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World language needs planning not power

By Stephen Crabbe - posted Thursday, 2 February 2006


Human history is the struggle between two urges: the desire for a larger identity and the need for relationship with origins. Look at conflicts between national governments and local tribes, the suffering and triumph of corporate mergers, exploration of other planets in the face of insistence that this planet needs our attention more. As we globalise our trade and communications we feel a stronger need to trace our family trees back to the roots. Other contributors to On Line Opinion, such as Peter Sellick and David James, have touched on this theme recently in terms of universality versus particularity, or “lumping” versus “splitting”.

It is time for a serious look at the state of language in our world, where the same theme is playing out. This time the tune is an interplay between the development of a universal language and the retention of native tongues.

In 1996 representatives of over 100 Non-Government Organisations and 90 nations, supported by UNESCO, formulated the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. It was to be an instrument for alleviating many problems throughout the world such as the oppression of minority groups because of their language and the inadequate government help for immigrants learning their new national language.

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The Declaration also aimed to address the extinction of languages, the rate of which is currently about one per fortnight. Thus more and more individuals are permanently cut off from their ancestral roots and traditions; humanity at large is rapidly losing its linguistic riches and its history, arts, folk-lore and other knowledge yet to be discovered. We are destroying a wealth of diversity that should be handed on to future generations.

This happens largely because some powerful nations and cultures seek global hegemony, using language as an instrument. It happens at many levels - governmental, corporate, individual. The arrogance of the domineering nation or culture tends to trigger a sense of inferiority or smouldering resentment among the people with whom it is interacting.

On the other hand, bodies like the European Parliament and the United Nations devote a huge amount of their resources on translation among the many languages of their members. In the United Nations the annual cost of translation for just one language can be as high as $100 million.

The world needs a common language bridge that causes neither hostility nor loss of language diversity. Can English be this bridge? I don't think so. The spread of English is much exaggerated and it has various characteristics that make it more difficult to learn than many other tongues. More importantly though, as the language of a particular group of nations English disqualifies itself immediately as a candidate for our quest.

The world-language we need must not belong to any nation or group of nations. It should carry as little political, historical and cultural baggage as possible. It should be easy to learn and apply. It should be adopted as an “auxiliary” language, a tool for communication across borders and groups that is not to replace existing languages within their respective communities.

Such languages already exist, often described as “artificial”, “invented” or “synthetic”. These adjectives tend to imply some inferiority or inadequacy which is not always deserved, so a more accurate descriptor would be “constructed” or, better still, “planned”. Many such languages have been proposed, but only one, Esperanto, has enjoyed significant and enduring popularity.

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In the late 19th century Lejzer Ludvik Zamenhof conceived Esperanto as a means of traversing national barriers and facilitating peace. The essential components of the language are: regularity in pronunciation, spelling and grammar; word-roots adapted from Romance, Germanic, Slavic and other vocabularies; and a structure that easily allows for the creation of new words as needed. Esperanto is embedded with a philosophy which enshrines the principle of neutrality. It is designed and used as an addition to, not a substitute for, each person’s mother-tongue and each nation’s language.

Because of its regularity and rational structure, students can learn Esperanto four or five times faster than other languages, using it for correspondence within weeks and for school trips abroad within months. Most Esperantists learn by self-study, although many organisations provide formal instruction in classes and online. I verified for myself the proclaimed simplicity of the language by learning to an elementary level and then, over some weeks, teaching a primary school class to the stage where students could create elementary narratives and compose letters.

A host of learning materials and courses, libraries of many thousands of books, and numerous websites are available. There are numerous Esperanto organisations across the world. The Universal Esperanto Association has international affiliates in 62 countries and members in at least twice that number. It has official relations with UNESCO and consultative status with the UN, UNICEF and various other high-level international bodies. One good introduction can be found here.

Since its birth, Esperanto has withstood a variety of criticisms. It’s not a real language, some say. Then how do thousands of delegates from dozens of different language communities meet in a global conference and discuss complex issues at length without any translation, all in Esperanto? It has no literature, say others. So how do you explain the many thousands of volumes - original and translated, fiction and otherwise - available in Esperanto? Frequent shots are taken at its European stock of word-roots, yet the agglutinative structure of this language relates it to Chinese, Japanese and other non-European tongues. The number of active Esperantists in Asia and Africa also tends to neuter this criticism. (Inquiring readers may be interested in this FAQ page)

Nevertheless critics have demonstrated a few weaknesses in Esperanto. The use of the circumflex is an example, especially in typing on the computer. Another is the requirement that adjectives must be inflected to show number and case. So it was inevitable that there would be attempts to improve on Esperanto, such as Ido and Slovio, but they seem to have found no convincing support.

One of the latest, however, is very interesting in that it acknowledges the valuable attributes of Esperanto and tries to preserve them while also capitalising on the contemporary English-learning craze in China. “Mondlango” is the creation of Chinese researchers. It uses the Esperanto structure with word-roots mainly taken from English and phoneticised, while also eliminating the circumflex symbols. If this language takes off among the huge population of China, it will stand a good chance of spreading to the extent that Esperanto has dreamed of.
(For further information see here.)

The notion of a planned, auxiliary world-language deserves the support of humankind as a means of facilitating peace, linguistic democracy, trade, science, and other worthy endeavours. When proponents present its case, however, even when all the specific objections have been countered, derision seems to be a frequent response. People from the full spectrum of educational backgrounds, professions and nationalities tend to say things like, “It simply won’t happen”, and “Get your head out of the clouds”. The scorn is not founded on reason, so where does it come from?

A psychotherapist, Claude Piron, may have come closest to the answer. From his personal experience and therapeutic work he found that individuals form a powerful attachment to their native language from infancy, when it seems to be a magical art imparted by the mother-figure. It literally becomes the “mother-tongue” and on a deep psychological level seems to give great power. Viewed from this deep level in the mind, any threat of being deprived of it, or of its being changed in any marked way, triggers immense fear. So the suggestion that Esperanto or other constructed languages may be the key to human progress provokes anxiety, which tends to choose ridicule as its primary weapon.

Yet despite our undeniable need for relationship with our roots, we do need to find a lingua franca for our planet. The two needs will be met in the most balanced way if we can adopt an effective, new global language that does not replace the many existing tongues used across the earth in their own particular communities. Pushing the language of one or several nations, such as English, upon all other nations will not work. Whether the answer is Esperanto, Mondlango or something else, our hope lies in planned linguistic construction.

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About the Author

Stephen Crabbe is a teacher, writer, musician and practising member of the Anglican Church. He has had many years of active involvement in community and political issues.

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Related Links
Australian Esperanto Association
World Esperanto Association

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