Page:An attempt towards an international language.pdf/25

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17

life, thanks to the method of construction of my language, can be comprised on a small sheet of paper, which can be readily slipped into an ordinary envelope; so there is nothing to do but to write your letter in my language and enclose the vocabulary in Spanish (a matter of a few coppers), and the addressee can certainly make out your letter, for you not only send him a dictionary, but clear and complete instructions how to use it. In it will be found sufficient words for usual purposes, and the method of formation of new words will serve as a model for all others that may be desired; technical and “foreign” words will not appear in the vocabulary, as they can easily be replaced.

(b) Thanks to the construction of the language, I therefore can communicate with any one I choose, the sole inconvenience being that (until the tongue has become generally known) I must await the proces of each phrase being analyzed. In order to obviate this as much as possible, I have chosen my stock of words, not at hazard, nor by creatiion , but have selected words already known to the whole world. Thus such words as are employed indifferently by most civilized peoples I nave retained without change; if they sound differently in different languages I have chosen those already common to two or three of the most important modern European nations, or those that, although they belong only to one language, yet have a diffused currency. Where the sound varies I have endeavored to find one that could be recognized by various peoples. Thus, “proche” may mean differently in several languages; I therefore return to the Latin “proximus” which, more or less altered, appears in the modern tongues and form from it the word “proksim," which can surely be comprehended by every person of a liberal education. In other cases I have taken Latin words bodily, as it has been an almost International tongue for a long period. My only exceptions2