About Esperanto
What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is a language, but not of any country or ethnic group: it is a neutral, international language, very easy to learn and created to facilitate communication among people from different countries. Word Esperanto means the man who hopes.
Origins
The basic rules and words of Esperanto were proposed by Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof in his first book titled: “International Language: Foreword and Complete Textbook” published in 1887 by the pseudonym “Doktoro Esperanto” (Doctor Hopeful), from which the name of language derives. Within a few years, people started learning it and formed Esperanto associations, and spread it to a worldwide community.
Characteristics
Esperanto has a number of features that make it relatively easy to learn: A regular and phonetic spelling system. Can you just imagine how much time young Chinese spend learning characters of their language, and the American school child must spend a lot of time learning to spell words, the Esperanto system (one letter equals one sound) can be learn in very short period of time approximately half an hour on average (Serbs, Croats need just a few minutes because Serbian, which is very similar to Croatian, was reformed by Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic. He used principle of Johann Christoph Adelung to push through his language reform: “Write as you speak and read as it is written”. Karadzic's reform has brought to the ideal system where one sound is represented by only one letter, and one letter represents only one sound.).
Very important feature is regular and exception-free formal grammar. Let me give few rules to illustrate Esperanto grammar:
- NOUNS have ending –o (hundo = dog), to form plural add the ending –j (hundoj = dogs), only two cases: nominative and accusative, the latter can be obtained from the nominative by adding the ending –n (hundo = dog, hundon = dog)
- ADJECTIVES have ending –a (blanka hundo = white dog), cases and numbers are as for nouns (plural accusative blankajn hundojn = white dogs)
- ADVERBS have ending –e (La tigro rapide kuris. = the tiger ran fast.)
- VERBS do not change for person or number. Forms of verb: present time takes ending –as (Mi kuras = I run), past time –is (Mi kuris = I ran), future time –os (Mi kuros = I will run), conditional mood –us (Mi kurus = I would run), command mood –u (Kuru = run), infinitive mood –i (kuri = to run).
- The ACCENT always falls on the next-to-last syllable (vowel)
Esperanto has a very regular structure. Words are often formed by putting other words together (like German), so there are fewer words that must be learnt. You can use imagination as much as you can to mix word-roots, affixes, and particles and create Esperanto words which have perfectly understandable meaning.
Esperanto vocabulary is comprised of words similar to Latin, Germanic and Slavic words.
Using Esperanto
Young people can have very meaningful experiences using Esperanto: by staying as a guest in private homes abroad and making direct contact with their cultures (possibility to travel inexpensively using “Pasporta Servo” – Passport service is an international hospitality network and you can stay at more than 1000 hosts in almost 100 countries that appear in the list which you can buy at the beginning of each year or you can get the list at no cost if you become a host), having fun at international festivals (IJK, IJS, MEJS, MELA and many more), gaining knowledge and skills at seminars (…), coming in contact with several foreign languages and learning more about them, and eventually actively working with TEJO (World Esperanto Youth Organization) and gaining valuable experience.
Personal impressions about Esperanto
As a child I dreamed when I grow up to travel, see many beautiful places, meet many people, and make friends from different cultures. At that moment I have only heard about Esperanto (it was a quiz question) but I didn’t know anything about it. Till the 1995 I didn’t have a clue that very soon I will join in Serbian Esperanto Youth Organization. I was told by friends of mine about their travel with Esperanto fellows to Italy and I have decided that I will join in them on a next Esperanto trip to Hungary. Before the meeting in small town Tata (West part of Hungary) I knew just a few Esperanto words, but that didn’t stop me to meet many interesting people among about 250 participants mostly from all European countries. During that meeting I took Esperanto course and from the first steps of my Esperanto escapades I knew that I could combine my childhood wishes to travel with Esperanto language and values.
Esperanto festivals visited
I have participated in several Esperanto festivals, which are mostly about enjoying with other Esperanto fellows:
IJS – Internacia Junulara Semajno (International Youth Week)
1995 Tata (West part of Hungary near Gyor)
1996 Eger (East part of Hungary near Miskolc)
MEJS – Mez Europa Junulara Semajno (Middle Europe Youth Week)
1995 Tata (West part of Hungary near Gyor)
MELA – Memzorganta Lagumado (Self-arranged lake nature enjoyment)
1996 Délegyháza, 34 km from Budapest towards south – Hungary
Esperanto seminars visited
I have been participant to several Esperanto seminars sponsored by World Esperanto Youth Organization and a chance to participate in resolving many issues, listen lectures of Esperanto, local comunity, and international trainers, practise many new skills for example brainstorming, planing projects etc. and above all to meet many interesting Esperanto peers from Europre and further afield:
"Language rights – language policy", Budapest, Hungary, 11th - 18th October 1998
Participants had opportunities, with the help of experts in this field, to discuss many issues of importance of the language for both individuals and groups, how is the language politics established in different countries, what are the solutions for language conflicts and barriers. The main goal of seminar was to elaborate the language politic for World Esperanto Youth Organization. The seminar was conducted at the Council of Europe Youth Centre in Budapest, sponsored by Council of Europe and organized by World Esperanto Youth Organization with more than 40 participants from many European countries.
“Planning projects”, Paradfurdo, Hungary, end of October 1997
Meeting of Mid-Europe and Balkan Esperanto Youth Organizations discussed plans for the future, common projects, participated in training session "How to plan projects".
“Education for Peace”, La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, 4th - 11th October 1997
About 30 young people from the whole of Europe and further afield met at La Chaux-de-Fonds to discuss the subject of education for peace. They were all under thirty and came from different countries including France, Ukraine, Albania and Iran. They came to attend a seminar on education held at La Chaux-de-Fonds from 4th to 11th October. The subject of education for peace was approached through role-plays and similar activities, the main activities being initially more of a practical nature. Everybody had an opportunity to subject themselves to analysis and managed to discover their own prejudices as well as their own reactions in a conflict situation - the atmosphere being rather tense at times. Discussions were held on subjects such as the juridical aspects of human rights and the Swiss pioneers in pacifist thinking, with specialist speakers from Switzerland and Germany. One special feature of the seminar was the fact that even though the participants came from such diverse countries, there was no need for translation as everybody spoke Esperanto. The participants were thus able to take full advantage of this experience and establish new contacts. The seminar was organised by TEJO, with the help of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and Fondation Rencontre 2001 in Lenzburg.
"Youth without borders - Working for International Understanding”, Lublin, Poland, 26th October - 2nd November 1996
Esperanto-speaking, 18-30 year-old Scouts and Guides from all over Europe are invited to participate. The participation fee is favourable and a significant part of the travel costs was reimbursed. The programme is designed to empower the participants to work efficiently for international understanding, for "youth without borders" within the Scout and Guide and Esperanto movements by exploring their own experiences as well as by learning from experts and other participants.
Links
Tutmonda Esperantista Junulara Organizo, The World Esperanto Youth Organization
http://www.tejo.org/info/index.php?lingvo=en
Learn Esperanto
http://www.lernu.net/lernu.php?lingvo=en
The sixteen rules of Esperanto Grammar
http://www.webcom.com/~donh/Esperanto/rules.html
Grammatical summary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto_grammar
Passport service
http://www.tejo.org/ps/ps_lingv/ps_inf_en.htm
