Here is a lost post I had originally written to be posted on Monday 26th July which was officially Esperanto Day, coinciding with the anniversary of the publication of the first work in that language, Unua Libro, by the creator of Esperanto, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof.
Saluton
Mia nomo estas Michael, mi estas 27-jara, mi loĝas en Newcastle.
What I have just said there is “Hello, my name is Michael, I am 27, I live in Newcastle”, in Esperanto. The Esperanto language was created by Polish ophthalmologist Dr. L. L. Zamenhof back in 1887, in response to the ethnic divisions in his native Bialystok in Poland. He believed that language barriers fostered conflict and therefore set about promoting a “neutral” second language that had no political baggage.
Esperanto itself sounds a bit like Spanish or Italian, and is spoken by around 2 million people worldwide, which is about the same amount as speak Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovenian, or Tongan. Now as a man made language one might think it’s pretty useless compared to these national languages, but consider that these languages are spoken in a small geographic area, whereas Esperanto is spoken over the whole world, so it could be said that it’s actually more useful than those languages, unless you happen to be visiting them of course!
As a Bahá’í, I believe very much in an international auxiliary language, to facilitate the understanding between the worlds’ different peoples, and help bring about world unity.
O members of parliaments throughout the world! Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script. God, verily, maketh plain for you that which shall profit you and enable you to be independent of others. He, of a truth, is the Most Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. This will be the cause of unity, could ye but comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye might understand! We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of Our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book.
Bahá’u’lláh
Now until recently I have truly believed that this language was English, and in my first draft of this blog entry I pretty much dismissed Esperanto as a little bit of fun, and that its job was being fulfilled by English. But following a recent conversation with my friend James, who has put a lot of effort into learning and now teaching Esperanto, I have changed my mind.
You see, when I have a conversation with say a friend whom speaks Persian as their first language, a situation that is quite frequent when you’re a Bahá’í I might add, I as a native English speaker have all the power in that relationship. The same is true when I try to speak German, with someone for whom that is their first language, they have the power. But if we are both speaking a language which is not the native tongue for either of us, then the whole dynamic changes as we are both equal.
So I have done a full 360 turn and now think that actually Esperato could be a really useful thing, perhaps we should all have a go at trying to learn it, so I might just try and take a shot at learning the Universal Auxiliary Language.
Ĝis la revido
Michael
