with my surprise giving back a book to the Bayerische Staatlischebibliothek (BSB) I
remarked the exhibition Esperanto / Volapuk - Zwischen Utopie und Wirchlichkeit:
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Einzeldarstellung.403+M562baccbf1d.0.html
The exhibition give information about the history and the inventor of Esperanto, the
structure of this language and shows books in Esperanto in the collections of the BSB.
The idea that Esperanto, as universal language, after an enthousiastic start and rapid diffusion in practically all the countries of the world, has declined because of the concurrence of English, is not right. The feedbacks on the subject I received indicate that Esperanto is more widespread than people imagine. It is among the hundred more spoken languages in the world, it is the 29th most used language in Wikipedia and this Thursday 26/07/2012 is the 125th Anniversary of the publication of Esperanto.
More info about Esperanto at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
Any comment from your side is welcomed.
Salutations
Giancarlo
Saluton, Giancarlo
AntwortenLöschenThis looks like a splendid exhibitiomn.
I can't say that I see any evidence of a decline in Esperanto. You really need evidence to make such a claim. I suppose that you could find some statistics such as numbers of members of Esperanto associations and numbers of publications - books and magazines. Of course, you don't need to be a meember of any organisation and you don't even need to buy books to make good use of Esperanto. Incidentally, I'm a native speaker of English, and I'm very aware when I travel, of the large number of people who do noty speak my mother tongue.
You've reminded me that this Thursday (26 July) is the 125th anniversary of the publication of Esperanto. That's quite an achievement for what started as the idea of just one man. It has survived wars and strikes and economic crises, and continues to attract young learners, all without state subsidies.
I've used it in speech and writing in about fifteen countries over recent years, and I recommend it to any traveller as a way of making friendly local contacts.
In fact more people speak Esperanto than ever before although the media would not have it that way.
AntwortenLöschenEsperanto is more widespread than people imagine. It is now in the top 100 languages, out of 6,800 worldwide. It is the 29th most used language in Wikipedia, ahead of Danish and Arabic. It is a language choice of, Skype, Firefox, Ubuntu and Facebook and Google translate recently added this international language to its prestigious list of 64 languages.
Native Esperanto speakers, (people who have used the language from birth), include World Chess Champion Susan Polger, Ulrich Brandenberg the new German Ambassador to and Nobel Laureate Daniel Bovet. Financier George Soros learnt Esperanto as a child.
Esperanto is a living language - see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
Their online course http://www.lernu.net has 125 000 hits per day and Esperanto Wikipedia enjoys 400 000 hits per day. That can't be bad :)