Page:Dr. Esperanto's International Language. Introduction and complete grammar. Por angloj. Warsaw, 1889.pdf/18

— 18 — is impossible to express them by some equivalent terms, the larger vocabulary must be consulted.

2) It has now been shown how, by means of the peculiar structure of the international tongue, any one may enter into an intelligible correspondence with another person of a different nationality. The sole drawback, until the language becomes more widely known, is the necessity under which the writer is placed of waiting until the person addressed shall have analysed his thoughts. In order to remove this obstacle, as far as practicable, at least for persons of education, recourse was had to the following expedient. Such words as are common to the languages of all civilised peoples, together with the so-called „foreign“ words, and technical terms, were left unaltered. If a word has a different sound in different languages, that sound has been chosen which is common to at least two or three of the most important European tongues, or which, if found in one language only, has become familiar to other nations. When the required word has a different sound in every language, some word was sought for, having only a relative likeness in meaning to the other, or one which, though seldom used, is yet well-known to the leading nations, e. g., the word for „near“ is different in every European language, but if one consider for a moment the word „proximus“ (nearest), it will be noticed that some modified form of the word is in use in all important tongues. If, then, I call „near“, proksim, the meaning will be apparent to every educated man. In other emergencies words were drawn from the