Esperanto
Esperanto was designed in 1887 by L.L. Zamenhof as an ultra-simple and regular language which could serve as a universal second language to bridge linguistic divides. I first discovered it aged 12–13, and attracted by its internationalist principles, studied it for a while. There are some other languages descended from Esperanto, including Ido, which I prefer linguistically. Nonetheless, it’s Esperanto which has a long history of popularity among the internationalist Left (especially in the first half of the 20th century), and it has an estimated one million speakers today.
Did you know? I also have a wiki page called ‘Esperanto’! If you want to check that out, you can do so here.
Posts
- : 🇪🇸 Micro post: Interesting article on Catalan nationalists joining the Esperanto movement (external link) early last century. …
- : 💬 Return to Duolingo: Nine days ago (to judge by my streak), I dusted off my old Duolingo account and (re-)started working through a couple of …
- : 🎹 Using Ukulele to Make Custom Keyboard Layouts: “So Jess,” you might say, “last week you procrastinated on your novel by recreating half your …
- : 📚 Esperanto’s Influence on Orwell’s Newspeak: A couple of times in recent weeks I’ve seen some discussion about Newspeak in George Orwell’s Nineteen …
Links
Jessica Smith is a socialist and a feminist who loves animals, books, gaming, and cooking; she’s also interested in linguistics, history, technology and society.