LINGUISTIC UNITY?
Do we really want to make one language superior?
In the late twenties or early thirties, as I recall, there was quite a drive among many
people try to make a new language called "Esperanto" into an official, universal
language to be spoken by all.
It was, I think, basically a clumsy combination of English and Spanish with
academically supported modifications in each language and very few innovative
additions. The merchants urging the change were, I think, intent far too much on how
easily Esperanto could be learned rather than any values which were to come to us by its
use. Too many people came to think of it as a sort of short-hand method as applied to
spoken as well as a written language and the idea bombed although Esperanto groups
are still around and the idea if not dead. Esperanto devotees are still around today. The
concept is dormant, but not dead.
There was another new language running as a far-off second behind Esperanto,
but I don't remember the name of it.
In recent years, Spanish has made noticeable inroads in both conversational and
other communications methods as well as various Asiatic tongues in some areas.
` Churches offer religious services in Spanish and other languages in many cities
including our local church community. Translation services are being added in business
and commerce, and radio and TV stations are becoming Spanish-only in some areas.
Our historical heritage has many examples showing how the languages which
came to America with immigrants from many lands often stayed with us in print
publications. It is very noticeable in Pennsylvania where Germanic dialects held forth for
years of years in newspaper and book publication. Scandinavian tongues, Slavic
languages and a few oriental ones left a mark on various cities and town. The various
Romance languages, by and large, were spotty and did not endure as long as others,
probably due to more cognate usage’s and basic similarities to American English. Note
to, that English English, in a strict sense, did not survive, either.
American lingo is an amalgam of many languages containing gems of wisdom and
perfection from many speech forms of other cultures, and with an open invitation to new
imports at any time.
Language innovations of recent years will, in time, be assimilated and they ,too, will
leave their mark on our language as have others.
At time it appears to many Americans that it ours maybe the language destined to
become the universal tongue after all, but we have rather provincial view of the
tremendous extent of other languages throughout the world. English may well serve as
the commercial language among many nations just as common, street versions of Greek
did for so long, but it is faced with numerical superiority in various sections of the world and
in particular those areas where population continues to grow. We are outnumbered.
A.L.M. May 24, 2002 [c491wds]
