Esperanto and Volapuk

[Joe Laferriere]

Dear friends,
   A couple short comments:

1) I agree with nearly every everything Dr. Ivie had to say the other
day. Indeed, I am perplexed as to why he felt he was disagreeing with me.

2) Concerning the long essay in French on Esperanto and Volapuk
(Pardonnez-moi, s.v.p., mais j'ai oublie' le nom de l'auteur), Esperanto
was invented by a Jewish physician in Bialystok, Poland. It is 60%
Romance, 30% Germanic (German and English) and the remainder Greek,
Hebrew, and Slavic. I have heard it described as sounding like Italian
spoken with a Polish accent. It is true that there is no Esperantoland
where it is spoken exclusively, but I know people who say they have
travelled extensively in several countries (especially in the former
Warsaw Pact region) using Esperanto exclusively. The Universala Esperanto
Asocio publishes a book of contacts every year. Volapuk was very popular
in the 1880's but to my knowledge has zero speakers today. It was 60%
English, but with the English so mangled as to be unrecognizable to an
English speaker (e.g. "nim" from "animal"). Volapuk was extremely
difficult to learn; Esperanto was specifically designed to be easy.

3) Judging by some of the postings, my comments on this matter seem to
have been taken by some people as an unrealistic, dreamy fanatacism. I
love Esperanto and I wish it would be adopted tomorrow as a universal
language. However, I am under no delusions about the likelihood of this
actually happening.