Esperanto was designed by Dr. Lejzer (Ludovic) Zamenhof in Warsaw as a "nutra lingua franca", or second language, for worldwide use. Several countries and groups advocate the teaching and use of Esperanto despite others disagreeing with it.
Dr. Zamenhov restricted his development of Esperanto, with the goal that it should grow through collective use. His version of Esperanto started with minimal grammar rules, around 900 words, and a few samples of literature. During the First World War was the first time Esperanto was successfully used, a common language that helped the war effort across international lines.
In 1922, the Rousseau Institute of Educational Science in Geneva organized a study on Esperanto, finding a link between the teaching of Esperanto and a further interest in other cultures on the students' part. It was also found that learning Esperanto also made the acquisition of other foreign languages easier.
Further experiments after WWII also confirmed Esperanto's relative ease of learning. Some classroom instructors cited that students studying Esperanto for one year had a higher ability in the language relative to those having studied French for four years.
These experiments have limitations which weaken the argument for a widespread implementation of Esperanto. Experimental controls have not always been accurate, and comparison language studies have all used Western European languages similar in lexicon to Esperanto.
There are problems with the concept of a global language such as Esperanto. The lack of a strong social base for the language has stalled any advancement Esperanto may have in the educational community. People are also generally concerned that national languages and identities will be demolished. Those that argue against this claim that replacing the languages of the entire world with a single one is not the goal of Esperanto. Rather, they say, it is best used as a gateway to other educational goals.
The writer of the article lists two ways in which Esperanto could be successfully integrated into the global community: to coordinate studies of the language with more established research programs, as well as to develop resources to teach Esperanto to its full potential.
15 comments:
Esperanto is far more than a concept. It is very useful for anyone interested in the wider world. I've used it in practice for many years on my travels.
I'm not sure what you mean by writing of "The lack of a strong social base for the language". Esperanto has a substantial self-perpetuating speech community. Its speakers are frequently active in wider cultural activities.
I wish that there was a small sample of Esperanto in this entry. It would be interesting to see what it looks like and what words can be contrived from its language into English. Hopefully this does not turn into a worldwide language as it was mentioned. That would take away from any sense of culture.
I had never heard of Esperanto until this article. I think it is interesting that there is a language that helps us link all other languages together. My question is if this language actually helps us learn other languages easier why is it not more widely spread?
I also have never heard of Esperanto before this article. I am extremely intrigued by the prospect of this language. I think that in the academic community and elsewhere it could be extremely beneficial. Miscommunication occurs frequently between people who don't speak the same language. Now, to have another language that both parties understand would make communicating between cultural lines so much easier. This could eliminate miscommunication because both parties should have the same understanding of what the words mean. Not to mention, its usefulness in helping people to acquire other languages.
Surprisingly I have never heard of Esperanto, I would have thought that this would be used more often if it helps people understand other languages better; It seems to be very interesting, and I would love to know a little more about it. However, I do not believe it should be it's own language!
Esperanto sounds interesting; I have never heard of it. I would like to have read some examples of this also. Dr. Zamenhof had an intersting idea when creating it. The fact that it was helping people learn better and helping other communicate shows how intelligent he must be to create a functional language. Although some issues are raised on the problems it can create, it should be studied more and integrated to see if it will have success today.
While I do think that the idea of an alternative language that can be used universally is intriguing, I doubt that it could become very popular. The only people who would be motivated enough to learn this would be avid travelers or possibly business people. With the limited amount of people who learn this, there aren't many opportunities to speak with people. Often, the people who you can learn most about a culture from are locals who would most likely not know "esperanto".
I have never heard of the term Esperanto. Esperanto is an interesting concept that could be helpful in communicating with people who speak a different language. However, it would have been interesting to see some of the information based on Esperanto. The article does not give examples of how Esperanto is used in communicating with others. Though, it would be an interesting concept, I feel that learning other languages is far more beneficial and one will learn the appropriate grammar effectively.
Having a "worldwide language" would make a dramatic difference, in many ways. Even though it would be easy when traveling, it would take away from the different cultures each country has. I like going to a different country and not being able to understand people. Learning a new language is so exciting, trying to understand what people are saying. Since I speak multiple languages, I think its cool to be able to talk about people in a different language, or just seem cooler infront of them for just knowing another language. If there was a "worldwide language" that would not be possible anymore.
For Esperanto being so widespread, I was surprised to see that I'd never heard of it.
If Esperanto is supposed to grow through collective use, I don't think it has made it very far. If it were something that were truly revolutionary, I think that it would be more prominent in today's schools.
Having a universal language that almost everyone could understand, would be beneficial. However, I don't see this happening for the current world. Regardless of if the studies of language are coordinated with research programs and resources are developed, I think there are more underlying issues that would prohibit this from happening.
It's remarkable to learn of a little known language that was developed with the main purpose of being used as a second language. By studying different languages and the way people develop language as individuals, Esperanto seems to be well suited to breaking down the barriers of language between different cultures.
The idea of Esperanto is interesting; yet, I feel that there are some problems with this language. If everyone learns this language soon the world will become more like one huge community and identity and culture will be lost in the process. I do not have a problem with other countries and languages, I just feel that what makes us unique are our differences and I feel this will just melt everything down and get rid of our uniqueness.
I have never heard of Esperanto until I read this article. It was very interesting, and a cool fact to know that there is language that helps like all other languages together. I wish that there was a example of Esperanto in this blog entry. It would be interesting to experience it as it's own language, but I don't believe it should be it's own language.
For those worried that Esperanto's ease of learning would draw people away from other, more difficult languages, my experience has been that Esperantists tend to be at least trilingual - mother tongue + Esperanto + another - if not more. Over 120 years of existence seems not to have turned people off to language learning, and is unlikely to do so in the future. A further principle shared by Esperantists is that it is proper, even vital, to learn the local language, even if you speak Esperanto.
Often asked here are variants of the question, "If Esperanto is such a great idea, why isn't it more popular?". Some reasons are ignorance ("I had never heard of Esperanto until this article"), misinformation ("The lack of a strong social base for the language..") and insufficient publicity by Esperantists themselves. Another is an underestimation of the time it can take for a simple, good idea to catch on. The metric system and Arabic numerals both took hundreds of years to even get off the ground in the West; now they're almost universal.
Several wanted to see what Esperanto looks like. Here is a translation of what I wrote above:
Por maltrankvilantoj pro tio, ke Esperanta lernfacileco malinteresos ulojn pri aliaj pli malfacilaj lingvoj, mia sperto montras, ke Esperantistoj almenaŭ trilingvemas - denaska lingvo + Esperanto + cetera - aŭ eĉ pli. Pli ol 120 jaroj da ekzisto ŝajne ne malinteresis ulojn pri lingva lernado, kaj probable tiel daŭros estonte. Cetera kuna principo ĉe Esperantistoj estas tio, ke decas, eĉ necesegas, lerni la lokan lingvon, eĉ se oni parolas Esperanton.Ofte starataj tie ĉi estas demandoj kiel tiu, "Se esperanto tiel bonege ideas, kial ĝi ne pli popularas?". El la kialoj estas nekono ("Mi neniam aŭdis pri esperanto ĝis legado de tiu artikolo"), malinformo ("La manko de forta socia bazo ĉe la lingvo...") kaj nesufiĉa diskonigo pere de esperantistoj mem. Cetera kialo estas nesufiĉa kalkulo de la tempo necesa por la diskonigo de simpla ideo bona. Atendiĝis centojn da jaroj eĉ eta disvastigo de la metro-sistemo kaj de arabaj numeroj en okcidentejo; ambaŭ nun estas preskaŭ universalaj.Pluraj uloj volis vidi kiel aspektas Esperanto. Jen esperantigo de mia supera skribaĵo:
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