ESPERANTO -- The International Language Every year, our world seems smaller. Ships carry a thousand items between countries. Jets carry passengers across oceans and around the world. Satellites bring us live television coverage from Europe and Asia. Every year, Americans in every walk of life communicate more and more with people of other countries. Only one barrier remains... As a result of this tremendous increase in contacts with the outside world, Americans are realizing that there is still a major barrier to international communication -- the language barrier! Americans have long heard the cliche that "Wherever you go, people speak English." In fact, at most ten percent of the world speaks English! Often, in other countries, only people in the best hotels of the largest cities can use English, and even they are often not very fluent. Anyone who has visited a foreign country and struggled with the language barriers understands this. Americans are at last discovering what the rest of the world has long known: there is a real need for an international language. Fortunately, there is such a language... Its name is Esperanto. It was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician, who published it in 1887. Since then, Esperanto has been learned by millions. Of the many projects and proposals for an international language over the centuries, Esperanto is the only one that has stood the test of time and is being spoken today. It is in daily use by many thousands of people all over the world, and the number is growing constantly. Many international meetings are held in Esperanto. Books and magazines are published by the thousands to meet the demand of an international public. Some of the largest international firms put on advertising campaigns in Esperanto. Hotels, resterants and tourist resorts compete for the patronage of the Esperanto-speaking traveler. Esperanto"s impressive success as the language of international communication is due to three basic advantages. It is easy to learn. It is politically neutral. And it has many practical uses. Esperanto is easy... Esperanto is much easier to learn than any other language. In fact, it can be learned in a quarter of the time needed to learn a national language! The spelling is easy: eash leter has exactly one sound. The pronunciation is easy: there are no strange combinations of letters to create new sounds, and the accent is always on the next to last syllable. The grammer is easy: there are only sixteen rules, with no exceptions. (That means, for example, that there are no irregular verbs.) The vocabulary is easy too: many international words are used, such as telefono (telephone), biologio (biology), and mathematiko (mathematics). Esperanto gives a very natural impression in spoken or written use; and because of its high ratio of vowels to consonants, it is often said to resemble Spanish or Italian. Esperanto also uses prefixes, suffixes, and interchangable endings to reduce the number of words to be learned. For example, in English we make the words "friendly, unfriendly, and friendship" from the root word "friend". Esperanto carries this idea much further, making the vocabulary easier to learn. In short, Esperanto has been rationally constructed for ease of learning. This has made it especially popular with busy men and women who can not spend years learning a foreign language, which would be useful in only a small part of the world. Esperanto is neutral... The second major reason for Esperanto's success is that it is neutral. It belongs to no one country. Many people in America and England say that English is already spoken so widely and is such an "important" language in the world that it should be officially adopted by all nations as the international language. This view is very unpopular in many countries. This attitude is not merely because English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. The new nations of Africa and Asia are very reluctant to accept English (or any major language) for international communication because of the political overtones. For example, the countries of the Soviet bloc would not want to use English as an official international language, just as we would be reluctant to accept Russian in that role (as some Soviet publicists have actually suggested). The Western nations have also shown their sensitivity to questions of linguistic equality. Quebec has rejected English as its official language; the Common Market nations insist on using all their languages in Brussels; the UN speends tens of millions of dollars every year translating into five official languages and into fifteen for UNESCO! Esperanto is not the property of any one nation, group of nations, or social class. It belongs to everyone. It has no political or historical implications to hinder its acceptance. Every person who uses Esperanto is on an equal linguistic footing with all other Esperantists. Esperanto's popularity in smaller nations and in Asian countries, such as Japan, is largely due to this neutrality. This promotes a spirit of friendship and brotherhood among Esperantists which is quite impressive to everyone who sees it in use. Esperanto is practical... Esperanto offers exceptional practical advantages. Coordinating these advantages is the worldwide organization, the Universal Esperanto Association. The UEA, from its headquarters in Rotterdam, maintains a network of over 3,500 representatives in 66 countries, sponsors many international activities, and issues a Yearbook containing the addresses of its representatives and information on current international activities. There are more than a dozen international professional associations including, for example, teachers, scientists, journalists, doctors, and lawyers. These groups sponcer meetings, publish journals, and otherwise promote the technical, use of Esperanto. Other international organizations serve the interests of Esperantists who share a common affiliation, such as in computers and telecommunications? A scientifically constructed language Some people ask, "But isn't Esperanto an artificial language?" Of course it is. So is every language in the world. The word "artificial" means "made by human beings," and every language has been created by human beings. The difference between Esperanto and other languages is that Esperanto was scientifically designed to do a special job -- the job of international communications -- and it does that job surperbly. Designed for maximun understandability, Esperanto is "grammar-coded" -- you can tell what part each word plays in a sentence from the word endings. Artificial Intelligence and Semantic Understanding computer programs could be implemented with greater success if they were developed around Esperanto. Esperanto and the UN In October 1966, the UEA presented the Secretary General of the United Nations with a proposal recommending that the UN solve the language problem by supporting use of the International Language, Esperanto. The petition was signed by almost a million individuals and by 3,843 organizations representing 71 million more people from all over the world. Today, an Esperanto office operates across the street from the UN, staffed by a professional linguist and several volunteers. Esperanto and You The national Esperanto group in the United States of America is the Esperanto League for North America (ELNA). In Canada, the Canadian Esperanto Association (CEA) performs the same task of providing information, assisting local groups, organizing classes and annual conventions, and cooperating with the UEA. For more information about books, records, membership, and classes, contact: Esperanto League for North America, Inc P. O. Box 1129 El Cerrito, CA 94530 In Canada, contact: Canadian Esperanto Association P.O.Box 2067 Sidney BC V8L 3S3 Canada Esperanto does not aim at replacing the existing national languages; but it overcomes the present linguistic chaos by serving as a neutral instrument of international communication for all. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STRUCTURE: The core grammer of Esperanto consist of only 16 rules, with no exceptions. In spite of this simplicity, Esperanto can express the finest shades of meaning. VOCABULARY: The word roots in Esperanto have been taken from many national languages according to the principle of maximum internationality. Thus, many of them are already known to people of all nations. Many words -- an average of ten to fifteen, but sometimes as many as fifty -- may be formed from one root. This building block approach helps make Esperanto easy to learn. TECHNICAL VOCABULARIES: More than 125 technical dictionaries and vocabularies in some fifty branches of science, philosophy, technology, and handicrafts have been published in Esperanto. LITERATURE: Esperanto literature includes translated and origional novels, short stories, plays, poems, scientific works and dissertations. The library of the British Esperanto Association contains over 30,000 items in Esperanto. MAGAZINES: Various magazines and literary, scientific, professional and religious reviews in Esperanto are published regularly in all parts of the world. RADIO: Over a dozen radio stations, including stations in Peking, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Valencia, Warsaw, and Zagreb regularly broadcast in Esperanto, for a total of over fifteen hundred hours a year. CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES: Every year an increasing number of conventions, conferences, courses and study groups use Esperanto as their working language. Last year about 12,000 people attended international meetings using Esperanto exclusively. ESPERANTO ORGINAZITIONS: The Universala Esperanto Asocio (Universal Esperanto Association) has members in over a hundred countries; there are 44 affiliated national organizations; 22 professional international associations; a worker's association; and more than 1250 clubs and societies in the world. Moreover, 3,500 delegates and speciality delegates in all countries are at the service of Esperantists. LEARN ESPERANTO! USE IT IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL WORK, IN YOUR TRAVELS, IN YOUR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS! Test your language ability: Inteligenta persono lernas la lingvon Esperanto rapida kaj facile. Esperanto estas la moderna, kultura lingvo por la tuta mondo. Simpla, fleksebla, belsona, [i estas la praktika solvo de la problemo de universala interkompreno. Esperanto meritas vian seriozan konsideron. Lernu la internacian lingvon Esperanto. Check your translation: An intelligent person learns the language Esperanto rapidly and easily. Esperanto is the modern, cultural language for the whole world. Simple, flexible, musical, it is the practical solution for the problem of universal mutual understanding. Esperanto deserves your serious consideration. Learn the international language Esperanto. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ESPERANTO AT A GLANCE: --The Alphabet (Brooks' IBM-PC standardized 27-character set) A B C & D E F G [ H I J ] K L M N O P R S $ T U # V Z a b c › d e f g  h i j û k l m n o p r s $ t u – v z Every letter has exactly one sound and is always pronounced. Accent is always on the next-to-last syllable. All are pronounces as in English except: A as in "father" I as in "machine" C as "ts" in "bits" J as "y" in "yes" & as "ch" in "church" ] as "s" in "measure" E as in "get" O as in "mote" G as in "get" S as in "said" [ as "j" in "jet" $ as "sh" in "shed" H as in "hat" U as "oo" in "boot" # as "w" in "water" The parts of speech are formed by adding endings to root words. O is the noun ending -- instruisto (teacher) A is the adjective ending -- nova (new) E is the adverb ending -- libere (freely) I is the infinitive verb ending -- lerni (to learn) J is added to form noun plurals -- instruistoj (teachers) N is added to form noun direct object -- instruiston Inteligentaj personoj lernas la internacian lingvon. (Intelligent people learn the international language.) Esperanto havas facilajn regulojn. (Esperanto has easy rules.) Note that the ending of an adjective always agrees with the ending of the nown that it modifies. Verb endings (the same regardless of number or gender.) Infinitive Present Past Future Imperative Conditional I AS IS OS U US vidi vidas vidis vidos vidu vidus to see sees saw will see see! would see ------------------------ Numbers --------------------------- 1 unu 5 kvin 9 na– 2 du 6 ses 10 dek 3 tri 7 sep 100 cent 4 kvar 8 ok 1000 mil Examples 32 tridek du 278 ducent sepdek ok