Fourthly.—Treaties and Conventions with foreign Powers could be drawn up in the international language, and there would be no difficulty in determining their exact signification.[5]
Esperanto was first introduced into Great Britain by Mr. Joseph Rhodes, of Keighley, Yorkshire, who formed the first group in that town in 1902. Shortly afterwards, in January, 1903, a group was formed in London, under the auspices of Mr. W. T. Stead, Editor of the "Review of Reviews," Miss E. A. Lawrence, and Mr. J. C. O’Connor, M.A., PhD., which resulted in the foundation of the present London Esperanto Club. The first English-Esperanto Gazette was founded by Mr. H. Bolingbroke Mudie, in November, 1903; this was followed in January, 1905, by "The British Esperantist," the official organ of the British Esperanto Association, which was then founded as the official organization of the Esperantists of the British Empire. Progress in the language was at first slow, but it is now advancing by leaps and bounds, and there are at present, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, some 60[6] societies, groups, and clubs, affiliated to the British Esperanto Association. There is also now an American Esperanto Association, with already a large number of energetic groups.[7]
I hope that those who take up this Commentary on Esperanto will not think it necessary to wade through all its pages before they can read and write the language. All that is necessary for this purpose is to read the 16 simple rules, written by Dr. Zamenhof himself (par. 94), and a few paragraphs and examples on the Formation of Words (par. 40), and on the Parts of Speech (pars. 103, 107, 125, 149, 159, 238, 249, 262). This can easily be done in two or three hours; and then, with the aid of a small English Dictionary, you will be able to write a letter in Esperanto, which will be readily understood by any Esperantist.
Or, you can buy for a few pence various primers, first lessons, or instruction books, most of which contain a small vocabulary of common words. A tiny book, costing 1d., called the "Esperanto Key," weighing 1⁄5th of an ounce, containing a vocabulary of over 1,500 roots, with explanations of the suffixes, formation of words, etc., gives you the language in a nutshell. This little book is already published in nineteen different languages. If you wish to correspond with anyone of a different nation, all you have to do is to write your letter in Esperanto, enclose the "Esperanto Key" in the language of the person you are writing to, and he will understand your letter. This, you may say, is pure nonsense, but I assure you it is true, for on several occasions I have done this myself. In all cases my letters were thoroughly understood, and in two cases I received replies written in Esperanto, within three days of my writing, from persons who had never previously read a word in the language; these replies were in perfectly good Esperanto, with only one or two trifling errors, and I was quite amazed when I got them.
But then you will say, "What is the use of this Commentary?" Well, it is compiled for the use of those who wish to go deeper into the study of this delightful, logical, flexible, and sonorous language, and who wish to write and speak it, not merely sufficiently well to be understood, but to write and speak it in good style. Esperanto, although so extraordinarily easy to learn, has, like every national language, a certain style and elegance of expression of its own. If we translate French, or any other foreign language, literally into English, we see how bald and strange it reads, and probably some sentences would be unintelligible. A language literally translated into Esperanto would be quite intelligible to persons of all nationalities, owing to the fact that Esperanto is a purely logical, clear, and unidiomatic language, and to the use of the accusative case; but the literal translation might be wanting in style, grace, and smoothness, for the order of the words, although perfectly correct grammatically, might, in some cases, entail harshness of sound, and so the easy flow and euphony of the language would be lost.
The standard book for good style in the language is the "Fundamenta Krestomatio" (Fundamental Chrestomathy), or book of extracts for studying a language. This book, containing 458 pages of prose and verse on numerous subjects, was published by Dr. Zamenhof in 1903, and all the articles in it were either written by himself or, if written, as many were, by others, were corrected by him to such a degree that they do not too widely differ from the Doctor’s own style.
The more the student studies this language, the more he will wonder how it could have been created by the brain of one man; for we must remember that Esperanto was not devised by a group of learned men of different nationalities, bringing the knowledge of their own language to bear upon the construction of an entirely new language, but that it was born of one individual after years of intense thought and labour, and it is marvellous how he has discarded the illogical, and introduced the logical and best points of all the European and dead languages into Esperanto. How this result was obtained can best be shown by a short history of the language, taken generally from the Doctor’s article on the subject in the "Krestomatio," page 241, and also from a letter he wrote to a friend, which was first printed by his consent in 1896, and reproduced in "Esperantaj Prozaĵoj," page 239.
Footnotes:
[1] The Third Assembly of the League of Nations, held at Geneva in September, 1922, unanimously adopted an exhaustive Report favourable to Esperanto.
[2] The Universala Esperanto-Asocio (U.E.A.), with headquarters at 12, Boulevard du Théâtre, Geneva, has a world-wide organization with delegates (or consuls, as they are sometimes called) in over 1000 towns in thirty-nine countries who render important international services.
[3] A book list containing titles of hundreds of translations and original works in Esperanto may be had from the British Esperanto Association (Incorporated).
[4] International Congresses, at which Esperanto was the only language used, have been held at Boulogne-sur-Mer (1905), Geneva (1906), Cambridge (1907), Dresden (1908), Barcelona (1909), Washington (1910), Antwerp (1911), Cracow (1912), Berne (1913), Paris (1914), San Francisco (1915), The Hague (1920), Prague (1921), Helsingfors (1922), and Nurnberg (1923). A Conference of educationists was held in 1922 at the Secretariat of the League of Nations in Geneva, at which twenty-eight countries and sixteen governments were represented; and in 1923 a Commercial Conference was held at Venice, to which over 200 commercial and touring associations from twenty-three countries sent delegates. At both of these conferences, Esperanto was the only language used.
[5] The most notable example of a modern treaty was the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles in 1919. It was executed in French and English; but not long afterwards questions of the interpretation of certain parts of it were raised, based upon alleged divergencies of meaning in the two texts.
[6] In 1923 more than 100.
[7] The Esperanto Association of North America (Inc.), 507, Pierce Buildings, Copley Square, Boston 17 (Mass.), U.S.A., incorporates the English-speaking Esperantists of North America. There are also similar associations in the British Colonies.
The Origin of Esperanto.
Doctor Ludovic Zamenhof, Doctor of Medicine, the inventor of Esperanto, was born on December 3rd (15th N.S.), 1859, at Bialystok (Bjelostok), in the Government of Grodno, West Russia, where he spent his boyhood.[8] The inhabitants of Bjelostok were of four different nationalities, Russians, Poles, Germans, and Jews, all speaking different languages, and generally on bad terms with each other. The boy’s impressionable nature caused him to reflect that this animosity was occasioned by diversity of language, and thus the first seeds of the idea of an International Language were sown. Even at an early age Dr. Zamenhof came to the conclusion that an international language was possible only if it were neutral, belonging to no nationality in particular. When he passed from the Bjelostok gymnasium to the second classical school at Warsaw he was for some time allured by the dead languages, and dreamed of travelling through the world to revive one of them for common use, but he was eventually convinced that this was impracticable owing to