Was a Euro-centric approach the main reason why Esperanto failed to become
a globally spoken language?
Introduction
In 1887, Ludwik Zamenhof created the language Esperanto with the aim that everyone would be
able to speak the language alongside their mother tongue. Unfortunately, his dream was never
fulfilled, as Esperanto is not spoken globally, and English is considered to be more “international”.
Some people argue that this failure was due to the significant influence of European languages on
the creation of Esperanto, or a “Euro-centric approach”. In this essay I am going to discuss whether
this was the main reason Esperanto failed to become a globally spoken language, if there was
another more significant factor altogether or if it was a combination of several factors.
The Creation of Esperanto as a World Language
A globally spoken language, or a world language, is a language which has the greatest possible
distribution of speakers outside its native area or country and satisfiesmust satisfy the social needs
internationally in accordance with a constantly developing society. i Esperanto is a language that
attempted to be an auxiliary world language, which is an international planned languageii; one that is
constructed rather than being born naturally. It was developed by the Polish-Jew Ludwik Zamenhof
in 1887iii due to his desire for a more tolerant world, free from prejudices such as the antisemitism
he faced, and his idea to do this was to invent a language no one spoke already, so no one had an
advantage over anyone who was learning or speaking itiv. His belief that international tensions are
created by misunderstandings in communication led him to attempt to break down language
barriers through Esperanto as a Lingua Francav which is defined as: any of various languages used as
common or commercial tongues among peoples of diverse speechvi, so a way that everyone can
understand each other regardless of their native language, as everyone would be able to speak
Esperanto as an L2.
The Success of Esperanto
The success of Esperanto as a globally spoken language (predominately measured by the number of
speakers across the world) has varied throughout history, though, as of 2019, it has been estimated
that there were at least 2 million speakers across the globe, with roughly 1000 of these using
Esperanto as a first language.vii L1 speakers (speakers of a language as a first language) are vital to
the growth of a language as it will likely become the mother tongue of their children and many
generations after them, allowing for the use of the language on a wider scale. However, this relative
success is very small in comparison to other global languages such as English, which has
approximately 1.35 billion speakers. A significant statistic is also that only around 360 million of
these have English as their first languageviii, the others using it as an L2 (a language used as a second
language) or a Lingua Franca, showing the colossal difference between Esperanto and English’s
successes in becoming widespread or global. Esperanto arguably failed at reaching its goal of being
everyone’s second language and in this essay, I will be evaluating whether a Euro-centric approach
to the construction of Esperanto was the main reason as to why it failed to become a globally
spoken language, or whether another factor was a greater contributor to this.
The Euro-Centric Approach to Esperanto
The features of Esperanto are an indicator as to how “European” the language is. The lexis of
Esperanto is mainly based on that of multiple European languages that dominate the continent. It
also seems to have fairly simple phonology, so the alphabet isn’t too difficult to learn, as well as
, simple syntax (how words are arranged) and morphology (how words are constructed)ix. Within the
alphabet there are 23 consonants and 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) with “roofed” letters used such as ŝ and
ĵ, with strict phonemic spelling. Notably also, adjectives agree with noun and number, as with many
European languages such as Spanish and French. Within the principally based European lexis, ¾ of
basic roots of words are of Romance origin and the rest of Germanic or Slavic origin. x The grammar
was also simple and contained no irregular verbsxi. Many of these features may lead to the belief
that Esperanto was accessible to everyone, however they are also considered very “European” as
the vowels are the same as English, so the alphabet is vastly different to, for example, Asian
countries like China’s alphabet and much of the grammar and vocabulary is influenced by European
languages, perhaps due to Zamenhof’s experiences in the continent. However, this is one of the
main criticisms of the constructed language as it makes it less accessible to speakers of non-
European languages,xii therefore excluding a vast majority of the population from the exact reasons
Zamenhof created the language; so, no one could have an advantage over anyone else when
learning Esperanto. This is why this Euro-centric approach could be considered the main reason why
Esperanto failed to become a globally spoken language, as it was not accessible to enough people for
it to spread more widely.
Religion, Politics and the Censorship of Esperanto
However, even if all 2 million (approximate) speakers of Esperanto live in Europe- which is not the
case either way- that still leaves over 700 million people in Europe who do not speak the language as
of 2019, meaning that there must be other reasons as to why it failed to become globally spoken, or
even spoken widely in Europe, where the language seems as if it should have been easiest to learn.
One reason this could be is due to religion and censorship of Zamenhof’s language because of its
perceived links to a specific religion and ideology. As Zamenhof was Jewish (Esperanto also utilised
elements of Yiddish), and a likely disproportionate amount of Esperanto speakers practised Judaism
as well, his language faced opposition from the very prejudices Zamenhof wanted to eliminate
through Esperanto.xiii Stalin had many speakers of Esperanto killed for using the language to connect
with the wider global community (destroying the potential the language had to reach other
countries across the world) and many of Zamenhof’s relatives were murdered during the Nazi
regime.xiv Some people had religious prejudices that led to their disdain for the language- seeing it as
a Jewish attempt to gain global power or control, and others saw it as a socialist or communist
uprising, which many objected to in a tumultuous era for political extremes. However, the
opposition with arguably the most influence over many potential speakers of Esperanto in Europe
was Adolf Hitler, who denounced the language in his book “Mein Kampf” as he believed the
language was a way for Jews to control the world and acquire the most power. He also outlawed all
Esperanto organisationsxv which limited the number of speakers or communities of speakers of the
language and its ability to spread to other countries across the globe. With over 30,000 Germans
calling themselves Esperantists in 1926xvi, a time when a neutral language would have appealed to a
country still recovering from the impact of WW1, it is impossible to know how popular the language
could have become if it weren’t for Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. However, it is clear that the
prejudices of Hitler, the Nazi party and other antisemitic organisations hindered the potential spread
of Esperanto, thus being a considerable reason as to why it failed to become a globally spoken
language.
Esperanto’s Lack of History
Although, not every country in the world has actively promoted antisemitic beliefs and censored
Esperanto, so it is likely that there are other, more commonly experienced political or social issues
preventing Esperanto from becoming a globally spoken language, reasons that led to people
