Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language
- Автор: Garvía Roberto
- Год: 2015
- Язык: русский
- Жанр: Культурология
Электронная книга - «Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language». Краткое содержание книги:
I enclose 2 letters (which please return), one from Peano and one from Couturat, both occupied with the international language (or rather languages). First there was Volapuk, then Esperanto, then an improvement on Esperanto called Ido (its proficients are called Idiots), then Peano's "Latin without Inflections." These various sects hate each other like poison, but Esperantists and Idiots hate each other most because they are nearest akin. Couturat is an Idiot. I am ashamed to confess that he was my earliest disciple.30
Furthermore, even though everyone agreed that reforms were necessary, frictions also arose around the pace of these reforms. On the one hand, some thought that if the very essence of Ido was its constant refinement, reforms should be introduced as swiftly as possible to prevent the language from getting "crystallize[d] by general usage."31 For them, arresting reforms would be tantamount to stooping to the level of the irrational Esperantists and their fetishism around their Fundamento. Also, some held the idea that Ido's failure to surpass Esperanto could be explained because Ido was not perfect enough, and that its perfection required a stronger reformist commitment. Others, however, thought it necessary to slow down the rate of reforms, or even to temporarily halt them, since it was difficult to promote a language that was in constant motion and that required unlearning old words and rules to learn new ones.32 According to the more conservative followers, the most urgent matter to promote the language was the publication of dictionaries and grammars, which necessarily meant restraining the Academy's perfec- tionist zeal. These frictions, or, in Couturat's words, the "state of war" among Idists, demanded prompt action, which he eventually took.33 In 1911, he de- cided to establish a short stabilization period, which in 1914 was extended to ten more years.34 During this period, two versions of Ido became officiaclass="underline" the old, "klasika Ido," externally used to promote the language, and the con- tinuously changing Ido that resulted from the official decisions of the Academy, still operative in this period of stability. This middle-ground solu- tion, however, did not solve the problem, since some journals preferred to give preference to classic Ido, whereas others refused to use an outdated version. These tensions required Couturat to act in an authoritarian manner, accord- ing to some, by condemning both the "conservatives who refused to follow him [and] progressives who went one step ahead of him."35
More important still, if Ido was expected to automatically triumph over Esperanto and other rivals as a result of its technical superiority, which de- manded its constant improvement and perfection, then the promotion of a community of speakers was thought to be secondary, if not counterproduc- tive. Thus, contrary to Zamenhof—who constantly encouraged his followers to create an original literature in order to experiment with the language, fa- cilitate its natural development, and nourish an emotional attachment with the language and its community of speakers—in Idist circles the perception was that an original literature could only strengthen the "love to the language" as it was and forge an irrational sentimental attachment to the language that could prevent it from constantly progressing. An original literature, they con- cluded, could only be pursued with caution, insofar as "love to the language remains within rational boundaries."36
Similarly, the chemist Ludwig Pfaundler, first vice-president of the Cen- tral Committee of the Uniono, argued against sociability. Even when balls, concerts, or plays, so common in Esperantist circles, could attract the curi- ous, they were distracting. Rather than entertaining, Pfaundler recommended that local Idist associations be practical and fill their regular meetings with language courses, reading and discussion of journals, and so on.37 This course of action was unequivocally endorsed in 1921, on the occasion of the First Ido congress, whose slogan was "We have come here to work, not to amuse ourselves."38
Correspondingly, any association of Ido with any kind of ethical or po- litical program was plainly dismissed as inimical to what was ultimately meant to be a scientific research program.39 Even though it would be inaccurate to conclude that this organizational strategy prevented Idists from forging their own identity and networks of interpersonal ties, this was what Couturat and his associates expected. To borrow from Forster's analysis, rather than a com- munity of speakers composed by people emotionally attached to a language, they had chosen to become a society of learned "seekers."40
Applied in an increasing returns scenario, Couturat's strategy proved to be fatal. Inattentive to the power of language as a source of identity, and to the competitive advantage that a strong base of supporters could offer, he pinned all his hopes on the technical superiority of Ido. But being in permanent construction and hence never fixed or standardized, Ido could hardly win a standardization battle.
If Schleyer's meta-language was hierarchy and discipline, and Esperanto's was participation and commitment, then Couturat's was truth. As a scholar, he was confident that truth would ultimately assert itself. It was only necessary to set up the conditions for truth to reveal itself. Hence, the organizational primacy of the Academy over rank-and-file Idists, of research over socia- bility, of scientific progress over emotion. And when truth failed to assert itself, there was only one explanation in Couturat's mental modeclass="underline" irratio- nalism, fanaticism, or fetishism, when not pure wickedness on the side of the Esperantists. To quote from Bertrand Russelclass="underline"
In the last years I had lost contact with him [Couturat], because he became absorbed on the question of an international language. He advocated Ido rather than Esperanto. According to his conversation, no human beings in the whole previous history of the human race had ever been quite so depraved as the Esperantists. He lamented that the word Ido did not lend itself to the formation of a word similar to Esperantist. I suggested "idiot" but he was not quite pleased.41
Couturat died in a car accident right at the beginning of World War I. He had been the soul of Ido, for which he had traded his academic reputa- tion. After his death, the Ido movement witnessed some temporary reprieve due to the decision to stabilize the language, at least temporarily. But it was short-lived, and compared with the Esperantists the Idists never developed a wide base of support.
To begin with, and very much like the Volapuk, the Ido movement was male-dominated: women only represented between 11 and 15 percent of to- tal membership.42 This small percentage can probably be explained by Cou- turat's emphasis on concentrating his propaganda on the fields of science and commerce, where women were underrepresented. If we consider the coun- terexample of the Esperantists, the relative absence of women seriously cur- tailed the growth potential of Ido.
Also, Couturat had always resisted any link between Ido and moral or political messages that he feared could alienate the support of influential or- ganizations or governments. This hands-off strategy excluded Zamenhof's ad- mittedly never well-defined "interna ideo" and its pacifist message. As he saw it, and notwithstanding their moral appeal, "vacuous and chimeric ideas" could do more harm than good to the language.43