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Esperanto is a totally made-up language, invented in 1887 by a guy living in what is now Poland. I've known bits and pieces about Esperanto, and even a few folks who played around with it for fun, but not much else. I recently read an excellent (and brief) review in the Times Literary Supplement (Feb 6 edition) of what it is and where it is going, written as a review of a newly published encyclopedia of Esperanto writings. (Unfortunately you need to subscribe to the TLS to see the review, but here's a link from an outfit called esperanto.org about Esperanto generally.)
Esperanto's inventor envisaged it as a kind of second language for all. One reason it never achieved that is the emergence of English as an international second language. Another reason is that the whole notion is kind of weird, at least to me. I see languages as organic things, growing through usage and interactions with other languages. To me, totally made-up languages are what one uses for computer programming and the like.
In spite of that, Esperanto is a tiny, but thriving phenomenon. Perhaps 100,000 persons are proficient in it, and perhaps several thousand of these might be called native speakers. There is Esperanto poetry. The language apparently lends itself well to punning because it has so many homophones. There are even people who Twitter in Esperanto.
If anybody knows any fascinating stuff about Esperanto -- where it came from and why, where it is going -- I'd love to hear about it. I'd especially like to hear from anybody who knows the language.
Esperanto's inventor envisaged it as a kind of second language for all. One reason it never achieved that is the emergence of English as an international second language. Another reason is that the whole notion is kind of weird, at least to me. I see languages as organic things, growing through usage and interactions with other languages. To me, totally made-up languages are what one uses for computer programming and the like.
In spite of that, Esperanto is a tiny, but thriving phenomenon. Perhaps 100,000 persons are proficient in it, and perhaps several thousand of these might be called native speakers. There is Esperanto poetry. The language apparently lends itself well to punning because it has so many homophones. There are even people who Twitter in Esperanto.
If anybody knows any fascinating stuff about Esperanto -- where it came from and why, where it is going -- I'd love to hear about it. I'd especially like to hear from anybody who knows the language.