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- Herausgeber: Edizioni Savine
- Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
- Sprache: Englisch
The scientific attitude of mind is necessarily critical, but never sceptical without proper investigation and knowledge. The Translator hopes, therefore, that English-speaking men of science will not judge the question of international language before they have quietly and dispassionately examined the arguments so ably set forth in the following pages. It is not a question of "another language"; it is a question of the final solution by the methods of science of one of the greatest of scientific problems.
Internationalisation of thought is the motto of the twentieth century, the device on the banner of progress. Science, the Super-Nation of the world, must lead the way in this as in all other things. Amidst the clangour and the clamour of political and commercial strife, the quiet empire of knowledge grows, noiseless and unseen. Let all those who believe that this peaceful empire is destined to become the controlling force of the world assist in the attunement of its common language.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Some unusual letters and symbols are accurately represented with Unicode characters. (Some handheld devices may not support combining diacriticals such as the circumflex.) These are:
consonants with a circumflex accent ĉĝĥĵŝ; letter c with an acute accent ć; the diphthong ou with macrons ōū (many platforms do not support the combining double macron); and the calculus integral symbol ∫.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE
INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE
Considerations on the Introduction of an International Language into Science
BY
L. COUTURAT
O. JESPERSEN
R. LORENZ
Formerly Professor at the University of Caen.
Professor at the University of Copenhagen.
Professor at the Federal Polytechnicum of Zürich.
W. OSTWALD
L. PFAUNDLER
Professor emeritus of the University of Leipzig.
Professor at the University of Graz.
TRANSLATED BY
F. G. DONNAN
Professor at the University of Liverpool.
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LIMITED
10 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.
1910
BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE
PREFACE
The question of a so-called world-language, or better expressed, an international auxiliary language, was during the now past Volapük period, and is still in the present Esperanto movement, so much in the hands of Utopians, fanatics and enthusiasts, that it is difficult to form an unbiassed opinion concerning it, although a good idea lies at its basis. Both the Volapükists and Esperantists confused the linguistic aspect of the question with so many side issues that, not only was it difficult to see the former in its true light, but also the leaders of the various movements were unable to guide them in the right direction. For this reason discussions concerning an international auxiliary language appeared with good reason to many people to be unpractical, impossible, or indeed even ridiculous. Matters have, however, changed since the Délégation pour l'adoption d'une langue auxiliaire internationale has taken the matter up. This International Commission, with its headquarters in Paris, and consisting of literary and scientific men of eminent reputation, was entrusted with the task of investigating the general question of an international auxiliary language. The Delegation has, in the course of an activity extending over seven years, succeeded in showing that a sound idea lies at the root of the various movements for a universal language. Freed from all extraneous considerations, this idea involves the purely linguistic question of the introduction of an international auxiliary language. On the other hand, the Delegation has found that neither Volapük nor Esperanto have succeeded in solving the problem. As, however, Esperanto was found to contain a number of good principles, the Commission finally resolved to work out on purely scientific principles an international auxiliary language on the basis of Esperanto. The whole question of the introduction of an international auxiliary language has thus arrived at a stage in which it appears worthy of serious discussion. Under these circumstances, the writers of this brochure considered it their first duty to draw the attention of scientific and literary men to the matter, and so initiate discussion.
The object of this book will have been attained, should they have succeeded in explaining the present state of the question, and in showing that it is already possible to discuss the introduction of an international auxiliary language into science, and indeed even seriously to make the attempt to carry it out. It may be remarked that the five authors of this book live in five different countries, and belong to three different languages. The very considerable correspondence required for the production of their book was carried out with the greatest success in the Linguo Internaciona, whenever any two of the correspondents possessed different mother-tongues.
Paris, Copenhagen, Zürich, Gross-Bothen, Graz.
L. Couturat, O. Jespersen, R. Lorenz,
W. Ostwald, L. Pfaundler.
March, 1909.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
The scientific attitude of mind is necessarily critical, but never sceptical without proper investigation and knowledge. The Translator hopes, therefore, that English-speaking men of science will not judge the question of international language before they have quietly and dispassionately examined the arguments so ably set forth in the following pages. It is not a question of "another language"; it is a question of the final solution by the methods of science of one of the greatest of scientific problems.
Internationalisation of thought is the motto of the twentieth century, the device on the banner of progress. Science, the Super-Nation of the world, must lead the way in this as in all other things. Amidst the clangour and the clamour of political and commercial strife, the quiet empire of knowledge grows, noiseless and unseen. Let all those who believe that this peaceful empire is destined to become the controlling force of the world assist in the attunement of its common language.
The Translator wishes to thank his friend and colleague, Professor J. P. Postgate, for having very kindly revised the translation of Chapters III. and IV.
F. G. Donnan.
University of Liverpool,
March, 1910.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE
CHAPTER I
The Need for a Common Scientific Language
All who are occupied with the reading or writing of scientific literature have assuredly very often felt the want of a common scientific language, and regretted the great loss of time and trouble caused by the multiplicity of languages employed in scientific literature.
The remarkable and regrettable feature of this state of affairs is that we once possessed, and have now lost, such a common language, namely, Latin. Even in the first third of the last century Gauss wrote a portion of his mathematical and physical papers in Latin, and up to the middle of the last century the dissertations of the scientific candidates at the German universities were translated into Latin by their philological colleagues, since the former were no longer sufficiently conversant with that language. The fall of Latin as the language of scholars and men of science could not, however, be prevented, nor does there exist the faintest chance of its ever recovering its lost position. The reasons for this are known to all. The rise and development of science, for the expression of whose ideas the language of Cicero no longer sufficed, the fall of scholasticism, with its Church Latin, the diffusion of knowledge amongst people not possessing a university training, the foundation of technical high schools, and, finally, the growing national sentiment and jealousy of nations who sought to further the spread of their national languages by using them in the works of their scientific men—all this has contributed to displace Latin by the modern national languages. The result is that, instead of one common language for scholars and men of science, we now possess three.
It is required or supposed that every scholar or man of science should know at least German, French, and English. For the majority of German scholars and men of science this may hold good, but in the case of the French it is less true, and in the case of the English least of all. The knowledge of these three languages is, however, no longer sufficient, and that for the following reasons.
In the first place, several other languages must be taken into account, for many Italians write only Italian, many Dutchmen only Dutch, whilst numerous Russians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Scandinavians, and Spaniards employ only their national languages. In this way much escapes general knowledge and recognition, or is only accessible in a belated or mutilated form.
In the second place, the difficulty of a quick mutual understanding is great, even for those who can command these three chief languages. If one is possessed of a little natural talent, one can by dint of industry and much loss of time easily get so far as to read or understand a paper or a letter in a foreign language, but when it comes to writing (replying) the task is incomparably more difficult. One can, however, not assume, when a German scholar or man of science replies in German to a letter written in French or English, that he will be always understood.
The matter is much worse in the case of oral intercourse, especially at scientific congresses. At these the three chief languages mentioned above are usually now declared to be official, that is to say, permissible for the delivery of papers. As a matter of fact, however, the language of the country in which the congress is held usually dominates. The German speaks French in Paris, but the Englishman mostly only English, and demands, as occurred at the recent Refrigeration Congress in Paris, the translation into English of the papers read at the sectional meetings. Only very few can take part in the discussions, and many must be well content if they are able to understand the usually rapidly delivered papers. Many an important criticism is not made because one does not possess the expertness necessary for discussing a question in a foreign language, and does not wish to expose oneself to the chance of a rebuff, caused not so much by ignorance of the matter in hand as by want of facility in expression.
Every member of a congress has noticed that whenever the language employed in the papers changes, a considerable number of the audience leave with more or less noise, in order to avoid being compelled to listen to a paper which they do not understand. Congresses would be certainly much better attended were it not that these difficulties keep many away.
One cannot hope that an increasing diffusion of the knowledge of the three chief languages will cause these difficulties to diminish, still less to disappear. They will, rather, increase still more, since the number of national languages desiring to take part in the work of civilisation is constantly growing. Already, at the present time, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and the Scandinavian and Slavonic languages must be taken into account, besides the three chief languages. National sentiment forces the scientific men of these countries to use the national languages, even when they perceive that this procedure does not conduce to mutual understanding. Even if the scientific men themselves were completely free from national amour propre, they would be obliged by their fellow-countrymen to employ their own languages, not so much for the purpose of advancing scientific knowledge and learning as in order to contribute by means of their literary and scientific works to the diffusion of their languages and the advancement of their nations. Whoever has observed this phenomenon will be forced to the conclusion that amongst scientific men, at least in Europe, this state of affairs is getting worse rather than better.
The increase of the participating languages involves an increase of the periodicals, just at a time when a concentration of the periodical literature is most desirable. The cost of subscriptions, translations, storing, and registration, and the labour and time spent thereon, increase from year to year. Above all, there is a want of translators; ordinary interpreters are not sufficient, since a special knowledge of each subject is required. Where are such persons to be found in sufficient numbers? And how few and far between are those who, when they possess the requisite training, are willing to content themselves with the poorly paid remuneration of a translator!
Bad or erroneous translations and faulty abstracts are very harmful; it would be better in such cases that no translation should exist, as then the original would have to be consulted. These difficulties, many more of which could be mentioned, are well known to all scientific men, since each has suffered more or less from them.
