Esperanto - la internacia lingvo1 Esperanto and humanism Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof 1859-1917 LLZ in...

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.


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


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


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


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’?


Logical lexis …

brikujo?

fiŝujo?

karbujo?

benzinujo?

teujo?

monujo?

sagujo?

What are these words in English … ?

hod

tank

scuttle

tank

caddy

wallet

quiver


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!


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.)


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


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


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)


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.’


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.


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


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


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


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)

Esperanto - la internacia lingvo1 Esperanto and humanism Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof 1859-1917 LLZ in...

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