[Universal Language]. Langue universelle de l'humanité, ou, Télégraphie parlée par le nombre agissant.
$800
Aldrick Caumont. Langue universelle de l'humanité, ou, Télégraphie parlée par le nombre agissant: réduisant à l'unité tous les idiomes du globe compris instantanément d'un pôle à l'autre et à toutes distances.
Paris : A. Durand ; Bruxelles : Bruylant-Christophe, 1867.
(36 x 27 cm). iii, 23 pages; Bright original publisher’s yellow wrappers printed in black.
This work aims to create a universal language that through a concordance of phrases in eight languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) will allow members of different native language groups to communicate by referring to the numerical reference in the chart of phrases (see the illustration).
Thus, the author proposes to create a “methodical and reasoned” idiomatic concordant dictionary with “All the most useful, practical, and progressive ideas in the physical world, the intellectual world and the moral world, and in particular on the following points: Commerce, Navigation, Railways and Electric Telegraphy, preceded by a Numerical and Alphabetical Grammar and a Vocabulary of Words.”* As of the time of the publication of this brochure, the dictionary had yet to be created and the author has used biblical phrases for his sample chart of phrases.
Aldrick Caumont (1825-1884), was and attorney, professor, and writer. Corresponding member of the Institut historique de France (in 1867). - Professor of commercial and maritime law and economic law at the Hôtel-de-Ville of Le Havre (in 1867).
* “Des intérêts identiques sollicitent les peuples; des chemins de fer les rapprochent; une langue commune doit les concilier et les unir. Le sort de l'humanité dépend du concours de trois grandes puissances civilisatrices: la langue universelle, le télégraphe et la machine à vapeur, symboles de l'intelligence, de l'activité et de la force. ÉPIGRAPHE DE L'AUTEUR.”
