René de Saussure (17 March 1868 – 2 December 1943) was a Swiss

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

and professional mathematician (he defended a doctoral thesis on a subject in geometry at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1895 and until 1899 he was professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and later in Geneva and Berne), who composed important works about Esperanto and

interlinguistics Interlinguistics, as the science of planned languages, has existed for more than a century as a specific branch of linguistics for the study of various aspects of linguistic communication. Interlinguistics is a discipline formalized by Otto Jespers ...

from a linguistic viewpoint. He was born in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, Switzerland. His chef d'oeuvre is an analysis on the logic of word construction in Esperanto, ''Fundamentaj reguloj de la vortteorio en Esperanto'' ("Fundamental rules of word theory in Esperanto"), defending the language against several

Idist Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...

critiques. He developed the concept of ''neceso kaj sufiĉo'' ("necessity and sufficience") by which he opposed the criticism of

Louis Couturat Louis Couturat (; 17 January 1868 – 3 August 1914) was a French logician, mathematician, philosopher, and linguist. Couturat was a pioneer of the constructed language Ido. Life and education Born in Ris-Orangis, Essonne, France. In 1887 he ...

that Esperanto lacks

recursion Recursion (adjective: ''recursive'') occurs when a thing is defined in terms of itself or of its type. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in mathemati ...

. In 1907, de Saussure proposed the international currency

spesmilo The ''spesmilo'' (, plural ''spesmiloj'' ) is an obsolete decimal international currency, proposed in 1907 by René de Saussure and used before World War I by a few British and Swiss banks, primarily the Ĉekbanko Esperantista. The ''spesmilo ...

(₷). It was used by the

Ĉekbanko esperantista The Ĉekbanko Esperantista (Esperantist Checking Bank) was a bank founded in 1907 by H. F. Höveler in London. Deposits and withdrawals were based on the Spesmilo. According to the Encyclopedia of Esperanto, transactions were "readily available a ...

and other British and Swiss banks until the First World War. Beginning in 1919, de Saussure proposed a series of Esperanto reforms, and in 1925, he renounced Esperanto in favor of his language

Esperanto II Esperanto II or Esperanto 2 was a reform of Esperanto proposed by René de Saussure in 1937, the last of a long series of such proposals beginning with a 1907 response to Ido with a project called Lingwo Internaciona, later called Antido 1.

. He later became a consultant for the

International Auxiliary Language Association The International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. (IALA) was an American organisation founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together wi ...

, the linguistic research body that standardized and presented

Interlingua Interlingua (; ISO 639 language codes ia, ina) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It ranks among the most widely used IALs and is t ...

.Esterhill, Frank, ''Interlingua Institute: A History''. New York: Interlingua Institute, 2000. He died on 2 December 1943 in

Berne Bern () or Berne; in other Swiss languages, gsw, Bärn ; frp, Bèrna ; it, Berna ; rm, Berna is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city" (in german: Bundesstadt, link=no, french: ville fédérale ...

, Switzerland. René was the brother of the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the scholar of ancient Chinese astronomy, Léopold de Saussure. His father was the scientist,

Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (; ; 27 November 1829 – 20 February 1905) was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist specialising in studies of Hymenoptera and Orthopteroid insects. He also was a prolific taxonomist. Biography Sauss ...

. A new silver Esperanto coin for 100

Stelo The stelo ("star"; plural: ''steloj'') was from 1945 to 1993 a monetary unit of Esperantists, one of whose aims was to achieve a single world currency. Attempts at an earlier currency, the speso, were cut short by the First World War. For a time ...

j was struck in 2018 for the 150th birthday of René de Saussure. Esperanto 100 Steloj 2018 - Avers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saussure, Rene De 1868 births 1943 deaths Swiss Esperantists Swiss mathematicians Morphologists Writers from Geneva