Esperanto Today.

In case you don't already know, Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language created by L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist, in the late 19th century. It is reportedly the preëminent auxiliary language, proposed for international communication. Here is the Wikipedia article, if you are interested: Esperanto - Wikipedia

My question is simply, how is Esperanto faring today? As I said, some people still have some high aspirations for it. But in a recent thread I made, someone referred to it as a dead language, like Latin.

I never learned Esperanto. But I guess I can tell you, about 25 years ago I was interested in it. So I contacted this local lady (in metro Detroit). And she offered to help a little.

I have to tell you, reportedly, the language has no culture. But still, there does seem to be a kind of culture that has built up around it nonetheless. Maybe that is what turns some people off to it, I suppose.

But as I said, my question is simply, does it have any hope of fulfilling its original dream? And does anyone bother to learn it now? Especially young people?

 

In spite of being written off as dead for decades, Esperanto continues to attract new learners and activists. It has never become the international language that Zamenhof hoped it would be but it has maintained a community of speakers for over 100 years. There are websites, books, printed magazines and music in Esperanto. It would be wrong to assume that there is no Esperanto culture. You may just have to look for it. You should be able to contact your national Esperanto association for more information. There may even be an Esperanto club in your area.

 

Seems to be pretty active in South America.

 

I know the guy that invented it used words of European languages for Esperonto , like hund (German) for dog ,if one knows Esperonto it's easier to learn other languages , but are enough people really using it to make it worth learing ?

 

I think it's worth learning for its own sake. Plus as you said it helps to pick up on other languages.

 

Esperonto was intended as a langa franka . A language with simplified rules that the world could learn easy and get behind . Today English is kinda a langa franka , but with more complicated rules. As English has words takken from other languages the rules are more complicated.