国際補助語エスペラントと言語について

10年以上前の大学のスピーチクラスでエスペラントについてスピーチしたのを思い出した。





 

エスペラントとは

エスペラントとはルドヴィコ・ザメンホフという医者で言語学者だったユダヤ系ポーランド人が構想し作成した国際補助語のこと。英語やドイツ語などのゲルマン言語系とスペイン語やフランス語のロマンス言語系の影響を受けまくっている言語で文法は英語やスペイン語とほぼ同じ。主な特徴はロマンス言語系にある人称による活用がない、動詞、形容詞、副詞などはその単語の最後の音が決まっていて覚えやすいし、発音もスペイン語に似ていて簡単、ということ。

当時ヨーロッパを中心に熱があり、スタンフォード大学など有名大学でも無料講座が開講していたエスペラント語だったが、この言語が生まれた理念の一つとして「言語による不公平をなくす」というものがあり、”transfer of learning”の観点から（ある言語を習得していると似た語系の習得が楽になる）このエスペラント語自体がアジア人からすると不公平を煽っているし、現代の英語という言語が古英語と比べて活用も簡易になり言語学的にも実践的にも「現代のエスペラント」と言える言語になってきているので、結局自分は学習を続けなかった。(活用不要やんと言いながら単数形複数形を区別するところとか理解できなかった)

映画GATTACAとか「誰も聞いたことがない言語」を映画とか動画とかで表したいときに使われている印象。ちなみにDuolingoでも暇つぶしにエスペラントを学べる。

どんな言語か

以下は昔のノートから:

文章例

• Bonan matenon (Good morning)
• Mia nomo estas ~. (My name is~.)
• Mi amas vin. (I love you.)
• Tio estas facila. (This is easy.)

形容詞

• All adjectives in Esperanto end with A.
• Alta – Tall
• Bela – Beautiful
• Facila – Easy

• Adding MAL to the beginning of a word gives it the opposite meaning.
• Malalta – Short
• Malbela – Ugly
• Malfacila – Difficult

副詞

• Adjectives become adverbs when you use the E ending instead.
• Bone – Well
• Facile – Easily

名詞

• All nouns in Esperanto end with O.
• Amiko – Friend
• Urbo – City
• Libro – Book

• To make plural, add OJ.
• Amikoj – Friends
• Urboj – Cities
• Libroj – Books

動詞

• Infinitives end in I. In the present tense, verbs always end in AS. There are no irregular verbs and no conjugations.
• Esti (to be)
• Mi estas (I am)               Ni estas (We are)
• Vi estas (You are)          
• Li/Si estas (He/She is) Ili estas (They are)

• To make the verbs past tense use, the IS ending, and for the future tense, use OS.
• Mi estis ~. – I was ~.
• Mi estos ~. – I will be (am going to be).

 

エスペラントについてのスピーチ (大学の授業で)

2008年の夏休みに取っていた大学のスピーチの授業(Communication 110)で、Informative/Persuasive Speechをしないといけなかったので、その頃スペイン語とかフランス語とか韓国語とか色々な言語をかじっていてこともあり、軽いノリでエスペラントについて話したら色々調べ物もできるしええやん、みたいにトピックを選んでしまった記憶がある。そのスピーチアウトラインが見つかったので下に晒してみる。2008年7月は渡米してちょうど1年後くらいで超懐かしい。

ちなみに改めて見ると、文章の組み方とかは英語初心者のそれで少々稚拙だが、中身自体はおそらく英語の頻出単語2000語ほどの中の単語が使われていて超わかりやすいと思う。修行を終えている今はもうこんな風に文章は書けない。

(私の名前)
Summer 2008/07/11
CA 110, M. Sparks

Speech Outline
Title of Speech: Learn Esperanto (international language)
General Purpose: To persuade, to inform
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to learn Esperanto. To inform of Esperanto
Thesis Statement: I have an opinion that Esperanto should be popular as a second language because it’s easy, fun, helpful, and neutral to learn.

Introduction
(I appreciate that you helped my survey.) The survey showed me you are interested in language and communicating foreign people. I’m going to talk about the international auxiliary language Esperanto. If you use it when you talk to foreign people, it’s going to be very helpful. I have an opinion that Esperanto should be popular as a second language because it’s easy, fun, helpful, and neutral to learn. First, I’m going to explain when Esperanto is created and who did and speak. Secondly, I’m going to describe what
Esperanto is like and how we can learn. Third, I’m going to talk about why Esperanto should be more popular language.

(Transition: Let’s focus on basic information of Esperanto.)

Body
Main Point 1: Basic information
A: I’m going to explain when Esperanto is created and who did and speak.
1. According to Universal Esperanto-Association, it was created in 1887
by Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof.

It was created as to be used as a second language for everyone in the world.
Nowadays, the number of Esperanto speakers is about one million in spite of the fact that Esperanto is not an official language in any country. Esperanto speakers live all around the world.

(Transition: Then, I’m going to talk about what Esperanto is like.)

Main Point 2: I’m going to describe what Esperanto is like and how we can learn. Esperanto belongs to Romance language like French and Spanish. Also, the grammar is the same as English. They are some examples of Esperanto. (show sentences) Let’s talk about vocabulary quickly. (Look at the screen.) According to the website named “Welcome Esperanto,” for example, all adjectives end with A. Adding MAL to the beginning of a word gives it the opposite meaning. Adjectives become adverbs when you use the E ending
instead. Also, there are no irregular verbs and no conjugations. It is said that if you learn for 3 months, you can master Esperanto easily. So Esperanto is going to help your language study.

(Transition: Next, I’m going to talk about how we can learn Esperanto.)

Esperanto is taught at some universities and there are many clubs of Esperanto. I’m going to give you one example. Stanford University is one of the universities Esperanto is taught in America. According to Stanford University, They provided free Esperanto class for everyone including general public this summer semester. Also, they said, even 4 lessons are enough to get more than just the basics.

The survey showed me that everyone likes and wants to travel to foreign
countries. You can request a homestay to Esperanto association and stay there for free. According to International Hospitality Service, there are a lot of host families in more than 85 countries. It’s going to be good practice to speak Esperanto and experience.

(Transition: Then, I’m going to talk about why Esperanto should be more popular.)

Main Point 3: I’m going to talk about why Esperanto should be more popular language. The important thing of Esperanto is that it is neutral language because Esperanto doesn’t belong to any ethnic group and there are no native language speakers. It’s not going to be no unfair issue in terms language. This world is going to be more global. According to the article of MSN, every language is a lens. Columnist Tamin Ansary says, “If you were born wearing pink glasses and could never take them off or exchange them for another shade, you would assume the world is pink without even being aware of pinkness as a quality—pink as compared to what?” We need to think in the same way when we think about each other and understand each other.

(Transition: Let’s summarize.)

Conclusion
In conclusion, Esperanto was created 120 years ago as an international auxiliary language. It has simple vocabulary and grammar, so it’s easy and fun to learn and helpful to travel. Also, Esperanto is neutral. It’s going to be important to live in the global life. The word “Esperanto” means “one who hopes.” I hope you are somewhat interested in Esperanto.

またこういうなんの利害もないことをトピックとして準備、発表してまた純粋にスピーチの練習したいものだ。