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What's your opinion on Esperanto (language)? (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/socialism@lemmy.ml
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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.

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[–] 5 points 2 years ago* (7 children)

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.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    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).

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years 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.

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