Mór Jókai & planlingvoj

Lastatempe mi afiŝis pri kolekto da esperantologiaj referaĵoj: Memorlibro: Esperantologia prelegaro, en kiu vi trovos listigon da elektitaj kontribuoj.

Nun mi atentigas pri du rimarkindaj referaĵoj de Árpád Rátkai:

"Lingvoplanado en Hungario" (442-461)
"La internacilingva movado en Hungario ĝis la apero de Esperanto" (462-490)

El tiuj mi tiris ĉerpaĵojn pri fama hungara verkisto Mór Jókai (1825–1904), kiu traktis la temon de mondlingvo en kelkaj verkoj:

Pri Mór Jókai & planlingvoj de Árpád Ràtkai

Tie vi trovos ankaŭ tabelon da gravaj hungaroj kiuj pritraktis la interlingvan temon inter 1772 & 1956.

Miareteje vi trovos plurajn ligitajn erojn en Esperanto kaj en la angla lingvo pri Mór Jókai kaj pri la historio de interlingvistiko en Hungario kaj Eŭropo. Mi listigos jene nur tiujn rilate al Mór Jókai kaj interlingvistiko:

“Mór Jókai” de Zsuzsa Varga-Haszonits

“Mondlingvo de Mór Jókai” de Tivia

“Volapuka Lando en Siberio” (Pri "Csalavér" de Mór Jókai)

James Joyce & Esperanto (1)

While I have been aware of a prominent mention of Esperanto in Ulysses for 40 years, the linkage of James Joyce and Esperanto is a new project for me. See the relevant web pages I have added to my site, below. Supplementary information is welcome. I need scans of certain Esperanto items.

Kvankam mi eksciis pri la mencio de Esperanto en la verko Uliso [Ulysses] de James Joyce antaŭ 40 jaroj, la ligo inter Joyce kaj Esperanto estas nova mia projekto. Jen la ĝisnunaj miaj retpaĝoj. Aldonaj informoj estas bonvenigotaj. Mi bezonas skanaĵojn de specifaj dokumentoj.

• James Joyce & Esperanto: Selected Bilingual Bibliography / Elektita Dulingva Bibliografio
• James Joyce en Literatura Mondo (with additional commentary in English)
• La problemo de la malfruoj de Giorgio Silfer
• “Giacomo Joyce” de James Joyce, trad. Kris Long

There is a strong Hungarian connection in Joyce, and, coincidentally, Hungary was the hub of Esperanto literature for decades, so this bibliography is relevant as well . . .

Hungario rolas en verkoj de Joyce, aparte Uliso, kaj koincide, Hungario estis la centro de beletra aktivado de la Esperanto-movado, do mia jena anglalingva bibliografio estas ankaŭ rimarkinda:

• James Joyce & Hungary: Selected Bibliography

Another coincidence: Prof. Nico Israel will deliver his lecture “‘Militopucos’: James Joyce and Universal Language” on October 13, 2017 at the City University of New York (CUNY) in the series Soros Lectures in New York, NY, December 2016 - Fall 2017.  See also...

Jen plua koincido: Prof-o Nico Israel prelegos pri ‘Militopucos’: James Joyce and Universal Language” je la 13a de oktobro ĉe Universitato de Novjorkurbo (CUNY) en la serio Soros Lectures [Soros-Prelegoj]. Jen lia grava anglalingva eseo:

• “Esperantic Modernism: Joyce, Universal Language, and Political Gesture” [Esperanta modernismo: Joyce, universala lingvo, kaj politika gestado], M/m, Volume 2, Issue 1, Feb. 21, 2017.

Tomorrow (June 16) is Bloomsday (named after the protagonist Leopold Bloom), the day in which the novel Ulysses transpires. Perhaps I can contribute something in Esperanto for the occasion.

Morgaŭ (la 16an de junio) estos Bloomsday [mankas artikolo en Vikipedio]--laŭ Leopold Bloom--la tago dum kiu la "eventoj" de Uliso okazas. Eble mi kontribuos ion en Esperanto por la okazo.

Boxer, Beetle (5)

The Boxer Beetle web site has disappeared, so here is the best I can give you, from the ghost web: Boxer, Beetle. I reproduce the images below:

Jules Verne & Esperanto (4): Esplorvojaĝo

Jules Verne, "Esplorvojaĝo," traduko de Voyage d'étude fare de István Ertl, Franca Esperantisto, n-ro 452, aprilo 1994, p. 3-36, & p. 2, 38-40 pri Jules Verne & Esperanto.

Pluaj informoj troveblas en antaŭaj afiŝoj. Ĉi-okaze mi diskutas la tradukon mem. La nefinverkita romano konsistas el 5 ĉapitroj; la 5-a estas nur fragmento. Esperanto rolas jam komence de la romano. Afiŝo ĉe Libreville ("ĉefurbo" de franca Kongo) pri pasaĝerŝipo aperas.

"La tekston de la afiŝo ĉiuj komprenis pro tio ke ĝi estis en Esperanto, la internacia lingvo tiutempe pli kaj pli disvastiĝanta inter la popoloj de Centra Afriko." [p. 3]

La kapitano prezentas kvin eminentulojn; la lasta nomita estas S-ro Nicolas Vanof, delegito de la Internacia Esperantista Societo [4].

Iom poste okazas festeno. Indiĝenaj ĉefoj aldonis sn al interparolado "kiam ĝi flugis en la lingvo Esperanta" [8].

Ĉapitro 2a donas historian fonon de la Franca Kongo, ekz. menciante esplorojn fare de eŭropanoj.

En ĉapitro 3a ni trovas priskribojn de la ĉefaj ĉi-rakontaj esploristoj. Do aperas longa pritrakto--fakte duono de la  ĉapitro-- de Esperanto, la movado, kaj Nicolas Vanof, "membro de Touring Club kaj delegito de la Esperantista Kongreso". Troveblas favora komparo de Esperanto kontraŭ Volapük. Konstateblas, ke Esperanto floras en ĉiuj landoj; Francio plej kontribuas al la sukceso. Do Vanof partoprenas por determini la progeson de Esperanto en kolonio Franca Kongo, inspirite de gazeto "Belga Sonivolo" (en realo Belga Sonorilo). Li konvinke propagandas al la kunvojaĝantoj la eventualan neceson lerni Esperanton. [p. 22-26; vidu ankaŭ piednotojn 28-36 ĉe p. 36.]

 Ĉapitro 4a temas pri lastaj preparoj por la esplorvojaĝo. Okazas debato pri rajtigo de voĉdonrajto de la indiĝenoj en Parlamento. En tiu debato oni konsideras la supozatan nivelon de civilizacio en Kongo kompare al tio de aliaj francaj kolonioj. Iu timas eventualan partoprenon de kanibaloj en Parlamento. [29-31]  Vanof funkcias kiel interpretisto inter la francoj kaj afrika ĉefo, ĉar la sola komuna lingvo estas Esperanto inter li kaj la ĉefo. [31] Vanof partoprenas la lastan kunvenon antaŭ ol foriro [33].

Oni komencas la esplorvojaĝon en la nefinverkita ĉapitro 5a, kie la rakonto haltas.

Sekvas notoj. La kuna eseeto interalie mencias la instigan influon de La Belga Sonorilo al Verne.

Do jen resumo de la rakonto rilate al Esperanto. Vi devos se eble legi la rakonton mem por aliaj detaloj, aŭ instigi reeldonon de la traduko en akirebla eldonaĵo, ekz. ĉe Mondial / Beletra Almanako.

Universal Language: lectures from Dalarna University

Three out of four high-quality lectures on the history and perspectives concerning the quest for a universal language have been released on video from Dalarna University. The videos themselves can be found on YouTube:

"The Universal Language" by Konstantin Andreev: Part 1 ( 18:03) - lingua franca: history of national languages as languages of wider communication: their rise & decline

The Universal Language Part 2 (16:21) - how English became the most successful lingua franca in human history

The Universal Language part 3 (26:01) - on planned languages (Volapük, Esperanto, etc.) & factors influencing their fate, the linguistic features of pidgins & their suitability as a model for a universal language

Part 3 is very professionally done; the treatment of Esperanto is very fair. This series would be quite useful for Esperantists to upgrade the maturity of their public outreach efforts. Here is the video itself:



Part 4 is supposed to be about future perspectives for a universal language, including the role of technological developments in realizing the possibilities or rendering the question irrelevant. Apparently, this series was abandoned before this lecture could be delivered or recorded.

Jules Verne & Esperanto (2)

Kiel mi menciis en ĵusa afiŝo, Jules Verne subtenis Esperanton, tiel spirite esperantisto. Jen pluaj eseoj ĉi-teme:

"Jules Verne esperantisto ! Universala lingvo por sentempa verkaro…" de Lionel Dupuy, elfrancigis Vincent Charlot, SAT-Amikaro, 2009

Nia trezoro: Jules Verne de István Ertl, La Ondo de Esperanto, 2013, № 2

Ertl priskribas la tutan aferon, inkluzive de la nefinverkita, lasta romano de Verne, Voyage d’études (Esplorvojaĝo).

Imp of the Diverse & Esperanto

There are several entries of interest on Esperanto on the blog Imp of the Diverse. Some interesting posts, especially news clippings from the distant past:

The Illegal Language

Esperanto: A Last and Desperate Attempt for Volapuk?

How Do You Say "Goodbye" in Volapük?

International Languages, A New One Every Day

How Do You Say "Stop or I'll Shoot" in Esperanto?

If We Don't Get the Golfers, We're Doomed!

William Sanders Scarborough & Volapük in the Black Press

William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926) was one of the most outstanding of outstanding Black American intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries, individual scholars who, because of the dire predicament of Black Americans, assumed all the roles a Black professional person could fill: writer, educator, professor, administrator, civil rights advocate and leader . . .Scarborough was born into slavery and rose to become a leading scholar of the Greek and Latin classics and president of Wilberforce University.

Scarborough was resurrected from the forgetfulness of history with the publication of two books, edited by Michele Valerie Ronnick: The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship (2005) and The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader (2006).

In 2010, in the course of preparing a lecture on the 100th anniversary of the Universal Esperanto Congress in Washington, DC, in addition to researching the mainstream American press for relevant articles, I decided to search the databases of the Black press for reports on Esperanto and the quest for an international language. Here are the articles on Volapük, now on my web site:

• Volapük in the Black Press, 1888 
• Volapuk (Chicago Defender, 1911)

Note that the two signed articles, from August 1888, were authored by Scarborough. Given that Esperanto saw the light of day only in 1887, 1888 was apparently too soon for the American philological community to compare it to Volapük. (I don't recall when Esperanto first captured attention of someone in the anglophone world. It did not take long.)

I found another reference to Volapük in Scarborough's Works. Here is the quote with the bibliographical information on the original publication. Note also that this article was written in the heat of the imperialist scramble to carve up Africa:

The influence of civilization is a mighty lever in shaping the destiny of language. Dialects crumble before it, and the diversity of tongues drifts toward unity. The language of the intelligent must supersede, wholly or in part, that of the unintelligent wherever they come in contact, either by displacing it or fashioning it after its own mold. As the weaker languages and dialects of Europe have disappeared before the light of intelligence, so will the languages and dialects of Africa drop out of existence, one by one, it may be, as the same influence shall quicken and permeate the people. One by one will the stronger swallow up the weak, until the speech of the dominant people shall prevail, jargon first, perhaps, extinction later. Doubtless many more dialects than now exist have passed away, some of them leaving not a relic behind to tell the story of their existence, while of others bare skeletons of speech may be found here and there, but hardly enough to indicate their linguistic relations. The forces that produced these changes are still at work, but in a greater degree; and, though we can make no definite statement as to the results growing out of the invasion of Africa by foreign languages, yet again we believe that the inflectional will survive the uninflectional languages of the world. No artificial language can stand the test of time. In fact, it will hardly gain a foothold, but like Volapük, will die in its infancy. 5 [footnote clarifying Volapük] 

SOURCE: Works, p. 242. Original source: "Function and future of foreign languages in Africa," Methodist Review 76, November-December 1894, pp. 890-899.

Martin Gardner, Volapük, Esperanto, Klingon

Mi eltrovis Martin Gardner (1914-2010) en 1967, iom antaŭ ol eltrovi Esperanton. Specife, mi eltrovis lian rubrikon en revuo Scientific American, "Matematikaj Ludoj." Mi estis menciita inter solvintoj de iu ludo:

“Mathematical Games: Counting Systems and the Relationship between Numbers and the Real World” by Martin Gardner

Jen anglalingva nekrologo fare de mi:

Martin Gardner Dead at 95 by Ralph Dumain

En mia retgvidilo pri ludoj vidu la sekcion Homage to Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914 – May 22, 2010).

Gardner famis ankaŭ kiel pioniro kaj verkisto de la skeptikisma (en la scienca senco) movado. En la sama menciita periodo de mia vivo mi legis lian pioniran libron Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1957) [Furoroj kaj Falsaĵoj Ŝajnigitaj Sciencaj].

Nu, mi jam blogis pri Gardner. Nun temas pri eseo "Klingon and Other Artificial Languages," en antologio The Night Is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995 (p. 162-170), originale aperinta en Skeptical Inquirer, July/August 1995. Gardner resumas la historion de artefaritaj lingvoj, de seriozaj kaj frenezulaj aprioriaj lingvoj ĝis poste. Li estas sufiĉe amike al Esperanto, ne multe al Volapük.  Li redonas rikanan poemeton pri Volapük:

Take a spoonful of English,
A modicum of Dutch,
Of Italian just a trifle,
And of Gaelic not too much;

Some of Russian and Egyptian
And them unto the whole,
With just enough to flavor,
Of the lingo of the Pole.

Some Singhalese and Hottentot,
A soupçon, too, of French,
Of native Scandinavian
A pretty thorough drench;

Hungarian and Syrian,
A pinch of Japanese,
With just as much Ojibway,
And Turkish as you please.

Now stir it gently, boil it well,
And if you've decent luck,
The ultimate residuum
You'll find is Volapük!

Gardner poste pritraktas Idon kaj mencias plurajn esperantidojn. Li listigas multajn aliajn projektojn. Li emfazas Interlingua de Giuseppe Peano kaj mencias ties idojn. Gardner reliefigas Interglossa de Hogben sed ankaŭ projekton kiun mi ne konis, Euphony de Wilfred Stevens, kiu ĉerpas el 30 lingvoj. Gardner transiras al la kategorio de artefaritaj lingvoj kaj lingvaĵoj en literaturo kaj en esoteraĵoj. Kuriozaĵo estas "Enochian" [Ĥanoĥa] de John Dee en la 16a jarcento, kiu supozeble estas la lingvoj de anĝeloj kaj Edeno.

La finaj subkategorioj estas subkulturaj ĵargonoj, misteraj lingvoj de religiaj sektoj, gestlingvoj, eksterteranaj lingvoj en sciencfikcio, kaj aliaj. En Aldonaĵo de 1995 Gardner mencias Novial, Loglan, Lojban, Mangani (en Tarzan), Elvish (Tolkein), Confluence (Brian Aldiss).

Referencoj al la eseo de Gardner's troveblas aliloke. Surprize, estas ampleksa artikolo en la gazeto The Village Voice: "Pük, Memory:Why I Learned a Universal Language No One Speaks" de Paul LaFarge (Aug. 1, 2000).

La eseo de Gardner estas ankaŭ referencita ĉe Volapüka retejo, verkita en Volapük kaj en la angla:

O fat obas - dil balik

Pük, Memory estas referencita ankaŭ en blogo there's our catastrophe.

Notu, ke en la angla la titolo de la artikolo estas vortludo, bazita ĉi tiel:

(1) "Pük, Memory" similsonas al "Speak, Memory" [Parolu, Memoro], titolo de verko de Vladimir Nabokov.
(2) "Pük"en Volapük preskaŭ samsonas al la angla "puke," vulgara vorto kiu signifas "vomu."

Amuze!

Boxer, Beetle (4)

Boxer, Beetle has been blurbed as hilarious. I would call it satirical in the extreme, but I haven't been laughing.

There are no redeeming characters in the book. Not only are the fascists obnoxious and stupid, but their would-be victims, the underclass East Ender Jews of London, are primitive and crude. Seth "Sinner" Roach is the crudest of them: a malformed boxer who lives to fight, who hates Jew-haters but has no political perspective, only selfish interest. His bizarre symbiosis with the anti-Semitic fascist entomologist and amateur eugenicist Philip Erskine and their mutual fate is the focal point of the mystery Kevin Broom is trying to solve under extreme duress in the present. As the narrative toggles between tracking down vanished persons and the obscure events of 1936, we descend further and further into the pit.

Erskine not only names a beetle he has bred after Hitler, he receives an effusive letter from Hitler. Sinner becomes a mercenary in a brewing battle in the East End as Mosley's fascists storm the area to confront the Jews, who are poised for battle.

Well, Broom and his kidnapper (and the latter's mysterious boss) finally solve the mystery of the boxer and the beetles, as do we in a flashback to October 1936. Both halves of the story conclude with no justice meted out to the bad guys, no good guys to win or lose, no redemption and no moral. This satiric portrait of degradation and fascism is a brilliantly written tour de force, well worth reading, but don't expect any wisdom to be gotten from it.

What this young man is about I do not know, or if this novel bespeaks a trend in Jewish fiction, but you can learn more about the author and his work at Ned Bauman's web site, which also links to his blog "Oh my god look at its little face!". Bauman, born in 1985, studied philosophy in Cambridge. Make of that what you will. There is also a bibliography for this novel. The references for artificial languages are:

The Artificial Language Movement by Andrew Large (1985)
Esperanto: Language, Literature and Community by Pierre Janton, ed. Humphrey Tonkin (1993)

Boxer, Beetle (3)

In the present (Chapter 12 of Boxer, Beetle) the narrator is kidnapped to Claramore, where the key to the quest is thought to be: an incident suspected to have taken place at a fascist conference in 1936.

Then we are back in 1936, at Claramore, the bizarre estate of the Erskine family. William Erskine, inheritor of the estate, rigged it up with high-tech (for 1936) inventions and gizmos in accordance with his vision of the technological future.

Sinner (Seth Roach) and Philip Erskine arrive for the upcoming conference. Pangaean gets mentioned a few more times (145, 149, 163). Philip's father William reads the son's manuscript and decides to have it bound. Later on as the drama at the household reaches a macabre climax, Erskine--which Erskine I'm not certain--has a morbid fantasy involving the third Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon.

It also bears mentioning that Evelyn, Philip's sister, is an aficionado and composer of atonal music, which she ends up attempting to justify to Sinner (171). I mention this noting that one of the prefatory quotes to the novel comes from Adorno on dissonance.

Chapter 13 (August 1936) teaches us that the entire family and the assembled fascist guests all belong in a looney bin. It's a bizarro Addams Family world, only truly morbid. And each fascist we encounter is crazier than the next; each insists on the peculiarities of his own cobbled together world view, such that none can agree and all end up bickering.

Chapter 14 begins with footman Alex Goodman obsessed with two goals: marrying Evelyn's maid, and securing a "top-class conjugal safety coffin." But that's normal compared to what transpires by the end of Chapter 15, as the insanity at Claramore reaches a climax, in more ways than one.

Boxer, Beetle (2)

In the past two days I have read 11 chapters (133 pages) of Ned Beauman's novel Boxer, Beetle. It's a real page-turner, compelling reading, superbly written, and highly absurdist.

Chapter 10 (Autumn 1881), on which I reported in my previous post on this book, is actually a historical digression from the main two plots. incorporates the real history of artificial languages into the fiction. Erasmus Erskine appears to be the grandfather of Philip Erskine, entomologist, eugenicist, Nazi sympathizer. His main occupation is finding and breeding beetles, until he secures the cooperation of gay, nine-toed Jewish Boxer Seth "Sinner" Roach to serve as a guinea pig for a eugenics experiment. This scenario takes place in Britain in the 1930s.

The other main plot takes place in the present, in which Kevin Broom, a collector of Nazi memorabilia, is sucked into a nefarious intrigue involving the sordid past just described.

At the end of chapter 9, Philip Erskine is forced by his father to leave beetles and boxers be for a time in order to complete another project:

"It was time to write the history of Pangaean--the Erskine dynasty's greatest pride, and greatest embarrassment."

So the chapter on artificial languages, though seemingly out of place, is a historical flashback from the 1930s, and pits not only artificial languages against one another, but anti-Semite against Jew.  Erasmus Erskine, creator of Pangaean, wants to abolish adverbs as well as Jews. In 1881, "on the same day that the Jews were driven out of Fluek, the adverbs were driven out of the English language." Meanwhile, far away in Poland, Seth Roach's grandparents prepare to fight off a pogrom.

Erskine, bigoted and obsessed, makes Pangaean so complicated and difficult, that even he can't master his language.

"He was even forced to consider putting the adverbs back in, but concluded that he had left himself no room for them, on the same day in June 1882 that Sinner's grandfather returned with his wife and daughters to Fluek, where they were told by local officials that, according to Alexander III's new Temporary Regulations, no Jews were allowed to settle in the countryside of Russian Poland."

So they left Fluek and ended up in Bialystok (in real life, the birthplace of Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto), where Sinner's father "was born on the same day that Erskine completed the 998-page first draft of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon."

Pangaean, of course, never existed, but the real history of the international language movement, with some historical distortions, serves as the backdrop for the unhappy fate of Pangaean. Erskine opposes Esperanto as a Jewish language, as did Hitler later on, but as fate would have it, Hitler ends up banning Pangaean as well as Esperanto.

Boxer, Beetle

First, here is the web site for the novel Boxer, Beetle.

The novel is prefaced by two quotes. The first is from Jane Jacobs, from her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The second:

"Dissonance is the truth about harmony." -- Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory

Who knew?

I don't follow trends in fiction generally, or even in various fictional genres, but I have taken note of several contemporary Jewish novelists who have immersed their imaginations in the cultural environments that would have been familiar to their great grandparents, often incorporating real historical figures, or creating alternate histories. Michael Chabon and Joseph Skibell come immediately to mind.  I suppose then it should not be too surprising that Esperanto and its Eastern European Jewish creator L. L. Zamenhof would appear in this fiction. Ned Bauman's novel, published in 2010, can be added to this list.

Entomologists, eugenicists, Nazis, and a Jewish boxer occupy this scenario. Chapter 10 (Autumn 1881) incorporates the real history of artificial languages into the fiction. Erasmus Erskine insists that in a true philosophical language, ambiguity would be eliminated. There is speculation about an alleged archaeological finding of a legendary ancient advanced civilization and the language its inhabitants would have spoken. Sudre's musical language Solresol is mentioned as is perhaps the oldest recorded example of an artificial language, produced in the 12th century by St. Hildegard. The era of a priori constructed languages is mentioned. In the same era in which pogroms in Eastern Europe are feared on a daily basis, Erskine pursues his project, until in January 1890 Erskine completes "the 998-page first draft of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon." Zamenhof's native city of Bialystok is also part of the story.

Erskine's friend Thurlow continues to discourage the project, mentioning Volapuk had already achieved success and was a far superior language than Pangaean and easier to learn. (The irony!) But Erskine is more irritated that someone of his acquaintance, Marcus Amersham, is working on his own artificial language Orba, and has a club devoted to it. Amersham's publications include forms to which the reader can subscribe promising to learn the language if 10 million other people do so. This fictional item is borrowed from real life Zamenhof's initial attempt to promote Esperanto.

Esperanto then makes its appearance: "But by 1901 Pangaean, Orba and Volapuk were all being swept aside by the onrush of Esperanto." A few paraphrased quotes from Zamenhof are adduced to demonstrate Zamenhof's Jewish motivation. Erskine learns about the forthcoming Delegation for
the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language (which in real life selected the dark horse Ido, resulting in the famous Esperanto-Ido schism),  and is determined to counterpose Pangaean to the Jewish cosmopolitan Esperanto and mold his language accordingly. Erskine, apparently, is an anti-Semite and presumably a non-Jew.

The 1903 Delegation could not gain assent to its authority, and so no new language definitely triumphed. Bauman correctly describes Hitler's animosity to Esperanto and the Nazi extermination of Zamenhof's family, but adds the fictional element that Hitler bans Pangaean as well as Esperanto. To Stalin's real-life persecution of Esperantists is added Stalin's unverified anecdotal inability to learn Esperanto and purely fictional inability to learn the fictional Pangaean.

And now the final SPOILER: Erskine catches Thurlow with his wife, with a book of Orba grammar between them. Devastated, Erskine discards his notes for the third edition of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon.  I have deliberately kept this description as dry as possible, because the actual writing is hilarious.

And undoubtedly the balance of this award-nominated novel is equally as entertaining.

Arthur Dawson Foote: Two Poems

A. D. Foote (1931-1996) verkis en Esperanto kaj en la angla. Ĉi-kaze, li verkis en la angla pri Esperanto kaj pri Volapük:

Two Poems ('The Volapükists' & 'The Esperantists') by Arthur Dawson Foote

Eco-Logos estis revuo kiu sekvis kaj rezultis el du diversaj revuoj—International Language Reporter kaj Biophilist—kaj daŭrigis la temojn de ambaŭ. International Language Reporter mem estis daŭrigo de International Language Review, kiu en sia tempo estis la plej grava (eble sola) usona interlingvistika revuo.

Imagataj Komunumoj: Lingvoj sanktaj, naciaj, artefaritaj

En la jenaj du paragrafoj troviĝas la esenco de la tezo de Benedict Anderson:

Sacred Languages & Hierarchies vs. Vernaculars & Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
(t.e. Sanktaj lingvoj & Hierarkioj k. Popolaj Lingvoj & Imagataj Komunumoj, citaĵo el libro Imagined Communities)

Iam mi tradukos la tutan ĉerpaĵon. Nun mi tradukas nur interkrampan frazon:

Kontrastu la prestiĝon de ĉi tiaj pramondaj lingvoj, domine super ĉiuj popollingvoj, kun tio de Esperanto aŭ Volapük, kiuj situas inter ili, ignorataj.

Tamen, la citaĵo ne temas pri artefaritaj lingvoj, sed pri la diferenco inter la rolo unuflanke de antaŭmodernaj imperioj kun ties sociaj hierarkioj, kleraj elitetoj kaj lingvoj supozataj sanktaj (latina, sanskrita, ktp.) kaj enkadrigitaj en kosma ordo, kaj aliflanke, modernaj imagataj komunumoj kies naciaj limoj, intelektuloj, kaj lingvoj okupas horizontalan ne vertikalan konceptan spacon.

Konstruitaj lingvoj: el hebrea lingvo kaj/aŭ de judaj kreintoj / Constructed Languages: Hebrew-based and/or with Jewish creators

Jen magraj informoj el diversaj fontoj. / Here are the few facts available in various sources.

Languages constructed by Jews
Due to their experiences of persecution, at least two Jews have tried to promote inter-ethnic understanding by an auxiliary language. The most known is L.L. Zamenhof's Esperanto, presented in 1887 featuring influences of the principal European languages of his time. The exile of Charles K. Bliss in the Shanghai ghetto inspired him to create Blissymbolics, a written language that has found more use as an aid to communication with persons with cerebral palsy.

SOURCE: Encyclopedia of Judaism: Jewish Languages

Blissymbolics ja estas fama afero, menciita ekz. en la libro de Okrent. Mi ne sciis, ke Bliss estas judo. Sed estas pluaj artefaritaj lingvoj pri kiuj mi trovis nur magrajn informojn.

Koincide kun la vivo de Zamenhof kaj Esperanto, aperis—ŝajne kiel reago al la Volapuka movado—ankaŭ projektoj iel bazitaj de la hebrea lingvo. . . .

En Historio de la Mondolingvo by Ernest K. Drezen (2a eld., 1931), estas kelkaj obskuraj informeroj.

Ĉe p. 150, jen referenco al Pasilingua Hebraica, ia speco de reformita hebrea:

Dr. Felix Lenz, Pasilingua contra Volapuk, Neuwied, 1887.

Jen referencoj de aliaj fontoj:

LENZ, Felix. 1887. Pasilingua contra Volapük. Allegemeine Betrachtung über die Weltsprache und die Systeme Volapük und Pasilingua mit Anfügung des Versuchs einer Pasilingua hebraica von einem Freunde der Pasilingua (d.i. Felix Lenz). Berlin, Neuwied a. Rh., Leipzig: Heuser. 15 Seiten.

Alia bibliografio listigas la ĉeftitolon jene: Pasilingua gegen Volapük.

Ĉe p. 158 (Drezen): A. Nilson projektis plurajn reformojn de Volapük; la kvara estis Lasonebr (1897). Drezen priskribas ĝin ĉi tiel:

Flanke de tiuj tri skizoj staras la kvara projekto de Nilson "Lasonebr" (Lasonebr—un transitional lingvo) , rilatanta al la jaro 1897, sed konata al ni nur laŭ la nomo. Tiu ĉi lingvo prezentis per si siaspecan provon eŭropigi kaj latinigi la antikvan hebrean lingvon, ĉe kio, malsame, al la "Pasilingua hebraica" de F. Lenz in 1887, la ŝanĝon ricevis ne nur gramatikoj formoj de la antikva hebrea lingvo, sed ankau ĝia fundamenta vortar-materialo.

Mi tute ne komprenas ĉi tion.

Pasilingua Hebraica estas menciita en piednoto en:

Histoire de la Langue Universelle par Louis Couturat & Leopold Leau (1903)

Sed la informoj pri tiuj projektoj estas preskaŭ senutilaj.

Mario Pei menciis ĉi tiujn du projektojn, sen pluaj detaloj, krom bibliografia referenco:

Nilson, A. Lasonebr. Gefle, 1897.

Laŭ Vikipedio:

Lasonebro (Lasonebr) estas planlingvo proponita de A. Nilson en 1897. La aŭtoro ankaŭ proponis West-Europisch, Central Dialekt kaj Dialekt Centralia. Lasonebr estas bazita sur la klasika hebrea lingvo. Ĝi ricevas la bibliotekan klasifikon 417.924 laŭ Biblioteko Butler.

Laŭ respondo de esperantologo:

August Nilson estis sveda volapukisto, mi ne scias ĉu juddevena. Liaj antaŭ­aj projektoj estis Vest-Europish Central Dialekt (1896), Central Dialekt (1896) kaj Dialect Centralia aŭ­ Okcident-Europa Central Dialekt. Vidu Hans Cornioley, Mikra Enciklopedio Mondlinguala, 1937 kaj Marcel Monnerot-Dumaine, Précis d'interlinguistique, 1960, p. 167. Monnerot-Dumaine mencias Lasonebr sur paĝoj 69 kaj 178.

Ĉu ekzistas pluaj tiaj projektoj, mi ne scias.

Steampunk / Vaporpunko

First, introductions via Wikipedia & Vikipedio. While I have encountered manifestations of what is now called Steampunk, the term--the named genre--is new to me. Back in the 1960s I watched the TV series The Wild Wild West, an obvious precursor or example of the genre. (And, a few days ago, I made it halfway through the ineptly executed film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) Someone had to name the confluence of science fiction, the historical novel, and alternate history scenarios into a single concept. It's a new focal point for elements that are not so new. Yet I suspect it fits into the self-reflexive character of our time.

I wrote about the increasing profile of self-referential cultural artifacts in a 1993 essay:

Cultural Sophistication and Self-Reference on American Television: Seeds of Hope?

Owing to the acceleration of social and cultural change, it becomes obvious how drastically basic social assumptions are different now than from decades past, which has long been a device pursued by TV series, most recently the runaway hit Mad Men. Also, I've long held the view that all the avant-gardes have done their work, that we have reached the end of the line, and what's left to us is retrospective engagement, combined with a recombinant orientation towards cultural elements, also a long-standing feature of avant-gardes. Combining all this with alternative history, it makes sense that writers would add to the mere possibility of alternative outcomes for critical historical/political events (the Civil War, World War II, assassinations of heads of state, etc.) alternative technological, cultural, and aesthetic developments, as an extension of a retrospective, self-reflexive orientation. This becomes yet another manifestation of an all-encompassing artistic ars combinatoria.

Given that the Steampunk era coincides with the rise of artificial languages as a mass social phenomenon, I would naturally be interested in the intersection of Steampunk with Volapük and Esperanto, and less likely, other artificial languages.

I have already blogged about Andrew Drummond's novel A Hand-Book of Volapük, which is in the neighborhood of steampunk, a genre admired by Drummond. See An interview with Andrew Drummond (2006).

Note also Michael Chabon's popular Yiddish Policemen's Union, which also pays homage to Zamenhof and Esperanto. See The Grad Students Who Mocked Michael Chabon's Science Fiction by Charlie Jane Anders.

Volapük is featured also in Spook Country by William Gibson, godfather of cyberpunk.

But here's the pay-off for you super-nerds: you can join . . .

League of Steampunk Esperantists (GVE), a unit of The Steampunk Empire.

Melvin B. Tolson's "Libretto for the Republic of Liberia"

In A Libretto Colloquy (2001) Jeff Sychterz writes:

Here Tolson juxtaposes a series of jingoistic phrases from several different nations and cultures (including India, Pakistan, Britain, Russia, Arabia, and the U.S.A.) to indicate that nations tend to view their own cultures as naturally superior; each nation mirrors the other in their colonial or nationalist ambitions. Coming as they do after the initial fragmentation of Gondwanaland, these lines suggest that nationalist ambitions are a response to the sense of fragmentation that all cultures feel. Each nation desires unity, but the only way they now how to achieve it is through global conquest and cultural domination. These megalomaniacal attempts, however, only serve to further disrupt unity and bring about greater fragmentation:

naïfs pray for a guido’s scale of good and evil to match
worldmusic’s sol-fa syllables (o do de do de do de)
worldmathematics’ arabic and roman figures
worldscience’s greek and latin symbols
the letter killeth five hundred global tongues
before esperanto garrotes voläpuk vanitas vanitatum
(ll. 519-24).

These lines recast the discourse of unity and fragmentation in terms of harmony and cacophony, which matches the poem’s overall musical scale structure. They also image a particular violent version of the Tower of Babel, where different languages actually wage war against and kill one another, similar to the nations and cultures that spawn them. Even languages meant to unify the world—Esperanto and Voläpuk—engage in bloody conquest with one another. The initial break-up of the one unified continent has had a profound effect on all aspects of the human experience.

Volapuk Interrete, plu

Aldone al menciitaj fontoj: Volapük Online Resource. :

FLENEF BEVÜNETIK VOLAPÜKA: INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD LANGUAGE.

Por via interlingvistika plezuro.

Jen freŝa novaĵo:

Nicolas Sarkozy baffles interpreters with 'Volapük' (Telegraph, 17 Aug 2010).

Handbook of Volapük

Menad bal pük bal!

Not quite what you think. Yes, Charles E. Sprague’s 1888 Handbook of Volapük is available online, and there are other resources on Volapük available online:

http://personal.southern.edu/~caviness/Volapuk/

But what I'm talking about here is a recent novel—yes, a novel!—published in 2006: A Handbook of Volapük by Andrew Drummond.

See also the amazon.com entry, but more importantly, Andy Drummond has his own web site with a section on the novel:

http://www.andydrummond.net/volapuk.html

The full title:

A Hand-Book of Volapük and an Elementary Manual of its Grammar and Vocabulary, Prepared from the Gathered Papers of Gemmell Hunter Ibidem Justice; Together with an Account of Events Relating to the Annual General Meeting of 1891 of the Edinburgh Society for the Propagation of a Universal Language.

Edited for the First Time by Dr. Charles Cordiner,
Emeritus Professor of Phrenology at Fraserburgh University.

Partisans of Volapük, Esperanto, and rival international language projects battle it out in late 19th century Europe. A whodunit of historic proportions.

There are links to other pages, including an extract, reviews, and a web guide to materials on Volapük:

http://www.andydrummond.net/Volapuk/Materials.htm

See also this review:

"Universal Languages" by Hannah Adcock

I've never seen this book, let alone read it, but I'll be on the lookout. Might be a good book for a reading club.