International Language Part 11

1. August Theodor von Grimm, state councillor of the Russian Empire, worked out a "programme for the formation of a universal language,"

which contains some _a priori_ elements, as well as nearly all the principles which subsequent authors of _a posteriori_ languages have realized. This Grimm is not to be confused with the famous philologist Jacob von Grimm, though he wrote about the same time.

2. Schleyer, 1879-_Volapuk_. (See below.)

3. Verheggen, 1886-_Nal Bino_.

4. Menet, 1886-_Langue universelle_. An imitation of Volapuk.

5. Bauer, 1886-_Spelin_. A development of Volapuk with more words taken from neutral languages.

6. St. de Max, 1887-_Bopal_. An imitation of Volapuk.

7. Dormoy, 1887-_Balta_. A simplification of Volapuk.

8. Fieweger, 1893-_Dil_. An exaggeration of Volapuk for good and ill.

9. Guardiola, 1893-_Orba_. A fantastic language.

10. W. von Arnim, 1896-_Veltparl_. A derivative of Volapuk.

11. Marchand, 1898-_Dilpok_. Simplified Volapuk.

12. Bollack, 1899-_La langue bleue_. Aims merely at commercial and common use. Ingenious, but too difficult for the memory.

III. A POSTERIORI LANGUAGES

1. Faiguet, 1765-_Langue nouvelle_. Faiguet was treasurer of France. He published his project, which is a scheme for simplifying grammar, in the famous eighteenth-century encyclopaedia of Diderot and d'Alembert.

2. Schipfer, 1839-_Communicationssprache_. This scheme has an historical interest for two reasons. First, the fact that it is founded on French reflects the feeling of the time that French was, as he says, "already to a certain extent a universal language." The point of interest is to compare the date when the projects began to be founded on English. In 1879 Volapuk took English for the base. Secondly, Schipfer's scheme reflects the new consciousness of wider possibilities that were coming into the world with the development of means of communication by rail and steamboat. The author recommends the utility of his project by referring to "the new way of travelling."

3. De Rudelle, 1858-_Pantos-Dimon-Glossa._ De Rudelle was a modern-language master in France and afterwards at the London Polytechnic. His language is based on ten natural languages, especially Greek, Latin, and the modern derivatives of Latin, with grammatical hints from English, German, and Russian. It is remarkable for having been the first to embody several principles of the first importance, which have since been more fully carried out in other schemes, and are now seen to be indispensable. Among these are: (1) distinction of the parts of speech by a fixed form for each; (2) suppression of separate verbal forms for each person; (3) formation of derivatives by means of suffixes with fixed meanings.

4. Pirro, 1868-_Universalsprache_. Based upon five languages-French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish-and containing a large proportion of words from the Latin.

5. Ferrari, 1877-_Monoglottica_ (?).

6. Volk and Fuchs, 1883-_Weltsprache_. Founded on Latin.

7. Cesare Meriggi, 1884-_Blaia Zimondal_.

8. Courtonne, 1885-_Langue Internationale neo-Latine_. Based on the modern Romance languages, and therefore not sufficiently international.

A peculiarity is that all roots are monosyllabic. The history of this attempt ill.u.s.trates the weight of inertia against which any such project has to struggle. It was presented to the Scientific Society of Nice, which drew up a report and sent it to all the learned societies of Romance-speaking countries. Answers were received from three towns-Pau, Sens, and Nimes. It was then proposed to convene an international neo-Latin congress; but it is not surprising to hear that nothing came of it.

9. Steiner, 1885-_Pasilingua_. A counterblast to Volapuk. The author aims at copying the methods of naturally formed international languages like the "lingua franca" or Pidgin-English. Based on English, French, and German; but the English vocabulary forms the groundwork.

10. Eichhorn, 1887-_Weltsprache_. Based on Latin. A leading principle is that each part of speech ought to be recognizable by its form. Thus nouns have two syllables; adjectives, three; p.r.o.nouns, one; verbal roots, one syllable beginning and ending with a consonant; and so on.

11. Zamenhof, 1887-_Esperanto_. (See below.)

12. Bernhard, 1888-_Lingua franca nuova_. A kind of b.a.s.t.a.r.d Italian.

13. Lauda, 1888-_Kosmos_. Draws all its vocabulary from Latin.

14. Henderson, 1888-_Lingua_. Latin vocabulary with modern grammar.

15. Henderson, 1902-_Latinesce_. A simpler and more practical adaptation of Latin by the same author-_e.g._ the present infinitive form does duty for several finite tenses, and words are used in their modern senses.

16. Hoinix (pseudonym for the same indefatigable Mr. Henderson), 1889-_Anglo-franca_. A mixture of French and English. Both this and the barbarized Latin schemes are fairly easy and certainly simpler than the real languages, but they are shocking to the ear, and produce the effect of mutilation of language.

17. Stempel, 1889-_Myrana_. Based on Latin with admixture of other languages.

18. Stempel, 1894-_Communia_. A simplification of No. 17, with a new name.

19. Rosa, 1890-_Nov Latin_. A set of rules for using the Latin dictionary in a certain way as a key to produce something that can be similarly deciphered.

20. Julius Lott, 1890-_Mundolingue_. Founded on Latin. Lott started an international society for a universal language, proposing to build up his language by collaboration of savants thus brought together.

21. Marini, 1891-_Methode rapide, facile et certaine pour construire un idiome universel_.

22. Liptay, 1892-_Langue catholique_. Based on the theory than an international language already exists (in the words common to many languages), and has only to be discovered.

23. Mill, 1893-_Anti-Volapuk_. A simple universal grammar to be applied to the vocabulary of each national language.

24. Braakman, 1894-_Der Wereldtaal "El Mundolinco," Gramatico del Mundolinco pro li de Hollando Factore_ (Noordwijk).

25. Albert Hoessrich (date?)-_Talnovos, Monatsschrift fur die Einfuhrung und Verbreitung der allgemeinen Verkehrssprache_ "_Tal_"

(Sonneberg, Thuringen).

26. Heintzeler, 1895-_Universala_. Heintzeler compares the twelve chief artificial languages already proposed, and shows that they have much in common. He suggests a commission to work out a system on an eclectic basis.

27. Beermann, 1895-_Novilatin_. Latin brought up to date by comparison with six chief modern languages.

28. _Le Linguist_, 1896-7. A monthly review conducted by a band of philologists. It contains many discussions of the principles which should underly an international language, and suggestions, but no complete scheme.

29. Puchner, 1897-_Nuove Roman_. Based largely on Spanish, which the author considers the best of the Romance tongues.

30. Nilson-_La vest-europish central-dialekt_ (1890); _Lasonebr, un transitional lingvo_ (1897); _Il dialekt Centralia, un compromiss entr il lingu universal de Akademi international e la vest-europish central-dialekt_ (1899).

31. Kurschner, 1900-_Lingua Komun_. The author was an Esperantist, but found Esperanto not scientific enough. It is almost incredible that a man who knew Esperanto should invent a language with several conjugations of the verb, but this is what Kurschner has done.

32. International Academy of Universal Language, 1902-_Idiom Neutral_.

(See below.)

33. Elias Molee, 1902-_Tutonish; or, Anglo-German Union Tongue_.

_Tutonish; a Teutonic International Language_ (1904).

34. Molenaar-_Panroman, skiz de un ling intern.a.z.ional_ (in _Die Religion der Menschheit_, March 1903); _Esperanto oder Panroman? Das Weltsprache-problem und seine einfachste Losung_ (1906); _Universal Ling-Panroman_ (in _Menschheitsziele_, 1906); _Gramatik de Universal_ (Leipzig, Puttmann, 1906).