No exhaustive discussion is here attempted of the various problems involved in the selection or construction of an international auxiliary language. The aim is to present all the main facts and arguments with only sufficient fullness to enable the inquirer to judge fairly the merits of the various solutions of the problem.
It is doubtless true that no one can study this subject with quite the scientific impartiality he could give to inanimate inventions. The few foreign languages which we have studied, or and perhaps specialized in, tend to predispose our judgments. Above all, our native tongue is so bound up with our thought processes and our sentiments as to predominate in our judgments. That which is natural to us must of necessity have more weight than that which is foreign to us.
The writer does not pretend to have transcended these very human limitations, but my sole desire was and is to see established that type of auxiliary language which offers the best all around solution of the problem. I could have given a specious appearance of scientific impartiality to the subject by simply describing the different attempts and theories and merely hinting at my own preferences. The writer is a convinced adherent of that type of International language known as Ido and sees no reason to conceal his convictions. They are the result of a consideration of the various theories covering a period of fifteen years and above all, of prolonged lexicographical and practical translation work. This has but matured an early conviction of the superiority of Ido over Esperanto and over the Latinist schemes. I have herein set forth as impartially as I was able the facts of the matter and the reasons for my convictions, without intentionally given undue weight to arguments in support of my thesis or intentionally omitting argument or fact of importance which oppose my views. It would have been a pleasure to me to have been able to omit such constant reference to Esperanto, but the facts do not permit. To-day, Ido and Esperanto are the only systems which have been worked out in detail and are serious competitors, in my jugdment, for official recognition.
In short, I advocate Ido simply because I regard that language. taken as a whole, as the most efficient form of International language that has yet been constructed and, in view of the limited field of fact out of which a practical a posteriori form of auxiliary tongue must be constructed, the most efficient form likely to be constructed. Built on sound foundations, with no sacred Fundamento to hinder the removal of any defects or the insertion of betterments which experience may show to be necessary, Ido is perfectible.
The field for study of this problem has now been so thoroughly considered from different points of view that, to the experienced investigator, little can be presented which is entirely new. I venture to hope, however, that some of the matter here presented will be of value to those already familiar with the subject. For the general public (which includes the vast majority of the so-called "learned classes") no apology is necessary for presenting all phases of the problem, as the greater part of previous investigations have been published in scattered journals inaccessible to the general reader.
The author makes no pretensions of being a learned philologist or even a polyglot. My approach to the subject is that of the average intelligent man unburdened with a weight of traditional learning. It is my hope that this lack of dead facts and presuppositions on the subject has led me to impartial jugments.
Luther H. Dyer.
Alhambra, California,
November, 1922.