Esperanto Is Like Plastic
A while ago I came across a quotation of the Jewish-language columnist Philologos from the online magazine Mosaic. It describes the international language Esperanto and goes like that:
"Esperanto as created by Zamenhof is to other languages as plastic to wood: there are no gnarls in it, no wormholes, no splinters no surfaces worn out by time and human use. It has no past and tells no story."
Already the great fantasy writer, language creator and former Esperanto enthusiast John Ronald R. Tolkien in his late years said that Esperanto can't really work because of its own missing story.
Philologos and Tolkien are probably not the only persons who can't find a story and even a history in Esperanto. But that might be an other topic. I want to focus on the comparison of Philologos. As Esperanto speaker myself I have to admit our beloved language is really like plastic. I like that comparison.
I do love languages, even if I have a hard time to acquire them. French for example is like music in my ears and Spanish sounds great too, to mention only two which I fell in love with. But Esperanto sounds to me a bit stiff and even in some way monotonous. How can it be otherwise by its simple structure and regularity? All nouns end with an o, all adjectives with an a and so on.
Not very often, you will find really charming and fluent spoken Esperanto. Look it up on Youtube. Oh dear, Esperanto isn't really inviting at the first contact. But there are exceptions like the Esperanto cover of Adele's famous song HELLO from Cristina Caseella.
And what about the gnarls and wormholes? Esperanto is alredy more then 100 years old, and if you read old texts you will see how it has changed. But not so much as English in its transformation to Amercian English. Due to its inbuild fixed structure Esperanto will not be changed so much.
So far the more negative aspects of the comparison. But If you love wood with all its natural beauty, you can also appreciate the usefulness and creative possibilities of plastic. What would our modern world be without it? No computers, boxes, technical devices and so on. The same with Esperanto. It hasn't necessarily to be individual, extraordinary charming or to have double meaning. Esperanto is kind of linguistically genial and logic as the invention of plastic is technologically advanced. The intention of Zamenhof was not aimed at unification of all languages on earth but of all humans. If we all would have an easy useable and uncomplicated language on hand apart from our mother tongue, I think, worldwide communication would work much better, on the personal level as well globally.
English as global language works more or less fine, at least in Pop culture, science, at airports and holiday destinations. However Esperanto or an improved version of it would do much better. A truly global auxiliary language can be phonetic like Esperanto and be learnd in only a couple of weeks. But what we need first for its worldwide application is political consent from all sides.
But plastic creates nasty waste! Kind of a funny comparison, considering current views on plastic and adding green colour of Esperanto to it.
Mi pensas, la skioj sur via bildo ankaŭ estas faritaj el plasto, do ne tro malbona afero, ĉu ne? Kiel, laŭ vi, sonas Esperanton?
Kompreneble, plasto estas tre grava materialo por ni. Tamen, nuntempe oni tiom parolas pri plastaj rubajxoj, ke la vorto "plasto" sxajnas, kiel io malbona.
Laux mi, Esperanto sonas malsame por cxiu parolanto :-) Kutime naciaj akcxentoj estas tre fortaj.
Jes, eĉ kiam kelkaj homoj pretendas, ke Esperanto ne posedas nacian koloron ĉar ĝi estas neŭtrala lingvo, laŭ mi ne malbonas, kiam Esperanto estas parolata per akcento.
What is most important about plastic: don't throw it away without thinking.
Great point. So let's take esperanto recycled as future universal language!
Parenteze, ĉu vi havas similajn sentojn koncerne la sonon de Esperanto? La beleco de Esperanto kuŝas en ĝia logiko kaj fleksibleco, ĉu ne?
Gusto (placxo) forte rilatas al kutimo. En la kutima lingvouzo Esperanto ne estas la plej belsona lingvo, sed kutime oni ankaux ne pensas pri tio. Oni simple uzas la lingvon. Kaj jes, en kelkaj poeziaj verkoj (poemoj, kantoj, beletro) gxi ankaux povas esti belsona.
Cetere mi povus diri la saman pri la germana ;-)
Ĉu vi uzas Esperanton poezie vi kutime fortranĉas la finaĵojn por ke ĝi belsonas. Sed tion mi jam ne tre ŝatas. Eble tio estas Esperanta apartaĵo. Ĉiu laŭ sia plaĉo.
I understand the analogy. I do. But I dunno. I stumbled upon it by "accident" a few years ago and it's on my "list" to absolutely buckle down and learn, but when I started playing with it... I liked it.
I like how it makes me feel when I speak it. I feel, different -- more eloquent and calmer of all things. Isn't that weird? Speaking Esperanto makes me feel calm.
Hmmmm...now having realized that (as I was typing this up), I'll need to make a note to self: Next time you you feel the need to hire a therapist -- try learning to speak Esperanto fluently FIRST. If you don't feel like the situations have resolved themselves, feel free to hire the therapist.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Seriously though, I should try that next time.
Thanks for your comment. Eble ni parolu en Esperanto? Interesting, I have never felt it myself that calming effect of Esperanto. Maybe it has to do with its orderly structure. How eloquent then you get with your esperanto? Unfortunately I am not really fluent speaking, as I mostly write it .
Mi komencento.... That's about it.