I couldn't think of anything to post today, so I was just browsing the Wikipedia home page. Reading the Selected Anniversaries, it reminded me what I had been planning to write today.

As a boy growing up in what is now Poland, L.L. Zamenhof saw that the language barrier was responsible for misunderstanding and hatred among people. As a young man he considered his International Language complete, only to have his plans burned by his father while he was away. Zamenhof saw this as an opportunity to start anew, and his International Language was completed in 1885. After difficulties in finding a publisher, his new father-in-law agreed to publish his work. So 118 years ago today, on July 26, 1887, the Unua Libro ("First Book") rolled off the presses carrying an outline of the language in Russian. (Hebrew, French, Polish, German, and English editions followed.) Zamenhof used the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto, meaning "one who hopes." Needless to say, this was catchier than "Lingvo Internacia" and stuck as the name of the language.

It is truly amazing that a language spoken by one man in 1887 has 1 to 2 million speakers today. Although it can hardly be said that Esperanto has fulfilled its goal of being a universal second language, there is no doubt that it facilitates communication across boundaries. If that were not true, then Esperanto speakers from different countries would not meet, fall in love, and produce native Esperanto speakers. And yet they do. If Esperanto were not a solution for the language problem, then thousands of people from dozens of countries would not be meeting right now in Lithuania, chatting with as much ease as (or more ease than) their respective native languages.

In order for Esperanto to go further, people have to swallow their national pride and learn it. Supposedly English is the universal language, but I daresay that the only people who think this are English speakers, who comprise about one-tenth of the world's population. The other 90% don't know English, and many, for political reasons, will not learn. I'm getting all choked up now thinking that Esperanto has such a long way to go and faces so much resistance from ignorant people. Such a long way, but the only way. I'm determined to work for it.

This is an interesting instrument: the electro-theremin. They're custom-made. You can buy one, apparently, but they're a little expensive for me ($400 US). Listen to the sound samples, though.