Do you have any arguments in favour of a universal language? Could Esperanto become a common language?

People have long been interested in having one language that could be spoken throughout the world. Such a language would help promote understanding and better feeling among nations. A universal language also would increase cultural and economic ties among various countries.

Some people suggest that an existing language such as English, French or Russian, be adopted as a universal language. The adoption of any language, natural or artificial, would simplify communication. Many people oppose artificial language. They believe that an artificial tongue does not reflect a true culture as existing languages do. Others oppose the use of any existing language as a world language. They claim that the culture of one or a few nations would be forced on all nations. As long as these arguments continue, the possibility of adoption of one world language appears dim.

The arguments in favour of a universal language are simple and obvious. If all people spoke the same tongue, cultural and economic ties might be such closer and good will might increase between countries. However many persons consider the promoters of universal language idealist and discourage the idea.

Through the years at least 600 universal languages have been proposed. Esperanto is the most successful universal language. It was invented in 1887 by a Polish doctor Ludwig Zamenhof. The vocabulary come mainly from Western European language and the grammar is similar to Slavic languages. It sounds like Italian. Esperanto means ‘hopeful’ and it was Zamenhof’s hope that a common language would promote a friendship and an understanding amongst all people of the world. The central idea of this tongue is an idea of human peace and justice. Esperanto is a very language to learn. The grammar is based on just 16 rules which have no exceptions. The alphabet contains 28 letters. The spelling is easy: each letter has exactly one sound. The accent or stress falls on the last syllable. The parts of speech are formed from root-words by the addition of appropriate letters: all nouns end in ‘-o’, adjectives always end in ‘-a’ and all the infinitive verbs ending is the letter ‘-i’. Esperanto use prefixes and suffixes to reduce the number of words to be learned. The main advantage of this language is that the Esperanto is neutral. It belongs to no one country. It belongs to everyone. It does not have the national, political and cultural bias that all others of course have. Every person who uses Esperanto is on an equal linguistic footing with all other Esperantists.

Esperanto is practical language. You can use it for travel. Books and magazines in Esperanto bring the news and culture of other countries. Through friendly correspondence with people in other countries you can learn more about the world. Lively discussions in Esperanto take place on the Internet and the number of Esperantist are growing every day. There are more than 125 technical Dictionaries and vocabularies. Various newspapers and literary, scientific, professional and religious reviews in Esperanto are published in all parts of the world. Every year an increasing number of conventions, conferences and study groups use Esperanto as their working language.

With the universal language the world will be able to talk freely to each other about business, politics, culture, sport, hobbies. The costs of translation at the conferences are staggering and the adoption of the universal language will help to save this money. We will understand each other better and be more sympathetic to each other’s causes.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1448