Esperanto is an international language. 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.

Vocabulary

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 the professors and students of Kazan University opened their own small club in 1906, which could not last long in the tumultuous years of the early twentieth century. But after the 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

Here, too, the main principle of Esperanto is confessed - 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.

Flaws

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 teaching 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.

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 published the first textbook on this language - "International Language", as Esperanto was first called. This is his purpose.

Why is Esperanto international?

It helps to communicate with each other to people who do not know each other's languages, representatives of different nationalities, including common in international marriages for communication between family members. This means that this type of speech does not refer 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, 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 other 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. In case of plural, add -j. The main case (unchanged) is nominative. The second, accusative, is created with -n. For others cases (genitive, dative, etc.) prepositions are used that are selected according to the 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 the 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 combining several words, you can form Difficult words(In this case, the main word is placed at the end).
12. As in English, a negative 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 involved in 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.

Image copyright Jose Luis Penarredonda

Esperanto was spoken by a fairly small number of people during the century of its existence. But today, this unique language invented by a Polish doctor is experiencing a real revival. Why did people start learning a language without having ingnationality and long history?

In a small house in north London, six young people enthusiastically attend language lessons every week. It has been studied for 130 years - a tradition that has survived wars and chaos, neglect and oblivion, Hitler and Stalin.

They do not practice this language in order to travel to another country. He will not help them find a job or explain themselves in a store abroad.

Most of them communicate in this language only once a week in these classes.

However, this is an absolutely full-fledged language in which they write poetry or swear.

Although it first appeared in a small booklet written by Ludwik L. Zamenhof in 1887, it became the most developed and most popular artificial language ever created.

And yet many will tell you that Esperanto is a failure. More than a century after its creation, no more than two million people speak this language - only some too extravagant hobby can have such a number of supporters.

But why is the number of Esperanto speakers on the rise today?

From the League of Nations to Speakers' Corner

Esperanto was supposed to be the only language of international communication, the second after the native one for every person in the world. That is why it is quite easy to learn. All words and sentences are built according to clear rules, of which there are 16 in total.

Esperanto does not have the confusing exceptions and grammatical forms of other languages, and its vocabulary is borrowed from English, German, and several Romance languages ​​such as French, Spanish, or Italian.

Esperanto was to be the language of the future. It was introduced at the International Exhibition in 1900 in Paris, and soon the French intelligentsia became fascinated with the language, which considered it a manifestation of the modernist desire to improve the world through rationality and science.

The strict rules and clear logic of this language corresponded to the modern worldview. Esperanto seemed to be a more perfect communication tool than "natural" languages, full of illogicalities and oddities.

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Initially, great hopes were placed on Esperanto.

In the first language textbook, Zamenhof argued that if everyone spoke the same language, "education, ideals, convictions and goals would be common, and all peoples would be united in a single brotherhood."

The language was to be called simply lingvo internacia, that is, the international language.

However, Zamenhof's pseudonym "Doctor Esperanto" - "doctor who hopes" - turned out to be more accurate.

The colors of the official flag of the language - green and white - symbolize hope and peace, and the emblem - a five-pointed star - corresponds to the five continents.

The idea of ​​a common language that would unite the world resonated in Europe. Some of Esperanto's supporters have held important government positions in several countries, and Zamenhof himself has been nominated 14 times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

There was even an attempt to create a country whose inhabitants would speak Esperanto.

The state of Amikeho was founded on a small territory of 3.5 square meters. km between the Netherlands, Germany and France, which throughout history has been a kind of "no man's land".

Image copyright Alamy

Soon the lean, bearded ophthalmologist became something of a patron saint of Esperantia, the "nation" of Esperanto speakers.

At recent congresses, participants staged processions with portraits of the doctor, not too different from the religious marches of Catholics on Good Friday.

Numerous statues and plaques around the world have been erected in honor of Dr. Zamenhof, streets, an asteroid and a species of lichen bear his name.

In Japan, there is even a religious sect Oomoto, its members promote communication in Esperanto and honor Zamenhof as one of their deities.

Even when the First World War put aside the idea of ​​creating Amikejo and the dreams of world peace became too illusory, the Esperanto language continued to flourish.

It could have become the official language of the newly created League of Nations if France had not voted against it.

But the Second World War put an end to the heyday of Esperanto.

Both dictators, Stalin and Hitler, began persecuting Esperantists. The first - because he saw Esperanto as an instrument of Zionism, the second did not like the anti-nationalist ideals of the community.

Esperanto was spoken in Nazi concentration camps - Zamenhof's children died in Treblinka, Soviet Esperantists were sent to the Gulag.

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But those who managed to survive began to unite again, although the post-war community was very small and not taken seriously.

In 1947, shortly after the Youth Congress in England, George Soros spoke at London's famous Speakers' Corner.

As a teenager, he delivered a gospel sermon in Esperanto at a traditional gathering place for conspiracy theorists and marginal activists.

Perhaps he did this in youthful fervor, as the future billionaire soon left the community.

Birth of a community

The study of Esperanto was mostly self-paced. Esperantists pored over the textbook alone, figuring out grammar rules and memorizing words on their own. There was no teacher to correct the mistake or improve the pronunciation.

This is exactly how one of the most famous Esperantists in the world, Anna Levenshtein, studied the language as a teenager.

The girl was annoyed by the French she learned at school, due to the many exceptions and difficult grammar, and one day she noticed the address of the British Esperanto Association printed at the end of the textbook.

She sent a letter, and soon she was invited to a meeting of young Esperantists in St. Albans, north of London.

The girl was very worried, because it was her first independent trip outside the city.

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“I understood everything that others said, but I didn’t dare to talk myself,” she recalls. The meeting was mostly young people in their early twenties.

The trip to St Albans was a turning point in her life. Esperanto was a puzzle that Loewenstein solved on her own, but now she could share her experience with the whole world.

She gradually gained confidence in the language and soon joined the Esperanto group that was gathering in north London.

The need to get there by three buses did not cool her ardor.

The global community that Loewenstein joined was formed through mail correspondence, the publication of paper magazines, and annual conventions.

Abandoning the big politics and global ambitions of the past, Esperantists have created a culture whose goal is simply "to connect people with a common passion," explains Angela Teller, who speaks Esperanto and researches the language.

People met at conferences and made friends. Some fell in love and got married, and children in such families spoke Esperanto from birth.

New generations don't need as much patience as their parents. Now Esperanto lovers can communicate in the language online every day.

Communication services since the dawn of the Internet, such as Usenet, had chat rooms and pages dedicated to Esperanto.

Today, the young Esperanto community actively uses social networks, primarily in the relevant Facebook and Telegram groups.

Of course, the Internet has become a very logical meeting place for a community scattered around the world.

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"The online space allows you to rethink old forms of communication in a new environment," explains Sarah Marino, lecturer in communication theory at Bournemouth University.

"Online communication is much faster, cheaper and more modern, but the idea itself is not new," she adds.

Today, Esperanto is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​on the Internet (if you take into account the ratio of the number of native speakers of this language).

The Wikipedia page has about 240,000 articles, which practically puts Esperanto on a par with Turkish, which has 71 million speakers, or Korean (77 million speakers).

Popular Google and Facebook products have had Esperanto versions for many years, and there are also many online services for learning the language.

Exclusively for Esperanto speakers, there is a free housing exchange service - Pasporta Servo.

But the real revolution took place in the least expected place.

New platform

In 2011, Luis von Ahn, a scientist and entrepreneur from Guatemala, spoke about his new idea. Since he was the one who came up with CAPTCHA, the technology that helped digitize millions of books for free, his new project immediately aroused interest.

In his TEDx talk, he announced that he would translate the Internet by teaching foreign languages ​​to users. The tool with which he was going to do this was called Duolingo.

This idea captured Esperantist Chuck Smith, the founder of the Esperanto Wikipedia and an active promoter of the spread of the language on the Internet.

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Smith was convinced that Duolingo would grow into something great. He sent an email to von Ahn, an entrepreneur who had already sold two of his companies to Google and turned down a job with Bill Gates himself.

Von Ahn responded to the email the same day. He noted that Esperanto was considered but not a priority.

Then the Esperantists raised a fuss and convinced the creators of the Duolingo program that Esperanto should be included in the list of languages.

The first version of the Esperanto course for English users appeared on the Duolingo website in 2014, a little later the course was developed in Spanish and Portuguese, and now the English version is being updated.

Smith led a team of 10 people who worked 10 hours a week for eight months. None of them got paid for it, but they didn't complain - they were all enthusiastic about spreading Esperanto.

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Learning Esperanto is easy and fun on the Duolingo platform. You can complete one lesson per five-minute break or while commuting to work or home.

If you have abandoned your studies, the green owl will gently but persistently remind you to return to the site.

Duolingo has become the most effective tool for learning Esperanto in the history of the language.

As the program shows, about 1.1 million users have subscribed to an Esperanto course - almost half of all people who speak Esperanto in the world.

About 25% of people who started a course on Duolingo completed it, says a platform official.

However, live communication in the language still remains necessary. That is why Esperanto students come to language schools such as this one in north London where Anna Levenshtein teaches.

On the doors of the classroom is a green star, the emblem of Esperanto. The students are warmly welcomed by a domestic dog, they are also offered tea.

Image copyright Alamy

Along the walls of the cozy studio are shelves with the works of Marx, Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and Lenin. There are also several books in Esperanto, as well as "Utopia" by Thomas More in an orange cover.

The school is attended by very different people. Some, like James Draper, took up learning Esperanto for pragmatic reasons. Languages ​​are not easy for him, and Esperanto is one of the easiest.

Other students, on the contrary, are stubborn polyglots who are interested in artificial language, which is a useful tool for understanding other languages.

The reasons may be very different, but all Esperantists have something in common. This is curiosity, openness to new experience and a benevolent attitude towards the world.

Angela Teller has known this since the day her children returned from the Esperanto camp. She asked them where their friends were from, and the children replied, "We don't know."

"Nationalities somehow receded into the background," she explains. "It seems to be the way it should be."

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 and: 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 is, 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 postposition (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

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 Esperanto verb stems 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, so English vocabulary is rather poorly represented in the main vocabulary of Esperanto ( fajro"the 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. 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 gender 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(Besides), 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 that city, and an equally small number of Esperanto speakers 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 an indicator 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 Esperanto Union "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, find out 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 obtain 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 around 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 have attracted 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 new planned languages ​​on its basis 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. The 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" - are distinguished by a high level of printing performance, not inferior 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").

With rare exceptions, the circulation of books in Esperanto is small, works of art rarely come out with a circulation of more than 200-300 copies, and therefore their authors cannot professionally engage in literary work (in any case, only 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. Proponents 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 political party "Europe - Democracy - Esperanto" is participating in elections at the European level, 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 the so-called Montevideo resolution in 1954, 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 articles (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 founder of Esperanto, was a follower of the Baha'i faith and translated into Esperanto the most important works of 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 emerged 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.