Have you ever dreamed of creating a language that people in the world widely speak and understand?
Probably, most of us did. Though very few of us tried our best to construct a simple language that will help bridge cultural gaps. Doktoro Esperanto, a pseudonym for Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, figured out a way to unite Bialystok. Tormented by the people’s endless disputes due to language differences (e.g. German, Jew, Polish and Russian), he wished to end this by inventing “Esperanto”.
Esperanto means “one who hopes”, implying Dr. Zamenhof’s goal to craft a language that will bring nations together and end the misunderstanding caused by language barrier. The tower of Babel’s curse of discord remains as people hold strongly to their language ego.
Esperanto language, more than a century old, remains the most widely spoken constructed language, though it has never been an official first or second language of any nation. It has 23 consonant sounds and 5 vowel sounds: each letter corresponds to a single sound. Zamenhof designed it simply to aid teaching and learning.
As fruit-bearing trees get stoned, growing Esperanto received persecutions from World War dictators, most notably, Stalin and Hitler. Stalin called Esperanto the “language of spies”, while Hitler had Esperantists killed during the Holocaust. Despite the exile and execution of its speakers, soon after the wars, Esperanto was resurrected and now known as the most extensively spoken constructed language in the world.
Source: WikipediaHistory of my Curiosity
Simply looking for the translation of “I love you” in different languages of the world, Esperanto caught my sight and had me digging for answers:”Which country?”, “What kind of language is it?, “What are the speakers called?” That began the hunt for info at Google and Wiki and end of my mushiness.
Mi amas vin, NJY.