 |
| Esperanto flag |
Esperanto was created by Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (Doktoro Esperanto),
a doctor and linguist from Warsaw (Poland).
Esperanto was born 1887 with the
publishing of his book “Lignvo
internacia”. By the twentieth century, the language has become well-known
in Europe. It was even considered a threat by both Hitler and Stalin due to its
internationalist and idealist values.
Data estimates that Esperanto speakers
range from 100,000 to 2,000,000 fluent
speakers across the world. A thousand of them are said to be native speakers.
It is recognised as the most successful constructed language project on an international
scale.
Esperanto is a real spoken and written
language with grammar, and phonetic rules. It is mainly used by people who do not
share a common language.
Nowadays, hundreds and thousands of
people attend the World Esperanto Congress
which is held each year. The Congress is even held in Esperanto!
The language is relatively easy to learn as it has no grammatical exceptions.
Thus, Esperanto can be theoretically learnt three to ten times faster than ethnic
or national languages as most of its vocabulary mirrors existing European words
(see the table below).
|
English
|
Esperanto
|
|
Yes
|
Jes
|
|
No
|
Ne
|
|
Hello
|
Saluton
|
|
Goodbye
|
Gis
revido
|
|
I
don’t understand you
|
Mi
ne komprenas vin
|
|
Excuse
me
|
Pardonu
min
|
|
Congratulations
|
Gratulon
|
Some critics oppose to this language
as it does not have any cultural references.
Other people, however, use the language as a preparation base for learning other
languages as its vocabulary comes from Romance and Germanic languages and the phonology,
from Slavic languages.
There are even learning platforms for the language: http://en.lernu.net/. This webpage in particular teaches
Esperanto in 41 languages.
So... what do you think? Would you learn
Esperanto? Does it really help you to learn other foreign languages?
All that’s left to say is: Gis revida kaj dankon!
Emma Milnthorpe
