International auxiliary language

“ How, then, shall we achieve the more immediate, rational and practical aim, of acquiring a single auxiliary medium of international speech, that shall replace no single language, however obscure, that shall remain forever neutral, and that shall be equally acceptable to all? ”

“ Is it not, on the contrary, fairly certain that the use of an auxiliary language, if universal, would open up for many regions from which exclusion is now felt as a hindrance?
Take the case of a doctor, scientist, scholar, researcher in any branch of knowledge, who desires to keep abreast of the advance of knowledge in his particular line. He may have to wait for years before a translation of some work he wishes to read is published in a tongue he knows, and in any case all the periodical literature of every nation, except the one or two whose languages he may learn, will be closed to him. ”

“ Through this means international education and training become possible; the evidence and history of the past can be acquired. The spread of the known facts of the human world depends upon language. The explanation of divine teachings can only be through this medium. As long as diversity of tongues and lack of comprehension of other languages continue, these glorious aims cannot be realized. Therefore, the very first service to the world of man is to establish this auxiliary international means of communication. ”

“ The most important point of principle to note is Art. 2, 3rd Con.: "It must not be one of the national languages."
As regards the methods of action prescribed, no attempt is to be made to bring direct pressure to bear upon any government. It was rightly felt that the adoption of a universal language is a matter for private initiative. No government can properly take up the question, no Ministry of Education can officially introduce an auxiliary language into the schools under its control, until the principle has met with a certain amount of general recognition. ”

“ The proportion of those speaking a certain language is no less impracticable a basis for the choice of an international auxiliary medium. Leaving out the question of Asiatic tongues, in spite of their superiority in this regard, the selection is among those same reciprocally jealous nations, namely, Russian, French, English and German. ”

“ When fully organized on some terms of partnership as demanded by the growth of the Colonies, it will go even farther in the future. But all this has nothing to do with an international language. Howsoever mighty, the British Empire will not swallow up the earth—at any rate, not in our time. And till it does, it is not practical politics to expect other peoples to recognize English as the international language as between themselves. ”

“ I need not here point out the considerable importance to humanity of an international language—a language unconditionally accepted by everyone, and the common property of the whole world. How much time and labour we spend in learning foreign tongues, and yet when travelling in foreign countries, we are, as a rule, unable to converse with other human beings in their own language. ”

“ There is a necessity to choose and to spread the use of an international language, designed not to replace national idioms in the individual life of each people, but to serve in the written and oral relations between persons whose mother-tongues are different. ”

“ We have attempted to show that through neither conquest, natural development or international agreement had any living language a serious chance of being accepted as international. But is there no other solution? Are we not substituting, in every domain, order for chaos, science for tradition, the organizing will of man for the blind arrangements of fate? Is it beyond the capacity of our scholars to select or in the last resort to devise, a perfectly neutral tongue? If French or English will not do, why not try Esperanto? ”

“ After twenty-nine years of daily developing cosmopolitanism—years that have witnessed the rising of a new star in the East and an uninterrupted growth of interchange of ideas between the nations of the earth, whether in politics, literature, or science, without a single check to the ever-rising tide of internationalism—are we again to let the favourable moment pass unused, just for want of making up our minds? At present one language holds the field. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Diversity of languages has been a fruitful cause of discord. The function of language is to convey the thought and purpose of one to another. Therefore, it matters not what language man speaks or employs. Sixty years ago Bahá’u’lláh advocated one language as the greatest means of unity and the basis of international conference. He wrote to the kings and rulers of the various nations, recommending that one language should be sanctioned and adopted by all governments. According to this each nation should acquire the universal language in addition to its native tongue. ”

“ Any person who has had the fortune to reside in a town in which he meets citizens of nations often hostile to each other, can easily understand and appreciate the enormous service that could be rendered by an International Language, one that, without entering at all into the inner life of these peoples, could, at least, be made serviceable for usual every-day affairs, in a land inhabited by diverse nationalities, where the official language differs from that of the race over which it bears sway. ”

“ With the diffusion of the study of modern languages, with the multiplication of translations—some famous works have appeared simultaneously in eleven tongues—with the growing international vocabulary of science, commerce and pleasure, the world feels more and more its essential unity. We can live and prosper without an international language ”

“ As soon as the world recognizes that it is a labour-saving device on a large scale, and a matter of public convenience on the same plane as codes, telegraphy, or shorthand, it will no doubt be introduced. But why wait until there are rival schemes with large followings and vested interests—in short, until the same obstacles arise to the choice of an international, artificial, and neutral language, as now prevent the elevation of any national language into a universal medium? ”

“ To enable the learner to make direct use of his knowledge with persons of any nationality, whether the language be universally accepted or not; in other words, the language is to be directly a means of international communication. ”

“ Any one, who has lived for a length of time in a commercial city, whose inhabitants were of different unfriendly nations, will easily understand what a boon would be conferred on mankind by the adoption of an international idiom, which, without interfering with domestic affairs or the private-life of nations, would play the part of an official and commercial dialect, at any rate in countries inhabited by people of different nationalities. ”

“ But, if there were in existence an International Language, all translations could be made into it, and even works written therein, which would possess, ipso facto, an international character. The impassable wall that separates literatures and peoples would at once crumble into the dust, and all that was written by another nation would be as acceptable as if in our own mother tongue; reading would prove common to all, and with it would advance education, ideals, convictions, tendencies–the whole world would be as one family. ”

“ Ninth, a universal language shall be adopted and be taught by all the schools and institutions of the world. A committee appointed by national bodies of learning shall select a suitable language to be used as a medium of international communication. All must acquire it. This is one of the great factors in the unification of man. ”

“ I have proved that its success in no wise depends upon the interest that society at large may take in it; that it can with justice be called an International Language, even if no one cares to hear it spoken of; that, in fact, it gives to every one who learns it the possibility of being understood by any stranger, of whatever nationality, provided he can read and write. ”

“ French is not only the language of 49 countries and 500 million inhabitants in the world, it is also the second international language used in international organizations. Despite the real and alleged pressure of the English-speaking community, French-speaking people insist on their language being given a fair position in the world, and receiving the same consideration given to other main languages of communication, such as English, Arabic, Chinese or Spanish. ”

“ The hope has often been expressed that one of the great national languages may, by common consent, be selected as a "universal language" ; but there is not the slightest probability that this great advantage will be voluntarily given to one nation, or that any one of the great powers can ever impose its language on others. ”

“ The extent to which more or less artificial languages are already used in various parts of the world for the transaction of interracial business, and the persistent preoccupation of thinkers with the idea for the last 200 years, culminating in the production of a great number of schemes in our own times, show that there is a demand for an international language, more perfect than has yet been available and universally valid. ”

“ Judging by the trend of events, the future among the European people belongs to one or two of the great languages. It is significant that, at the present moment of time, with a knowledge of English and French, one can travel the world. The fusion of European strains, so happily accomplished in the United States of America, is admittedly due to the determined enforcement of a single language as the sole official language of the Republic. ”

“ To be capable of truly international use a language must be possible of complete acquirement by all, whether linguistically gifted or not, and must be possible of such acquirement in such short space of time as can be devoted to this by the majority of the busy citizens of the world. ”

“ In principle, no one has anything to oppose to the introduction of an international dialect, on the contrary, all would give it their fullest approval, but each wishes to see the greater part of the civilized world able to speak the language, and himself able to comprehend it, without any preliminary „wearisome bitterness of learning“, on his own part. ”

“ Like the people of all great nations, their attention is drawn more to themselves than to others; and then the want of a knowledge of foreign languages has greatly contributed to their ignorance. This want of knowledge of foreign languages, in a nation that has traversed Europe as conquerors, is owing to the fact that they have either carried their own language with them, or met it everywhere. ”

“ It is not easy to learn a foreign languge well. Why not help young Americans to perfect themselves in the language of their parents which they have picked up at home to some extent? Why not make use of them as a powerful commercial army which would develop business relations between the United States and the lands of their ancestors? Let us not forget, too, that commercial relations are not the only ones that enrich our lives, that knowledge of languages implies knowledge of arts, literature and scientific progress. ”

“ The immense importance, which it may well be imagined, an international language would acquire in science, commerce, etc., I will not here expatiate on: whoever has but once bestowed a thought on the subject will surely acknowledge that no sacrifice would be too great, if by it we could obtain a universal tongue. ”

“ While every other nation is teaching two or three languages in its schools we have failed to do so, and yet the requirements of international trade and commerce make it absolutely essential that our young men should be taught at least one language or two languages besides their own. ”

“ It all comes back to this—you cannot eat your cake and have it too. Il faut souffrir pour être belle. The international language has the defects of its qualities. But then its qualities are great, and the world is their sphere of utility.
XIII
objection to an international language on the ground that it will soon split up into dialects
This is a particularly unfortunate objection, because it displays a radical ignorance of the history of language, and of the conditions under which it develops. ”