Part 11 (1/2)

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.