Esperanto? What Is That?
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Esperanto? What is that? Esperanto was proposed but a way to resolve con- ist), trade-unionist and eco- in 1887 as a neutral inter- flicts and promote peace logically active Esperanto national language by Dr. as well. speakers. Esperanto con- L. L. Zamenhof, a Jewish Esperanto has actually tinuously demonstrates its ophthalmologist living in achieved one initial break- viability. It provides many the (now Polish) western through: it has become a practical services to its part of the Russian Empire. living language that spans speakers. His aim was to develop an generations and which easily accessible, regular hundreds of thousands language and try it out with throughout the world have colleagues, so that it might learned. Some of them eventually be introduced as have joined organised an international second lan- groups. The largest world- guage for everybody. Such a wide Esperanto organi- language is usually called a sation (UEA=Universala "constructed" (sometimes Esperanto-Asocio) has "artificial" or "auxiliary") 18,002 members in 114 language. It is neutral in the countries (2004). The smal- sense that it is not associ- ler World Anational Asso- ated with a particular coun- ciation SAT (=Sennacieca try or nationality. Zamen- Asocio Tutmonda) has hof considered a neutral around 1000 members. It language, one that would is a meeting place for left- belong to all equally, to be wing (mainly socialist, an- not only a practical matter, archist and antinational- Language for the World or Language for a Voluntary Speech Community? For the past two decades or so, some would be disadvantaged by the choice of speakers of Esperanto have been disputing language would never acquiesce to being about whether the classical aim to have discriminated in such a manner. Esperanto introduced as the main medium The world dominance of just a few of international communication is realistic languages derives primarily from the in our time. One group of non-tradition- power of the states that use them. alists doesn't believe that it is, and stresses Members of non-privileged linguistic com- instead the cultural and ideal value that munities communicate "uphill" – to the Esperanto has for its community of volun- extent they even have a command of one tary users at present. Advocates of the or more hegemonistic languages. Those traditional aim, on the other hand, make that don't know any "major" language are the point that future events are never easy for the most part excluded from inter- to predict, and that it is not even possible national communication and are therefore for an ethnic language to really solve the placed at an even greater disadvantage. world-wide language problem in a International use of just a few national satisfactory way, because the peoples that languages distorts cultural exchanges and skews the flow of information in favour of "Globalisation from below", a concept the economic, political and opinion- frequently brought up lately and an making elites in the linguistically privi- answer to relentless capitalist globalisation leged countries. A world culture "from from above, can only be put into practice below" has a hard time developing if Eng- by people who can talk to each another. lish is the medium of cultural exchange, The very concept of Esperanto is egali- because most of the world's people do not tarian. It was meant to enable broad strata know it well enough, if they do at all. An of society in all countries to communicate easier-to-learn and neutral language could remedy this situation by creating more directly over and beyond linguistic and equity and balance. political boundaries. English, thought by While some people are fatalistic about many to be the de facto world language, the language problem, some profit from it, fails to do this job even in the small group because their personal command of for- of comparatively wealthy nations with de- eign languages is a career asset or a source veloped systems of public education. of prestige. But it is especially the ruling Use of national languages on the inter- classes of many countries that have national plane is costly in monetary terms. every reason to maintain the status quo. The EU alone has to spend thousands of It is very much in their interest that the millions of euros for this purpose annually. working masses and generally most of the The same situation prevails at the UN and populace remain monolingual or have only in other international organisations. limited proficiency in foreign languages, Supporters of the classical demand for because that way they have less direct world-wide introduction of Esperanto re- access to opinions and information from gard it as a potential aid to the democratic abroad that haven't passed through the resolution of conflicts. Practically all filter of the domestic mass media that are speakers, including supporters of the non- dominated by those ruling classes, just as traditional tendency, see it as a means of they have less direct exchange with their achieving equal communication rights, be social counterparts in foreign countries. it on a large or a small scale. The Anational Language In the milieu of the fervently anti- Among the groups represented within nationalist workers' Esperanto movement, the proletarian Esperanto movement, the Eŭgeno Lanti, co-founder of SAT, even anationalists in some places had a percep- before World War II began to advocate tible role of their own within the general "anationalism" – a cosmopolitan concep- tion that dealt with the de-nationalisation workers' movement. Ideas about "grass- of world society. His hypothesis was that roots globalisation" abound these days too. the practice of Esperanto was planting the A few Esperanto speakers – some of them seed of a future anational (anational = free members of SAT – mount opposition to of national or ethnic connection, or to use the resurfacing ethnicity cult, identity a more modern term, postethnic) world politics, language nationalism, European culture. He disseminated this emphatically nationalism, etc. Not the least of their cosmopolitan anationalism among worker Esperantists, calling on them to abstain motivations is the fact that there are un- from national struggles and push forward fortunately quite a few Esperanto-speakers in class struggle. that adhere to such views. Is Esperanto Getting Anywhere? The community of speakers in Europe is countries have conferred Esperanto the stable, while it has grown substantially status of an elective subject in schools. over the last few decades in some areas Some universities offer courses in and outside of Europe (China, Iran, Africa). about Esperanto, for example the Univer- Esperanto has received a greater measure sities of Budapest and Poznań. At the of official recognition than is commonly Berlin Humboldt University there are reg- known, though not nearly enough to have ular lectures on interlinguistics and esper- it introduced throughout the world as a antology. Local authorities in a few coun- universally used second language. In 1954 tries publish tourist and other information a UNESCO resolution acknowledged "the in Esperanto, while international broad- results attained by Esperanto in the field casting services in several countries broad- of international intellectual relations and cast daily or weekly Esperanto programs in the rapprochement of the peoples of the on short-wave and by satellite. world". The Universal Esperanto Associ- Whether Esperanto is ever given a ation received consultative status at chance to function internationally on a UNESCO the following year. Since then it large scale depends both on the advance- collaborates with other non-governmental ment of international co-operation and on organisations in a number of UNESCO public pressure being brought to bear in working groups. That organisation re- many countries simultaneously, a develop- asserted its position in 1985 and recom- ment likely to occur only in a political cli- mended that the language problem and mate characterised by radical democratic Esperanto be given more attention in and internationalist strivings, as well as by schools and universities of the member- social and global egalitarianism. states. Regardless of the uncertainty of Espe- Members of the European Parliament ranto ever being pushed through polit- have occasionally demanded that the suit- ically, as a language it has for many ability of Esperanto as a language for the decades proved viable and capable of European Union be investigated. Some continuously attracting new users. A Functioning Language Esperanto can be learned in around a A language suited to all purposes can third of the time needed to learn the most only develop in a collective process. For commonly studied foreign languages. It is almost 100 years congresses and informal written phonemically (one sound = one meetings have been held, at which Espe- letter) and has a very regular grammar. Its ranto is spoken. There are tens of thou- phonology is as international as possible. sands of books and several hundred regu- Spoken Esperanto sounds a little like larly published, albeit often small period- Spanish or Italian. icals in Esperanto. Esperanto frequently Esperanto is an agglutinating language, becomes the everyday family language for in which a large amount of vocabulary is couples of different origin (and their compounded from smaller elements. This children). reduces the number of lexical elements Esperanto evolves just as other lan- that need to be learned separately. Items guages do – by borrowing lexical items of vocabulary were selected in accordance and forging new vocabulary from its own with the principle of maximum inter- resources, yet it does not lose its relative national familiarity. simplicity and regularity. A Sample Text La spirita kontaktiĝo inter la diverslandaj proletoj fakte okazas nur pere de poliglotaj intelektuloj. Tial la agado de SAT, celanta kunigi, intimigi senpere la laborulojn tutmondajn, estas esence revolucia. Intellectual contacts between proletarians of various countries takes place in reality only through the medium of polyglot intellectuals.