Esperanto

Esperanto, artificial language published in 1887 by L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish ophthalmologist, and intended for use as an international second language. In the late 2010s Esperanto had about 1,000 speakers who considered it a first language, with over 100,000 speakers who used it as a second language, across more than a hundred countries. No country, however, lists Esperanto as one of its official languages. Esperanto is available to learn on language learning websites such as Duolingo, and Esperanto-language Wikipedia has over 100,000 articles. Google Translate added Esperanto as a language in 2012. More than 30,000 books have been published in Esperanto, and numerous movies have been made in Esperanto, including the 1966 movie Incubus, starring William Shatner.

History

Zamenhof (1859–1917) grew up in Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), where his family spoke Polish and Yiddish. He also studied German, English, Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian, and French and learned the classical languages Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic at school, as well as the official language, Russian. Zamenhof saw firsthand the anti-Jewish pogroms in the wake of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881; this led him to believe that a single global language would make it possible for people to communicate across divisions of religion and ethnicity. Technological advancements of the time, such as the telegraph, were bringing people into closer contact as well; Zamenhof thus thought it apt to introduce a new international language.

Zamenhof published the first Esperanto textbook, Unua Libro, on July 26, 1887, under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto, with esperanto meaning “one who hopes.” The language took its name from this pseudonym. In 1905 Zamenhof published the book Fundamento de Esperanto as a definitive guide to the language. After the publication of the language, Zamenhof relinquished control and let the language grow naturally. Allowing the language to develop organically contrasted Zamenhof with Johann Schleyer, who had published his artificial language, Volapük, several years before Zamenhof. The World Esperanto Congress was organized for the first time in 1905 and has continued as an annual event into the 21st century, disrupted only by the two World Wars.

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The new language was a success, with Esperanto groups forming across Europe and North America by the end of the 1880s. Leo Tolstoy was supportive of Esperanto and claimed to have learned the language with only a few hours of study. Important works, such as the Hebrew Bible and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, were translated into Esperanto. Neutral Moresnet, a small principality between Belgium and Germany that existed from 1816 to 1920, considered making it the official language, and some wanted to call the country Amikejo, meaning something like “place of friendship” in Esperanto. With a multiethnic population, Neutral Moresnet saw the new language as a way to remain neutral amid the rising tensions in Europe. Zamenhof was nominated 14 times for the Nobel Peace Prize between 1907 and 1917.

When World War I began, many speakers abandoned Esperanto, as they were disillusioned with its utopian aims after Europe descended into war. When the League of Nations was formed after the war, Esperanto was proposed by a few countries as the language of international relations, but it failed to get the unanimous consent required. The French delegate voted against the proposal because he did not want the French language to lose ground in international diplomacy. In Russia under Tsar Nicholas II, Esperanto materials were censored beginning in 1895, and this, in turn, led to it being closely associated with the rising communist movement. It was promoted by Soviet Russia for a while; this led to Esperanto’s ban at French universities in 1922, which considered the language a tool to spread communist propaganda. The Soviet Union soon changed its stance, declaring Esperantists part of an international espionage network and persecuting many during Stalin’s Great Purge. But Esperanto faced its biggest setback when World War II broke out.

Adolf Hitler ardently opposed Esperanto, calling it a Jewish conspiracy in Mein Kampf. The Nazis declared Esperanto speakers enemies of the state and executed many of them. Zamenhof’s three adult children were targeted and murdered by the Nazis. But Esperanto continued to survive in the concentration camps, where some prisoners taught others the language. In at least one case, Esperanto speakers were able to pass their language off to the guards as the similar-sounding Italian.

Esperanto has seen a revival in the postwar years. In 1954 UNESCO passed the Montevideo Resolution, which recognized the gains Esperanto had made as an international auxiliary language and noted that several member states were planning on increasing the teaching of Esperanto in schools. Despite this recognition, Esperanto is not an official UN language. The U.S. Army has employed Esperanto as the fictitious language of a mock opponent during army training maneuvers. UNESCO began encouraging the addition of Esperanto to school curricula across the globe. The organization declared 2017 as the year of Zamenhof. The year also marked the advent of the Esperanto edition of UNESCO’s periodical, the Unesco Courier.

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Features of Esperanto

Esperanto is a constructed language and thus does not fall under any of the traditional language families. It is largely based on the Romance languages, with some influences from Slavic, Arabic, Chinese, and other languages. It follows an SVO (subject–verb–object) word order. Esperanto uses prepositions to express spatial and temporal relations, and adjectives can be placed either before or after the nouns they modify. Esperanto script is based on the Latin script, with a 28-letter alphabet.

Since Esperanto is largely based on European languages, it is relatively simple for Europeans to learn. However, some of those who do not speak the languages that inspired Esperanto find the language difficult, leading to the criticism that the language is Eurocentric. Orthography is phonetic, with all words being spelled as pronounced. Tone is not used to distinguish meanings of words. Grammar is simple and regular; there are characteristic word endings for nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Nouns have no gender and are marked by the ending -o; the plural is indicated by -oj (pronounced -oy), and the objective (accusative) case by -on, plural -ojn: amiko “friend,” amikoj “friends,” amikon “friend (accusative),” amikojn “friends (accusative).” There is only one definite article, la (e.g., la amiko “the friend”), and no indefinite article. Adjectives end in -a (e.g., bona amiko “good friend”) and take plural and objective endings to agree with nouns (e.g., la bonaj amikoj estas tie “the good friends are there”; mi havas bonajn amikojn “I have good friends”). Verbs are all regular and have only one form for each tense or mood; they are not inflected for person or number (mi havas, vi havas, ŝi havas, ili havas “I have, you have, she has, they have”). There is an extensive set of suffixes that can be added to word roots to allow various shades of meaning or newly derived forms; compound words are also used.

A few simple phrases in Esperanto are listed here, with their English equivalents:

• Yes: Jes
• No: Ne
• Good morning: Bonan matenon
• Good night: Bonan nokton
• Thank you: Dankon
• Please: Bonvolu