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É impossível separar esses dois aspectos. Já houve pessoas muito bem intencionadas que tentaram compilar um sistema de comunicação oral e escrito sem lembrar que sem cultura, um idioma não existe. Refiro-me, especificamente ao Esperanto. Interessante lembrar que mais de

ESPERANTO (from Wikipedia): is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto (Esperanto translates as 'one who hopes'), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that would foster peace and international understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages.

Estimates of Esperanto speakers range from 10,000 to 2,000,000 active or fluent speakers, as well as native speakers, that is, people who learned Esperanto from their parents as one of their native languages. Esperanto is spoken in about 115 countries. Usage is particularly high in northern and eastern Europe, east Asia, and South America. The first World Congress of Esperanto was organized in France in 1905. Since then congresses have been held in various countries every year with the exception of years in which there were world wars. Although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, Esperanto was recommended by the French Academy of Sciences in 1921 and recognized in 1954 by UNESCO (which later, in 1985, also recommended it to its member states). In 2007, Esperanto was the 32nd language that adhered to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment (CEFR)". As of October 2011, the Esperanto Wikipedia had the 27th highest count of Wikipedia articles. Esperanto is currently the language of instruction of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino. There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a superior foundation for learning languages in general, and some primary schools teach it as preparation for learning other foreign languages.

Apesar da bela e correta descrição acima, na hipótese mais otimista, em números redondos, não mais do que o equivalente a 1% da população brasileira, sipostamente fala esperanto. Trocando em miúdos, num mundo com mais de 7.000.000.000 (sete bilhões) de habitantes, não mais do que 0,03% (dois milhões de pessoas) alegam que falam este idioma. A intenção do professor Zamenhof, indubitavelmente foi das melhores e, por isso, creio que sempre será lembrado como uma pessoa que deveria ter sido agraciada com o prêmio Nobel da Paz, embora tenha recebido diversas indicações para o Nobel da Paz de 1910, conforme o texto abaixo:

In 1910, Zamenhof was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, by four British Members of Parliament (including James O'Grady, Philip Snowden) and Professor Stanley Lane Poole. (The Prize was instead awarded to the International Peace Bureau.) On the occasion of the 5th Universala Kongreso de Esperanto in Barcelona, Zamenhof was made a Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by King Alfonso XIII of Spain


                    Leyzer Zamenhof

Born December 15, 1859
Bia?ystok, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died April 14, 1917 (aged 57)
Warsaw, Poland
Nationality Polish
Ethnicity Jewish
Citizenship Russian Empire
Known for Devising Esperanto

Work for an international language

Zamenhof, relief by Ivan Minekov, Bulgaria.

As a student at secondary school in Warsaw, Zamenhof made attempts to create some kind of international language with a grammar that was very rich, but also very complex. When he later studied English, he decided that the international language must have a simpler grammar. Apart from his parents' native languages Russian and Yiddish and his adopted language Polish, his linguistics attempts were also aided by his mastering of German, a good passive understanding of Latin, Hebrew and French, and a basic knowledge of Greek, English and Italian.

By 1878, his project Lingwe uniwersala was almost finished. However, Zamenhof was too young then to publish his work. Soon after graduation from school, he began to study medicine, first in Moscow, and later in Warsaw. In 1885, Zamenhof graduated from a university and began his practice as a doctor in Veisiejai and after 1886 as an ophthalmologist in P?ock and Vienna. While healing people there, he continued to work on his project of an international language.
For two years, he tried to raise funds to publish a booklet describing the language until he received the financial help from his future wife's father.

In 1887, the book titled Lingvo internacia: Antauparolo kaj plena lernolibro (International language: Foreword and complete textbook) was published in Russian under the pseudonym "Doktoro Esperanto" (Doctor Hopeful), from which the name of the language derives. For Zamenhof, this language, far from being merely a communication tool, was a way of promoting the peaceful coexistence of different people and cultures.

Take in consideration the fact that approximately 1.8 billion people, on Planet Earth, speak English as first or second language and compare to 2 million people who can communicate in Esperanto as a second language.

Definitely, culture is an aspect of ultimate importance for the popularization of a language. In my humble opinion, there are things, such as languages, that cannot be invented by men, according to their will. Languages must be spontaneously developed and then accepted (or not).

In respect to our editor’s article of yesterday, I must say that I do not agree, at all, with the contents of the speeches of Mario Covas and, most of all, of Márcio Moreira Alves. As a matter of fact, the person who introduced the so-called Institutional Act # 5 was he, himself.
He was looking forward to seeing the canvas of the Brazilian circus catch fire. May God bless his soul, but, as far as I remember, was an irresponsible person. As many representatives in Brasilia today, his interests were only he, himself and him. Not the Brazilian people.

Roberto Henry Ebelt é professor, escritor, produz uma coluna semanal para o Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre deste 2001 e é diretor do curso HENRY'S BUSINESS ENGLISH desde 1971.

Seu mais recente livro, O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS, pode ser encontrado nas livrarias Disal, Cultura e SBS ou à rua Hoffmann, 728 em Porto Alegre.

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