Page:An attempt towards an international language.pdf/19

 infinite new words can be created, thus doing away with the necessity of learning each word by itself. For convenience’ sake I have given these prefixes and suffixes the signification of independent words, and as such have inserted them in my vocabulary.

Example No. 1.–The prefix “mal” signifies the reverse of the word to which it is attached; for example, if we know that “bona” means good, it follows that “malbona” means bad; so one word instead of two will express the two ideas of goodness and badness; “alta,” high, “malalta,” low; “estimi,” to esteem, “malestimi,” to despise or ill esteem; “dura,” hard, “maldura,” soft; “froida,” cold, “malfroida," warm, etc., etc.

Example No. 2.–The suffix “in” indicates the feminine; thus, “frat,o,” brother, “frat,in,o,” sister; “patr,o,” father, “patr,in,o,” mother, etc, etc.

Example No. 3.–The suffix “il” indicates the instrument for an action; thus, “tranch,i,” to cut, “tranch,il,o," that which cuts, a knife, etc, etc.

I have made a general rule that such words as have already become International (that is the foreign element) do not undergo any change in my language, only in spelling. So there are many words we do not need to learn as we already know them; for example, atom, botany, comedy, disinfect, doctor, emancipate, form, figure, locomotive, monopoly, news, platina, police, telegraph, temperature, theatre, wagon, etc., etc.

By means of these rules and certain inherent properties of my language, its study is extremely simple; with 900 words learned, one has learned it from top to bottom, and these 900 words embrace all the grammatical forms as well as all suffixes and prefixes. With this small supply of words, any one, without any especial talent or capacity, and even without any operation of the intellect, can create, by aid of the rules, all the other words and phrases that are necessary for daily life. Nay,