E. Sylvia Pankhurst

E. Sylvia Pankhurst (1882 - 1960) was a social and political activist during the first decades of twentieth century Britain. She was most involved in the sufragist movement, but also took part in Communist activities and anti-British protest movements. In later life, she became involved with the plight of Ethiopia, eventually moving there and becoming an adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie. She is buried at Holy Trinity in Addis Ababa.

Pankhurst, perhaps as part of her interest in Communism, also delved into the popular issue of international communications, and in particular the question of an international auxiliary language. She wrote a monograph on the topic in 1927, entitled Delphos, the Future of International Language, published originally by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. of London. The book delves into the nature of the question, this history of the movement, kinds of languages (a priori and a posteriori) and her own perspective on what the ideal interlanguage should look like. The work also includes some examples of historical and modern (at the time of publication) auxlangs.

The chapter headings of Delphos: I. The Logical Necessity of Interlanguage; II. The Beginning of Interlanguage; III. The A Priori Languages; IV. The A Posteriori Languages; V. The Future Interlanguage: Some Conditions it Must Satisfy; VI. Analysis of the Principal Interlanguage Attempts; VII. The Governments and the Interlanguage; VIII. In the Future.

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See the Wikipedia article on Sylvia Pankhurst.