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| And what if an American President started giving nicknames to world leaders? |
The Washington Times reported on September 3, 1922 that the French were concerned that American slang might become the future language of diplomacy, supplanting French. Of course, it did happen that English became the international language of diplomacy, but really not because of Esperanto. I’m also going to hazard a guess that diplomats are probably still speaking in a formal register, mostly to minimize potential misunderstanding.
The French saw two horrible potential futures, and in both of them the prestige of French had been minimized. If not English, then Esperanto (perhaps worse!). This was part of a wide pattern of opposition to Esperanto by the French in the 1920s. While this article is largely about the efforts of French educators against Esperanto, the French also blocked a proposal at the League of Nations to use Esperanto as the official language of that body, once again, for fears that French would lose its prestige status.
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