planning languages and language planning

Index Introduction Planning languages Before the I WW After the I WW Esperantic studies

Planning languages and language planningThe contribution of interlinguistics to cross-cultural

communication

Federico [email protected]

Insubria University


1 IntroductionWhat is Interlinguistics?What is language planning?

2 Planning languagesSome basic facts

3 Before the I WWAmateurs plan languages

4 After the I WWPlanned languages and linguistics

5 Esperantic studiesEvaluation of IALsCurrent trends in Esperantic studies


A taxonomy problem

Interlinguistics, planned language, auxiliary language, languageplanning...

What do these terms exactly mean?

This Introduction will give a solution to this taxonomy problem.


What is Interlinguistics?

Interlingua, a term with very different meanings

‘Interlingua’ has at least 5 meanings:

as lingua franca, i.e. a language for communication betweenpeople with different native tongues;

as a formal language in machine translation softwares;

as a language of L2 learners, i.e. with influences from L1 oroverregularization traits;

as the original name of the planned language of GiuseppePeano, better known as latino sine flexione;

as the name of the planned language of IALA, as publishedunder the direction of Alexander Gode.



Origins of Interlinguistics

The term was coined in 1911 by Jules Meysmans (1976, reprint),but became known during the 2nd International Conference ofLinguistics in Geneve, 1931.

A new science is developing, Interlinguistics - thatbranch of the science of language which deals with thestructure and basic ideas of all languages with the viewto the establishing of a norm for interlanguages, i.e.auxiliary languages destined for oral and written usebetween people who cannot make themselves understoodby means of their mother tongues.

O. Jespersen, Interlinguistics (1931)



A definition of Interlinguistics

In this context, Interlinguistics is the study of internationallinguistic communication in every aspect, including the roles,structures, ways of development and application of ethnic andplanned languages, as international means of communication.

Interlinguistics may well give a contribution to the science oflanguage planning, exp. in language revitalization issues.


What is language planning?

Language planning as language policy

According to Phillipson (2003), language planning is aspecialization in the sociology of language requiring input fromeconomics, demography, education and linguistics. It is a toolsetfor language policy measures, and it has its major application atthe time of post-colonial states.

Furthermore, as demonstrated by Tsunoda (2005), language policymeasures should be taken to reverse language endangermentsituations, e.g. in eliminating socio-economic oppression, in raisingthe prestige and the language attitude of the speakers themselvesand so promoting language loyalty.



Typical areas of language planning

status planning;

acquisition planning;

corpus planning;

lexicon planning;

structure planning.



Status and acquisition planning

According to Phillipson (2003), status planning is concerned withattributing a status to a given language, e.g. laws or measuresspecifying the rights of speakers to use their language.

An important subarea is acquisition planning, i.e. the way thelearning of languages is organizes in education, from preschool touniversity.



Corpus and lexicon planning

Corpus planning refers to the codification of permissible words andforms of a language, i.e. the creation of a standard languageregister. The first institution created in the world for this is theAccademia della Crusca (1584) in Italy.

An important subarea is the lexicon planning, e.g. the constructionof specialized terminology in widening the use areas of a givenlanguage. A great help is given by language comparation – as intranslation issues. The role of auxiliary planned languages in thework of Eugen Wuster was very important: Esperanto and otherIALs were used as tertium comparationis (personal communicationfrom Blanke).



Structure planning: language revival

Structure planning refers to language revival situations, i.e. eitherwhere there is no fluent speaker left, but a significant amount ofthe language is known within the community (language renewal),or where the language is no longer spoken and little is known orallywithin the community, but there is earlier material on the language(language reclamation).

The revival of Hebrew is a typical example of languagereclamation, while Welsh is an example of a language renewalprocess. Typically, structure planning involves every aspect of thelanguage – in particular, the promotion of language-and-culture.



Language Planning and Interlinguistics

So, Interlinguistics is a part of the science of language planning.

Language planning is the methodical activity forregulation and improvement of existing languages orcretion of new regional, national or internationallanguages. [Interlinguistics] is the science of internationallanguage planning.

V. Tauli, Introduction to a theory of language planning (1968)


The problem

‘Planned language’ is a term originally in German, invented byEugen Wuster in 1931: Plansprache. A planned language is acomplete language system which started to be written before to bespoken.

Using a planned language is a language vivification process, verysimilar to structure planning in language revitalization issues. Afterall, “all human languages can be imagined on a scale betweennaturalness and artificiality.” (Schubert 1989), e.g. Hebrew,Bahasa Indonesa, Kiswahili.


How many planned languages?

In 2005, more than 1,400 planned languages have been indexed bythe Web site www.langmaker.com.

We will see the most important ones. The comparative text is partof IALA’s Comparative Texts (Comparative Studies, series A, partVI, division 1). The original text is taken from a book by Prof. W.Ostwald Die Forderung des Tages (“The demand of the day”),Leipzig, 1910.

www.langmaker.com


The comparative text in English

The idea of a world literature, which Herder and Goethe conceivedessentially from the point of view of art, has now gained evengreater importance from the point of view of science. For, of thethings that mankind possesses in common, nothing is so trulyuniversal and international as science. Now all communication andpropogation of science uses the means supplied by language, andso the internationality of science irresistably demands theinternationality of language. If we consider that today numerousscientific works, particularly textbooks, are translated into twelveor more foreign languages, then we understand what an immensequantity of labour could be saved, if everywhere on the globebooks could be as generally understood as, for example, musicalnotes or tables of logarithms.


Some basic facts

Features of planned languages

As noted by Alessandro Bausani, every planned language may beesoteric (secret) or exoteric (public), and its aims may be ludic, forpure game (Markuska by Bausani), literature (Tolkien’s languages),fiction (Klingon by Mark Okrand) or for religious purposes(Balai-balaan, in Bausani 1974) or auxiliary, i.e. as a lingua franca.

We will see that the axis esoterism-exoterism is a very importantone in the history of planned languages, even if constructed forauxiliary purposes.


Some basic facts

The role of language amateurs in IALs

As Blanke (1998) said, language amateurs often attack problemsmore bravely than professionals, i.e. linguists.

However, when diverse knowledge fields interrilate,the first pioneering work should made by amateurs. Asthe discipline does not exist yet, so experts can’t existindeed. They appear later, when the discipline gets intoinstitutions.

W. Ostwald, Die Forderung des Tages (in Blanke 1998)


Some basic facts

What is a complete language system?

pragmatics

semantics

syntax

morphology

phonetics

language use

language core


Some basic facts

A-priori languages are not human languages!

The ancestors of planned languages are pasigraphics,notion-to-symbol systems, i.e. visual semiospheres, in which ideasare decomposed into atomic units and combined, as in Wilkins’Real Character (1668), a sort of hypertext, or ontology, in modernterms.

A-priori languages were created in the 17th and 18th centuries, andthey are closed systems – i.e. knowledge should be split up inatoms in every part, and there is no possibility to accept new ideasin the system. The authoritative work is still the collection foCouturat-Leau (1903).


Some basic facts

So, what is language planning?

pragmatics

semantics

syntax

morphology

phonetics

language use

language core

status and acquistion planning

corpus planning (lexicon)

structure planning

writing system

writing system


Amateurs plan languages

The Golden Age of planned languages

Mostly, planned languages are made for auxiliary purposes, andthey have been published after Esperanto (1887) and before the IIWorld War (1939).

1879: Volapuk by J. M. Schleyer.

1887: Esperanto by L.L. Zamenhof.

1903: Latino Sine Flexione by G. Peano.

1907: Ido by L. Couturat and L. Beaufront.

1922: Occidental/Interlingue by E. de Wahl.

1928: Novial by O. Jespersen.

1931: Basic English by Charles K. Ogden.

1951: Interlingua by A. Gode.



Volapuk, by Johann Martin Schleyer

Volapuk is the first planned language for auxiliary purposes to havesucceed raising a community of practice. It was a great novelty intime, as, unlike previous perfect languages, Volapuk was based onethnic languages (English, French, German, Latin).

In order to be the most international as possible, Schleyer decidednot to use /r/ phoneme – for Asians – and to simplifydrammaticaly pronunciation, preferring monosyllabic words.



The structure of Volapuk

The result is that words are unrecognizable to anyone, regardless ofthe native tongue, e.g. volapuk derives from ‘Vol’ (world), ‘a’(GEN), ‘puk’ (speak). From the other side, its grammar isperfectly regular.

When Esperanto was launched (1887), a lot of volapukist circles(over 300 books and 25 reviews were regularly published in 1889)left for the new lingvo internacia de d-ro Esperanto, theinternational language of Dr. Esperanto. As a tribute to itshistorical role, some people had started a Wikipedia version inVolapuk.



A specimen of VolapukPater Noster in Volapuk, from Wikipedia

O Fat obas, kel binol in sus, paisaludomz nem ola!Komom od monarg an ola!Jenomoz vil olik, as in sul, i su tal!Bodi obsik vadeliki govol os obes adelo!E pardolos obes devis obsik,as id obs aipardobs debeles obas.E no obis nindukol os in tendadi;sod aidalivolos obis de bas.Jenosod’ !



Esperanto, by L.L. Zamenhof (1887-1905)

L.L. Zamenhof published the first book (unua libro) in Warsaw,1887, under the pseudonym Dr. Esperanto (then, it became thename of the language). It was written in Russian. It had animmediate success, thanks of volapukists.

The limits of language variations were written down by Zamenhofin 1905, when the first Universala Kongreso occurred in France.After that moment, every structure planning attempt had lead outof the community of practice.



The structure of Esperanto

Esperanto is a pan-European product. Its source languages are:Yiddish, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, English, French, Russian,Polish and Hewbrew. It has the consonants of Yiddish (Litvakvariety) and the vowels of sefardic languages (5 Mediterranean). Ithas a strictly phonematic writing, as e.g. Croatian.

The final morphemes marks the part of speech: e.g. ‘o’ for nouns,‘a’ for adjectives, ‘e’ for circumstantials, e.g. adverbs. It is anagglutinative language as Hungarian or Turkish, and that’s why itscompound forms were accused to be “volapukisms”. E.g. junularo‘jun’ (young), ‘ul’ (guy), ‘aro’ (set), i.e ‘Youth’.



The reasons of Esperanto

Zamenhof was an Ashkenazi influnced by the Haskalah (JewishEnlightenment) and freemasonry. The lingvo internacia wasintended to be at first a bridge between Jewish groups (aproto-Zionist project), and then it became a bridge between people,human beings in general. Speaking with a politically neutrallanguage, nationalisms would have died, according to Zamehof.

For historical reasons, the Jewish origins of Esperanto and therelations with Zionism were taken as a secret by the earliersupporters. Zamehof decided in 1905 to let the language free forevery use, i.e. its political and religious ideas wouldn’t influencethe community of Esperantists.



The comparative text in English

The idea of a world literature, which Herder and Goethe conceivedessentially from the point of view of art, has now gained evengreater importance from the point of view of science. For, of thethings that mankind possesses in common, nothing is so trulyuniversal and international as science. Now all communication andpropogation of science uses the means supplied by language, andso the internationality of science irresistably demands theinternationality of language. If we consider that today numerousscientific works, particularly textbooks, are translated into twelveor more foreign languages, then we understand what an immensequantity of labour could be saved, if everywhere on the globebooks could be as generally understood as, for example, musicalnotes or tables of logarithms.



The comparitive text in Esperanto

La ideo pri mondliteraturo, kiun Herder kaj Goethe konceptis cefeel la vidpunkto de la arto, akiris nun el la vidpunkto de la sciencomulte pli gravan signifon. Car el la komunaj posedaoj de lahomaro, neniu estas tiel vere generala kaj internacia kiel la scienco.Sed ciu komunikado kaj disvastigado de la scienco uzas la helpilonde la lingvo kaj tial la internacieco de la scienco nerezisteblepostulas la internaciecon de la lingvo. Se ni konsideras, kenuntempe kelkaj sciencaj verkoj, precipe lernolibroj, estastradukitaj en dek du au pli da fremdaj lingvoj, tiam ni komprenas,kiom granda kvanto da laboro povus esti sparata, se libroj cie en lamondo povus esti tiel generale komprenataj kiel ekzemple lamuziknotoj au logaritmaj tabeloj.



Latino sine flexione, by Giuseppe Peano

It is the first simplified ethnic language, as it was intended to beused by scholars and scientists with the help of a Latin dictionary,almost without morphology (Chinese is the model). As explainedby Peano itself, the original idea is by Leibniz:

Poste publicatione de manuscriptos de Leibniz in1903 me adopta in plure script Latini sine flexione; id eslingua composito ex vocabulos latino, sine flexionesgrammaticale.

G. Peano, 1915 (in Blanke 1998)



The comparative text in Latino Sine Flexione

Idea de literatura mundiale, que Herder et Goethe habe intellectopraecipue ex puncto de visu de arte, habe hodie acquisito, expuncto de visu de scientia, sensu etiam majore. Nam, de communepossesiones de genere humano, nihil es tam generale etinternationale quam scientia. Sed omne communicatione etpropagatione de scientia ute auxilio de lingua, et itainternationalitate de scientia postula in modo irresistibileinternationalitate de lingua. Si nos considera, que hodie plureopere scientifico, in particulare tractatus, es translato in duodecimvel plus lingua extero, tunc nos cognosce quale immane mole delabore pote es praeservato, si libros, ubicumque in terra, pote esaequaliter intellecto in generale, sicut per exemplo notas musicaleaut tabulas de logarithmos.



Efforts towards an International Auxiliary Language (IAL)The work of the Delegation pour l’adoption d’une langue auxiliaire internationale

Louis Couturat launched a call for studies for the adoption of anIAL in 1900, Paris. In 1907, 310 organizations and 1250 scholarsgave a fund, and a Commission was formed, with 12 members:Hugo Schuchardt, Otto Jespersen, Baudouin de Courtenay, EmilBoirac (for Esperanto), Giuseppe Peano (for Latino Sine Flexione)and others. President: Wilhelm Ostwald. Secretaries: LeopoldLeau and Couturat.

The aim of the Delegation was to find a common and definitiveform of the International Auxiliary Language (IAL), starting fromthe existing ones, among the others Esperanto and Latino SineFlexione.



The debate between Couturat and Peano: a new direction

Couturat and Peano, both mathematicians and expert of Leibniz’sworks, exchanged a great number of letters in years 1896-1914about maths and IALs. For Peano, the IAL should have nomorphology – as Latino Sine Flexione.

On the contrary, for Couturat: “il est impossibile de faire unelangue reguliere avec le latin... Vous etes esclave et prisonnier duvocabulaire latin classique... Por la determination du motinternational, l’etymologie est inutile: il doit resulter, soit de lacomparaison des mots des langues modernes, soit des regles deformation de la L.I.”.



The diffidence of ZamenhofWhy Interlinguistics became an “etherodox branch” (Martinet) of linguistics

Regarding your opinion about the so-calledvolapukisms I don’t agree with you at all. You know, thatin 1894 I tried by myself to cut off every constructedword, but afterwards I convinced myself this would be agreat mistake. To linguists every arbitrarily constructedword in the beginning should be avoided, but for theforecoming users of the language a certain number ofsuch words is absolutely necessary. I can’t write aboutthis in detail, for a lack of time, but I ask to you nevertake suggestions from linguists, confront yourself onlywith people who have a feeling for philology and a lot ofpractice in Esperanto... who sincerely love the languageand want to see in it something eternal, living, powerful.

L.L. Zamenhof, Letter to Javal, 1906 (in Ludovikito 1980)



The results of the Delegation

The Commission voted at unanimity the following declaration:

None of the existing languages may be accepted in blockwithout changes. But the Commission decided atprinciple to adopt Esperanto for its relative perfectionand multifaceted use that has proved yet, but under thereserve of more changes to be executed by a permanentCommission (above, subcommittee) in the senseindicated by the final rapport of the secretaries and bythe project Ido, and, if possible, in agreement with theLanguage Committee of Esperantists.

A language planning error: when a language enters its“semiological life” (F. de Saussurre), it cannot be planned instructure any more.



The Ido schism (1908)

Louis Couturat and Louis Beaufront, elaborated a Romanced,Latinized version of Esperanto, called Ido (it means ‘offspring’). InIdo, every Slavic element and mostly Germanic ones present inEsperanto had been cut off. Quite paradoxically, Ido hasstimulated the linguistics of Esperanto, i.e. Esperantology.

They proposed the project as the result of the Delegation, butmost members didn’t accept the form, and in fact they startedproposing other projects. Moreover, the Esperanto supportersconsidered Ido a “schism”, and they became diffident towardslinguists. In the same years, linguistics became institutionalised.



The comparative text in Ido

La ideo pri mondo-literaturo, quan Herder e Goethe konceptisesence del vidpunto dil arto, ganis nun del vidpunto dil cienco memplu granda importo. Nam del kozi, quin la homaro posedaskomune, nula es tam vere universala ed internaciona kam la cienco.Or, omna komunikado e propagado dil cienco uzas la moyeno dillinguo, do la internacioneso dil cienco postulas nerezisteble lainternacioneso dil linguo. Se ni konsideras, ke cadie sat multaciencala verki, specale lernolibri, tradukesas aden dekedu o plumulta stranjera lingui, ni komprenas, qua enorma quanteso delaboro povus sparesar, se libri omnaloke sur la terglobo povuskomprenesar tam generale, kam exemple muzikal noti o logaritmalatabeli.


Planned languages and linguistics

The Golden Age of planned languages

After the Great War, Couturat (1914) and Zamenhof (1917) weredied. The Esperanto and the Ido movements had a firm vitality –congresses, books, reviews, services. Linguists got interest in IALs.

1879: Volapuk by J. M. Schleyer.

1887: Esperanto by L.L. Zamenhof.

1903: Latino Sine Flexione by G. Peano.

1907: Ido by L. Couturat and L. Beaufront.

1922: Occidental/Interlingue by E. de Wahl.

1928: Novial by O. Jespersen.

1931: Basic English by Charles K. Ogden.

1951: Interlingua by A. Gode.



The novelty of Occidental (1922)

Edgard De Wahl was a supporter of Volapuk and became one ofthe first 1,000 Esperantists, before 1894. After the ballot aboutreforming Esperanto, based on a proposal by Zamenhof itself, hefollowed Ido and then he proposed his own project, namedOccidental.

Although he was a language amateur, he introduced a newprinciple in IAL planning. He tried to standardize the morphologyof Romance languages, as most international vocabulary derivesfrom this language group, even if passed in English. Occidental isdeeply influenced by French.



Two principles, two directions in planning a IAL

Existe du principies: li un es li regulari grammatica e clare precis derivation, e li altri li usation de paroles jaconosset, por ne cargar li memorie del usatores, e pormax facilmen intercomprender-se.

Ma li fatal cose esset, que ti du principies presc strictmencontradictet li un al altri. Pro to Schleyer obsedet del ideque li grammatica es lu principal in su Volapuk negliget livocabularium international. [...] Peano mem eat in suLatino sine Flexione till abolir li tot grammatica. Ma toarudimentat talmen su lingue que su adherentes essetfortiat introducter divers arbitrari grammatical formes,quam por ex. e quel significa li preterit.

E. De Wahl, Evolution: du principios, du directiones, Cosmoglotta,1930



Occidental tries to be a synthesis

Unesimili in li systema Occidental ti harmonisationesset attinet in comparativmen alt gradu. Un absolutharmonisation, quam ja dit, ne es possibil. Pro to on ancne posse haver un fix lımite a quel li lingue va evoluer. Infact ti evolution posse marchar in li direction de sempreplu grand naturalita e do anc ınregularita, o in li oppositdirection a plu grand regularita con autonomi derivationde propri paroles, forsan divergent del existentinternational tales. Quel direction nu fact li va secuer lievolution, es ancor ınpossibil predir ye li hodial momente.Chascun del du directiones depende del constellation delusatores.

E. De Wahl, Evolution: du principios, du directiones, Cosmoglotta,1930



The comparative text in Occidental

Li ide pri mund-literature, quel Herder e Goethe hat conceptetesentialmen ex li vidpunctu del arte, ha nu ganat ancor mult plugrand importantie ex li vidpunctu del scientie. Nam de omnicomun possedages del homanita niun es tam vermen general einternational, quam scientie. Ma omni comunication etransmediation del scientie usa li medie del lingue. Do liinternationalita del scientie ınresistibilmen postula liinternationalita del lingue. Si noi considera, que hodie plurisciential ovres, specialmen libres de aprension, trova se traductet indecidu o plu foren lingues, tande noi comprende quel immensquantita de labor on vell economisar, si on vell posser comprenderlibres partu sur li glob sam generalmen quam por exemples notes etabelles de logaritmes.



Novial, by Otto Jespersen (1928)

Otto Jespersen was deeply convinced of the need to find aacceptable form for the IAL, so he tried to combine Esperanto, Ido,Occidental in a new project, called Novial.

Novial is very regular in structure and readable by people educatedin European-based cultures. This is the last attempt to planningfrom structure: the direction of Interlinguistics will be more andmore planning from corpus, and in particular from the lexicon.



The comparative text in Novial

Li idee pri monde-literature, kel Herder e Goethe konceptedesentialim fro li vidpunctu del arte, ha nun ganat mem multim plugrand importanteso fro li vidpunctu del scientie. Den ek li coses kelli homaro posese comunim, nuli es tam verim general einternational kam li scientie. Or omni comunico e mediatione delscientie usa li moyene del lingue, dunke li internationaleso delscientie demanda nonresistablim li internationaleso del lingue. Sinus considera ke disdi pluri sciential verkes, particularim lernolibres,es traductet en dekdu e plu multi stranjeri lingues, tand nuscomprenda qui imensi quanteso de laboro povud bli sparat, si librespovud omnilok sur li globe bli comprendat tam generalim kamexemplim musical notes o tabeles de logaritmes.



Basic English, an ethnic-based planned language

Ch. K. Ogden, author of The Meaning of Meaning, proposed theBasic English in 1931, under the support of Churchill. As LatinoSine Flexione, he had a lexicon planning-driven approach. BasicEnglish should have 850 basic words, divided in three categories(things, qualities, operators).

Every concept may be expressed by circumlocutions: to descendbecomes to come down/to go down, to wander becomes to gofrom place to place without aim. Nowadays, this principle isfollowed in building dictionaries for advanced learners. In DeWahl’s terms, it’s an extreme: no structure planning is performed.



A new IAL from linguists

Andre Martinet in the 6th Congress of Linguistics, 1948, Paris,announced its work for an IAL, as Jespersen did in 1928.

French would lose nothing if, instead of saying: je vais, tuvas, nous allons, nous irons you say j’alle, tu alles, nousallons, nous allerons: so it would be simpler for all.Consequently, the contact with a language such as Idoconvinced be that something essential in every languagereally exists: its structure – phonological, grammatical, itdoesn’t matter, and that every morphological intrication,pushed by tradition, is useless, and only getcommunication more difficult.

A. Martinet, Interview to Franca Esperantisto (1992)



The role of IALA

The International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) tried tomake the work of the Delegation again under a more scientificpoint of view and with a lot of money – among others, Rockfeller’s.

IALA was found by by Mrs. Vanderbilt-Morris in 1924 inSwizerland. It started an impossible attempt to synthetizeEsperanto, Ido, Esperanto II (by Renee De Saussure, 1910), Novialand Occidental. In the 1930s Herbert L. Schenton and Edward L.Thorndike tried to measure the propedeutical value of Esperantofor English L1 learners of French.



IALA after the II World War

Because of the war, IALA went to New York in 1943. Here Mrs.Morris tried to establish two groups of linguists working on thedefinitive form of the IAL. The first group (3 people) was lead byAndre Martinet, who joined in 1946, and they prepared anautonomous system, by classics of structuralism and functionalismin linguistics, similar to Occidental

The second group (5 people) was lead by Alexander Gode,philogist and expert of Romance languages. Under the influence ofBasic English and the experiments of Thorndike, his groupintroduced the propedeutic principle: the IAL should provide basicintroduction to national languages with vocabularies based on wordfrequency statistics. In particular, Gode wanted to prove theStandard Average European hypothesis by Benjamin Lee Whorf.



Interlingua by A. Gode (1951)

After a ballot into 3,000 informants between 4 proposals, thewinning form of Interlingua was Gode’s, wha had the votes ofnot-Romance and English natives. Unsurprisingly, Martinet’s formhad the votes of French natives.

Io non voleva partir del latino ma trovar le parolasque le gente comprenderea al lectura directemente sinhaber apprendite le lingua o forsan con un minimo deapprentissage. Un sorta de parve libretto essereasufficente. Lo que on pote reprochar a Gode es haberautomaticamente limitate le internationalitate al linguasromanic.

A. Martinet, Interview to Panorama, (62, 1998)



A specimen of Interlingua

Le genese del lingua universal coincide con le genesedel civilisation. Le vision historic e genetic delinterdependentia de civilisation e lingua universal escertemente un vision revolutionari. Qui aspira a unmoderne lingua universal debe familiar se con esteinterdependentia. In este nostre studio nos cercademonstrar factos e fortias que governa leinterdependentia de civilisation e lingua universal. In talmaniera nos va ganiar un vision profunde in le processodel genese de linguas universal, e nos va discoperir leleges del genese e del developpamento. Le autor nonparti de hipoteses o teorias, ma prefere sequer le metodoempirico-inductive, que consiste in le collection de factose in le tentativa de organisar este factos a un successionregular, subjecte a leges natural.

S. Bakonyi, Civilisation e lingua universal, (1978)


Evaluation of IALs

Have planned languages some vitality?

Possible metrics may be taken from Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia. Number of articles (February 2006):

950,000 + in English

350,000 + in German

233,000 + in French

38,000 + in Esperanto

13,000 + in Ido

2,900 + in Interlingua

265 in Interlingue (ex Occidental)

46 in Volapuk

Esperanto is clearly the winner.


Evaluation of IALs

What we may learn from IALs’ history?

From estimates ofGesellschaft Fur Interlingvistik (GIL), about 60%of interlinguistics literature is written in planned languages (and95% in Esperanto). Too often I find English-only bibliography ininterlinguistic papers.

In general, the (un)success of an IAL in the world is due to afailure of status and acquisition planning, i.e. quasi-extralinguisticfactors. Moreover, a key part of Esperanto success is to thelanguage policy of the founder: absolute freedom of use andabsolute closeness to reforms, at least after 1905, i.e. the firstinternational public meeting.


Evaluation of IALs

Esperanto is a language that created a new culture

Among IALs, Zamenhof’s project always was the most used inpractice, and survived II World Wars, in spite of persecutions byNazis and Stalinists. (Remember that Zamenhof was a Jew).Why? Because Esperantists believe in it. Zamenhof startedtranslating classics of world literature and proverbs. People use itfor theater, rock music, podcasting, whatever. After all, ordinarypeople – not linguists – prefer to use a language instead ofquestioning about grammar details without using it!

Esperanto is the proof that a language can create a culture.


Current trends in Esperantic studies

Esperantology and Esperantic studies

Eugen Wuster (1955) say that Esperantology – a branch ofInterlinguistics – is the language planning field for Esperanto, i.e.how to lead consciously an organized evolution of the Esperantolanguage.

Conversely, the Esperantic studies underlines the study ofEsperanto as a living language, i.e. without structural languageplanning efforts, exactly as every natural language. This is theapproach followed by the Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF).



A small corpus fo contemporary spoken Esperanto

lernu.net is a e-learning portal made entirely by volunteers tolearn Esperanto on-line – now from 24 languages, from Mandarineto Lithuanian.

It uses a lot interaction (live chat) and video and audio materials.There are intervjuetoj (“small interviews”) about general questionsto young informants: 64 interviews to 11 people from Italy, SouthCorea, Russia, France, Venezuela, Canada, Montenegro, Lithuania,Scotland, Japan. In total, about 700 sentences.

lernu.net



An explorative study on pragmatics and politeness

In Esperanto, asking: “where are you from?” is quite unpolite.Most esperantists have a complex notion of identity relating placeand languages: they feel more linked to languages than places, e.g.“I am Italian as my language is Italian, even if I live in Britain”.

One of the most asked questions is: “how many languages do youknow?” Esperantists tend to exaggerate their knowledge and toconsider minority languages or dialects simply languages.Theoretically, languages give prestige into the community, even ifparadoxically one is expected to speak to Esperanto with one own’snatives, e.g. a group of only Germans will speak Esperanto in ameeting very naturally (otherwise, you are a krokodilo).



Pragmatics of Esperanto as an endangered language?

Esperanto gives no social prestige out of the community, sospeakers may be a bit close and fanatical about the virtues of thelanguage, as sometimes happen with speakers of endangeredlanguages.

Of course, talkin in English (or any other lingua franca) as aforeign language (kajmani) is absolutely anathema, save toexternals, e.g. journalists or other people in visit. An other typicalquestion is: “how did you learn Esperanto?”, meaning ‘how didyou entered our world? Who or what introduced you’. Nota bene:to be an Esperantist you don’t need to know (well) the language,you need to go to a meeting.



Esperanto as a Language Ecology tool

The Language Ecology paradigm is a view in whichcommodification, effectiveness, communication (Rationalist view,Blommaert) is less important than authenticity, identity, expression(Romantic view). Linguistic diversity is treated as biodiversity – arichness of humankind (Phillipson, Skutnabb-Kangas).

The 4th Nitobe Symposium, Vilnius, 2005, adapted the UniversalDeclaration of Linguistic Rights (Barcellona, 1996) to the situationof enlarged EU.



Nitobe Conclusions, Commitments

4. Alternative visions.

Defining and defending the status and needs of small nationaland non-national language communities, both indigenous andimmigrant, within the EU;

Developing policy frameworks to ensure that any widely usedlingua franca does not undermine the continued vitality ofnational languages, the equal treatment of their speakers inEU institutions, and the preservation of cultural diversity;

Exploring the potential role of Esperanto within an EUlanguage framework, with particular regard to the economicbenefits of its use as a pivot language in translation andinterpretation, its efficacy as an introduction to foreignlanguage education, and its advantages as a medium ofintercultural communication;



Thanks

I want to acknowledge Detlev Blanke for his unvaluable help.

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planning languages and language planning

Economy & Finance