Northern Ontario Esperanto League

[ ENGLISH ] So, let's be honest: when you think of the planned language Esperanto, you probably don't think of danger and intrigue. But then again, you're also probably not a fascist or an authoritarian, and almost definitely not a dictator or autocrat. Think about it: if you were part of a ruling party, or were yourself a ruler, who depended on playing one class against another and limiting communication with outsiders, the existence of an international language that is easily learned is a pretty big danger to your interests. Despite the efforts of government censors, Esperanto enjoyed growing popularity after it was published in 1887, but it eventually became a blank canvas on which dictators and autocrats painted whatever danger they most feared (or wanted their countries to fear.) Esperanto was most especially despised by Adolph Hitler who named it specifically in "Mein Kampf", but it was also feared by the USSR's Joseph Stalin, and Albania'

[ ENGLISH ] I doubt that this exists only within the Esperanto community, but so I'm told a frequent problem among Esperantists is that they tend to buy books that are in, about, or both in and about Esperanto, but then instead of being read the books are almost immediately archived and never touched again. A little more than a year ago, I bought a stack of books in, about, or in and about Esperanto and used them to decorate my night-table. Finally, I resolved in January that I would read all of them this year, and so far I'm making excellent progress. Complete Esperanto by Tim Owen and Judith Meyer, Step by Step in Esperanto by Montagu Butler, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Ne Ekzistas Verdaj Steloj by Liven Dek, Short Stories in Esperanto by Myrtis Smith, and Bridge of Words by Esther Schor have all been finished. I still have to finish Marvirinstrato by Tim Westover, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein, but at the rate I'm going I think I'll

[ ENGLISH ] When it comes to languages, there are "natlangs" (national languages) which evolved organically over the span of centuries, and "planlangs" (planned languages) which were, well, "planned" and then shared by the people who decided to learn it. Although there certainly are great moments in the history of a natlang that will stand out in the history books -- for example in English, the Great Vowel Shift which took place over roughly 300 years beginning in the 1400's -- this kind of distinctive moment is pretty infrequent. But in a planlang, history isn't waited for, but literally made -- for example in Esperanto, the foundational textbook of the language, The Foundation (La Fundamento) can be tracked to a specific date when the language was released into the world. Esperanto is a language that spent more than 10 years in development by its creator, the Jewish-Polish opthamologist Dr. L.L. Zamenhof. During this time, Dr. Zam