The dialogue between linguistics and the poetic avant-garde in Russia in the 1920—1930s: experiments with a universal language

Abstract

The article explores the concept of a ‘universal language’, which was prevalent in both linguistics and the poetic Avant-garde in Russia during the 1910s-1920s. This period was marked by socio-political reforms that led to new realities and concepts. As a result, societies studying international languages, such as Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, and Novial, were formed, and many scholars including Jakob Linzbach, Nikolay Yushmanov, and Evgeny Shmurlo attempted to create new international languages while systematizing and building a typology of universal languages. Of particular interest among the Avant-garde concepts is the ‘cosmic language of AO’ by the Gordin brothers, which builds on Khlebnikov’s ‘star lan­gua­ge tradition but aims for cognitive and linguo-social changes. The article compares the scien­tific and poetic universal languages and concludes that there is a pervasive tendency to­wards linguistic experimentation.

Keywords

• universal language
• interlinguistics
• linguistic creativity
• poetic avant-garde
• jakob linzbach
• gordin brothers