International language for UN

Title

Creator

Morelos, Francisco

Language

English

Year

1958

Subject

United Nations.

Universal language.

Language and languages.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

English, French, Russian, and Spanish are the prevailing languages that are spoken in the deliberations of the assembly of the United Nations. While, the Chinese, the Japanese, and even the Hindus believe that their languages are just as good as the European languages, if not much older. But what should be our universal language? Well, Pham Xuan Thai of Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, has something in his book which if adopted by us may yet solve the greatest language problem of mankind and that is to have a universal language to be invented from a dead language, Latin and ancient Greek.

Fulltext

International Langu~ge f 01· UN MANY petty jealousies can be avoided in the world's organization like the United Nations, if a common univen;al language can be adopted. English, French, Russian, and Spanish are the prevailing languages that are spoken in the deliberations of the assembly of the United Nations. The smaller nations feel slighted in the present set-up. The Chinese, the Japanese, and even the Hindus believe that their languages are just as good as the European J~nglJ..ages, if not much older. In point of population, the five hundred million Chinese, the three hundred seventy million Hindus, and one hundred million Japanese cannot be dismissed easily, numerically speaking. So, to do away entirely with envy among nations, a universal language is in order. Now, what can the universal language be? Pham Xuan Thai of Saigon, Republic of Vietnam, apparently a linguist, gives the answer: Use FRATER, his own invention. He claims that many linguists tried to invent universal languages but they were unscientific and complex - and difficult to learn. He mentiQned Esperanto, Volapuk, Mundoling·ua, Universal Sprache, Dil, Spelin, Veltparl, Balta, LangueBleue, Novial, and Ars Signorum 'vhich were proposed by their inventors during the different periods in the past, from 1661 the year, Ars Sig·norum was invented by Dalgarno and the latest in 1928, the year, Novial was invented by .Jespersen. The Basic English invented by Ogden which contains eight hundred basic words was recently proposed. However, it is still English, and it can not be accepted. What is FRATER? It comes from Latin, meaning brother. From the word, frater, one can have fraternal (adjective), fraternally (adverb), fraternity, (abstract noun), and fraternize (verb). It is according to the inventor "based on Latin and Greek roots of international. currency (and) is designed with due regard to needs of the Chinese, Japanese and other non-Aryan speech-communities." Further, he said: "Frater is usable as an efficient instrument of communication in everyday life and technical discus::JANUARY, 1958 By Francisco Morelos sion." The inventor chose FRATER to foster brotherihood among men. It should be the language of th~ great brotherhood of mankind. Is FRATER easy to learn? Again, according to the inventor, it is. "lt is easy to learn whatever the mother tongue of the beginner may be. The memory of the beginner has something to bite on thanks to the mnemonic method used in the Frater lexicon." "To learn, to read, to write and to speak it fluently, it would take an educated man three months and a plain man six months." This writer happened to borrow a copy of FRATER from a friend, Mr. Ernesto C. Santos, to whom it was ,sent by the inventor as a complimentary copy. After going over its pages for one evening, this writer agree~ with the inventor. He also believes that it is easy for Filipinos to learn for it has some qualities of our own languages. Chirino said that Tagalog has the qualities of Latin and Greek consequently FRATER mu~t necessarily have affinities with Tagalog and other Philippine languages like Visayan, Iloko, and Pampango. This writer can speak and write both Tagalog and Visayan and is dabbling with Iloko and Pampango grammars. He can, therefore, speak with some weight when he agrees with the inventor that FRATER is easy to learn. In an evening, he was able to grasp the fundamentals of this new universal language. He also believes that others can do likewise. Why i~ it easy to learn FRATER? It is a very simple lar.~uage. It has no articles, no verb conjugations, no number, no mood, no person, no tense, and no ticklish prepositions that give headaches to grammarians, and the declension of pronouns is very simple. It is purely phoneticaI - it is spoken as written and written as spoken. The vocabulary approximates 1500 words and it is believed that they are not hard to memorize, for according to the inventor, it is mnemonics. To grasp the grammatical elements fully, one week for a studious and serious student ~ill be sufficient, especially so if he is interested in languages. All parts of speech are based on the same root-words. Cecilio Lopez, author of Manual of National Language points out that the socalled "parts of speech" in the National Language may PAGE 15 Le clivicled onb· into three: root-words, affixes, and pi1rticles. The same is claimed by Mons. Manuel Yap in his book, Ang Atong· Dilang Bisaya. FRATER is, .iust like the Tagalog or Visa>·an \vith the exception that it does not use affixes. The Philippine languages use affixes hence they are called agglutinatiw languages. FRATER is not agglutinative although it uses combination of words, or stems, or particles. It is. therefore, much simpler than Philippine languages. To initiate the reader into its grammatical elements, the declension of personal pronouns is hereby pre.sented: Singular mi ni ili Plural mis nis ilis . English Equivalents I we you .vou she, he, it they To form the plural, jLlst add s' to the singular. The same forms are used in the nominative and objective cases. In the possessive case, the particle OT is us~d before the pronoun. OT is equivalent to OF. Example FRATER English Frater mi es beni, ot ni je. My brother is happy, yours too. Mine is ot mi, yours is ot ni, and his, hers, its is ot iii. Used as a pronominal adjective, the pronoun follows the noun. Frater mi is Brother my. (In Tagalog: Kapatid ko. In Visayan: Igsuon ko.) What about the verbs? The verbs have tenses but no conjugatiop, no number, no person and apparently no mood. It has voice, though. The four tenses. of the verbs are: past, present (apparently progressive, like Tagalog and Visayan) and future. The conditional or subjunctive is termed prohahle. To denote tense Oi" time. one simply uses modifiers: PAS for past tense, FUTUR for the future tense, INTEM for present tense, and PROBABLE for probably or conditionally. So, there are no perfect tenses. Reali>·. what are ·perfect tenses for, <ll1>' how'! l\'f >. Chinese friend has good reasons for sa>'ing that we can simpl>• sa>· in Tagalog: Ako kain ng-ayon, ako kain hukas, ako kain kahapon or in Visayan: Ako kaon karon, ako kaon ugma, ako , kaon kagahapon. Which in English is simply: I eat toda>', I eat tomorrow, I eat >'estenla>·· \Yhat it meant is perfect!:; understandable. So, wh>· complicate languages? Similarly in Frater. the following examples show how ea~y it is: PAGE 16 Present FRATER'._ ENGLISH FRATER - ENGLISH Singular Plural l\li ide. I think. Mis ide. We think. Ni icle. You think. Nis icle. You think. Iii ide. He (she, it) thinks. Iliti ide. They think. Past l\Ii icle pas. Ni ide pas. I1i ide pas. I thought. You thought. He thought. Mis ide pas. We thought. Nis ide" pas. You thought. Ilis ide pas. They thought. Future Mi ide futur. I will Mis ide futur. We will think. think. Ni ide futur. You will Nis id.e futur. You will think. think. Ili ide futur. He will Ilis ide futur. They will think. think. All root-words are supposed to be in the present tense. INTEM suggests present progressive. INTEM is clearly a combination of in time or in tempo. or en tiempo. Tempo is syncopated. Asking questions is like or can be like Tagalog construction: . ' Tern es kia? What time is it? Tagalog: (Ang) Panahon ay ano '? or Oras ay ano? Tern is time, es is is, and Ida is what. Literally: Time is what? (Usual Tagalog: Ano ang oras?) Is the vocabulary of FRATER rich? It seems so. To show how easily English can be translated into it, let us have the following passages: The opening or . the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations is hereby translated: English We, the people of the United Nations, Determined To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our life-time has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and ••. Let us have a passage: · And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. FRATER Mis, demomulti ot Nasion Uni, Fis a Protek generasion future ot benine batal, na porta pas bi tern in bio ot mis benine logone a antrop, e ... · E ni obliga filo Dio ni kori kardi tute ot..ni, e kon ide tuta ot ni, e kon forse tu ta ot ni: dis es lega uni. \Veil, PHAM XUAN THAI has something in his book which if adopted by us may yet solve the greatest language .problem of mankind and that is to have· · a universal language to be invented from a dead language,. Latin, and ancient Greek. THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR

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