Esperanto, Interlinguistics, and Planned Language


Book Description

A collection of 11 papers, one in German, and an interview in French with Umberto Eco. The topics include the term planned language, Esperanto as a unique model for general linguistics, a dialogue between sociolinguistic sciences and Esperanto culture, the experience of Esperanto in developing a language for international law, and machine translation. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.




International Planned Languages


Book Description

The author of this book, the German interlinguist and Esperanto researcher Detlev Blanke (1941-2016), has influenced the study of planned languages like no one else. It is to a large extent due to his lifelong scholarly devotion to this area of research that Interlinguistics and Esperanto Studies (Esperantology) have become serious subjects of study in the academic world. In his publications, Blanke gives an overview of the history of language creation. He describes the most important planned language systems and presents various systems of classification. A special focus is put on Esperanto initiated by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887. (Sabine Fiedler) For Blanke, a planned language was essentially a tool: if it worked it was worthy of study and use; if it failed to work, he was interested in why, though at the same time careful to avoid value judgments. Blanke himself spoke a planned language, namely Esperanto, and recognised this language and language projects like it as arising out of a coherent theoretical base and addressing a recognisable problem. Essentially independently of the sociolinguistic school in the west, Blanke had reached a similar conclusion: if a language phenomenon exists, it is worthy of scholarly examination in itself. Blanke was particularly interested in how planned languages related to ethnic languages, how the 'artificiality' of, say, Esperanto extended to, indeed was synonymous with, the 'artfulness' of ethnic language, and how planned language could solve taxonomic and terminological problems. (Humphrey Tonkin)




Interlinguistics


Book Description

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.




Esperanto Revolutionaries and Geeks


Book Description

This book explores how Esperanto – often regarded as a future-oriented utopian project that ended up confined to the past – persists in the present. Constructed in the late nineteenth century to promote global linguistic understanding, this language was historically linked to anarchism, communism and pacifism. Yet, what political relevance does Esperanto retain in the present? What impacts have emerging communication technologies had on the dynamics of this speech community? Unpacking how Esperanto speakers are everywhere, but concentrated nowhere, the author argues that digital media have provided tools for people to (re)politicise acts of communication, produce horizontal learning spaces and, ultimately, build an international community. As Esperanto speakers question the post-political consensus about communication rights, this language becomes an ally of activism for open-source software and global social justice. This book will be of relevance to students and scholars researching political activism, language use and community-building, as well as anyone with an interest in digital media more broadly.




The Grammar of Esperanto


Book Description




Bridge of Words


Book Description

"A history of Esperanto, the utopian "universal language" invented in 1887"--




Esperanto in The New York Times (1887 - 1922)


Book Description

This book is a look back at the beginnings of the Es-pe-ranto move-ment in the US and beyond, opening a window into contemporaneous accounts on the pages of a world-renowned news-paper. -- Some of the articles in this collection reflect aspects of the his-tory of the Esperanto movement quite vividly; in others, we find odd anecdotes about Esperanto and the Esperantists; and many passionately-written letters from readers illustrate the ups and downs, the successes and conflicts of the Esperanto community, as well as its disputes with the skeptics outside their ranks. -- These first 35 years of the history of Esperanto seen from the vantage point of the New York Times show how Esperanto gradually became established in the US and in the world, carried on the high hopes of its early, idealistic proponents. -- The book is supplemented by an appendix containing an index of the names of persons mentioned in the newspaper articles, a short bibliography, and a collection of links to reliable information on Esperanto on the Internet.




Introduction to Interlinguistics


Book Description

Script from the year 2020 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1.0, University of Amsterdam (ACLC), course: Introduction to Interlinguistics (105218036Y), language: English, abstract: This book is the result of the Lecture Notes produced for the class "Introduction to Interlinguistics" held at the University of Amsterdam during my first mandate as Special Chair holder there (2014-2019). This means that the intended readers are my students, who may come from the Humanities, such as English Studies or Philosophy, as well as from more formally oriented curricula, such as Logic or Artificial Intelligence. The structure of the volume follows the structure of the class: there are seven chapters that correspond to the seven weeks of contact hours. Thus, the expression "in this chapter" is equivalent to "in this week". The first three chapters form Part I, which gives the theoretical basis, while the second three chapters of Part II apply the theory to major case studies in Interlinguistics. Please note that there is more material than I succeed to cover in the classroom - I am very ambitious - and that I explain in class the content of this book. This means that some sections may be skipped, depending on the specific class. For details, please pay attention to the official communication sent to class members.In studying this book you will acquire the conceptual toolbox of the working interlinguist. Technical terms and important names are indicated in bold and referred to the index by the end of the book, to facilitate students. Readers who do not belong to my students' cohorts may also appreciate, as - to the best of my knowledge - there is no such book published in English yet. Comparable published works in other languages are: first, the book by Barandovska [1995], written for advanced Esperanto speakers enrolled the programme in Interlinguistics Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan ́; second, my short textbook in Italian [Gobbo, 2009],




Critical Questions, Critical Perspectives


Book Description

Critical Questions, Critical Perspectives: Language and the Second Language Educator is intended primarily for language educators, broadly conceived, and thus is appropriate for not only foreign language teachers, but also individuals teaching English to speakers of other languages in both Anglophone and non-Anglophone settings, teachers in bilingual education programs, heritage language teachers in both formal and informal settings, and others whose work involves language teaching and learning. It is also intended for teachers of all age groups and levels, since the issues that it raises are neither age nor level specific. This is not a book about teaching methodology, nor is it the sort of work that will provide the teacher with practical activities for use in the classroom.




Scientific Babel


Book Description

English is the language of science today. No matter which languages you know, if you want your work seen, studied, and cited, you need to publish in English. But that hasn’t always been the case. Though there was a time when Latin dominated the field, for centuries science has been a polyglot enterprise, conducted in a number of languages whose importance waxed and waned over time—until the rise of English in the twentieth century. So how did we get from there to here? How did French, German, Latin, Russian, and even Esperanto give way to English? And what can we reconstruct of the experience of doing science in the polyglot past? With Scientific Babel, Michael D. Gordin resurrects that lost world, in part through an ingenious mechanism: the pages of his highly readable narrative account teem with footnotes—not offering background information, but presenting quoted material in its original language. The result is stunning: as we read about the rise and fall of languages, driven by politics, war, economics, and institutions, we actually see it happen in the ever-changing web of multilingual examples. The history of science, and of English as its dominant language, comes to life, and brings with it a new understanding not only of the frictions generated by a scientific community that spoke in many often mutually unintelligible voices, but also of the possibilities of the polyglot, and the losses that the dominance of English entails. Few historians of science write as well as Gordin, and Scientific Babel reveals his incredible command of the literature, language, and intellectual essence of science past and present. No reader who takes this linguistic journey with him will be disappointed.