Books in Brief

One Language for the World, by Mario Pei (Devin-Adair, $5.00). The interesting part of this book is a cursory and lively account of the more noteworthy attempts to devise an “international” language. Dr. Pei estimates that about six hundred such attempts have been made, and one can only marvel at the fantastic waste of time and energy by enthusiasts who imagined that they could heal the world’s woes by inventing a new language. This entertaining survey should have been published for its own sake, but the author chose to make it part of an argument that One World ought to have One Language, and he invents an elaborate procedure whereby that One Language will be selected and imposed on the world by New York’s flossiest and dullest burlesque show. One can only suggest that the United Nations should simultaneously take an equally important step toward international understanding by decreeing that the circumference of a circle shall be equal to exactly three times its diameter. The assembled delegates could then form a chorus and perform entrechats while singing “All God’s chillun got pi”

R. P. OLIVER

Featured Tags

Manage following

Literature

One Language for the World, by Mario Pei (Devin-Adair, $5.00). The interesting part of this book is a cursory and lively account of the more noteworthy attempts to devise an “international” language. Dr. Pei estimates that about six hundred such attempts have been made, and one can only marvel at the fantastic waste of time and energy by enthusiasts who imagined that they could heal the world’s woes by inventing a new language. This entertaining survey should have been published for its own sake, but the author chose to make it part of an argument that One World ought to have One Language, and he invents an elaborate procedure whereby that One Language will be selected and imposed on the world by New York’s flossiest and dullest burlesque show. One can only suggest that the United Nations should simultaneously take an equally important step toward international understanding by decreeing that the circumference of a circle shall be equal to exactly three times its diameter. The assembled delegates could then form a chorus and perform entrechats while singing “All God’s chillun got pi”

R. P. OLIVER