ABHISHEK: Esperanto – The Universal Language

Esperanto is the first universally accepted neutral language. It was developed by an ophthalmologist Dr. L. L. Zamenhof in the year 1887. Esperanto is a language designed to facilitate communication between people of different lands and cultures.

The word esperanto means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding. Although no country has adopted the language officially, it has enjoyed continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers for over a century.

Esperanto is considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its design is far simpler and more structural. Also, unlike national languages, Esperanto allows communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having the usual cultural advantage favoring a native speaker. Esperanto's purpose is not to replace any other language, but to supplement them.

Esperanto’s properties are derived from a host of languages including Sanskrit, Latin and French. Esperanto is pronounced as it is spelt and hence there is very less confusion when compared to English. Also, there are no exceptions in Esperanto, unlike English (where there are 100’s of them). Esperanto has 22 consonants, 5 vowels, and two semivowels. The words are derived by stringing together prefixes, roots, and suffixes. This process is regular, so that people can create new words as they speak and be understood.

The different parts of speech are marked by their own suffixes: all common nouns end in -o, all adjectives in -a, all derived adverbs in -e, and all verbs in one of six tense and mood suffixes, such as present tense -as. Plural nouns end in -oj (pronounced "oy"), whereas direct objects end in -on. Plural direct objects end with the combination -ojn (pronounced to rhyme with "coin"): That is, -o for a noun, plus -j for plural, plus -n for direct object. Adjectives agree with their nouns; their endings are plural -aj (pronounced "eye"), direct-object -an, and plural direct-object -ajn (pronounced to rhyme with "fine").

The core vocabulary of Esperanto was defined by Lingvo internacia, published by Zamenhof in 1887. It comprised 900 roots, which could be expanded into the tens of thousands of words with prefixes, suffixes, and compounding. In 1894, Zamenhof published the first Esperanto dictionary, Universala Vortaro, with a larger set of roots.

Today there are more than 2 million Esperantists world wide. In India, the number is close to 10000. Esperanto has caught the fancy of the youth world over due to its appeal for brotherhood and extreme ease of learning.

More information on Esperanto can be found on the following web sites –

http://www.uea.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

http://www.esperanto-usa.org/node/3

There are plenty of online tutorials to learn Esperanto. Here are a few of them –

http://en.lernu.net/

http://www.esperanto.ca/kurso/home.htm

http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/key.htm

Here are a few online Esperanto dictionaries –

http://www.kisa.ca/vortaro/

http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/Esperanto-english/

People in Bangalore who are interested to learn Esperanto can contact –