Several French, English and American pub lishers have undertalcen in an extensive way to publish Esperanto works, conditional on the possession of exclusive rights, while the various national Esperanto publishing houses turn out many books annually. A library. of over 5,000 volumes--constantly increasing—mcluding text books, translated and original works, is now found listed in the Esperanto catalogues. Quite a number of large commercial concerns are using the system for cable and telegraphic purposes. Courses of study in Esperanto form an attractive feature in commercial schools, clubs and public institutions, some of which make a special feature of teaching the blind to read by the new system. Several of the stand ard typewriters are equipped with Esperanto keyboards, and in that connection many stenog raphers are learning the use of the language for shorthand purposes.
In the colleges and schools, Esperanto is commanding considerable attention. One of the Esperantist triumphs was the deliveD, of an address in the Esperanto language by Mr. Mock the famous peace advocate, at the Intenaational Peace Congress, Lucerne. At the Boulogne Universal Esperanto Congress, 1,200 delegates from 22 countries spoke the Esperanto lan guage freely and understood each other thor oughly. A complete test was made by means of speeches, discussions, concerts, dramatic performances and religious services. During that congress the work of Dr. Zamenhof was officially noticed by the French government The Minister of Public Instruction extended thanIcs in behalf of the president of the repub lic and of the people of France. In the course of the proceedings a reception was tendered to the creator of Esperanto-at the Hotel de Ville, Paris. If further proof were needed that the Esperanto language is a practical spoken tongue —11 universal congresses have been sched uled— two having taken place in the United States. The largest on record was arranged for Paris, in August 1914, at which over 5,030 delegates representing every nation on the globe had already enrolled. A large majority, including a number from the United States, had arnved in Paris for the Congress week, when the declaration of war was made Imown —11 universal congresses have been sched meeting.of one of the largest and most unique international gatherings ever known. The llth Universal Congress was held in San Francisco, August 1915, in conjunction with the Eighth Na tional Convention of the Esperanto Association of North America. The value and use of Es peranto in the war.have been attested in many ways. Striking instances of the use of the in ternational tongue between Austrian prisoners and their Russian captors; between Russian captives of the Austnans and Germans, etc, have been made known. Esperantists have sent several fully equipped Red Cross Esperanto ambulances into the field with personnel. Es peranto is being taught in the pnson and intern ment camps, so that there may be a common language. There is an Esperanto repatria
tion bureau maintained in Geneva, Switzerland, through which disrupted families are brought together, correspondence forwarded, and much other good of like nature accomplished. State ments relating to justification for the war were issued in Esperanto by governments, no tably the French and German — the latter also issuing official war bulletins in Esperanto for international distribution. Keys, weighing but five grams, though containing the elements of the language and vocabulary of more than 2,000 words, are published in practically all languages, for international conversational and correspond ence purposes. A similar series of Esperanto Red Cross booklets is published, and much other work is being accomplished along these lines In short, Esperanto is proving its great value for its intended purposes and it is the best pass port in warring countries that one may pOssess.
Method of the Esperanto In the general plan of Dr. Zamenhof the atm is to omit all accidental words in the language of each nation, retaining only such words as are common to all nations. Sounds peculiar to any one language are eliminated. The English th and to, appearing in English words, but not in those of the French or German languages, are, therefore, according to the rule of the origina tor of Esperanto, dropped. The French u, the German u and the French nasals not used in English are left out, also the Spanish n and j, and the German th. The pursuance of this plan removes all difficulties as to pronuncia tion. Phonetic spelling is the Esperanto rule, a certain letter having the same sound always. Mute and double letters are cut out. The letter x becomes ks, ph becomes f, ch becomes k for the guttural sound, and e-c remaining for the ordinary sound in words like cigar. The g is used for the guttural (grit, garb), and is used for the sibilant off which is equal to age. New signs introduced are t and D. But these are for sounds already recognized. A third sign takes the place of a double letter, viz., for sh (lip equals ship and 31 equals she). Further details regarding the vocabulary, prefixes and suffixes — in fact, the whole gram mar — have been issued in separate form and can be readily obtained by students. It will suffice to say here that the Esperanto vocabu lary is much smaller than that of any other lan guage, containing only about 3,000 root words, exclusive of scientific and technical words, as compared with 32,000 in the French language, a considerably larger number in the German lan guage, and over 100,000 in English. The sim plicity of the Esperanto grammar, comprising 16 fundamental rules, with no exceptions, is quite remarkable. The majority of those who undertake the study of Esperanto, diligently, with the proper textbooks or instruction, master it in a short time. See UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE; SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE.