philology have studied the laws of language for a whole
century and have estimated the necessary, the valuable, and the
successful portion of each separate language? (Nietsche.)
In this connection it may be well to repeat once more that Esperanto is
only an "auxiliary" language. Nobody dreams of it being a "universal
language."