Doctor Recommended

Esperanto

When I was digging up GNU-related projects for GNUblog.com I got reacquainted with a distribution of Linux called Debian.

If you scroll to the bottom of the main page you'll see a large list of languages to translate the site into. One of them is esperanto.

Quick history of the language. It was created by a Polish eye-doctor, Ludwig L. Zamenhoff in 1887, to be a second language that everyone could use as a common international tongue. Well, not to judge too early, but I don't think it caught on like chlamydia.

There are dozens of organizations around the world that act as education and coordination centers to help promote the part Romantic part Germanic and part Slavic language. Here is a link to the main one based in America.

Hehe, I got a kick out of the About section, stating:

“Of the many projects and proposals for an international language over the centuries, Esperanto is the only one that has stood the test of time and is being spoken today. It is in daily use by many thousands of people all over the world, and the number is growing constantly.”

Unlike the billions that speak English, French, Spanish, German, Russian or Japanese already – somehow one of the existing ones cannot become the international (or il8n) language.

I did think this was an interesting statement too:

"The second major reason for Esperanto's success is that it is neutral. It belongs to no one country. [snip]...[snip] Esperanto is not the property of any one nation, group of nations, or social class. It belongs to everyone. It has no political or historical implications to hinder its acceptance."

Hehe, I thought I owned English, I mean, I got a trademark on it. Actually, that statement is pretty misleading, you own your own words, you can only speak for yourself and you alone decide what a word means. There is no collective "we" that can somehow speak for you (unless you've become a Borg). Anyways, if you have time and want to brag about something, learn Esperanto. I'd stick with English though, especially while using the Internet.

Posted by Tim at April 6, 2003 08:10 PM | TrackBack