What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is a language, but not of any country or ethnic group: it is a neutral, international language.
Origins
The basic rules and words of Esperanto were proposed by L. L. Zamenhof at the end of the 19th century. Within a few years, people started learning it and formed a worldwide community. Since then, Esperanto has been in use (and freely evolving) just like any other language.
Characteristics
Esperanto has a very regular structure. Words are often made from many other roots, and in this way the number of words which one must memorise is made much smaller. The language is phonetic and the rules of pronunciation are very simple, so that everyone knows how to pronounce a written word and vice versa. All this make the learning of the language relatively easy.
Most Esperanto roots are similar to words from Romance, Germanic or Slavic languages. However, Esperanto is not merely a “potpourri” of those languages, but a true and independent language in itself. In fact, it is structurally more similar to some non-European languages than to European ones.
Using Esperanto
Esperanto is most useful for neutral communication. That means that communication through Esperanto does not give advantages to the members of any particular people or culture, but provides an equality of rights, tolerance and true internationalism. This can be seen in many diverse situations: international meetings, books, magazines, music, the Internet and also in private and family life.
Testimonials
Name: Erin Piateski
Country: USA
Profession: Mechanical engineer
“I started learning Esperanto in high school, because I’d heard that Esperanto was an easy language, and so I thought Esperanto might be my only chance to speak a foreign language fluently. I found that friends and members of my family who had taken courses in a language could hardly ever speak that language, even at a basic level. So I studied Esperanto, hoping it would be my introduction to the world of foreign languages…
“Despite this simple plan, Esperanto has become an important part of my life… It has changed the way I see the world. It’s often said that you can talk to people from every country in the world using English, and that’s true. But not many people know that it’s equally true for Esperanto. I’ve found that there are big differences between using English and Esperanto for international communication. I feel that using Esperanto puts people on a level footing, not only as far as language is concerned, but also from a social point of view.”
How to learn Esperanto
Courses in Esperanto, lasting from a weekend to several weeks, are held in many parts of the world throughout the entire year. You can combine learning Esperanto with making new international friends and visiting fascinating new places and cultures.
The Australian Esperanto Association holds fun lessons at the same time as the annual congress. Classes are available for all levels, including complete beginners. It is also possible that close to your home or work, there is an Esperanto course being run regularly by a local Esperanto group. You can also learn Esperanto on the Internet and with a book.
Esperanto and other languages
Culture is a defining feature of our identity. It contributes to how we see ourselves and the groups with which we identify. Language is intrinsic to how culture is expressed. If we want to preserve cultural heritage and identity, maintaining the languages of the various ethnic and cultural groups is essential. The loss of language means the loss of culture and identity. Unfortunately, many of the world’s languages have already been lost with the processes of colonisation and migration. The greatest threat to linguistic diversity is the perceived dominance of a small handful of languages, including English.
Esperanto is a solution that allows all speakers of all languages to co-exist and cooperate on an equal ground. Speakers of Esperanto can experience authentic communication with people from all over the world, without one person imposing any cultural requirement on the other. However, Esperanto is not designed to replace any language, but to be an easy-to-learn “bridge” language. It can even be used to encourage and help people to learn other languages.