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Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto,news.answers
Subject: soc.culture.esperanto Frequently Asked Questions (Oftaj Demandoj)
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Date: 2 Oct 92 23:02:29 GMT
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Archive-name: esperanto-faq

               Frequently Asked Questions for
soc.culture.esperanto, [e-mail] and [e-mail]
                 (monthly posting)

This posting attempts to answer the most common questions from those
new to the newsgroup (or mailing list), or to the language itself.
Because the majority of readers are in the United States, it is
somewhat biased towards those readers, but it may be useful
for anglophone readers in other countries.  The opinions expressed
are those of the author.  If there is some information you feel should
be added or changed, send mail to the author (Internet: [e-mail]).

 1. What is Esperanto?
 2. How many people speak Esperanto?
 3. Where do I find classes, textbooks, etc.?
 4. How do you type Esperanto's circumflexed letters?
 5. How can I display those circumflexed letters on a (Sun/Mac/PC)?
 6. What about other `artificial' languages like Loglan, Ido, etc.?
 7. How come Esperanto doesn't have <favorite word or feature>?
 8. Is there any Esperanto material available online?
 9. In what language should people post to this newsgroup/list?
10. Are there other bulletin boards, online services, etc?

----------------------------------------------------------------

1. What is Esperanto?

Esperanto is a language designed to facilitate communication among
people of different lands and cultures.  It was first published in 1887
by Dr. L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917) under the pseudonym `Dr. Esperanto',
meaning `one who hopes', and this is the name that stuck as the name of
the language itself.  Unlike national languages, Esperanto allows
communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having
the usual cultural advantage accruing to a native speaker.  Esperanto
is also considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its
design is far simpler and more regular than such languages.


2. How many people speak Esperanto?

It is always difficult to measure the number of speakers of any
language; it is rather like estimating the number of people who play
Chess.  Speakers of a second language vary widely in their competence
and fluency.  The World Almanac, whose researchers actually conduct
interviews with speakers, estimate about two million speakers
worldwide.  This puts it on a par with `minority' languages like
Icelandic and Estonian.  Of course, unlike these other languages,
Esperanto is not the primary language for its speakers, although
there _are_ native speakers (`denaskaj parolantoj') of Esperanto
who learned to speak it (along with the local language) from
their parents.


3. Where do I find classes, textbooks, etc?

For U.S. residents, the Esperanto League for North America is the
best and most reliable source for Esperanto materials.  They
offer a free basic correspondence course (about which we will
say more later), and may be offering a more detailed and advanced
paid correspondence course.  They have an extensive catalogue
of books, including texts, reference, fiction, poetry, and
cassette tapes.  Their address is

  Esperanto League of North America
  Box 1129
  El Cerrito, CA  94530

A free information packet can be obtained from ELNA by
calling their toll-free information number: 1-800-828-5944

A more immediate source of texts, especially for those with
access to a university, is your local library.  The quality
of the books, of course, will vary widely, but most of the
texts, even the older ones, will provide a reasonable general
introduction to the language.  One exception, mentioned here
only because it was surplused to _many_ libraries around the US,
is the US Army's `Esperanto: The Aggressor Language', which
is more of a curiosity than a useful textbook.

The problem with most old texts is that they are...well...old!  Their
presentations can seem very bland and old-fashioned, and their
`cultural' information about the Esperanto community will often be
hopelessly out of date.  The newest American textbook, and probably the
best, is Richardson's `Esperanto: Learning and Using the International
Language'.  It is available from ELNA and perhaps some libraries.
Another book, the Esperanto entry in the `Teach Yourself ...' series of
language primers, is a slightly dated but still useful introduction to
the language.  The `Teach Yourself' book can sometimes be found in
bookstores.  There is also a `Teach Yourself' English/Esperanto
dictionary that is a very popular and handy reference.

Another good, if a bit old-fashioned, textbook, Step by Step in
Esperanto, has recently been reprinted and is available from ELNA.

Macintosh owners with HyperCard and MacinTalk can take advantage
of an introductory HyperCard course on Esperanto.  This is available
from ELNA for a nominal media charge.  Swedish and Dutch versions
of this course have appeared in their respective countries.

   ***
   *** If you know of other texts that should be mentioned here,
   *** please let me know
   ***

Each summer, San Francisco State University and ELNA offer a three-week
curriculum of Esperanto courses, in which one may participate at
beginning, intermediate, or advanced levels, and earn three semester
credits.  It is widely considered to be one of the best opportunities to
learn to speak Esperanto `like a native', and draws students and
faculty from around the world.

   ***
   *** Further info, like details on Chaux-de-Fonds (sp?) activities
   *** and similar international learning opportunities, are
   *** requested
   ***

For those with relatively little time, a free Postal Correspondence
Course is available.  You mail in each of ten lessons, and
a grader corrects your exercises and sends you the next lesson.
Send a self-addressed stamped envelope to

        Esperanto Information Center
        410 Darrell Road
        Hillsborough, CA 94010
        415 342-1796


In Australia:
  Australia Esperanto-Asocio, GPO Box 313, Sunnybank, Queensland 4109.
  Junulara Auxstralia Grupo Esperantista,
      17 Renowden St., Cheltenham, Victoria 3192.
  Book service: PO Box 230, Matraville, NSW 2036.
  Editor, The Australian Esperantist: 46 Great Eastern Highway,
      Bakers Hill, WA 6562.
  Correspondence Course: J. Moore, 7 Pelican St., Emu Park, Queensland 4702.

In Canada:
  Kanada Esperanto-Asocio (English course)
      P.O.Box 2159, Sidney, BC  V8L 3S6
  Esperanto-Societo Kebekia (French course)
      6358-A, rue de Bordeaux, Montreal, QC  H2G 2R8
  Book Service
      6358-A, rue de Bordeaux, Montreal, QC  H2G 2R8

In New Zealand:
  New Zealand Esperanto Association  (also correspondence course)
    PO Box 41-172, St Lukes, Auckland
  Editor of the `Nov-Zelanda Esperantisto':
    PO Box 330, Wellington

In Britain:
    British Esperanto Association, 140 Holland Park Avenue, Londonw W11

In France:
    UFE (Union Francaise pour l'Esperanto)
    and its youth section JEFO (Junulara Esperantista Franca Organizo)
        4 bis, rue de la Cerisaie
        75004 PARIS



The Free Correspondence Course is also available online as the
Free Esperanto Course.  Information is posted regularly to this group.
The Correspondence Course is now conducted in both English and French
versions.

4. How do you type Esperanto's circumflexed letters?

Esperanto has five circumflexed consonants (c, g, h, j, and s can all
be circumflexed) and an accented vowel (u with breve).  The Fundamento,
which forms the official basis for the language, suggests that printers
that lack a circumflex can use `h' (ch, gh, hh, etc.).  This is,
however, not a completely satisfactory solution for computers, and
introduces unnecessary lexical ambiguity.  Two solutions are now in
current use:

The European Computer Manufacturer's Association Standard ECMA-94
contains four 8-bit Latin alphabets to cover a variety of European
languages.  Latin alphabet 3 covers Esperanto (as well as nine other
European languages).  This alphabet also forms the basis for the
international standard coding ISO 8859/3 (LATIN-3).  This eight-bit
coding is probably the best `canonical' representation for the storage
of Esperanto text, although it is inconvenient for sorting
applications (this is a common technical difficulty for almost all
languages).  A more immediate problem is that the Internet mail
protocol is currently only able to transmit 7-bit ASCII.  Finally, it
may be inconvenient to generate the eight-bit codes on particular
input devices.

Various `ASCIIzations' of the accented letters are popular.  Some
people type a circumflex before the accented letter; others type it
afterwards.  Some use a `<' sign instead.  Some use the Fundamentan
formula with following `h'.  Others follow with a `~' (tilde) to
facilitate alphabetization.

The best ASCIIzation is probably to use following `x', which has
several advantages: the `x' is not part of the Esperanto alphabet and
so the digraphs like `cx' can automatically be translated to Latin-3
codes or other representations; `x' is alphabetic, so various editing
and text-processing programs treat `accented' words as single units;
since `x' is near the end of the alphabet, sorting algorithms are quite
reliable when applied to words coded in this way.  Finally, combinations
like `sx' are rare in English, so automatic conversion of mixed
Esperanto/English text is highly reliable.  While nobody can
dictate a standard, widespread adoption of this convention on the
networks would facilitate the development of standard programs to
convert or display the accented characters, at least until 8-bit
mail transmission becomes commonplace.

Esperanto's circumflexed characters are covered by the various
proposed `wide character' standards (Unicode and ISO 10646), so
Esperantists will not be left out if and when those standards
are widely adopted and implemented.


5. How do I display those characters on a (Mac, PC, etc.)

`Dumb' terminals generally cannot overstrike accents with arbitrary
characters, and so cannot display the Esperanto characters.  Most
modern equipment uses `softer' display technology and can display the
Esperanto characters given proper software.

On the Macintosh, one can prepare and display text with an Esperanto
`font'; such fonts usually match the accented characters to convenient
(USA) keyboard equivalents, rather than to standard binary codes.  A
couple of such fonts (Imagewriter resolution) are available on ELNA's
HyperCard disk, and Esperanto versions of Helvetica and Times (in
Type 3 PostScript) can be FTPed from chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (and are
probably also obtainable through ELNA).

*
* INFORMATION SOLICITED ON OTHER MACINTOSH FONTS
*

WordPerfect 5.1 allows the display of Esperanto characters when the
512-character screen is selected from the Setup menu.   To type an
accented character, type control-v, the charactrs.doc table number,
comma, the character code, and RETURN.  The Esperanto codes are all in
table 1, with the following values:

  ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     ^     -     -
  C:100 c:101 G:122 g:123 H:126 h:127 J:140 j:141 S:180 s:181 U:188 u:189

so that you type <CTRL-V>1,100<RETURN> to get circumflexed C.
You can setup a `keyboard file' to assign these combinations
to keys.   (thanks to Cleve Lendon and Michael Johnson for this information)

Two programs, `vidi' and `montru', which can display some of the common
Esperanto ASCIIzations as accented characters on PCs with graphics
boards, are available via anonymous FTP (see below).

On Unix (and other) systems running X11, it is possible to create a
text font using the ISO 8859/3 encoding.  With such a font in your
server's font repertoire, an `xterm' window (with terminal modes set
for 8-bit output) can display Esperanto text using standard Unix
commands such as `cat'.  An ISO 8859/3 font is included in
the contributed software portion of Release 5 of X11.  The Esperanto
versions of Helvetica and Times for the Mac might be usable with
a suitably equipped X11 server, but this has yet to be verified.

In any of these cases, a certain amount of data massaging may be
necessary to convert some particular representation of Esperanto text
(see Question 4) to an appropriate form.

Text processing languages like TeX and Troff permit the arbitrary
placement of diacriticals on characters and so make the preparation of
good-looking Esperanto documents quite easy.  TeX's Computer Modern
fonts are particularly good for this, because they include an undotted
`j' character.  Note that the hyphenation algorithms used by TeX and
Troff are not intended for Esperanto and may produce unpleasant
results.  TeX is available, often as free software, for a variety of
computers.

6. What about other `artificial' languages like Loglan, Ido, etc.?

People create languages for a variety of purposes.  J.R.R. Tolkien's
languages of Sindarin and Quenya, for example,  were created partly as
a recreation, and partly to fulfill a literary purpose.  Many languages
have been created as international languages; only Esperanto has
continued to grow and prosper after the death of its originator.  Many
of the people who have attempted to promulgate international languages
more `perfect' (i.e., more `international', more `logical', or
whatever) than Esperanto have failed to understand that -- given a
certain minimum standard of internationality, aesthetic quality, and
ease of learning -- further tinkering not only fails to substantially
improve the product, but interferes with the establishment of a large
community of speakers.  A language like, say, Interlingua might be (by
some individual's criteria) `better' than Esperanto, but in order for
it to be worth uprooting the established world of Esperanto and
creating an equivalently widespread world community of Interlingua
speakers, it would have to be visibly and profoundly an improvement
over Esperanto of prodigious proportions.  No international language
project has yet produced such an obviously ideal language.

In the network community, one of the best known planned language
projects is James Cooke Brown's Loglan (and its revised offshoot
Lojban).  While some enthusiasts do see Loglan and Lojban as
competitors to Esperanto, the languages were conceived not as a tool to
facilitate better communication, but as a linguistic experiment, to
test the Whorf hypothesis that a language shapes (or limits) the
thoughts of its speakers.  They are thus deliberately designed to bear
little resemblance to existing human languages.  While Loglan and
Lojban are unlikely (and, by design, perhaps unsuited) to succeed as
international languages, both are interesting projects in their own
right.   The address to write for Loglan information is

    The Loglan Institute
    3009 Peters Way
    San Diego, CA, 92117
    U.S.A.
                [ [phone] ]
    [e-mail]

For Lojban, contact
    Bob LeChevalier, President
    The Logical Language Group, Inc.
    2904 Beau Lane Fairfax VA 22031-1303
    U.S.A
                [ [phone] (day/evenings) }
    [e-mail]

There is a `constructed language' mailing list; send mail to
    [e-mail]
to subscribe.  Finally, fans of Tolkien's language creations
can join a Tolkien-language mailing list.  Contact
    [e-mail]
for information.  (UK readers invert the address appropriately)


As for our own Esperanto newsgroup, many readers are interested in other
planned languages, and discussion of these can often be informative and
interesting.  But politeness dictates that `Esperanto-bashing' in
an Esperanto forum is inappropriate and should be avoided.


7. How come Esperanto doesn't have <favorite word or feature>?

Although Esperanto is a planned language, it has developed well beyond
the point at which some authoritative person or group can dictate
language practice, however great the temptation may be to `tinker' with
the language.  For example, many people are critical of the presence of
a feminine suffix and absense of a corresponding masculine suffix, and
have suggested masculine suffixes (-ab, -ucx, -icx, -un), neutral pronouns
(sxli, ri), and/or re-interpretations of familiar words such as
redefining `frato' (brother) to mean `sibling'.  But there is no single
individual or committee that will simply designate changes such as
these before they achieve general use.

Just as with any other language, the only way for such novelties to
attain acceptability is for them to be used in correspondence,
literature, and conversation by a growing number of people.  So, if you
see a genuine lack in the language's existing stock of roots and
affixes, by all means use a new coinage (with suitable explanation) and
see if it catches on.  Be warned that such neologisms are often
controversial and will meet with criticisms (in proportion to the
extent to which they break with the `Fundamento' or to which they are
redundant to the existing language).


8. Is there any Esperanto material available online?

There are two sources on the network for Esperanto materials.  The
Internet site rand.org has an assortment of materials (including online
word lists, some introductory material, and other stuff) available for
anonymous FTP in the pub/esperanto directory.

There is a Planned Languages Server at columbia.edu that allows a
user to request material on Esperanto and Loglan via electronic mail
(with no human intervention). To find out more about this server, send
a message with just the word   help   to [e-mail]
A help file will be sent by return electronic mail.

There is an archive of Esperanto Macintosh materials available via
anonymous FTP at  chaos.cs.brandeis.edu in pub/esperanto, including
fonts and HyperCard materials.

Some Esperanto information is available via a service called `gopher'
via the gopher server at otax.tky.hut.fi port 70 (Helsinki University
of Technology).

Some libraries have on-line listings of their Esperanto holdings.  On
Internet, try:
    Universitaet des Saarlandes (700 titles): telnet paula.rz.uni-sb.de
    University of California (450 titles): telnet melvyl.ucop.edu
On BITNET/EARN/SURFnet, try
    Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (232 titles):
       set host/x29 kunt or set host/x29 18802007099, and then use
       'c KUNOPC' to enter the library. Logout using <Ctrl-C>

Also, see the next section's information about the Esperanto Lingva Servo.


9. In what language should people post to this newsgroup/list?

This is left up to the judgement of the sender, based on his or her
language expertise, the nature of the material, and the time available
for composing the message.  Several of our readers are not native
speakers of English; for some, it is easier to read and write Esperanto
than English.  On the other hand, many of our readers have only the
most basic exposure to Esperanto (and wish to learn more).  The best
solution would be to post bilingually in English and Esperanto (if you
know Esperanto), but of course that requires composing the posting two
times.  Messages involving details of Esperanto culture (such as a
recent thread involving some of the personalities of the early
Esperanto movement) can probably be entirely in Esperanto without
losing much of the intended audience.  Similarly, messages likely to be
of interest to people who are just learning about Esperanto should be
posted in English (at least).

Beginners in the language should not be afraid to attempt to post in
Esperanto; people are happy to correct language mistakes in a positive
and friendly way (not as `grammar flames') and a forum like this can be
a good way to get language practice.  No, this is not strong enough.
Beginners are ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGED to post in Esperanto whenever
possible.

Of course, if you are uncertain of your Esperanto ability, you should
include an English version of your text so that, if you make a serious
language blunder, people can determine what you were *trying* to say.

One service that might be of use is the Language Service (La
Lingva Servo), a group of volunteers who will correct the grammar
of short Esperanto postings.  Information on the Lingva Servo,
with the current list of volunteers, is posted monthly to this
group.

If you are cross-posting articles to other newsgroups, please
do NOT post in Esperanto, unless English (or the usual language
of that newsgroup) is also included, preferably as the primary
language.  Aside from being rude, such postings have tended to
create a lot of unwanted crossposted response traffic, usually
of an anti-Esperantan inflammatory nature.

10. Are there other bulletin boards, online services, etc?

The Internet mailing list mail.esperanto contains about
70 individual entries.  Whenever someone sends mail to
`[e-mail]', that mail is forwarded to everyone on
the list.  People on other networks that can receive
Internet mail (e.g. on CompuServe or FidoNet) can subscribe
to the mailing list.

The newsgroup soc.culture.esperanto is distributed on many
Internet and USENET sites and has a readership of several
hundred.  Every message sent to the mail.esperanto list is
forwarded to soc.culture.esperanto, and every article from
soc.culture.esperanto is normally forwarded to the mailing list.
Thus, if you are reading the newsgroup, you do not need to be
on the mailing list.  However, note that the newsgroup is
theoretically an `Internet-only' group, and that many messages,
including all those forwarded from the mailing list, are
tagged with a `Distribution: inet' header line, and may not
be distributed to every site.

ESPER-L@TREARN is a BITNET-based mailing list; every message
sent to soc.culture.esperanto is forwarded to ESPER-L, but
not the reverse.  BITNET users should subscribe to ESPER-L
(but should post, when possible, to [e-mail])

CompuServe Information Service (CIS) has an Esperanto board
in its Foreign Languages Education Forum; CIS subscribers
can type /GO FLEFO for further information.

For those Internet sites providing the Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
service, Esperanto conversation takes place regularly on Tuesdays at
1400-1600 GMT (UT) on the channel `#Esperanto'.  Contact Axel
Belinfante <[e-mail]> or Wim Slootmans
<[e-mail]> for further infomration.

   ***
   *** INFORMATION SOLICITED ABOUT GENIE, ETC.
   *** (note that Internet mail to Genie users seems imminent)
   ***

Some local Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) across North America
provide Esperanto services.

Devoted to Esperanto:

   ESPERANTO BBS    [phone]       Thornhill, Ontario (near Toronto)

Have Esperanto sections:

   MICRODOT BBS      [phone]     New Albany, Indiana (near Evansville)
    (part of the WWIV network of BBS systems.  WWIV systems may
    subscribe to the Esperanto group `La Samideanoj')

   ***
   *** Surely there are more?
   ***

In France, the Minitel system has an Esperanto service: try
36.15 ESPERANTO for information.  36.14 PING  is an online chat
and mailbox service in four languages (French, Esperanto, Italian,
and English).  36.14 RIBOUREL is `300 pages about/in Esperanto'

In Slovenia, Boris HERMAN is sysop for the Krpan BBS (FidoNet
2:380/104) and can be reached at Internet address
[e-mail]