esperanto - tell me

[aindreas]

So, you hear the word Esperanto. What comes to mind? Why? What exactly are your experiences (or lack of) with the language?

Comments

[psychetician]

first conotation I make is: hope. Only because of the french, arabic and spanish words for hope. My lj layout used to be esperanto just for the heck of it, but that's as far as my experience goes with that language ;)

Arabic

[varpho]

oh, it is interesting that Arabic word for hope is similar to Romance languages' ones... i know in Hebrew hope is "hatikvah", Hebrew is Semitic, just like Arabic...
what exactly is the word for "hope" in Arabic? thanks in advance.

as for Esperanto - idealism, peace, egalitarism.
regularity - e.g. forming antonyms with prefix "mal-"...

and for those who depreciate Esperanto for it has [almost] no native speakers - AFAIK Ludwik Zamenhof did not want Esperanto to become just another national language... the idea was, that everyone would be able to freely speak their own national, native language - Yiddish, Polish, Russian, German and so on - and, additionaly, would be able to communicate with anyone using this simply, easy-to-learn international language... :)

Re: Arabic

[lapingvino]

esper-ant-o = one who hopes ;)

[fredznothere]

I actually just began -attempting- to learn the language myself. I'm primarily interested in it becuase of it's regularity and the potential it holds as a universal second language. Currently I'm looking for a good textbook or set of CDs/tapes to aid me in my learning process. I've been referencing www.lernu.net as my primary resource this far. It's a great site!

What motivated you to ask this? Are you interested or, as your "current mood" indicares, more exasperated?

I'm so curious about this language and it's subculture. If you learn anything interesting about it you should post it here! : )

[aindreas]

My current mood didn't have much to do with the entry actually … I was reading about the dominance of English and how so many Americans just expect everyone else to speak English. So it made me think of Esperanto, and hence post here.

[thesparque]

When William Shatner was on a very early episode of the Daily Show, when they did a story about a movie he had filmed entirely in Esperanto. I swear, that's the first thing I think of every time someone mentions it.

[tisoi]

Incubus. Very odd movie. I didn't finish it. heh.

[tenou_k]

I love that movie. Frankly, I'm surprised I don't own it yet.

[vonotny]

I'm fairly sure Mohammed was a pirate.

[zubird]

silly.

[aindreas]

Why? What are your experiences?

[bintblue]

Hippy.

No experience with it. Just the first thing I think of.

[lapingvino]

Good guess! Ever heard about the IJK?