Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?

As my esteemed colleague Mario mentioned in a previous blog post, the idea of a common world language is one that is becoming increasingly more popular as time wears on and the world becomes more and more based on global standards and economies. In business operations, the language barrier is quite possibly the most prominent difficulty of transaction; naturally, when one party does not speak the language of another, problems emerge. While the idea of establishing a common language might be considered a relatively new one by some, the theory is, in fact, over a century old, and it is known by the name Esperanto.
The language itself is, to my Midwest comrades, at least, relatively unknown; if you, reader, also find yourself unenlightened in regards to the language known as Esperanto, allow me to digress while I fill in the shades of grey in the back-story. Esperanto is what is known as an international auxiliary language, created by Polish ophthalmologist Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof in the years of the late 1870s and early 1880s; he published his first opus of grammatical ins and outs in 1887. Zamenhof’s theory was that Esperanto would be a second language for people of different native tongues, and would be a means to allow them to communicate while maintaining a sense of cultural identity in their native language. The language soon took off, gaining popularity primarily in regions of Eastern Europe and the areas controlled by Russia. However, the language was not popular with everyone; in fact, Joseph Stalin called it the “language of spies,” and banned its use in his territories in the years spanning 1937 to 1956. This Communist leader is now dead, and Esperanto continues to rise to popularity, with a push by such organizations as EsperantoUSA. These pro-Esperanto societies cite a variety of important arguments in their push to establish Esperanto as the primary method of neutral communication across the globe. Two of the most commonly cited, and my personal favorite, are that…

= Esperanto is an easy language to learn. Unlike English, French, or Japanese, for example, words are made from common roots and are phonetic. Some even claim that it is up to four times easier to learn than the average Romance, Oriental, or Slavic language.

= The language is neutral, and is not the official spoken language of any particular country.

The last piece of information is one that is quite essential in the formulation of my opinion as to the viability of Esperanto as an international, one world language. In selecting a language to serve as the common-communication tongue, those selecting would be wise to take heed of the messages sent by the selection of that language. For example, by naming Arabic as the language of choice, the impression accidentally received by the general populace is that a certain trait of Arabic culture, or of the structural components of the language itself, is superior to that of the culture of England, or Spain, for example. The bureaucrats of Spain, furious at this apparent snubbery, directs their anger toward Saudi Arabian despots and the international relations of the world become suddenly icy and complicated due to this anger, precisely the effect that a language such as Esperanto hopes to avoid. However, I also find myself wondering if establishing a neutral language, such as Esperanto, as the main language of communication won’t achieve a similar effect; that is, will countries feel slighted by the idea that their language “wasn’t good enough” to be the international communication language? My instinct is to say no, and hope that the leaders of said countries would have the presence of mind to see reason and understand that such a choice would be made merely to aid the speed of communication, and ease thereof, in business and international relations. However, if we are not mature enough to keep the decision process from becoming a mudslinging one, I would come to the conclusion that we are not yet ready for a common language at all.

For the limited few of you waiting on this blog post, please forgive my delay; I’ve been without Internet + computer for the past few days.