Esperanto League for North America
Vol. vm
Newsletter for Winter, 1972-1973
No. 6
President
E. James Lieberman
6451 Bamaby Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20015
Vice President
Catherine Schulze
Esperanto Information Center
410  Darreil   Road
Hillsborough, California 94010
Treasurer
Peggy    Linker
1414 Monroe Street
Walla Walla, Washington 99362
News (for English speakers) of the language problem and Esperanto as a solution.
THE SEARCH CONTINUES
for the perfect format for this news-
letter. The last edition was set in
the most radical of the formats with
which the new redaktoro intends to
experiment. This one is set in the
most conservative.
A great many—probably most-
editors and advertising men have
become convinced that copy is read
by more people from beginning to
end when it is unjustified (set with
a "ragged right edge") as was the
last edition, even when they say it
looks "messy."If unjustified col-
umns are really easier to read, it
may be because they allow words
to be evenly spaced and break the
monotony of too many straight
lines. And if they are really signif-
icantly easier to read we should be
using them, since getting read is
what a newsletter is all about. Let
the new redaktoro, R.T. Sandberg,
know how you feel about the read-
ability of this edition versus the
immediately preceding one in terms
of format only. Reread both edi-
tions from beginning to end and as
close together in time as possible
before responding. His address is
55 West Chestnut St., No. 702,
Chicago, Illinois 60610.
The ideal newsletter format,
besides being the most readable,
should reflect the tastes of the
typical member. But there are no
typical Esperantists. In fact, it
would be difficult to find a less
homogeneous group than the Esper-
antistaro.   Practically  every social
class, every profession, every age
group, every race, every political
party, every nationality has Esper-
antists. In the United States alone,
members of ELNA range in age
from preschool to only five years
short of 100, and their occupations
include carpenter, student, profes-
sor of English, professor of Span-
ish, professor of German, mailman,
salesman, engineer, chemist, ac-
countant, lawyer, printer, professor
of anthropology, professor of polit-
ical science, professor of oceanog-
raphy, aviator, secretary, banker,
housewife, school administrator,
artist, writer, doctor of medicine,
to name only a few. What holds
them all together in ELNA, for the
most part, is a common conviction
that everyone in the world should
leam the same second language so
that a language barrier will not
prevent individuals from communi-
cating directly, completely and
effectively with one another, and
the conviction that Esperanto is
the best language for this purpose-
by far superior to any of the nation-
al languages.
At least one reader would like
to see some articles in Esperanto
on these pages. This is not done
for two reasons. First, the ELNA-
Bulteno, another bimonthly publica-
tion, has an all-Esperanto text and
is also mailed free to members.
Second, the practice of printing
certain items in Esperanto and
other items in English tends—in
the    opinion   of   the   redaktoro—to
give the false impression that Es-
peranto is the inferior of English in
expressing many ideas and that
Esperantists therefore also use
English. (Most fluent Esperantists
suspect that the opposite is true:
that Esperanto can express practi-
cally all fine nuances of meaning
more clearly and economically than
English.) Among the people for
whom this newsletter is designed
are those who have never studied
Esperanto, and for many such peo-
ple Esperanto initially looks like
nothing more than a series of in-
comprehensible words. Individual
Esperanto words and phrases are
interspersed throughout this news-
letter when context or similarity to
English equivalents makes their
meaning reasonably clear.
As far as format itself is con-
cerned, no more will be said in
subsequent editions, but experi-
mental changes will continue to be
made for a short time. Continue to
send in comments. Some format
changes may be made in response
to those comments.
Content, of course, is more
important than format. Neverthe-
less, we want a format that will
combine with content to make the
most effective possible printed pro-
paĝandilo for Esperanto in the USA.
A NEW ERA DAWNS
tor ELNA as E. James Lieberman
begins his three-year term as pres-
ident.   Some   of   the   changes   are
reflected   in  this  newsletter.  How
much can be done—including an
expansion of publications—depends
largely on support received. If the
Esperanto movement flourishes
within the largest English-speaking
nation in the world during the next
few years, the movement toward
world-wide human understanding
will have advanced significantly.
Details of ELNA membership and
the benefits that accrue to members
aie on the final page.
The birthday of Dr. Zamenhof,
the inventor of Esperanto, was cel-
ebrated throughout the world in
December. The date was December
14, 15 or 16 in most places, but
December 7 in Chicago in order to
avoid conflict with Christmas so-
cial engagements. The speaker at
the Chicago Zamenhof-bankedo,
Duncan Charters of Indiana Univer-
sity, was introduced by D. Rex
Bateman, president of the Esper-
anto Society of Chicago, as "one
of the most creative young thinkers
in the Esperanto movement."
Speaking in fluent Esperanto,
Mr. Charters said that the 57th Uni-
versal Esperanto Congress in
Portland, Oregon, in August had
achieved the greater part of the
goals set for it largely because of
the efforts of the Internacia Kon-
ĝresa Komitato and those who had
helped the komitato. He pointed out
that among the results of the con-
gress has been a truly remarkable
increase in interest regarding Es-
peranto on the part of both intellec-
tuals and the general public—an
interest that has culminated in the
Esperanto seminar at the Modern
Language Association meeting in
New York in December.
This growth of interest has
been very noticeable during the
past 10 years, he said, and has
been accelerated by the 57th Uni-
versal Congress. A number of out-
standing linguistic experts have
become much more inclined to
study Esperanto seriously. Many
professional linguists were of the
opinion previously that Esperanto
had yet to prove itself, but that is
changing.     They     now     recognize
Esperanto as a living language,
although some of them still pro-
claim doubts about its future.
One of the reasons for the awak-
ening of the serious interest of
intellectuals in Esperanto, accord-
ing to Mr. Charters, has been the
replacement of simplistic and
sometimes absurd claims for Esper-
anto with accurate, profound argu-
ments. "When you use weak argu-
ments, the only ones you convince
are weak-minded people," he said.
Sound arguments are much more
likely to convince the person who
will seriously study Esperanto.
"I guarantee you," he contin-
ued, "that when a person seriously
involves himself with Esperanto,
yery seldom does he leave the
movement thinking that Esperanto
is not able to function. I know of
no linguist who really learned Es-
peranto and afterward left the
movement because he was of the
serious opinion that Esperanto is
not able to function. Many lin-
guists, after the study of Esper-
anto, have come to the conclusion
that Esperanto really works. The
only linguists who have not done
so were generally those who be-
lieved that there exists a better
linguistic solution than the one
presented by Esperanto. Often they
create their own project or work
for the project of someone else.
Generally, although people who
have really studied Esperanto may
forsake the movement because they
do not have time—have other inter-
ests—very seldom do you find one
who abandons it convinced of the
unsuitability of Esperanto as a
means of international communica-
tion. That does not happen."
Mr. Charters referred to an
article in the magazine Clipper,
published by Pan American Air-
ways, in which the statement is
made that Esperanto at some point
in the future will not be able to
function because it is breaking into
dialects—that already different
Esperanto usages exist. This state-
ment is false as far as those who
have mastered Esperanto are con-
cerned, he claimed. He pointed out
that one must distinguish between
those who are learning a language
and those who have mastered the
language. To condemn Esperanto
because Esperanto usage among
students in one part of the world
differs somewhat from the Esper-
anto usage among students in
another part of the world is as
ridiculous as to condemn French
because students of French in the
United States speak French some-
what differently than students of
French in Russia,
He went on to point out that
whether differences in usage among
those learning Esperanto can be
considered "dialects" is theoreti-
cal. As examples, he used word
order and intonation. Because of
the Esperanto accusative ending,
word order has no effect on the
meaning of an Esperanto sentence-
on emphasis or ease of following
the thought, yes, but on meaning,
no. Beginners tend to follow the
word orders of their national lan-
guages at first. As they gain ex-
perience, they tend to the interna-
tional norm, which is the order in
each case that makes for maximum
clarity and effectiveness. Intona-
tion (as the rising inflection at the
end of an English sentence to indi-
cate a question) has no meaning
whatsoever in Esperanto. Those
learning Esperanto use the intona-
tions of their national languages at
first when speaking Esperanto, and
do so unnecessarily, but without
impairing the meanings of their
Esperanto sentences. Later, they
tend toward the international norm,
which is the norm that makes for
maximum clarity and effectiveness.
Norman    Cousins   Refuses   To
Print Esperanto Rebuttals
The last edition contained a
letter, inspired by an editorial in
World magazine, from President
Lieberman to the editor of World,
Norman Cousins. In this letter,
President Lieberman points out
thatthe major non-Wes^tern lan-
guages resemble each other no
more than they resemble French or
Finnish, for example, and that the
adding of words from such lan-
guages as Korean and Zulu would
therefore not really make Esper-
anto more universal than it already
is. Words from such languages are
less widely used than the words
Esperanto has adopted. The letter
says, "Laity and linguistic experts
in Japan, Hungary, Finland, Korea—
for example—understand these
points; they have given notable
support to Esperanto as the most
practical tool of international
communication, and as an effective
bar against linguistic imperialism
and the destruction of minority
ethnic tongues. It is misleading to
say that Asian and African schol-
ars have argued against Esperanto
without saying that other Asian and
African scholars favor it." The
letter goes on to point out that the
impression given that Esperanto
lacks a literature is misleading,
since Esperanto has a most im-
pressive literature that has been
growing since 1887.
In response to this letter,
Norman Cousins has written as
follows: "Thank you for your letter,
responding to the editorial on
breaking the language barrier,
which I have read with interest.
I've no doubt that Esperanto can
serve and is serving to surmount
language barriers. Impositional and
evolving considerations, however,
incline me to believe that an offi-
cial world language is sufficiently
far into the future so that attentions
should be directed to possible
alternatives on a closer horizon—
that will better serve the interim,
ongoing needs.
"We've received a number of
good letters on behalf of Esperanto;
regrettably, all have been too long
to include in our Letters-from-
Readers pages.
"Again, my thanks for writing."
The reaction of President
Lieberman is, "Regrettably the
letters column is too short! I am
disappointed that N.C. makes a
'final pronouncement' on Esperanto
in his magazine and won't allow
any rebuttal."
Beograd Is The Scene
of the 58th Universal Congress of
Esperanto, which will begin on the
coming 28th of July and end on the
4th of August. Beograd, one of the
most modern and beautiful cities of
Yugoslavia, has a population of
about 1,200,000, about a quarter of
whom are students. The 58th Uni-
versala Konĝreso is unique in that
its high protector—President Josip
Broz Tito—studied Esperanto as a
young student and still speaks it.
About 4,000 Esperantists from
all over the world will probably be
attending this konĝreso, most of
them communicating entirely in Es-
peranto. Observers at such con-
gresses in the past have been
amazed at how readily and naturally
Esperanto fills the need for a
complete means of communication
between people who have no other
language in common—and very
effectively fills this need even
when very complex subjects are
discussed.
It is entirely possible for a
person with no knowledge of Esper-
anto now to be fluent in Esperanto
before the coming konĝreso begins—
something that is not possible for
most people with most languages.
Concerted study is necessary, but
this study can be efficiently direct-
ed by either of two new courses
that combine recordings with text.
One consists of six cassette tapes
and a text by William Auld and is
available for $32.00 from the Chan-
ning L. Bete Co., Inc., 45 Federal
St., Greenfield, Mass. 01301. The
other is a home study course in
basic Esperanto, consisting of 14
LP records and a text, available
from the Esperanto Information
Center, Box 508, Burlingame, Cal-
ifornia 94010. Both of the courses
are very attractively boxed and are
of the highest quality. William Auld
is considered by many to be the
greatest of the living Esperanto
poets.
The price of registering for the
Konĝreso Beoĝrada is very modest,
but the prices are scheduled to go
up, effective April 1. Right now, if
you are not a member of the Univer-
sal Esperanto Association, the
price is $30.70 for you and $21.50
for your spouse. If you are not more
than 20 years old, the price is
$9.20; if you are a university stu-
dent between 20 and 30, the price
is $15.15; and if you are blind, the
price is $12.30. Prices for members
are $26.05 for those without a sub-
scription to the magazine Esperanto
and $21.40 for subscribers. The
price for the spouse of any member
is $17.90. These are the correct
prices, just received directly from
Armin F. Doneis, agent for the
congress in the USA. Please dis-
regard any other price information
you may have received that con-
flicts with this. Of course, the rate
for a spouse applies only when both
spouses register and one pays a
regular price. Send your registra-
tion fees to Sinjoro A. Doneis, P.O.
Box 105, Pharr, Texas 78577.
Group Travel Is Available
for those from the USA who will be
attending the 58th Universala Kon-
greso. Two tours will be leaving
J.F.Kennedy Airport in New York
on July 26. One will return on
August 9th and will cost $699, the
other will return on August 11th and
will cost $779. Both tours include
round trip from New York, first
class hotel rooms (twin beds, pri-
vate bath) with breakfast and dinner
each day, and guided tours of Beo-
grad, Dubrovnik and Athens or
Rome. Tour members will have a
voice in the choice of cities out-
side Yugoslavia the group they are
in will visit. For more information
about these tours, contact the Es-
peranto League for North America,
Box U, Brookline, Mass. 02146.
Instead of the ELNA Congress
this year, a business meeting will
be held at the JFK International
Airport in New York from 2 P.M. to
5 P.M. on July 26, just prior to the
departure of the flight that will
carry the tour groups to Beograd.
The original plans for a 1973 ELNA
congress were cancelled because
of the feeling that the UK is more
important and it would be asking
too much of the finances of most
members to ask them to travel to
two separate congresses. The meet-
ing is being held in the framework
of the Beograd Congress, but is
being held in New York for the
benefit of those who will not be
traveling to Beograd.
Another International Congress
of Esperanto will be held in North
America this year, this one in
Toronto, Canada, between July 30th
and August 5th. Convened by the
Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, the
second largest of the international
Esperanto organizations, this con-
gress gives North American Esper-
antists their second opportunity in
two consecutive years to attend an
international Esperanto congress on
their own continent. It will give an
opportunity almost equal to the con-
gress in Beograd for seeing—or
rather hearing—Esperanto in action.
For more information, write to Mark
Starr, 39-40 47th St., Long Island
City, NY 11104.
A New Bonus for ELNA Members
has been announced by President
Lieberman. Every member of ELNA
will soon receive free of charge
the   pamphlet  Esperanto and Inter-
national Language Problems: A
Research Bibliography by Humphrey
Tonkin, Associate Professor of
English at the University of Penn-
sylvania. This publication normally
sells for a dollar and is intended to
provide guidance for high school,
college and graduate students in
the preparation of term papers on
Esperanto and other subjects relat-
ed to the language problem. Mem-
bers who will not use it personally
are urged to contribute it to their
local public libraries. As soon as
he pays his 1973 dues, each mem-
ber also will receive a free sub-
scription to the magazine Kontakto
or the magazine Oomoto (whichever
one he chooses). Those who have
never been subscribers to the Her-
oldo de Esperanto are entitled to
choose a free subscription to that
biweekly newspaper instead. Mem-
bership classifications are: regular,
$8.00; husband-wife, $12.00; sus-
taining, $15.00; patron, $25.00;
and life, $160.00. Every member of
ELNA under 30 is also entitled to
free membership in JEN, the inter-
national Esperanto youth organiza-
tion. Please send your dues to the
ELNA Treasurer, Mrs. H. Linker,
1414 Monroe Street, Walla Walla,
Washington 99362.
Kontakto is the name of the
magazine of the international Es-
peranto    youth    movement,    but   it
has material for all ages. Oomoto
is a Japanese magazine containing
articles in Esperanto on a wide
range of subjects.
The Seminar on Esperanto
and interlinguistics in December at
the New York meeting of the Modern
Language Association of America
was attended by almost 50 scholars.
The following six papers were
read: Professor Howard P. French
of the University of Southern Illi-
nois, Carbondale, on "Esperanto
and Academic Responsibility";
Professor Margaret Hagler of Lin-
coln Land Community College,
Springfield, Illinois, on "Esperanto
as a Poetic Medium"; Dr. William
Solzbacher of the Voice of America
on "The Use of Esperanto at Schol-
arly International Congresses:
Facts, Problems, and Goals"; Pro-
fessor Richard E. Wood of Louis-
iana State University, Baton Rouge,
on "Pidgin and Creole Languages:
Their Significance for Interlinguis-
tics"; Professor Julius Balbin of
Essex County College, Newark,
New Jersey on "Is Esperanto a
Romance Language?"; and Profes-
sor John F. Gadway of the Univer-
sity of Southern Illinois, Carbon-
dale, on "Esperanto and the Crisis
in Foreign Language Teaching."
More will be said about each of
these papers and Professor Hagler's
paper will be printed in full in the
next edition.
ESPERANTO LEAGUE FOR NORTH AMERICA
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