The universal language of Esperanto

The universal language of Esperanto

The article ''As English Spreads, Speakers Morph It Into World Tongue,'' May 17, demonstrates the failure of the world community to deal with global problems in a rational way. The global community needs a nationality-neutral common language which would be used as a second language by everyone. Esperanto was invented for this purpose in 1887. In 1921 and 1922 the League of Nations considered a resolution calling for the teaching of Esperanto to all the children of the world, but it was defeated by the French.

Because the United Nations, like the League of Nations, is run by the larger national governments, each trying to promote its own national language, Esperanto as the sensible language for global communication is still being thwarted. The article demonstrates how the resulting chaos will not be helpful even to speakers of English. As we move to oral communication between humans and computers, we will be losers again because computers can learn to understand and talk Esperanto, a completely phonetic and rule-guided language, more readily than they can handle English.

Ronald J. Glossop Edwardsville, Ill.

Professor and coordinator of peace studies

Southern Illinois University

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