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Accepted Paper:

Inclusive design in Esperanto and romanisation movements in 1930s Japan  
Joseph Essertier (Nagoya Institute of Technology )

Paper short abstract:

The linguist and Esperantist Saitō Hidekatsu (1908-1940) believed that a child's native written language as well as their second language should be easy to learn. He proposed a two-step process: learn Romanized Japanese. Then Esperanto. A debate over inclusive design of language ensued.

Paper long abstract:

Many scholars tend to assume that standard written Japanese is perfectly natural and appropriate for modern Japan, but a number of sociolinguists have argued over the last century or so that the dominant dialect and script have long favoured the powerful over the socially disadvantaged. Already in the 1930s, some leading Japanese researchers and activists campaigned vigorously to correct this imbalance. One such researcher was the linguist and Esperantist Saitō Hidekatsu (1908-40), who was sentenced to prison as a violator of the Public Order Law of 1925 for advocating radical language reform attempting to alter the "national polity" (kokutai). He founded and edited a journal entitled Moji to gengo (Script and Language, 1934-38), to which such notables as Takakura Teru (1891-1986) the activist and novelist; Tōjō Misao (1884-1966) the Japanese linguistics scholar; and Ōshima Yoshio the linguist and Esperantist (1905-92) contributed. He also translated writings on the Chinese Romanization movement by the great writer and intellectual Lu Xun (1881-1936) and by Ye Laishi (1911-94) the Romanization advocate and Esperantist.

To establish easy-to-learn written language, Saitō and other Esperantists proposed that Japanese children first master the writing of their native language in the Roman alphabet and then learn Esperanto as a second language. The Roman alphabet would enable children to learn both their native language and their second language Esperanto easier. The fact that Esperantists built a sizable worldwide community in spite of little initial interest in Esperanto demonstrated for Saito that switching to easy-to-learn scripts and languages was possible.

Long before the establishment of the "universal" or "inclusive design" concept in engineering in the 1960s, he and other progressive intellectuals were proposing such "designs" of language, that aimed to benefit those children whose educational disadvantages stem from physical disabilities, discrimination, and poverty. This paper will unearth articles from Moji to gengo by advocates of "inclusive-design" language reform, and analyze their debates with opponents of it.

Panel S2_01
Rethinking the world through language: the role of Esperanto in modern Japanese history
  Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -