The Esperanto-Community

[Edmund Grimley-Evans <cbmvax!uunet!rz.uni-sb.de!dfkihueg>]

> The exact number of native speakers of esperanto is apparently not that fully
> documented.  All references I've seen have been anecdotal.  I do agree that t
> there are some.  The linguists who do not consider these numbers to be

In the book "Esperanto en perspektivo" (844 pages, published in 1974) I
found the following sentence:

Hodia^u ekzistas minimume 200 infanoj a^u junuloj en pli ol 19 landoj,
kies hejma lingvo estas Esperanto.

[There are today at least 200 children (or young people) in more than
19 countries who speak Esperanto at home.]

The book "Esperanto en perspektivo" is very reliable; the statement can
probably be interpreted as meaning, that one of the editors had in his
possession the names and addresses of 200 such children.

The however is completely IRRELEVANT!

The point is, that one is making a big mistake simply by applying the
phrase "native speaker" to the international language Esperanto. (The
phrase used in Esperanto is "denaska parolanto" [speaker from birth].)
The "native speakers" of Esperanto do not in any way have the normative
role in Esperantujo that the native speakers of English do in the
English-speaking community. If "denaska parolanto" Joe Bloggs and
William Auld were to disagree about some grammatical or stylistic
question, no one would regard Joe Blogg's opinion as having more weight
than William Auld's.

(William Auld is generally recognised as the greatest living
Esperanto-poet (although his best poems date back to the 1960s).  He is
also a sober essayist and definitely one of the most important figures
in today's Esperanto-culture. He learnt Esperanto as an adult!)

> written language community without being part of the speaking
> "community" such as there is one.)

Why these attempts to denigrate the Esperanto-Community? Is this
supposed to help the Lojban Effort?

As an English Esperantist living in Germany I have a much stronger
feeling of belonging to the Esperanto-Community than I do of belonging
to the English-speaking community (such as there is one).

Yesterday I read the following in "La Brita Esperantisto":

Pro Esperanto mi ekkonis mian edzinon; ni geedzi^gis en Esperanto; niaj
filinoj koncipi^gis kaj naski^gis en Esperanto; mia edzino diris al mi
siajn lastajn vortojn en Esperanto. En malpli emocia nivelo, miaj
konatoj parolas angle, sed miaj geamikoj parolas Esperante.

[Through Esperanto I got to know my wife; we were married in Esperanto;
our daughters were conceived and born in Esperanto; my wife spoke her
last words to me in Esperanto. On a less emotional level, my
acquaintances speak English, but my friends speak Esperanto.]

To get back to the original point of the discussion:

In some (presumably most) national languages (All `real' languages are
natural) there is a group of people usually referred to as "native
speakers" who have a normative role in defining the grammar of the
language. Esperanto is however living proof that this is not the case
for all (natural) languages.

> Yes, I like this.  Down with the native speakers.

Hear hear!

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Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS                              dfkihueg@rz.uni-sb.de
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