History of the Esperanto language. Esperanto"

Today there are more than 6,000 languages in the world that are still alive and used by people in their speech. One of them is Esperanto - this is an unusual dialect with a very important mission - unification. How can it accomplish it?

Esperanto - what is it?

As already said, this is an unusual language. It is used by people all over the world and probably has quite a bit of fame. Esperanto is a so-called artificial or planned language. Why artificial? After all, it was not created from time immemorial by entire nations, but by just one person - Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof in a fairly short period of time and was presented by him in 1887.

He published the first textbook on this language - “International Language”, as Esperanto was first called. This is its purpose.

Why is Esperanto international?

It helps people who do not know each other’s languages and representatives of different nationalities communicate with each other, including common in international marriages for communication between family members. This means that this type of speech does not relate to any particular nation or country, that is, it is a neutral language of communication, the same as sign language, for example. In addition, it has a relatively simple structure and rules, which allows you to overcome it in a short time. It is a “language of reconciliation” that helps maintain tolerant and respectful relations between representatives of different nationalities and cultures, and maintain mutual understanding - this is its main idea.

Culture and social activities

Esperanto is a fairly popular, albeit young language. It is used both orally and in writing. Recently, poets and writers have begun to appear who create their works in this dialect; films, songs, websites are being created, conferences and forums, seminars, and rallies are being held. Translations from many languages of the world into the international language Esperanto are also carried out. Many popular software companies also release versions of their programs for electronic devices on it.

Worldwide fame and distribution

There are a large number of Esperantist organizations scattered around the world, that is, people who speak this dialect. Most of them live in Europe, the USA, Japan, Brazil and China, while the rest are scattered across almost 100 other countries around the world.

Counting people who speak artificial languages is not kept accurately. But according to some data, Esperantists number from 100 thousand to several million people. About 1,000 of them live in Russia. We even have our own Esperanto street, and at one time the first Esperanto club in Russia was opened in Kazan.

Policies of governments of different countries towards Esperanto

The attitude of the authorities towards the use of this language in different countries is far from clear. There are those states where it is widely supported, and there are those where it is ignored by the authorities. As a rule, the latter are countries with low social development. But most international organizations, such as the UN and UNESCO, support this movement very well and help spread it. UNESCO even adopted 2 resolutions in defense of Esperanto. Also now this language has become very popular among diplomats from various countries. And the city of Herzberg even received the prefix “Esperanto-city” in its name, thereby attracting Esperantists of various nationalities here to improve interethnic contacts.

Mastery and study

In most countries of the world, special Esperanto courses have been created in educational institutions. In some of them it is even taught along with other foreign languages. In addition, it has enormous propaedeutic ability. This means that after learning Esperanto, many other languages become easy. You can learn this language not only in courses, which, by the way, are also held in Russia, but also with the help of resources on the Internet.

Symbolism

Esperantists have their own anthem - La Espero (hope). And also the flag is green (it also means hope) with a five-pointed green star on a white background, which corresponds to the five continents.

In general, the symbol of hope appears very often in Esperanto. Even the word “Esperanto” itself means “hoping.” Its name comes from the author's pseudonym. He called himself Doctor Esperanto. At first the language was called the language of Doctor Esperanto, and then it was shortened to one word. Ludovic Zamenhof himself never explained why he chose such a pseudonym. The first Russian version of this language was released on July 26, since then this day has been the birthday of Esperanto. An entire academy of this language was also created. And almost 30 years after the publication of Zamenhof’s book, the first world congress was held.

What does Esperanto consist of?

It is based on more than 20 different languages of the world. This includes Latin (the alphabet was taken from it), and Romance and Germanic languages (German, French, English), as well as Greek and Slavic.

The Esperanto alphabet consists of 28 Latin letters, each corresponding to one sound. Of these, 21 are consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semivowels. Esperanto has a lot of international words, which is why it is easy to learn and can be partially understood on an intuitive level. If you encounter any difficulties while learning, you can always turn to dictionaries.

Grammar

The peculiarity of the Esperanto language is that it has an extremely simple grammar, consisting of only 16 rules that do not contain any exceptions.

Articles. There is no indefinite article in Esperanto. Definite article ( la) is used in the same way as in other languages. It is also possible not to use it at all.
Nouns. All nouns end in -o. There are singular and plural numbers, as well as two cases. In case of plural, add -j. The main case (unchanged) is nominative. The second, accusative, is created using -n. For other cases (genitive, dative, etc.), prepositions are used that are selected according to their meaning. It is noteworthy that the concept of “gender” does not exist at all in Esperanto. This greatly simplifies its grammar.
Adjectives. All adjectives have an ending -a. Case and number are determined by analogy with nouns (using endings -j, -n and prepositions). Degrees are also determined for adjectives: comparative (the word pli and the conjunction ol) and superlative ( plej).
Numerals. There are two types of numerals. The first is the fundamental ones (those that do not incline) - two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one hundred, thousand. To get hundreds and tens, numerals are simply combined into one word (for example, du is “two” and dek is “ten”, so dudek is “twenty”). The second type is ordinal numbers. For them, the ending of the adjective is added. Among ordinal numbers, plural, fractional and collective numbers are also distinguished.
Pronouns. They can be personal - I, you, he, she, it (denotes an object, animal or child), we, they. And also possessive. The latter are obtained by adding the ending -a. Pronouns are declined in the same way as nouns.
Verbs. They do not change either in persons or in numbers. But there are 3 tenses: past, present and future, differing in endings, imperative and conditional mood (also with the addition of endings) and infinitive. There is a communion. Here they are active and passive, changing from time to time. In this case, suffixes are used, for example -ant, -int, -ont, -at, etc.
Adverbs. All adverbs must end in -e and have degrees of comparison, like adjectives (comparative and superlative).
Prepositions. Prepositions are used only with nouns and adjectives in the nominative case.
The pronunciation and spelling are completely the same.
Emphasis. It is always placed on the penultimate syllable.
Word formation. By combining several words, you can form complex words (in this case, the main word is placed at the end).
As in English, negation cannot be used twice in a phrase. For example, you cannot say “no one completed their task.”
When a direction is indicated (for example, in a tree, in the kitchen), the accusative ending is used.
All prepositions have their own constant meaning. There is also an excuse je, not having one. It may not be used at all if the accusative case is used.
Borrowed words do not change, but they are used following the rules of Esperanto.
Endings -o(used in nouns) and -a(when in the article la) can be replaced by an apostrophe.

This article could be useful for those who want to become interested in learning this language or simply expand their horizons, it helped to learn a little more about Esperanto, what kind of language it is and where it is used. After all, like all adverbs, it also has its own characteristics. For example, the absence of gender in Esperanto is a morphological feature without which it is impossible to imagine the Russian language. And several other interesting facts. And also, of course, some information about translation from Esperanto and vice versa.

Esperanto is intended to serve as a universal international language, the second (after the native) for every educated person. The use of a neutral (non-ethnic) and easy-to-learn language could bring interlingual contacts to a qualitatively new level. In addition, Esperanto has great pedagogical (propaedeutic) value, that is, it significantly facilitates the subsequent study of other languages.

Story

In the alphabet, letters are called as follows: consonants - consonant + o, vowels - just a vowel:

A - a
B-bo
C - co

Each letter corresponds to one sound (phonemic letter). Reading a letter does not depend on its position in a word (in particular, voiced consonants at the end of a word are not deafened, unstressed vowels are not reduced).

The stress in words always falls on the penultimate syllable.

The pronunciation of many letters can be assumed without special preparation (M, N, K, etc.), the pronunciation of others must be remembered:

C ( co) is pronounced like Russian ts: centro, scene[scene], caro[tsaro] “king”.
Ĉ ( ĉo) is pronounced like Russian h: ĉefo"chief", "head"; ĉokolado.
G( go) is always read as G: grupo, geografio[geography].
Ĝ ( ĝo) - affricate, pronounced like a continuous word jj. It does not have an exact correspondence in the Russian language, but it can be heard in the phrase “daughter”: due to the voiced b coming after, h is voiced and pronounced like jj. Ĝardeno[giardeno] - garden, etaĝo[ethajo] "floor".
H ( ho) is pronounced as a dull overtone (eng. h): horizonto, sometimes as Ukrainian or Belarusian "g".
Ĥ ( ĥo) is pronounced like the Russian x: ĥameleono, ĥirurgo, ĥolero.
J ( jo) - like Russian th: jaguaro, jam"already".
Ĵ ( ĵo) - Russian and: ĵargono, ĵaluzo"jealousy", ĵurnalisto.
L ( lo) - neutral l(the wide boundaries of this phoneme allow it to be pronounced as the Russian “soft l”).
Ŝ ( ŝo) - Russian w: ŝi- she, ŝablono.
Ŭ ( ŭo) - short y, corresponding to English w, Belarusian ў and modern Polish ł; in Russian it is heard in the words “pause”, “howitzer”: paŭzo[pause], Eŭropo[eўropo] “Europe”. This letter is a semivowel, does not form a syllable, and is found almost exclusively in the combinations “eŭ” and “aŭ”.

Most Internet sites (including the Esperanto section of Wikipedia) automatically convert characters with xes typed in postposition (the x is not part of the Esperanto alphabet and can be considered a service character) into characters with diacritics (for example, from the combination jx it turns out ĵ ). Similar typing systems with diacritics (two keys pressed in succession to type one character) exist in keyboard layouts for other languages - for example, in the "Canadian multilingual" layout for typing French diacritics.

You can also use the Alt key and numbers (on the numeric keypad). First, write the corresponding letter (for example, C for Ĉ), then press the Alt key and type 770, and a circumflex appears above the letter. If you dial 774, a sign for ŭ will appear.

The letter can also be used as a replacement for diacritics h in postposition (this method is an “official” replacement for diacritics in cases where its use is impossible, since it is presented in “Fundamentals of Esperanto”: “ Printing houses that do not have the letters ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ can initially use ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u"), however, this method makes the spelling non-phonemic and makes automatic sorting and recoding difficult. With the spread of Unicode, this method (as well as others, such as diacritics in postposition - g’o, g^o and the like) is found less and less often in Esperanto texts.

Vocabulary composition

№	Esperanto	Russian
Swadesh list for Esperanto
1	mi	I
2	ci(vi)	You
3	li	He
4	ni	We
5	vi	You
6	or	They
7	tiu ĉi	this, this, this
8	tiu	that, that, that
9	tie	here
10	tie	there
11	kiu	Who
12	kio	What
13	kie	Where
14	kiam	When
15	kiel	How
16	ne	Not
17	ĉio, ĉiuj	everything, everything
18	multaj, pluraj	many
19	kelkaj, kelke	some
20	nemultaj, nepluraj	few
21	alia	different, different
22	unu	one
23	du	two
24	tri	three
25	kvar	four
26	kvin	five
27	granda	big, great
28	longa	long, long
29	larĝa	wide
30	dika	thick
31	peza	heavy
32	malgranda	small
33	mallonga (kurta)	short, brief
34	mallarĝa	narrow
35	maldika	thin
36	virino	woman
37	viro	man
38	homo	Human
39	infono	child, child
40	edzino	wife
41	edzo	husband
42	patrino	mother
43	patro	father
44	besto	beast, animal
45	fiŝo	fish
46	birdo	bird, bird
47	hundo	dog, dog
48	pediko	louse
49	serpento	snake, reptile
50	vermo	worm
51	arbo	tree
52	arbaro	forest
53	bastono	stick, rod
54	frukto	fruit, fruit
55	semo	seed, seeds
56	folio	sheet
57	radiko	root
58	ŝelo	bark
59	floro	flower
60	herbo	grass
61	ŝnuro	rope
62	haŭto	leather, hide
63	viando	meat
64	sango	blood
65	osto	bone
66	graso	fat
67	ovo	egg
68	corno	horn
69	vosto	tail
70	plumo	feather
71	haroj	hair
72	kapo	head
73	orelo	ear
74	okulo	eye, eye
75	nazo	nose
76	buŝo	mouth, mouth
77	dento	tooth
78	lango	tongue)
79	ungo	nail
80	piedo	foot, leg
81	gambo	leg
82	genuo	knee
83	mano	hand, palm
84	flugilo	wing
85	ventro	belly, belly
86	tripo	entrails, intestines
87	gorĝo	throat, neck
88	dorso	back (ridge)
89	brusto	breast
90	koro	heart
91	hepato	liver
92	trinki	drink
93	manĝi	eat, eat
94	mordi	gnaw, bite
95	suĉi	suck
96	kraĉi	spit
97	vomi	vomit, vomit
98	blovi	blow
99	spiriti	breathe
100	ridi	laugh

Most of the vocabulary consists of Romance and Germanic roots, as well as internationalisms of Latin and Greek origin. There are a small number of stems borrowed from or through Slavic (Russian and Polish) languages. Borrowed words are adapted to the phonology of Esperanto and written in the phonemic alphabet (that is, the original spelling of the source language is not preserved).

Borrowings from French: When borrowing from French, regular sound changes occurred in most stems (for example, /sh/ became /h/). Many verbal stems of Esperanto are taken specifically from the French language ( iri"go", maĉi"chew", marŝi"step", kuri"to run" promeni“walk”, etc.).
Borrowings from English: at the time of the founding of Esperanto as an international project, the English language did not have its current distribution, therefore English vocabulary is rather poorly represented in the main vocabulary of Esperanto ( fajro"fire", birdo"bird", jes"yes" and some other words). Recently, however, several international Anglicisms have entered the Esperanto dictionary, such as bajto"byte" (but also "bitoko", literally "bit-eight"), blogo"blog" default"default", manaĝero"manager" etc.
Borrowings from German: the basic vocabulary of Esperanto includes such German basics as nur"only", danko"Gratitude", ŝlosi"lock up" morgaŭ"Tomorrow", tago"day", jaro"year" etc.
Borrowings from Slavic languages: barakti"flounder", klopodi"to bother" kartavi"burr", krom“except”, etc. See below in the section “Influence of Slavic languages”.

In general, the Esperanto lexical system manifests itself as autonomous, reluctant to borrow new bases. For new concepts, a new word is usually created from elements already existing in the language, which is facilitated by the rich possibilities of word formation. A striking illustration here can be a comparison with the Russian language:

English site, russian website, esp. paĝaro;
English printer, russian Printer, esp. printilo;
English browser, russian browser, esp. retumilo, krozilo;
English internet, russian Internet, esp. interreto.

This feature of the language allows you to minimize the number of roots and affixes required to speak Esperanto.

In spoken Esperanto there is a tendency to replace words of Latin origin with words derived from Esperanto roots on a descriptive basis (flood - altakvaĵo instead of dictionary inundo, extra - troa instead of dictionary superflua as in the proverb la tria estas troa - third wheel etc.).

In Russian, the most famous are the Esperanto-Russian and Russian-Esperanto dictionaries, compiled by the famous Caucasian linguist E. A. Bokarev, and later dictionaries based on it. A large Esperanto-Russian dictionary was prepared in St. Petersburg by Boris Kondratiev and is available on the Internet. They also post [ When?] working materials of the Great Russian-Esperanto Dictionary, which is currently being worked on. There is also a project to develop and support a version of the dictionary for mobile devices.

Grammar

Verb

The Esperanto-verb system has three tenses in the indicative mood:

past (formant -is): mi iris"I was walking" li iris"he was walking";
the present ( -as): mi iras"I'm coming" li iras"he's coming";
future ( -os): mi iros"I'll go, I'll go" li iros“He will go, he will go.”

In the conditional mood, the verb has only one form ( mi irus"I would go") The imperative mood is formed using a formant -u: iru! "go!" According to the same paradigm, the verb “to be” is conjugated ( esti), which can be “incorrect” even in some artificial languages (in general, the conjugation paradigm in Esperanto knows no exceptions).

Cases

There are only two cases in the case system: nominative (nominative) and accusative (accusative). The remaining relations are conveyed using a rich system of prepositions with a fixed meaning. The nominative case is not marked with a special ending ( vilaĝo"village"), the indicator of the accusative case is the ending -n (vilaĝon"village")

The accusative case (as in Russian) is also used to indicate direction: en vilaĝo"in the village", en vilaĝo n "to the village"; post krado"behind bars", post krado n "to jail."

Numbers

Esperanto has two numbers: singular and plural. The only thing is not marked ( infono- child), and the plural is marked using the plurality indicator -j: infanoj - children. The same is true for adjectives - beautiful - bela, beautiful - belaj. When using the accusative case with the plural at the same time, the plurality indicator is placed at the beginning: “beautiful children” - bela jn infono jn.

Genus

There is no grammatical category of gender in Esperanto. There are pronouns li - he, ŝi - she, ĝi - it (for inanimate nouns, as well as animals in cases where gender is unknown or unimportant).

Participles

Regarding the Slavic influence on the phonological level, it can be said that there is not a single phoneme in Esperanto that does not exist in Russian or Polish. The Esperanto alphabet resembles the Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovenian alphabets (the characters are missing q, w, x, symbols with diacritics are actively used: ĉ , ĝ , ĥ , ĵ , ŝ And ŭ ).

In the vocabulary, with the exception of words denoting purely Slavic realities ( barĉo“borscht”, etc.), out of 2612 roots presented in the “Universala Vortaro” (), only 29 could be borrowed from Russian or Polish. Explicit Russian borrowings are banto, barakti, gladi, kartavi, krom(except), cool, nepre(certainly) prava, vosto(tail) and some others. However, Slavic influence in vocabulary is manifested in the active use of prepositions as prefixes with a change in meaning (for example, sub"under", aĉeti"buy" - subaĉeti"bribe"; aŭskulti"listen" - subaŭskulti"to eavesdrop") The doubling of stems is identical to that in Russian: plena Wed "full-full" finfine Wed "in the end". Some Slavicisms from the first years of Esperanto were leveled out over time: for example, the verb elrigardi(el-rigard-i) “look” is replaced by a new one - aspekti.

In the syntax of some prepositions and conjunctions, the Slavic influence remains, which was once even greater ( kvankam teorie… sed en la praktiko…“although in theory..., but in practice..."). According to the Slavic model, the coordination of times is carried out ( Li dir is ke li jam far is tion"He said he had already done it" Li dir is, keli est os tie"He said he'd be there."

It can be said that the influence of Slavic languages (and above all Russian) on Esperanto is much stronger than is usually believed, and exceeds the influence of Romance and Germanic languages. Modern Esperanto, after the “Russian” and “French” periods, entered the so-called.

“international” period, when individual ethnic languages no longer have a serious influence on its further development.:

Literature on the issue

It's hard to say how many people speak Esperanto today. The well-known site Ethnologue.com estimates the number of Esperanto speakers at 2 million people, and according to the site, for 200-2000 people the language is native (usually these are children from international marriages, where Esperanto serves as the language of intra-family communication). This number was obtained by the American Esperantist Sidney Culbert, who, however, did not reveal the method of obtaining it. Markus Sikoszek found it wildly exaggerated. In his opinion, if there were about a million Esperantists in the world, then in his city, Cologne, there should be at least 180 Esperantists. However, Sikoszek found only 30 Esperanto speakers in this city, and similarly small numbers of Esperanto speakers in other major cities. He also noted that only 20 thousand people are members of various Esperantist organizations around the world.

According to the Finnish linguist J. Lindstedt, an expert on Esperantists “from birth”, for about 1000 people around the world Esperanto is their native language, about 10 thousand more people can speak it fluently, and about 100 thousand can actively use it.

Distribution by country

Most Esperanto practitioners live in the European Union, which is also where most Esperanto events take place. Outside of Europe, there is an active Esperanto movement in Brazil, Vietnam, Iran, China, USA, Japan and some other countries. There are practically no Esperantists in Arab countries and, for example, in Thailand. Since the 1990s, the number of Esperantists in Africa has been steadily increasing, especially in countries such as Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Togo. Hundreds of Esperantists have emerged in Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia and other Asian states.

The World Esperanto Association (UEA) has the largest number of individual members in Brazil, Germany, France, Japan and the United States, which may be an indicator of the activity of Esperantists by country, although it reflects other factors (such as a higher standard of living, allowing Esperantists in these countries pay an annual fee).

Many Esperantists choose not to register with local or international organizations, making estimates of the total number of speakers difficult.

Practical use

Hundreds of new translated and original books in Esperanto are published every year. Esperanto publishing houses exist in Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries. In Russia, the publishing houses “Impeto” (Moscow) and “Sezonoj” (Kaliningrad) currently specialize in publishing literature in and about Esperanto; literature is periodically published in non-specialized publishing houses. The organ of the Russian Union of Esperantoists “Rusia Esperanto-Gazeto” (Russian Esperanto Newspaper), the monthly independent magazine “La Ondo de Esperanto” (The Esperanto Wave) and a number of less significant publications are published. Among online bookstores, the most popular is the website of the World Esperanto Organization, whose catalog in 2010 presented 6,510 different products, including 5,881 titles of book publications (not counting 1,385 second-hand book publications).

The famous science fiction writer Harry Harrison himself spoke Esperanto and actively promoted it in his works. In the future world he describes, the inhabitants of the Galaxy speak mainly Esperanto.

There are also about 250 newspapers and magazines published in Esperanto; many previously published issues can be downloaded for free on a specialized website. Most publications are devoted to the activities of the Esperanto organizations that publish them (including special ones - nature lovers, railway workers, nudists, Catholics, gays, etc.). However, there are also socio-political publications (Monato, Sennaciulo, etc.), literary ones (Beletra almanako, Literatura Foiro, etc.).

There is Internet television in Esperanto. In some cases we are talking about continuous broadcasting, in others - about a series of videos that the user can select and view. The Esperanto group regularly posts new videos on YouTube. Since the 1950s, feature films and documentaries in Esperanto have appeared, as well as subtitles in Esperanto for many films in national languages. The Brazilian studio Imagu-Filmo has already released two feature films in Esperanto - “Gerda malaperis” and “La Patro”.

Several radio stations broadcast in Esperanto: China Radio International (CRI), Radio Havano Kubo, Vatican Radio, Parolu, mondo! (Brazil) and Polish Radio (since 2009 - in the form of an Internet podcast), 3ZZZ (Australia).

In Esperanto you can read the news, find out the weather around the world, get acquainted with the latest in computer technology, choose a hotel on the Internet in Rotterdam, Rimini and other cities, learn to play poker or play various games over the Internet. The International Academy of Sciences in San Marino uses Esperanto as one of its working languages, and it is possible to obtain a Master's or Bachelor's degree using Esperanto. In the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, an educational institution has been operating since 1996, training specialists in the field of culture and tourism, and teaching is conducted in Esperanto.

The potential of Esperanto is also used for international business purposes, greatly facilitating communication between its participants. Examples include the Italian coffee supplier and a number of other companies. Since 1985, the International Commercial and Economic Group has been operating under the World Esperanto Organization.

With the advent of new Internet technologies such as podcasting, many Esperantists have been able to broadcast independently on the Internet. One of the most popular podcasts in Esperanto is Radio Verda (Green Radio), which has been broadcasting regularly since 1998. Another popular podcast, Radio Esperanto, is recorded in Kaliningrad (19 episodes per year, with an average of 907 listens per episode). Esperanto podcasts from other countries are popular: Varsovia Vento from Poland, La NASKa Podkasto from the USA, Radio Aktiva from Uruguay.

Many songs are created in Esperanto; there are musical groups that sing in Esperanto (for example, the Finnish rock band “Dolchamar”). Since 1990, the company Vinilkosmo has been operating, releasing music albums in Esperanto in a variety of styles: from pop music to hard rock and rap. The Internet project Vikio-kantaro at the beginning of 2010 contained more than 1000 song lyrics and continued to grow. Dozens of video clips of Esperanto performers have been filmed.

There are a number of computer programs specifically written for Esperantists. Many well-known programs have versions in Esperanto - the office application OpenOffice.org, the Mozilla Firefox browser, the SeaMonkey software package and others. The most popular search engine Google also has an Esperanto version, which allows you to search for information in both Esperanto and other languages. As of February 22, 2012, Esperanto became the 64th language supported by Google Translate.

Esperantists are open to international and intercultural contacts. Many of them travel to attend conventions and festivals, where Esperantists meet old friends and make new ones. Many Esperantists have correspondents in different countries of the world and are often willing to provide shelter for a traveling Esperantist for several days. The German city of Herzberg (Harz) has had an official prefix to its name since 2006 - “Esperanto city”. Many signs, signs and information stands here are made in two languages - German and Esperanto. Blogs in Esperanto exist on many well-known services, especially many of them (more than 2000) on Ipernity. In the famous Internet game Second Life, there is an Esperanto community that regularly meets on the Esperanto-Lando and Verda Babilejo platforms. Esperanto writers and activists give speeches here, and linguistic courses are offered. The popularity of specialized sites helping Esperantists find: life partners, friends, jobs is growing.

Esperanto is the most successful of all artificial languages in terms of prevalence and number of users. In 2004, members of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (World Esperanto Association, UEA) consisted of Esperantists from 114 countries, and the annual Universala Kongreso (World Congress) of Esperantists usually attracts from one and a half to five thousand participants (2209 in Florence in 2006, 1901 in Yokohama in -th, about 2000 in Bialystok in -th).

Modifications and descendants

Despite its easy grammar, some features of the Esperanto language have attracted criticism. Throughout the history of Esperanto, among its supporters there were people who wanted to change the language for the better, in their understanding, side. But since the Fundamento de Esperanto already existed by that time, it was impossible to reform Esperanto - only to create new planned languages on its basis that differed from Esperanto. Such languages are called in interlinguistics Esperantoids(esperantids). Several dozen such projects are described in the Esperanto Wikipedia: eo:Esperantidoj.

The most notable branch of descendant language projects dates back to 1907, when the Ido language was created. The creation of the language gave rise to a split in the Esperanto movement: some of the former Esperantists switched to Ido. However, most Esperantists remained faithful to their language.

However, Ido itself found itself in a similar situation in 1928 after the appearance of the “improved Ido” - the Novial language.

Less noticeable branches are the Neo, Esperantido and other languages, which are currently practically not used in live communication. Esperanto-inspired language projects continue to emerge today.

Problems and prospects of Esperanto

Historical background

Postcard with text in Russian and Esperanto, published in 1946

The position of Esperanto in society was greatly influenced by the political upheavals of the 20th century, primarily the creation, development and subsequent collapse of communist regimes in the USSR and Eastern European countries, the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany, and the events of World War II.

The development of the Internet has greatly facilitated communication between Esperantists, simplified access to literature, music and films in this language, and contributed to the development of distance learning.

Esperanto problems

The main problems facing Esperanto are typical for most dispersed communities that do not receive financial assistance from government agencies. The relatively modest funds of Esperanto organizations, consisting mostly of donations, interest on bank deposits, as well as income from some commercial enterprises (share blocks, rental of real estate, etc.), do not allow for a wide advertising campaign to inform the public about Esperanto and its possibilities. As a result, even many Europeans do not know about the existence of this language, or rely on inaccurate information, including negative myths. In turn, the relatively small number of Esperantists contributes to the strengthening of ideas about this language as an unsuccessful project that failed.

The relative small number and dispersed residence of Esperantists determine the relatively small circulation of periodicals and books in this language. The largest circulation is the magazine Esperanto, the official organ of the World Esperanto Association (5500 copies) and the socio-political magazine Monato (1900 copies). Most periodicals in Esperanto are quite modestly designed. At the same time, a number of magazines - such as “La Ondo de Esperanto”, “Beletra almanako” - are distinguished by a high level of printing performance, not inferior to the best national samples. Since the 2000s, many publications have also been distributed in the form of electronic versions - cheaper, faster and more colorfully designed. Some publications are distributed only in this way, including free of charge (for example, “Mirmekobo” published in Australia).

With rare exceptions, the circulation of book publications in Esperanto is small, works of art rarely have a circulation of more than 200-300 copies, and therefore their authors cannot engage in professional literary work (at least only in Esperanto). In addition, for the vast majority of Esperantists this is a second language, and the level of proficiency in it does not always allow them to freely perceive or create complex texts - artistic, scientific, etc.

There are examples of how works originally created in one national language were translated into another through Esperanto.

Prospects for Esperanto

The idea of introducing Esperanto as an auxiliary language of the European Union is particularly popular in the Esperanto community. Proponents of this solution believe that this will make interlingual communication in Europe more efficient and equal, while simultaneously solving the problem of European identification. Proposals for a more serious consideration of Esperanto at the European level were made by some European politicians and entire parties, in particular, representatives of the Transnational Radical Party. In addition, there are examples of the use of Esperanto in European politics (for example, the Esperanto version of Le Monde Diplomatique and the newsletter Conspectus rerum latinus during the Finnish EU Presidency). The small political party Europe - Democracy - Esperanto, which received 41 thousand votes in the 2009 European Parliament elections, is participating in elections at the European level.

Esperanto enjoys the support of a number of influential international organizations. A special place among them is occupied by UNESCO, which adopted the so-called Montevideo resolution in 1954, which expressed support for Esperanto, the goals of which coincide with the goals of this organization, and UN member countries are called upon to introduce the teaching of Esperanto in secondary and higher educational institutions. UNESCO also adopted a resolution in support of Esperanto. In August 2009, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his letter expressed support for Esperanto and the hope that over time it will be accepted by the world community as a convenient means of communication that does not provide privileges to any of its participants.

As of December 18, 2012, the Esperanto section of Wikipedia contains 173,472 articles (27th place)—more than, for example, the sections in Slovak, Bulgarian or Hebrew.

Esperanto and religion

Many religions, both traditional and new, have not ignored the phenomenon of Esperanto. All major holy books have been translated into Esperanto. The Bible was translated by L. Zamenhof himself (La Sankta Biblio. Londono. ISBN 0-564-00138-4). A translation of the Koran has been published - La Nobla Korano. Kopenhago 1970. On Buddhism, edition of La Instruoj de Budho. Tokyo. 1983. ISBN 4-89237-029-0. Vatican Radio broadcasts in Esperanto, the International Catholic Esperantist Association has been active since 1910, and since 1990 the document Norme per la celebrazione della Messa in Esperanto The Holy See has officially authorized the use of Esperanto during services, the only scheduled language. On August 14, 1991, Pope John Paul II addressed more than a million young listeners in Esperanto for the first time. In 1993, he sent his apostolic blessing to the 78th World Esperanto Congress. Since 1994, the Pope, congratulating Catholics around the world on Easter and Christmas, among other languages, addresses the flock in Esperanto. His successor Benedict XVI continued this tradition.

The Baha'i Faith calls for the use of an auxiliary international language. Some Baha'is believe that Esperanto has great potential for this role. Lydia Zamenhof, the youngest daughter of the creator of Esperanto, was a follower of the Baha'i faith and translated the most important works of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá into Esperanto.

The main theses of oomoto-kyo is the slogan “Unu Dio, Unu Mondo, Unu Interlingvo” (“One God, One World, One Language of Communication”). The creator of Esperanto, Ludwig Zamenhof, is considered a saint-kami in Oomoto. The Esperanto language was introduced as an official language into Oomoto by its co-creator Onisaburo Deguchi. Won Buddhism is a new branch of Buddhism that arose in South Korea, actively uses Esperanto, participates in international Esperanto sessions, main sacred texts

Esperanto is the most widely spoken international scheduled language. Doktoro Esperanto(from lat. Esperanto- hopeful) is the pseudonym of Dr. Ludwig (Lazar) Zamenhof, who published the basics of the language in 1887. His intention was to create an easy-to-learn, neutral language for international understanding, which, however, should not replace other languages. On Zamenhof's initiative, an international linguistic community was created, using Esperanto for various purposes, primarily for travel, correspondence, international meetings and cultural exchange.

The international language Esperanto makes possible direct contact with residents of more than 100 countries where Esperanto is spoken along with their native language. Esperanto is the glue of the international language community. Daily meetings of representatives of a dozen nations: Hungarians, Belgians, Spaniards, Poles and even Japanese, who talk about their everyday problems and share experiences, are commonplace. Everyday life in Esperanto is an online discussion between twenty countries: Indigenaj Dialogoj(dialogues of the only begotten) indigenous people from different parts of the world regularly exchange information in Esperanto on issues of preserving their culture and rights. Everyday life in Esperanto is when a poem by an Italian published by a Belgian publishing house, a review of which can be found in a Hungarian magazine, becomes a song performed by a Danish-Swedish group and is then discussed on the Internet by Brazilians and Nigerians. The world is becoming smaller, Esperanto connects people.

Thanks to its rich application possibilities, Esperanto has gradually become a living language. New concepts quickly take root in it: mobile phone - postelefono(lit. pocket phone, pronounced "posh-telefono"), laptop - tekokomputilo(computer in briefcase), and the Internet - Interreto(Internet). Esperanto estas mia lingvo(Esperanto is my language)

A bridge language can be learned much faster than other languages. A school experiment showed that Esperanto requires only 20-30% of the time required to master any other language at the same level. Many students of Esperanto begin to use it in international communication after 20 lessons. This is possible due to the fact that, firstly, Esperanto, including pronunciation, has clear rules, and secondly, with an optimal word formation system, the number of roots that need to be memorized is small. Therefore, even speakers of non-European languages find Esperanto much easier than, for example, English.

The grammar of this language is also built according to rules, and the student quickly begins to confidently, and, most importantly, correctly, compose sentences. After a few years, students of Esperanto communicate in it as if they were their own language. They actively participate in its preservation and contribute to its further development. This practically does not happen with other foreign languages: learning them requires a lot of effort, and their rules have many exceptions.

Many of those who have mastered Esperanto also know other languages. Esperanto allows you to look at the world as a whole and sparks interest in other national cultures. Someone learned a planned language after English and has the opportunity to communicate also with people from countries where the latter is not so popular. And after Esperanto, some began to study the languages of different countries, because thanks to this artificial language they learned about these countries and wanted to get more information.

Every year hundreds of international meetings on Esperanto issues take place, not only in Europe, but also in East Asia, Africa, for example in Togo and Nigeria, and in South America. Guest service helps organize personal meetings Passport Servo and the Amikeca Reto friendship network. You can communicate in Esperanto every day without leaving your home. There are several million pages on the Internet in this language that unites peoples, and on forums interlocutors from dozens of countries discuss a variety of topics.

Songs in Esperanto have been performed for over a hundred years. Now they are released on CD by about twenty groups, some works can be downloaded from the Internet. Every year, about two hundred books and several hundred magazines are published in Esperanto, with mostly authors from different countries collaborating. For example, Monato magazine publishes articles on politics, economics and culture from approximately 40 countries. About 10 radio stations broadcast in Esperanto.

Esperanto allows us to take a step towards each other to talk somewhere in the middle. There is no Country of Esperanto Speakers on the world map. But those who know this language can make friends all over the world.

See also information about Esperanto:

“The inner idea of Esperanto is this: on a neutral linguistic basis, to remove the walls that separate tribes, and to teach people to see in their neighbor only a man and a brother.”
L. L. Zamenhof, 1912

This artificial language was invented by Lazarus (Ludwig) Zamenhof. He created a grammar based on European languages with a minimum of exceptions. The vocabulary is mainly taken from Romance languages, although there are also words from Germanic and other languages. The new language, first appearing as a textbook in 1887, attracted public attention, and the normal process of evolution of the language began within the community, which used it in different environments and created a culture associated with the language. Two decades later, the first children were born who spoke Esperanto with their parents, becoming the first native speakers. Thus, we can say that this language, created for international communication, was then creolized and today has become the language of the Esperanto-speaking diaspora.

It was created based on the vocabulary of Indo-European languages, with the goal of being easy to learn. For this reason, the grammar is agglutinative (a characteristic of Turkish and Finno-Ugric languages), and at a deeper level the language is isolating (like Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese). This means that the morphemes in it can be used as separate words. It has a strictly regular (without exceptions) grammar. This language also allows for the creation of a huge variety of words by combining lexical roots and about forty affixes (for example, from san-("healthy"), you can create words such as: malsana("sick"), malsanulo("a sick man"), gemalsanuloj(“sick people of both sexes”), malsanulejo(“hospitals”), sanigilo("medicine"), saniĝinto("recovered"), sanigejo(“place of treatment”), malsaneto(“little disease”), malsanego(“huge disease”), malsanegulo(“a very sick person”), sanstato("health status"), sansento(“feeling of health”), sanlimo(“health boundaries”), malsankaŭzanto(“pathogens”), kontraŭmalsanterapio("treatment")…). The main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) have a system of endings that allow you to recognize all parts of speech. Its systematic nature makes it easy to learn, and its flexibility in creating new words makes it one of the most productive languages, with a potentially unlimited number of words capable of expressing ever new ideas or states. For example, it might be possible to write a fantasy novel about imaginary Martians in the shape of a table and call them scoreboard("table"), tablino(“female table”), tablido(“offspring of the table”)... We can imagine a device that simplifies sex life and call it seksimpligilo(“sex simplifier”), a person who walks backwards ( inversmarŝanto, “walking backwards”), a remedy against dogmatism ( maldogmigilo, “anti-dogmatizer”), and the like.

Important features of Esperanto

The main idea of Esperanto is to promote tolerance and respect between people of different nations and cultures. Communication is a necessary part of mutual understanding, and if communication occurs in a neutral language, it can reinforce the feeling that you are “dating” on equal terms and with respect for each other.

International

Esperanto is useful for communication between representatives of different nations who do not have a common mother tongue.

Neutral

It does not belong to any particular people or country and therefore acts as a neutral language.

Equal

When you use Esperanto, you feel like you are on equal terms with your interlocutor from a linguistic point of view, unlike the situation when, for example, you use English to talk to someone who has spoken it since birth.

Relatively light

Due to the structure and structure of this language, it is usually much easier to master Esperanto than any foreign national language.

Alive

Esperanto develops and lives in the same way as other languages; Esperanto can express the most varied shades of human thoughts and feelings.

Equal

Everyone who learns Esperanto has a good chance of achieving a high level of proficiency in the language and then, from a linguistic point of view, communicating at the same level with others, regardless of linguistic background.

Story

Grammar

Alphabet

This is the Esperanto alphabet. Each letter is always read the same, regardless of position in the word, and words are written the same way as they are heard. Click on the example to hear the pronunciation!

Aa ami be in love
Bb bela beautiful
Cc celo target
Ĉĉ ĉokolado chocolate
Dd doni give
Ee egala equal
Ff facila easy
Gg granda big
Ĝĝ ĝui enjoy
Hh horo hour
Ĥĥ ĥoro choir
II infono child
Jj juna young
Ĵĵ ĵurnalo newspaper
Kk kafo coffee
Ll lando a country
mm maro sea
Nn nokto night
Oo oro gold
Pp paco world
Rr rapida fast
Ss salti jump
Ŝŝ ŝipo ship
Tt tago day
Uu urban city
Ŭŭ aŭto automobile
Vv vivo life
Zz zebro zebra

Nouns

All nouns in Esperanto end in -o. (Nouns are names of things and phenomena)

Plural

To make a word plural, simply add the ending -j :

Addition

In Esperanto, we indicate a direct object (that is, a word in the accusative case) in a sentence by adding -n to it. This allows us to change the order of words in a sentence the way we like, but the meaning will not change. (A direct object is something that directly experiences the action)

Adjectives

All adjectives in Esperanto end in -a. (Adjectives are used to describe nouns)

Consoles

Look! By adding mal- to the beginning of a word, we change its meaning to the opposite.

mal- is a prefix. The prefix is placed before the root to create new words. Esperanto has 10 different prefixes.

Suffixes

There are also many ways to form new words using special endings. For example, -et- reduces something.

Et- is a suffix. Suffixes must be inserted after the root to create new words. Esperanto has 31 different suffixes.

Verbs

Verbs are, of course, very important. But you will find that in Esperanto they are also very simple. (Verbs show performing an action or being in some state)

Verb forms

Verbs in the indefinite form end in -i. Verbs in the present tense end in -as, in the past - in -is, and in the future - in -os. There are no conjugation classes or irregular verb forms in Esperanto!

mi est as I am
mi est is I was
mi est os I will
vi est as you/you are
vi est is you were / you were
vi est os you will / you will
li est as he is
li est is he was
li est os he will
ŝi est as she is
ŝi est is She was
ŝi est os She will be
ĝi est as it/it is
ĝi est is it/it was
ĝi est os it/it will be
ni est as we are
ni est is we were
ni est os we will
or est as they are
or est is they were
or est os they will

Adverbs

We use the ending -e to create adverbs. (Adverbs are words that describe verbs)

Probably, at least once everyone has heard about Esperanto - a universal language destined to become global. And although the majority of people in the world still speak Chinese, this invention of the Polish doctor has its own history and prospects. Where did Esperanto come from, what kind of innovation in linguistics is it, who uses it - read on and we will answer all these questions.

Hope for mutual understanding

Probably, since the construction of the Tower of Babel, humanity has been experiencing difficulties associated with misunderstanding the speech of other peoples.

The Esperanto language was developed to facilitate communication between people of different countries and cultures. It was first published in 1887 by Dr. Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof (1859–1917). He used the pseudonym "Doctor Esperanto", which means "one who hopes." This is how the name of his brainchild appeared, which he carefully developed over the years. The international language Esperanto should be used as a neutral language when speaking between people who do not know each other's language.

It even has its own flag. It looks like this:

Esperanto is much easier to learn than conventional national languages that developed naturally. Its design is orderly and clear.

Lexicon

It would not be an exaggeration to say about Esperanto that it is one of the major European languages. Dr. Zamenhof took very real words for his creation as a basis. About 75% of the vocabulary comes from Latin and Romance languages (especially French), 20% comes from Germanic (German and English), and the remaining expressions are taken from Slavic languages (Russian and Polish) and Greek (mostly scientific terms). Conventional words are widely used. Therefore, a person who speaks Russian, even without preparation, will be able to read about 40% of the text in Esperanto.

The language is characterized by phonetic writing, that is, every word is pronounced exactly as it is written. There are no unpronounceable letters or exceptions, which makes it much easier to learn and use.

How many people speak Esperanto?

This is a very common question, but no one really knows the exact answer. The only way to reliably determine the number of people who speak Esperanto is to conduct a worldwide census, which, of course, is almost impossible.

However, Professor Sidney Culbert from the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) has done the most comprehensive study on the use of this language. He has interviewed Esperanto speakers in dozens of countries around the world. From this research, Professor Culbert concluded that about two million people use it. This puts it on par with languages such as Lithuanian and Hebrew.

Sometimes the number of Esperanto speakers is exaggerated or, conversely, minimized; figures vary from 100,000 to 8 million people.

Popularity in Russia

The Esperanto language has many ardent fans. Did you know that in Russia there is an Esperanto street? Kazan became the first city of the then Russian Empire where a club was opened dedicated to the study and dissemination of this language. It was founded by several activist intellectuals who enthusiastically accepted Dr. Zamenhof's idea and began to propagate it. Then professors and students of Kazan University opened their own small club in 1906, which could not survive for long during the turbulent years of the early twentieth century. But after the Civil War, the movement resumed, even a newspaper about Esperanto appeared. The language became increasingly popular because it corresponded to the concept of the Communist Party, which called for the unification of different peoples in the name of the World Revolution. Therefore, in 1930, the street on which the Esperantist club was located received a new name - Esperanto. However, in 1947 it was renamed again in honor of the politician. At the same time, involvement in the study of this language became dangerous, and since then its popularity has fallen significantly. But the Esperantists did not give up, and in 1988 the street received its former name.

In total, there are about 1000 native speakers in Russia. On the one hand, this is not enough, but on the other, if you consider that only enthusiasts study the language in clubs, this is not such a small figure.

Letters

The alphabet is based on Latin. It contains 28 letters. Since each of them corresponds to a sound, there are also 28 of them, namely: 21 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semivowels.

In Esperanto, the letters we are familiar with from the Latin alphabet sometimes come in pairs and are written with a “house” (an inverted check mark on top). So Dr. Zamenhof introduced new sounds that were needed for his language.

Grammar and sentence construction

Here, too, the main principle of Esperanto is professed - simplicity and clarity. There are no genders in the language, and the order of words in a sentence is arbitrary. There are only two cases, three tenses and three There is an extensive system of prefixes and suffixes, with which you can create many new words from one root.

Flexible word order in a sentence allows different speakers to use the structures with which they are most familiar, but still speak Esperanto that is completely understandable and grammatically correct.

Practical use

New knowledge is never a bad thing, but here are some specific benefits you can get from learning Esperanto:

It is an ideal second language that can be learned quickly and easily.
The ability to correspond with dozens of people from other countries.
It can be used to see the world. There are lists of Esperantists who are ready to host other native speakers in their own home or apartment for free.
International understanding. Esperanto helps break down language barriers between countries.
The opportunity to meet people from other countries at conventions, or when foreign Esperantists come to visit you. This is also a good way to meet interesting compatriots.

International equality. When using a national language, someone must make an effort to learn an unfamiliar speech, while others only use knowledge from birth. Esperanto is a step towards each other, because both interlocutors worked hard to study it and make communication possible.
Translations of literary masterpieces. Many works have been translated into Esperanto, some of which may not be available in the Esperantist's native language.

Flaws

For more than 100 years, the most widespread artificial language has acquired both fans and critics. They say about Esperanto that it is just another funny relic, like phrenology or spiritualism. Throughout its existence, it never became a world language. Moreover, humanity does not show much enthusiasm for this idea.

Critics also argue about Esperanto that it is not a simple language at all, but a difficult one to learn. Its grammar has many unspoken rules, and writing letters is difficult on a modern keyboard. Representatives from different countries are constantly trying to make amendments to improve it. This leads to controversy and differences in teaching materials. Its euphony is also questioned.

But fans of this language argue that 100 years is too short for the whole world to speak one language, and given the number of native speakers today, Esperanto has its own future.