Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes; every word tells its own tale on account of its
distinctive ending. Now, that is a thing you can not do in English; that
nobody can do in English, because we can not tell the parts of speech
simply by the appearance of the words; we can only know from the context
and that is not always easy!

The CHAIRMAN. How does that apply to other languages?

Prof. CHRISTEN. The same thing applies more or less to all, because they
are all irregular; they were not formed; they have "growd" like Topsy.

Mr. TOWNER. The Latin language is more regular?

Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes: but it does not begin to compare with Esperanto.
Now, we have had these four words, and I want to proceed a little
further, and I will take up something that will help me to answer your
questions. If I had to teach you gentlemen French I would have to make
you commit to memory 2,667 endings and contractions for the verb alone;
it would take you months and months to learn that alone. The same
absurdities and even worse occur in Italian, in Spanish, in German, in
English, and in all so-called natural languages.

Mr. TOWNER. And we never could learn these irregularities and
exceptions.

Prof. CHRISTEN. Well, if you did learn them you would never remember
them at the right time because the whole scheme is so complicated.
This is only one of the many reasons which make us so shy at speaking
foreign languages. Now, the same thing is true of German, and of all
other languages, but it is not true of Esperanto. I will teach you the