The week long World Esperanto Congress is concluding tomorrow (Friday 1 August 2009) in Bialystok, Poland. The 94th Congress in Bialystok coincides with the 150th anniversary and birthplace of Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, who created Esperanto in the hopes that it will be adopted as an easy, flexible and universal second language that would be used by people all around the world to spread love, peace and understanding. The language is not tied to any one ethic group or country, and has never been a national language. Interestingly however there is research showing that studying Esperanto before another foreign language helps with the acquisition of that language.
Now a brief history of Esperanto for people (like me) who have heard of the language before, but aren't familiar with it. Meaning, "one who hopes," the language is based on European words but with easier grammar and was first introduced in Zamenhof's book Unua Libro in July 1887. The book is ten years of Zamenhof refining his language, in which he translated literature and wrote original prose and verses in Esperanto. The language grew rapidly in the late 19th to early 20th century starting in the Russian Empire and spread throughout Eastern Europe and elsewhere. However, totalitarian states (like Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union) became increasingly suspicious of the language being a symbol of tolerance and international understanding, and Esperanto speakers were targeted by Hitler as an example of an international Jewish conspiracy and were executed. Even today members of the gay and lesbian community communicate with each other and to the outside world with Esperanto as a kind of secret language in authoritarian countries like Cuba, China and Iran.
With the aid of the Internet and community-based websites like lernu!, there is anywhere between 100,000 and 2 million Esperanto speakers around the world, and it is continuing to grow. Google, Wikipedia, and automated translation Traduku.net are the most popular websites that offer their services in Esperanto. It's pretty amazing when you think about how a language that has only been in existence for 125 years can spread and be adopted by so many people. Perhaps Esperanto is a lot closer to becoming the universal language that Zamenhof envisioned than many people give it credit. Who knows, in 125 more years people may be speaking Esperanto and language barriers will be something we will reminisce about.
For more information, check out:
"Esperanto, the new language of love" on Gulfnews
World Esperanto Association Official Website
Esperanto-USA website
Esperanto: Multilingual Information Center website
"So you want to speak Esperanto?" Micheloud & Cie
