Page:Fifty years hence, or, What may be in 1943 - a prophecy supposed to be based on scientific deductions by an improved graphical method (IA fiftyyearshenceo00grim).pdf/45

 as people of the time in which I live—or rather find myself so transported mentally that the events of fifty years from 1895 onwards are as of the past. I see the households and the nations of 1943, and with them hold plain converse in the universal tongue of the Electric Age; for the language written, and to a great extent spoken all over the civilized world, is everywhere the same; having been prepared by a committee of philologists of all countries, and formally adopted at a congress held in Paris in 1915. It combines the soft liquid beauty of the Italian, the dignity of the Spanish, and the majesty of the Greek; the adaptability to new ideas of the German, the delicate shadings of the French, and the business-like exactness of the English. Its spelling is phonetic; and phonetic printing is as common as phonographic writing.

The written language has been greatly enriched by characters to represent signs which in the year 1900 could not be expressed in writing or in printing; as, for instance, whistling, clucking and kissing, barking, howling, groaning, laughter, etc. In fact, every sound which can be imitated by the human voice may be so