Esperanto
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language.[1] Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto ("Esperanto" translates as "one who hopes"), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, on July 26, 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that transcends nationality and would foster peace and international understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages. Nowadays Esperanto is seen by Esperantists as a positive alternative to the growing use of English throughout the world. Esperanto is found as an ethical solution (for the threat about the cultural and linguistic diversity related to the expansion of English[2]) as well as an economical alternative (for foreigners the learning of Esperanto is much easier than the learning of English).[3]
Estimates of Esperanto speakers range from 10,000 to 2,000,000 active or fluent speakers, as well as perhaps a thousand native speakers, that is, people who learned Esperanto from birth as one of their native languages. Esperanto has a notable presence in over a hundred countries. Usage is highest in Europe, East Asia, and South America.[4]
The first World Congress of Esperanto was organized in France in 1905. Since then congresses have been held in various countries every year with the exception of years in which there were world wars. Although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, Esperanto was recommended by the French Academy of Sciences in 1921 and recognized in 1954 by UNESCO (which later, in 1985, also recommended it to its member states). In 2007 Esperanto was the 32nd language that adhered to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR)".[5] Esperanto is currently the language of instruction of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino.[6] There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a superior foundation for learning languages in general, and some primary schools teach it as preparation for learning other foreign languages.[7] On February 22, 2012, Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language.[8]
Esperanto Proverbs
Friend
¶ Amikon montras malfeliĉo.
Translation: A friend shows in misfortune.
Idiomatic translation: A friend is known in adversity, like gold is known in fire.
References
[1]^ Zasky, Jason (2009-07-20), "Discouraging Words", Failure Magazine, "But in terms of invented languages, it’s the most outlandishly successful invented language ever. It has thousands of speakers—even native speakers—and that’s a major accomplishment as compared to the 900 or so other languages that have no speakers. - Arika Okrent"
[2]^ Grin Report
[3]^ Grin Report, page 81 "Thus Flochon (2000: 109) notes that 'the Institute of Cybernetic Education of Paderborn (Germany) has compared the learning times of several groups of French-speaking baccalauréat students to reach an equivalent "standard" level in four different languages: Esperanto, English, German and Italian. The results are as follows: to reach this level, 2000 hours of German study produce a linguistic level equivalent to 1500 hours of English study, 1000 hours of Italian study and ... 150 hours of Esperanto study.' No comment." Other estimates scattered in the literature confirm faster achievement in target language skills in Esperanto than in all the other languages with which the comparison has been made (Ministry of Education [Italy], 1995) as well as propaedeutic benefits of Esperanto (Corsetti and La Torre, 1995)."
[4]^ Overview of the spread of Esperanto speakers worldwide.
[5]^ Official European CEFR papers in Esperanto.
[6]^ a b "Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj (AIS) San-Marino". Ais-sanmarino.org. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
[7]^ YouTube: Learn Esperanto first: Tim Morley at TEDxGranta
[8]^ Brants, Thorsten (February 22, 2012). "Tutmonda helplingvo por ĉiuj homoj". Google Translate Blog. Google. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Esperanto_proverbs
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