Esperanto: Tre Mojosa | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should know I. don't know how to say that in aspero now. that I think about it I really should. have looked that up I was wondering if. you were going to do that I can't. believe I didn't I feel kind of jerky. jerk w I guess I don't know how to say.

that in asiran. either well jerkwad would be jerk wad. yeah exactly or something like that. something similar to that yeah it. actually would make sense because. esperano is is taking um root words jerk. Wad and putting them together and then. conjugating them in a very uniform way. we should probably tell everybody what. we're talking about here because we just. kind of accidentally got into it yeah. it's a language not just a language it's.

a con Lang a constructed language which. is um a language that you sit down and. make up um some people actually do this. and apparently it's addictive when you. start um as opposed to like I guess a. natural language one that just kind of. develops organically over time as a. group of people start talking to one. another yeah uh espiranto itself means. one who hopes and that will all make. sense once you hear the story because. it's it's a pretty wonderful story.

actually uh I didn't know much about it. I just thought it was kind of one of. these goofy Fringe things uh and it is a. fringe thing there are about um a. thousand people who are native not just. espiranto speakers but where their first. language that they learned was Esperanto. they are native speakers uh Dave ruse. helped us with this and he dug up uh. George. Soros uh billionaire uh oh I don't know. I'm sure people describe him in a lot of.

ways depending on who you are mhm but uh. as the most famous espiranto speaker but. I did poke around a little bit and found. that uh. Tolstoy uh JRR tolken spoke espiranto. and lir the basically the the father of. modern Cinema uh and as this will be. come as a surprise when you see later on. what happened but Joseph Stalin. apparently knew how to speak Esperanto. huh that is kind of a surpris the thing.

I think that differentiates George sorus. though is he was a native speaker like. that was his first language was. espiranto yeah but I looked over the. list of just speakers right notable. speakers and there are a lot of people. in the list but I just hadn't heard of. many of them Stalin's a big surprise I'd. like to add one more to that list of. notable espiranto speakers our own Ben. bowling from stuff they don't want you. to know I thought he spoke esparon that. that tracks he did I emailed him just to. make sure that I wasn't just making. something up in my head and he said yeah.

he used to you know be into it and he. just kind of fell out of it and then he. emailed me like hours later and was like. damn it Josh now I'm back into esperano. so he's back into it everybody well. learning espiranto is about as been. bowling a thing as I can imagine it is. because um it's inclusive it's. intelligent It's Curious people it's. witty um it's it seems to be like one of. the better most um more.

um nice or kind online communities that. you'll come across from what I can tell. and it's Fringe and that's that's Ben. for sure uh yeah and again that's Ben. bowling from stuff they don't want you. to know that's right uh so you said it. was a constructed language um I guess. we'll talk a little bit about why people. would construct a language and a little. bit of the history of these languages uh. there are a lot of reasons for doing. that most of them uh are because they.

want to create a language that's easier. to learn uh that's simpler a lot of. times there might be religious reasons. or philosophical reasons some people. just do it for fun uh a lot of them were. designed to be a universal language in. espiranto actually espiranto ticks a lot. of these boxes as we'll see but a lot of. them are created for like hey wouldn't. it be better if everybody could speak a. language worldwide a universal language. a language where um.

if you I guess the whole point of a. universal languages this is definitely. the point of Esperanto the idea is that. if you can speak a Common Language with. anybody else on the. planet that should conceivably do away. with a lot of different conflicts that. probably arise from disputes over. language from differences in language. from an inability to see one another's. Viewpoint because we're having trouble. talking with one another um and that's. kind of the the basis of a lot of the.

constructed languages that idea that if. we can all speak a universal language. there'll be a um a a a global human. um family or World which that does sound. like you'd be up George soros's alley. yeah I mean if you if you just could. create a language that where all it was. was don't shoot and how about a plate of. cookies and a glass of milk oh yeah it'.

be how far we go it'd be a much better. world so invented languages have you. know people have always sort of been. doing this here and there but in the. 19th century uh it seems to have really. hit its stride there were more than a. hundred uh constructed languages that uh. not decade that Century alone and. espiranto is Far and Away the most. popular today although for a long long. time it was a language created by a. German priest named Yan.

schayer uh called Vol volapuk yeah. volapuk um apparently God told him to do. it sure Mission from God yeah what else. are you going to do you're GNA make that. language and I'm sure he was like are. you sure you want to call it volapuk and. God was like get busy and he did and it. actually caught on really well there. seems to have been kind of a bug in the. late 19th century at least in the west. of um invented languages and volu. apparently fit the fit the bill and it.

spread far and wide I can't not say it. like that I'm sorry oh it's fine um they. started having like International. congresses or um conferences of of. volapuk um president Grover Cleveland's. wife Francis named their dog Vol puke. like it was it was a a worldwide. phenomenon and even if you didn't know. it or had no interest in learning it you. knew about it yeah that's cuz that dog. threw up all over the place though. that's. right uh we had a cat named underfoot.

literally my dad named this cat. underfoot that's a very good name and. I'll give you two guesses why uh because. the cat had very long. legs okay and no feet to speak of that's. right it was underf. footed so that conference you were. talking about for vuke was 1889 but a. couple of years before that so it was. you know cruising and doing pretty well. but two years before that espiranto was. created and really took it over you know.

over the next like 30 40 years or so I. mean imagine there being a trend today. of like a universal language is catching. on like on Tik Tok oh God like it would. just take off but it's such a bizarre. thing to think of and this is what. people were into and this was long. before social media so it was hard for. something to become a global phenomenon. and yet not one but two Universal. languages took hold in the 1880s. um so esperano apparently just totally.

supplanted um Vol puke but there is a. little footnote of it that apparently. the uh Danes say um what we would say. like It's All Greek to me like I don't. understand what you're saying the the. Danish expression is it's pure volapuk. puke that makes sense it yeah it's great. I I love that I love learning Danish. Expressions I'm going to start saying. that I don't say It's All Greek to me. much anyway but uh if that ever comes up. I'm going to say it's pure VAP puke yeah.

and no offense to our Greek listeners. it's just something someone says here. yeah I wonder what Greeks think about. that actually I don't know I don't know. if it's gotten back to them yet yeah uh. so should we talk a little bit about. this uh the creator of espiranto who was. uh I tried to find out bad things about. this guy but he seems like a pretty. remarkable humble well-intentioned FHM. and I also read that he was one of those. rare people in um who would sleep just a. couple hours a night night and rather.

than sit around and like stare at the. wall he did interesting things he was a. polyglot he learned tons of different. languages he was well read he was an. optometrist he did all sorts of stuff. but along the way one of the things he. did was create um uh espiranto and he. had a pretty great well not great but a. pretty heavy backstory to it yeah his. name we haven't said his name yet uh. he's known as LL zamenhof uh or tanhoff. uh but it his full name was ludvik uh.

ler tanhoff born on December 15th which. is national uh salhoff day oh that makes. sense sure yeah uh in 1859 born in BTO. Poland uh he was Jewish as was a lot of. beish about. 70% uh also some Germans some Russians. obviously poles and growing up there was. pretty rough because there was a lot of. ethnic violence going on there were uh. Jews being attacked by poles there were.

Germans being attacked by. Russians um in 1881 there was a a false. um I guess accusation that Jews were. behind the assassination of Alexander II. of Russia and that started the uh. pograms which were these organized. massacres of uh polish and Russian. Jewish communities yeah because um. Poland was annexed by Russia from 1807. to 1920 which is why they would have.

cared that was their Zar um and. apparently it wasn't the Jews at all or. anybody who had anything to do with. jewishness it was anti autocratic group. of um called The nadna volia People's. will and they threw a bomb and blew him. up and apparently his successor his son. Zar Alexander II was even worse but from. those pograms that um that LL zamenhof. was alive alive to witness and even. before that just the ethnic violence. that was endemic to bisto um that had a.

really big effect on him and that's. where he developed this idea that um. humanity is way more connected than we. realize that we have all these false. constructs that separate us that don't. have to separate us but do time and time. again language is one of them he cited. religion as one of them and he was very. um Jewish he was a very religious Jewish. person but he still recognized that. religion creates conflict sometimes it. has historically um and he felt like you.

could kind of you could keep the. religion you could keep the the. different nations you can keep the. things that do divide us um as long as. they they had something like a universal. language laying over the whole thing. that could that could um Defuse The. conflicts that grow up from those things. that divide us yeah which was and he was. a kid I mean this is remarkable stuff. for a a pre-teen and then teenager to.

sort of understand so he's clearly a. brilliant uh empathetic passionate human. being uh I think as the you know family. Story Goes at least he was 10 years old. and he wrote a play called uh the Tower. of Babel colon uh the BTO tragedy in. five acts uh as a 10-year-old so just. this idea of sort of stripping away. these divisions and realizing like Hey. we're all human beings uh that's the the.

one like at the root that's what we are. and we all literally have that in common. yet we divide ourselves like it's just a. remarkable thing for a kid and a lesson. for everybody of all ages still yeah um. as he was raised um he learned Yiddish. which apparently grew out of a a German. dialect that's written in Hebrew I. didn't realize that but it's the. universal language of the ashkanazi Jews. the the Jewish people in Central and. Eastern Europe so he already understood.

what a a universal language could do you. could take a Jewish person from Poland. and a Jewish person from Czechoslovakia. and and put him in a room and they could. speak to one another um through that. second tongue Yiddish so he said about. kind of trying to modernize Yiddish. maybe he could spread that and then he. stopped pretty much in his tracks. because he realized that what he was. trying to do was say hey everybody um. let's all learn the language of the. people you consider criminals and spies.

it was like a really hard cell that he. just realized wasn't going to go. anywhere so he abandoned um trying to. sell Yiddish or create a universal. language out of Yiddish and just set. about creating one from scratch which is. what esperano came. from what a setup it is it was it's. going pretty well so far we should. release this as a. show best setup ever I'm going to say it. even though it annoys some people should. we take take a break uh I'm going to say.

it even though it annoys everybody yes. we should all right we'll be right. [Music]. back all right so we're back uh really.

quickly that sort of made me before we. left and talked about people being. annoyed by asking to take a break uh. that came to mind because I jumped on. Reddit recently on our subreddit and. actually started an account because. there was so much just sort of bad. information like Jerry doesn't even work. with them anymore and just all these. weird things that people sort of assume. that were wrong uh and I've since learn. that that's and even redditors kind of. said like that's kind of a thing people. like surise a lot yeah so I I signed up. for a few days and answered like jeez a.

lot of questions for like a full day. yeah and then got right back off but. just wanted people to know if they. thought I was some phony that that was. really me and Mo and most people were. awesome you had your own stunt AMA yeah. sort of you know what I don't like about. amas though is it just just that rapid. fire sort of thing right so this was. like a slowburn AMA and it's all still. there a lot of answered questions like. with correct information and like I said. almost everyone is really really nice. but um uh not everyone is but that's.

just the nature of online interactions. it's the internet that's silly that they. think Jerry doesn't work with us anymore. she doesn't even. exist someone was really annoyed though. about like every time they ask if it's. time to take a break and I was like we. do that because we don't script this out. and I'm genuinely wondering if it's a. good time to take a break yeah what a. weird thing to be upset about it's a. conversation anyway uh thanks to. everyone who participated and and you. can go there and check it out if you. want uh back.

to espiranto. yes you want me to pick it up CU we. don't script this. stuff why did you ask me that that's so. annoying so um we said that that uh LL. zamenhof ahead said okay I'm going to. start from scratch I'm going to create a. language that doesn't come from anywhere. that's not spoken by anybody I'm going. to make this universal language from. scratch and so his 19th birthday party. he had already done enough that he. handed out pocket dictionaries and.

grammar charts to the guests of his. birthday which what a swinging party. that's right for a 19-year-old he called. the new language lingo interasia or no. interia because that se it remember yeah. yeah and he composed a little hymn uh. and I kind of taught myself how to. pronounce it even though I'm going to. completely screw it up but may I you got. to sing it though no. yeah no you don't you have to say it.

solemnly like this. Mal. yesta. in so de nice work can I tell everyone. what it means yes but you have to sing. it okay let the hatred of the Nations. fall fall fall the time is already here. all Humanity must unite in one family it.

doesn't rhyme yeah someone I'm just. didn't. rhyme so he's cruising with this thing. he has this banging 19th birthday party. where he's giv out this stuff to his. friends I'm sure they're just like who. is this guy even this is amazing and in. 1887 he self-published a pamphlet a. 42-page pamphlet called uh uh are you. going to pronounce this stuff uh unua.

Libro okay I thought that was right it. means first book uh and as you'll see if. you notice some of these words sound. like other languages it's it's because. like other constructed languages it's. usually based on like the words are. based on some other words so when you. hear Esperanto like if you go to watch a. scene from the Esperanto William Shatner. movie that you can watch on YouTube yeah. in from when was that 60 66 everybody. says but Turner Classic Movies listed as.

65 which I find confusing but everybody. else say 66 iide with TCM always uh but. if you go to and you hear or just you. know I looked up on YouTube just like. espiranto conversations or if you bump. into Ben Bolan somewhere in Atlanta. right uh you'll you'll sit there and. you'll go oh wow that sounds a little. bit like Spanish some and maybe it might. sound Italian which Spanish also sounds. kind of Italian sometimes and so a lot. of it might sound a little bit familiar. like uh.

Libro uh for book like that makes sense. like the word Library so just pointing. out that when you hear espiranto words. and you think it sounds familiar it's. not by accident yeah the reason why. especially if you are a Westerner um. three qus of the root words he started. out with 900 of them as we'll see um are. taken from romance languages so it's if. you're an English speaker it's very easy. to pick up that's a much simpler way to. say what I so in the uh in the that.

first book unua Libro which I can I can. understand what that means just from the. little primer which I have to say hats. off to Dave he put together a primer for. us in this article that like when you go. back and research it more widely you're. like this is really difficult to like. kind of wrangle into one small little. ball and he managed to do that really. really well so way to go Dave but that. first book book Uno Libro uh it had some.

sample translations it said here's. here's how you you say this this stuff. here's the grammar rules here's the. dictionary here's how you pronounce it. um and he he said that the his pen name. he wrote it as a pen name Doo Esperanto. or Dr hopeful is what it means it um and. he called again his his language the. lingo. interia and that's what he thought. everybody was going to to call it but. instead everybody said I like this Dr. hopeful cat let's just call his language.

Esperanto yeah which is sort of ironic. because from the beginning he was a very. humble guy and didn't want to be like he. didn't name it you know Zan Hofer or. whatever like he didn't want to be named. after him he didn't want to own it no uh. we would call something like this open. source today he didn't want it to be. about him so the fact that he made up a. name and that they named it after him. anyway is kind of funny um I get the. sense that it probably didn't bother him. too much cuz he seemed like a good guy. sure uh but his goal um and we'll talk.

about sort of the other stuff that came. along later as far as his sort of uh. desire to attach other meaning to it but. his sort of root goal at the beginning. was I want a language for the love of. whoever you worship that is easier to. learn than everything else out there. yeah uh and I want it to be a language. like you mentioned sort of from the. get-go that can unite people and promote. peace like two very sort of no Pursuits. I think so okay let's talk about goal.

one a language that's for the love of. whatever you worship easier to learn. than most of the other languages out. there right right apparently um you. could learn Esperanto in something like. about 40 hours of class time one one. full week of of learning you'll walk out. of there on the end of the day Friday. being able to converse basically in. espiranto tell people where you live who. you are what you like um point to clouds.

and and and identify them correctly that. is no don't don't shoot how about a. plate of cookie and some milk exactly. they should teach that first for sure. yeah apparently that's I mean I you can. just know without even knowing anything. about learning languages that's really a. short amount of time um it takes about. 100 to 200 hours to learn French or. German to the same degree uh there was. another person who estimated that for. English speakers um it's five times. easier to learn esperano than French or. Spanish 10 times easier than Russian and.

20 times easier than Chinese and again a. large part of that is because the root. words are taken from romance languages. so just recognizing generally being able. to make a guess in in almost every case. what word what that word means that's a. huge leg up and and that's why it's so. much easier in part but the other part. is the grammar that he he created is so. standard and with such regularity. that that that's the other part that.

makes it that much easier to learn. especially for romance language speakers. yeah I mean the hard part about learning. a language is usually not memorizing. root words and learning basic grammar. it's the irregular verbs it's all these. uh exceptions to rules um French has. more than 2,000 irregular verbs uh. English is notoriously tough to uh to. learn as a as a non-native speaker yeah. think about just about irregular verbs. real quick Chu for the English to be.

pretty basic stuff the it's conjugated. is be being been are am is was and were. now if you were just approaching those. words as a non-english speaker to begin. with you wouldn't think was had anything. to do with b or are has anything to do. with b and that's that's what causes the. confusion and not just English but. almost any language irregular verbs and. exceptions to the standard rules. yeah and you know we did a we did a.

whole episode on language acquisition. right I'm sure we did yeah for sure. because I'm just consistently knocked. out that babies into Toddlers and so on. just just pick up language it's really. remarkable to me still uh to see that. kind of thing but um espiranto and we're. just going to go over some of sort of. the base rules here and I think you will. find yourself like we did just saying oh. my my God that's amazing and it makes so. much sense uh There are 16 grammatical.

rules there are no irregular verbs there. are no exceptions to rules um and the. these are just this isn't everything but. these are just a few examples of kind of. like how much sense it makes um all. nouns are going to end with the letter O. that's why I said jerk wad at the. beginning uh adjectives all all of them. end in the letter a uh adverbs all in uh. end in the letter e uh there are no know. genders that's another place where.

learning a foreign language can be. confusing is you know the different. cases in genders and stuff like that and. having to change things around not an. espiranto my friend uh and then this is. sort of just a fun one um La l a uh is. the only word for thee right not la le. low ill none of that stuff L none of. that it's all La the everything and then. it's up to the conjugation of the verb.

that um that that changes that or the. adverb or the adjective or whatever. because it's standard when you see like. a o or an A or an e you can identify a. word in a sentence as a verb an adverb a. noun that kind of thing but so the. infinitive form of verbs and by the way. I had to look most of this up like I was. like what's an adverb again English 101. an adverb is something like above. clearly hourly it um it it it describes. an adjective itive a verb or some other.

stuff an infinitive form is like to. something to do like the basic form like. to eat it ends in an I so it's. mangi okay okay present tense like I eat. that would be as. mjas it ends in as yeah and we should. point out that it doesn't matter who is. eating if he is eating or I'm eating or. she's eating or they're eating it's it's. all the same exactly there's no.

irregular verbs it's beautiful right um. in past tense uh instead of something. like Sing sang song where it should all. just be sing singed singed uh that's. what he does I know it sounds weird. doesn't it well sure but um that's what. he does in this everything in past tense. ends in es so. mes um I ate you ate they ate it's all. it's all MZ and then with future it's. MOS and then with a command you just add.

a u u mju and that's it that's how you. conjugate verbs there's no exceptions to. that rule at all yeah I mean it's pretty. amazing. um I guess it just makes sense that. because I kind of struggled with why. other languages are so irregular but if. it's organic in its growth then that's. just bound to happen I think it is um I. looked up why and it's actually. fascinating it's because these languages.

often um absorb other people from other. language groups and they bring their. words with them and so languages grow by. adopting other words changing and so. rather than completely altering you know. how um something that usually ends in Ed. like sing uhhuh instead of just totally. altering how it used to be you just kind. of change it to the new form like sang. or sung it just it that that's how. irregular verbs come up nobody's like I.

really want to screw people up in the. future I'm going to add this it just. happens you know organically so when you. set about creating a constructed. language you can purposely deliberately. avoid any irregular verbs and make it. that much easier to learn my question. that came up Chuck is um how long yes I. said up Chuck how long does it take. until a language like um espiranto. starts developing irregular verbs. well I have a strong feeling and I'd.

love to hear from some esperantists that. they fight that tooth and nail because. that defeats the whole purpose and. spirit of it okay hasn't happened yet. then is that answer I mean that would be. my guess um yeah I'm on record okay I'd. love to hear from him too though uh but. if you haven't noticed uh that Esperanto. and and this is a word you might not. know but it's called an a glutena of. language which is the words are formed. from combinations of shorter words.

basically which English has a lot of. those all language has a lot of those. but espiranto has all those yeah um so. you've got your root word and then you. have affixes prefixes and suffixes and. um kind of like how you conjugate it. with a i for to eat or an as for you eat. um that's that's it that's the whole. that's the whole grammar right so um the. reason why he did this again. because not just like irregular verbs.

but weird words that all describe the. same thing is another thing that creeps. into language organically they've used. the the example of tree right good one. yeah you know what a tree is in English. it's one of those plants that's got the. wood and the bark and the leaves and. they're tall and everything everybody. loves to hug them right uhhuh tree makes. sense but rather than um young tree we. have the word sapling which combines. Proto Indo European and protog geric. words in English cute word though.

sapling it is because it means young. tree it's the young version of a tree. it's very cute a bunch of trees uh is. called the forest that's old French from. Latin and then a Botanical Garden that. has a bunch of trees is an arboretum. that's just straight up Latin all of. those are English words sapling Forest. ARB burum and none of them sound like. tree so by creating roots that just. describe one thing and then adjusting. what they mean by adding a pre or a. suffix but keeping that root word he got.

around that kind of. conundrum yeah so for instance tree and. espiranto is arbo uh that young tree. which is a sapling for us is an arbo and. as we'll see Ido is sort of the suffix. for any kind of baby version of. something which is taken uh I know. Spanish does that like uh there were two. chucks at my job at a Mexican restaurant. and I was chucko cute cuz I was younger. than the original Chu wasn't that a Taco. Bell menu item in the.

90s probably. so h two chitos and uh another Chito and. another Chito three chitos uh a young. tree instead of uh a sapling is an arbo. mhm uh a lot of trees instead of a. forest is an araro and then that. Botanical Garden instead of an arboretum. is an arboreto and you might think well. that sounds a lot like Arboretum well it. does but it also sounds like arbo arbo. and abaro exactly right so you see any.

of those words and you know it's talking. about a tree and then when you learn Ido. means the younger version of it or Aro. means the um the like a group of. whatever you're talking about you just. learned a ton of grammar just right off. the bat and then also note that all. those end in o because they're all nouns. and again all nouns end in o in. Esperanto yeah so we mentioned EO ID O. is a suffix meaning like the small. version of something or a baby something.

uh and we also mentioned that there. wasn't gender that there is but uh not. in terms of like you know how you will. conjugate a sentence uh it's just a. suffix it's i n o is a female version of. Something uh you also have a r o which. is a group like vorto v o r t o is a. word vortaro is. dictionary uh it just makes a lot of. sense EJ o and uh the J's are pronounced. as a y isn't that right yep uh EJ O is a.

place for something so k i r i how would. you pronounce that. kuo the oh K KU why did you ask me to. pronounce this well becausei I got it. now prce kuiri is to cook and then. what's kitchen. kuo right so you add the ejo so uh that. is the place where you would cook yeah. that makes sense right that's not to say.

that the aspirando doesn't have words. that you just have to memorize because. that doesn't quite work cuz um for. example there's a couple of places where. you'll find a lot of books like a. library or a bookstore so a library. you'd think would be called the libero. or place of books but actually it's. called a bibloo a libero is the. bookstore so it sounds like just kind of. um nitpicking but if you ever arranged. to meet your friend at the libero and. they don't they think that that's the.

bookstore you're going to be sitting. there waiting in the library for them a. long. time uh yeah in fact you know adding and. and I find this like part of the spirit. of espiranto is super cool in that they. encourage you to create words as long as. they follow the rules and make sense so. to to uh attack these uh affixes and. suffixes on root words and dve USS this. this is so great gosh this just makes me. crazy how great it is Hospital the word.

Hospital in espiranto is uh Mal Sanu Leo. right yes does that make sense so m m. and espiranto is opposite of uh the saan. is healthy the UL l means people the EJ. o remember as we said means the place. where something is uh and so a hospital. directly translated is not healthy. people place. that's great which could be a lot of. places here in the US but so it's kind.

of like um espanas like to put words. together like you do in a Scrabble game. and the reason that it's encouraged is. because out of the gate um zamoff like. like you said made this open source and. um said here take this uh and just do. what you will with it and make it grow. and that's how that's why esperano is. still around and one of the reasons that. supplanted Vol puke puke um because the. guy who created volapuk uh he he was.

very controlling he kept a controlling. like um um grip on it and so that made. it like a dying language right out of. the gate because you you have to let. language grow and become organic on its. own apparently he was like nope God told. me to do this so I really need to keep a. sharp eye on it so I think we should. also talk about the word for jet lag. because it's also just super fun yeah. and we could do this all day long but. just these two examples are really great. uh horrror zo no o hor noo mhm uh h o r.

z o n o zo o exactly how it sounds uh. that is h o r is time uh zone is zo in. and then illness is Ozo so the espiranto. translation is time zone illness yeah. makes a lot of sense I love that and. that sounds it's a lot of this sounds. like how it would be uh transcribed or. subtitled in like China or something. from from English yeah for sure that I I. came across something did you see what I. sent you about um English translated.

into English is kind of hilarious oh no. oh you didn't I found a a I don't. remember what paper it was but um for as. an example they translated I do not. understand in into several languages and. one of them was English and if you. literally translate I do not understand. into English it's I make not understand. think about it like that's exactly what. that means but that's not at all what. you think of like I do not understand. sounds right even though what you're. saying literally is I make not.

understand cuz do you means make. literally I do not understand I just I I. had to mention that it just cracked me. up no that's really funny uh all right. so let's take our second break not even. asking this time and we'll come back and. talk about where espiranto went from. there right after. this. [Music].

so Chuck um we talked a lot about how um. how uh Dr espiranto. zanoff the reasons why he created esper. tto and that was goal number two was to. to create like a language that United.

the world right easy to learn United the. world and he originally based it um on. something he called Hill ISM after. Hillel the the Elder a Jewish Sage from. the first century BC and H's um. teachings can basically be summed up as. the Golden Rule like treat others as. you'd like them to treat you yeah he. changed that name very quickly to uh hom. homar Nismo which means basically. humanitarianism but the whole idea was.

the same he called it the internal Ideo. the internal idea of Esperanto which is. that um it can remove those language. barriers those culture barriers barriers. between people and to um by doing so you. make people recognize that we're all. humans yeah and he I think realized at. some point again that sort of attaching. uh an ism um to something. Maybe Might um keep people from wanting. to learn it and I think there were also.

esperantists U Dave said there were a. lot of them were French intellectuals. that were like no no no we we we don't. need to attach this to an ism um so. officially wasn't attached to an ism but. I do think the spirit of all that is a. big part of Esperanto still yeah defin. and people who want to learn it even. though it's not an official like ethic. yeah and so I mean just right off the. bat they had the first uh International. Universal Congress of esperano in 1905. in France and in that conference a.

Schism created or was created in like a. whole other language like a version of. espiranto called Ido that was even. easier to learn was introduced and that. that group just went off and did their. own thing which kind of hamstrung. Esperanto as it was really starting to. take off but Ido you don't hear about. any longer you still hear about. Esperanto um I I'm not 100% sure why. maybe it is because it had an ethic or a.

moral to it in addition to being easy to. learn that's like that's my guess but. zamoff died um in. 1917 and um what's sad Dave points out. he lived long enough to see World War I. yeah which he I didn't read anything he. wrote about it directly but he would. have been really bummed by that because. that is not that's what he was creating. espiranto to avoid. yeah absolutely uh he during his life he. was nominated 14 times 14 never one.

unfortunately for the Nobel Peace Prize. and post World War I when the League of. Nations was created to you know to stop. something like that from happening again. didn't work uh in that very first. meeting there was a proposal to teach. Esperanto in schools to member countries. um which was pretty remarkable it didn't. happen because the the French delegation. vetoed that and they said French is. already the universal language which is. so hoty but that's they literally kept.

Esperanto like who knows where it would. be now if they hadn't to stop that same. thing with the us at the United Nations. in the 40s uh after the UN was founded. somebody said hey we should all learn. espiranto and the US said nope English. is already a universal language and that. actually shows how language can like. enhance the standing of the countries. that speak that language that the rest. of the world sees as basically a. universal language and why espiranto. didn't do that cuz it didn't come from. any country it didn't come from any.

ethnic group or any region it was a from. scratch Universal grammar that wouldn't. enhance One Nation over others yeah uh. not everyone loved it um if you think. like who maybe wouldn't like it who. wouldn't like this language created from. a Jewish man Hitler you would be correct. uh it's written about in mine comp uh he. said Hitler said that it was a secret. Jewish language used to plot against.

Germany and I don't know if anyone ever. went over to him probably not and said. uh deur you can actually it's not Secret. at all you can learn it in Fe fic hours. conversationally and so I don't know uh. Hitler being Hitler uh they were uh and. of course you know I'm sort of joking. about that but it was no joke at all. because Hitler and others would Round Up. um espiranto speakers and jail them or. kill them H and in fact Hitler took uh.

his family his surviving family that is. uh to the Warsaw Ghetto and all three of. Zaman Hoff's children were killed by. Nazis yeah it's brutal Stalin did the. same thing which I guess is why it's it. seems at first surprising that he um. learned espiranto but he called it the. language of the spies so I guess he was. just that's probably why he learned it. exactly but even if you were a loyal. communist party member um you would be. killed for for knowing Esperanto which.

is funny because it was frequently. accused of being a secret communist plot. itself so right that kind of goes to. show you just how nationless espiranto. actually was yeah absolutely uh if you. get online today if you're interested in. this and you want to know like who's. how's it going today with espiranto. who's speaking it are people into it uh. yeah people are into it there is it's. it's not a huge Community but it's a. very passionate community of people all.

over the world people like Ben Bolan uh. they find each other online uh it's very. easy to do that now obviously before the. internet they would uh they would have. local clubs and stuff like that they. would have pin Pals kind of the way that. people would spread any message pre-. internet they were doing that in. espiranto and there are you know there. are conferences I think there's uh one. the. 2024 uh universala congresso. is in Tanzania this year which is pretty. cool and it sounds just like they they.

get together they speak espiranto they. work hard to keep this language and this. idea alive which is a very again I I. think it's still a noble Pursuit and. Esperanto has its own um teaching app. Lear new with an exclamation point at. Lear. new.net you can also pick it up on du. lingo and Babel but I looked on. duolinguo they have 381,000 people. signed up to learn Esperanto which is. more than Klingon more than Navajo and.

more than Yiddish it's toward the bottom. but it's still not the last one 380,000. people worldwide is nothing to sneeze at. heck no it's more than Kling on there's. also a couple podcasts radio Esperanto. radio by the way is the same word in. English and espiranto oh already ended. with an uh us person American in person. uh but you have to probably kind of know. already a little bit of. Esperanto yeah I meant to check that out.

I'm going to listen to one of those and. just see if I can understand anything. like oh they said radio again I know. what that means one other thing before. we leave do you have anything else yeah. I got one so two other things I guess. okay well you go first okay um 1905 we. mentioned that year earlier what year. was that was that the first year of the. first Congress the universal Congress. the first Congress well that makes sense. then CU that was the year that the. espiranto flag uh was debuted it is. called the the Verda Stell or the green. star uh and it's it's nice it's a green.

rectangle it's got a little white square. in the upper left corner and a green. star inside that white. square uh and apparently that was a big. part of The Branding theor green um LL. early on wanted it to all sort of look. the same and feel the same so his. pamphlets and books and everything was. in green and I think Green's just a big. esper or I'm sorry Vero is a big. espiranto color ver that's that's um. branding 101 branding 101 uh okay well.

I'll say mine then you can finish with. yours I just wanted to talk about. Incubus real quick that 1965 66 Shatner. movie I watched a little bit of I did. too and it is really hard to follow and. and when you're listening to them speak. you're like oh this is okay it's. espiranto if you speak espiranto it. drives you up the wall because. apparently no one in the film knew. espiranto they learned their dialogue in. two weeks and there was no one who knew. espiranto on the set to coach them so. it's just moment after moment of bad.

aspero pronunciation and I saw an quarts. there was an article that quoted like a. a film reviewer from the the age who. said that um Incubus is like a foreign. film from a country that never. existed what a great description I. thought so too we're checking out five. five minutes of it yeah absolutely. that's it that's it oh okay uh well if. you want to know more about espiranto. everybody go check it out you do worse. than starting no actually you couldn't.

do worse than starting with Incubus but. start there anyway uh and since I said. Incubus it's time for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this uh ain't. quite right hey guys listen to the. latest episode I got a kick out of Josh. saying that people who request and this. is on dry cleaning who request a double. crease in their pants ain't quite right. I stand by there yeah it's like a. southernness I guess um I used to live. in Miami uh now I'm back in Maryland. Where I Belong go Hager toown flying box.

cars and I worked as a housekeeper for. the opulently wealthy uh one woman I. could name drop but I won't requested. from her housekeepers that her bed. sheets be. ironed no joke she wanted her flat and. fitted king-size bed sheets laundered. and ironed every day wow here's the. kicker uh this woman almost became my. mother-in-law but I digress definitely. not quite right love the show guys it's.

my new source my companion my teacher. and has given an otherwise awkward me. plenty of knowledge to be able to. connect with someone on almost any topic. and that was a lovely email from the. wonderful Ashlin Powers thanks a lot. Ashlin that was great I would advise you. against using us as your news source. though but other than that thank you. very much agreed uh if you want to be. like Ashlin and tell us a great little. anecdote leaving out the names to. protect the uh not necessarily Innocent. but you know just out of tact you can do.

so via email send it off to stuff. podcast at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. [Music]. shows.