T. Popova, I. Glagolevsky (Odessa, Ukraine)

The Esperanto language: effective means of international communication

I. Introduction

Nowadays Internet and mobile connection have irreversibly taken place of radio, newspapers and television. The youth have received access to any scientific forums, chats, videoconferences and communication through e-mail.

Thus there is a question arising: what language should be used to get this information from the World Wide Web?

The most common answer is ‘English’.

But why somebody else’s mother’s tongue should become the second language for a person from different nationality? Why has English become international, as it is commonly stated? It’s grammar and pronunciation especially are not easy things to learn.

For example, the word ‘Shakespeare’ contains 11 letters and only 7 sounds are pronounced.

Famous English writer Bernard Shaw wrote that he had spent one third of his time for creativity for writing silent letters.

II. Task setting

Owing to the Internet, the world science, developed by young researchers, enlarged the limits of scientific idea exchange abnormally. But the effective development of modern civilization is stopped by multilingualism.

The world consists of 330 countries, where more than 4000 languages and dialects are spoken.

Since the 17th century scientists have suggested more than 900 projects of international languages.

There are three main requirements of introducing an international language (IL) into international practice.

1. Neutrality

2. Easy studying

3. Exactness

But no language suggested has received such application on the planet as Esperanto, which enables expression of the most delicate human feelings.

As to its abundance in the Internet, Esperanto is at the second place after English. One may get convinced about the fact on having visited lernu.net

Why is this artificial language, causing no national allergy, so popular?

In the end of the 19th century L. Zamenhof, an ophthalmologist from Warsaw, suggested a humanitarian idea: each person living on the planet shall know their mother’s tongue and make it perfect, but in international relations Esperanto shall be used.

The basic aim, set by the author, is actual even now: “to give people a simple and neutral device for international communication”. 

Advantages of Esperanto are 16 grammar rules without any exclusion.

1. The alphabet has only 28 letters. Only six letters are different from those of classical Latin alphabet: Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĵ, Ĥ, Ŝ, Ŭ. Pronunciation of any letter doesn’t depend on position occupied in a word.

2. Only one sound correspond to every letter. This means that what you hear is what you utter and is what you write.

3. 40% of word roots are international.

4. The stress is always at the penultimate syllable.

5. Esperanto has no irregular verbs, different conjugations and doubled consonants.

6. There are only two cases: nominative and accusative. All the rest of them are substituted with prepositions.

7. All nouns end in –o.

8. All adjectives end in –a.

9. All adverbs derived from adjectives end in –e.

10. All verb infinitives end in –i.

11. Verb tenses present, past and future differ with endings: –as, –is, –os.

12. Verbs in subjunctive mood end in –us.

13. Imperative  verbs end in –u

14. Plural nouns, possessive pronouns, adjectives end in –j.

15. Word building is really rich: one root is enough to create new words with predictable meaning with the help of prefixes and suffixes. This makes it easy to enlarge vocabulary and international word reserves.

16. The same could be made with prepositions and inflexions.

From the above said it is possible to conclude correctly that the language constructed like that is much simpler to learn than national languages.

III. Results

The learning of historical and modern materials on introducing Esperanto into world practice has proved that:

-         Esperanto enjoys the support of affluent international organizations. UNO, which joins more than 200 countries, UNESCO, which has influence on 85 different states, EU, which includes 28 states are among these organizations.

-         Three times UNESCO has adopted resolutions on Esperanto, where in was stated that tasks and purposes of Esperanto are those set by UNESCO.

-         International Scientific Academy in San-Marino uses Esperanto as one of its working languages.

-         The most respectable organizations among Esperantists are: Universal Esperanto Association (UEA), the headquarters of  which is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Non-national Association of Esperantists (SAT), carried from Paris, France.

-         UEA and SAT have information bodies, which are monthly magazines “Esperanto” and “Sennaciulo”.

-         Every year UEA and SAT organize congresses of Esperanto in different points of the planet.

Table 1 includes the list of congresses by UEA held since 1905 and interrupted only during the World Wars. The last International Congress of Esperanto (by UEA) was held in Reykjavík, Iceland. The 100th Congress is planned to be held in France in 2015.

71 congresses were held by SAT, the first SAT Congress in Ukraine was held in 1998 in Odessa.

Table 1

International congresses of Esperantists held by UEA (1905–2015)

 

# of congress

Year

City or town

Country

Number of participants

100

2015

Lille 

France

 

99

2014

Buenos Aires

Argentina

 

98

2013

Reykjavík

Iceland

1034

97

2012

Hanoi

Vietnam

866

96

2011

Kopenhagen

Denmark

1458

95

2010

Havana

Cuba

1002

94

2009

Białystok

Poland

1860

93

2008

Rotterdam

The Netherlands

1845

92

2007

Yokohama

Japan

1901

91

2006

Florence

Italy

2209

90

2005

Vilnius

Lithuania

2235

89

2004

Beijing

China

2031

88

2003

Gothenburg

Sweden

1791

87

2002

Fortaleza

Brazil

1484

86

2001

Zagreb

Croatia

1691

85

2000

Tel Aviv

Israel

1212

84

1999

Berlin

Germany

2712

83

1998

Montpellier

France

3133

82

1997

Adelaide 

Australia

1224

81

1996

Prague

Czech Republic

2972

80

1995

Tampere

Finland

2443

79

1994

Seoul

Republic of Korea

1776

78

1993

Valencia

Spain

1863

77

1992

Vienna

Austria

3033

76

1991

Bergen

Norway

2400

75

1990

Havana

Cuba

1617

74

1989

Brighton

Great Britain

2280

73

1988

Rotterdam

The Netherlands

2321

72

1987

Warsaw

Poland

5946

71

1986

Beijing

China

2482

70

1985

Augsburg

Germany

2311

69

1984

Vancouver

Canada

802

68

1983

Budapest

Hungary

4834

67

1982

Antwerp

Belgium

1899

66

1981

Brasilia

Brazil

1749

65

1980

Stockholm 

Sweden

1807

64

1979

Lucerne

Switzerland

1630

63

1978

Varna

Bulgary

4414

62

1977

Reykjavík

Icel

1199

61

1976

Athens

Greece

1266

60

1975

Kopenhagen

Denmark

1227

59

1974

Hamburg

Germny

1651

58

1973

Belgrade

Serbia

1638

57

1972

Portland

The USA

923

56

1971

London

Great Britain

2071

55

1970

Vienna

Austria

1987

54

1969

Helsinki

Finland

1857

53

1968

Madrid

Spain

1769

52

1967

Rotterdam

The Netherlands

1265

51

1966

Budapest

Hungary

3975

50

1965

Tokyo

Japan

1710

49

1964

The Hague

The Netherlands

2512

48

1963

Sofia

Bulgaria

3472

47

1962

Copenhagen

Denmark

1550

46

1961

Harrogate

Great Britain

1646

45

1960

Brussels

Belgium

1930

44

1959

Warsaw

Poland

3256

43

1958

Mainz

Germany

2021

42

1957

Marseille

France

1468

41

1956

Copenhagen

Denmark

2200

40

1955

Bologna

Italy

1687

39

1954

Haarlem

The Netherlands

2353

38

1953

Zagreb

Croatia

1760

37

1952

Oslo

Norway

1614

36

1951

Munich

Germany

2040

35

1950

Paris

France

2325

34

1949

Bournemouth

Great Britain

1534

33

1948

Malmö 

Sweden

1761

32

1947

Bern

Switzerland

1370

World War II

 

31

1939

Bern

Switzerland

765

30

1938

London

Great Britain

1602

29

1937

Warsaw

Poland

1120

28

1936

Vienna

Austria

854

27

1935

Rome

Italy

1442

26

1934

Stockholm 

Sweden

2042

25

1933

Cologne

Germany

950

24

1932

Paris

France

1650

23

1931

Cracow

Poland

900

22

1930

Oxford

Great Britain

1211

21

1929

Budapest

Hungary

1200

20

1928

Antwerp 

Belgium

1494

19

1927

Gdańsk 

Poland

905

18

1926

Edinburgh

Great Britain

960

17

1925

Geneva

Switzerland

953

16

1924

Vienna

Austria

3400

15

1923

Nuremberg 

Germany

4963

14

1922

Helsinki

Finland

850

13

1921

Prague

Czech Republic

2561

12

1920

The Hague

The Netherlands

408

World War I

 

11

1915

San Francisco

The USA

163

10

1914

Paris

France

Canceled due to World War I

9

1913

Bern

Switzerland

1203

8

1912

Cracow

Poland

1000

7

1911

Antwerp

Belgium

1800

6

1910

Washington

The USA

357

5

1909

Barcelona

Spain

1500

4

1908

Dresden 

Germany

1500

3

1907

Cambridge

Great Britain

1317

2

1906

Geneva

Switzerland

1200

1

1905

Boulogne-sur-Mer

France

688

 

-         More than once Esperanto has been used as a working language (along with several national languages) at different international conferences and symposia, with Ukraine involved as well.

-         Every year hundreds of original and translated books are published in Esperanto. Publishers dealing with the language exist in Russia, Czech Republic, Italy, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries.

-         Some publications are spread in electronic form. A lot of magazines and newspapers issued earlier can be downloaded from a special website.

-         Internet provides television and radio broadcast in Esperanto. There are lots of websites  in Esperanto available.

 

Major problems, which Esperanto has to face, are peculiar for communities that do not receive financial support from state bodies. The money possessed by Esperanto organizations are mostly donations, interest from deposits and income from some business ventures. This financial grounding cannot enable large add campaign to inform the society about Esperanto and its opportunities. Meanwhile introducing Esperanto into world practice may bring huge economic profit.

IV. Conclusions

1. The Esperanto language, created by L. Zamenhof 127 years ago, is successfully used for communication between different countries and nationalities.

2. This universal, neutral, auxiliary and melodic language does not cause national allergy, as it is convenient communicative device and it gives no privilege to parties of communication.

3. There is no powerful economy, army and navy hidden behind the language. These conditions are necessary for it to become used by the world.

4. The way out of current situation, called multilingualism, may become the acceptance of unified auxiliary language of communication Esperanto.

 

 

The first thousand of Esperantists, who reacted the idea included 51 residents from Odessa, Ukraine. Thus the city is the so-called lullaby of Esperanto, where it developed and grew stronger. This is why there is a monument of the language creator in Odessa at house # 3, Deribasovskaya, St. The monument is the only one in Ukraine and the whole space left after the Soviet Union collapse. The monument is created by sculptor Nikolay Blazhkov.