Esperanto Rhymes With Tonto
by Jonathan B. Perry
I mentioned in the Logan’s Run post that I’d visited a peace museum which also, ironically, featured an exhibit on population control. At this peace museum outside of Lincoln, NE (which is now closed) they took things a crazy step further: there was also an exhibit featuring the joys of Esperanto. Esperanto is that weird language created in the late 19th century which was designed as a secondary language to facilitate communication between other languages and possibly people using bongs. The Esperanto people also throw peace in there as one of its intended attributes (that must be how they fit it into the museum). Basically, it’s
L L Zamenhof created Esperanto
like speaking a combo of broken English, broken Spanish, and broken Italian and hoping to be understood by some hot French chick across the café.
It’s believed that there are a thousand native speakers today, while over the last century Esperanto has been used by approximately 100,000 to 2 million people, many of whom are probably bachelors who also speak Klingon, I‘m quite sure. It just so happens that a movie was made in the 1960s using Esperanto. Incubus was a horror B-movie, starring the great William Shatner (of TJ Hooker fame), that used only Esperanto in its dialogue. It’s kind of an interesting arty movie, if a little Satanic around the ears, and while that might not achieve peace, it‘s good for killing a lazy afternoon. And possibly good taste.
Some Esperanto Links:
Largely Unrelated Reading:
Logan’s Run and Population Control
1950′s Instructional Film: What To Do On A Date
Children, Braid Your Nosehairs
Bachelor Profiles: Sherlock Holmes
Bachelor Profiles: Mad King Ludwig
Bachelor Profiles: The Bachelor President
Subscribe to the Domesticated Bachelor through RSS or link to one of the buttons below! Do it!
Related Blogs
- What type of movie is harder to sit through without losing your mind?
- Esperanto Group Picnic
- Meddysong » Blog Archive » Can You Sing In Esperanto?
- Which Kitchen Floor is Right for Your Home? | Martha's Kitchen
- Hi Tech answers » How do you switch input modes on a samsung …
- Hearing Aids – Which Type Is Right For You? | Christian Little
- Indicators That Describe The Presence Of Type 1 And Type 2 …
- The width of « best-self-help.info
- 5 Vital Travel Tips for Seniors | Twitravel | Best travel deals
- Check Out Scosche GM9506 Auxilary Input Harness for $11.47 | TV …
- Sonnd › <a href="http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/05/02/balkanizing …
- First 100 days: Peace Talks – NOYPIPOL: The Official Blog of Sen …
- Twistie's Sunday Caption Madness: The Fiesta Grande Edition: The …
- Wheels on the Bus in Esperanto « Koplushian's Blog
- One Tin Soldier in Esperanto « Koplushian's Blog
- Music Review of Twenty One by Mystery Jets | Give To World Voice
- The Esperanto Trap
- Tillers » Blog Archive » poulan pro front tine tiller – 24in. till …
- Which type of economy can give happyness and minimal or reasonable …
- Blood Type and Diet ? Weight Loss & Optimal Health | WomansIndex.net
9 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
You’re entitled to your view, of course, but there’s nothing weird about Esperanto. I’ve been using Esperanto on my travels for many years, and it has certainly enriched my life.
A good introduction to this delightful planned language can be found at http://www.esperanto.net
Comment by Bill Chapman — April 9, 2009 @ 1:37 am
I’ve met hundreds, if not thousands, of Esperanto-speakers over the past 50 years from around the world, but as far as I am aware not a single speaker of Klingon. I’m told that there were 12 of these latter in 1996, plus more who can manage a few ritual greetings and responses, but rarely a free conversation. And besides, Esperanto has a point, or seven to be precise, listed in its Prague Manifesto:
http://lingvo.org
Shatner’s Esperanto is atrocious and his lines were learned off by heart for the movie Incubus! To hear normal Esperanto try listening to one of the daily broadcasts from Radio Polonia:
http://www.polskieradio.pl/eo/
Comment by mankso — April 9, 2009 @ 2:58 am
Nothing “weird” about Esperanto.
I agree, however, that it’s unfair that only a few people know that Esperanto has become a living language.
During a short period of 121 years Esperanto is now in the top 100 languages, out of 6,800 worldwide, according to the CIA World factbook. It is the 17th most used language in Wikipedia, and in use by Skype, Firefox and Facebook.
Native Esperanto speakers,(people who have used the language from birth), include George Soros, World Chess Champion Susan Polger, Ulrich Brandenberg the new German Ambassador to NATO and Nobel Laureate Daniel Bovet. According to the CIA Factbook the language is within the top 100 languages, out of all languages, worldwide.
Confirmation of this can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670 A glimpse of the language can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
Comment by Brian Barker — April 9, 2009 @ 3:36 am
I honestly do think Esperanto is fascinating & it’s interesting to find people who’ve used it. Thanks so much for the resource. I’ll have to add it in to a re-edit.
Comment by admin — April 9, 2009 @ 10:44 am
It’s great to find Esperanto speakers. I really do think it’s a very interesting language and idea.
I wondered about the language use in the movie, though Shatner is always a little halting with his speech. How did the other actors do speaking it? Did any of them know Esperanto otherwise?
Thank you for the Radio resource. I’ll have to add that to a re-edit.
Comment by admin — April 9, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Saluton! (Hi!) from another Esperanto speaker. My experience with Esperanto is that it is complete, harmonious and expressive, as much so as any other living language, with the added advantages of being several times easier to learn and being spoken by people around the world. I find it fun to speak and use it regularly. You should give it a try – http://en.lernu.net has lots of free learning resources, and http://www.kurso.com.br has a nice multimedia introductory course.
About Incubus, I found Shatner’s Esperanto pronunciation to be particularly atrocious, audibly influenced by his Montreal French. The other actors’ pronunciations were mediocre to OK, but Shatner was the only one for whom I had to read the subtitles (at times) to figure out what he was saying. To my knowledge, none of the actors actually spoke Esperanto.
Comment by Michjo — April 9, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
George Soros, huh? Pretty cool.
Comment by admin — April 9, 2009 @ 10:30 pm
Saluton to you, Michjo!
Comment by admin — April 9, 2009 @ 10:31 pm
Great site, pictures and interesting blogs.
I will return Alistair
Comment by Boyofbow — April 11, 2009 @ 10:51 pm