Esperanto and the Search for a Global Language (Encore)

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Gary Arndt

Education, History

4.7 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1880s, a Polish ophthalmologist set out to create a universal language. A language that could be a second language for everyone around that world that no one country or one people would control. It was a good idea, but things didn’t quite pan out as he had hoped, and along the way, there was shockingly violent resistance to this new language. Learn more about Esperanto, how it was developed, and its status in the world today on this episode of ĉio ĉie ĉiutage. Sponsors Expedition Unknown Find out the truth behind popular, bizarre legends. Expedition Unknown, a podcast from Discovery, chronicles the adventures of Josh Gates as he investigates unsolved iconic stories across the globe. With direct audio from the hit TV show, you’ll hear Gates explore stories like the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in the south Pacific and the location of Captain Morgan's treasure in Panama. These authentic, roughshod journeys help Gates separate fact from fiction, and learn the truth behind these compelling stories. InsideTracker provides a personal health analysis and data-driven wellness guide to help you add years to your life—and life to your years. Choose a plan that best fits your needs to get your comprehensive biomarker analysis, customized Action Plan, and customer-exclusive healthspan resources. For a limited time, Everything Everywhere Daily listeners can get 20% off InsideTracker’s new Ultimate Plan. Visit InsideTracker.com/eed. Subscribe to the podcast! https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.
0:04.0	In the 1880s, a Polish Optemologist set out to create a universal language,
0:12.0	a language that could be a second language for everyone around the world that no country or no one people could control.
0:18.0	It was a good idea, but things didn't quite pan out as he had hoped.
0:22.0	And along the way, there was a shockingly violent resistance to this new idea.
0:26.0	Learn more about Esperanto, how it was developed and its status in the world today, on this of Geo Chio Tagee. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. I'm going to go. Depending on how you define a language versus a dialect, most linguists claim that there are about 7,000 languages in the world today.
1:16.0	The vast majority of these languages are spoken by a very small number of people.
1:20.5	So the number of languages by speakers is actually very top heavy.
1:24.0	There are currently only 15 languages that are spoken by more than a hundred million people.
1:29.0	If you get down to the hundredth most spoken language, there are only around 10 million speakers. So even if we were to only
1:35.5	look at the top languages there are still more languages than even the most talented polygots could ever
1:40.8	possibly learn. The idea of a universal language isn't a crazy idea, at least in theory.
1:47.0	If there could be one universal tongue that everyone could speak, even if they spoke their native language at home,
1:52.0	it would certainly solve many problems in the world.
1:55.0	However, what language would you use?
1:57.0	There's no one language that has anything close to a majority of speakers.
2:02.0	You could use a dead language like Latin, but that has its own
2:04.9	set of problems as well. The solution to this problem for one Polish
2:08.6	optomologist by the name of Ludwig Leisure Zamenhof was to create a language completely from scratch.
2:15.2	He could create a language that was logical and didn't have any of the odd exceptions that most
2:19.6	languages that grew organically have. Zamenhof is a pretty qualified guy to create such a language.
2:25.0	He lived in the city of Biawestock, which is today part of Poland, but was then part of Russia.
	...

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