Prof. Christen. No, he says Londres. And the same is true with Dover; Dover is not French; The French would be Douvres. However,
I want to say this, that after the first three or four years after I took up Esperanto geographical or proper names were left optional and they were not given any particular spelling in the Esperanto language and are not now. Many Esperantists now would say Washington and London. But you can make the change if you want to.
Mr. Towner. Internationally, has not that come to be the custom, to pronounce the geographical names and proper names in the way they are pronounced in the country in which they originate?
Prof. Christen. I think so. As I said, there is no arbitrary rule about personal names or geographical names. Now, let me proceed with this marvelous scheme and repeat that every part of speech is distinctive in itself; that is the reason a child, when it follows Esperanto, will not find English so hard and will understand English better than in any other way. Such a child will understand English far better than if it did not understand Esperanto, and that is a statement I often make in my lectures.
Mr. Ripley. We had a man here the other day who has a language which he claims is an improvement on Esperanto.
Prof. Christen. Yes?
Mr. Ripley. He is from Ohio, I believe.
Prof. Christen. I know. Since Esparanto
began to move forward there have been at least 30 to 40 different schemes elaborated, and that is easily done. You can do it overnight. But there is no scheme that has ever touched and no scheme that can ever touch Esperanto, because it has hit the mark from the first. ([8])
Mr. Towner. What do you do with adverbs? Do they have a definite form?