ESPERANTO

Esperanto is intended as a simple second language for all mankind.   John Cresswell.

In our world have evolved countless groups and colorful cultures, different religious sects and  emotionally bound loyalties. Each group is a garden unto itself, providing excitement and enrichment to those within it.  They also speak a variety of   languages,

One could have expected harmonious co-existence and meaningful interactions amongst various  groups. But in fact, they have often fought with one another, nations with nations,  religions with   religions. Linguistic groups with linguistic groups. Ironically, multiculturalism which is now touted as the model in the modern world, is creating more problems within societies than ever before.

In our age  cultures are no longer islands of closed systems with only occasional glimpses into alien kinds. People  rub shoulders on the global arena in a hundred different ways and contexts. . TV screens bring into living rooms images and actions of distant peoples and life-styles. We are no longer dealing with interactions between cultures, but with interpretations and misinterpretations of cultures.

In 1980, when I was visiting the Caribbean Island of Curaçao I was at the famous Salas bookstore downtown where I used to go regularly while on the  island. Browsing through their language section a yellow covered book by John Cresswell and John Hartley, entitled Esperanto caught my eyes. I had heard of Esperanto before, but knew nothing about it.

That summer I read its 198 pages, taking noted from the book.  I was amazed to discover that this artificial language had indeed been created which gradually spread all over the world. This auxiliary language had been constructed in 1887 by an ophthalmologist named  L. L. Zamenhof. He is said to have  invented it when he was a high school student. He was convinced that a common language – one that everybody in the world understands– would be a helpful factor for global harmony. Zamenhof was Polish, and being of Jewish heritage his linguistic background included Yiddish.

Basing himself on the  universality of Romance and Anglo-Saxon languages in Europe. Zamenhof created for his language words derived mostly from these.  In our own times this would be characterized or condemned as Europe-centric. Nevertheless, given that some European languages have attained global status Esperanto continues to be studied in countries beyond the Western hemisphere too. 

The three components of any language are vocabulary (words with specific meanings), word modifications (plurals for nouns, endings for verbs, etc.) and rules of grammar.

As in English Esperanto  has only one definite article, la (the),  all nouns end in –o. Thus we have la fakto: the fact (from English), la  hundo: the dog (from German/Dutch), la mano: the hand (from Latin). The feminine of a noun is formed by inserting –in before the –o. Thus, la patro is father and la patrino is mother. La viro is man and la virino is woman. La knabo is boy and la knabino is girl. The plural of any noun is formed by adding -j (pronounced y), Thus patroj means fathers and virinoj means women. Kaj (pronounced as kai) means and.

The infinitive of verbs end in –i. The ending  for the present  is  -as, for the past -is, and for the future –os. Thus, starai means to stand. La knabo staras means the boy is standing. La knabino standis means the girl stood, and la hundo staros means the dog will stand.

Zamenhof’s original work was first published in Russian since Poland was then part of the Russian Empire. It was then called la lingvo internacia (The international language).  The   Fundamento de Esperanto was published in 1905, the same year in which  Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity was published. Later that year the first World Esperanto Congress was convened in France and the Akademio de Esperanto was established.

Esperanto was explicitly declared to be a purely linguistic invention to bring the people of the world together. But  it was not long before it was politicized. In his Mein Kampf Hitler condemned it as a Jewish plot to take over the world. Esperanto and its proponents were ostracized in Nazi Germany. Later the Soviet Union, as if to show that the extremist Left is as bigoted as the extremist Right, also banned the language. But, like good sense and Enlightenment values, Esperanto continues to thrive in liberal democracies.

Esperanto is a movement whose goal is to unite the people of the world. Books are  published in Esperanto. One of them, by the Scottish poet William Auld (1934 – 2006),  is  Esperanta Antologio, in which one can read selections from writings in Esperanto. Auld was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize.  The Esperanto Congress continues to meet periodically. The language has been recognized as an international auxiliary language by the United Nations. Not unlike scientists, the aficionados of Esperanto constitute an international brotherhood whose members have no political, religious, national  or cultural axe to grind. They are a body of citizens from every walk of life and in every nation. They  are just having fun in this innocuous linguistic enterprise which, is unwittingly a response to the legendary Builder of the Tower of Babel.

It is quite possible, and is to be hoped, that as the movement expands in the years to come Akademio de Esperanto will incorporate in its dictionary at least one noun, one verb, and one adjective from every living language.