Esperanto is an international auxiliary language created in 1887 to promote international understanding. It was created by L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish ophthalmologist who hoped it could help unite people from different countries and cultures. Esperanto borrows elements from Romance languages like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French as well as Germanic and Slavic languages. Today it is spoken worldwide by an estimated 100,000-2,000,000 people as a second or third language. Esperanto communities organize international conferences and meetings throughout the year in various locations globally to promote the use of the language.

1. Augusta Taurinorum
Thinking Out of the Box with Esperanto:
What, Who, Where and When in 15 minutes
Federico Gobbo
(Amsterdam / Turin)
⟨F.Gobbo@uva.nl;federico.gobbo@unito.it⟩
28 June 2019
VOX-POP Zomerfeest Close Up
Binnengasthuisstraat 9 (BG3), Amsterdam
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2. What is Esperanto?
A historical overview
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3. Language planning and planned languages
normative (written) variety
language planning
continuum of language variation (in speech)
language use
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4. Esperanto as a contact language
(Germanic + Romance + Slavic) x regularization = Esperanto

5. How many planned languages?
communication
expression
publicsecret
Esperanto
Latino sine Flexione
Ido
Basic English
Novial
Volapük (19th c.)
Interlingua
Interslavic
Lojban
Dothraki
Klingon
Tolkien’s (21st c.)
Volapük (20th c.)
Na’vi
Tolkien’s (20th)
Europanto

6. Esperanto as part of the innovations of its time
■ 1865: International Telegraph Union;
■ 1874: Universal Postal Union;
■ 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call;
■ 1884: International Meridian Conference (Greenwich);
■ 1886: the Coca-Cola was born in Atlanta, US
■ 1887: Zamenhof publishes Esperanto in Warsaw, Poland;
■ 1888: The Kodak camera was born: ‘you press the button - we do the
rest’:
■ 1889: inauguration of the Tour Eiffel in Paris;
■ 1894: Pierre de Coubertin restores the Olympic Games;
■ 1900: L’Exposition de Paris: the cinema was born.
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7. Who was Zamenhof?
Source: Bonvenon! by Gobbo & Gamberoni (2018)

8. La bela sonĝo de l’ homaro…

9. From the speech of Zamenhof, 1905
En la malgrandan urbon de la franca marbordo kunvenis homoj el
la plej diversaj landoj kaj nacioj, kaj ili renkontas sin reciproke ne
mute kaj surde, sed ili komprenas unu la alian, ili parolas unu
kun la alia kiel fratoj, kiel membroj de unu nacio.
Rough translation in English:
In the small town of the French seaside came together persons from
the most different countries and nations, and they meet one the
other reciprocally not mute and deaf, but they understand one the
other, they speak one with the other as brothers, as
members of just one nation.
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10. … ends with the Great War (1914-1918)
© 1915 Louis Raemaekers satirieke kaart van Europa, Het gekkenhuis (oud liedje, nieuwe wijs)

11. The influence of Esperanto on Tolkien’s languages
Tolkien gave at the Esperanto Congress in Oxford in 1930 entitled A
Hobby for the Home, later known as A Secret Vice:
Personally I am a believer in an ‘artificial’ language, at any rate for
Europe a believer, that is, in its desirability, as the one thing
antecedently necessary for uniting Europe, before it is
swallowed by non-Europe; […] also I particularly like
Esperanto…which is good a description of the ideal artificial
language [but] my concern is not with that kind of artificial
language at all. (my emphasis)
from A Secret Vice, J. R. R. Tolkien
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12. Esperanto as a political tool…
© 1936? Esperantomuseum Vienna; from: Comissariat de Propaganda de la Generalitat de Catalunya

13. … ends in tragedy! :(
© 2014 Dan Mazur. Esperantists

14. Who are the Esperantists?
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15. Europe is the lullaby of Esperanto
Source: Garvía (2015:78)

16. Esperantists are a social avangarde
According to the demographic analysis by Roberto Garvía (2015:100)
summarizing the work by the pioneer Tanquist (1927), these are the
main motivation in learning Esperanto (US, UK, Germany-Austria):

17. Pioneers of alternative lifestyle: vegetarianism
© 1914 Vegetarano, the official bulletin of the Vegetara Ligo

18. Myrtle R. Douglas (Morojo; 1904 - 1964)
Science Fiction fan, fanzine publicher, cosplay pioneer, Esperantist
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19. Lýdia Machová, Language Mentor and Polyglot
© https://languagementoring.com
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20. Kjara, an Italian femal singer-songwriter
© http://chiararaggi.net/esperanto/
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21. The non-FIFA Esperanto football team: Lille (FR) 2015
World Esperanto Congress 100, 110 years after the first one
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22. Esperanto and gender (‘ri’ is like ‘hen’ in Swedish)
© https://egalecen.org/
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23. Where is Esperanto spoken?
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24. TEJO Member Organizations

25. Esperanto: history and geography
There is no Esperanto state or specific territtory. However, we can
consider congresses, festivals, and meetings in local clubs as the
‘language territories’ of the language, where the community members
gather. This is the geography of Esperanto.
The places where these events happen – as well as some places where
Esperanto is used on a firm basis – form the geography of Esperanto.
The history of Esperanto drives new initiatives, rooted in virtual
and real places.
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26. The web mania in Duolinguo (as of 24/4/2018)
Studying Users Availability
(millions) (except EN)
English 399.72 all available languages
Spanish 142.51 PT, FR, DE, RU, ZH
French 101.65 ES, PT, DE, IT, AR, RU
German 61.28 ES, RU, PT, FR, TR, AR, IT
Italian 39.8 ES, FR, PT
Portuguese 20.55 ES, FR
(…)
Dutch 5.40
(…)
Esperanto 1.67 ES
Vietnamese 1.46
Catalan 1.44 ES (only)
Welsh 1.03
https://jakubmarian.com/duolingo-number-of-users-per-language-statistics/

27. When do Esperanto meetings
happen?
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28. NASK 2019 starts tomorrow…

29. SES, Summer Esperanto Study, 2019

30. IJK, Internacia Junulara Kongreso, 2020

31. Thanks for your attention! Dankon por via atento!
Questions? Comments?
If not now, send afterwards to:
⟨F.Gobbo@uva.nl⟩
More info about me:
https:/federicogobbo.name/
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