Esperanto: Does anyone here speak it?

[Kazimiera]

Does anyone here speak Esperanto?

1. What is Esperanto?

Esperanto is a language designed to facilitate communication between people of different lands and cultures. It was first published in 1887 by Dr. L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917) under the pseudonym "Dr. Esperanto", meaning "one who hopes", and this is the name that stuck as the name of the language itself.

Esperanto is considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its design is far simpler and more regular. Also, unlike national languages, Esperanto allows communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having the usual cultural advantage favouring a native speaker.

Esperanto's purpose is not to replace any other language, but to supplement them: Esperanto would be used as a neutral language when speaking with someone who doesn't know one's own language. The use of Esperanto would also protect minority languages, which would have a better chance of survival than in a world dominated by a few powerful languages.


2. How easy is Esperanto to learn?

For a native English speaker, we may estimate that Esperanto is about five times as easy to learn as Spanish or French, ten times as easy to learn as Russian, twenty times as easy to learn as Arabic or spoken Chinese, and infinitely easier to learn than Japanese. Many people find that they speak Esperanto better after a few months' study than a language they learned at school for several years.

A knowledge of Esperanto makes it much easier to learn other foreign languages, and there is some evidence that it is actually more efficient to learn Esperanto first, before learning other languages, rather than to study foreign languages directly. For example, one may become more fluent in French by first studying Esperanto for 6 months and then studying French for a year and a half, rather than studying French for two continuous years. The reason may be that Esperanto's regular grammar and word formation and flexible syntax makes it easier to understand other languages' grammar and rules.


3. Where does Esperanto's vocabulary come from?

About 75 % of Esperanto's vocabulary comes from Latin and Romance languages (especially French), about 20 % comes from Germanic languages (German and English), and the rest comes mainly from Slavic languages (Russian and Polish) and Greek (mostly scientific terms).

The words derived from Romance languages were chosen to be as recognizable as possible throughout the world. For example, the word "radio", although technically Romance, is now used internationally. Someone knowing only Russian and looking at a text in Esperanto would immediately recognize perhaps 40 % of the words, without even having studied the language.

Esperanto is phonetic: every word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. There are no "silent" letters or exceptions.


4. How can I use Esperanto once I've learned it?

Here are some of the many different ways people use Esperanto:

Esperanto is an ideal second language. Many adults want to learn another language, but don't have the time or energy to learn a national language.

Correspondence. Write to people in a dozen countries without learning a dozen languages.

Travel. Esperanto can be used to see the world. There are lists of Esperanto speakers willing to host other Esperantists in their own house or apartment for free.

International understanding. You can't be friends with people if you can't talk to them! Esperanto helps break down the language barriers between countries.

Meeting people from other countries, especially at conventions, or when Esperanto speakers from other countries come visiting. (It's also a good way to meet interesting people from your own country!)

Joining the world. Esperanto is a way to treat everyone on our planet on the basis of complete equality, meeting them half-way. No more trying to communicate "uphill" for one side.

Literature. The world's masterpieces have been translated to Esperanto, including the Kalevala and works by Garcia Marquez, Saikaku, Shakespeare, Gibran, Brecht, Tagore, Kawabata, Dante, and Mickiewicz. Many works have been translated to Esperanto which are not available in one's own language.

Hobbies, especially collecting stamps or postcards, or discussing any subject with people in other countries.

Sample text in Esperanto

Ĉiuj homoj estas denaske liberaj kaj egalaj laŭ digno kaj rajtoj. Ili posedas racion kaj konsciencon, kaj devus konduti unu la alian en spirito de frateco.


Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

[Peyrol]

It isn't so difficult, sound like a Rhaeto-Romance language.

[zlakopistou]

Being a romance speaker myself, I am not very fond of it. It has no "taste" to me.
But it's quite interesting to study, linguistically.

[Nurzat]

i do know many esperantists through an esperanto-fanatic friend and tried to learn it once. i understand most of it but it sounds artificial. this could also be a good thing... i am into robots. maybe will improve it in the future.

[Anusiya]

Isn't that a failed experiment, abandoned for years now?

[sammymcgoff]

Dont speak esparanto though

[east]

Isn't that a failed experiment, abandoned for years now?

I think same way, Esperanto is an experiment with doubtful future. My opinion is that English language has took its place in order to be used as common wide spread language.

[Comte Arnau]

I do, or rather did. Learned it in my teens.

It is the only constructed language, of the hundreds that exist, that has been successful. By this I don't mean it has reached its goal -it had its momentum in the first half of the 20th century. But it is the only conlang with native speakers (denaskaj parolantoj), a decent native one-hundred-year literature, apart from more audiovisual media than any other.

I abandoned it because I was only interested in the language itself, not in the whole Esperanto world, which I can't summarize here. There have been interesting Esperanto speakers in the past, but most people in it make it look like a nerdy sect.

I still think, though, it is the best constructed language at a European level.

[Absinthe]

I don't fancy fake languages. I'd rather learn the ones it derives from if I want to communicate with different lands and cultures.

[Comte Arnau]

All languages are fake, after all.