Aneta Wilemska‑Rudnik Esperanto: A Language of Hope?

Esperanto is the most widely spoken auxiliary languageauxiliary languageauxiliary language in the world, with speakers located all across the globe. It is not officially the second language in any country, but some countries do teach it in schools, with Hungary and China being two notablenotablenotable examples. An auxiliary language is a language other than a person's native tongue. This means no country lists it as its first language officially, however, there are people who have learned Esperanto as their first language, which means that they are native speakersnative speakers [native speaker]native speakers of Esperanto and it is their mother tonguemother tonguemother tongue. As of 2017, Esperanto has around 30,000‑180,000 active speakersactive speakers [active speaker]active speakers, which means that many people have a good grasp ofhave a good grasp ofhave a good grasp of the language and are capable ofbe capable ofcapable of understanding it at A2 level.

Esperanto was foundedfoundedfounded in 1887 and is used in most parts of the world. However, it is most popular in Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and South America. Esperanto is a constructed languageconstructed languageconstructed language and containscontains [contain]contains a wide diversity of languages. The Esperanto vocabulary is built on the basis of standard words from various European languages, such as Romance and Germanic languages. It was created by L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish ophthalmologistophthalmologistophthalmologist, who hoped Esperanto would be used as a common languagecommon languagecommon language throughout the world, enablingenablingenabling more people to communicate easily. Having a commonly spoken auxiliary language, which is universal, was supposed to allow people to engage withengage withengage with citizens of many countries, and Zamenhof hoped this would bring people together and ensure peace.

As an artificial languageartificial languageartificial language, Esperanto was designed to be simple. This made it easy for people to learn it, increasing, in turn, its attractiveness and making it widely availablewidely availablewidely available. grammar rules used in Esperanto are relatively simplerelatively simplerelatively simple, with no irregularitiesirregularities [irregularity]irregularities in past tenses, plurals or prepositions. This means that Esperanto is much easier to understand, even with a limited set of wordsset of wordsset of words, as the sentences often follow similar patterns and rules.

Esperanto has been around for over 140 years and has often survived difficult times. It was outlawed in several countries during the two World Wars. Recently, the language has seen a surge in popularitysurge in popularitysurge in popularity. With international travel becoming more and more common, the need for a shared language is growing. Countries, such as Slovakia, seem to find Esperanto more appealing toappealing toappealing to introduce, as they border many other countries all speaking different languages, meaning the idea for a single language that would be understood across many of these is much more attractive. The ease ofthe ease ofThe ease of learning Esperanto also potentially puts it ahead of English in these regions, as this is often the go‑to language to learn as an additional one, due to how far the language reaches.

Slovaks are champions ofchampions of [champion of]champions of Esperanto, promotingpromoting [promote]promoting it to the rest of the world. This means they are urgingurgingurging more and more people to join this growing network of Esperanto speakers around the world. Those who want to unite all people from all walks of life and all countries are often the same people who learn to speak Esperanto. They believe, just like the creator of Esperanto, that it can be the language of hope, the language uniting people under a common tongue, understood across many countries and nations. With Esperanto taking inspiration from other common languages, it can be very easy for people who may not speak it to understand certain words or phrases. It seems worth learning Esperanto if you have the opportunityhave the opportunityhave the opportunity.

1 Źródło: Aneta Wilemska‑Rudnik, dostępny w internecie: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-facts-about-esperanto-the-world-s-international-language.html [dostęp 22.11.2021], https://time.com/4417809/esperanto-history-invention/ [dostęp 22.11.2021], https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-esperanto-and-where-is-it-spoken [dostęp 22.11.2021], licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.