René de Saussure

Who was René de Saussure?

René de Saussure was a Swiss Esperantist and professional mathematician, who composed important works about Esperanto and interlinguistics from a linguistic viewpoint. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His chef d'oeuvre is an analysis on the logic of word construction in Esperanto, Fundamentaj reguloj de la vortteorio en Esperanto, defending the language against several Idist critiques. He developed the concept of neceso kaj sufiĉo by which he opposed the criticism of Louis Couturat that Esperanto lacks recursion.

Beginning in 1919, de Saussure proposed a series of Esperanto reforms, and in 1925, he renounced Esperanto in favor of his language Esperanto II. He later became a consultant for the International Auxiliary Language Association, the linguistic research body that standardized and presented Interlingua. He died on 2 December 1943 in Berne, Switzerland.

René was the brother of the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.