tggŝŝgp INFORMATION CENTER ESPERANTO LEAGUE for NORTH AMERICA NEWSLETTER Auqust lq71 Vol.VTI NO. 4 August, 1971 RESEARCH ON ESPERANTO LITERATURE WINS PH.D. A doctoral dissertation on "The Esperanto Language as a Literary Medium" won a Ph.D. degree last spring from the University of Indiana for Professor Margaret Hagler of the Humanities faculty of Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield 111. Bound copies of the 450-page document will be sent to Es- peranto libraries. In an abstract. Dr. Hagler says in part: "Esperanto now has a flourishing independent literary tradition which, by its mere existence challenges two widely held, though not necessarily valid, assumptions: (1) That languages are so closely tied to national cultures as to be synonymous with them; and (2) That no literary expression is possible except in erhnic and national languages. The development of Esperanto literature of a quality comparable to that of many national languages in a relatively short period shows that Esperanto is a viable literary medium worthy of the attention of writers, scholars, and critics. . . . The experience gained through the use of i Esperanto for literature constitutes a valuable pilot-study which may contribute to the ultimate solution of literary problems caused by language diversity." A monograph, "Are Esperanto Proverbs 'Real' Folklore?" which Miss Hagler delivered at the 1968 meeting of the American Folklore Society will soon be available to libraries and individuals. -o- SIXTY FROM U. S. A. REGISTERED AT LONDON ESPERANTO CONGRESS With 2065 delegates registered from 40 countries, including 60 from the United States, the 56th Congress of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio met in London July 31 to August 1. The British Esperanto Association, acting as host, had everything well in hand except the weather, which was cold and rainy. The level of cultural programs and of lectures at the Summer University was high. A Bulgarian theater group presented Machiavelli's "Mandragola." On one musical evening there were accomplished soloists from eight lands. In the literary competitions Dr. Julius Balbin, head of the New York Society, shared second prize for translated poetry, presenting L. Ferlinghetti's "I Am Waiting." Colored documentary films with Esperanto soundtrack were shown from Austria, Australia, Britain, Italy and Norway. A forum, at which official language bodies of various nations were repre- sented, discussed the problem of modern language communication. Chief speak- ers for national languages were J. Thiery of France and M. MacMillan of the British Council's Education and Science Division. Press coverage was good, particularly in the London Times and the Telegraph. The Guardian had a feature article. Underground (subway) trains had placards welcoming the Congress. American delegates visited the American Embassy in a body. The B.E.A. re- ported unprecedented sales at the book stalls of £3000. Eleven groups, rang- ing from scientists to the blind, held section meetings. -2- NL 8/71 19 7 2 PORTLAND — U. E. A. CONGRESS 19 7 2 Brochures promoting the World Esperanto Congress at Portland, Ore., next summer., and the post-Congress week in San Francisco were available at the Congress in London in early August. Inclusive dates are: Portland, July 29- August 5; San Francisco, August 6-13. Francis E. Helmuth, E.L.N.A.'s president, and Jim Deer, chairman of the Local Congress Committee, addressed the London gathering to urge attendance at what will be the first full-dress U.E.A. meeting in the United States since the Washington Congress of 1910. -o- "$90.00 for 90 days" of bus travel for foreign visitors may be recommended to people planning to come from abroad for the 1972 Congress. Greyhound and Trailways both make this bargain offer. The only catch is that transportation must be paid for in advance, in the country of residence. -o- Want to brush up on your spoken Esperanto before the Congress? Portland- ers are planning a course to precede the Convention; you may collect college credits if you like. Watch for further announcements in the Newsletter. -o- Help Wanted at Portland Dispense information and literature, act as translator or guide; operate a typewriter or mimeo machine; write publicity releases - volunteers will be needed for these and many other services next summer. Write H. K. Ver Ploeg (321 E. 19th Ave., Spokane, Wash., 99203) now and tell him what your capa- bilities are, and the dates on which you can be in Portland. -o- Contributions to the 1972 Congress fund now total $1550. Members who pledged to pay in installments are cordially invited to send in what's due without waiting for reminders from Peggy Linker, E.L.N.A. treasurer. (Address: 1414 Monroe St., Walla Walla, Wash. 99362.) Expenses which the Fund must cover include living costs for several months for the U.E.A. Congress secretary, who will come from Rotterdam well in advance of the meeting to work with the local committee, payments to the Polish dance group and the Indian dancers who will furnish entertainment, and mundane things like printing, advertising and office expense. -o- A caravan of Canadian Esperantists will come to the Portland Congress from Victoria, British Columbia, where their annual meeting will take place July 24-26. The 9-hour trip by boat and bus will cost $18. -o- Attention, Subscribers to Norda Prismo We deeply regret that E.L.N.A. members who chose Norda Prismo as a member- ship bonus have not received their copies this year. The editor has promised that the first issue will be out shortly. — Bonnie Helmuth. -o- This August Newsletter will be late in reaching E.L.N.A. members because (1) The printshop closed for vacation; (2) Nanette Arcone, who does such an admirable job of typing the press copy, was out of town for the summer; (3) Post-Labor Day mailingwill, it is hoped, cut down on the number of returned Newsletters for vacationers and students who changed addresses for the summer. -3- NL 8/71 A LIVING LANGUAGE "It has been quite some time since anyone has called Esperanto to our attention, and we were surprised to learn the other day that the 80-year-old international language is still alive and used. Two thousand advocates of Esperanto from 40 countries convened in London earlier this month and re- turned home imbued with greater enthusiasm for their cause. They hoped at one time that the United Nations would promote a simplified universal lan- guage, and it remains a goal that some day is likely to be realized. Esper- anto addicts may be thought of as cultists by some, but what a boon it would be for world relations if Chinese, Russians, Englishmen, Frenchmen and hun- dreds of other nationals could communicate freely in a common language. We won't have 'one world' until that happens." — Editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 19. -o- \ New B.E.A. Pamphlet Available A new pamphlet "Esperanto- A First Foreign Language for All Mankind" has been published by the British Esperanto Association. Written by the Asso- ciation's president, Bernard Cavanagh (M.A. Oxon, D. Sc. London University), the 32-page pamphlet is addressed to "those who may not yet have considered seriously the world-wide problem of overcoming the language barrier or, at any rate, are not convinced about the claims of Esperanto as the solution." Cavanagh's arguments are low-keyed and persuasive. The reader will not gain any idea of the nuts and bolts of Esperanto grammar or vocabulary; still, it is hard to pick out any section which might have been omitted to make room for such material. Obtainable from the West Coast Esperanto Inform- ation Center; 40 cents plus eight cents postage. See address on P. 4. -o- ESPERANTO ON TELEVISION AND RADIO Station WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C. carried a 15-minute interview with Dr. William Solzbacher on his return from the World Esperanto Congress in London. He responded to questions about the origin of Esperanto, the teach- ing of it in schools and colleges, its use for travel, commerce, science, radio, international conferences, etc., and he was asked to speak briefly in the language. Solzbacher is the only American member of the Academy of Esperanto, an international body of linguists which passes upon the ad- missibility of new words into the language and rules upon fine points of usage. Station WINS in New York broadcast in three segments during Sunday, Aug. 15, an interview with Mark Starr which Ed De Fontaine, London corres- pondent of the Westinghouse radio chain, had recorded during the Congress. Starr is chairman of the Esperanto Information Center and vice president of the Esperanto League. In Chicago William Auld and Danielle Beguin of Switzerland conversed in Esperanto on a TV program. -o- "Let 'em Learn English" "Words ending in a single-letter consonant preceded by a short vowel sound, when they have added to them a suffix beginning with a vowel. . . double the final letter if they either are a monosyllable or bear their accent on the last syllable; they keep it single if they have their last syllable un- accented. But a final 1 is doubled irrespective of accent, and with a final _s usage varies." - Fowler, "Modern English Usage," 2nd ed. -4- NL 8/71 BOOKS AND RECORDS MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE MAY BE ORDERED FROM: W.C.E.I.C. (West Coast Esperanto Information Center), 410 Darrell Rd., Hillsborough, Calif. 94010. Californians add sales tax as required. For latest appendix to the cata- log "Current Esperanto Booklist" send stamped addressed envelope (4-1/2 x 10")i Are you young? Do you have the gift of gab? The oratorical contest at the World Esperanto Congress in Portland next summer may be just your meat. (In 1970, Duncan Charters of Indiana University won first prize.) The W.C.E.I.C. can advise you on requirements and suggests the following books and records by Ivo Lapenna, president of U.E.A. and a master orator: Retoriko, 2nd ed., 293 pp., bound $6.25 Records: Kultura Valoro de Esperanto, 45 r.p.m. 2.75 Festparolado - 2 plastic records 1.00 Mailing fee for records .25 -o- LESSON SHEETS AND SOUND TAPES AVAILABLE FOR RADIO COURSE Tapes of the Esperanto course which Station WOSU, Columbus, Ohio, broad- cast last year are available for use on local or college stations. Samples of the 150 tapes may be obtained from WOSU, 2400 Olentangy River Road or from Mrs. Jane Wills, 94 W. Riverglen Drive, Worthington, Ohio, 43085. An October starting date is advisable so that the course may finish by May 30. Teachers who undertake correction of lessons for people who enroll may obtain the two textbooks used and the necessary number of mimeo'd lesson sheets from W.C.E.I.C. (See address on P. 4). Dorothy Holland of the American Association of Esperanto Teachers has done the mimeo work. The course was originated by Mrs. Wills. The University radio station has postponed a repetition of the course until next year so that she may completely recuperate from a heart operation which she underwent last June. -o- What Does He Do With His Spare Time? Labor in the Esperanto vineyard by William P. Simpson, a civil engineer of Harrisburg, Pa., during April, May and June: Arranged three exhibits - one a display of Esperanto books, including some from Japan and China, at the spring conference of the State Modern Language As- sociation; another featuring Esperanto travel folders in the main reference room of the State library; and a third of religious literature on the inter- national language at the Harrisburg public library. Had two guest editorials published, one on the metric system and Esperanto, the other on "Bridges of Understanding" in newsletters of engineering societies. Completed a course in "Curriculum and Methods in Foreign Languages," (he now has 12 graduate credits in this field) and attended a 2-day Northeast Confer- ence on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held in New York. During the summer Simpson attended the Canadian Esperanto Congress at Sherbrooke, Quebec, and the World Esperanto Congress in London. He has taught Esperanto at Elizabethtown College for a number of years and this autumn will offer an adult beginners course at a local high school. -5- TEACHER ROLLS HIS OWN FOR ESPERANTO SEMINAR NL 8/71 Two college syllabuses that deserve wide circulation have been prepared by Duncan Charters who has conducted a semester seminar in "Esperanto and Problems of Communication" at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind. One in- cludes 40 mimeographed pages of readings, ranging from current newspaper art- icles to extracts from the works of such Esperanto authorities as Privat and Waringhein. The other is William Gilbert's "problems of Language Planned for Inter- national Use" (37 pp.) which Charters has translated from Esperanto. To this he has appended a comparative table of the grammar of Esperanto and two other "constructed" languages. Occidental and Interlingua. Gilbert was prominent in the Occidental movement for 20 years until he became an Esperanto advocate in 1950. Charters has been on leave| from the Spanish Department of Indiana University for the Wabash College project. Inquiries as to the availability of the sylla- buses should be addressed to him at Rm. 844, Ballantine Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 47401. -o- The Indian high school in course next term. This is the struction in the international Ft. Wingate, N.M., will offer an Esperanto first time that American Indians will have in- language on an official basis, -o- Officers of the Florida State Esperanto Society for the coming year are: President, Rex Bennett; vice president, Max Amiel; secretary, Dorothy Hugh- lett; treasurer, Virginia Toffaletti. Chief delegates in nine cities and five delegates at large were also elected. Candidates were nominated at the state convention in May and balloting was by mail. -o- More than a hundred students at Southern Illinois University, Carbon- dale, 111., signed forms indicating their interest in a credit course in Esper- anto this autumn. This display of interest followed a leaflet distribution and a letter in the Daily Egyptian, campus newspaper, by John F. Gadway, Ger- man instructor in the foreign language department. -o- From war-torn Saigon comes a request for used copies of the book "The Esperanto Teacher" by Mason Stuttard from a man who has organized several middle-school classes since 1968 and this year is teaching an elementary class at Thu-Duc, a city 12 kilometers from Saigon. Copies should be sent to Nguyen-phuoc-Khang, 386/43 Truong-minh Giang, Sai-Gon 3, Viet-Nam. -o- Bee Hive and Green Star Get Together A Latter Day Saints youth group and 36 Esperantists from Washington, Oregon and California used the Seabeck, Wash., Conference Grounds one August weekend. Mingling at lunch time, members of the two groups decided quite spon- taneously to learn about one another's activities. At a joint session, E.L.N.A. secretary Robert Bailey of Redwood, Calif., and Hazel Heusser, a Port- land teacher, presented the Esperanto story. Three of the Mormon youth took up the challenge of Dr. E. J. Weiner of Aberdeen, Wash., that he could teach anyone the rudiments of Esperanto in half an hour. (He won.) Another Pacific Northwest Esperanto meet is planned for November. This one was master-minded by Mary Hammersmith and Ellen Eddy of Olympia and Elizabeth Stafford, Seattle. -6- NL 8/71 ESPERANTO AS A HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECT In Ohio the certification of Esperanto as a high school credit subject is under consideration. In a letter to the state director of certification in support of the proposition, written at the request of an Ohio resident. Dr. Mario Pei, professor emeritus of Romance Philology at Columbia University, cites the following "advantages of Esperanto as a regular high school subject": 1. It is the only constructed language for international use that has an actual speaking population, estimated at some eight million, strategically scattered throughout the world; along with a living literature, both original and in translation, and a measure of official recognition in numerous European, Asian, and Latin American countries. 2. It presents far greater ease of learning than national languages, with the possibility of actual spoken and written use by the learner at the end of one year of instruction, or even less. 3. By reason of its neutrality, it is an ideal medium to foster the spirit of international understanding and harmony that the school systems of the more progressive nations are trying to build up. 4. It has been experimentally proved to be an ideal bridge to the acquisition of other languages, since it induces familiarity with a foreign tongue while eliminating a good many of the real difficulties presented to the learner by such languages as Spanish, French, German and Latin. Once the gap between monolingualism and bilingualism is eliminated, the psychological attitude is created whereby the learner no longer "fears" a foreign tongue. . . .The educa- tional soundness of Esperanto in the schools has already been abundantly tested in hundreds of elementary and high schools both in the United States and abroad. -o- T 0 L 0 C A L C L u B S Get your fall membership drive off to a good start with sample copies of the ELNA-Bulteno and Newsletter. Packet containing 10 copies of both publications plus E.L.N.A. enrollment blank, 25 cents. Order from Esperanto Information Center, 156 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010. ESPERANTO LEAGUE km NORTH AMERICA «^-f^P 156 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. N.Y. 10010 CHANGE OF ADDRESS REQUESTED POSTAGE GUARANTEED NON-PROFIT ORG. U. S. POSTAGE Paid New York, N. Y. Permit No. 657