Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF) was established in 1968 as a vehicle for promoting scholarly research and dialogue on issues concerned with world language problems and language policy and planning. It works to promote the understanding and implementation of linguistic justice in a multicultural world through three priority areas: Research, Conservation and Education, supported by a system of grants and awards. This blog, ESF Connected, showcases recent activities and achievements within ESF’s priority areas, and the work of ESF and others more generally.
Una comunidad se moviliza en torno a su lengua
No es ningún secreto que muchos idiomas indígenas alrededor de Turtle Island (América del Norte) han sido amenazados por el colonialismo, y Kanien'kéha, más conocido como el idioma Mohawk, no es una excepción. Hace solo unas pocas generaciones, muchos Kahnawa'kehró:non, el pueblo Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) de Kahnawake, hablaban Kanien'kéha como primera lengua. Sin embargo, ahora la mayoría de los...
Komunumo solidariĝas pri sia lingvo
Ne estas sekreto, ke multajn indiĝenajn lingvojn tra Testuda Insulo [= Nord-Ameriko] minacis koloniismo, kaj Kanien’kéha – pli vaste konata kiel la mohoka lingvo – ne prezentas escepton. Antaŭ nur kelkaj generacioj multaj Kahnawa’kehró:non – anoj de la mohoka popolo Kanien’kehá:ka de Kanavakeo [Kahnawake, apud Montrealo en Kanado] – parolis la mohokan denaske. Tamen nun la plej multaj mohokoj...
Sandokan, the Tiger of Mompracem
This article by Alessandra Madella, which originally appeared on the Ĉina Radio Internacia website in January 2022, is republished here with the kind permission of its author. The Chinese year of the tiger gives us a chance to remember the tigerlike character of an adventure hero beloved of Italians and many others around the world, that is to say Sandokan, the handsome long-haired brave...
Sandokan, la Tigro de Mompraĉem
Ĉi tiu artikolo de Alessandra Madella, kiu unue aperis en la retejo de Ĉina Radio Internacia en januaro 2022, reaperas ĉi tie laŭ afabla permeso de la aŭtoro. En la jaro de la tigro laŭ la ĉina kalendaro, ni povas memori aventuran heroon je tigra karaktero tre amatan de italoj kaj multe da aliaj homoj tra la mondo. Temas pri la bela, long-hara, kuraĝa kaj grandanima pirato Sandokan, protagonisto...
Numismatics: an Esperanto cultural treasure trove no longer in the dark (3)
Numismatics involves much more than just collecting objects and describing them in a scientific fashion. Coins and medals are rightly considered actual artefacts, devised, created and manufactured by artists and medallists who were very often also skilled designers, sculptors etc. At the same time numismatic items illustrate and enrich the general history of human culture and of specific social...
Numismática: un tesoro cultural del esperanto que ya no está oculto (3)
La numismática implica mucho más que coleccionar objetos y describirlos de manera científica. Las monedas y medallas se consideran correctamente artefactos reales, ideados, creados y fabricados por artistas y medallistas que muy a menudo también eran diseñadores, escultores, etc. Al mismo tiempo, los elementos numismáticos ilustran y enriquecen la historia general de la cultura humana y de...
Numismatiko: ne plu kaŝita trezorujo de la Esperanto-kulturo (3)
Numismatiko estas multe pli ol nur kolektado kaj laŭscienca priskribado de objektoj. Moneroj kaj medaloj prave estu konsiderataj kiel veraj artefaktoj, elpensitaj, kreitaj kaj fabrikitaj de artistoj kaj medalistoj, kiuj tre ofte estis ankaŭ lertaj desegnistoj, skulptistoj ktp. Samtempe numismatikaĵoj ilustras kaj pliriĉigas la ĝeneralan historion de la homa kulturo kaj tiun de specifaj sociaj...
Conlang Excursions 6: Harmonic Variations
You may recall that a few instalments back, I outlined a fascinating artistic language called Elet Anta that has been all but forgotten since the death of its author. Now I’d like to present another similar curiosity, whose designer – under the pseudonym Galivad – says: “A lot of work went into creating this language, and I’d just like to share it, rather than leave it gathering dust in some old...
Bulletin · Bulteno
Short bilingual announcements of publications and projects
Mallongaj dulingvaj anoncoj pri eldonaĵoj kaj projektoj
Contribute an item · Kontribui eron
A brief history of Esperanto · Mallonga historio de Esperanto
Here is a useful article by Joshua Holzer, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Westminster College, Missouri, entitled “A brief history of Esperanto, the 135-year-old language of peace hated by Hitler and Stalin alike”. Jen utila anglalingva artikolo de Joshua...
Zamenhof comic strip · Bildstrio pri Zamenhof
Jean-Pierre Cavelan has started a comic strip in French and Esperanto about the life of L. L. Zamenhof. All Esperanto speakers are invited to assist the work with criticisms, corrections, suggestions, (en/dis)couragement, etc. Jean-Pierre Cavelan komencis...
Esperanto, The Aggressor Language
The book Readings in Language Studies, Volume 7: Intersections of Peace and Language, published in 2019, has a final chapter by Timothy Reagan on “Esperanto, The Aggressor Language”, a US Army handbook from the early 1960s. La libro Readings in Language Studies,...
IKIKO 2022
The International Congress of Intercultural Communication (IKIKO), a virtual world gathering of local/national meetings, will take place from 8 to 12 November 2022. The topic is intercultural communication, with the aim of collecting ideas and showing non-Esperantists...
“Women” and men · “Women” kaj viroj
A recent article from the New York Times explains the curious history of the words female and woman, which are not derived from male and man (at least not in its modern sense). Girl and lady are also discussed. Lastatempa artikolo el New York Times klarigas la...
The language of happiness · La lingvaĵo de feliĉo
This article in Nature examines the vocabulary used in descriptions of happiness and reveals that positive lexical items play only a limited role in such reports. It also shows that compact lexical families accurately reflect a semantic categorisation of sources of...
Plurilingual parenting · Plurlingva gepatreco
Linguists have long paid attention to the idea of bilingual parenting, but a new appreciation of linguistic and cultural complexity has brought about an alternative approach. This short article explains how what experts call “plurilingualism” views language use as...
Genetic linguistics tracks human migration · Genetika lingvoscienco spuras homan migradon
By applying methods from population genetics – but using linguistic data rather than genes – scientists at the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers...
Rapid phonemic learning in the first hours of life · Rapida fonema lernado en la unuaj vivhoroj
Human neonates can discriminate phonemes, but the neural mechanism underlying this ability is poorly understood. This recent article in the scientific journal Nature shows that the neonatal brain can learn to discriminate natural vowels from backward vowels, a...
Trade-off between complex words and complex grammar · Kompromiso inter kompleksaj vortoj kaj kompleksa gramatiko
According to a new study of patients with primary progressive aphasia, people who have difficulty producing complex words compensate by stringing together a sequence of simpler words to convey the idea they wish to express. Laŭ nova studo pri pacientoj kun fruastadia...
AILA Congress 2023 · AILA-Kongreso 2023
Lyon, France will, from the 17th to 21th of July 2023, play host to the 20th World Congress of AILA (the International Association of Applied Linguistics) with the theme of “Diversity and social cohesion in a globalized world: towards more committed language...
Online CEFR exams off to a good start · Sukcese debutis la retaj KER-ekzamenoj
For the first six months of thus year Katalin Kováts, head of the KER-Ekzamena Centro, and her team were busy relaunching UEA’s examination system, testing the new C2 level, laying the technical foundations for online examination, and organizing the first online...
Koutny spoke at FIPLV congress · Koutny prelegis ĉe FIPLV-kongreso
The World Congress of FIPLV (International Federation of Language Teacher Associations) took place from the 27th to 29th of July in Warsaw. There, Ilona Koutny gave a lecture on the subject of “Developing intercultural competence through an intercultural language”. La...
Madella to speak at AALA 2022 · Madella prelegos ĉe AALA 2022
ILEI’s vice-president, Alessandra Madella, will lecture on activity around Esperanto examinations in Italy at AALA 2022, the 8th annual international conference of the Asian Association for Language Assessment, at the end of October in Chennai, India. La...
UEA archive now at the Austrian National Library · Arkivo de UEA nun ĉe la Aŭstria Nacia Biblioteko
The World Esperanto Association (UEA) has recently handed over "one of the most extensive and important archives about Esperanto and the international Esperanto movement" to the Austrian National Library (ÖNB). We draw your attention to the relevant press releases...
Academy directors elected · Akademio-direktoroj elektiĝis
By 29 July, all 45 members of the Academy of Esperanto had voted to elect its board and sectional directors for the period 2022–2025. Elected as board members were: Probal Dasgupta (president), Brian Moon and Bertilo Wennergren (vice-presidents) and François Lo Jacomo...
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