International Language. Do we need it? Lets find out.
To understand circumstances and conditions under which Esperanto begun, one ought to know some of the history of Poland - the country and cultural background of Esperanto one need to know the most terrible to Poland times when birth of Esperanto had its place. Only then one can start to understand why it took seed so easily, mainly amongst the multi-religious, multicultural population of the occupied Polish Commonwealth.
Poland was overpowered and occupied then by three powerful enemy forces and wiped out from the political maps of the world. In consequence, first handbook of Esperanto could not be published in the original Polish version. It was refused right of publishing until Russian was completed and published as first. Next issues were: Polish, German and French. English version came to the world some time later, as translation from the German version, published for the first time by Irish Esperantist at Ireland. Policy of Russian and Prussian Empires co-occupying Poland together with an Austrian Empire was to suppress, humiliate and downgrade on every possible manner Polish language and culture and any of their achievements.
Esperanto appeared for the first time in July 26-Th 1887 at Warsaw, capital of Poland under the title: "International Language, by Dr-Esperanto". Author of Esperanto, genius Polish amateur linguist, doctor of Ophthalmology, kept improving it over the years until the time of publication. Dr. Ludwik Zamanhof's religious denomination was Jewish, as was at that time about 20% of Poles. He issued his "First Manual" under an author pseudonym, Dr. Esperanto…
As the result of partitioning, Poland was wiped out from maps of the political world for some 180 years. Warsaw-Principality of Poland -under total control of Russia - was all that was left of the great Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. Practically it was just some form of "mock-principality" under absolute control of the ruthlessly anti-Polish, harshly persecuting Polish language and culture Tsarist Russian and Prussian governors and generals, at their parts of the partitioned country. At the third part of the partition of Poland, one of the Imperial Austria, Polish universities and schools were, for some time yet, allowed using Polish. Polish culture and language were left alone there, although, not free.
Ludwik Lazarz Zamenhof (Ludvic Lazarus Zamenhof), known in Esperanto as, Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof and - Doktoro Esperanto, invented Esperanto and created also basics for an Esperanto movement as its social carrier. Later he gave-up all rights to it, giving it to the Humankind. Esperanto movement forms loose worldwide federation of people who learn and use it for their own purposes. As it grew, some organizations took over the other ones, the movement grew.
Worldwide Number of Esperanto Users
It's hard to say even approximately how many people use Esperanto. Universal Esperanto Association speaks of about 2 million. This doesn't, though, reflect vast number of speakers not related at all to Universal Esperanto Association group of organizations. Sources, like, Baha'i Faith, having as one of its religious principles the support for idea of the mutual for all humankind international language, speaks of 10 to 15 million Esperanto users worldwide. Baha'is' use mainly English - besides, Farsi (Iranian), and Arabic. Although, Esperanto is very popular with Baha'is and they teach it, too. Claim by Baha'is seems to be proven true by present "Esperanto"s strong presence at Internet, where Esperanto is one of the most popular languages. Just type “Esperanto” in any browser to see nearly two million results, and this keeps growing fast. Other sources claim even more Esperanto users since the time of rapid worldwide spread and vast use of the digital Multimedia and Internet Technologies.
At present. One of the most popular Polish newspapers “Dziennik Powszechny” planes to issue, within some 6 month time, CD with Multimedia course in Esperanto, together with some other materials in this language, in one of its 400 000 per day daily issues as part of preparation to July 2009 Universal Esperanto Congress in Bjalystok - Poland the city of birth of an author of Esperanto.
Some truth must be in it if so popular browsers like, Mozilla Firefox, the most serious competitor to Internet Explorer, decided on adopting Esperanto in answer to intensive and expansive use of Internet by Esperanto users. Why such wide discrepancies of the data, then?
Very likely this happens as many people acquire Esperanto self-learning it, mainly by Internet. They tend to use it also directly with other similar users of this language, by-passing any organizations which could know of them. This is caused in great extend by the easiness and neutrality of this language empowering studying it person to master it fast by self-study. Esperanto is cheap, often entirely free to learn. The same conditions apply in further spread and teaching. Similar to Esperanto, motivations, conditions and easiness of study are unknown in relation to any of the languages internationalised by political and economic colonisation, or outright conquering and colonisation of other lands and parts of the world.
Easy to Learn and Teach Others
What's needed in Esperanto is the motivation and determination, since an Internet sites like: Curso de Esperanto (Course of Esperanto) from Brazil and other, offer very easy to follow and great to use multimedia software; songs films and programs for Esperanto study, all for free.
All this is downloadable, genuinely free, as in payless, in some 34 languages till now. All comes also in the package with initial contacts. Other great for beginners sites like: Edukadot and Lernu, offer online courses and information in and on Esperanto. There are several youth sites: forums, chat-rooms, growing number of social sites, portals, like GXangalo etc. Some of the presented here are just few examples of the growing number of similar sides, portals and services. And one ought to know, too. All I present here represents only small fraction of the fraction of what happens in this greatly diversified, rich, genuinely neutral federative worldwide movement.
Similar spread is rarely met, especially in case of so highly complex language like English. Contrary, Esperanto is being learned very often that way, in comparably very short time and with great success all over the world.
Presently, one of the newest, still in process of organizing is other rising entity of the independent federative Esperanto users' movement: "Universal Federation" (Universala Federacio). There are present numerous faith based organizations, environmental groups, scientific organizations, well known universities and other academic and educational, institutions, religions, political parties, etc.
Thank you for your excellent article on Esperanto. I was particularly impressed to read where you say that \\\"the first handbook of Esperanto could not be published in the original Polish version.\\\" I,too, believe that Zamenhof wrote the original \\\"Unua Libro\\\" in Polish, not Russian. But he then translated and published this \\\"First Book\\\" in Russian, instead of in Polish, in order to get the right to publish from the Russian censors.
In his writings, Zamenhof says that his first languages were Russian, which his father spoke, and Yiddish, which his mother spoke. But he was also fluent in Polish, which he learned from the Poles around him in Bialystok, and German, which he learned from his father, who taught German in school. As a boy, Zamenhof loved the Russian language and even wrote some poems in it. But in later life, he says he began using more and more Polish, especially after the Russian pogroms against the Jews in 1880-81, and also since he was living in Polish-speaking Warsaw since he was fourteen. Zamenhof was a Polish Jew. He raised his children speaking Polish, not Russian.
So it is logical to expect that Zamenhof wrote the first outline of Esperanto in Polish. But do you know of any source where I can confirm this?
