Louis Couturat

“ The Translator hopes, therefore, that English-speaking men of science will not judge the question of international language before they have quietly and dispassionately examined the arguments so ably set forth in the following pages. It is not a question of "another language"; it is a question of the final solution by the methods of science of one of the greatest of scientific problems.
Internationalisation of thought is the motto of the twentieth century, the device on the banner of progress. Science, the Super-Nation of the world, must lead the way in this as in all other things. ”

“ Language is not for him something "which thinks and poetises," but rather an instrument for conveying his knowledge and wishes to other people, much after the fashion whereby the musician is enabled to convey his feelings by means of musical notation and the instruments of the orchestra. The question of the suitability of a language is important in this connection; and so it does not appear so very strange that it is just the scientific investigators, technologists, and philosophers who have never been quite satisfied with living or dead languages. ”

“ Without doubt one of the most important conditions to be satisfied by an artificial international language is, that it should be capable of being employed in science. Considering the leading part which science plays to-day in the life of nations, the system which this intellectual Great Power will adopt cannot be a matter of indifference; indeed, its capability of serving the needs of science might well be regarded as the test of an artificial language. ”

“ In literature properly so called one will endeavour nevertheless to adhere to this principle, but where the chief question is one of precision of concepts, as in science, language must be regarded as a handmaiden, whose first duty is to obey. For language stands only in a secondary relationship to the independently developed and determined concepts of science, which have been already fixed by the symbols assigned to them, just in the same way that language has fixed the concepts of daily life. ”

“ But even assuming that the young man continues the study of the language that he has learnt as a child, or even indeed learns another during his school days, he will possess at best that approximate knowledge of the three chief languages which we have characterised above as being neither qualitatively nor quantitatively sufficient, because it does not suffice for oral intercourse, and because other languages must be taken into account. ”

“ How could one think of artificially creating a language, which, after all, is a living and spontaneously developing organism? One might as well think of artificially creating a live horse!"
It is true that one cannot make a live horse, but one can [7] make an automobile, which under certain circumstances may replace the horse, and even excel its performance. But no one would think on that account of totally doing away with horses. In a similar manner the partisans of an artificial language have no wish to displace the natural languages. ”

“ Our modern civilisation is signalised by the application of science to practice. We are no longer pure empiricists. Science penetrates into every department of daily life, and all enlightened people are aware that the age of pure empiricism is over.
The movement for a universal language possesses its epochs, like other things, but we may rest assured that the era of the attempts to solve the problem of auxiliary language in a purely empirical, or even indeed romantic, manner has passed away with the Volapük and Esperanto periods. ”

“ At the present day the rapid development in every department of life has made us only too ready to regard everything around us as transient. We forget, however, that the rapidly accumulating inventions and discoveries which startle and surprise us always refer to new things. One must bear in mind that there also exist things which in their essential features can only be invented once, and that the international language in its final form is one of these. ”

“ Zamenhof, which in its principles was characterised by genius, but in its execution was imperfect and therefore insufficient, has only through the reforming labours of distinguished philologists attained to that perfection of form and principle required to make it the international auxiliary language of the civilised world. The difficulty of the undertaking no longer lies in the language itself, but, rather, in the task of inspiring all concerned, and especially the leading thinkers, with the conviction that it is practically realisable. ”

“ It is only, indeed, after many attempts that an experiment can be successfully carried through. But, without wishing to deny that very remarkable things have been accomplished, all these experiments prove one fact beyond question, namely, that the languages mentioned do not even approximately, and cannot indeed possibly, satisfy the requirements which science must demand of the artificial auxiliary language. Science could not, therefore, have chosen any of these languages as the artificial auxiliary language even had she wished, nor could she do so in the future without experiencing failure. ”

“ CHAPTER VI The Question of Nomenclature
If we take up a book or a paper dealing with mathematics (especially analysis) printed in a language, such as Japanese, which is quite unintelligible to us, we shall, nevertheless, soon succeed in finding out what it is about and often in understanding its main contents. The reason of this is, of course, that the mathematical formulæ consist of symbols which are intelligible to us because they are used in the same manner by all civilised nations. The same thing holds good in physics, and especially in chemistry ”

“ It is their duty to contribute to the development and perfecting of a language which, without losing anything of its practical qualities, can and must realise by degrees the ideal of human language; if it is true that there does exist an ideal in our languages, though hidden and irremediably disfigured by all sorts of anomalies. ”

“ Whereas twenty years ago the systems which appeared were as different as day from night, at the present day one perceives great lines of convergence, pointing to the time when mankind shall have added to the other triumphs of civilisation that of an auxiliary language recognised and used by everybody, to the great advantage of all whose horizon is not limited by the boundaries of their mother country. ”

“ If one is possessed of a little natural talent, one can by dint of industry and much loss of time easily get so far as to read or understand a paper or a letter in a foreign language, but when it comes to writing (replying) the task is incomparably more difficult. One can, however, not assume, when a German scholar or man of science replies in German to a letter written in French or English, that he will be always understood. ”

“ There exists here a field of work for those who are interested in the idea of an artificial language which is as fertile as it is interesting. As is well known, we scientific men suffer a good deal from the fact that the same words are frequently employed for the vague ideas of daily life as well as for the perfectly definite concepts of science. This is indeed one of the most important reasons why new designations for scientific concepts should, as far as possible, be taken from the dead languages, such designations being thereby already international. ”

“ We do not wish, however, to stop at this stage of development; we wish to be able to internationalise not only single ideas, but also the whole train of thought. For this purpose it is impracticable to make use of any of the national languages, since they are all [13] so unsuitable, illogical, capricious, and complicated that the student must learn to steer clear of thousands of difficulties before he is able to express himself fairly correctly. It is possible to construct an artificial language with such a regular structure that it can be employed at once without making mistakes. ”

“ It is quite self-evident that, if one wishes to become acquainted with the imaginative literature and the inner thoughts and feelings of a foreign nation, one cannot content oneself with translations, but must study a language in its own country. ”

“ Just as science has succeeded in giving to the world a uniform system of weights and measures by choosing instead of a national unit of length one common to all nations, namely, the length of an earth quadrant, so only that language could find general acceptance which was based on the common possession of those peoples for whom it was intended. By that we mean the stock of words common to the three great families of languages, the Germanic, Romance, and Slavonic. ”

“ It is, in fact, possible (as is done in many well-to-do families) , by means of a French or German governess, to teach a child, besides its mother tongue, one of these languages, in so far as its mental development permits. It is probably inadvisable to teach more than one new language in this way, in order to avoid injury to the child's own mother tongue. Such a knowledge, however, is quite insufficient for the needs of the young scientific man, and so the acquaintance with a language gained in this way requires constant extension and development. ”

“ For all the thousands of words in scientific and technical nomenclature which, apart from their nationality, the scientific men of all countries have been inventing for centuries according to very uniform principles, as well as the likewise largely international expressions of "unofficial" nomenclature, form a possession of modern scientific civilisation of such magnitude, importance, and value, that it cannot on any account be sacrificed. ”

“ Apart from the practical value of the principle of internationality, there exists in science another very special reason for regarding it as a necessary condition to be satisfied by an international auxiliary language. ”

“ The learning of any natural language, with all its irregularities, peculiarities, and anomalies, is child's play compared to the learning of an à priori system. All experiments in this direction have failed and need no longer be seriously considered. But even when an artificial language has not been constructed à priori another error, producing much the same effect, may very greatly injure its facility in practice. ”

“ One of the most effective means of simplifying the vocabulary of a language is a carefully worked-out system of word formation, which enables everyone, by means of a series of regular prefixes and suffixes, to form with the greatest ease a large number of new words, which are immediately intelligible to all who know the rules. ”

“ Man is, in fact, a psychological as well as a logical being. If there is to be any practical outcome, we must, therefore, under all circumstances base our work on the psychological principle of internationality. It is only this which confers on the auxiliary language the quality of being easily learnt and spoken, which is unconditionally necessary for its practical use in science, as in other departments of life. ”

“ On account of their innumerable relationships and associations, which is indeed what makes them so dear to the nations that employ them, all natural languages are extraordinarily difficult, and therefore unsuitable for the purpose of international intercourse. We require, accordingly, a language which shall be not only neutral, but also as easy as possible: easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to understand. ”

“ A comparison of the two English texts demonstrates the marvellous lucidity of Ido as a medium for the transmission of thought without distortion.
Two things are indispensable for the realisation of a great idea. In the first place, the idea must, as regards its nature and value, have a rational foundation, and its possibility must be demonstrated. In the second place, there must be present courage, energy, and persevering devotion in order to realise practically that which has been recognised to be right and good. ”

“ This principle represents evidently the ideal of all language, for a language, being essentially a system of symbols, is only theoretically perfect (and useful and convenient in practice) when there exists a unique correspondence between the symbol and the idea symbolised.
Now it follows from this principle that it is quite incorrect to say, as is often done, "Being given a stem, it suffices to add to it -ar to form a verb, -o to form a substantive, -a to form an adjective"; we require to define the sense possessed by this verb, substantive, and adjective. ”