7/29/2019 REMARKS ON THE ESPERANTO SYMPOSIUM = finaj rimarkoj by
Mario Pei - komplete
2/4
i t s tremendous dif f icu l t ies of spel l ing vs.
pronunciation wil l be coverup by the fact that it wil l be used
primari ly in writ ing.As has been the ca,se a l l throtigh.
history, s c h o l a r s sc ient i s t s , anpeople of high
education are the one s who need an in ternat ional languagthe leas
t , because they have a l l sor ts of resources and replacements a
tthe i r disposal. My own in te res t l i es in a language of
common intercoursfo r the people of the world as a whole, and here,
by the terms of the dbate , Esperanto .i s l e f t in so.le control
of the f ie ld . Yet . the meri ts ofEsperanto can perfect ly well
be weighed, not against those of Interlingu
w.b.ich i s not a candidate fo r the same post , but against
those of languan.atur.a l and constructed, tha t are avowed
candidates.. .H:ere we can proceed e i ther by l inguis t ic theory
or by l inguis t ic .pract ice Linguist ic theory . informs us that
fo r the purpose we have i.nmind'' :one language i s as good as
another. All languages _are on the same
p l a n ~ , because a l l languq.ges are equally easy and natura
l tb the i r natispeakers, those who have acquired them and used
them from e.ar ly childhoThere i s no evidence that any language,
in purely s p o k ~ n form; i s ;more easi ly assimilated .by i t s
own speakers than any other language. Therefoby l inguis t ic
theory, a l l we have to do i s to se lec t , bl indly i f w ~
wisan,y one of the nearly 3000 natura l l@guages of the world, or
.of the 70or more constructed languages tha t have been offered
since the 17th century ' and put i t into o p e r a t ~ o n . Any
one of them wil l do the . j ob . .Linguis t ic pract ice i s
something else . In modern civi l iza t ion, .languages must have a
wri t ten as well as a spoken form. Ease of langagele.arning i s
def ini te ly not oh a plane of equali ty so f ar as the wri t
tencolunterparts of the spoken languages are concerned. Inherent ,
object iveease and di f f icu l ty are in evidence here, and the
object ive standard bywhich such .eas.e or d if f icul ty i s
gauged i s the ext.ent to which there i ssound-for-symbol
correspondence between the spoken and the writ teri for1!1Here. the
,constructed language holds a tremendous advantage over thnatura l
language. In the course of the i r his tor ies , na tura l
languageshave developed discrepancies in correspondence. Some have
greater ,dis -crepancies than others , but there are few na tura l
languages where youcan, af ter an hour 's instruct ion in the corre
la t ion between speech sounand writ ten symbols, pronounce or spe
l l the language credi tably, l e talone -perfect ly (English and
French, two of the leading contenders amonthe natura l languages fo
r the in ternat ional post , are unfortunately amothe worst .s
inners in th is respect . ) On the other hand, constructed
languages, by vir tue of the very fac t tha t they . are
constructed, are general ly equipped wi th sound-fo':t..:.$ymbol
correspondence
. lt can, of course, b ~ repl ied tha t one can phonetize a
natura l language. But he re another disadvantage of the n'atura l
language r i ses up tplague us . These languages are normally
heavily dialecta l ized . In some;l ike ' French, there i s an idea
l standard, or preferred dia lec t .form,. whicould be t-aken as
the norm for phonetization and in ternat ional use. Inothers ' l
ike English, there i s no such $tandard or norm. Tis means
thaenforced s tandardizat ion must be added tb ( in fac t , must
precede) phonetiza:.tion. These . twin hurdles, s tandardizat ion
and pho:hetization, are noinsurmountable, but they are grave and
time-consUm.ing.
. c ; o ~ 8 t r u c t e d languages, by vir tue of. the f act
tha t they are construed, are nrmally ful ly standardized. Add to
.th i s tha t the constructedla,nguage_ though i t may :hot be qui
te as neutra l or fu l ly as internatinaJ or in tercont inenta l as
some would l ike , i s nevertheles .s neutra l enout .o escape the
charge of cul t u ra l imperia-lism tha t may .be . leveled a t
anyn ~ t u ~ a l language . Among adul t learners , everyone would
,have to make som
