UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. A phrase ap plied in the specific sense to languages artificially formed for the purpose of ready by persons whose natural language is different. The aim is to do away with the difficulties and irregularities with which historical accidents have encumbered the existing languages, and to eonstruct, out of old materials or new materials, a language so simple and regular that any learner of any nation can acquire it with ease, and use it with precision. Most of the schemes proposed are meant to serve the purposes of business, travel, and correspondence; not to dis place the existing languages, nor to serve as vehicles of literary expression.
A definite attempt at the formation of a scientific language was made by Bishop Wilkins in his Essay Toward a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668). This was a classification of ideas and of words by ideas, and a scheme of characters, much like shorthand, to represent them. Various other schemes appeared, but none attracted serious at tention. It was not till the last quarter of the nineteenth century that the time was ripe for a serious effort at either a scientific or a uni versal language. At that time the history and nature of language were better known, and the number of students of language was great enough to furnish, in the proportion interested. an in telligent public to receive such proposals.
Accordingly, when Johann Martin Schleyer published, in 1879, his famous 'world-speech,' Volapilk, it attracted wide attention. (See VOLAPeK.) The impulse given by Schleyer moved other inventors; and in a few years more than a dozen 'international languages' were put forth. The chief schemes were: (1) `La lingvo internaeia' ('Internationale Sprache'), by Dr. L. Zamenhof, under the pseudonym of 'Esperanto,' which name was later attached to the language itself, Warsaw, 1894; (2) 'Elosmos,' by Eugene A. Lauda, Berlin. 1894; (3) `Spelin,' by Prof. G. Bauer. Agram, 1888; (4) 'Myrana,' by J. Stempfi, Kempten, 1889: (5) 'Lingua interna tional' or `Mondolingue.' by J. Lott, Vienna, 1890; (6) 'Universala,' by Dr. Eugene Heintz eler, Stuttgart, 1893; (7) `Novilatiin,' by Dr. E. Beermann, Leipzig, 1895; (8) `Idiom neutral,' by 'the international Academy of the Universal Language,' 1893-1903.
`Spelin' is formed on the same lines as Vola pilk, is simpler in its phonetic form and in flexional system, and is briefer. The first named, 'Esperanto,' after a long quiescence, has re .cently gained much attention, and has an active following in Europe and America. The phonetic basis of 'Esperanto' is the Latin alphabet, ex cept g and y, and with the addition of five new letters (old letters with diacritical marks) for the sounds represented in English b}• ch (tsh), j or g or dg (d7.11), oh (kh or x ), as in loch, sh, and,: (zit), as in azure. The structure is simple. Every noun ends in -a, every adjective in -a. The present tense of verbs ends in -as, the past in -is, the future in -os. The conditional mode ends in -us, the imperative in -a, the infinitive in -i, the ,present participle in -onto, the past participle in -inta, the future participle in -onto, The persons 'arc expressed by separate pronouns. Thus, anti,
to love, flu amas, I love, vi arms, you loved, li he will love, iii they should love, etc. The vocabulary is taken mainly from Latin, with less change than Volapiik allows. With a little practice, any educated person, who knows some Latin or French, can recognize nearly all the words. The context indicates the meaning of the more arbitrary words and the rest is easy. The language is, as it were, a `composite photo graph' of Latin, French, and Italian. English as such hardly appears.
The last-named scheme, the 'Idiom neutral,' developed out of Volapiik, resembles 'Esperanto' in taking its vocabulary mainly from Latin or Romance, with the minimum of change; but it abandons the use of purely arbitrary formatives, preferring formatives taken from Latin or Eng lish. Thus dons, house, domi, houses. There are no ease-endings at all, their place being supplied by prepositions (de dem, a dons, etc.). The verb goes thus: Ali am, I love, t'o am, you love, etc., nri amen•, I loved, azi amero, I shall love, mi es -arced, I am loved, etc. The prepositions, conjunc tions, etc., are chiefly adopted or adapted front Latin or French. The result is a 'composite photograph' of Latin and French, and the Latin side of English. The object of easy intelligibility is fairly attained. It is quite possible for an educated reader to read the 'Idiom neutral' upon ten minutes' sight, without the aid of either grammar or dictionary. So much of the text is intelligible on mere inspection that the rest may easily be inferred.
`Esperanto' and 'Idiom neutral' approach a principle which has been made since 1880 the basis of several attempts at an international lan guage. That principle is to employ the historical Latin for the purpose, without mutilation or serious alteration, but with a free addition of modern terms in Latin form, and with a mod ernized syntax, the order of words, in particular, being conformed to that of the modern languages. In view' of the universal use of the Latin vocab ulary, with the Greek, as the basis of modern scientific nomenclature, and of the continued and inevitable use of Latin in all kinds of historical, literary, and ecclesiastical scholarship. the pro posal to extend it, in an emancipated form, to the uses of ordinary international correspond ence and commerce is not at all unreasonable.
Consult: Steiner. CoSilingio (Neuwied. 1885 88) ; Lilts, the Conditions of a Universal Language," in Philological Society Transactions (London, 1888) ; Bauer, Der Nortseluiff der Weltsprache-Idca (_gram, 1888) ; Sehleyer. l'obz inik. Die We/ism-eche (Sigmaringen, 1881) ; id., l'otainik. Gram matik des corersalspracko (4th ed., 1881) ; O'Connor, Esper a»to. the Unirersal Language (New York, I903) ; Andr(;, Le Latin: le probleme de la langur. inter nationals. (Paris, 1803). Monthly periodicals are Lingvo internaeia (Paris) ; L'Esin'rantiste