Ese… Esselen… Esperanto!
July 15th, 02009 by Tex Pasley
Over at The Rosetta Project, we have been busy uploading new materials to our collection at the Internet Archive (which you can also follow by RSS feed). This week, we uploaded this grammar of Esperanto — a language invented by a single man, now used as a means of regular communication by thousands, if not millions of speakers!
The language is the brainchild of Ludwik Zamenhof, an ophthalmologist from the city of Biyalstok (then part of the Russian Empire, now in eastern Poland). In the late 19th century, the city was divided between Germans, Jews, Russians, and Poles, who all spoke their own language. The animosity between these ethnic groups convinced Zamenhof that the key to understanding and harmony would be a common language.
The structure of Esperanto (the name means, in Esperanto, “one who hopes”) reflects this ideal. The vocabulary, grammar, and sound system incorporate elements from all major European languages, and the structure is completely regular, making Esperanto very easy to learn. While the original goal of being a universally adopted language is still a bit far off, the Ethnologue estimates that there are 2 million speakers worldwide, with as many as 2,000 who learned Esperanto as their native language.
That’s right, native Esperanto speakers. Couples who have met at Esperanto conventions will have no common language other than Esperanto, meaning that their children often grow up in an Esperanto-speaking household. The list of native Esperanto speakers includes a Nobel Prize laureate.
Well and good. But why should you learn Esperanto? A whole wealth of culture would be at your fingertips, with over 25,000 books available (original and translated), and a 1965 horror movie starring William Shatner (a familiar presence to speakers of another artificial language, Klingon). Pasporta Servo is an international organization of Esperanto speakers in 92 countries who will give fellow Esperantists a place to stay. Akademio Internacia de Sciencoj (International Academy of Sciences) is an Esperanto-language university. Research has shown that learning Esperanto is a good stepping-stone into learning other languages. A pilot program in the UK teaches Esperanto to schoolchildren before they take on more complex and irregular human languages.
The author of a “Complete Grammar of Esperanto,” Ivy Kellerman Reed, was an influential American Esperantist at the beginning of the 20th century, a time when ekscito was in the air, and the Esperanto revolution was heating up. Her preface to the book states “[This book] is to furnish not merely an introduction to Esperanto, or a superficial acquaintance with it, but a genuine understanding of the language and mastery of its use without recourse to additional textbooks, readers, etc.” All this can be gained in a tidy 345 pages, counting a small Esperanto-English dictionary in the back. The book also reads well using the FlipBook, a slick innovation by the Internet Archive.
To any future Esperantists we may have inspired, we can only say Bonan ŝancon!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Rosetta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted on July 15th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Esperanto speakers have also faced horrendous persecution over the years. Ludwik Zamenhof’s children were all killed by the Nazis. Most repressive governments tend to be suspicious of the Esperanto movement.
http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2009/05/the-zamenhof-legacy.html
Posted on July 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Sigh. It never ceases to amaze me how the love of the useless invention of Esperanto seems to never die. It has to be one of the benchmarks of advanced intellectual insanity in our time.
Today, the “grammar of Esperanto!” Next week, instructions for carving a cuckoo clock from balsa wood.
Posted on July 16th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Zamenhof’s original 1887 pamphlet describing Esperanto is online in its English version at http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html
Posted on July 16th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Krome malliberaj registaroj, stultaj aĉuloj kiel Vanderleun mokas kion, tion ili ne komprenas. Tio montras ilian stultecon.
Posted on July 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
> “amazing love of the useless invention of Esperanto ”
Amazing indeed… for those who never tried it, and astonishing for those who tried it.
It is like seeing colours for a colour-blind.
Shouldn’t be that difficult to understand why people are falling in love with such a florid language.
–
ЄЭ Remuŝ (Belgio)
Posted on July 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Vanderleun, I feel just the same about golf tees and retractors, but then I don’t play golf or do surgery.
On the other hand, I do use the grammar of Esperanto every day in my work as a teacher, and it is useful both for Esperanto communication , with people from many backgrounds with whom I could not otherwise communicate, and for teaching the basics of grammar in general to facilitate later language learning.
I’m sure that you use less useful tools yourself quite often.
Posted on July 17th, 2009 at 1:22 am
The uselessness of Esperanto assumed by Vanderleun is as the uselessness of eyeglasses for a blind man.
La senutilo de Esperanto supozata de Vanderleun estas kiel la senutilo de okulvitroj por blindulo.
Posted on July 17th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Jon, mi konsentas. Kiel oni povas diri, ke Esperanto estas “neutilebla,” kiam ni nun uzas ĝin por insulti malamikojn de la lingvo? =)
Posted on July 17th, 2009 at 10:42 am
The second thing about Esperanto that refuses to die is the fact that, say anything obvious about it’s failure to gain traction in the actual world, and everybody who LUVs it will show up to demonstrate their mad skillz in it and instruct you on how useful it is. Well, so’s the ability to craft a cuckoo clock from toothpicks but life is short and lunch is long. If ever a chunk of intellectual insanity was made for preening, it’s Esperanto. Look, folks, if it was important it would be on Rosetta Stone’s product list. Tagalog is.
I get that people want to palaver back and forth in Esperanto just like people at the Society for Creative
Anachronism like to bash each other with padded swords, but that doesn’t mean it’s something for the ages.
Posted on July 18th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
>”actual world”
You almost said it: the actual world will become an anachronism. Rejoice, you’ll be part of it in saecula saeculorum…
About “Rosetta Stone’s” list, you missed the “buy now” button. They cannot compete with http://en.lernu.net/ offering better services for free.
Groetjes van
Remuŝ
ps.
notu ke Vanderleun estas Nederlanda nomo kiu signifas “de la apog (ilo)” . Ekz. leunstoel estas apogseĝo (aŭ brakseĝo). Li apogas sin sur la samaj firmaj kredoj kiel de tiuj kiuj asertis ke la tero platis.
Nu, ni fosu nian sulkon rondirante.
Sed eĉ se ĝi profundas kiel la Granda Kanjono, tio ne konvinkos nian Delaapogon. Ve :-(
Posted on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
The people who crafted cuckoo clocks just put a 10 inch satellite into orbit, so I wouldn’t be down on cuckoo clocks, since it looks like the clocks helped them gain those skills.
Vanderleun seems to be new to The Long Now foundation, since their goal is:” to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.”
So if Esperanto ‘hasn’t gained traction’ in 125 years, we still have 9875 to go:)
Posted on November 25th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Is Esperanto really the solution?
http://nova-esperanto.blogspot.com/
http://sites.google.com/site/theworldlanguageardano/
http://ardano.weebly.com