Higher Education and a Common Language (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Sinopsis

Excerpt from Higher Education and a Common Language

The uneasiness felt in traveling in countries of whose languages we are ignorant has given rise to these speculations about a possible future unity of language, and also to speculations of more modest and practicable proportions about a universal tongue, which, with out displacing the languages actually existing, might be learned in addition to them by the educated class of every nation. Some have gone so far as to imagine the possibility of creating an artificial language, as you might make a lump of artificial stone, and it has been thought that a language created by human ingenuity in this perfectly conscious way would have great advantages in simplicity and consistency, and therefore be much easier to learn. One or two linguists have, we believe, actually attempted the construction of such a tongue, and although the task is one of the most formidable proportions, it may not be beyond the capacity of a man with great knowledge of the true laws that have governed the growth of the natural languages. It is probable, however, that if an artificial lan guage were elaborately invented, and adopted by a certain number of clever men, it would be found hard and inflexible, and totally wanting in those rich resources of expression by phraseology which comes from experience alone. Hence the skepticism with which this scheme has generally been regarded by those who were clearly aware of the true nature of language. You might invent the words, they say, but you could not invent the thousand happy turns of expression that convey so much more than the words them selves convey. So it is believed most generally, and with good rea son, that ii any universal medium of communication is felt to be a necessity for mankind, the only practical way to attain it must be to choose some language already existing and make it the common medium of intercourse among men of education everywhere.

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