- The International Auxiliary Language Association, generally known as
IALA, is an organization which grew out of investigations of the auxiliary language problem undertaken after the first World War by committees of
the International Research Council, by the British, French, Italian, and
American Associations for the Advancement of Science, the American Council
on Education, the American Council of Learned Societies, and other groups
of specialists.
Dr.
Frederick Gardner Cottrell of the International Research Council interested Mr. and Mrs. Dave Hennen Morris of New York in the idea of creating a permanent body which would continue the studies begun by the various committees. They had both been long active in organizations concerned with the betterment of conditions of human society, and they saw at once the significance of an international language as one of the means for developing the international community which seemed at the time a possible hope. They brought together in 1923 men and women of wide experience
in international affairs, communications,
and linguistic scholarship to discuss what might be done to focus attention
upon the already well-established movement for an international language.
The group included:
Dean Earle B. Babcock, New York University (The first president of IALA, 1924-1936)
Dr. LeRoy E. Bowman, Columbia University
General John T. Carty, Vice-President, American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Mrs. James S. Cushman, World's Committee, Young Women's Christian Association
Dr. Stephen Duggan, Director, Institute of International Education (The third president of
IALA, 1940-1950)
Mr. Harry E. Edmonds, Founder, International House, New York
Dr. John H. Finley, Editor, New York Times (The second president of IALA, 1936-1940)
Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, Radio Corporation of America
Dr. Arthur Hamerschlag, President, Research Corporation
Mr. and Mrs. John H. Hammond
General James G. Harbord, President, Radio Corporation of America
Clarence Howard, President, International Chamber of Commerce
Dr. Frederick P. Keppel, President, Carnegie Corporation
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Woman's Council for the League of Nations
Dr. Sidney E. Mezes, President, College of the City of New York
Dr. Arthur E. Morgan, President, Antioch College
Dr. Herbert N. Stanton, Columbia University
Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin
Miss Clara B. Spence, Principal, Miss Spence's School
Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, New York League of Women Voters.
The deliberations of these men and women bore
fruit. Under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Morris the International Auxiliary
Language Association was founded and incorporated in 1924 as a non-profit
organization "to promote widespread study, discussion, and publicity of
all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together
with research and experiment that may hasten such establishment in an intelligent manner and on stable foundations."
Dean Babcock became the first President. In
1936 he was succeeded by Dr. John H. Finley. Dr. Stephen Duggan served
as President of IALA from 1940 to the time of his death in 1950.
Mrs. Morris became Honorary Secretary of the
Association and later also Chairman of the Research Division, in which
roles she carried the task of developing the many-sided research and promotional
activities of IALA.
Mr. Morris was IALA's Treasurer from the founding
of the Association until his death in 1944. During the years of his ambassadorship
to Belgium (1933-1937) he and his wife were successful in bringing European
scholars as well as leading men of practical affairs to take a serious
interest in IALA's work. Their son, Mr. Lawrence Morris, succeeded
him as Treasurer.
Exploratory Work. - The first decade
of IALA's research program was of an exploratory nature. Contacts were
made with leaders in the various groups supporting different auxiliary-language
systems. In order to survey the extent of the successful use of auxiliary
languages a special library was collected. It includes books, pamphlets,
and periodicals published in different interlinguas, as well as dictionaries
and textbooks. A bibliography listing all the material available in European
libraries on the subject of international languages was prepared in collaboration
with the Universal Esperanto Association.
The anthropological approach to the auxiliary-language
problem was directed by Professor Edward Sapir of Yale University. In a
series of studies called Foundations of Language, the speech habits typical
of different languages were analyzed in connection with specific aspects
of grammar. Some of these studies were published by the Linguistic Society
of America. Mrs. Morris was the Editor in collaboration with Dr. Sapir,
Professor William E. Collinson of the University of Liverpool, and Dr.
Morris Swadesh.
As long ago as 1930 IALA planned a meeting
in Europe at which for the first time linguists and experts in auxiliary
languages sat down together for a period of two weeks to exchange ideas.
Convened by Professor Otto Jespersen, the conference gave its approval
to the research program proposed by IALA. Since that time four official
congresses of linguists have had reports on IALA's work set before them.
Linguistic Research. - Five international
language systems, Esperanto, Ido, Esperanto II, Occidental, and Latino
sine Flexione, were selected for analytical study by IALA because they
all had official organizations promoting them and had been used with success
in publications and in spoken communication. Parallel studies of these
languages with comparative studies of national languages were carried on
by IALA's Research Staff under the direction of scholars in American and
European universities.
An intensive study of language difficulties
in international conferences was made by Professor Herbert N. Shenton,
then of Syracuse University and Executive Secretary of IALA. The extent
to which auxiliary languages have been tried out in international conferences
was surveyed. The results of this research project were published under
the title of Cosmopolitan Conversation by Columbia University Press in
1933.
Various kinds of educational research projects
were pursued centering upon the basic idea that an interlingua can be used
in a simplified course in comparative linguistics to initiate students
into the study of foreign languages. A textbook for a General Language
Course was prepared by Helen S. Eaton of IALA's staff. It was used in experimental
courses in schools cooperating with IALA's educational program.
Dr. Edward L. Thorndike on an initial grant
from Carnegie Corporation conducted a series of experiments in the relative
ease of learning constructed and natural languages. His findings were published
under the title Language Learning by the Bureau of Publications of Teachers
College of Columbia University in 1933.
During the second World War, when the necessity
for learning foreign languages was emphasized by world events, a pictorial
method for the beginner was embodied in a textbook series by two members
of IALA's Research Staff, E. Clark Stillman and Alexander Gode. The series
included the titles Spanish at Sight, French at Sight, and Portuguese at
Sight.
A new contribution to the field of word-frequency
studies was made in the form of the Semantic Frequency List by Helen S.
Eaton, Linguistic Research Associate of IALA's staff. This work was issued
by the Committee on Modern Languages of the American Council on Education
and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1940.
Work on the Dictionary. - Preparatory
work on the Dictionary included consultation with linguists in the United
States and Europe and with experts in the various auxiliary-language systems.
It was carried on by means of conferences, correspondence, and questionnaires.
At the University of Liverpool from 1936 to
1939 various methods of compiling international word material were tested
under the direction of Professor William E. Collinson. A staff of persons
of different language backgrounds was assembled. Mr. E. Clark Stillman
succeeded Dr. Collinson as its Director. The outbreak of war forced the
transfer of the work to New York, where Mr. Stillman assembled a new international
staff and continued to direct it until he joined the State Department
in 1942. During the war years, Dr. Alexander Gode kept the research program
going by assuming the duties of Acting Director in addition to his
regular work as Editor of Reference Books with the T. Y. Crowell Company.
In 1946 IALA brought Dr. André Martinet from the Sorbonne to New
York and entrusted him with the direction of its interlinguistic research.
Upon his joining the faculty of Columbia University in 1948, Dr. Gode assumed
full direction of the work. In its final form the Dictionary is his conception
and his responsibility. It is the fruit of his and of his staff's exacting
scholarship and patient labor.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The present Directors of IALA are: W. Hallam Tuck,
Vice-President, Belgian American Educational Foundation; John V. Irwin;
Lawrence Morris; LeRoy E. Bowman; Ben M. Cherrington, University of Denver;
Harry Edmonds, Founder, International House, New York; Alfred N. Goldsmith,
Past President, Society of Motion Picture Engineers; Henry Goddard Leach,
President, American Scandinavian Foundation; Frederick H. Osborn; Mrs.
Harold Peabody; and Thomas J. Watson, President, International Business
Machines Corporation. In their names I acknowledge the many kinds of cooperation
IALA has received in its researches.
Financial support of IALA's work has come from
many sources. Carnegie Corporation gave a grant to Teachers College of
Columbia University for preliminary research in language learning. Rockefeller
Foundation provided a grant for lexicological work done at the University
of Liverpool. Research Corporation made liberal undesignated annual grants
over a period of years. To all of these foundations IALA expresses gratitude
not only for the funds given but for the recognition of the importance
of the work in the whole field of communications.
IALA's faithful membership has helped to underwrite
the task of producing the Dictionary and has followed every stage of its
work.
The most substantial amount of financial support
has come from Mr. and Mrs. Morris and their children. They never failed
to comprehend the cost of a research program like IALA's, to respect the
points of view of the scholars they enlisted in the work, and to meet the
needs of IALA's budget. Year after year they gave money but they also gave
themselves unselfishly and enthusiastically to the practical details which
might help to make their ideal aim of an international language a reality.
A special debt of thanks is due to IALA's Budget
Committee of which James G. Harbord was Chairman and S. Sloan Colt and
Samuel McRoberts were members.
Intellectual support of IALA's program has
come from men and women in all parts of the world. Specialists in communication,
international relations, education, and many of the sciences have participated
in discussions of IALA's program.
Offers of collaboration have been received
from many authors of auxiliary-language systems, some of whom have placed
their own manuscripts at the disposal of IALA. Open-minded interest has
been demonstrated by many supporters of different auxiliary languages,
while linguists have given the work their serious attention. Business men
have shown genuine interest, among them Rotary International, which appointed
a committee to follow IALA's activities. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has established contact with
IALA.
Le Statos Unite de America
Canada
Francia
Germania
Grande Britannia
Nederland
Suissa
ESPERANTISTAS
ESPERANTO REFORMATE
AKADEMIO DI IDO
OCCIDENTAL UNION
