ガントレットの寄稿記事『The Japan Chronicle』1905.7.27, p.98 「ESPERANTO」

神戸で発行されていた英字新聞『The Japan Chronicle』1905.7.20号に「AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE」と題するエスペラント紹介記事が出たのを受けて、ガントレットが賛同の意と通信講座の告知を寄稿したもの。実名は出していないが、署名に「8413」と『Adresaro』の番号があり、ガントレットだとわかる。

     ESPERANTO.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "СHRONICLE"
     Sir,—I was very much interested in your excellent editorial on Esperanto, which I saw a few days ago, This "artificial" language is, to my mind, one of the greatest inventions of the present day. I put "artificial" within inverted commas because in my opinion it greatly differs from any artificial language I have ever seen. I should be inclined to call it a natural language founded on the Indo-Germanic basis, but systematised,—that is, made perfectly regular. It was brought to my notice a couple of years ago by a friend, but I at once dismissed the subject from my mind as altogether utopian. The former attempts had failed, why I cannot say, not being a good linguist myself ; but one reason I should attribute to their failure is their being absolutely artificial, and in many cases hard to pronounce. I took up the Esperanto text-book, therefore, one morning with a prejudiced mind, expecting to find it something like a toy language, but an hour's study convinced me that it was the outcome of a master mind. It is unreasonable to blame people for expecting it to be a failure, for it is hard to imagine anything that would be harder to start than such a language. I say it has no exceptions to rules : but that la only one of its good points. The rules in themselves are so simple that, as Count Leo Tolstoi said, the grammar could be learnt in half an hour. To give an idea, every noun ends in o, every adjective in a, every adverb in e, every infinitive in i, the present, past, and future tenses of verbs in as, is, and os respectively. There are a comparatively small number of root words, but words can be formed from them by the addition of certain prefixes and suffixes. The prefix mal, for instance, denotes opposites, thus only half the number of adjectives (roughly speaking) is necessary. Alta, high, becomes malalta, low ; bona, good, becomes malbona, bad. The suffixes eg and et, which like all other suffixes, are placed before the final vowel, denote augmentation and diminution respectively. Thus domo, a house, becomes domego, a mansion, and dometo, a cottage : bona, good, becomes bonega, excellent, and boneta, fairly good. There are altogether about thirty of these prefixes and surffixes, and they save an immense amount of study by making the memorizing of new words unnecessary. Take one more instance, though not quite such a useful one. The termination in denotes the feminine. Thus frato, brother, becomes fratino, sister. The words them selves are not chosen at random. About half, I should say, are taken from Latin and a large proportion of the remainder from English, French, and German. They seem to have been chosen universally. There are many words, particularly names of modern inventions, which are already practically universal In European languages, and they remain unchanged, except that their spelling is amended according to the rules of Esperanto. Thus telegrafo is telegraphy. telegrafilo the telegraph (-il denoting an Instrument), telegrgfi is to telegraph ; telegrgfa, telegraphic ; telegrafe, telegraphically. The vowels denoting the different parts of speech seem to be capable of use in almost any case. Thus jes, meaning yes and having the same pronunciation, may be changed to jeso, an affirmation ; jesa, affirmative ; jese, affirmatively ; jesi, to affirm.
The inventory Dr. Zamenhof. asks all who learn to send him their names and a fee, in the postage stamps of any oountry, of about 25 sen (6d.) The name and address of the sender will then be inserted in the directory, a copy of which he will receive, of those who write and speak Esperanto, and one can then commence correspondence with others in different, countries to one's' heart's content, though, there are a few who state in the directory "Ne dezlras korespondi," "Do not desire to correspond."
For myself, I studied the grammar two hours a day for four days and then wrote letters to Europe and South America and got replies. Of course I had some difficulty in writing those letters, but within a month I was able to read almost anything. In spite of the fact that I live where until lately there has been no one else who knew the language, I spoke with a gentleman in Tokyo last winter for five hours in Esperanto, and his native language was French while mine is English, and we neither of us had a fluent use of the other's language. I have received about 600 communications in two years in Esperanto, and they came from sixty-three different countries. There is a slight difference in the order of the words with different writers, but the grammar is so arranged that—as in the ease of Latin—this does not matter. I have been able to gain information from people in other countries which I should probably never have been able to obtain otherwise, and on my own part have been able to supply information to others. Two subjects on which I had a somewhat long correspondence were the construction of the Chinese characters and the manufacture of shoyu.
     I am so convinced of the future utility of this language that I am willing to teach it free of charge to any one who can read English (for my lessons must be written in that language), the learner only paying the postage. This course will be conducted necessarily by post and begin about the 15th of September, but I should like to have all applications as soon as possible, so that I may know about bow many copies of my lessons I may have to prepare.
Intending learners will kindly address "Esperanto," care of the office of the Chronicle. As the writer is now traveling, acknowledgment of applications will necessarily be a little late, but at the same time will be answered immediately on receipt.
     Thanking you in anticipation, I am, Sir.
Very faithfully yo yours, ESPERANTO 8413
July 17th, 1905

『The Japan Chronicle』1905.7.27, p.98