Esperanto definition. Esperanto is the language of international communication. How many people speak Esperanto

The city was inhabited by Belarusians, Poles, Russians, Jews, Germans, Lithuanians. People of different nationalities often treated each other with suspicion and even hostility. From his early youth, Zamenhof dreamed of giving people a common, understandable language in order to overcome alienation between peoples. He dedicated his whole life to this idea. While studying languages ​​at the gymnasium, he realized that in any national language there are too many complexities and exceptions that make it difficult to master. In addition, the use as a common language of any one people would give unjustified advantages to this people, infringing on the interests of others.

Zamenhof worked on his project for more than ten years. In 1878, fellow high school students were already enthusiastically singing in the new language “Let the enmity of the peoples fall, the time has come!”. But Zamenhof's father, who worked as a censor, burned his son's work, suspecting something unreliable. He wanted his son to finish university better.

In the alphabet, letters are called like this: consonants - consonant + o, vowels - just a vowel:

• A - a
• B-bo
• C - co

Each letter corresponds to one sound (phonemic letter). The reading of a letter does not depend on the position in the word (in particular, voiced consonants at the end of a word are not stunned, unstressed vowels are not reduced).

The stress in words always falls on the penultimate syllable.

The pronunciation of many letters can be assumed without special training (M, N, K, etc.), the pronunciation of others must be remembered:

• C( co) is pronounced like Russian c: centro, sceno[scene] caro[tsʹro] "king".
• Ĉ ( Geo) is pronounced like Russian h: Cefo"chief", "head"; Ecocolado.
• G( go) is always read as G: groupo, geography[geography].
• Ĝ ( ĝo) - affricate, pronounced as a continuous jj. It does not have an exact match in Russian, but it can be heard in the phrase “daughter would”: due to the voiced b coming after, h pronounced and pronounced like jj. Cardeno[giardeno] - garden, etaco[etajo] "floor".
• H( ho) is pronounced as a dull overtone (eng. h): horizonto, sometimes as Ukrainian or Belarusian "g".
• Ĥ ( eo) is pronounced like Russian x: ameleono, ĥirurgo, aolero.
• J( jo) - as Russian th: jaguaro, jam"already".
• Ĵ ( o) - Russian well: argono, galuzo"jealousy", ĵurnalisto.
• L( lo) - neutral l(the wide boundaries of this phoneme make it possible to pronounce it like the Russian “soft l”).
• Ŝ ( So) - Russian w: ŝi- she, ŝablono.
• Ŭ ( ŭo) - short y corresponding to English w, Belarusian ў and modern Polish ł; in Russian it is heard in the words "pause", "howitzer": pazo[paўzo], Europo[europo] "Europe". This letter is a semivowel, does not form a syllable, occurs almost exclusively in the combinations "eŭ" and "aŭ".

Most Internet sites (including the Esperanto section of Wikipedia) automatically convert characters with x's typed in postpositions (x is not included in the Esperanto alphabet and can be considered as a service character) into characters with diacritics (for example, from the combination jx it turns out ĵ ). Similar typing systems with diacritics (two consecutively pressed keys type one character) exist in keyboard layouts for other languages ​​as well—for example, in the "Canadian multilingual" layout for typing French diacritics.

You can also use the Alt key and numbers (on the numeric keypad). First, write the corresponding letter (for example, C for Ĉ), then press the Alt key and type 770, and a circumflex appears above the letter. If you dial 774, then the sign for ŭ will appear.

The letter can also be used as a substitute for diacritics. h in post-position (this method is an “official” replacement for diacritics in cases where its use is not possible, since it is presented in the Fundamentals of Esperanto: “ Printing houses that do not have the letters ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ may initially use ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u”), however, this method makes the spelling non-phonemic and makes automatic sorting and transcoding difficult. With the spread of Unicode, this method (as well as others, such as diacritics in postposition - g’o, g^o and the like) is less and less common in Esperanto texts.

Vocabulary

Swadesh list for Esperanto
№	Esperanto	Russian
1	mi	I
2	ci(vi)	you
3	li	is he
4	ni	we
5	vi	you
6	or	they
7	tiu cei	this, this, this
8	tiu	that, that, that
9	tie ci	here
10	tie	there
11	kiu	who
12	kio	what
13	kie	where
14	kiam	when
15	kiel	how
16	ne	not
17	ĉio, ĉiuj	everything, everything
18	multaj, pluraj	many
19	kelkaj, kelke	several
20	nemultaj, nepluraj	few
21	alia	other, different
22	unu	one
23	du	two
24	tri	three
25	kvar	four
26	kvin	five
27	granda	big, great
28	longa	long, long
29	larĝa	wide
30	dika	fat
31	peza	heavy
32	malgranda	little
33	mallonga (kurta)	short, brief
34	mallara	narrow
35	maldika	thin
36	virino	female
37	viro	Man
38	homo	human
39	infanto	child, child
40	edzino	wife
41	edzo	husband
42	patrino	mother
43	patro	father
44	besto	beast, animal
45	fiŝo	a fish
46	birdo	bird, bird
47	hundo	dog, dog
48	pediko	louse
49	serpento	snake, bastard
50	vermo	worm
51	arbo	wood
52	arbaro	Forest
53	bastono	stick, rod
54	frukto	fruit, fruit
55	semo	seed, seeds
56	folio	sheet
57	radiko	root
58	ŝelo	bark
59	floro	flower
60	herbo	grass
61	ŝnuro	rope
62	hato	skin, hide
63	viando	meat
64	sango	blood
65	osto	bone
66	graso	fat
67	ovo	egg
68	Korno	horn
69	vosto	tail
70	plumo	feather
71	haroj	hair
72	capo	head
73	orelo	ear
74	okulo	eye, eye
75	nazo	nose
76	buso	mouth, mouth
77	Dento	tooth
78	lango	tongue)
79	ungo	nail
80	piedo	foot, leg
81	gambo	leg
82	Genuo	knee
83	mano	hand, palm
84	flugilo	wing
85	ventro	belly, belly
86	tripo	entrails, intestines
87	goreo	throat, neck
88	dorso	back (backbone)
89	brusto	breast
90	koro	a heart
91	hepato	liver
92	trinki	drink
93	mani	eat, eat
94	Mordi	gnaw, bite
95	sucei	suck
96	kraĉi	spit
97	vomi	tear, vomit
98	blovi	blow
99	spirit	breathe
100	ridi	laugh

Most of the vocabulary consists of Romance and Germanic roots, as well as internationalisms of Latin and Greek origin. There are a small number of stems borrowed from or through the Slavic (Russian and Polish) languages. Borrowed words are adapted to Esperanto phonology and written in the phonemic alphabet (that is, the original spelling of the source language is not preserved).

• Borrowings from French: When borrowing from French, regular sound changes took place in most stems (e.g. /sh/ became /h/). Many verb stems in Esperanto are taken from French (iri"go", macei"chew", marŝi"step", kuri"run" promeni"walk", etc.).
• Borrowings from English: at the time of the founding of Esperanto as an international project, English did not have its current distribution, therefore English vocabulary rather poorly represented in the main vocabulary of Esperanto ( fajro"Fire", birdo"bird", jes"yes" and some other words). Recently, however, several international anglicisms have entered the Esperanto vocabulary, such as bajto"byte" (but also "bitoko", literally "bit-eight"), blogo"blog", default"default", managerero"manager", etc.
• Borrowings from German: the main vocabulary of Esperanto includes such German stems as Nur"only", danko"gratitude", ŝlosi"lock up" morgatu"tomorrow", tago"day", jaro"year", etc.
• Borrowings from Slavic languages: barakti"flounder", klopodi"to bother" kartavi"burr", krom"except", etc. See below in the section "Influence of the Slavic languages".

On the whole, the Esperanto lexical system manifests itself as autonomous, reluctant to borrow new foundations. For new concepts, a new word is usually created from elements already existing in the language, which is facilitated by the rich possibilities of word formation. A vivid illustration here can be a comparison with the Russian language:

• English site, rus. website, esp. pacaro;
• English printer, rus. a printer, esp. printilo;
• English browser, rus. browser, esp. retumilo, krozilo;
• English internet, rus. the Internet, esp. interreto.

This feature of the language allows you to minimize the number of roots and affixes needed to master Esperanto.

In colloquial Esperanto, there is a tendency to replace words of Latin origin with words formed from Esperanto roots in a descriptive manner (flood - altakvaĵo instead of vocabulary inundo, extra - troa instead of vocabulary superflua, as in the proverb la tria estas troa - third wheel etc.).

In Russian, the most famous are the Esperanto-Russian and Russian-Esperanto dictionaries compiled by the famous Caucasian linguist E. A. Bokarev, and later dictionaries based on it. A large Esperanto-Russian dictionary was prepared in St. Petersburg by Boris Kondratiev and is available on the Internet. There are laid out [ when?] working materials of the Large Russian-Esperanto Dictionary, which is currently being worked on. There is also a project to develop and maintain a version of the dictionary for mobile devices.

Grammar

Verb

There are three tenses in the indicative mood in the Esperanto verb system:

• past (formant -is): mi iris"I walked" li iris"he was walking";
• the present ( -as): mi iras"I'm going" li iras"he's coming";
• future ( -os): mi iros"I will go, I will go" li iros"He will go, he will go."

In the conditional mood, the verb has only one form ( miirus"I would go"). The imperative mood is formed using the formant -u: iru! "go!" According to the same paradigm, the verb "to be" is conjugated ( esti), which even in some artificial languages ​​is “incorrect” (in general, the conjugation paradigm in Esperanto knows no exceptions).

Cases

There are only two cases in the case system: nominative (nominative) and accusative (accusative). The rest of the relationships are conveyed using a rich system of prepositions with a fixed meaning. The nominative case is not marked with a special ending ( vilagio"village"), an indicator of the accusative case is the ending -n (vilacon"village").

The accusative case (as in Russian) is also used to indicate the direction: en vilaco"in the village", en vilaco n "to the village"; post krado"behind bars", post krado n "behind bars".

Numbers

There are two numbers in Esperanto: singular and plural. The only one not marked infanto- child), and the plural is marked with the multiplicity indicator -j: infanoj - children. The same for adjectives - beautiful - bela, beautiful - belaj. When using the accusative case with the plural at the same time, the plural indicator is placed at the beginning: “beautiful children” - bela jn infanto jn.

Genus

There is no grammatical category of gender in Esperanto. There are pronouns li - he, ŝi - she, ĝi - it (for inanimate nouns, as well as animals in cases where the sex is unknown or unimportant).

Communions

Regarding the Slavic influence at the phonological level, it can be said that there is not a single phoneme in Esperanto that would not exist in Russian or Polish. The Esperanto alphabet resembles the Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene alphabets (there are no symbols q, w, x, characters with diacritics are actively used: ĉ , ĝ , ĥ , ĵ , ŝ And ŭ ).

In vocabulary, with the exception of words denoting purely Slavic realities ( bareo"borscht", etc.), out of 2612 roots presented in "Universala Vortaro" (), only 29 could be borrowed from Russian or Polish. Explicit Russian borrowings are banto, barakti, gladi, kartavi, krom(except), kruta, nepre(of course) rights, vosto(tail) and some others. However, the Slavic influence in vocabulary is manifested in the active use of prepositions as prefixes with a change in meaning (for example, sub"under", aceti"buy" - subaceti"bribe"; aŭskulti"listen" - subatskulti"eavesdrop"). The doubling of the stems is identical to that in Russian: plena-plena cf. "full-full" finfine cf. "eventually". Some Slavicisms of the first years of Esperanto were leveled over time: for example, the verb elrigardi(el-rigard-i) "look" replaced with new - aspect.

In the syntax of some prepositions and conjunctions, the Slavic influence is preserved, which was once even greater ( kvankam teorie… sed en la praktiko…“although in theory… but in practice…”). According to the Slavic model, the coordination of times is also carried out ( Li dir is ke li jam far is tion"He said he already did it" Li dir is, ke li est os tie"He said he would be there."

It can be said that the influence of the Slavic languages ​​(and especially Russian) on Esperanto is much stronger than is commonly believed, and exceeds the influence of the Romance and Germanic languages. Modern Esperanto, after the "Russian" and "French" periods, entered the so-called. the “international” period, when individual ethnic languages ​​no longer have a serious influence on its further development.

Literature on the subject:

carriers

It is difficult to say how many people speak Esperanto today. The well-known site Ethnologue.com estimates the number of Esperanto speakers at 2 million people, and according to the site, for 200-2000 people the language is native (usually these are children from international marriages, where Esperanto serves as the language of intra-family communication). This number was obtained by the American Esperantist Sidney Culbert, who, however, did not disclose the method of obtaining it. Markus Sikoszek found it grossly exaggerated. In his opinion, if there were about a million Esperantists in the world, then in his city, Cologne, there should be at least 180 Esperantists. However, Sikoszek found only 30 Esperanto speakers in the city, and big number Esperantists in other major cities. He also noted that only 20 thousand people are members of various Esperanto organizations around the world.

According to the Finnish linguist J. Lindstedt, an expert on Esperanto "from birth", for about 1000 people around the world Esperanto is their native language, about 10 thousand more people can speak it fluently, and about 100 thousand can actively use it.

Distribution by country

Most Esperanto speakers live in the European Union, where most Esperanto events take place. Outside of Europe, there is an active Esperanto movement in Brazil, Vietnam, Iran, China, USA, Japan and some other countries. There are practically no Esperantists in Arabic countries and, for example, in Thailand. Since the 1990s, there has been a steady increase in the number of Esperanto speakers in Africa, especially in countries such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Togo. Hundreds of Esperantists have appeared in Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia and other Asian states.

The World Esperanto Association (UEA) has the largest number of individual members in Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, and the United States, which may be indicative of the activity of Esperanto speakers by country, although it reflects other factors (such as the higher standard of living that allows Esperanto speakers in these countries to pay an annual fee).

Many Esperantists choose not to register with local or international organizations, making it difficult to estimate the total number of speakers.

Practical use

Hundreds of new translated and original books in Esperanto are published each year. Esperanto publishing houses exist in Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy, the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries. In Russia, at present, the Impeto (Moscow) and Sezonoj (Kaliningrad) publishing houses specialize in publishing literature in and about Esperanto, and literature is periodically published in non-specialized publishing houses. The organ of the Russian Union of Esperantists "Rusia Esperanto-Gazeto" (Russian Esperanto newspaper), the monthly independent magazine "La Ondo de Esperanto" (Esperanto Wave) and a number of less significant publications are published. Among online bookstores, the website of the World Esperanto Organization is the most popular, in the catalog of which in 2010 6510 different products were presented, including 5881 titles of book publications (not counting 1385 second-hand publications) .

The famous science fiction writer Harry Harrison himself spoke Esperanto and actively promoted it in his works. In the future world he describes, the inhabitants of the Galaxy speak mainly Esperanto.

There are also about 250 newspapers and magazines published in Esperanto , and many previously published issues can be downloaded free of charge on a specialized website . Most of the publications are devoted to the activities of the Esperanto organizations that issue them (including special ones - nature lovers, railway workers, nudists, Catholics, gays, etc.). However, there are also socio-political publications (Monato, Sennaciulo, etc.), literary ones (Beletra almanako, Literatura Foiro, etc.).

There is Internet TV in Esperanto. In some cases, we are talking about continuous broadcasting, in others - about a series of videos that the user can select and view. The Esperanto group regularly uploads new videos on YouTube. Since the 1950s, feature films and documentaries in Esperanto have appeared, as well as Esperanto subtitles for many films in national languages. The Brazilian studio Imagu-Filmo has already released two feature films in Esperanto - "Gerda malaperis" and "La Patro".

Several radio stations broadcast in Esperanto: China Radio International (CRI), Radio Havano Kubo, Vatican Radio, Parolu, mondo! (Brazil) and Polish Radio (since 2009 - as an Internet podcast), 3ZZZ (Australia).

In Esperanto, you can read the news, check the weather around the world, get acquainted with the latest in the field of computer technology, choose a hotel in Rotterdam, Rimini and other cities via the Internet, learn to play poker or play various games via the Internet. The International Academy of Sciences in San Marino uses Esperanto as one of its working languages, and it is possible to complete a master's or bachelor's degree using Esperanto. In the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, an educational institution has been operating since 1996, which trains specialists in the field of culture and tourism, and teaching is conducted in Esperanto.

The potential of Esperanto is also used for international business purposes, greatly facilitating communication between its participants. Examples include an Italian coffee supplier and a number of other companies. Since 1985, the International Commercial and Economic Group of the World Esperanto Organization has been active.

With the advent of new Internet technologies such as podcasting, many Esperanto speakers have been able to broadcast themselves on the Internet. One of the most popular Esperanto podcasts is Radio Verda (Green Radio), which has been broadcasting regularly since 1998. Another popular podcast, Radio Esperanto, is being recorded in Kaliningrad (19 episodes per year, 907 plays per episode on average). Esperanto podcasts from other countries are popular: Varsovia Vento from Poland, La NASKa Podkasto from the USA, Radio Aktiva from Uruguay.

Many songs are created in Esperanto, there are musical groups that sing in Esperanto (for example, the Finnish rock band "Dolchamar"). Since 1990, the company Vinilkosmo has been operating, releasing music albums in Esperanto in a variety of styles: from pop music to hard rock and rap. The online project Vikio-kantaro had over 1,000 lyrics in early 2010 and continued to grow. Dozens of video clips of Esperanto performers have been filmed.

There are a number of computer programs specifically written for Esperanto speakers. Many well-known programs have versions for the Esperanto-office application OpenOffice.org, the Mozilla Firefox browser, the SeaMonkey software package and others. The popular search engine Google also has an Esperanto version that allows you to search for information in both Esperanto and other languages. As of February 22, 2012, Esperanto has become the 64th language supported by Google Translate.

Esperantists are open to international and intercultural contacts. Many of them travel to attend conventions and festivals where Esperanto speakers meet old friends and make new ones. Many Esperantists have correspondents in different countries ahs of the world and are often willing to host a traveling Esperantist for a few days. The German city of Herzberg (Harz) since 2006 has an official prefix to the name - "Esperanto city". Many signs, signboards and information stands here are bilingual - German and Esperanto. Esperanto blogs exist on many well-known services, especially many (more than 2000) on Ipernity. The famous Internet game Second Life has an Esperanto community that meets regularly at the Esperanto-Lando and Verda Babilejo sites. Esperanto writers and activists perform here, and there are linguistic courses. The popularity of specialized sites that help Esperanto speakers find: a life partner, friends, a job is growing.

Esperanto is the most successful of all artificial languages ​​in terms of distribution and number of users. In 2004, members of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (World Esperanto Association, UEA) consisted of Esperantists from 114 countries of the world, and the annual Universala Kongreso (World Congress) of Esperantists usually gathers from one and a half to five thousand participants (2209 in Florence in 2006, 1901 in Yokohama in th, about 2000 in Bialystok in th) .

Modifications and descendants

Despite its easy grammar, some features of the Esperanto language are subject to criticism. Throughout the history of Esperanto, people appeared among its supporters who wanted to change the language for the better, in their understanding, side. But since the Fundamento de Esperanto already existed by that time, it was impossible to reform Esperanto - only to create on its basis new planned languages ​​that differed from Esperanto. Such languages ​​are called in interlinguistics Esperantoids(Esperantides). Several dozen such projects are described in the Esperanto Wikipedia: eo:Esperantidoj .

The most notable branch of descendant language projects traces its history back to 1907, when the Ido language was created. The creation of the language gave rise to a split in the Esperanto movement: some of the former Esperantists switched to Ido. However, most Esperanto speakers remained true to their language.

However, Ido itself fell into a similar situation in 1928 after the appearance of an “improved Ido” - the Novial language.

Less noticeable branches are the Neo, Esperantido and other languages, which are currently practically not used in live communication. Esperanto-inspired language projects continue to emerge today.

Problems and prospects of Esperanto

historical background

Postcard with text in Russian and Esperanto, published in 1946

The political upheavals of the 20th century, primarily the creation, development and subsequent collapse of communist regimes in the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe, the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany, the events of the Second World War, played a major role in the position of Esperanto in society.

The development of the Internet greatly facilitated communication between Esperanto speakers, simplified access to literature, music and films in this language, and contributed to the development of distance learning.

Esperanto problems

The main problems that Esperanto faces are typical of most dispersed communities that do not receive financial assistance from government agencies. The relatively modest funds of Esperanto organizations, which consist mainly of donations, interest on bank deposits, as well as income from certain commercial enterprises (shareholdings, leasing real estate, etc.), do not allow for a wide advertising campaign, informing the public about Esperanto and its possibilities. As a result, even many Europeans do not know about the existence of this language, or rely on inaccurate information, including negative myths. In turn, the relatively small number of Esperanto speakers contributes to the strengthening of ideas about this language as an unsuccessful project that has failed.

The relative small number and dispersed residence of Esperanto speakers determine the relatively small circulation of periodicals and books in this language. Esperanto magazine, the official organ of the World Esperanto Association (5500 copies) and the socio-political magazine Monato (1900 copies) have the largest circulation. Most Esperanto periodicals are rather modestly designed. At the same time, a number of magazines - such as "La Ondo de Esperanto" , "Beletra almanako" - differ high level printing performance, not yielding to the best national samples. Since the 2000s, many publications have also been distributed in the form of electronic versions - cheaper, faster and more colorfully designed. Some publications are distributed only in this way, including for free (for example, published in Australia "Mirmekobo").

Esperanto book circulations, with rare exceptions, are small, works of art rarely come out with a circulation of more than 200-300 copies, and therefore their authors cannot professionally deal with literary creativity(at least in Esperanto). In addition, for the vast majority of Esperantists, this language is the second, and the degree of proficiency in it does not always allow one to freely perceive or create complex texts - artistic, scientific, etc.

There are known examples of how works originally created in one national language were translated into another through Esperanto.

Esperanto perspectives

In the Esperanto community, the idea of ​​introducing Esperanto as an auxiliary language of the European Union is especially popular. Supporters of such a decision believe that this will make interlingual communication in Europe more efficient and equal, while solving the problem of European identification. Proposals for a more serious consideration of Esperanto at the European level were made by some European politicians and entire parties, in particular, representatives of the Transnational Radical Party. In addition, there are examples of the use of Esperanto in European politics (for example, the Esperanto version of Le Monde Diplomatic and the newsletter "Conspectus rerum latinus" during the Finnish EU Presidency). A small number of participants participate in elections at the European level. Political Party"Europe - Democracy - Esperanto", which received 41,000 votes in the 2009 European Parliament elections.

Esperanto enjoys the support of a number of influential international organizations. A special place among them is occupied by UNESCO, which adopted in 1954 the so-called resolution of Montevideo, which expresses support for Esperanto, the goals of which coincide with the goals of this organization, and UN member countries are called for the introduction of teaching Esperanto in secondary and higher educational institutions. UNESCO also adopted a resolution in support of Esperanto in . In August 2009, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, expressed his support for Esperanto in his letter and the hope that in time it will be accepted by the world community as a convenient means of communication that does not grant privileges to any of its participants.

As of December 18, 2012, the Esperanto section of Wikipedia contains 173,472 entries (27th place) - more than, for example, sections in Slovak, Bulgarian or Hebrew.

Esperanto and religion

The phenomenon of Esperanto has not been ignored by many religions, both traditional and new. All major sacred books have been translated into Esperanto. The Bible was translated by L. Zamenhof himself (La Sankta Biblio. Londono. ISBN 0-564-00138-4). Published translation of the Koran - La Nobla Korano. Kopenhago 1970. On Buddhism, La Instruoj de Budho. Tokyo. 1983. ISBN 4-89237-029-0. Vatican Radio broadcasts in Esperanto, the International Catholic Association of Esperantists has been active since 1910, and since 1990 a document Norme per la celebrazione della Messa in Esperanto The Holy See has officially authorized the use of Esperanto during worship, the only planned language. On August 14, 1991, Pope John Paul II spoke to more than a million young listeners in Esperanto for the first time. In 1993 he sent his apostolic blessing to the 78th World Esperanto Congress. Since 1994, the Pope of Rome, congratulating Catholics around the world on Easter and Christmas, among other languages, addresses the flock in Esperanto. His successor Benedict XVI continued this tradition.

The Baha'i Faith calls for the use of an auxiliary international language. Some Baha'i followers believe that Esperanto has great potential for this role. Lydia Zamenhof, the youngest daughter of the creator of Esperanto, was a follower of the Baha'i faith and translated into Esperanto the most important works Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

The main oomoto-kyo theses is the slogan "Unu Dio, Unu Mondo, Unu Interlingvo" ("One God, One World, One Language of Communication"). Esperanto creator Ludwig Zamenhof is considered a kami saint in oomoto. Esperanto was introduced as an official language in oomoto by its co-creator Onisaburo Deguchi. Won Buddhism is a new branch of Buddhism that arose in South Korea, actively uses Esperanto, participates in international Esperanto sessions, the main sacred texts of Won Buddhism have been translated into Esperanto. Esperanto is also actively used by the Christian spiritualist movement "Goodwill League" and a number of others.

perpetuation

Esperanto-related names of streets, parks, monuments, plaques and other objects are found all over the world. In Russia it is.

Nikolaeva Evgenia

The paper tells about the most popular of modern artificial languages ​​- Esperanto, which can rightfully claim to be the language of international communication.

Download:

Preview:

Municipal educational institution

average comprehensive school № 96

Abstract on the topic:

"Esperanto - the language of international communication"

I've done the work:

11 "A" class student

Nikolaeva Evgeniya

Work checked:

teacher of Russian language

and literature

Maslova Natalya Mikhailovna

2007 - 2008 academic year

Nizhny Novgorod

1. Introduction.

1. Esperanto and other artificial languages.

1. From the history of Esperanto.

1. Basic language facts:

1. Alphabet and reading.

1. A set of diacritics.

1. Esperanto vocabulary.

1. Flexible system of word formation.

1. Grammar.

1. The main areas of use of Esperanto.

1. Esperanto speakers.

1. Modifications and descendants.

1. Problems and prospects of Esperanto.

1. Conclusion.

List of used literature:

1. Bokarev E.A. Esperanto - Russian dictionary. - M.: Russian language, 1982.

1. Big encyclopedic Dictionary"Linguistics". - M., 2004.

1. Doug Goninaz. Slavic influence in Esperanto. // Problems of the international auxiliary language. - M .: "Nauka", 1991.

1. Kolker B.G. The contribution of the Russian language to the formation and development of Esperanto: Abstract. - M., 1985.

1. What is Esperanto? // Website www.esperanto.mv.ru.

1. Esperanto - what it is, where to study. // Site esperanto.nm.ru.

1. Language as the most important mechanism for promoting tolerance: Broadcast on Radio Liberty. - 17.08.2006.

Esperanto and other artificial languages

Interlinguistics- a section of linguistics that studies interlingual communication and international languages ​​as a means of such communication.

The large encyclopedic dictionary "Linguistics" gives the following definition of artificial languages: "Constructed languages- sign systems created for use in areas where the use of natural language is less effective or impossible.

There are so-called "non-specialized general-purpose languages" or "international artificial languages". Any international artificial language is called planned if he received realization in communication; less implemented artificial languages ​​are calledlinguistic projects. Only published linguistic projects by different researchers number up to 2 thousand or more (idioms - neutral (1893 - 1898), interlingua (1951), loglan, ro), while the number of planned languages ​​​​does not exceed a dozen (Volapyuk, Ido (1907 ), Interlingua, Latin-Blue-Flexione, Novial (1928), Occidental, Esperanto (1887)) (according to other sources, about 600 artificial languages).

Human fantasy is unbridled. Tolkienists, of course, will remember Quenya, and fans of the endless Star Trek series - Klingon; programming languages, in essence, are artificial languages, there are also formalized scientific languages ​​and information languages. The grammar of these languages ​​is built on the example of ethnic languages; artificial languages ​​and vocabulary (primarily international) are borrowed from ethnic languages.

Let's highlight the most popular and interesting of the above languages.

1. The first known project was the language project called"universalglot", which was published in 1868 by the Frenchman Jean Pirro. First of all, this language had a simple morphology, systematized along the lines of the Romance and Germanic languages. Pirro himself said that when creating a universalglot, he, first of all, chose the most popular and easily pronounceable words from different living languages. The public, however, did not appreciate the efforts of the Frenchman and did not speak his language.
2. In Quenya elves spoke. Of course, the elves did not exist in reality - and they themselves, and this language was invented by Professor J. R. R. Tolkien for Middle-earth, in which the events of the world-famous fantasy saga "The Lord of the Rings" unfolded. Naturally, the writer did not do this from scratch, but took Latin as a basis, borrowing phonetics and spelling from Finnish and Greek. In general, according to the Professor, Quenya in the times described in the novel was about the same as Latin is for us, that is, a dead language; elves - contemporaries of the ring-bearer, the hobbit Frodo Baggins, already spoke a different dialect, but wrote everything down using the tengwar script.

Calligraphy in tengwara

1. Specially for the American science fiction series "Star Trek" (Star Trek), professional linguist Mark Okrand invented the language Klingons (races of aliens). This language was created on the basis of the dialect of the American Indians Mutsun, the last of which died in the 30s of the last century. It is said that US intelligence agencies used this the rarest language in radio communications so that the Russians do not understand.

Klingon

1. Another artificial language saltresol. People who know the notes, for sure, guess that this is a language whose words are made up of seven syllables, and these syllables are nothing more than notes (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si). Solresol was invented by the Frenchman Jean-Francois Sudre in 1817 and was subsequently improved by other specialists. You can speak and write in this language as you like: even with colors, even with the names of notes, even with signal flags; can play on musical instrument or communicate in the language of the deaf and dumb.

Solresol Recording Capabilities

This language did not become relatively popular, losing its positions, like other artificial languages, Esperanto.

1. There are between 2 and 20 million people in the world who speak Esperanto - a language invented in 1887 not by a linguist, but by an oculist, Czech Ludwik Zamenhof. Esperanto, which was conceived by its creator as "auxiliary, the simplest and easiest international" language, is the result of ten years of work; named after the author's pseudonym. The Esperanto alphabet is built on the basis of Latin with the addition of some features, and new words are formed from elements already existing in the language.

Bible in Esperanto

Problems and prospects of Esperanto

For Esperantists, the question of the prospects of the language is rather painful. At the beginning of the 20th century, the influence of Esperanto grew continuously; it was especially great inthe USSR in the 1920s, when this language, with the filingTrotsky has been widely studied as "the language of the world revolution". Esperanto was actively used in the network of "work correspondents" (work correspondents). At that time, even the inscriptions on postal envelopes were duplicated in two languages, Russian and Esperanto. However, already in the 1930s and 1940s, Esperanto speakers were subjected to repression: in the USSR - as "Trotskyists", "spies" and "terrorists", and in the territories controlled by Nazi Germany - as supporters of the "pro-Jewish" doctrine. In the USSR and Germany, the Esperanto movement actually ceased to exist.

In the 1950s, when Esperanto began to legalize again, the place of the de facto international language was taken byEnglish , in this regard, the growth in the number of Esperanto supporters is slower (for example, the number of individual members of the World Esperanto Association (UEA) even decreased from 8071 people in 1991 to 5657 in 2002, the fall in the number of associate members in 1991 - from 25 to 19 thousand - due to the crisis of the Esperanto movement in the socialist countries, especially in Bulgaria and Hungary, after the abolition of state support for local associations that were part of the UEA). In classical Esperanto organizations (the World Esperanto Association, the Russian Union of Esperantists and others) in recent years there has been an equalization in the number of members, and the number of people who learn and use Esperanto on the Internet and do not join any organizations is also increasing.

At present, most Esperanto periodicals look rather poor, including the illustrated social and political magazine Monato (one of the most popular).

Among the possible prospects for the use of Esperanto in the Esperanto community, the idea of ​​introducing Esperanto as an auxiliary language is now especially popular.European Union . It is believed that such use of Esperanto would make interlingual communication in Europe more efficient and equal. Proposals for a more serious consideration of Esperanto at the European level have been made by some European politicians and entire parties, there are examples of the use of Esperanto in European politics (for example, the Esperanto versions of Le Monde Diplomatic and the newsletter "Conspectus rerum latinus" during the EU PresidencyFinland ).

"Europe needs a single language - an intermediary, lingua franca", - such a statement was made on the pages of the large daily newspaper "Sydsvenska Dagbladet" by the co-founder of the Swedish Green Party Per Garton, who proposes three candidates for the role of the intermediary language: Latin, Esperanto and French. According to the Swedish politician,« it will take only one or two generations for the political decision to introduce Latin or Esperanto to become a reality in the European Union». Garton considers the further spread of English as an international language as a threat to the independence and identity of the EU.

Recently, the number of new Esperantists has been growing especially actively thanks to the Internet. For example, a multilingual online resourcelernu! is the largest source of new Esperanto learners on the web.

Modifications and descendants

Despite its easy grammar, Esperanto has some drawbacks. Because of this, Esperanto had such supporters who wanted to change the language for the better, as they thought, side. But since by that time already existedFundamento de Esperanto , Esperanto was impossible to reform. Then the reformers found a solution: they created new planned languages ​​that differed from Esperanto. The most noticeable branch of linguistic projects - descendants traces its history fromthe year the language was createdido . The creation of the language gave rise to a split in the Esperanto movement: some of the former Esperantists switched to Ido. However, most Esperanto speakers remained true to their language. However, in 1928, Ido itself fell into a similar situation after the appearance of an “improved Ido” - the languagenovial . Less visible branches are languagesedo And Esperantido , which differ from Esperanto only in a modified spelling. Until our time, all four languages ​​have almost lost their supporters.

Esperanto speakers

It is difficult to say how many people speak Esperanto today. The most optimistic sources give estimates of up to 500 million people worldwide. The well-known site Ethnologue.com estimates the number of Esperanto speakers at 2 million people, and, according to the site, 2,000 people speak their native language (usually these are children from international marriages, where Esperanto serves as the language of intra-family communication).

There is no doubt that a really large number of educated people have at some time become familiar with Esperanto, although not all of them have become active users of it as a result. The prevalence of a language among educated people can be indirectly judged by the volume of Wikipedia in this language, which (as of May 2007) contains over 84,000 articles and ranks 15th in this indicator, significantly surpassing many national languages. Hundreds of new translations and originals are published each year.books in Esperanto, writtensongs and films are made. There are also many newspapers and magazines published in Esperanto; eatradio stations , broadcasting in Esperanto (for example,China Radio International (CRI) And Polish radio ). In November 2005, the first worldwide Internet television in Esperanto was launched.Internacia Televido (ITV).

In Russia, the publishing house "Impeto" (Moscow ) And " season" (Kaliningrad ), literature is periodically published in non-specialized publishing houses, an organ is publishedRussian Union of Esperantists « Rusia Esperanto-Gazeto» (Russian Esperanto - newspaper), monthly independent magazine "La Ondo de Esperanto» ("The Esperanto Wave") and a number of less significant publications.

With the advent of new Internet technologies such aspodcasting , many Esperantists got the opportunity to self-broadcast on the Internet. One ("Green Radio") which regularly broadcasts from of the year.

Most Esperantists are open to international and intercultural contacts. Many of them travel to attend conventions and festivals where Esperanto speakers meet old friends and make new ones. Many Esperantists have correspondents around the world and are often willing to host a traveling Esperantist for a few days. Visiting exchange network popular among Esperanto speakersPassport Servo .

famous science fiction writerHarry Harrison he speaks Esperanto himself and actively promotes it in his works. In the world of the future he describes, the inhabitants of the Galaxy speak mainly Esperanto. Esperanto is the most successful of all artificial languages.

Dominique Pellet has translated the well-known text editor Vim into Esperanto - he announced this in a mail group (programistoj - respondas), where Esperanto-speaking information technology specialists gather.

The Slovak publishing house Espero, which has been operating since 2003, plans to release a collection of Stan Marchek's crossword puzzles, a book of poems by Iranian poets, an electronic Esperanto-Slovak dictionary on a laser disc, and several more books and discs.

The publishing house of the Flemish Esperanto League (FEL) is preparing a translation of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and several novels at once, includingThe Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas translated by Daniel Moiran.

In New York, the Mondial publishing house has already publishedEsperanto translation of "White on Black" by Gallego (Ruben Gallego, Laureate of Booker - 2003 , the author of the novel wrote a special preface to the Esperanto edition: “I thank all future Esperanto readers for the beautiful Esperanto language, for their attention to my work. Read. This good book. I hope, I really want to believe that bad books are not translated and written in the language of dreams, the language of hope - Esperanto"), is working on a 740-page tome entitled "Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto" ("A Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto"). Literature in Esperanto). The book promises to be the most comprehensive reference guide to non-translatable Esperanto literature.

Mikhail Bronstein published the novel Ten Days of Captain Postnikov,published by the Impeto publishing house in Russian translation Anatoly Radaev. The action of the novel takes place in 1910 - 1911 with excursions into the past and the future; scenes of action - Moscow, St. Petersburg and the steamer "George Washington", on which Alexander Postnikov, main character novel, was on his way to the 6th World Esperanto Congress in the USA. On the way to America, Postnikov talks a lot with Ludwik Markovich Zamenhof, the "initiator" of Esperanto - from such dialogues, the reader, among other things, learns a lot about the life of the creator of Esperanto himself.

It looks like 2008 will be rich in encyclopedias - a biographical guide about famous Esperantists is being prepared by the Kaliningrad publishing house "Sezonoj". There will also be translations by Jules Verne and Borges.

Main Uses of Esperanto

1. Periodicals.

There are many periodicals published in Esperanto, among them there are about 10 known all over the world (“Esperanto”, “LaOndodeEsperanto”, “Monato”, “Kontakto”, “LaGazeto”, “Fonto”, “Literatura Foiro” and others). Most of the publications are organs of various Esperanto organizations (for example, “Esperanto” is the organ of the World Esperanto Association; “RusiaEsperanto-Gazeto” is a joint publication of the Russian Esperanto Union and the Russian Youth Esperanto Movement), but there are also “independent” publications: most the most famous of them is the Monato magazine: it publishes various materials in Esperanto, but never about Esperanto.

1. Correspondence.

From the very first days of its existence, Esperanto served for international (primarily private) correspondence. Many people are attracted by the opportunity, having mastered one language, to acquire correspondents in various countries of the world.

1. Internet .

The spread of the Internet has a beneficial effect on all dispersed language communities, including Esperanto speakers. Now it is possible to practice the language every day (and not only during international Esperanto meetings) in chat rooms, on news sites, in mail groups, forums and so on. There is an opinion, which is difficult to confirm or refute, that Esperanto ranks second on the Web in terms of the volume of use for interlingual communication. There are distance courses for teaching Esperanto via the Internet, many people communicate in Esperanto on the Web for several years, while not having the experience of oral communication.

1. Esperanto meetings.

Various kinds of congresses, summer camps, festivals and so on. Since the first mass congress in Boulogne - sur - Mayor, this area of ​​​​use of Esperanto has been very popular. Meetings are mass (World Esperanto Congress, IJK, RET and others) and specialized (Railway Congress, Meeting of Cat Lovers, Table Tennis Championship and the like).

1. Use in international families.

There are about a thousand international families in which the main language of family communication is Esperanto. According to the websitewww.ethnologue.com up to 2 thousand people are considered native speakers(denaskaj parolantoj) Esperanto (these are not necessarily children of international marriages, in Russia there are about a lot of children who know Esperanto as their native language with both Russian parents).

1. aesthetic function.

Contrary to expectations, almost from the moment of its appearance, Esperanto began to be used to write the original fiction(both prose and poetry). In 1993, an Esperanto section was formed in the international organization of writers PEN. The first Esperanto novel, Kastelode Prelongo, was published as early as 1907. Esperanto phraseology, "catch phrases" and idioms in this language have become a popular topic for Esperanto studies.

1. The science .

Esperanto is the working language of the International Academy of San Marino (AIS). In a number of countries of Eastern Europe(including in Russia and Estonia) there are universities in which students are required to study Esperanto in the first or second year, and the thesis must be accompanied by a brief annotation in IL (InternaciaLingvo), as Esperanto is often called in AIS. The Esperanto Academy publishes “AkademiajStudoj”, collections of articles are published in Germany, France and other countries. Since the 1920s, a lot of work has been done to develop terminology, dozens of terminological dictionaries (general and special: in chemistry, physics, medicine, jurisprudence, etc.) railways and other sciences).

1. Propaedeutics.

Esperanto is taught in a number of schools around the world as the first language before learning an ethnic language (more often French or Italian). The experiments carried out confirmed the effectiveness of this method. In Gymnasium No. 271 (St. Petersburg), all children learn Esperanto in the first grade, and French in the second grade (Esperanto remains an elective in the middle grades).

1. Business language.

There are examples of the successful use of Esperanto in commerce, in the implementation of major international projects (in particular, the creation of multilingual sites on the Internet, the development of IP-telephony, the organization of international tourism, and so on).

1. Politics and propaganda.

During the Cold War era, Esperanto was actively used by the countries of the socialist camp (China, Hungary, Bulgaria, to a lesser extent Poland and the USSR) to promote socialism. In Esperanto, for example, the famous "Red Book" (Mao's quotation book) was published, many of Lenin's works were published, periodicals about life in the PRC, the USSR and other countries were published. Cuba and China continue to broadcast regular shortwave programs in Esperanto to this day. In China, there are regularly updated information sites in Esperanto, such as http://esperanto.cri.com.cn and others.

Grammar

Valid

Passive

Future

Ont-

present tense

Ant-

Past tense

Int-

Degrees of comparison of adverbs and adjectives

The degrees of comparison are conveyed by additional words. comparative- pli (more), malpli (less), excellent - la plej (most) (for example, important - grava, more important - pli grava, the most important - la plej gravа).

Pronouns and pronominal adverbs

Another convenient system in Esperanto involves the connection of pronouns and some adverbs by dividing them into structural elements.

	quality	causes	time	places	image actions	direction- leniya	belong- bedtime	subject	quantity	faces
indefinite
collective	ĉia	ĉial	ĉiam	eie	ĉiel	ĉien	ĉies	Geo	ĉiom	ĉiu
interrogative		kial	kiam		kiel	Kien	kies		kiom
negative	nenia	neial	neniam	nenie	neniel	nenien	nenies	neonio	neniom	neniu
index		tial	tiam		tiel	Tien	ties		thyom

Flexible word-formation system

Perhaps the main success of Esperanto is its flexible word-formation system. The language contains several dozenprefixes And suffixes , having a constant value and allowing to form from a small numberroots many new words.

Here are some of suffixes :

-et - diminutive suffix
-eg - augmentative suffix,
-ar - a suffix denoting a set of objects,
-il - suffix denoting instrument,
-ul - suffix of a person, creature,
-i - a modern suffix for designating countries.

With the help of these suffixes, it is possible to form words from the roots arb-, dom-, skrib-, bel-, rus- (tree-, house-, pis-, kras-, russ-):

arbeto - tree,
arbaro - forest,
domego - house,
skribilo - pen (or pencil);,
belulo - handsome
Rusio - Russia.

There are also, for example, suffixes that make it possible to form the names of fruit trees from the names of fruits ( piro "pear", pirujo “pear (tree)”), part of the whole (-er-), thing; there are prefixes with the meanings “kinship through marriage” (bo-), “both sexes” (ge-), an antonym to this word (mal-).

Diacritics set

Specifically Esperanto letters with "lids" (diacritics ) are not found in the standard Windows keyboard layouts, which led to the creation of special programs for quickly typing these letters (Ek! , addition to firefox abcTajpu , macros for Microsoft Word , custom keyboard layouts, and others). There are Esperanto layouts underlinux : specifically in the standard distributionubuntu . Most Internet sites (including the Esperanto section of Wikipedia) automatically convert characters with x's typed in postpositions (x is not included in the Esperanto alphabet and can be considered as a service character) into characters with diacritics (for example, from the combination jx turns out ĵ ). Similar typing systems with diacritics (two consecutively pressed keys type one character) exist in keyboard layouts for other languages ​​as well, such as the "Canadian multilingual" layout for typing French diacritics. A letter can also be used instead of a diacritic. h in postposition (Zamenhof advised this alternative notation in the first language textbook: "Printing houses that do not have the letters ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ may initially use ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u”), but this method makes the spelling non-phonemic and makes automatic sorting and transcoding difficult. With the spreadUnicode this method (as well as others, such as diacritics in postposition - g’o, g^o and the like) is less and less common in Esperanto texts.

Basic language facts

Esperanto is intended to serve as a universal international language, the second (after the native) for everyone educated person. It is assumed that the presence of a neutral (non-ethnic) and easy-to-learn language could bring interlingual contacts to a qualitatively new level. In addition, Esperanto has a large- greatly facilitates the subsequent study of other languages.

Alphabet and reading

Alphabet Esperanto is based onLatin . Alphabetically 28 letters : A, B, C, Ĉ, D, E, F, G, Ĝ, H, Ĥ, I, J, Ĵ, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, Ŝ, T, U , Ŭ, V, Z (special letters addedĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ; graphemes q, w, x, y are not included in the Esperanto alphabet), which correspond to 28 sounds - five vowels, two semivowels and 21 consonants. In the alphabet, letters are called like this: consonants - consonant + o, vowels - just a vowel: A - a, B-bo C - co and so on.

Each letter corresponds to one sound (phonemic letter). The reading of a letter does not depend on the position in the word (in particular, voiced consonants at the end of a word are not stunned, unstressed vowels are not reduced). Stress in words is fixed - it always falls on the second syllable from the end (the last syllable of the stem). The pronunciation of many letters can be assumed without special training (M, N, K and others), the pronunciation of others must be remembered:

• C(co ) is pronounced like Russian c: centro, sceno [scene], caro [tsaro] "king",
• Ĉ (ĉo ) is pronounced like Russian h: ĉefo "chief", "head"; ,
• G (go ) is always read as g: grupo, geografio [geographic],
• Ĝ (ĝo) African , pronounced like a confluent jj (as in the quickly spoken word "jungle"), it does not have an exact match in Russian: Cardeno [giardeno] - garden, etaco [etajo] "floor",
• H(ho ) is pronounced as a voiceless overtone (English h): horizonto , sometimes as Ukrainian or South Russian "g",
• Ĥ (ĥo ) is pronounced like Russian x:ĥameleono, ĥirurgo, ĥolero,
• J (jo) - like Russian th: jaguaro, jam "already",
• Ĵ (ĵo) - Russian f: ĵargono, ĵaluzo "jealousy", ĵurnalisto,
• L (lo) - neutral l (the wide boundaries of this phoneme make it possible to pronounce it like the Russian “soft l”),
• Ŝ (ŝo) - Russian sh: ŝi - she, ŝablono,
• Ŭ (ŭo ) - short y corresponding to English w and modern Polish ł; in Russian it is heard in the words "pause", "howitzer": paŭzo [paўzo], Eŭropo [europo] "Europe". This letter is a semivowel and does not form a syllable.

From the history of Esperanto

The creator of Esperanto, doctor Ludvik Markovich Zamenhof, was fluent in several languages, two of which were Slavic (Russian And Polish ). The first Esperanto textbook was published inWarsaw in summer years in Russian, then in 1887 - 1888 - in Polish, German and French, a little later - in English. He signed his work "Doctor Esperanto", which is translated from Esperanto as "Hopeful". Zamenhof hoped that this language would win. Time dictated that such a language is simply vital.

During the entire first period of its history (1887-) new language most actively distributed in Russia. Three-quarters of the subscribers of the first Esperanto periodicals ("Lingvo International» And " La Esperantisto» ) were subjectsRussian Empire . Among the first translations that laid the foundations of the Esperanto literary style were the works of Russian writers: N.V.Gogol , "Snowstorm" A.S. Pushkin , "Princess Mary" M.Yu.Lermontov and others.

Until the early 20th century, Esperanto was essentially a written language. According to Edmond Prive, in the West, supporters of the language did not dare to speak it, although they had already written, composed and translated a lot. The Esperantist magazine in November 1902 publishes the impressions of the Russian colonel Levitsky on a trip to France, who colorfully describes his first conversation in Esperanto: how difficult and unusual it was in the first minutes, and how after an hour the speakers forgot that everyone speaks a foreign language for themselves language. Esperanto magazines of that time are full of similar impressions - the use of Esperanto in oral communication was still a curiosity.

A new stage in the use of the language unfolded on the shores of the Pas de Calais: in August 1904, meetings of the Esperantists of England and France were held in the cities of Dover and Calais, where there were a lot of people who were surprised by the simplicity and logic of the language. The success of these meetings gave birth to the idea of ​​the World Esperanto Congress.

In 1905, in the French city of Boulogne-sur-Mare, the first World Esperanto Congress was held, which brought together 700 participants from many countries of the world. Here, for the first time, many heard how songs in the new language sound; there have been many different discussions - in particular, the well-known "Declaration on the Essence of Esperantism" was adopted, which emphasizes that "anyone who knows and uses the Esperanto language, regardless of goals" is called an Esperantist, that is, according to this declaration, "Esperantist" - "speaking Esperanto". Since then, the use of Esperanto for the preparation of various statements, manifestos and similar documents has become one of the most frequent areas of use of this language.

First World War interrupted the rapid development of Esperanto in Europe. During the war in the occupiedL. Zamenhof died in Warsaw.

After the war, a new sphere of language use was clearly outlined - political. Esperanto became popular among the workers and socialists of the young Soviet Republic, even supported by the authorities, because it corresponded to the idea of ​​a world revolution (the world language could, according to the then leaders, could be the language of a world revolution). In the 1920s, inscriptions on Soviet postcards were made simultaneously in Russian and Esperanto, radio broadcasts were made in Esperanto, and books were published. By the mid-1930s, the opinion began to be voiced that it would be logical to make Esperanto the language of interethnic communication in the USSR. This would be entirely in line with Lenin's national policy ("no privileges to any of the languages!"). The Esperanto University was founded in Leningrad. but Stalinist repressions nothing was left of the Esperanto movement in the country: the situation when a simple Soviet worker corresponded directly with the workers of France, Germany and other countries did not suit the leader (it is documented that these letters also expressed disappointment in Soviet-style socialism); in addition, those who carried a foreign culture were considered enemies of the people, and Esperantists, moreover, went to congresses abroad. The communists accused the supporters of the Esperanto language of cosmopolitanism, that it was an alien ideology for the country. Many Esperantists were repressed and shot. And only after the war

Esperanto became deadly and in Nazi Germany, where it was declared the language of Jews and communists.

During the Second World War, Esperanto speakers in Switzerland did a great deal for the transit of letters and help between the warring parties. In the 1950s, UNESCO adopted a resolution recognizing the cultural value of Esperanto, its value for public diplomacy and the merits of Esperantists in the struggle for peace. At the same time, after the death of Stalin, Esperanto was revived in the USSR - this was facilitated by joining Soviet Union the Baltic States, where Esperantists were not repressed; the revival was even forced "from above" in connection with the International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957.

Currently, there are (according to various sources) from 2 to 500 million Esperanto speakers in the world (only in St. Petersburg alone, there are slightly less than 1 million Esperanto speakers). This language is popular in Hungary, Poland, France, Japan and many other countries. INyear Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA,World Esperanto Association ) had members in 114 countries. There are about 120 Esperanto clubs in different countries. One of them is the St. Petersburg club "Esperanto", which in 2008 will celebrate 116 years since its foundation and 52 years since its revival (before the revolution, Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov was a member of the club).

Every year, the World Esperanto Congress (Universala Kongreso) is held in different countries of the world (2006 - Florence, 2007 - Japan, in 2008 the 93rd Esperanto Congress in Africa will be held), which gathers from one and a half to five thousand participants.

Other artificial languages, before they had time to appear, suffered a fiasco, because no culture developed around them. A lot of literature has been written in Esperanto; there is a virtual country of Esperantido with its president, the Italian writer Rinato Corsetti; Esperantists also have their own anthem, flag, and emblem.

Esperanto vocabulary

Most of the Esperanto vocabulary consists of Romance and Germanic roots, as well as internationalisms.Latin And Greek origin. There are a small number of stems borrowed from or through the Slavic (Russian and Polish) languages. Borrowed words adapt toEsperanto phonology and are written in the phonemic alphabet (that is, the original spelling of the source language is not preserved).

• Borrowing fromFrench : when borrowed from French, most stems have undergone regular sound changes (for example, /sh/ became /h/). Many Esperanto verb stems are taken from French ( iri "to go", maĉi "to chew", marŝi "to walk", kuri "to run", promeni "walk" and others).
• Borrowing fromEnglish : at the time of the founding of Esperanto as an international project, the English language did not have its current distribution, so the English vocabulary is rather poorly represented in the main vocabulary of Esperanto ( fajro "fire", birdo "bird", jes "yes" and some other words). True, several international anglicisms have recently entered the Esperanto dictionary, such as bajto "byte" (but also "bitoko" - literally "bit-eight"), blogo "blog", defaŭlte "default",managerero"manager" and others.
• Borrowing fromGerman : the main vocabulary of Esperanto includes such German stems asNur"only",danko"gratitude",ŝlosi"lock up"morgatu"tomorrow",tago"day",jaro"year" and others.
• Borrowing fromSlaviclanguages:barakti"flounder",klopodi"to bother"kartavi"burr",krom"except" and others.

On the whole, the Esperanto lexical system manifests itself as autonomous, reluctant to borrow new foundations. For new concepts, a new word is usually created from elements already existing in the language, which is facilitated by the rich possibilities of word formation. This feature of the language allows you to minimize the number of roots and affixes needed to master Esperanto. A vivid illustration here can be a comparison with the Russian language:

• Englishsite, rus.website, esp.racaro,
• Englishprinter, rus.a printer, esp.printilo,
• Englishbrowser, rus.browser/ browser, esp.retumilo, krozilo,
• Englishinternet, rus.the Internet, esp.interreto.

Regarding the Slavic influence onphonological level, we can say that in Esperanto there is not a single phoneme that would not be in Russian or Polish. The Esperanto alphabet resembles the Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene alphabets (there are no symbolsq, w, x, characters with diacritics are actively used:ĉ , ĝ , ĥ , ĵ , ŝ , ŭ ). In vocabulary, with the exception of words denoting purely Slavic realities (bareo"borscht" and others) from 2612 roots, presented in "Universala Vortaro" ( ) only 29 could be borrowed from Russian or Polish. Explicit Russian borrowings arebanto, barakti, gladi, kartavi, krom(except),kruta, nepre(of course)rights, vosto(tail) and some others. However, the Slavic influence in vocabulary is manifested in the active use of prepositions as prefixes with a change in meaning (for example,sub"under",aceti"buy" -subaceti"bribe";aŭskulti"listen" -subatskulti"eavesdrop"). The doubling of the stems is identical to that in Russian:plena - plena- compare: "full-full",finfine- compare: "in the end." Some Slavicisms of the first years of Esperanto were leveled over time: for example, the verbelrigardi(el-rigard-i) "look" replaced with new -aspect. In the syntax of some prepositions and conjunctions, the Slavic influence is preserved, which was once even greater (kvankam teorie… sed en la praktiko…“although in theory… but in practice…”). According to the Slavic model, the coordination of times is also carried out (Li diriske li jam faristion"He said he already did it"Li diris, ke li estostie"He said he would be there."

Also, the system of conjunctions in Esperanto is largely similar to the system of conjunctions in Russian:

	KI-	TI-	I-	NENI-	ĈI-
U	kiu tothen	tiu Tfrom	iu who-then	neniu neitherwho	ĉiu sunyakiy
O	kio what	tio Tfrom	io what-then	neonio neitherwhat	Geo sune
A	kia towhat	tia Twhat	ia which-then	nenia neitherwhich	ĉia sunyachesky
E	kie where	tie Tam	ie where-then	nenie neitherwhere	eie indriving
EN	Kien togood luck	Tien Tgood luck	ien where-then	nenien neitherwhere	ĉien anywhere
AM	kiam towhen	tiam Twhen	iam when-then	neniam neitherwhen	ĉiam sunalways
OM	kiom fromtoonly	thyom fromTonly	iom How many-then	neniom neitherHow many	ĉiom entirely
EL	kiel toak	tiel Tak	iel how-then	neniel neitherhow	ĉiel suncellularly
AL	kial why	tial onTamu	ial why-then	neial for no reason	ĉial onsunfor some reason
ES	kies whose	ties TWow	ies whose-then	nenies neitherwhose	ĉies sunex

It can be said that the influence of the Slavic languages ​​(primarily Russian) on Esperanto is much stronger than is commonly believed, and exceeds the influence of the Romance and Germanic languages. Modern Esperanto, after the "Russian" and "French" periods, has entered the so-called "international" period, when individual ethnic languages ​​no longer have a serious influence on its further development.

Specialized vocabulary is not sufficiently developed, although active work is underway in this area. IN different years special dictionaries were published, including multilingual ones, in mathematics, chemistry, medicine and other sciences. The insufficient development of terminology is often cited as one of the reasons for the relatively small spread of Esperanto. In colloquial Esperanto, there is a tendency to replace words of Latin origin with words formed from Esperanto roots in a descriptive manner (flood -altakvaĵoinstead of vocabularyinundo, extra -troainstead of vocabularysuperflua, as in the proverbla tria estas troa - third wheeletc). In Russian, the most famous are Esperanto - Russian and Russian - Esperanto dictionaries, compiled by a famous Caucasian linguist

Globalization modern world shows more and more cultural pluralism and at the same time requires more and more unity, including linguistic. That is, there must be some mutual language, not belonging to any people, but bearing culture different peoples, a language that brings people together, not divides.

More than 100 years ago, Ludwik Zamenhof (1859-1917) created an auxiliary artificial language Esperanto, which does not displace national languages ​​and acts as a peacemaking language of international communication. Today it is owned by tens of millions of people in almost all countries of the world. It has every reason to become the language of global communication in the 21st century.

This project is designed for decades and involves the gradual spread in the world of a single international language of communication, which, from our point of view, can only be the artificial language Esperanto. This language cannot replace the existing national languages, it should only supplement them, performing the function of the language of international communication. The limitation of this function will not allow him to replace international communication with the ethnic features of this or that natural language. Esperanto is intended to serve as a universal international language, the second (after the native) for every educated person. In addition, Esperanto has a largepedagogical (propaedeutic) value - greatly facilitates the subsequent study of other languages. Knowledge of the Esperanto language from a young age will increase the level of tolerance in society, that is, instill tolerance for other languages, for other views.

The now widespread English language cannot effectively fulfill the function of the language of international communication precisely because of its national identity. The spread of English in this function expresses the social inequality of languages ​​and cultures. Any non-speaking ethnic group will ask the question: "Why are the national features of the English language elevated to the rank of a world language?" The dominance of the English language arouses suspicion, introduces additional disharmony and cultural friction. In addition, English itself exists in various versions: American, Australian, Caribbean, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Irish, and so on, which significantly complicates not only international communication in general, but also communication between ethnic groups speaking different English languages. And in order to preserve the originality of English culture, it is hardly advisable to turn this language into an international one. Genuine globalism preserves rather than suppresses identity. Many sociologists rightly pointed out the perniciousness and fallacy of the spread of English as an international language: A. Touraine, M. Veverka, M. Sasaki, T. Suzuki and others.

On the other hand, why should Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, African and other language worlds on the planet use English for international communication? Why not vice versa? Such questions are quite legitimate and justified. They are removed by the voluntary adoption of an artificial language equal to all without exception.

Esperanto, which has been tested for more than a century, has millions of adherents in almost 120 countries of the world, is very simple and convenient to use, write and pronounce. In the "Declaration of Esperantism", adopted in 1905 by the International Congress of Esperantists, the essence of Esperanto and Esperantism is defined as follows: , would give people of different nations the opportunity to communicate with each other, which could serve as a peacekeeping language of public institutions in those countries where different nations are at enmity with each other because of the language ... Since at present not a single researcher in the world doubts that international only an artificial language can be a language, and since practically all of the great many attempts made over the past two centuries are only theoretical projects, and the language is really complete, comprehensively tested, completely viable and in all respects the most suitable is only one language - E speranto, supporters of the idea of ​​an international language, realizing that a theoretical dispute will lead nowhere and the goal can only be achieved practical work, have long united around one language - Esperanto - and are working to spread it and enrich its literature."

Tetrasociology, as a global theory of social space-time, generalizes the arguments for asserting Esperanto as a single auxiliary language parallel to the national world language. They are the following:

1. Global space - modern time social peace, created by global communications and technologies, exacerbates the issue of adopting a single world language. He becomes necessary condition further development, improving the quality of technology, labor, culture, interethnic cooperation, marriages, interfaith associations. The powerful pluralism generated by the Internet requires adequate unity, including language.
2. English, as the most common language, cannot claim the status of a world language, since it inevitably limits the vision of the world to the English-language vision (A. Touraine, T. Suzuki), the dominance of which is recognized as “harmful” for other national languages ​​and world culture. In addition, the interests of preserving the English-speaking identity will sooner or later become an insurmountable obstacle to its transformation into a single language.
3. Of all the artificial languages, Esperanto is extremely easy to use and proven by centuries of practice. There is no better candidate for the role of a single language.

Sociologists can help Esperanto establish itself as a single language of international communication, for example by putting forward the idea of ​​convening a World Summit on Esperanto and adopting it as the official language of the International Sociological Association.

Today there are more than 6,000 languages ​​in the world that are still alive and used by people in their speech. One of them is Esperanto - this is an unusual dialect with a very important mission - unification. How can it fulfill it?

Esperanto - what is it?

As already mentioned, this is an unusual language. It is used by people all over the world and, perhaps, has considerable fame. Esperanto is a so-called artificial or planned language. Why artificial? After all, it was not created from time immemorial by entire nations, but only by 1 person - Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof for a fairly short period of time and was presented to him in 1887.

He released the first tutorial in this language - "International language", as Esperanto was first called. This is his purpose.

Why is Esperanto international?

It helps people communicate with each other speaking languages each other, representatives of different nationalities, including common in international marriages for communication between family members. This means that this type of speech does not apply to any particular people or country, that is, it is a neutral language of communication, the same as sign language, for example. In addition, it has a relatively simple structure and rules, which allows you to overcome it in a short time. It is a "language of reconciliation", which helps to maintain tolerant and respectful relations between representatives of different nationalities and cultures, to maintain mutual understanding - this is its main idea.

Culture and social activities

Esperanto is a fairly popular, albeit young, language. It is used both in speech and in writing. Recently, poets and writers have begun to appear who create their works in this dialect, films, songs, websites are created, conferences and forums, seminars, and rallies are held. Translations are also carried out from many languages ​​of the world into the international language Esperanto. Many popular software companies also release versions of their programs for electronic devices on it.

Worldwide fame and distribution

Scattered around the world are a large number of organizations of Esperantists, that is, people who speak this dialect. Most of them live in Europe, the USA, Japan, Brazil and China, while the rest are scattered in almost 100 more countries of the world.

The number of people who speak artificial languages ​​is not accurate. But according to some reports, Esperantists make up from 100 thousand to several million people. About 1000 of them live in Russia. We even have our own Esperanto street, and at one time the first Esperanto club in Russia was opened in Kazan.

Policies of different governments towards Esperanto

The attitude of the authorities to the use of this language in different countries is far from unambiguous. There are those states where it is widely supported, and there are those where it is ignored by the authorities. As a rule, the latter are countries with low social development. But most international associations, such as the UN and UNESCO, are very good at supporting this movement and helping to spread it. UNESCO even adopted 2 resolutions in defense of Esperanto. Also now this language has become very popular among diplomats of various countries. And the city of Herzberg even received the prefix "Esperanto city" in its name, in order to attract Esperantists of various nationalities here to improve interethnic contacts.

Development and study

In most countries of the world, special Esperanto courses have been created in educational institutions. In some of them, it is even taught on a par with the rest. foreign languages. In addition, he has a huge propaedeutic ability. This means that after learning Esperanto, many other languages ​​come easily. You can learn this language not only in courses, which, by the way, are also held in Russia, but also with the help of resources on the Internet.

Symbolism

Esperantists have their own anthem - La Espero (hope). And also a green flag (it also stands for hope) with a five-pointed green star on a white background, which corresponds to the five continents.

In general, the symbol of hope appears very often in Esperanto. Even the word "Esperanto" means "hoping". Its name comes from the pseudonym of the author. He called himself Doctor Esperanto. At first, the language was called the language of Doctor Esperanto, and then reduced to one word. Ludovic Zamenhof himself never explained why he chose such a pseudonym. The first Russian version of this language was released on July 26, since then this day has been Esperanto's birthday. A whole academy of this language was also created. And almost 30 years after the publication of Zamenhof's book, the first world congress was held.

What is Esperanto made of?

It is based on more than 20 different languages ​​of the world. This is Latin (the alphabet was taken from it), and Romance, and Germanic languages ​​\u200b\u200b(German, French, English), as well as Greek and Slavic.

The Esperanto alphabet consists of 28 Latin letters, each corresponding to one sound. Of these, 21 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semivowels. Esperanto has a lot of international words, which is why it is easy to learn and can be partially understood on an intuitive level. If there are any difficulties in learning, you can always turn to dictionaries.

Grammar

The peculiarity of the Esperanto language is that it has an extremely simple grammar, consisting of only 16 rules that do not contain any exceptions.

1. Articles. There is no indefinite article in Esperanto. Definite article ( la) is used in the same way as in other languages. It is also possible not to use it at all.
2. Nouns. All nouns end in -o. There are singular and plural, as well as two cases. When plural added -j. The main case (unchanged) is nominative. The second, accusative, is created with -n. For other cases (genitive, dative, etc.), prepositions are used that are chosen according to their meaning. It is noteworthy that the concept of "gender" in Esperanto does not exist at all. This greatly simplifies his grammar.
3. Adjectives. All adjectives end in -a. Case and number are determined by analogy with nouns (using the endings -j, -n and prepositions). Adjectives also have degrees: comparative (the word pli and conjunction ol) and superlative ( plej).
4. Numerals. There are two types of numbers. The first - fundamental (those that do not decline) - two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one hundred, one thousand. To get hundreds and tens, numbers are simply combined into one word (for example, du is "two", and dek is "ten", so dudek is "twenty"). The second type is ordinal numbers. For them, the ending of the adjective is added. Among the ordinal numbers, there are also plural, fractional and collective.
5. Pronouns. They can be personal - I, you, he, she, it (denotes an object, animal or child), we, they. And also possessive. The latter are obtained by adding the ending -a. Pronouns are declined in the same way as nouns.
6. Verbs. They do not change in person or number. But they distinguish 3 tenses: past, present and future, differ in endings, imperative and conditional mood (also with the addition of endings) and infinitive. There is communion. They are here real and passive, change over time. It uses suffixes, for example -ant, -int, -ont, -at, etc.
7. Adverbs. All adverbs must end in -e and have degrees of comparison, like adjectives (comparative and superlative).
8. Prepositions. Prepositions are used only with nouns and adjectives in the nominative case.
9. Pronunciation and spelling are exactly the same.
10. stress. It is always placed on the penultimate syllable.
11. Word formation. By merging several words, you can form complex words (in this case, the main word is placed at the end).
12. As in English language, negation cannot be used twice in a phrase. For example, you can't say "no one did their job."
13. When a direction is indicated (for example, in a tree, in a kitchen), the accusative ending is used.
14. All prepositions have their own constant meaning. There is also a suggestion je, not having one. It may not be used at all if the accusative case is used.
15. Borrowed words do not change, but they are used following the rules of Esperanto.
16. endings -o(used in nouns) and -a(when in the article la) can be replaced with an apostrophe.

This article could be useful for those who want to get carried away with learning this language or just expand their horizons, it helped to learn a little more about Esperanto, what kind of language it is and where it is used. After all, like all dialects, it also has its own characteristics. For example, the absence of gender in Esperanto - a morphological feature, without which it is impossible to imagine the Russian language. And some other interesting facts. And also, of course, some information about translating from Esperanto and vice versa.

Esperanto is the most widely spoken international planned language. Doctor Esperanto(from lat. Esperanto- hoping) is the pseudonym of Dr. Ludwig (Lazar) Zamenhof, who published the basics of the language in 1887. His intention was to create an easy-to-learn, neutral language for international understanding, which, however, should not replace other languages. At the initiative of Zamenhof, an international language community was created, using Esperanto for various purposes, primarily for travel, correspondence, international meetings and cultural exchange.

The international language of Esperanto makes it possible to have direct contact with people from more than 100 countries where Esperanto is spoken alongside their mother tongue. Esperanto is the link of the international language community. Daily meetings of representatives of a dozen nations: Hungarians, Belgians, Spaniards, Poles and even Japanese, who talk about their everyday problems and share their experiences, are a common thing. Everyday Esperanto is an online discussion between twenty countries: in Indigenaj Dialogoj(Dialogues of One Begotten) Indigenous people from different parts of the world regularly exchange information in Esperanto about the preservation of their culture and rights. Everyday life of Esperanto is when a poem by an Italian published by a Belgian publishing house, a review of which can be found in a Hungarian magazine, becomes a song performed by a Danish-Swedish group and then discussed on the Internet by Brazilians and Nigerians. The world is getting closer, Esperanto is bringing people together.

Thanks to its rich application possibilities, Esperanto gradually became a living language. New concepts quickly take root in it: mobile phone — postelefono(lit. pocket phone, pronounced "posh-telephono"), laptop - tekokomputilo(computer in the briefcase), and the Internet - Interreto(Internet). Esperanto estas mia lingvo(Esperanto is my language)

A bridge language can be learned much faster than other languages. A school experiment showed that Esperanto requires only 20-30% of the time needed to master any other language at the same level. Many learners of Esperanto begin to use it in international communication after 20 lessons. This is possible due to the fact that, firstly, Esperanto, including pronunciation, has clear rules, and secondly, with an optimal word-formation system, the number of roots that need to be memorized is small. Therefore, even speakers of non-European languages ​​find Esperanto much easier than, for example, English.

The grammar of this language is also built according to the rules, and the student quickly enough begins to confidently, and, most importantly, correctly, make sentences. A few years later, learners of Esperanto speak it as if they were their mother tongue. They actively participate in its preservation and contribute to its further development. This practically does not happen with other foreign languages: their study requires a lot of effort, and there are many exceptions to their rules.

Many of those who have mastered Esperanto also know other languages. Esperanto allows you to look at the world as a whole and arouses interest in other national cultures. Someone has learned a planned language after English and has the opportunity to communicate also with people from countries where the latter is not so popular. And someone after Esperanto began to study the languages ​​of different countries, because thanks to this artificial language he learned about these countries and wanted to get more information.

Every year, hundreds of international meetings on Esperanto issues are held, not only in Europe, but also in East Asia, Africa, for example in Togo and Nigeria, in South America. Guest service helps organize personal meetings Passport Servo and the Amikeca Reto Friendship Network. You can communicate in Esperanto every day without leaving your home. There are several million pages on the Internet in this language that unites peoples, and on forums, interlocutors from dozens of countries discuss a variety of topics.

Esperanto songs have been sung for more than a hundred years. Now they are released on CD by about twenty bands, some works can be downloaded from the Internet. Every year about two hundred books and several hundred magazines are published in Esperanto, with which mainly authors from different countries collaborate. For example, Monato magazine publishes articles on politics, economics and culture in about 40 countries. About 10 radio stations broadcast in Esperanto.

Esperanto allows you to take a step towards each other to talk somewhere in the middle. There is no Esperanto-speaking country on the world map. But those who know this language can make acquaintances all over the world.

See also information about Esperanto:

Probably, at least once everyone has heard about Esperanto - a universal language, designed to become global. And although the majority of people in the world still speak Chinese, this invention of the Polish doctor has its own history and prospects. Where did Esperanto come from, what is this innovation in linguistics, who uses it - read on, and we will answer all these questions.

Hope for mutual understanding

Probably, since the construction of the Tower of Babel, mankind has experienced difficulties associated with a misunderstanding of the speech of other peoples.

Esperanto was developed to facilitate communication between people of different countries and cultures. It was first published in 1887 by Dr. Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof (1859-1917). He used the pseudonym "Doctor Esperanto", which means "one who hopes". And so the name of his brainchild appeared, which he carefully developed over the years. The international language Esperanto should be used as a neutral language when speaking between people who do not know each other's language.

It even has its own flag. It looks like this:

Esperanto is much easier to learn than the usual national languages ​​that have developed naturally. Its structure is streamlined and clear.

Lexicon

It would not be an exaggeration to say about Esperanto that it is one of the major European languages. Dr. Zamenhof took very real words for his creation as a basis. About 75% of the vocabulary comes from Latin and Romance languages ​​(especially French), 20% comes from Germanic (German and English), and the rest of the expressions are taken from Slavic languages ​​(Russian and Polish) and Greek (mostly scientific terms). Common words are widely used. Therefore, a person who speaks Russian, even without preparation, will be able to read about 40% of the text in Esperanto.

Phonetic writing is inherent in the language, that is, each word is pronounced exactly as it is written. There are no unpronounceable letters or exceptions, making it much easier to learn and use.

How many people speak Esperanto?

This is a very common question, but no one really knows the exact answer. The only way to reliably determine the number of people who speak Esperanto is to conduct a worldwide census, which, of course, is almost impossible.

However, Professor Sidney Culbert of the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) has done the most comprehensive research on the use of this language. He has conducted interviews with Esperanto speakers in dozens of countries around the world. Based on this study, Professor Culbert concluded that about two million people use it. This puts it on a par with languages ​​such as Lithuanian and Hebrew.

Sometimes the number of Esperanto speakers is exaggerated or, conversely, reduced to a minimum, figures vary from 100,000 to 8 million people.

Popularity in Russia

The Esperanto language has many ardent admirers. Did you know that there is an Esperanto street in Russia too? Kazan became the first city of the then Russian Empire, where a club dedicated to the study and dissemination of this language was opened. It was founded by several intellectual activists who enthusiastically accepted the idea of ​​Dr. Zamenhof and began to promote it. Then professors and students of Kazan University opened their own small club in 1906, which could not last long in the turbulent years of the early twentieth century. But after civil war the movement resumed, even a newspaper about Esperanto appeared. The language became more and more popular, as it corresponded to the concept of the Communist Party, calling for the unification of different peoples in the name of the World Revolution. Therefore, in 1930, the street on which the Esperanto club was located received a new name - Esperanto. However, in 1947 it was renamed again in honor of the politician. At the same time, participation in the study of this language became dangerous, and since then its popularity has declined significantly. But the Esperantists did not give up, and in 1988 the street got its former name.

In total, there are about 1000 native speakers in Russia. On the one hand, this is not enough, but on the other hand, given that only enthusiasts in clubs study the language, this is not such a small figure.

Letters

The alphabet is based on Latin. It contains 28 letters. Since each of them corresponds to a sound, there are also 28 of them, namely: 21 consonants, 5 vowels and 2 semivowels.

In Esperanto, the letters familiar to us from the Latin alphabet sometimes come in twos and are written with a “house” (an inverted check mark on top). So Dr. Zamenhof introduced the new sounds that were needed for his language.

Grammar and sentence construction

Confessed here too main principle Esperanto - simplicity and clarity. There are no genders in the language, and the order of words in a sentence is arbitrary. There are only two cases, three tenses and three. There is an extensive system of prefixes and suffixes, with which you can create many new words from one root.

The flexible word order in a sentence allows people of different backgrounds to use the structures they are most familiar with while still speaking perfectly understandable and grammatically correct Esperanto.

Practical use

New knowledge never hurts, but here are some specific benefits you can get from learning Esperanto:

• It is an ideal second language that can be learned quickly and easily.
• Possibility to correspond with dozens of people from other countries.
• It can be used to see the world. There are lists of Esperantists who are ready to host other native speakers in their own house or apartment for free.
• international understanding. Esperanto helps break down language barriers between countries.
• The opportunity to meet people from other countries at conventions, or when foreign Esperanto speakers come to visit you. It is also a good way to meet interesting compatriots.

• International equality. When using the national language, one person must make an effort to learn an unfamiliar speech, while someone only uses knowledge from birth. Esperanto is a step towards each other, because both interlocutors have worked hard to learn it and make communication possible.
• Translations of masterpieces of literature. Many works have been translated into Esperanto, some of which may not be available in the Esperantist's native language.

disadvantages

For more than 100 years, the most widespread artificial language has had both admirers and critics. They say about Esperanto that it's just another funny leftover, like phrenology or spiritualism. For all the time of its existence, it never became a world language. Moreover, humanity does not show much enthusiasm for this idea.

Critics also argue about Esperanto that it is not at all an easy language, but a difficult language to learn. Its grammar has many unspoken rules, and writing letters is difficult on a modern keyboard. Representatives of different countries are constantly trying to make their own amendments to improve it. This leads to disputes and differences in training materials. Also questioned is its euphony.

But fans of this language argue that 100 years is too short for the whole world to speak the same language, and given the current number of native speakers, Esperanto has its own future.