Esperanto, it’s an artificial language. The easiest to learn, and to speak. It’s a close cousin of French, and having learnt some Spanish sometime back last year, I can see that some, if not all it’s conjugations are closely related to Spanish too. It’s also the most widely spoken, artificial language in the world - it’s spoken more than Klingon that’s for sure. It has a noticeable presence in over 120 countries.
What’s most alluring about Esperanto, as a language to learn, is that it isn’t complicated. And that’s on purpose. It avoids all the murky exceptions, and rules of its natural cousins, and other artificial languages including programming languages; umm… Klingon, anyone?
Esperanto belongs to no land, or rather belongs to the “Most Welcoming Non-Nation on Earth”. It was developed between the late 1880’s - 1890’s, and early 1900’s by L. L. Zamenhof , who first published it in 1887 in his book titled the ‘Unua Libro’ .
One way esperanto starves off the complexity involved with other natural languages, is by limiting any changes to it. Thanks to the Declaration of Boulogne of 1905 that limits all changes to Esperanto. The declaration goes on to state that the basis of Esperanto should remain the Fundamento de Esperanto - the Foundation of Esperanto should always remain the Foundation of Esperanto as laid by Zamenhof . The declaration also permits the speaker to express new concepts in any way she deems it fit, as long as these new expressions remain in accordance with it’s original style. Pretty liberal for a language, I would say. Fun too!
Remarkably, Esperanto was a stable, artificial language even before the declaration. In more recent, and modern times, Esperanto’s usage may have diverted from what’s laid down in the declaration; Not in terms of it’s grammatical semantics, or it’s phonology, rather in terms of changed meanings associated with certain words, and so on.
An Infographic That Teaches You Esperanto Now!
Here’s an infographic that teaches you some of Esperanto. It also demonstrates the ease of its grammar; especially conjugations. The infographic comes form lernu.net, the modern hub for Esperanto enthusiasts the world over. “Lernu” is also an imperative for “learn!” - in Esperanto.
If you’re looking to start learning a new language, why not Esperanto? It’s easy, and thus not intimidating like many of it’s cousins. And that is the single most appealing thing about Esperanto. It’s fit for anyone, and you can be speaking, and writing Esperanto in no time.
Give it a whirl.
Strangers In The Night - Sung In Esperanto
Here’s a youtube video of Strangers in the Night being sung in Esperanto! Brilliant. Now only we can have a Klingon version, no?
FREMDAJ EN LA NOKT' (Strangers in the night) - Kaempfert/Singleton/Snyder - Esperantigo: E. Rovere
Learn Esperanto First - Ted Talk
Tim Morely thinks that every student should learn Esperanto
Know More About Esperanto
- Here’s a complete run down on Esperanto, and how it’s finding a new life online. - by The Verge.
- Learn Esperanto online with Dualingo.
- FluenIn3Months.com - Meet other Esperanto learners, and enthusiasts.
- Esperanto Language Blog - Transparent Language.
- History of Esperanto on Wikipedia.
- Esperanto on Wikipedia.
- Courses, and Information about Esperanto - Lernu.net.
- Vikipedio - Largest Wikipedia in a constructed language.
