Esperanto at UR: Lecture Notes

We reviewed exercises from lesson #1 of Richardson and the first episode of Pasporto. No video or culture topics today, but we previewed important elements of grammar from lesson #2 of the Richardson text.

First class: May 30

Slides (PDF, 1.3 MB)

Notes for the slides:

Multilingualism presents a dilemma. Language diversity needs to be preserved, but how can we communicate with each other?
Language is a bearer of cultural and national identity
- no one wants to give up his/her native language
- language rights are important
- linguistic diversity needs to be preserved
On the other hand, the cultural link creates a barrier
- language is often a tool of cultural imperialism
- Even in North America, the language debate simmers
  - In USA, a sea of English monoculture, the use of Spanish (or anything non-English) is often divisive
  - Quebec: longstanding struggles over French vs. English
Language learning typically involves an enormous investment of time and effort
- Each national language is someone's native tongue; second-language learners often viewed as “second-class” speakers; “foreigners”
- Each national language grants access to only a small fraction of Earth's cultures
- over 6,000 languages spoken on planet Earth
- over 300 languages with 1 million speakers or more
- no one language spoken by majority: not even close
- even 8 most popular languages spoken by ~40% of world's population
- only people with a gift/time can afford to learn more than a handful
Problem of mutual comprehension
- with so many languages, how can we communicate?
- even with only 8 different languages, everyone has to learn 7 foreign languages.
- 28 language pairs to be translated
An “auxiliary” language
- a universal “second language”
- doesn't supplant national languages
- each person needs to know only one foreign language (the auxiliary)
- only 8 language pairs to be translated
English?
- Like other national languages, is difficult for second-language learners.
- Spelling is difficult even for native speakers
- Widely spoken, but not as widely as we'd like to think.
- In many places where English is “spoken” it is often used poorly, or incomprehensibly
- A note: I'm not bashing English. English is a rich and expressive language. But like all national languages, it doesn't function well as an auxiliary language.
- The slides have some funny snapshots of signs from engrish.com. To be fair, these don't really make a strong case by themselves against English as an auxiliary language. But they do illustrate that, even where English is used, it is often broken or incomprehensible.
This course is based on the premise that Esperanto is the most suitable and practical auxiliary language. (Feel free to question this premise!) Glossing over a lot here, but as a preview of things to come:
- Esperanto has no grammatical genders; everything is spelled as it sounds; all verbs are conjugated the same way, no exceptions
- Esperanto is flexible and expressive. It has a large literature, both original and translated.
- Esperanto is international, with some of best features of world languages; word stock mostly European, grammar somewhat Asiatic
- Esperanto belongs to no ethnic or national group
- Students of Esperanto can reach proficiency in a fraction of the time required for national languages
- Esperanto aids in third-language learning, much like Latin. (Though it's a lot easier to learn than Latin!)
Esperanto is practical
- Millions of speakers worldwide
- Dozens of periodicals appear monthly: news, religion, science, general-interest topics, culture
- Rich literature with thousands of works in print, both original and translated
- Radio broadcasts, “podcasts”
- web publications like Ĝangalo
- Esperanto-language version of Wikipedia with over 30,000 articles and growing
- Universala Kongreso (UK) meets every year in a different city
  - typically several thousand people attend
  - workshops, day trips, food, talks, etc.
- Pasporta Servo
  - Hosts get the yearly directory for free, others pay ~$20
  - Hosts very friendly, enthusiastic: share in Esperanto ideals of internationalism; though not obligated to do so, they'll often feed you, show you around their city, provide transportation!
  - Listings by location, how many guests, how long they can stay, how much advance notice is needed, etc.
  - Local hosts: Thomas and Dana Alexander
The alphabet
- Each letter has only one sound
- “Pure” vowels: father, bet, machine, coke, rude. Be careful not to turn these into glides, as is common in English.
- Most consonants have the same sound as they commonly do in English: ball, danger, fantastic, go, happy, kind, leap, motor, now, pit, sing, talk, vow, zap.
- Others: c like poTS, ĉ like CHurch, ĝ like Gem, ĥ like loCH, j like Yet, ĵ like treaSure, r is trilled, ŝ like SHovel, ŭ like Wet

Esperanto ĉe la Universitato de Roĉestro