Ro: Evolution and Bibliography

It is worth noting that the lexicon and phonotactics of Ro evolved slightly from the 1910s through the 1920s. The vocabulary underwent changes from time to time, apparently with three goals in mind: eliminating some especially hideous consonant clusters, moving particular concepts to their optimum positions in the classification scheme, and allocating more space within the hierarchy to categories that contained larger numbers of entries.

In his publications Foster never mentioned these changes, nor did he apologize to anyone who had memorized the old version of the vocabulary only to wake up one day and discover that the language must be learned all over again. I suppose on some level he knew this would not be a problem as the odds of anyone memorizing the Ro vocabulary were approximately nil. Below are some examples of changed items:

English	1913 Ro	1919 Ro	1928 Ro
anywhere	ajda	ajid	ajid
hydrogen	bac	babgab	babgab
red	bofac	bofoc	bofoc
Europe	Drade	?	Budgac
majority	gacem	?	cikaj
South	Depak	desab	desab
carpet	dopac	dopab	dopab
pyramid	fugod	fukad	fukad
egg	jemul	jemab	jemab
measles	locabmes	locabgal	locabgal
bean	lugban	lugban	lugaban
face	medaf	mebaf	mebaf
growl	migur	micigeb	miceg
horse	musal	musal	musla
pocket	pek	pegap	pegap
debris	pudi	pudas	pudas
boy	ragi	radac	radac
Chinese language	Rodachi	?	Roac
library	ruzol	ruzoba	ruzab
friendship	gasib	?	sibu

Some of these changes seem to be counter-productive. Moving "carpet" from dopac to dopab accomplished nothing (except to inconvenience any hypothetical students who had memorized the old form). In the examples of "measles" and "growl" we see helpful mnemonic elements being removed from the Ro words– an attempt to purge all a posteriori elements. In other cases the changes seem more reasonable. Changing "horse" from musal to musla makes room for a series of 2-syllable words like muslad = stallion, muslaf = mare, etc. (Those were musol and musil in the 1913 version. Apparently Foster decided those concepts were infrequently used and should therefore move from 5-letter to 6-letter morphemes.)

The interrogative words beginning with w- and affirmative words beginning in y- are not mentioned in the 1913 Ru Ro, although it's not clear whether they had not been created yet or they had to be omitted for lack of space.

In the 1913 version, Ro's large numbers were expressed thus: zi = hundred, zib = 100, zic = 200, etc.; zom = 7000, zoq = 8000, etc. By 1919 that scheme had been abolished and there was a series of normal words beginning with zi- and pertaining to repetition: zibec = repeat, ziket = return, etc., and zo- words pertained to printed lists: zobac = catalog, zobar = directory. The zu- words were originally the names of huge numbers: zub = million, zuc = billion, etc. Later these were replaced by zu- words pertaining to continuance such as zufol = everlasting, and the last word in the vocabulary, zutu = eternity.

bibliography:

The Ro publications were cheaply produced and printed in small quantities. They are rarely if ever seen in the used book market and most cannot even be obtained through inter-library loan. The few circulating specimens of Alphabet of Ideas are on the verge of disintegration.

Foster, Edward P.
Ro, an international language based on the classification of ideas
Cincinnati: The Ro Company, 1910 (39 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Ru ro, outline of the universal language
Marietta, Ohio: World-Speech Press, 1913 (96 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Dictionary of Ro the world language
Marietta, Ohio: World-Speech Press, 1919 (72 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Roap, English key to Ro
Waverly, West Virginia: Ro Language Society, 1921 (32 p.)

Foster, Edward P.
Alphabet of ideas, or dictionary of Ro the world language
Waverly, West Virginia: Roia, 1928 (160 p.)
PM 8751.F5

Foster, Edward P.
Ro-Latin-English vocabularium dictionary
Waverly, West Virginia: Roia, 1931
PM 8751.F31

Foster, Edward P.
English-Ro dictionary
Waverly: Ro Language Society, 1932 (64 p.)

periodicals edited by Foster:

Ro evolution

bibliography: