Esperanto

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Name(s):	Esperanto
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Esperanto is a constructed language, first created in the 1880s by Polish ophthalmologist L.L. Zamenhof.He designed the language to be grammatically simple and easy to learn, and hoped that it could become a universal second language that would unite the world.

While Zamenhof's ambitious goal for Esperanto has not been reached, the language is the most successful of its kind; with millions of learners, tens of thousands of speakers, and roughly a thousand native speakers, it is the most widely-spoken constructed language in the world. Esperanto is particularly popular in leftist spaces, and is commonly discussed in the context of science fiction fandom.

In Science Fiction Fandom

Some of the earliest members of fandom were proponents of Esperanto, such as Forrest J Ackerman and Morojo, members of the LASFS. Morojo published a fanzine called Guteto that was full of Esperanto, and their joint letterzine Voice of the Imagi-Nation sometimes ran ads for Esperanto study or printed letters written in the language. Morojo and Fojak (one of Ackerman's many nicknames) were both Esperanto, and a few other fans used Esperanto nicknames in fannish circles.

In 1941, Robert A. W. Lowndes wrote in to ask about Esperanto's place in fandom ("VOM... seems to have lost something. Perhaps we need a good healthy fight again", he added.)

The subject Vombi, is: can Esperanto be considered science-fictional? The reason for raising this question is that my illustrious predecessor, CDHornig gave an unreserved 'yes' to that question. Vide Science Fiction and the 1st 4 numbers of Future Fiction. Now the question comes to the fore, because all the Esperanto fans think it should continue.

First of all, perhaps I'd better clarify with my own very personal and not at all private position on Esperanto itself.... I like the language even though I've been too damn busy... to do more than desultory looking in to it. ...[To] tie this in with Future Fiction and the Quarterly, my opinion is that Esperanto isn't science fiction. It isn't futuristic. Esperanto is a reality; it is a thing of the present. True, it is only in its infancy, you might say, but then, so is television, rocketry, etc. Now these last might be considered stfal in the sense that future developements of them play a part of stf tales written today. But they are not stf in the sense that straight articles on them, as they are in the present stage, or might be in the immediate future, or again articles drumming up trade for them, as it were, really have a place in the imagination. And that is why I'm reluctant to put articles on the subject, or run a course on the subject in FF. Esperanto just isn't future fiction. Perhaps you, Morojo & Fojak, and your co-esperantists can persuade me different....

Are there any esperanto-stf clubs? Are es-fans translating stf yarns into the language? Stuff along that line seems to me to be right in the fanfare....

Much the same can be said about Technocracy. Only, of course it is much nearer to being stf today than esperanto. Technocracy really is part of a possible future. In that sense it is futurian, a dyanmic concept of tomorrow — but, again, to have a place in stf books, it must be tied in with stf fandom in some definite manner.

Lowndes in Voice of the Imagi-Nation issue 16 page 10 (July 1941)

Ackerman and Morojo responded:

Latest developments in the esp-stf movement include Morojo's introduction of Guteto into the FAPA; the apearance in England of the 2d esp-stf fan-revuo--Jen, the first being Rovelo's Novaj-Horizontoj; Alojo plans to present a stf story in Esp alongside the original Eng in Specula; Fojak has accepted Fan-Atic's invitation to conduct an Esperanto course in its pgs; Harry Turner's "Creed of an Atheist" is being translated from Fantast for presentation in Satana Bulteno (circulation, 750); & [Charles Hornig's Esperanto name; illegible in print] is Esperanticizing "Alice in Wonderland"!

Ibid.

In Fiction

In situations where content creators want to have their characters use a foreign language, but not an easily recognizable one, they turn to Esperanto. The language has appeared in the signage of films from Chaplin's The Great Dictator to Blade: Trinity. It's also popular among science fiction authors, who will sometimes imply or outright state that Esperanto is eventually adopted as a pan-human language.

Esperanto in Fanworks

Some fanworks have been written partially or entirely in Esperanto. As of July 2022, Archive of Our Own contains 94 works labelled as being in Esperanto (though many of these are mistagged English and Spanish works). Searching for the language on Fanfiction.net yields 18 results, with 7 stories actually written in Esperanto.

Several songs have been translated into Esperanto and covered by fans.

Example Fanworks

• Foje...; a Black Butler drabble by HEU
• La Glaciarium; a Good Omens fic translated from English into an Esperanto fic with an accompanying podfic by trashlations
• Ruĝen: rakonto pri intima socialismo; a Political RPF fic about 20th-century European leftists by Matenruĝulo
• Art for Tokyo Afterschool Summoners by genericcartoons