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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 <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>). 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.<br><br>
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
<i>Alwato</i>, predating Esperanto!<br><br>
James J. Martin's <i>Men Against the State</i>, Chapter VI: Heralds of
the Transition to Philosophical Egoism II, section 4: Stephen Pearl
Andrews, Social Philosopher. See:<br><br>
<a href="http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/matschap6.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/matschap6.shtml</a> <br><br>
From footnote 111:
<dl>
<dd><font size=2>For Andrews' universal language, and his investigations
into the meaning of words, see his following works: <i>Primary Grammar of
Alwato</i> (New York, 1877), <i>Primary Synopsis of Universology and
Alwato</i> (New York, 1877), <i>The Alphabet of Philosophy</i> (New York,
1881); <i>Ideological Etymology- or a New Method in the Study of
Words</i> (New York, 1881), <i>The One Alphabet for the Whole World
</i>(New York, 1881).</font> <br><br>
</dl>And some more descriptive material on Andrews, which claims another
linguistic invention of Andrews, <i>Tikiwa</i>, from a blog:<br><br>
<a href="http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html" eudora="autourl">
http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html</a><br>
<br>
And the ever-helpful Wikipedia:<br><br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Pearl_Andrews" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Pearl_Andrews</a><br><br>
And you can even download Andrews' book
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=WpwsVIfv5CcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Primary+Synopsis+of+Universology+and+Alwato%22&lr=&as_brr=0">
<i>The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato: The New Scientific
Universal Language</a></i> from google books.<br><br>
As to what I think of all this, I'll only say: I just report the
news.<br>
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