150 years ago today, December 15th, Ludwik Zamenhof was born. His was a divided city, partitioned in four quarters. Four identifiable groups (Germans, Poles, Jews and Russians) lived in Białystok, each category keeping to its own area.

The young Zamenhof was touched by the unnecessary violence exhibited towards others who were different, the segregation. Having witnessed for the umpteenth time the beating dished out to a member of one group who strayed into another’s area, the young Zamenhof thought to himself that the situation would not have arisen had the two groups involved been able to talk to one another.

So he started work on his project for an international language, a mutually understood yet neutral language that each group would have in addition to its own. The Russians would still have Russian, but switch to the international language when speaking to Germans, who would keep their Germanic tongue, but opt for the international language when in conversation with the Poles, and so on.

At the party for his 18th birthday Zamenhof presented to his friends his lingwe uniwersala, the first draft of what would become nine years later Esperanto.

Since the 1920s Esperanto-speakers have celebrated December 15th as “Zamenhof Day”. Having started with only one member Esperanto has wound its way around the globe; the World Esperanto Association has members in 121 countries. Not a bad rate of success for a project started by a teenager, especially when compared to the results of efforts of intellectual heavyweights such as René Descartes

Anyway, aided and abetted by Google China’s logo today, I’d like to wish well on Zamenhof Day to any and all curious souls who may have stumbled upon this blog entry.

If you’d like to find out more about Esperanto I’ve written a brief description of the language’s history, provided some useful information such as details about its alphabet, how it sounds, and how many speakers it has, and run some online forums where you can get a flavour of some of the young people who speak Esperanto in Britain, find information about our meet-ups, and get answers to any questions that you may have. Have a snoop around; it won’t take more than a few minutes and, you never know; you may find something interesting. I know I did

Thanks!

I’ve been crook for a few days. People will know that it’s legit because I don’t get paid to be off sick. Unfortunately, deadlines don’t change, especially when people want to print t-shirts for this year’s Internacia Seminario.

Well, this was news to me. You see, keep it hush, but there won’t be an IS after this one, because the event is merging with the Ago-Semajno. The result is JES, the Junulara E-Semajno.

Well, I had already been approached by Rolf to brand it, as I had the IS. I knew that they would need the logo ready for display, so I was prepared to work to that deadline.

Rolf threw a spanner in the works, though, when he said the other side wanted to have some t-shirts printed. Suddenly my deadline shrank, since I have to work to the timeframes of the printers.

Well, I’ve just got the two different logos finished. One is for the t-shirt and low-resolution thinking, the other is my preferred one, which will go on the website.

Let me know what you think:

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The Language Show takes place annually at the London Olympia. The Esperanto-Asocio de Britio was there, as was I, for my third visit.

It was the usual hectic week leading up to the event for me, preparing a new copy of Saluton and flyer, and adding subtitles to the excellent documentary Esperanto Estas, viewable in six parts here.

I’m very proud of that issue of Saluton. I think it hit the mark that I was targetting. I wanted something that looked good and was informative to the reader, almost as a series of newspaper articles about Esperanto. Copies are downloadable from here.

As for the event itself …

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I can’t sing in any language.  That would make for the shortest blog ever were I to leave it at that, so I think I’ll seize the opportunity to elaborate a little.

“Artificial” sounds like such a negative word.  I often try to avoid using it when answering the inevitable question about “what is Esperanto?”

It shouldn’t be an issue, of course, as you there reading this on your artificial computer, wearing your artificial clothing, and being used to your artificial modes of transport well know.

When I consider other constructed languages I become dubious about whether they could actually have a spoken dimension to them, whether they could be used for singing.

I fully understand others’ scepticism about Zamenhof’s project, since I harbour those same apprehensions about any other constructed language that you might suggest to me. (Well, except Solresol, for obvious reasons. ) (more…)