Sociolinguistics Reader_8

548 FANAGALO AND BANTU LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

at the diamond- and goldfields of Kimberley that his own language was of no economic
and Johannesburg as its place of origin (Lloyd, value to the Indian at the time. He had perforce
n.d., p. 3). The latter possibility must, in our to make himself understood to the Englishman
opmron, be rejected immediately. Both and the Zulu, neither of whom spoke his lan-
Kimberly and the Witwatersrand are situated guage, or was even remotely interested therein.
in Sotho areas, and, initially at least, must have It follows therefore that the Indian, having
depended mainly on local labour, but there is acquired limited vocabularies of both English
hardly anything in Fanagalo which can be and Zulu, would have mixed the two in
derived from any of the Sotho languages. The attempting to make himself understood. Cer-
case for the Eastern Cape is better, for it was tainly, if the Indians were not the first to use
there that the first fairly extensive contact took Fanagalo, they provided much of the impetus
place between the Bantu, mainly of Xhosa for its early development and diffusion; and
stock, and the Europeans. Here however, two since the importation of Indian labour into
points must be noted. Firstly, the major Natal commenced in 1860, I think it is reason-
proportion of the European vocabulary in able to suggest that Fanagalo came into being
Fanagalo is derived from English, whereas only at about this time.
a relatively small number of words is of It may be mentioned in passing that Fanagalo
Afrikaans or Nederlands origin. Secondly, as shows no evidence of direct influence from the
far as it is possible to judge, considering how non-Bantu Hottentot and Bushman languages.
similar the two languages are in basic vocabu- Indirectly of course, such influence does exist,
lary, the Nguni elements appear to be drawn for the click consonants of the Nguni languages,
mainly from Zulu, and there is very little which and a certain amount of their vocabulary, both
is clearly attributable to Xhosa as such. The of which have been transferred, in very limited
conclusion is that Fanagalo developed primarily degree, to Fanagalo, are attributable to Hotten-
out of the interaction of English and Zulu, and tot-Bushman.
this must have happened in Natal, some time
after 1823, when the first settlement of that From Natal Fanagalo spread to the diamond
territory took place, mainly by English speaking and gold mines, and later to other industrial
and farming areas of the Union and Southern
people.
Perhaps the first informative reference to Fa- Rhodesia. Initially it must have been the
nagalo in literature was a short paper published Europeans who were mainly responsible for
in the journal Anthropos in 1908 (3[3]: 508-511): carrying the new language beyond the border
"Die Isikula-Sprache in Natal, Sudafrika,"
of Natal; later the Indians also probably
by Brother Otto 0. Trapp of the Marianhill played a part in its wider dissemination. As the
Mission. Trapp's examples are typical of mining industries, more particularly, developed,
Fanagalo as we know it to-day, and we can labour was imported from the Nguni and other
therefore assume that it was already well areas, with the result that Fanagalo soon
established at the beginning of the present became established as the means of commu-
century. He described it as a mixture of English nication between European employers or over-
and Zulu, used mainly as a means of communi- seers and Bantu labourers. Today it is more
cation between the Indians and the Zulus, extensively used on the Witwatersrand mines
hence the name Isikula, the Zulu for "Coolie than anywhere else. Indeed, without some such

language." Here, I believe, we have a clue to lingua franca the gold mines would be faced
the origin of Fanagalo-that the Zulus should with an almost insuperable language problem,
have called it the "Coolie language" suggests for they employ Bantu labourers speaking
that the Indians were its originators. The only forty or more different languages, from as far
argument against this is that Fanagalo neither afield as Angola, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland
contains any Indian words-a point to which and Tanganyika. On many mines new recruits
Trapp himself drew attention-nor shows are regularly put through a course of Fanagalo
before being sent underground; on others they
any other perceptible evidence of influence learn it while undergoing training in their
from the Indian languages used in South
Africa, principally Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, various duties; but learn it they must, before
Gujerati and Urdu. But it must be remembered becoming effective workers.
In southern Rhodesia, which has a large

D. T. COLE 549

population of Ndebele, a Zulu offshoot, common. The Hottentot s is, in this case, a
popularly known as Matabele, Fanagalo spread "lisped" sound intermediate between English
rapidly, though it has many local differences
owing to the influence of Shona, the pre- s and sh, hence the appearance of sh in Zulu.)
dominant language. European miners and In order to explain many of the peculiarities
farmers, emigrating to the north, have carried of Fanagalo, it is necessary to point out that
Fanagalo to Northern Rhodesia and even to the Bantu and European languages differ radically
mining areas of the Belgian Congo. Further in phonetics, word-form, grammatical structure
than this, however, its prospects of advancing and syntax. It is hardly surprising therefore
are extremely meagre, for it meets with very that Fanagalo is highly inconsistent, being the
powerful rivals. Swahili, whose home is on the product of the interacting forces of two com-
Kenya and Tanganyika coast, has a variety of pletely divergent systems. In Bantu languages,
debased forms which are used as linguae francae syllables are typically open, i.e., they end in a
right across Central Africa, including Uganda, vowel. The Bantu speaker of Fanagalo therefore
the northern portions of Portuguese East Africa, tends to insert vowels between the elements of
Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and a large compound consonants or combinations of
portion of the Belgian Congo. The Congo form, consonants which are foreign to him, whereas
known as Ngwana, is but one of four such trade the European, who is accustomed to closed
languages which are extensively used in that syllables (ending in consonants), tends to drop
vast territory; the others are Bangala, in the many of the vowels in words of Bantu origin.
north; Fiote, in the west; and Baluba, in the Thus A. skroef may become sikulufu in the
south and centre. But even to the south of the Fanagalo of a Bantu speaker, whereas the
Swahili and Congo spheres, there are other European contracts Z. isikhathi (time) to skat.
languages which are quite extensively used The general tendency, however, is to drop
outside of their own areas as linguae francae. initial, final, and many intermediate vowels; in
These include Nyanja of Nyasaland, Umbundu other words, the Bantu type of word form is
of Central Angola, Lozi of Barotseland in rapidly giving place to the European pattern,
Northern Rhodesia, and Luvale or Lwena of even in the pronunciation of Bantu speakers of
the Balovale District of Northern Rhodesia and Fanagalo. Certain English and Afrikaans sounds
adjacent areas in Angola and the Belgian Congo. also, are foreign to the Bantu languages, and

An analysis of Fanagalo vocabulary, based on vice versa. Thus English th > d, t, or f, and
material provided by existing publications, r > l, e.g., E. this one> diswan (this), E. bath>
reveals that about thirty per cent of the words baj, A. broer > blulu or bululu (brother),
are of European origin, the proportion of
English to Afrikaans being roughly four to whereas the click consonants of Zulu are fre-
one. It is of course, not always easy to determine
whether a particular word is derived from quently replaced by k, e.g., Z. ca6anga >
kabanga (think), and Z. AmaXhosa > Makosa
English or from Afrikaans, for many cognate
roots are very similar in pronunciation, e.g., (Xhosa people). (The r sounds of English and
Afrikaans do not occur in Nguni. In Shona,
sack/ sak, coffee/ koffie, help/ help, bottle /bottel. however, r occurs, but not l, hence E. blanket
Nevertheless, a knowledge of phonetics enables
> buranget, and E. blue > bru in Rhodesian
one to state with certainty that melek < A. melk,
not E. milk; washa < E. wash, not A. was; Fanagalo). Here again, alternative pronun-
botela < A. hotter,· not E. butter; while payip ciations occur, according as the speaker is
(water-pipe) < E. pipe, but peyip (tobacco-pipe) European or Bantu, but with the Bantu type
< A. pyp. Some words of European origin have of pronounciation fighting a losing battle!
probably come into Fanagalo via Zulu, e.g.,
Another important feature of most Bantu
batala (pay)< Z. batala < A. betaal, andfoshol languages is their semantic and grammatical use
< Z. ifosholo < E. shovel (with transposition of tone, e.g., Zulu inyanga (doctor, tones
of consonants). An interesting example is hashi High-Low-Low), but inyanga (moon, tones
High-Low-High). This usage has completely
< Z. ihhashi < Hottentot has < E. horse. disappeared in Fanagalo, which is spoken
(In Hottentot, a sex-denoting language, has is with an intonation similar to that of English.
feminine gender, hap masculine, and hai
Again, in Zulu the penultimate syllable of
each word and sentence is characteristically
accentuated by pronouncing it with greater

550 FANAGALO AND BANTU LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

length than its fellows, whereas in English and (it is not there) and A. sterk (strong). Intriguing
Afrikaans certain syllables are accentuated by and amusing also are the associations of ideas
stressing them, (stress in English and Afrikaans which have produced the following: strongimani
is usually associated with increased length and (circus) < E. strong man; injin-faya or injin-
raised tone), e.g., object (noun), but object fayif (racing-car)< E.fire-engine (with invert~d
(verb). As one might expect, in Fanagalo the word-order); and tayimholo (town hall). To the
penultimate length-accent of Zulu is replaced Bantu the feats of the "strong man" are
by a stress-accent similar to that of English and apparently more impressive than any other
Afrikaans. Hence Zulu izinkomo (cattle), with item on the circus programme; a speeding
long and low-toned penultimate syllable nko, fire-engine is more spectacular and exciting than
becomes lo zinkomo, with longstressed and a racing-car in action; and however the English
high-toned ko. may choose to pronounce the word, we know
that it is from the clock of the tayimholo
The following are a few miscellaneous that we can get the correct time!
examples of Fanagalo words which are derived
from English and Afrikaans: aina (press, iron) As in other "pidgin" languages, certain words
< E. iron; basopa (take care, look after) < A. do much more than their fair share of work.
pas op; bulughwe (bridge) < A. brug; bontshis Thus stelek < A. sterk (strong) expresses hard,
(beans) < A. boontjies; fesklas (good, excellent) well, very, strongly, thoroughly; and skelem <
< E. first class; langwan (tall, long) < E. A. skelm (rogue, scoundrel) is used in reference
long one; mbaimbai (later on, presently)< E. bye to anything unreliable, dangerous or destruc-
and bye; mosha (spoil, mess, waste) < A. mors; tive, e.g., skelem smok (carbon monoxide,
nikis (nothing) < A. niks; nyuwan (new) < E. poisonous gas; smok < E. smoke). Undoubtedly
new one; shova (push) < E. shove; skop (head) one of the most hard-worked words in Fanagalo
< A. kop; skiti (pound)< A. skut; skafu (food) is pikanin, which expresses small, short, narrow,
< E. scoff (South African English, "from young, child, junior, etc., as in pikanin hashi
Dutch schoft, quarter of a day (hence, meal)," (foal) ; pikanin tshopa (hatchet; tshopa < E.
O.E.D.); Sonto (Sunday, week, church) < A. chopper); pikanin mes (pen-knife; mes < A.
Sondag; stin (brick) < A. steen; stes (stairs) < mes); pikanin sicogo (cap; sicogo < Z. isigqoko,
E. stairs; stoplayit (robot) < E. stop light. hat); pikanin foloman (young foreman, small
foreman, junior foreman); basop pikanin (nurse
Most of the words listed above are fairly easy or look after a child); figa pikanin (shrink;
to identify, even for the layman, but some figa < Z. fika, arrive).
"Fanagalized" words are distorted almost
beyond recognition, e.g., klabish (cabbage) < E. Grammatically and syntactically Fanagalo re-
cabbage; vodlela (carrot) < A. wortel; sikwelete tains hardly any Bantu characteristics. Of
(debt) < A. skuld; sihlutula (key, lock) < A. several more or less unique features of the Bantu
sleutel; skrumpat (tractor)< A. ski/pad (tortoise). languages, there are two which stand out as the
In some cases the original European word is hallmarks of this family. The first is the
camouflaged by the addition of a Bantu forma- system of noun prefixes. In Zulu there are
tive element, e.g., layisha (load) < A. laai plus fifteen regular prefixes, some singular, others
verb-forming suffix -sha; bitshan or mbitshana plural, which are arranged in eight classes, e.g.,
(a little, slightly) < A. bietjie plus diminutive I. umu-ntu/a6a-ntu (person/people); 2. umu-thi/
suffix -ana; bitshanisa (make small, reduce) < imi-thi (tree/trees); 3. i-qanda/ama-qanda (egg/
bitshan plus causative suffix -isa; tshipisa eggs); 4. isi-hlalo/izi-hlalo (chair/chairs); 5.
(cheapen, reduce price) < E. cheap plus -isa. in-ka6i/izin-ka6i (ox/oxen) etc. However, except
No less interesting are some of the compound for a few remnants, this system of noun classes
words in which one part is of European origin had disappeared in Fanagalo. The great ma-
and the other Bantu, e.g., tshi'sa-stik (fuse jority of nouns have no specialized singular
lighter) < Z. shisa (set alight, burn) and E. prefix, and assume ma- in the plural, e.g.,
stick; makaza-mbitshan (cool) < Z. amakhaza
(cold) and mbitshan (slightly); tshi'sa-mbitshan skatul/maskatul (shoe/shoes; cf. Z. i'sicathulo/
(warm) < Z. shisa (burn) and mbitshan; izicathulo); a few retain the mu-/ba- prefixes,
sokismude (stocking) < E. socks and Z. omude e.g., muntu/bantu (person/people), and the Zulu
(long); hayikona-stelek (weak) < Z. ayikhona class 5 is preserved in quite a number of forms
such as nkabi/zinkabi (ox/oxen).

D. T. COLE 551

The second maJor characteristic of Bantu The "personal pronouns" are mina (I), tina
languages is the system of "concords." Every (we), wena (thou), nina (you) and yena (he, she,
word is grammatically related to a noun, be it it, they), and are taken from the full concordial
series of "Absolute Pronouns" which occurs in
pronoun, adjective (of which there are several Zulu.
different types), possessive or verb, must show
that relationship by assuming a prefixal form- The fate of the noun class and concord systems
ative which agrees concordially with the has been suffered also by the various other
noun prefix. There is a full set of these concords structural peculiarities which characterize the
for each class of nouns, singular and plural, Bantu languages; either they have disappeared
and usually the same or similar consonant or completely or only remnants thereof remain in
vowel as appears in the noun prefix is repeated Fanagalo. Of the extensive system of verbal
in the concords, producing a delightful alliter- prefixes and suffixes which express distinctions
ative effect. For example in Zulu we find: of mood and tense and other specialized ideas
in Nguni, only a very few such as the passive
A6a- 6a- a6a- 6a- 6o- -wa, causative -isa and past -ile, are still
nke retained, and even then irregularly and incon-
Jana mi khulu yasebenza all sistently; examples of their use are pentwa (be

Sons of-me big are-working painted) < penta < E. paint; figisa (bring,
cause to come) < figa (come, arrive); shefile
All my big sons are working. (have shaved) < she/a < E. shave; Yinindaba

Izin- za- eztn- Zt- zo- wena hayikona shefile namhla? (Why have you
nke not shaved to-day ?).
komo mi kulu yakla6a all As regards syntax, the simple Bantu sentence
is fundamentally the same in word-order as
Cattle of-me big are-grazing that of English or Afrikaans, i.e., Subject-
Verb-Object / Adverb, and Fanagalo naturally
All my big cattle are grazing. conforms thereto. One outstanding difference,
however, is that Bantu adjectives follow the
Of this fascinating system of concords, which noun which they qualify; Fanagalo has adopted
puts music and poetry into every Bantu the European pattern and puts the adjective
sentence, nothing at all remains in Fanagalo! first e.g., makaza manzi (cold water), cf. Z.
It is perhaps in a sub-conscious attempt to amanzi, amakhaza; maningi santi (much sand),
compensate for this loss, and to accommodate cf. Z. isihla6athi esiningi; zonke skafu (all the
the European preference for a definite or food), cf. Z. ukudla konke; nyuwan motokali (a
indefinite article (there are no articles in the new motorcar), cf. Z. imoto entsha. Again,
Bantu languages), that speakers of Fanagalo whereas interrogative words in English and
acquired the habit of putting lo before every Afrikaans are usually placed first in the sen-
noun, and a "personal pronoun" before every tence, they usually follow the verb in Zulu. In
verb, even if the subject be expressed. Thus Fanagalo the European word-order is used, e.g.,
we have: Lo foloman yena funa lo nyuzipepa na Bani wena funa? (Whom do you want?), cf.
lo ti (The foreman he want the newspaper and Z. Ufuna u6ani? !pi wena sebenza? (Where do
the tea); Lo wil ga lo motokali yena pontshiwe you work?), cf. Z. Use6enza-phi?
(The wheel of the motorcar he punctured);
Lo Mary yena deka lo taful (The Mary he lays Many more comparisons of this type could be
the table). There is no indefinite form corres- made, but they would involve us in further
ponding to the so-called "definite article" lo, lengthy explanations of Bantu word and
and it is noteworthy that the latter is used also sentence structure. The evidence already
before proper names! By origin lo is a Zulu adduced is more than sufficient to show quite
demonstrative pronoun, one of a concordial conclusively that Fanagalo lacks the main
series, meaning this. In the name Fanagalo we features by which linguists recognize and
have it retaining its demonstrative significance- identify languages as being Bantu. It is true
Jana (be like, resemble), ga (with, of), lo (this), that the bulk of its vocabulary, i.e., about 70 per
hence fanagalo (thus, like this). Since Enza cent, is of Nguni-Bantu origin and it is interest-
fanagalo! (Do like this! Make like this!) is one ing, by way of comparison, to note that
of the most commonly used expressions in the
language-certainly the new and inexperienced
"boy" has it dinned into his ears from morning
till night-it is hardly surprising that the
language has come to be known as Fanagalo.

552 FANAGALO AND BANTU LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

modern classical Swahili contains over 30 per Nederlands parent, with some accretions from
cent of foreign vocabulary, acquired mainly other members of the same language family,
from Arabic. The difference is that in all other in the same way as modern English and other
respects Swahili is essentially Bantu, whereas European languages have developed from earlier
Fanagalo is not. In any case, for Fanagalo even forms. Fanagalo, on the other hand, is not a
the criterion of vocabulary, taken alone, would spontaneous or natural outgrowth from Zulu,
be inconclusive, for Nguni is by no means but a disintegrated mixture of mutilated
typical of Bantu in this respect, as is shown elements from two entirely different language
by the extensive occurrence therein of non- families.
Bantu clickwords.
It is hardly surprising, considering the nature
It is important to emphasise that Fanagalo is of its development and its function, that
not a Bantu language, for its champions persist Fanagalo has an extremely limited range of
in stating or implying that it is. Apart from expression; that the recently published Fanagalo
using such phrases as "a really easy Bantu
language" and "like other Bantu languages" Dictionary, by J.D. Bold, contains only a little
in reference thereto, some of them have had
the effrontery to call it "Basic Bantu," "Basic over 1,200 entries in the Fanagalo-English
Nguni," etc. The term Bantu is correctly section is convincing proof of this. (" ... al-
though a couple of vocabularies giving the
applied to a family of some 200 or more separate Fanagalo equivalents of some English words
languages, apart from dialects, which extend have appeared, there has been no attempt to
from the Cameroons, Congo, Uganda and Kenya compile a comprehensive dictionary. This two-
in the north to the Union and South West way dictionary . . . is therefore a i:,ioneering
Africa in the south. Obviously therefore, it is effort" [Bold, 1952, p. 5]. Nevertheless,
no more possible to produce a "Basic Bantu" Lloyd's Kitchen-Kafir Grammar and Vocabu-
than it would be to do the same for the vast lary, also "two-way," seems to contain two or
Inda-European family of languages. The three hundred more entries.) Lest we forget,
selection of a basic vocabulary can be done, of this "language," with its total vocabulary of
course, for any individual Bantu language, as under 2,000 words, has been proposed for
it has b~en for English by C. K. Ogden and for study in our schools, as a substitute for German!
Afrikaans by Barnes; however, were any The following examples, taken from the
Bantuist to produce a "Basic Zulu" or even a literature on Fanagalo, will illustrate what
"Basic Nguni," which is possible, it would clumsy methods must be employed to express
bear extremely little resemblance to Fanagalo. anything more than the most straight-forward
ideas; note that relative clause constructions,
Another important point is that the Bantu do for example, are expressed by mere juxta-
not automatically understand Fanagalo; they position of sentences. In each case a literal
have to learn it, just as the Europeans do. translation is given, followed by the "idiomatic"
Having learned it, the unsophisticated Bantu rendering of the original text.
fondly imagine that they are speaking the
language of the White man (this is naively Mina funa lo muntu yena sebenza stelek (I want
quoted as a "standing joke" by Bold, 1949, the person he work strong; "I want a boy who
p. 77)-so different is it from their own
languages! From the Bantu point of view works well")
therefore, Fanagalo, which serves mainly as a Biza mina lo skati lo telefom yena kala (Call me the
means of communication with Europeans,
might with equal justification be called "Basic time the telephone he cry; "Call me when the
English" or "Basic Afrikaans" or "Basic
European"-which is patently ridiculous! telephone rings")
Ngaganani pezulu lo muti? (How-big above the
Equally ridiculous and ignorant is any sugges-
tion that the origin and development of Fana- tree?; "How high is the tree?")
galo are comparable with those of Afrikaans. Tina funa yidla lo skafu nbada tina lambile (We
The latter has developed out of the natural and want eat the food affair we hungry; "We want
spontaneous modification of the phonetic, mor-
phological and syntactical structures of its to eat the food because we are hungry")
Mina yazi nombola yena tshela hamba kanjani (I

know number he tell travel how; "I know what

the speed limit is")
Lo skati wena pega lo nyama ga lo ngulube, pega yena

stelek (The time you cook the meat of the pig,
cook him well; "Don't eat underdone pork!")

D. T. COLE 553

After this-and many more such examples As, adv. . . . sa. Unbelievable but true. Proves
could be quoted-it is probably superfluous to
mention that Fanagalo is almost incapable of that the native mind works in the opposite direc-
expressing abstract concepts. tion to ours ...

One cannot resists the temptation, in conclu- BEAT, vb.... chaiya. "I'll beat you." "Mena chaiya
sion, to quote the following remarks on Fanaga- wena." If you are going to get any effect do it first
lo, translated from a recently published article and talk later.
Go, vb. int.... hamba (hortative-footsack).
by Prof. J. A. Engelbrecht and Dr. D. Ziervogel, LIE, vb.... It is extraordinary that there are so few

of the Department of Bantu Languages in the words to describe this national pastime of the
University of Pretoria: native Africans ...

The champions thereof commend it as the desirable SCANDAL, n .... Cannot find a word in K.K. Possibly
lingua franca between European and Native; ... nothing scandalous in K.K. Just natural.
About the value thereof as a means of getting by,
no one wishes to quibble. It is a makeshift in the same SHAME, vb. int.... Is there such a word ?
sense as a sequence of strung-together French TIE, vb. tr.... bopa. "Tie him to that baling press
words can be when a Russian and an Englishman until the police come." "Bopa yena Lapa screw paka
meet; yet no one would assert that these two people fika Mapolisa."
were engaged in speaking French. So also with TRUNK, n. (of elephant) ... hands ga lo njobvu.
Fanagalo: it is a hotch-potch of words which is born ZEBRA, n.... donkey ga lo football jersey.
out of the necessity and quandary of the moment, and
which therefore never replaces the genuine article.... In the present circumstances Fanagalo fulfils
The champions of Fanagalo still regard the Bantu a real need on the mines and in certain other
as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, and not as industries where the multiplicity of languages
a person with his own emotions, culture and tradi- creates an enormous problem of communica-
tions, thus he is to them merely Wena boy, tshetshisa tion. It is of great value in the normal prosecu-
enza lo ti! (You boy, hurry make the tea!). If this is to tion of the work, in the prevention of accidents,
be our approach to the Native problem, it must and in the maintenance of satisfactory relations
remain a problem. If on the contrary, our aim is to between the workers, for lack of mutual
make the Bantu individual a good and indel?endent understanding may lead to friction and violence.
fellow-countryman, we shall have to address him Wherever possible, however, its use is to be
in something better than this jargon before he discouraged, for to address the Bantu in this
becomes convinced of our good intentions (1951, debased jargon, if not insulting, is certainly
pp. 29-30). not courteous. The future progress and
prosperity of South Africa are dependent on
Lest there be any doubt about the validity of the establishment of goodwill and mutual
this statement the following entries, but a few respect between the different peoples of. the
of many in similar vein, are quoted from So .I country, and one of the prerequisites for
You Want To Learn the Language! An Amusing mutual understanding is the knowledge of
and Instructive Kitchen Kaffir Dictionary, by one another's languages; therefore the introduc-
S. E. Aitken-Cade (1951): tion of Bantu languages as subjects for study
in European schools must be heartily welcomed
-but Fanagalo is not one of these.

REFERENCE NOTE

Cole's article was originally prepared at the request of Professor Abel Coetzee, for
publication in the Tydskrif vir Volkskunde en Volkstaal, of which he is the editor,
and appears under the title "Fanagalo en die Bantoe-tale van Suid-Afrika" (1953,
9 [3].) It draws on shorter items and "Letters to the Editor" in South African
newpapers as well as the references cited.

For other examples of pidgins and general discussion, see the references listed
with Reinecke's article on pp. 534-546. Turner (1949) is an important, instructive
study, showing how widespread views in our own society about speech patterns of
creolized origin can be mistaken, yet reinforce social stereotypes.

554 FANAGALO AND BANTU LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

References not in the general bibliography:

AITKEN-CADE, S. E.

1951. So! You Want to Learn the Language! An Amusing and Instructive Kitchen
Kaffir Dictionary. Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia: Centafrican Press.

BOLD, JOHN D.

1949. Fanagalo Is Becoming the Lingua Franca of Southern Africa. The
Outspan, May 13.

1952. Fanagalo Dictionary. Central News Agency.

COLE, DESMOND T.

1949. South Africans Are Taking More and More Interest in Bantu Languages.
The Outspan, September 9.

ENGELBRECHT, J. A., and D. ZIERVOGEL
1951. Die Keuse van die Vantoetaal op Skool. Journal of Racial Affairs, 2:
29-30.

HOPKINS-JENKINS, K.

1948. Basic Bantu. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter.

LLOYD, D. C.

n.d. Kitchen Kafir Grammar and Vocabulary. Central News Agency.

PRETORIA TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BUREAU OF ADULT EDUCATION

1948-1949. Fanagalo Postal Course. Pretoria.

RAND MUTUAL ASSURANCE CO. LTD., PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS' COMMITTEE

1920. Miners' Companion in Zulu (and Kitchen Kaffir). Johannesburg.
1938. Miners' Companion in English, Afrikaans, Sesuto and Mine Kafir.

Johannesburg.
[TURNER (1949)] [Cf. review by McDavid, Lg. 26.323-33 (1950), andannotations

by H.P. Blok, Lingua, 1959, 8: 306-321.]
VAN DER WATT, P. J.

1950. Leer 'n Nuwe Taal Binne Orie Weke. Die Brandwag, October 6,
pp. 26-27.

A Planned Auxilary Lan9ua9e 59

NORMAN A. MCQYOWN

[REVIEW OF: H. Jacob, A Planned Auxiliary Language. guages, emphasizing the use of "artificial" not
in any pejorative sense, but only in the sense
With a Preface by Harold E. Palmer. London: of man-made, consciously constructed. Palmer
Dobson, 1947.] emphasizes the practical in his treatment of the
question: "Quaintness and oddity may enhance
This book, written by a man who has had the beauty of a work of literature or art, but
considerable first-hand experience with a not the utility of an instrument of precision."
number of artificial international auxiliary He points out that there are no processes going
languages, bears on what seems to be a perennial on in artificial languages which are not also in
problem, with innumerable suggested solutions, constant operation in ethnic languages, and
but with no universally accepted one. that processes such as the borrowing of
The fact that Jacob has had direct ex- international words from one language to
perience with international languages makes another (almost all words in the vocabulary of
his commentary on the five type-languages an international language consist of such
reviewed in the first part of the book borrowings), or word-coining (some few
anything but academic, as too many cnttques analogically formed coinages are used in some
of international languages have been in the of the international languages), make the life
past (Brugmann and Leskien, 1907). On the and growth of an international language much
other hand, one can also detect a certain like that of an ethnic language. He describes a
lack of objectivity, perhaps inevitable from common medium of communication as "an
someone who has the opportunity to play a indispensable condition of international under-
direct role in some of the rather heated contro- standing and harmony." He cites the need for
versies among impassioned adherents of one such a medium in international congresses
or the other system. It is also regrettable that ("Let the handicap be fair, and the language-
the criteria used for judging the various systems learning task be the same for all"), for the
are not more in conformity with the generally language-learner ("Let it be a language that I
recognized body of linguistic knowledge. can learn in the minimum of time"), the
Notwithstanding these minor defects, however, educationist (who holds "that one should know
the book presents a very useful survey of the something of the structure and nature of
chief characteristics of the most important languages"), the scientist ("Let us ... do for
international languages (Part I), a sketch of the vocabularies in general what has already been
structural differentiae of these languages and done for vocabulary in particular [in inter-
the problems connected with them (Part II), national scientific terminology]"), and the
and a consideration of the international lan- businessman (who now resorts to commercial
guage problem from the point of view of the "codes"). He mentions the long search of the
technician and scientist, together with an philosopher for a "more perfect instrument of
account of the attempts of the International thought." He lists five general characteristics
Auxiliary Language Association to solve the of all modern constructed languages: (1) a
problem (Part III). minimum of speech sounds, most of them
In his Preface, Harold E. Palmer sets up the
contrast between "artificial" and ethnic Ian- 555

556 A PLANNED AUXILIARY LANGUAGE

common to all languages, (2) perfectly phonetic "regular where the natural tongue is irregular."
spellings, (3) adequate but simple vocabularies, E. Allison Peers' "bilinguism" (English and
(4) regular and logical systems of derivation, Spanish) is rejected as complicating rather than
(5) the minimum of rules of grammar and simplifying the present situation. Sir Richard
syntax, all regular. From these it is "only to Paget's "sign language" is rejected as inade-
be expected that an artificial language can be quate. This inadequacy had previously been
mastered in from one quarter to one twentieth pointed out by R. A. Wilson in his book
of the time needed for mastering any natural The Miraculous Birth of Language: "If each
language." Palmer himself confesses to having gesture is to represent one notion, we should
learned two of the artificial languages, Espe- require as many gestures as we possess notions.
ranto and Ido, and expresses his preference for The two hands cannot form this number of
the latter. (The disconcerting consequence of gestures." The larynx and associated "organs
attempting to limit the phonemes of an artificial of speech" are inherently much more flexible
language to the types present in most [not all] than the hands. The vocal medium of communi-
of the more important ethnic languages is set cation is capable of the high degree of differen-
forth by Troubetzkoy [1939). Palmer's assump- tiation without which linguistic systems would
tion that most of the phonetic types used in not be possible. The same objection applies to
"modern constructed languages" [not to men- systems of pictures (Neurath, 1936) as a
tion the combinations and clusters in which means of international communication. The
they occur there] are "common to all languages" British Association Committee on Post-War
is a piece of unwarranted optimism.-Bernard University Education arrives at the conclusion
Bloch, editor of Language.) that "any auxiliary means of education will
have to be closely related to the English
In the Introduction, discussing the function language and to be such that the learning of it
of an international language, Jacob suggests is a direct step toward learning English."
certain minimum requirements: (1) an inter- This clearly looks forward to an Anglo-Ameri-
national language "must answer to the needs can condominium, but it seems to this reviewer
of the vast scientific and social life as it exists to be over-sanguine in its prognosis of the
today," and must further be "adaptable to predominant role to be played by English-
any demands which might be made upon it in speaking peoples in the world of tomorrow:
the future." (2) "We require nothing less than "English is one of two languages of the Anglo-
a complete and autonomous language ...." Soviet treaty and the common language of
(3) Monosignificance of linguistic elements is Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and the peoples
highly desirable, but the principle should be of India." Russian is the other (180,000,000
applied NOT to the word (which would entail speakers), and although English may be playing
much too large a vocabulary), but to the the role of lingua franca in the Far East, it
"smallest, bui: complete unit of thought, the happens that Chiang himself does not speak it.
sentence." Like Palmer, he points out that the Jacob approvingly· quotes Margaret Schlauch
contrast of "artificial" and "natural" is hardly (1943) as taking professional linguists to task
valid today: "Today language is no longer the for their exclusive devotion to "the purely
product of nature alone, but the more deliberate analytical study of language" and their non-
result of the human mind, shaping and forming participation in the working out of a solution
it to suit the growing needs of our civilization." to the international language problem "as
But even though both ethnic and artificial citizens of the world."
languages are in a sense "planned," the ethnic In Part I, Jacob outlines five of the more or
language is at a considerable disadvantage less successful constructed languages. ESPE-
because it is bound by its inherited structure, RANTO (Chap. I), invented by Dr. L. L. Zamen-
whereas the planning of the structure of an hof, appeared in 1887, under the author's
artificial language "may be a priori even though pseudonym of Doktoro Esperanto. The first
its elements are based on the known root mate- book contains the sounds, the grammar, and
rial of the European languages." This a- a lexicon of 921 "root" elements. The pho-
priorism of the structure of an artificial language nemic system and the grammatical framework
makes it possible for such a language to be are as follows:
"precise where natural languages are vague" and

NORMAN A. McQUOWN 557

Sounds agglutinative in its structure. Each of its basic
elements is semi-independent, and construc-
Consonants Vowels u tions are simple concatenations of these basic
elements in conventional orders. In the sixty-
p t C ck e0 odd years of its life, the Esperanto vocabulary
h d dz sgng a has increased, by adding common-European
f s roots, from its original 921 to over 6000 offi-
h cially recognized, and between forty and fifty
thousand unofficial roots, if one includes the
V zj non-official but already internationalized scien-
tific terminology.
mn [Stress, on the In his commentary, on the credit side, Jacob
u penult, is non- mentions the modesty of its inventor, in
phonemic.] launching the project without any personal ties,
and in refusing to exert his personal influence
r to bring about modifications in the language,
although he himself was perfectly amenable to
Forms criticism, and quite willing to suggest changes
(as he did in 1894) in conformity with what
Noun -o PI. -j !Acc. -n seemed to him to be the consensus of opinion.
Adj. -a Fin. -s The suggested basic changes were rejected,
Adv. -e l lAct. Pass. however, by the users of the language, and in
Inf. -1 Ptc. Ptc. 1905, at the first international Esperanto-
-nt- -t- Congress at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France, the
Pres. -a- decision was reached to make no changes in the
basic structure until the language was officially
Past -1- recognized and adopted. The members of the
Congress hoped thereby to gain in stability
Fut. -o- what they might lose in retaining imperfections
inherent in the original instrument. Jacob
Cond. -u- comments that "Esperanto has consequently
Impv. -u never been, and is not today, open to funda-
mental changes or adjustments based on new
If the stress, in Esperanto or any other language, regularly proposals in the fields of interlinguistics,
falls on a particular syllable of the word, it can be regarded as though it does develop according to its own
non-phonemic only if the word-boundary is phonemically laws." This characteristic of Esperanto, as over
marked by some other feature. Needless to say, the space between against the other systems (which were, in
words in writing is not a phonemic feature; at most it is an indi- general, very amenable to change), makes it of
rect (but perfectly legitimate) device for indicating the position peculiar interest to the general linguist, who
of the phonemic stress.-H.H. may be interested in observing the principles of
growth and development, from known begin-
Esperanto roots are inherently nominal, ad- nings, under more or less sharply determinable
jectival, adverbial, or verbal, although this fact conditions, of such a type-language.
was not theoretically recognized for some time. On the debit side, Jacob mentions the reversed
The noun ending -o, the adjective ending -a, Czech ', i.e. A' invented by Zamenhof as a
the adverb ending -e, and so on, are pleonastic common diacritic for the Esperanto alphabet,
when added to roots which are already inher- as a serious defect. To the linguist, accustomed
ently nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. When to dealing with phonetic and phonemic writing
added to other roots (-o to an adjective root, systems, it seems a minor item, and certainly
-i to a noun root, and so on), they are derivative the advantages to be gained (by the use of a
in function (nominalizing the adjective, verbal- uniform diacritic and by unit-symbol repre-
sentation of phonemes) should easily outweigh
izing the noun, etc.): bel-a 'beautiful' > bel-o any purely esthetic considerations. Jacob, fur-
'beauty,' martel-o 'hammer' > martel-i '(to)

hammer.' The resulting forms are not very
precise, but may be made more so, if necessary
in a given context, by means of specific addi-
tional suffixes: bel-ec-o 'beauty,' bel-ul-o '(a)
beauty,' bel-aj-o 'a beautiful thing.' The very
pleonasm of the -o, -a, -e, -i endings has led to
their acquiring a vitality of their own, so that,
for example, although properly speaking hodiau
'today' is self-sufficient, one may add adverbial
-e, resulting in hodiaue 'nowaday.' One may
also speak of l'o [la -o] '(the) essence, entity.'
The derivational affixes proper may also be
used independently: eco 'quality,' ulo 'person,'
ajo 'thing.' The result is a language which,
although superficially flexional, is actually

558 A PLANNED AUXILIARY LANGUAGE

thermore, criticizes Zamenhof for not using x familiar with Latin. Jacob cnt1c1zes the
variability (singular and plural, general and
("internationally known as a character and as a accusative) of the adjective in Esperanto: "this
variability does not add to the clarity of the
sound"). It seems that here Zamenhof showed language"; objects to the plural ending -j /yj
as "inelegant and heavy,'' suggesting that -i be
himself a better linguist than Jacob, for his substituted for it; and objects to the use of the
accusative: "it does in no way contribute to the
solution to the x-problem (ks or kz) is in clarity of the phrase except in inversion."
Jacob does not realize that word-order, far
complete conformity with the phonetic facts from being "logical" or "natural," is just as
highly conventional as the use of particular
and with the principle of one phoneme one endings for number and case, and that for a
language which is to be of maximum worth to
letter. From the phonemic point of view, on peoples all over the world, the "normal" word
orders of English and French are of little
the other hand, it is not improbable that dz value, that the flexibility of order and reference
obtained by the use of the plural and accusative
(so written by Zamenhof) is a unit phoneme, for adjectives, the accusative for nouns, might
very well compensate for the additional learning
and should, therefore, be respresented by a effort involved. It is likewise not true, at least
unofficially, to say that the use of the accusative
unit symbol. A more general criticism dmz igchgt in Esperanto is "obligatory," although a writer
have been made of the whole group c who omitted it would certainly be considered
stylistically deficient. The reference to the
as offering some difficulty to the native speakers plural -j /y/ as "inelegant and heavy," if valid
for Esperanto, would be equally valid for
of a considerable number of languages. In his Classical Greek, where joy/ endings are fre-
quent. In criticizing specific vocabulary choices,
criticism of n (monarno, nemio) Jacob implies and particularly some of the the results of the
extremely liberal word-formational usages of
that only in the Esperanto-derived system Ido
Esperanto, Jacob makes much of accidental
have such forms been replaced by forms with homonymy with words of different meaning in
k. As a matter of fact, such replacement (mo- some of the West European languages. Acci-
dental homonymy in a world-wide linguistic
narko, kemio) is now almost universal in Espe- framework is unavoidable. Why should we be
more seriously concerned when it strikes closer
ranto itself, through its normal processes of to our \Vest European center ? The form
fraiilo 'master' is obviously a back-formation
development. With respect to the system of from fraiilino 'miss,' just as is edzo 'husband'
from edzino 'wife,' and this in turn from a re-
"correlatives" in Esperanto, Jacob concludes
analyzed kronprincedzino 'crown princess' (<
that it "lacks the natural elements familiar to
German Kronprinzessin). Such processes are
so many Europeans" and that it is "largely "natural" in all ethnic languages. Why should
they be forbidden in an artificial language ?The
arbitrary and artificial." It might be pointed out free use of ma!- 'direct opposite' (malbona
'bad,' malbela 'ugly,' etc.), the free use of
that in the system (consisting of combinations "affixes" as independent roots (eta 'small'), the
processes of compounding (even when they
of five stems i- 'some, any,' ki- 'what,' ti- result in such "unfortunate" forms as j&esto
'absence' not 'forest') are all devices which
'that,' ci- 'all,' neni- 'no' with nine endings,
-a 'kind,' -al 'reason,' -am 'time,' -e 'place,' contribute to the vitality and flexibility of an
auxiliary language. To restrict them on the
-el 'manner,' -es 'one's,' -o 'thing,' -om 'quanti-

ty,' -u 'person') not all the elements are

arbitrary: ki-, ti-, and neni- remind one of

Inda-European interrogatives, demonstratives,

and negatives; -a is the Esperanto adjective

ending, -e the adverbial ending (limited here,

it is true, to place), and -o the noun ending;

-es reminds one of Germanic possessives.

Interesting, likewise, is the fact that, far from

feeling uncomfortable in the presence of these

"artificialities," the users of the language

have attempted to extend the system to other

elements not originally included in it: from

alia 'other' have been derived alies 'someone

else's,' alie 'elsewhere,' and so on. There seems

to be a certain advantage to having a large

number of analogous forms made up from a

small number of roots and affixes-the effort

required to learn them is much less than that

necessitated by a large number of unrelated

forms. The chief objection seems to fall again

on the esthetic side: they look "queer" and they

are not immediately intelligible to people

NORMAN A. McQUOWN 559

grounds of unnaturalness is to confine the refers to Ido grammars, dictionaries, and
developmental processes of the international textbooks available immediately after the first
language within the same narrow tradition- world war as "the most complete works of
bound framework as those of the ethnic lan- their kind for any system of planned language."
Esperanto works such as Eugen Wiister's
guages. One of the chief advantages of an
international language is that one cannot make Enzyklopiidisches Worterbuch (Leipzig, 1923- ;
a "mistake" in giving free rein to the normal four volumes to date, a-kor), the Plena-Vortaro
analogizing tendencies: to limit the results of de Esperanto (Paris, 1930) by Grosjean-Maupin
the analogizing process to those forms which and others, and the Plena Gramatiko (Budapest,
happen to be sanctioned by tradition in the 1935) by Kalocsay and Waringhien, are at least
West European languages is to lose that as exhaustive as anything published in Ido.
advantage. Jacob introduces his commentary
on Esperanto with the statement that "Espe- The modifications of Esperanto, eventually
ranto is today the only artificial language which incorporated into Ido, have two general tend-
has been able to form and to maintain a mass encies: one, to make the language more
movement [of the order of 100,000 practicing natural, that is, more like the ethnic languages;
users]" and concludes with the remark that and two, to make it more "logical," that is, to
"Esperanto cannot be considered the solution
of the problem of communication." Yet, conform more rigorously to a predesigned
except for the criticisms listed and commented system of derivation. Concessions to natural-
on above, he gives no further justification for ness involved the introduction of digraphs ch sh
this conclusion. Esperanto (and a number of (unit phonemes) qu /kw/, the use of x (a single
other candidates as well) seems to meet Jacob's symbol for two phonemes), relaxing of the
own criteria for such a solution (listed in my penult accent rule to permit exceptions (last
comment on the Introduction, above). One can syllable of the infinitive: pensdr, and third-from-
only conclude that for unstated reasons, Jacob the-last vowel in words ending in iV: familio),
personally prefers one of the other candidates. variability (for number) of the article (la sg., le
pl.), optional adjective ending -a, special rules
How, then, do these other systems compare of word order for S V O and for adjectives
with Esperanto ? (since the "obligatory" use of the accusative and
Ino (Chap. II) "started as a reformed Espe- adjective agreement had been abolished). Adap-
ranto," the creation of Louis de Beaufront, tations in the direction of "logicality" involved
Zamenhof's personal representative to the
Delegation pour !'adoption d'une Langue the rule of "reversibility," stated by Courturat:
Auxiliaire Internationale, formed in 1901 on "Every derivative must be reversible; that is to
the initiative of Leopold Leau, and including a say, if one passes from one word to another of
number of well-known linguists (Baudouin de the same family in virtue of a certain rule, one
must be able to pass inversely from the second
Courtenay, Otto Jespersen, and Hugo Schu- to the first in virtue of a rule which is exactly
chardt). The Delegation rendered its decision
the reverse of the preceding" (1907). From the
in 1907, and "decided to adopt in principle verbal root labor- 'to work' one derives laboro
Esperanto, on account of its relative perfection, 'works, working,' whence laboristo 'worker.'
and of the many and varied applications which
have been made of it," but with the proviso From laboristo, by successively removing the
that "certain modifications" be made along the noun ending -o and the suffix -ist-, one arrives
lines ihdicated by the project of Ido (de again at the root labor-. This principle seems
Beaufront's pseudonym). These modifications to be subsumed by most linguists under the
were designed to meet the objections to Es-
peranto (specified by Jacob) which I have cited label "regular," and as such works just as well
and commented on above. The effect of the in Esperanto as in Ido. On the other hand,
changes was to make the new language (in certain of the derivative forms in Ido are
Jacob's words) "more immediately compre- restricted in meaning: richo (noun from an
hensible and more natural in aspect." adjective root) 'a rich person' (Esp. riculo). In
Esperanto rico is multi-significant: "richness"
A number of Jacob's specific statements with
respect to Ido are misleading. for example, he (riceco), "riches" (ricajo), 'rich person' (riculo),
but can be made specific where the context
makes it necessary (by using the forms indi-
cated). In Ido, an attempt was made to make

560 A PLANNED AUXILIARY LANGUAGE

prec1s10n obligatory, in Esperanto it has not only on subsequent languages (such as
always been optional. Many of the new affixes Novial), but also on the further development of
introduced into Ido have subsequently been Esperanto and Ido. His idea that an inter-
adopted by Esperantists, but as permissible national language "should be an organic,
aids to precision, rather than as obligatory autonomous entity, living and growing accord-
straitjackets. In practice, not even in Ido was ing to its own laws, harmonizing and assimi-
the obligatory feature carried out. Critics of lating new elements" had been one of Zamen-
Ido, according to Jacob, have advanced the hof's guiding principles. But all post-Esperanto
following points: international languages, including Occidental,
have been constantly subject to personal
I. "In Ido the application of logic has led to a tinkering by their individual authors, so that
certain amount of artificial rigidity." they were not given the opportunity for such
development as de Wahl prescribes.
2. "the planned language should have an
analytic conjugation" (me vil protektar NovIAL (Chap. IV), advanced in 1928 by Otto
instead of me protektos 'I will protect'). Jepersen, constituted a new synthesis, based
on the same general principles as previous
3. There is no suffix equivalent to -ation, and international languages, but incorporating
no direct derivation for desubstantive Jespersen's ideas on analytic linguistic structure,
which he believed essentially "superior" to the
verbs (Ido martel-ag-ar = Esp. martel-i 'to agglutinative type. With respect to its general
make-up, Jacob concludes that "Novial can be
hammer'). said to be midway between the extremes of
4. Ido derived forms are not "natural" enough naturalness and autonomy."
INTERLINGUA or Latino sine flexione (Chap. V),
(ldo inspektisto instead of *inspektoro). This initiated in 1903 by Giuseppe Peano, represents
objection had been applied by Idists to an effort somewhat off the path beaten by
Esperanto; apparently Ido did not go far Esperanto, Ido, Occidental, and Novial, in the
enough in the direction of "naturalness" to sense that its grammatical structure is based
satisfy everyone. directly on that of a single ethnic language,
Latin; but its vocabulary, like that of the others,
OCCIDENTAL (Chap. III), put forward in 1922 admits all elements common to the languages
by Edgar de Wahl, is a more independent of Europe. Latin flexion is reduced to a
effort than Ido, although its author was minimum: only the noun plurals end in -s, and
acquainted with both Esperanto and Ido. It even this may be omitted where some other
attempts to meet the fourth objection to both word indicates plurality. For all other forms the
Esperanto and Ido, listed above, and goes very Latin stem is used. Grammatical constructions
far in the direction of naturalness. Instead of are indicated by conventions of word-order
creating a system of derivation, it attempts to and by the use of particles. Derivation is
abstract from the international vocabulary its "natural," again in the sense that no derivative
own system of derivation. It tries not to alter may be used which tradition (Latin or inter-
in any way forms already existent in the ethnic national) does not sanction: "Peano suggests
languages. Immediate comprehensibility for the frequent reading of Interlingua literature
those who are familiar with these languages is a for the acquisition of a correct and good style."
principal aim. But it cannot create regularity~a Here again, as with Occidental, the other
prime requisite in an auxiliary language~ extremely naturalistic international language,
where regularity does not exist. Jacob concludes one cannot construct new forms freely, and so
that "to use Occidental correctly a fairly wide one of the great advantages of an auxiliary
knowledge of the international words of the language is lost.
European languages is required." But, if such a Having concluded his brief sketches of
language is to be of value outside Europe, or, Esperanto, Ido, Occidental, Novial, and Inter-
for that matter, even to most Europeans, it lingua, the only international auxiliary lan-
should be so designed as to eliminate the guages, out of the hundreds that have been
necessity for such knowledge. An artificial put forward, which "claim any following in
language should be designed to function as a
SECOND language; if its use presupposes the
knowledge of other languages, it is not fulfilling
its function. Although de Wahl's project met
with little success, his ideas were influential,

NORMAN A. McQUOWN 561

different countries and a literature and maga- tioned language which would include its
zines of their own," Jacob, in Part II of his teaching in the schools." It has attempted "to
book, reviews comparatively the chief points at build upon the fund of experience and knowl-
issue among the various international languages. edge furnished by the languages which have
In Part III (Chaps. XIII and XIV), he discusses been tested by time and use." Edward L.
the relationship of the problem of an inter- Thorndike determined, in experiments carried
national system of technical nomenclature to on at Columbia Univeristy, that "on the whole,
the broader problem of au international with expenditures of from ten to a hundred
auxiliary language. hours, the achievement [presumably of English-
speakers] in a synthetic language [Esperanto in
The International Federation of the National this case] will be from five to fifteen times that
Standardizing Associations (ISA), founded in in a natural language, according to the difficulty
1926, received a proposal in May 1934, from the of the latter."
Soviet-Russian Standardizing Commission Among works sponsored by IALA are the
(SRSC), that work should be started on an following: Totality, by Edward Sapir (Language
international code for the technical sciences. Monograph No. 6, 1930); The Expression of the
A full report on the problem was presented Ending-point Relation in English, French, and
in September 1934 at a meeting of ISA in German, by Edward Sapir and Morris Swadesh,
Stockholm, and was unanimously accepted by ed. by Alice V. Morris (Language Monograph
representatives of nineteen national standard- No. 10, 1932); Indication: A Study of Demon-
izing associations. The SRSC formed a special stratives, Articles, and Other "Indicators," by
committee for the preparation of a code project, William Edward Collinson (Language Mono-
submitted in June 1935. It embodies the graph No. 17, 1937); Cosmopolitan Conver-
following principles: sation: The Language Problems of International
Conferences, by Herbert N. Shenton (New
1. a Latin-based alphabet, supplemented by York, 1934); and Semantic Frequency List for
devices such as those of Esperanto or English, French, German, and Spanish, by
Czech (c or c) Helen S. Eaton (Chicago, 1940). For a time
IALA entertained the idea of selecting one of
2. international root words, common and the international languages (probably Espe-
technical ranto) as a base language "from which a defini-
tive form of language might be developed."
3. an Esperanto-based affix-system Since the Second World War, however, that
4. an Esperanto-based grammar idea has been abandoned in favor of a plan of
working anew with the basic elements from
The discussion of this project has been inter- which these languages have been constructed.
rupted, first by the second world war, and now The present plan is to create various type-
the "cold war." The problems are the same, in languages, embodying the various conflicting
general, as those for the various proposed principles, with a view toward subsequent
international languages, and the final solution testing in practice to determine which type may
will be found in one of those languages into eventually prove to be most desirable. The
which all internationally agreed-on technical vocabulary, however, is now to be selected only
vocabulary will be incorporated. from elements common to English, French,
The last chapter is devoted to the work of the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese (eliminating
International Auxiliary Language Association German and Russian, which have figured in
(IALA), founded in 1924, at the instance of the some of the established languages).
Committee on International Language of the IALA's work will certainly play an important
International Research Council. IALA has part in the ultimate determination of the nature
sponsored a continuing series of experiments of the language to be accepted as the inter-
and studies on various aspects of the language
problem. It has assumed from the beginning national auxiliary language.
that no national language could meet the need, In the opinion of the reviewer, however, the
and has devoted itself to a program with two chief difficulty in the way of final solution of
main objects: (1) "to obtain agreement on one
definite planned language system and to obtain the problem has been a political and social one.
official sanction for that language," and (2)
"to secure the general acceptance of the sane-

562 A PLANNED AUXILIARY LANGUAGE

Until the world is ready, no amount of hashing In the meantime, cross-fertilization has taken
and rehashing of minuscule details of the place on a large scale; and once the factor of
various shemes will affect in the slightest their competition has been eliminated, the language
ultimate acceptance. When the time is ripe, any chosen will be able to benefit from the past
one of the established schemes-say Esperanto, experience of all the projects (as Esperanto, for
the earliest of them, or Novial, the most recent example, has already benefited by the criticisms
-will prove structurally adequate to meet the of ldo, Experantido, and numerous other
demands put upon it. A scheme which has had schemes). When the final choice is made, the
wide practical use, and in which large technical problems will be practical ones, and in the face
vocabularies, internationally agreed upon, are of these, the theoretical divergences, which now
already available, will have a great advantage. seem so important, will evaporate.

REFERENCE NOTE

For recent comment by a leading linguist, see Martinet (1946, 1949, 1952). Pei
(1958) is an optimistic advocate rebutted by a participant in the IALA (Gode,
1958). On the general topic, see Burney (1962), Carroll (1953, pp. 125-132), Cohen
(1956a, Part 4, chap. 4), and Jacob (1946). For the history of the movement and the
nature of some of the systems, see Brinton (1889), Guerard (1922), Jespersen
(1928). Sapir (193le) and Shenton, Sapir, Jespersen (1931) are vigorous arguments.
That some degree of practical success has been achieved is shown by Griggs and
Rulon (1953), among others.

For Basic English as a solution to the problem of international communication,
see Ogden (1930, etc.) Carroll (1953), and Whorf's critique in his article on pp.
129-141 of this book. That article, and others by Whorf (e.g., 1942) represent
another approach to international communication and understanding.

References not in the general bibliography:

BRINTON, DANIEL G.

1889. Aims and Traits of a World-Language. New York.
BRUGMANN, KARL, and AUGUST LESKIEN

1907. Zur Kritik der Kiinstlichen Weltsprachen. Strassburg.

BURNEY, PIERRE

1962. Les Langues internationales ("Que Sais-je ?" Le Point des Connaissances
Actuelles, No. 968.) Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

COURTURAT, LOUIS

1907. Etude sur la derivation en Esperanto. Paris.

GODE, A,

1958. Review of M. Pei, One Language for the World and How to Achieve It.
Science, 28: 194.

GRIGGS, T., and P. J. RULON
1953. International Language for Aviation: Instrument Flight. Cambridge. [Cf.
Joshua Whatmough, Language. London: Secher & Warburg; New York:
St. Martin, 1956. (Reprinted, New York: Mentor [209], 1957.)]

GUERARD, A. L.

1922. A Short History of the International Language Movement. London.

JACOB, H. {ED.)

1946. On the Choice of a Common Language. London. D. Dobson

JESPERSEN, OTTO

1928. An International Language. London: G. Allen & Unwin.

NORMAN A. McQUOWN 563

MARTINET, ANDRE

1946. "La Linguistique et les langues artificielles." Word, 2: 37-47.
1949. Comments. Actes du VI" Congres Internationale des Linguistes (1948).

Paris: Hincksieck. Pp. 93-112, 585-600.
1952. Review of Interlingua-English: Interlingua. Word, 8: 163-167.

NEURATH, OTTO

1936. International Picture Language, the First Rules of Isotype. London: Kegan
Paul, Trench and Triibner.

OGDEN, C. K.

1930a. Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar. London:
Kegan Paul, Trench and Triibner.

1930b. The Basic Vocabulary: A Statistical Analysis, with Special Reference to
Substitution and Translation. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Triibner.

1931. Debabelization. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Triibner.
1932. The Basic Dictionary, Being the 7,500 Most Useful Words with Their

Equivalents in Basic English, for the Use of Translators, Teachers, and
Students. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Triibner.
1934. The System of Basic English. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
1935. Counter-offensive; An Exposure of Certain Misrepresentations of Basic
English. Cambridge, England, and Peiping. [Appendix: monograph by
M. West et al. A Critical Examination of Basic English. 1934.]

PEI, MARIO

1958. One Language for the World and How to Achieve It. New York. [Reviewed,
A. Gode, Science, 1958, 28: 194.]

SAPIR, EDWARD

193le. The Function of an International Auxiliary Language. Psyche, 11: 4-15.
[Also in H. Shenton et al., International Communication. London: 1931.
Pp. 65-94; and David G. Mandelbaum (Ed.), Selected Writings of
Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, and Personality. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1949. Pp. 110-121.]

SHENTON, H., EDWARD SAPIR, OTTO JESPERSEN

1931. International Communication. London. Kegan Paul, Trench and Triibner.

TROUBETSKOY, N. S.

1939. Wie soil das Lautsystem einer Ki.instlichen internationalen Hilfsprache
beschaffen sein? Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague, 8: 5-21.