History UsefulNotes / EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage

Esperanto is a language constructed by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 designed to be an easy-to-learn language that would help with communication between countries of different languages and maybe even create world peace. The vast majority of the vocabulary is based on Latinate roots; whether this makes it appreciably more difficult for non-Europeans to learn is a topic of much discussion among fluent Esperantists, many of whom have non-European mother tongues. Sadly, it has yet to achieve the full extent of Zamenhof's ambitions, thus spawning occasional mockery in modern media[[note]]and murderous rage on the part of those who oppose movements that attempt to bridge social gaps; [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]] outlawed Esperanto and even sent some of its speakers to the camps.[[/note]]. Even then, it's still a thriving language within its own media, and there are a few people around the world who have grown up with Esperanto as a first language.[[note]]in addition to a natural language, obviously[[/note]] Some stories set in TheFuture use Esperanto as if it had become the main language. It's also occasionally used AsLongAsItSoundsForeign.

A few Wiki/TVTropes pages are available in Esperanto translations. To see the index, go [[Eo/VikiajTropoj here]].

Esperanto is an example of a ConLang.

Esperanto has the advantage of being more regular than naturally-evolved languages. It has only [[https://web.archive.org/web/20060517004542/http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/rules.html 16 grammatical rules]] at base (though it also has other [[http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/y.html folds and wrinkles]] at higher levels), and it never deviates from those rules; also, each letter is pronounced one way and one way only, each word is spelled exactly as it's pronounced, and there are no silent letters. By contrast, English (unlike most national languages) is full of all kinds of weird, inconsistent spelling and grammar rules that make it much harder to learn than it should be. In addition, Esperanto words are much more easily creatable, using prefixes and suffixes around the root word to handily morph words in any way necessary, thus making sentences more concise and language more literal. (Opinions vary on the subject of how colorful language equivalents have solidly found their way into the language, morphable like any other word.) Written Esperanto presents a bit of a problem in the digital age, since 6 letters of the Esperanto alphabet -- ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ and ŭ -- don't appear in the standard ASCII/ANSI character set; many authors choose to simply write the letter without the hat on it and put an x afterward, like so: cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux.[[note]]Eventually, even Esperanto's creator decided that these funny-looking letters were a bad idea, and unsuccessfully [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Esperanto tried to get rid of them.]][[/note]] However, with the widespread adoption of Unicode in digital environments today, this difficulty is much reduced; Esperanto diacritics are included in that character set.

* Baha'is were rather fond of Esperanto because they believe that a universal auxiliary (i.e. not replacement) language is necessary to facilitate world peace. This changed after they figured that it was [[MightyWhitey too Euro-centric]]. Nowadays, they're more fond of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban Lojban]], a derivative of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loglan Loglan]].

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's Franchise/{{Mihmiverse}} have an Esperanto dub track.

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's Franchise/{{Mihmverse}} have an Esperanto dub track.

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's Franchise/{{Mihmiverse}} have an Esperanto dub track.

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/Mihmiverse Mihmiverse]] have an Esperanto dub track.

* ''Rocketship Voyager''. When Tom Paris first meets HalfHumanHybrid B'Elanna Torres, he introduces himself in Esperanto, which is used as a lingua franca by the Tri-World Federation. However she replies in [[PlanetTerra Terran]]-English, having been raised in a Catholic convent on Venus.

Esperanto has the advantage of being more regular than naturally-evolved languages. It has only [[https://web.archive.org/web/20060517004542/http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/rules.html 16 grammatical rules]] at base (though it also has other [[http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/y.html folds and wrinkles]] at higher levels), and it never deviates from those rules; also, each letter is pronounced one way and one way only. By contrast, English (unlike most national languages) is full of all kinds of weird, inconsistent spelling and grammar rules that make it much harder to learn than it should be. In addition, Esperanto words are much more easily creatable, using prefixes and suffixes around the root word to handily morph words in any way necessary, thus making sentences more concise and language more literal. (Opinions vary on the subject of how colorful language equivalents have solidly found their way into the language, morphable like any other word.) Written Esperanto presents a bit of a problem in the digital age, since 6 letters of the Esperanto alphabet -- ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ and ŭ -- don't appear in the standard ASCII/ANSI character set; many authors choose to simply write the letter without the hat on it and put an x afterward, like so: cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux.[[note]]Eventually, even Esperanto's creator decided that these funny-looking letters were a bad idea, and unsuccessfully [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Esperanto tried to get rid of them.]][[/note]] However, with the widespread adoption of Unicode in digital environments today, this difficulty is much reduced; Esperanto diacritics are included in that character set.

Esperanto has the advantage of being more regular than naturally-evolved languages. It has only [[http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/rules.html 16 grammatical rules]] at base (though it also has other [[http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/y.html folds and wrinkles]] at higher levels), and it never deviates from those rules; also, each letter is pronounced one way and one way only. By contrast, English (unlike most national languages) is full of all kinds of weird, inconsistent spelling and grammar rules that make it much harder to learn than it should be. In addition, Esperanto words are much more easily creatable, using prefixes and suffixes around the root word to handily morph words in any way necessary, thus making sentences more concise and language more literal. (Opinions vary on the subject of how colorful language equivalents have solidly found their way into the language, morphable like any other word.) Written Esperanto presents a bit of a problem in the digital age, since 6 letters of the Esperanto alphabet -- ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ and ŭ -- don't appear in the standard ASCII/ANSI character set; many authors choose to simply write the letter without the hat on it and put an x afterward, like so: cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux.[[note]]Eventually, even Esperanto's creator decided that these funny-looking letters were a bad idea, and unsuccessfully [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformed_Esperanto tried to get rid of them.]][[/note]] However, with the widespread adoption of Unicode in digital environments today, this difficulty is much reduced; Esperanto diacritics are included in that character set.

* In ''[[VideoGame/TidalTribe Tidal Tribe]]'', the signs made by the villagers are in Esperanto.

* ''Marooned on Mars'' by Creator/LesterDelRay.

For those who want to learn it, there is a [[http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/ free E-mail course]], a virtually identical [[http://www.esperanto-usa.org/node/701 postal course]] (U.S. only, free except for postage costs), [[http://lernu.net Lernu.net]] and [[https://www.duolingo.com/course/eo/en/Learn-Esperanto-Online Duolingo's free Esperanto course]]. More options [[http://www.esperanto.org/angle/kiel.html here]].

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's [[Franchise/Mihmiverse Mihmiverse]] have an Esperanto dub track.

* Most of the films making up Creator/ChristopherRMihm's Franchise/Mihmiverse have an Esperanto dub track.

* The credits to Music/ElvisCostello's ''Blood and Chocolate'' album are in Esperanto, although some of the words are misspelled (it's "gitaro", not "guitaro").

* From the Music/TheyMightBeGiants song ''Alienation's for the Rich'': "And the TV's in Esperanto/You know that that's a bitch".

* In ''[[Literature/DreamPark The Moon-Maze Game]]'', the MultinationalTeam of terrorists-for-hire speak Esperanto to obscure their national affiliations.

* The Centaur language in ''[[TheIntercontinentalUnionOfDisgustingCharacters The Intercontinental Proliferation of Disgusting Characters]]'' is actually Esperanto (as described at the beginning of [[http://www.rogermwilcox.com/ADnD/IPDC7.html chapter 7]]).

* ''TrintonChronicles'' have a few places where characters speak in Esperanto (actually IN Esperanto) and hold a tiny set of sentences in Esperanto.

* And then there is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oomoto Oomoto]], in which Esperanto's creator is considered to be a god.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanSupermanApocalypse'' animated movie, the Kryptonian that Franchise/{{Superman}} and the newly-arrived ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} speak to each other is Esperanto.

->''Ne al glavo sangon soifanta''
->''ĝi la homan tiras familion:''
->''al la mond' eterne militanta''
->''ĝi promesas sanktan harmonion''

->''Sub la sankta signo de l' espero''
->''kolektiĝas pacaj batalantoj,''
->''kaj rapide kreskas la afero''
->''per laboro de la esperantoj.''

->''Forte staras muroj de miljaroj''
->''inter la popoloj dividitaj;''
->''sed dissaltos la obstinaj baroj,''
->''per la sankta amo disbatitaj.''

->''Sur neŭtrala lingva fundamento,''
->''komprenante unu la alian,''
->''la popoloj faros en konsento''
->''unu grandan rondon familian.''

->''Nia diligenta kolegaro''
->''en laboro paca ne laciĝos,''
->''ĝis la bela sonĝo de l' homaro''
->''por eterna ben' efektiviĝos.''

* Esperanto is the second language of the unnamed city in the ''Film/{{Blade}}'' movies. ''Film/{{Incubus}}'' can be seen playing on a television at one point.

** The 1965 horror film ''Film/{{Incubus}}'' starred Creator/WilliamShatner and was produced by most of the first season ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' production team; it was filmed entirely in (poorly written and pronounced) Esperanto to sound more exotic.

*** Lister apparently learned it accidentally, being forced to ear Rimmer practicing.