Chapter XV: Appendix: C

THE LETTER _C_ IN ESPERANTO

_c_ = _ts_ in English "bits."

This has given rise to much criticism. The same sound is also expressed by the letters _ts_. Why depart from the Esperanto principle, "one sound, one letter," and have two symbols (_c_ and _ts_) for the same sound?

A standing difficulty of an international language is: What equivalent shall be adopted for the _c_ of national languages? The difficulty arises owing to the diversity of value and history of the _c_ in diverse tongues. Philologists, who know the history of the Latin hard _c_ and its various descendants in modern languages, will appreciate this.

(1) Shall _c_ be adopted in the international language, or omitted? If it is omitted, many useful words, which it is desirable to adopt and which are ordinarily spelt with a _c_, will have to be arbitrarily deformed, and this deformation may amount to actual obscuring of their sense. E.g. _cento_ = hundred; _centro_ = centre; _cerbo_ = brain; _certa_ = certain; _cirkonstanco_ = circumstance; _civila_ = civil, etc. Such works would become almost unrecognizable for many in the forms kento, sento, tsento, etc.

(2) If, then, _c"_is retained, what value is to be given to it? The hard and soft sounds of the English _c_ (as in English "cat," "civil") are already represented by _k_ and _s_. Neither of these letters can be dispensed with in the international language; and it is undesirable to confuse orthographically or phonetically _c_-roots with _s_- or _k_-roots. Therefore another value must be found for the symbol _c_. The choice is practically narrowed down to the Italian soft _c_ = _ch_, as in English "church," and the German[1] _c_ = _ts_ in English "bits." Now _ch_ is a useful and distinctive sound, and has been adopted in Esperanto with a symbol of its own: ĉ. Therefore _ts_ remains.

[1]Also late Latin and early Norman French.

(3) Why not then abolish _c_ and write _ts_ instead? For answer, see No. (1) above. It is a worse evil to introduce such monstrosities as _tsento_, _tsivila_, etc., than to allow two symbols for the same sound, _ts_ and _c_. International language has to appeal to the eye as well as to the ear.

This matter of the _c_ is only one more instance of the wisdom of Dr. Zamenhof in refusing to make a fetish of slavish adherence to rule. Practical common-sense is a safer guide than theory in attaining the desired goal—ease (of eye, ear, tongue, and pen) for greatest number. In practice no confusion arises between _c_ and _ts_.

End of Project Gutenberg's International Language, by Walter J. Clark