Apparently the language was popular among early 20th century socialist movements because it was of an international character and therefore not associated with any nationality and its use by international socialist organisations wouldn’t show favour to any particular country. It was banned in Nazi Germany and other fascist states because of its association with the left wing, with anti-nationalism, and because its creator was Jewish. It has mostly languished since then but still has around 2 million speakers with about 1,000 native speakers.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    My opinion is this: who can I speak Esperanto with?

    Exactly.

    The problem with Esperanto is that languages don’t work like that: they’re not created out of thin air. They exist because people speak them and they come into existance from other languages that get distorted beyond recognition by the people who misuse them.

    No living language is known to have been conjured into existence, with perhaps the possible exception of a few rare language isolates like Basque that might have been invented from scratch a long time ago, since nobody knows where they come from exactly.

    • Kociamorda@szmer.info
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      3 months ago

      The problem with Esperanto is that languages don’t work like that: they’re not created out of thin air. They exist because people speak them>

      This language was spoken by even larger population that said 2 millions but the totalitarian regimes of Second World War persecuted esperantists. So I think that Esperanto bypassed this rule. And fact that after a whole century this language is still alive and has even some native speakers is telling.

    • egrets@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      they come into existance from other languages that get distorted beyond recognition by the people who misuse them

      “Misuse” is an inappropriate word to employ here. The correct way to speak a language is the way that others speak the language, so that you are mutually intelligible. Changes to how language is used aren’t a deviation from the “correct way” for exactly the reasons you’ve pointed out: language is not prescribed.

        • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 months ago

          I meant in real life, in ordinary everyday settings. I can also “speak” Morse code with fellow hams on the air, or practice sign language at my local community college, but those are “forced” venues so-to-speak. It’s not like I can routinely speak Esperanto every day as a matter of course.

          2 million Esperanto speakers is 0.025% of the world’s population, which works out as 1 Esperanto speaker every 360,000 square miles where I live. I still haven’t met that guy.

          • Zloubida@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It’s true that the problem is that it’s a diaspora. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s quite easy to find Esperanto speakers, and thanks to internet the Esperanto community is actually international. To be an active member of this community builds a better understanding of other points of view, it “internationalizes” your self. As a socialist I think that this is important.

            English do that too, but not with the same deepness (I know, English is my second language).

            • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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              3 months ago

              As a socialist I think that this is important.

              If you think languages and socialism have anything to do with each other, you’re sorely mistaken. You can be a socialist - or a communist, a capitalist pigdog, or a Nazi or anything at all - and speak any language you want. Case in point: Hebrew.

              You speaking Esperanto doesn’t say anything about your political leanings. All it says is that you’re interested in languages.

              • Zloubida@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Of course, I met some fascists in.the Esperanto community. You obviously didn’t understood what I said.

                • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  3 months ago

                  I understood what you said. The gist of my reply is: if you want to “internationalize” yourself, speak English. It’s the lingua franca of the world. Soon to be replaced by Cantonese no doubt though 🙂

                  My point was, the language you - or the world - speaks has nothing to do with your political or societal values.

                  • redrum@lemmy.ml
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                    3 months ago

                    Culture and language have been used for the oppression of national minorities and to settle colonial and imperialist projects. The English, as a lingua franca, is most related to those concepts that with socialist internatioalism. That’s not the case with Esperanto.

    • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      That’s why I want to learn interlingua. It lets you communicate (one way) to most romance language speakers