1 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:06,519 Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? I just 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: wanted to say, kium vibankas. What are you saying? You 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 1: don't know? I'm speaking nineteenth century constructed language Esperanto, And 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: I asked, how much do you binch in Esperanto? Oh, man, 6 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: I don't speak esperanto. Hmmm, hoto s doman gut? Was 7 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: that Esperanto? I mean, I'm pretty sure I butchered it. 8 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: But what I tried to say was, oh, that's a 9 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: shame in esperanto. And all of our Esperanto speakers listening 10 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,639 Speaker 1: are like, no, you didn't say that, But either way 11 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:50,199 Speaker 1: I tried. Well, I feel left out. Let me google this, 12 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 1: mevo las lendy Esperanton. All right, Mango, you're speaking esperanto. 13 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: I guess it's pretty easy to speak esperanto. Yeah. I 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: mean that's kind of the point. And by the way, 15 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: isn't it just fun to say esperanto? Yeah, esperanto and 16 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: it rolls off the tongue Esperanto. Yeah. I feel like 17 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: we should commit to saying and at least a thousand 18 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: times in this episode, so now we have about a 19 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: thousand people that have just dropped off from listening. But anyway, 20 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: still haven't told me how much you binge. Oh, I 21 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: definitely want to tell you all about my weightlifting prowess. 22 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: But before I do that, why do we dive in? 23 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius. I'm Will and as 24 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: always I'm here with my good friend Mango, And somewhere 25 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: behind that big booth is our pal Dylan. Oh, there 26 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: he is. He's waving a big green flag and it's 27 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: got this big green star in the corner, and he 28 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: is just waving that thing at us. Yeah. I don't 29 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: know how he's waiting that from that tiny studio booth, 30 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: but look at him. Go, that's really it's impressive. Well, 31 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: I'm excited about this show because I feel like Esperanto 32 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:13,800 Speaker 1: is kind of a punchline today, but the idea behind 33 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,359 Speaker 1: it is actually really cool and it makes you wonder 34 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: like what would have happened if the world had embraced it, 35 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: and if we'd all learned to speak Esperanto in school? 36 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: How might the world be different? Yeah, let's get into it. 37 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:27,400 Speaker 1: You know, at the top of the episode, I know 38 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,520 Speaker 1: you referred to it as a constructed language, and I'm 39 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: curious about this. Aren't all languages basically constructed? You know? 40 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: I was curious about that too, and I learned that 41 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: the difference is that constructed languages are artificially created, meaning, 42 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 1: instead of a language that evolves naturally over time, the 43 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 1: words in grammar are actually planned out from the very beginning. 44 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: So consider dat Rocky from Game of Thrones or Elvin 45 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: from Lord of the Rings. Both of these languages were 46 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,640 Speaker 1: invented and used in fictional worlds. Now, that said, if 47 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:00,960 Speaker 1: there's a community of fluent speakers, especially native speakers, who 48 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: actually grow up speaking that language as their mother tongue, 49 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: then the language can actually involve and lose that you know, 50 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: constructed status. I like that, so I can get promoted 51 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: from a constructed language to kind of a natural language. 52 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: So that's right. So tell me about Esperanto itself, Like, 53 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: why was it invented in the first place. So, Esperanto 54 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: falls under the category of international auxiliary languages, and it 55 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: was created to facilitate international communication, which is why it's 56 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: relatively easy to pick up. So Esperanto was dreamed up 57 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: in the late eighteen hundreds by a Polish medical doctor 58 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: and his name was el El Zamenhoff. I love that name, 59 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: like elms. Yeah, like super steampunk or something. But it's 60 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:49,320 Speaker 1: also crazy that you said it's been around since the 61 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, so, like I just assumed it was kind 62 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: of a modern language and came out in the nineteen fifties. Well, 63 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: you're actually not totally wrong. So the UN and UNESCO 64 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: gave Esperanto a by officially recognizing it in the nineteen fifties, 65 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 1: but it was actually invented well before then, back in 66 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven. And just to put it in perspective 67 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: for you, Esperanto is older than Helen Keller sliced bread 68 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: and the invention of the zipper, three things that you 69 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,840 Speaker 1: talk about, nonsta, I'd say every day you mentioned these 70 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: things at least once. Yeah, well it's also crazy though 71 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:26,559 Speaker 1: it's like basically created twenty years after the Civil War. 72 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: Like that's nuts. So honest, tell me about the genius 73 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: behind it. This guy ll Zemenhoff. Well, to start with, 74 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: he spoke a ton of languages, so I think genius 75 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: feels right here because get a load of this. So 76 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: Russian was his mother tongue, but because he lived in Poland. 77 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:46,480 Speaker 1: He spoke Polish too. He learned Yiddish from his mother. 78 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: He also studied German, English, Spanish, Lithuanian, Italian, French, Hebrew, Latin. 79 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: I'm not making this up, and to round it all out, 80 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:01,600 Speaker 1: a little bit of Aramaic. And so before he invented Esperanto, 81 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: Zemenhoff even learned another constructed language, VALLAPUKH Wait, what's what's Valapouk? 82 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:11,600 Speaker 1: I actually thought this would be one that you knew 83 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:13,280 Speaker 1: for some reason, you just strike me as the type 84 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: that would speak vallipuuk. But actually that's really the problem 85 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: here is with with Valapuk. It's very, very hard to learn. 86 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 1: It was constructed back in eighteen eighty, it was about 87 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: a decade before Esperanto, but it was just too complicated, 88 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 1: so it never took off. And Zaemonhoff saw that and 89 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: he realized that if he was going to get Esperanto 90 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,600 Speaker 1: to catch hold, it had to be much easier to learn. 91 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: So Zemanhoff was fixated on this idea that if we 92 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: could speak a common language and one with you know, 93 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 1: no cultural baggage or ideas of superiority or inferiority, that 94 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:49,200 Speaker 1: it would create this more tolerant world, and so what 95 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,280 Speaker 1: was driving that fro him? Was it like partially because 96 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: he was a Jew? Yeah, that's exactly it. So this 97 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: is the eighteen eighties. He's a Jew in Poland at 98 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: the time of the Russian pogo RUMs, and you know, 99 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: anti Semitism is on the rise, and Zaymanhoff thought if 100 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:07,719 Speaker 1: he could make an international auxiliary language, he could bring 101 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: people together. So I notice you keep using the word auxiliary, 102 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: and I'm curious, like, why is that. Well, like, Esperanto 103 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: is just another word that I like to say over 104 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: and over, so it's just just kind of fun, sure, 105 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:23,280 Speaker 1: But I mean the reality is that Esperanto isn't meant 106 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 1: to replace your mother tongue, like whatever that may be, 107 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,159 Speaker 1: that's fine for that to still be there. Zaymanhoff really 108 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 1: saw it as a second language, like something people could 109 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:37,479 Speaker 1: learn quickly to facilitate easy conversation with anybody there sore 110 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,400 Speaker 1: speaking to around the world, and so we worked really 111 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: hard to make the language as easy as possible to 112 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:46,279 Speaker 1: pick up. Well, before we get into just how fast 113 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: you can pick up Esperanto, why don't we take a 114 00:06:48,320 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're 115 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: talking all things Esperanto. So I don't know about you, 116 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:12,880 Speaker 1: but when I learn languages, I'm great for like the 117 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 1: first six months, Like vocab is easy, pronunciation is really easy, 118 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,640 Speaker 1: but eventually the grammar just catches up to me and 119 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: it stifles me and gives me like total anxiety. And 120 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: instead of getting pleasure from speaking a new language, I 121 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 1: really get in my head and get very tongue tied. 122 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: So I'm curious, like, how did Zamon Hoff go about 123 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: making Esperanto easy for new students. Well, I mean, like 124 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 1: any language, it does have grammar rules and vocabulary, so 125 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 1: you can't get around memorizing those rules. But what he 126 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: tried to do is to make those as simple as possible, 127 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: and not only that, but to make them very consistent. 128 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: And if you're already familiar with a romance language, you're 129 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:55,559 Speaker 1: going to recognize a lot of it. I mean, here's 130 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:58,679 Speaker 1: an example of something that makes Esperanto easier to learn. 131 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 1: There's no ambiguity and how you pronounce it. Zam and 132 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 1: Hoff wanted it to have a one to one letter 133 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: to sound correspondence, meaning there are literally extra letters in 134 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: Esperanto and within the alphabet, just so you can never 135 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: have to guess how something is spelled or pronounced from 136 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: its context. Oh that's really cool, you know, Hindi is 137 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: actually like that, it's fanatic. And I remember thinking, like, 138 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: it's so much better for beginners to be able to 139 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:26,560 Speaker 1: spell that way because it's just, you know, no ambiguity. 140 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 1: But actually, remember in college, one of my professors talked 141 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 1: about this movement to change English and make all the 142 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:36,560 Speaker 1: spellings more phonetic. And part of the reason was that 143 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 1: if a language is spelled phonetically, it supposedly reduces, you know, 144 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: the difficulties for people with learning disabilities like dyslexia and 145 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: so like, if you spell things exactly the way you 146 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,839 Speaker 1: pronounce them, spelling tests aren't a thing anymore. Yeah, I mean, 147 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: and that's I mean, I find that really interesting. And 148 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: fixing spelling wasn't the only thing Zamanhoff was concerned with, 149 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 1: Like he did other things to just try to simplify 150 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,439 Speaker 1: the language, like the nouns have no gender, which can 151 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: be a real stumbling box to speaking a language you 152 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: know fluently, and the verbs are all regular, there's only 153 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: one standard form, pertense, And he worked to really simplify 154 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: the grammar as well, like Actually, before he constructed Esperanto, 155 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: Zamenhoff had these dreams of reviving Latin and making that 156 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: the language that everyone could communicate in. But he decided 157 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: the grammar was just too hard, so he decided to 158 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: work to make the rules as simple as possible. Anyway, 159 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 1: Zemenhoff laid out all the Esperanto basics in his book 160 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,679 Speaker 1: Unua Libro aka first book, and this was in July 161 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: of eighteen eighty seven, and mango, can I tell you 162 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: the pseudonym that he published it under? This is pretty great. Yeah, 163 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: I'd love to hear it Doctro Esperanto. I love that. 164 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,439 Speaker 1: I knew you would. It's kind of like an off 165 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: friend X men character. Yeah, it actually, I think that's 166 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: spot on because it translates as doctor hopeful, which is 167 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:05,280 Speaker 1: kind of bittersweet given that Zamenhoff died in nineteen seventeen 168 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,320 Speaker 1: and Esperanto largely died off during World War One. I 169 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: guess World War made the mission of kind of bringing 170 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: people together seem futile, and that, you know, there were 171 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: some dedicated speakers that kept it alive, but then, of 172 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: course there was World War Two, and you know, the 173 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: rest is history there. Yeah, it couldn't have been good 174 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: for pushing Esperanto forward. Yeah. In fact, Esperanto had two 175 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:32,319 Speaker 1: formidable opponents during World War Two, Joseph Stalin and Hitler. 176 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: So Stalin sent Esperanto speakers to the Gulags, and Hitler 177 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: wrote in mindcomf that Esperanto was a language being used 178 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 1: by Jews as a method of world domination. Wow, which 179 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,840 Speaker 1: of course was not Zamenhoff's point. But what's really devastating 180 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,240 Speaker 1: is Zamenhoff's three children, who were of course also Jewish, 181 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: were actually all killed during the Holocaust. Oh that's uh, 182 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:58,600 Speaker 1: you know, it's crazy to think that, like Esperanto is 183 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: almost like a Miller joke or something these days. But yeah, 184 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:05,720 Speaker 1: it wasn't that long ago that, you know. I guess 185 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,360 Speaker 1: just speaking it could get you killed or thrown in prison. Yeah. 186 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: Think about a lot of our younger listeners here. I 187 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:13,520 Speaker 1: love that you just made a Dennis Miller reference, so 188 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 1: they can they can do their homework on hew. But 189 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:21,040 Speaker 1: he was also from right after the Civil War, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, 190 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:23,559 Speaker 1: I'm pretty pretty sure a little bit a little bit after. 191 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: But what's amazing is that somehow Esperanto managed to survive 192 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,479 Speaker 1: and was taught in concentration camps spoken by true believers, 193 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:36,240 Speaker 1: and after World War Two Esperanto was almost completely gone, 194 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 1: but it somehow managed to survive into the twentieth century. 195 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,160 Speaker 1: And that really was thanks to these small groups of 196 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: Esperanto enthusiasts. And it's hard to know exactly how many 197 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:49,800 Speaker 1: people speak Esperanto, but according to some estimates, there are 198 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: at least two million speakers in the world today, which 199 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: I found shocking when I saw that number. Yeah, and 200 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 1: even though Esperanto was made to be this auxiliary language, 201 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:02,440 Speaker 1: there is a cohort of about a thousand people who 202 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: speak Esperanto as their first language. Isn't that wild? Wow, 203 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: that's really cool. So Esperanto kind of ended up transcending 204 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,600 Speaker 1: that constructed language status and I guess evolved into a 205 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: real language. Yeah, yeah, it makes me wanted to say that. 206 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,960 Speaker 1: You know, look, Japeto, I'm a real, live language. You know. 207 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:23,480 Speaker 1: Pinocchio was actually written in Esperanto. Wait, you're kidding, because 208 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: I said, is that actually true? No, it's not true, 209 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: but it sounds like a lie that would tell But 210 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: you know who actually is a native speaker of Esperanto? 211 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 1: And I found this in research and was fascinated by this. 212 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: George Soros. Okay, so this is your second line. That 213 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: is that actually true? It is true? And also George 214 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:49,560 Speaker 1: Santos speaker, No good, Yeah, George Soros actually is a speaker. Apparently, 215 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: his father, Tivadar Soros, was a huge proponent of Esperanto, 216 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: and in fact, Tivadar published his memoir in Esperanto in 217 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,760 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three. It's really fascinating. It's about being held 218 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: in a prisoner of war camp in Siberia and how 219 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,920 Speaker 1: he kind of led this escape of his companions. They 220 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 1: fled by foot and made it all the way back 221 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:13,360 Speaker 1: to Hungary. And so how does Sourus's dad learn Esperanto? 222 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: So Sourus's dad is from Budapest, and by all accounts, 223 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,560 Speaker 1: he was a genius. He was a doctor, a lawyer, 224 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,560 Speaker 1: he was a writer and an editor. But early in 225 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: his life, after fighting in World War One, he escaped 226 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 1: Russia and returned to Hungary, and in this period he 227 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: picked up the language. In his twenties, and then a 228 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 1: little later he actually helped start this literary journal. It 229 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 1: was called Literature Amando, and it published works in Esperanto. 230 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 1: And I assume that that's how George Soros grew up 231 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,280 Speaker 1: speaking it or what? Yeah, so George and his brother 232 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:49,200 Speaker 1: grew up speaking it. They grew up in Budapest in 233 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,640 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties and forties, and in fact, when he 234 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: was seventeen, George left Budapest to seek his fortune in England, 235 00:13:56,960 --> 00:13:59,679 Speaker 1: and he said, quote, one of the first things I 236 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: did was seek out the Esperanto society in London because 237 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: it was basically this refuge for him. I do like 238 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: how speaking a common language can almost make you a 239 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,160 Speaker 1: citizen of a country, or at least give you this 240 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: shared background, which is nice. Yeah, it's funny, my family, 241 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: I mean, you know this, but we speak this tiny 242 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: dialect of a dialect that basically no one speaks, like 243 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,160 Speaker 1: maybe like twenty five thousand people in that world. But 244 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,600 Speaker 1: when I hear someone speaking it, you feel immediately connected 245 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 1: to them. But unlike Esperanto speakers, Conkany speakers never almost 246 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:34,320 Speaker 1: had our own country. Wait, was there actually almost an 247 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: Esperanto country? Yeah, so the long lost Esperanto nation was 248 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: called I'm a Kajo. And in eighteen fifteen, this is 249 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: after the fall of Napoleon, the borders within Europe had 250 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: to be re established, right, So, like Prussia and the 251 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:52,400 Speaker 1: Kingdom and the Netherlands were fighting over this territory known 252 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: as Moorsnet, where an important zinc mine was located. And 253 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,080 Speaker 1: so eventually mores I was divided into three parts. One 254 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: went to the Netherlands, one went to Prussia, and one 255 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: was declared a neutral territory around this disputed zinc mind 256 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,400 Speaker 1: called neutral Moresnet. And it's sort of a little like 257 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:14,040 Speaker 1: No Man's Land or something. Yeah, and it's a tiny space, 258 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,440 Speaker 1: like it was only like seventy acres or so, But 259 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: by eighteen sixteen there were I guess, like two hundred 260 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred and fifty five people living there. 261 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: But because of the zinc mine, the number of inhabitants 262 00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:27,960 Speaker 1: grew and by eighteen fifty eight there were about twenty 263 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: five hundred people there. Anyway, one of the immigrants to 264 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: Neutral Moresnet was this German doctor named doctor Wilhelm Molly. 265 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: He was a really popular doctor because he kept his 266 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:41,240 Speaker 1: fees very low, and he actually became super popular when 267 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,760 Speaker 1: he helped to like end this cholera epidemic there. Yeah, 268 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:46,360 Speaker 1: I mean, that's what all the popular kids in my 269 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 1: high school did they helped, you know, clear cholera. Yeah, sure, sure. 270 00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: Well doctor Molly was also really big into Esperanto, and 271 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: when he met this professor named Gustav Roy, who was 272 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:01,920 Speaker 1: also an Esperantis, they decided to establish an Esperanto state 273 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: in this area. In nineteen oh eight, there was this 274 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: big demonstration with speeches and this effort to establish this 275 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: Esperanto free state, and they wanted to call it Amika Joe, 276 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 1: which means friend place in Esperanto. That's actually pretty funny. 277 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: It's like Amity Island and Jaws or Amneyville from Amnityville 278 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: Horror in both these movies where everything goes, you know, 279 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: super smoothly in this friend Place. Yeah, I guess naming 280 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,480 Speaker 1: your new nation friend place is sort of a kiss 281 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: of death. But they really wanted to make this place happen. 282 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,680 Speaker 1: So the zinc miners there even had a band and 283 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: they played a proposed national anthem, the Amika Joe March, 284 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: which I'm sure you're familiar with definitely, and the New 285 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: York Times covered it in nineteen oh eight and they 286 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,200 Speaker 1: heralded Amika Joe as a new European state. But of 287 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: course it did not last. When the zinc Mine got depleted, 288 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,440 Speaker 1: Prussia began to reassort his claim over the territory and 289 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 1: the inhabitants of Moors that petitioned for annexation by Belgium. 290 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: In nineteen nineteen, the terror Ratory was seated to Belgium, 291 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:03,600 Speaker 1: and that kind of brought an end to the existence 292 00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:08,920 Speaker 1: of nutral Warsnet and also the dream of Mikicho. Let's 293 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,200 Speaker 1: talk about a few more constructed languages before we get 294 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: to that, though, Let's take a quick break. Welcome back 295 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: to part time Genius. We were talking about Esperanto, so 296 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,080 Speaker 1: will I think you were just about to walk us 297 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:38,440 Speaker 1: through a few more constructed languages that you found. It's 298 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:42,119 Speaker 1: funny because before going into this, I knew about Esperanto, 299 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,320 Speaker 1: but I didn't realize how many constructed languages there are 300 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: out there. It's kind of like this Pandora's box, Like, 301 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: way before Esperanto, there was Lingua ignata. This was thousand 302 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: years ago, and it's kind of a divine language. So 303 00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:00,400 Speaker 1: you've got the Benedictine Abbess Hildegard von Bingen. It's quite 304 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: the name, right, the Benedictine Abbess Hildegarde von Bingen, who 305 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: had these religious visions, probably brought on by intense migraines. 306 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,600 Speaker 1: And she constructed this glossary of a thousand words. She 307 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 1: arranged them hierarchically, beginning with the words for God and 308 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: the angels, than human beings, than other animals, plants, and 309 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: so on. And the abbess used Latin for the grammar 310 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:27,679 Speaker 1: of her language, but also wrote in this made up 311 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,159 Speaker 1: script literary ignante or unknown letters. You know, one thing 312 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:36,120 Speaker 1: that's funny about Esperanto or volapuk is that they're both 313 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: supposedly universal languages, but they're also super Eurocentric. They're mostly 314 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:44,680 Speaker 1: based on Latin or Romance languages, so of course they're 315 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,159 Speaker 1: easy to learn if you're from Europe. But there are 316 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: obviously other continents where people speak languages with wildly different constructions. 317 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:54,080 Speaker 1: You know, there are two thousand different Asian languages alone, 318 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:56,960 Speaker 1: which as proto completely ignores. And I found a couple 319 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: of these con langs that actually addressed this. So are 320 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:04,200 Speaker 1: we the kind of people that say con langs? Now? Yeah, 321 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:07,440 Speaker 1: I've decided to, you know, break that barrier on this show. 322 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: But it is a thing. Con lang is the actual 323 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:15,400 Speaker 1: term for constructed languages. Anyway, one con lang that addresses 324 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:20,080 Speaker 1: this eurocentrism problem is Lingua de Planeta, which is based 325 00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:25,800 Speaker 1: on Arabic, Mandarin, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, 326 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:32,680 Speaker 1: and Spanish. That feels like a lot of very different languages. Yeah, 327 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,160 Speaker 1: but I mean it's got Planeta in the name, so 328 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:37,800 Speaker 1: you know it is true too. That's true, I get it. 329 00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: The language was invented in twenty ten by Dmitri Ivanoff 330 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: and a group of fellow language enthusiasts in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 331 00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: and it was based on the most widely spoken languages 332 00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: in the world. The unfortunate part is that it is 333 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:55,639 Speaker 1: really really hard to learn, so you didn't pick up 334 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:59,160 Speaker 1: Samenhoff's lesson. But the good thing is that wherever you're from, 335 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: at least some words will be familiar to you. But 336 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 1: because most of the words sound completely different, and because 337 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: you're combining elements of Russian and Portuguese and Hindi, it's 338 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: it gets a little complicated. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't 339 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: exclude whole portions of the earth population, which is a 340 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,480 Speaker 1: nice idea, but it sounds almost impossible to learn, which 341 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a great strategy for spreading a language. Yeah, 342 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: I mean that kind of highlights the dilemma of this 343 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:29,200 Speaker 1: whole ideal interlanguage, right, like how do you compress thousands 344 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:33,440 Speaker 1: of global languages and cultures into one universal standard. Even 345 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 1: uniting a continent with a single language can be a 346 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: real challenge. There was another example of this that I 347 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 1: was looking at, Afriheli, for example, which was created by 348 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 1: this Ghanian civil engineer ka Kumi Autobra. This was back 349 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,159 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, and Afriheli takes vocabulary from languages 350 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 1: all over the African continent and the whole goal of 351 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,200 Speaker 1: this was to be adopted as the lingua franca of Africa. 352 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: And of course there would be lots of benefits to that, 353 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: right like not only can a unified language promote unity 354 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:08,119 Speaker 1: and understanding among different peoples, you could improve education and 355 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:11,119 Speaker 1: of course you can boost trade from this. So in 356 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:15,560 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, the Afriheeally Center began publishing a newspaper 357 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:18,879 Speaker 1: in Afriheally called The Sun, and according to a nineteen 358 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: eighty seven press release for the twenty fifth anniversary of 359 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,119 Speaker 1: the language, about one thousand people learned Afrihally, but the 360 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,120 Speaker 1: last published reference to afriheally seems to be nineteen eighty eight, 361 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,680 Speaker 1: so it unfortunately wasn't that successful. Yeah, I mean, while 362 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: we're counting up all these failed attempts to unify real people, 363 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,600 Speaker 1: we should definitely talk about the fictional con lingus which 364 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: tend to be more successful, including Klingon, which I know 365 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: you have a story about Klingon right, Yes, I had 366 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,679 Speaker 1: not thought about this in a while. So you and 367 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 1: I when we were back at Mental Floss, we were 368 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,880 Speaker 1: invited to give a talk to the team at Google, 369 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: and so we thought, ah, this was in the time 370 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: there was all this talk about how smart you had 371 00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:05,399 Speaker 1: to be to work at Google and how many tests 372 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: you had to pass to get you know, hired there, 373 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: and so we thought, you know what, we're going to 374 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: come up with a challenge that these guys are not 375 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,439 Speaker 1: going to be able to solve. And so we were 376 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,800 Speaker 1: working with a puzzle creator, and the puzzle creator had 377 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: this amazing idea of coming up with a crossword puzzle 378 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,000 Speaker 1: that was all in constructed languages, so like Klingon and 379 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: Elvish and Esperanto was of course one of them, and 380 00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:31,640 Speaker 1: several others. And so we thought, you know what, the 381 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,600 Speaker 1: one who completes this. If anybody does, will win a prize. 382 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,800 Speaker 1: I can't remember what we were giving away, a subscription 383 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 1: to Mental flows or something. Well, anyway, I think there 384 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:43,399 Speaker 1: were like ten people that brought it up complete. Not 385 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: only that, they were actually correcting our grammatical mistakes in 386 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: these constructed languages. So it was it was pretty amazing 387 00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:55,240 Speaker 1: and proved that they were, you know, pretty smart. I guess, yeah, yeah, 388 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: but a little So you were talking about this, but 389 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: they actually hired a linguist to create a whole Klingon language. Yeah, 390 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,840 Speaker 1: so Klingon was created for Star Trek by a linguist 391 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,200 Speaker 1: named Mark Okrnd. And you know, he didn't actually create 392 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: the whole language at one time, which is kind of interesting. Basically, 393 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,120 Speaker 1: the story goes in the Wrath of Khan. There were 394 00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:18,880 Speaker 1: two Vulcan characters speaking to each other in a corridor, 395 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,400 Speaker 1: and the producers shot the scene with the actors speaking English, 396 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: but later they decided to change it to a Vulcan language, 397 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: but there wasn't one yet, so Okrn told the Washington 398 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:31,760 Speaker 1: Post quote, they wanted a linguist to come and make 399 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: up gobbledygook that matches the lip movements and I said, 400 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: I can do that, and from then on Okren kind 401 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: of designed the language as needed based on the needs 402 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: of the scenes. The language was built kind of one 403 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,080 Speaker 1: line at a time to suit the story of the show, 404 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,359 Speaker 1: and he'd actually coach the actress to say the lines 405 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,359 Speaker 1: to get through the process and then moved on. But 406 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: actually there are people who can speak Klingon right, Yeah, 407 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:56,640 Speaker 1: today there are are more than two hundred and fifty 408 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:00,720 Speaker 1: thousand copies of Okren's Klingon dictionary that and sold and 409 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,320 Speaker 1: Duo Lingo even has a Klingon language course, which is amazing. 410 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,320 Speaker 1: No way. The funny thing is that some Klingon speakers 411 00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,800 Speaker 1: aren't even Trekky's like, they just love languages and wanted 412 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: to expand this one. So there's a group of speakers 413 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: that formed the Klingon Language Institute in nineteen ninety two 414 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: and it's a full nonprofit organization dedicated to legitimately teaching Klingon. 415 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: They have translators, they have other online resources. And the 416 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: strange thing is like, unlike Esperanto, Klingon is not easy. 417 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,480 Speaker 1: But when a language is part of like this world 418 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,639 Speaker 1: building of a story, people will apparently really want to 419 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:40,240 Speaker 1: participate and there's a fandom that wants to develop that culture. Yeah, 420 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,639 Speaker 1: it makes me think about like Lord of the Rings, 421 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: where the readers who are really into these elven languages. 422 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,880 Speaker 1: In fact, JR. Tolkien kind of did the language thing 423 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: the opposite way. Tolkien writes, quote, the invention of languages 424 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: is the foundation of my fictional writings. The stories were 425 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,199 Speaker 1: made to provide a world for the languages, rather than 426 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,879 Speaker 1: the reverse. And apparently Tolkien started creating languages when he 427 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:07,680 Speaker 1: was thirteen years old, and he believed that a language 428 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,160 Speaker 1: could not be complete without the history of the people 429 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,720 Speaker 1: who've spoken. I mean, this is just so interesting to 430 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:17,000 Speaker 1: read about. And the whole thing was basically a hobby 431 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,960 Speaker 1: for him, like something he did for personal enjoyment as 432 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,040 Speaker 1: a scholar and a linguist. And in fact, it wasn't 433 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,359 Speaker 1: just the languages he made up. He also liked to 434 00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:29,159 Speaker 1: write poems and songs and dead languages like medieval Welch. 435 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,879 Speaker 1: This was just a way of keeping his mind sharp 436 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: and obviously it worked. I love what a weirdo Tolkien is. 437 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: I remember my friend Brian Gottisman wrote this article for 438 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 1: as a mental floss about Tolkien, and there was a 439 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: bit about how sometimes as a joke, Tolkien would chase 440 00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:49,719 Speaker 1: his neighbors around dressed like an axe wielding Anglo Saxon warrior. Yeah, 441 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:54,880 Speaker 1: it's amazing. And also sometimes at like a cash register 442 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,240 Speaker 1: at a store, he would hand a shop keep false 443 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:01,800 Speaker 1: teeth instead of a payment. Like such a weird though. Anyway, 444 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: before we do an entire episode on tolkit right now, 445 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:16,520 Speaker 1: why don't we switch leans into a fact off? All right, well, 446 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: how about I kick this off? So for nearly forty years, 447 00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 1: Esperanto was the language of instruction at the International Academy 448 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:27,240 Speaker 1: of Sciences in San Marino. The idea of using Esperanto 449 00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: was basically to eliminate linguistic biases and keep the focus 450 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,120 Speaker 1: on the science instead. It's a perfect example of why 451 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,439 Speaker 1: esperanto is invented. That's really cool. Do you know that 452 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,959 Speaker 1: studying Esperanto can help you pick up other romance languages faster? 453 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,200 Speaker 1: So there are two studies from the nineteen fifties, one 454 00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:48,600 Speaker 1: that observed the kids at Denton Grammar School and another 455 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,440 Speaker 1: from Sheffield University, and these took place around the same time, 456 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,400 Speaker 1: and they found that the average student who learned one 457 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: year of Esperanto followed by three years of French. Spoke 458 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,359 Speaker 1: French much better and more fluently at the end of 459 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,200 Speaker 1: that course versus those who just took four years of French. 460 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,080 Speaker 1: I guess it kind of makes sense, like we were saying, 461 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: how it's so easy to learn? But all right, Well, 462 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,120 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty one, the League of Nations, the precursor 463 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 1: to the un almost accepted Esperanto as their working language. 464 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,480 Speaker 1: This is from the Library of Congress. It almost went through, 465 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,280 Speaker 1: but then the delegate from France vetoed it because he 466 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: saw it as a threat to the French language and 467 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,359 Speaker 1: the position it held in the world. Doesn't it Just 468 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: this feels like that's the right way this ust have ended. 469 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: And because all resolutions had to be unanimous, the proposal 470 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:38,400 Speaker 1: was ultimately scrapped. That's so sad. It feels like Esperanto 471 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,680 Speaker 1: almost had a shot. And then yeah, then the French. 472 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:45,840 Speaker 1: Here's a quick non Esperanto one. Have you ever heard 473 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,080 Speaker 1: of the fictional con land called Teo Knot I don't 474 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: think I have. Yeah. So it was created by a 475 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,280 Speaker 1: sci fi author, Sarah Higley, also known as Sally Caves, 476 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,840 Speaker 1: and the language is one spoken by a race of 477 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,720 Speaker 1: winged cats who eventually become human but continue to worship 478 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,159 Speaker 1: cats as gods. Oh you know how I feel about cats. 479 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,199 Speaker 1: It's so cat to be cats also worship cats the 480 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,080 Speaker 1: whole thing. But anyway, all right, so this is really cool. 481 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 1: Did you know that Enya sings some of her songs 482 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,879 Speaker 1: in a fictional language called Loxian. I guess she was 483 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,959 Speaker 1: recording a song in all of these languages, English, Gaelic, Latin, 484 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,719 Speaker 1: and none of them were quite doing it for so 485 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:29,879 Speaker 1: her creative partner, Roma Ryan, wrote the lyrics into Loxian, 486 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,680 Speaker 1: and Enya loved it. Well, you know what I always say, 487 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,920 Speaker 1: if anyone can bring the global community together, it is Enya. 488 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 1: You do say that that's true. So here's a final 489 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,160 Speaker 1: one for me. I didn't realize that there had been 490 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,920 Speaker 1: any movies made in Esperanto, but there is at least 491 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,600 Speaker 1: one film, a black and white movie called Incubus starring 492 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: none other than William Shatner. Nically, the film was lost 493 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 1: for decades, but it was restored and then released in 494 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: two thousand and one. And despite the fact that Esperanto 495 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:07,000 Speaker 1: is supposedly easy to speak and pronounce, according to many Esperantos, 496 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 1: his pronunciation in the film is off, which is not 497 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,320 Speaker 1: unlike our pronunciation in this show. Yeah, I was gonna say, 498 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: I'm guessing he did it better than us, But I 499 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: don't know the fact that we talked about cling on 500 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,440 Speaker 1: in this episode and you somehow brought it all back 501 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,920 Speaker 1: to Shatner, I gotta say it makes me want to 502 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,400 Speaker 1: give you this week's trophy. So congrats, Mango, Thank you 503 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 1: Will or, as the renowned thespian William Shatner often says, 504 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,600 Speaker 1: an esperanto, thank you will Nice. That's it for today's 505 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. If you like the show, please be 506 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,120 Speaker 1: sure to reach out to either of our moms who 507 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: would love to hear about it, or let us know 508 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 1: in the reviews. You know we love hearing from you. 509 00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kalidus and iHeartRadio. 510 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,040 Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me mongas 511 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:10,000 Speaker 1: Chatikler and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's 512 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,400 Speaker 1: episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan 513 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,040 Speaker 1: with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced 514 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social 515 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,960 Speaker 1: media support from Sasha Gay trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shore. 516 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 517 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.