Anyone speak Esperanto?

[masraum]

I recorded a movie and watched it last night. Incubus, William Shatner, 1966. It was filmed entirely in Esperanto. I'd heard of Esperanto before but never really knew anything about it. Sort of facinating. It's fallen a little flat of it's goals, and apparently has some pretty big shortcomings, but still, interesting.

Esperanto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

About this sound Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language.[1] Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself. The language's original name was "La Internacia Lingvo."[2] Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy to learn and politically neutral language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding.[3] Esperanto has approximately one thousand native speakers,[4] i.e. people who learned Esperanto as one of their native languages from their parents. There is controversy over the number of people who are fluent in Esperanto. The estimates range from 10,000 to as high as two million. The users are spread in about 115 countries.[5] This diverse and international community is evidence to most Esperanto speakers that the language is usable by people from all over the world and that it can establish communication between them.

Although no country has adopted the language officially, Esperanto was officially recognized by UNESCO in 1954.[6] Today, Esperanto is employed in world travel,[7] correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction,[8] television,[9] movies,[10] and radio broadcasting.[11] The first international Esperanto congress was organized in France, Boulogne-sur-Mer, in 1905. Since then international conferences and meetings have been organized around the world with Esperanto every year.[12] At least one major search engine, Google, offers searching of Esperanto-related websites via an Esperanto portal.[13]

There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a good foundation for learning languages in general.[14] Esperanto is also the language of instruction in one university, the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj in San Marino.[15]

[porsche4life]

First I've heard of it....


I need to learn Latin honestly.... Would help me with all the medical terms... And be a starter on Spanish which would be helpful around here....

[Tobra]

Latin will help you with all the Romance languages.

[Geronimo '74]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Latin will help you with all the Romance languages.

True!

French, Spanish, Italian..... It helps if you had Latin in school.

[red-beard]

I speak it like a native...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I speak it like a native...

Where/when/why did you learn?

[legion]

There are no native Esparanto speakers.

[stuartj]

I studied it at school. Really. We did a language course for two years in early high school where we studied one language each term before settling on one for study in senior school. Esperanto was one terms study.

Esperanto mixed all the Latin based lanaguages as I recall- Spanish, French, English, German- and stripped out all the unique complexities that each of the languages has (like trying to figure out if a chair is masculine or feminine) to create an easily taught, easily learned second language. It was a good idea.

But as some countries cant even deal with a common weights and meaurement system, let alone a second language, it was doomed.

[MRM]

Esperanto. Mmmm every time I hear that word I get warm memories of chasing down and reading every new Stainless Steel Rat book I could find. I spent countless hours with those books and still apply lessons learned from them, but never buckled down and wrote away for the Esperanto course Harry Harrision offered readers on the back book cover. I always meant to. Maybe I will now.

Any other Stainless Steel Rat fans here?

[Lazarro]

So was the movie subbed? I guess I'll find out as I am ''recording'' the movie as I type.

I remember an episode of Third rock from the Sun where Dick spoke Esperanto.

Interesting post, thanks.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by legion

There are no native Esparanto speakers.

from wikipedia

Esperanto has approximately one thousand native speakers,[4] i.e. people who learned Esperanto as one of their native languages from their parents.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Lazarro

So was the movie subbed? I guess I'll find out as I am ''recording'' the movie as I type.

I remember an episode of Third rock from the Sun where Dick spoke Esperanto.

Interesting post, thanks.

No, it's completely in Esperanto with English subtitles. Apparently the director prohibited dubbing.

Incubus (1965 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Incubus (Esperanto: Inkubo) is a 1965 black-and-white American horror film, restored in 2001. Incubus was directed by Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, and stars William Shatner, shortly before he would begin his work on Star Trek. The film's striking cinematography was by Conrad Hall, who went on to win three Academy Awards for his work on the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Beauty and Road to Perdition. The film was performed entirely in the constructed language Esperanto. This was done to create an eerie, other-worldly feeling, and the director has prohibited dubbing into other languages.

The film was lost for many years because the original print of the film burned in a fire and all copies were reported lost, destroyed, or worn away, but a copy of the film with French subtitles was found in the permanent collection of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. The Sci Fi Channel funded the restoration from that print and released a DVD in 2001 that included subtitles in English and French. Because the source print contained burned-in French subtitles, the English subtitles are placed over black bars that partially obscure some portions of the frame.

Incubus was the second feature film primarily using Esperanto ever made; the first, Angoroj (Esperanto for "Agonies") appeared in 1964, one year earlier. Esperanto speakers are generally disappointed by the pronunciation of the language by the cast of Incubus.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by legion

There are no native Esperanto speakers.

Chris got the joke. I used the line from "The Stainless Steel Rat" series.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by stuartj

Esperanto mixed all the Latin based lanaguages as I recall- Spanish, French, English, German-

Actually, English and German are....Germanic languages.

[Lazarro]

No, it's completely in Esperanto with English subtitles. Apparently the director prohibited dubbing.

Hi Steve, Yep by subbed I meant subtitled. Sorry.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Lazarro

Hi Steve, Yep by subbed I meant subtitled. Sorry.

Doh, I'm sorry, you typed "subbed" (obviously meaning subtitled), but I read it as dubbed. I guess that's the brain filling in what it's expecting rather than paying attention to what's actually there.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

Actually, English and German are....Germanic languages.

I'm guessing what he really meant was "Indo-European".

[Damian in NJ]

The watch brand Movado was founded by brothers who were great proponents of Esperanto; hence the brand name Movado, which means 'always in motion' appropriate for a timepiece.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm guessing what he really meant was "Indo-European".

That's like saying "a significant number of humans are male".