“Kosmoglot” – the first interlinguistic society in Russia

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the Petrograd interlinguistic society “Kosmoglot” (founded in 1916 under the leadership of the engineer V.K. Rosenberger and the linguist J. Baudouin de Courtenay). This was the first attempt to connect engineering and “homaranisman” (humanistic) approaches to the science of language communication. Kosmoglot at that time explored the forms and varieties of international language communication and the possibilities of constructing an interlanguage. The members of the society even explored the possibility of creating a new type of semiotics as a path to accurate interlinguistic translation.