What we are trying to demonstrate is the danger of perversion of a nation as the consequence of the strong influence of a particular culture, which is accepted, sometimes unconsciously.

When focusing linguistic rights, we see nowadays the emergence of a greater awareness in the sense of preserving a culture’s unique characteristics, not only in small ethnic groups but also in nations. These unique characteristics keep the unity of a social group, whether it is a small population or a whole nation. At the core of these gathering factors of a population, an ethnic group we find language, as a determinant factor in maintaining a national unity.

The level of this awareness about the role of language in keeping an ethnic group together is such that, in the year 1996, in Barcelona, a congress was held by speakers of minority languages, which produced a document called the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.

Dante Alighieri understood the value of language as a factor capable of promoting the reunification of Italy, when in the 14^th Century he wrote the Divine Comedy in a dialect from Tuscany, aiming to turn it – with a few modifications – the language of all Italy. In many regions the use of dialects lingered on, but the adoption of a “mother tongue” became a nationwide event.

In the 19^th Century, Eliezer Ben-Jehuda had the same idea when he simplified the structure of Hebrew, also renewing its vocabulary in order to modernize it and make it the national language of the State of Israel.

At the same time we notice an increased consciousness about national values, we have also noticed, for some time now, the birth of a planetary consciousness. Today, peoples who haven’t yet learned to share their wealth already share their problems. The need to preserve the conditions of habitability on the Planet has open more room for dialogue than most religions…

Why a common currency and not a neutral language? This awareness of belonging to a community overwhelming narrow national limits represents a new dimension in the history of mankind itself. But it cannot be made effective through sheer political indoctrination. Only a greater contract between human beings can bring about such desirable supra-national consciousness. Societies, associations, worldwide organizations have arisen in bulks. It is a new step in the history of human evolution. The awareness of man of his social being, which began with the development of his tribal consciousness, now spreads, surpassing national borders.

With this, particularly, we must highlight the notable work developed by the European Union, where 28 countries coexist, in search of peaceful solutions to their common problems. It is a shame, though, that especially in such a promising area – probably the greatest experiment in peaceful coexistence in the history of Mankind - we waste the noblest efforts of true, intelligent human coexistence, due to strong language barriers, summed up in 24 languages. Language barriers, yes, because – for lack of a common language, freely accepted by everyone – we resort to translation services, which are already damaged. It sounds ironic that fact that there is a common currency, not national, freely accepted and not a consensus towards the adoption of a neutral language such as the currency.

Why don’t they adopt a neutral language? On the one hand, there’s the terrible domination of countries that won’t give up the comfort of not having to learn a foreign language, placing themselves as equals in face of the others; on the other hand there’s the subservience and the accommodative spirit of the representatives of other countries. 

The damage done by the difficulty of communication – Claude Piron, a Belgian, native speaker of French, psychologist, professor, multilingual, translator for the UN and the WHO for many years, denounces that in the headquarters of the European Union there’s no observance of the language rights of its Member States:

(…) in the secretariat, they practically never use Dutch, Greek, Finnish or other “weak” languages. Some languages are “more equal than the others”, whether when someone is seeking employment as a worker of the European Union, or a citizen or member of the Parliament must interact with the administration. ²

In the field of science, the situation is similar. Scientists go to distant places in order to show results of their research, but their work is impaired by the difficulty to communicate.

A lot of valuable experiences are not integrally shared, or even lost, because of the lack of a common language in meetings, symposiums and congresses worldwide. It is a little less bad when we refer to written language, through books or journals, because we have time to look things up in a dictionary or refer to a translation. But in an international congress, where the participants in scientific debates come from different countries, language barriers, no rarely, impose great damage to the performance of the event.

In these congresses the overpowering of linguistic rights on the speakers of lesser languages is blatant. It is rather clear that the speakers of the national language – promoted to the condition of inter-language - enjoy more freedom when presenting and debating their ideas.          

The warning by linguist Edward Sapir – Many participants of congresses worldwide will read, sometimes in a hotel room, the summary of the conference or the scientific communication that they listened to, only partially understood, but already without the opportunity to debate, which was lost due to a lack of a more direct and immediate communication, as denounced by Edward Sapir, a North American linguist, therefore a native speaker of English: …in an international scientific gathering, there’s invariably the disappointment concerning the difference in linguistic habits, the difficulty to communicate with foreign scientists makes the exchange of ideas a whole lot less easy than imagined. ³

If, as demonstrated, natural languages did not serve the function of inter-language, there’s only the alternative of using a constructed language, neutral, free of ethnic, political, philosophical and cultural attachment. That ideal condition can only be achieved by a language not attached to any people, consciously built to serve the role of a worldwide inter-language, which can be learned by everyone, as a second language.

This element of world communication has already existed in the world for over a century. It is the brainchild project by a young idealist who, foreseeing a world he had not seen, presented a solution to this crucial human problem, published it in 1887.

Although he was not a professional linguist, his social-linguistic and universal view transcended the specialist’s. He knew it was only a project, a proposal for the birth of a language that would represent a leap in the history of mankind.  

Esperanto today is widely used on the Internet – This leap in the history of world communication was not taken by the imposition of any external factors. It came by the evolutionary force inherent to human beings, for the worldwide community that adopted this project from a young polish man as an element of supra-national communication, gave it life and brought it to the condition of a living language, which, has matured for over a century now.

This worldwide community of users of Esperanto, comprised of hundreds of thousands of people, spread around over a hundred countries, enjoys a library of over forty thousand tittles – many of which are not found in their national languages -, has at their disposal hundreds of newspapers, as well as their own literature, music and arts at a level of richness and variety not found by speakers of ethnic languages alone. Besides, after having being broadcast on the radio for decades, Esperanto is now broadly used on the Internet.

Speakers of Esperanto take part in regional, national and international congresses, making this a rare sight, when they gather an average of three thousand participants, originated from about eighty countries, all communicating freely. These are the only congresses that do not require interpreters.

Esperanto has today the greatest opportunity in its history, for the world needs it, mainly for its characteristics that always set it apart from rival languages. If there has been a maturation of Esperanto as a language, there has also been a maturation of the awareness of the problem of an international language, caused by human evolution itself.

Esperanto is effective without being too complex – Nowadays nobody, with a clear mind, can deny Esperanto’s effectiveness in dealing with human speech wholesomely, following its great transformation ever since it appeared for the first time. It more than proved its simplicity to learn and facility of use which don’t mean a poorness of expression, as it happens with “pidgins”. Esperanto is a living demonstration that linguistic complexity does not mean superiority of performance, for it is simple without being superficial; it is effective without being complex.

From the six hundred projects of artificially elaborated languages until 1962, according to Pierre Burney4, a few have become languages, but only Esperanto survived.

Esperanto’s time has come, as it has for musical notes, the metric system, symbols of simple bodies, international traffic signs, units of measurement of vitamins and proteins and a whole lot more, all internationally accepted by gestures of agreement without any impositions.

The community of speakers of Esperanto, although formed by the greatest variety of ethnic, social and cultural groups the world has ever seen, is made up of a harmonious group, who gathers around noble ideas of fraternity, understanding and respect to the culture, ethnic diversities and the right of expression of all the peoples of the world.

And since we are talking about linguistic rights, this community is now demanding all the languages to be treated equally, towards the recognition of the linguistic rights of all people.

It is only a matter of Justice!      

Sources:

1. MATTHIAS, Ulrich. Esperanto - the New Latin of the Church and Ecumenism. Campinas: 2003

2. PIRON, Claude. La Bona Lingvo. Viena: IEM, 1997.

3. SAPIR, Edward. Linguistics as a Science. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Acadêmica, 1969.

4. BURNEY, Pierre. Les Langues Internationeles. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962