Esperanto, Welsh and the language wars

Could Esperanto save the world? When I was a kid I did learn a few words of this proto-global language, invented (as a gesture to intra-planetary understanding) in the 1880s by the doctor-cum-linguist, Polish-cum-Lithuanian, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof. He had, it was said, toyed with idea of bringing back Latin as the world’s second language (that actually would have been easier for me). But instead he decide to construct his own, making it nicely simple, with no pronunciation traps and easy, consistent rules.

It ended up as an odd hybrid of Latin and German, with a smattering of French and Italian (not to mention a bit of ancient Greek “kaj” is “and” in Esperanto, after “kai” in Greek). So “plena” is “full”, and “plenplena” is “very full” (Greek reduplication, I suppose). And “mal” is the negative: “ami’ means “to love”, “malami”, “to hate”. Get it?

It was through my Dad that I ventured into Esperanto a little. He, in the spirit  of his times, saw Esperanto as a weapon in Moral Rearmament – as well as a blow to Welsh (which, as we lived in Shrewsbury, crept incomprehensibly through our letterbox on the phone and electric bills).

I didn’t meet Esperanto again till the 1990s.

That was when a friend of mine was writing a wonderful biography of J. E. B. Mayor, Cambridge Professor of Latin (and, as it happens, educated in Shrewsbury, as most of them were). It turned out that one of Mayor’s numerous obsessions (he was amongst other things a born again vegetarian) was Esperanto. And, I learned, he gave the address to the Esperanto Society Congress in 1907.

I didn’t think about this again until I picked up the Cambridge evening paper, where there was a marvellous piece of local history on this Congress, by Cambridge chronicler Mike Petty. I hadn’t realised quite what a big deal this conference was: it had involved a sermon in Esperanto in the University Church and in the Catholic equivalent; Oscar Browning had starred in a version of the Pickwick Papers in Esperanto; and the Evening News had carried a cartoon of the police being taught Esperanto to deal with the trouble-makers. There was also a photo of an Esperanto agitprop stall in just the same place in the Market square where you’ll now find the animal rights activists.

Esperanto now seems (sorry Esperantists) faintly silly. And having a nice little European-style language as a lingua franca seems hopelessly out of touch. That said, there is something rather cheering about the unbatterable optimism of those who think that they can right the world’s wrongs by inventing languages. It’s rather like George Bernard Shaw’s new English phonetic alphabet.

Or, come to think of it, it’s like the new phonetic letters introduced by the enterprising Roman emperor Claudius to make Latin itself more transparent. His letters were actually used for a while – and they’ve even got recently recognised to the extent of having their own form as characters on the Unicode computer text.

Wouldn't he be pleased.

Comments

[Paul Leopold]

One trouble with rationally simplified speech, as promoted by artificial languages like Esperanto, is that it can't use morphological means to produce the aesthetic effect of "idem in alio". Let me explain with an example.
One of the first things you would do to simplify English in a rational way would be to eliminate the irregularity of so-called "strong verbs". Why have "give / gave", "bring / brought" "run / ran", etc, when you can just make "-ed" a universal ending signifying past tense? But try this, for example, on the following snippet from a fictionalized self-portrait by Evelyn Waugh:

"… There was a phrase in the thirties: 'It is later than you think', which was designed to cause uneasiness. It was never later than Mr Pinfold thought. …"

A minor little flourish of wit, you will agree. But now change "thought" to "thinked". The meaning is still there, but no longer the happy satisfaction of "idem in alio".
Another trouble with artificial languages is that you can't swear in them. Or are certain words (chosen at random?) designated as obscene?

[Stephen]

I'm not sure why Esperanto should seem 'faintly silly'. The language works and has worked very well for over 100 years. It has a substantial literature (original and translated) and is still around (eg regular translation of Le Monde diplomatique http://eo.mondediplo.com/). Perhaps the silliness is simply in the idealism of the original idea and its current supporters? Or perhaps in its limited current status when compared with its inventor's hopes? Either way, Esperanto is a noble idea which deserves admiration (and support) rather than sneers.

[Stephen Menn]

A bit odd to describe Zamenhof as Polish-cum-Lithuanian; he was Jewish, which was something quite different. There's a nice article on the Jewish background of his project at www.forward.com/articles/11460/

[Ted]

I find it interesting when people form opinions about an idea's merits that are really based on their opinion of the idea's proponents. This is a logical fallacy, the contrapositive assertion to "Don't kill the messenger", which could be summed up as "Don't judge a song on its radio reception".

All of which is to say, before you dismiss any idea with contempt, you might want to spend a little more time getting to know it.

[Debra McCarney]

As someone who uses Esperanto on a daily basis for international communication over the internet, I'm astounded that there are still people that think it died out. I am part of a vibrant and growing international community and speaking Esperanto is as natural to me as speaking English, my mother tongue. In 2005 I visited Vietnam and I was delighted to spend time in the company of Esperanto-speakers there, who gave me an insight into every day life not seen by the average tourist. Esperanto is on the increase in countries as diverse as Brazil, China and Korea, so it certainly appeals to people other than Europeans for all its European origins. As some enthusiasts proclaim, Esperanto is a language that come along ahead of its time. With the advent of the internet it is making a reappearance and may yet surprise the world.

[Hein Maassen, Leidschendam, The Netherlands]

I do not think the European origins of Esperanto would hinder its use in other continents. After all, America, Australia and large parts of Africa and Asia also use European languages (Spanish, French, English, Portuguese and even Dutch....) as linguae francae. There would still be something to say for a world language without colonial, imperialist (or even racist) connotations, easy to learn with no irregularities. We would not need a Claudius or other linguist do-gooders to mix things up further (I remember reading about Claudius' linguistical innovations in Robert Graves' "Claudius the God"). Still, vestiges of Esperanto lingered on for a surprisingly long time. I believe that well into the eighties of the last century directions for use in Dutch telephone cells were also given in Esoeranto. "Nur automatoj alvokoj" or something like that. I hope they will reappear.

[dr venables preller]

I've assumed that Esperanto never realised the hopes of its founder due to the onward march of English, possibly enabled by the BBC World Service.

Of the many varieties of English, the international version mainly for commercial use but also suitable for conventions and academic meetings where it is not the mother tongue at the location seems to have spread the furthest.
The main limitation is on humour, with most comment limited to the straight.Although the vocab is probably only around 800 words plus the subject jargon at such meetings, if there's an interest in English culture, upgrade is easy via literature.

As one who was exposed during childhood to a version of English now almost obsolete known as pidgin , in retrospect one advantage might have been the suitability of such a simple version to express basic ideas free of clutter.

For those interested in communication in a limited way, I believe the Queen's annual Christmas message is still broadcast in pidgin to Papua New Guinea. Whether those for whom the name Dr Johnson rings a bell will understand it though, is another matter.

Perhaps Moral Re-Armament is ready for a revival? But it may need a new name. Armament and Moral tend to have negative associations in the lumpenmindset.

[SW Foska]

All languages are artificial, not just Esperanto. It was not deities, beetles or sparrows that turned Latin into French, but people.
'Plena' not the best example of 'Latin' vocabulary, as a form of it is common to most Slavic tongues (Polish pelny, Russian polny, Cz/Sl, plny, Bg. p'len, SCR pun).
Graham Greene in Stamboul Train tries to ridicule Serbo-Croatian by emphasizing '-oj' endings (a minor character, Czinner, coming into Belgrade, sees 'names slipping by in a language his father had never taught him. Restoracioj, Posto, Informoj. A poster flapped close to the carriage window. Teatnoj Kaj amuzejoj'). Is Greene modelling this on Esperanto, thereby revealing his own ignorance?

[anthony alcock]

Of all the 300 and odd artificial languages recorded the most cheerful by far is that of Stanely Unwin: http://www.stanleyunwin.com/audio/devolution.mp3
Incidentally, whenever I type in the title of this blog (wonderful Goonish word), I am reminded of the example given by Steven Pinker in Language Instinct about the US student who, when asked to write out the words of the US national anthem, converted the phrase "dawn's early light" into "donzerlylite".

[Mark Williams]

Poor Esperanto. Volapuk was even worse. And as for Welsh - it being decently Indo-European, full of Latin borrowings like 'pont', 'bridge', 'corff', 'body' and 'braich', 'arm' - it shouldn't have been too hard for a Classicist like yourself?! ;)

Thanks for an enjoyable post.

[Tony Francis]

The idea of Esperanto always seemed artificial, and too cute by half. It was supposed to be a "neutral" language, but ended up being a mish-mash of European Languages. Sort of like the code-language of a clique. Pig-Latin, only harder to learn. After all, we already have Latin admixed with various German languages: French, English, German, etc. So why make another one? One would be better served to learn English as a second langauge. English speakers would be better served to learn French, German, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, or any other language than Esperanto. In the US there are a lot of words that have crept into common use from Spanish: vamoose (to go); buckeroo, (vaquero); hoose-gow (jail), etc. And from French: dotsy-do (two-by-two); Ozark (the curve); and various Cajun-isms in Louisiana. Anyway, for those interested in Esperanto:
http://www.esperanto.net/info/index_en.html

[Candadai Tirumalai]

The first proponent of Esperanto I met was a fairly recent Cambridge graduate specializing in the poet Edmund Spenser--and that was in 1966. He is still active on behalf of the Esperanto cause.

[Xjy]

Indeed he would!

For the most amazing linguist ever to promote Esperanto, I'd propose the Finnish Mongolist Gustaf John Ramstedt (1873–1959). His biography is available in English (http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust229.html). A Finland-Swede, by the time he finished school he had mastered Swedish (mother tongue), Finnish, Russian (Finland was then a Russian Grand Principality), Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, English and German. And then he got started...

Apart from his contributions to Mongolian-Turkic studies, which go without saying, he created the foundation for the "scientific" (in the German sense) study of Korean. And while serving as the recently independent Finland's Chargé d'Affaires in Japan (as the son of a peasant he couldn't possible be appointed ambassador) he learnt Japanese well enough to be the only member of the diplomatic corps voluntarily conversed with in Japanese by the Japanese themselves.

Pas mal.

His lecture trips around Finland and his talks on Finnish radio were mostly devoted to hawking Temperance and Esperanto, of which he was a leading international light.

A marvellous book for anyone needing an antidote to the impossible linguistic exploits of the Bopps and Grimms of this world - or for that matter of "our own" W. Sidney Allen... An Archimedes to their Aristotle... ;-)