ESPERANTO

Esperanto is an artificial language invented in 1871 to help people from different countries in the world [to] communicate / speak to each other.

The middle of the 19th century was the period when there was a high need in creating an/the international language to facilitate communication of representatives of various nations. This was a major trend accompanied with fast development of comparative linguistics.

Creation of “the international language” was happening in two basic ways. Firstly, the so called “pidgin”, or additional languages appeared such as, say, Broken English in Africa, Pidgin English at Chinese sea ports, Russonorsk for Russians and Norwegians to mention a few. And, secondly, scientists were trying to develop an artificial language to serve the communication needs of all peoples of the world. The issue of creation a rational artificial language was first raised by Rene Descartes  and Leibnits in the 18th century. In 1879, a German linguist Шлейер created the first artificial language called Volapuk – the “world language” – “vola” from English “world” and “pük” from “speak”. In 1887, a Polish scientist Zamengoff created Esperanto (from Latin “esperi” – “to hope”), which became the most widespread of all artificial languages created.

Two main advantages of Esperanto are that, first, it has a very simple structure and, second, its lexis is international by origin. It uses only 11 flexions and several suffixes.

What is most surprising, there are rich and varied authentic and translated literary works in Esperanto. For instance, some pieces of Taras Shevchenko’s poetry were translated into Esperanto in the previous century. Esperanto is used in media, for instance in printed press and broadcasting. In 1984 approximately 140 newspapers and magazines were published in Esperanto. Moreover, there were at least 9 broadcasting stations, working / operating language of which was Esperanto.