What is you take on 'Esperanto'?

Question

If you don't know what it is, its a language created by a Polish man in the late 1800's. Its compiled of latin words and the rules are quite simple. Each vowel makes the same sound no exceptions. In the english language we say "Tough" and "Through" and the 'ou' combo makes different sounds, not in esperanto. There is also no feminin or masculin forms of words. 'THE' is said like 'La' each time regardless of the noun or verb. The words are also said the way they are spelt but you pronounce every letter individually. "Knock" has a silent 'K' in english, but in Esperanto there are no silent letters. The language was designed for it to be easier to communicate. I've recently been taking online courses [which are very free :P] and the language is simple. It is sometimes refered to as an "Artificial' language yet it is spoken by 2 million+ people. What do you think defines a language, better yet, do you think that esperanto should be recogniced as a language? Why or Why not?

Answer 1

Esperanto has many flaws, that's true. So what? When you learn a foreign language, you find also "annoying" things. All flaws... are also present in the languages you learn at school.
Taivo has a point. I have a friend who uses to compare Esperanto to telephones. In the beginning, people where wondering why to have one. They had heard about one or two people who had one at home. Then... why would you want to have such a thing if you don't even want to talk with any of those two people? But as time passed by and more people had one at home, more were interested in having one. Tell me how many American teens don't have a mobile today.
The same with Esperanto. Why would people spend part of their lives to learn a language they cannot use? But if more people starts learning it, the more chances they'd have to use it!
I am not sure about the 2 million figure. Maybe we are not that many.

Answer 2

Esperanto is a parlor game only. If you want to communicate internationally, English is the better choice. Few people learn Esperanto--you will never be able to use Esperanto in a cafe in Poland to order a meal. Esperanto speakers only find each other in advance through club or internet connections, they never just meet on the street by chance or necessity. The same is not true of English. If you have 100 units of time to learn a second language, you may be able to learn more Esperanto than another language, but you have not learned anything that is really useful. You would be much better off learning to say "Hello, can you help me? Thank you very much" in 100 different languages. Cry for help all you want in Esperanto on one of the world's streets--no one will understand you.

Answer 3

Esperanto is quite simple to learn, but it'll just never take off, so I think it's pretty much useless. It was invented in the 1800's to make an international language, but that was before English took over as the international language. There's 2 million people that speak it, but that's not really a whole lot considering there's over 6 billion people in the world. 2 million is half the population of the state of Oklahoma.

Unless it was just for fun, I wouldn't mess with it, myself.

Answer 4

I started learning Esperanto in 2000 just as an experiment to see if i could learn a second language at the age of 40.

Esperanto was not invented to replace anyone's language, it was created to be an easy to learn second language for the world. Knowing Esperanto doesn't stop anyone from learning more languages, as a matter of fact, everyone I know who speaks Esperanto, also speaks at least two other languages. Many people like me are finding it on the Internet, and it strikes a chord within the hearts of the most intelligent and open-minded.

When I learned Esperanto I was very surprised to find that:

1. it doesn't sound artificial like other constructed languages because every concept and construct was taken from another European language.

2. It's not a dead language, as I first assumed, but a living and thriving language. The language is constantly evolving and changing (computer = komputilo or komputero, there is a debate about which word is best. The Esperanto Academy just picked "komputilo" as the official word.)

3. It has a growing and vibrant, international community, large body of literature and music, and even a few movies. A new one was released in 2005 in Brazil called "Gerda Malaperis", it's a based on a detective novel by the same name, I have a copy on DVD.

4. There are native Esperanto speakers. They are usually children who are born to Esperantists from different cultures, who meet through Esperanto and for whom the International Language is their common language, and therefore their home language, and their children grow up speaking the language as their first.

5. The most amazing thing I learned about Esperanto was when I learned about the international guest service, Pasporta Servo (Passport Service). If you learn Esperanto, purchase the book, a new one comes out each year and is available for just a few dollars, hosts from all over the world will open the doors of their homes to you, usually free of charge, and you'll make friends in many countries. http://www.tejo.org/ps/ps_lingv/ps_en.htm

Learning Esperanto opened the world to me. I've corresponded with more people in more countries than I ever thought was possible before I learned it. And I know more about the English language than I did before I started learning Esperanto too. Things they tried to teach me in High School and College English classes suddenly became clear once I had a second language to see the comparisons. I wish all schools would teach Esperanto to children in the early grades, I think it would open the world to them also. As a matter of fact, I know and admire two teachers who are teaching Esperanto to children in schools. I intend to teach it to my grandchildren.

I think what defines a language is simply this: "do people use it to communicate with each other?" I leave tomorrow for a joint convention of U.S. and Mexican Esperantists in Tijuana, Mexico, and for the next 4-5 days I will speak little else except Esperanto. So, yes, I believe Esperanto is a language.

Esperanto is already a recognized language. In the Internationally recognized list of language abreviations, Esperanto is "EO". The UEA has had several debates of whether or not to use Esperanto in some capacity to reduce the stagering costs of translation within that body. Although it has some support, it has not won that contest, but they haven't picked any single language yet.

One point of correction: you said it is compiled of latin words, actually it is about 60% Latin roots, 25% Teutonic (Germanic) roots, and about 10% Slavic roots, with about 5% a combination of other languages like Greek, Hebrew. Basically an all European combination.

Good luck with your Esperanto courses, it's well worth learning.

Answer 5

wow i didnt know anyone spoke esperanto! my fourth grade teacher taught us about it and he has this science show for kids and its called mr esperanto or something idk i forgot..

anyways i think esperanto could be very practical but not now, where mostpeople in the world speak at least a little bit of english.

where did u learn it for free? i would really like to learn it

Answer 6

I think if other people are interested in it and want to learn it then great.
Personally though, it just sounds as if it is artificial (I know it is made up, but a language should sound natural). A language in my opinion cannot be made up just like that....it should progress and change throughout the years.

Here's a good website, by a language expert, that highlights detailed criticisms of Esperanto.
http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/ranto/

Answer 7

Interest in Esperanto peaked in the middle of the last century. If Esperanto were going to "catch on" with the general public, it would have done so by now.

Answer 8

No offense to your efforts, but I think it is useless as a language in practical terms.

Being proficent in English will get you a job much quicker any place in the world than knowing Esperanto.

Answer 9

Esperanto--a language with no borders is worth learning, it is easy to learn and neutral thus very useful in international travel, in politics and more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto