-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.webcom.com/~donh/efaq.html
}}}>Begin
What governments support Esperanto?
Officially, none. Certain governments have, at one time or another,
funded the use of Esperanto for promotion of their specific agendas
(in the last quarter century these have included, among others,
Hungary, Vietnam and mainland China) and have even financed national
Esperanto organizations, for similar reasons, but none have either
supported Esperanto as an international language or supported the
unrestricted teaching or learning of Esperanto within their own
countries. Esperanto is purely a private matter, and seems to
function best when government interference is minimal.
Have any governments opposed Esperanto?
There is a very large and popular book on this topic, Ulrich Lins's
La Dang^era Lingvo (The Dangerous Language); the title comes from a
comment about Esperanto made by Josef Stalin. As a few examples:
The Tsarist government of Russia banned the entry of all magazines
and books in Esperanto from 1895 to 1905.
The Soviet Union put heavier and heavier restrictions on the use of
Esperanto by private citizens from 1930 on, culminating in 1938 when
all registered speakers of Esperanto in the U.S.S.R. were rounded up
and either deported to Siberia or shot. Esperanto was effectively
banned in the Soviet Union until 1956, discouraged until 1979, and
kept under strict governmental control until the late 1980s.
The government of France in the early 1920s banned the teaching of
Esperanto in French schools.
Most Central European governments before World War II discouraged
the learning or use of Esperanto, considering that it was not
necessary for the polyglot ruling elites and that it was not
desirable as a means of international communication for the economic
and political underclass.
Adolf Hitler specifically referred to Esperanto as a tool of Jewish
world domination in a speech in Munich in 1922, and expanded on this
idea in Mein Kampf. Esperanto organizations were banned in Germany in
the mid-1930s, and Esperanto speakers in the territories occupied
during World War II were either discouraged (generally in the
occupied West) or exterminated (more common in the occupied East).
The prewar and wartime Japanese government discouraged, persecuted,
and sometimes executed Esperanto speakers on the grounds that
"Esperanto speakers are like watermelons -- green [a color associated
with Esperanto] on the outside but red [Communist] on the inside."
(Interestingly, an identical simile has been used in recent years
here in the United States by right-wing politicians attacking the
environmental movement.)
The Communist Chinese government has been ambiguous about its
attitude toward Esperanto. Learning Esperanto under official auspices
for official purposes has been not only tolerated but encouraged and
(in one case of which I am personally aware) even required. Learning
Esperanto outside official channels for personal use was, until
around 1980, considered beyond the pale, and during the Cultural
Revolution could lead to prison or worse.
Esperanto was barely tolerated in Romania under the Ceaucescu
regime, and most Esperanto books and magazines were excluded from the
country (they were nonetheless smuggled in on a regular basis by
Bulgarian, Hungarian and Jugoslavian Esperanto speakers). Being
active in the Esperanto movement was an almost sure route to an
interview with the dreaded Securitate and their rubber hoses.
The Mullahs in Iran were quick to encourage Esperanto after 1979 --
it was not, after all, like a real Western language. But in 1981,
when it was discovered that the Baha'i religion also had an interest
in Esperanto, it became very convenient for Esperanto speakers in
Iran to keep their heads down.
When one Esperanto speaker in Saddam Hossein's Iraq attempted to
teach the language to others in the country, he was immediately
imprisoned and later deported.
The incident of a few years ago when two Swedish Esperanto speakers
were severely beaten by Tanzanian police for attempting to teach
Esperanto to refugees in a Tanzanian camp may not have been a
manifestation of official government policy; and in any case it was
ineffective -- graduates of the refugee camp at Mandeleo have formed
a large part of the nucleus of the new Tanzanian Esperanto
Association.
In Franco's Spain, Esperanto was barely tolerated, partly because of
its supposed left-wing orientation and partly because a number of
Esperantists had fought on the Republican side during the Civil War.
In Portugal under the Salazar dictatorship, the situation was even
worse, and Esperanto was effectively banned. (Thanks to Jose Pinto de
Sousa who pointed out that this information was missing from this
page.)
End<{{{
@
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa032300a.htm?iam=dpile&term
s=Dr+L.+Zamenhof
}}}>Begin
Esperanto - The International Language
In 1887, Polish physician L.L. Zamenhof published a book under his
pseudonym called Doctor Esperanto's International Language and
Complete Handbook. This initial text, which was both a tutorial and
the manifesto for a new social movement, spread the word of a new
international language known as Esperanto.
At the time, there had been dozens of international languages already
created. Many of these artificial languages were like Esperanto in
the fact that they were created to be an axillary language, that is,
a second language for people around the word in order to allow for
improved global communication. Of all of the artificial languages, it
was Esperanto which caught on the best.
Though today there are only between a few hundred thousand and a few
million speakers of Esperanto around the word, those devoted to
advancing the goal of the international language are as dedicated as
ever. There over 100 newspapers, magazines, and journals printed in
Esperanto and many books are written in or translated into the
language by devotees of the language and its movement.
The Internet has helped to spread the word of Esperanto and to help
many better understand the need for an international language (as not
everyone speaks English on the 'Net.) Esperanto is popular because it
is easy to learn. Some students of the language can become quite
familiar with it through home study over a matter of a few weeks or
months. According to supporters, Esperanto even helps students learn
other languages easier. Esperanto is based on roots commonly found in
European languages and the grammar is very simple...
There are characteristic word endings for nouns, adjectives, and
verbs. Nouns have no gender and are marked by the ending -o; the
plural is indicated by -oj, and the objective (accusative) case by -
on, plural ojn...There is only one definite article, la and no
indefinite article. Adjectives end in -a and take plural and
objective endings to agree with nouns. Verbs are all regular and have
only one form for each tense or mood; they are not inflected for
person or number. There is an extensive set of suffixes that can be
added to word roots to allow various shades of meaning or newly
derived forms; compound words are also used. ("Esperanto,"
Britannica.com)
>From the base of 15,000 to 20,000 root words - once can combine roots
and suffixes to form over 150,000 words in Esperanto.
Since 1905, Esperantists from around the world (and the more than 70
national Esperanto societies) have come together for an annual World
Esperanto Congress. (The 2000 conference is being held in Tel-Aviv,
Israel, from July 25 to Aug. 1.)
Despite initial French resistance (France wanted the French language
to continue to be the official diplomatic language), in 1924 the
League of Nations put its stamp of approval on Esperanto by
recommending that member states implement it as an axillary language.
In 1954, Esperanto gained additional success as the United Nations
Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized
Esperanto as a viable possibility for an axillary language so
established official relations with the Universal Esperanto
Association (UEA).
The Esperanto movement is becoming quite active in Asia, especially
in Japan and China. Some Asian universities offer courses in
Esperanto. An undergraduate degree in Esperanto has actually been
available at a Hungarian university since 1967. The highest
concentrations of Esperanto speakers can be found today in Brazil,
Japan, Iran, Madagascar, Bulgaria, and Cuba.
Although the number of Esperanto speakers worldwide is small, it's
likely that the artificial language will continue to gain followers
with our increasingly global connections. Perhaps enough people will
ultimately learn and use Esperanto to make it a easy to learn and
viable second language for everyone. I'll leave you with the words of
Leo Tolstoy...
It is so easy to learn, that when, six years ago, I received an
Esperanto grammar, a dictionary, and some articles written in the
language, I could, after not more than two hours' study, if not
write, then at least read freely in the language (1894)
End<{{{
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Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
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