Ro On the Go

Ro, it's the latest thing.

The Washington Times duly reported on the progress of the a priori (built from scratch) language Ro in its July 16, 1909 edition, although the reporter didn’t seem to be too convinced. Judging from the article, it does seem that some societies had been formed, although the people quoted in the article seem to all be former Esperantists who became Idists who decided that a philosophical language would be even better.

The reporter notes of of the problems that a variety of international language groups have faced: the newer ones tend to poach on the older ones. The Volapukists became Esperantists (though that time, it didn’t seem that the nascent Esperanto movement sought to poach the Volapük movement, which was already splitting apart). The Idists were recruited from the Esperantists, more heavily from the leadership than from the general body. And it looks like Ro was attracting Ido speakers.

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The Language They're Studying in New York

This piece by "R.L.H." that appeared in the New-York Tribune on July 4, 1913, starts off poking fun at universal languages (and seems to add a few whose names are the writer’s own creation to some real ones), but the real subject matter seems to be what a polyglot place New York had become in 1913. In other words, it is a cry of “why are all these foreigners speaking their foreign tongues in our fair city?”

In this, the writer gets to not only mock the latest contestant in the universal language rally, but also get to express contemporary anxieties about immigrant populations. Ro, the language mentioned in this piece seems to have never been a serious contender as an international language. There does not seem to have been any Ro clubs, magazines, or conventions.

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