4 ms·
Before WW1, Esperanto was actually becoming popular and was taught in schools in parts of Europe. The nationalistic policies around WW1 and after put a stop to
by the_duke 8y ago
Before WW1, Esperanto was actually becoming popular and was taught in schools in parts of Europe.
The nationalistic policies around WW1 and after put a stop to it.
I think it's a tremendous shame... it would be so nice to communicate with everyone in a simple language.
Note that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal live much. It just needs to be simple enough to be learn in a short amount of time and to have international backing so it is taught in schools.
- drugme 8y agoNote that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal life much. Almost by definition - if a language isn't "spoken much" - it isn't really language. But rather a collection of rules and definitions.
- chillacy 8y agoLatin isn't spoken much and we still call it a language: a dead language. Esperanto is still spoken, it's just a particularly uncommon (but not even the smallest) language.
- drugme 8y agoOK, I'll correct myself: "If a language is (or never has been) spoken much..."
- em-bee 8y agohttp://jbr.me.uk/ranto/m.html http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/m.html gives a better definition of a dead language: one that does not naturally evolve because it does not have any native speakers, but only second language speakers.
- 4thaccount 8y agoAlso, many Esperanto speakers were killed in WWII as Hitler hated it because the inventor was Jewish and for nationalist reasons and Stalin because he thought they would be spies. I recall Zamenhoff's children died in concentration camps. Truly horrifying.