Wiki says the following about the language Esperanto.
"Esperanto is by far the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L.L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means 'one who hopes' in the language itself. 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."
Its a very logical and structured language. Unlike English, every letter in the language is pronounced in exactly one way and does not depend on the word in which it appears. This is true for even Marathi and Hindi (two Indian languages). But what is more amazing about this language is, its grammar rules are fully deterministic. There are roots for nouns, verbs, adjectives. They all have distinguished suffixes that indicate whether they are nouns, verbs or adjectives. Also connectives combine with the roots in exactly one way. Once you internalise the basic setting, you can build your own complicated sentences without any further help.
One might say that, its true for any language. But usually for any old language, the basic setting itself is extremely hard to internalise. That is why learning any new language is very difficult as we grow up. On the other hand, due to its structure, Esperanto is pretty easy to learn. In about 2-3 weeks one can start communicating. After that its matter of building up the vocabulary.
Also one might argue that the beauty of the language lies in the exceptions to the rules of its grammar. Like Sanskrit has many such exceptions. And possibly it does make the language richer and beautiful. But again, it sure makes it very hard to learn. And even harder to use for communication.
The most wonderful thing however that I like about it is, the high it gives me when I build new words from very basic vocab. For example, if I know a word for say good then I can come up with a word for bad immediately by simply adding a prefix. Bona is good and Malbona is bad. Seka is dry and malseka is wet, sana is healthy and malsana is unhealthy. In fact if you know a word for house/place and a word for unhealthy you can come up with a word for hospital. Similarly if you know a word for book then you can come up with a word for library. Also if you suddenly see a new word, you might be able to nicely split it into small parts and deduce the meaning. Its almost like a game.
I am learning it currently from following web course.
http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/
I intend to buy a book for this. But its not available anywhere in Chennai. There are Esperanto associations in India.
http://www.geocities.com/bharato/
And they also have book collections. The closest for Chennai is Bangalore Esperanto club. Any one planning to come from Bangalore to Chennai? Buy me a book, will you?
"Esperanto is by far the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L.L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means 'one who hopes' in the language itself. 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."
Its a very logical and structured language. Unlike English, every letter in the language is pronounced in exactly one way and does not depend on the word in which it appears. This is true for even Marathi and Hindi (two Indian languages). But what is more amazing about this language is, its grammar rules are fully deterministic. There are roots for nouns, verbs, adjectives. They all have distinguished suffixes that indicate whether they are nouns, verbs or adjectives. Also connectives combine with the roots in exactly one way. Once you internalise the basic setting, you can build your own complicated sentences without any further help.
One might say that, its true for any language. But usually for any old language, the basic setting itself is extremely hard to internalise. That is why learning any new language is very difficult as we grow up. On the other hand, due to its structure, Esperanto is pretty easy to learn. In about 2-3 weeks one can start communicating. After that its matter of building up the vocabulary.
Also one might argue that the beauty of the language lies in the exceptions to the rules of its grammar. Like Sanskrit has many such exceptions. And possibly it does make the language richer and beautiful. But again, it sure makes it very hard to learn. And even harder to use for communication.
The most wonderful thing however that I like about it is, the high it gives me when I build new words from very basic vocab. For example, if I know a word for say good then I can come up with a word for bad immediately by simply adding a prefix. Bona is good and Malbona is bad. Seka is dry and malseka is wet, sana is healthy and malsana is unhealthy. In fact if you know a word for house/place and a word for unhealthy you can come up with a word for hospital. Similarly if you know a word for book then you can come up with a word for library. Also if you suddenly see a new word, you might be able to nicely split it into small parts and deduce the meaning. Its almost like a game.
I am learning it currently from following web course.
http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/
I intend to buy a book for this. But its not available anywhere in Chennai. There are Esperanto associations in India.
http://www.geocities.com/bharato/
And they also have book collections. The closest for Chennai is Bangalore Esperanto club. Any one planning to come from Bangalore to Chennai? Buy me a book, will you?
Comments
Thanks for the comment. I have chacked Chennai Landmark. They don't have any books. Let me know if you find any.
I don't know if it helps but the popular site http://www.lernu.net might help!
Salutojn! Brian
Personally, I've made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there's the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries. In the past year I have had guided tours of Berlin and Milan in the planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I've discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on. I recommend it, not just as an ideal but as a very practical way to overcome language barriers.
A lot of books and learning materials are available from the Esperanto Association of Britain - and you can communicate with them in English if you want!
http://tinyurl.com/5lyfzu
it's quite entertaining and aimed at beginners. You deduce the grammar from the examples and illustrated text.
And you can listen to daily programs in Esperanto here:
http://www.polskieradio.pl/eo/
This is a modern rationale for Esperanto:
http://lingvo.org
English-speaking countries are rich and privileged, but they are increasingly dissatisfied that they are pitifully monolingual. The US, the UK and Australia all bemoan this fact and try to find solutions, but solutions are hard to find when the language of choice is so ill-defined, language teachers are much too scarce and time is short in our overcrowded curriculum. Esperanto faces a renaissance, not for any greatly idealistic reason, but for the practical reason that all primary school teachers can be equipped to teach it, at the time when children can best learn a second language. While learning Esperanto, the children can make meaningful contact with any of over a hundred cultures, giving them a second working language and a broad intercultural perspective by the end of primary school. They then enter middle school with the confidence, skills and perspective to choose, and succeed in, a third language in high school. By serving our own children well, giving them an achievable language goal in the 140 or so hours available for second-language instruction in primary school, Esperanto will become a normal part of English-speaking childhood. Whether the children and their primary teachers will choose to use the language they share to further the cause of international social justice remains to be seen. - Penelope Vos, Australia.
The 89th International Esperanto Conference in Beijing in 2004 The 89th International Esperanto Conference was held in Beijing in 2004
Most of the time it is very difficult to understand and be understood by people that studied English for ten years. There are no communication problems with people that have studied Esperanto during a tenth of that time. When they spoke English to me, it was because they wanted to sell me something. When they spoke Esperanto to me, it was because they wanted to be my friends.