[Membroj] anarchism & universal languages (1): Stephen Pearl Andrews

[Ralph Dumain]

While a bored teenager, I taught myself Esperanto and read 
extensively on the history of the international language movement. I 
read Mario Pei and other books in English, Drezen and other books in 
Esperanto, and some of Monnerot-Dumaine in French.  But after 40 
years, my memory is not so good. Also, back then I never considered 
the ideological history and political movements intersecting the 
quest for a universal language. Of course, I knew about the purposes 
of the philosophical languages of the 17th and 18th centuries (I 
knew, as my English teacher did not, the nature of the parody of this 
quest in Gulliver's Travels). I knew about Zamenhof's homanarismo, 
and about the workers' Esperanto movement, though back then, not much 
in detail about the latter. And while I have learned much since, I 
have not systematically pursued every thread of this history as I 
might have. I noticed many years ago, as I collected material from 
the dustbins of the Esperanto past, of an affinity for Esperanto on 
the part of anarchism (and comparable movements of the ineffectual 
far left such as the Socialist Labor Party, which published a number 
of pamphlets and bulletins in Esperanto), reflected not only in the 
Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT), but in anarchist movements in 
China, Japan, and elsewhere. While I figured that there was a pattern 
to be found here and a reason for it, I never systematically 
investigated it. (It's important here as well as in general to 
distinguish anarchism from most currents of Marxism and Communism, 
which is key to an explanation, but I won't attempt that here. 
Anarchism also has right wing as well as left wing tendencies.) But 
it also never occurred to me that there is a whole history here 
broader and older than the Esperanto movement.

The quest for an international language among anarchists and 
quasi-anarchists predates the Esperanto movement. Maybe I should have 
known this long ago, but I find myself surprised to have just 
discovered it. This history goes at least as far back as Proudhon, 
who was ridiculed by Marx. When I find the details I will document 
them.  But there is more to the history, including the invention of 
languages such as Alwato, predating Esperanto!

James J. Martin's Men Against the State, Chapter VI: Heralds of the 
Transition to Philosophical Egoism II, section 4: Stephen Pearl 
Andrews, Social Philosopher. See:

http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/matschap6.shtml

 From footnote 111:
For Andrews' universal language, and his investigations into the 
meaning of words, see his following works: Primary Grammar of Alwato 
(New York, 1877), Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato (New 
York, 1877), The Alphabet of Philosophy (New York, 1881); Ideological 
Etymology- or a New Method in the Study of Words (New York, 1881), 
The One Alphabet for the Whole World (New York, 1881).

And some more descriptive material on Andrews, which claims another 
linguistic invention of Andrews, Tikiwa, from a blog:

http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

And the ever-helpful Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Pearl_Andrews

And you can even download Andrews' book 
<http://books.google.com/books?id=WpwsVIfv5CcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Primary+Synopsis+of+Universology+and+Alwato%22&lr=&as_brr=0>The 
Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato: The New Scientific 
Universal Language from google books.

As to what I think of all this, I'll only say: I just report the news.
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