{"id":217734,"date":"2022-08-08T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=217734"},"modified":"2022-08-08T02:56:27","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T01:56:27","slug":"a-brief-history-of-esperanto-the-135-year-old-language-of-peace-hated-by-hitler-and-stalin-alike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/08\/a-brief-history-of-esperanto-the-135-year-old-language-of-peace-hated-by-hitler-and-stalin-alike\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Esperanto, the 135-year-old Language of Peace Hated by Hitler and Stalin Alike"},"content":{"rendered":"

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25 Jul 2022 – <\/em>In the late 1800s, the city of Bia\u0142ystok \u2013 which was once Polish, then Prussian, then Russian, and is today again part of Poland<\/a> \u2013 was a hub of diversity, with large numbers of Poles, Germans, Russians<\/a> and Yiddish<\/a>-speaking Ashkanazi Jews<\/a>. Each group spoke a different language<\/a> and viewed members of the other communities with suspicion.<\/p>\n

For years, L.L. Zamenhof<\/a> \u2013 a Jewish man<\/a> from Bia\u0142ystok who had trained as a doctor in Moscow \u2013 had dreamed<\/a> of a way for diverse groups of people to communicate easily and peacefully.<\/p>\n

On July 26, 1887<\/a>, he published what is now referred to as \u201cUnua Libro<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cFirst Book,\u201d which introduced and described Esperanto<\/a>, a language he had spent years designing<\/a> in hopes of promoting peace among the people of the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Esperanto\u2019s vocabulary<\/a> is mostly drawn from English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Polish, Russian and Yiddish, as these were the languages that Zamenhof was most familiar with<\/a>. Grammatically, Esperanto was primarily influenced<\/a> by European<\/a> languages, but interestingly<\/a>, some of Esperanto\u2019s innovations bear a striking resemblance to features found in some Asian languages<\/a>, such as Chinese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, 135 years later, Europe is again riven by violence and tension, most notably by the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is at least partially driven<\/a> by a political debate about language differences<\/a>. Unfortunately, conflicts over language are common<\/a> around the world.<\/p>\n

The promise of peace through a shared language has not yet caught on widely, but there are perhaps as many as 2 million Esperanto speakers worldwide<\/a>. And it\u2019s still spreading, if slowly.<\/p>\n

Families gather from around the world to speak Esperanto<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vIQyGettpTc<\/p>\n

A language for all<\/h2>\n

Having grown up in the multicultural but distrusting environment of Bia\u0142ystok<\/a>, Zamenhof dedicated his life to constructing<\/a> a language that he hoped could help foster harmony between groups<\/a>. The goal wasn\u2019t to replace anyone\u2019s first language<\/a>. Rather, Esperanto would serve as a universal second language<\/a> that would help promote international understanding \u2013 and hopefully peace.<\/p>\n

Esperanto is easy to learn<\/a>. Nouns do not have grammatical gender<\/a>, so you never have to wonder whether a table is masculine or feminine. There are no irregular<\/a> verbs, so you don\u2019t have to memorize complex conjugation tables<\/a>. Also, the spelling is entirely phonetic<\/a>, so you\u2019ll never be confused by silent letters or letters that make different sounds in different contexts.<\/p>\n

In \u201cUnua Libro,\u201d Zamenhof outlined Esperanto\u2019s 16 basic rules<\/a> and provided a dictionary. This book was translated into more than a dozen languages, and at the beginning of each edition, Zamenhof permanently renounced all personal rights to his creation<\/a> and declared Esperanto to be \u201cthe property of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, Esperanto spread<\/a> to Asia<\/a>, North<\/a> and South<\/a> America, the Middle East<\/a> and Africa<\/a>. Starting in 1905, Esperanto speakers from around the world began gathering once a year to participate in the World Esperanto Congress<\/a> to celebrate \u2013 and use \u2013 the language.<\/p>\n

Between 1907 and his death in 1917, Zamenhof received 14 nominations<\/a> for the Nobel Peace Prize, though he never won the award.<\/p>\n

Continuing Zamenhof\u2019s work, the Universal Esperanto Association<\/a>, an organization that seeks to encourage relations among people through the use of Esperanto, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize more than 100 times<\/a> in recognition of its \u201ccontribution to world peace by permitting people in different countries to enter direct relations without linguistic barriers<\/a>.\u201d So far, it has never won the award.<\/p>\n

What is Esperanto, anyway, and what is it useful for?<\/strong><\/p>\n