i5~[s~&NEWSLETTER News of the Language Problem and Esperanto as a Solution 1989(3) Komplika Afero la Lingvoj! IMaking News This Issue Lingvaj Demandoj Ask Not... Have you marveled at the progress of ELNA during the last year? At the im- De [onel Onet provement in the Newsletter? It's been made possible, in large part, to donations Foje, San Francisk-ano demandis min, en Esperanton nek la skandinavan lingvon, li from members over the last two years. kies lando Esperanto estas la oficiala lingvo. sukcesis havi tie agrablan kaj utilan ELNA Treasurer John B. Massey ex- Alia, aŭdinte, ke mi kaj mia samideano paro- (kiukampe?) restadon. las Esperanton, konkludis, ke ni estas ... En iu nordamerika revuo, kies nomon mi plains the ins and outs of donating to a eŭropanoj. Antaŭ nelonge, oni demandis ne plu rememoras, mi legis antaŭlonge ion pri non-profit organization like ELNA. min-la eŭropanon-kiu estas la oficiala la jugoslava lingvo. pri la belga lingvo, mi SeePageS lingvo en Eŭropo .... ankoraŭ ne aŭdis. Eble estonte. Sed iu oni scias, ke la rumana estas latindevena "ĉionkonanto" min demandis, al kiu lingvo- lingvo. Ci estas la oficiala lingvo en Rumanio familio apartenas la luksemburga lingvo. You Erascible Youl kaj Sovetia Moldavio. Sed, sovjetiaj special- Erasmus (1469-1536) - theologian, istoj(!) asertas, ke en tiu respubliko oni paro- Por solvi la problemon de internacia philosopher, humanist.. His book Praise las ... la moldavan, kiu sendube ne estas la lingvo, rumana akademiano (lingvisto) pro- of Folly reveals his keen sense of humor sama kiel la rumana. La plej forta pruvo ponis (ne ridu!) la rumanan aŭ la latinan, about the foibles of his age. 118translation estas ... la alfabeto. Nu, Dio scias kiun kredi! konscie-do, arte-alifaritan. Laŭ li, artefar- into Esperanto becomes #24 in the Serio Aŭskultante radion Kiŝinevo, mi havis la ita lingvo (legu Esperanto) havas nenian ŝan- Oriento-Okcidento of UEA. senton, ke oni parolas rumane. Fine de la con vivadi. Jen, Esperanto havas jam 102 See Page 7 disaŭdigo, mi eksciis, ke tiu okazis en la jarojn; Alexandru Graur mortis pasintjare. moldava. Mi memoras la demandon pri la oficiala Rumana verkisto, vojaĝinte en Skandi- lingvo en Transilvanio kaj pri la lingva situa- Naming Names navio, asertas en vojaĝlibro, ke konante nek cio en Svislando, kaj konkludas: komplika R. Kent Jones, ELNA Commissioner for afero la lingvoi! Science and Technology, reports on the THE MEMBERSHIP 2nd UEA committee- 1100 current state of scientific terminology in person Esperanto. Several projec18 are under- THERMOMETER 1989 way, and help from qualified profession- The stippled area 1000 als in various areas of expertise are shows total1989 paid Our goal for 1989 needed. ELNA membership at 900 See Page 10 the end of April, 1989; this is eompared with ..f ELNA membership 1988 778 ln This Issue four milestones/ targets: total paid Letters from Readers 6 membership for 1987, ..f ELNA membership 1987 572 total paid membership 500 SFSUExperiences 8-9 for 1988, the "magie number" 900, and the number needed to add Transitions 9 a seeond person repre- senting ELNA to the UEA Committee. Let's And Much, Much More to bust the thermometer Delight and Inform Youl in 1989! o The ELNANewsletter 1 E o I T 0 R IAL ".•.FOR THE REST OF US" come from? Today, or at least during the years is normal, and throughout much of Severa! members have recently sent generation that produced most of today' s the world education ends at a much ear- articles commenting on the Pasteur Insti- working scientists, it comes from the lier age. The curriculum in a country such tute' s decision to change the titles of three English-speaking world. as Zaire may include English, even as a of its publications from French to Eng- Do most scientists around the world, in mandatory subject, but it cannot afford to lish. Since the articles in question don 't fact, communicate in English? ln writ- put too much emphasis on it at the ex- mention Esperanto, it seems inappropri- ing, this is definitely the case; independ- pen se of other, more immediately impor- ate to refer to them in the "Newsbriefs" ent studies have shown that about 60% of tant subjects such as reading, writing and column; still, some comment seems to be alI scientific papers are published in 'rithmetic. This is why, according to re- in order. A recognition, by the French (of English, with the rest scattered among a cent articles in Time and Parade. English all people!), of English as "the interna- dozen or so other languages, including a is so little spoken even by the highly tional language of science" may well small number in Esperanto. The case for educated Japanese, who generalIy study have some meaning for the Esperanto spoken English may be considerably it for years; emphasis is put on leaming to movement. weaker. Dr. Vlastimil Novobilsky, a read and write the language, which may I am not sure why the Pasteur Institute Czech organochemist, once described an have some utility for the Japanese citizen, has made this move, but it may have English-only chemical conference held but not on speaking, which doesn 'lo something to do with what happened in at Duke University in the early 1980's. There just isn't time. France severa! years ago. A French According to Dr. Novobilsky, during a What about language-leaming outside medical scientist identified, isolated, free-form discussion of papers presented a structured educational system? For named and described a virus which ap- during the conference (alI in English), the English, itgeneralIy does not exist; I have peared to be responsible for AIDS. He American and British participants dis- never, so far as I know, met an individual published in French. The English-lan- cussed matters vigorously, the Western who succeeded in leaming English on his guage international press agencies took European conferees added occasional own, without the aid of at least a succes- no notice of this. A year later, his work comments, and the Eastern Europeans sion of evening classes (exception: those was duplicated, in alI innocence, by an merely listened, their English being too individuals who, living for some period American scientist, who published in poor to allow them to comm unicate prop- of time in a strictly English-speaking English, and therefore was generalIy erly. environment, are forced to "sink or recognized as the discoverer of the virus (1am reminded of a letter, published in swim"). The Arabic scientist, described and colIected whatever financial awards anAmerican scientific magazine in 1982, in a Raymond F. Jones novelette of the accrued to the "discoverer" of this deadly by a European astrophysicist, pleading 1950's, who spoke bad Brooklynese viruso for the use of Esperanto on the grounds because he had leamed his English from (This is not a unique case of ethnocen- that English was too difficult. To me, the American gangster movies, simply does tric rewriting of history; I recently heard perfect quality of the English in his letter not exist. But I have met many Espe- a punditon a network news program refer seemed to negate the very point that he ranto-speakers who leamed the language to John Glenn as "the first man in orbit," was trying to make. A year later I saw a on their own, out of a book, and speak it thus conveniently overlooking the very photocopy of his originalletter, and dis- welI; in fact, this liberation from the tyr- real feats of Yuri Gagarin and Gherman covered that the editor, possibly with the anny of the educational system (of ten Titov.) totally innocent purpose of sparing the used by the ruling government for its own To a very great extent, "money" is the European gentleman undue embarass- purposes) may welI be one of the reasons name of the scientific game today. This is ment, had completely reworked his Eng- why Esperanto has been so popular in why you see pictures of the purported lish-language letter to make it read- Eastern Europe. In this sense, the differ- discoverers of "cold fusion," not in the able ... ) ence between English and Esperanto is laboratories but in front of a Senate But even ifEnglish were to be gener- not merely quantitative, but in fact quali- committee. Because a committee of U.S. alIy and officially recognized as the one tative; and, in the long run, it may prove Senators is qualified to pass judgement and only linguafranca of science-and decisive. on a scientific development? No, because spoken fluently by alI scientists-what Zamenhof's intention, if I may para- a committee ofU.S. Senators is qualified would that have to do with the Esperanto phrase an expression made famous by to alIocate U.S. government funds for movement? Steve Jobs, was to make Esperanto "the scientific research. (The next time you It is the rare scientist who cannot boast language for the rest of us." ln the end, look through a scientific journal, even in at least twenty years of education before scientists, too, belong to "the rest of so esoteric and non-applicable a field as he gets his "union card" (ph.D. orequiva- us"-though it may take them a while to astrophysics, see how many pieces of lent); for the average individual, even in discover this. research were funded by U.S. govem- a country with a general educational ment grants!) And where does the money system such as the U.S., ten to twelve -Don Harlow 2 The ELNA Newsletter "Computer Needs Esperanto," says the ning ses sion for the new Zamenhof Cen- Sherry Wells at great length about Espe- title of an article in English-language ter in Bialystok, Poland.