The United Nations University (UNU) is not a traditional university. It does not have students, courses or even regular professors. It is a global academic institution under the auspices of the United Nations. It has its headquarters in Tokyo and extends its influence and programs through a network of research and training centers in both developing and developed countries. The UNU takes a multi disciplinary approach, ensuring a broad range of viewpoints. Its projects include Multilateralism and the United Nations System, Culture and Development; Implications of New technologies, Information Science, and others which seem relevant to the language problem.
The Rector of the UNU spoke about the role of UNU in the international community. He is Prof. Gurgulino de Souza, who is from Brazil and a native speaker of Portuguese, although he spoke in English. He emphasized that in the coming century we have to make a world a better place for everyone. His remarks came in the course of a July 29 meeting at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C., attended by about 30 participants from various organizations. A representative of the Esperantic Studies Foundation had an opportunity to ask: Has the University any plans to pay attention to the world language problem? What is Mr. De Souza's personal opinion about Esperanto as its possible solution? His reply included the following main ideas.
The question of a common language is very important for all international organizations. The United Nations has six official working languages. But if we consider the number of speakers of various languages, we can anticipate claims for linguistic equality to arise at the UN Japanese, German, etc. Translation and interpretation services are already very expensive for the UN and other international organizations including the European Community.
At the same time, English is gradually becoming the international language of science, displacing many other languages. We now face a situation where different nations strive to defend their cultures, traditions, and languages. In my opinion, we should try to study as many languages as possible, but that alone would not solve the problem.
Can we move to Esperanto? When I was a student in Sao Paulo, I started to learn Esperanto. I could not continue because the friend who taught me left the place. It would be good if we could promote Esperanto. But how to do it? Maybe you should start here in the United States. There are also eventual technological solutions to this question. Science and technology now can do wonders with machine translations--not yet literary translations, of course, but understandable ones. Even blind people can now "read" in different languages. So, perhaps in the future new techniques will help us in this regard.
[Andrei Kolganov, from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a graduate student in public administration at the University of Toledo (Ohio) under the Edmund Muskie Fellowship Program. He was a summer intern at the ESF office in Washington. This article was reviewed and approved by Rector de Souza, UNU Headquarters, 53-70, Jungumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150, Japan. Bitnet: UNUMBOX@PNUNUOO.]
The United States is a country dominated by a single prestige language, in which the central linguistic public policy question has to do with the extent to which it will, or should, recognize and sustain other languages and accord them legal and educational recognition. By contrast, Europe has no common language, and one of the challenges before it is deciding how to communicate linguistically in order to preserve cultural pluralism while promoting ease of communication and cooperation. This comparison between the United States and Europe was at the center of the recent conference of the European Institute on "Multilingualism in Europe and the U.S."
The conference, which took place in Washington in November, 1992, reviewed the political situation in post-Cold-War Europe and the role of language in the political future of the region. Faced with centripetal forces drawing it towards the widespread use of English and centrifugal forces leading to a proliferation of legally recognized regional languages, Europe is increasingly confronted with the need to make some decisive policy decisions about language.
Unfortunately, as one speaker observed, "Many of the decisions made, and policies implemented, are undertaken for reasons of politics and national prestige rather than for reasons of understanding and communication. As a result, simple solutions are passed over in favor of complex and expensive solutions that none the less save face for the parties concerned." It was the general feeling of the participants that the untrammeled exploration of rational solutions, including computer translation, the use of Esperanto, and various forms of educationally supported multilingualism, was urgently needed.
Speakers at the conference included Stanley Hoffman, of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Françoise Cestac. assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, former U.S. Senator William Brock, Andres van Agt, European Community ambassador to Washington, and ESF board members Jonathan Pool and Humphrey Tonkin. The report of the conference is available from the European Institute, 4910 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Suite 223, Washington DC 20016 USA.
In December, 1992, a second conference, this one on "Language and International Communication in the Post-Cold-War Era," took place in New York, under the joint sponsorship of the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (based at the University of Hartford) and the Office of Conference Services at the United Nations.
"The radical political realignments of the past few years," stated the introductory material for the conference, "have had a profound impact on established patterns of communication and language use. The break-up of the Soviet Union has changed the role of Russian as the shared language of the former USSR and has opened up much of Central Asia to new linguistic influences. With the reappearance of the concept of Central Europe and the reunification of Germany, the international significance of German has grown. Capitalism has brought with it a reallocation of linguistic roles within Eastern and Central Europe. Meanwhile, a new linguistic landscape seems to be emerging within the European Community."
The conference explored these issues through four sessions, on the political perspective, the linguistic perspective, approaches to overcoming language differences, and prospects and opportunities for the future. Speakers included Professor Peter Breit, of the University of Hartford, George Sherry, former U.N. assistant secretary-general, Helene Zimmer-Loew, executive director of the American Association of Teachers of German, and Alexander G. Taukatch, spokesperson for the President of the U.N. General Assembly. The conference report will be available from the Center for Research & Documentation on World Language Problems, Office of the President, University of Hartford, West Hartford CT 06117 USA.
Esperanto: Language, Literature and Community is far more than a translation of Janton's Esperanto: Lingvo, literaturo, movado; although based on the Esperanto version, this volume also includes passages from the earlier French version (published in the Que sais-je series) as well as notes and bibliographic information directed specifically to the English-speaking reader. Perhaps most important, this is the first scholarly work concerned with providing an overview of Esperanto published in the United States by a major university press - a recognition, one may hope, of the growing legitimacy of concerns with Esperanto, both as a language and as a movement, in American academe. It is fortunate in this regard that ELLC is a truly outstanding work, of consistently high quality and scholarship.
The book is divided into seven chapters, focusing respectively on the history and nature of planned languages in general, the origins of Esperanto, the nature and structure of the language itself, expressions and expressiveness in Esperanto, the literature (both original and translated) of Esperanto, the Esperanto movement, and finally, a concluding chapter. Taken together, these chapters provide the reader with an excellent overview of the social, cultural, historical, and linguistic phenomenon of Esperanto, and do so from a sympathetic, but certainly not dogmatic perspective. In short, what ELLC accomplishes is to provide the reader with both the intellectual background for understanding Esperanto as a language and as a movement, and a strong (albeit largely implicit) case for the language and movement. In other words, Janton's work provides a base from which Esperanto can be moved from a socially and academically "fringe" movement in the view of many readers to a legitimate and compelling social and intellectual option. As Janton himself comments in his discussion of the Esperanto movement, "The constant struggles of the Esperantists over an entire century, against lack of interest, opposition (most often irrational opposition), misinformation and pseudoinformation, have left them with no illusions..." (p. 125). ELLC provides a valuable counterbalance to the opposition, misinformation, pseudoinformation, and ignorance about the language and its supporters.
While ELLC is undoubtedly best read as a whole, each of the book's chapters is also quite capable of standing alone, and in this regard, the wide range of Janton's scholarship can be seen. The first chapter, which addresses the history of planned languages, is an excellent example of intellectual history, and will be of interest not only to historians, but also philosophers and linguists. The third chapter, which focuses on the linguistics of Esperanto, really does that, rather than presenting a simplistic overview of the grammar of the language, as is more commonly done in works about Esperanto. Similarly the chapter that deals with the literature of Esperanto entails both historical perspectives and literary criticism, while the chapter that is concerned with the Esperanto movement raises and addresses a number of sociological issues.
ELLC does, however, have its limits. It is well written, and one finds few instances of the sort of awkward expression that often mars translations, but it is not really written for the "general reader." It is, ultimately, an academic book that requires a reasonably well educated and knowledgeable reader, albeit not necessarily one familiar with Esperanto. This is also, of course, its strength, though, since it means that the book is able to deal with complex issues in a sophisticated and intellectually credible manner.
In sum, ELLC is a much needed contribution to the English-language literature on Esperanto, and we owe a substantial debt of gratitude to Professor Tonkin and his colleagues for a job done not merely well, but exceptionally well. This is a book that deserves wide circulation and while will, one hopes, find its way to both library and personal collections.
Timothy Reagan, University of Connecticut
[ESF has reserved thirty copies of ELLC for free distribution to public and academic libraries. Inquiries should be directed to our Washington address.]
Language in Religion. Humphrey Tonkin & Allison Armstrong Keef, eds. 1989. vii+121 pp. $36. ISBN 0-8191-7511-0.
Language as Barrier and Bridge. Kurt E. Müller, ed. 1992. xvi+125 pp. $42.50. ISBN: 0-8191-8670-8.
Aspects of Internationalism: Language and Culture. Ian M. Richmond, ed. 1993 x+151 pp. $36. ISBN: 0-8191-8859-X
Telephone orders may be placed with UPA using a credit card by calling 301-459-3366 or (in the United States only) 800-462-6420, ext. 30. The volumes, and a descriptive brochure with a listing of the individual papers, are also available from The Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems, Office of the President, University of Hartford, West Hartford CT 06517-1599 USA (Fax: 203-768-5417). ESF has arranged that a small number of copies be made available for free distribution to libraries.
The report addresses five interrelated areas: 1) Research on first/second language acquisition and bilingualism/bilingual development; 2) Research on the teaching and learning of Esperanto; 3) Research on language pedagogy and teacher education; 4) Review and evaluation of selected Esperanto instructional materials; and 5) Policy issues related to developing and implementing Esperanto programs in public and private schools. The report includes recommendations for future research development.
A bibliography and several appendices bring together some valuable and hard-to-find resources. The text summarizes material which is well-known to language educators, but integrates this with the relatively little-known pedagogical research on Esperanto. Consistent with the aims of ESF, we offer this report as an stimulus to scholarly discussion and additional applied research.
The report may be ordered from: J. Pool, ESF, Centerplex, 6100 Southcenter Blvd., Seattle WA 98188. It is spiral bound, 8 1/2 x 11 in., 136 pp. plus appendices. The postage-paid price is $14.00.
Esperanto Studies and Interlinguistics.
Esperantic Studies Foundation.