Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 1
Esperanto and humanism
Ludoviko Lazaro
Zamenhof
1859-1917
LLZ in brief
Born Bialystok, Poland. In
Bialystok lived amongst
Germans, Jews, Poles, Russians.
The young Zamenhof felt a common tongue
would help these
nationalities live in peace and harmony. At university he
studied medicine.
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 2
Planned
languagesHildegard von Bingen
1098-1178
900+
Descartes: ‘une langue universelle,
fort aisée à apprendre, à prononcer
et à écrire …’ (1629)Leibnitz 1666Ampère 1793
Sudre 1866 (Solresol)Saussure 1910 (Novesperanto)Hogben 1943 (Interglossa)IALA 1951
(Interlingua)Okrand 1984
(Klingon)
Johann Martin
Schleyer
Volapuk (1879)
After 10 years …
25 newspapers
283 groups
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 3
Regular
language …
grand grand grand grand
grand grand grand grand grand grand
big / large small [unbig] biggish / largish huge [megabig] size [bigness] a big / large person [bigman] a small person [unbigman] to grow / get / become large [to biggen] to make big / enlarge [to biggify] to start to enlarge [to embiggen]
Esperanto is … some five times easier
to learn than other languages phonetic
without exception flexible
logical (e.g. no gender)
a mal a eta
ega eco
ulo mal ulo iĝi igi ekgrandigi
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 4
Simple verb forms …
You sang nicely
You have sung nicely
You had sung nicely
You did sing nicely
You did use to sing nicely
You were singing nicely
You used to sing nicely
Vi kantis bele
-as
-is
-os
-i-us
No. of irregular verbs in …Latin 924
Italian 400+English 283German 170French 81Esperanto 0
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Logical lexis …
futbalejo
kriketejo
golfejo
tenisejo
naĝejo
kurejo
pafejo
globludejo
kegloludejo
football pitch / ground
cricket pitch / ground
golf course
tennis court
swimming pool
running track
shooting gallery / range
bowling green
bowling alley
place = ej
This is an instance of the
ease of learning
Esperanto. There is one affix – ej – to
express place. There is no
need to learn a host of illogical pairings. Why can’t we say in English ‘cricket
court’?
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 6
Logical lexis …
brikujo?
fiŝujo?
karbujo?
benzinujo?
teujo?
monujo?
sagujo?
What are these words in English … ?
hod
tank
scuttle
tank
caddy
wallet
quiver
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 7
The spirit of Esperanto
Language
Culture
Ideology
Because a language is
planned does not mean it is
monotonousincapable of expression
lifeless
Many languages contain planned. ‘non-natural’ elements!
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 8
Language spirit
Puns …ŝi suferas pro kataro (catarrh / kindle of cats)literaturo (litera turo) (tower of letters)
Inventivehe put a mouse into the shoe li metis muson en la ŝuonli enŝuigis muson (en+ŝu+ig+is / inshoe-ed)Flexible (word order / word forms)ni iris per trajno al la urbo per trajno ni iris al la urboal la urbo ni iris per trajno iris ni al la urbo per trajnoni trajnis al la urbo ni trajnis urbenni alurbis trajne ni iris trajne urben(the root trajn – train – is used here as a noun, a verb and an adverb)
Acceptable …bicycle
I bicycled to town
I cycled to town
I biked to town
less acceptable …I trained to town
I carred to town
I bussed to town
(but equivalents acceptable in
Esp.)
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Cultural spirit
‘An artificial language cannot have a literature’ Translated literature Original literature Magazines Music
‘An artificial language cannot have a history’
Ido-crisis Kabe League of Nations ‘Dangerous language’ Conferences Above all … Human histories
120 years of
history
Myths
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 10
The ideological spirit
Zamenhof (1905): ‘… at our meeting are no strong nations or weak nations, with privileges or without; no-one is humiliated or embarrassed; all of us feel as members of one nation, of one family … today, surrounded by the welcoming walls of Boulogne-on-Sea, it is not French who met English, nor Russians who met Poles, but people who met people.’
From the Boulogne Declaration:1. Esperantism is an attempt to spread throughout the entireworld the use of a neutral, human language which, not intruding on the personal life of peoples and in no way aiming to replace existing national languages, would give people ofdifferent nations the ability to understand each other, and couldserve as a language of peace …
peace
neutrality equalit
y
Liberté Egalité Fraternité
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The inner idea
‘Ultimately [Zamenhof's] language was and is more than a proposed solution to the language problem: it is an attempt to confront the spirit of inequality, of intolerance, of hatred that is tearing apart our world.’
Zamenhof:
‘… via a neutral language to remove the walls which divide people and to accustom them to seeing in those around them simply fellow humans and brothers.’
Humphrey Tonkin, president of UEA (Warsaw, 1987)
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Human(kind)ism
Zamenhof: Declaration of Mankind (1913)1 I am human, and all humans I regard as one family; the
division of humanity into races which hate each other and into communities founded on race and religion I consider one of the greatest misfortunes which, sooner or later, must disappear, and the disappearance of which I must effect to the best of my ability.
2 In every person I see only that person, and I judge everyone solely according to his or her personal worth and deeds. …
10 I am aware that the essence of true religious commandments lies in the heart of every human being in the form of his or her conscience, and that the overriding principle contained in these commandments and incumbent on everyone is: do to others, as you would wish others to do to you: everything else that religion proposes is secondary to this.
Hillel: ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole
Torah; the rest is the explanation. Go and study it.’
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 13
Common language –
common ethic
Community of free thinkers: ’sincerity, tolerance of other beliefs and acceptance of a communal moral code’ ‘to establish firm religious neutrality and prevent subsequent generations from slipping back into ethnic and religious chauvinism’ common churches / temples neutral human ceremonies, customs and calendar for all humankind
‘We intend to establish a set of neutral and human ethical rules, which could make of humans humans and which would remove the awful ethnic chauvinism and the hatred and inequality between peoples; but for this set of ethical rules not to remain peripheral and totally worthless, like many fine theoretical principles of the moment, we intend to give it the specific form, set for all time, and able to be absorbed in childhood, of an automatically inheritable religion.’Zamenhof: posthumous papers‘Homaranismo’ to be discussed in Paris in 1914 – conference cancelled because of
war.
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Humanism
‘To be a humanist is, fundamentally, to love human beings; and to love them, in the deepest sense, is to want them to develop according to their own nature, to have the desire to relate to them and know them, to care for them, and to respect them in their entirety.All of these elements are to be found, in an identical manner, at the root of the Esperanto phenomenon.[Esperanto] shows itself to be an invaluable contribution to authentic, universal humanism.’
Claude Piron Esperanto: A New Form of Humanism
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 15
Everyone speaks English …?
Global spread of English
'a threat to UK'
‘When we are in
competition economically,
educationally or culturally,
conversing in English alone
is no longer enough.’
The Guardian, 2006-02-15
‘Amazon has decided to relocate its customer service centre to Cork in a bid to take advantage of stronger language skills. The workforce in Slough doesn't have the necessary polyglotism to deal with calls from all over Europe, it says.Headquarters will stay in Slough, but 90 call centre and support staff face relocation. The move will create up to 450 jobs in Cork. ‘ The Register, 2006-03-03Bradford hospital staff were unable to
understand the accents of Americans brought in to advise on working practices.The Observer, 2005-01-16
German doctors earning £1000 per
day working in the NHS in Norwich
were unable to understand the
regional accent.
The Guardian, 2005-05-16
Esperanto - la internacia lingvo 16
Everyone speaks English …?
A bus conductor lamenting
the passing of the
Routemaster bus said it was
rare that passengers spoke
to him because many were
tourists who did not speak
English. The Guardian, 2004-
08-30
‘The majority of notices in English [in Shanghai] are either wrong or misleading’, reported the English language China Daily (2004-07-23).
Just one fifth of nurses from India are sufficiently proficient in English to work in NHS hospitals without taking remedial language lessons. The Guardian, 2004-09-22
Police reported it was difficult to investigate the Chinese cockle-picker tragedy in Morecambe Bay because the survivors ‘are not capable of speaking English.’ The Guardian, 2004-02-12
70% of news bulletins in India – where
English is claimed to be widespread –
are in Hindi, not English. ‘English is
used by an elite whose views do not
reflect the interests of ordinary
Indians.’ The Guardian, 2005-11-16
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The last wordRabbi Hugo Gryn: ‘Let us tolerate our differences and celebrate our similarities.’
Why am I an esperantist? ĝentileco (common courtesy) racieco (common sense, reason) homeco (human qualities) internacieco (internationalism)Why am I a humanist? pro la samaj kialoj (for the same reasons)